The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Nov. 06, 2012
Filed:
Dec. 02, 2005
John Bradstreet, Sammamish, WA (US);
David Ethan Zoller, Seattle, WA (US);
John Canning, Seatle, WA (US);
Luke Mccullough, Seattle, WA (US);
Jan Hofmeyr, Seattle, WA (US);
John Bradstreet, Sammamish, WA (US);
David Ethan Zoller, Seattle, WA (US);
John Canning, Seatle, WA (US);
Luke McCullough, Seattle, WA (US);
Jan Hofmeyr, Seattle, WA (US);
Microsoft Corporation, Redmond, WA (US);
Abstract
Various technologies and techniques are disclosed that relate to providing interactive television by synchronizing content to live and/or recorded television shows. Content is synchronized without the use of in-band triggers. A broadcast stream is received, and search/action pairs are received from a transmission path, such as from the Internet or user. When the search criteria are found in the broadcast stream, the associated action is performed and the content is synchronized with the show. An application programming interface is used to facilitate synchronization, and includes a set search method, a search function template method, and a clear search method. The set search method initiates searching of the broadcast stream and registers one or more callback methods for performing the associated action when the match is found. The search function template serves as the template for registering the callback methods. The clear search method clears the system resources from the search.