SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR PRIORITIZING MOBILE MEDIA PLAYER FILES

• US 20090132453A1
• Filed: 02/12/2007
• Published: 05/21/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 02/10/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Musicstrands Incorporated
• Inventors: Hangartner, Rick, Rowley, Craig, Shur, Jim, Caudevilla-Laliena, Guillermo, Yip, Andrew, Martin, Francisco, Del Ser Bartolome, David, McLaughlin, Matt
• Granted Patent: US 7,743,009 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 706/46
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/4387 by the use of playlists
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/034 on discs G11B27/036, G11B27/038 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/036 Insert-editing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/612 for unicast
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1095 Replication or mirroring of data, e.g. scheduling or transport for data synchronisation between network nodes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/25891 being end-user preferences retrieval of video data in a video database based on user preferences G06F16/739; arrangements for recognizing users' preferences H04H60/46; user profiles in network data switching protocols H04L67/306; processing of user preferences or user profiles in wireless networks H04W8/18
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/26258 for generating a list of items to be played back in a given order, e.g. playlist, or scheduling item distribution according to such list retrieval of multimedia data based on playlists G06F16/40
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4335 Housekeeping operations, e.g. prioritizing content for deletion because of storage space restrictions storage management, e.g. defragmentation G06F3/0604; unloading stored programs G06F9/445; storage management in file systems G06F16/10; buffering arrangements in a network node or in an end terminal in packet networks H04L49/90
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44204 Monitoring of content usage, e.g. the number of times a movie has been viewed, copied or the amount which has been watched monitoring of user activities for profile generation for accessing a video database G06F16/739; protecting generic digital content where the protection is independent of the precise nature of the content G06F21/10; arrangements for monitoring the use made of the broadcast services in broadcast systems H04H60/31
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6543 for forcing some client operations, e.g. recording remote booting in general G06F9/4416
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6582 Data stored in the client, e.g. viewing habits, hardware capabilities, credit card number arrangements where receivers interact with the broadcast H04H20/38
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17318 Direct or substantially direct transmission and handling of requests

Abstract

Disclosed are embodiments of systems and methods for prioritizing mobile media player files by providing for the automated addition and/or deletion of media items for a mobile media player. In some embodiments, a statistical method may be provided for inferring which media items on a mobile media player should be deleted based on, for example, user taste data. In some embodiments, new media items may be loaded onto a user'"'"'s mobile media player by creating one or more playlists from a playlist builder. The playlist(s) may be created by using user taste data. Rankings may also be created to determine an order for deletion of the media items currently on a mobile media player and/or for addition of new media items to the device.

Claims

1. A system for automated modification of a mobile media player playlist, comprising:

a mobile media player configured to play media items in a media item playlist;

a playlist modification component configured to receive the media item playlist, analyze user taste data associated with the mobile media player, and modify the media item playlist using the user taste data; and

a network transmission component configured to download media items to the mobile media player and delete media items from the mobile media player in accordance with the modified media item playlist.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the playlist modification component is configured to rank the media items in the media item playlist according to the user taste data analysis.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the network transmission component is configured to delete media items from the mobile media player according to their rankings.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the playlist modification component comprises a playlist builder configured to build one or more playlists from the user taste data.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the playlist builder is configured to rank the media items in at least one playlist from the user taste data.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the network transmission component is configured to download media items to the mobile media player according to their rankings.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the playlist modification component is configured to compare the user taste data with user taste data from a previous session to identify changed user taste data, and wherein the playlist modification component is configured to modify the media item playlist using the changed user taste data.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the network transmission component is configured to download the modified media item playlist to the mobile media player.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the user taste data comprises at least one of play count data, tags, special user instructions, metadata, ratings, and play statistics.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the user taste data comprises at least one of a metric indicative of the total number of plays for one or more media items in the media item playlist, a metric indicative of a recent rate of plays for one or more media items in the media item playlist, and a metric indicative of a recent rate of skips for one or more media items in the media item playlist.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the user taste data comprises temporal user taste data relating to an upcoming date or event.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein the user taste data comprises data associating user tastes with a specific activity.

13. A method for the automated modification of a mobile media player playlist, the method comprising:

receiving a media item playlist from a mobile media player;

receiving user taste data associated with a user of the mobile media player;

generating a recommended playlist from the user taste data;

comparing the recommended playlist with the media item playlist;

modifying the recommended playlist using the comparison with the media item playlist; and

removing media items from the mobile media player, wherein media items are removed from the mobile media player according to the user taste data.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising transferring media items to the mobile media player, wherein media items are transferred to the mobile media player according to the user taste data.

15. The method of claim 14, further comprising ranking one or more media items in the recommended playlist in an order in which the media items are to be transferred to the mobile media player.

16. The method of claim 14, further comprising:

modifying the media item playlist in accordance with the media items removed from the mobile media player;

modifying the media item playlist in accordance with the media items transferred to the mobile media player; and

transmitting the modified media item playlist to the mobile media player.

17. The method of claim 13, wherein the user taste data comprises at least one of a metric indicative of the total number of plays for one or more media items in the media item playlist, a metric indicative of a recent rate of plays for one or more media items in the media item playlist, and a metric indicative of a recent rate of skips for one or more media items in the media item playlist.

18. The method of claim 13, further comprising ranking one or more media items in the media item playlist in an order in which the media items are to be removed from the mobile media player.

19. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

receiving one or more special user instructions; and

applying the one or more special user instructions to the media item playlist.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the one or more special user instructions comprises a remove list of media items to remove and a retain list of media items to retain, and wherein the step of applying the one or more special user instructions to the media item playlist comprises removing the media items on the remove list from the mobile media player and preventing removal of the media items on the retain list from the mobile media player.

21. A method for the automated modification of a mobile media player playlist, the method comprising:

receiving a media item playlist from a mobile media player;

receiving user taste data associated with a user of the mobile media player;

generating a recommended playlist from the user taste data;

comparing the recommended playlist with the media item playlist;

modifying the recommended playlist using the comparison with the media item playlist;

ranking one or more media items in the recommended playlist in an order in which the media items are to be transferred to the mobile media player;

ranking one or more media items in the media item playlist in an order in which the media items are to be removed from the mobile media player;

removing media items from the mobile media player, wherein media items are removed from the mobile media player according to their rankings;

transferring media items to the mobile media player, wherein media items are transferred to the mobile media player according to their rankings.