Wireless Music Identification via Server Offload
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing music identification applications face challenges in accurately identifying musical pieces in noisy environments and consume significant processing power and data, leading to poor battery life and increased data charges due to the need for audio data capture and analysis.
Innovation Solution
A wireless device initiates communication with a server to obtain identification information for a musical piece by sending a generic request, allowing the server to provide the necessary information without requiring audio data capture or processing, thus bypassing the need for fingerprinting and reducing computational and data-intensive tasks.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If music identification applications capture and process audio data using fingerprinting methods, then musical pieces can be identified, but processing power consumption increases significantly affecting battery life
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the computationally intensive audio processing and fingerprinting operations from the mobile device and relocates them to a remote server. The mobile device only needs to capture raw audio data and transmit it, while the server performs the heavy computational work of spectrographic analysis and fingerprint matching, thereby preserving battery life while maintaining identification accuracy.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces a remote server as an intermediary between the mobile device and the music identification process. The server acts as a mediator that receives audio data from the device, performs the computationally intensive fingerprinting and matching operations, and returns identification results, thus offloading processing demands from the mobile device.
2Reliability
If music identification applications ship captured audio to remote servers for identification, then identification can be performed, but data charges increase for users
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts only the essential audio capture function from the server and retains it on the mobile device, while leaving the data-intensive processing and storage functions on the server. This allows the device to send minimal data (just the captured audio snippet) for identification rather than requiring continuous audio streaming or large data transfers.
3Reliability
If music identification applications perform spectrographic analysis on the smartphone, then fingerprint matching can be done, but computational intensity adversely affects battery life
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the spectrographic analysis and fingerprinting computational tasks from the smartphone processor and relocates them to the server's computing infrastructure. The smartphone only performs minimal audio capture and data transmission, while the server handles the intensive spectral analysis, fingerprint generation, and database matching operations.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces a server-based processing intermediary that handles all computationally intensive spectrographic analysis and fingerprint matching operations. This intermediary server receives raw audio data from mobile devices, performs the heavy computational work in a data center environment with adequate power supply, and returns only the identification results to the mobile device.
Data Source
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AI summary
In one aspect of the teachings herein, a wireless device is configured to obtain identification information for musical piece. Advantageously, the wireless device is configured so that a user can provide a triggering input to the wireless device when the user hears a musical piece of interest being played back on an audio system that is external to the wireless device and proximate to the user. In response, the wireless device initiates communication with a server, which communication includes sending a generic identification request to the server. The server knows which musical piece is currently playing on the audio system, e.g., based on connectivity between the server and the audio system, and the server returns identification information for the currently playing musical piece. This approach obviates the need for the wireless device to capture and process audio data, or to use fingerprint information derived from captured audio data.