| HULU LLC Patent applications |
| Patent application number | Title | Published |
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| 20120117074 | METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR SEARCHING MEDIA PROGRAM DATABASES - A method, apparatus, article of manufacture for providing list of a plurality of media programs responsive to a user search query is disclosed. In one embodiment, the method comprises the steps of accepting an general search query from a user computer, identifying a synonym for the general search query, identifying a category for the general search query according to the identified synonym, performing a categorical search of a media program database using the identified synonym and the identified category to obtain a search result, and transmitting the search result to the user computer for presentation on a display communicatively coupled to the user computer. | 05-10-2012 |
| 20120110620 | METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR USER SELECTION OF ADVERTISING COMBINATIONS - A method, apparatus, article of manufacture, and a memory structure for providing advertisements with a media program transmitted to a user device are described. The method permits the user to control the presentation of advertisements to select prefacing advertisements in lieu of more time consuming or more numerous intervening advertisements presented during the media program. | 05-03-2012 |
| 20120110619 | METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR PROVIDING USER INFORMATION TO IMPROVE ADVERTISING EXPERIENCE - A method, apparatus, article of manufacture, and a memory structure for providing advertisements with a media program transmitted to a user device are described. The method permits the user to manage the provision of user information such as surveys and advertisement feedback to the media program provider to improve the advertising experience. | 05-03-2012 |
| 20120110618 | METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR PROVIDING DIRECTED ADVERTISING BASED ON USER PREFERENCES - A method, apparatus, article of manufacture, and a memory structure for providing advertisements with a media program transmitted to a user device are described. The method permits the user to control the presentation of advertisements. | 05-03-2012 |
| 20120110616 | METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR PROVIDING USER CONTROL OF ADVERTISING BREAKS ASSOCIATED WITH A MEDIA PROGRAM - A method, apparatus, article of manufacture, and a memory structure for presenting an advertisement for playback in conjunction with a streamed media program are described. The method permits the user to control advertising breaks and in particular, the timing of advertising breaks associated with the media program. | 05-03-2012 |
| 20120110615 | METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR PERMITTING USER INTERRUPTION OF AN ADVERTISEMENT AND THE SUBSTITUTION OF ALTERNATE ADVERTISEMENT VERSION - A method, apparatus, article of manufacture, and a memory structure for providing advertisements with a media program transmitted to a user device are described. The method permits the user to interrupt the playback of the advertisement and continue with the playback of the media program with no further advertisements, or to interrupt the playback of the advertisement to substitute a different version of the advertisement. | 05-03-2012 |
| 20120096488 | PROCESSING WORKFLOW FOR RECOMMENDING MEDIA PROGRAMS - A processing workflow method, system, and computer program product provide the ability; to recommend alternative programming during playback of a source media program. A media program player plays the source media program to a first viewer and provides information regarding the first viewer to a recommendation engine. The recommendation engine calculates and sends the media player a list of recommended media program candidates (including identifications of the candidates) based on the information. Prior to reaching an advertising break in the source media program, the media player transmits a request (including the identifications) for an advertisement to an advertising server and in response, receives an advertisement that is played to the first viewer during the advertising break. | 04-19-2012 |
| 20120096487 | METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR RECOMMENDING MEDIA PROGRAMS - A method, system, and computer program product provide the ability to recommend, to a first viewer, alternative programming during playback of a first media program. The first media program is played. A second media program of potential interest to the user is identified. During an advertising break, an interface is presented to the user that identifies the second media program. An indication of interest in the second media program is received from the user. If the indication indicates that the user is interested in the second media program, a reference to the second media program is saved as a viewer recommendation for later playback. If not interested, additional input may be received from the user indicating why the user is not interested. | 04-19-2012 |
| 20120096086 | METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR RECOMMENDING MEDIA PROGRAMS BASED ON CORRELATED USER FEEDBACK - A method and apparatus for recommending a media program of a set of media programs to a user of a set of users is disclosed. The method and apparatus computes a measure w | 04-19-2012 |
| 20120093482 | BOOKMARKING MEDIA PROGRAMS FOR SUBSEQUENT VIEWING - A method, system, apparatus, and computer program product provide the ability to bookmark a media program for subsequent viewing. A first interface is displayed and identifies a first media program. Via the first interface, a user requests that the first media program be recorded as a bookmark in a list of maintained bookmarks. The list of bookmarks is displayed. A user selects one of the bookmarks from the list and in response, the first media program is displayed to the first viewer. | 04-19-2012 |
| 20120072286 | METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR PROVIDING A USER-EDITABLE PLAYLIST OF ADVERTISEMENTS - A method, apparatus, article of manufacture, and a memory structure for providing advertisements with a media program transmitted to a user device are described. The method permits the user to access, define, edit, and control a playlist of advertisements that may be played with selected media programs, a playlist of media programs, or all media programs played to the user. | 03-22-2012 |
| 20120072272 | METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR SAVING OR BOOKMARKING ADVERTISEMENTS FOR LATER VIEWING - A method, apparatus, article of manufacture, and a memory structure for providing advertisements with a media program transmitted to a user device are described. The method permits the user to save advertisements for later viewing. | 03-22-2012 |
| 20120060104 | METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR SHARING VIEWING INFORMATION - A method and apparatus for sharing viewing information is disclosed. In one embodiment, the method comprises receiving an designation of a second user from the first user; and transmitting the first user viewing information to the designated second user. The shared viewing information may comprise the identity of a currently viewed media program, a list of scheduled media program viewings, or the media program itself. | 03-08-2012 |
| 20120059951 | METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR ADAPTIVE BIT RATE SWITCHING - A method and apparatus for adaptively receiving media streams of different bit rates is disclosed. Data describing the variability of the bit rate of different versions of a media program is transmitted to the media player, and used by the media player to select the appropriate version for reception over the communication channel. | 03-08-2012 |
| 20120059946 | BANDWIDTH ALLOCATION WITH MODIFIED SEEK FUNCTION - A computer-implemented method, apparatus, system, article of manufacture, and computer readable storage medium provide the ability to stream media content to multiple users. A first stream of/for the media content is streamed from a first location in the media content to a first user. A request is received from the first user to seek to a seek location (e.g., forward or backward) in the media content. A second location in the media content compatible with the seek location is determined. The second location is based on a second stream being streamed to one or more second users. The second stream is then streamed to the first user and the second user. | 03-08-2012 |
| 20120059847 | METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR CALLBACK SUPPLEMENTATION OF MEDIA PROGRAM METADATA - A method and apparatus for obtaining media program metadata is disclosed. In one embodiment, the method comprises the steps of receiving a media program callback message in a content delivery system from a client device displaying a webpage retrieved from a host server, the media program embedded in the retrieved webpage, the callback message comprising a callback address to the webpage, and storing the address as metadata associated with the media program in the database. | 03-08-2012 |
| 20110320945 | METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR INTUITIVE NAVIGATION OF A MEDIA PROGRAM - A jog control for navigating a media program having a plurality of frames and a method for using the navigation control is disclosed. In an exemplary embodiment, the control comprises a radial control at one of a plurality of user-selectable radial distances from a center of the jog control, the radial distance indicative of a jog control scale factor, wherein selection of the radial control selects and fixes the jog control scale factor until the control area is unselected, and wherein rotation of the selected radial control about a center of the jog control commands navigation through the plurality of media program frames at a rate determined by the selected jog control scale factor and an angular rate of the selected radial control about the center of the jog control. | 12-29-2011 |
| 20110320628 | METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR GEOFILTERING BY CONTENT - Methods, apparatuses, articles of manufacture, and memory structures for selective delivery of content based on geolocation are disclosed. | 12-29-2011 |
| 20110320626 | METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR SYNCHRONIZING PAUSED PLAYBACK ACROSS PLATFORMS - A method and apparatus for resuming playback of a media program, the playback initiated on a first device and resumed on a second device is disclosed. The method does not rely on additional messages transmitted from the playback devices, but rather on server side monitoring of the transmission of the media program. | 12-29-2011 |
| 20110320287 | METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR PROVIDING STREAMING MEDIA PROGRAMS AND TARGETED ADVERTISEMENTS COMPATIBLY WITH HTTP LIVE STREAMING - A method, apparatus, article of manufacture, and a memory structure for providing advertisements with a media program transmitted to a user device are described. Different versions of a media program and advertisements are generated and segmented, and transmitted to a media player individually, allowing different advertisements to be selected for presentation to users according to user demographics and other factors. | 12-29-2011 |
| 20110295683 | METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR RAPID AND SCALEABLE DIRECTED ADVERTISTING SERVICE - A method and apparatus for selecting a subset of advertisements complying with an advertisement request from a set of advertisements is disclosed. Advertisements rules are specified according to a logical semantic simplifying search combinatorials yet allowing for flexible specification of advertising rules, and permitting significant precomputation of advertising rules to permit rapid identification of advertisements complying with advertisement requests. In one embodiment, advertisement rules and requests are represented as easily manipulable and computable bit arrays. | 12-01-2011 |
| 20110179357 | METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR PROVIDING SUPPLEMENTAL VIDEO CONTENT FOR THIRD PARTY WEBSITES - A method, apparatus and article of manufacture for providing supplemental video content for third party websites is disclosed. In one embodiment, coded instructions are transmitted from a content enhancement server to a host server, for incorporation into the webpage source code. The host server is controlled by a first entity and the content enhancement server is controlled by a second entity commercially distinct from the first entity. Keywords are obtained by executing of the coded instructions in the webpage received in the client computer from the host server to send the address of the requested webpage to the content enhancement server, which generates supplemental substantive video content information for transmission to the client. | 07-21-2011 |
| 20110179010 | METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR PROVIDING SUPPLEMENTAL VIDEO CONTENT FOR THIRD PARTY WEBSITES - A method, apparatus and article of manufacture for providing supplemental video content for third party websites is disclosed. In one embodiment, coded instructions are transmitted from a content enhancement server to a host server, for incorporation into the webpage source code. The host server is controlled by a first entity and the content enhancement server is controlled by a second entity commercially distinct from the first entity. Keywords are generated by execution of the coded instructions in the webpage received in the client computer from the host server, and the keywords are sent to a content enhancement server, which generates supplemental substantive video content information for transmission to the client. | 07-21-2011 |
| 20110145726 | METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR NAVIGATING A MEDIA PROGRAM VIA A HISTOGRAM OF POPULAR SEGMENTS - A method and apparatus for navigating a media program is disclosed. Viewing data for segments of the media program are monitored and used to compile statistics that are presented to the user in a histogram, so that popular portions of the media program can be identified and navigated to. One embodiment includes a searchable transcript of the media program that is synchronized with the histogram. | 06-16-2011 |
| 20110145428 | METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR NAVIGATING A MEDIA PROGRAM VIA A TRANSCRIPT OF MEDIA PROGRAM DIALOG - A method and apparatus for navigating a media program via a searchable transcript of the dialog of the media program is disclosed. In one embodiment, a textural transcript of the dialog is generated, wherein the textural transcript comprising a plurality of portions wherein each portion is associated with a segment of the media program, a command is accepted to display the transcript and in response to that command, user interface data is transmitted to the client computer for presentation in a user interface, wherein the user interface comprising a concurrently presented media program player and the textural transcript. | 06-16-2011 |
| 20110131166 | FUZZY USERS' ATTRIBUTES PREDICTION BASED ON USERS' BEHAVIORS - A method, apparatus, system, article of manufacture, and computer readable storage medium provide the ability to predict and utilize a user's attributes. A sample user behavior and a sample user attribute are collected. A model is trained based on the sample user behavior and sample user attribute. Using the model, a probability of a predicted user attribute based on the sample user behavior is predicted. Using the model and the probability, the predicted user attribute is fuzzily determined based on a real user behavior. The predicted user attribute is used to improve a user's experience. | 06-02-2011 |
| 20100332527 | METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR PROVIDING COMMUNITY-BASED METADATA - A method and apparatus for providing community based metadata is disclosed. In one embodiment, the method comprises the steps of detecting an object in a frame of media program, transmitting first data comprising the frame of the media program having the detected object to display device for presentation to a user, receiving second data comprising user entered metadata associated with the identified object, tracking the object across proximate frames of the media program, associating the entered metadata with the object in at least one of the proximate frames of the media program, and storing the associated entered metadata. | 12-30-2010 |
| 20100303440 | METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR SIMULTANEOUSLY PLAYING A MEDIA PROGRAM AND AN ARBITRARILY CHOSEN SEEK PREVIEW FRAME - A method, apparatus, article of manufacture, and a memory structure for playing a media program and providing a preview frame of the media program in response to a seek command is disclosed. In one embodiment, the method comprises the steps of accepting a seek command in the user computer; generating a seek request from the seek command, the seek request including information identifying an arbitrarily chosen seek preview media program frame associated with the media program; retrieving the arbitrarily chosen seek preview media program frame; and rendering the received arbitrarily chosen seek preview media program frame in the playback component of the MPP. | 12-02-2010 |
| 20100287474 | METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR PRESENTING A SEARCH UTILITY IN AN EMBEDDED VIDEO - A method, apparatus and article of manufacture for providing advertisements into a streamed media program is disclosed. In one embodiment, the method comprises the steps of transmitting a webpage to a user computer, wherein the webpage includes instructions comprising instructions for embedding a media program player in the webpage, wherein the embedded media program player comprises an embedded search utility for accepting a textual user query, receiving a search query from the user computer in a media server, the search query entered into the embedded search utility, generating search results responsive to the user search query, transmitting the search results to the media program player embedded in the webpage, rendering the search results using the media program player; and displaying the rendered search results to the user. | 11-11-2010 |
| 20100211584 | METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR PROVIDING A PROGRAM GUIDE HAVING SEARCH PARAMETER AWARE THUMBNAILS - A method, apparatus, article of manufacture, and a memory structure for presenting a program guide for a video-on-demand system describing a plurality of media programs, each media program having a plurality of video frames. In one embodiment, the method comprises the steps of accepting a search request from a user, the search request comprising a search parameter having a search value; searching the media program database for the search value, the media program database having first metadata associated with a first individual video frame of the media program; and providing the program guide comprising a thumbnail depicting the first individual video frame of the media program associated with the first metadata to the user if the first metadata includes the search value. | 08-19-2010 |
| 20100185646 | METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR SEARCHING MEDIA PROGRAM DATABASES - A method, apparatus, article of manufacture for providing list of a plurality of media programs responsive to a user search query is disclosed. In one embodiment, the method comprises the steps of accepting an general search query from a user computer, identifying a synonym for the general search query, identifying a category for the general search query according to the identified synonym, performing a categorical search of a media program database using the identified synonym and the identified category to obtain a search result, and transmitting the search result to the user computer for presentation on a display communicatively coupled to the user computer. | 07-22-2010 |
| 20100169369 | METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR GENERATING MERGED MEDIA PROGRAM METADATA - A method, apparatus, article of manufacture for generating a media program database having a plurality of media programs is disclosed. In one embodiment, the method is comprises the steps of receiving first media program metadata from a first source, searching the Internet to find second media program metadata from a second source distinct from the first source, determining if the first media program metadata and the second media program metadata are associated with the same media program, merging the first media program metadata and the second media program metadata if the first media program metadata and the second media program metadata are associated with the same media program, and storing the merged first media program metadata and second media program metadata in the media program database. | 07-01-2010 |
| 20100107126 | METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR THUMBNAIL SELECTION AND EDITING - A method, apparatus, article of manufacture for producing one or more thumbnails from a media program comprising video data having a plurality of sequenced images. In an illustrative embodiment, the method comprises the steps of accepting a command to scan the video data to identify a candidate video frame for the thumbnail, accepting a command to select the candidate video frame for the thumbnail, automatically generating a set of candidate thumbnails, the set of candidate thumbnails comprising the selected candidate video frame and video frames temporally proximate the selected candidate video frame, presenting the set of candidate thumbnails for selection, and accepting a selection of one of the candidate thumbnails as the selected thumbnail. | 04-29-2010 |
| 20100077095 | METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR COLLECTING VIEWER SURVEY DATA AND FOR PROVIDING COMPENSATION FOR SAME - To address the requirements described above, a method, apparatus, article of manufacture, and a memory structure for providing advertisements with a media program transmitted to a user computer. The method permits the user to provide survey responses in exchange for viewing a media program with fewer advertisement, and permits the user to manage the survey responses. | 03-25-2010 |
