Social media connection recommendations based on playback information

• US 9,723,038 B2
• Filed: 09/24/2014
• Issued: 08/01/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 09/24/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sonos, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Sonos, Inc.
• Inventors: Corbin, Keith, Ramsperger, Gregory Paul, Sarkic, Andrej, Kuper, Ron, Kumar, Abhishek
• Primary Examiner(s): MCCORD, PAUL C
• Application Number:
  US14/495,684
• Publication Number:
  US 20160088032A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,042 Days
• Field of Search: 700 94, 715716
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/435 Filtering based on additional data, e.g. user or group profiles
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0482 Interaction with lists of selectable items, e.g. menus
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04842 Selection of displayed objects or displayed text elements G06F3/0482 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/165 Management of the audio stream, e.g. setting of volume, audio stream path
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/101 Collaborative creation, e.g. joint development of products or services
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/01 Social networking
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/403 Arrangements for multi-party communication, e.g. for conferences data switching systems for conference H04L12/18; arrangements for connecting several subscribers to a common circuit, i.e. affording conference facilities H04M3/56; television conferencing systems H04N7/15
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/612 for unicast
• 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 67/12 specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/125 involving control of end-device applications over a network
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles

Abstract

Embodiments are described herein that involve a computing device initiating playback of a particular media item on a media playback system that is registered to a particular account of a social media service. The computing device may query the social media service for one or more accounts of the social media service that are registered to respective media playback systems that have played the particular media item on at least a threshold number of occasions and have not yet been connected to the particular account of the social media service within the social network. The computing device may receive the queried one or more accounts of the social media service and cause a graphical interface to display one or more respective selectable indications of the received one or more accounts of the social media service.

Claims

1. A computing device comprising:

a network interface;

at least one processor;

a data storage; and

a program logic stored in the data storage and executable by the at least one processor to;

receive input data indicating a selection of a particular audio track;

in response to the received input data, send, via the network interface, a command to play back the particular audio track on a given playback device of a media playback system that is registered to a first account of a social media service, wherein accounts of the social media service are connectable with one another within a social network of the social media service;

query, via the network interface, the social media service for one or more second accounts of the social media service that (i) are registered to respective media playback systems that have played the particular audio track on at least a threshold number of occasions and (ii) have not yet been connected to the first account of the social media service within the social network;

based on the querying of the social media service, receive, via the network interface, the queried one or more second accounts of the social media service that (i) are registered to respective media playback systems that have played the particular audio track on at least a threshold number of occasions and (ii) have not yet been connected to the first account of the social media service within the social network;

while the particular audio track is playing back on the given playback device, cause a graphical interface to display one or more respective indications of the received one or more second accounts of the social media service associated with the particular audio track that is currently playing;

detect a selection of a particular indication that represents a particular second account of the received one or more second accounts of the social media service; and

based on the detected selection, send, via the network interface, a request to the social media service to connect the first account of the social media service to the particular second account of the received one or more second accounts of the social media service indicated by the selected indication within the social network.

2. The computing device of claim 1, wherein sending the request to connect comprises the computing device causing the first account of the social media service to send an invitation via the social media service for the particular second account of the social media service to connect to the particular second account of the social media service.

3. The computing device of claim 1, wherein causing a graphical interface to display one or more respective indications of the received one or more second accounts of the social media service associated with the particular audio track that is currently playing comprises:

causing the graphical interface to display an indication that the queried one or more second accounts have also played the particular media item.

4. The computing device of claim 1, wherein the program logic is further executable by the at least one processor to:

cause indications of one or more respective names registered with the queried one or more second accounts of the social media service to be displayed on the graphical interface in association with the displayed one or more respective indications of the received one or more second accounts of the social media service associated with the particular audio track that is currently playing.

5. The computing device of claim 1, wherein the program logic is further executable by the at least one processor to:

cause one or more respective pictures associated with the queried one or more second accounts of the social media service to be displayed on the graphical interface in association with the displayed one or more respective indications of the received one or more second accounts of the social media service associated with the particular audio track that is currently playing.

6. The computing device of claim 1, wherein querying the social media service for one or more second accounts of the social media service further comprises:

querying the social media service for one or more second accounts of the social media service that are connected to accounts of the social media service that are connected to the accounts of the social media service which are connected to the first account of the social media service.

7. The computing device of claim 1, wherein querying the social media service for one or more second accounts of the social media service further comprises:

querying the social media service for one or more second accounts of the social media service that are connected to accounts of the social media service that are connected to the first account of the social media service.

8. The computing device of claim 1, wherein querying the social media service for one or more second accounts of the social media service comprises:

sending, via the network interface to a social-media computing system, data indicating (i) a track identification that uniquely identifies the particular audio track among a plurality of media items of a media streaming service, (ii) an indication of the media streaming service, and (iii) an indication of the first account that is registered to the social media service; and

requesting, from the social-media computing system via the network interface, data indicating the one or more second accounts of the social media service that (i) are registered to respective media playback systems that have played the particular audio track on at least a threshold number of occasions and (ii) have not yet been connected to the first account of the social media service within the social network.

21. The computing device of claim 1, wherein causing a graphical interface to display one or more respective indications of the received one or more second accounts of the social media service associated with the particular audio track that is currently playing comprises:

causing the graphical interface to display (i) one or more respective indications of a number of occasions in which respective received one or more second accounts have played the particular audio track on respective media playback system, and (ii) one or more respective indications of a request to connect with respective received one or more second accounts.

9. Tangible, non-transitory, computer-readable media having instructions encoded therein, wherein the instructions, when executed by one or more processors, cause a social-media computing system of a social media service to perform a method comprising:

receiving (i) an indication of a particular audio track that is currently playing on a particular media playback system, and (ii) an indication of a first account of the social media service that is registered with the particular media playback system;

querying, by the social-media computing system, a database for one or more second accounts of the social media service that (i) are registered to respective media playback systems that have played the particular audio track on at least a threshold number of occasions and (ii) have not yet been connected to the first account of the social media service within a social network of the social media service;

causing, by the social-media computing system, a computing system to display, in association with the first account of the social media service, one or more indications of the queried one or more second accounts that are associated with the particular audio track that is currently playing; and

detecting a selection of a particular indication that represents a particular second account of the received one or more second accounts of the social media service; and

based on the detected selection, sending a request to the social media service to connect the first account of the social media service to the particular second account of the received one or more second accounts of the social media service indicated by the selected indication within the social network.

10. The tangible, non-transitory, computer-readable media of claim 9, further comprising:

determining an artist of the particular audio track; and

querying the database for one or more second accounts of the social media service that (i) are registered to respective media playback systems that have played audio tracks by the determined artist on at least a threshold number of occasions and (ii) have not yet been connected to the first account of the social media service within the social network; and

causing the computing system to display, in association with the first account of the social media service, one or more indications of the queried one or more second accounts that are associated with the determined artist.

11. The tangible, non-transitory, computer-readable media of claim 9, further comprising:

determining a genre of the particular audio track; and

querying the database for one or more second accounts of the social media service that (i) are registered to respective media playback systems that have played audio tracks of the determined genre on at least a threshold number of occasions and (ii) have not yet been connected to the first account of the social media service within the social network; and

causing the computing system to display, in association with the first account of the social media service, one or more indications of the queried one or more second accounts that are associated with the determined genre.

12. The tangible, non-transitory, computer-readable media of claim 9, wherein receiving the indication of the particular audio track that is currently playing on a particular media playback system comprises:

receiving data indicating that the particular audio track is currently playing in a particular zone that is associated with a particular type of room, wherein the particular zone comprises one or more playback devices of the particular media playback system.

13. The tangible, non-transitory, computer-readable media of claim 12, wherein querying the database for one or more second accounts of the social media service that are registered to respective media playback systems that have played the particular audio track on at least a threshold number of occasions comprises:

querying the database for one or more second accounts of the social media service that are registered to respective media playback systems that have played the particular audio track in respective zones associated with the particular type of room.

14. The tangible, non-transitory, computer-readable media of claim 9, wherein causing the computing system to display, in association with the first account of the social media service, one or more indications of the queried one or more second accounts that are associated with the particular audio track that is currently playing comprises:

causing a graphical interface to display a social-media interface of the first account, wherein the displayed social media interface includes selectable indications of the queried one or more second accounts.

15. A method comprising:

receiving, by a social-media computing system of a social media service, (i) an indication of a particular audio track that is currently playing on a particular media playback system, and (ii) an indication of a first account of the social media service that is registered with the particular media playback system;

querying, by the social-media computing system, a database for one or more second accounts of the social media service that (i) are registered to respective media playback systems that have played the particular audio track on at least a threshold number of occasions and (ii) have not yet been connected to the first account of the social media service within a social network of the social media service;

causing, by the social-media computing system, a computing system to display, in association with the first account of the social media service, one or more indications of the queried one or more second accounts that are associated with the particular audio track that is currently playing; and

detecting a selection of a particular indication that represents a particular second account of the received one or more second accounts of the social media service; and

based on the detected selection, sending a request to the social media service to connect the first account of the social media service to the particular second account of the received one or more second accounts of the social media service indicated by the selected indication within the social network.

16. The method of claim 15, further comprising:

determining an artist of the particular audio track; and

querying the database for one or more second accounts of the social media service that (i) are registered to respective media playback systems that have played audio tracks by the determined artist on at least a threshold number of occasions and (ii) have not yet been connected to the first account of the social media service within the social network; and

causing the computing system to display, in association with the first account of the social media service, one or more indications of the queried one or more second accounts that are associated with the determined artist.

17. The method of claim 15, further comprising:

determining a genre of the particular audio track; and

querying the database for one or more second accounts of the social media service that (i) are registered to respective media playback systems that have played audio tracks of the determined genre on at least a threshold number of occasions and (ii) have not yet been connected to the first account of the social media service; and

causing the computing system to display, in association with the first account of the social media service, one or more indications of the queried one or more second accounts that are associated with the determined genre.

18. The method of claim 15, wherein receiving the indication of the particular audio track that is currently playing on the particular media playback system comprises:

receiving data indicating that the particular audio track is currently playing in a particular zone associated with a particular type of room, wherein the particular zone comprises one or more playback devices of the particular media playback system.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein querying the database for one or more second accounts of the social media service that are registered to respective media playback systems that have played the particular audio track on at least a threshold number of occasions comprises:

querying the database for one or more second accounts of the social media service that are registered to respective media playback systems that have played the particular audio track in respective zones associated with the particular type of room.

20. The method of claim 15, wherein causing the computing system to display, in association with the first account of the social media service, one or more indications of the queried one or more second accounts that are associated with the particular audio track that is currently playing comprises:

causing a graphical interface to display a social-media interface of the first account, wherein the displayed social media interface includes selectable indications of the queried one or more second accounts.