Personalized Audio System and Method

• US 20080140717A1
• Filed: 10/30/2007
• Published: 06/12/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 03/08/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Music Choice
• Original Assignee: Music Choice
• Inventors: ROSENBERG, Jeremy, YURMAN, Ronald
• Granted Patent: US 8,060,635 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/104.1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/60 of audio data
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/61 Indexing; Data structures therefor; Storage structures
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/637 Administration of user profiles, e.g. generation, initialization, adaptation or distribution
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/639 using playlists
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/64 Browsing; Visualisation therefor generation of a list or set of audio data G06F16/638
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/68 Retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manually
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/686 using information manually generated, e.g. tags, keywords, comments, title or artist information, time, location or usage information, user ratings
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0484 for the control of specific functions or operations, e.g. selecting or manipulating an object, an image or a displayed text element, setting a parameter value or selecting a range
• CPC Class Codes: G10H 2240/105 User profile, i.e. data about the user, e.g. for user settings or user preferences
• CPC Class Codes: G10H 2240/131 Library retrieval, i.e. searching a database or selecting a specific musical piece, segment, pattern, rule or parameter set
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/034 on discs G11B27/036, G11B27/038 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/105 of operating discs
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/322 used signal is digitally coded
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/27 Arrangements for recording or accumulating broadcast information or broadcast-related information
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/31 Arrangements for monitoring the use made of the broadcast services
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/33 Arrangements for monitoring the users' behaviour or opinions
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/37 for identifying segments of broadcast information, e.g. scenes or extracting programme ID
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/46 for recognising users' preferences
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/47 for recognising genres
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/65 for using the result on users' side
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/74 : using programme related information, e.g. title, composer or interpreter
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/60 : Network streaming of media packets
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/612 : for unicast
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 : User profiles
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99945 : Object-oriented database structure processing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99948 : Application of database or data structure, e.g. distributed, multimedia, or image

Abstract

A personalized audio system and method that overcomes many of the broadcast-type disadvantages associated with conventional radio stations.

Claims

1. A method for playing recordings for a user of a player device, the method comprising:

storing a collection of one or more recordings in a storage unit of the player device;

receiving through a user interface of the player device input from the user, wherein the input indicates that the user desires to have the player device play recordings for the user; and

in response to receiving the input;

automatically selecting a recording based on preference information related to a preference of the user, the preference information being stored in the player device;

determining whether the selected recording is included in said collection of recordings;

retrieving the recording from the storage unit if a determination is made that the recording is included in said collection of recordings;

retrieving the recording from a server that is remote from the player device if a determination is made that the recording is not stored in said collection of recordings; and

playing the recording for the user, wherein

the steps of selecting the recording and determining whether the selected recording is included in said collection of recordings occur after receiving said input from the user.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of selecting a recording based on the preference information comprises selecting a recording from a playlist that was automatically created based on the preference information.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the user is not able to view the contents of the playlist.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the playlist is encrypted.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the recording is a sound recording.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising displaying information about and/or related to the sound recording while performing the step of playing the recording for the user.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising enabling the user to indicate that the user would like to acquire a copy of the recording while performing the step of playing the recording for the user.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the step of enabling the user to indicate that the user would like to acquire a copy of the recording comprises displaying on a display of the player device a selectable element, wherein the selectable element includes information indicating to the user that the user should select the selectable element if the user desires to acquire a copy of the recording.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising adding the recording to the collection if the recording is retrieved from the server.

10. A system for providing personalized content, comprising:

a user interface for displaying one or more station names and for receiving input from a user of the system;

a storage device storing a collection of recordings; and

a processing unit, wherein the processing unit is configured to;

receive via the user interface input from the user indicating that the user desires to listen to a selected station, the selected station having a profile created or modified by a user of the system;

select a recording based on the profile of the selected station after receiving said input that indicates that the user desires to listen to a selected station;

determine whether the selected recording is included in the collection after selecting the recording;

retrieve the recording from the storage device and play the recording for the user in response to determining that the recording is included in the collection; and

retrieve the recording from a server in response to determining that the recording is not included in the collection and play the recording for the user after retrieving the recording from the server.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the processing unit is further configured to (a) select a second recording that is included in the collection and (b) play the second recording in response to determining that the first recording is not included in the collection.

12. The system of claim 10, wherein the processing unit is configured to select a recording by selecting a recording from a playlist.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the user is not able to view the contents of the playlist.

14. The system of claim 12, wherein the playlist is encrypted.

15. The system of claim 10, wherein the recording is a sound recording.

16. The system of claim 10, wherein the processing unit is further configured to display information about and/or related to the sound recording while playing the recording for the user.

17. The system of claim 10, wherein the processing unit is further configured to enable the user to indicate that the user would like to acquire a copy of the recording while playing the recording for the user.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the processing unit is configured to enable the user to indicate that the user would like to acquire a copy of the recording by displaying on a display a selectable element, wherein the selectable element includes information indicating to the user that the user should select the selectable element if the user desires to acquire a copy of the recording.

19. The system of claim 10, further comprising adding the recording to the collection if the recording is retrieved from the server.

20. The system of claim 10, wherein the profile identifies one or more genres and/or styles of music.

21. A method for playing recordings for a user of a player device, the method comprising:

(a) displaying on a display of the player device a list of stations, each station being associated with preference information related to a preference of the user;

(b) receiving input from the user indicating that the user desires to listen to a selected one of the listed stations;

(c) selecting a recording based on the preference information associated with the selected station after receiving said input;

(d) after selecting the recording, retrieving the recording from a server remote from the player device if the recording is not included in a collection of recordings stored in the player device;

(e) playing the recording for the user after retrieving the recording from the server; and

(f) repeating steps (c)-(e) one or more times, wherein

for each recording played in step (e), no information about the artist(s) who created the recording is provide to the user until (1) such time as the recording is played for the user or (2) a point in time immediately prior to the playing of the sound recording

22. The method of claim 21, wherein the step of selecting a recording based on the preference information comprises selecting a recording from a playlist stored in the player device.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein the user is not able to view the contents of the playlist.

24. The method of claim 23, wherein the playlist is encrypted.

25. The method of claim 21, wherein the recording is a sound recording.

26. The method of claim 21, further comprising displaying information about and/or related to the sound recording while performing the step of playing the recording for the user.

27. The method of claim 21, further comprising enabling the user to indicate that the user would like to acquire a copy of the recording while performing the step of playing the recording for the user.

28. The method of claim 21, further comprising adding the recording to the collection after retrieving the recording from the server.