Method and system for allowing users to access and/or share media libraries, including multimedia collections of audio and video information via a wide area network

• US 6,226,672 B1
• Filed: 05/02/1997
• Issued: 05/01/2001
• Est. Priority Date: 05/02/1997
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.), Sony Electronics Inc. (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.), Sony Electronics Inc. (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: DeMartin, Frank, Douma, Peter, Miccoli, Denise
• Primary Examiner(s): Geckil, Mehmet B.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Vaughn, Jr., William C.
• Application Number:
  US08/850,520
• Time in Patent Office: 1,460 Days
• Field of Search: 369/2, 369/14, 369/49, 369/30, 707/5, 709/206, 709/219, 709/217, 709/203, 709/238, 709/231, 348/7, 348/6, 455/45, 455/4.2, 345/328, 345/302
• US Class Current: 709/219
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/954 Navigation, e.g. using categorised browsing
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 7/04 characterised by modifying the teaching programme in response to a wrong answer, e.g. repeating the question, supplying a further explanation

Abstract

Using a music oriented Web site, a “student” user requests a tutorial or tour of a musical artist or genre on the World Wide Web portion of the Internet. The “expert” user peruses the “student” personal music library and creates a playlist for that library to assist in further understanding of the music by the “student” user. The playlist is transferred to a server which generates a command file. This command file is sent to the “student” user to control various multimedia components according to the “expert” user'"'"'s selection. This tutorial may be accompanied by the “expert” user'"'"'s personal commentary on his/her selections.

Claims

1. A system for accessing, over a wide area network, multimedia equipment for reproducing multimedia information recorded on data storage media, comprising:

a server for generating a list of contents of multimedia information recorded on data storage media of a first user at a first equipment location, the server being operative to receive, over the wide area network from equipment of said first user, table of contents (TOC) data read from the first user'"'"'s data storage media and to generate said list of contents by matching said received TOC data against data stored in a database to thereby identity corresponding multimedia information, the server being further operative to transmit said list of contents via said wide area network to a second user at a second equipment location, said second user modifying the generating list of contents by selecting items from said list of contents and rearranging the selected items to produce a rearranged list of contents;

converting means for converting the rearranged list of contents to at least one command for controlling the multimedia equipment; and

controlling means for controlling the multimedia equipment based on said one command, wherein the multimedia information recorded on the first user'"'"'s storage media is reproduced on the multimedia equipment based on the rearranged list of contents.

2. The system according to claim 1, wherein said server provides a user interface for requesting the list of contents to be modified.

3. The system according to claim 1, wherein the list of contents is generated on the basis of data uniquely identifying the contents of each data storage medium in the data storage media.

7. The system according to claim 1, wherein the corresponding multimedia information identified by said server comprises titles and track names.

8. The system according to claim 1, wherein the server is further operative to receive the rearranged list from the second user, form a command script file based on the rearranged list, and transmit the command script file to the multimedia equipment of the first user which parses the command script file to obtain a series of control commands to control the multimedia equipment.

4. A method for accessing, over a wide area network, multimedia equipment for reproducing multimedia information recorded on data storage media, said method comprising the steps of:

receiving, by a server over the wide area network, table of contents (TOC) data read from data storage media of a first user at a first equipment location, said server generating a list of contents of multimedia information recorded on said data storage media of the first user by matching said received TOC data against data stored in a database to thereby identify corresponding multimedia information;

transferring, said server, said list of contents via said wide area network to a second user at a second equipment location who modified the generating list of contents by selecting items from said list of contents and rearranging the selected items to produce a rearranged list of contents,

converting the rearranged list of contents to at least one command tor controlling the multimedia equipment; and

controlling the multimedia equipment based on said one command, wherein the multimedia information recorded on the first user'"'"'s storage media is reproduced on the multimedia equipment based on the rearranged list of contents.

5. A method according to claim 4, further comprising the step of providing, by said server, user interface for requesting the list of contents to be modified.

6. The method according to claim 4, wherein the list of contents is generated on the basis of data uniquely identifying the contents of each data storage medium in said data storage media.

9. The method according to claim 4, wherein the step of converting the rearranged list to at least one command for controlling the multimedia equipment is performed at least in part by the server,

the server receiving the rearranged list fi-on the second user, forming a command script based on the rearranged list, and transmitting the command script file to the multimedia equipment of the first user which parses the command script file to obtain a series of control commands to control the multimedia equipment.

10. The method according to claim 4, wherein the corresponding multimedia information identified by said server comprises titles and track names.

11. A server comprising:

receiving means for receiving table of contents (TOC) data over a wide area network, transmitted from equipment of a first user at a first equipment location, said TOC data having been read by said first user equipment from multimedia storage media retained therein;

generating means for generating a list of contents of multimedia information of said first user by matching said received TOC data against data stored in a database to thereby identify corresponding multimedia information;

transmitting means for transmitting said list of contents over the wide area network to a second user at a second equipment location, said second user rearranging the list of contents and transmitting the rearranged list back to the server; and

,

means for receiving the rearranged list and transmitting information corresponding to the rearranged list to the first user equipment to enable reproduction of multimedia information from the first user'"'"'s storage media in accordance with the rearranged list.

12. The server according to claim 11, wherein said server forms a command script file based on the rearranged list and transmits said command script file to the first user as said information corresponding to the rearranged list, to enable control of the first user'"'"'s multimedia equipment in accordance with the rearranged list.

13. The server according to claim 11, wherein the multimedia information is music, and said list of contents is a list of songs.

14. The server according to claim 11, further comprising means for transmitting a request to said first user equipment to read said TOC data from the storage media and to transmit the read TOC data to said server.