Media sharing across service providers

• US 10,762,124 B2
• Filed: 09/26/2018
• Issued: 09/01/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 09/21/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sonos, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Sonos, Inc.
• Inventors: Kuper, Ron, Hoadley, Joni
• Primary Examiner(s): Vu, Bai D
• Application Number:
  US16/142,689
• Publication Number:
  US 20190026276A1
• Time in Patent Office: 706 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24562 Pointer or reference processing operations
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/44 Browsing; Visualisation therefor
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/48 Retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manually
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/635 Filtering based on additional data, e.g. user or group profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/60 Network streaming of media packets
• 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

Abstract

Embodiments including methods and apparatus to share file and file recommendations are disclosed. Data is received indicating a particular media item from a first service provider, where the particular media item is accessible from the first service provider according to a first pointer. A second pointer is identified in a database according to which the particular media item is accessible from a second service provider. Data indicating the second pointer is transmitted to a media playback system, via at least one of a WAN or a LAN.

Claims

1. A first computing device comprising:

at least one processor;

a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium; and

program instructions stored on the non-transitory computer-readable storage medium that are executable by the at least one processor to cause the first computing device to;

receive, from a first user that has access to media items from a first service, (i) a selection of a given media item that is available to the first user from the first service, and (ii) an identity of a second user to which the given media item is recommended;

obtain a first pointer to the given media item that is available from the first service; and

transmit the first pointer and the identity of the second user to a network device along with an instruction for the network device to (i) determine that the second user has access to the given media item from a second service, (ii) identify a second pointer to the given media item that is available from the second service, and (iii) transmit the second pointer to a second computing device associated with the second user.

2. The first computing device of claim 1, wherein the first pointer comprises a first uniform resource locator (URL), and wherein the second pointer comprises a second URL.

3. The first computing device of claim 1, wherein the program instructions that are executable by the at least one processor to cause the first computing device to obtain the first pointer comprise program instructions that are executable to cause the first computing device to obtain the first pointer from the non-transitory computer-readable storage medium.

4. The first computing device of claim 1, wherein the program instructions that are executable by the at least one processor to cause the first computing device to obtain the first pointer comprise program instructions that are executable to cause the first computing device to obtain the first pointer from the first service.

5. The first computing device of claim 1, wherein the second pointer to the given media item is provided to the network device by the second service.

6. The first computing device of claim 1, wherein the program instructions that are executable by the at least one processor to cause the first computing device to transmit the first pointer and the identity of the second user along with the instruction for the network device comprise program instructions that are executable by the at least one processor to cause the first computing device to transmit the first pointer and the identity of the second user along with the instruction for the network device to cause the network device to identify, from a database, the second pointer.

7. The first computing device of claim 1, wherein the second computing device associated with the second user comprises a media playback device associated with the second user.

8. The first computing device of claim 1, wherein the program instructions that are executable by the at least one processor to cause the first computing device to transmit the first pointer and the identity of the second user along with the instruction for the network device comprise program instructions that are executable by the at least one processor to cause the first computing device to transmit the first pointer and the identity of the second user along with the instruction for the network device to cause the network device to store a mapping of the first pointer to the second pointer in a database.

9. The first computing device of claim 8, wherein the program instructions that are executable by the at least one processor to cause the first computing device to transmit the first pointer and the identity of the second user along with the instruction for the network device comprise program instructions that are executable by the at least one processor to cause the first computing device to transmit the first pointer and the identity of the second user along with the instruction for the network device to cause the network device to identify the second pointer by retrieving a mapping of the first pointer to the second pointer from a database.

10. The first computing device of claim 8, wherein the program instructions that are executable by the at least one processor to cause the first computing device to transmit the first pointer and the identity of the second user along with the instruction for the network device comprise program instructions that are executable by the at least one processor to cause the first computing device to transmit the first pointer and the identity of the second user along with the instruction for the network device to cause the network device to add the second pointer for the given media item to a playback queue associated with the second user.

11. A method carried out by a first playback device, the method comprising:

receiving, from a first user that has access to media items from a first service, (i) a selection of a given media item that is available to the first user from the first service, and (ii) an identity of a second user to which the given media item is recommended;

obtaining a first pointer to a the given media item that is available from the first service; and

transmitting the first pointer and the identity of the second user to a network device along with an instruction for the network device to (i) determine that the second user has access to the given media item from a second service, (ii) identify a second pointer the given media item that is available from the second service, and (iii) transmit the second pointer to a second computing device associated with the second user.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the first pointer comprises a first uniform resource locator (URL), and wherein the second pointer comprises a second URL.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein obtaining the first pointer comprises obtaining the first pointer from a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of the first playback device.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein obtaining the first pointer comprises obtaining the first pointer from the first service.

15. The method of claim 11, wherein the second pointer to the given media item is provided to the network device by the second service.

16. A system comprising:

a first computing device;

a second computing device; and

a network device,

wherein the first computing device is configured to;

receive, from a first user that has access to media items from a first service, (i) a selection of a given media item that is available to the first user from the first service, and (ii) an identity of a second user to which the given media item is recommended;

obtain a first pointer to the given media item that is available from the first service; and

transmit the first pointer and the identity of the second user to the network device,

wherein the network device is configured to;

receive the first pointer and the identity of the second user from the first computing device;

determine that the second user has access to the given media item from a second service;

identify a second pointer to the given media item that is available from the second service; and

transmit the second pointer to the second computing device that is associated with the second user, and

wherein the second computing device is configured to;

receive the second pointer to the given media item.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the first computing device is configured to obtain the first pointer from the first service.

18. The system of claim 16,

wherein to identify the second pointer to the given media item, the network device is configured to identify the second pointer by retrieving a mapping of the first pointer to the second pointer from a database.

19. The system of claim 16, wherein the network device is further configured to store a mapping of the first pointer to the second pointer in a database.

20. The system of claim 16, wherein the second computing device is further configured to:

in response to receiving the second pointer to the given media item, add the second pointer for the given media item to a playback queue associated with the second user.