Media Asset Rating System

• US 20090063543A1
• Filed: 09/04/2007
• Published: 03/05/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 09/04/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Robbin, Jeffrey L., Heller, David, Martin, Timothy, Jones, Anne
• Granted Patent: US 8,046,369 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• 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 16/78 Retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manually
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising

Abstract

Improved techniques for assigning ratings to media assets are disclosed. A rating for a media asset collection can, for example, be determined by examining the ratings of all user-rated media assets in that media asset collection. Additionally or alternately, a rating for media assets in a group of media assets can, for example, be determined by examining the rating of the group of media assets.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for assigning ratings to media assets, said method comprising:

determining a rating for an unrated media asset collection based on the user-ratings of one or more user-rated media assets in the media asset collection.

2. A computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

assigning a rating to one or more unrated media assets in a user-rated media asset collection based on the user-rating of the user-rated media asset collection.

3. A computer-implemented method as recited in claim 2, wherein the rating that is assigned to each of the one or more unrated media assets in a user-rated media asset collection is equal to the user-rating of the user-rated media asset collection.

4. A computer-implemented method as recited in claim 1, wherein the rating for the unrated media asset collection is calculated by taking the average user-rating of the one or more user-rated media assets in the unrated media asset collection.

5. A media management system, comprising:

a rating module that is configured to (i) determine a rating for a user-unrated media asset collection based on prior user ratings of one or more of the media assets in the media asset collection; and

(ii) determine a rating for one or more user-unrated media assets in a user-rated media asset collection based on the user-rating of the user-rated media asset collection.

6. A media management system as recited in claim 5, wherein said rating module further comprises:

assigning the determined rating for the one or more user-unrated media assets in the user-related media asset collection to the one or more user-unrated media assets in the user-rated media asset collection; and

assigning the determined rating for the user-unrated media asset collection to the media asset collection.

7. A media management system as recited in claim 7, wherein the rating that is assigned to each of the one or more user-unrated media assets in the user-rated media asset collection is equal to the user-rating of the user-rated media asset collection.

8. A media management system as recited in claim 7, wherein the rating for the user-unrated media asset collection is calculated by taking the average user-rating of the one or more user-rated media assets in the user-unrated media asset collection.

9. A computer-implemented method for assigning ratings to media assets, comprising:

receiving a user collection rating for a collection including a plurality of tracks; and

assigning the user collection rating to those of the tracks within the collection that have not been previously user-rated.

10. A computer-implemented method as recited in claim 9, wherein said method further comprises:

receiving a user track rating associated with a particular one of the tracks;

assigning the user track rating to the particular one of the tracks;

determining whether the collection has been previously user-rated;

determining a computed track rating based on the tracks of the collection that have been previously rated by the user; and

assigning the computed track rating to the collection as a calculated collection rating if the collection is determined not to have been previously user-rated.

11. A computer-implemented method as recited in claim 10, wherein the computed track rating is an average track rating for the tracks that have been previously rated by the user.

12. A method as recited in claim 10, wherein the collection is an album and the tracks are songs.

13. A computer readable medium including at least executable computer program code tangibly stored thereon for assigning ratings to media assets, said computer readable medium comprising:

computer program code for receiving a user collection rating for a collection including a plurality of tracks;

computer program code for assigning the user collection rating to those of the tracks within the collection that have not been previously user-rated;

computer program code for receiving a user track rating associated with a particular one of the tracks;

computer program code for assigning the user track rating to the particular one of the tracks;

computer program code for determining whether the collection has been previously user-rated;

computer program code for determining a computed track rating based on the tracks of the collection that have been previously rated by the user; and

computer program code for assigning the computed track rating to the collection as a calculated collection rating if the collection is determined not to have been previously user-rated.

14. A computer-implemented method as recited in claim 13, wherein the computed track rating is an average track rating.