Video interaction

Abstract

Interactive material is delivered at least partly wirelessly to a mobile device in the vicinity of a video device on which video content is being displayed, the interactive material being related to the video content.

We claim: 
     
         1 . A method comprising:
 receiving at a server, from a mobile device, an identification of video content being delivered over a first communication path to a video device , the video content being displayed on the video device, the mobile device being in the vicinity of the video device;   identifying at the server interactive material related to the video content, and   delivering the interactive material from the server to the mobile device over a second communication path, the second communication path separate from the first communication path over which the video content is delivered, the interactive material presented on the mobile device to a user of the mobile device in synchronization with the display of the video content on the video device.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 receiving a user indication of interest in the interactive material.   
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 2 , further comprising:
 generating tags in response to the user indication of interest in the interactive material, the tags including embedded links to interactivity information.   
     
     
         4 . The method  claim 3 , further comprising:
 delivering the tags to the mobile device, the tags selectable by a user subsequent to a completion of the display of the video content in order to obtain information related to the video content.   
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1  wherein the interactive material is presented to the user in a time synchronized manner so that the interactive material automatically changes with the video content being displayed on the video device. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 5  in which the server broadcasts tags that are part of the time synchronized interactive material associated with the video content being then displayed on the video device, the tags selectable by the user to indicate a user's interest in the interactive material. 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 1  in which the interactive material includes information in the form of at least one of text, images, video and audio. 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 1  in which the interactive material includes a selectable element for receiving input from the user. 
     
     
         9 . A non-transitory medium holding computer-executable instructions that when executed cause at least one computing device to:
 receive at a server, from a mobile device, an identification of video content being delivered over a first communication path to a video device , the video content being displayed on the video device, the mobile device being in the vicinity of the video device;   identify at the server interactive material related to the video content, and   deliver the interactive material from the server to the mobile device over a second communication path, the second communication path separate from the first communication path over which the video content is delivered, the interactive material presented on the mobile device to a user of the mobile device in synchronization with the display of the video content on the video device.   
     
     
         10 . The medium of  claim 9  wherein the instructions when executed further cause the at least one computing device to:
 receive a user indication of interest in the interactive material. 
 
     
     
         11 . The medium of  claim 10  wherein the instructions when executed further cause the at least one computing device to:
 generate tags in response to the user indication of interest in the interactive material, the tags including embedded links to interactivity information. 
 
     
     
         12 . The medium  claim 11  wherein the instructions when executed further cause the at least one computing device to:
 deliver the tags to the mobile device, the tags selectable by a user subsequent to a completion of the display of the video content in order to obtain information related to the video content. 
 
     
     
         13 . The medium of  claim 9  wherein the interactive material is presented to the user in a time synchronized manner so that the interactive material automatically changes with the video content being displayed on the video device. 
     
     
         14 . The medium of  claim 13  in which the server broadcasts tags that are part of the time synchronized interactive material associated with the video content being then displayed on the video device, the tags selectable by the user to indicate a user's interest in the interactive material. 
     
     
         15 . The medium of one of  claim 9  in which the interactive material includes information in the form of at least one of text, images, video and audio. 
     
     
         16 . The medium of  claim 9  in which the interactive material includes a selectable element for receiving input from the user.