CUSTOMIZED PLAYBACK OF BROADCAST MEDIA

• US 20110129201A1
• Filed: 11/30/2009
• Published: 06/02/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 11/30/2009
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: McLean, James G.
• Application Number:
  US12/628,170
• Publication Number:
  US 20110129201A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 386/296
• 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 21/4532 involving end-user characteristics, e.g. viewer profile, preferences monitoring of user activities for profile generation for accessing a video database G06F16/739; user profiles in network data switching protocols H04L67/306; processing of user preferences or user profiles in wireless networks H04W8/18
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/458 Scheduling content for creating a personalised stream, e.g. by combining a locally stored advertisement with an incoming stream; Updating operations, e.g. for OS modules ; time-related management operations arrangements for replacing or switching information during the broadcast or during the distribution H04H20/10
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4755 for defining user preferences, e.g. favourite actors or genre retrieval personalisation and generation of user profiles for the retrieval of video data G06F16/739; user profiles in network data switching protocols H04L67/306
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8113 comprising music, e.g. song in MP3 format
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8456 by decomposing the content in the time domain, e.g. in time segments
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/782 on tape

Abstract

One embodiment provides a method of providing a controlled, customized playback of broadcast media, such as satellite radio or television. A subset of preferred channels is identified from a set of available broadcast channels. Each broadcast channel provides streaming content including media segments and, optionally, segment tags marking the beginning and end of each media segment. Complete media segments of the streamed content from the preferred channels are received and stored. A plurality of queues is maintained. The received content from each channel is placed in one of the queues in the order received. A customized playback sequence is generated. In generating the customized playback sequence, the queued media segments are selected according to channel-selection criteria, and each media segment is played back in its entirety.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

identifying a subset of preferred channels from a set of available broadcast channels, each broadcast channel providing streaming content including media segments;

receiving and storing complete media segments of the streamed content from the preferred channels;

maintaining a plurality of queues, including placing the received content from each channel in one of the queues in the order received;

generating a customized playback sequence by selecting the queued media segments according to channel-selection criteria; and

playing back media segments according to the customized playback sequence.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the queues are equal in number to the subset of preferred channels, and wherein each queue is associated with a respective one of the preferred channels.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving segment tags identifying the beginning and end of each media segment; and

playing back each media segment in the playback sequence from beginning to end as identified by the segment tags.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

including a channel rating for each of the preferred channels in the channel-selection criteria; and

selecting the queued media segments from each queue at a frequency weighted according to the channel rating of the associated channel.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the channel rating includes one or more of a star rating, a numerical rating, or a text rating.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of generating the customized playback sequence further comprises identifying the queue having a most recently received and stored media segment and adding a media segment from the bottom of the identified queue to the playback sequence.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

periodically inserting a media segment from a specific queue into the playback sequence at a defined interval.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

dynamically adding channels to the preferred subset of channels and removing channels from the preferred subset of channels in response to user input.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

generating a user interface listing the available channels and providing a toggle selector for dynamically adding and removing the available channels from the subset of preferred channels;

adding an available channel to the subset of preferred channels in response to toggling the respective toggle selector from a first state to a second state; and

removing an available channel from the subset of preferred channels in response to toggling the respective toggle selector from the second state to the first state.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the broadcast channels are streamed on a broadcast medium selected from the group consisting of airwaves, cable, and satellite.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the selection criteria include prior usage patterns.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

uniquely associating the subset of preferred channels with a button; and

in response to activating of the button, setting the preferred subset as the subset associated with the activated button.

13. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

uniquely associating each of a plurality of different subsets of the available channels with a corresponding plurality of buttons; and

in response to activating of one of the buttons, setting the preferred subset as the subset associated with the activated button.

14. A streaming media playback system, comprising:

a receiver configured for receiving and storing selected portions of a digitally-encoded multi-channel broadcast;

a digital decoder for decoding the multi-channel broadcast;

a demultiplexer for separating the multi-channel broadcast into separate channels;

a sequence generator for applying predefined channel-selection criteria to select channels, selecting complete media segments to be stored from the selected channels, queuing the stored media segments, and generating a playback sequence from the queued media segments; and

a media player for playing back all of the queued media content according to the playback sequence.

15. The streaming media playback system of claim 14, wherein the sequence generator is configured to maintain a separate queue for each selected channel.

16. A computer program product including computer usable program code embodied on a computer usable storage medium for providing a customized playback of streamed multimedia content, the computer program product including:

computer usable program code for identifying a subset of preferred channels from a set of available broadcast channels, each broadcast channel providing streaming content including media segments;

computer usable program code for receiving and storing complete media segments of the streamed content from the preferred channels;

computer usable program code for maintaining a plurality of queues, including placing the received content from each channel in one of the queues in the order received;

computer usable program code for generating a customized playback sequence by selecting the queued media segments according to channel-selection criteria; and

computer usable program code for playing back media segments according to the customized playback sequence.

17. The computer program product of claim 16, further comprising:

computer usable program code for receiving segment tags identifying the beginning and end of each media segment; and

computer usable program code for playing back each media segment in the playback sequence from beginning to end as identified by the segment tags.

18. The computer program product of claim 16, further comprising:

computer usable program code for including a channel rating for each of the preferred channels in the channel-selection criteria; and

computer usable program code for selecting the queued media segments from each queue at a frequency weighted according to the channel rating of the associated channel.

19. The computer program product of claim 18, wherein the channel rating includes one or more of a star rating, a numerical rating, or a text rating.

20. The computer program product of claim 16, wherein the computer usable program code for generating the customized playback sequence includes computer usable program code for identifying the queue having a most recently received and stored media segment and adding a media segment from the bottom of the identified queue to the playback sequence.