Active requesting of information for pseudo-live performance

• US 8,090,791 B1
• Filed: 09/07/2007
• Issued: 01/03/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 06/20/2000
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property II LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property II LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Crandall, Evan Stephen
• Primary Examiner(s): SHINGLES, KRISTIE D
• Application Number:
  US11/851,875
• Time in Patent Office: 1,579 Days
• Field of Search: 709/203, 709/217
• US Class Current: 709/217
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 20/40 Arrangements for broadcast specially adapted for accumulation-type receivers
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/13 Arrangements for device control affected by the broadcast information
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/80 characterised by transmission among terminal devices
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1101 Session protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/60 Network streaming of media packets
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/75 Media network packet handling
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/764 at the destination reformatting of additional data in video clients H04N21/4355
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/60 Scheduling or organising the servicing of application requests, e.g. requests for application data transmissions using the analysis and optimisation of the required network resources admission control or resource allocation H04L47/70
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/62 Establishing a time schedule for servicing the requests
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4331 Caching operations, e.g. of an advertisement for later insertion during playback
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4333 Processing operations in response to a pause request
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4363 Adapting the video stream to a specific local network, e.g. a Bluetooth® network
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4402 involving reformatting operations of video signals for household redistribution, storage or real-time display details of conversion of video standards at pixel level H04N7/01; video transcoding H04N19/40; adapting incoming signals to the display format of the display terminal G09G5/005; media handling at the source in data packet switching networks H04L65/764
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/165 Centralised control of user terminal subsequent to an upstream request signal H04N7/17345; Registering at central by two-way working H04N7/17309
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17327 with deferred transmission or handling of upstream communications

Abstract

Mass amounts of information, such as entire libraries of songs or movies, for example, may be stored locally near end-users, and this information may be accessed and reproduced in response to commands received from a transmitting station via a network. When a radio or television station desires to transmit a song or movie, for example, the radio or television station can, rather than transmitting the entire song or movie, merely transmit a command for reproducing the song or movie. An end-user'"'"'s performance reproduction device, such as an enhanced radio or a television set, then accesses and reproduces the locally stored song or movie. Since the radio or television station need not transmit the entire performance, network traffic can be significantly reduced. The performance reproduction device may actively request information from the radio or television station when fresh or additional information is needed.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

determining whether a device has physically moved from a home area with a home area radio station coverage to a local area having a local radio station coverage;

accessing a local radio station master table to determine at least one local radio station that matches a user preference;

receiving and storing in a storage device information transmitted from the at least one local radio station over a communication network;

receiving over the communication network data transmitted from the home area radio station while the device is outside of the home area radio station coverage; and

generating a pseudo-live performance for the user based on the data transmitted from the home area radio station, wherein at least a portion of the data transmitted from the home area radio station is replaced with the information transmitted from the at least one local radio station, wherein the information transmitted from the at least one local radio station is stored in a database having at least one of a command storage portion, a short term storage portion, a macro portion storing the stored information, the local radio station master table and a portion for long term performance recording.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the device has a global positioning system to determine whether the device has physically moved from the home area to a local area.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the information from the at least one local radio station is one of local weather, traffic reports or local news.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein a user preference comprises at least one of:

radio station style preference and preferences of a type of the information from the at least one local radio station.

5. The method of claim 2, wherein the device further comprises a multi-media device.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the transmitting of the data from the home radio station comprises transmitting data from the long term performance recording that is stored from the home area radio station.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the command storage portion stores commands for inserting the information from the at least one local radio station from the macro portion into an audio a stream transmitted to the device.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the command storage portion includes commands for recording in the future information from a radio station for storage and later playback to the device.

9. A system of providing a pseudo-live performance at a device, the system comprising:

a first module configured to determine whether the device has physically moved from a home area with a home area radio station coverage to a local area having a local radio station coverage;

a second module configured to access a local radio station master table to determine at least one local radio station that matches a user preference;

a third module configured to receive and store information transmitted from the at least one local radio station;

a fourth module configured to receive data from the home area radio station while the device is outside of the home area radio station coverage; and

a fifth module configured to generate a pseudo-live performance for the user based on the data transmitted from the home area radio station, wherein at least a portion of the data transmitted from the home area radio station received while the device is outside a coverage of the home area radio station is replaced with the information transmitted from the at least one local radio station, wherein the information transmitted from the at least one local radio station is a first module configured to determine whether the device has physically moved from a home area with a home area radio station coverage to a local area having a local radio station coverage;

a second module configured to access a local radio station master table to determine at least one local radio station that matches a user preference;

a third module configured to receive and store information transmitted from the at least one local radio station;

a fourth module configured to receive data from the home area radio station while the device is outside of the home area radio station coverage; and

a fifth module configured to generate a pseudo-live performance for the user based on the data transmitted from the home area radio station, wherein at least a portion of the data transmitted from the home area radio station received while the device is outside a coverage of the home area radio station is replaced with the information transmitted from the at least one local radio station, wherein the information transmitted from the at least one local radio station is stored in a database having at least one of a command storage portion, a short term storage portion, a macro portion storing the stored information, the local radio station master table and a portion for long term performance recording.

10. The system of claim 9 wherein the device has a global positioning system to determine whether the device has physically moved from the home area to a local area.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the information from the at least one local radio station is one of local weather, traffic reports or local news.

12. The system of claim 10, wherein a user preference comprises at least one of:

radio station style preference and preferences of a type of the information from the at least one local radio station.

13. The system of claim 10, wherein the device further comprises a multi-media device.

14. The system of claim 10, wherein the transmitting of the data from the home radio station comprises transmitting data from the long term performance recording that is stored from the home area radio station.

15. The system of claim 10, wherein the command storage portion stores commands for inserting the information from the at least one local radio station from the macro portion into a stream transmitted to the device.

16. The system of claim 10, wherein the command storage portion includes commands for recording in the future information from a radio station for storage and later playback to the audio device.

17. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium storing computer-executable instructions for controlling a computing device to provide a pseudo-live performance at a device, the instructions comprising:

determining whether a device has physically moved from a home area with a home area radio station coverage to a local area having a local radio station coverage;

accessing a local radio station master table to determine at least one local radio station that matches a user preference;

receiving and storing information transmitted from the at least one local radio station;

receiving data from the home area radio station while the device is outside of the home area radio station coverage; and

generating a pseudo-live performance for the user based on the data transmitted from the home area radio station, wherein at least a portion of the data transmitted from the home area radio station is replaced with the information transmitted from the at least one local radio station, wherein the information transmitted from the at least one local radio station is stored in a database having at least one of a command storage portion, a short term storage portion, a macro portion storing the stored information, the local radio station master table and a portion for long term performance recording.

18. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 17, wherein the device has a global positioning system to determine whether the device has physically moved from the home area to a local area.

19. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 18, wherein the information from the at least one local radio station is one of local weather, traffic reports or local news.

20. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 18, wherein a user preference comprises at least one of:

radio station style preference and preferences of a type of the information from the at least one local radio station.

21. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 18, wherein the audio device further comprises a multi-media device.

22. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 18, wherein the transmitting of the data from the home radio station comprises transmitting data from the long term performance recording that is stored from the home area radio station.

23. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 18, wherein the command storage portion stores commands for inserting the information from the at least one local radio station from the macro portion into an stream transmitted to the device.

24. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 18, wherein the command storage portion includes commands for recording in the future information from a radio station for storage and later playback to the device.