At&t Intellectual Property I, L.p.

James L Cansler, Jr

Marc Andrew Sullivan

Philip Ted Kortum

Alyssa Lenorah Noll Williams

Brett A Anderson

Adam Klein

Lee Allan Culver

Alyssa L Williams

James Bert Grantges

Lona Noelle Dallessandro

Jamie Andrew Fisher

A system and method for sharing content is provided. A system incorporating teachings of the present disclosure may include, for example, a housing and a wide area network (WAN) connector extending from the housing. The system may also include a graphical user interface (GUI) engine located within the housing. In practice, the GUI engine may be operable to initiate an outputting of a first list navigable with a remote control and a second list navigable with the remote control. The remote control may be a Set Top Box (STB) remote control and the first list may be configured to facilitate remote control-based navigation. The first list may contain an identifier for at least one piece of selectable content, which may be, for example, photographs, videos, songs, etc. The second list may include an alias for at least one available share partner. In practice, a user of the system may want to give a share partner revocable access to some portion of selectable content.

System and method for sharing content with a remote device

A method of providing access to downloadable protected video content includes providing parental controls. The parental controls include a parental control password. Purchase controls are also provided and include a purchase control password. The purchase control password is different from the parental control password. Further, protected video content is downloaded and stored to a memory within a set top box when both the parental controls and the purchase controls are satisfied. A number of attempts to correctly input the parental control password or the purchase control password are monitored. When the number of attempts for either password exceeds a predetermined threshold, a user is prevented from further attempts to input the respective password. Moreover, the attempt to download protected video content is canceled, and further downloads of protected video content are prevented for a predetermined time period.

Method and interface for video content acquisition security on a set-top box

Metadata associated with television commercials and television programs are received and stored in a local database at a customer premise. When received at the customer premise, those television commercials and television programs identified by the metadata are augmented with on-screen options that are user-selectable using a remote control device. A first option is to automatically record an upcoming broadcast of a first program advertised in a first commercial. A second option is to purchase a media product that includes the first program. A third option is to order a product or a service shown during a second program or a second commercial. A fourth option is to initiate a search of an inventory of a local retailer for the product or the service shown during the second program or the second commercial. A fifth option is to place a VoIP call to a vendor of the product or the service.

Augmenting television content with on-screen recording, ordering, searching and VoIP calling options

A method of emailing photographs from a set top box is disclosed and includes presenting a menu of photographs at a television coupled to the set top box. The photographs within the menu can be highlighted using a remote control device. The method further includes presenting an email button at the television and presenting an address book. The address book contains at least one recipient email address. Further, the method includes sending an email addressed to the at least one recipient email address. In particular, the email includes a return email address that causes a response to the email to be sent to a location other than the set top box.

System and method of transmitting photographs from a set top box

In a particular embodiment, the disclosure is directed to a method of configuring a computer coupled to a residential gateway. The method includes executing resource sharing software on the computer, receiving a message from the residential gateway requesting identification of available resources of the computer, and sending a response message to the residential gateway. The response message identifies a set of available resources of the computer. The method further includes receiving access settings corresponding to each of the set of available resources and configuring the computer to provide access to each of the set of available resources in accordance with the access settings.

Home networking resource management

A user interface for a receiver of a streaming music service simultaneously displays a current-song display, a past-song display and a future-song display. The current-song display indicates a current song being broadcast to a plurality of subscribers in a channel of the streaming music service. The past-song display indicates at least one past song which was broadcast in the channel of the streaming music service prior to broadcast of the current song. Each song in the past-song display is selectable by a user of the receiver to initiate playback of a recording thereof by the receiver. The future-song display indicates at least one future song which is scheduled to be broadcast in the channel of the streaming music service after broadcast of the current song.

Growing community of inventors

Pflugerville, TX, United States of America

James L Cansler, Jr