Methods and systems for providing playlists

• US 7,096,234 B2
• Filed: 03/21/2002
• Issued: 08/22/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 03/21/2002
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Alkove, James M., Debique, Kirt A., Plastina, Daniel, DeBacker, Gabriel S., Colville, Scott
• Primary Examiner(s): Choules, Jack M.
• Application Number:
  US10/103,676
• Publication Number:
  US 20030182254A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,615 Days
• Field of Search: 707/3, 707/100, 707/1, 707/104.1, 707/10
• US Class Current: 707/718
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/437 Administration of user profiles, e.g. generation, initialisation, adaptation, distribution
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/4387 by the use of playlists
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/635 Filtering based on additional data, e.g. user or group profiles
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/639 using playlists
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/68 Retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manually
• 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 21/4788 communicating with other users, e.g. chatting arrangements for providing for computer conferences, e.g. chat rooms, to substation in data switching networks H04L12/1813; distributed application using peer-to-peer [P2P] networks H04L67/104
• 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 21/4826 using recommendation lists, e.g. of programs or channels sorted out according to their score
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8106 involving special audio data, e.g. different tracks for different languages
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99931 Database or file accessing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99933 Query processing, i.e. searching
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99945 Object-oriented database structure processing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99948 Application of database or data structure, e.g. distributed, multimedia, or image
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99953 Recoverability

Abstract

Various systems and methods described above permit a user'"'"'s content experience (e.g. music playing experience) to be monitored and for metadata describing this experience to be collected. This metadata can be dynamically updated as a user experiences media content and then used to impart to the user a personalized experience that is tailored to that specific user. A user'"'"'s metadata can, in some instances, provided across a wide variety of computing devices on which the user may experience the media content, thus standardizing the user'"'"'s personalized media experience. In addition, intelligent or “smart” playlists can be provided which, in some instances, can be dynamically and automatically updated to reflect current user experiences, thus providing a highly personalized and enjoyable content experience.

Claims

1. One or more computer-readable media embodying a file structure comprising:

a first portion of the file structure containing data that is associated with a user of a playlist; and

a second portion of the file structure containing data associated with the playlist;

the second portion comprising;

a static portion that contains a list of media content for the playlist; and

a dynamic portion that defines one or more queries for dynamically updating the playlist;

the queries being executable to produce a result set that is provided into the static portion to define the list of media content.

2. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 1, wherein the first portion contains data associated with multiple users.

3. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 1, wherein the first portion contains data associated with multiple users, said data comprising one or more user ratings that can rate the playlist.

4. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 1, wherein the static portion contains data associated with when the static portion was created.

5. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 1, wherein the static portion contains data associated with when the static portion expires.

6. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 1, wherein the static portion contains data associated with who created the static portion.

7. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 1, wherein the static portion contains data associated with at least one path to the media content that is a subject of the playlist.

8. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 1, wherein the static portion contains one or more identifiers, individual identifiers being associated with individual media content and being configured for use in updating a path to the media content that is a subject of the playlist.

9. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 1, wherein the dynamic portion contains references to one or more filters that can be used to query one or more databases.

10. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 1, wherein the dynamic portion contains references to one or more filters that can be used to query one or more databases, at least one of the filters being able to add content to the playlist.

11. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 1, wherein the dynamic portion contains references to one or more filters that can be used to query one or more databases, at least one of the filters being able to remove content from the playlist.

12. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 1, wherein the file structure is configured to be useable by devices that can process the dynamic portion and by devices that can process only the static portion.

13. A computer-implemented method comprising:

defining a first portion of a file, wherein the file contains data to define a playlist to be provided for processing by a playlist engine, wherein the first portion contains data that is associated with a user of the playlist;

defining a second file portion of the file wherein the second portion contains data associated with the playlist, the second file portion comprising;

a static portion that contains a list of media content for the playlist, and

a dynamic portion that defines one or more queries for dynamically updating the playlist,

the queries being executed to produce a result set that is provided into the static portion to define the list of media content.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the first file portion contains data associated with multiple users.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein the first file portion contains data associated with multiple users, said data comprising one or more user ratings that can rate the playlist.

16. The method of claim 13, wherein the static portion contains data associated with when the static portion was created.

17. The method of claim 13, wherein the static portion contains data associated with when the static portion expires.

18. The method of claim 13, wherein the static portion contains data associated with who created the static portion.

19. The method of claim 13, wherein the static portion contains data associated with at least one path to the media content that is a subject of the playlist.

20. The method of claim 13, wherein the static portion contains one or more identifiers, individual identifiers being associated with individual media content and being configured for use in updating a path to the media content that is a subject of the playlist.

21. The method of claim 13, wherein the dynamic portion contains references to one or more filters that can be used to query one or more databases.

22. The method of claim 13, wherein the dynamic portion contains references to one or more filters that can be used to query one or more databases, at least one filter being configured to add content to the playlist.

23. The method of claim 13, wherein the dynamic portion contains references to one or more filters that can be used to query one or more databases, at least one filter being configured to remove content from the playlist.

24. One or more computer-readable media having computer-readable instructions thereon which, when executed by one or more computing devices, implements the method of claim 13.

25. A system comprising:

one or more computer-readable media having computer-readable instructions thereon which, when executed by one or more computing devices, implements the method of claim 13; and

a computing device embodying the one or more computer-readable media.

26. One or more computer-readable media embodying a file structure comprising:

a first portion of the file structure containing data that is associated with a user of a playlist;

a second portion of the file structure containing data associated with the playlist, the second portion comprising;

a static portion that contains a list of media content for the playlist, data associated with when the static portion was created, data associated with when the static portion expires, and data associated with who created the static portion; and

a dynamic portion that defines one or more queries for dynamically updating the playlist, the queries being executable to produce a result set that is provided into the static portion to define the list of media content.

27. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 26, wherein the first portion contains data associated with multiple users.

28. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 26, wherein the first portion contains data associated with multiple users, the data comprising one or more user ratings that can rate the playlist.

29. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 26, wherein the static portion contains data associated with at least one path to the media content that is a subject of the playlist.

30. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 26, wherein the static portion contains one or more identifiers, individual identifiers being associated with individual media content and being configured for use in updating a path to the media content that is a subject of the playlist.

31. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 26, wherein the dynamic portion contains references to one or more filters that can be used to query one or more databases.

32. One or more computer-readable media embodying a file structure, the file structure being useable by one or more devices wherein said one or more devices are selected from a first group of devices capable of processing a query and a second group of devices incapable of processing a query, comprising:

a first portion of a file structure used by the first group of devices for executing a query that defines a playlist for a user; and

a second portion of the file structure that contains data resulting from an executed query, the result data defining a playlist, the second group of devices being configured to receive and use the playlist.

33. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 32, wherein the first and second portions are defined in XML.

34. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 32, wherein the first portion contains data that references filter types that can add content to a playlist, and filter types that can remove content from a playlist.

35. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 32, wherein the second portion contains data associated with when the second portion was created.

36. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 32, wherein the second portion contains data associated with when the second portion expires.

37. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 32, wherein the second portion contains data associated with a path to media content.

38. A computer-implemented method comprising:

defining a file having a portion for containing static playlist data and a portion for containing one or more queries, wherein the queries define a playlist for processing by a playlist engine;

executing one or more queries contained in the file to provide a result set; and

providing the result set as a static rendition of the playlist in the file.

39. The method of claim 38 further comprising transferring the file to one or more computing devices that can utilize the playlist to display for a user.

40. The method of claim 38, wherein the act of defining the file comprises providing data associated with multiple users that can individually have a playlist rendered for them.

41. The method of claim 38, wherein the act of defining the file comprises providing data associated with multiple users that can individually have a playlist rendered for them, said data comprising one or more user ratings that can rate the playlist.

42. The method of claim 38 further comprising using the result set to render a playlist for the user.

43. The method of claim 38, wherein the act of executing is performed periodically to dynamically update a playlist.

44. The method of claim 38, wherein the static playlist data contains data associated with when the static rendition of the playlist was created.

45. The method of claim 38, wherein the static playlist data contains data associated with when the static rendition of the playlist expires.

46. The method of claim 38, wherein the static playlist data contains data associated with who created the static rendition of the playlist.

47. The method of claim 38, wherein the static playlist data contains data associated with at least one path to media content that is a subject of the playlist.

48. One or more computer-readable media having computer-readable instructions thereon which, when executed by one or more computing devices, implements the method of claim 38.

49. A system comprising:

one or more computer-readable media having computer-readable instructions thereon which, when executed by one or more computing devices, implements the method of claim 38; and

a computing device embodying the one or more computer-readable media.