Identifying radio stations of interest based on preference information

• US 8,571,466 B2
• Filed: 07/30/2012
• Issued: 10/29/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 04/17/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Ingrassia, Michael I. Jr., Lee, Jeffery T.
• Primary Examiner(s): Hernandez, William
• Application Number:
  US13/561,698
• Publication Number:
  US 20130122801A1
• Time in Patent Office: 456 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 of providing broadcast source 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 broadcast sources available to the electronic device;

determining a number of the determined media items broadcast by each of the plurality of broadcast sources matching identified media items; and

recommending a subset of the plurality of broadcast sources having the largest determined number.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising mapping a detected broadcast source from the subset of the plurality of broadcast sources to a selectable preset button of the electronic device.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising monitoring the media items broadcast by the plurality of broadcast sources.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising identifying from the monitoring, for each of the plurality of broadcast sources, the media items broadcast by the broadcast source.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving, from a remote source, a listing of media items broadcast by a plurality of broadcast sources; and

identifying for each of the plurality of broadcast sources, the media items broadcast by the broadcast source.

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

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

assigning a priority to each broadcast source of the recommended subset of the plurality of broadcast sources; and

selecting a broadcast source based on the assigned priority.

8. A system for providing broadcast content source 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;

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 media items broadcast by the media sources; 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 libraries.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the communications circuitry of the server is operative to receive at least one of the plurality of media sources.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the processor is further operative to monitor the media items received by the communications circuitry.

11. 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.

12. 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.

13. The system of claim 12, 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.

14. 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.

15. 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.

16. A non-transitory computer-readable media for providing broadcast content source recommendations for an electronic device, the 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 broadcast sources available to the electronic device;

determining a number of the determined media items broadcast by each of the plurality of broadcast sources matching identified media items; and

recommending a subset of the plurality of broadcast sources having the largest determined number.

17. The computer-readable medium of claim 16, further comprising instructions for:

assigning a priority to each broadcast source of the recommended subset of the plurality of broadcast sources;

selecting a broadcast source based on the assigned priority; and

recommending the selected broadcast source.

18. The computer-readable medium of claim 17, further comprising instructions for mapping the recommended broadcast source to a selectable preset button of the electronic device.

19. The computer-readable medium of claim 16, further comprising instructions for:

monitoring the media items broadcast by the plurality of broadcast sources; and

identifying from the monitoring, for each of the plurality of broadcast sources, the media items broadcast by the broadcast source.

20. The computer-readable medium of claim 19, further comprising instructions for receiving a listing comprising media items to be broadcast in the future.