Verizon Patent and Licensing Inc.

Amazon Technologies, Inc.

Verizon Laboratories Inc.

Verizon and Redbox Digital Entertainment Services, LLC

Verizon Patent Licensing Inc.

Zhiying Jin

Jack Jianxiu Hao

Jianxiu Hao

Fenglin Yin

Yuhui Qian

Wei Xia

Xuefeng Yao

Haosheng Guo

Haiyan Zhou

Sandeep G Rathi

Wenjie Liu

Juhong Liu

Martin Busse

Fang Zhu

Hannah Youngsil Moon

Guillermo Ortiz

Shuai Wu

David Anthony Philbin

Jimena Velarde

Sharon Marie Walker

Jennifer Logan Stelling

Demetrios Karis

William Christopher Smith

Samuel Thomas Scott, Iii

Johannes P Schmidt

Diego Sebastian Rozensztejn

John F Gallagher

Ravi Kalluri

Gerald Honma

John S Huitema

Jo Ann Kagawa

Seldron D Geziben

Ruishuang Wang

Alex Sakharov

Sarma Pydipally

Jian Huang

Ming Chen

Anthony Marco Lemus

Michael R Oliver

Okeno R Palmer

Gaurav D Mehta

Aravind Perumandla

Guanrao Chen

Angel Cordero

Velmurugan Krishnaswamy

Chukuemeka Okonkwo

Surender Mallesh

Ian M Smith

Andrew Roberto Turner

Yuhiu Qian

Fang (Julie) Zhu

Amir Ahmed

A device may receive a request to access a bundling service that manages access to an over-the-top service provided by an over-the-top service provider. The device may receive information that identifies a third party service provider and a user credential associated with the third party service provider. The third party service provider may be different from the over-the-top service provider, and the third party service provider may not provide the over-the-top service. The device may provide an authentication request, including the user credential, to a third party device associated with the third party service provider. The device may receive an authentication response from the third party device. The authentication response may indicate whether the third party device successfully authenticated the user credential. The device may selectively provide access to the bundling service based on receiving the authentication response.

Bundling over-the-top services with third party services

A device can receive a request to determine a set of navigational directions, and can obtain a set of traffic objects associated with a first map layer. The set of traffic objects can include nodes to identify one or more geographic locations and one or more links to identify one or more geographic areas between the nodes. The device can determine a shortest-path tree by analyzing the set of traffic objects, the shortest-path tree being associated with a static data structure. The device can generate a dynamic data structure that includes the shortest-path tree and a set of additional traffic objects associated with a second map layer. The device can determine a shortest path by analyzing traffic objects associated with the shortest-path tree and the set of additional traffic objects. The device can provide the set of navigational directions to indicate the shortest path.

Converting between data structures to determine a shortest path between two geographic locations

An exemplary method includes a web services provider system detecting an input command provided by a user during a scheduling session and representative of a request for a local digital video recording ('DVR') system to record a media program during a presentation time period that is subsequent to the scheduling session. During the scheduling session and in response to the input command, the web services provider system identifies a maximum number of media programs other than the media program and that are already scheduled to be concurrently recorded by the local DVR system at any given time during the presentation time period, determines whether the maximum number equals a maximum recording limitation of the local DVR system, and performs, based on the determination whether the maximum number equals the maximum recording limitation of the local DVR system, a predetermined action with respect to the media program.

Methods and systems for identifying a recording conflict for a media program scheduled to be recorded in the future

An exemplary method includes a cloud-based service provider system detecting an input command provided by a user during a scheduling session and representative of a request for a local digital video recording ('DVR') system to record a media program during a presentation time period. In response to the detecting of the input command, the cloud-based service provider system identifies a conflict associated with the request for the local DVR system to record the media program, performs a prioritization operation to determine a relative priority of media programs that are at least one of scheduled to be recorded by the local DVR system at any given time during the presentation time period and currently recorded in a memory of the local DVR system, and automatically performs, based on the performing of the prioritization operation, a predetermined action to resolve the conflict and facilitate the local DVR system recording the media program.

Methods and systems for resolving recording conflicts in a hybrid cloud-local digital video recording system

A method, a system, and a non-transitory storage medium provides to store first recording information that indicates programs that are recorded and stored at user devices, and programs to be recorded and stored at the user devices, receive, from a user device, a message that includes second recording information, wherein the second recording information includes second data instances; compare a portion of the first recording information with the second recording information; determine whether there is a difference between each first data instance relative to each corresponding second data instance; determine a master source for each first data instance that differs from each corresponding second data instance; update each first data instance that differs, one of the network device or the user device based on the master source, and provide the DVR service based on an updated portion of the first recording information, an updated second recording information, or both.

DVR service including a synchronization service

An exemplary web services provider system remote from and communicatively coupled to a local digital video recording ('DVR') system by way of a network detects an input command provided by a user and representative of a request for the local DVR system to perform a DVR operation with respect to a media program provided by a television service, identifies, in response to the request, a status of the media program, determines, based on the identified status of the media program, an optimal manner in which to perform the DVR operation, and directs the local DVR system to perform the DVR operation in accordance with the optimal manner. Corresponding systems and methods are also described.

Methods and systems for managing a local digital video recording system

A device may determine media content to be prescheduled for recording without receiving a request to record the media content and based on a quantity of users expected to record the media content. The device may determine a digital video recorder (DVR) device, for which the media content is to be prescheduled for recording, without receiving a user request to record the media content using the DVR device. The device may provide an instruction to cause the DVR device to record the media content.

Prescheduling recordings of media content

Methods, systems, and computer program products for providing location based services are provided. Embodiments may include storing locations for a plurality of users of a telecommunication environment and contact lists of associated users for the plurality of users. Embodiments may also include providing the locations of the associated users for a first user based on a request from the first user. The request may further include providing locations for associated users who are located within an area of interest. The area of interest may be defined by a particular distance from the first user or by a point of interest of the first user. The locations of the users may be determined based on the locations of communication devices of the users including an identified receiving communication device for each user.

Method, system, and computer program product for providing location based services

A method may include receiving a primary resource in a user device, wherein the resource includes a plurality of addresses and each of the plurality of addresses identifying one of a plurality of additional resources. The method may further include aggregating the plurality of addresses and sending the aggregated addresses to a network device. The method may further include receiving the additional resources in the user device.

Network architecture and method for reducing the number of resource requests

A method includes receiving a video content metadata entry. The method also includes accessing video content metadata validation rules. The method further includes determining whether the video content metadata entry is valid based on the video content metadata validation rules. The video content metadata entry is reported as a valid video content metadata entry in response to a determination that the video content metadata entry is valid. The method also includes reporting the video content metadata entry as an invalid video content metadata entry in response to a determination that the video content metadata entry is invalid.

Metadata validation

A network device stores a mapping configuration to associate client type profiles with particular delivery profiles for media content and receives, from a client device, a request for a link to a content selection. The request includes a content identifier and parameters for the client device. The network device constructs, based on the parameters for the client device, a particular client type profile and maps the particular client type profile to one of the particular delivery profiles in the mapping configuration. The network device constructs a uniform resource locator (URL), based on the one of the particular delivery profiles and the content identifier, that provides the link to the content selection with formatting that is suitable for the particular client type profile and sends the URL to the client device.

Media playback profile mapping

A network device obtains a first number of stars associated with a fan rating of a first asset by a first user, and obtains a total first number of fan reviews of the first asset. The network device obtains a first release year associated with the first asset, and determines a first sorting value based on a function of the first number of stars, the total first number of reviews, and the first release year. The network device sorts the first asset among other assets using the determined first sorting value.

Sorting content assets

An exemplary method includes a stream management system that detects a request for any device included in a media processing system to receive a media stream provided by a television service. In response, the stream management system determines that a digital video recording ('DVR') device included in the media processing system is already receiving and recording a maximum number of media streams that the DVR device is allowed to concurrently record. In response to this determination, the stream management system performs a status check with respect to the media streams being received and recorded by the DVR device in order to determine whether one of the media streams may be dropped by the DVR device so that the DVR device can instead receive and record the media stream identified in the request. Corresponding systems and methods are also described.

Methods and systems for stream management for a digital video recording device

System devices include network interfaces to communicate with user devices associated with a user, memories for storing instructions to be executed by processors, and the processors. The processors are configured to execute the instructions to receive, from a first user device, among the user devices, a request for content; initiate an upload of the requested content to the first user device in response to the request; receive a request for a license key from the first user device in response to the initiation of the upload; determine whether a number of concurrent sessions with the user devices exceeds a maximum number; and send the license key to the first user device when the processors determine that the number of concurrent sessions does not exceed the maximum number.

Limiting concurrent viewing sessions on multiple user devices

A method includes receiving, at a server device, a request to generate an entitlement identifier (ID) associated with a customer transaction. The method also includes determining a customer ID, a video content ID, and a time window associated with the customer transaction. The method includes determining, by the server device, the entitlement ID based on the customer ID, video content ID, and the time window. The method also includes providing the entitlement ID to a user device associated with the customer. The user device is configurable to receive access to video content based on the entitlement ID.

Entitlement management for video customers

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Lexington, MA, United States of America

Zhiying Jin