Identifying radio stations of interest based on preference information

• US 8,244,171 B2
• Filed: 04/17/2009
• Issued: 08/14/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 04/17/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Ingrassia, Michael, Lee, Jeffery
• Primary Examiner(s): Donovan, Lincoln
• Assistant Examiner(s): Hernandez, William
• Application Number:
  US12/425,890
• Publication Number:
  US 20100267331A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,215 Days
• Field of Search: 455/3.04, 455/151.1, 455/151.2, 455/154.1, 455/179.1, 455/184.1, 455/185.1, 455/186.1, 455/432.3
• US Class Current: 455/3.04
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 20/26 Arrangements for switching distribution systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/09 Arrangements for device control with a direct linkage to broadcast information or to broadcast space-time; Arrangements for control of broadcast-related services
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/37 for identifying segments of broadcast information, e.g. scenes or extracting programme ID
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/47 for recognising genres
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/65 for using the result on users' side

Abstract

Systems and methods are provided for providing recommended radio stations to a user. In particular, an electronic device can compare media from a locally stored or accessed media library with media items provided as part of radio streams received by the device. The electronic device can identify the radio streams having the most media items overlapping with the local library, and recommend those streams as being most likely to be of interest to the user. The electronic device can further access a remote database of a large number of users'"'"' libraries, and receive recommendations based on the media items common to the user'"'"'s library, other users'"'"' libraries, and radio broadcasts. This approach allows the electronic device to provide recommendations without requiring any monitoring of the user'"'"'s listening habits or receiving preference information from the user.

Claims

1. A method for providing radio station recommendations for an electronic device, comprising:

identifying media items in a library of the electronic device;

determining media items broadcast by each of a plurality of radio stations available to radio tuning circuitry of the electronic device;

detecting the radio station broadcasting the most determined media items matching identified specific media items in the library;

recommending the detected radio station;

determining a number of the determined media items matching identified media items for each of the plurality of radio stations;

selecting a subset of the plurality of radio stations having the largest determined number; and

recommending the selected subset of the plurality of radio stations.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein recommending further comprises:

mapping the detected radio station to a selectable preset button of the electronic device.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

monitoring the media items broadcast by a plurality of radio stations using the radio tuning circuitry of the electronic device; and

identifying from the monitoring, for each of the plurality of radio stations, the media items broadcast by the radio station.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a listing of media items broadcast by a plurality of radio stations from a remote source; and

identifying from receiving, for each of the plurality of radio stations, the media items broadcast by the radio station.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein receiving further comprises receiving a listing comprising media items to be broadcast in the future.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

assigning a priority to each radio station of the selected subset based on the determined number for each radio station; and

recommending each radio station of the selected subset based on the assigned priority.

7. A method for providing radio station recommendations for an electronic device, comprising:

identifying media items in a library of the electronic device;

determining media items broadcast by each of a plurality of radio stations available to radio tuning circuitry of the electronic device;

detecting the radio station broadcasting the most determined media items matching identified specific media items in the library;

recommending the detected radio station;

identifying the strength of signal for each of the plurality of radio stations; and

detecting the radio station broadcasting the most determined media items for which the identified strength of signal exceeds a minimum threshold.

8. A system for providing radio station recommendations to a user of an electronic device, comprising:

a server in communication with a plurality of electronic devices, the server comprising communications circuitry, memory and a processor, the processor operative to;

direct the communications circuitry to receive, from the plurality of electronic devices, listings of media items available in libraries of the plurality of electronic devices;

identify sets of media items common to several of the libraries;

group each identified set of media items in a cluster;

direct the communications circuitry to identify, from a plurality of media sources, media items broadcast by the media sources;

determine, for each of the plurality of media sources, the clusters associated with the broadcast media items; and

recommend, to each of the plurality of electronic devices, the particular media sources broadcasting media items from clusters associated with media items of the electronic device library.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein:

the server further comprises radio tuning circuitry operative to tune to at least one of the plurality of media sources; and

the processor is further operative to;

direct the radio tuning circuitry to tune to at least one of the plurality of media sources; and

monitor the media items broadcast by the at least one of the plurality of media sources.

10. The system of claim 8, wherein:

a media source recommended to a particular electronic device has no broadcast media items in common with the media items of the particular electronic device library.

11. The system of claim 8, wherein the processor is further operative to:

identify a primary cluster associated with each of the plurality of media sources;

rank, for each electronic device, the clusters associated with the media items of the electronic device library; and

recommend media sources based on the ranked position of the primary cluster of the media sources for each electronic device.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the processor is further operative to:

identify secondary clusters associated with each of the plurality of media sources; and

recommend media sources based on the ranked position of secondary clusters of the media sources when media sources have the same primary cluster.

13. The system of claim 8, wherein the processor is further operative to:

direct the communications circuitry to receive, from the plurality of electronic devices, listings of media items combined in user-generated playlists;

identify sets of media items common to several of the user-generated playlists; and

group each identified set of media items in a cluster.

14. The system of claim 8, wherein the processor is further operative to:

identify the strength of signal for broadcasts of each of the plurality of media sources; and

detect the particular media sources broadcasting media items from clusters associated with media items of the electronic device library for which the identified strength of signal exceeds a minimum threshold.

15. An electronic device operative to receive media broadcasts, comprising communications circuitry, memory, and a processor, the processor operative to:

identify buckets of media items associated with media items stored in the memory, wherein each bucket includes a listing of media items common to a plurality of electronic device libraries;

retrieve a listing of media items broadcast by each of a plurality of media sources received by the communications circuitry;

determine the buckets associated with the broadcast media items of each of the plurality of media sources;

identify a subset of the plurality of media sources for which the determined buckets match the identified buckets of the electronic device library; and

recommend the identified subset of the plurality of media sources.

16. The electronic device of claim 15, wherein the processor is further operative to:

provide a listing of the media items in the electronic device library to a remote server, wherein a plurality of electronic devices provide listings of the media items in each of the plurality of electronic device libraries to the remote server; and

receive, from the remote server, listings of media items in each of the identified buckets.

17. The electronic device of claim 16, wherein the processor is further operative to:

compare the retrieved listings of media items broadcast by each of the plurality of media sources with the received listings of media items in each of the identified buckets; and

recommend a media source having more than a minimum threshold of media items within at least one of the identified buckets.

18. The electronic device of claim 15, wherein the processor is further operative to:

provide the retrieved listing of media items broadcast by each of the plurality of media sources to a remote server, wherein a plurality of electronic devices provide listings of the media items in each of the plurality of electronic device libraries to the remote server; and

receive, from the remote server, the buckets associated with the media items broadcast by each of the plurality of media sources.

19. The electronic device of claim 18, wherein the processor is further operative to:

compare the identified buckets with the received buckets; and

recommend media sources associated with received buckets that match identified buckets.

20. The electronic device of claim 15, wherein the processor is further operative to:

establish the bucket from which media items are played back at a particular time in the day;

identify a time-specific subset of the plurality of media sources for which the determined buckets match the established bucket; and

recommend the identified time-specific subset of the plurality of media sources when the current time is the particular time of day.

21. A non-transitory computer readable media for providing radio station recommendations for an electronic device, the non-transitory computer readable media comprising computer readable instructions recorded thereon for:

identifying media items in a library of the electronic device;

determining media items broadcast by each of a plurality of available radio stations;

detecting the radio station broadcasting the most determined media items matching identified specific media items in the library;

recommending the detected radio station;

tuning radio tuning circuitry to the recommended radio station;

determining a number of the determined media items matching identified media items for each of the plurality of radio stations;

selecting a subset of the plurality of radio stations having the largest determined number; and

recommending the selected subset of the plurality of radio stations.

22. The non-transitory computer readable media of claim 21, further comprising additional computer readable instructions recorded thereon for:

assigning a priority to each radio station of the selected subset based on the determined number for each radio station; and

recommending each radio station of the selected subset based on the assigned priority.