METHOD OF DEFINING A COLLECTION OF DIGITAL MEDIA CONTENT

• US 20120197897A1
• Filed: 05/11/2010
• Published: 08/02/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 05/11/2009
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Omnifone Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Omnifone Ltd.
• Inventors: Knight, Mark, Sant, Philip, Evans, Christopher, White, Matthew, Stead, Roy
• Application Number:
  US13/319,927
• Publication Number:
  US 20120197897A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/740
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/435 Filtering based on additional data, e.g. user or group profiles
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/4387 by the use of playlists
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/1078 Logging; Metering
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2101 Auditing as a secondary aspect
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2151 Time stamp
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2541 Rights Management protecting software against unauthorised usage in a vending or licensing environment G06F21/10; security in data switching network management H04L41/28; security management or policies for network security H04L63/20; access security in wireless networks H04W12/08
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/25808 Management of client data terminal profiles in network data switching protocols H04L67/303
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/25883 being end-user demographical data, e.g. age, family status or address arrangements for identifying locations of users in broadcast systems H04H60/52
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/25891 being end-user preferences retrieval of video data in a video database based on user preferences G06F16/739; arrangements for recognizing users' preferences H04H60/46; 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 21/26258 for generating a list of items to be played back in a given order, e.g. playlist, or scheduling item distribution according to such list retrieval of multimedia data based on playlists G06F16/40
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4143 embedded in a Personal Computer [PC]
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44222 Analytics of user selections, e.g. selection of programs or purchase activity monitoring of user selections in data processing systems G06F11/34; arrangements for monitoring the user's behaviour or opinions in broadcast systems H04H60/33
• 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 21/4825 using a list of items to be played back in a given order, e.g. playlists
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/84 Generation or processing of descriptive data, e.g. content descriptors systems specially adapted for using meta-information in broadcast systems H04H60/73

Abstract

A method for defining a collection of digital media content for playback using a digital media player where (a) the collection is defined using specific criteria; and (b) the collection is not static but can alter or grow even after being made available to the digital media player; and (c) the said digital media files form a subset of a catalogue of digital media files available for the digital media player to play.

Claims

1. A method for defining a collection of digital media files for playback using a digital media player where (a) the collection is defined using specific criteria;

and (b) the collection is not static but can alter or grow even after being made available to the digital media player; and

(c) the digital media files form a subset of a catalogue of digital media files available for the digital media player to play.

2. The method of claim 1 where the criteria include one or more of the genre, digital media type, a “

mood”

label, artist(s), composer(s), editorial input, playback metrics or any other criteria defined or calculated for the digital media files.

3. The method of claim 2 where the digital media type is one or more of video, music, television shows, movies, fiction, non-fiction, books, magazines, eBooks, scientific papers, articles or any other category of digital media content.

4. The method of claim 2 where the editorial input involves the inclusion of tracks specifically chosen for inclusion in a given collection of digital media content, whether by direct selection by individuals or by the definition of additional criteria for a channel by the individuals.

5. The method of claim 2 where the playback metrics include one or more of user playback metrics or user purchasing data for one or more users of a digital media service.

6. The method of claim 5 where the one or more users of a digital media service are defined using demographic data concerning the users including one or more of user age, location, social group, device type(s), income, self-identified group labels or any other demographic data.

7. The method of claim 1 where the criteria includes one or more of recommendations of digital media content for the user, the availability of digital media content to the user or any other customisation criteria.

8. The method of claim 7 where the availability of the digital media content is calculated using one or more of the Digital Rights Management licenses for specific digital media items, the device or device type on which the user is presently accessing a service, the terms under which the user is accessing a digital media service, the content present on the device or the digital media playback capabilities of the device or any other mechanism for determining the availability of digital media items to the user.

9. The method of claim 1 where the collection of digital media files is provided to the digital media player in batches rather than as a single listing of all digital media files in the collection.

10. The method of claim 9 where the digital media files included in any given batch is determined such that any given batch contains a random collection of the digital media tracks available within the collection of digital media tracks.

11. The method of claim 1 where the content of a batch of digital media files defined for the collection is recorded such that it may be retrieved, in whole or in part, by the digital media player while the collection is available to that digital media player.

12. The method of claim 1 where any or all of the criteria, including the customisation criteria if applicable, are used in combination to define the said collection.

13. The method of claim 12 where the criteria are assigned weightings, whether automatically or manually, to determine the relative contribution of that criterion to the digital media files included in the collection.

14. The method of claim 1 where the user is able to define, in whole or in part, the criteria used to create a given collection of digital media tracks.

15. The method of claim 1 where the collection is capable of having an associated start date, before which the collection is unavailable to the user, and/or an expiration date or time period, after which the collection is unavailable to the user.

16. The method of claim 1 where the digital media player presents more than one collection to the user, whether individually or by grouping collections or by grouping groups of collections, and permits the user to choose which collection to play.

17. The method of claim 1 where the user is able to continue operating the device without interrupting playback of the collection on that device, such operations including but not being limited to the construction of playlists of digital media files and/or the definition of criteria for collections.

18. The method of claim 1 where the digital media files are metadata or computational objects which describe, identify or correspond to digital media files.

19. The method of claim 1 where the digital media player is a software application operating on a computing device and the computing device is one or more of a personal computer, a gaming console, a television, an eBook reader, a mobile computing device or any other computing device.

20. The method of claim 1 where the collection is not fully defined prior to being made available to the digital media player but can be dynamically altered or grown.

21. The method of claim 1 where the defining of the collection is done automatically

22. The method of claim 1 where the collection is a persistent playlist.

23. The method of claim 1 where the collection is a persistent stream.

24. The method of claim 1 where the collection is customised for a specific end user.

25. The method of claim 1 where the collection is not limited as to the number of digital media items which it may contain.

26. A computer program adapted to perform the method of claim 1.

27. A digital media player including a computer program adapted to perform the method of claim 1, or operating as the client element in a client-server program adapted to perform the method of claim 1.