Patent Application
20220272135
Currently many video conferencing tools exist. Examples include Zoom™ and Microsoft Teams™. These tools provide a face-to-face virtual experience for multiple people during a single event. The participants in the event are invited for the single event which they may participate in or not. These current tools do not provide an ability to access multiple face-to-face events. These current tools do not provide a platform to host multiple face-to-face events that can be open to the public, or alternatively open only to those invited by the organizer. It is desirable and beneficial to provide a tool including a platform and applications to host and participate in multiple online events.
Disclosed herein are a method and system for interactive event viewing. The method and system are collectively and separately referred to herein as the Bleachr platform. The method and system facilitate interactive event viewing among different online group events that were originated or hosted by multiple hosts. In embodiments, participants (also referred to herein as users/patrons) will be able to visit any number of different types of face-to-face virtual events, which may be open to the public or viewed/scheduled as part of a private group. Potential categories of events include everything from meeting/hanging with a celebrity, attending a concert or comedy show, learning to cook from a celebrity chef or a craft from a maker/DIYer, learning from a thought leader, debating current events in a town hall discussion, etc.
In another aspect of the invention, content providers who are participants in the platform can be paid by through the Bleachr platform for the revenue that they generate from the content they provide in their channel of the Bleacher application (App). This revenue can be generated in various ways, including but not limited to: tips they earn from viewers; passes that they sell to their virtual events, potential revenue share from sponsor advertisement dollars generated during their virtual events (for content providers with large followings); products sold during their events; sponsor integration fees; and ad-share revenue. This allows for the commercialization of the content by streamers, rights holders and other content providers in a way that a current video conferencing platforms like cannot provide.
In an embodiment, the payment aspect of the platform includes a “tap to buy” feature that provides the framework for a virtual shopping channel similar to the Home Shopping Network on cable. In this case, fulfillment of the sale may not be carried out by the Bleachr platform, in which case the Bleacher platform is an intermediary through which a retailer or product manufacturer can host their own “shopping show” with a live host who interacts directly with potential purchasers and facilitate orders that the retailer/manufacturer fulfills.
In the following description of the drawings, an embodiment that is focused on sports event is shown. This is by way of example, yet as mentioned above, sports events are only one of many types of events or reasons for organizing meetings that can use the described methos and system.
Financial partners 108 include any known payment service providers. Financial partners 108 communicate with Bleacher servers 102 to facilitate and execute payments as previously described.
The organizer is capable of flipping his/her camera and changing the view. The event organizer can also configure the “center stage” in a number of ways, including to incorporate dynamic 16:9 images, video or a webpage.
Sports organizations often look for ways to interact on a regular basis with their fan base to keep the team/tournament “top of mind”. Video “check-ins” provide a good way to do this, and a sports organization can become a participant and provide reward points to the fan for doing so.
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Integration of the video and audio output from the Bleachr App into a linear television feed has been described. In other non-exclusive embodiments, the audio-out can also be integrated into a radio broadcast and provides a new dimension for talk radio (sports talk and otherwise). Now the host can place a phone on a small tripod in the studio and invite listeners to join the program via the Bleachr App. Rather than “calling-in” and expressing their views, the listeners can be face-to-face with the host in the Bleachr App to discuss whatever the topic is. The audio output from the Bleachr App can be simulcast through the radio program board and out as part of the broadcast. The “center stage” in the App can display video while the host and listeners are having their discussion, which adds an additional dimension to the program and discussion. This includes anything that is currently available on YouTube via integration with YouTube. For example, for example, in a sports talk radio show involving a discussion around the “big play in last night's big game”, the big play can be pulled-up via YouTube and displayed in the Bleachr App while listeners call in to discuss/debate with the program host.
Unless otherwise defined, all terms (including technical and scientific terms) used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art to which this invention belongs. It will be further understood that terms, such as those defined in commonly used dictionaries, should be interpreted as having a meaning that is consistent with their meaning in the context of the specification and relevant art and should not be interpreted in an idealized or overly formal sense unless expressly so defined herein. Well-known functions or constructions may not be described in detail for brevity and/or clarity.
It will be also understood that when an element is referred to as being “on,” “attached” to, “connected” to, “coupled” with, “contacting”, “mounted” etc., another element, it can be directly on, attached to, connected to, coupled with or contacting the other element or intervening elements may also be present. In contrast, when an element is referred to as being, for example, “directly on,” “directly attached” to, “directly connected” to, “directly coupled” with or “directly contacting” another element, there are no intervening elements present. It will also be appreciated by those of skill in the art that references to a structure or feature that is disposed “adjacent” another feature may have portions that overlap or underlie the adjacent feature.
Spatially relative terms, such as “under,” “below,” “lower,” “over,” “upper” and the like, may be used herein for ease of description to describe one element or feature's relationship to another element(s) or feature(s) as illustrated in the figures. It will be understood that the spatially relative terms are intended to encompass different orientations of a device in use or operation in addition to the orientation depicted in the figures. For example, if a device in the figures is inverted, elements described as “under” or “beneath” other elements or features would then be oriented “over” the other elements or features. Thus, the exemplary term “under” can encompass both an orientation of “over” and “under”. The device may be otherwise oriented (rotated 90 degrees or at other orientations) and the spatially relative descriptors used herein interpreted accordingly. Similarly, the terms “upwardly,” “downwardly,” “vertical,” “horizontal” and the like are used herein for the purpose of explanation only unless specifically indicated otherwise.
Included in the description are flowcharts depicting examples of the methodology which may be used to conduct a goal-directed semantic search. In the following description, it will be understood that each block of the flowchart illustrations, and combinations of blocks in the flowchart illustrations, can be implemented by computer program instructions. These computer program instructions may be loaded onto a computer or other programmable apparatus to produce a machine such that the instructions that execute on the computer or other programmable apparatus create means for implementing the functions specified in the flowchart block or blocks. These computer program instructions may also be stored in a computer-readable memory that can direct a computer or other programmable apparatus to function in a particular manner such that the instructions stored in the computer-readable memory produce an article of manufacture including instruction means that implement the function specified in the flowchart block or blocks. The computer program instructions may also be loaded onto a computer or other programmable apparatus to cause a series of operational steps to be performed in the computer or on the other programmable apparatus to produce a computer implemented process such that the instructions that execute on the computer or other programmable apparatus provide steps for implementing the functions specified in the flowchart block or blocks.
Accordingly, blocks of the flowchart illustrations support combinations of means for performing the specified functions and combinations of steps for performing the specified functions. It will also be understood that each block of the flowchart illustrations, and combinations of blocks in the flowchart illustrations, can be implemented by special purpose hardware-based computer systems that perform the specified functions or steps, or combinations of special purpose hardware and computer instructions.
Some portions of this specification are presented in terms of algorithms or symbolic representations of operations on data stored as bits or binary digital signals within a machine memory (e.g., a computer memory). These algorithms or symbolic representations are examples of techniques used by those of ordinary skill in the data processing arts to convey the substance of their work to others skilled in the art. As used herein, an “algorithm” is a self-consistent sequence of operations or similar processing leading to a desired result. In this context, algorithms and operations involve the manipulation of information elements. Typically, but not necessarily, such elements may take the form of electrical, magnetic, or optical signals capable of being stored, accessed, transferred, combined, compared, or otherwise manipulated by a machine. It is convenient at times, principally for reasons of common usage, to refer to such signals using words such as “data,” “content,” “bits,” “values,” “elements,” “symbols,” “characters,” “terms,” “numbers,” “numerals,” “words”, or the like. These specific words, however, are merely convenient labels and are to be associated with appropriate information elements.
Unless specifically stated otherwise, discussions herein using words such as “processing,” “computing,” “calculating,” “determining,” “presenting,” “displaying,” or the like may refer to actions or processes of a machine (e.g., a computer) that manipulates or transforms data represented as physical (e.g., electronic, magnetic, or optical) quantities within one or more memories (e.g., volatile memory, non-volatile memory, or a combination thereof), registers, or other machine components that receive, store, transmit, or display information.
As will be understood by those familiar with the art, the invention may be embodied in other specific forms without departing from the spirit or essential characteristics thereof. Likewise, the particular naming and division of the modules, managers, functions, systems, engines, layers, features, attributes, methodologies, and other aspects are not mandatory or significant, and the mechanisms that implement the invention or its features may have different names, divisions, and/or formats. Furthermore, as will be apparent to one of ordinary skill in the relevant art, the modules, managers, functions, systems, engines, layers, features, attributes, methodologies, and other aspects of the invention can be implemented as software, hardware, firmware, or any combination of the three. Of course, wherever a component of the present invention is implemented as software, the component can be implemented as a script, as a standalone program, as part of a larger program, as a plurality of separate scripts and/or programs, as a statically or dynamically linked library, as a kernel loadable module, as a device driver, and/or in every and any other way known now or in the future to those of skill in the art of computer programming. Additionally, the present invention is in no way limited to implementation in any specific programming language, or for any specific operating system or environment. Accordingly, the disclosure of the present invention is intended to be illustrative, but not limiting, of the scope of the invention, which will be set forth in the forthcoming claims.
The present patent application claims priority from U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 63/153,507, filed Feb. 25, 2021, which is incorporated by reference in its entirety herein.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 63153507 | Feb 2021 | US |
