1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates generally to distribution of digital media content and exchange of content-related communications over a wireless network.
2. Background Art
There has been a steady trend towards providing on-demand digital media content to users connected to existing communications networks, such as, the Internet, public switched telephone networks (PSTN) etc. Users are presented with a wide range of options in terms of content and content-related functionalities, if they are willing to pay for the enhanced services. In recent years, service providers have been gradually migrating towards offering similar enhanced services to mobile customers connected to a wireless network.
A variety of digital content is distributed and exchanged over wireless and wired data networks, including digital video, digital audio, text-based instant messages etc. Current mobile digital content services have several problems associated with them. Most of the services are primarily unidirectional, with little or no provision for the user to provide substantial interactive response and feedback. In the case of mobile video content on demand services, such as, mobile TV and streaming video, lack of interactivity option is conspicuous. Users can only enjoy limited video content due to complex, resource-intensive infrastructure requirement and prohibitively expensive air-time.
What is needed is a system that delivers interactive content-on-demand services to mobile customers so that customers can enjoy a satisfying unified communication experience, including exchange of audio, video, text, data, and hypermedia objects, without incurring excessive charges.
Embodiments of the present invention enable mobile service providers to offer a variety of on-demand content and content-related enhanced services to mobile subscribers utilizing existing wireless network infrastructure.
In an embodiment, a system provides free preview of digital content for users of mobile devices before billing starts, and gives users the option to transition to the charged premium services by making a selection within a predetermined time. The system comprises a preview menu control module that sends out an initial content to a mobile user device for preview by an user after initiation of the call and prior to initiation of a billing charge for the call, and a billing module that initiates generation of billing charges after the user has selected additional content related to the initial content.
According to one feature, the system has a real time mobile interactive mode coupled with on-demand services. Examples of on-demand enhanced services include, but are not limited to, browsing and selecting a digital content, playing the digital content in a home or theater mode, voting on the digital content, joining or creating a chat room to discuss the digital content, making calls to others while watching the digital content, and inviting others to join the chat room.
Further embodiments, features, and advantages of the present invention, as well as the structure and operation of the various embodiments of the present invention, are described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings.
The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated herein and form a part of the specification, illustrate the present invention and, together with the description, further serve to explain the principles of the invention and to enable a person skilled in the relevant art to make and use the invention.
The present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings. The drawing in which an element first appears is typically indicated by the leftmost digit(s) in the corresponding reference number.
As technology is evolving towards more network intelligence, mobile customers have started to expect enhanced services and superior communication experience available over existing wireless networks. Mobile service providers have the opportunity to generate substantial revenue by delivering mobile digital content on-demand and content-related interactive services to mobile users, while keeping the operational cost at a reasonable level. While mobile digital content includes purely audio content, purely video content, mixed audio-visual content, text-based content, data content, web content etc., generally, any content involving video has greater demand, requires greater infrastructural resources, and thus, drives the mobile content on demand (MCoD) market.
Mobile video is available today as a service. For example, mobile TV is a broadcast service that requires special broadcast equipment. It is a largely unidirectional video service provided from a provider to a user with limited video programs to choose from. Current implementations of mobile TV do not provide video on-demand and browsing capabilities.
Mobile video streaming requires web capability and the streaming software on the wireless device. Mobile video streams mostly provide pre-recorded video clip services. The cost structure for mobile video is prohibitive. Users are not likely to watch a full length movie or other video program if they have to pay on a per megabyte basis. Generally streaming video solutions may work on a closed-loop intranet, but for mass-market Internet use, they may have quality of service (QoS) issues.
The present invention utilizes the existing capability of an already-deployed wireless infrastructure. The present invention is agnostic to the type of telephone network. For example, the present invention can be implemented in a Voice-over-Internet-Protocol (VOIP) network, but is not limited to VOIP implementations. An example embodiment of the present invention may use the audio and video capability of a current third generation (3G) mobile network infrastructure with the capability to adapt to future generations of wireless networks.
It is to be appreciated that, given this description, system 200 may be modified to accommodate bi-directional communication, where mobile devices 102 are enabled to interact with the central controller 213 via interactive signals 237 to access on-demand and other interactive services. Central controller 213 may also be configured to transmit user requests to content resource 114. Content resource 114 then transmits signals 219 and 220, as described before.
In an embodiment of the present invention, mobile devices 102 may interact with each other, as shown in
Users of mobile devices 102 have had an option to be connected to a relatively more resource-intensive route, often associated with higher quality-of-services (QoS), if they are willing to pay extra for premium services. However, a user may want to browse and preview available digital content without switching to premium services. An advantage of the embodiments is to offer a variety of preview services to a user of a mobile device, when the user initiates a regularly-priced call or a sponsored call (such as, the 1-8xx-xxx-xxxx numbers within the US) to a service number, before the call starts generating billing records. The user can browse different options in a preview mode, and make an informed decision about ordering an on-demand content and premium services at higher prices.
Enhanced mobile-content-on-demand services according to an embodiment of the present invention are described from the perspective of the user experience in
In an embodiment, the user of mobile device 102 can enjoy free preview of audio/video contents including, but not limited to, a sports event, a movie, a news program, a TV program, a podcast program etc., for a predetermined time, e.g. 90 seconds. If the user of mobile device 102 decides to continue enjoying the audio/video in its full premium version, the call will be transferred to charged ‘enhanced mobile content on demand’ service call, in which the user can exercise enhanced interactive options, such as, selecting additional content(s), playing the content in digital recorder mode, voting on the program, chatting with others on the program, or inviting friends to a private chatting room to discuss topics related to the program.
Flowchart 300 begins with step 302, in which a mobile user places a call request from his or her mobile device 102. The called number may be a service number provided to the mobile user by a content provider. In one embodiment, each digital program has one service number associated with it. In another embodiment, dialing a single service number gives the caller access to a sequence of videos, each in their preview mode.
In step 304, the user receives a welcome or introductory message. The message may be generated by the network, or by the content provider, or both, and the message may be delivered to the user by media server 116, or application server 112.
In step 306, the user receives an initial content, such as, a content list and audio and/or video clips in a free preview mode, on his or her mobile device 102. Application server 112 may implement a temporary connection between the user and media server 116, where media server 116 may stream the digital content in preview mode to mobile device 102. In case of a sequential content preview, transition from one preview clip to another should be as smooth as possible. However, whether it is a single preview or a sequential preview, the call is still not connected fully to initiate premium service charges. As will be discussed later with respect to
In step 308, the user selects additional content, e.g. premium version of a particular content from the initial content list, based on the preview. The selection is made and notified to application server 112 within a predetermined time for which the preview clip is played before the call either gets connected for billing purpose, or gets disconnected. Timer module 662 described in
In step 310, the user receives a service menu associated with the selected additional digital content, and in step 312, the user receives the corresponding pricing information for the services.
In step 314, the user selects one or more enhanced service options from the service menu, and sends notification of which services have been selected.
In step 316, the user starts receiving premium version of selected MCoD content on his mobile device 102, and application server 112 begins charging for premium services. The charges may show up in the mobile user's monthly service invoice, or in a separate invoice. Billing module 660 is
In step 318, the user is enabled to send interactive communication signals related to the selected MCoD content to media server 116 or other mobile devices 102 connected to a subscriber network.
The mobile user can engage in chatting with others while watching a video program or listening to an audio program by choosing service option 402, which provides MCoD in chatting mode. Chatting mode module 602 described later in
Service option 422 enables the user to enjoy MCoD in a home mode. Home mode module 622 described later in
Service option 442 delivers MCoD in a theater mode. Theater mode module 642 described later in
Media server 116 is capable of the basic functions, such as, streaming audio/video, Dual tone Multi-Frequency (DTMF) input collection, Text-to-Speech (TTS) conversion, audio/video mixing, volume control, conferencing, encoding, decoding, transcoding, compression etc. Media server 116 may include an interfacing module 513, and a switching module 516. Interfacing module 513 may include a content playing module 504, a mixing module 508, and an Interactive Voice/Video Response (IVR) module 512, among other components. Media server 116 may have more components that are not shown in
Content playing module 504 is configured to play audio/video or other type of content from content server 114 to mobile device 102.
Content mixing module 508 is capable of mixing the audio and video contents. It is also configured to combine a plurality of individual audio/video Real-time Transport Protocol (RTP) streams into a multiple-view video chat room conference stream. For example, single-view, 4-view, 8-view chat room conference streams can be created by content mixing module 508.
Interactive Voice/Video Response (IVR) module 512 presents audio/video prompts to the user, collects user input (for example, input received by DTMF input or speech), and transmits user input to application server 112.
Switching module 516 can be a part of a switching fabric 216, described in
The main functional component of MCoD application server 112 is a MCoD call control module 606, that controls the delivery of free preview content stream before billing starts, and manages the transition from a free preview mode to a charged premium mode of content delivery. MCoD Application server 112 may have more components that are not shown in
Call control module 606 includes a preview menu control module 610, which presents the preview content list, and a service module 611, which regulates the enhanced service menu options discussed in
Preview menu control module 610 processes user input received via voice call, SIP signaling, SMS or USSD, and plays the preview contents. It also instructs the service module 611 to present service menu options, and deliver enhanced services in response to user input. Preview menu control module 610 also decides when to start the generation of billing records, and communicates that to billing module 660, which generates the actual billing record, such as, a Call Detail Record (CDR). Coupled to preview menu control module 610 and billing module 660, there is a timer module 662 that delays the delivery of additional content to the user until a signal indicative of a selection of additional content by the user is received, and disconnects the call if the signal is not received within a pre-determined time, e.g. 90 seconds.
Chatting mode module 602 enables the user to create or join a chatting room (service options 414, 406, and 410 in
Home mode module 622 enables the user to play the selected content on his mobile device 102, as if the content is being played in a personal digital media player (service option 422 in
Theater mode module 642 enables the user to watch or listen to the selected content as if in a theater, without real time digital recorder controls, such as, stop/resume, skip forward/skip backward, etc. Theater mode module 642 processes user input from IVR module 512, and enables the user to vote using voting module 626 (service option 426 in
It is to be appreciated by persons skilled in the art that chatting mode module 602, home mode module 622, and theater mode module 642 can communicate with each other to present a combined mode experience to the user. For example, chatting mode and home mode may be combined between two users in a private chat room, where each has the ability to stop/resume/playback the other user's content remotely in order to vote or chat about the program.
MCoD application server 112 also includes a provisioning module 652, which periodically checks the content list available at content server 114, and updates the preview list that the preview menu control module 610 presents to the user.
It is noted that call control module 606 including the functional modules shown in
As discussed with respect to the flowchart in
Once the mobile user calls a service number, a call setup request message 728 (referred to as ‘initial address message’ or ‘IAM’) is conveyed from MSC 710 to endpoint/gateway 108. Message 728 is a Signaling System number 7 (SS7) signaling message. Endpoint/Gateway 108 then sends its own setup request signal 732 (referred to as ‘Invite signal’) to application server 112. Application server 112 in turn transmits another setup request signal 736 (referred to as ‘CRCX’) to media server 116. These exchanges of messages are described as a single step 302 in flowchart 300 in
Media server 116 responds by sending ‘connected’ signal 748 (which is a 200OK signal) to application server 112. As discussed before, application server 112 does not immediately convey signal 748 back to MSC 710. Instead, application server 112 sends a ‘call in progress’ signal 744 (referred to as ‘183Prog’) to endpoint/gateway 108. Endpoint/Gateway 108 sends a ring-back signal or acknowledgement signal 740 (referred to as address completion message or ACM) to MSC 710, so that the mobile user knows that the call has not been dropped, and may see a welcome message on his mobile device screen. Step 304 of flowchart 300 describes this function.
Application server 112 sends a request signal 752 (referred to as ‘RQNT’) to media server 116, requesting media server 116 to play digital content (for example video clip) in preview mode.
Digital content list and preview segments 754 of digital content are delivered to the mobile user's mobile device for free, i.e. without charging the user. This function is described in step 306 of flowchart 300.
Once the mobile user gets to access the preview content, he/she has the option to either transition towards choosing premium services by selecting from available service menu, as shown in case 1 in
In case 1, mobile user may browse a list of digital content, choose a program, and send his/her selection directly to application server 112 by sending a voice/DTMF/short message/USSD/SIP signal 760, consisting of one or more digits. This is shown in step 308 of flowchart 300.
Another round of communication takes place between application server 112 and a mobile device connected to MSC 710 via a base station, where application server 112 plays a service menu and charging information (as shown in steps 310 and 312 of flowchart 300), and receives user-selected service options as Voice/SIP/DTMF/USSD/SMS message (as shown in step 314 of flowchart 300).
Application server 112 translates user input 760 to media server 116 by sending a request signal (RQNT) 772, which has the SIP information embedded. Media server 116 notifies application server 112 about the requested content corresponding to user input 760 by sending NTFY signal 762. Application server 112 sends a ‘connected’ 200 OK signal 768 to endpoint/gateway 108, and endpoint/gateway 108 sends another ‘connected’ signal 764 (often referred to as ‘answer message’ or ‘ANM’) to the user connected through MSC 710. Now the call is completely connected and the system starts generating one or more billing records, as shown in step 326 of flowchart 300.
A communication path is established between media server 116 and mobile user device 102 (not shown), through which content server 114 (not shown) delivers charged premium version of digital content stream 780. The user is also enabled to communicate and send feedback and interactive input signals to media server 116. User communication 784 may include audio, video, data stream, text, or a combination thereof.
As discussed before, there is a timer on the application server of the network side, which can be set to any predetermined time. For example, the timer may set to 90 seconds from sending time of setup request message 728 to receiving time of answering message 764, so the user can view the video for 90 seconds for free.
In case 1, the user made the choice within the predetermined time, e.g. 90 seconds.
In case 2, the user does not send any input 760 or sends an incorrect input that does not correspond to any digital content or service option. In that case, the call will be terminated at the end of the predetermined time (for example at 90 seconds) without incurring any charge to the user. MSC sends disconnect signal 788 to endpoint/gateway 108. Endpoint/gateway 108 sends a disconnect or cancel signal 792 to application server 112, and application server 112 sends a disconnect signal (for example, DLCX) 796 to media server 116. Media server 116 confirms dropping the call by sending confirmation signal (250 OK) 798 to application server 112.
It is noted that in case 1 also, the call is disconnected at the end of playing the premium digital content, and billing stops as soon as application server 112 receives call end confirmation signal 798 from media server 116. Also, in case of a prepaid service, the call can be dropped when the caller's account runs out of money.
Some of the signals shown in
Embodiments of the present invention enable large content service providers to provide a variety of digital program with many enhanced services. Embodiments of the present invention also enable smaller content service providers to provide special digital programs at a competitive cost utilizing existing mobile network infrastructure.
While various embodiments of the present invention have been described above, it should be understood that they have been presented by way of example only, and not limitation. It will be apparent to persons skilled in the relevant art that various changes in form and detail can be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. Thus, the breadth and scope of the present invention should not be limited by any of the above-described exemplary embodiments, but should be defined only in accordance with the following claims and their equivalents.
The present application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 60/797,682, filed on May 5, 2006, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
Number | Date | Country | |
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60797682 | May 2006 | US |