Reduced latency electronic content system

• US 9,516,081 B2
• Filed: 09/20/2013
• Issued: 12/06/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 09/20/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Inventors: Tebbs, Brice William, Deramat, Frederic Johan Georges, Pogue, Michael Alan, Crump, Edward Dietz
• Primary Examiner(s): Elahee, Md S
• Application Number:
  US14/033,180
• Publication Number:
  US 20150086033A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,173 Days
• Field of Search: 381/26, 381/91, 381/92, 381/95, 381/96, 381110-117, 381/122, 381/355, 381370-375, 381/168, 381/77, 455/456.1, 455/41.1, 386/344, 707/634, 375/354, 726/7, 709/219, 709/224, 715/207, 715/234
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/167 Audio in a user interface, e.g. using voice commands for navigating, audio feedback
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/60 Network streaming of media packets
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/612 for unicast
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/613 for the control of the source by the destination control signals issued by the client directed to the server or network components specially adapted for selective content distribution H04N21/637
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/561 Adding application-functional data or data for application control, e.g. adding metadata

Abstract

An architecture for selecting and providing content items to a device includes cloud-based resources of a device management service and one or more content sources. The device is configured to receive instructions and a portion of the content item from the device management service. The instructions direct the device to obtain and buffer the content item from the content source, while simultaneously outputting the portion of the content item to a user.

Claims

1. A computing device comprising:

at least one microphone to capture sound from an environment and convert the sound into an audio signal;

at least one speaker to output audio to a user;

one or more communication interfaces to communicate with one or more cloud services, the one or more cloud services including a device management service and a content source that are separate from each other;

one or more processors; and

non-transitory computer-readable storage media storing computer-executable instructions, which when executed by the one or more processors cause the one or more processors to;

send the audio signal to one or more servers of the device management service, the audio signal including a request for the computing device to output a content item;

receive instructions from the one or more servers of the device management service, the instructions including an indication of the content source;

receive data associated with a first portion of the content item from the one or more servers of the device management service;

output the data associated with the first portion of the content item from the at least one speaker;

while outputting the data associated with the first portion received from the one or more servers of the device management service, receive data associated with a second portion of the content item which overlaps with the data associated with the first portion of the content item from the content source using, at least in part, the instructions received from the one or more servers of the device management service;

determine a position at which to begin outputting the data associated with the second portion of the content item; and

output the data associated with the second portion of the content item from the position before or upon completion of outputting the data associated with the first portion of the content item.

2. The computing system as recited in claim 1, wherein the first portion of the content item is less than 15 seconds.

3. The computing device as recited in claim 1, wherein the data associated with the second portion is a remainder of the content item following the data associated with the first portion.

4. The computing device as recited in claim 1, wherein the position at which to begin outputting the data associated with the second portion of the content item is determined by applying at least one of:

bit offset;

sample counting;

or

time to position.

5. A method comprising:

under control of one or more computer systems configured with executable instructions,

receiving, via a microphone associated with a computing device, an audio signal representing a request to output a content item via a speaker associated with the at a computing device;

identifying a content source storing data associated with a first version of the content item, the content source located remotely from the one or more computer systems;

sending instructions to the computing device to enable the computing device to obtain the data associated with the first version of the content item from the content source;

sending data associated with a portion of a second version of the content item stored at the one or more computer systems to the computing device, the portion of the second version is less than the first version of the content item;

determining a position at which to begin outputting data associated with a portion of the first version of the content item; and

sending instructions to the computing device to cause the speaker associated with the computing device to begin outputting the data associated with the portion of the first version of the content item from the position before or upon completion of outputting the data associated with the portion of the second version of the content item.

6. The method as recited in claim 5, wherein the content source is a subscription service with which a user has an active account.

7. The method as recited in claim 5, wherein the instructions cause the computing device to request the data associated with a portion of the first version of the content item from the content source starting at the position in the first version of the content item.

8. The method as recited in claim 5, wherein the position is a position in the data associated with the first version of the content item corresponding to an end of the data associated with the portion of the second version of the content item.

9. The method as recited in claim 5, further comprising determining a size of the portion of a second version of the content item based at least in part on at least one of:

a type of content associated with the second version of the content item;

historical information about the computing device;

network latency associated with the computing device;

information about a user;

information about the content source;

or

an amount of the second version of the content item currently available.

10. The method as recited in claim 5, wherein:

identifying the content source includes identifying a list of content sources; and

sending the instructions includes sending the list of content sources.

11. The method as recited in claim 5, wherein the portion of second version of the content item corresponds to a beginning of the content item.

21. The method as recited in claim 5, further comprising:

determining that the content source is unable to send the data associated with the first version of the content item;

identifying an alternative content source different from the content source storing data associated with a third version of the content item, the alternative content source located remotely from the one or more computer systems; and

sending instructions to the computing device to enable the computing device to obtain the data associated with the third version of the content item from the alternative content source.

12. One or more non-transitory computer-readable media having computer-executable instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform operations comprising:

receiving, from a microphone associated with a device, an audio signal representing a user request to output a content item from a speaker associated with the device;

identifying at least one content source storing data associated with a first copy of the content item;

selecting data associated with a portion of a second copy of the content item stored at one or more computer systems associated with the device, the portion of the second copy overlaps with the first copy of the content item;

generating first instructions to output the data associated with the portion of the second copy of the content item via the speaker associated with the device and, to obtain data associated with the first copy of the content item from the at least one content source identified;

sending the first instructions and the data associated with the portion of the second copy of the content item to the device;

determining a position at which to begin outputting the data associated with the first copy of the content item via the speaker associated with the device;

generating second instructions to begin outputting the data associated with the first copy of the content item from the position before or upon completion of the outputting of the data associated with the portion of the second copy of the content item; and

sending the second instructions to the device.

13. The one or more computer-readable media as recited in claim 12, having computer-executable instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform operations comprising determining a size of the portion of the second copy of the content item to send to the device.

14. The one or more computer-readable media as recited in claim 13, wherein the size of the portion of the second copy of the content item is determined based on at least one of:

a type of content associated with the second copy of the content item;

historical information about the device;

network latency associated with the device;

information about the user;

information about the at least one content source;

or

an amount of data associated with the second copy of the content item currently available.

15. The one or more computer-readable media as recited in claim 14, wherein the at least one content source is identified based at least in part on at least one of:

stored information related to the device;

cost to a user of acquiring data associated with the second copy of the content item from a particular content source;

known user accounts associated with the at least one content source identified;

user preferences;

historical information related to the user;

or

historical information related to the device.

16. The one or more computer-readable media as recited in claim 12, wherein the first instructions include a uniform resource locator (URL) for the at least one content source identified.

17. The one or more computer-readable media as recited in claim 12, wherein the first instructions and the second instructions cause a second device of a system associated with the device receiving the first instructions and the second instructions to output the content item.

18. The one or more computer-readable media as recited in claim 12, wherein the first instructions include an indication of a location within the first copy of the content item from which the device begins buffering the data associated with first copy of the content item.

19. The one or more computer-readable media as recited in claim 18, wherein the location is determined based at least in part on a size of the portion of the second copy of the content item.

20. The one or more computer-readable media as recited in claim 12, wherein the at least one content source includes a preferred content source.