Methods and systems for per persona processing media content-associated metadata

• US 7,345,234 B2
• Filed: 07/27/2005
• Issued: 03/18/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 03/21/2002
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Alkove, James M., Debique, Kirt A., Plastina, Daniel, Colville, Scott, Mazhar, Khurshed
• Primary Examiner(s): Donels; Jeffrey
• Application Number:
  US11/190,575
• Publication Number:
  US 20050262151A1
• Time in Patent Office: 965 Days
• Field of Search: 369/30.07, 369/30.08, 715/733, 715/789, 715/811, 846/15, 704/104.1
• US Class Current: 84/615
• 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: G10H 1/0058 Transmission between separate instruments or between individual components of a musical system G10H1/0083 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G10H 2230/015 PDA [personal digital assistant] or palmtop computing devices used for musical purposes, e.g. portable music players, tablet computers, e-readers or smart phones in which mobile telephony functions need not be used touch-screen interfaces G10H2220/096
• CPC Class Codes: G10H 2240/251 Mobile telephone transmission, i.e. transmitting, accessing or controlling music data wirelessly via a wireless or mobile telephone receiver, analog or digital, e.g. DECT GSM, UMTS smartphone, PDA or palmtop used for musical purposes G10H2230/015; mobile ringtone G10H2230/021
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44224 Monitoring of user activity on external systems, e.g. Internet browsing
• 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 707/99945 Object-oriented database structure processing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99948 Application of database or data structure, e.g. distributed, multimedia, or image

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 having computer-readable instructions thereon which, when executed by one or more computing devices, cause the devices to:

define a plurality of time periods for the purpose of monitoring a user'"'"'s media playing experience, wherein at least some of the time periods include multiple hours of the day;

monitor a user'"'"'s media-playing experience by monitoring one or more parameters associated with the user'"'"'s media-playing experience during the defined time periods;

produce metadata associated with the monitored parameter(s); and

associate produced metadata with media content experienced by the user, wherein said produced metadata can comprise part of a piece of content that includes the media content itself.

2. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 1, wherein the parameters comprise one or more of:

a last played time associated with when a particular piece of content was played by the user;

an update time associated with when one or more other parameters are updated;

a user rating for allowing a user to rate content;

an effective rating that provides a rating for content that the user has not actually rated;

a service rating for providing a third party rating on content;

a playcount total comprising the total number of times a particular piece of content has been played; and

one or more custom parameters that can be programmed by the user.

3. A computing device embodying the computer-readable media of claim 1.

4. A system comprising:

one or more computer-readable media;

a software application embodied on the one or more computer-readable media and configured to execute to;

define a plurality of time periods for the purpose of monitoring a user'"'"'s media-playing experience;

monitor a user'"'"'s media-playing experience by monitoring one or more parameters associated with the user'"'"'s media-playing experience during the defined time periods;

produce metadata associated with both the monitored parameter(s) and the time period during which said monitored parameter(s) were monitored; and

associate produced metadata with media content experienced by the user, wherein said produced metadata can comprise part of a piece of content that includes the media content itself.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the parameters comprise one or more of:

a last played time associated with when a particular piece of content was played by the user;

an update time associated with when one or more other parameters are updated;

a user rating for allowing a user to rate content;

an effective rating that provides a rating for content that the user has not actually rated;

a service rating for providing a third party rating on content;

a playcount total comprising the total number of times a particular piece of content has been played; and

one or more custom parameters that can be programmed by the user.

6. The system of claim 4, wherein the application is configured to play music content.

7. A method comprising:

defining a plurality of time periods for the purpose of monitoring a user'"'"'s media playing experience, wherein at least some of the time periods include multiple hours of the day;

monitoring a user'"'"'s media-playing experience by monitoring one or more parameters associated with the user'"'"'s media-playing experience during the defined time periods;

producing metadata associated with both the monitored parameter(s) and the time period during which said monitored parameter(s) were monitored; and

associating produced metadata with media content experienced by the user, wherein said produced metadata can comprise part of a piece of content that includes the media content itself.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the parameters comprise one or more of:

a last played time associated with when a particular piece of content was played by the user;

an update time associated with when one or more other parameters are updated;

a user rating for allowing a user to rate content;

an effective rating that provides a rating for content that the user has not actually rated;

a service rating for providing a third party rating on content;

a playcount total comprising the total number of times a particular piece of content has been played; and

one or more custom parameters that can be programmed by the user.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein the act of monitoring is performed by monitoring the user'"'"'s music-playing experience.