Patent Application
20170126759
News media outlets frequently seek eyewitness news content related to breaking news stories to distribute to their consumers. Because of the nature of such breaking news stories and limited resources of these news media outlets, it is unfeasible for professional reporting staff to provide such eyewitness news content for all breaking news stories that require coverage. Mobile phones, such as smart phones, have similar functionality to equipment used by professional reporting staff.
The systems and methods described herein function to capture and distribute news content gathered on devices such as mobile phones. The following presents a simplified summary in order to provide a basic understanding of some aspects of the claimed subject matter. This summary is not an extensive overview. It is not intended to identify key/critical elements or to delineate the scope of the claimed subject matter. Its sole purpose is to present some concepts in a simplified form as a prelude to the more detailed description that is presented later.
In some embodiments, a method and system of capturing and distributing news content includes a step of receiving a communication from at least one mobile device, the communication including GPS coordinates indicating a geographic location of the at least one mobile device. The method and system further includes graphically displaying on a user interface an icon on a map indicating the geographic location of the at least one mobile device. Additionally, the method and system include receiving at least one of video and audio data from the at least one mobile device and displaying at least a portion of the communication from the at least one mobile device on the user interface.
To the accomplishment of the foregoing and related ends, certain illustrative aspects of the claimed subject matter are described herein in connection with the following description and the annexed drawings. These aspects are indicative of various ways in which the subject matter may be practiced, all of which are intended to be within the scope of the claimed subject matter. Other advantages and novel features may become apparent from the following detailed description when considered in conjunction with the drawings.
The following description is better understood when read in conjunction with the appended drawings. For purposes of illustrating the systems and methods for capturing and distributing news content disclosed herein, there is shown in the drawings exemplary embodiments thereof However, the claimed systems and methods are not limited to the specific embodiments disclosed. In the drawings:
The various aspects of the subject matter described herein are now described with reference to the accompanying drawings, wherein like numerals refer to like or corresponding elements throughout. It should be understood, however, that the drawings and detailed description relating thereto are not intended to limit the claimed subject matter to the particular form disclosed. Rather, the intention is to cover modifications, equivalents, and alternatives falling within the spirit and scope of the claimed subject matter.
Components described below relate to a computer-related entity, either hardware, a combination of hardware and software, software, or software in execution. For example, components may be, but are not limited to being, a process running on a processor, a processor, an object, an executable instruction, a thread of execution, a program, and/or a computer. By way of illustration, both an application running on a computer and the computer can be a component. One or more components may reside within a process and/or thread of execution and a component may be localized on one computer and/or distributed between two or more computers.
With reference to
With reference now to
Each mobile device 110 is configured to capture information relating to a news event and may comprise any suitable device, examples of which include a portable computing device, such as a tablet or laptop, a personal digital assistant (“PDA”), a portable phone (e.g., a cell phone or the like, a smart phone, a video phone), a portable email device, or a combination thereof. Device 110 may be a wireless device that includes a position location system 112, such as a GPS receiver that uses the wireless device's antenna to receive signals from a multiplicity of GPS satellites and process those signals to determine its position therefrom, a camera 114, such as a digital video and/or still camera, a microphone 116, a speaker 118, and a keyboard 120 (either physical or electronically displayed on a touch screen).
The position location system 112 works in conjunction with GPS satellites 200 that comprise any group of satellites that transmit GPS downlinks used for positioning by a GPS receiver of the position location system 112. Each satellite has a computer, a clock, and a radio on board, and continually broadcasts its changing position and time. The GPS receiver is housed within or is coupled to the wireless mobile device and triangulates its own position by processing the signals from downlinks from three or more satellites, resulting in a longitude and latitude position. In some GPS receivers, timing information that is derived from the processing of the received GPS signals from downlinks is provided over a cellular (or other wireless link) to a remote entity which in turn computes the position of the GPS receiver. Such systems are sometimes called Assisted GPS receivers (AGPS). The position location system described herein could include either conventional and/or AGPS receivers, as well as other position location devices and methods.
Device 110 includes a wireless telecommunication system that is designed to transmit and receive data 108 between the device 110 and wireless network 210, such as cellular base stations, WiFi hubs, etc. Any conventional telecommunication system can be used in the invention for communicating data 108.
With reference to
The user interface 128 of device 110 can provide the ability to control the device 110, via, for example, buttons, soft keys, voice actuated controls, a touch screen, movement of the device 110, visual cues (e.g., moving a hand in front of a camera on the device 110), or the like. The device user interface 128 can provide visual information (e.g., via display 130), audio information (e.g., via speaker 118), mechanically (e.g., via a vibrating mechanism), or a combination thereof The device user interface 128 can comprise means for inputting biometric information, such as, for example, fingerprint information, retinal information, voice information, and/or facial characteristic information. The device 110, such as a smart phone or tablet, may also communicate with an application store via a network such as, for example, the Internet. The application store may be, for example, a company specific store or an open device specific store.
With reference to
Application 300 uses device 110 to communicate with the monitoring subsystem 400 via the wireless network 210 and the data network 220. The wireless network 210 may be any wireless network, such as a wireless network operated by a mobile network operator (e.g., AT&T™, Sprint™, T-Mobile™, etc.). The data network 220 may comprise any public or private data network, including the Internet or an intranet.
At step 350e, after a predetermined period of time, the mobile application captures another set of GPS coordinates associated with the current location of the mobile device 110 and records additional digital images and/or audio of the news event over a period of time. At step 350f, the mobile application sends the new GPS coordinates and the additional digital images and/or audio from the mobile device 110 to the monitoring subsystem 400 via data network 220. Steps 350e and 350f are then repeated such that updated GPS coordinates and additional digital images and/or audio of the news event are sent to the monitoring subsystem 400 via data network 220.
In one embodiment, the monitoring subsystem 400 comprises a server application (referred to herein also as a “monitoring application”) running on one or more computer servers 415 (shown in
In one embodiment, entities such as news networks, desiring to monitor certain mobile devices 110 can establish an account with the monitoring subsystem 400 which provides such entities with web browser-based access to the services and functions provided by the monitoring server application of the monitoring subsystem 400. Once an account is established, monitoring personnel associated with the entity can direct a web browser running on a computing device 402 of the entity to the URL of the monitoring server 415 or its monitoring application. The computing device 402 may be any suitable computing device, such as a desktop computer, laptop computer, tablet, mobile device, or the like, which includes a web browser and is capable of communicating via the data network 220. As mentioned above, in some embodiments, the same entity —such as a news network—may operate and control both the monitoring server(s) 415 and the computing device(s) 402.
Referring now to
For example, the components used in this description may include specialized hardware components configured to perform function(s) by firmware or switches. In other example embodiments, components may include a general purpose processor, memory, etc., configured by software instructions that embody logic operable to perform function(s). In example embodiments where modules or components include a combination of hardware and software, an implementer may write source code embodying logic and the source code may be compiled into machine readable code that can be processed by the general purpose processor. Since the state of the art has evolved to a point where there is little difference between hardware, software, or a combination of hardware/software, the selection of hardware versus software to effectuate specific functions is a design choice left to an implementer. More specifically, a software process may be transformed into an equivalent hardware structure, and a hardware structure may itself be transformed into an equivalent software process. Thus, the selection of a hardware implementation versus a software implementation is one of design choice and left to the implementer.
In
The computer 641 may also include other removable/non-removable, volatile/nonvolatile computer storage media. By way of example, the computer 641 may include a hard disk drive 670 that reads from or writes to non-removable, nonvolatile magnetic media, a magnetic disk drive 639 that reads from or writes to a removable, nonvolatile magnetic disk 654, and an optical disk drive 640 that reads from or writes to a removable, nonvolatile optical disk 653 such as a CD ROM or other optical media. Other removable/non-removable, volatile/nonvolatile computer storage media that can be used in the exemplary operating environment include, but are not limited to, magnetic tape cassettes, solid-state drives, flash memory cards, digital versatile disks, digital video tape, solid state RAM, solid state ROM, and the like. Magnetic disk drive 639 and optical disk drive 640 may be connected to the system bus 621 by a removable memory interface, such as interface 635. The drives and their associated computer storage media discussed herein, and illustrated in
A user may enter commands and information into the computer 641 through input devices such as a keyboard 651 and/or pointing device 652, commonly referred to as a mouse, trackball, or touch pad. Other input devices (not shown) may include a microphone, joystick, game pad, satellite dish, scanner, or the like. These and other input devices may be connected to the processing unit 659 through a user 302 input interface 636 that is coupled to the system bus, but may be connected by other interface and/or bus structures, such as a parallel port, game port, or a universal serial bus (USB) for example. The computer may connect to a local area network or wide area network, such as LAN 720 and/or WAN 730, through a network interface or adapter 637. For example, the computer 641 may connect to the wireless network 210 and/or the data network 220 of
As is apparent from the embodiments described herein, all or portions of the various systems, methods, and aspects of the present invention may be embodied in hardware, software, or a combination of both. When embodied in software, the methods and apparatus of the present invention, or certain aspects or portions thereof, may be embodied in the form of program code (i.e., computer executable instructions). This program code may be stored on a computer-readable storage medium, such as the various computer-readable storage media described above, wherein, when the program code is loaded into and executed by a machine, such as a computer or server, the machine becomes an apparatus for practicing the invention. The program code may be implemented in a high level procedural or object oriented programming language. Alternatively, the program code may be implemented in an assembly or machine language. In any case, the language may be a compiled or interpreted language. When implemented on a general-purpose processor, the program code may combine with the processor to provide a unique apparatus that operates analogously to specific logic circuits.
With reference now to
At step 310a, the monitoring server 415 then creates an object in memory representing a news event report with data associated with the news event. Once the server 415 creates the object in memory, monitoring system 400 begins to gather information associated with the news event report from the device 110 at step 310b. Some or all of this information may be accessible to entities such as news networks during step 310c, before, during, or after information gathered in step 310b is offered for sale. Additionally, at step 310d, the monitoring application on server 415 may alert other mobile devices 110 in geographic proximity to the reported news event so that other mobile devices 110 can capture other news event reports associated with the news event. Lastly, once it is determined that no additional information will be added to the news event report, the monitoring system 400 closes the report.
With reference again to step 310a, when news event capture mode is initiated by creating an object in memory, the application 300 on the device 110 begins sending periodic communications to the monitoring subsystem 400, including aspects of the news report that include information concerning the location of the mobile device 110 (e.g., GPS coordinates determined by the position location system 112), video or images captured by the camera 114 of the mobile device, and/or audio captured by the microphone 116 of the device, as described in relation to the news event capture operation 350. Some or all of this news report may be accessible to entities such as news networks before, during, and after step 310c when this information is offered for sale through the graphical user interface 401.
As further illustrated in
When monitoring personnel select a report from the user interface 401, such as any of the views shown in
Information displayed in panels 422, 424, and 426 is updated for each report according to a tracking mode 320 described in relation to
As described above, the mobile application executing on the device 110 automatically and periodically sends subsequent communications to the monitoring subsystem 400, each including updated GPS coordinates of the device. At step 320d, the monitoring subsystem 400 receives these communications and displays the subsequent GPS coordinates as subsequent points 442 on the map 406. In one embodiment, the subsequent points 442 are each displayed as a circular icon on the map that includes an arrow indicating a direction of movement of the device determined from the particular GPS coordinates represented by that icon. The direction of movement of the mobile device at each tracked point on the map may be determined by the device 110, the monitoring subsystem 400, or both. For example, the monitoring subsystem 400 may calculate direction of movement based on the most recent GPS data and the second most recent GPS data. The monitoring application on server 415 calculates direction using the changes in latitude and longitude to calculate the degree of an arc from the previous location to the current location. The server also calculates velocity using distance travelled per unit time. Step 320d continues to iteratively repeat as long as the mobile application on the device 110 remains active or the news report is otherwise closed.
In some embodiments, tracking mode 320 may further include displaying speed of movement on the user interface 401. Like determining direction of movement, speed of movement may be determined by the device 110, the monitoring subsystem 400, or both. For example, the monitoring subsystem 400 may calculate speed of movement based on the most recent GPS data and the second most recent GPS data. Speed of movement for each subsequent point 442 may be shown, for example, in a pop-up window 444 on map 406, as shown in
With reference to
The graphical user interface 401 may include a purchase/distribution interface that allows monitoring personnel to purchase information in the news report at step 310b. The user interface may be configured to offer some or all of the news report for sale in multiple ways. In one embodiment, all of the information sent from device 110 is available to monitoring personnel prior to purchase. In other embodiments, only a portion of the information sent from device 110, such as still images and/or a text description of the news event, is available prior to purchase. In still other embodiments, only the GPS coordinates associated with the mobile device 110 are accessible prior to purchase.
For example, if a user 302 of mobile device 110 is witnessing a political speech, the information available for monitoring personnel prior to purchase may include a real-time photograph of the politician and a short written description that includes the politician's name and the topic of the speech. The written description may alternatively or additionally include a pre-set tag to categorize the news report. Monitoring personnel may confirm the veracity of the report based on a rating of the user 302 of the device 110, as described above, as well as based on the set of GPS coordinates included in the description. In other embodiments, information available prior to purchase may be more or less detailed. For example, the description may include only a pre-set tag and a selling price. The news content description may also include at least one time stamp of the information included in the report.
The purchase/distribution interface may be configured to provide the monitoring personnel with additional information about the news report. For example, the purchase/distribution interface may have functionality for keyword searching that scans tags and text descriptions of different news reports received by the server 415. Additionally, monitoring personnel may be able to search for news reports via map 406. Specifically, monitoring personnel interested in any news report related to a specific geography can search that geography using map 406 to see if any news reports have been posted to the server 415 in a given period of time. For example, monitoring personnel may search the map 406 for a particular city, using a parameter such as “Past Two Hours” to view any news reports with time stamps within the past two hours of the search. Alternatively or additionally, the parameter such as “Past Two Hours” may provide search results for any news reports posted to the server 415 within the past two hours of the search
Provided that there are multiple entities seeking access to news reports, the purchase/distribution interface may further be configured to provide differing levels of information to different groups. In one example, a group of “premium” level entities may have access to all news reports with full text searching functionality. A group of “basic” level entities may only be able to see some news reports and/or may or may not have text searching functionality.
In another example, an entity may have exclusive access to news reports of certain mobile device users 302. For example, a group of mobile device users 302 may be affiliated with a particular news network that receives news reports from those users 302 exclusively and without needing to purchase such reports. Fees associated with this service may be based on the number of mobile device users 302 and/or the data size of the news reports.
Purchase price for news reports may be fixed, determined via a bidding process, or both. For example, users 302 may sign up to report for a certain news outlet and offer news reports to that news outlet when events occur. If the news outlet selects a given user's report, then the news outlet pays the user for that report. In another example, user interface 401 may be configured to offer for sale all news reports at the same fixed price. Alternatively, prices may be fixed based on at least one of a variety of factors such as type of content, quality of content, geography of the device 110, and/or geography of the device 110 in relation to current events. More specifically, news reports comprising a high quality video may be valued higher than news reports comprising only a low resolution digital photograph. Similarly, news reports derived from a device 110 located in a major metropolitan area with a large news-following public during a planned event may be valued higher than news reports derived from a device 110 located in a rural area where no planned events were expected to occur.
The monitoring application on server 415 may be configured to determine the selling price for news reports based on a timed bidding process. For example, for a two to five minute time period after server 415 receives the news report, monitoring personnel will have the opportunity to submit a bid. The purchase/distribution interface may or may not display the highest bid in real-time. At the end of the time period, the highest bidder will be sent the news report, and/or full access to information from the device 110 in exchange for the bid price.
Alternatively, the user 302 of the device 110 may have the option to value the news report and the first bidder to enter a bid above that value will be sent the news report in exchange for the bid price. If the monitoring application on server 415 is configured to determine the selling price for news report based on a bidding process, the monitoring application on server 415 may be further configured to offer the news report for sale at a fixed price after a certain period of time if no bids are received or any bids received are not at a sufficient value.
As described above, the news network that purchases the news report may receive the ability to contact the user 302 of the device 110 via the text message within interface 401. The purchasing news network may also receive contact information for the user 302 of the device 110 in order to be able to speak with the user 302 in person using device 110. Alternatively, the monitoring application on server 415 may directly and/or automatically contact the device user 302 for the purchasing network via text or telephone functionality on the device 110. Contacting the user 302 may provide the network with additional eyewitness information not otherwise included in the news report. The monitoring application and the mobile application on the device may also be capable of establishing an in-app voice call to enable the monitoring personnel and the user of the mobile device to engage in a voice conversation concerning the news report. For example, the voice call can be used to engage in an interview of the mobile device user about a particular news event being recorded by the user's device. All or portions of the voice call can be recorded by the monitoring personnel to provide further audio—for later playback—in connection with the particular news event.
In an exemplary embodiment described in relation to
Once payment is received from the purchasing entity and the news report is distributed, the server may be further configured to distribute at least a portion of the payment received to the user 302 of the device 110. For example, the user 302 may receive 5-50% of the purchase price of the news report. Alternatively, the user 302 may receive 100% of the purchase price, but the user 302 may be charged for the use of the device application on an ongoing basis (such as monthly or per use). User 302 may also receive compensation based on the number of views a given news content entry has.
Referring again to
With reference to
In addition to the ways described above, a news report may also be closed if no data has been received from the device for at least 60 minutes. When a news report is closed, the news report's status is updated in the monitoring subsystem 400.
As the foregoing illustrates, the present invention is directed to systems and methods of capturing and distributing news content. Changes may be made to the embodiments described above without departing from the broad inventive concepts thereof Accordingly, the present invention is not limited to the particular embodiments disclosed, but is intended to cover all modifications that are within the spirit and scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims.
This application claims benefit of U.S. Provisional Application 62/250,185, filed Nov. 3, 2015, the content of which is incorporated herein by reference.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 62250185 | Nov 2015 | US |
