SOCIAL NETWORKING AND PEER TO PEER FOR TVS

摘要

A peer to peer (P2P) application which can be applied to TVs (18). The P2P application promotes a social networking aspect by allowing devices connecting to either the home mesh network (12) and/or Internet (14) to share contents and create common interest channels. The P2P application does not require support from network infrastructure (e.g., no central servers), and consequently is extremely cost effective and easy to deploy. The distributed nature of this system allows users to join or leave the network at will. It takes advantage of the local home mesh network connectivity, or existing Internet connections. A participant that tunes into a broadcast on an Internet channel is not only downloading a video stream, but also uploading it to other participants watching the program. Data mining systems capture user preferences and create personalized Internet channels on the TV using the P2P network.