MEDIA CONTENT LOCATION AWARENESS AND DECISION MAKING

• US 20120203796A1
• Filed: 02/08/2011
• Published: 08/09/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 02/08/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: da Costa, Bruno K., Johnson, Zach, McRoberts, Shane, Silverman, Andrew L., McClanahan, Joseph, Kollenkark, Sean, Abraham, Jeffrey C., Pulliam, Robert N., Bomfim, Rodrigo
• Granted Patent: US 8,725,680 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/770
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/185 by embedding added-value information into content, e.g. geo-tagging

Abstract

Various embodiments related to the ability to find content for consumption across all endpoint computing devices in a computing system are disclosed. For example, one disclosed embodiment provides a method for presenting content including aggregating endpoint metadata for each endpoint computing device in a computing system and content metadata of content stored on each of a plurality of endpoint computing devices, receiving a request for a content item on a selected endpoint computing device, querying aggregated endpoint metadata and content metadata to find instances of the content item and corresponding endpoint computing device locations, generating a ranked list of instances of the content item based on selection criteria, and selecting an instance of the content item from the ranked list for playback by the selected endpoint computing device.

Claims

1. A method for presenting content comprising:

aggregating endpoint metadata for each of a plurality of endpoint computing devices in a computing system and content metadata of content stored on each endpoint computing device;

receiving a request for a content item on a selected endpoint computing device;

querying aggregated endpoint metadata and content metadata to find instances of the content item and corresponding endpoint computing device locations; and

selecting an instance of the content item for playback by the selected endpoint computing device.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein aggregated endpoint metadata and content metadata are stored at cloud storage accessible by each endpoint computing device in the computing system.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein aggregated endpoint metadata and content metadata are stored at each endpoint computing device in the computing system.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

generating a ranked list of instances of the content item based on selection criteria; and

selecting a highest-ranked instance of the content item from the ranked list for playback by the selected endpoint computing device.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein selection criteria includes selected endpoint computing device capability.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein selection criteria includes service and/or user cost.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein selection criteria includes endpoint computing device availability and/or instance availability, connectivity speed/rate, and/or network proximity/latency of an endpoint computing device on which a instance of the content item is stored.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein endpoint metadata includes one or more of endpoint computing device capability, online status, connectivity speed/rate, and network location and content metadata includes one or more of access restrictions, encoding bit rate, format, and playback state.

9. A system comprising:

a plurality of endpoint computing devices in communication, each endpoint computing device comprising;

a location aware playback module configured to receive a request for a content item on a selected endpoint computing device, query a data storage of aggregated endpoint metadata for each of the plurality of endpoint computing devices and content metadata of content stored on each endpoint computing device of the plurality of endpoint computing devices to find instances of the content item and corresponding endpoint computing device locations, generate a ranked list of instances of the content item, retrieved from querying the data storage, based on selection criteria, and select a instance of the content item from the ranked list for playback by the selected endpoint computing device.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the data storage of aggregated endpoint metadata and content data is stored in a computing cloud and accessible by each of the plurality of endpoint computing devices.

11. The system of claim 9, wherein the data storage of aggregated endpoint metadata and content data is stored on each of the plurality of endpoint computing devices.

12. The system of claim 9, wherein playback includes receiving a copy of a selected instance of the content item at the endpoint computing device via a native application executable by the endpoint computing device.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the copy of the selected instance of the content item is stored on another endpoint computing device that is directly connected to the endpoint computing device.

14. The system of claim 12, wherein the copy of the selected instance of the content item is stored on another endpoint computing device that is connected to the endpoint computing device via a local area network.

15. The system of claim 9, wherein playback includes streaming a selected instance of the content item to the endpoint computing device via a web application programming interface.

16. The system of claim 9, wherein selection criteria includes selected endpoint computing device capability, service and/or user cost, endpoint computing device availability and/or instance availability, connectivity speed/rate, and/or network proximity/latency of an endpoint computing device on which an instance of the content item is stored.

17. The system of claim 9, wherein endpoint metadata includes endpoint computing device capability, online status, connectivity speed/rate, and network location, and content metadata includes access restrictions, encoding bit rate, format, and playback state.

18. A data-storage device holding instructions executable by a processing device to:

aggregate endpoint metadata including endpoint computing device capability, online status, connectivity speed/rate, and network location for each of a plurality of endpoint computing devices in a computing system and content metadata including access restrictions, encoding bit rate, format, and playback state of content stored on each endpoint computing device into a content-on-endpoint table;

receive a request for a content item on a selected endpoint computing device;

query the content-on-endpoint table to find instances of the content item and corresponding endpoint computing device locations;

generate a ranked list of instances of the content item based on selection criteria including selected endpoint computing device capability, service and/or user cost, endpoint computing device availability and/or instance availability, connectivity speed/rate, and/or network proximity/latency of an endpoint computing device on which an instance of the content item is stored; and

select a highest ranked instance of the content item from the ranked list for playback by the selected endpoint computing device.

19. The data-holding device of claim 18, wherein the content-on-endpoint table is stored on each endpoint computing device in the computing system.

20. The data-holding device of claim 18, wherein playback includes receiving a copy of a selected instance of the content item via a native application executable by the selected endpoint computing device or streaming the selected instance of the content item to the selected endpoint computing device via a web application programming interface.