Television content management with integrated third party interface
AssigneeEchoStar Technologies L.L.C.
InventorsRobert Drew Major, Darren Major
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Systems, methods and devices manage second screen media content that is associated with live or previously-recorded television programming while the programming is being viewed by a user. A control application provides an HTML5 or other application program interface (API) that allows advertisers, retailers or other third parties to access the remote control application for providing useful features.
Claims20
A computing device comprising:
- an interface to a network;
- a processor configured to execute a remote control application that controls a set-top box (STB) via communication over the network, the STB configured to provide television content presented on a display viewed by a viewer,
- wherein the remote control application is configured to:
- recognize the television content;
- transmit a request to a third party service to obtain additional content associated with the recognized television content;
- provide an interface to the third party service via an application programming interface (API) of the remote control application;
- in response to the request, receive the additional content from the third party service via the API of the remote control application;
- wherein the remote control application provides control functionality including channel-changing at the STB, and controlling recordings for digital video recorder (DVR) and remote storage DVR (RSDVR) at the STB.
A method executable by a computing device to provide user control of a set-top box (STB) configured to provide television content to a television, the method comprising:
- executing a remote control application that:
- recognizes the television content;
- transmit a request to a third party service to obtain additional content associated with the recognized television content, wherein the request includes the identifier for the additional content;
- provide an interface to the third party service via an application programming interface (API) of the remote control application;
- in response to the request, receive additional content from the third party service via the API of the remote control application;
- generates a display on a user interface that presents the additional content from the third party
- wherein the remote control application provides control functionality including channel-changing at the STB, and controlling recordings for digital video recorder (DVR) and remote storage DVR (RSDVR) at the STB.
A method to provide third party content associated with television programming on a control device having a processor and a memory, the method comprising:
- executing a remote control application on the control device, wherein the remote control application provides control functionality including channel-changing, and controlling recordings for digital video recorder (DVR) and remote storage DVR (RSDVR;
- wherein execution of the remote control application further comprises:
- identifying, by the remote control application, the content of television programming currently rendered to a user on a display;
- transmitting a request to a third party service to obtain additional content associated with the recognized television content, wherein the request includes the identifier for the additional content;
- providing an interface to the third party service via an application programming interface (API) of the remote control application;
- in response to the request, obtaining, by the remote control application using the identifier, the third party content associated with the television programming currently rendered to the user via the API of the remote control application;
- and
- providing the third party content to the user via the remote control application on the control device, so that the user views the third party content that is associated with the identified television programming at the same time as the identified television programming.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.