BACKGROUND

The present disclosure relates to interruption manager systems and methods to manage an interruption of media content (video and/or audio) being displayed on an electronic user device such as a smartphone, tablet, smart TV, laptop, computer, phablet, e-reader, etc.

SUMMARY

An interruption during play of a media asset may occur for different reasons. However, they usually have the same effect on the user, such as frustration and loss of interest. It is against this background that embodiments of the present invention have arisen. There is a need for improved interruption manager systems and methods, which may handle in an efficient way those interruptions and, in particular, may alleviate the effect of the interruption without seeking a technical solution to the interruption itself. A side effect of interruption, besides the frustration and loss of interest, may be the perturbation of a user time schedule associated with the consumption of the media asset. For example, a 13-min long video, played during a 14-min train commute, may end up overshooting the allocated time period if the video gets interrupted for long or too often. Also, an interruption during play of a movie does not generate the same amount of frustration if the interruption occurs during the intro or a crucial scene of the movie.

In some approaches described herein, an interruption manager system is provided to improve the user experience, by skipping or not some segments of a media asset that is played and gets interrupted. The interruption manager system detects that a video segment of a media asset that is being played by a computing device is interrupted. Typically, the interruption involves a media player that starts buffering the media asset. The interruption may be due to the computing device itself or to any device involved in a communication between a remote server device and the computing device. In relation to the interruption, the interruption manager system determines an estimated recovery time. The estimated recovery time is an estimation of a duration that is needed for the interrupted segment to resume. For example, the interruption manager system may identify a type of the interruption and, by cross-referencing an interruption table, may obtain an estimated recovery time in function of the type of the interruption. Typically, an estimated recovery time is between 0.1 s and 30 s. The interruption manager system then determines, based at least in part on the estimated recovery time, an action to perform, the action involving waiting or not intervening, or skipping the interrupted segment and to play a subsequent segment of the media asset (e.g., the next segment, or a segment that 1 s, 5 s or 10 s later in the media asset). The action may be determined based on a comparison of the estimated recovery time to a threshold (below leads to waiting and above leads to skipping). Waiting may also involve waiting until the interrupted segment is no longer interrupted and presentation of the video segment resumes, or as long as an elapsed time since the detection of the interruption is less than the estimated recovery time. The interruption manager system then generates for presentation, based on the result of the determining whether to skip or wait, an instruction to perform the action, that is to say an instruction to wait or an instruction to skip the segment. By skipping the segment instead of systematically waiting, the user experience may be improved, and the risk of having a media asset overshooting the expected allocated time is reduced.

In an approach, the action to perform is in addition based on an attribute of the segment. The attribute may be a label given to a segment that characterizes its importance, in particular for a user profile (and thus the user of the user profile). For example, intro and credits are usually not important in a movie; a car chase may be important for a user profile associated with many TV shows about cars but not important for a user profile associated with drama and art. The interruption manager system may thus determine an attribute of the segment, and the action to perform is further based at least on an action table that determines, for a given attribute and a given estimated recovery time, an action to perform. At least two attributes are needed (which may be an attribute and a lack of an attribute), but having more attributes (such as three or more) enables the interruption manager system to be more refined and better able to handle the interruption. Similarly, at least one threshold is needed for the estimated recovery (as it defines two areas), but a plurality of thresholds may be used, for the same reasons as explained in relation to the attributes. For instance, there might be an attribute for which waiting is always selected. The attribute may be labelled to a segment based on metadata of the media asset (e.g., type of the scene, dialogue, presence of an actor, etc.) and, in some implementations, based on the user profile as well. By using attributes, the system personalizes its actions, thus further improving the user's experience.

In an approach, the interruption manager system may update the interruption table and/or the action table and/or the user profile based on a different parameters: an actual time of recovery, an action of the user after a segment was skipped (e.g., rewinding).

Depending on the approaches, the interruption manager system may be part of the computing device or a remote server device (e.g., of the media asset provider or an independent server) or be spread over both.

Interruption manager mechanisms, techniques and systems are presently introduced to improve the experience of viewing a media asset during an interruption.

