Selecting/acquiring desired multimedia content

• US 20060141962A1
• Filed: 05/31/2005
• Published: 06/29/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 12/23/2004
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications USA Incorporated (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications USA Incorporated (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Dunko, Gregory A., Forbes, Stephen K.
• Application Number:
  US11/141,569
• Publication Number:
  US 20060141962A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/186.100
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 20/93 which locates resources of other pieces of information, e.g. URL [Uniform Resource Locator]
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 2201/13 radio data system/radio broadcast data system [RDS/RBDS]
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 2201/30 characterised by the use of a return channel, e.g. for collecting users' opinions, for returning broadcast space/time information or for requesting data
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 2201/37 via a different channel
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/74 using programme related information, e.g. title, composer or interpreter
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/91 Mobile communication networks for accessing the Internet H04H60/85

Abstract

A consumer electronics device comprises a receiver to receive a broadcast signal transmitted by a commercial broadcast radio station, a controller, and a communications interface. The broadcast radio signal comprises multimedia content that may be rendered to the user and information identifying the multimedia content. The controller generates a request to download the multimedia content using the information identifying the multimedia content. The communications interface transmits the request to a server in a communications network, which downloads the requested multimedia content to a user-designated destination device if the content is available.

Claims

1. A consumer electronics device comprising:

a receiver to receive a broadcast signal that includes multimedia content and information identifying the multimedia content;

a processing circuit to render the multimedia content to a user;

a communications interface to transmit a request to download the multimedia content being rendered to the user based on the information identifying the multimedia content.

2. The device of claim 1 further comprising a module to decode the information identifying the multimedia content.

3. The device of claim 1 further comprising a controller to generate the request message based on the information.

4. The device of claim 3 further comprising a display, and wherein the information identifying the multimedia content includes text data that is sent to the display.

5. The device of claim 3 wherein the multimedia content comprises a song, and the information includes the title of the song and the name of an artist associated with the song.

6. The device of claim 3 wherein the multimedia content comprises video content, and the information includes the name of the video content.

7. The device of claim 3 wherein the information comprises an IP address of a server that stores a digitized representation of the multimedia content being rendered to the user.

8. The device of claim 3 wherein the controller generates an automatic request to determine whether the multimedia content identified by the information is available.

9. The device of claim 8 wherein the controller generates the automatic request responsive to a flag in the received broadcast signal.

10. The device of claim 3 wherein the controller generates a request to determine whether the multimedia content identified by the information is available responsive to user input.

11. The device of claim 3 further comprising memory, and wherein the controller further stores the information identifying the multimedia content in the memory.

12. The device of claim 11 wherein the controller further saves a digitized sample of the multimedia content being rendered to the user, and links the digitized sample to the information stored in memory.

13. The device of claim 11 wherein the controller generates a request to determine whether the multimedia content identified by the information stored in memory is available.

14. The device of claim 3 wherein the controller indicates an availability status of the multimedia content currently being rendered to the user.

15. The device of claim 14 wherein the controller generates the request to download the multimedia content identified by the information based upon the indicated availability

16. The device of claim 3 wherein the controller is configured to send user profile information with the download request.

17. The device of claim 3 wherein the controller is configured to send a user-designated destination to receive the downloaded multimedia content.

18. The device of claim 1 wherein the communications interface comprises a wireless transceiver that transmits the download request to a server in a communications network.

19. The device of claim 1 wherein the communications interface comprises an interface port that connects to a computing device to transmit the download request to a server in a communications network.

20. The device of claim 1 wherein the communications interface receives the requested multimedia content responsive to the request message.

21. The device of claim 1 wherein the broadcast signal is received from a satellite.

22. The device of claim 1 wherein the broadcast signal is received from a commercial broadcast radio station.

23. A method of downloading multimedia content using a consumer electronics device, the method comprising:

receiving a broadcast radio signal comprising multimedia content and information identifying the multimedia content;

rendering the multimedia content to a user of the consumer electronics device;

sending a request to download the multimedia content being rendered to the user based on the decoded information.

24. The method of claim 23 further comprising decoding the information identifying the multimedia content and displaying the decoded information to the user.

25. The method of claim 24 wherein decoding the information identifying the multimedia content comprises decoding a message received with the multimedia content, and extracting text data from the message that identifies the multimedia content.

26. The method of claim 23 further comprising generating the download request based on the information identifying the multimedia content.

27. The method of claim 23 further comprising automatically generating a request to determine whether the multimedia content is available for download by the user.

28. The method of claim 27 further comprising automatically generating the request to determine whether the multimedia content is available for download by the user responsive to receiving a flag in the broadcast radio signal.

29. The method of claim 23 further comprising generating a request to determine whether the multimedia content is available for download by the user responsive to user input.

30. The method of claim 23 further comprising saving the information identifying the multimedia content in memory.

31. The method of claim 30 further comprising saving a digitized sample of the multimedia content in the memory, and associating the digitized sample with the decoded information saved in memory.

32. The method of claim 30 further comprising generating a request to determine whether the multimedia content is available for download by the user based on the decoded information stored in the memory.

33. The method of claim 30 further comprising generating the download request based on the decoded information saved in memory.

34. The method of claim 23 further comprising indicating to the user whether the multimedia content is available for download.

35. The method of claim 34 further comprising generating the download request based on the indicated availability of the multimedia content.

36. The method of claim 23 wherein the information includes information selected from the group consisting of:

a title of a song being rendered to the user, and an artist associated with the song.

37. The method of claim 23 wherein the information includes information selected from the group consisting of:

a name of a video being rendered to the user, and an artist associated with the video.

38. The method of claim 23 wherein the information includes a URL that identifies a server that stores the multimedia content for download to the user.

39. The method of claim 23 further comprising sending the download request to a server in a communications network.

40. The method of claim 39 further comprising receiving a download of the multimedia content at a destination designated by the user responsive to the download request.

41. The method of claim 39 further comprising sending user profile information to a server in a network.

42. The method of claim 23 wherein receiving a broadcast radio signal comprises receiving a broadcast signal transmitted by a satellite.

43. The method of claim 23 wherein receiving a broadcast signal comprises receiving a broadcast signal transmitted by a commercial broadcast radio station.

44. A system for downloading multimedia content to a user of a wireless communications device comprising:

a consumer electronics device configured to;

receive a broadcast signal comprising multimedia content and information identifying the multimedia content;

render the multimedia content to the user; and

transmit a request to download the multimedia content based on the information; and

a server configured to;

receive the request to download the multimedia content; and

download the multimedia content to a destination device designated by a user of the consumer electronics device.

45. The system of claim 44 wherein the consumer electronics device is further configured to generate the download request based on the information identifying the multimedia content.

46. The system of claim 44 wherein the server is further configured to analyze the download request to determine whether the requested multimedia content is available for download to the user.

47. The system of claim 46 wherein the server is further configured to retrieve the requested multimedia content from a content server communicatively connected to the server.

48. The system of claim 44 wherein the consumer electronics device is a wireless communications device that communicates with the server via a wireless communications network.

49. The system of claim 44 further comprising a computing device associated with the user that is communicatively connected to the consumer electronics device and the server, and wherein the consumer electronics device transmits the download request to the server via the computing device.