Personalized audio system and method

• US 8,060,583 B2
• Filed: 10/30/2007
• Issued: 11/15/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 03/08/2000
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Music Choice
• Original Assignee: Music Choice
• Inventors: Yurman, Ronald, Rosenberg, Jeremy
• Primary Examiner(s): Chang; Jungwon
• Application Number:
  US11/928,932
• Publication Number:
  US 20080104106A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,477 Days
• Field of Search: 709/219, 709/231, 715/765, 705/26, 386/52, 386/68, 710/310, 707/102, 707/999.107, 369/53.41, 725/9, 725/46, 725/61, 846/09, 704/270
• US Class Current: 709/219
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/60 of audio data
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/61 Indexing; Data structures therefor; Storage structures
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/637 Administration of user profiles, e.g. generation, initialization, adaptation or distribution
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/639 using playlists
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/64 Browsing; Visualisation therefor generation of a list or set of audio data G06F16/638
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/68 Retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manually
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/686 using information manually generated, e.g. tags, keywords, comments, title or artist information, time, location or usage information, user ratings
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0484 for the control of specific functions or operations, e.g. selecting or manipulating an object, an image or a displayed text element, setting a parameter value or selecting a range
• CPC Class Codes: G10H 2240/105 User profile, i.e. data about the user, e.g. for user settings or user preferences
• CPC Class Codes: G10H 2240/131 Library retrieval, i.e. searching a database or selecting a specific musical piece, segment, pattern, rule or parameter set
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/034 on discs G11B27/036, G11B27/038 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/105 of operating discs
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/322 used signal is digitally coded
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/27 Arrangements for recording or accumulating broadcast information or broadcast-related information
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/31 Arrangements for monitoring the use made of the broadcast services
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/33 Arrangements for monitoring the users' behaviour or opinions
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/37 for identifying segments of broadcast information, e.g. scenes or extracting programme ID
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/46 for recognising users' preferences
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/47 for recognising genres
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/65 for using the result on users' side
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/74 : using programme related information, e.g. title, composer or interpreter
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/60 : Network streaming of media packets
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/612 : for unicast
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 : User profiles
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99945 : Object-oriented database structure processing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99948 : Application of database or data structure, e.g. distributed, multimedia, or image

Abstract

A personalized audio system and method that overcomes many of the broadcast-type disadvantages associated with conventional radio stations.

Claims

1. A method for adding recordings to a collection of recordings stored in a player device, comprising:

obtaining preference information related to or concerning preferences of a user of the player device, the preference information comprising at least one of a genre identifier and an artist identifier;

selecting a recording;

determining whether the selected recording matches at least some of the preference information;

in response to determining that the selected recording matches the preference information, determining whether the selected recording is stored in the player device; and

in response to determining that the selected recording is not stored in the player device, then automatically transmitting to the player device the recording and meta-data associated with the recording.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of obtaining the preference information comprises receiving data transmitted from the player device, wherein the data includes the preference information.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of selecting the recording comprises selecting the recording from a specified set of recordings.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the specified set of recordings consists of new recordings.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the recording is a sound recording.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the meta-data comprises a list of genres that apply to the recording.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the player device is operable to receive the automatically transmitted recording and is configured such that, in response to receiving the automatically transmitted recording, the player device automatically adds the recording to the collection of recordings.

8. A system, comprising:

a server located remotely from a player device, the player device being configured to automatically transmit to the server an update request message such that the transmission does not occur in response to the user selecting a specific recording, wherein

the server is configured to perform the following process in response to receiving the update request message;

determine whether any of a set of new recordings match preference information associated with a user of the player device; and

transmit to the player device a messages in response to determining that at least one of the new recordings match the preference information, wherein the message includes a recording identifier that identifies a new recording that matches the preference information.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the server is further configured to transmit to the player device a copy of the new recording that matches the preference information in response to determining that the new recording matches the preference information.

10. The system of claim 8, wherein the message further includes meta-data concerning the new recording that matches the preference information.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the meta-data included in the message includes a list of genres that apply to the new recording that matches the preference information.