Rating system for streaming media playback system

• US 7,228,305 B1
• Filed: 05/02/2000
• Issued: 06/05/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 01/24/2000
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Bluebonnet Internet Media Services, LLC
• Original Assignee: Friskit
• Inventors: Aposporos, George, Eyal, Aviv
• Primary Examiner(s): Kindred, Alford
• Assistant Examiner(s): Thai, Hanh B.
• Application Number:
  US09/563,104
• Time in Patent Office: 2,590 Days
• Field of Search: 707100-1041, 707/2, 707/10, 725/24, 725/28, 725/39, 725 40- 51, 725/28.41
• US Class Current: 1/1
• 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 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
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99945 Object-oriented database structure processing

Abstract

Embodiments of the invention include a rating system for media network resources. The rating system includes a database comprising a plurality of addresses to media network resources on a network. A network server module is coupleable to the plurality of terminals to access the database to signal one or more addresses from the database to the plurality of terminals. Further, a rating module is included to receive a rating input from each of the plurality of terminals, and then to associate the rating input with a selected address in the database.

Claims

1. A rating system for rating media resources available over a network, the media resources being accessible on the network to a plurality of terminals, the rating system comprising:

a memory that stores (i) a plurality of media resource identifiers, wherein each media resource identifier locates a corresponding media resource on the network, (ii) a rating associated with the media resource of each of the plurality of media resource identifiers, and (iii) a class, from a plurality of classes known to the rating system, associated with the media resource of each of the plurality of media resource identifiers;

a rating module coupled to the memory, the rating module being able to receive a rating input from each of the plurality of terminals for determining a rating associated with the media resource located by each of the plurality of media resource identifiers,

wherein in response to receiving the rating input from one of the plurality of terminals for a selected media resource located by one of the pluality of media resource identifiers, the rating module accesses the memory and reconfigures the rating associated with the selected media resource; and

a play-list module configured to form a plurality of play-lists, wherein for each of the plurality of play-lists, the play-list module is configured to indicate one or more media resource identifiers from the plurality of media resource identifiers, in order to include the media resources located by a combination of the selected one or more media resource identifiers in that play-list, wherein the play-list module communicates data corresponding to at least one of the plurality of play-lists to one or more of the plurality of terminals; and

wherein the play-list module forms the plurality of play-lists using the one or more classes of information.

2. The rating system of claim 1, wherein the play-list module forms the plurality of play-lists by using the rating of the media resource for the media resource identifiers, in the memory.

3. The rating system of claim 1, wherein the play-list module forms the plurality of play-lists by arranging each media resource identifier in one or more of the plurality of play-lists in a designated order so that the media resource identifiers in each of the plurality of play-lists are accessed by the one or more terminals in the designated order.

4. The rating system of claim 3, wherein the designated order is determined by the rating of each of the media resource in the one or more play-lists relative to the rating of the other media resources in the play-list.

5. The rating system of claim 3, wherein the designated order is determined by arranging each of the media resource identifiers in one or more of the plurality of play-lists according to rating as ranked from highest to lowest.

6. The rating system of claim 1, wherein the play-list module forms the plurality of play-lists by arranging a combination of media resource identifiers in the plurality of media resource identifiers together in one play-list, wherein the combination of media resource identifiers share a same parameter of the one or more classes of information.

7. The rating system of claim 1, wherein each media resource identifier corresponds to a network address.

8. The rating system of claim 1, wherein one or more of the media resources correspond to data files containing audio or video for streaming to one or more of the plurality of terminals.

9. The rating system of claim 8, wherein the play-list module communicates each play-list to a media player that is installed and executed on one or more of the plurality of terminals.

10. A rating system for rating media resources available over a network, the media resources being accessible on the network to a plurality of terminals, the rating system comprising:

a memory that store (i) a plurality of media resource identifiers, each media resource identifier locating a corresponding network media resource on the network, (ii) a rating associated with the media resource identified by each of the plurality of media resource identifiers;

a rating module coupled to the memory, the rating module being able to receive a rating input from one of the terminals for each of the plurality of media resources located by the plurality of media resource identifiers, wherein in response to receiving the rating input, the rating module accesses the memory and reconfigures the rating associated with the selected media resource; and

a play-list module configured to access the plurality of media resource identifiers in order to form a play-list that includes media resources corresponding to a combination of media resource identifiers from the plurality of mdeia resource identifiers, wherein the play-list module communicates the play-list to one or more of the plurality of terminals;

wherein the play-list module forms a plurality of play-lists by arranging the media resources corresponding to the combination of media resource identifiers together in one play-list, wherein each of the one or more combination of media resource identifiers share a same parameter that corresponds to one or more classes of information.

11. The rating system of claim 10, wherein the play-list module forms the plurality of play-lists by using the ranking of the media the resource identifier in the memory.

12. The rating system of claim 10, wherein the play-list module forms the plurality of play-lists by arranging each address in the plurality of play-lists in a designated order so that the media resource identifiers in each of the plurality of play-lists are accessed by the one or more terminals in the designated order.

13. The rating system of claim 12, wherein the designated order is determined by a ranking of each of the media resource identifiers in the plurality of play-lists relative to rankings of the other media resource identifiers in the plurality of play-lists.

14. The rating system of claim 10, wherein the designated order is determined by arranging each of the media resource identifiers in the plurality of play-lists according to a ranking from highest to lowest.

15. The rating system of claim 10, wherein the memory further includes one or more classes of information associated with each of the plurality of media resource identifiers.

16. The rating system of claim 10, wherein each media resource identifier corresponds to a network address.

17. The rating system of claim 10, wherein one or more of the media resources correspond to data files containing audio or video for streaming to one or more of the plurality of terminals.

18. The rating system of claim 17, wherein the play-list module communicates each play-list to a media player that is installed and executed on one or more of the plurality of terminals.

19. A rating system for rating media resources available over a network, the network media resources being accessible on the network to a plurality of terminals, the rating system comprising:

a memory that stores (i) a plurality of media resource identifiers, each media resource identifier locating a corresponding network media resource on the network, (ii) a rating associated with the media resource located by each of the plurality of media resource identifiers;

a rating module coupled to the memory, the rating module being able to receive a rating input from one of the terminals for the media resource located by each of the plurality of media resource identifiers, wherein in response to receiving the rating input, the rating module accesses the memory and reconfigures the rating associated with the selected media resource;

a play-list module coupled to the memory, the play-list module being configured to access the media resource identifiers in order to form a play-list from the media resources that correspond to a combination of media resource identifiers selected from the plurality of media resource identifiers, wherein the play-list module communicates the play-list signaled to one or more of the plurality of terminals

wherein the play-list module forms the play-list by using the rating of at least some of the media resources located by the plurality of media resource identifiers, and wherein the play-list module arranges the media resources of the play-list according to an order determined by a rating of each of the media resources that form the play-list.

20. The rating system of claim 19, wherein the memory further stores one or more classes of information associated with each of the plurality of media resource identifiers, and the play-list module forms the plurality of play-lists using the one or more classes of information.

21. The rating system of claim 19, wherein the play-list module forms the play-list by arranging each media resource identifier in the play-list in a designated order so that the media resource identifiers in the play-list are accessed by the one or more terminals in the designated order.

22. The rating system of claim 21, wherein the designated order is determined by a ranking of each of the media resource identifiers in the play-list relative to rankings of the other media resource identifiers in the play-list.

23. The rating system of claim 19, wherein the designated order is determined by arranging each of the media resource identifiers in the play-list according to a ranking from highest to lowest.

24. The rating system of claim 19, wherein the play-list module forms a plurality of play-lists by arranging a combination of media resource identifiers in the plaurlity of media resource identifiers together in one play-list, wherein the combination of media resource identifiers share a same parameter of the one or more classes of information.

25. The rating system of claim 19, wherein each media resource identifier corresponds to a network address.

26. The rating system of claim 19, wherein one or more of the media resources correspond to data files containing audio or video for streaming to one or more of the plurality of terminals.

27. The rating system of claim 26, wherein the play-list module communicates each play-list to a media player that is installed and executed on one or more of the plurality of terminals.

28. A method for ranking media sources on a network, the method comprising:

accessing a memory comprising a plurality of media resource identifiers, each media resource identifier locating a media resource on the network and each media resource identifier being associated with a rating;

forming a play-list that identifiers a combination of media resources;

signaling data corresponding to the play-list to a terminal coupled to the network;

receiving a rating input from the terminal after signaling the one or more of the media resource identifiers in the play-list to the terminal; and

adjusting the rating of one or more of the media resource identifiers in the play-list in response to receiving the rating input;

wherein forming the play-list includes selecting media resources from the memory that share one or more classes of information.

29. The method of claim 28, wherein selecting a combination of media resource identifiers for a play-list includes arranging each media resource identifier in the play-list in an order, the order being determined by the rating of each media resource identifier in the play-list.

30. The method of claim 28, wherein signaling data corresponding to the play-list to a terminal coupled to the network includes signaling the data to a media player that is installed and executed on one or more of the plurality of terminals.

31. A method for ranking media sources on a network, the method comprising:

accessing a memory comprising a plurality of media resource identifiers, each media resource identifier locating a media resource on the network and each media resource identifier being associated with a rating;

forming a play-list that includes media resources located by a combination of media resource identifier;

signaling data corresponding to the play-list to a terminal coupled to the network;

receiving a rating input from the terminal after signaling the one or more of the media resource identifiers in the play-list to the terminal; and

adjusting the rating of one or more of the media resource identifier in the play-list in response to receiving the grating input;

wherein selecting a combination of media resource identifiers for a play-list includes arranging each media resource identifier in the play-list in an order, the order being determined by the rating of each media resource identifier in the play-list.

32. The method of claim 31, wherein selecting a combination of media resource identifiers for a play-list includes selecting multiple media resource identifiers from the memory that share one or more classes of information.

33. The method of claim 31, wherein signaling data corresponding to the play-list to a terminal coupled to the network includes signaling the data to a media player that is installed and executed on one or more of the plurality of terminals.