AUTOMATED VISUALIZATION FOR ENHANCED MUSIC PLAYBACK

• US 20070219937A1
• Filed: 01/02/2007
• Published: 09/20/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 01/03/2006
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Creative Technology Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Creative Technology Ltd.
• Inventors: Lee, Michael, Trivi, Jean-Michel, Dolson, Mark
• Application Number:
  US11/619,011
• Publication Number:
  US 20070219937A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/10 Indexing; Addressing; Timing or synchronising; Measuring tape travel
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/322 used signal is digitally coded
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/41265 having a remote control device for bidirectional communication between the remote control device and client device unidirectional remote control device H04N21/42204
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/41407 embedded in a portable device, e.g. video client on a mobile phone, PDA, laptop constructional details of equipment or arrangements specially adapted for portable computer application G06F1/1626; arrangements specially adapted for mobile receivers in broadcast systems H04H20/57
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/43072 of multiple content streams on the same device
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4325 by playing back content from the storage medium reproduction of recorded television signals H04N5/76; reproduction of recorded television signals H04N9/79
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4394 involving operations for analysing the audio stream, e.g. detecting features or characteristics in audio streams arrangements characterised by components specially adapted for monitoring, identification or recognition of audio in broadcast systems H04H60/58
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44204 Monitoring of content usage, e.g. the number of times a movie has been viewed, copied or the amount which has been watched monitoring of user activities for profile generation for accessing a video database G06F16/739; protecting generic digital content where the protection is independent of the precise nature of the content G06F21/10; arrangements for monitoring the use made of the broadcast services in broadcast systems H04H60/31
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4516 involving client characteristics, e.g. Set-Top-Box type, software version or amount of memory available
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/454 Content or additional data filtering, e.g. blocking advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4586 Content update operation triggered locally, e.g. by comparing the version of software modules in a DVB carousel to the version stored locally deployment, distribution, installation, update of software G06F8/65; error detection or correction of the data by redundancy during software upgrading G06F11/1433; arrangements for updating broadcast information or broadcast-related information H04H60/25
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8106 involving special audio data, e.g. different tracks for different languages
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8113 comprising music, e.g. song in MP3 format
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/163 by receiver means only

Abstract

A method and device for providing visualizations on a media player is described. The method may comprise monitoring playback of an audio stream on the media player selecting visualization data stored on the media player. The visualization data may be previously rendered and including at least one element derived from an audio stream. Thereafter, the selected visualization data is displayed and the audio stream is rendered on the media player. For example, the selected visualization data may be automatically without human intervention rendered in synchrony with the audio stream. The media player may be a portable media player and the visualization data may comprise dynamic element(s) and static element(s). The method may update the dynamic element(s) based on an update algorithm.

Claims

1. A method of providing a visualization on a media player, the method comprising:

monitoring playback of a selected audio stream on the media player;

selecting visualization data stored on the media player, the visualization data being previously rendered and including at least one element derived from an audio stream; and

rendering the selected visualization data and the selected audio stream on the media player.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the media player is a portable media player and the visualization data comprises at least one dynamic element and at least one static element, the method comprising updating the dynamic element based on an update algorithm.

3. The method of claim 2, which comprises updating the at least one dynamic element based on an update algorithm that is dependent upon at least one of a date or time associated with the at least one dynamic element.

4. The method of claim 2, which comprises updating the at least one dynamic element based on locale parameters or audio track metadata.

5. The method of claim 2, wherein the visualization data comprises at least one of a static image element, a geometric shape element, a text element, a video element, an audio element, a resource locator element, a media type element, an activation script element, an expiration date element, or a display characteristic element.

6. The method of claim 2, which comprises:

identifying when the media player is in communication with a computing platform;

identifying at least one cached dynamic element that requires updating;

receiving at least one updated dynamic element from the computing platform; and

updating the at least one cached dynamic element with the at least one updated dynamic element.

7. The method of claim 6, which comprises:

providing a user interface to receive a user input associated with updating the at least one dynamic element; and

updating the at least one cached dynamic element based on the user input.

8. The method of claim 6, which comprises receiving the at least one dynamic element from the computing platform via a wireless communication network.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the wireless communication network is one of an Internet Protocol network or mobile telephony network.

10. The method of claim 1, which comprises automatically without human intervention rendering the selected visualization data in synchrony with the selected audio stream.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the media player is a portable media player, the method comprising:

receiving audio data from a computing platform;

receiving associated visualization data from the computing platform; and

storing the visualization data and the audio data as separate files on the portable media player.

12. The method of claim 1, which comprises selectively modifying the visualization rendered on the media player in real-time when the audio stream is rendered from the audio data.

13. The method of claim 12, which comprises modifying elements of the visualization based on the intrinsic characteristics of the audio data.

14. The method of claim 13, in which the elements comprise at least one element selected from the group including a video object descriptor or an image object descriptor.

15. The method of claim 12, which comprises:

receiving a user input on the media player; and

modifying the visualization based on the user input.

16. The method of claim 1, which comprises modifying spatial aspects of the visualization rendered on the media player based on intrinsic characteristics of the audio stream.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein the audio data includes a music file, the method comprising:

monitoring selection of the music file by a user, the music file being one of a plurality of music files stored on the media player;

decoding the music file for playback via at least one speaker;

selecting visualization data in the form of a visualization file selected from a plurality of visualization files stored as separate files on the media player; and

rendering the selected visualization file and the music file on the media player.

18. The method of claim 1, which comprises:

receiving the visualization data and the audio stream as separate files from a separate computing platform; and

storing the visualization data and the audio stream as separate files on the media player.

19. The method of claim 1, which comprises:

identifying a tag associated with the audio stream; and

selecting visualization data identified by the tag.

20. A method of generating pre-rendered visualizations, the method comprising:

receiving audio data representing an audio stream;

processing the audio stream to identify intrinsic audio characteristics of the audio stream;

generating visualization data including at least one element based on the intrinsic audio characteristics;

storing the visualization data to provide pre-rendered visualization data; and

automatically communicating the visualization data to a separate media player when the audio data is communicated to the separate media player.

21. The method of claim 20, which comprises generating visualization data including dynamic and static elements.

22. The method of claim 20, which comprises generating the visualization data automatically without human intervention.

23. The method of claim 20, which comprises:

generating a graphical user interface that allows a user to define manually input modification data; and

modifying the visualization data based on the manually input modification data.

24. The method of claim 20, wherein the visualization data is stored as a separate visualization file for retrieval when the audio stream is rendered.

25. The method of claim 20, which comprises;

automatically without human intervention aggregating visualization content; and

automatically without human intervention generating the visualization data from the visualization content.

26. The method of claim 20, which comprises:

identifying characteristics of a portable media player; and

processing the visualization data dependent upon the characteristics of the portable media player.

27. The method of claim 26, wherein the characteristics of the portable media player include one of storage available on the portable media player or Central Processor Unit (CPU) related parameters.

28. The method of claim 26, wherein the characteristics comprise visual playback capabilities of the portable media player.

29. A media player comprising:

a processing module to monitor playback of an audio stream on the media player;

a memory module to store visualization data;

a selection module to select the visualization data, the visualization data being previously rendered and including at least one element derived from an audio stream; and

a display module to display the visualization data as a visualization,

wherein the processing module processes the selected visualization data and renders the visualization and the audio stream

30. A machine-readable medium embodying instructions which, when executed by a machine, cause the machine to:

monitor playback of an audio stream on a media player;

select visualization data stored on the media player, the visualization data being previously rendered and including at least one element derived from an audio stream;

render the selected visualization data to provide visualizations on the media player; and

render the audio stream on the media player.

31. A machine-readable medium embodying instructions which, when executed by a machine, cause the machine to:

receive audio data representing an audio stream;

process the audio stream to identify intrinsic audio characteristics of the audio stream;

generate visualization data including at least one element based on the intrinsic audio characteristics;

store the visualization data to provide pre-rendered visualization data; and

automatically communicate the visualization data to a separate media player when the audio stream is communicated to the separate media player to provide visualizations on the separate media player.

32. A media player to provide visualizations, the media player comprising:

means for monitoring playback of an audio stream on the media player;

means for selecting visualization data stored on the media player, the visualization data being previously rendered and including at least one element derived from an audio stream; and

means for rendering the selected visualization data and the audio stream on the media player.