Consumption of Items via a User Device

• US 20080293450A1
• Filed: 06/14/2007
• Published: 11/27/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 05/21/2007
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Inventors: Cheung, Kevin R., Roseman, Neil C., Lattyak, John, Goodwin, Robert L., Ryan, Thomas A., Kiraly, Kenneth P., Smith, Brandon J., Behm, Bradley Jeffery, Rykov, Michael V., Moore, Richard, Slezak, James C., Bajaj, Girish Bansilal, Zagorie, Aviram, Guo, Xiaotian, Tan, Tim, Desai, Ajay M., Tomay, Beryl, Wood, Brent Eric, Fruchterman, Thomas M. J., Saxton, Jon, Zehr, Gregg Elliott
• Application Number:
  US11/763,374
• Publication Number:
  US 20080293450A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/556.2
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/325 Power saving in peripheral device
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/31 Indexing; Data structures therefor; Storage structures
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/109 by using specially-adapted hardware at the client
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/1235 with control of digital rights management [DRM]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/00 Commerce
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/10 for controlling access to devices or network resources
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1101 Session protocols
• 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 67/60 Scheduling or organising the servicing of application requests, e.g. requests for application data transmissions using the analysis and optimisation of the required network resources admission control or resource allocation H04L47/70

Abstract

An item-providing system supplies items to a user device for consumption at the user device via communication infrastructure. In one illustrative implementation, the communication infrastructure may rely, in part, on wireless communication. The device may correspond to a book reader device or other type of device.

Claims

1. A system, comprising:

an item-providing system for providing items for consumption by users;

a user device for use in consuming items;

a wireless provider system for interacting with the user device using wireless communication;

a communication-enabling system for exchanging information between the wireless provider system and the item-providing system;

a dedicated communication coupling for coupling the communication-enabling system with the wireless provider system; and

a non-dedicated communication coupling for coupling the communication-enabling system with the item-providing system,

wherein the user device is configured to provide electronic publications to the user as one kind of items, allowing the user to consume the electronic publications in a manner which simulates the reading of physical books.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the electronic publications comprise electronic books.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the electronic publications comprise subscription-related documents.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the electronic publications comprise documents forwarded by a user to the item-providing system.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the item-providing system is administered by a merchant entity, wherein the merchant entity includes a merchant store module for enabling users to select and purchase items.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the item-providing system includes a proxy module that is configured to control access by the user device to at least one network-accessible resource.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the wireless provider system includes spread spectrum functionality for conducting the wireless communication using a spread spectrum protocol.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the wireless provider system is configured to discriminate traffic associated with the item-providing system from other traffic based on a key presented in the traffic associated with the item-providing system.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the communication-enabling system includes application interface functionality which allows the item-providing system to interact with the user device to perform at least one function.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the communication-enabling system is configured to allow the user device to access only a given number of authorized network-accessible resources associated with respective network addresses.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the item-providing system is one of the given number of authorized network-accessible resources.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the item-providing system includes a proxy module that is configured to control access by the user device to additional network-accessible resources.

13. The system of claim 1, wherein each of the item-providing system, the wireless provider system, and the communication-enabling system includes respective authorization modules for authorizing communication between the user device and the item-providing system.

14. The system of claim 1, wherein the item-providing system is configured to send a notification message to the user device to notify the user device to perform an action.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the item-providing system and the user device are configured to exchange data using a data-type channel.

16. The system of claim 14, wherein the notification message is a telephone ring.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the user device is configured to respond to the telephone ring without answering the telephone ring and without incurring an associated fee.

18. The system of claim 16, wherein the action performed by the user device in response to the notification message is the downloading of an item.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the downloading of the item takes place over a data-type channel.

20. The system of claim 1, wherein the non-dedicated communication coupling comprises a public wide area network.

21. The system of claim 1, wherein the item-providing system includes a customer service module that is configured to access performance information maintained on one or more of:

the communication-enabling system;

the wireless provider system; and

the user device.

22. The system of claim 1, wherein the item-providing system includes a testing module that is configured:

send a probing message to at least one user device; and

provide a testing result based on the receipt or lack of receipt of a response to the probing message from said at least one user device.

23. A system, comprising:

an item-providing system for providing items for consumption by users;

an electronic book reader-type device for use in consuming the items; and

communication infrastructure for coupling the item-providing system with the electronic book reader-type device, wherein the communication infrastructure uses, at least in part, wireless communication.

24. The system of claim 23, wherein the items comprise electronic books.

25. The system of claim 23, wherein the items comprise subscription-related documents.

26. The system of claim 23, wherein the items comprise documents forwarded by a user to the item-providing system.

27. The system of claim 23, wherein the item-providing system is administered by a merchant entity, wherein the merchant entity includes a merchant store module for enabling users to select and purchase items using the electronic book reader-type device.

28. The system of claim 23, wherein the communication infrastructure is configured to allow the electronic book reader-type device to access only a given number of authorized network-accessible resources associated with respective network addresses.

29. The system of claim 28, wherein the item-providing system is one of the given number of authorized network-accessible resources.

30. The system of claim 23, wherein the item-providing system includes a customer service module that is configured to access performance information maintained on the communication infrastructure and the user device.

31. An item-providing system for providing services to a user device, comprising:

a proxy module configured to;

receive a request from a user device to access a network-accessible resource;

determine whether the user device is permitted to access the requested network-accessible resource; and

enable the user device to access the requested network-accessible resource if it is determined that the user device is permitted to access the requested network-accessible resource,

wherein the user device is restricted from directly accessing the requested network-accessible resource,

wherein the determining ascertains that the user is permitted to access the requested network-accessible resource based on business rules, the business rules comprising at least the rules of;

(a) the user is permitted access because the requested network-accessible resource is associated with a merchant store module administered by the item-providing system;

(b) the user is permitted access because the requested network-accessible resource is a member of a class of resources that can be accessed free of charge; and

(c) the user is permitted access because the requested network-accessible resource is a member of a class of resources that can be accessed by payment of a fee, and the user has agreed to pay the fee.

32. The item-providing system of claim 31, wherein the proxy module interacts with the user device via a communication-enabling system.

33. The item-providing system of claim 32, wherein the communication-enabling system is configured to allow the user device to access only a given number of authorized network-accessible resources associated with respective network addresses, to thereby restrict the user device from directly accessing the requested network-accessible entity.

34. The system of claim 33, wherein the item-providing system is one of the given number of authorized network-accessible resources.

35. A method for providing services to a user device by an item-providing system, comprising:

receiving a request from a user device to access a network-accessible resource;

determining whether the user device is permitted to access the requested network-accessible resource; and

enabling the user device to access the requested network-accessible resource if it is determined that the user device is permitted to access the requested network-accessible resource,

wherein the user device is restricted from directly accessing the requested network-accessible resource,

wherein the determining ascertains that the user is permitted to access the requested network-accessible resource based on business rules, the business rules comprising at least the rules of;

(a) the user is permitted access because the requested network-accessible resource is associated with a merchant store module administered by the item-providing system;

(b) the user is permitted access because the requested network-accessible resource is a member of a class of resources that can be accessed free of charge; and

(c) the user is permitted access because the requested network-accessible resource is a member of a class of resources that can be accessed by payment of a fee, and the user has agreed to pay the fee.

36. One or more machine-readable media containing machine-readable instructions for implementing the method of claim 35.

37. One or more computing devices, comprising:

one or more processors; and

memory to store computer-executable instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, perform the method of claim 35.

38. A method for providing an item, comprising:

receiving an item from a source;

storing the item in a content store; and

adding an entry to a list of entries associated with a user device operated by a user, wherein the entry is accessible by the user device to instruct the user device to obtain the item.

39. The method of claim 38, further comprising processing the item to produce a processed item.

40. The method of claim 39, wherein the processing comprises converting the item to a desired format for consumption by the user device, wherein the storing comprises storing the item in the desired format.

41. The method of claim 39, wherein the processing comprises producing a description of the item for storage in an item catalog.

42. The method of claim 39, wherein the processing comprises producing an index associated with the item.

43. The method of claim 38, wherein the receiving of the item corresponds to receiving an electronic book from a source.

44. The method of claim 38, further comprising receiving the user'"'"'s selection of the item, wherein the adding of the entry is in response to the receiving of the user'"'"'s selection.

45. The method of claim 44, wherein the user'"'"'s selection of the item represents the user'"'"'s purchase of the item.

46. The method of claim 38, wherein the receiving of the item occurs independently of the adding of the entry to the list.

47. The method of claim 38, wherein the source is a commercial publishing-related entity.

48. The method of claim 38, wherein the source is another user.

49. One or more machine-readable media containing machine-readable instructions for implementing the method of claim 38.

50. One or more computing devices, comprising:

one or more processors; and

memory to store computer-executable instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, perform the method of claim 38.

51. A system for providing an item, comprising:

a content store; and

a content reception system configured to;

receive an item;

store the item in the content store; and

wherein the system is configured to add an entry to a list of entries associated with a user device operated by a user, wherein the entry is accessible by the user device to instruct the user device to obtain the item.

52. A user device, comprising:

a device processing module configured to receive items from an item-providing system; and

a content manager module configured to manage items available to the user via the user device, wherein the content manager is configured to expose items accessible from different sources and identify the types of sources.

53. The user device of claim 52, wherein at least one source is an internal memory of the user device.

54. The user device of claim 52, wherein at least one source is a memory module that is detachably coupled to the device.

55. The user device of claim 52, wherein at least one source is a personal library module provided by the item-providing system, wherein the personal library module is configured to maintain a list of items previously purchased by the user.

56. The user device of claim 52, wherein at least one source is a subscription module provided by the item-providing system, wherein the subscription module is configured to maintain information regarding subscriptions purchased by the user and issues associated with the subscriptions.

57. The user device of claim 52, wherein the user device is configured to provide metadata that identifies available items maintained by at least one source associated with the item-providing system.

58. The user device of claim 57, wherein the content manager module includes an update module that is configured to receive an update to the metadata upon the occurrence of an update event.

59. The user device of claim 58, wherein at least one type of update event occurs when the user device contacts the item-providing system to determine whether the item-providing system includes any items for downloading to the user device.

60. The user device of claim 52, wherein the content manager module further comprises a filtering module, wherein the filtering module is configured to selectively present items associated with one or more identified sources based a filtering criterion or plural filtering criteria.

61. The user device of claim 52, wherein the content manager module is configured to sort available items based on a sorting criterion or plural sorting criteria.

62. The user device of claim 52, wherein the content manager module is configured to move available items from one source to another source and to remove available items.

63. A method for managing items accessible by a user device, comprising:

identifying items available to the user via the user device, wherein the items are accessible from different sources; and

displaying the identified items and revealing the sources associated with the respective identified items,

wherein at least one source is internal device memory, and another source is an IPS source provided by an item-providing system.

64. The method of claim 63, wherein the IPS source corresponds to a personal library module, wherein the personal library module maintains a list of items previously purchased by the user.

65. The method of claim 63, wherein the IPS source corresponds to a subscription module, wherein the subscription module maintains information regarding subscriptions purchased by the user and issues associated with the subscriptions

66. The method of claim 63, wherein another source is a memory module that is detachably coupled to the device.

67. The method of claim 63, further comprising providing metadata that identifies items maintained by the IPS source.

68. The method of claim 67, further comprising receiving an update to the metadata upon the occurrence of an update event.

69. The method of claim 68, wherein at least one type of update event occurs when the user device contacts the item-providing system to determine whether the item-providing system includes any items for downloading to the user device.

70. The method of claim 63, further comprising selectively presenting items associated with one or more identified sources based a filtering criterion or plural filtering criteria.

71. The method of claim 63, further comprising sorting the items based on a sorting criterion or plural sorting criteria.

72. The method of claim 63, further comprising moving available items from one source to another source and to removing available items.

73. One or more machine-readable media containing machine-readable instructions for implementing the method of claim 63.

74. One or more computing devices, comprising:

one or more processors; and

memory to store computer-executable instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, perform the method of claim 63

75. A personal media library module maintained by an item-providing system, wherein a user device interacts with the item-providing system to receive items for consumption at the user device, comprising:

logic configured to maintain a list of items purchased by a user; and

logic configured to authorize the wireless downloading of an item in the list to the user device in response to the user'"'"'s request.

76. The personal media library of claim 75, wherein each entry in the list is linked to a corresponding item in a content store.

77. The personal media library of claim 75, further comprising logic configured to providing metadata to the user device to inform the user device of items in the list of items.

78. The personal media library of claim 77, wherein the logic configured to provide metadata provides the metadata in response to an update event.

79. A method for managing a personal media library module maintained by an item-providing system, wherein a user device interacts with the item-providing system to receive items for consumption at the user device, comprising:

maintaining a list of items purchased by a user; and

authorizing the wireless downloading of an item in the list to the user device in response to the user'"'"'s request.

80. The method of claim 79, wherein each entry in the list is linked to a corresponding item in a content store.

81. The method of claim 79, further comprising providing metadata to the user device to inform the user device of items in the list of items.

82. The method of claim 81, further comprising providing the metadata in response to an update event.

83. One or more machine-readable media containing machine-readable instructions for implementing the method of claim 79.

84. One or more computing devices, comprising:

one or more processors; and

memory to store computer-executable instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, perform the method of claim 79.