Personalized Time-Shifted Programming

• US 20110016504A1
• Filed: 09/30/2010
• Published: 01/20/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 05/20/1998
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Audible Incorporated (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Audible Incorporated (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Inventors: Rajasekharan, Ajit, Story, Guy A., Mott, Timothy
• Granted Patent: US 8,572,272 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 725/115
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4325 by playing back content from the storage medium reproduction of recorded television signals H04N5/76; reproduction of recorded television signals H04N9/79
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4334 Recording operations recording of a television signal H04N5/76; arrangements for recording or accumulating broadcast information or broadcast-related information H04H60/27
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4335 Housekeeping operations, e.g. prioritizing content for deletion because of storage space restrictions storage management, e.g. defragmentation G06F3/0604; unloading stored programs G06F9/445; storage management in file systems G06F16/10; buffering arrangements in a network node or in an end terminal in packet networks H04L49/90
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/76 Television signal recording

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.

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.

2. The playback device of claim 1 wherein digital content corresponding to the respective content counter is updated based, at least in part, on the respective content counter

3. The playback device of claim 1 further comprising an interface coupled to the memory, the interface to receive digital content from a remote source.

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.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

maintaining a tail pointer for each selection that identifies a logical ending of the corresponding selection.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein maintaining the content counter further comprises:

setting the head pointer of the current selection to a current location of rendering in the current selection as identified by the content counter at an end of the rendering session.

7. The method of claim 4, wherein digital content corresponding to the respective content counter is updated based, at least in part, on the respective content counter.

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.

11. The playback device of claim 10, further comprising logic to update each head pointer to the current location in the digital selection as identified by the corresponding content counter at an end of the consumption session.

12. The playback device of claim 10, wherein a consumption session comprises rendering the digital selection.

13. The playback device of claim 11, further comprising logic to track the original location of the head pointer of each content selection and the current location of the head pointer of each content selection and automatically updating one or more of the digital content selections based on the content consumed as indicated by the difference between the original location of the head pointer and current location of the head pointer.

14. The playback device of claim 13, wherein the logic updates each content selection according to the preferences of a user of the playback device.

15. The playback device of claim 13, wherein the logic automatically deletes rendered content based on the content counters.

16. The playback device of claim 11, wherein the end of the consumption session occurs when the playback device is turned off.

17. The playback device of claim 11, wherein the end of the consumption session occurs when the rendering of a digital programming selection is stopped.

18. The playback device of claim 10, further comprising logic to render the digital selections.

19. The playback device of claim 10, further comprising logic to periodically update each head pointer to the current location in the digital selection as identified by the corresponding content counter during the consumption session.

20. The playback device of claim 10, further comprising logic that refers to the updated head pointer during a subsequent consumption session such that further consumption of the digital selection begins at a point in the digital selection designated by the updated head pointer.

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.

22. The method of claim 21, further comprising updating each head pointer to the current location in the digital selection as identified by the corresponding content counter at an end of the consumption session.

23. The method of claim 21, wherein a consumption session comprises rendering the digital selection.

24. The method of claim 21, further comprising tracking the original location of the head pointer of each content selection and the current location of the head pointer of each content selection and automatically updating one or more of the digital content selections based on the content consumed as indicated by the difference between the original location of the head pointer and current location of the head pointer.

25. The method of claim 24 further comprising updating each content selection according to the preferences of a user of the playback device.

26. The method of claim 24, further comprising automatically deleting rendered content based on the content counters.

27. The method of claim 22, wherein the end of the consumption session occurs when the playback device is turned off.

28. The method of claim 23, wherein the end of the consumption session occurs when the rendering of a digital programming selection is stopped.

29. The method of claim 21, further comprising rendering the digital selections.

30. The method of claim 21, further comprising periodically updating each head pointer to the current location in the digital selection as identified by the corresponding content counter during the consumption session.

31. The playback device of claim 21, further comprising referring to the updated head pointer during a subsequent consumption session such that further consumption of the digital selection begins at a point in the digital selection designated by the updated head pointer.