Sony Corporation

Sony Electronics Inc

Navera, Inc.

Other

Yahoo! Inc.

Michael Hoch

Simon J Gibbs

Philip McKay

Sidney Wang

Ravi Gauba

Jeff J Liu

Ippei Tambata

Himgan Wibisono

Andrew M Prohel

Elizabeth Coppinger

Michael S Harwayne

Rodger Lea

Michael I Mills

Peter W Stevenson

Kevin C Dunn

Kumiko Tanaka Toft

Sandy Yu

David Wallace

Colin Campbell

Jim Kent

Rod Perkins

Roger Bradley-Jungemann

Phillip c/o Sony Electronics Inc Mckay

Ravi c/o Sony Electronics Inc Gauba

Ippei c/o Sony Electronics Inc Tambata

Elizabeth c/o Sony Electronics Inc Coppinger

Sidney c/o Sony Electronics Inc Wang

Michael S c/o Sony Electronics Inc Harwayne

Andrew M c/o Sony Electronics Inc Prohel

The present invention employs branded virtual characters to engage and educate users regarding an array of health-related insurance, financial, and other benefits, enabling informed decision-making during this complex process. Information is collected gradually on an 'as-needed' basis to avoid overwhelming users with lengthy and redundant requests for information, while still providing a safe environment for users to freely discuss personal, health, financial and related sensitive issues. Throughout the process, the system employs a portfolio-driven approach to identify inter-dependencies among different benefit products and plans, and prioritize and recommend 'portfolio-level' benefit solutions. Back-end components enable users to complete transactions (e.g., via third-party quoting and enrollment systems and employer HRIS systems, as well as via access to external medical and claims data), and provide third parties with access to the educational, decision-making and transactional aspects of this process, including various authoring and other tools to generate and modify system content over time.

Portfolio-level decision support

The present invention employs branded virtual characters across multiple network platforms throughout various stages of complex transactions (eg, selling insurance). These characters initially engage prospective customers on a network platform, such as a social network, and persist over time across other network platforms (eg, university and company websites) to educate consumers until they are ready to purchase&#x2014;e.g., from their 'trusted advisor'&#x2014;particular products and services offered by various providers. An extensible configuration tool ('Config Tool') is provided to simplify the continued development of such a system, as well as customization of individual Product Modules (e.g., a Life Insurance Module) by product and service providers (e.g., insurance companies and employers) and other third-party developers (before and during runtime). This Config Tool provides a variety of extension points permitting virtual characters to be added and their appearance and behavior modified, along with the details of the products and services being offered.

Configurable interactive assistant

The invention illustrates a system and method of displaying a base image and an overlay image comprising: capturing a base image of a real event; receiving an instrumentation data based on the real event; identifying a visual segment within the base image based on the instrumentation data; and rendering an overlay image within the visual segment.

System and method for data assisted chrom-keying

Systems and methods are provided to implement a number of improvements to the consumption process for television (and other services), including personalization, community viewing, shared presence and context, messaging, access to ratings and recommendations (including community reviews), alerts, etc. A content distribution server manages the delivery of television, messaging, on demand audio or video, online gaming, and other entertainment and information services to a plurality of client devices (e.g., televisions, personal computers, enhanced telephones, etc.). The server components include a television application component, messaging component, and application components that integrate the various services to deliver, for example, enhanced television, which includes television broadcast enhanced with messaging services, Internet access, informational alerts, and/or the like. Informational alerts allow a user to customize the timing and types of alerts being presented in parallel with the delivery of other services, such as television broadcast or online gaming.

Informational alert messaging for digital home services

System and method for data assisted chroma-keying

A relationship initiation between devices in a network is described. According to one embodiment, persona information is exchanged between devices in a network. Based upon the persona information, a user of a device may initiate a relationship with another device.

Initializing relationships between devices in a network

A digital content file having user history information is received at a first device. The user history information includes an alias name of a previous user of the digital content file. A user may review the user history information of the digital content file for information of the previous user of the digital content.

Managing and sharing identities on a network

The invention illustrates a system and method of blending a virtual scene and a real scene comprising: capturing a real image of a real event from a real camera; receiving an instrumentation data based on the real event; and rendering a virtual image wherein the virtual image is based on the instrumentation data and the real image.

System and method for transitioning between real images and virtual images

The invention illustrates a system and method of sharing content with multiple peer device while protecting the content from unauthorized use. In one embodiment, the system and method comprises: identifying a plurality of peer devices within a predetermined area wherein each of the plurality of peer devices includes an interface framework; directly transmitting content among the plurality of devices; and a selected plurality of peer devices requesting a license from a digital rights management server for the content, wherein the selected plurality of peer devices possess the content, wherein the interface framework is configured to allow the plurality of peer devices to directly communicate and utilize an application Other aspects and advantages of the invention will become apparent from the following detailed description, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, illustrated by way of example of the principles of the invention.

Method and apparatus for extending protected content access with peer to peer applications

An apparatus and a method for distorting add-on graphics to be composited with a streaming video feed comprising, receiving a streaming video feed captured using a real camera, said streaming video feed including an image frame taken from a particular view point and a particular field of view, said real camera introducing image distortions into the image frame, measuring a plurality of camera instrumentation data corresponding to at least said view point, said field of view, and a distortion parameters corresponding to the image distortions of the image frame, creating a virtual camera, setting the virtual view point and the virtual field of view of the virtual camera using the plurality of camera instrumentation data, generating add-on graphics having a size and an insertion position within the image frame based on the virtual camera, creating a distortion grid, distorting the add-on graphics to match the image distortions of the image frame, and compositing the distorted add-on graphics with the image frame of the streaming video feed.

Method and apparatus for a declarative representation of distortion correction for add-on graphics in broadcast video

An optimized method and apparatus for correcting for distortions in rendering add-on graphics within a streaming video feed comprising receiving a streaming video feed captured using a real camera, including an image frame capturing an image of a real asset having a size and a position within the image frame, the image frame being captured from a particular view point and having a particular field of view, the real camera introducing a plurality of measurable image distortions into the image frame, receiving set of camera instrumentation sensors data corresponding to the view point, the field of view, distortion parameters of the real camera, creating a virtual camera, generating add-on graphics having a size and an insertion position within the image frame, creating a first distortion grid having a first set of coordinate values, creating a second distortion grid having a second set of coordinate values wherein the second set of coordinate values are derived from the first set of coordinate values, using the second grid to distort the add-on graphics for image distortion, and compositing the distorted add-on graphics with the image frame.

Method and apparatus for optimized distortion correction for add-on graphics for real time video

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San Jose, CA, United States of America

Michael Hoch