Audible, Inc.

At&t Corp.

Amazon Technologies, Inc.

At&t Bell Laboratories

Guy A Story, Jr

Ajay Arora

Douglas Cho Hwang

Douglas Scott Goldstein

Steven Charles Dzik

Shirley C Yang

Steven Douglas Hatch

Ajit V Rajasekharan

Jeffrey P Bezos

Ian W Freed

John Lattyak

Amit D Agarwal

Beryl Tomay

Steven Kessel

James C Slezak

Bruce N Israel

Howard Wolfish

Benjamin Che-Ming Jun

Nanyan Nicholls

Alexander Galkin

Edward J Walloga

William M Schell

Mugur F Tolea

Rozsa E Kovesdi

Michael Martin George

Ryan Justin Snodgrass

Hosagrahar Visvesvaraya Jagadish

Donald E Blahut

Edward Stanley Szurkowski

Mark Alan Jones

Donald R Katz

Nanyan Li

Foy C Sperring, Jr

Kevin Scott Lester

Lawrence O'Gorman

Jason Ojalvo

Andrew J Huffman

Gregory I Voynow

Sugeet K Shah

Vipin Bharathan

Bruce W Ballard

David S Fox

Will Lopes

Doug S Goldstein

Kavin Du

David Reid

Jonathan T Millman

Aspects of the present disclosure relate to the sharing of synchronization information corresponding to content among devices in a communication network. An originating device collects synchronization information related to the presentation of content to a user via the originating device. The synchronization information is defined according to reference points related to the presentation of the content to the user via the originating device, including a current state of the presentation of the content and/or additional information obtained during the presentation of the content. Based on detection of a synchronization event, the originating device transmits the collected synchronization information, resulting in the receipt of the synchronization information by one or more receiving devices. Thereafter, the presentation of the content to the user on one of the receiving devices can incorporate the synchronization information collected and transmitted by the originating device.

Synchronization of digital content

A content alignment service is described that may generate content synchronization information to facilitate the synchronous presentation of corresponding audio content and textual content. In some embodiments, portions of body text (as opposed to front matter, such as a table of contents; or back matter, such as an index) in the textual content are identified and synchronized with corresponding audio content. In one example application, an audiobook may be synchronized with an electronic book. As the body text portions of the electronic book are consumed, corresponding words of the audiobook may be audibly presented.

Aligning body matter across content formats

A content alignment service may generate content synchronization information to facilitate the synchronous presentation of audio content and textual content. In some embodiments, a region of the textual content whose correspondence to the audio content is uncertain may be analyzed to determine whether the region of textual content corresponds to one or more words that are audibly presented in the audio content, or whether the region of textual content is a mismatch with respect to the audio content. In some embodiments, words in the textual content that correspond to words in the audio content are synchronously presented, while mismatched words in the textual content may be skipped to maintain synchronous presentation. Accordingly, in one example application, an audiobook is synchronized with an electronic book, so that as the electronic book is displayed, corresponding words of the audiobook are audibly presented.

Identifying corresponding regions of content

Aspects of the present disclosure relate to one or more configured computing systems identifying when decoupled content includes a companion content pair (e.g., a first content and a second content) that can be synchronously or interchangeably presented. Further, aspects of the present disclosure relate to notifying a user of the availability of companion content. Notifications can be displayed to a user at any number of notifications triggers that indicate the user may be interested in acquiring companion content. Further, notifications may correspond to an offer to acquire at least a portion of companion content, such as a trial of the companion content. If a user accepts such an offer, synchronization information may be used to begin presentation of the companion content from a last consumed position of a corresponding first content.

Synchronizing digital content

Aspects of the present disclosure relate to one or more configured computing systems identifying companion content and supplemental content for a base content. Companion content may include, for example, video adaptations of the base content. Supplemental content may include content referenced or related in subject matter to the base content. Information regarding companion content may be utilized to enable a user to interchangeably or synchronously present either a base content (e.g., an eBook or audio book) with the companion content (e.g., a movie adaptation). Information regarding supplemental content may be utilized to present the supplemental content during consumption of a base content, or to save supplemental content for later viewing.

Managing related digital content

Aspects of the present disclosure relate to one or more configured computing systems identifying when decoupled content includes companion content that can be synchronously presented. Once a content match is identified, a device to receive synchronization information can also be identified. The synchronization information can enable one or more devices to synchronously present companion content.

Aspects of the present disclosure relate to synchronously presenting companion content, such as text content of an electronic book, while recording or presenting narration audio content spoken by a narrator. For example, recorded audio content may be received that corresponds to words of the companion content as spoken by a narrator. The recorded audio content may be received at least substantially in real time as the words are spoken. Content synchronization information for the recorded audio content and the text content may be generated, where the content synchronization information maps portions of the recorded audio content to corresponding portions of the text content. The audio content and the text content may be synchronously presented to a user based at least in part on the content synchronization information.

Synchronizing recorded audio content and companion content

Digital items of dynamic content may be navigated by content elements associated with the item of dynamic content. In some embodiments, a voice command or natural language query is obtained from a user to whom the item of dynamic content is being presented. The voice command or natural language query may be processed to identify a content element to which the user wishes to navigate. The item of dynamic content may then be presented starting at a presentation position at or near a presentation position with which the content element is associated.

Selecting presentation positions in dynamic content

A service for conveying questions with an item of content is disclosed. The content question service may analyze a portion of an item of content, select a question task, and then generate a question about the portion of the item of content using the selected question task. The content question service may receive a user's response to the conveyed question, analyze the response, and track the user's skill level for the selected question task.

Conveying questions with content

Systems and methods are provided for graphically representing associations between one or more stories and one or more referents of interest. In some embodiments, a score may be determined for each of a set of stories based at least in part on a number of associations between the given story and one or more referents of interest. A graphical representation of the stories may then be presented for display. The graphical representation may include indicia, where each indicium graphically indicates the strength of association between a given story and the one or more referents of interest. The strength of association for a given story may be determined, for example, based at least in part on the determined score for the story.

Graphically representing associations between referents and stories

Features are disclosed for facilitating content consumption and communication among a group of users. A content consumption group may be formed including any number of users, and content may be selected. Group members may consume roughly the same portion of the content at roughly the same time and share the consumption experience regardless of geographic location, user device, content format, on-demand consumption preferences, and the like. Policies may be defined or selected regarding the rate of content consumption, the communications and other inputs that may be submitted by group members, and the like. A shared content consumption management system may receive data from various user devices regarding each group member's current content consumption position, enforce group policies, and distribute group inputs. Group members may also communication in real time through various chats and other interactive features.

Architecture for shared content consumption interactions

Items of content may be organized into branched portions. From a current portion of an item of content, a branch may be selected, and the portion of the item of content connected by the selected branch to the current portion of the item of content may be conveyed. In this respect, multiple paths through the item of content may be achieved, each path including one or more portions connected to each other by one or more branches.

Conveying branched content

A computing device may provide an interface that enables a user to playback audio content including supplemental information. The supplemental information may correspond, for example, to endnotes, footnotes, glossaries, appendices, commentary from an author, editor, or other party, or to additional supplemental information. During playback of the audio content, a user may indicate that an item of supplemental information associated with a current playback position of the audio content should be played. In some embodiments, this indication may be in response to an indication to the user that supplemental information is available. The device may then playback the supplemental information associated with the current playback position.

Managing playback of supplemental information

Growing community of inventors

New York, NY, United States of America

Guy A Story, Jr