Patent Abstract:
Media experiences may be presented to a user on a local device organized by category and subcategory, even though the experiences may be served from various sources located on a network. A remote device with available media may establish a secure connection with the local device and transmit a mechanism for obtaining the media. The remote device will further transmit a listing of the available content. The media listing may be displayed to a user as another channel of media or other grouping as if the media source were local.

Full Description:
BACKGROUND 
       [0001]    Entertainment systems, especially home entertainment systems, have a wide variety of media sources from which to select. In general, the sources are of two types: those that are local to the interface device and those that come over a network. For example, an entertainment system may have mechanisms for playing music or video, such as a CD or DVD player, which would be a local media source. A remote source may include video, audio, or other media that comes through satellite, cable, internet, or other network, but may also include media sources that are located on other devices connected to a network. For example, computers connected to a local area network may have audio, video, or other media that can be enjoyed on the entertainment system. 
         [0002]    As the media sources become more varied and increase in number, the user is faced with an enormous number of choices for media. The media may be available through varied connections and network paths, which can be confusing to a user. 
       SUMMARY 
       [0003]    Media experiences may be presented to a user on a local device organized by category and subcategory, even though the experiences may be served from various sources located on a network. A remote device with available media may establish a secure connection with the local device and transmit a mechanism for obtaining the media. The remote device will further transmit a listing of the available content. The media listing may be displayed to a user as another channel of media or other grouping as if the media source were local. 
         [0004]    This Summary is provided to introduce a selection of concepts in a simplified form that are further described below in the Detailed Description. This Summary is not intended to identify key features or essential features of the claimed subject matter, nor is it intended to be used to limit the scope of the claimed subject matter. 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         [0005]    In the drawings, 
           [0006]      FIG. 1  is a pictorial illustration of an embodiment showing a media system in a network configuration. 
           [0007]      FIG. 2  is a timeline illustration of an embodiment showing a sequence for media consumption. 
           [0008]      FIG. 3  is a diagrammatic illustration of an embodiment showing an example of categorized media experiences. 
           [0009]      FIG. 4  is a diagrammatic illustration of an embodiment showing an example of a menu structure for an aggregated user interface. 
       
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
       [0010]    Media experiences may be available from many sources on a network. A client device, through which a user consumes the experiences, may aggregate the available experiences into a cohesive user interface through which the user may browse and select the experiences. 
         [0011]    The experiences are organized by category and subcategory based on content as opposed to being organized by the server or device from which the experience originated. For example, remotely sourced live television channels may be aggregated into a channel listing for all television channels available to the user, regardless if the channels come through a source local to that device or through one or more remote devices connected over a network. 
         [0012]    The interaction between the local and remote devices may include one or more advertisements sent from the media source to client devices on the network. The advertisement may contain the category and subcategory of the media experiences as well as the necessary addresses and protocols necessary to establish a connection, request the specific experiences, and consume the experiences. 
         [0013]    The advertisements enable each media server to have different entry points into the media content, and for those entry points to be selected and used in a user interface that shows the media experiences as if those experiences were sourced locally. 
         [0014]    Specific embodiments of the subject matter are used to illustrate specific inventive aspects. The embodiments are by way of example only, and are susceptible to various modifications and alternative forms. The appended claims are intended to cover all modifications, equivalents, and alternatives falling within the spirit and scope of the invention as defined by the claims. 
         [0015]    Throughout this specification, like reference numbers signify the same elements throughout the description of the figures. 
         [0016]    When elements are referred to as being “connected” or “coupled,” the elements can be directly connected or coupled together or one or more intervening elements may also be present. In contrast, when elements are referred to as being “directly connected” or “directly coupled,” there are no intervening elements present. 
         [0017]    The subject matter may be embodied as devices, systems, methods, and/or computer program products. Accordingly, some or all of the subject matter may be embodied in hardware and/or in software (including firmware, resident software, micro-code, state machines, gate arrays, etc.) Furthermore, the subject matter may take the form of a computer program product on a computer-usable or computer-readable storage medium having computer-usable or computer-readable program code embodied in the medium for use by or in connection with an instruction execution system. In the context of this document, a computer-usable or computer-readable medium may be any medium that can contain, store, communicate, propagate, or transport the program for use by or in connection with the instruction execution system, apparatus, or device. 
         [0018]    The computer-usable or computer-readable medium may be, for example but not limited to, an electronic, magnetic, optical, electromagnetic, infrared, or semiconductor system, apparatus, device, or propagation medium. By way of example, and not limitation, computer readable media may comprise computer storage media and communication media. 
         [0019]    Computer storage media includes volatile and nonvolatile, removable and non-removable 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, RAM, ROM, EEPROM, flash memory or other memory technology, CD-ROM, digital versatile disks (DVD) or other optical storage, magnetic cassettes, magnetic tape, magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage devices, or any other medium which can be used to store the desired information and which can accessed by an instruction execution system. Note that the computer-usable or computer-readable medium could be paper or another suitable medium upon which the program is printed, as the program can be electronically captured, via, for instance, optical scanning of the paper or other medium, then compiled, interpreted, of otherwise processed in a suitable manner, if necessary, and then stored in a computer memory. 
         [0020]    Communication media typically embodies 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. By way of example, and not limitation, communication media includes wired media such as a wired network or direct-wired connection, and wireless media such as acoustic, RF, infrared and other wireless media. Combinations of the any of the above should also be included within the scope of computer readable media. 
         [0021]    When the subject matter is embodied in the general context of computer-executable instructions, the embodiment may comprise program modules, executed by one or more systems, computers, or other devices. Generally, program modules include routines, programs, objects, components, data structures, etc. that perform particular tasks or implement particular abstract data types. Typically, the functionality of the program modules may be combined or distributed as desired in various embodiments. 
         [0022]      FIG. 1  is a diagram of an embodiment  100  showing a media system. A client device  102  is attached to a network  104  and thereby to media servers  106  and  108 . The client device  102  has a user interface  110  and may have some local media  112 . Media server  106  has local media  114  as well as media services  116  that may be available through another network such as a cable television network, satellite network, or the internet. Similarly, media server  108  has local media  118  and remote media services  120 . 
         [0023]    The embodiment  100  may be a system for home entertainment. The client device  102  may be attached to a television which may serve as the user interface  110 . Various media servers  106  and  108  may provide interfaces into a cable television network, repositories of home movies, collections of music files, digital versatile disk (DVD) movie collections, or any other type of media experience. The client device  102  may be a dedicated media viewer, a game console, a personal computer, or any other network attached device through which media may be consumed. 
         [0024]    The client device  102  may have local media  112  that can be selected and consumed through the user interface  110 . Local media  112  may be any type of media that is sourced through the client device  102 . For example, local media  112  may be a DVD player attached to the client device, a directory of music files, or any other media. In some cases, a client device  102  may have direct connections to various media services such as on-demand audio or video, cable television, or other media sources. 
         [0025]    The media servers  106  and  108  may be any network attached device that is capable of serving media to another device. In some cases, the media server  106  may be a large server computer with extensive data storage and processing capabilities. In other cases, the media server  106  may be a portable music player, a digital video recorder (‘DVR’), a cable television or satellite television set top box, or any other device capable of serving media. 
         [0026]    Through the network  104 , the client device  102  may provide various media experiences for a user of the client device  102 , including experiences that are provided from one or more of the media servers  106  and  108 . The media experiences may be aggregated from the various media sources and presented to the user grouped by various categories and subcategories. The media sources on a media server  106  or  108  may be made available in the form of various entry points that are classified and able to fit within a unified user interface at the client device  102 . For example, the client device  102  may aggregate several live television sources and present a unified list of channels to the user. The user may or may not be able to distinguish from where a specific channel is being served. 
         [0027]      FIG. 2  is a timeline illustration of an embodiment  200  showing a timeline sequence for media consumption. The actions of a client  202  are shown on the left while the actions of a server  204  are shown on the right. The client  202  may broadcast a request for media sources in block  206 , which sends a request  208  to the server  204 . On the media server  204 , the content or media experiences are categorized in block  210 . 
         [0028]    The media server  204  may issue several advertisements  214  over the network. Each advertisement may be a separate entry point into the media experiences available on the media server  204 , and may contain addresses, port numbers, protocols, and descriptors of the media experiences. The advertisements  214  may have sufficient information to enable the client  202  to initiate communication, generate requests for media experiences, and control the flow of the media experience to the client  202 . 
         [0029]    The client  202  may aggregate local and remote media sources into a unified user interface in block  216 . The method by which the client  202  aggregates and presents the various media sources may vary between implementations, hardware, and user preferences. In many cases, the user interface may present the content or media experiences in a categorized manner, based on the content of the media experiences rather than classified by the server or source of the media. 
         [0030]    Connections with the media sources are made by the client  202  in block  218 . The server  204  may provision resources and establish a connection to the client in block  220 . In some embodiments, a connection between the client  202  and server  204  may be established before the user interface is created in block  216 . In such an embodiment, the advertisements  214  may or may not contain sufficient information for the client  202  to generate the necessary user interface in block  216 . In other embodiments, a connection between the client  202  and server  204  may be performed after the user has requested media from the server  204 . 
         [0031]    In many embodiments, the server  204  may provide several advertisements  214 , and each advertisement may provide a different entry point into the media experiences on the server  204 . In some cases, the various advertisements  214  may include certain media experiences that are categorized in several different manners and thus a client device  202  may reach the media through several different routes. For example, the server  204  may have a DVD of the movie “Terminator” loaded into a DVD player. The server  204  may produce advertisements categorized by “On Demand Video”, “Movies”, “Action/Drama”, or any other classification. Each of the example advertisements may include different ports, protocols, or addresses for reaching the same content on the server  204 . The various categories may be used to produce several groupings of programming selections for the user interface. 
         [0032]    When the user navigates the user interface in block  222  and selects a particular media experience to consume, a request  224  is transferred to the server  204  which processes the request in block  226  and sends requested content  228  to the client  202 . The client  202  then displays the content for the user to consume in block  230 . 
         [0033]      FIG. 3  is a diagram of an embodiment  300  of an example of categorized media experiences. A media server  302  has media broken down into four main categories: video  304 , audio  306 , still images  308 , and other  310 . For the purposes of illustration, a partial breakdown of the video content  304  is shown. 
         [0034]    On Demand Video  312  is a subcategorization of video  304  and contains a DVD Library  314  that has “The Longest Yard”  316  and “Terminator”  318 . On Demand Video  312  also includes DVR Stored Shows  320  that contains “Ali v. Frasier”  322 , “Seinfeld”  324 , and “Simpson&#39;s”  326 . On Demand Video  312  further includes On Demand Network Services  328  that includes a listing of available shows  326 . 
         [0035]    On demand video  312  is only one way that content on the media server  302  can be classified, but may be an entry point into the media server  302 . When an advertisement is sent by the media server  302 , the advertisement or subsequent communications may be used to generate a menu listing or other user interface that contains the various shows or movies within the entry point. In some instances, the user interface may show the headings DVD Library  314 , DVR Stored Shows  316 , and On Demand Network Services  328 . The user may be required to drill down into DVD Library  314  to find “The Longest Yard”  316  and “Terminator”  318 . In other instances, the user interface may show the various media experiences available under the On Demand Video heading, and thus the user would see the labels “The Longest Yard”  316 , “Terminator”  318 , “Ali v. Frasier”  322 , etc. 
         [0036]    In addition to or in lieu of the entry point On Demand Video  314 , the media server  302  may provide entry points for one or more of the DVD Library  314 , DVR Stored Shows  320 , and On Demand Network Services  328 . In some embodiments, the entry points may correspond to the source of the media experience and the advertisement may include a protocol containing specific commands that are used to operate the source of the media. For example, a media server  302  with On Demand Network Services  328  may send an advertisement with a specific protocol required for searching, displaying, selecting, and controlling on demand video from a service provider such as a cable television service. Such a protocol may be different for operating an integral digital video recorder (‘DVR’) or a DVD player. In other embodiments, the media server  302  may provide a unified interface and protocol whereby several different sources may be operated using the same protocol. 
         [0037]    The subcategory Live Video  330  may contain Cable  332 , Satellite  334 , and Antenna  336 . Each of the Cable  332 , Satellite  334 , and Antenna  336  may have a listing of stations as well as a listing of current and future content. The listing of current and future content for each source may be separate data that is provided through a separate network mechanism, such as downloading XML versions of program listings through the internet. In some embodiments, a client device may us Live Video  330  as an entry point to the media server  302  but display all of the various channel options from Cable  332 , Satellite  334 , and Antenna  336  as a single list without separating the channels from each source. Some media experiences, such as a listing of stations and the broadcast schedule for the stations may be presented to the user as interactive experiences. Any reference to media experiences shall include any type of interactive media experience as well. 
         [0038]    Another subcategory of Video  304  is DVD Library  338 . DVD Library  338  may be identical to DVD Library  314  and includes “The Longest Yard”  316  and “Terminator”  318 . The arrangement of various categories and subcategories and the classification of each category may vary from one implementation to another. In some cases, the categorization may be determined by a standards body, by a software developer, by the user, or by any other mechanism. 
         [0039]    Yet another subcategory of Video  304  is Home Movies  340  that may have a content listing. Such a content listing may be a user created content listing by category. 
         [0040]    Still another subcategory of Video  304  is Sports  342 . Within the Sports  342  subcategory, various media experiences that relate to sports may be found. For example, “The Longest Yard”  316 , a live channel of ESPN  344 , and a pre-recorded bought “Ali v. Frasier”  322  may be categorized within Sports  342 . The various experiences within Sports  342  may be drawn from different media providers. For example, “The Longest Yard”  316  may be from a DVD player, live ESPN  344  may be from one or more of the Cable  332  or Satellite  334  sources, and “Ali v. Frasier”  322  may be from the DVR source. 
         [0041]    Any point within the hierarchy of the media structure may be used as an entry point for a media client. For example, the heading Video  304  may be one entry point while Sports  342  is another. The entry points may be made available by the media server  302  and provide the communication protocols that may be used to determine the available experiences within the entry point and request, translate, and control the experiences as needed. 
         [0042]      FIG. 4  is a diagrammatic illustration showing embodiment  400  of a menu structure for an aggregated user interface. The embodiment  400  assumes that media server  302  is used with the categorized experiences of embodiment  300 . 
         [0043]    A media client menu  402  contains a television menu that a user may see. The upper categories are On Demand Video, Live Video, and Movies. The particular arrangement and selection of items shown in the menu  402  may not be the full complement of media experiences as described in embodiment  300 . In some instances, certain portions of the media experiences may be restricted to specific devices, users, or accounts. In other instances, the media experiences may be restricted by a licensing or content use restriction. In still other instances, the media experiences may be selected by tracking of user preferences and selecting appropriate media experiences based on past selections. 
         [0044]    The media client menu  402  contains a hierarchical list. The first level selections are On Demand Video, Live Video, and Movies. When a user selects On Demand Video, a second menu  404  may appear that is an aggregation of DVD Library  314 , DVR Stored Shows  320 , On Demand Services  328 , and Locally Stored Video  408 . 
         [0045]    The menu  402  also includes Live Video  330 . Under the Live Video  330  heading is a Favorites  410  submenu and a General Listing  406  submenu. The General Listing  406  submenu may include an aggregation of cable, satellite, antenna channels from all available media servers plus any locally attached live video sources. 
         [0046]    In some instances, media experiences may be listed in a submenu such as menus  404  and  406  or the media experiences may be incorporated into a higher level menu. For example, the heading Movies  414  contains “Caddyshack”  416 , “The Longest Yard”  316 , and “Terminator”  318 . The movie “Caddyshack”  416  may be from a local source while the movies “The Longest Yard”  316  and “Terminator”  318  may be from the media server  302 . The media experiences “Caddyshack”  416 , “The Longest Yard”  316 , and “Terminator”  318  may be subordinate to the categorization Movies  414 . 
         [0047]    The media client menu  402  may be an aggregation of several media sources, both local to the media client device and remotely available over a network. A remote media source may be an entry point into a categorized media arrangement, and a single media server may have several entry points arranged various configurations that may be useful. 
         [0048]    The foregoing description of the subject matter has been presented for purposes of illustration and description. It is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the subject matter to the precise form disclosed, and other modifications and variations may be possible in light of the above teachings. The embodiment was chosen and described in order to best explain the principles of the invention and its practical application to thereby enable others skilled in the art to best utilize the invention in various embodiments and various modifications as are suited to the particular use contemplated. It is intended that the appended claims be construed to include other alternative embodiments except insofar as limited by the prior art.

Technology Classification (CPC): 7