33178 results about "World Wide Web" patented technology

A collaborative Web browsing session may take place over a network, allowing the presenter on a first computer to direct the audio and visual components of a browser on one or more second computers. The second computer is instructed to log into a control site that downloads an active control, such as an applet, to the second computer. The present invention allows a collaborative Web browsing session ("session"), as created by the presenter and witnessed by one or more users on second computers, to be recorded and archived by the control site. When a user of a computer is connected to the control site through a communication network such as the World Wide Web, that user may log into the control site and request to view an archived session. The session will then be replayed by the control site on the user's computer, directing the audio and visual components of the browser on the user's computer as if the user was attending the live session. The recorded session replays the events of the live session in real time such that the playback experience contains the same audio and visual events that took place when the session was originally being recorded.

A method of retrieving and manipulating electronic information that relates to a printed document. Each printed document contains an initialization marking that is recognizable by an external sensory device and unique to the printed document. When a reader of the printed document desires to retrieve and manipulate electronic information that relates to the printed document, the reader initializes the system by using the sensory device to recognize the initialization marking. The sensory device transfers a code embedded in the initialization marking to a computing device. This configures the computing device to access the stored data and instruction sets associated with the printed document. In addition to the initialization marking, areas throughout the printed document (e.g., text, tables, figures, etc.) also contain markings that are recognizable by the external sensory device. The reader of the printed document uses the sensory device to recognize the markings and transfer the code embedded in the markings to the computing device. The computing device uses the code to retrieve and display the electronic information that relates to that area of the printed document.

A printed object, such as an item of postal mail, a book, printed advertising, a business card, product packaging, etc., is steganographically encoded with plural-bit data. When such an object is presented to an optical sensor, the plural-bit data is decoded and used to establish a link to an internet address corresponding to that object.

A geographic based communications service system that includes a network and a plurality of access points connected to the network and arranged at known locations in a geographic region. One or more service providers or information providers may be connected to the network to provide services or information on the network. A mobile user (MU) may use a portable computing device (PCD) to connect to the network and access information or services from the network. The PCD may be configured to transmit a signal indicating a presence of the PCD as well as identification information indicating the mobile user. Upon detection of the wireless signal by a first access point in proximity to the PCD, and upon receipt of the identification information indicating the user of the PCD, the first access point may transmit the identification information, as well as the known geographic location of the first access point, to one or more providers on the network. The known geographic location of the first access point indicates the approximate location of the PCD of the mobile user. A first information provider may receive this information and provide content information or services to the mobile user. For example, the first information provider may select content information dependent upon the known geographic location of the first access point and demographic information or past activities of the mobile user of the PCD. The first information provider may then provide the selected content information through the network and through the first access point to the PCD of the mobile user.

A system that tracks the current and historical locations of a GPS locator device carried by a person provides widely available access to data referencing these locations, so that a parent can easily and frequently monitor the location of a child. Monitoring of a child's location may be conducted via a Web site, which provides graphical maps of location data, or via calling into a call center. The present invention also provides a means for a parent to trigger the automatic transmission of the device's location, via a Web site or call placed to a call center agent or a VRU. The present invention also provides a process of auto-notification of a device's movement that exceeds a pre-specified threshold. The present invention also includes a capability to function as a proximity alert device.

In an exemplary system, information is received at a central location from different units of a commodity. The information is generated from two-way local interactions between users of the different units of the commodity and a user interface in the different units of the commodity. The interactions elicit from respective users their perceptions of the commodity.

An approach is provided for supporting multi-media conferencing. Textual information (e.g., text associated with a presentation) is received for display during a conference session to multiple participants. For a particular participant, configuration information corresponding to the participant specifies language assistance for the textual information. Language assistance involves augmenting the textual information according to the configuration information for comprehension of the textual information by the particular participant. In one embodiment, the augmented textual information includes language translation of the textual information. Additionally, the augmented textual information can encompass definitions of terms, including acronyms. The augmented textual information is forwarded for display to the participant during the conference session.

Disclosed is a process for an advertising bidding system in which advertisers can bid on advertising time slots or enhanced ads that can be inserted in either prerecorded or live television programming. A high degree of flexibility is provided by allowing embedded ads to be purchased and displayed in a very short time period. This allows TV broadcasters to increase revenues and allows advertisers to have more flexibility in advertising. Objects can be inserted in the display video broadcast using enhancements such as by using mark-up language overlay pages or by video combination techniques. The effect of these ads can be evaluated for advertising campaigns.

A method and system for providing targeted advertisements over a networked media delivery system, especially interactive television networks, the system comprising tracking and storing viewer selections, analyzing the selections, and delivering targeted advertisements that appeal to the particular subscriber making the selections, the system including a merge processor, a file server, a profile processor, and a broadcast server contained in a head end in communication with a plurality of set-top boxes through a distribution network. Based on a subscriber's viewing habits and account information, the present invention delivers different, customized advertisements to different viewers watching the same program or channel. The present invention delivers the advertisements as either still frame bit maps or as video streams advertisement insertion in a playlist or a broadcast media program.

A method of coordinating one or more bids for one or more groups of advertisers for placement of at least one advertisement in association with a search results list is provided. The search results list is generated in response to a search query. The method includes: a) collecting information from at least two advertisers in the advertiser group and b) devising a joint strategy for the advertiser group for bidding in the keyword auction. In another embodiment, a method of generating a bid for a first advertiser for placement of a first advertisement in association with a search results list is provided. In another embodiment, an apparatus for generating the bid for the first advertiser is provided. Is still another embodiment, a method of coordinating bids from a first advertiser and a second advertiser for placement of at least one advertisement in association with a first search results list is provided.

The system and method described herein may provide a natural language content dedication service in a voice services environment. In particular, providing the natural language content dedication service may generally include detecting multi-modal device interactions that include requests to dedicate content, identifying the content requested for dedication from natural language utterances included in the multi-modal device interactions, processing transactions for the content requested for dedication, processing natural language to customize the content for recipients of the dedications, and delivering the customized content to the recipients of the dedications.

Methods and apparatus for supporting content delivery service are described. In accordance with the invention content can be supplied to temporary storage of a regional or local server used to supply the content to a customer's premises when the requested content is not already available in the regional or local server. A content server hierarchy may be implemented with servers higher up in the hierarchy including more content, e.g., titles, than the number of titles stored in the lower level servers. By storing less frequently accessed content in servers higher in the hierarchy and frequently requested titles lower in the hierarchy, a vast number of titles can be supported without overburdening the storage available at local and regional servers. In addition, a national or other server high in the hierarchy can be used to store, move, and distribute local or other content as part of an on demand service.

The present invention relates to systems and/or methods that generate playlist(s) for a library or collection of media items via selecting a plurality of seed items, at least one of which is an undesirable seed item. Some of the seed items are desirable indicating that a user prefers additional media items similar to the desirable seed items and others are undesirable indicating that the user prefers additional media items dissimilar to the undesirable seed items. Additionally, the seed items can be weighted to establish a relative importance of the seed items. The invention compares media items in the collection with the seed items and determines which media items are added into the playlist by computation of similarity metrics or values. The playlist can be regenerated by adding desirable seed items to the playlist and removing media items from the playlist (e.g., undesirable seed items).

The present invention relates to a method, system and server configured to enable a plurality of users to conduct a data search within a database over a data network, comprising: (a) a first software component for enabling one or more of the following: (a.1.) providing a user with a user interface, having a virtual assistant, for enabling said user to conduct a data search over a data network by means of said virtual assistant; and (a.2.) receiving data from said user interface, having said virtual assistant, and conveying corresponding data back to said user to be provided to him by means of said virtual assistant; (b) a second software component for enabling said virtual assistant to interact with said user; and (c) a third software component for: (c.1.) enabling receiving from said user at least one search query by means of said virtual assistant; (c.2.) enabling analyzing and processing said at least one search query for determining one or more data items from a plurality of data items stored and/or indexed within a search database, said one or more data items being relevant to said at least one search query, giving rise to relevant data items being the search results; and (c.3.) enabling providing at least a portion of said search results to said user by means of said virtual assistant, each search result being provided as the relevant data item or as a link to said relevant data item.

A method for providing configurable access to media in a media-on-demand system also can include delivering the media to a first client device in a format compatible with the first client device; interrupting the delivery of the media; recording a bookmark specifying a position in the media where the interruption occurred; and resuming delivery of the media to a second client device, the resumed delivery beginning at a position in the media specified by the recorded bookmark. The method further can include identifying device properties for each of the first and second client devices; delivering the media to the first client device in a format compatible with the identified device properties for the first client device; and, delivering the media to the second client device in a format compatible with the identified device properties for the second client device.

Devices, systems and methods of presentation of advertisements on a wireless device. For example, a wireless communication device includes a display unit to display one or more user-selectable operations selectively associated with an advertisement embedded within an incoming message.