EXCHANGE OF MEDIA BY DEVICE DISCOVERY

• US 20080060043A1
• Filed: 08/29/2006
• Published: 03/06/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 08/29/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Bellsouth Intellectual Property Corporation (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Bellsouth Intellectual Property Corporation (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Malik, Dale
• Granted Patent: US 7,941,131 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 725/134
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/61 for supporting one-way streaming services, e.g. Internet radio
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/52 specially adapted for the location of the user terminal
• 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 21/43637 involving a wireless protocol, e.g. Bluetooth, RF or wireless LAN [IEEE 802.11] arrangements for wireless networking or broadcasting of information in indoor or near-field type systems H04B10/114
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4532 involving end-user characteristics, e.g. viewer profile, preferences monitoring of user activities for profile generation for accessing a video database G06F16/739; user profiles in network data switching protocols H04L67/306; processing of user preferences or user profiles in wireless networks H04W8/18
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4825 using a list of items to be played back in a given order, e.g. playlists
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4882 for displaying messages, e.g. warnings, reminders arrangements for providing short real-time information to substation in data switching networks H04L12/1895
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/632 using a connection between clients on a wide area network, e.g. setting up a peer-to-peer communication via Internet for retrieving video segments from the hard-disk of other client devices broadcast-related systems characterised by transmission among terminal devices H04H60/80; distributed application using peer-to-peer [P2P] networks H04L67/104
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/173 with two-way working, e.g. subscriber sending a programme selection signal
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information

Abstract

Media is exchanged by the interaction between devices of an environment. A first device of a first user discovers existing devices within a proximity-based communication range of the first device that have media capable of being shared. As the first user encounters different people and places that have other devices, those other devices are discovered by the first device of the user. A list of available media is provided from the discovered devices to the first device where it is then displayed. The first user may then select a media item from the list to obtain it via sharing or purchase, have it bookmarked for future retrieval from the current source, or request playback of the media item such as by streaming or broadcast. The first device may provide information about capabilities and/or user profile information to the other devices to filter which media items are presented to the first device.

Claims

1. A method of alerting a user of a first device to the availability of media capable of being shared by an external device, comprising:

at least intermittently discovering by the first device whether any external devices containing media capable of being shared with the first device are within proximity-based communication range of the first device;

upon discovering an external device having media capable of being shared, receiving at the first device a list of media that is available from the discovered external device; and

upon receiving the list, displaying the list of available media at the first device.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein discovering by the first device comprises listening for an incoming broadcast from the second device.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein discovering by the first device comprises broadcasting a request for reply from the first device.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a user selection of a media item from the list of media at the first device;

sending from the first device to the second device a request for the media item; and

receiving at the first device the media item being sent from the second device.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein receiving the list of media comprises receiving an offer to purchase media items from the list, and wherein sending from the first device to the second device a request for the media item comprises sending payment information to the second device.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising querying from the first device to the second device for the media that is available from the second device.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein querying from the first device comprises providing information regarding the capabilities of the first device, wherein the first device comprises a mobile phone that has ring tone capabilities and wherein the media list comprises ring tones.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein querying from the first device to the second device for the media that is available from the second device comprises providing profile information of a current user of the first device.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the profile comprises an indication that the current user listens to a first genre of music and wherein the media list comprises songs from the first genre.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising storing an identifier of at least one of the media items of the list of media in association with an identifier related to the second device at the first device.

11. A computer readable medium containing instructions that perform acts comprising:

at least intermittently discovering by a first device whether any external device containing media capable of being shared with the first device is within proximity-based communication range of the first device;

upon discovering an external device having media capable of being shared, receiving at the first device a list of media that is available from the discovered external device; and

displaying the list of available media at the first device.

12. The computer readable medium of claim 11, wherein the acts further comprise:

receiving a user selection of a media item from the list of media at the first device;

sending from the first device to the second device a request for the media item; and

receiving at the first device the media item being sent from the second device.

13. The computer readable medium of claim 12, wherein receiving the list of media comprises receiving an offer to purchase media items from the list, and wherein sending from the first device to the second device a request for the media item comprises sending payment information to the second device.

14. The computer readable medium of claim 11, wherein the acts further comprise querying from the first device to the second device for the media that is available from the second device.

15. The computer readable medium of claim 14, wherein querying from the first device comprises providing information regarding the capabilities of the first device and wherein the first device comprises a mobile phone with ring tone capabilities and wherein the media list comprises ring tones.

16. The computer readable medium of claim 14, wherein querying from the first device to the second device for the media that is available from the second device comprises providing profile information of a current user of the first device.

17. The computer readable medium of claim 16, wherein the profile comprises an indication that the current user is a minor and wherein the media list comprises only songs rated for minors.

18. The computer readable medium of claim 11, wherein the acts further comprise storing an identifier of at least one of the media items of the list of media in association with an identifier related to the second device at the first device.

19. A device for alerting a user to the availability of media capable of being shared by an external device, comprising:

a communication system;

a display system; and

a processor configured to at least intermittently discover whether any external devices that contain media capable of being shared are in proximity-based communication range of the communication system, receive a list of media from a discovered external device that contains media capable of being shared via the communication system, and display the list of available media via the display system.

20. The device of claim 19, further comprising memory, and wherein the processor is further configured to provide information regarding the capabilities of the first device via the communication system, provide profile information of a current user of the first device via the communication system, and store in the memory an identifier of at least one of the media items of the list of media in association with an identifier related to the second device.