SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR GENERATING A PLAYLIST FROM A MOOD GRADIENT

• US 20090063414A1
• Filed: 08/31/2007
• Published: 03/05/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 08/31/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: R2 Solutions LLC (Acacia Research Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Yahoo! Inc. (Apollo Global Management, Inc.)
• Inventors: WHITE, William, Slaney, Malcolm
• Granted Patent: US 8,583,615 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24 Querying
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/40 of multimedia data, e.g. slideshows comprising image and additional audio data retrieval of still image data G06F16/50; retrieval of audio data G06F16/60; retrieval of video data G06F16/70
• 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 16/634 Query by example, e.g. query by humming
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/638 Presentation of query results
• 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 16/683 using metadata automatically derived from the content
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04815 Interaction with a metaphor-based environment or interaction object displayed as three-dimensional, e.g. changing the user viewpoint with respect to the environment or object
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04817 using icons graphical or visual programming using iconic symbols G06F8/34
• 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: G11B 27/105 of operating discs

Abstract

Systems and methods for generating and playing a sequence of media objects based on a mood gradient are also disclosed. A mood gradient is a sequence of items, in which each item is media object having known characteristics or a representative set of characteristics of a media object, that is created or used by a user for a specific purpose. Given a mood gradient, one or more new media objects are selected for each item in the mood gradient based on the characteristics associated with that item. In this way, a sequence of new media objects is created but the sequence exhibits a similar variation in media object characteristics. The mood gradient may be presented to a user or created via a display illustrating a three-dimensional space in which each dimension corresponds to a different characteristic. The mood gradient may be represented as a path through the three-dimensional space and icons representing media objects are located within the three-dimensional space based on their characteristics.

Claims

1. A method of generating a playlist of songs comprising:

receiving a request for a playlist of songs;

retrieving a defined mood gradient containing a sequence of target value sets, each target value set including a plurality of values in which each value represents a different objective musical characteristic;

for each target value set in the mood gradient, selecting a song based on the plurality of values in the target value set; and

generating the playlist of songs, the playlist containing each selected song in the sequence of the mood gradient.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein retrieving a defined mood gradient further comprises:

identifying a user associated with the request; and

selecting the defined mood gradient based on the user associated with the request.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein retrieving a defined mood gradient further comprises:

selecting the defined mood gradient based on a mood gradient identifier contained in the request.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein selecting a song further comprises:

generating, based on audio data for each of a plurality of songs, a song value set associated with each song, each song value set including a plurality of values in which each value represents a different objective musical characteristic of the associated song; and

comparing the target value set to each of the song values sets.

5. The method of claim 4 further comprising:

selecting the song having the song value set that most closely matches the target value set.

6. The method of claim 4 further comprising:

identifying a set of similar songs having song value sets within a predetermined variation of the target value set; and

randomly selecting the song from the set of similar songs.

7. The method of claim 4 further comprising:

identifying a set of similar songs having song value sets within a predetermined variation of the target value set; and

filtering the set of similar songs based on one or more filter criteria; and

selecting the song from the filtered set of similar songs.

8. The method of claim 3 wherein the request for a playlist is received from a first user and the mood gradient was created by a second user different from the first user.

9. A computer-readable medium storing computer executable instruction for a method of storing playlist data, the method comprising:

receiving a request to create a mood gradient;

receiving a selection of songs in a sequence;

generating, based on audio data for each song in the sequence, a target value set associated with each song, each target value set including a plurality of values in which each value represents a different objective musical characteristic of the associated song; and

storing the target value sets and the sequence as the mood gradient.

10. The computer-readable medium of claim 9, wherein receiving a selection of songs further comprises:

displaying in a graphical user interface a plurality of songs including a first song and a second song as icons in a three-dimensional space; and

receiving a first user selection of a first icon in the graphical user interface representing the first song;

receiving a second user selection of a second icon in the graphical user interface representing a second song; and

displaying a path through the three-dimensional space between the first icon and the second icon.

11. The computer-readable medium of claim 9, wherein the method further comprises:

accessing a datastore of value sets for different songs;

searching the datastore for value sets for at least one song in the sequence; and

retrieving the target value sets associated with the at least one song in the sequence.

12. The computer-readable medium of claim 9, wherein the method further comprises:

storing the mood gradient with information identifying a user associated with the request.

13. The computer-readable medium of claim 9, wherein the method further comprises:

storing the mood gradient in a remote location.

14. A system for generating a playlist comprising:

an analysis module that analyzes songs and, for each song, generates a value set, each value set including a value for each of at least three objective characteristics of the associated song;

a datastore containing plurality of value sets, each value set associated with a different song;

a user interface module that receives a user selection of a mood gradient, the mood gradient corresponding to a group of selected value sets in a sequence; and

a playlist generator module that selects a recommended song corresponding to each selected value set in the mood gradient.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the playlist generator module further generates a playlist including the selected recommended songs corresponding to each of the group of selected value sets in the sequence.

16. The system of claim 14, wherein the user interface module further generates a three-dimensional user interface in a display device connected to the media rendering system, the user interface configured to represent a three-dimensional space including at least one first icon representing a first song located in the three-dimensional space based on the values of three of the objective characteristics of the first song.

17. The system of claim 14, wherein the user interface module receives from the user a first selection of songs in a sequence and a request to generate a playlist containing a second selection of songs based on the first selection of songs.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the first selection of songs contains a first song and a second song in a predetermined sequence and the second selection of songs contains a third song selection based on its similarity to the first song and a fourth song selected based on its similarity to the second song.

19. The system of claim 18 wherein the third song and fourth song are in the same sequence as the first song and the second song.

20. The system of claim 14 further comprising:

a media player that renders songs in accordance with commands received from a user, wherein the user interface module provides an interface for the media player through which the user may control the selection and rendering of songs to the user.