Cadence determination and media content selection

• US 9,536,560 B2
• Filed: 10/14/2015
• Issued: 01/03/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 05/19/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Spotify AB (Spotify Technology SA)
• Original Assignee: Spotify AB (Spotify Technology SA)
• Inventors: Olofsson, Lars Christian, Jehan, Tristan, Garmark, Sten, Dziuk, Dariusz, Sen, Rahul, Smith, Owen, Toumpelis, Nikolaos
• Primary Examiner(s): Saunders, Jr., Joseph
• Application Number:
  US14/883,232
• Publication Number:
  US 20160343399A1
• Time in Patent Office: 447 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2503/10 Athletes
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2503/12 Healthy persons not otherwise provided for, e.g. subjects of a marketing survey
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 2562/0219 Inertial sensors, e.g. accelerometers, gyroscopes, tilt switches
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/1118 Determining activity level
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/112 Gait analysis
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/7405 using sound
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/742 using visual displays A61B5/339 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/165 Management of the audio stream, e.g. setting of volume, audio stream path
• CPC Class Codes: G10H 1/0008 Associated control or indicating means
• CPC Class Codes: G10H 1/40 Rhythm
• CPC Class Codes: G10H 2210/076 for extraction of timing, tempo; Beat detection
• CPC Class Codes: G10H 2220/091 Graphical user interface [GUI] specifically adapted for electrophonic musical instruments, e.g. interactive musical displays, musical instrument icons or menus; Details of user interactions therewith
• CPC Class Codes: G10H 2220/351 Environmental parameters, e.g. temperature, ambient light, atmospheric pressure, humidity, used as input for musical purposes
• CPC Class Codes: G10H 2220/355 Geolocation input, i.e. control of musical parameters based on location or geographic position, e.g. provided by GPS, WiFi network location databases or mobile phone base station position databases
• CPC Class Codes: G10H 2220/395 Acceleration sensing or accelerometer use, e.g. 3D movement computation by integration of accelerometer data, angle sensing with respect to the vertical, i.e. gravity sensing
• CPC Class Codes: G10H 2230/015 PDA [personal digital assistant] or palmtop computing devices used for musical purposes, e.g. portable music players, tablet computers, e-readers or smart phones in which mobile telephony functions need not be used
• CPC Class Codes: G10H 2240/131 Library retrieval, i.e. searching a database or selecting a specific musical piece, segment, pattern, rule or parameter set
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 20/10527 Audio or video recording; Data buffering arrangements G11B20/12 - G11B20/18 take precedence

Abstract

Systems, devices, apparatuses, components, methods, and techniques for cadence determination and media content selection are provided. An example media-playback device comprises a media-output device that plays media content items, a cadence-acquiring device, and a cadence-based media content selection engine. The cadence-acquiring device includes an accelerometer and a cadence-determination engine configured to determine a cadence based on acceleration data captured by the accelerometer. The cadence-based media content selection engine is configured to identify a media content item based on the cadence determined by the cadence-determining engine and cause the media-output device to playback the identified media content item.

Claims

1. A media-playback device comprising:

a media-output device that plays media content items;

a cadence-acquiring device comprising an accelerometer and a cadence-determination engine configured to;

capture a sequence of measurements from the accelerometer;

filter the sequence of measurements based on frequency to generate a filtered sequence;

calculate a first aggregate value corresponding to a period of oscillation of the filtered sequence over a duration;

calculate a second aggregate value corresponding to a smoothing of the first aggregate value;

determine whether the first aggregate value and the second aggregate value satisfy predetermined tolerances, wherein the predetermined tolerances include a difference tolerance and a duration requirement; and

upon determining that the predetermined tolerances are satisfied, calculate a cadence value based on the first aggregate value; and

a cadence-based media content selection engine configured to;

identify a media content item based on the cadence determined by the cadence-determining engine; and

cause the media-output device to playback the identified media content item.

2. The media-playback device of claim 1, wherein the media-playback device is a smartphone.

3. The media-playback device of claim 1, wherein the cadence-based media content selection engine is further configured to upon the cadence-acquiring device acquiring a cadence, generate a cadence acquired output comprising at least one of an audible signal and a visual indicator.

4. The media-playback device of claim 1, wherein the cadence-based media content selection engine is configured to identify a media content item that includes music with a tempo that is within a predetermined threshold of the cadence.

5. The media-playback device of claim 1, wherein the cadence-based media content selection engine is further configured to:

monitor for changes in cadence determined by the cadence determining engine; and

upon detecting a change in cadence;

identify a second media content item based on a changed cadence; and

cause the media-output device to playback the identified second media content item.

6. The media-playback device of claim 5, wherein the cadence-based media content selection engine is further configured to, upon detecting a change in cadence, generate a cadence changed output.

7. The media-playback device of claim 1, wherein the duration is measured in terms of steps.

8. The media-playback device of claim 1, wherein the duration is measured in terms of time.

9. The media-playback device of claim 1, wherein the cadence-acquiring device comprises three orthogonally-oriented accelerometers and the cadence-determination engine is configured to:

capture sequences of measurements from each of the three accelerometers;

filter the sequences of measurements based on frequency to generate filtered sequences; and

identify the sequence of measurements corresponding to cadence, wherein the sequence is identified based on calculating an energy of each of the sequences.

10. The media-playback device of claim 1, wherein measurements are captured at a sample rate in the range of 20-200 Hz.

11. The media-playback device of claim 1, wherein the media content item is stored locally on the media-playback device.

12. The media-playback device of claim 1, wherein the media content item is streamed to the media-playback device by a media-delivery system based on a request for media content items that specifies the cadence.

13. A method of cadence-based media playback for use during repetitive-motion activities comprising:

determining a cadence associated with a repetitive motion activity based on acceleration data captured by a plurality of accelerometers, wherein the acceleration data comprises sequences of acceleration sample data captured from each of the plurality of accelerometers over a duration of time, by;

filtering the sequences of measurements based on frequency to generate filtered sequences;

identifying a signal corresponding to the cadence from the filtered sequences by combining the filtered sequences having a highest energy at each particular time interval;

calculating aggregate values corresponding to periods of oscillation of the filtered sequences over intervals during the duration of time; and

calculating a cadence value based on the aggregate values;

identifying a media content item based on the determined cadence; and

playing back the identified media content item.

14. The method of claim 13 further comprising:

smoothing the aggregate values to generate smoothed aggregate values;

determining whether the aggregate value and the smoothed aggregate value satisfy predetermined tolerances, wherein the predetermined tolerances include a difference tolerance and a duration requirement; and

upon determining that the predetermined tolerances are satisfied, calculating a cadence value based on the aggregate value.

15. The method of claim 13 further comprising:

monitoring the acceleration data captured by the plurality of accelerometers to detect changes in cadence; and

upon detecting a change in cadence identifying a second media content item based on the changed cadence and playing back the second media content item.

16. A method of cadence-based media playback for use during repetitive-motion activities comprising:

capturing acceleration data by a plurality of accelerometers over a duration of time, wherein the acceleration data comprises sequences of acceleration measurements captured at particular times throughout the duration by each of the accelerometers;

filtering each of the sequences of measurements based on frequency to generate filtered sequences;

identifying a cadence signal corresponding to the cadence from the filtered sequences, wherein the signal corresponding to the cadence is identified by combining the filtered sequences having a highest energy during subintervals of the duration;

calculating a sequence of first aggregate values corresponding to periods of oscillation of the cadence signal over intervals during the duration of time;

smoothing the sequence of first aggregate values to generate a sequence of second aggregate values;

determining whether the sequence of first aggregate values and the sequence of second aggregate values satisfy predetermined tolerances, wherein the predetermined tolerances include a difference tolerance and a duration requirement; and

upon determining that the predetermined tolerances are satisfied, calculating an initial cadence value based on the sequence of first aggregate values.