Pervasive Media Retrieval Grab and Throw Transfer
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current information retrieval systems lack user-friendliness, especially in multi-user and multi-domain environments, where seamless access and continuation of audio and visual content across different sub-domains are not efficiently supported.
Innovation Solution
A pervasive information retrieval system that allows users to 'grab' and 'throw' content experiences across physically distributed sub-domains using data communication networks, enabling the transfer of audio and visual content, along with ambience settings, between rendering units such as loudspeakers and television screens, allowing users to move content from one sub-domain to another without interruption.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If users manually operate rendering units in each sub-domain to access content, then content access is achieved, but user convenience deteriorates due to the need to repeatedly operate different devices in different locations
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a portable user activated unit as an intermediary device that carries a user defined pointer between sub-domains. This mediator eliminates the need for users to manually operate rendering units in each location, as the portable unit automatically transfers the pointer and associated experience settings between sub-domains, thereby improving ease of operation and reducing time loss.
Solution Approach 2:
The system enables self-service by allowing the portable user activated unit to automatically establish associations between pointers and sub-domains without requiring manual configuration at each location. The system autonomously handles the transfer and restoration of experience settings, making the content access process seamless and improving both user convenience and time efficiency.
2Stability of the object's composition
If content is transferred between distributed rendering units, then user experience continuity is improved, but system complexity increases due to coordination requirements across multiple sub-domains
Solution Approach 1:
The portable user activated unit serves as a mediator that simplifies the complexity of coordinating between distributed rendering units. By centralizing the pointer and experience settings in the portable unit, the system reduces the coordination burden on the distributed rendering units themselves, making the transfer process more manageable while maintaining experience continuity.
Solution Approach 2:
The system creates a portable copy of the user experience settings and pointer information in the user activated unit. This copying mechanism allows the experience configuration to be transferred between sub-domains without requiring complex real-time synchronization of all system components, thereby reducing system coordination complexity while maintaining experience stability.
3Adaptability or versatility
If multiple users access different sub-domains simultaneously, then system versatility is improved, but resource conflicts increase when users attempt to share or transfer content between sub-domains
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements local quality by allowing each user to have their own portable user activated unit with their own pointer and experience settings. This enables multiple users to simultaneously access different sub-domains with their own customized experiences without interfering with each other, thereby maintaining both multi-user versatility and resource access reliability through user-specific local configurations.
Data Source
AI summary
A pervasive information retrieval system is disclosed in consumer electronics and home entertainment for retrieval of audio and visual information but also information containing text, pictures etc. in a multi user and multi domain environment comprising a plurality of physically distributed sub-domains having different rendering units, such as loudspeakers, television screens etc. The user is enabled to “grab” an ongoing information rendering experience, such as listening to a piece of music or to a broadcasted radio channel, watching a film or a broadcasted television programme, move to another sub-domain and “throw” the experience onto that sub-domain, where the experience will continue without the need to further operate the rendering units in the selected sub-domain.