Communicating and storing information associated with media broadcasts

• US 8,938,217 B2
• Filed: 12/20/2007
• Issued: 01/20/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 08/22/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Dorogusker, Jesse Lee, Schubert, Emily Clark, Novotney, Donald J., Fadell, Anthony M., Hailey, Michael Benjamin, Bell, Chris, Gedikian, Steve Saro, Borchers, Robert Edward, Laefer, Jay, Lydon, Gregory Thomas, Bolton, Lawrence G., Oliver, Eric
• Primary Examiner(s): Eng, George
• Assistant Examiner(s): HAMMONDS, MARCUS C
• Application Number:
  US11/961,904
• Publication Number:
  US 20080188209A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,588 Days
• Field of Search: 455/3.06, 455/412.1, 4554141-4144, 455/420, 455/556.1, 455/569.1, 379/67.1, 379/88.1, 705 1449- 1466
• US Class Current: 455/414.1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0241 Advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/27 Arrangements for recording or accumulating broadcast information or broadcast-related information
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/37 for identifying segments of broadcast information, e.g. scenes or extracting programme ID
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/64 for providing detail information
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/73 using meta-information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/185 by embedding added-value information into content, e.g. geo-tagging

Abstract

An accessory communicates with a portable media device (“PMD”) to store tags associated with broadcasts in a file maintained in a storage medium of the accessory, where the tags contain information descriptive of a subset of the broadcast content. In one embodiment, the accessory sends commands to the PMD to create or open a tag file that resides on the PMD, write one or more tags to the file, and close the file. Stored tags can be used to access (e.g., purchase) tagged content by communicating with a media asset delivery service either via a host computer or directly from the PMD.

Claims

1. A method performed by an accessory communicably coupled to a portable media device (“

PMD”

), wherein the accessory and the PMD are separate electronic devices, the method comprising;

receiving, by the accessory, broadcast data including a first track;

determining, by the accessory, whether the first track is to be tagged; and

in response to determining that the first track is to be tagged;

capturing, by the accessory, identifying information for the first track from the broadcast data;

obtaining, by the accessory, a metadata item associated with the first track from a source other than a source of the received broadcast data;

generating, by the accessory, a first tag comprising the identifying information for the first track and the metadata item; and

instructing, by the accessory, the PMD to store the first tag in a storage medium of the PMD.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein determining whether the first track is to be tagged includes receiving an instruction to tag the first track.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the first tag includes a plurality of metadata items descriptive of the first track.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein the plurality of metadata items descriptive of the first track includes one or more items selected from a group consisting of a track name, an artist or performer name, an album name, a time stamp, a track identifier associated with the track, and a program type for the first track.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the first tag includes a plurality of metadata items descriptive of a broadcaster of the first track.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein the plurality of metadata items descriptive of the broadcaster includes one or more items selected from a group consisting of a station identifier of the broadcaster, a market area associated with the broadcaster, a network or group with which the broadcaster is affiliated, and a uniform resource locator (URL) associated with the broadcaster.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein receiving the broadcast includes:

receiving a plurality of metadata fields associated with the first track.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein generating the first tag includes:

populating an XML dictionary with a plurality of key-value pairs, each key-value pair corresponding to one of the plurality of metadata fields.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein populating the XML dictionary includes:

including in the XML dictionary a key-value pair for which the key identifies the corresponding metadata field as an unrecognized metadata field.

10. The method of claim 1 where the first tag includes a representation of a portion of the content of the first track.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein the source of the received broadcast data is a media broadcasting station and the source of the at least one metadata item is a data network.

12. The method of claim 11 wherein the media broadcasting station is a radio station.

13. The method of claim 11 wherein the media broadcasting station is a television station.

14. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

displaying information about the first track.

15. The method of claim 14 wherein displaying the information about the first track includes displaying the information on a display device of the accessory.

16. The method of claim 14 wherein displaying the information about the first track includes providing displayable information about the first track to the PMD, wherein the PMD displays the displayable information on a display device.

17. The method of claim 14 wherein the displayed information includes at least some of the information that is included in the first tag in the event that the first tag is generated.

18. The method of claim 14 wherein the displayed information includes an indication of whether the first track is a taggable track.

19. The method of claim 14 wherein determining whether the first track is to be tagged includes:

receiving, while the information about the first track is displayed, a signal indicative of a request from a user to generate a tag.

20. The method of claim 1 wherein the act of generating the first tag is performed at a time when the accessory is not coupled to the PMD, the method further comprising:

storing the first tag in a local storage medium of the accessory,

wherein the act of instructing the PMD to store the first tag is performed at a later time when the accessory is coupled to the PMD.

21. The method of claim 20 further comprising:

during the time when the accessory is not coupled to the PMD, generating at least one additional tag, wherein each additional tag is associated with a different one of a plurality of tracks of the broadcast data;

storing each of the additional tags in the local storage medium of the accessory; and

during the time when the accessory is coupled to the PMD, instructing the PMD to store each of the additional tags in the storage medium of the PMD.

22. An accessory comprising:

a receiver component configured to receive a broadcast including one or more tracks;

a tag extraction engine configured to capture a tag comprising information related to a track from the one or more tracks;

an interface configured to communicate the captured tag from the tag extraction engine to a portable electronic device (PMD), wherein the accessory and the PMD are separate electronic devices, wherein the PMD is configured to store the tag in a storage medium and the interface is adapted to instruct the PMD to open a tag file in the storage medium prior to communicating the captured tag to the PMD; and

communication circuitry configured to obtain a metadata item associated with the track from a source other than a source of the received broadcast and communicate the metadata item to the PMD via the interface.

23. The accessory of claim 22 further comprising:

a user input component adapted to receive a user input indicating that a current track of the broadcast should be tagged,

wherein the tag extraction engine is further adapted to capture a tag comprising information related to the current track in response to the user input.

24. The accessory of claim 22 wherein the tag extraction engine is further configured to capture, as part of the tag, metadata received with the track.

25. The accessory of claim 22 wherein the tag extraction engine is further configured to capture, as part of the tag, a portion of the broadcast data of the track.

26. The accessory of claim 22 wherein the interface is also configured to receive a response from the PMD indicating that the tag file is open.

27. A method performed by an accessory communicably coupled to a portable media device (“

PMD”

), wherein the accessory and the PMD are separate electronic devices, the method comprising;

receiving, by the accessory, broadcast data including a plurality of tracks and metadata associated with each of the plurality of tracks;

during receiving of the broadcast data, receiving, by the accessory, an instruction to tag a currently playing track from the plurality of tracks; and

in response to the receiving the instruction to tag;

capturing, by the accessory from the broadcast data, metadata for at least one track from the plurality of tracks;

obtaining, by the accessory, additional information about the at least one track from a source other than a source of the broadcast data;

generating, by the accessory, a tag comprising the metadata and the additional information;

sending, by the accessory, a first command to the PMD, the first command requesting information about storage capabilities of the PMD;

receiving, by the accessory, a second command from the PMD in response to the first command, the second command including information about the storage capabilities of the PMD;

sending, by the accessory, a third command to the PMD in response to the second command, the third command requesting the PMD to open a file for writing tags;

receiving, by the accessory, a fourth command from the PMD in response to the third command, the fourth command including a handle for an opened file; and

sending, by the accessory, a fifth command to the PMD in response to the fourth command, the fifth command instructing the PMD to add the tag to the opened file.

28. The method of claim 27 wherein the second command received by the accessory comprises one or more of the following:

a total size of an internal storage medium of the PMD, largest allowed file size;

maximum amount of data that can be written the internal storage medium of the PMD using a single command, and version information identifying the version of a storage lingo supported by the PMD.

29. The method of claim 27 wherein the third command further comprises a purpose of the file.

30. The method of claim 27 wherein the handle remains valid until either the accessory is no longer coupled to the accessory or the accessory closes the opened file.

31. The method of claim 27 wherein the fifth command sent by the accessory comprises one or more of:

the handle, an offset, and data.