Methods and systems for repairing playlists

• US 20030182255A1
• Filed: 03/21/2002
• Published: 09/25/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 03/21/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Plastina, Daniel, Colville, Scott
• Granted Patent: US 7,159,000 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/1
• 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 16/68 Retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manually
• 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 21/4788 communicating with other users, e.g. chatting arrangements for providing for computer conferences, e.g. chat rooms, to substation in data switching networks H04L12/1813; distributed application using peer-to-peer [P2P] networks H04L67/104
• 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 21/4826 using recommendation lists, e.g. of programs or channels sorted out according to their score
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8106 involving special audio data, e.g. different tracks for different languages
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/84 Generation or processing of descriptive data, e.g. content descriptors systems specially adapted for using meta-information in broadcast systems H04H60/73
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99945 Object-oriented database structure processing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99948 Application of database or data structure, e.g. distributed, multimedia, or image

Abstract

Various systems and methods described above permit a user'"'"'s content experience (e.g. music playing experience) to be monitored and for metadata describing this experience to be collected. This metadata can be dynamically updated as a user experiences media content and then used to impart to the user a personalized experience that is tailored to that specific user. A user'"'"'s metadata can, in some instances, provided across a wide variety of computing devices on which the user may experience the media content, thus standardizing the user'"'"'s personalized media experience. In addition, intelligent or “smart” playlists can be provided which, in some instances, can be dynamically and automatically updated to reflect current user experiences, thus providing a highly personalized and enjoyable content experience.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

an automatically adaptive playlist;

the playlist being generated from an associated playlist file; and

the playlist file being configured with data that can be used to automatically re-define a path to media content associated with the playlist.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the playlist is adaptive responsive to a user'"'"'s listening habits.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the playlist is adaptive responsive to multiple users'"'"' listening habits.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the playlist is configured to be periodically and automatically regenerated.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the playlist describes music content.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the playlist is adaptive without requiring any activity on the part of a user to maintain the playlist.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the playlist is extensible.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the playlist is extensible by a third party.

9. A file format comprising:

a first portion containing data that is associated with one or more users of a playlist;

a second portion containing data associated with the playlist, the second portion comprising;

a static portion that contains one or more lists of media content for the one or more users of the playlist, and one or more identifiers,

individual identifiers being associated with individual media content and being configured for use in updating a path to the media content that is

a subject of the playlist.

10. The file format of claim 9, wherein said one or more identifiers comprise at least one content ID that is associated with a particular piece of media content.

11. The file format of claim 9, wherein said one or more identifiers comprise at least one file system tracking ID that is associated with a particular piece of media content.

12. The file format of claim 9, wherein said one or more identifiers comprise:

at least one content ID that is associated with a particular piece of media content, and

at least one file system tracking ID that is associated with a particular piece of media content.

13. The file format of claim 9, wherein said one or more identifiers are globally unique identifiers (GUIDs).

14. The file format of claim 9, wherein the second portion comprises a dynamic portion that defines one or more queries for dynamically updating the playlist, the queries being executable to produce a result set that can be provided into the static portion to define the list of media content.

15. The file format of claim 9, wherein the first portion contains data associated with multiple users.

16. The file format of claim 9, wherein the first portion contains data associated with multiple users, the data comprising one or more user ratings that can rate the playlist.

17. The file format of claim 9, wherein the static portion contains data associated with when the static portion was created.

18. The file format of claim 9, wherein the static portion contains data associated with when the static portion expires.

19. The file format of claim 9, wherein the static portion contains data associated with who created the static portion.

20. The file format of claim 9, wherein the static portion contains data associated with at least one path to the media content that is a subject of the playlist.

21. The file format of claim 9, wherein the dynamic portion contains references to one or more filters that can be used to query one or more databases.

22. The file format of claim 9, wherein the dynamic portion contains references to one or more content-adding filters that can be used to query one or more databases.

23. The file format of claim 9, wherein the dynamic portion contains references to one or more content-removing filters that can be used to query one or more databases.

24. A method comprising:

generating a playlist from a playlist file that defines the playlist, the playlist file containing at least one path to media content that is the subject of the playlist, said act of generating comprising attempting to follow said at least one path to the media content; and

in an event that the media content is not located by following said at least one path, attempting to find another path to the media content.

25. The method of claim 24, wherein said act of attempting comprises using at least one identifier that is associated with the media content to attempt to find the media content.

26. The method of claim 24, wherein said act of attempting comprises using at least one identifier that is associated with the media content and provided in the playlist file to attempt to find the media content.

27. The method of claim 26, wherein said at least one identifier comprises a content ID that is uniquely associated with the media content.

28. The method of claim 26, wherein said at least one identifier comprises a file system tracking ID that is uniquely associated with the media content.

29. The method of claim 26, wherein said at least one identifier comprises multiple different types of identifiers.

30. The method of claim 29, wherein said at least one identifier comprises a content ID that is uniquely associated with the media content.

31. The method of claim 29, wherein said at least one identifier comprises a file system tracking ID that is uniquely associated with the media content.

32. The method of claim 29, wherein said at least one identifier comprises at least:

a content ID that is uniquely associated with the media content; and

a file system tracking ID that is uniquely associated with the media content.

33. One or more computer-readable media having computer-readable instructions thereon which, when executed by one or more computing devices, cause the computing devices to:

generate a playlist from a playlist file that defines the playlist, the playlist file containing at least one path to media content that is attempted to be followed to generate the playlist; and

in an event that the media content is not located by following said at least one path, attempt to find another path to the media content.

34. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 33, wherein the instructions cause the one or more computing devices to attempt to find another path to the media content by using at least one identifier that is associated with the media content.

35. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 33, wherein the instructions cause the one or more computing devices to attempt to find another path to the media content by using multiple different types of identifiers that are associated with the media content.

36. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 33, wherein the instructions cause the one or more computing devices to attempt to find another path to the media content by first using a first identifier that is associated with the media content and then second using a second identifier that is associated with the media content.

37. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 33, wherein the instructions cause the one or more computing devices to attempt to find another path to the media content by first using a first identifier that is associated with the media content and then using at least one other different identifier that is associated with the media content.

38. A system comprising:

the one or more computer-readable media of claim 33;

and

a computing device embodying the one or more computer-readable media.

39. A media player application embodied on the one or more computer-readable media of claim 33 and defining the computer-readable instructions.

40. A method comprising:

generating a playlist from a playlist file that defines the playlist, the playlist file containing at least one path to media content that is the subject of the playlist, said act of generating comprising attempting to follow said at least one path to the media content; and

in an event that the media content is not located by following said at least one path, attempting to find another path to the media content by first using a first identifier that is associated with the media content and, in an event that said act of first using does not locate the media content, using at least a second identifier that is associated with the media content.

41. The method of claim 40, wherein one of the first and second identifiers comprises a content ID that is uniquely associated with the media content.

42. The method of claim 40, wherein one of the first and second identifiers comprises a file system tracking ID that is uniquely associated with the media content.

43. The method of claim 40, wherein one of the first and second identifiers comprises a content ID that is uniquely associated with the media content and the other of the first and second identifiers comprises a file system tracking ID that is uniquely associated with the media content.

44. One or more computer-readable media having computer-readable instructions thereon which, when executed by one or more computing devices, implements the method of claim 40.

45. A media player application configured to implement the method of ii claim 40.

46. A method comprising:

providing one or more identifiers;

associating the identifier(s) with media content that can be rendered by a computing device;

incorporating the associated identifiers in a playlist file that can be utilized by the computing device to render a playlist for a user, the playlist file defining at least one path to at least one associated piece of media content, the one or more identifiers being configured to permit a path to be repaired in an event that a piece of media content cannot be located via its associated path.

47. The method of claim 46, wherein said act of providing comprises providing a content ID that is uniquely associated with an individual piece of media content.

48. The method of claim 46, wherein the media content comprises music content.

49. The method of claim 46, wherein said act of providing comprises providing at least one content ID that is uniquely associated with a piece of media content.

50. The method of claim 46, wherein said act of providing comprises providing at least file system tracking ID that is uniquely associated with a piece of media content.

51. The method of claim 46, wherein said act of providing comprises providing at least one content ID that is uniquely associated with a piece of media content and at least file system tracking ID that is uniquely associated with the piece of media content.

52. One or more computer-readable media having computer-readable instructions thereon which, when executed by one or more computing devices, implements the method of claim 46.