Personalized Time-Shifted Programming
First Claim
1. A playback device comprising:
- a memory to store a plurality of digital content selections;
logic to maintain a head pointer identifying a logical beginning of each selection in memory; and
logic circuitry, coupled to the memory, to maintain a content counter, wherein the counter is initially set to the head pointer of the corresponding selection and wherein the counter advances through the corresponding selection in memory during a rendering session.a memory to store digital content;
circuitry, coupled to the memory, to maintain multiple content counters, wherein the content counters indicate a current location of consumption for corresponding digital content.
0 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A method and apparatus for personalized time-shifted programming. Digital content is retrieved, for example, from a digital library. Once retrieved, the content is stored locally, for example, on a personal computer. The locally stored content is transferred, in whole or in part, to a playback device that allows a user to listen to the content of the playback device. In one embodiment, the user may designate portions of a playback time provided by the playback device to various selections. For example, with a playback device that provides two hours of content, a user may wish to listen to one half hour of news, one half hour of a series and one hour of an book. Thus, the user may partition one quarter of playback time to each of news and the series and one half of the playback time to the book. In one embodiment, the present invention provides different automatic update techniques for the playback device that may be selected by the user based on how the content is to be used For example, the news portion may be one half hour of the most recent news available from a particular source. The series may be the most recent episode in the series, whether or not the user has listened to other stored episodes. The book portion may provide one hour of the book from the most recent stopping place each time the playback device is coupled to the library retrieval device.
-
Citations
31 Claims
-
1. A playback device comprising:
-
a memory to store a plurality of digital content selections; logic to maintain a head pointer identifying a logical beginning of each selection in memory; and logic circuitry, coupled to the memory, to maintain a content counter, wherein the counter is initially set to the head pointer of the corresponding selection and wherein the counter advances through the corresponding selection in memory during a rendering session. a memory to store digital content; circuitry, coupled to the memory, to maintain multiple content counters, wherein the content counters indicate a current location of consumption for corresponding digital content. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3)
-
-
4. A method comprising:
-
storing a plurality of digital content selections; maintaining a head pointer for each selection that identifies a logical beginning of the corresponding selection; and maintaining a content counter comprising; setting the content counter to the head pointer of a current selection to be rendered during a rendering session; and advancing the content counter through the current selection during the rendering session. - View Dependent Claims (5, 6, 7)
-
-
8. A method comprising:
-
storing a plurality of digital content selections; maintaining a content counter for each of the plurality of digital content selections, wherein the content counter indicates a current location of consumption for corresponding digital content selection; and updating the content counters based on the consumption of the respective digital content selection.
-
-
9. The method of claim 79 wherein digital content selections corresponding to the respective content counters are updated based, at least in part, on the respective content counters.
-
10. A playback device comprising:
-
a plurality of digital selections stored in memory; logic to set a head pointer identifying a logical beginning and a tail pointer identifying a logical ending of each digital selection; and logic which provides a content counter, wherein the content counter is initially set to the head pointer of the corresponding digital selection and, wherein the content counter advances through the corresponding digital selection in memory during a consumption session. - View Dependent Claims (11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20)
-
-
21. A method for storing and playing electronic content on a playback device comprising:
-
storing a plurality of digital selections stored in memory; setting a head pointer identifying a logical beginning and a tail pointer identifying a logical ending of each digital selection; and providing a content counter, wherein the content counter is initially set to the head pointer of the corresponding digital selection and, wherein the content counter advances through the corresponding digital selection in memory during a consumption session. - View Dependent Claims (22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31)
-
Specification