Generating and distributing playlists with music and stories having related moods

• US 10,261,964 B2
• Filed: 02/12/2016
• Issued: 04/16/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 01/04/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Gracenote, Inc. (RR Donnelley & Sons Company)
• Original Assignee: Gracenote, Inc. (RR Donnelley & Sons Company)
• Inventors: Sharma, Rishabh, Cremer, Markus
• Primary Examiner(s): Taylor, Nicholas R
• Assistant Examiner(s): Shiu, Ho T
• Application Number:
  US15/043,073
• Publication Number:
  US 20170193102A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,159 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/635 Filtering based on additional data, e.g. user or group profiles
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/639 using playlists
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9538 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/165 Management of the audio stream, e.g. setting of volume, audio stream path
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 13/00 Speech synthesis; Text to speech systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/01 Protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/06 specially adapted for file transfer, e.g. file transfer protocol [FTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/60 Scheduling or organising the servicing of application requests, e.g. requests for application data transmissions using the analysis and optimisation of the required network resources admission control or resource allocation H04L47/70
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44213 Monitoring of end-user related data arrangements for monitoring the users' behaviour or opinions in broadcast systems H04H60/33
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44222 Analytics of user selections, e.g. selection of programs or purchase activity monitoring of user selections in data processing systems G06F11/34; arrangements for monitoring the user's behaviour or opinions in broadcast systems H04H60/33
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44224 Monitoring of user activity on external systems, e.g. Internet browsing
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4532 involving end-user characteristics, e.g. viewer profile, preferences monitoring of user activities for profile generation for accessing a video database G06F16/739; user profiles in network data switching protocols H04L67/306; processing of user preferences or user profiles in wireless networks H04W8/18

Abstract

An embodiment may involve a server device obtaining an audio file containing a story. The server device may determine a mood of the story. The server device may select an audio file containing music, where the audio file containing the music is associated with a music attribute that is indicative of the mood. The server device may generate a playlist for the client device, where the playlist includes (i) a reference to the audio file containing the music, and (ii) a reference to the audio file containing the story. The server device may transmit the playlist, over a wide area network, to the client device. Reception of the playlist at the client device may cause an audio player application to retrieve and play out each audio file therein.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

obtaining, by a server device, an audio file containing a story, wherein a client device and the server device are in communication with one another by way of a wide-area network, and wherein the client device includes an audio player application;

based on presence of pre-determined keywords or keyphrases within the story, determining, by the server device, a mood of the story;

looking up, by the server device, the mood of the story in a table, wherein the table identifies, for the mood of the story, a plurality of other moods including those that match the mood of the story, are opposed to the mood of the story, and are neutral with respect to the mood of the story;

selecting, by the server device, an audio file containing music, wherein the audio file containing the music is associated with a music attribute that is indicative of a second mood of the other moods, wherein the second mood matches the mood of the story or is neutral with respect to the mood of the story;

automatically generating, by the server device, a playlist for the client device, wherein the playlist sequentially includes (i) a uniform resource locator (URL) reference to the audio file containing the music, and (ii) a URL reference to the audio file containing the story; and

transmitting, by the server device over the wide area network, the playlist to the client device, wherein reception of the playlist at the client device causes the audio player application to sequentially retrieve and play out each of the audio file containing the music and the audio file containing the story.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein generating the playlist to include (i) the URL reference to the audio file containing the music, and (ii) the URL reference to the audio file containing the story is based on the mood of the story or a time of day.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the audio player application retrieves each of the audio file containing the music and the audio file containing the story from the server device.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the URL reference to the audio file containing the music is ordered in the playlist before the URL reference to the audio file containing the story, and wherein the audio player application retrieves and plays out at least some of the audio file containing the music before retrieving and playing out the audio file containing the story.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the URL reference to the audio file containing the music is ordered in the playlist after the URL reference to the audio file containing the story, and wherein the audio player application retrieves and plays out at least some of the audio file containing the music after retrieving and playing out the audio file containing the story.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the mood of the story is one of happiness, sadness, humor, tragedy, anger, frustration, anxiety, loneliness, confusion, excitement, hope, or relaxation.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein selecting the audio file containing the music is based on presence or absence of the pre-determined keywords or keyphrases in (i) an artist name associated with the music, (ii) a title associated with the music, or (iii) lyrics associated with the music.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the music attribute being indicative of the second mood comprises the music attribute representing the second mood.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the music attribute being indicative of the second mood comprises the music attribute indicating that a particular tempo, a particular beat pattern, or a particular chord progression is (i) associated with the second mood, and (ii) present in the music.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of the audio file containing the music or the audio file containing the story are retrieved from a third-party media server affiliated with the server device.

11. An article of manufacture including a non-transitory computer-readable medium, having stored thereon program instructions that, upon execution by a processor of a server device, cause the server device to perform operations comprising:

obtaining an audio file containing a story, wherein a client device and the server device are in communication with one another by way of a wide-area network, and wherein the client device includes an audio player application;

based on presence of pre-determined keywords or keyphrases within the story, determining a mood of the story;

looking up the mood of the story in a table, wherein the table identifies, for the mood of the story, a plurality of other moods including those that match the mood of the story, are opposed to the mood of the story, and are neutral with respect to the mood of the story;

selecting an audio file containing music, wherein the audio file containing the music is associated with a music attribute that is indicative of a second mood of the other moods, wherein the second mood matches the mood of the story or is neutral with respect to the mood of the story;

automatically generating a playlist for the client device, wherein the playlist sequentially includes (i) a uniform resource locator (URL) reference to the audio file containing the music, and (ii) a URL reference to the audio file containing the story; and

transmitting, over the wide area network, the playlist to the client device, wherein reception of the playlist at the client device causes the audio player application to sequentially retrieve and play out each of the audio file containing the music and the audio file containing the story.

12. The article of manufacture of claim 11, wherein generating the playlist to include (i) the URL reference to the audio file containing the music, and (ii) the URL reference to the audio file containing the story is based on the mood of the story or a time of day.

13. The article of manufacture of claim 11, wherein selecting the audio file containing the music is based on presence or absence of the pre-determined keywords or keyphrases in (i) an artist name associated with the music, (ii) a title associated with the music, or (iii) lyrics associated with the music.

14. The article of manufacture of claim 11, wherein the music attribute being indicative of the second mood comprises the music attribute representing the second mood.

15. The article of manufacture of claim 11, wherein the music attribute being indicative of the second mood comprises the music attribute indicating that a particular tempo, a particular beat pattern, or a particular chord progression is (i) associated with the second mood, and (ii) present in the music.

16. The article of manufacture of claim 11, wherein the URL reference to the audio file containing the music is ordered in the playlist before the URL reference to the audio file containing the story, and wherein the audio player application retrieves and plays out at least some of the audio file containing the music before retrieving and playing out the audio file containing the story.

17. The article of manufacture of claim 11, wherein the URL reference to the audio file containing the music is ordered in the playlist after the URL reference to the audio file containing the story, and wherein the audio player application retrieves and plays out at least some of the audio file containing the music after retrieving and playing out the audio file containing the story.

18. The article of manufacture of claim 11, wherein the mood of the story is one of happiness, sadness, humor, tragedy, anger, frustration, anxiety, loneliness, confusion, excitement, hope, or relaxation.

19. A server device comprising:

a processor;

memory; and

program instructions, stored in the memory, that upon execution by the processor cause the server device to perform operations comprising;

obtaining an audio file containing a story, wherein a client device and the server device are in communication with one another by way of a wide-area network, and wherein the client device includes an audio player application;

based on presence of pre-determined keywords or keyphrases within the story, determining a mood of the story;

looking up the mood of the story in a table, wherein the table identifies, for the mood of the story, a plurality of other moods including those that match the mood of the story, are opposed to the mood of the story, and are neutral with respect to the mood of the story;

selecting an audio file containing music, wherein the audio file containing the music is associated with a music attribute that is indicative of a second mood of the other moods, wherein the second mood matches the mood of the story or is neutral with respect to the mood of the story;

automatically generating a playlist for the client device, wherein the playlist sequentially includes (i) a uniform resource locator (URL) reference to the audio file containing the music, and (ii) a URL reference to the audio file containing the story; and

transmitting, over the wide area network, the playlist to the client device, wherein reception of the playlist at the client device causes the audio player application to sequentially retrieve and play out each of the audio file containing the music and the audio file containing the story.

20. The server device of claim 19, wherein generating the playlist to include (i) the URL reference to the audio file containing the music, and (ii) the URL reference to the audio file containing the story is based on the mood of the story or a time of day.