Method for sharing content with several devices

• US 20080201376A1
• Filed: 03/04/2008
• Published: 08/21/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 10/01/2003
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: SanDisk Technologies LLC (Western Digital Corporation)
• Original Assignee: MusicGremlin, Inc. (Western Digital Corporation)
• Inventors: Price, Harold E., Axelrod, Jonathan N., KHEDOURI, Robert K.
• Application Number:
  US12/041,903
• Publication Number:
  US 20080201376A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/104.1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/4387 by the use of playlists
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/48 Retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manually
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/635 Filtering based on additional data, e.g. user or group profiles
• 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 16/686 using information manually generated, e.g. tags, keywords, comments, title or artist information, time, location or usage information, user ratings
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/10 Protecting distributed programs or content, e.g. vending or licensing of copyrighted material protection in video systems or pay television H04N7/16 ; Digital rights management [DRM]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0641 Shopping interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2223 being a public access point, e.g. for downloading to or uploading from clients arrangements specially adapted to plural spots in a confined site in broadcast systems H04H20/63
• 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 21/47202 for requesting content on demand, e.g. video on demand
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4788 communicating with other users, e.g. chatting arrangements for providing for computer conferences, e.g. chat rooms, to substation in data switching networks H04L12/1813; distributed application using peer-to-peer [P2P] networks H04L67/104
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6125 involving transmission via Internet transmission by internet of broadcast information H04H60/82
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17318 Direct or substantially direct transmission and handling of requests

Abstract

A portable wireless communications subscriber audio and/or video player apparatus and system and method for selecting, requesting, downloading, and playing audio and/or video data content files from an Internet-based database server. The wireless link is preferably implemented in accordance with the WiFi protocol, which allows connectivity to the Internet by being in proximity with a local base station or WiFi hotspot (i.e., publicly available local wireless access hub connected to the Internet). The portable wireless communications subscriber audio and/or video player apparatus and system preferably include a security means for monitoring and blocking unauthorized use of the player apparatus and system. The player apparatus further preferably has the capability to communicate with other neighboring player apparatus for the purpose of exchanging content data files, playlists and personal messages.

Claims

1. A method for sharing digital media content, the method comprising:

identifying, by a first user, digital media of interest contained in a collection of digital media possessed by a second user;

determining when access to the collection of digital media possessed by the second user is available;

transmitting a request for the digital media content of interest; and

retrieving digital media content of interest.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein said first user has access to a content source and wherein said digital media of interest is retrieved from said content source.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein said request is sent to said second user and said digital media of interest is retrieved from said second user.

4. The method of claim 1 where the step of identifying comprises accessing a catalog of the second user on a centralized database.

5. The method of claim 4 where the centralized database includes a ranking of digital media based on published charts from widely circulated publications.

6. The method of claim 4 where the centralized database includes a ranking of digital media based on one of user ratings, human expert opinion, expert software recommendations and statistical algorithms.

7. The method of claim 6 where the centralized database user rankings are clustered based on geographic location.

8. The method of claim 4 where the centralized database includes a ranking based on human experts.

9. The method of claim 5 where the centralized database includes a ranking based on one of recommendation technologies and statistical algorithms.

10. The method of claim 4 where the step of identifying comprises directly accessing the at least one second user'"'"'s database.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of identifying includes determining the digital media that the second user is currently accessing.

12. The method of claim 1 wherein several user devices have access to a common network, further comprising generating lists of individual contents for each user device and publishing at least some of the said user lists to some of the user devices.

13. The method of claim 12 wherein at least some of the user devices are assigned to a predetermined category and wherein user devices in the predetermined category receive some content lists not available to user devices not in the predetermined category.

14. The method of claim 12 further comprising caching the user lists and updating in the presence of a predetermined event.

15. The method of claim 14 further comprising caching said user lists in a server and controlling the user lists distribution by the server.

16. A method for sharing digital media content, the method comprising:

detecting, by a first device, of at least one other device;

establishing a connection to said one other device;

receiving identifiers from said one other device;

displaying the received identifiers on a user interface on the first device;

accepting a user'"'"'s selection of at least one of the identifiers using the user interface on the first device;

receiving a list of available media files from the at least one selected device;

displaying at least a portion of the list of available media files on the user interface on the first device;

accepting the user'"'"'s selection of at least one media file from the list of available media files;

receiving the at least one media file from one of the at least one selected devices; and

verifying that said first device has sufficient rights to play each of the received media files.

17. The method of claim 16 where the network is one of a wired and wireless network.

18. The method of claim 17 where said network is a wireless network using an IEEE 802.X protocol.

19. The method of claim 16 where an ad-hoc WiFi network is used to connect a device to at least one other device.

20. The method of claim 16 where said list of available media files includes one of a music file, an image file, a video file and a playlist.

21. The method of claim 16 wherein user devices are connected to the internet and at least one server is used to handle the connections between the devices and execute transfers of media files.

22. The method of claim 16 wherein at least one server is used to store one of lists and identifiers for later presentation so that the users do not need to be on line and connected simultaneously.

23. The method of claim 16 wherein the user uploads user-generated content to the server from a PC.

24. In a system having a plurality of networked devices, a method of sharing digital media content between the devices comprising:

providing a plurality of lists of content segments, each list being associated with content on one of said networked devices;

providing access to said lists by at least some of said networked devices; and

sharing said lists and said content segments between said networked devices using one of a one-to-one, one-to-many, many-to-many or many-to-one protocol.

25. The method of claim 24 further comprising identifying, by a first user, digital media of interest contained in a collection of digital media possessed by a second user;

determining when access to the collection of digital media possessed by the second user is available;

transmitting a request for the digital media content of interest; and

retrieving digital media content of interest.