P2P network for providing real time media recommendations

• US 20080016205A1
• Filed: 07/11/2006
• Published: 01/17/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 07/11/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Concert Technology Corporation
• Original Assignee: Concert Technology Corporation
• Inventors: Svendsen, Hugh
• Granted Patent: US 7,680,959 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/224
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/40 of multimedia data, e.g. slideshows comprising image and additional audio data retrieval of still image data G06F16/50; retrieval of audio data G06F16/60; retrieval of video data G06F16/70
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/104 Peer-to-peer [P2P] networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1068 Discovery involving direct consultation or announcement among potential requesting and potential source peers

Abstract

A peer-to-peer (P2P) network for providing real time media recommendations is provided. The media recommendations may be song recommendations or video recommendations. Each time a media presentation is played by a peer device, the peer device provides a recommendation identifying the media presentation to other peer devices in the P2P network. A peer device having received recommendations from the other peer devices in the P2P network then programmatically, or automatically, selects a next media presentation to play from the media presentations recently played by the other peer devices and one or more locally stored media presentations. If the selected media presentation is not stored locally by the peer device, the peer device may obtain the selected media presentation from a subscription based service enabling streaming or download of the selected media presentation, an e-commerce service enabling purchase and download of the selected media presentation, or another peer device.

Claims

1. A method of recommending music comprising:

receiving media recommendations from peer devices in a peer-to-peer (P2P) network identifying media presentations recently played on the peer devices; and

automatically selecting a media presentation to play based on the media presentations identified by the media recommendations.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein receiving the media recommendations comprises receiving the recommendations from the peer devices one-by-one as the media content is played on the peer devices.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the media recommendations are song recommendations identifying songs recently played on the peer devices, and automatically selecting the media content to play comprises automatically selecting a song to play from a group of songs comprising the songs identified by the media recommendations.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein automatically selecting the media presentation to play comprises automatically selecting the media presentation to play from a group of media presentations comprising the media presentations identified by the recommendations and at least one media presentation from a local media collection.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein automatically selecting the media presentation to play comprises automatically selecting the media presentation to play from a group of media presentations comprising the media presentations identified by the recommendations and media presentations identified by recommendations previously received from the peer devices.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein automatically selecting the media presentation to play further comprises automatically selecting the media presentation to play from a group of media presentations comprising the media presentations identified by the recommendations, media presentations identified by recommendations previously received from the peer devices, and at least one media presentation from a local media collection.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein automatically selecting the media presentation to play further comprises scoring a group of media presentations comprising the media presentations identified by the recommendations based on user preferences.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein the user preferences comprise weights assigned to a plurality of categories and scoring the group of media presentations comprises scoring the group of media presentations based on the weights assigned to the plurality of categories.

9. The method of claim 8 further comprising assigning weights to the plurality of categories, wherein the plurality of categories comprise one or more categories selected from the group consisting of user, genre, decade, and availability.

10. The method of claim 8 wherein the user preferences further comprise weights assigned to a plurality of possible attributes for each of the plurality of categories and scoring the group of media presentations comprises scoring the group of media presentations based on the weights assigned to the plurality of categories and the weights assigned to the plurality of possible attributes for each of the plurality of categories.

11. The method of claim 7 wherein the user preferences comprise a weight assigned to a no repeat factor and scoring the group of media presentations comprises scoring the group of media presentations based on the no repeat factor and the weight assigned to the no repeat factor.

12. The method of claim 7 further comprising obtaining the user preferences from the user.

13. The method of claim 7 further comprising automatically generating the user preferences based on an associated play history.

14. The method of claim 7 wherein automatically selecting the media presentation to play further comprises:

sorting the group of media presentations based on at least one criteria and the scores to provide a sorted list of media presentations; and

automatically selecting the media presentation to play from the sorted list of media presentations.

15. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

obtaining the selected media presentation from a subscription service; and

playing the selected media presentation.

16. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

purchasing and downloading the selected media presentation from an e-commerce service; and

playing the selected media presentation.

17. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

obtaining a preview of the selected media presentation from an e-commerce service; and

playing the preview of the selected media presentation.

18. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

obtaining the selected media presentation from one of the peer devices; and

playing the selected media presentation.

19. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

obtaining a preview of the selected media presentation from one of the peer devices; and

playing the preview of the selected media presentation.

21. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

filtering the media recommendations based on at least one criterion;

wherein automatically selecting the media presentation to play comprises automatically selecting the media presentation to play based on the media presentation identified by the filtered media recommendations.

22. The method of claim 1 further comprising establishing the P2P network via local wireless communication.

23. The method of claim 1 further comprising establishing the P2P network via a Wide Area Network (WAN).

24. The method of claim 1 further comprising inviting the peer devices to join the P2P network.

20. The method of 1 further comprising inserting information identifying the selected media presentation in a download queue, wherein media presentations in the download queue having a score above a first threshold and previews of media presentations in the download queue having a score above a second threshold and below the first threshold are automatically obtained from an external source.

25. A peer device for a peer-to-peer (P2P) media recommendation system comprising:

a communication interface communicatively coupling the peer device to other peer devices in a P2P network; and

a control system associated with the communication interface and adapted to;

receive media recommendations from the other peer devices identifying media presentations recently played on the other peer devices; and

automatically select a media presentation to play based on the media presentations identified by the media recommendations.

26. The peer device of claim 25 wherein the media recommendations are provided to the peer device one-by-one as the media content is played on the other peer devices.

27. The peer device of claim 25 wherein the media recommendations identify songs recently played by the other peer devices and the control system is adapted to automatically select a song to play from a group of songs comprising the songs identified by the media recommendations.

28. The peer device of claim 25 wherein the control system is further adapted to automatically select the media presentation to play from a group of media presentations comprising the media presentations identified by the media recommendations and at least one media presentation from a local media collection.

29. The peer device of claim 25 wherein the control system is further adapted to:

score media presentations in a group of media presentations comprising the media presentations identified by the media recommendations based on user preferences; and

automatically select the media presentation to play from the group of media presentations based on the scores.

30. The peer device of claim 25 wherein if the selected media presentation is not included within a local media collection associated with the peer device, the control system is further adapted to obtain the selected media presentation from an external source and play the selected media presentation.