Nederlandse Organisatie Voor Toegepast-Natuurwetenschappelijk Onderzoek Tno

Koninklijke Kpn N.v.

Robert-Ernst Kooij

Martin Prins

Victor Bastiaan Klos

Anton Havekes

Peter-Jan Doets

Hans Maarten Stokking

Victor Klos

Follow-up content items are determined for being played out when the current play-out of a content item has ended or is scheduled to end. The follow-up content items are determined, based on one or more bibliographic or semantic attributes of the item being played out and, on additional parameters such as the available bandwidth and the required data transfer rate. During the playing out of the content item, at least the first portions of the follow-up content items are retrieved and buffered in a buffer local to the equipment. Upon the playing-out of the content item being halted, the playing-out of the follow-up content items can be started right away from the buffer.

Pre-loading follow-up content

When the user initiates the retrieval of the primary content information item by means of entering a user input into the data processing system, e.g. zapping a digital TV that switches channels upon receipt of the user input, he/she has to wait a noticeable time before the rendering and play-out of the primary content information item actually starts. The length of the delay is predicted, on the basis of which one or more secondary content items are rendered and played out to the user during this delay. The invention can also be used for bridging the waiting time in an online ordering system, when loading a program on a personal computer, and in an IMS-based IPTV network.

Playing out interludes based on predicted duration of channel-switching delay or of invoked pause

Growing community of inventors

Delft, Netherlands

Robert-Ernst Kooij