CLIENT-SIDE AUDIO SIGNAL MIXING ON LOW COMPUTATIONAL POWER PLAYER USING BEAT METADATA

• US 20090157203A1
• Filed: 12/17/2007
• Published: 06/18/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 12/17/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Precious, Andy, Mehrotra, Sanjeev, Smirnov, Serge, Bregar, John
• Granted Patent: US 8,426,715 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 700/94
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 20/10527 Audio or video recording; Data buffering arrangements G11B20/12 - G11B20/18 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 2020/10546 specifically adapted for audio data
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/10 Indexing; Addressing; Timing or synchronising; Measuring tape travel

Abstract

A low computational power digital audio player achieves beat continuous transitioning between digital audio pieces based on beat metadata, which can be generated via offline processing on a higher computational power computer or via background or idle processing on the digital audio player. The digital audio player produces playlists of beat matching compatible songs based on the metadata, or pick lists of songs that are beat matching compatible with a currently playing song. By facilitating selection of songs with beat matching compatible tempos based on metadata, the beat continuous transitions can be achieved without altering the beat tempo of digital audio pieces, or with simple resampling.

Claims

1. A method of combining audio tracks on a digital audio media player device, the method comprising:

using computational resources separate from playing digital audio media content on the digital audio media player device, performing digital analysis of digital audio media content for beat detection;

producing metadata for the digital audio media content containing information as to beat tempo and phase of the digital audio media content;

utilizing the beat tempo and phase information from the metadata and using computational resources of the digital audio media player device for playing digital audio media, playing a combination of two pieces of the digital audio media content on the digital audio media player device.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein playing the combination of two pieces of the digital audio media content comprises performing beat rate and time alignment of the two pieces of digital audio media content to transition with beat continuity between playing first and second of the two pieces of digital media audio content.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein using computational resources separate from playing digital audio media content on the digital audio media player device comprises performing the digital analysis using offline processing on a separate computing device.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein using computational resources separate from playing digital audio media content on the digital audio media player device comprises performing the digital analysis as a background process on the digital audio media player device.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein utilizing the beat tempo and phase information from the metadata comprises sorting songs in a playlist by tempo.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein utilizing the beat tempo and phase information from the metadata comprises producing a playlist of songs selected to have beat matching compatibility from a music library on the digital audio media player device.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein producing the playlist comprises:

selecting a next song from the music library that is beat matching compatible with its predecessor in the playlist within a first tempo tolerance threshold permitting beat matching without altering beat tempo of the songs;

if no song within the first tempo tolerance threshold is found in the music library, selecting a next song from the music library that is beat matching compatible with its predecessor in the playlist within a second tempo tolerance threshold permitting beat matching using resampling.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein utilizing the beat tempo and phase information from the metadata comprises producing a pick list of songs that have beat matching compatibility with a currently playing song from a music library on the digital audio media player device for user selection of a next song to play after the current song with a beat continuous transition from the currently playing song.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein utilizing the beat tempo and phase information from the metadata further comprises, for each song on the pick list, providing an indication of a number of songs that have beat matching compatibility with the respective pick list song from a music library on the digital audio media player device.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein the beat tempo and phase information for a piece of digital audio media content comprises a tempo curve representing beat tempo for the digital audio media content piece as a function of time.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein the metadata further comprises information as to a genre of a piece of digital audio media content.

12. A portable digital audio media player device featuring beat continuous transitions between consecutively played pieces of digital audio media content using low computational power, the portable digital audio media player device comprising:

memory for storing a music library containing a plurality of pieces of digital audio media content and metadata comprising information of beat tempo and phase of the digital audio media content pieces;

means for selecting a sequence of at least two digital audio media content pieces from the music library that are beat matching compatible based on the metadata; and

means for playing the sequence of at least two digital audio media content pieces with a beat continuous transition between successive pieces of the sequence.

13. The portable digital audio media player device of claim 12 where the means for selecting a sequence comprises means for sorting a playlist comprising a subset of the digital audio media content pieces by tempo based on the metadata.

14. The portable digital audio media player device of claim 12 where the means for selecting a sequence comprises means for producing a playlist having a plurality of digital audio media content pieces from the music library that are within a tempo tolerance threshold based on the metadata.

15. The portable digital audio media player device of claim 14 where the means producing a playlist further operates to first select digital audio media content pieces from the music library based on the metadata that are within a first tempo tolerance threshold permitting beat matching without altering beat tempo, and if no pieces from the music library are within the first tempo tolerance, to next select digital audio media content pieces from the music library based on the metadata that are within a second tempo tolerance threshold permitting beat matching using simple resampling.

16. The portable digital audio media player device of claim 12 where the means for selecting a sequence comprises means for producing a pick list of digital audio content pieces from the music library based on the metadata that are beat matching compatible with a currently playing digital audio content piece.

17. The portable digital audio media player device of claim 16 wherein the pick list further comprises an indication for each listed digital audio content piece of a number of further digital audio content pieces from the music library based on the metadata that are beat matching compatible with the respective listed digital audio content piece.

18. A method of consecutively playing pieces of digital audio media content with beat continuous transitions on a portable digital audio media player device using low computational power, the method comprising:

storing a music library containing a plurality of pieces of digital audio media content and metadata comprising information of beat tempo and phase of the digital audio media content pieces;

selecting a sequence of at least two digital audio media content pieces from the music library that are beat matching compatible based on the metadata; and

means for playing the sequence of at least two digital audio media content pieces with a beat continuous transition between successive pieces of the sequence.

19. The method of claim 18 wherein said selecting a sequence comprises producing a playlist of at least two digital audio media content pieces from the music library sorted by tempo based on the metadata.

20. The method of claim 18 wherein said selecting a sequence comprises producing a pick list of digital audio content pieces from the music library based on the metadata that are beat matching compatible with a currently playing digital audio content piece, wherein the pick list further comprises an indication for each listed digital audio content piece of a number of further digital audio content pieces from the music library based on the metadata that are beat matching compatible with the respective listed digital audio content piece.