Reduced Latency Electronic Content System

• US 20150086033A1
• Filed: 09/20/2013
• Published: 03/26/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 09/20/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Rawles, LLC (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Inventors: Deramat, Frederic Johan Georges, Pogue, Michael Alan, Crump, Edward Dietz, Tebbs, Brice William
• Granted Patent: US 9,516,081 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 381/77
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/167 Audio in a user interface, e.g. using voice commands for navigating, audio feedback
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/60 Network streaming of media packets
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/612 for unicast
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/613 for the control of the source by the destination control signals issued by the client directed to the server or network components specially adapted for selective content distribution H04N21/637
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/561 Adding application-functional data or data for application control, e.g. adding metadata

Abstract

An architecture for selecting and providing content items to a device includes cloud-based resources of a device management service and one or more content sources. The device is configured to receive instructions and a portion of the content item from the device management service. The instructions direct the device to obtain and buffer the content item from the content source, while simultaneously outputting the portion of the content item to a user.

Claims

1. A computing device comprising:

at least one microphone to capture sound from an environment and convert the sound into an audio signal;

at least one speaker to output audio to a user;

one or more communication interfaces to communicate with one or more cloud services, the one or more cloud services including a device management service and a content source;

one or more processors; and

computer-readable storage media storing computer-executable instructions, which when executed by the one or more processors cause the one or more processors to;

provide the audio signal to the device management service, the audio signal including a request for the computing device to output a content item;

receive instructions from the device management service, the instructions including an indication of the content source;

receive a first portion of the content item from the device management service;

outputting the first portion of the content item from the at least one speaker;

while outputting the first portion, requesting a second portion of the content item from the content source using, at least in part, the instructions received from the device management service;

receiving the second portion of the content item from the content source; and

outputting the second portion of the content item before or upon completion of the first portion of the content item.

2. The computing system as recited in claim 1, wherein the first portion of the content item is less than 15 seconds.

3. The computing device as recited in claim 1, wherein the second portion is a remainder of the content item following the first portion.

4. The computing device as recited in claim 1, further comprising concatenating the first portion with the second portion by applying at least one of:

bit offset;

sample counting;

or

time to position.

5. A method comprising:

under control of one or more computer systems configured with executable instructions,

receiving a request to output a content item at a computing device;

identifying a content source;

providing instructions to the computing device to enable the computing device to obtain the content item from the content source; and

providing a portion of the content item to the computing device so that the computing device may begin outputting the portion of the content item while the computing device seeks to obtain the content item from the content source.

6. The method as recited in claim 5, wherein the content source is a subscription service with which a user has an active account.

7. The method as recited in claim 5, wherein the instructions cause the computing device to request the content item from the content source starting at a particular position in the content item.

8. The method as recited in claim 7, wherein the particular position is a position in the content item proximal to an end of the portion of the content item.

9. The method as recited in claim 5, further comprising determining a size of the portion based at least in part on at least one of:

a type of content associated with the content item;

historical information about the computing device;

network latency associated with the computing device;

information about a user;

information about the content source;

or

an amount of the content item currently available.

10. The method as recited in claim 5, wherein:

identifying the content source includes identifying a list of content sources; and

providing the instructions includes providing the list of content sources.

11. The method as recited in claim 5, wherein the instructions include at least one uniform resource locator (URL) associated with the content source.

12. One or more non-transitory computer-readable media having computer-executable instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform operations comprising:

receiving a user request to output a content item from a device;

identifying at least one content source which maintains the content item;

selecting a portion of the content item, wherein the portion is stored on the one or more computer-readable media;

generating instructions to output the portion of the content item and, to obtain at least a second portion of the content item from at least one of the content sources identified; and

providing the instructions and the portion of the content item to the device.

13. The one or more computer-readable media as recited in claim 12, having computer-executable instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform operations comprising determining a size of the portion of the content item to provide to the device.

14. The one or more computer-readable media as recited in claim 13, wherein the size of the portion is determined based on at least one of:

a type of content associated with the content item;

historical information about the device;

network latency associated with the device;

information about the user;

information about the content source;

or

an amount of the content item currently available.

15. The one or more computer-readable media as recited in claim 14, wherein the content item is identified based at least in part on at least one of:

stored information related to the device;

cost to a user of acquiring the content item from a particular content source;

known user accounts associated with the content sources identified;

user preferences;

historical information related to the user;

or

historical information related to the device.

16. The one or more computer-readable media as recited in claim 12, wherein the instructions include a uniform resource locator (URL) for each of the at least one content sources identified.

17. The one or more computer-readable media as recited in claim 12, wherein the instructions cause a second device of a system associated with the device receiving the instructions to output the content item.

18. The one or more computer-readable media as recited in claim 12, wherein the instructions include an indication of a location within the content item from which the device begins buffering the content item.

19. The one or more computer-readable media as recited in claim 18, wherein the location is determined based at least in part on a size of the portion of the content item.

20. The one or more computer-readable media as recited in claim 12, wherein the at least one content source includes a preferred content source.