MEDIASET GENERATION SYSTEM

• US 20090210415A1
• Filed: 04/29/2009
• Published: 08/20/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 02/03/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Strands Incorporated (CRIBIS Holding SRL)
• Inventors: Caudevilla-Laliena, Guillermo, Torrens, Marc, Bartolome, David del Ser, Hangartner, Rick, Rowley, Craig, Martin, Francisco
• Granted Patent: US 8,583,671 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• 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 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/466 Learning process for intelligent management, e.g. learning user preferences for recommending movies services using the results of monitoring in broadcast systems H04H60/61
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4668 for recommending content, e.g. movies
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4825 using a list of items to be played back in a given order, e.g. playlists
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/163 by receiver means only

Abstract

Disclosed are various embodiments of systems and methods for generating composite mediasets from mediasets, each comprising media items, associated with a plurality of users. In some embodiments, individual and/or group recommendations are provided for creating a group playlist by aggregating user taste data for a plurality of users in a group. In other embodiments, systems and methods are provided which allow for sharing and playing of a group playlist by users in a group, each of which has a media playback device. Each media item, such as a song, is played from one of the individual user devices for the benefit of all users in the vicinity at the time. Music thus can be “shared” without transferring files potentially in violation of copyrights.

Claims

1. A system for building a composite playlist from the collective tastes of a plurality of users in a session, each having a separate media device, comprising:

a plurality of session managers, each associated with one of a plurality of media devices, wherein each session manager is configured to manage the status of the media device with which it is associated;

a playlist builder for receiving media item data from the plurality of media devices and for building a composite playlist of media data items from the media item data; and

a plurality of playlist managers, each associated with one of a plurality of media devices, wherein each playlist manager is configured to communicate with the playlist builder to send the media item data of the media device with which it is associated to the playlist builder,

and wherein each playlist manager is further configured to play the media data items on the composite playlist that are stored on the media device with which it is associated.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the media item data comprises media item taste data.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the media item data comprises metadata that identifies a playlist of playable media files.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the playlist builder resides on a central server.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the plurality of session managers reside on the server.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the session managers are configured to verify the eligibility of media devices to participate in the session.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein each playlist manager is configured to stream media files to other media players in the session.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the system is configured such that each media data item in the composite playlist is located on at least one of the media devices in the session, and wherein each individual media data item on the composite playlist is played at least substantially simultaneously on each of the media devices in the session by causing each of the media data items in the composite playlist to be streamed from its corresponding media device to each of the other media devices in the session.