Location-indexed audio content

• US 9,275,542 B2
• Filed: 07/30/2010
• Issued: 03/01/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 07/30/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hewlett Packard Enterprise Development LP (Hewlett-Packard Enterprise Company), Valtrus Innovations Limited (f/k/a Dolya Holdco 9 Limited) (Key Patent Innovations Limited)
• Original Assignee: Hewlett Packard Enterprise Development LP (Hewlett-Packard Enterprise Company)
• Inventors: Ankolekar, Anupriya, Huberman, Bernardo, Vorbau, W. Alex, Sandholm, Thomas E.
• Primary Examiner(s): Chin, Vivian
• Assistant Examiner(s): Hamid, Ammar
• Application Number:
  US13/812,123
• Publication Number:
  US 20130121503A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,041 Days
• Field of Search: 381/77, 707/758, 707/319, 707/803, 707/724, 707/737, 707/740, 707/732, 707/754, 707/916, 707/919, 715/747, 715/716, 705/319, 705/14.55, 725/46, 725/45, 700/94, 455/456.3
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/4387 by the use of playlists
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/487 using geographical or spatial information, e.g. location
• CPC Class Codes: G08C 19/00 Electric signal transmission systems G08C17/00 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/18 Information format or content conversion, e.g. adaptation by the network of the transmitted or received information for the purpose of wireless delivery to users or terminals
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/185 by embedding added-value information into content, e.g. geo-tagging
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/21 for social networking applications

Abstract

Associations between pieces of electronic audio content and geographic locations are stored. An indication of a present link between an electronic device and a particular geographic location is received. A particular piece of electronic audio content is identified as being related to the particular geographic location. The identified piece of electronic audio content then is made available to the electronic device.

Claims

1. A method for making electronic audio content available at an electronic device, the method comprising:

storing, in a computer memory storage system, associations between individual pieces of electronic audio content and corresponding geographic locations;

storing, in the computer memory storage system, a record of an assignment of each of the individual pieces of electronic audio content to at least one collection of electronic audio content from among multiple different collections of electronic audio content;

receiving a request to subscribe to one or more specific ones of the collections of electronic audio content, the request to subscribe to the one or more specific collections of electronic audio content being associated with an electronic device;

receiving an indication of a present link between the electronic device and a particular geographic location;

based on the stored associations between the individual pieces of electronic audio content and the stored records of the assignments of the individual pieces of electronic audio content to the collections of electronic audio content, identifying a particular piece of electronic audio content as being assigned to one of the one or more specific collections of electronic audio content and as being related to the particular geographic location; and

transmitting the identified piece of electronic audio content to the electronic device, wherein the identified piece of electronic audio content is played by the electronic device.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein receiving an indication of a present link between the electronic device and a particular geographic location includes receiving an indication that the electronic device presently is accessing electronic content that is relevant to the particular geographic location.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein receiving an indication that the electronic device presently is accessing electronic content is relevant to the particular geographic location includes receiving an indication that the electronic device presently is accessing one or more images of the particular geographic location.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein receiving an indication that the electronic device presently is accessing one or more images of the particular geographic location includes receiving an indication that the electronic device presently is accessing one or more images of the particular geographic location that are made available to the electronic device by a web site.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein:

the electronic device is a portable electronic device; and

receiving an indication of a present link between the electronic device and a particular geographic location includes receiving an indication that the electronic device presently is located at the geographic location.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein receiving the indication that the electronic device presently is located at the geographic location includes receiving geolocation information provided by the electronic device indicating that the electronic device presently is located at the geographic location.

7. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

receiving, from other electronic devices and for at least some of the pieces of electronic audio content, indications of corresponding geographic locations with which at least some of the pieces of electronic audio content are associated;

wherein storing the associations between individual pieces of electronic audio content and corresponding geographic locations includes;

responsive to receiving the indications of the corresponding geographic locations with which at least some of the pieces of electronic audio content are associated, storing the received indications of the corresponding geographic locations with which at least some of the pieces of the electronic audio content are associated.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein receiving, from the other electronic devices, the indications of the corresponding geographic locations with which at least some of the pieces of electronic audio content are associated includes receiving, from a particular one of the other electronic devices, geolocation information provided by the particular other electronic device and specifying a corresponding geographic location at which the particular other electronic device was located when the particular other electronic device accessed an individual one of the pieces of electronic audio content.

9. The method of claim 7 further comprising:

receiving, from a particular one of the other electronic devices, a specific piece of electronic audio content recorded by the particular other electronic device; and

storing the piece of electronic audio content recorded by the particular other electronic device, wherein receiving, from the other electronic devices, the indications of the corresponding geographic locations with which at least some of the pieces of electronic content are associated includes receiving, from the particular other electronic device, geolocation information provided by the particular other electronic device and specifying a corresponding geographic location at which the particular other electronic device was located when the particular other electronic device recorded the specific piece of electronic audio content.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein:

storing, in the computer memory storage system, a record of an assignment of each of the individual pieces of electronic audio content to at least one collection of electronic audio content from among multiple different collections of electronic audio content includes storing, for each of a set of the pieces of electronic audio content, a record of an assignment to a collection of electronic audio content that is related to a first user identifier corresponding to a first user;

receiving a request to subscribe to one or more specific ones of the collections of electronic audio content includes;

receiving a request to subscribe to the collection of electronic audio content that is related to the first user identifier, the request to subscribe to the collection of electronic audio content being associated with a second user identifier corresponding to a second user, determining that the second user identifier is related to the first user identifier in a social network, and

based on having determined that the second user identifier is related to the first user identified in the social network, granting the request to subscribe to the collection of electronic audio content that is related to the first user identifier;

identifying a particular piece of electronic audio content as being assigned to one of the one or more specific collections of electronic audio content and being related to the particular geographic location includes identifying a particular piece of electronic audio content as being assigned to the collection of electronic audio content that is related to the first user identifier and being related to the particular geographic location; and

making the identified piece of electronic audio content available to the electronic device includes making the identified piece of electronic audio content available to the electronic device as a consequence of having granted the request to subscribe to the collection of electronic audio content that is related to the first user identifier.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein making the identified piece of electronic audio content available to the electronic device includes streaming the identified piece of electronic audio content to the electronic device.

12. The method of claim 11 further comprising:

receiving, while streaming the identified piece of the electronic audio content to the electronic device, an indication of a new link between the electronic device and a new geographic location;

based on the stored associations between the individual pieces of electronic audio content and the stored records of the assignments of the individual pieces of electronic audio content to the collections of electronic audio content, identifying a new piece of electronic audio content as being assigned to one of the one or more specific collections of electronic audio content and being related to the new geographic location;

terminating the streaming of the identified piece of the electronic audio content to the electronic device; and

initiating streaming of the new piece of electronic audio content to the electronic device.

13. The method of claim 1 wherein:

receiving a request to subscribe to one or more specific ones of the collections of electronic audio content includes receiving a request to subscribe to two or more specific collections of electronic audio content; and

identifying a particular piece of electronic audio content as being assigned to one of the one or more specific collections of electronic audio content and being related to the particular geographic location includes;

identifying a set of pieces of electronic audio content that are related to the particular geographic location and assigned to at least one of the two or more specific collections of electronic audio content,

applying ranking heuristics to the set of pieces of electronic audio content, and

selecting the particular piece of electronic audio content based on results of applying the ranking heuristics to the set of pieces of electronic audio content.

14. A system for distributing electronic audio content, the system comprising:

one or more hardware processing elements; and

a computer memory storage sub-system device storing;

associations between individual pieces of electronic audio content and corresponding geographic locations;

assignments of each of the individual pieces of electronic audio content to at least one collection of electronic audio content from among multiple different collections of electronic audio content; and

instructions that, when executed by the one or more hardware processing elements, cause the one or more hardware processing elements to;

enable electronic devices to subscribe to one or more of the collections of electronic audio content,

monitor the electronic devices, based on monitoring the electronic devices, detect links between individual electronic devices and different geographic locations,

based on the stored associations between the individual pieces of electronic audio content and the stored records of the assignments of the individual pieces of electronic audio content to the collections of electronic audio content, identify pieces of electronic audio content as being assigned to the collections of electronic audio content to which the individual electronic devices subscribe and being related to the geographic locations to which the individual electronic devices are linked, and

transmit at least one of the identified pieces of electronic audio content to at least one of the electronic devices associated with the at least one of the identified pieces of audio content, wherein the at least one of the identified pieces of electronic audio content is played by the at least one of the electronic devices.

15. A method for identifying electronic audio files to be made available at an electronic device based on other electronic content being accessed at the electronic device, the method comprising:

storing, in a computer memory storage system, information that records associations between geographic locations and electronic audio files and a record of an assignment of each of the electronic audio files to at least one collection of electronic audio content;

determining that a particular piece of electronic content being accessed by the electronic device is associated with a particular geographic location;

based on the stored information that records associations between geographic locations and electronic audio files, identifying an audio file as being associated with the particular geographic location; and

transmitting the identified audio file to the electronic device, wherein the identified audio file is played by the electronic device.