Contextual indexing of media items

• US 9,524,339 B2
• Filed: 07/30/2014
• Issued: 12/20/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 07/30/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sonos, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Sonos, Inc.
• Inventors: Brown, Amber, Roberts, Diane
• Primary Examiner(s): Tsang, Fan
• Assistant Examiner(s): SIEGEL, DAVID F
• Application Number:
  US14/447,410
• Publication Number:
  US 20160034572A1
• Time in Patent Office: 874 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/41 Indexing; Data structures therefor; Storage structures
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/61 Indexing; Data structures therefor; Storage structures
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/634 Query by example, e.g. query by humming
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/635 Filtering based on additional data, e.g. user or group profiles
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/639 using playlists
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/16 Sound input; Sound output speech processing G10L

Abstract

Embodiments described herein involve generating and modifying a sub-index of a media index. An example method may involve receiving requests to play back media items in a media index, tracking the requests to play back the media items in the media index, determining a set of media items from among the media items in the media index based on the tracked requests to play back media items in the media index, and indexing the determined set of media items into a sub-index. The set of media items have been played at least a pre-determined threshold number of times within a pre-determined threshold period of time. The media items in the sub-index are a subset of the media items in the main index.

Claims

1. A playback device of a media playback system comprising:

a network interface;

a processor;

a data storage; and

a program logic stored in the data storage and executable by the processor to perform functions comprising;

receive, via the network interface from a control device of the media playback system, one or more requests to play back media items that are indexed in a main index;

based on the received requests, play back a particular media item that is indexed in the main index;

track the received requests to play back the media items that are indexed in the main index;

based on the tracked requests to play back media items that are indexed in the main index, determine a set of media items from among the media items that are indexed in the main index, wherein the set of media items have been played back at least a pre-determined threshold number of times within a pre-determined threshold period of time;

index the determined set of media items into a sub-index, wherein the set of media items in the sub-index are a subset of the media items in the main index;

receive, via the network interface from the control device, a search request for a given media item; and

search for the given media item first in the sub-index and, when the sub-index excludes the given media item, second in the main index.

2. The playback device of claim 1, wherein functions further comprise:

based on determining that the given media item is in the sub-index, transmitting an indication of the given media item to the control device of the media playback system.

3. The playback device of claim 1, wherein the functions further comprise:

based on determining that the given media item is not in the sub-index, determining that the given media item is in the main index.

4. The playback device of claim 3, wherein the functions further comprise:

based on determining that the given media item is in the main index, transmitting an indication of the given media item to the control device of the media playback system.

5. The playback device of claim 1, wherein each request to play back a media item indicates a particular control device of the media playback system via which the media item was selected for playback, wherein the set of media items have been played at least a pre-determined threshold number of times within a pre-determined threshold period of time via the particular control device, and wherein the sub-index is associated with the particular control device.

6. The playback device of claim 1, wherein the functions further comprise:

receiving an indication of playback of a particular media item in the main index;

determining that the particular media item is not in the sub-index;

based on determining that the particular media item is not in the sub-index, determining that the particular media item has been played at least the pre-determined threshold number of times within the pre-determined threshold period of time; and

based on determining that the particular media item has been played at least the pre-determined threshold number of times within the pre-determined threshold period of time, adding the particular media item to the sub-index.

7. The playback device of claim 1, wherein the functions further comprise:

causing the sub-index to be stored on the data storage of the playback device.

8. A method comprising:

receiving, via a network interface from a control device of a media playback system, one or more requests to play back media items that are indexed in a first index;

based on the received requests, play back a particular media item that is indexed in the first index;

tracking the received requests to play back the media items that are indexed in the first index;

based on the tracked requests to play back media items that are indexed in the first index, determining a set of media items from among the media items that are indexed in the first index, wherein the set of media items have been played back at least a pre-determined threshold number of times within a pre-determined threshold period of time;

indexing the determined set of media items into a second index, wherein the set of media items in the second index are a subset of the media items in the first index;

receiving, via the network interface from the control device, a search request for a given media item; and

searching for the given media item first in the second index and, when the second index excludes the given media item, second in the first index.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

receiving an indication of a profile corresponding to one or more users, wherein the received requests to play back the media items correspond to the received profile, and wherein the second index is associated with the received profile.

10. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

determining, for a particular media item in the second index, that the particular media item has not been played at least the pre-determined threshold number of times within the pre-determined threshold period of time; and

based on determining that the particular media item has not been played at least the pre-determined threshold number of times within the pre-determined threshold period of time, removing the particular media item from the second index.

11. The method of claim 8, wherein the set of media items is a first set of media items, wherein the pre-determined threshold number of times is a first pre-determined threshold number of times, wherein the pre-determined threshold period of time is a first pre-determined threshold period of time, and wherein the method further comprises:

receiving search requests indicative of one or more media items in the first index;

in response to receiving the search requests, determining a second set of media items from among the media items that are indexed in the first index, wherein the second set of media items have been searched for at least a second pre-determined threshold number of times within a second pre-determined threshold period of time; and

adding the determined second set of media items to the second index.

12. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

receiving metadata associated with the media items that are indexed in the first index, wherein the metadata includes, for each media item that are indexed in the first index, at least one of an artist name and an album name;

determining one or more similar media items to the one or more media items in the second index based on the received metadata, wherein each of the one or more similar media items and at least one of the media items in the second index share at least one of a common artist name and album name; and

adding the determined one or more similar media items to the second index.

13. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

receiving metadata associated with the media items that are indexed in the first index, wherein the metadata includes, for each media item that are indexed in the first index, a genre;

determining one or more similar media items to the one or more media items in the second index based on the received metadata, wherein each of the one or more similar media items and at least one of the media items in the second index share a common genre; and

adding the determined one or more similar media items to the second index.

14. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

transmitting the second index to a computing device over a wide area network.

15. A media playback system comprising:

one or more playback devices; and

a controller communicatively coupled to at least one of the playback devices,

wherein a given playback device from among the one or more playback devices comprises a non-transitory computer-readable medium, a processor, and a program logic stored in the non-transitory computer-readable medium and executable by the processor to perform the following functions;

receiving, via a network interface from the controller, requests to play back media items that are indexed in a first index;

based on the received requests, play back a particular media item that is indexed in the first index;

tracking the received requests to play back the media items that are indexed in the first index;

based on the tracked requests to play back media items that are indexed in the first index, determining a set of media items from among the media items that are indexed in the first index, wherein the set of media items have been played back at least a pre-determined threshold number of times within a pre-determined threshold period of time;

indexing the determined set of media items into a second index, wherein the set of media items in the second index are a subset of the media items in the first index;

receiving, via the network interface from the controller, a search request for a given media item; and

searching for the given media item first in the second index and, when the second index excludes the given media item, second in the first index.

16. The media playback system of claim 15, wherein indexing the determined set of media items into the second index comprises:

determining that the second index is not stored on the given playback device; and

based on determining that the second index is not stored on the given playback device, receiving the second index from another playback device from among the one or more playback devices.

17. The media playback system of claim 15, wherein determining the set of media items from among the media items that are indexed in the first index comprises:

receiving play-history data indicative of a respective number of play-counts of media items and a respective time associated with each play count among the media items that are indexed in the first index; and

determining that the set of media items have been played at least a pre-determined threshold number of times within a pre-determined threshold period of time based on (i) the received play-history data and (ii) the requests to play back the media items.

18. The media playback system of claim 15, wherein the requests to play back the media items indicate a particular zone in which respective media items have been played back, wherein the particular zone includes at least one of the one or more playback devices of the media playback system, and wherein the second index is associated with the particular zone.

19. The media playback system of claim 15, wherein the controller of the media playback system comprises a graphical display, wherein the functions further comprise:

transmitting indications of a pre-determined number of media items from among the media items in the second index to a controller of the media playback system; and

displaying, on the graphical display of the controller, the indications of the pre-determined number of media items.

20. The media playback system of claim 15, wherein the functions further comprise:

transmitting the second index to the one or more playback devices; and

storing the second index on the one or more playback devices.