Audio stream production using sequences of select content

• US 10,268,759 B1
• Filed: 03/19/2018
• Issued: 04/23/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 03/19/2018
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Empowering Trainers, LLC
• Original Assignee: Empowering Trainers, LLC
• Inventors: Witt, Evan, Bressler, Michael
• Primary Examiner(s): Maung, Thomas H
• Application Number:
  US15/924,930
• Time in Patent Office: 400 Days
• CPC Class Codes: A63B 71/0622 Visual, audio or audio-visual systems for entertaining, instructing or motivating the user
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/4393 Multimedia presentations, e.g. slide shows, multimedia albums
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/686 using information manually generated, e.g. tags, keywords, comments, title or artist information, time, location or usage information, user ratings
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/036 Insert-editing
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/102 Programmed access in sequence to addressed parts of tracks of operating record carriers access by moving the head G11B3/08, G11B5/54, G11B7/085, G11B21/022; by moving the record carrier G11B15/005, G11B17/005, by driving of both record carrier and head G11B15/1816
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/233 Processing of audio elementary streams monitoring, identification or recognition of audio in broadcast systems H04H60/58
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4394 involving operations for analysing the audio stream, e.g. detecting features or characteristics in audio streams arrangements characterised by components specially adapted for monitoring, identification or recognition of audio in broadcast systems H04H60/58

Abstract

Audio streams can be produced according to sequences of select content items. A first content item can be identified based on user input indicating tags associated with it. A second content item, and a content sequence for ordering the first content item and second item, are identified based on scores determined for various candidate content items. An audio stream is produced according to the content sequence and may then be transmitted to a client device for playback. The tags include metadata usable to selectively identify content items that can be combined to produce an optimal audio stream, such as based on the types of content items, the number of content items, the purpose of the content items to the audio stream, or more. Missing content items can be detected and signaled for production. An audio stream and content sequence therefor can be updated after initial production occurs.

Claims

1. A method for producing and transmitting an audio stream, the method comprising:

receiving, from a first client device, input defining a first content item to include in the audio stream, the input indicating one or more tags associated with one or more content types of the first content item;

identifying candidate content items to include in the audio stream by using a genetic algorithm to iterate through combinations of tags representative of the candidate content items, wherein the combinations of tags omits the one or more tags, wherein the candidate content items omits the first content item, wherein using the genetic algorithm to iterate through the combinations of tags includes, for each of the combinations of tags;

randomly selecting the combination of tags, the combination of tags including a purpose tag representing a candidate content item of the candidate content items;

determining, as a count value, a number of content items currently selected for inclusion in the audio stream and which are associated with the purpose tag, wherein the number of content items currently selected for inclusion in the audio stream includes the first content item;

determining, as a degrading factor, a value defining a rate for adjusting a score for the candidate content item based on the count value; and

determining the score for the candidate content item based on the count value and the degrading factor;

identifying one of the candidate content items as a second content item based on a determination that the one of the candidate content items has a highest one of the scores;

responsive to identifying the one of the candidate content items as the second content item, retrieving the second content item from a database;

determining, based on the one or more tags and at least one tag associated with one or more content types of the second content item, a content sequence for the first content item and the second content item;

producing the audio stream according to the content sequence;

subsequent to producing the audio stream, receiving a request for the audio stream from a second client device; and

transmitting the audio stream to the second client device responsive to the request.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the scores are determined for sets of the candidate content items randomly identified based on tags associated with the candidate content items, wherein determining the content sequence for the first content item and the second content item comprises:

determining that a first set of candidate content items in which the first content item is ordered before the second content item has a higher one of the scores than a second set of candidate content items in which the first content item is ordered after the second content item.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein an order of content items included in a set of candidate content items is determined based on the tags associated with the content items included in the set of candidate content items.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein producing the audio stream according to the content sequence comprises combining the audio stream with a video stream to produce a combined stream,

wherein transmitting the audio stream to the second client device responsive to the request comprises transmitting the combined stream to the second client device responsive to the request.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

detecting that a third content item is not available for inclusion in the audio stream by querying the database based on at least some of the one or more tags; and

responsive to the detecting, transmitting a message to the first client device to request the third content item.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

receiving the third content item responsive to the message;

adjusting the content sequence based on the third content item to produce an adjusted content sequence; and

updating the audio stream to include the third content item according to the adjusted content sequence.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein a tag of the one or more tags includes metadata defining a name, relation type, weight, and description associated with the first content item.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the metadata further defines at least one of a content indicator associated with the first content item, an owner name associated with the first content item, or a source indicator associated with the first content item.

9. An apparatus for producing an audio stream according to input received from a client device, the apparatus comprising:

a memory; and

a processor,

wherein the processor executes instructions stored in the memory to;

transmit a user interface to the client device, the user interface including one or more user interface elements for defining the input;

receive, using the user interface, the input from the client device;

subsequent to receipt of the input, process the input to identify one or more tags associated with the input and to retrieve a first content item associated with the one or more tags from a database;

identify candidate content items to include in the audio stream by using a genetic algorithm to iterate through combinations of tags representative of the candidate content items, wherein the combinations of tags omits the one or more tags, wherein the candidate content items omits the first content item, wherein the instructions to use the genetic algorithm to iterate through the combinations of tags include instructions to, for each of the combinations of tags;

randomly select the combination of tags, the combination of tags including a purpose tag representing a candidate content item of the candidate content items;

determining, as a count value, a number of content items currently selected for inclusion in the audio stream and which are associated with the purpose tag, wherein the number of content items currently selected for inclusion in the audio stream includes the first content item;

determining, as a degrading factor, a value defining a rate for adjusting a score for the candidate content item based on the count value; and

determining the score for the candidate content item based on the count value and the degrading factor;

identify one of the candidate content items as a second content item based on a determination that the one of the candidate content items has a highest one of the scores;

retrieve the second content item from the database;

determine, based on the one or more tags and at least one tag associated with the second content item, a content sequence for the first content item and the second content item; and

produce the audio stream according to the content sequence.

10. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the instructions include instructions to:

detect that a collection of content items omits the first content item by querying the database based on tags associated with content items of the collection of content items;

responsive to a detection that the collection of content items omits the first content item, transmit a message including a request for the first content item to the client device;

receive the first content item responsive to the message; and

store the first content item in the database, wherein the input is received from the client device subsequent to a storage of the first content item in the database.

11. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the client device is a first client device and the input is first input, wherein the instructions include instructions to:

subsequent to a production of the audio stream, receive second input from a second client device, the second input defining a third content item to include in the audio stream;

process the second input to determine an adjusted content sequence for the first content item, the second content item, and the third content item; and

update the audio stream to include the third content item according to the adjusted content sequence.

12. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the client device is a first client device, wherein the instructions include instructions to:

subsequent to a production of the audio stream, receive a request for the audio stream from a second client device; and

transmit the audio stream to the second client device responsive to the request.

13. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the scores are determined for sets of the other content items randomly identified based on tags associated with the other content items, wherein the instructions to determine the content sequence for the first content item and the second content item include instructions to:

determine that a first set of other content items in which the first content item is ordered before the second content item has a higher one of the scores than a second set of other content items in which the first content item is ordered after the second content item.

14. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium comprising processor-executable routines that, when executed by a processor, facilitate a performance of operations for producing an audio stream, the operations comprising:

receiving, from a first client device, input defining a first content item to include in the audio stream, the input indicating one or more tags associated with one or more content types of the first content item;

identifying candidate content items to include in the audio stream by using a genetic algorithm to iterate through combinations of tags representative of the candidate content items, wherein the combinations of tags omits the one or more tags, wherein the candidate content items omits the first content item, wherein using the genetic algorithm to iterate through the combinations of tags includes, for each of the combinations of tags;

randomly selecting the combination of tags, the combination of tags including a purpose tag representing a candidate content item of the candidate content items;

determining, as a count value, a number of content items currently selected for inclusion in the audio stream and which are associated with the purpose tag, wherein the number of content items currently selected for inclusion in the audio stream includes the first content item;

determining, as a degrading factor, a value defining a rate for adjusting a score for the candidate content item based on the count value; and

determining the score for the candidate content item based on the count value and the degrading factor;

identifying one of the candidate content items as a second content item based on a determination that the one of the candidate content items has a highest one of the scores;

responsive to identifying the one of the candidate content items as the second content item, retrieving the second content item from a database;

determining, based on the one or more tags and at least one tag associated with one or more content types of the second content item, a content sequence for the first content item and the second content item;

producing the audio stream according to the content sequence;

subsequent to producing the audio stream, receiving a request for the audio stream from a second client device; and

transmitting the audio stream to the second client device responsive to the request.

15. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 14, wherein the scores are determined for sets of the candidate content items randomly identified based on tags associated with the candidate content items, wherein the operations for determining the content sequence for the first content item and the second content item comprise:

determining that a first set of candidate content items in which the first content item is ordered before the second content item has a higher one of the scores than a second set of candidate content items in which the first content item is ordered after the second content item.

16. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein an order of content items included in a set of candidate content items is determined based on the tags associated with the content items included in the set of candidate content items.

17. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 14, wherein the operations for producing the audio stream according to the content sequence comprise combining the audio stream with a video stream to produce a combined stream,

wherein the operations for transmitting the audio stream to the second client device responsive to the request comprise transmitting the combined stream to the second client device responsive to the request.

18. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 14, the operations further comprising:

detecting that a third content item is not available for inclusion in the audio stream by querying the database based on at least some of the one or more tags; and

responsive to the detecting, transmitting a message to the first client device to request the third content item.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 18, the operations further comprising:

receiving the third content item responsive to the message;

adjusting the content sequence based on the third content item to produce an adjusted content sequence; and

updating the audio stream to include the third content item according to the adjusted content sequence.

20. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 14, wherein a tag of the one or more tags includes metadata defining a name, relation type, weight, and description associated with the first content item, wherein the metadata further defines at least one of a content indicator associated with the first content item, an owner name associated with the first content item, or a source indicator associated with the first content item.