Multimedia Presentation Resumption within an Environment of Multiple Presentation Systems

Abstract

With at least one implementation described herein, one or more viewers are able to watch the same source multimedia content at multiple locations within an environment (e.g., a household). With at least one implementation described herein, a viewer is able to resume watching such content at a new location (or “locus”) from the point that she bookmarked the content at an original location. This abstract itself is not intended to limit the scope of this patent. The scope of the present invention is pointed out in the appending claims.

1 . A multimedia presentation system, which is configured to be communicatively coupled to, at least, one multimedia server via a communications network, the presentation system comprising:
 a multimedia rendering unit configured to present multimedia content and one or more user interfaces (Uls); and   a computing unit configured to communicate with the multimedia server via a communications network and further configured to generate a UI for presentation on the presentation device,   wherein the UI generated by the computing unit and rendered by the multimedia rendering unit graphically illustrates two or more of the following:
 identity of one or more bookmarked multimedia programs; 
 relative point of bookmark during presentation of one or more bookmarked multimedia programs; 
 most recently bookmarked multimedia programs; 
 category of one or more bookmarked multimedia programs; 
 locus of which system in the communications network where one or more bookmarked multimedia programs were bookmarked; 
 identity of user who manually bookmarked one or more bookmarked multimedia programs; 
 chronological time of the bookmark of one or more bookmarked multimedia programs; 
 chronological date of the bookmark of one or more bookmarked multimedia programs; 
 relative time of the bookmark of one or more bookmarked multimedia programs; 
 graphical depiction of relative time of that one or more bookmarked multimedia programs were bookmarked. 
   
   
   
       2 . A system as recited in  claim 1 , wherein the computing unit is further configured to generate and store at least two bookmarks associated with a particular multimedia content. 
   
   
       3 . A system as recited in  claim 1  further comprising a user-interface control panel configured to receive user-input action that triggers generation of a bookmark, such action is selected from a group consisting of:
 selection of another source of multimedia content;   viewing a list of other sources of multimedia content;   manually pressing “pause” key;   manually pressing “bookmark” key; and   manually pressing another pre-defined key or choosing a pre-defined option.   
   
   
       4 . A system as recited in  claim 1 , wherein properties associated with a bookmark are selected from a group consisting of:
 identity of the multimedia content;   relative point of bookmark during the presentation;   most recently bookmarked multimedia programs;   category of multimedia content bookmarked;   locus of system where the presentation was bookmarked;   identity of user who manually bookmarked the presentation;   chronological time of the bookmark generating;   chronological date of the bookmark generating;   relative time during the presentation where the presentation was bookmarked.   
   
   
       5 . A system as recited in  claim 1 , wherein the computing unit is further configured to perform acts, those acts comprising:
 generating a “bookmark” at a point during a presentation of a multimedia program;   associating one or more properties with the generated bookmark, wherein such properties comprise more than just the identity of the multimedia content and point of bookmark within that presentation;   storing the generated bookmark with its one or more properties.   
   
   
       6 . A system as recited in  claim 5 , wherein the computing unit is further configured to store multiple bookmarks for the multimedia program, wherein each bookmark has one or more properties associated therewith. 
   
   
       7 . A system as recited in  claim 5 , wherein the computing unit is further configured to determine whether an action performed by a user is one which is designated to generate a bookmark and, if so, proceeding with generating, associating, and storing. 
   
   
       8 . A system as recited in  claim 5 , wherein the computing unit is further configured to determine whether an action performed by a user is one which is designated to generate a bookmark while stored multimedia content is being presented and, if so, proceeding with generating, associating, and storing, wherein the action that is designated to generate a bookmark is selected from a group consisting of:
 selecting another source of multimedia content;   viewing a list of other sources of multimedia content;   manually pressing a “pause” key;   manually pressing a “bookmark” key;   manually pressing another pre-defined key or choosing a pre-defined option.   
   
   
       9 . A system as recited in  claim 1 , wherein properties associated with the bookmark are selected from a group consisting of:
 locus of system where the presentation was bookmarked;   identity of user who manually bookmarked the presentation;   chronological time of the bookmark generating;   chronological date of the bookmark generating;   relative time during the presentation where the presentation was bookmarked.   
   
   
       10 . A system as recited in  claim 5 , wherein the computing unit is further configured to receive the multimedia program as part of a broadcast media transmission. 
   
   
       11 . A system as recited in  claim 5 , wherein the computing unit is further configured to receive the multimedia program as part of a broadcast media transmission, wherein the broadcast media transmission is selected from a group consisting of incoming live television broadcast, incoming live cable television signal, incoming live satellite signal, incoming live video-on-demand signal, and incoming live pay-per-view signal. 
   
   
       12 . A system as recited in  claim 5 , wherein the computing unit is further configured to receive an indication of where to stream a resumption of the presentation of the multimedia program amongst a collection of multiple loci where the presentation may be resumed, and stream a notification to the selected resumption locus.