Multimedia device for providing access to media content

• US 8,560,553 B2
• Filed: 09/06/2006
• Issued: 10/15/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 09/06/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google Technology Holdings LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Motorola Mobility LLC (Lenovo Group Ltd.)
• Inventors: Bentley, Frank R., Metcalf, Crysta J., Romano, Guy G., Thakkar, Vivek V., Harboe, Gunnar F.
• Primary Examiner(s): BURKE, JEFF A
• Application Number:
  US11/470,459
• Publication Number:
  US 20080060014A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,596 Days
• Field of Search: 707/104.1, 707/736, 707/748, 707/751, 707/913, 725/37, 725/52, 725/53, 705/26, 709/228
• US Class Current: 707/748
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/4387 by the use of playlists

Abstract

A multimedia device and a method embodied in the multimedia device for providing access to media content from a plurality of media content are provided. The multimedia device includes a user interface (UI) with one or more UI controls, a processor, and an output device. The UI controls receive a first set of parameter values from the user, in order to select media content. The processor creates a first list of media content based on a first probabilistic distribution over the plurality of media content. The output device provides access to the media content of the first list of media content to the user. Further, the UI may receive a second set of parameter values, and a second list of media content is then created, based on a second probabilistic distribution. The output device provides access to the media content of the second list of media content to the user.

Claims

1. A multimedia device for providing access to media content and storing a plurality of media content, the multimedia device comprising:

a user interface (UI) comprising one or more UI controls associated with at least one metadata attribute of a set of metadata attributes and configured to receive a first set of parameters relating to the at least one metadata attribute for selecting the media content, wherein the first set of parameters is received in terms of a position on a scale associated with the at least one metadata attribute, further wherein the at least one metadata attribute is objectively-based;

a processor configured to create a first list of media content from the plurality of media content based on a first probabilistic distribution over the plurality of media content, wherein the first probabilistic distribution is based only on the first set of parameters and the plurality of media content; and

an output device configured to provide access to media content, wherein the media content is initially selected from the first list of media content;

wherein the processor, in response to receiving a second set of parameters at the UI while the output device is providing access to the media content, creates a second list of media content from the plurality of media content based on a second probabilistic distribution over the plurality of media content, and wherein the second probabilistic distribution is based only on the second set of parameters and the plurality of media content.

2. The multimedia device as recited in claim 1, wherein the UI is at least one of a touch screen, a dial, a button, a knob, a slider and an adjustable Graphical User Interface (GUI) widget.

3. The multimedia device as recited in claim 1, wherein changing a state of a UI control assigns a value to an associated metadata attribute.

4. The multimedia device as recited in claim 1, wherein a UI control from the one or more UI controls operates in a dual-mode, wherein the UI control is associated with each of the set of metadata attributes in the dual-mode.

5. The multimedia device as recited in claim 1, wherein the processor comprises:

a query formulation engine for determining one of the first probabilistic distribution and the second probabilistic distribution; and

a pseudo-random number generator for generating a set of pseudo-random numbers.

6. The multimedia device as recited in claim 1, wherein the first probabilistic distribution includes a first set of probabilistic values for the plurality of media content, and wherein the second probabilistic distribution includes a second set of probabilistic values for the plurality of media content.

7. The multimedia device as recited in claim 6, wherein the processor further comprises a comparator for comparing each pseudo-random number of the set of pseudo-random numbers to one of the first set of probabilistic values and second set of probabilistic values for each of the plurality of media content.

8. The multimedia device as recited in claim 6, wherein the each of the first set of probabilistic values and second set of probabilistic values is based on a set of metadata attributes for each of the plurality of media content and one of the first set of parameters and the second set of parameter.

9. The multimedia device as recited in claim 6, wherein the set of metadata attributes is one or more from a group comprising static media content information, analytical media content information, usage media content information, user rated media content information, externally gathered media-content information, collaboratively filtered media-content information, and contextual media content information.

10. The multimedia device as recited in claim 1 further comprising:

a metadata database, wherein the metadata database stores a set of metadata attributes of each of the plurality of media content; and

a memory for storing the plurality of media content.

11. The multimedia device as recited in claim 1, wherein the output device comprises a display for displaying and providing access to one of the first list of media content and the second list of the media content.

12. The multimedia device as recited in claim 1, wherein the processor changes the second list of media content into the first list of media content, when the second set of parameter is changed to the first set of parameter.

13. A method for managing a multimedia device, the multimedia device storing a plurality of media content, the method comprising:

receiving a first set of parameters associated with at least one metadata attribute from a user interface (UI) of the multimedia device, wherein the first set of parameters is received in terms of a position on a scale associated with the at least one metadata attribute, further wherein the at least one metadata attribute is objectively-based;

creating a first list of media content from the plurality of media content based on a first probabilistic distribution over the plurality of media content, wherein the first probabilistic distribution is based only on the first set of parameters and the plurality of media content;

providing access to a media content, wherein the media content is selected from the first list of media content;

receiving a second set of parameters from the UI of the multimedia device while the multimedia device provides accesses to the media content; and

creating a second list of media content from the plurality of media content based on a second probabilistic distribution over the plurality of media content, wherein the second probabilistic distribution is based only on the second set of parameters and the plurality of media content.

14. The method as recited in claim 13, wherein the first set of parameters and the second set of parameters are associated with a set of metadata attributes, wherein the set of metadata attributes is associated with each of the plurality of media content.

15. The method as recited in claim 14, wherein the set of metadata attributes is selected from the group comprising static media content information, analytical media content information, usage media content information, user rated media content information, externally gathered media content information, collaboratively filtered media content information, and contextual media content information.

16. The method as recited in claim 13 further comprising calculating one of the first probabilistic distribution and second probabilistic distribution over the plurality of media content.

17. The method as recited in claim 16, wherein calculating the first probabilistic distribution comprises computing a first set of probabilistic values for the plurality of media content, and wherein calculating the second probabilistic distribution comprises computing a second set of probabilistic values for the plurality of media content.

18. The method as recited in claim 17, wherein computing the first set of probabilistic values for each of the plurality of media content is based on the set of metadata attributes for each of the plurality of media content and the first set of parameters.

19. The method as recited in claim 17, wherein computing the second set of probabilistic values for each of the plurality of media content is based on the set of metadata attributes for each of the plurality of media content and the second set of parameters.

20. The method as recited in claim 17, wherein creating each of the first list of media content and the second list of media content further comprises:

generating a set of pseudo-random numbers; and

comparing the set of pseudo-random numbers and the one of the first set of probabilistic values and second set of probabilistic values of each of the plurality of media content.

21. The method as recited in claim 20 further comprising prior to creating the first list of media content receiving the first set of parameters.

22. The method as recited in claim 20 further comprising prior to creating the second list of media content receiving the second set of parameters.

23. The method as recited in claim 13, wherein the second list of media content is changed to the first list of media content when the second set of parameter is changed to the first set of parameter.