Portable Personalized Radio Offline Content Synchronization

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Solution Overview

Problem

Existing digital media distribution systems require continuous internet connection for personalized content, limiting their use in portable and automotive devices where broadband access is intermittent or unavailable, and necessitate manual content acquisition and synchronization across multiple devices.

Innovation Solution

A system that synchronizes user profiles and media profiles across various devices, enabling personalized content distribution using a 'push' model, where user preferences are used to filter and select content, and content is cached for offline playback, allowing interaction with personalized content streams across multiple devices without continuous internet connectivity.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Adaptability or versatility

If continuous internet connection is required for personalized content distribution, then content personalization can be achieved, but portability and offline access are limited

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvecontent personalizationVSAvoidoffline access
Core Design Contradiction:
Adaptability or versatilityVSReliability

Solution Approach 1:

The system performs preliminary actions by caching personalized content on portable devices before the user needs it. The content distribution server proactively pushes content to portable devices based on user profiles and preferences, so that when the user goes offline, the content is already available locally for playback without requiring continuous internet connection.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #10Preliminary action

2Measurement precision

If manual content acquisition is required, then content selection precision is improved, but user effort and time consumption increase

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvecontent selection precisionVSAvoiduser effort
Core Design Contradiction:
Measurement precisionVSEase of operation

Solution Approach 1:

The system implements self-service by automatically generating personalized content selections based on user profiles, listening history, and preferences stored on the server. The portable device receives pushed content that is already filtered and selected according to the user's tastes, eliminating the need for manual browsing and selection while maintaining high content relevance.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #25Self-service

Solution Approach 2:

The system uses feedback mechanisms where user listening behavior, skips, and preferences are continuously monitored and fed back to the content distribution server. This feedback loop refines the user profile and automatically adjusts content selections, improving precision over time without requiring additional user effort.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #23Feedback

3Reliability

If content is pushed to portable devices, then offline access is enabled, but device synchronization complexity increases

Engineering Contradiction:
Improveoffline accessVSAvoidsynchronization
Core Design Contradiction:
ReliabilityVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The content distribution server acts as an intermediary that manages the complexity of synchronization. It maintains user profiles, tracks content delivery status, and coordinates pushes to multiple portable devices. The server handles the complex logic of what content to push, when to push it, and ensuring consistency across devices, while the portable devices themselves remain relatively simple receivers and players.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #24Intermediary (Mediator)

Data Source

PatentEP2143256B1Systems and methods for portable personalized radio
Publication Date: 2019.09.25 SLACKER
  • EP2143256B1 patent drawingFigure 1
  • EP2143256B1 patent drawingFigure 2
  • EP2143256B1 patent drawingFigure 3

AI summary

Systems and methods for delivering personalized content streams over a variety of devices and networks are disclosed. A user's preferences, customizations, and content are made available to the user through specialized clients for home, car, office, and portable environments. In order to enable personalized content streams on devices that are intermittently connected or that make use of network bandwidth during off-peak hours, the system prescribes a distributed content sequencing engine and a distributed, synchronized user profile and station/channel definitions. The system is also designed to support players connected via unidirectional or asymmetric connections such as satellite radios with or without an upstream data link.