Patent Application
20090113315
The present disclosure relates generally to distribution of multimedia content over interactive networks, and particularly, to a mechanism for augmenting one or more interactive network instant messages or chats to produce enhanced instant messages or chats containing additional media objects.
As means of communication improve, users of communication devices have an increased ability to consume and disseminate information, and to interact over the network through the sharing of information. This disclosure relates generally to improved means of interacting over the network by sharing media objects among interconnected users.
Modern communication networks are typically hierarchical transmission networks with multiple layers of transmission protocols. A transmission network is a system that allows two or more transceivers to exchange data, whereas a transmission protocol is a sequence of standard interactive steps that facilitate the exchange. Typically, the lowest level protocols are more concretely tied to the interaction of physical circuitry, whereas higher levels of protocols are more abstract to facilitate higher level processing at an algorithmic level. For example, in the vernacular “the web,” also known as “the Internet,” has become shorthand for a multi-layer computer communications system, which combines higher level protocols for access, mid-level protocols, such as a means of locating resources available on the network through a system of uniform resource locators (URLs), and low-level hardware protocols which control the exchange of large, uneven blocks of data by breaking them into smaller, standardized packets. Users seek improved means to gather, transfer, and share multimedia information with other users, without the burden of managing lower-level protocols or learning new programming languages.
Users communicating over a network typically use a physical device, such as a telephone, a text messenger, a cell phone, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a networked music/video player, a personal computer, or a public terminal, to interconnect with other users on the network. The shared information may be conveyed through various forms of media, including text, voice and audio recordings, pictures, animations and movie videos. Network users are able to perform social functions which are analogous to their real world counter-parts, such as to send and receive mail, to chat interactively, or to publish original works or compositions of other works, all in electronic form over the network.
A network user utilizes a number of application programs to create or consume content on the network. Example application programs typically include an “e-mail client,” a “chat client,” a “media object player,” and a “browser”.
A browser is an application program that is generally intended to display “web pages.” A web page is typically a two-dimensional image appearing as an individual page of information including one or more types of contained media. Multimedia content on the network appears in a virtual book format, which typically is displayed as an individually framed “web page” along with means for navigating to other related web pages. The multimedia content may be directly perceived on the web page or may be indirectly accessible. Directly perceived content on the page may include displayed images, videos, or a media object player rendered within the image of the page. Examples of indirect access include access through a pop-up window, through an auxiliary media object player program such as Microsoft's Windows Media Player®, or access provided through a link to the location of another page. Many web pages incorporate one or more “hot links.” The hot link enables a content consumer to access another web page or another application by using a pointing device to locate and click on the link.
An e-mail user typically has the option of accessing electronic mail through a specialized e-mail client application or a general-purpose web browser application. Either application allows a user to compose mail messages as well as to consume messages. E-mail messages typically consist of text and optionally include one or more instances of user-attached media objects. The e-mail messages are typically stored in data objects including text and optionally HTML. To use e-mail, the network user typically registers with an e-mail service-provider, such as Yahoo! Mail®. The service-provider typically maintains a virtual e-mail server for its various service customers' use with e-mail client software. The e-mail server provides a facility for e-mail clients to authenticate themselves and interact with the appropriate subservient server. Users who wish to enhance their e-mails with media objects other than text typically complete a cumbersome process of locating, attaching, and uploading the additional content for the enhanced e-mail.
A chat or instant messaging client is an application program that allows a user to have a nearly real-time conversation with another user on the network. Electronic chat messages typically consist of one or more lines of text. To use a chat program on a computer network, the network user typically registers with a service-provider, such as Yahoo! Chat®. The service-provider typically maintains computer systems on the network responsive to requests for its various services from clients. The user interacts with chat client software to engage other chat users on the network, and the service-provider provides a means for chat clients to authenticate themselves, to initiate an interactive electronic chat conference (or session) among two or more chat clients, and to interact in the chat session.
In the chat session, each individual user typically has a scratch-pad area to compose additional messages. Completed messages are sent as a “chat messages.” Chat messages are typically shared among the various conference participants by consolidating messages in a “chat window.” The window is typically a scrolling two-dimensional display whose contents are updated in real time to present the most recent exchanges as well as a scrolling history of the chat conversation.
Chat users who wish to enhance their chat sessions with media content other than text typically complete a cumbersome process of locating, offering, and transferring the additional content through a side-channel file transfer mechanism. Chat users receiving additional media content must typically accept and download the additional content, and use another application, such as a browser, to view or manipulate the additional downloaded content.
A real-time multimedia enhancer for interactive text instant messaging or chat sessions over networks is described. Network chat users access the services of an enhancement service-provider and establish a chat session with one or more other chat clients. In a chat session, users provide one or more text-based chat messages, which are shared among participants in the chat session. The service-provider provides a real-time enhancement mechanism to identify additional media objects related to the chat and available for sharing on the network. The enhancement mechanism modifies the chat conversation to produce enhanced chat conversations, augmented with one or more additional media objects, which are shared among participants in the chat session. Furthermore, additional mechanisms are provided to bias and personalize the selection of additional media objects, to provide user and service-provider control over enhancement mechanisms, and to further identify additional media objects related to those already identified.
The following embodiments and aspects thereof are described and illustrated in conjunction with systems, apparatuses and methods which are meant to be exemplary and illustrative, not limiting in scope. In various embodiments, one or more of the above-described problems have been reduced or eliminated.
The following description sets forth numerous details to provide a thorough understanding of various aspects of the present invention. It will be apparent to those skilled in the art, however, that the present invention may be practiced without these specific details. In other instances, algorithms for processing data and symbolic representations of algorithmic operations are the means used by those skilled in the art to most effectively convey the substance of their work to others skilled in the art. An algorithm, as used herein, is a sequence of operations leading to a desired result, said operations requiring physical manipulations of physical quantities. Usually, though not necessarily, these quantities take the form of a sequence of electrical signals representing binary numbers which can be stored, transferred, combined, compared, and otherwise manipulated.
The present invention also relates to apparatus for performing the operations herein. This apparatus may be specially constructed for the required purposes, or it may comprise one or more general-purpose computers selectively activated by one or more computer programs to achieve the required results. Such a computer program may be stored in any suitable computer-readable storage medium. A computer-readable storage medium includes any mechanism for storing or transmitting information in a form that is usable by a machine, such as a general-purpose computer.
The algorithms and displays presented herein are not inherently related to any particular computer or other apparatus. Various general-purpose systems may be used in accordance with the teachings herein, and it may prove expedient to construct more specialized apparatus to perform the algorithm operations. The required structure for a variety of these systems may appear from the description below. In addition, the present invention is not described with reference to any particular programming language. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that a variety of programming languages may be used to implement the teachings of the invention as described herein.
Server and client systems described herein can be implemented by a variety of computer systems and architectures.
The invention may be described in the general context of computer-executable instructions, such as program modules, being executed by a computer. Generally, program modules include routines, programs, objects, components, data structures, and so forth, which perform particular tasks or implement particular abstract data types. The invention may also be practiced in distributed computing environments where tasks are performed by remote processing devices that are linked through a communications network. In a distributed computing environment, program modules may be located in local and/or remote computer storage media including memory storage devices.
With reference to
An operating system manages the operation of computer system 100, including the input and output of data to and from applications (not shown). The operating system provides an interface between the applications being executed on the system and the components of the system. According to one embodiment of the present invention, the operating system is a Windows® 95/98/NT/XP/Vista/Mobile operating system, available from Microsoft Corporation of Redmond, Wash. However, the present invention may be used with other suitable operating systems, such as an OS-X® operating system, available from Apple Computer Inc. of Cupertino, Calif., a UNIX® operating system, or a LINUX operating system.
The computer system 100 may include a variety of computer-readable media. Computer-readable media can be any available media that can be accessed by the computer system 100 and includes both volatile and nonvolatile media. For example, computer-readable media may include volatile and nonvolatile computer storage media implemented in any method or technology for storage of information such as computer-readable instructions, data structures, program modules or other data. Computer storage media includes, but is not limited to, random access memory (RAM), read-only memory (ROM), electrically erasable programmable ROM (EEPROM), flash memory or other memory technology, compact-disk ROM (CD-ROM), digital versatile disks (DVD) or other optical disk storage, magnetic tape cassettes, magnetic tape, hard magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage devices, floppy disk storage devices, magnetic diskettes, or any other medium which can be used to store the desired information and which can accessed by the computer system 100.
Communication media may also embody computer-readable instructions, data structures, program modules or other data in a modulated data signal such as a carrier wave or other transport mechanism and includes any information delivery media. The term “modulated data signal” means a signal that has one or more of its characteristics set or changed in such a manner as to encode information in the signal. For instance, communication media includes wired media such as a wired network or direct-wired connection, and wireless media such as acoustic, RF, infrared, cellular networks, and other wireless media.
The system memory 108 includes computer storage media in the form of volatile and/or nonvolatile memory such as read only memory (ROM) 106 and random access memory (RAM) 105. A basic input/output system 107 (BIOS), containing the basic routines that help to transfer information between elements within computer system 100, such as during start-up, is typically stored in ROM 106 and other non-volatile storage, such as flash memory. Additionally, system memory 108 may contain some or all of the operating system 109, the application programs 112, other executable code 110 and program data 111. Memory 108 typically contains data and/or program modules that are immediately accessible to and/or presently being operated on by CPU 102. Optionally, a CPU may contain a cache memory unit 101 for temporary local storage of instructions, data, or computer addresses.
The computer system 100 may also include other removable/non-removable, volatile/nonvolatile computer storage media. By way of example only,
The storage devices and their associated computer storage media, discussed above and illustrated in
A user may enter commands and information into the computer system 100 through the network interface 115 or through an input device 127 such as a keyboard, a pointing device commonly referred to as a mouse, a trackball, a touch pad tablet, a controller, an electronic digitizer, a microphone, an audio input interface, or a video input interface. Other input devices may include a joystick, game pad, satellite dish, scanner, and so forth. These and other input devices are often connected to CPU 102 through an input interface 118 that is coupled to the system bus, but may be connected by other interface and bus structures, such as a parallel port, a game port or a universal serial bus (USB). A display 126 or other type of video device may also be connected to the system bus 122 via an interface, such as a graphics controller 116 and a video interface 117. In addition, an output device 128, such as headphones, speakers, or a printer, may be connected to the system bus 122 through an output interface 119 or the like.
The computer system 100 may operate in a networked environment using a network 123 to one or more remote computers, such as a remote computer 125. The remote computer 125 may be a terminal, a personal computer, a server, a router, a network PC, a peer device or other common network node, and typically includes many or all of the elements described above relative to the computer system 100. The network 123 depicted in
Collectively, these elements are intended to represent a broad category of computer systems, including but not limited to general purpose computer systems based on one or more members of the family of CPUs manufactured by Intel Corporation of Santa Clara, Calif., the family of CPUs manufactured by Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), Inc., of Sunnyvale, Calif., or the family of ARM CPUs, originally designed by Advanced RISC Machines, Ltd., as well as any other suitable processor. Of course, other implementations are possible. For example, the server functionalities described herein may be implemented by a plurality of server sub-systems communicating over a backplane.
Various components of computer system 100 may be rearranged, deleted, or augmented. For example, system bus 122 may be implemented as a plurality of busses interconnecting various subsystems of the computer system. Furthermore, computer system 100 may contain additional signal busses or interconnections between existing components, such as by adding a direct memory access unit (not shown) to allow one or more components to more efficiently access system memory 108.
As shown, CACHE1 and CPU1 are packed together as “processor module” 102 with processor CPU1 referred to as the “processor core.” Alternatively, cache memories 101, 103, contained in 102, 104 may be separate components on the system bus. Furthermore, certain embodiments of the present invention may not require nor include all of the above components. For example, some embodiments may include a smaller number of CPUs, a smaller number of network ports, a smaller number of storage devices, or a smaller number of input-output interfaces. Furthermore, computer system 100 may include additional components, such as one or more additional central processing units, such as 104, storage devices, memories, or interfaces. In addition, one or more components of computer system 100 may be combined into a specialized system-on-a-chip (SOC) to further system integration. In some computer system environments where component count is critical, the entire computer system may be integrated in one or more very large scale integrated (VLSI) circuit(s).
As discussed below, in one implementation, operations of one or more of the physical server or client systems described herein is implemented as a series of software routines executed by computer system 100. Each of the software routines comprises a plurality or series of machine instructions to be executed by one or more components in the computer system, such as CPU 102. Initially, the series of instructions may be stored on a storage device, such as bulk storage 113. However, the series of instructions may be stored in an EEPROM, a flash device, or a DVD. Furthermore, the series of instructions need not be stored locally, and could be received from a remote computer 125 or a server on a network, via network interface 115.
Computer system 100 is contained within the network site 220, where one or more computer systems, such as computer system 100, are connected to a local area network and router 221. The router 221 manages local computer communication traffic in network site 220 and interconnects with network cloud 123. Router 221 also functions to translate one or more local area network addresses in network site 220 to provide one or more unique corresponding wide area network addresses in order to facilitate communication between computer systems in network site 220 and other computer systems on the wide area network.
Content aggregation sites are represented by content site A 200 and content site B 230 in
Content site B 230 is a network addressable system that allows users to access content supplied by one of more content suppliers (not shown). Content site B 230 comprises one or more physical server systems 231, 232 containing or connected to one or more bulk storage systems (not shown), and a local area network and router 233. The one or more physical servers 231, 232 allow the service provider (not shown) to store media objects and users to download media objects.
Network application site B 210 is a network addressable system that allows users to access one or more executable code objects supplied by one or more service providers (not shown). Network application site B 210 comprises one or more physical server systems 211, 212, 213 containing or connected to one or more bulk storage systems, shown as network-attached storage device 214, and a local area network and rooter 215. Executable code objects may include code to be executed on a client device as well as code executed within a server system, such as server 212. An example of an executable code object is an informational web site where users request and receive identified web pages and other content over the network cloud 123. The executable code object may also be a posting forum, where users may submit or otherwise configure media objects to be perceived by other users. The executable code object may also be a social network application, such as a chat client or e-mail client, adapted to establish intermediated or peer-to-peer communications with other clients. The executable code object may also be a web-posting application, allowing users to configure and maintain personal web pages. One or more executable code objects may also combine to form a content distribution application that displays available media objects and transmits them to users. Examples of network application sites include Yahoo! Music Engine®, Apple iTunes®, and podcasting servers.
In media object aggregation or sharing systems, such as the Yahoo! Flickr® photo sharing site, media objects are typically contained in data objects which also contain metadata related to the media object. For example, a data object containing a media object may also contain one or more meta keywords or tags to identify related media objects. A photo sharer may upload a photo to a photo sharing site, and consider the photo related to a set of keywords, such as “artists,” “musicians,” “drummers,” and “teen-idols.” The photo sharer may further configure the media object by combining the media object with the set of related meta parameters in a data object.
In the context of a computer network, a “virtual server” is physically one or more server systems connected to the network and support circuitry to execute application programs which process data. Data may be stored by means which facilitate efficient processing, such as by storing the data in a “database” consisting of a collection of data organized by relationships between the various forms of data contained therein. When a virtual server consists of more than one computer server system, the set of computer server systems is interconnected hierarchically to perform high-level functions as combined functions of several servers under central control.
Functionally, a virtual server executes a sequence of low-level CPU commands to complete instructions for processing data. A virtual server typically accepts instructions and executes commands for a multitude of “clients”. The instructions may include, but are not limited to, instructions to store or retrieve data, to modify, verify or erase data, or to reorganize data. A virtual server may also initiate instructions for other network-attached devices. For example, a virtual “music server” might maintain a database to locate a library of musical compositions. The music server might receive commands to store new songs or retrieve old ones from a number of clients. Further, the music server might send commands to other devices on the network, e.g., to disseminate the musical database among various subservient servers, such as a “jazz server,” a “hip-hop server,” a “classical server,” and so on, to register paying user requests in a “billing server,” to verify the identity, preferences, and access privileges of a user in a “registration server” and so on. The music server may therefore also be a client of other servers. Practitioners of the art will recognize that virtual servers and clients are abstract interactive devices controlled by software instructions, whose interaction protocols may be flexibly defined. A “client” as used herein may include functionally to process information and programs, as well as to issue commands. Similarly, a virtual server as used herein may include functionally to initiate commands to users and other servers as well as to respond to instructions.
Similarly, a database should not be construed to be a single physical collection of data. As used herein, a database is an abstract collection of data which may be distributed over one or more physical locations. Said data may be stored physically within a single or multiple servers, within attached physical device(s), network attached device(s), or user devices(s). Similarly, an application program should not be construed to be a single physical collection of commands. As used herein, an application program is an abstract collection of CPU commands, which may be physically executed, in whole or in part, within a single or multiple servers, within attached physical devices(s), within network attached device(s), or within user device(s).
Server 302 implements a registration process which may include one or more of (1) determining whether the user is a new or a returning user, (2) authenticating the returning users, (3) storing a set of user attributes, (4) accessing a set of user attributes, (5) enabling use of the enhancement service by providing one or more software codes; and/or (6) maintaining a presence system that facilitates intermediated and/or peer-to-peer interactive instant message or chat sessions.
In
For new users, the output of the service registration process is operative to provide a media enhancement mechanism for the user's preferred chat client. The user may prefer to install software code resulting in a stand-alone chat client application, or may prefer to augment or modify the functionality of an existing chat client application by installing a “plug in” software code to work in conjunction with the existing chat application.
The software codes are operative to facilitate the enhancement mechanism. The chat-enhancement mechanism attaches one or more media objects to a text chat session or instant message. The software codes may further facilitate the chat-enhancement mechanism by providing augmented rendering capability for media objects. Once installed on a client device, the chat-enhancement mechanism may be automatically invoked when the chat client application is initiated. In step 407, registration server 302 retrieves, and in some instances, dynamically generates a set of appropriate chat client and/or plug-in codes for the user, and transmits the codes to a user device 306 in step 408. For dynamically generated code, the server may dynamically add one or more user attributes, such as a user identifier, to the code. The user attributes may relate to one or more parameters pertinent to the operation of the enhancement mechanism. For example, the user attributes may include parameters that bias or control selection of photographic media objects over video/audio media objects. These parameters can be used to further bias the selection of media, as described below, to allow for composer or consumer personalization.
After the software has been installed, the user may activate the registration process as a returning user. The registration process authenticates returning users by scanning input, in step 410, to an online login form, transmitted in step 409, to determine if the login ID resides in the user database 303 in step 411. The user may optionally be further identified by use of a password or other authentication method. If the scanned user input information does not correspond to a user database entry, an error message is transmitted in step 412, and the user may re-enter login information in steps 409, 410.
Once a user has been properly identified, the user ID and optionally one or more other user attributes are optionally transmitted to one or more chat servers performing as presence servers in step 413. Each of said presence servers is operative to indicate the presence of one or more chat client users available on the network, in order to facilitate the initiation of instant messaging sessions between two or more users. Optionally, the user attributes may include a list of authorized instant messaging partners (or chat buddies) for the user. The presence server may by further operative to transmit the user's online presence to the list of authorized instant messaging partners in step 414.
Referring to
In
In
The sequential chat messages 604 are typically presented in book order, reading from left to right and top to bottom. Each user is able to observe a user-selectable portion of the shared chat messages, shown as “CHAT SESSION HISTORY” 604. A scrollbar mechanism is provided by up-scroll arrow 603, scroll-down arrow 606, and slider 605. The vertical location of slider 605 indicates an approximate current location in a scrolling history of chat messages. If a user desires to look backwards in time at the chat conversation, the user may click on the up-scroll arrow 603 or drag the slider 605 upwards, using a pointing device. Similarly, if a user desires to look forward in time at the chat conversation, the user may click on the down-scroll arrow 606 or drag the slider 605 downwards.
User 309 may compose a chat message to add to the chat session in scratch area 607. Typically, the scratch area is only visible to the composing user, and allows the user to modify a future chat message. When the user is satisfied with the message composition, the user may types a “RETURN” or “ENTER” character (not shown) to complete the message. A completed message is appended to the scrolling message history 604, and the shared chat message history window contents are updated for both users.
In one embodiment of the current invention, a user may manually augment a chat session by interacting with one or more user interface controls, such as expand button 608 of
An example of an expanded multimedia chat window is shown in
The lower portion of
In one embodiment of the invention, the user has an ability to influence the selection of additional media objects by indicating a number of user preferences. In one alternative, the user preferences are designated in a separate preference menu (not shown). In another alternative, the user is able to adjust selection preferences with each request for an additional media object. An example interface pane for selection of user preferences for this purpose is shown in 709. The preferences may be grouped into categories, such as preferred media object type (e.g. video, audio, pictures, and the like), preferred attributes of additional media objects (e.g. media objects related to the chat conversation by artist or group, by genre, by mood, and/or by era, and the like), and other miscellaneous attributes (such as restrictions to media objects which can be found on the network, which can be found on the user's device, objects which can only be viewed with a subscription fee, objects which may be viewed freely, or media objects related to previously found media objects, and so on). In this example interface, the user selects a preference by clicking on an associated box 710, and the preference pane reflects the user selection, such as by darkening the box. Additionally, the user may influence the relative weighting of preferences, such as by using weighting factors adjusted numerically in adjuster 719. In this example weighting, the user prefers 80% video media objects and 20% pictures. By clicking on an up or down arrow in adjuster 719, the user may change the relative importance of these preferences and change the mix of additional media objects.
As stated above, the additional media objects are related to the chat conversation or previously shared media objects. The additional media objects may be selected by processing the chat conversation as a whole, or by processing a subset of the chat conversation. In one embodiment, the user may further indicate which portions of the chat conversation should be considered relevant to the additional media object selection process. In
When the user is satisfied with the additional media object selection preferences, the user initiates a search for additional media objects. In this example interface, the user clicks on the FIND button 720 of
In one embodiment, an additional media object player 718 is displaying a representation of a currently found media object which can be observed by user 309. The scrollbar mechanism consisting of up arrow 716, slider 717, and down arrow 719 allows the user to select one of the other ten additional media objects found. Slider 717 indicates the location of the additional media object displayed in the timeline of additional media objects found. In the example status line 721, the user is redundantly informed that this is the third of eleven objects found.
In the example of
When user 309 decides to share a found media object, SEND control 724 is activated to initiate a transfer of the media object to the shared chat session history observed by both users, and, in particular, the shared media object history is updated. User 309 observes the updated media object history in media object player 713. In this manner, user 309 may select various chat phrases, various preferences, and a previously located media object to influence the search for additional media objects. In analogy with the text composition mechanism of
A particular application of the current invention is to supply additional media objects consisting of advertising. This application is illustrated in two examples in
Another common means of advertising is to display ads. In
Surveys have shown that consumers are more likely to consume products favored by people they know. Suppose that user 502 is an observer of additional media objects supplied by user 309 and the enhancement service provider as discussed above. An advantage of the enhancement mechanism as shown in
As mentioned above, the enhancement mechanisms rely on background processes to find and transmit additional media objects. The background processes rely on the interaction of a number of interconnected processes described as follows.
Referring to
If the media server request is for a specific object, the media object identifier is input in step 1004, and the user access privileges are input in step 1006. Media server 509 determines whether the identified media object resides in the media server database, and if so, whether the user has access privileges to the media object. If both of these conditions are satisfied, the media server 509 accesses media object database 511 to output the requested media object in a transmission to the requester. Otherwise, the media object is inaccessible, and the media server 509 transmits an appropriate error message to the requester.
If the media server request is for a list of object(s) with specified attributes, the flowchart proceeds from step 1002 to step 1003 to input the desired attributes. Media server 509 determines whether the specified attributes are linked to contained media object(s) in media descriptor database 510. If so, media server 509 generates a list of identifiers of the contained media object(s). The generated list is empty if no media objects are found. In step 1007 the list is checked. If empty, the flowchart proceeds to step 1009, transmitting an appropriate error message to the requester. Otherwise, the non-empty list of media object identifiers is transmitted to the requester.
Referring to
If the mode is automatic, chat server 503 determines a portion of the chat messages as the relevant text to use in searching for additional media objects in step 1104. As explained above, the relevant text may be based on the whole chat history or one or more recent chat messages. In step 1106, chat server 503 determines a relevant media object, if any, and if necessary, polls media server 509 to determine the relevant media object attributes.
If the mode is manual, the flowchart proceeds from step 1102 to step 1103. Chat server 503 inputs chat text identified by the requester as relevant, if any, and/or identifies relevant chat text in step 1103. Chat server 503 inputs a media object identified by the requester as relevant, if any, and/or identifies a relevant media object, if any, in step 1105. Step 1107 inputs any additional media object preferences determined by the users.
In step 1108, the object consumer attributes relevant to media object selection are determined. Said attributes may include privileges for the consumer as well as restrictions for the consumer. An example of a privilege is access to media objects based on a paid subscription to an online service. Example restrictions include selection of media objects appropriate for the age and geographic location of the consumer.
In step 1109, the search parameters are combined to determine a set of desired media object attributes and their relative ranking. In step 1110, chat server 503 locates additional media object(s) with the desired attributes. If necessary, chat server 503 polls one or more media servers such as 509 to determine media objects with the desired attributes. In an alternative embodiment, chat server 503 may periodically poll available media object servers to replicate and locally store one or more of a database of media attributes in database 507, relative ratings of various media objects to associated attributes in database 508, and locations of additional media objects in media server database 506. Each additional media object is assigned a score related to correlation with the various desired media object attributes. Media object(s) with highest scores are transmitted as output to the object consumers in step 1111.
In one embodiment of the invention, a chat client application forwards a request for additional media objects to chat server 503, which processes the request as shown in
In some applications, demand on a chat server is further reduced by establishing a direct point-to-point transmission protocol for instant message exchanges between two or more users. In a typical instant messaging implementation, users initially establish a connection through a chat server operative to maintain a database of users presently online, sometimes referred to as a presence server. For example, user 502 may initiate a chat session through the presence server to user 309. Once the session has been initiated, the presence server supplies parameters as required to facilitate direct point-to-point communication between each of the two user's chat clients, without further intervention from the chat server. In such an application, the enhancement mechanism is modified to replace chat server functions with functions to be performed on the client device. An alternate embodiment of the enhancement mechanism for point-to-point communication is provided by the example flowchart of
Referring to
While a number of exemplary aspects and embodiments have been discussed above, those of skill in the art will recognize certain modifications, permutations, additions and sub-combinations thereof. It is therefore intended that the following appended claims and claims hereafter introduced are interpreted to include all such modifications, permutations, additions and sub-combinations as are within their true spirit and scope.
