Patent Application
20230143038
In conventional systems, users may access a wide variety of media content. In some cases, certain media content may not be appropriate for all users. For example, media content featuring violence may not be appropriate for children under a particular age. To prevent users from viewing objectionable content, many media systems include parental control features. Such parental control features often allow a user, such as a parent of a child, to block media content based on one or more criteria, such as a source or a content rating of the media content. While such media systems are helpful in blocking media content specified by the parent, such media systems do not allow for blocking potentially objectionable media content that the parent is not aware of, nor do such systems allow for limiting the child's exposure to media content to a specified period of time.
Accordingly, methods and systems are disclosed herein for an interactive media guidance application implemented on a user equipment device that provides a locked mode for a user viewing media assets. Using parental control features in an interactive media guidance application, a user can block particular media assets, such as a program, or particular media sources, such as a channel. However, the number of media assets and media sources continues to grow and makes it difficult for parents to keep themselves aware of inappropriate media content that they should block from their children. It is also difficult for parents to control the amount of time their children spend watching media content without constantly monitoring their viewing habits. For example, parents may not want their children to be watching too much media content on a given day or to be watching any media content at all during examination periods.
The methods and systems disclosed herein address these concerns by providing an interactive media guidance application having a locked mode for viewing media assets. In the locked mode, the interactive media guidance application may provide media assets suited to a certain audience. The interactive media guidance application may determine suitable media assets based on media assets viewed by other users having characteristics similar to the user of the interactive media guidance application. The interactive media guidance application may limit the time period for which the media assets are presented.
In some embodiments, a parent may activate the interactive media guidance application's locked mode for a child to view media assets suitable for the child while the parent is unavailable to supervise the child. The interactive media guidance application may determine media assets suitable for the child based on media assets viewed by other users, e.g., other children, having characteristics similar to the child. Optionally, the parent may activate the locked mode to limit viewing of appropriate media assets by the child to a specified period of time.
For example, a parent may need to leave their child unsupervised while they leave their home to run errands. The parent may activate the locked mode to present media assets via the interactive media guidance application, implemented on the user equipment device, and leave their child to view the media assets being presented in the locked mode. The parent may optionally specify a period of time after which the interactive media guidance application restricts access to the user equipment device. For example, the interactive media guidance application may turn off the user equipment device after the specified period of time is over. The parent may have instructed the child to complete their homework after finishing the media content being presented. The parent may enforce that by having the interactive media guidance application turn off the user equipment device so the child cannot continue watching media content against the parent's wishes. The interactive media guidance application may lock out other functionality as well while the locked mode is activated. For example, the interactive media guidance application may allow the child to control volume functions but not allow the child to switch channels or another media source.
The interactive media guidance application may crowd-source information regarding suitable media assets for the child to view based on media assets viewed by other users having characteristics similar to the child. The interactive media guidance application may retrieve characteristics of the user from a user profile. For example, the characteristics of the user may include age, gender, favorite programs, and other suitable characteristics. The parent may specify a parental control rating in the child's user profile to assess suitability of media assets. For example, the parent may specify that no violence is appropriate for their child even though a media asset with some violence may be considered generally suitable for a child of similar age. The interactive media guidance application may connect to a remote server to retrieve information regarding suitable media assets for the child. The interactive media guidance application may request media assets viewed by other users having characteristics similar to the child's characteristics.
For example, the interactive media guidance application may receive information regarding media assets suitable for the child from a remote server in the order below:
In another example, the interactive media guidance application may receive information regarding media assets suitable for the child from a remote server in the order below:
5 pm-6 pm: channel “Cartoon Network” or channel “ESPN” or channel “Pogo”
6 pm-7 pm: channel “National Geographic” or “Discovery”
7 pm-8 pm: channel “ABC” program “America's Funniest Home Videos”
In this example, the interactive media guidance application may respond to commands received from the remote server and only respond to commands to change channel from the child via, e.g., the remote for the user equipment device. At 5 pm, the remote server may send a command to the interactive media guidance application to tune to channel “Cartoon Network.” The child may change channels to “ESPN” or “Pogo” but not to any other channel. The interactive media guidance may also disable other functionality to prevent the child from viewing media assets other than those received from the remote server. At 6 pm, the remote server may send another command to the interactive media guidance application to tune to channel “National Geographic.” The child may switch channels between “National Geographic” and “Discovery” but not to any other channel. At 7 pm, the remote server may send yet another command to the interactive media guidance application to tune to channel “ABC.” Finally, at 8 pm, the remote server may send a final command to the interactive media guidance application to power off the user equipment device so the child may complete their homework.
By providing the parent with the locked mode option, the interactive media guidance application allows the parent to have peace of mind that their child is viewing media content suitable for their age without having to predetermine which particular media assets the child should view. The parent is free from monitoring the child and need not be concerned about the child watching inappropriate content. Additionally, the interactive media guidance application provides the parent control over the entire time period the child spends viewing media content so that, if desired, the parent can determine the suitable amount of time the child should spend viewing the media assets. The parent has the liberty to control the amount of time the child spends viewing the media assets even if the parent is absent at that time.
In some embodiments, the interactive media guidance application collects statistics about media content and duration of media content being watched on a weekly or monthly basis. For example, while the parent is present to monitor the child's viewing, the interactive media guidance application can collect information regarding media assets that are suitable for the child to view. For example, suitable media assets may include “Tom and Jerry,” “News,” and “America's Funniest Home Videos.” The statistics may also include information on duration of time spent on viewing the media assets. For example, in a given week the child may have viewed “Tom and Jerry,” “News,” and “America's Funniest Home Videos” for 10 hours, 4 hours, and 9 hours, respectively. This information may be uploaded to the remote server along with the child's characteristics from the user profile. Information collected from multiple user equipment devices can be retrieved when another parent wishes to crowd-source information regarding media assets suitable to present to their child for viewing in the interactive media guidance application's locked mode.
In some embodiments, the interactive media guidance may implement a locked mode for viewing media assets suitable for elderly people. It may be difficult for elderly people to remember channels or timings for their favorite programs. Alerts to tune to certain channels on their television or mobile device may still be a challenge for the elderly. The interactive media guidance application may create a playlist of an elderly person's favorite programs based on their user profile. Additionally, the interactive media guidance application may crowd-source information regarding suitable media assets for the elderly person to view based on media assets viewed by other users having characteristics similar to the elderly person. The interactive media guidance application may receive information regarding media assets suitable for the elderly person in a manner similar to the information received in the example for the child discussed above. In this example, the interactive media guidance application may respond to commands received from the remote server to tune the channel to the elderly person's favorite programs at their preset times according to the received information. The elderly person or a family member may activate the interactive media guidance application's locked mode for the elderly person to view media assets without needing to tune to another television channel or to change to another source for the media assets they wish to view.
In some aspects, the interactive media guidance application is implemented on control circuitry. The interactive media guidance application receives a request to initiate a locked mode for a specified time period on a user equipment device. The request indicates that a specified user of the user equipment device is only allowed access to media assets selected for the locked mode during the specified time period. For example, a parent may need to leave their child unsupervised while they leave their home to run errands. The parent may initiate the locked mode for their child to view media assets for two hours before the child has to start working on their homework. By providing the parent with the locked mode option, the interactive media guidance application allows the parent to have peace of mind that their child is viewing media content suitable for their age and that the child will not spend an excessive amount of time viewing the media assets.
The interactive media guidance application receives information relating to media assets viewed by other users having similar characteristics. For example, the interactive media guidance application may receive information from a remote server relating to media assets viewed by other children of similar age to each other.
The interactive media guidance application determines a media asset of interest to the other users based on the received information. For example, the interactive media guidance application may determine that “ABC” program “America's Funniest Home Videos” is a media asset of interest to the other children having similar characteristics to each other as the child based on the received information.
The interactive media guidance application determines whether the specified user has characteristics similar to the other users. For example, the interactive media guidance application may retrieve characteristics of the child from a user profile for the child and compare the characteristics to the characteristics of the other children. The characteristics of the user may include age, gender, favorite programs, and other suitable characteristics. The other children may be of similar age, e.g., years 7-9. The child may be 8 years old. As such, the interactive media guidance application may compare and determine that the 8-year old child is of similar age to the other children.
The interactive media guidance application transmits the media asset of interest to the specified user in response to determining that the specified user has characteristics similar to the other users. For example, once the interactive media guidance application determines the child's characteristics are similar to other children, the interactive media guidance application may transmit the media asset of interest to the child, e.g., for display on a television display device.
In some aspects, the request to initiate the locked mode received by the interactive media guidance application includes a specified type of content and/or a parental control rating for media assets transmitted during the specified time period. For example, the parent may specify that no violence is appropriate for their child even though a media asset with some violence may be considered generally suitable for a child of similar age.
In some aspects, the interactive media guidance application receives the information relating to the media assets, including a title, a play length, a media source, and/or a parental control rating for each media asset. For example, information for a media asset may include title “America's Funniest Home Videos,” play length “1 hour,” media source “ABC,” and parental control rating “TV-PG.”
In some aspects, the interactive media guidance application does not allow the specified user to access any other functionality on the user equipment device. For example, while the locked mode is activated, the interactive media guidance application may lock out all other functionality such as controlling volume functions or switching to another channel or media source.
In some aspects, the interactive media guidance application determines whether the specified user has characteristics similar to the other users by receiving a first set of characteristics for the other users and receiving a second set of characteristics for the specified user. The interactive media guidance application compares the first set of characteristics and the second set of characteristics to determine a number of overlapping characteristics. The interactive media guidance application determines whether the number of overlapping characteristics exceeds a threshold. For example, the interactive media guidance application may receive characteristics of the child from a user profile for the child and compare the characteristics to the received characteristics for the other children. The characteristics of the user may include age, gender, favorite programs, and other suitable characteristics. The other children may be of similar age, e.g., boys of age 7-9. The child may be a boy that is 8 years old. The threshold may be set to one overlapping characteristic. As such, the interactive media guidance application may compare and determine that the 8-year old child is of similar age and gender to the other children and that there are two overlapping characteristics exceeding the threshold.
In some aspects, the interactive media guidance application determines that the media asset of interest has a play length less than or equal to the specified time period. The interactive media guidance application transmits the media asset of interest to the specified user in response to determining that the media asset of interest has a play length less than or equal to the specified time period and that the specified user has characteristics similar to the plurality of users. The interactive media guidance application decrements the specified time period by a value equal to the play length of the media asset of interest. For example, the parent may have specified a time period of one hour for the locked mode to view media assets. The interactive media guidance application may determine two media assets of interest based on information received regarding the other users having similar characteristics. The interactive media guidance application may determine that the first media asset of interest has a play length greater than the specified time period while the second media asset of interest has a play length less than or equal to the specified time period. The interactive media guidance application may transmit the second media asset of interest to the child for viewing in response to determining that the media asset fits in the specified time period for the locked mode. The interactive media guidance application decrements the specified time period by a value equal to the play length of the media asset of interest. For example, the specified time period of one hour is decremented by 30 minutes due to the media asset viewed by the child to ensure the total viewing time does not exceed one hour.
In some aspects, the interactive media guidance application restricts access to the user equipment device when the specified time period is over. For example, the interactive media guidance application may turn off the user equipment device after the specified period of time is over. The parent may have instructed the child to complete their homework after finishing the media content being presented. The parent may enforce that by having the interactive media guidance application turn off the user equipment device so the child cannot continue watching media content against the parent's wishes.
In some aspects, the other users represent children viewing the media assets under supervision of their respective parents. The specified user of the interactive media guidance application is a child with characteristics similar to the plurality of users. The request to initiate the locked mode for the specified time period on the user equipment device is input by a parent of the specified user.
In some aspects, the interactive media guidance application determines an additional media asset of interest to the other users based on the received information. The interactive media guidance application generates for display an option for the specified user to select the initial media asset of interest and/or the additional media asset of interest. For example, the interactive media guidance application may receive information regarding media assets suitable for the child to be programs on channel “Cartoon Network” or channel “ESPN” or channel “Pogo.” The interactive media guidance application may present an option to the child to select any one of the suitable programs for viewing. The interactive media guidance application may respond to commands received from the remote server and only respond to commands to change the channel from the child via, e.g., the remote for the user equipment device.
In some aspects, the other users represent elderly people viewing the plurality of media assets, and the specified user of the interactive media guidance application is an elderly person with characteristics similar to the other users. The request to initiate the locked mode for the specified time period on the user equipment device is input by a family member of the specified user.
It should be noted that the systems, methods, apparatuses, and/or aspects described above may be applied to, or used in accordance with, other systems, methods, apparatuses, and/or aspects.
The above and other objects and advantages of the disclosure will be apparent upon consideration of the following detailed description, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which like reference characters refer to like parts throughout, and in which:
Methods and systems are disclosed herein for an interactive media guidance application having a locked mode for viewing media assets. In the locked mode, the interactive media guidance application may provide media assets suited to a certain audience. The interactive media guidance application may determine suitable media assets for the locked mode based on media assets viewed by other users having characteristics similar to the user of the interactive media guidance application. In the locked mode, the interactive media guidance application may allow access to only certain media assets and/or limit the time period for which the media assets are presented.
The amount of content available to users in any given content delivery system can be substantial. Consequently, many users desire a form of media guidance through an interface that allows users to efficiently navigate content selections and easily identify content that they may desire. An application that provides such guidance is referred to herein as an interactive media guidance application or, sometimes, a media guidance application or a guidance application.
Interactive media guidance applications may take various forms depending on the content for which they provide guidance. One typical type of media guidance application is an interactive television program guide. Interactive television program guides (sometimes referred to as electronic program guides) are well-known guidance applications that, among other things, allow users to navigate among and locate many types of content or media assets. Interactive media guidance applications may generate graphical user interface screens that enable a user to navigate among, locate and select content.
The media guidance application and/or any instructions for performing any of the embodiments discussed herein may be encoded on computer-readable media. Computer-readable media includes any media capable of storing data. The computer-readable media may be transitory, including, but not limited to, propagating electrical or electromagnetic signals, or may be non-transitory including, but not limited to, volatile and non-volatile computer memory or storage devices such as a hard disk, floppy disk, USB drive, DVD, CD, media cards, register memory, processor caches, Random Access Memory (“RAM”), etc.
The media guidance application may access information in a user profile associated with a user to determine characteristics of the user. For example, the characteristics of the user may include age, gender, favorite programs, and other suitable characteristics. As referred to herein, the terms “media asset” and “content” should be understood to mean an electronically consumable user asset, such as television programming, as well as pay-per-view programs, on-demand programs (as in video-on-demand (VOD) systems), Internet content (e.g., streaming content, downloadable content, Webcasts, etc.), video clips, audio, content information, pictures, rotating images, documents, playlists, websites, articles, books, electronic books, blogs, advertisements, chat sessions, social media, applications, games, and/or any other media or multimedia and/or combination of the same. Guidance applications also allow users to navigate among and locate content. As referred to herein, the term “multimedia” should be understood to mean content that utilizes at least two different content forms described above; for example, text, audio, images, video, or interactivity content forms. Content may be recorded, played, displayed or accessed by user equipment devices, but can also be part of a live performance.
As referred to herein, a “user profile” refers to a collection of information about a particular user. The information may include any information needed to determine media assets of interest to the user. For example, the information contained in the user profile may include demographic, geographic, or other information about the user or a group to which the user belongs. In another example, the information may be related to media content consumed by a user such as a viewing history, purchase history, recommendations, “liked” content, etc. In yet another example, the information in the user profile may include responses from the user to queries about the user's interests. This information may then be processed by the media guidance application to determine characteristics for the particular user.
As referred to herein, a “characteristic” may be any criterion or criteria that is indicative of media assets suitable for the user to view. For example, the characteristics of the user may include age, gender, favorite programs, and other suitable characteristics. For example, the favorite programs may include information relating to a genre, source, subject matter, and/or any other media guidance data related to the media assets in the favorite programs. As referred to herein, the phrase “media guidance data” or “guidance data” should be understood to mean any data related to content or data used in operating the guidance application. For example, the guidance data may include program information, guidance application settings, user preferences, user profile information, media listings, media-related information (e.g., broadcast times, broadcast channels, titles, descriptions, ratings information; parental control ratings, critic's ratings, etc.; genre or category information, actor information; logo data for broadcasters' or providers' logos, etc.; media format (e.g., standard definition, high definition, 3D, etc.); advertisement information (e.g., text, images, media clips, etc.)), on-demand information, blogs, websites, and any other type of guidance data that is helpful for a user to navigate among and locate desired content selections.
The media guidance application may continuously, or according to a predetermined schedule, update the characteristics stored for the user in the user profile. As the user consume media assets, the media guidance application may continually determine what program types have been consumed. For example, the media guidance application may include a counter or other tracking mechanism that is updated as a user views media content. The counter may track the number of media assets of a particular type, the total length of all media assets of a particular type, etc. For example, the counter may track the number of media assets of a particular type that a user has consumed and/or the length of time a user has spent consuming media assets of a particular type.
The media guidance application may additionally or alternatively receive information for remote locations that includes information regarding other users with similar characteristics. For example, the media guidance application may compare the age of a user to metadata about a particular media asset. For example, every time the user views a particular media asset, the media guidance application may adjust the characteristics associated with the user profile for the user.
The media guidance application may also track and/or limit the amount of time spent consuming one or more types of media content. For example, the media guidance application may provide statistics about media content and duration of media content being watched on a weekly or monthly basis. For example, while the parent is present to monitor the child's viewing, the interactive media guidance application can collect information regarding media assets that are suitable for the child to view. For example, suitable media assets may include “Tom and Jerry,” “News,” and “America's Funniest Home Videos.” The statistics may also include information on duration of time spent on viewing the media assets. For example, in a given week the child may have viewed “Tom and Jerry,” “News,” and “America's Funniest Home Videos” for 10 hours, 4 hours, and 9 hours, respectively. Information collected from multiple user equipment devices can be retrieved when another parent wishes to crowd-source information regarding media assets suitable to present to their child for viewing in the interactive media guidance application's locked mode.
In some embodiments, the media guidance application may be implemented on a user device. As referred to herein, the phrase “user equipment device,” “user equipment,” “user device,” “electronic device,” “electronic equipment,” “media equipment device,” or “media device” should be understood to mean any device for accessing the content described above, such as a television, a Smart TV, a set-top box, an integrated receiver decoder (IRD) for handling satellite television, a digital storage device, a digital media receiver (DMR), a digital media adapter (DMA), a streaming media device, a DVD player, a DVD recorder, a connected DVD, a local media server, a BLU-RAY player, a BLU-RAY recorder, a personal computer (PC), a laptop computer, a tablet computer, a WebTV box, a personal computer television (PC/TV), a PC media server, a PC media center, a hand-held computer, a stationary telephone, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a mobile telephone, a portable video player, a portable music player, a portable gaming machine, a smart phone, or any other television equipment, computing equipment, or wireless device, and/or combination of the same. In some embodiments, the user equipment device may have a front-facing screen and a rear-facing screen, multiple front screens, or multiple angled screens.
In some embodiments, the user equipment device may have a front-facing camera and/or a rear-facing camera. On these user equipment devices, users may be able to navigate among and locate the same content available through a television. Consequently, media guidance may be available on these devices, as well. The guidance provided may be for content available only through a television, for content available only through one or more of other types of user equipment devices, or for content available both through a television and one or more of the other types of user equipment devices. The media guidance applications may be provided as on-line applications (i.e., provided on a website), or as stand-alone applications or clients on user equipment devices.
The media guidance application may also access storage circuitry to retrieve the user's characteristics. For example, the media guidance application may retrieve a user profile from memory, in which the user profile indicates characteristics for a user. For example, the characteristics of the user may include age, gender, favorite programs, and other suitable characteristics. The media guidance application may connect to a remote server to retrieve information regarding suitable media assets for the child. The interactive media guidance application may request media assets viewed by other users having characteristics similar to the child's characteristics.
For example, the media guidance application may determine that a user has accessed and/or selected a media listing as shown in
Region 112 may include, for example, the program title, the program description, the time the program is provided (if applicable), the channel the program is on (if applicable), the program's rating, and other desired information.
In addition to providing access to linear programming (e.g., content that is scheduled to be transmitted to a plurality of user equipment devices at a predetermined time and is provided according to a schedule), the media guidance application also provides access to non-linear programming (e.g., content accessible to a user equipment device at any time and is not provided according to a schedule). Non-linear programming may include content from different content sources including on-demand content (e.g., VOD), Internet content (e.g., streaming media, downloadable media, etc.), locally stored content (e.g., content stored on any user equipment device described above or other storage device), or other time-independent content. On-demand content may include movies or any other content provided by a particular content provider (e.g., HBO On Demand providing “The Sopranos” and “Curb Your Enthusiasm”). HBO ON DEMAND is a service mark owned by Time Warner Company L.P. et al. and THE SOPRANOS and CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM are trademarks owned by the Home Box Office, Inc. Internet content may include web events, such as a chat session or Webcast, or content available on-demand as streaming content or downloadable content through an Internet website or other Internet access (e.g., FTP).
Grid 102 may provide media guidance data for non-linear programming including on-demand listing 114, recorded content listing 116, and Internet content listing 118. A display combining media guidance data for content from different types of content sources is sometimes referred to as a “mixed-media” display. Various permutations of the types of media guidance data that may be displayed that are different than display 100 may be based on user selection or guidance application definition (e.g., a display of only recorded and broadcast listings, only on-demand and broadcast listings, etc.). As illustrated, listings 114, 116, and 118 are shown as spanning the entire time block displayed in grid 102 to indicate that selection of these listings may provide access to a display dedicated to on-demand listings, recorded listings, or Internet listings, respectively. In some embodiments, listings for these content types may be included directly in grid 102. Additional media guidance data may be displayed in response to the user selecting one of the navigational icons 120. (Pressing an arrow key on a user input device may affect the display in a similar manner as selecting navigational icons 120.)
Display 100 may also include video region 122, advertisement 124, and options region 126. Video region 122 may allow the user to view and/or preview programs that are currently available, will be available, or were available to the user. The content of video region 122 may correspond to, or be independent from, one of the listings displayed in grid 102. Grid displays including a video region are sometimes referred to as picture-in-guide (PIG) displays. PIG displays and their functionalities are described in greater detail in Satterfield et al. U.S. Pat. No. 6,564,378, issued May 13, 2003 and Yuen et al. U.S. Pat. No. 6,239,794, issued May 29, 2001, which are hereby incorporated by reference herein in their entireties. PIG displays may be included in other media guidance application display screens of the embodiments described herein.
Advertisement 124 may provide an advertisement for content that, depending on a viewer's access rights (e.g., for subscription programming), is currently available for viewing, will be available for viewing in the future, or may never become available for viewing, and may correspond to, or be unrelated to, one or more of the content listings in grid 102. Advertisement 124 may also be for products or services related or unrelated to the content displayed in grid 102. Advertisement 124 may be selectable and provide further information about content, provide information about a product or a service, enable purchasing of content, a product, or a service, provide content relating to the advertisement, etc. Advertisement 124 may be targeted based on a user's profile/preferences, monitored user activity, the type of display provided, or on other suitable targeted advertisement bases.
While advertisement 124 is shown as rectangular or banner shaped, advertisements may be provided in any suitable size, shape, and location in a guidance application display. For example, advertisement 124 may be provided as a rectangular shape that is horizontally adjacent to grid 102. This is sometimes referred to as a panel advertisement. In addition, advertisements may be overlaid over content or a guidance application display or embedded within a display. Advertisements may also include text, images, rotating images, video clips, or other types of content described above. Advertisements may be stored in a user equipment device having a guidance application, in a database connected to the user equipment, in a remote location (including streaming media servers), or on other storage means, or a combination of these locations. Providing advertisements in a media guidance application is discussed in greater detail in, for example, Knudson et al., U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2003/0110499, filed Jan. 17, 2003; Ward, III et al. U.S. Pat. No. 6,756,997, issued Jun. 29, 2004; and Schein et al. U.S. Pat. No. 6,388,714, issued May 14, 2002, which are hereby incorporated by reference herein in their entireties. It will be appreciated that advertisements may be included in other media guidance application display screens of the embodiments described herein.
Options region 126 may allow the user to access different types of content, media guidance application displays, and/or media guidance application features. Options region 126 may be part of display 100 (and other display screens described herein), or may be invoked by a user by selecting an on-screen option or pressing a dedicated or assignable button on a user input device. The selectable options within options region 126 may concern features related to program listings in grid 102 or may include options available from a main menu display. Features related to program listings may include searching for other air times or ways of receiving a program, recording a program, enabling series recording of a program, setting a program and/or a channel as a favorite, purchasing a program, or other features. Options available from a main menu display may include search options, VOD options, parental control options, Internet options, cloud-based options, device synchronization options, second screen device options, options to access various types of media guidance data displays, options to subscribe to a premium service, options to edit a user's profile, options to access a browse overlay, or other options.
The media guidance application may be personalized based on a user's preferences. A personalized media guidance application allows a user to customize displays and features to create a personalized “experience” with the media guidance application. This personalized experience may be created by allowing a user to input these customizations and/or by the media guidance application monitoring user activity to determine various user preferences. Users may access their personalized guidance application by logging in or otherwise identifying themselves to the guidance application. Customization of the media guidance application may be made in accordance with a user profile. The customizations may include varying presentation schemes (e.g., color scheme of displays, font size of text, etc.), aspects of content listings displayed (e.g., only HDTV or only 3D programming, user-specified broadcast channels based on favorite channel selections, re-ordering the display of channels, recommended content, etc.), desired recording features (e.g., recording or series recordings for particular users, recording quality, etc.), parental control settings, customized presentation of Internet content (e.g., presentation of social media content, e-mail, electronically delivered articles, etc.) and other desired customizations.
The media guidance application may allow a user to provide user profile information or may automatically compile user profile information. The media guidance application may, for example, monitor the content the user accesses and/or other interactions the user may have with the guidance application. Additionally, the media guidance application may obtain all or part of other user profiles that are related to a particular user (e.g., from other websites on the Internet the user accesses, such as www.allrovi.com, from other media guidance applications the user accesses, from other interactive applications the user accesses, from another user equipment device of the user, etc.), and/or obtain information about the user from other sources that the media guidance application may access. As a result, a user can be provided with a unified guidance application experience across the user's different user equipment devices. This type of user experience is described in greater detail below in connection with
As referred to herein, a “threshold” refers to a data point used by the media guidance application to trigger an action. For example, the threshold may constitute a particular value (e.g., an amount, a length of time, etc.). For example, the interactive media guidance application may receive characteristics of the child from a user profile for the child and compare the characteristics to the received characteristics for the other children. The characteristics of the user may include age, gender, favorite programs, and other suitable characteristics. The other children may be of similar age, e.g., boys of age 7-9. The child may be a boy that is 8 years old. The threshold may be set to one overlapping characteristic. As such, the interactive media guidance application may compare and determine that the 8-year old child is of similar age and gender to the other children and that there are two overlapping characteristics exceeding the threshold.
Another display arrangement for providing media guidance is shown in
The media guidance application provides window 206, which includes an option menu to activate a locked mode for viewing media assets. For example, window 206 includes an option menu for choosing to activate a locked mode for viewing media assets. The listings in display 200 are of different sizes (i.e., listing 206 is larger than listings 208, 210, and 212), but if desired, all the listings may be the same size. Listings may be of different sizes or graphically accentuated to indicate degrees of interest to the user or to emphasize certain content, as desired by the content provider or based on user preferences. Various systems and methods for graphically accentuating content listings are discussed in, for example, Yates, U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2010/0153885, filed Nov. 12, 2009, which is hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.
In some embodiments, the media guidance application may present a dashboard that includes statistics with time, channel number, genre, educational value, entertainment value, professional value, etc. and others of the programs being watched. The media guidance application may also allow users to manage the viewing habits, set goals, set restrictions, set triggers to improve the quality of the programs that other users (e.g., children) view. In addition, the media guidance application may alert a user (e.g., a parent) if, for a period of time, the set goals are not being met or under risk of not being met. The media guidance application may also send appropriate digests (e.g., via SMS, email, social networking and/or messaging tools, etc.) to routinely keep the user (e.g., a parent) up to date on the progress on certain goals.
Users may access content and the media guidance application (and its display screens described above and below) from one or more of their user equipment devices.
Control circuitry 304 may be based on any suitable processing circuitry such as processing circuitry 306. As referred to herein, processing circuitry should be understood to mean circuitry based on one or more microprocessors, microcontrollers, digital signal processors, programmable logic devices, field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), etc., and may include a multi-core processor (e.g., dual-core, quad-core, hexa-core, or any suitable number of cores) or supercomputer. In some embodiments, processing circuitry may be distributed across multiple separate processors or processing units, for example, multiples of the same type of processing units (e.g., two Intel Core i7 processors) or multiple different processors (e.g., an Intel Core i5 processor and an Intel Core i7 processor). In some embodiments, control circuitry 304 executes instructions for a media guidance application stored in memory (i.e., storage 308). Specifically, control circuitry 304 may be instructed by the media guidance application to perform the functions discussed above and below. For example, the media guidance application may provide instructions to control circuitry 304 to generate the media guidance displays. In some implementations, any action performed by control circuitry 304 may be based on instructions received from the media guidance application.
In client-server based embodiments, control circuitry 304 may include communications circuitry suitable for communicating with a guidance application server or other networks or servers. The instructions for carrying out the above-mentioned functionality may be stored on the guidance application server. Communications circuitry may include a cable modem, an integrated services digital network (ISDN) modem, a digital subscriber line (DSL) modem, a telephone modem, Ethernet card, or a wireless modem for communications with other equipment, or any other suitable communications circuitry. Such communications may involve the Internet or any other suitable communications networks or paths (which is described in more detail in connection with
Memory may be an electronic storage device provided as storage 308 that is part of control circuitry 304. As referred to herein, the phrase “electronic storage device” or “storage device” should be understood to mean any device for storing electronic data, computer software, or firmware, such as random-access memory, read-only memory, hard drives, optical drives, digital video disc (DVD) recorders, compact disc (CD) recorders, BLU-RAY disc (BD) recorders, BLU-RAY 3D disc recorders, digital video recorders (DVR, sometimes called a personal video recorder, or PVR), solid-state devices, quantum storage devices, gaming consoles, gaming media, or any other suitable fixed or removable storage devices, and/or any combination of the same. Storage 308 may be used to store various types of content described herein, as well as media guidance data described above. Nonvolatile memory may also be used (e.g., to launch a boot-up routine and other instructions). Cloud-based storage, described in relation to
Control circuitry 304 may include video generating circuitry and tuning circuitry, such as one or more analog tuners, one or more MPEG-2 decoders or other digital decoding circuitry, high-definition tuners, or any other suitable tuning or video circuits or combinations of such circuits. Encoding circuitry (e.g., for converting over-the-air, analog, or digital signals to MPEG signals for storage) may also be provided. Control circuitry 304 may also include scaler circuitry for upconverting and downconverting content into the preferred output format of the user equipment 300. Circuitry 304 may also include digital-to-analog converter circuitry and analog-to-digital converter circuitry for converting between digital and analog signals. The tuning and encoding circuitry may be used by the user equipment device to receive and to display, to play, or to record content. The tuning and encoding circuitry may also be used to receive guidance data. The circuitry described herein, including for example, the tuning, video generating, encoding, decoding, encrypting, decrypting, scaler, and analog/digital circuitry, may be implemented using software running on one or more general purpose or specialized processors. Multiple tuners may be provided to handle simultaneous tuning functions (e.g., watch and record functions, picture-in-picture (PIP) functions, multiple-tuner recording, etc.). If storage 308 is provided as a separate device from user equipment 300, the tuning and encoding circuitry (including multiple tuners) may be associated with storage 308.
A user may send instructions to control circuitry 304 using user input interface 310. User input interface 310 may be any suitable user interface, such as a remote control, mouse, trackball, keypad, keyboard, touch screen, touchpad, stylus input, joystick, voice recognition interface, or other user input interfaces. Display 312 may be provided as a stand-alone device or integrated with other elements of user equipment device 300. For example, display 312 may be a touchscreen or touch-sensitive display. In such circumstances, user input interface 310 may be integrated with or combined with display 312. Display 312 may be one or more of a monitor, a television, a liquid crystal display (LCD) for a mobile device, amorphous silicon display, low temperature polysilicon display, electronic ink display, electrophoretic display, active matrix display, electro-wetting display, electrofluidic display, cathode ray tube display, light-emitting diode display, electroluminescent display, plasma display panel, high-performance addressing display, thin-film transistor display, organic light-emitting diode display, surface-conduction electron-emitter display (SED), laser television, carbon nanotubes, quantum dot display, interferometric modulator display, or any other suitable equipment for displaying visual images. In some embodiments, display 312 may be HDTV-capable. In some embodiments, display 312 may be a 3D display, and the interactive media guidance application and any suitable content may be displayed in 3D. A video card or graphics card may generate the output to the display 312. The video card may offer various functions such as accelerated rendering of 3D scenes and 2D graphics, MPEG-2/MPEG-4 decoding, TV output, or the ability to connect multiple monitors. The video card may be any processing circuitry described above in relation to control circuitry 304. The video card may be integrated with the control circuitry 304. Speakers 314 may be provided as integrated with other elements of user equipment device 300 or may be stand-alone units. The audio component of videos and other content displayed on display 312 may be played through speakers 314. In some embodiments, the audio may be distributed to a receiver (not shown), which processes and outputs the audio via speakers 314.
The guidance application may be implemented using any suitable architecture. For example, it may be a stand-alone application wholly implemented on user equipment device 300. In such an approach, instructions of the application are stored locally (e.g., in storage 308), and data for use by the application is downloaded on a periodic basis (e.g., from an out-of-band feed, from an Internet resource, or using another suitable approach). Control circuitry 304 may retrieve instructions of the application from storage 308 and process the instructions to generate any of the displays discussed herein. Based on the processed instructions, control circuitry 304 may determine what action to perform when input is received from input interface 310. For example, movement of a cursor on a display up/down may be indicated by the processed instructions when input interface 310 indicates that an up/down button was selected.
In some embodiments, the media guidance application is a client-server based application. Data for use by a thick or thin client implemented on user equipment device 300 is retrieved on-demand by issuing requests to a server remote to the user equipment device 300. In one example of a client-server based guidance application, control circuitry 304 runs a web browser that interprets web pages provided by a remote server. For example, the remote server may store the instructions for the application in a storage device. The remote server may process the stored instructions using circuitry (e.g., control circuitry 304) and generate the displays discussed above and below. The client device may receive the displays generated by the remote server and may display the content of the displays locally on equipment device 300. This way, the processing of the instructions is performed remotely by the server while the resulting displays are provided locally on equipment device 300. Equipment device 300 may receive inputs from the user via input interface 310 and transmit those inputs to the remote server for processing and generating the corresponding displays. For example, equipment device 300 may transmit a communication to the remote server indicating that an up/down button was selected via input interface 310. The remote server may process instructions in accordance with that input and generate a display of the application corresponding to the input (e.g., a display that moves a cursor up/down). The generated display is then transmitted to equipment device 300 for presentation to the user.
In some embodiments, the media guidance application is downloaded and interpreted or otherwise run by an interpreter or virtual machine (run by control circuitry 304). In some embodiments, the guidance application may be encoded in the ETV Binary Interchange Format (EBIF), received by control circuitry 304 as part of a suitable feed, and interpreted by a user agent running on control circuitry 304. For example, the guidance application may be an EBIF application. In some embodiments, the guidance application may be defined by a series of JAVA-based files that are received and run by a local virtual machine or other suitable middleware executed by control circuitry 304. In some of such embodiments (e.g., those employing MPEG-2 or other digital media encoding schemes), the guidance application may be, for example, encoded and transmitted in an MPEG-2 object carousel with the MPEG audio and video packets of a program.
User equipment device 300 of
A user equipment device utilizing at least some of the system features described above in connection with
In system 400, there is typically more than one of each type of user equipment device but only one of each is shown in
In some embodiments, a user equipment device (e.g., user television equipment 402, user computer equipment 404, wireless user communications device 406) may be referred to as a “second screen device.” For example, a second screen device may supplement content presented on a first user equipment device. The content presented on the second screen device may be any suitable content that supplements the content presented on the first device. In some embodiments, the second screen device provides an interface for adjusting settings and display preferences of the first device. In some embodiments, the second screen device is configured for interacting with other second screen devices or for interacting with a social network. The second screen device can be located in the same room as the first device, a different room from the first device but in the same house or building, or in a different building from the first device.
The user may also set various settings to maintain consistent media guidance application settings across in-home devices and remote devices. Settings include those described herein, as well as channel and program favorites, programming preferences that the guidance application utilizes to make programming recommendations, display preferences, and other desirable guidance settings. For example, if a user sets a channel as a favorite on, for example, the website, www.allrovi.com, on their personal computer at their office, the same channel would appear as a favorite on the user's in-home devices (e.g., user television equipment and user computer equipment) as well as the user's mobile devices, if desired. Therefore, changes made on one user equipment device can change the guidance experience on another user equipment device, regardless of whether they are the same or a different type of user equipment device. In addition, the changes made may be based on settings input by a user, as well as user activity monitored by the guidance application.
The user equipment devices may be coupled to communications network 414. Namely, user television equipment 402, user computer equipment 404, and wireless user communications device 406 are coupled to communications network 414 via communications paths 408, 410, and 412, respectively. Communications network 414 may be one or more networks including the Internet, a mobile phone network, mobile voice or data network (e.g., a 4G or LTE network), cable network, public switched telephone network, or other types of communications network or combinations of communications networks. Paths 408, 410, and 412 may separately or together include one or more communications paths, such as, a satellite path, a fiber-optic path, a cable path, a path that supports Internet communications (e.g., IPTV), free-space connections (e.g., for broadcast or other wireless signals), or any other suitable wired or wireless communications path or combination of such paths. Path 412 is drawn with dotted lines to indicate that in the exemplary embodiment shown in
Although communications paths are not drawn between user equipment devices, these devices may communicate directly with each other via communication paths, such as those described above in connection with paths 408, 410, and 412, as well as other short-range point-to-point communication paths, such as USB cables, IEEE 1394 cables, wireless paths (e.g., Bluetooth, infrared, IEEE 802-11x, etc.), or other short-range communication via wired or wireless paths. BLUETOOTH is a certification mark owned by Bluetooth SIG, INC. The user equipment devices may also communicate with each other directly through an indirect path via communications network 414.
System 400 includes content source 416 and media guidance data source 418 coupled to communications network 414 via communication paths 420 and 422, respectively. Paths 420 and 422 may include any of the communication paths described above in connection with paths 408, 410, and 412. Communications with the content source 416 and media guidance data source 418 may be exchanged over one or more communications paths, but are shown as a single path in
Content source 416 may include one or more types of content distribution equipment including a television distribution facility, cable system headend, satellite distribution facility, programming sources (e.g., television broadcasters, such as NBC, ABC, HBO, etc.), intermediate distribution facilities and/or servers, Internet providers, on-demand media servers, and other content providers. NBC is a trademark owned by the National Broadcasting Company, Inc., ABC is a trademark owned by the American Broadcasting Company, Inc., and HBO is a trademark owned by the Home Box Office, Inc. Content source 416 may be the originator of content (e.g., a television broadcaster, a Webcast provider, etc.) or may not be the originator of content (e.g., an on-demand content provider, an Internet provider of content of broadcast programs for downloading, etc.). Content source 416 may include cable sources, satellite providers, on-demand providers, Internet providers, over-the-top content providers, or other providers of content. Content source 416 may also include a remote media server used to store different types of content (including video content selected by a user), in a location remote from any of the user equipment devices. Systems and methods for remote storage of content, and providing remotely stored content to user equipment are discussed in greater detail in connection with Ellis et al., U.S. Pat. No. 7,761,892, issued Jul. 20, 2010, which is hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.
Media guidance data source 418 may provide media guidance data, such as the media guidance data described above. Media guidance data may be provided to the user equipment devices using any suitable approach. In some embodiments, the guidance application may be a stand-alone interactive television program guide that receives program guide data via a data feed (e.g., a continuous feed or trickle feed). Program schedule data and other guidance data may be provided to the user equipment on a television channel sideband, using an in-band digital signal, using an out-of-band digital signal, or by any other suitable data transmission technique. Program schedule data and other media guidance data may be provided to user equipment on multiple analog or digital television channels.
In some embodiments, guidance data from media guidance data source 418 may be provided to users' equipment using a client-server approach. For example, a user equipment device may pull media guidance data from a server, or a server may push media guidance data to a user equipment device. In some embodiments, a guidance application client residing on the user's equipment may initiate sessions with source 418 to obtain guidance data when needed, e.g., when the guidance data is out of date or when the user equipment device receives a request from the user to receive data. Media guidance may be provided to the user equipment with any suitable frequency (e.g., continuously, daily, a user-specified period of time, a system-specified period of time, in response to a request from user equipment, etc.). Media guidance data source 418 may provide user equipment devices 402, 404, and 406 the media guidance application itself or software updates for the media guidance application.
In some embodiments, the media guidance data may include viewer data. For example, the viewer data may include current and/or historical user activity information (e.g., what content the user typically watches, what times of day the user watches content, whether the user interacts with a social network, at what times the user interacts with a social network to post information, what types of content the user typically watches (e.g., pay TV or free TV), mood, brain activity information, etc.). The media guidance data may also include subscription data. For example, the subscription data may identify which sources or services a given user subscribes to and/or to which sources or services the given user has previously subscribed but later terminated access (e.g., whether the user subscribes to premium channels, whether the user has added a premium level of services, whether the user has increased Internet speed). In some embodiments, the viewer data and/or the subscription data may identify patterns of a given user for a period of more than one year. The media guidance data may include a model (e.g., a survivor model) used for generating a score that indicates the likelihood that a given user will terminate access to a service/source. For example, the media guidance application may process the viewer data with the subscription data using the model to generate a value or score that indicates the likelihood of whether the given user will terminate access to a particular service or source. In particular, a higher score may indicate a higher level of confidence that the user will terminate access to a particular service or source. Based on the score, the media guidance application may generate promotions and advertisements that entice the user to keep the particular service or source indicated by the score as one to which the user will likely terminate access.
Media guidance applications may be, for example, stand-alone applications implemented on user equipment devices. For example, the media guidance application may be implemented as software or as a set of executable instructions which may be stored in storage 308, and executed by control circuitry 304 of a user equipment device 300. In some embodiments, media guidance applications may be client-server applications where only a client application resides on the user equipment device, and server application resides on a remote server. For example, media guidance applications may be implemented partially as a client application on control circuitry 304 of user equipment device 300 and partially on a remote server as a server application (e.g., media guidance data source 418) running on control circuitry of the remote server. When executed by control circuitry of the remote server (such as media guidance data source 418), the media guidance application may instruct the control circuitry to generate the guidance application displays and transmit the generated displays to the user equipment devices. The server application may instruct the control circuitry of the media guidance data source 418 to transmit data for storage on the user equipment. The client application may instruct control circuitry of the receiving user equipment to generate the guidance application displays.
Content and/or media guidance data delivered to user equipment devices 402, 404, and 406 may be over-the-top (OTT) content. OTT content delivery allows Internet-enabled user devices, including any user equipment device described above, to receive content that is transferred over the Internet, including any content described above, in addition to content received over cable or satellite connections. OTT content is delivered via an Internet connection provided by an Internet service provider (ISP), but a third party distributes the content. The ISP may not be responsible for the viewing abilities, copyrights, or redistribution of the content, and may only transfer IP packets provided by the OTT content provider. Examples of OTT content providers include YOUTUBE, NETFLIX, and HULU, which provide audio and video via IP packets. Youtube is a trademark owned by Google Inc., Netflix is a trademark owned by Netflix Inc., and Hulu is a trademark owned by Hulu, LLC. OTT content providers may additionally or alternatively provide media guidance data described above. In addition to content and/or media guidance data, providers of OTT content can distribute media guidance applications (e.g., web-based applications or cloud-based applications), or the content can be displayed by media guidance applications stored on the user equipment device.
Media guidance system 400 is intended to illustrate a number of approaches, or network configurations, by which user equipment devices and sources of content and guidance data may communicate with each other for the purpose of accessing content and providing media guidance. The embodiments described herein may be applied in any one or a subset of these approaches, or in a system employing other approaches for delivering content and providing media guidance. The following four approaches provide specific illustrations of the generalized example of
In one approach, user equipment devices may communicate with each other within a home network. User equipment devices can communicate with each other directly via short-range point-to-point communication schemes described above, via indirect paths through a hub or other similar device provided on a home network, or via communications network 414. Each of the multiple individuals in a single home may operate different user equipment devices on the home network. As a result, it may be desirable for various media guidance information or settings to be communicated between the different user equipment devices. For example, it may be desirable for users to maintain consistent media guidance application settings on different user equipment devices within a home network, as described in greater detail in Ellis et al., U.S. Patent Publication No. 2005/0251827, filed Jul. 11, 2005. Different types of user equipment devices in a home network may also communicate with each other to transmit content. For example, a user may transmit content from user computer equipment to a portable video player or portable music player.
In a second approach, users may have multiple types of user equipment by which they access content and obtain media guidance. For example, some users may have home networks that are accessed by in-home and mobile devices. Users may control in-home devices via a media guidance application implemented on a remote device. For example, users may access an online media guidance application on a website via a personal computer at their office, or a mobile device such as a PDA or web-enabled mobile telephone. The user may set various settings (e.g., recordings, reminders, or other settings) on the online guidance application to control the user's in-home equipment. The online guide may control the user's equipment directly, or by communicating with a media guidance application on the user's in-home equipment. Various systems and methods for user equipment devices communicating, where the user equipment devices are in locations remote from each other, is discussed in, for example, Ellis et al., U.S. Pat. No. 8,046,801, issued Oct. 25, 2011, which is hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.
In a third approach, users of user equipment devices inside and outside a home can use their media guidance application to communicate directly with content source 416 to access content. Specifically, within a home, users of user television equipment 402 and user computer equipment 404 may access the media guidance application to navigate among and locate desirable content. Users may also access the media guidance application outside of the home using wireless user communications devices 406 to navigate among and locate desirable content.
In a fourth approach, user equipment devices may operate in a cloud computing environment to access cloud services. In a cloud computing environment, various types of computing services for content sharing, storage or distribution (e.g., video sharing sites or social networking sites) are provided by a collection of network-accessible computing and storage resources, referred to as “the cloud.” For example, the cloud can include a collection of server computing devices, which may be located centrally or at distributed locations, that provide cloud-based services to various types of users and devices connected via a network such as the Internet via communications network 414. These cloud resources may include one or more content sources 416 and one or more media guidance data sources 418. In addition or in the alternative, the remote computing sites may include other user equipment devices, such as user television equipment 402, user computer equipment 404, and wireless user communications device 406. For example, the other user equipment devices may provide access to a stored copy of a video or a streamed video. In such embodiments, user equipment devices may operate in a peer-to-peer manner without communicating with a central server.
The cloud provides access to services, such as content storage, content sharing, or social networking services, among other examples, as well as access to any content described above, for user equipment devices. Services can be provided in the cloud through cloud computing service providers, or through other providers of online services. For example, the cloud-based services can include a content storage service, a content sharing site, a social networking site, or other services via which user-sourced content is distributed for viewing by others on connected devices. These cloud-based services may allow a user equipment device to store content to the cloud and to receive content from the cloud rather than storing content locally and accessing locally-stored content.
A user may use various content capture devices, such as camcorders, digital cameras with video mode, audio recorders, mobile phones, and handheld computing devices, to record content. The user can upload content to a content storage service on the cloud either directly, for example, from user computer equipment 404 or wireless user communications device 406 having content capture feature. Alternatively, the user can first transfer the content to a user equipment device, such as user computer equipment 404. The user equipment device storing the content uploads the content to the cloud using a data transmission service on communications network 414. In some embodiments, the user equipment device itself is a cloud resource, and other user equipment devices can access the content directly from the user equipment device on which the user stored the content.
Cloud resources may be accessed by a user equipment device using, for example, a web browser, a media guidance application, a desktop application, a mobile application, and/or any combination of access applications of the same. The user equipment device may be a cloud client that relies on cloud computing for application delivery, or the user equipment device may have some functionality without access to cloud resources. For example, some applications running on the user equipment device may be cloud applications, i.e., applications delivered as a service over the Internet, while other applications may be stored and run on the user equipment device. In some embodiments, a user device may receive content from multiple cloud resources simultaneously. For example, a user device can stream audio from one cloud resource while downloading content from a second cloud resource. Or a user device can download content from multiple cloud resources for more efficient downloading. In some embodiments, user equipment devices can use cloud resources for processing operations such as the processing operations performed by processing circuitry described in relation to
The flowchart in
At step 502, the media guidance application begins an algorithm to determine whether a specified user has characteristics similar to a plurality of users based on a request to initiate a locked mode for the specified user, this may be done either directly or indirectly in response to a user action or input (e.g., from signals received by control circuitry 304 (
At step 504, the media guidance application (e.g., via control circuitry 304 (
At step 506, the media guidance application (e.g., via control circuitry 304 (
At step 508, the media guidance application (e.g., via control circuitry 304 (
At step 510, the media guidance application (e.g., via control circuitry 304 (
At step 512, the media guidance application (e.g., via control circuitry 304 (
At step 514, the media guidance application (e.g., via control circuitry 304 (
It is contemplated that the descriptions of
The pseudocode in
At line 601, media guidance application (e.g., via control circuitry 304 (
At line 605, media guidance application (e.g., via control circuitry 304 (
At line 606, media guidance application (e.g., via control circuitry 304 (
At line 607, media guidance application (e.g., via control circuitry 304 (
At line 608, media guidance application (e.g., via control circuitry 304 (
At line 609, media guidance application (e.g., via control circuitry 304 (
At line 610, media guidance application (e.g., via control circuitry 304 (
At line 611, the media guidance application (e.g., via control circuitry 304 (
At line 613, media guidance application (e.g., via control circuitry 304 (
It will be evident to one skilled in the art that the algorithm described by the pseudocode in
The flowchart in
At step 702, the media guidance application (e.g., via control circuitry 304 (
At step 704, the media guidance application (e.g., via control circuitry 304 (
At step 706, the media guidance application (e.g., via control circuitry 304 (
At step 708, the media guidance application (e.g., via control circuitry 304 (
At step 710, the media guidance application (e.g., via control circuitry 304 (
At step 712, media guidance application (e.g., via control circuitry 304 (
It is contemplated that the descriptions of
The pseudocode in
At line 801, the media guidance application (e.g., via control circuitry 304 (
At line 805, the media guidance application (e.g., via control circuitry 304 (
At line 806, the media guidance application (e.g., via control circuitry 304 (
At line 807, the media guidance application (e.g., via control circuitry 304 (
At line 808, control circuitry 304 determines if there are any database entries matching the characteristic for the specified user. In some embodiments, the media guidance application (e.g., via control circuitry 304 (
At line 809, control circuitry 304 retrieves the value of the characteristic for the plurality of users from the database entries matching the characteristic for the specified user. For example, if the media guidance application (e.g., via control circuitry 304 (
At line 810, the media guidance application (e.g., via control circuitry 304 (
At line 811, the media guidance application (e.g., via control circuitry 304 (
At line 813, the media guidance application (e.g., via control circuitry 304 (
It will be evident to one skilled in the art that the algorithm described by the pseudocode in
At step 902, the media guidance application receives (e.g., via control circuitry 304 (
At step 904, the interactive media guidance application receives (e.g., via control circuitry 304 (
At step 906, the interactive media guidance application determines (e.g., via control circuitry 304 (
At step 908, the interactive media guidance application determines (e.g., via control circuitry 304 (
At step 910, the interactive media guidance application transmits (e.g., via control circuitry 304 (
At step 912, the interactive media guidance application determines (e.g., via control circuitry 304 (
If the specified time period is not over, the interactive media guidance application proceeds to step 906. At step 906, the interactive media guidance application determines (e.g., via control circuitry 304 (
For example, the parent may have specified a time period of one hour for the locked mode to view media assets. After the first media asset is over and a half hour remains in the specified time period, the interactive media guidance application determines a second media asset of interest as long as the second media asset of interest has a play length less than or equal to the remaining time period. The interactive media guidance application transmits the second media asset of interest to the child for viewing in response to determining that the media asset fits in the remaining time period for the locked mode.
It is contemplated that the steps or descriptions of
At step 1002, the media guidance application receives (e.g., via control circuitry 304 (
At step 1004, the media guidance application receives (e.g., via control circuitry 304 (
At step 1006, interactive media guidance application compares (e.g., via control circuitry 304 (
At step 1008, the interactive media guidance application (e.g., via control circuitry 304 (
At step 1010, the interactive media guidance application determines (e.g., via control circuitry 304 (
At step 1012, the interactive media guidance application determines (e.g., via control circuitry 304 (
It is contemplated that the steps or descriptions of
Program 1, channel “Cartoon Network”
Program 2, channel “National Geographic”
. . .
Program N, channel “ABC”
In this example, the interactive media guidance application may only respond to commands to change between programs 1-N via options menu 1204. The interactive media guidance application may receive a program selection from the child via options 1206, 1208, and 1210. The child may select one of options using, e.g., the remote control for the user equipment device. The interactive media guidance may disable other functionality to prevent the child from viewing media assets other than those received from the remote server. The interactive media guidance application may generate for display a time indicator 1212 for the time remaining in the time period specified by the parent. After the specified time period is over, the interactive media guidance application may power off the user equipment device, e.g., so the child may complete their homework.
The interactive media guidance application may crowd-source information regarding suitable media assets for the child to view based on media assets viewed by other users having characteristics similar to the child. The parent may activate the crowd-sourcing process via option 1314. In this example, the parent has activated the crowd-sourcing process (1316). The interactive media guidance application may retrieve characteristics of the user from a user profile. For example, the characteristics of the user may include age, gender, favorite programs, and other suitable characteristics. The parent may specify a parental control rating in the child's user profile to assess suitability of media assets. In this example, the parent has specified via parental control option 1306 that the media assets be rated TV-PG or lower (1308). As such, the parent may specify that TV-PG is the appropriate rating for media assets for display in the locked mode even though a media asset with a higher rating may be considered generally suitable for a child of similar age and/or having other similar characteristics.
By providing the parent with the locked mode option, the interactive media guidance application allows the parent to have peace of mind that their child is viewing media content suitable for their age without having to predetermine which particular media assets the child should view. The parent is free from monitoring the child and need not be concerned about the child watching inappropriate content. Additionally, the interactive media guidance application provides the parent control over the entire time period the child spends viewing media content so that, if desired, the parent can determine the suitable amount of time the child should spend viewing the media assets. The parent has the liberty to control the amount of time the child spends viewing the media assets even if the parent is absent at that time.
At step 1402, the media guidance application receives (e.g., via control circuitry 304 (
At step 1404, interactive media guidance application blocks (e.g., via control circuitry 304 (
At step 1406, the interactive media guidance application (e.g., via control circuitry 304 (
At step 1408, the interactive media guidance application determines (e.g., via control circuitry 304 (
It is contemplated that the steps or descriptions of
In some embodiments, the interactive media guidance application collects statistics (e.g., via control circuitry 304 (
In some embodiments, the interactive media guidance may implement (e.g., via control circuitry 304 (
The above-described embodiments of the present disclosure are presented for purposes of illustration and not of limitation, and the present disclosure is limited only by the claims that follow. Furthermore, it should be noted that the features and limitations described in any one embodiment may be applied to any other embodiment herein, and flowcharts or examples relating to one embodiment may be combined with any other embodiment in a suitable manner, done in different orders, or done in parallel. In addition, the systems and methods described herein may be performed in real time. It should also be noted, the systems and/or methods described above may be applied to, or used in accordance with, other systems and/or methods.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Parent | 17320044 | May 2021 | US |
| Child | 17940830 | US | |
| Parent | 16816684 | Mar 2020 | US |
| Child | 17320044 | US | |
| Parent | 16190332 | Nov 2018 | US |
| Child | 16816684 | US | |
| Parent | 14870212 | Sep 2015 | US |
| Child | 16190332 | US |
