Media discovery and curation of playlists

• US 7,685,210 B2
• Filed: 12/30/2005
• Issued: 03/23/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 12/30/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Kiefer, William Frederick III, Plastina, Daniel, Novak, Michael J.
• Primary Examiner(s): NGUYEN, CAM LINH T
• Application Number:
  US11/323,343
• Publication Number:
  US 20070168388A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,544 Days
• Field of Search: 707/1, 707/10, 707100-102, 707/104.1, 725/9, 725/44, 725/47, 725/58
• US Class Current: 707/805
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/034 on discs G11B27/036, G11B27/038 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/105 of operating discs
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/329 on a disc [VTOC]

Abstract

A media player monitors user playback control actions, such as skip commands, during a playback experience associated with a playlist. Based on these actions, the media player sets one or more media files to an inactive state. The media player defines a subgroup, or modified playlist excluding the inactive media files for further processing.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method of processing media files, said method comprising:

monitoring a user playback control action during a present playback experience associated with a playlist, said playlist being displayed for a user during the present playback experience, said playlist including a group of media files, said media files each being in an active state for rendering to a user according to the present playback experience, wherein said monitoring includes receiving a command from the user to skip one or more selected media files of said group of media files during the present playback experience;

setting the each of the selected media files from the active state to an inactive state in response to receiving the skip command during the present playback experience, wherein the media files included in the playlist that are in the active state are played for the user during the present playback experience and the media files included in the playlist that are in the inactive state are skipped during the present playback experience;

retaining the inactive media files in the playlist being displayed to the user during the present playback experience so that the inactive state of each of said inactive media files is available for resetting to the active state during the present playback experience; and

modifying the playlist for rendering to the user according to a subsequent playback experience, said modified playlist including a subgroup of the media files, said subgroup including active media files, and said modified playlist excluding the inactive media files.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising storing the modified playlist in response to user input.

3. The method of claim 1 further comprising executing a media player application, said media player application being configured for rendering the media files to generate the present playback experience, and further comprising presenting a user interface associated with the media player application.

4. The method of claim 3 further comprising displaying, in the user interface, a visual indication of the inactive media files in the playlist in response to the monitored user playback control action.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein the visual indication distinguishes the inactive and active media files in the group of media files by one or more of the following:

dimming playlist entries corresponding to the inactive media files;

graying out playlist entries corresponding to the inactive media files;

displaying playlist entries for the inactive media files in a different font than playlist entries for the active media files;

underlining playlist entries corresponding to the inactive media files;

displaying playlist entries for the inactive media files in a different color than playlist entries for the active media files;

displaying an icon near playlist entries corresponding to the inactive files; and

removing playlist entries corresponding to the inactive media files from the playlist.

6. The method of claim 4 further comprising receiving the playlist from a media service.

7. The method of claim 6 further comprising providing feedback concerning the playlist to the media service in response to the monitored user playback control action.

8. The method of claim 1 further comprising assigning a default rating to each of the inactive media files.

9. The method of claim 1 further comprising executing a media player application on a remote computing device, said media player application being configured for rendering the media files to generate the present playback experience, and farther comprising synchronizing the remote computing device to a local computing device for providing information representative of the monitored user playback control action to the local computing device, said local computing device modifying the playlist in response thereto.

10. A computer-readable storage medium having computer-executable instructions stored thereon that, when executed, perform the method recited in claim 1.

11. In a computer system having a display, said display having a user interface rendered thereon, said user interface being associated with a media player application, said user interface comprising:

a pane displaying a playlist of one or more media files initially set to an active state;

a first user playback control responsive to user input for selecting one or more of the active media files from the playlist to be skipped during a present playback experience, each of said skipped media files being set from the active state to an inactive state upon being skipped, wherein the media player application is configured to play for a user during the present playback experience the media files being in the active state and to skip during the present playback experience the media files being in the inactive state;

a visual indication in the playlist distinguishing the inactive media files from the active media files;

a second user playback control responsive to user input during the present playback experience for resetting the inactive state of an inactive media file in the playlist to an active state; and

an options dialog box for presenting one or more save options for storing a modified playlist to be rendered by the media player application during a subsequent playback experience and for receiving user input corresponding thereto, said modified playlist including the active media files and excluding the inactive media files.

12. The user interface of claim 11 wherein the visual indication comprises one or more of the following:

dimming playlist entries corresponding to the inactive media files;

graying out playlist entries corresponding to the inactive media files;

displaying playlist entries for the inactive media files in a different font than playlist entries for the active media files;

underlining playlist entries corresponding to the inactive media files;

displaying playlist entries for the inactive media files in a different color than playlist entries for the active media files;

displaying an icon near playlist entries corresponding to the inactive files; and

removing playlist entries corresponding to the inactive media files from the displayed playlist.

13. A computer-implemented method of processing media files, said method comprising:

monitoring a user playback control action during a present playback experience associated with a playlist, said playlist including a group of media files, said media files each being in an active state;

setting one or more of the media files from the active state to an inactive state based on the monitored user playback control action, wherein only the media files included in the playlist that are in the active state are played for the user during the present playback experience; and

retaining the inactive media files in the playlist, said inactive media files being in the inactive state during a subsequent playback experience associated with said playlist, wherein the inactive state of each of said inactive media files is available for resetting to the active state responsive to user input during said subsequent playback experience.

14. The method of claim 13 further comprising:

executing a media player application, said media player application being configured for rendering the media files to generate the present playback experience, wherein said media files are rendered via a user interface; and

displaying, in the user interface, the playlist and providing a visual indication in the playlist of the inactive media files.

15. The method of claim 13 wherein providing a visual indication comprises visually distinguishing the inactive and active media files in the group of media files by one or more of the following:

dimming playlist entries corresponding to the inactive media files;

graying out playlist entries corresponding to the inactive media files;

displaying playlist entries for the inactive media files in a different font than playlist entries for the active media files;

underlining playlist entries corresponding to the inactive media files;

displaying playlist entries for the inactive media files in a different color than playlist entries for the active media files;

displaying an icon near playlist entries corresponding to the inactive files; and

removing playlist entries corresponding to the inactive media files from the playlist.

16. The method of claim 15 wherein the user interface provides a menu of available playlist options associated with the inactive media files, said playlist options including one or more of the following:

always ask before ignoring the inactive media files; and

always ignore the inactive media files.

17. The method of claim 13 further comprising:

monitoring a user playback control action during the subsequent playback experience associated with the playlist;

resetting one or more of the inactive media files to the active state based on the monitored user playback control; and

modifying the playlist so that the reset files are in the active state, wherein only the media files included in the playlist that are in the active state are played for the user during the subsequent playback experience.

18. The method of claim 13 wherein monitoring the user playback control action comprises receiving a skip command from the user during the playback experience.

19. The method of claim 13 further comprising receiving the playlist from a media service.

20. A computer-readable storage medium having computer-executable instructions stored thereon that, when executed, perform the method recited in claim 13.