CONTENT OUTPUT QUEUE GENERATION

• US 20070083897A1
• Filed: 10/03/2006
• Published: 04/12/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 10/03/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.), Sony Electronics Inc. (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.), Sony Electronics Inc. (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Brownell, Jason
• Granted Patent: US 7,788,586 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 725/61
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/4387 by the use of playlists
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/105 of operating discs

Abstract

An automated method and system configured to pseudo-shuffle a pool of electronic content items in accordance with various criteria so that playback of all or a subset of the items in the user'"'"'s collection occur in a pseudo-random order. The shuffled content items may be output to a user or transferred to a device. A list of the shuffled content items is built and may be saved for later use for playback on a PC or portable device. In some instances the list is built without output or download of the content items.

Claims

1. A method for generating a list of content items for playback, comprising:

accessing a library having a plurality of library content items; and

selecting a plurality of playback content items from the library to generate a pseudo-random list of content items for playback;

wherein said selection of library content items is manipulated to control the generated list of playback content items by evaluating one or more characteristics of the library content items according to one or more predetermined selection criteria.

2. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein the list comprises an output queue for playback of the selected playback content items on a platform used to generate the list.

3. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein the list is configured for output to an external device for playback.

4. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein each of the library content items comprises:

presentation data for playback; and

metadata associated with said presentation data;

said metadata comprising the one or more characteristics.

5. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein said library content items comprise one or more of the following files:

MP3, OGG, WMA, ACC, WAV, MPG, MOV, AVI GIF, and TIFF.

6. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein said characteristics comprise one or more of the following:

filename, song or album title, genre, size, type, duration, last played, play count, date created, composer, bitrate, beats per minute (BPM), season, episode number, show.

7. A method as recited in claim 1:

wherein the library content items are filtered into a content pool prior to being selected; and

wherein the playback content items are selected from the content pool to generate the pseudo-random list.

8. A method as recited in claim 7, wherein library content items are filtered according to the one or more characteristics.

9. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein the characteristics and selection criteria are selectable by a user.

10. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein selecting a plurality of playback content items further comprises:

randomly selecting a first content item from the library;

evaluating one or more characteristics of the first content item against one or more predetermined criteria; and

placing the first content item in said list if the one or more criteria are met.

11. A method as recited in claim 10, wherein selecting a plurality of playback content items further comprises:

randomly selecting a second content item from the library;

comparing the first content item to the second content item according to the one or more predetermined criteria; and

including or excluding the second content item at a location in the list if the one or more predetermined criteria are met.

12. A method as recited in claim 11:

wherein the second content item is temporarily excluded from one or more locations in the list to maintain a minimum queue distance between the first content item and the second content item;

said temporary exclusion being a function of the predetermined criteria.

13. A method as recited in claim 11, wherein the second content item is excluded from all remaining locations in the list based on the predetermined criteria.

14. A method as recited in claim 11, wherein the second content item is placed in the list at a location sequential with the first content item.

15. A method as recited in claim 1:

wherein the playback content items are selected to generate a list having one or more clusters of content items;

wherein said clusters have a specified probability of having a characteristic matching one or more specified criteria.

16. A method for generating a list of content items for playback, comprising:

providing a library having a plurality of library content items;

randomly selecting a set of content items from the plurality of library content items;

evaluating one or more characteristics of each of the content items in the set against one or more predetermined criteria;

generating a list of playback content items having at least one characteristic matching at least one of the predetermined criteria; and

said generated list configured to provide a sequential order for playback of the content items.

17. A method as recited in claim 16, wherein the list comprises an output queue for playback of the selected playback content items on a platform used to generate the list.

18. A method as recited in claim 16, wherein the list is configured for output to an external device for playback.

19. A method as recited in claim 16, wherein the one or more characteristics are stored as metadata associated with each of the library content items.

20. A method as recited in claim 16, wherein the library is stored on a platform used to generate the list.

21. A method as recited in claim 16, wherein the library is stored at a remote location.

22. A method as recited in claim 16, wherein evaluating one or more characteristics of the selected content items comprises:

evaluating one or more characteristics of the first content item against one or more predetermined criteria;

placing the first content item in said list if the one or more criteria are met;

comparing a second content item to the first content item according to the one or more predetermined criteria; and

including or excluding the second content item at a location in the list if the one or more predetermined criteria are met.

23. A method as recited in claim 22:

wherein the second content item is temporarily excluded from one or more locations in the list based on the predetermined criteria to maintain a minimum queue distance between the first content item and the second content item.

24. A method as recited in claim 16:

wherein a characteristic comprises a rating value associated with each content item; and

wherein a content item is excluded or included at a location on the list based on the rating value exceeding a predetermined threshold.

25. A method as recited in claim 24, wherein the predetermined criteria control the probability that a library content item having a particular rating value is included in the list.

26. A method as recited in claim 24, wherein the rating value is explicitly applied to each content item by a user.

27. A method as recited in claim 24, wherein the rating value is implicitly applied to each content item based on the frequency that each content item is selected for playback by a user.

28. A method comprising:

providing a library having a plurality of library content items;

accessing first data associated with one or more content items in the library;

selecting a plurality of playback content items for which the accessed first data meets a selection criterion; and

storing second data associated with each selected playback content item, wherein the stored second data comprises a list of selected songs.

29. A method as recited in claim 28, wherein the stored second data is stored as a content output queue for playback.

30. A method as recited in claim 28, further comprising:

generating a pool of content items by applying one or more filtering criteria to the library;

wherein the plurality of playback content items are selected from the pool.

31. A method as recited in claim 28, wherein the playback content items are randomly selected against the selection criterion to generate a pseudo-random list.