Streaming media search and continuous playback of multiple media resources located on a network

• US 6,519,648 B1
• Filed: 07/11/2000
• Issued: 02/11/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 01/24/2000
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Friskit
• Original Assignee: Friskit
• Inventors: Eyal, Aviv
• Primary Examiner(s): Lim, Krisna
• Application Number:
  US09/613,433
• Time in Patent Office: 945 Days
• Field of Search: 709/231, 709/245, 707/223, 707/10, 345/327
• US Class Current: 709/231
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/40 of multimedia data, e.g. slideshows comprising image and additional audio data retrieval of still image data G06F16/50; retrieval of audio data G06F16/60; retrieval of video data G06F16/70
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/4387 by the use of playlists
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/48 Retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manually
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques

Abstract

A playback system is provided to locate and playback streaming media from network resources. The playback system includes a search module that signals a query to a network site, and receives in return a search result. The search result identifies one or more links that are selectable to open media files. A media player couples to the search module to automatically play back streaming media contained in media files located by the search result.

Claims

1. A media playback system comprising:

a search module that signals a search request to a first network site to receive a search result, and in response to receiving the search result, identifies a plurality of media resource locators for locating media resources on the network, including a first media resource locator for locating a first media resource at a second network site, and a second media resource locator for locating a second media resource at a third network site; and

a media player coupleable to the search module to play back the first media resource using the first media resource locator, then to substantially automatically play back the second media resource using the second media resource locator.

2. The media play back system of claim 1, wherein the search module is configured to parse the search result for the first media resource locator and the second media resource locator.

3. The media playback system of claim 1, wherein the search module signals the search request to a media directory comprising a plurality of addresses, each address locating a network site for accessing a media file, the search module retrieving from the media directory at least the first media resource locator corresponding to a first network address of the second network site, and the second media resource locator corresponding to a second network address of the third network site.

4. The media playback system of claim 3, wherein the search module uses an Hypertext Transfer Protocol interface to signal the search request.

5. The media playback system of claim 1, further comprising a user-interface to receive a user-query, and wherein the search request signaled by the search module is based on the user-query.

6. The media playback system of claim 5, wherein the search module signals the search request to the first network site using one or more search fields identified from the user-query.

7. The media playback system of claim 6, wherein the search request signaled by the search module includes one or more search fields selected from the group of search fields consisting of an artist name, a media title, a genre of media, and a type of media file.

8. The media playback system of claim 1, wherein the search module includes a web browser component that is configured to automatically display a first web site that is located by at least one of the media resource locators in the search result while playing back streaming media from a media file opened by the at least one media resource locator in the search result.

9. The media playback system of claim 1, wherein the search module signals the search request to the first network site to identify one or more media files containing audio digital recordings.

10. The media playback system of claim 1, wherein the search module signals the search request to the first network site to identify media resource locators to media resources containing video and/or audio digital recordings, and wherein the media player loads the first media resource and the second media resource to play back the video and/or audio digital recordings.

11. The media playback system of claim 1, wherein the search module signals the search request to a search engine located at the first network site, the search request being in the form of a uniform resource locator;

and wherein the search module receives the plurality of media resource locators in the form of uniform resource locators from the search engine.

12. The media playback system of claim 1, wherein the first network site, the second network site and the third network site each have a different address for locating that site on the network, so that the media player is coupleable to the search module to play back streaming media from the second network site, then automatically the third network site.

13. The media playback system of claim 12, wherein at least the second network site and the third network site each have a common network location, and wherein the media player is coupleable to the search module to identify and play back the first media resource from the common network location using the first media resource locator, then to automatically play back the second media resource from the common network location using the second media resource locator.

14. The media playback system of claim 13, wherein the common network location has a common network address domain for locating a plurality of network sites at the common network location, including the second network site and the third network site.

15. The media playback system of claim 13, wherein the common network location has a common server for providing a plurality of network sites, including the second network site and the third network site.

16. The media playback system of claim 12, wherein the first network site, the second network site, and the third network site each have a common network location.

17. A media playback system operated on a terminal coupled to a network, the media playback system comprising:

a search module that signals a user-defined search request to one or more network sites to receive one or more search results the one or more search results identifying a plurality of media resource locators, each of the media resource locators locating at least one media resource at one or more network sites; and

a media player coupled to the search module to automatically access and load at least some of the media resources located by the plurality of media resource locators, so as to substantially automatically and sequentially play back media from the at least some of the media resources located by the plurality of media resource locators.

18. The media playback system of claim 17, wherein the one or more search results received by the search module include at least a first link for locating a first media file at a first network site, and a second link for locating a second media file at a second network site, and wherein the media player automatically accesses and loads the first media file using the first link and the second media file using the second link, so as to automatically and sequentially play back streaming media from the first media file and the second media file.

19. The media playback system of claim 18, wherein the first network site has a first domain address, and the second network site has a second domain address that is different than the first domain address, so that the media player is configured to automatically and sequentially play back streaming media from the first domain and the second domain.

20. The media playback system of claim 17, further comprising a user-interface to receive a user-query for formulating the search request to each of the one or more network sites.

21. The media playback system of claim 20, wherein the user-query comprises one or more search strings or menu selections.

22. The media playback system of claim 21, wherein the user-query is a request for streaming media playback of a specified category.

23. The media playback system of claim 21, wherein the user-query is signaled automatically in response to a user of the terminal opening a web browser.

24. The media playback system of claim 17, wherein the search module formulates a user-query into the search request directed to the one or more network sites.

25. The media playback system of claim 24, wherein the search module formulates each search request so as to include a uniform resource locator including metadata information specific to a corresponding one of the one or more network sites for receiving the search request, the metadata information being derived from the user-query.

26. The media player of claim 25, wherein the search module formulates each search request into the uniform resource locator to include an address to the corresponding one of the one or more network sites, and arguments to search for streaming media on the corresponding one of the one or more network sites.

27. The media playback system of claim 26, wherein the search module includes a parsing component to parse each of the one or more search results for links that are selectable to open media files.

28. The media playback system of claim 17, wherein the search module formulates a user-query into a plurality of search requests, each of the plurality of search requests being directed to one of the one or more network sites.

29. The media playback system of claim 17, wherein the search module signals at least a portion of the one or more search results to a play-list module, the play-list module arranging a plurality of media resource locators from the portion of the one or more search results into a designated order, each of the plurality of media resource locators providing a network address for a corresponding media file, the playlist module signaling the plurality of media resource locators to the media player in the designated order.

30. A media playback system coupled to a network, the media playback system comprising:

a user-interface to receive a user-query;

a search module to signal the search request to one or more network sites, and to receive from the one or more network sites at least a first search result that references a plurality of media resources, each of the media resources having a corresponding network location; and

a media player configured to access the network locations of at least some of the media resources referenced in the first search result, and to substantially automatically and sequentially play back the at least some of the media resources referenced in the first search result.

31. The playback system of claim 30, further comprising:

a parsing component to parse one or more search results signaled back from a network search engine at each of the one or more network sites, the one or more search results containing a plurality of links that are selectable to open media files; and

wherein the parsing component implements a separate parsing logic for parsing the search result from the network sites.

32. The playback system of claim 31, wherein the first search result includes a plurality of network pages, each of the network pages containing one or more links that are selectable to open media files, and wherein the parsing component parses each page of the first search result to identify the plurality of links for that network site.

33. The playback system of claim 32, wherein the parsing component detects a next page link on a first page of the first search result using a first parsing logic, and in response to detecting the next page link, uses the first parsing logic to parse a second network page of the first search result.

34. The media playback system of claim 30, wherein the search module is configured to identify a plurality of links contained in the first search result, and wherein the media player is configured to select at least some of the plurality of links in order o open a plurality of media files, so as substantially automatically and sequentially play back streaming media from at least some of the plurality of media files.

35. The media playback system of claim 34, further comprising a browser component configured to display a network page associated with one of the plurality of media files while the media player is playing back streaming audio from that media file.

36. The media playback system of claim 30, wherein the search module is configured to receive from the one or more network sites at least the first search result that references a plurality of audio files.

37. A method for playing back streaming media on a terminal coupleable to a network, the method comprising:

receiving a query from a user of the terminal;

signaling a search request based on the query to a network site;

receiving from the network site a search result containing one or more media resource locators, each of the one or more media resource locators being able to locate a media resource on the network; and

signaling the media resource locators so as to enable one or more of the media resource locators in the search result to be designated for a play-list that is accessible to the media player in order to substantially automatically and continuously play back at least a portion of the play-list including a plurality of the media resources that are located on the network by the media resource locators.

38. The method of claim 37, wherein signaling the media resource locators to a media player includes signaling one or more links to the media player, each of the one or more links being selectable to open a media file, so as to enable the one or more links to be designated for the play-list that is accessible to the media player in order to automatically and continuously play back media files that are opened by the media player upon the media player being directed to select the links in the play-list.

39. The method of claim 37, wherein receiving a query includes receiving a search string entered by the user.

40. The method of claim 39, wherein receiving a query from a user of the terminal includes prompting the user of the terminal for the query through a user-interface appearing on a display of the terminal.

41. The method of claim 40, wherein prompting the user includes displaying a text-entry field on the user-interface for the user to enter a search term.

42. The method of claim 37, wherein signaling the query to a network site includes signaling the query to an Internet search engine.

43. The method of claim 37, wherein the media resource locators include links to media files, and wherein the method further comprises parsing the search result to identify links on the search result that are selectable to open one or more media resources.

44. The method of claim 37, wherein receiving from the network site a search result includes receiving from the network site one or more network addresses, each of the one or more network addresses locating a corresponding media resource on the network, and wherein signaling the media resource locators includes indicating the one or more network addresses to the media player.

45. The method of claim 44, wherein receiving from the network site one or more network addresses includes receiving a plurality of network addresses for locating a plurality of media resources stored at a common network location.

46. The method of claim 45, wherein receiving a plurality of network addresses includes receiving two or more network addresses having a common network address domain.

47. The method of claim 46, wherein receiving a plurality of network addresses includes receiving at least some of the network addresses for locating at least some of the media resources being stored on a common server.

48. The method of claim 37, further comprising enabling the portion of the play-list including the plurality of the media resources to be automatically and continuously played back in response to a user-action.

49. The method of claim 37, further comprising enabling media resources located by one or more media resource locators in the search result to be captured on a storage medium for subsequent playback.

50. The method of claim 37, further comprising enabling media resources in the portion of the play-list being played back to be captured on a storage medium for subsequent playback.

51. A method for playing back streaming media on a terminal coupleable to a network, the method comprising:

receiving a query from a user of the terminal;

signaling a search request based on the query to one or more network sites;

receiving a search result from the one or more network sites, the search result including a plurality of media resource locators;

signaling at least some of the plurality of media resource locators to a media player;

arranging the at least some of the plurality of media resource locators for substantially automatic and continuous play back of media resources located by the at least some the plurality of media resource locators.

52. The method of claim 51, wherein the search results each include one or more of the plurality of media resource locators arranged in an order of priority designated by a corresponding network site in the plurality of network sites, and wherein arranging the plurality of media resource locators includes at least partially arranging the plurality of media resource locators according to the priority order designated by each of the corresponding network sites.

53. The method of claim 51, wherein signaling a search request based on the query to one or more network sites includes converting the query into a uniform resource locator for locating each of the network sites on the network.

54. The method of claim 53, wherein receiving a query includes receiving a search string from a user of the terminal.

55. The method of claim 54, wherein signaling a search request based on the query includes converting the search term into a uniform resource locator for locating a corresponding network site, and arguments for submitting the search term to the network site.

56. The method of claim 51, wherein arranging the at least some of the plurality of links includes arranging a media resource located by a first media resource locator to be played back by the media player, and arranging a media resource located by a second media resource locator to be played back automatically after the media resource located by the first media resource locator is played back.

57. The method of claim 56, further comprising arranging the media resource of the first media resource locator to be played back by the media player in response to a user-input.

58. The method of claim 51, further comprising arranging the at least some of the plurality of media resource locators into a designated order based on one or more inputs received from a user.

59. The method of claim 58, further comprising displaying the plurality of media resource locators to the user in order to receive the one or more inputs.

60. The method of claim 51, further comprising displaying the plurality of media resource locators to a user, and wherein signaling at least some of the plurality of media resource locators to a media player is in response to the user selecting the at least some of the plurality of media resource locators from the displayed plurality of media resource locators.

61. A system for playing back streaming media on a terminal coupleable to a network, the system comprising:

a means for receiving a query from a user of the terminal;

a means for signaling a search request based on the query to one or more network sites;

a means for receiving one or more search results from the one or more network sites, a plurality of media resource locators being provided in the one or more search results;

a means for arranging the plurality of media resource locators into a designated order; and

a means for signaling the plurality of media resource locators to the media player in the designated order so as to enable one or more of the plurality of links to be designated for a play-list that is subsequently accessible to the media player in order to automatically and continuously play back media resources that are located by media resource locators in the play-list.

62. A method for playing back streaming media from a network, the method comprising:

receiving a query from a user of the terminal;

signaling a search request based on the query to a network site;

receiving from the network site a search result containing a plurality of links, each of the plurality of links being individually selectable to open a media file; and

causing multiple links in the search result to be designatable for a play-list that is subsequently accessible to a media player in order to enable substantially automatic and sequential play back of the media files by the media player individually selecting the multiple links for opening those media files.

63. The method of claim 62, wherein causing multiple links in the search result to be designatable for a play-list includes displaying the plurality of links to a user so as to enable the user to designate the one or more links for the play-list.