Predictive caching for content

• US 9,215,269 B2
• Filed: 08/23/2012
• Issued: 12/15/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 08/23/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Inventors: Freeman, James Marvin II, Bromberg, Aaron M., Herron-Patmon, Bryant F., Karmacharya, Nush, Barnard, Joshua B., Chen, Peter Wei-Chih, Slotnick, Stephen A., Dubey, Abhishek, Watts, Andrew J., Winograd, Richard J.
• Primary Examiner(s): Vu, Viet
• Assistant Examiner(s): Chambers, Michael A
• Application Number:
  US13/592,752
• Publication Number:
  US 20140059156A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,209 Days
• Field of Search: 709/203, 709217-219, 711/137, 705/7.26, 725/46
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 15/167 using a common memory, e.g. mailbox
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9574 of access to content, e.g. by caching
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2463/101 applying security measures for digital rights management
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 49/90 Buffering arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/061 for key exchange, e.g. in peer-to-peer networks cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for key agreement H04L9/0838
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/068 using time-dependent keys, e.g. periodically changing keys cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for controlling usage of secret information H04L9/088
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/61 for supporting one-way streaming services, e.g. Internet radio
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/612 for unicast
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/01 Protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/535 Tracking the activity of the user network monitoring arrangements H04L43/00; recording of computer activity G06F11/34
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/56 Provisioning of proxy services store-and-forward switching systems in data switching networks H04L12/54
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/561 Adding application-functional data or data for application control, e.g. adding metadata
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/5681 Pre-fetching or pre-delivering data based on network characteristics

Abstract

Disclosed are various embodiments for predictive caching of content to facilitate instantaneous use of the content. If a user is likely to commence use of a content item through a client, and if the client has available resources to facilitate instantaneous use, the client is configured to predictively cache the content item before the user commences use. In doing so, the client may obtain metadata for the content item and an initial portion of the content item from a server. The client may then initialize various resources to facilitate instantaneous use of the content item by the client based at least in part on the metadata and the initial portion.

Claims

1. A non-transitory computer-readable medium embodying a program executable in at least one computing device, comprising:

code that generates a list of recommended media content items for a user based at least in part on a media consumption history of the user and real-time behavior data of the user;

code that selects a subset of the recommended media content items based at least in part on a respective priority of each of the recommended media content items and an available data storage for a client associated with the user;

code that prepares the client for instantaneous playback of the subset of the recommended media content items before the user selects any of the subset of the recommended media content items for playback, wherein, for each one of the subset of the recommended media content items, the code that prepares performs;

obtaining, in the client, a corresponding decryption key, a corresponding manifest, and an initial portion of media content from at least one server; and

initializing, in the client, decryption logic for decrypting the initial portion of media content using the corresponding decryption key; and

code that performs instantaneous playback of one of the subset of the recommended media content items in response to the one of the subset of the recommended media content items being selected by the user for playback after the client is prepared for instantaneous playback of the one of the subset of the recommended media content items.

2. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the code that performs instantaneous playback is configured to stream the one of the subset of the recommended media content items from the at least one server.

3. A system, comprising:

a computing device; and

a predictive caching system executable in the computing device, the predictive caching system being configured to;

obtain a list of recommended content items for a user;

select one of the recommended content items from the list based at least in part on a priority of the one of the recommended content items and an available memory of the computing device;

obtain an initial portion of the one of the recommended content items and metadata associated with the one of the recommended content items from at least one server prior to the user explicitly indicating that use of the one of the recommended content items is desired; and

perform processing relative to the metadata to prepare the computing device for playback of the one of the recommended content items prior to the user explicitly indicating that use of the one of the recommended content items is desired.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the recommended content items correspond to a plurality of media content items, and the use of the one of the recommended content items corresponds to playback of the one of the recommended content items.

5. The system of claim 3, wherein the recommended content items correspond to a plurality of applications, and the use of the one of the recommended content items corresponds to execution of the one of the recommended content items.

6. The system of claim 3, wherein the predictive caching system is further configured to determine a bitrate for the initial portion of the recommended content items based at least in part on a bandwidth profile of the user.

7. The system of claim 3, wherein the predictive caching system is further configured to generate the list of recommended content items based at least in part on a content consumption history of the user.

8. The system of claim 3, wherein the predictive caching system is further configured to generate the list of recommended content items based at least in part on a list of content items created by the user.

9. The system of claim 3, wherein the predictive caching system is further configured to generate the list of recommended content items based at least in part on a listing of content items being presented to the user.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the listing of content items corresponds to a listing of search results generated in response to a search query obtained from the user.

11. The system of claim 3, wherein the metadata includes a decryption key for decrypting the one of the recommended content items.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the processing includes adding the decryption key to a secure data store of the computing device, and selecting one of the recommended content items from the list is based at least in part on whether the secure data store has available memory to accommodate the decryption key.

13. The system of claim 11, wherein the processing includes decrypting the initial portion of the one of the recommended content items using the decryption key.

14. The system of claim 11, wherein the processing includes initializing decryption logic for the one of the recommended content items.

15. The system of claim 3, wherein the metadata includes a manifest file identifying a plurality of portions of the one of the recommended content items.

16. The system of claim 3, wherein the predictive caching system is further configured to deallocate resources allocated to a content item from a previous list of recommended content items.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the resources are deallocated in response to the content item being played back by the user.

18. The system of claim 3, wherein the predictive caching system is further configured to render a user interface that recommends use of the one of the recommended content items to the user in response to the computing device being prepared for use of the one of the recommended content items.

19. A method, comprising:

determining, in a computing device, that a user is likely to commence use of a content item;

determining whether the computing device has available resources to facilitate instantaneous use of the content item; and

in response to determining that the computing device has available resources to facilitate instantaneous use of the content item and before the user commences use of the content item;

obtaining, in the computing device, metadata for the content item from a server;

obtaining, in the computing device, an initial portion of the content item from the server; and

initializing resources of the computing device to facilitate instantaneous use of the content item based at least in part on the metadata and the initial portion of the content item, wherein initializing resources of the computing device includes initializing decryption logic for decrypting the initial portion of the content item using a decryption key.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein initializing resources of the computing device to facilitate instantaneous use of the content item further comprises:

adding the decryption key to a secure data store of the computing device.

21. The method of claim 19, further comprising rendering, in the computing device, a recommendation for the user to use the content item.

22. The method of claim 19, wherein determining, in the computing device, that the user is likely to commence use of the content item further comprises determining, in the computing device, that the user is likely to commence use of the content item based at least in part on a set of content search results being presented to the user.

23. The method of claim 19, wherein determining, in the computing device, that the user is likely to commence use of the content item further comprises determining, in the computing device, the content item based at least in part on a content consumption history of the user.

24. The method of claim 19, wherein determining, in the computing device, that the user is likely to commence use of the content item further comprises determining, in the computing device, the content item based at least in part on a time of day, a day of week, or both.

25. The method of claim 19, wherein determining, in the computing device, that the user is likely to commence use of the content item further comprises obtaining, in the computing device, a list of recommended content items from the server, wherein the list of recommended content items includes the content item.

26. The method of claim 19, wherein determining whether the computing device has available resources to facilitate instantaneous use of the content item further comprises determining whether a secure data store of the computing device has sufficient space to accommodate the decryption key.

27. The method of claim 19, wherein determining whether the computing device has available resources to facilitate instantaneous use of the content item further comprises determining whether a predictive cache in the computing device has sufficient space to accommodate the metadata and the initial portion of the content item.

28. The method of claim 19, further comprising commencing instantaneous use of the content item in the computing device in response to a user-initiated use request after the resources of the computing device have been initialized to facilitate instantaneous use of the content item.

29. The method of claim 19, wherein the user is one of a plurality of users associated with a content access account.