Automatic digital music library builder

• US 20040131255A1
• Filed: 01/02/2003
• Published: 07/08/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 01/02/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Catch Media, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Catch Media, Inc.
• Inventors: Ben-Yaacov, Yaacov, Ben-Yaacov, Boaz
• Granted Patent: US 7,191,193 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 382/190
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/433 using audio data
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/634 Query by example, e.g. query by humming
• 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: G11B 27/034 on discs G11B27/036, G11B27/038 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/28 by using information signals recorded by the same method as the main recording G11B27/22 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 31/006 with video camera or receiver
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 31/02 with automatic musical instruments
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 33/025 Portable cases
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/914 Video
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/915 Image
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/916 Audio
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99945 Object-oriented database structure processing

Abstract

A digital music library builder including an analog-to-digital converter for converting analog audio into digital audio, an optical character processor for recognizing characters within an image, a meta-data extractor for identifying meta-data for a song within the recognized characters, an audio parser for marking the start and end of a song within the digital audio, and a database manager for associating the identified meta-data with the marked song, within a digital music library. A method is also described and claimed.

Claims

1. A digital music library builder comprising:

an analog-to-digital converter for converting analog audio into digital audio;

an optical character processor for recognizing characters within an image;

a meta-data extractor for identifying meta-data for a song within the recognized characters;

an audio parser for marking the start and end of a song within the digital audio; and

a database manager for associating the identified meta-data with the marked song, within a digital music library.

2. The digital music library builder of claim 1 further comprising a digital audio writer for writing the marked song from a memory buffer into the digital music library.

3. The digital music library builder of claim 1 further comprising a meta-data writer for writing the identified meta-data into the digital music library.

4. The digital music library builder of claim 1 wherein said optical character processor recognizes characters with the aid of a template describing the general layout of the image.

5. The digital music library builder of claim 1 wherein the digital music library is structured as a file system.

6. The digital music library builder of claim 1 wherein the digital music library is structured as a database.

7. The digital music library builder of claim 6 wherein the digital music library is an MP3 database.

8. The digital music library builder of claim 6 wherein the digital music library comprises WMA files.

9. The digital music library builder of claim 1 wherein the digital music library resides in a removable memory unit.

10. The digital music library builder of claim 1 wherein the digital music library resides in a hard disk drive.

11. The digital music library builder of claim 1 wherein the meta-data includes a song title.

12. The digital music library builder of claim 1 wherein the meta-data includes an artist.

13. The digital music library builder of claim 1 wherein the meta-data includes a genre.

14. The digital music library builder of claim 1 wherein the meta-data includes an album.

15. The digital music library builder of claim 1 wherein the meta-data includes a song length.

16. The digital music library builder of claim 1 wherein the meta-data includes a date.

17. The digital music library builder of claim 1 wherein the meta-data includes a number of repetitions of a song within the analog audio.

18. The digital music library builder of claim 17 further comprising a digital rights manager for restricting access to the song, based on the number of repetitions of the song within the analog audio.

19. The digital music library builder of claim 1 further comprising a controller for selectively importing audio having pre-defined characteristics into the digital music library.

20. The digital music library builder of claim 19 wherein the pre-defined characteristics depend upon meta-data.

21. The digital music library builder of claim 1 wherein said meta-data extractor determines from said meta-data for a song whether the song already exists within the digital music library.

22. The digital music library builder of claim 1 wherein the analog audio and the image are obtained from the same source.

23. The digital library builder of claim 22 wherein the analog audio and the image are obtained from a television.

24. The digital music library builder of claim 1 wherein the analog audio and the image are obtained from different sources.

25. The digital music library builder of claim 24 wherein the image is obtained from an Internet site.

26. The digital music library builder of claim 24 wherein the image is obtained from a camera that photographs a radio display.

27. The digital music library builder of claim 1 further comprising a character enhancer for enhancing the characters within the image.

28. The digital music library builder of claim 27 wherein said character enhancer extracts a luminance color component from the image.

29. The digital music library builder of claim 27 wherein said character enhancer averages a plurality of images.

30. A method for building a digital music library, comprising:

converting analog audio into digital audio;

recognizing characters within an image;

identifying meta-data for a song within the recognized characters;

marking the start and end of a song within the digital audio; and

associating the identified meta-data with the marked song, within a digital music library.

31. The method of claim 30 further comprising writing the marked song from a memory buffer into the digital music library.

32. The method of claim 30 further comprising writing the identified meta-data into the digital music library.

33. The method of claim 30 wherein said recognizing recognizes characters with the aid of a template describing the general layout of the image.

34. The method of claim 30 wherein the digital music library is structured as a file system.

35. The method of claim 30 wherein the digital music library is structured as a database.

36. The method of claim 35 wherein the digital music library is an MP3 database.

37. The method of claim 35 wherein the digital music library comprises WMA files.

38. The method of claim 30 wherein the meta-data includes a song title.

39. The method of claim 30 wherein the meta-data includes an artist.

40. The method of claim 30 wherein the meta-data includes a genre.

41. The method of claim 30 wherein the meta-data includes an album.

42. The method of claim 30 wherein the meta-data includes a song length.

43. The method of claim 30 wherein the meta-data includes a date.

44. The method of claim 30 wherein the meta-data includes a number of repetitions of a song within the analog audio.

45. The method of claim 44 further comprising restricting access to the song, based on the number of repetitions of the song within the analog audio.

46. The method of claim 30 further comprising selectively importing audio having pre-defined characteristics into the digital music library.

47. The method of claim 46 wherein the pre-defined characteristics depend upon the meta-data.

48. The method of claim 30 further comprising determining from said meta-data for a song whether the song already exists within the digital music library.

49. The method of claim 30 wherein the analog audio and the image are obtained from the same source.

50. The method of claim 49 wherein the analog audio and the image are obtained from a television.

51. The method of claim 30 wherein the analog audio and the image are obtained from different sources.

52. The method of claim 51 wherein the image is obtained from an Internet site.

53. The method of claim 51 wherein the image is obtained from a camera that photographs a radio display.

54. The method of claim 30 further comprising enhancing characters within the image prior to said recognizing characters.

55. The method of claim 54 wherein said enhancing characters comprises extracting a luminance color component from the image.

56. The method of claim 54 wherein said enhancing characters comprises averaging a plurality of images.

57. A computer readable medium containing executable computer program instructions which, when executed on a processing system, cause the processing system to perform a method comprising:

converting analog audio into digital audio;

recognizing characters within an image;

identifying meta-data for a song within the recognized characters;

marking the start and end of a song within the digital audio; and

associating the identified meta-data with the marked song, within a digital music library.

58. An automatic music library builder comprising:

a housing comprising;

a USB port for transferring data to and from a computer;

audio connectors for receiving analog audio;

video connectors for receiving a video frame;

video frame capture circuitry located within said housing, for capturing a video frame received by said video connectors;

an analog to digital audio converter located within said housing, for converting the analog audio to digital audio;

an audio digital signal processor located within said housing, for converting the digital audio into a digital music format; and

a processor located within said housing, for extracting meta-data for a song from the captured video frame.

59. The automatic music library builder of claim 58 wherein said housing further comprises a connector for a power supply.

60. The automatic music builder of claim 58 further comprising a battery casing located within said housing.

61. The automatic music builder of claim 58 wherein said housing further comprises a memory slot for a removable memory unit.

62. The automatic music builder of claim 58 further comprising a hard disk drive located within said housing.

63. The automatic music builder of claim 58 wherein said housing further comprises a display screen, and wherein said automatic music builder further comprises a display driver for said display screen, located within said housing.

64. The automatic music builder of claim 58 further comprising a programmable memory located within said housing.

65. A digital music library builder comprising:

an optical character processor for recognizing characters within an image;

a meta-data extractor for identifying meta-data for a song within the recognized characters;

an audio parser for marking the start and end of a song within a digital audio signal; and

a database manager for associating the identified meta-data with the marked song, within a digital music library.

66. The digital music library builder of claim 65 wherein the digital audio signal is obtained from a cable broadcast receiver.

67. The digital music library builder of claim 65 wherein the digital audio signal is obtained from a satellite broadcast receiver.

68. The digital music library builder of claim 65 wherein the image is obtained from a cable broadcast receiver.

69. The digital music library builder of claim 65 wherein the image is obtained from a television.

70. The digital music library builder of claim 65 wherein the image is obtained from an Internet web page.

71. The digital music library builder of claim 65 wherein the image is obtained from a camera.

72. The digital music library builder of claim 65 further comprising a music player exchange port for loading selected songs from the digital music library into a music player.

73. A method for building a digital music library, comprising:

recognizing characters within an image;

identifying meta-data for a song within the recognized characters;

marking the start and end of a song within a digital audio signal; and

associating the identified meta-data with the marked song, within a digital music library.

74. The method of claim 73 further comprising obtaining the digital audio signal from a cable broadcast receiver.

75. The method of claim 73 further comprising obtaining the digital audio signal from a satellite broadcast receiver.

76. The method of claim 73 further comprising obtaining the image from a cable broadcast receiver.

77. The method of claim 73 further comprising obtaining the image from a television.

78. The method of claim 73 further comprising obtaining the image from an Internet web page.

79. The method of claim 73 further comprising obtaining the image from a camera.

80. The method of claim 73 further comprising loading selected songs from the digital music library into a music player.

81. A computer readable medium containing executable computer program instructions which, when executed on a processing system, cause the processing system to perform a method comprising:

recognizing characters within an image;

identifying meta-data for a song within the recognized characters;

marking the start and end of a song within a digital audio signal; and

associating the identified meta-data with the marked song, within a digital music library.

82. An automatic music library builder comprising:

a housing comprising;

audio connectors for receiving digital audio;

video connectors for receiving a video frame;

video frame capture circuitry located within said housing, for capturing a video frame received by said video connectors;

an audio digital signal processor located within said housing, for converting the digital audio into a digital music format; and

a processor located within said housing, for extracting meta-data for a song from the captured video frame.

83. The automatic music library builder of claim 82 wherein said audio connectors are connectors for optical audio output.

84. The automatic music library builder of claim 82 wherein said audio connectors are connectors for coaxial audio output.

85. The automatic music library builder of claim 82 further comprising at least one connector for a hand-held digital music player, through which digital songs stored on the automatic music library builder can be transferred to the hand-held digital music player.

86. An automatic music library builder comprising:

a housing comprising;

audio connectors for receiving digital audio;

a camera interface for receiving an image from a camera;

an audio digital signal processor located within said housing, for converting the digital audio into a digital music format; and

a processor located within said housing, for extracting meta-data for a song from the image.

87. The automatic music library builder of claim 86 wherein the image received from the camera is a digital image.

88. The automatic music library builder of claim 86 wherein the image received from the camera is an analog image, the automatic music library builder further comprising an analog to digital image converter, for converting the analog image into a digital image.

89. The automatic music library builder of claim 86 wherein the image is a photograph of a radio display screen.

90. The automatic music library builder of claim 86 wherein the camera is a still image camera.

91. The automatic music library builder of claim 86 wherein the camera is a video camera, and the image is a video frame.