Methods and Systems for Transmitting Playlists

• US 20150286461A1
• Filed: 04/03/2014
• Published: 10/08/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 04/03/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sonos, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Sonos, Inc.
• Inventors: Trammell, Mark
• Granted Patent: US 9,705,950 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/29 Geographical information databases
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/735 Filtering based on additional data, e.g. user or group profiles
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9537 Spatial or temporal dependent retrieval, e.g. spatiotemporal queries
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/165 Management of the audio stream, e.g. setting of volume, audio stream path
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/60 Network streaming of media packets
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/612 for unicast
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/06 specially adapted for file transfer, e.g. file transfer protocol [FTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/52 specially adapted for the location of the user terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/535 Tracking the activity of the user network monitoring arrangements H04L43/00; recording of computer activity G06F11/34
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/25841 involving the geographical location of the client retrieval from the Internet by querying based on geographical locations G06F16/9537; arrangements for identifying locations of receiving stations in broadcast systems H04H60/51; location of the user terminal in data switching networks H04L67/52; services making use of the location of users or terminals in wireless networks H04W4/02; locating users or terminals in wireless networks H04W64/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/41265 having a remote control device for bidirectional communication between the remote control device and client device unidirectional remote control device H04N21/42204
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/43615 Interfacing a Home Network, e.g. for connecting the client to a plurality of peripherals home Audio Video Interoperability [HAVI] data switching networks H04L12/2805
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8456 by decomposing the content in the time domain, e.g. in time segments
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 2227/005 Audio distribution systems for home, i.e. multi-room use
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 27/00 Public address systems circuits for preventing acoustic reaction H04R3/02; circuits for distributing signals to loudspeakers H04R3/12; monitoring or testing arrangements for public address systems H04R29/007; amplifiers H03F
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services

Abstract

An example method includes receiving an indication that a user was at a location at a particular time; identifying at least one portion of media content playing at the location at the particular time; and transmitting data that indicates the identified at least one portion of media content to a computing device associated with the user. A second example method includes transmitting an indication that a user was at a location at a particular time; receiving data identifying at least one portion of media content played by a second playback device at the location at the particular time when the user was at the location; and causing, by the control device, a graphical display to display the data identifying the at least one portion of media content played at the location at the particular time when the user was at the location.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving an indication that a user was at a location at a particular time;

identifying at least one portion of media content playing at the location at the particular time; and

transmitting data that indicates the identified at least one portion of media content to a computing device associated with the user.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving the indication that the user was at the location at the particular time comprises receiving a location message that originated from the computing device associated with the user.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving the indication that the user was at the location at the particular time comprises receiving an indication that the user conducted a financial transaction at the location.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying the at least one portion of media content playing at the location at the particular time comprises identifying a plurality of portions of media content playing at the location during a time period that includes the particular time, and wherein transmitting the data that indicates the at least one portion of media content comprises transmitting data that indicates the plurality of portions of media content playing at the location during the time period that includes the particular time.

5. The method of claim 4, the method further comprising:

receiving, from a computing device associated with the user, data indicating the time period that includes the particular time;

identifying the plurality of portions of media content based on the data indicating the time period; and

transmitting the data that indicates the plurality of portions of media content identified based on the data indicating the time period.

6. The method of claim 1, the method further comprising:

before identifying the at least one portion of media content, receiving data indicating a playback zone corresponding to a media playback system that played the at least one portion of media content at the location.

7. The method of claim 1, the method further comprising:

before transmitting the data that indicates the identified at least one portion of media content, identifying a media playback system associated with the user, wherein transmitting the data that indicates the identified at least one portion of media content comprises transmitting the data that indicates the identified at least one portion of media content to the media playback system associated with the user.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein transmitting the data that indicates the identified at least one portion of media content to the media playback system associated with the user comprises transmitting the data to a control device configured to control the media playback system associated with the user.

9. The method of claim 1, the method further comprising:

receiving an indication that a control device is accessing a media playback system; and

based on receiving the indication that the control device is accessing the media playback system, transmitting the data that indicates the at least one portion of media content to the control device.

10. A method comprising:

transmitting, by a control device configured to control a first playback device, an indication that a user was at a location at a particular time;

receiving, at the control device, data identifying at least one portion of media content played by a second playback device, wherein the at least one portion of media content was played by the second playback device at the location at the particular time when the user was at the location; and

causing, by the control device, a graphical display to display the data identifying the at least one portion of media content played at the location at the particular time when the user was at the location.

11. The method of claim 10, the method further comprising:

receiving data identifying a plurality of portions of media content played during a time period that includes the particular time; and

causing the graphical display to display the data identifying the plurality of portions of media content played during the time period that includes the particular time.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein causing the graphical display to display the data identifying the plurality of portions of media content played during the time period that includes the particular time comprises causing the graphical display to display a list of the plurality of portions of media content played during the time period that includes the particular time sorted by the respective locations where the plurality of portions of media content were played.

13. The method of claim 11, the method further comprising:

causing the graphical display to display an indication of a specific portion of media content of the plurality of portions of media content that was played at the location at the particular time.

14. The method of claim 10, the method further comprising:

receiving an input indicating a selection of a portion of the at least one portion of media content; and

causing, based on the received input, the graphical display to display information corresponding to the selected portion of media content.

15. The method of claim 10, the method further comprising:

receiving an input indicating to remove information from the graphical display; and

causing, based on the received input, the graphical display to remove the information from the graphical display.

16. The method of claim 10, the method further comprising causing the graphical display to display an indication of a portion of media content that is available for playback via a media streaming service, wherein the portion of media content is available for playback upon subscribing to the media streaming service.

17. The method of claim 10, the method further comprising causing the graphical display to display a list of the at least one portion of media content sorted in chronological order based on when the at least one portion of media content was played by the second playback device.

18. A computing device comprising:

a processor; and

memory storing instructions that when executed by the processor cause the computing device to perform functions, the functions comprising;

receiving an indication that a user was at a location at a particular time;

identifying at least one portion of media content playing at the location at the particular time; and

transmitting data that indicates the identified at least one portion of media content to a computing device associated with the user.

19. The computing device of claim 18, wherein identifying the at least one portion of media content playing at the location at the particular time comprises identifying a plurality of portions of media content playing at the location during a time period that includes the particular time, and wherein transmitting the data that indicates the at least one portion of media content comprises transmitting data that indicates the plurality of portions of media content playing at the location during the time period that includes the particular time.

20. The computing device of claim 18, wherein the functions further comprise:

receiving, from a computing device associated with the user, data indicating the time period that includes the particular time;

identifying the plurality of portions of media content based on the data indicating the time period; and

transmitting the data that indicates the plurality of portions of media content identified based on the data indicating the time period.