METHODS AND SYSTEMS FOR RINGTONE DEFINITION SHARING

• US 20070201685A1
• Filed: 01/30/2007
• Published: 08/30/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 02/03/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: DJ Nitrogen, Inc.
• Original Assignee: DJ Nitrogen, Inc.
• Inventors: Sindoni, Christopher
• Granted Patent: US 7,610,044 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 379/373.20
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72403 with means for local support of applications that increase the functionality
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 19/04 the ringing-current being generated at the substations
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2250/64 file transfer between terminals download of applications H04M1/72406; transfer of messages, e.g. SMS, e-mail or MMS H04M1/7243

Abstract

A system comprises a ringtone originator, a ringtone sharing device, and a ringtone receiver. The ringtone originator (e.g., one or more of a personal computer, a mobile telephone, a PDA, or other computing device) allows a user to generate ringtone content using audio content stored locally. A ringtone definition, describing characteristics of the audio content and manipulations used to transform the audio content to the ringtone content, is generated and is sent to the ringtone sharing device. The ringtone sharing device (e.g., a server operated by a commercial service provider or a mobile telephone service provider) stores a plurality of ringtone definitions that can be accessed by the ringtone receiver. The ringtone receiver (e.g., one or more of a personal computer, a mobile telephone, a PDA, or other computing device) can download the ringtone definition and recreate the ringtone content.

Claims

1. A method for sharing ringtone content independent of audio content used to generate the ringtone content, comprising:

receiving a ringtone definition wherein the ringtone definition comprises characteristics of and manipulations to, a first instance of audio content;

sending the ringtone definition to one or more devices; and

generating ringtone content from a second instance of the audio content and the ringtone definition.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein one or more users associated with the one or more devices have licensed the audio content.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of:

determining that a licensed version of a second instance of the audio content is not locally available; and

automatically obtaining the second instance for the audio content with a license.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the characteristics of the first instance of the audio content and the characteristics of the second instance of the audio content are substantially similar.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more devices comprises a mobile telephone.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the ringtone definition is received by a ringtone sharing device operated by a ringtone service provider.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the ringtone service provider sends the ringtone definition to a subscriber of the ringtone service provider.

8. A method for providing ringtone definitions and ringtone content independent of audio content used to generate the ringtone content, comprising:

generating ringtone content by manipulating a first instance of audio content;

generating a ringtone definition that describes characteristics of, and the manipulations to the first instance of audio content; and

sending the ringtone definition to a device.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the device has access to a second instance of the audio content.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein the device is a communication device.

11. The method of claim 8, wherein the ringtone definition is sent to the device via a network.

12. A method for providing ringtone content independent of audio content used to generate the ringtone content, comprising:

receiving a ringtone definition that describes characteristics of, and manipulations to, a first instance of audio content; and

generating ringtone content by applying the manipulations associated with the ringtone definition to a second instance of the audio content.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising the step of identifying a second instance of the audio content using the characteristics described in the ringtone definition.

14. The method of claim 12, further comprising the step of playing back the ringtone content in response to an event

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the event is an incoming telephone call.

16. A system for sharing ringtone definitions independent of audio content used to generate the ringtone definition, comprising:

a ringtone originator that generates a ringtone definition, wherein the ringtone definition describes characteristics of, and manipulations to a first instance of audio content;

a ringtone receiver coupled to the ringtone originator wherein the ringtone receiver receives the ringtone definition; and

a ringtone module that derives ringtone content from the ringtone definition and a second instance of the audio content associated with the characteristics described by the ringtone definition.

17. The system of claim 16, further comprising a network wherein the ringtone originator and the ringtone receiver are coupled through the network.

18. The system of claim 16, wherein the ringtone originator further comprises a first content database for storing a first group of one or more instances of audio content.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the ringtone originator further comprises a first ringtone module coupled to the first content database and wherein the first ringtone module receives a first instance of audio content from the first group of one or more instances of audio content stored in the first content database, and manipulates the first instance of audio content to generate ringtone content.

20. The system of claim 16, wherein the ringtone originator further comprises a first communication device.

21. The system of claim 20, wherein the first communication device further comprises a first playback module.

22. The system of claim 16, wherein the ringtone receiver further comprises a second content database for storing a second group of one or more instances of audio content.

23. The system of claim 22, wherein the ringtone receiver further comprises a second ringtone module coupled to the second content database and wherein the second ringtone module receives a ringtone definition from the ringtone originator, queries the second content database for an instance of audio content matching the characteristics of the ringtone definition, and applies the manipulations associated with the ringtone definition to the matching instance of audio content.

24. The system of claim 16, wherein the ringtone receiver further comprises a second communication device.

25. The system of claim 25, wherein the second communication device further comprises a second playback module.

26. A system for sharing ringtone definitions independent of audio content used to generate the ringtone definitions, comprising:

a ringtone originator that generates ringtone definitions wherein the ringtone definitions describe characteristics of, and manipulations to instances of audio content;

a ringtone sharing device coupled to the ringtone originator wherein the ringtone sharing device receives the ringtone definitions from the ringtone originator; and

a ringtone receiver coupled to the ringtone sharing device wherein the ringtone receiver receives the ringtone definitions from the ringtone sharing device.

27. The system of claim 26, wherein the ringtone sharing device is associated with a ringtone service provider.

28. The system of claim 27, wherein the ringtone receiver is associated with a user who subscribes to the ringtone service provider.

29. The system of claim 26, wherein the ringtone sharing device further comprises a monetization module for monetizing the ringtone sharing services that the device provides.

30. The system of claim 26, further comprising a network coupled to the ringtone originator, the ringtone sharing device, and the ringtone receiver.

31. The system of claim 26 wherein the ringtone originator is a user device, and the audio content resides on the user device.

32. A user device comprising:

a ringtone definition;

an audio file; and

a ringtone generator software operable to use the ringtone definition and the audio file to create a ringtone suitable for use on a mobile telephone.

33. The user device of claim 32 further comprising:

audio editing software enabling a user to generate the ringtone definition at the user device.

34. The user device of claim 32, wherein the user device is the mobile telephone.

35. The user device of claim 32, wherein the user device is a personal computer capable of sharing the ringtone definition with the mobile telephone.

36. The user device of claim 32 further comprising:

ringtone sharing software for sharing the definition with other users.