1564results about "Metadata audio data retrieval" patented technology

Media metadata is accessible for a plurality of media items (See FIG. 12). The media metadata includes a number of strings to identify information regarding the media items (See FIG. 12). Phonetic metadata is associated the number of strings of the media metadata (See FIG. 12). Each portion of the phonetic metadata is stored in an original language of the string (See FIG. 12).

The present invention relates to systems and / or methods that generate playlist(s) for a library or collection of media items via selecting a plurality of seed items, at least one of which is an undesirable seed item. Some of the seed items are desirable indicating that a user prefers additional media items similar to the desirable seed items and others are undesirable indicating that the user prefers additional media items dissimilar to the undesirable seed items. Additionally, the seed items can be weighted to establish a relative importance of the seed items. The invention compares media items in the collection with the seed items and determines which media items are added into the playlist by computation of similarity metrics or values. The playlist can be regenerated by adding desirable seed items to the playlist and removing media items from the playlist (e.g., undesirable seed items).

The present invention relates to a music identification / purchasing system, specifically to a method for marking the time and the name of the radio station in portable device such as a key holder, watch, cellular phone, beeper or the like which will allow the user to learn via internet or regular telephone the name of the song, artist and / or music company by matching the stored data with broadcast archive. The system will allow for purchase of the full length of the identified music item or related music. An alternate embodiment provides the listener with convenient means to record a segment of the music in which he / she is interested. The recorded music segment is played back into an apparatus which can identify the song based on the play back and provide the user with information on the identified song such as title, singer or artist, composer, producer, etc., and provide related purchasing information. The user can make selections and provide payment data to the music identification / purchasing system which will result in the selections being delivered to the user by mail.

A music recommendation system receives a user selection of desired music, retrieves analysis data associated with the selected music, and generates a playlist of songs based on the analysis data. The analysis data is generated based on a processing of one or more audio signals associated with the selected music. The analysis data may downloaded from a central server. If the analysis data is not available from the central server, it is generated locally at a user end, and uploaded to the central server. A plurality of user-selectable shuffling mechanisms are provided to allow the order of the songs to be shuffled according to the selected shuffling mechanism. The end user device may also receive recommendation of new music from different providers based on the analysis data of music for which the recommendation is to be based.

Methods and systems that improve the way media is played, sorted, modified, stored and cataloged are disclosed. One aspect relates to a browse window that allows a user to navigate through and select images that are related to media items. Another aspect relates to a graphical user interface of a media management program that utilizes multiple browse windows. Another aspect relates to simultaneously displayed media browse windows whose operations are integrated together so that the content shown therein is automatically synched when selections are made. Another aspect relates to resetting browsed content to the currently playing media.

This invention description details systems and methods for improving human conversations by enhancing conversation participants' ability to: —Distill out and record core ideas of conversations. —Classify and prioritize these key concepts. —Recollect commitments and issues and take appropriate action. —Analyze and uncover new insight from the linkage of these ideas with those from other conversations.

A media content manager residing at a user premises having a tuner coupled to at least one media source operable to selectively receive at least one media stream of at least one type of media content. The media content manager also including a media processor coupled to the tuner and operable to receive the at least one media stream and convert the media stream to a predetermined data format, the at least one media stream comprising metadata. Additionally, the media content manages has a media manager coupled to the media processor and operable to receive the at least one media stream in the predetermined data format and direct the media stream to a selected media player device coupled to the media processor. Furthermore, the media content manager includes a storage device coupled to the media manager and operable to receive and store the at least one media stream in the predetermined data format.

The invention enables digital music content to be downloaded to and used on a portable wireless computing device. An application running on the wireless device has been automatically adapted to parameters associated with the wireless device without end-user input (e.g. the application has been configured in dependence on the device OS and firmware, related bugs, screen size, pixel number, security models, connection handling, memory etc. This application enables an end-user to browse and search music content on a remote server using a wireless network; to download music content from that remote server using the wireless network and to playback and manage that downloaded music content. The application also includes a digital rights management system that enables unlimited legal downloads of different music tracks to the device and also enables any of those tracks stored on the device to be played so long as a subscription service has not terminated.

The content metadata directory system connects consumers of identified content to managed metadata databases and other digital resources. The system manages links between identifiers in content objects and metadata sources. It supports a variety of different type of content identifiers and allows for overlap among different content identification schemes. One method of associating a content object with metadata uses a combination of a content identifier and a bounding identifier to enable handling of disparate sets of content identifiers for content objects with potentially conflicting content identifiers. The method receives a content identifier for a content object from among a set of content identifiers and provides a unique bounding identifier for the set of content identifiers. This unique bounding identifier is used in combination with the content identifier to form a globally unique identifier for the content object. This globally unique identifier is associated with a metadata source, which enables routing of a user to the metadata source.

A context-aware voice guidance method is provided that interacts with other voice services of a user device. The voice guidance does not provide audible guidance while the user is making a verbal request to any of the voice-activated services. Instead, the voice guidance transcribes its output on the screen while the verbal requests from the user are received. In some embodiments, the voice guidance only provides a short warning sound to get the user's attention while the user is speaking on a phone call or another voice-activated service is providing audible response to the user's inquires. The voice guidance in some embodiments distinguishes between music that can be ducked and spoken words, for example from an audiobook, that the user wants to pause instead of being skipped. The voice guidance ducks music but pauses spoken words of an audio book in order to provide voice guidance to the user.

A system and method for generating a list is provided. The system includes a seed item input subsystem, an item identifying subsystem, a descriptive metadata similarity determining subsystem and a list generating subsystem that builds a list based, at least in part, on similarity processing performed on seed item descriptive metadata and user item descriptive metadata and user selected thresholds applied to such similarity processing. The method includes inexact matching between identifying metadata associated with new user items and identifying metadata stored in a reference metadata database. The method further includes subjecting candidate user items to similarity processing, where the degree to which the candidate user items are similar to the seed item is determined, and placing user items in a list of items based on user selected preferences for (dis)similarity between items in the list and the seed item.

A digital audio file search method and apparatus for digital audio files is provided that allows a user to navigate the audio files by generating speech sounds related to the information of the audio files to facilitate searching and playback. The digital audio file search method and apparatus searches for audio files in a portable digital audio player in combination with an automobile audio system through speech sounds by utilizing text-to-speech processing and by prompting response from a user in response to the generated speech sounds. The text-to-speech technology is utilized to generate the speech sound based on tag-data of the audio files. When hearing the speech sounds, the user gives instruction for searching the files without being distracted from driving the automobile.

Systems and methods of generating and modifying a playlist using contextual information are disclosed. For example, a user may provide an input seed such as a song name or artist name. The input seed is compared to database items and a playlist is generated as a result. In some examples, the contextual information is used to enhance the comparison and to select better content objects for a user's playlist. Meanwhile, in some examples the content objects in the playlist may be arranged in an enhanced order using ranking and / or contextual information.

Systems and methods for generating and playing a sequence of media objects based on a mood gradient are also disclosed. A mood gradient is a sequence of items, in which each item is media object having known characteristics or a representative set of characteristics of a media object, that is created or used by a user for a specific purpose. Given a mood gradient, one or more new media objects are selected for each item in the mood gradient based on the characteristics associated with that item. In this way, a sequence of new media objects is created but the sequence exhibits a similar variation in media object characteristics. The mood gradient may be presented to a user or created via a display illustrating a three-dimensional space in which each dimension corresponds to a different characteristic. The mood gradient may be represented as a path through the three-dimensional space and icons representing media objects are located within the three-dimensional space based on their characteristics.

System and method in tangible computer-readable media are disclosed for facilitating community interaction with a playlist. A host system communicates with a plurality of portable devices to transmit information about the items in the playlist. Users of the portable device queue additional selections or vote on media items in the playlist. Based on user voting the playlist is rearranged to accommodate the preferences of the community. Both registered and guest users participate in managing the playlist. Such a system and method can be particularly useful in a variety of social gathering situations.

Improved techniques for enhancing, associating, and linking various sources of metadata for music files, to allow integration of commercially generated metadata with user-entered metadata, and to ensure that metadata provided to the user is of the highest quality and accuracy available, even when the metadata comes from disparate sources having different levels of credibility. The invention further provides improved techniques for identifying approximate matches when querying metadata databases, and also provides improved techniques for accepting user submissions of metadata, for categorizing user submissions according to relative credibility, and for integrating user submissions with existing metadata.

A user interface for displaying and playing multimedia contents is capable of allowing the user to easily recognize information about multimedia contents at a glance, and allowing the user to more easily retrieve desired information, through an image pre-play function. An apparatus includes the user interface, and a control method for the apparatus are includes displaying a sorting item of a multimedia content, and arranging file information included in the sorting item and having the form of a playable image.

Improved techniques for enhancing, associating, and linking various sources of metadata for music files, to allow integration of commercially generated metadata with user-entered metadata, and to ensure that metadata provided to the user is of the highest quality and accuracy available, even when the metadata comes from disparate sources having different levels of credibility. The invention further provides improved techniques for identifying approximate matches when querying metadata databases, and also provides improved techniques for accepting user submissions of metadata, for categorizing user submissions according to relative credibility, and for integrating user submissions with existing metadata.

Provided is a method and apparatus for searching music based on speech recognition. By calculating search scores with respect to a speech input using an acoustic model, calculating preferences in music using a user preference model, reflecting the preferences in the search scores, and extracting a music list according to the search scores in which the preferences are reflected, a personal expression of a search result using speech recognition can be achieved, and an error or imperfection of a speech recognition result can be compensated for.

A system for on-line user-interactive multimedia based point-of-preview. The system provides for a network web site and accompanying software and hardware for allowing users to access the web site over a network such as the internet via a computer. The user is uniquely identified to the web site server through an identification name or number. The hardware associated with the web site includes storage of discrete increments of pre-selected portions of music products for user selection and preview. After user selection, a programmable data processor selects the particular pre-recorded music product from data storage and then transmits that chosen music product over the network to the user for preview. Subscriber selection and profile data (i.e. demographic information) can optionally be collected and stored to develop market research data. Since the system provides for multiple embodiments, the system contemplates previewing of audio programs such as music on compact discs, video programs such as movies and text from books and other written documents. Furthermore, it is contemplated that the network web site can be accessed from a publicly accessible kiosk, available, e.g. at a retail store location, or from a desk top computer.

The invention comprises music and information delivery systems and methods. One system comprises a portable communication device configured to receive a piece of music from an audio source and transmit the piece of music via a first communication medium to a host computer. The host computer is configured to receive the piece of music from the portable communication device and search a storage medium to identify and access the piece of music from the storage medium. The host computer is configured to transmit the piece of music via a second communication medium to one or more reception units that are configured to receive the piece of music from the host computer via the second communication medium.

A method of producing a playlist of music for a personal music station comprising the steps of assigning a artist block rating to each of a plurality of predefined artist blocks, using the artist block rating to produce an artist rating for each artist in the artist block, generating a list of artists, wherein the number of times each artist appears in the list is related to the artist rating for each artist, randomly selecting artists form the list of artists, producing a prioritized list of songs for each of the randomly selected artists, and selecting songs from the prioritized list of songs for inclusion in a playlist. The playlist can be subsequently edited to create a playlist having a less than a first predetermined number of songs by each of the artists for broadcast within a predetermined time period and having less than a second predetermined number of adjacent songs by each of the artists. A method of distributing songs on a personal music station using the playlist is also included.

A media organizer and entertainment center includes an importer for importing individual media / data selections and automatically assigning each selection at least one associated category flag pursuant to predetermined or user defined criteria. The center also includes a storage device for storing compressed data corresponding to the plurality of individual media / data selections and the associated category flags and a retriever for retrieving selections from the storage device based upon user selection of one or more of the associated category flags, and a data decompresser that translates the compressed data into playable digital or audio media data. With the center, playable digital or audio media data can be advantageously transported, organized, played or recorded through or on a variety of products or devices.

A computerized method and apparatus is disclosed for merging content segments from a number of discrete media content (e.g., audio / video podcasts) in preparation for playback. The method and apparatus obtain metadata corresponding to a plurality of discrete media content. The metadata identifies the content segments and their corresponding timing information, such that the metadata of at least one of the plurality of discrete media content is derived using one or more media processing techniques. A number of the content segments are selected to be merged for playback using the timing information from the metadata. The merged media content can be implemented as a playlist identifying the content segments to be merged for playback. The merged media content can also be generated by extracting the content segments to be merged for playback from each of the media files / streams and then merging the extracted segments into one or more merged media files / streams.

A method of providing navigation on an electronic device when the display screen is locked. The method receives a verbal request to start navigation while the display is locked. The method identifies a route from a current location to a destination based on the received verbal request. While the display screen is locked, the method provides navigational directions on the electronic device from the current location of the electronic device to the destination. Some embodiments provide a method for processing a verbal search request. The method receives a navigation-related verbal search request and prepares a sequential list of the search results based on the received request. The method then provides audible information to present a search result from the sequential list. The method presents the search results in a batch form until the user selects a search result, the user terminates the search, or the search items are exhausted.

A method, system, and user interface for creating a personalized and customizable playlist. In one embodiment, the method and system for generating a playlist includes the user selecting and / or entering media file identifiers associated with media files and then initiating automatic playlist generation.

An information-processing apparatus is connectable to a reproduction apparatus and includes: storage sections each for storing contents and for storing a host database having attributes of each of the contents stored in the content storage section; a section for identifying contents stored in the reproduction apparatus; a section for extracting the attributes of each of the identified contents from the host database; a section for creating plural tables provided with different types and each put in a layer structure having the titles of the identified contents as a lowest-level layer and the name of each group having some of the identified contents as a high-level layer based on the extracted attributes; and a section for transferring the created tables including at least a first table showing titles arranged in accordance with a first rule as the titles of the identified contents and a second table showing titles, which are arranged in accordance with a second rule as the titles of the identified contents, for the name of every group including some of the identified contents.

An apparatus, program product, and method collect musical preference data from a plurality of digital media players and generate therefrom a “collaborative” playlist of media files. The collaborative playlist may be used, for example, to identify and play back media files that most, if not all, of the users of the digital media players would likely find enjoyable.

A network-enabled audio device that provides a display device that allows the user to select playlists of music much like a jukebox is disclosed. The user can compose playlists from disk files, CD's, Internet streaming audio broadcasts, online music sites, and other audio sources. The user can also select a desired Web broadcast from a list of available Web broadcasts. In addition, the user can play standard audio CD's and MP3 encoded CD's and have access to local AM / FM stations. Further, the software, the user controls, and the display in the network-enabled audio device are operably configured and connected such that the user can listen to playlists that include CD's and other audio sources just as the user would choose a playlist in a jukebox. The user accesses a server site via a PC and the Internet. From the server site, the user obtains a list of the devices in his or her Internet Personal Audio Network (IPAN) and what songs are on those devices. The IPAN includes an IPAN server, an IPAN client, and IPAN software stored on the network-enabled audio device. Thus, the network-enabled audio device provides people who are or are not comfortable with computers a way of taking music from various sources and putting it into one place for listening pleasure. In one embodiment, the Personal Computer (PC) is used to compose the playlists, but the user is able to listen to playlists and other audio sources without using the PC.

A method of conducting a search using a mobile electronic device may include playing digital audio content at the mobile electronic device, and accepting user input at the mobile electronic device to capture a portion of the digital audio content. Search criteria may be provided wherein the search criteria is based on the captured portion of the digital audio content and on information separate from the captured portion of the digital audio content. A search may be conducted using the search criteria based on the captured portion of the digital audio content and on the information separate from the captured portion of the digital audio content. A result of the search may be provided at the mobile electronic device, and the result of the search may be displayed at the mobile electronic device.