Method and system for media navigation

• US 7,908,273 B2
• Filed: 03/09/2007
• Issued: 03/15/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 03/09/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Gracenote, Inc. (RR Donnelley & Sons Company)
• Original Assignee: Gracenote, Inc. (RR Donnelley & Sons Company)
• Inventors: Brenner, Vadim, DiMaria, Peter C., Cremer, Markus K., Roberts, Dale T.
• Primary Examiner(s): Vo; Tim T.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Fan; Shiow-Jy
• Application Number:
  US11/716,269
• Publication Number:
  US 20070288478A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,467 Days
• Field of Search: 707 1-102, 707/999.01, 707/736, 707/E17.009
• US Class Current: 707/736
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/44 Browsing; Visualisation therefor
• 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 16/637 Administration of user profiles, e.g. generation, initialization, adaptation or distribution
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/64 Browsing; Visualisation therefor generation of a list or set of audio data G06F16/638
• 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: G06F 16/683 using metadata automatically derived from the content

Abstract

A method and system for media navigation. A descriptor hierarchy may be accessed. The descriptor hierarchy may include at least one category list. One or more media descriptors may be accessed for a plurality of media items. The plurality of media items may be accessible from a plurality of sources. The one or more media descriptors may be mapped to the at least one category list. The navigation may be processed through a user interface to enable selection of the plurality of media items from the plurality of sources.

Claims

1. A method of facilitating navigation of a media library including a plurality of media objects, the method comprising:

accessing a local database provided on a client device, the local database comprising an entity hierarchy of a plurality of semantic entities and a plurality of media descriptors, wherein one or more of the plurality of semantic entities is associated with one or more media descriptors;

processing the plurality of media objects using at least one processor of a machine to identify one or more of the media descriptors associated with each media object;

identifying an entity in the entity hierarchy corresponding to the one or more media descriptors associated with the media object;

applying inheritance to the plurality of semantic entities so that at least some of the plurality of semantic entities not having directly associated media descriptors are associated with media descriptors associated with one or more other entity; and

storing the association between the media objects and the one or more media descriptors associated with the media objects through the applied inheritance to allow a user to subsequently navigate using the media descriptors to select a media object or a group of media objects on the client device.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein applying inheritance to the plurality of semantic entities further comprises:

when a child entity in the entity hierarchy does not have the directly associated media descriptor,

applying cascading down inheritance to the plurality of semantic entities wherein the child entity inherits a media descriptor associated with a parent entity.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein applying inheritance to the plurality of semantic entities further comprises:

when a parent entity in the entity hierarchy does not have the directly associated media descriptor,

applying cascading up inheritance to the plurality of semantic entities wherein the parent entity inherits a media descriptor associated with a child entity.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising associating a flag with a media object, the flag identifying media object is to receive special handling during navigation.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein applying inheritance to the plurality of semantic entities further comprises:

creating a mapping between at least two entities of the plurality of semantic entities of the same entity type to provide for an additional association between the at least two entities; and

wherein storing the association between the media objects and the plurality of semantic entities further comprises storing the mapping between the at least two entities.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the entities comprise a media channel, a media stream, a station, a program, a slot, a playlist, a web page, a recording artist, a composer, a composition, a movement, a performance, a recording, a recording mix track, a track segment, a track, a release, an edition, an album, an album series, a graphic image, a photograph, a video segment, a video, a video still image, a TV episode, a TV series, a film, a podcast, an event, a location, and/or a venue.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein the media descriptors comprise at least one of identification codes and a textual label.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the media descriptors are at least one of genre ID codes, origin ID codes, recording era ID codes, composition era ID codes, artist type ID codes, tempo ID codes, mood ID codes, situation ID codes, work type ID codes, topic ID codes, personal historical contextual ID codes, community historical contextual ID code, and/or timbre ID codes.

18. The method of claim 1, wherein processing a plurality of media objects using at least one processor comprises:

extracting a digital fingerprint from a media object to obtain an identifier; and

associating the one or more of the media descriptors with the media object using the identifier.

21. The method of claim 1, wherein one or more entities have associated information for display in a user interface element for display on a display device to allow the user to subsequently navigate the media library.

22. The method of claim 2, wherein the parent entity is associated with a recording artist and has an associated genre media descriptor and the child entity is associated with an album by the recording artist but does not have a directly associated genre media descriptor, the method comprising the child entity inheriting the genre media descriptor of the parent entity.

23. The method of claim 2, wherein the parent entity is associated with an album and has an associated genre media descriptor and the child entity is associated with a recording on the album but does not have a directly associated genre media descriptor, the method comprising the child entity inheriting the genre media descriptor of the parent entity.

24. The method of claim 3, wherein the child entity is associated with an album and has an associated genre media descriptor and the parent entity is associated with a recording artist of the album but does not have a directly associated genre media descriptor, the method comprising the parent entity inheriting the genre media descriptor of the child entity.

25. The method of claim 3, wherein the child entity is associated with a recording and has an associated genre media descriptor and the parent entity is associated with an album but does not have a directly associated genre media descriptor, the method comprising the parent entity inheriting the genre media descriptor of the child entity.

26. The method of claim 4, wherein the flag is used as a display filter option.

27. The method of claim 4, wherein the flag is used to handle duplicate items, the flag identifying duplicates based at least on a fingerprint, duplicates based on a Table Of Contents (TOC), duplicates based on a filename, duplicates based on a track name, and/or duplicates based on file hash.

28. The method of claim 4, wherein the flag indicates that an entity is a various artist compilation, a soundtrack, a holiday related theme, an interview, and/or a bootleg recording.

6. A method of creating an information architecture for media objects for facilitating navigation of a media library including the media objects, the method comprising:

creating, using a processor of a machine, a semantic descriptor hierarchy from at least one descriptor system, the at least one descriptor system including a plurality of semantic descriptors and a master descriptor code list, the master descriptor code list including a plurality of master descriptor codes associated with the media objects;

creating a descriptor relation table, the descriptor relation table relating at least some of the master descriptor codes with other master descriptor codes in the master descriptor code list in accordance with a weighting; and

deploying the semantic descriptor hierarchy and the descriptor relation table in a client as the information architecture to allow a user to subsequently navigate the media library to select a media object or a group of media objects on the client, wherein a semantic descriptor not having an associated master descriptor code inherits a master descriptor code from another semantic descriptor in the semantic descriptor hierarchy.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein creating the semantic descriptor hierarchy from the at least one descriptor system comprises:

selecting a plurality of category lists from a plurality of available category lists of the at least one descriptor system, the category lists providing the plurality of semantic descriptors; and

using the selected category lists as the semantic descriptor hierarchy.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein creating the semantic descriptor hierarchy from the at least one descriptor system further comprises:

creating category list ordering data, the category list ordering data enabling at least one alternate ordering of the selected category lists.

9. The method of claim 6, wherein creating the semantic descriptor hierarchy from the at least one descriptor system further comprises:

creating a third party mapping table, the third party mapping table associating a plurality of descriptor terms used by a third party to the plurality of master descriptor codes.

10. The method of claim 6, wherein creating the semantic descriptor hierarchy from at the least one descriptor system comprises:

creating a plurality of semantic descriptor hierarchies from at least one descriptor system; and

linking the plurality of semantic descriptor hierarchies.

11. The method of claim 6, wherein creating the semantic descriptor hierarchy from the at least one descriptor system comprises:

selecting a plurality of category lists from a plurality of available category lists of the at least one descriptor system, the category lists providing the plurality of semantic descriptors;

selecting at least one of upward mapping or downward mapping with the selected category lists; and

using the selected category lists and the at least one mapping as the semantic descriptor hierarchy.

12. The method of claim 6, wherein creating the descriptor relation table further comprises:

creating a plurality of semantic entity hierarchies.

13. The method of claim 6, wherein the at least one descriptor system includes at least one of an original descriptor system or a translated version of the original descriptor system with labels in a different language.

14. The method of claim 6, wherein the client is a media player device.

19. Apparatus comprising:

memory to store instructions; and

at least one processor to execute the instructions to perform operations comprising;

accessing a local database provided on a client device, the local database comprising an entity hierarchy of a plurality of semantic entities and a plurality of media descriptors, wherein one or more of the plurality of semantic entities is associated with one or more media descriptors;

processing a plurality of media objects to identify one or more of the media descriptors associated with each media object;

identifying an entity in the entity hierarchy corresponding to the one or more media descriptors associated with the media object;

applying inheritance to the plurality of semantic entities so that at least some of the plurality of semantic entities not having directly associated media descriptors are associated with media descriptors associated with one or more other entities; and

storing the association between the media objects and the one or more media descriptors associated with the media objects through the applied inheritance to allow a user to subsequently navigate a media library using the media descriptors to select a media object or a group of media objects on the apparatus.

20. Apparatus comprising:

memory to store instructions; and

at least one processor to execute the instructions to perform operations to create an information architecture for media objects in a media library, the operations comprising;

creating, using a processor of a machine, a semantic descriptor hierarchy from at least one descriptor system, the at least one descriptor system including a plurality of semantic descriptors and a master descriptor code list, the master descriptor code list including a plurality of master descriptor codes associated with the media objects;

creating a descriptor relation table, the descriptor relation table relating at least some of the master descriptor codes with other master descriptor codes in the master descriptor code list in accordance with a weighting; and

deploying the semantic descriptor hierarchy and the descriptor relation table in a client as the information architecture to allow a user to subsequently navigate the media library to select a media object or a group of media objects on the apparatus, wherein a semantic descriptor not having an associated master descriptor code inherits a master descriptor code from another semantic descriptor in the semantic descriptor hierarchy.