System and method for determining whether to use cached media

• US 10,110,947 B2
• Filed: 05/01/2017
• Issued: 10/23/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 06/17/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Spotify AB (Spotify Technology SA)
• Original Assignee: Spotify AB (Spotify Technology SA)
• Inventors: Hoffert, Eric, Berkley, Mike, Faaborg, Kevin, Soderstrom, Gustav
• Primary Examiner(s): Le, Rong
• Application Number:
  US15/583,930
• Publication Number:
  US 20170289489A1
• Time in Patent Office: 540 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/017 Gesture based interaction, e.g. based on a set of recognized hand gestures interaction based on gestures traced on a digitiser G06F3/04883
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/60 Network streaming of media packets
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/41265 having a remote control device for bidirectional communication between the remote control device and client device unidirectional remote control device H04N21/42204
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/42204 User interfaces specially adapted for controlling a client device through a remote control device; Remote control devices therefor constructive details of casings for the remote control device H01H9/0235; user interfaces for controlling a tuning device of a television receiver through a remote control H03J9/00; remote control of peripheral devices connected to a television receiver through the remote control device of the television receiver H04B1/205
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/42222 Additional components integrated in the remote control device, e.g. timer, speaker, sensors for detecting position, direction or movement of the remote control, microphone or battery charging device
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/42224 Touch pad or touch panel provided on the remote control
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/43072 of multiple content streams on the same device
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/43079 of additional data with content streams on multiple devices
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4312 involving specific graphical features, e.g. screen layout, special fonts or colors, blinking icons, highlights or animations
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4314 for fitting data in a restricted space on the screen, e.g. EPG data in a rectangular grid
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4316 for displaying supplemental content in a region of the screen, e.g. an advertisement in a separate window
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4331 Caching operations, e.g. of an advertisement for later insertion during playback
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/437 Interfacing the upstream path of the transmission network, e.g. for transmitting client requests to a VOD server flow control in data networks H04L47/10; streaming protocols, e.g. RTP or RTCP, H04L65/65; scheduling or organising the servicing of application requests in data packet switching networks H04L67/60
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4383 Accessing a communication channel
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4384 involving operations to reduce the access time, e.g. fast-tuning for reducing channel switching latency
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4392 involving audio buffer management
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44004 involving video buffer management, e.g. video decoder buffer or video display buffer
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44209 Monitoring of downstream path of the transmission network originating from a server, e.g. bandwidth variations of a wireless network arrangements for maintenance or administration in data switching networks involving bandwidth and capacity management H04L41/0896
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4667 Processing of monitored end-user data, e.g. trend analysis based on the log file of viewer selections
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47 End-user applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47202 : for requesting content on demand, e.g. video on demand
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4755 : for defining user preferences, e.g. favourite actors or genre retrieval personalisation and generation of user profiles for the retrieval of video data G06F16/739; user profiles in network data switching protocols H04L67/306
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/482 : End-user interface for program selection broadcast systems using EPGs H04H60/72
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/812 : involving advertisement data advertising per se G06Q30/02

Abstract

An electronic device with one or more processors, memory and a display displays a first video stream on the display. While displaying the first video stream, the electronic device downloads and stores a first portion of a second video stream and receives a request to display the second video stream on the display. In response to receiving the request, the electronic device starts to play the second video stream using the first portion of the second video stream, if the first portion of the second video stream meets recency criteria with respect to a current stream time of the second video stream. But if the first portion of the second video stream does not meet the recency criteria, the electronic device requests a second portion of the second video stream that is outside of the first portion of the second video stream.

Claims

1. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing one or more programs executable by an electronic device with one or more processors and a display, the one or more programs comprising instructions for:

while displaying a first video stream on the display;

downloading and storing a first portion of a second video stream; and

receiving a request to display the second video stream on the display; and

in response to receiving the request;

in accordance with a determination that the first portion of the second video stream meets recency criteria with respect to a current stream time of the second video stream, starting to play the second video stream using the first portion of the second video stream; and

in accordance with a determination that the first portion of the second video stream does not meet the recency criteria, requesting a second portion of the second video stream that is outside of the first portion of the second video stream.

2. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the request is a second request, and the one or more programs further comprise instructions for:

before displaying the first video stream on the display, receiving a first request to display the first video stream on the display; and

displaying the first video stream in response to receiving the first request.

3. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the first portion of the second video stream meets the recency criteria when the current stream time of the second video stream is within a predefined time threshold of a timestamp corresponding to the first portion of the second video stream.

4. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the first portion of the second video stream does not meet the recency criteria when the current stream time of the second video stream is not within a predefined time threshold of a timestamp corresponding to the first portion of the second video stream.

5. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the instructions for receiving the request comprise instructions for detecting an end of a gesture.

6. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 5, wherein the instructions for requesting the second portion of the second video stream comprise instructions for requesting the second portion of the second video stream in response to detecting the end of the gesture.

7. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the instructions for receiving the request comprise instructions for detecting a beginning of a gesture.

8. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 7, wherein the instructions for requesting the second portion of the second video stream comprise instructions for requesting the second portion of the second video stream in response to detecting the beginning of the gesture.

9. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 8, wherein the gesture is a gesture corresponding to movement in a respective direction;

and

the one or more programs further comprise instructions for, in response to detecting the gesture;

sliding a first video tile that includes content from the first video stream toward a first edge of the display in a direction corresponding to the respective direction; and

sliding a second video tile that includes content from the second video stream onto the display from a second edge of the display that is opposite to the first edge of the display.

10. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 9, wherein the one or more programs further comprise instructions for, during the gesture:

displaying video content from the first video stream in the first video tile; and

displaying video content from the second video stream in the second video tile.

11. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein:

the instructions for downloading and storing the first portion of the second video stream comprise instructions for downloading and storing the first portion of the second video stream from a content source for the second video stream; and

the instructions for requesting the second portion of the second video stream comprise instructions for requesting the second portion of the second video stream from the content source for the second video stream.

12. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 11, wherein the instructions for downloading and storing the first portion of the second video stream comprise instructions for:

establishing a connection for receiving the second video stream from the content source for the second video stream;

receiving the first portion of the second video stream from the content source for the second video stream using the connection; and

while maintaining the connection, stopping delivery of the second video stream to the electronic device from the content source for the second video stream.

13. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein:

the first video stream corresponds to a first channel in a predetermined sequence of channels;

the second video stream corresponds to a second channel in the predetermined sequence of channels that is adjacent to the first channel;

the request is a second request;

the one or more programs further comprise instructions for starting to download the first video stream from a content source for the first video stream in response to receiving a first request to display the first video stream on the display; and

the instructions for downloading and storing the first portion of the second video stream comprise instructions for starting to download and store the first portion of the second video stream from the content source for the second video stream after starting to download the first video stream.

14. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, the one or more programs further comprising instructions for displaying the second video stream on the display concurrently with at least a portion of the first video stream.

15. An electronic device, comprising:

a display;

one or more processors; and

memory storing one or more programs configured to be executed by the one or more processors, the one or more programs comprising instructions for;

while displaying a first video stream on the display;

downloading and storing a first portion of a second video stream; and

receiving a request to display the second video stream on the display; and

in response to receiving the request;

in accordance with a determination that the first portion of the second video stream meets recency criteria with respect to a current stream time of the second video stream, starting to play the second video stream using the first portion of the second video stream; and

in accordance with a determination that the first portion of the second video stream does not meet the recency criteria, requesting a second portion of the second video stream that is outside of the first portion of the second video stream.

16. A method, comprising:

at an electronic device with one or more processors, memory, and a display;

while displaying a first video stream on the display;

downloading and storing a first portion of a second video stream; and

receiving a request to display the second video stream on the display; and

in response to receiving the request;

determining that the first portion of the second video stream does not meet recency criteria; and

,

in accordance with the determination that the first portion of the second video stream does not meet the recency criteria with respect to a current stream time of the second video stream, requesting a second portion of the second video stream that is outside of the first portion of the second video stream.