METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR IDENTIFYING AND SCHEDULING INTERNET RADIO PROGRAMMING

• US 20100153572A1
• Filed: 12/11/2008
• Published: 06/17/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 12/11/2008
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Motorola Mobility, Inc. (Lenovo Group Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Motorola, Inc. (Motorola Solutions, Inc.)
• Inventors: Ma, Jie, Feig, Ephraim
• Application Number:
  US12/332,635
• Publication Number:
  US 20100153572A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/231
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/635 Filtering based on additional data, e.g. user or group profiles
• 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: H04H 20/82 using signals not modulated onto a carrier
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/46 for recognising users' preferences
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/66 for using the result on distributors' side
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/62 Establishing a time schedule for servicing the requests

Abstract

A client device includes a network interface for receiving media content streamed over a network and a media player for rendering the media content. The client device also includes a content scheduling module configured to identify, schedule and access over the network selected media content items in accordance with a user profile. The content scheduling module is configured to search an online database to identify the selected media content that conforms to the user profile.

Claims

1. At least one computer-readable medium encoded with instructions which, when executed by a processor, performs a method including:

receiving a user profile specifying at least one criterion for identifying digital media content to be streamed to a user over a network by one or more media distribution systems;

searching an online database for selected media content that conforms to the user profile; and

accessing the selected media content so that it is streamed to the user over the network in conformance with the user profile.

2. The computer-readable medium of claim 1 wherein the media content is Internet radio programming.

3. The computer-readable medium of claim 1 wherein the online database is an Internet radio aggregator.

4. The computer-readable medium of claim 1 wherein the selected media content includes a plurality of selected content items and further comprising obtaining search results that include a network address for each server that is or will be streaming each of the selected content items.

5. The computer-readable medium of claim 4 further comprising accessing the selected content items by establishing communication with the servers at the network addresses provided in the search results.

6. The computer-readable medium of claim 4 wherein the selected media content includes a plurality of selected content items and further comprising scheduling each of the selected content items so that they are accessed and streamed to the user in accordance with a schedule set forth in the user profile.

7. The computer-readable medium of claim 1 wherein the online database is searched by a plug-in to a browser or a media player.

8. The computer-readable medium of claim 1 wherein the online database is searched by an extension to a browser or a media player.

9. The computer-readable medium of claim 1 further comprising presenting to the user a menu of fields in which keywords are to be entered by the user to create the user profile.

10. A client device, comprising:

a network interface for receiving media content streamed over a network;

a media player for rendering the media content; and

a content scheduling module configured to identify, schedule and access over the network selected media content items in accordance with a user profile,

wherein the content scheduling module is configured to search an online database to identify the selected media content that conforms to the user profile.

11. The client device of claim 10 wherein the network interface includes a broadband modem.

12. The client device of claim 10 wherein the content scheduling module includes a user interface for establishing the user profile.

13. The client device of claim 10 wherein the content scheduling module is a plug-in or extension to the media player.

14. The client device of claim 10 further comprising a browser for accessing over the network a media aggregator that is used by the content scheduling module to identify the selected media content items.

15. The client device of claim 10 wherein the media content is Internet radio programming.

16. At least one computer-readable medium encoded with instructions which, when executed by a processor, performs a method including:

receiving a plurality of user profiles from different users, wherein each user profile specifies at least one criterion for identifying digital media content to be streamed to a user over a network by one or more media distribution systems;

searching an online database to identify selected media content items that conform to each of the user profiles;

creating for each user a programming schedule scheduling a time at which each user'"'"'s selected media content item will be streamed by its respective media distribution system; and

delivering the programming schedules to their respective users so that the content items can be streamed to the user over the network in conformance with the user profile.

17. The computer-readable medium of claim 16 wherein the programming schedules include for each content item a network identifier for accessing the media distribution system that streams the content item.

18. The computer-readable medium of claim 16 wherein the online database is maintained by an Internet radio aggregator.

19. The computer-readable medium of claim 18 wherein the receiving, searching, creating and delivering steps are performed by the Internet radio aggregator.