Policies for media playback

• US 10,462,505 B2
• Filed: 07/14/2014
• Issued: 10/29/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 07/14/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sonos, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Sonos, Inc.
• Inventors: Coburn, IV, Arthur, Kuper, Ron, Lin, Ted M., Liu, Sherwin, Vega, Luis
• Primary Examiner(s): Ell, Matthew
• Application Number:
  US14/330,825
• Publication Number:
  US 20140331133A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,933 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/4387 by the use of playlists
• 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 21/2387 Stream processing in response to a playback request from an end-user, e.g. for trick-play
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2541 Rights Management protecting software against unauthorised usage in a vending or licensing environment G06F21/10; security in data switching network management H04L41/28; security management or policies for network security H04L63/20; access security in wireless networks H04W12/08
• 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 21/43615 Interfacing a Home Network, e.g. for connecting the client to a plurality of peripherals home Audio Video Interoperability [HAVI] data switching networks H04L12/2805
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4627 Rights management associated to the content security in data switching network management H04L41/28; security management or policies for network security H04L63/20; access security in wireless networks H04W12/08
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4825 using a list of items to be played back in a given order, e.g. playlists
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8113 comprising music, e.g. song in MP3 format

Abstract

Embodiments are described herein that help allow for applying policies during playback of media. In one aspect, a method is provided that involves a computing device of a media playback system (a) receiving a request to playback one or more media items that are from a playlist associated with a controller application, (b) applying to the one or more media items one or more playback policies that are associated with the controller application, where a given playback policy restricts at least one aspect of playback of at least one of the one or more media items, and (c) causing playback of the one or more media items in accordance with the one or more playback policies.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

a playback device of a media playback system receiving, via a network interface of the playback device, a request to play back one or more media items represented in a playlist of a controller application on a control device of the media playback system, wherein the one or more media items are accessible to the playback device via a streaming media service, wherein the playback device excludes a graphical display and comprises a control interface including a play/pause button, a skip forward button, and a skip backward button, and wherein the control device comprises a display to display the controller application;

the playback device receiving, via the network interface of the playback device from the control device, media item information comprising one or more media item locators indicating respective locations of the one or more media items at one or more servers of the streaming media service;

the playback device adding the one or more media items to a playback queue;

the playback device receiving, via the network interface of the playback device, information indicating multiple playback policies of the streaming media service;

the playback device applying, to the playback queue, one or more first playback policies of the multiple playback policies, wherein the one or more first playback policies (i) prevent playback commands received via the control interface of the playback device from modifying a playback order of the playback queue and (ii) prevent playback commands received via the network interface from modifying the playback order of the playback queue;

the playback device playing back, via one or more speaker drivers of the playback device the one or more media items in accordance with the one or more first playback policies and according to the playback queue, wherein causing playback of the one or more media items comprises the playback device obtaining, via the network interface of the playback device from the one or more servers of the streaming media service, the one or more media items using the one or more media item locators; and

in response to receiving the information indicating the multiple playback policies of the streaming media service, the playback device transmitting, via the network interface to the control device, one or more display commands that cause the controller application on the control device to modify a displayed controller interface in accordance with one or more second policies of the multiple playback policies, wherein modifying the displayed controller interface in accordance with the one or more second policies of the multiple playback policies comprises disabling one or more playback controls of the displayed controller interface based on the one or more second policies of the multiple playback policies.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

before applying the one or more first playback policies, for at least one media item of the one or more media items, determining at least one media-item characteristic; and

based on the determined at least one media-item characteristic, applying a given first media-item playback policy to the at least one media item of the one or more media items, wherein the given first media-item playback policy restricts at least one playback operation from being performed on the at least one media item.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the at least one media-item characteristic comprises at least one of an artist name, an album name, or a record label.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more media items have a predetermined playback order defined by the playlist, and wherein causing playback of the one or more media items by the one or more speaker drivers in accordance with the one or more first playback policies comprises preventing modification of the predetermined playback order.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein disabling the one or more playback controls of the displayed controller interface based on the one or more second policies of the multiple playback policies comprises disabling one or more playback controls that cause the control device to send respective playback commands to (i) skip playback of one of the one or more media items, (ii) replay a previously played media item of the one or more media items, (iii) seek forward during playback of one of the one or more media items, (iv) seek backward during playback of one of the one or more media items, or (v) replay a currently playing media item of the one or more media items.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the playback commands comprise at least one of a shuffle command, a repeat command, a skip forward command a skip backwards command, a seek forward command, or a seek backward command.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving the request to play back the one or more media items comprises:

receiving a controller application identifier of the controller application; and

wherein the method further comprises;

determining to apply the one or more second policies based on the controller application identifier of the controller application.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more media items comprise a first media item and a second media item, and wherein modifying the displayed controller interface in accordance with the one or more second policies of the multiple playback policies comprises causing the controller interface to disable display of playback information related to the second media item when the first media item is played back.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein causing playback of the one or more media items in accordance with the one or more playback policies comprises generating an empty display parameter set corresponding to the second media item.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving the request to play back the one or more media items comprises:

receiving a controller application identifier of the controller application; and

wherein the method further comprises;

determining to apply the one or more second policies based on the controller application identifier of the controller application.

11. A playback device of a media playback system, the playback device comprising:

a network interface configured to communicatively couple the playback device to a control device via a local area network;

a control interface comprising a play/pause button, a skip forward button, and a skip backward button;

one or more speaker drivers;

a non-transitory computer-readable medium; and

program instructions stored on the non-transitory computer-readable medium that are executable by at least one processor to cause the playback device to perform functions comprising;

receiving, via the network interface, a request to play back playback one or more media items represented in a playlist of a controller application on the control device of the media playback system, wherein the one or more media items are accessible to the playback device via a streaming media service, wherein the playback device excludes a graphical display, and wherein the control device comprises a display to display the controller application;

receiving, via the network interface from the control device, media item information comprising one or more media item locators indicating respective locations of the one or more media items at one or more servers of the streaming media service;

adding the one or more media items to a playback queue;

receiving, via the network interface, information indicating multiple playback policies of the streaming media service;

applying, to the playback queue, one or more first playback policies of the multiple playback policies, wherein the one or more first playback policies (i) prevent playback commands received via the control interface of the playback device from modifying a playback order of the playback queue and (ii) prevent playback commands received via the network interface from modifying the playback order of the playback queue;

causing playback of the one or more media items by the one or more speaker drivers in accordance with the one or more first playback policies and according to the playback queue, wherein causing playback of the one or more media items comprises obtaining, via the network interface of the playback device from the one or more servers of the streaming media service, the one or more media items using the one or more media item locators; and

in response to receiving the information indicating the multiple playback policies of the streaming media service, transmitting, via the network interface, one or more display commands that cause the controller application on the control device to modify a displayed controller interface in accordance with one or more second policies of the multiple playback policies, wherein modifying the displayed controller interface in accordance with the one or more second policies of the multiple playback policies comprises disabling one or more playback controls of the displayed controller interface based on the one or more second policies of the multiple playback policies.

12. The playback device of claim 11, wherein the one or more media items comprise a first media item and a second media item, and wherein modifying the displayed controller interface in accordance with the one or more second policies of the multiple playback policies comprises causing the controller interface to disable display of playback information related to the second media item when the first media item is played back.

13. The playback device of claim 12, wherein causing playback of the one or more media items in accordance with the one or more playback policies comprises generating an empty display parameter set corresponding to the second media item.

14. The playback device of claim 11, wherein the one or more media items have a predetermined playback order defined by the playlist, and wherein causing playback of the one or more media items by the one or more speaker drivers in accordance with the one or more first playback policies comprises preventing modification of the predetermined playback order.

15. The playback device of claim 11, wherein the controller interface on the control device comprises playback controls that cause the control device to send respective playback commands to (i) skip playback of a given media item of the one or more media items, (ii) replay a previously played media item of the one or more media items, (iii) seek forward during playback of the one or more media items, (iv) seek backward during playback of the one or more media items, or (v) replay a currently playing media item of the one or more media items, and wherein causing the controller application on the control device to modify the controller interface in accordance with the one or more second policies comprises causing the displayed controller interface to disable at least one of the playback controls.

16. A tangible non-transitory computer-readable medium having stored thereon instructions executable by a playback device of a media playback system to cause the playback device to perform a method comprising:

receiving, via a network interface of the playback device, a request to play back playback one or more media items represented in a playlist of a controller application on a control device of the media playback system, wherein the one or more media items are accessible to the playback device via a streaming media service, wherein the playback device excludes a graphical display and comprises a control interface including a play/pause button, a skip forward button, and a skip backward button, and wherein the control device comprises a display to display the controller application;

receiving, via the network interface of the playback device from the control device, media item information comprising one or more media item locators indicating respective locations of the one or more media items at one or more servers of the streaming media service;

adding the one or more media items to a playback queue of the playback device;

receiving, via the network interface of the playback device, information indicating multiple playback policies of the streaming media service;

applying, to the playback queue of the playback device, one or more first playback policies of the multiple playback policies, wherein the one or more first playback policies (i) prevent playback commands received via the control interface of the playback device from modifying a playback order of the playback queue and (ii) prevent playback commands received via the network interface from modifying the playback order of the playback queue;

causing playback of the one or more media items by one or more speaker drivers of the playback device in accordance with the one or more first playback policies and according to the playback queue, wherein causing playback of the one or more media items comprises obtaining, via the network interface of the playback device from the one or more servers of the streaming media service, the one or more media items using the one or more media item locators; and

in response to receiving the information indicating the multiple playback policies of the streaming media service, transmitting, via the network interface, one or more display commands that cause the controller application on the control device to modify a displayed controller interface in accordance with one or more second policies of the multiple playback policies, wherein modifying the displayed controller interface in accordance with the one or more second policies of the multiple playback policies comprises disabling one or more playback controls of the displayed controller interface based on the one or more second policies of the multiple playback policies.

17. The tangible, non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 16, wherein the one or more media items comprise a first media item and a second media item, and wherein modifying the displayed controller interface in accordance with the one or more second policies of the multiple playback policies comprises causing the controller interface to disable display of playback information related to the second media item when the first media item is played back.

18. The tangible, non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 16, wherein the one or more media items have a predetermined playback order defined by the playlist, and wherein causing playback of the one or more media items by the one or more speaker drivers in accordance with the one or more first playback policies comprises preventing modification of the predetermined playback order.

19. The tangible, non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 16, wherein disabling the one or more playback controls of the displayed controller interface based on the one or more second policies of the multiple playback policies comprises disabling one or more playback controls that cause the control device to send respective playback commands to (i) skip playback of one of the one or more media items, (ii) replay a previously played media item of the one or more media items, (iii) seek forward during playback of one of the one or more media items, (iv) seek backward during playback of one of the one or more media items, or (v) replay a currently playing media item of the one or more media items.

20. The tangible, non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 16, wherein receiving the request to play back the one or more media items comprises:

receiving a controller application identifier of the controller application; and

wherein the method further comprises;

determining to apply the one or more second policies based on the controller application identifier of the controller application.