System and method for generating a playlist from a mood gradient

• US 8,583,615 B2
• Filed: 08/31/2007
• Issued: 11/12/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 08/31/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: R2 Solutions LLC (Acacia Research Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Yahoo! Inc. (Apollo Global Management, Inc.)
• Inventors: White, William, Slaney, Malcolm
• Primary Examiner(s): DWIVEDI, MAHESH H
• Application Number:
  US11/849,006
• Publication Number:
  US 20090063414A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,265 Days
• Field of Search: 707/104.1, 707/729, 707/730, 707/732, 707/733, 707/748, 707/749, 707/705
• US Class Current: 707/705
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24 Querying
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/40 of multimedia data, e.g. slideshows comprising image and additional audio data retrieval of still image data G06F16/50; retrieval of audio data G06F16/60; retrieval of video data G06F16/70
• 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 16/634 Query by example, e.g. query by humming
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/638 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/639 using playlists
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04815 Interaction with a metaphor-based environment or interaction object displayed as three-dimensional, e.g. changing the user viewpoint with respect to the environment or object
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04817 using icons graphical or visual programming using iconic symbols G06F8/34
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0484 for the control of specific functions or operations, e.g. selecting or manipulating an object, an image or a displayed text element, setting a parameter value or selecting a range
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/105 of operating discs

Abstract

Systems and methods for generating and playing a sequence of media objects based on a mood gradient are also disclosed. A mood gradient is a sequence of items, in which each item is media object having known characteristics or a representative set of characteristics of a media object, that is created or used by a user for a specific purpose. Given a mood gradient, one or more new media objects are selected for each item in the mood gradient based on the characteristics associated with that item. In this way, a sequence of new media objects is created but the sequence exhibits a similar variation in media object characteristics. The mood gradient may be presented to a user or created via a display illustrating a three-dimensional space in which each dimension corresponds to a different characteristic. The mood gradient may be represented as a path through the three-dimensional space and icons representing media objects are located within the three-dimensional space based on their characteristics.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving, at a media rendering device, a request for a play list of songs in accordance with a mood of a user;

retrieving, by the media rendering device and based on the user mood, a defined mood gradient comprising an identifier identifying a mood and a sequence of target value sets for the identified mood, each target value set including a plurality of values, the plurality of values comprising at least three values, each value in each target value set corresponding to a dimension of a multi-dimensional space in which at least one song is represented, the multi-dimensional space having at least three dimensions, each dimension of the multi-dimensional space corresponding to a different one of objective musical characteristics comprising at least tempo, brightness and beatedness, an objective analysis of audio data of the at least one song being used to generate the at least three values for the at least one song;

for each target value set in the mood gradient, selecting, by the media rendering device, a song based on the at least three values in the target value set; and

generating, by the media rendering device, the playlist of songs for playback, the play list containing each selected song.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein retrieving a defined mood gradient further comprises:

identifying a user associated with the request; and

selecting the defined mood gradient based on the user associated with the request.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein retrieving a defined mood gradient further comprises:

selecting the defined mood gradient based on a mood gradient identifier contained in the request.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein selecting a song further comprises:

generating, based on an objective analysis of audio data for each of a plurality of songs, a song value set associated with each song, each song value set including the at least three values in which each value represents a different objective musical characteristic of the associated song; and

for each target value set in the mood gradient, comparing the target value set in the mood gradient to each song value set.

5. The method of claim 4 further comprising:

for each target value set in the mood gradient, selecting the song having the song value set that most closely matches the target value set.

6. The method of claim 4 further comprising:

for each target value set in the mood gradient, the selecting a song further comprising;

identifying a set of similar songs having song value sets within a predetermined variation of the target value set; and

randomly selecting the song from the set of similar songs.

7. The method of claim 4 further comprising:

for each target value set in the mood gradient;

identifying a set of similar songs having song value sets within a predetermined variation of the target value set; and

filtering the set of similar songs based on one or more filter criteria; and

selecting the song from the filtered set of similar songs.

8. The method of claim 3 wherein the request for a playlist is received from a first user and the mood gradient was created by a second user different from the first user.

9. A system comprising:

an analysis module that objectively analyzes audio data of at least one song and, for each song, generates a multi-dimensional value set having at least three dimensions, each value set including a value for each of at least three objective characteristics of the associated song, the at least three objective characteristics comprising at least tempo, brightness and beatedness, each of the three objective characteristics being represented by one of the three values and corresponding to a different dimension of a multi-dimensional space in which the at least one song is represented, the multi-dimensional space having at least three dimensions;

a datastore containing a plurality of value sets, each value set associated with a different song;

a user interface module that receives a user selection of a mood gradient in accordance with a received mood of a user, the mood gradient comprising an identifier of a mood and a group of selected value sets in a sequence for the identified mood, each selected value set in the group including at least three values, each value corresponding to a dimension of the multi-dimensional space; and

a playlist generator module that selects a recommended song for playback for each selected value set in the group included in the mood gradient based on the at least three values of the selected value set.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the playlist generator module further generates a playlist including the recommended song selected for each selected value set in the mood gradient.

11. The system of claim 9, wherein the user interface module further generates a three-dimensional user interface in a display device connected to the system, the user interface configured to represent a three-dimensional space including at least one first icon representing a first song located in the three-dimensional space based on the values of three of the objective characteristics of the first song.

12. The system of claim 9, wherein the user interface module receives from the user a first selection of songs in a sequence and a request to generate a play list containing a second selection of songs based on the first selection of songs.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the first selection of songs contains a first song and a second song in a predetermined sequence and the second selection of songs contains a third song selection based on its similarity to the first song and a fourth song selected based on its similarity to the second song.

14. The system of claim 13 wherein the third song and fourth song are in the same sequence as the first song and the second song.

15. The system of claim 9 further comprising:

a media player that renders songs in accordance with commands received from a user, wherein the user interface module provides an interface for the media player through which the user may control the selection and rendering of songs to the user.

16. A computer-readable non-transitory storage medium storing computer executable instructions for a method, the method comprising:

receiving a request for a play list of songs in accordance with a mood of a user;

retrieving, based on the user mood, a defined mood gradient comprising an identifier of a mood and a sequence of target value sets for the identified mood, each target value set including a plurality of values, the plurality of values comprising at least three values, each value in each target value set corresponding to a dimension of a multi-dimensional space in which at least one song is represented, the multi-dimensional space having at least three dimensions, each dimension of the multi-dimensional space corresponding to a different one of objective musical characteristics comprising at least tempo, brightness and beatedness, an objective analysis of audio data of the at least one song being used to generate the at least three values for the at least one song;

for each target value set in the mood gradient, selecting a song based on the at least three values in the target value set; and

generating a playlist of songs for playback, the play list containing each selected song.

17. The medium of claim 16, wherein retrieving a defined mood gradient further comprises:

identifying a user associated with the request; and

selecting the defined mood gradient based on the user associated with the request.

18. The medium of claim 16, wherein retrieving a defined mood gradient further comprises:

selecting the defined mood gradient based on a mood gradient identifier contained in the request.

19. The medium of claim 16, the method further comprising:

generating, based on an objective analysis of audio data for each of a plurality of songs, a song value set associated with each song, each song value set including the at least three values in which each value represents a different objective musical characteristic of the associated song;

wherein, for each target value set in the mood gradient, selecting a song further comprises;

identifying a set of similar songs having song value sets within a predetermined variation of the target value set; and

randomly selecting the song from the set of similar songs.

20. The medium of claim 16, the method further comprising:

generating, based on audio data for each of a plurality of songs, a song value set associated with each song, each song value set including a plurality of values in which each value represents a different objective musical characteristic of the associated song;

wherein, for each target value set in the mood gradient, selecting a song further comprises;

identifying a set of similar songs having song value sets within a predetermined variation of the target value set; and

filtering the set of similar songs based on one or more filter criteria; and

selecting the song from the filtered set of similar songs.