Patent ID: 7284201

Claim:
A method for distributing multi-media content in real-time, comprising the steps of: (a) transmitting a stream of multi-media content from a provider server to a user device via a communication network and outputting the multi-media content on the user device in real-time; (b) continuously determining a degree of attention that a user directs to the output of the user device during said step (a); and (c) adjusting, at the provider server, a parameter of the multi-media content transmitted in said step (a) in response to the degree of attention determined in said step (b), wherein said step (c) comprises reducing a quality level of at least a portion of the multi-media content to reduce a bandwidth required for said step (a), wherein said step (b) further comprises sending a not attentive signal to the provider server when it is determined that the user's attention is not directed to the output of the user device, and said step (c) comprises adjusting the parameter to a reduced quality level when the not attentive signal is present and adjusting the parameter to a normal quality level when the not attentive signal is not present, wherein said reducing is selectively performed to reduce quality of an audio signal while maintaining quality of a video signal, or to reduce quality of said video signal while maintaining said quality of said audio signal.