Patent Application
20080215490
The present invention relates to a method and system for purchasing content with mobile telecommunication devices. The present invention further relates to determining an optimum content distribution agreement when purchasing content.
Modern mobile telecommunications devices, such as cellular telephones, may download a variety of media content. This media content may include such media types as text, pictures, audio, video, and other types of media. The media content may be any of a variety of formats, such as standards provided by Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG) (Including MPEG 1, Layer 3 (MP3)), standards provided by Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG), Portable Document Format (PDF), and others.
As this content is downloaded, a digital rights agreement has to be established. These digital rights agreements may include any manner of licenses, allowing the user to buy or rent the digital media content. Each of these digital rights agreements has their own sets of rules and conditions that may affect the efficiency or desirability of the media transfer. Often, a user does not have the capability or the time to sort through the available options in a time efficient manner.
A method, apparatus, and electronic device for optimizing content acquisition are disclosed. A memory may store usage of a previous set of media content by the mobile device. An input/output device may receive a request for a current set of media content. A processor may create a user profile based on the usage and provides a first recommendation of a first digital rights agreement based on the user profile.
In order to describe the manner in which the above-recited and other advantages and features of the invention can be obtained, a more particular description of the invention briefly described above will be rendered by reference to specific embodiments thereof which are illustrated in the appended drawings. Understanding that these drawings depict only typical embodiments of the invention and are not therefore to be considered to be limiting of its scope, the invention will be described and explained with additional specificity and detail through the use of the accompanying drawings in which:
Additional features and advantages of the invention will be set forth in the description which follows, and in part will be obvious from the description, or may be learned by practice of the invention. The features and advantages of the invention may be realized and obtained by means of the instruments and combinations particularly pointed out in the appended claims. These and other features of the present invention will become more fully apparent from the following description and appended claims, or may be learned by the practice of the invention as set forth herein.
Various embodiments of the invention are discussed in detail below. While specific implementations are discussed, it should be understood that this is done for illustration purposes only. A person skilled in the relevant art will recognize that other components and configurations may be used without parting from the spirit and scope of the invention.
The present invention comprises a variety of embodiments, such as a method, an apparatus, and an electronic device, and other embodiments that relate to the basic concepts of the invention. The electronic device may be any manner of computer, mobile device, or wireless communication device.
A method, apparatus, and electronic device for optimizing content acquisition are disclosed. A memory may store usage of a previous set of media content by the mobile device. An input/output device may receive a request for a current set of media content. A processor may create a user profile based on the usage and provides a rights recommendation of a first digital rights agreement based on the user profile.
The media profile 210 may be used to track a user preference in DMC. Further the media profile may be used to index the license profile 220 and the source profile 230, as a user's preference in license and source is going to be the most uniform across similar media. A media profile 210 may track the many different kinds of digital media used by the MTD 110. The media profile 210 may include a field 211 tracking the media types used by the MTD 110, such as text, audio, pictures, video, and other media types. A media profile 210 may include a field 212 tracking the content attributes of the DMC The contents attributes may be any features of the DMC that affect its use by the MTD 110, such as format, length, cross platform portability, and other features. A media profile 210 may include a field 213 tracking the content genres. Examples of genres may include rock, country, rap, spoken word, audio books, and others for audio; science fiction, mystery, thriller, biography, history, and religion for text; or action, comedy, drama, mystery, or animated for video. A media profile 210 may include a field 214 to track the frequency of use of that media. The frequency of use field 214 may store a simple count of the number of times a particular media is used, or a count averaged over a set period of time.
The license profile 220 may be used to determine the best type of license for a user based on past licensing choices and the user's actual usage of the DMC. A license profile 220 may contain a field 221 that tracks the license type normally used when downloading DMC, such as a rental agreement (i.e. a temporary digital rights agreement) or a purchase agreement (i.e. a permanent digital rights agreement). The license type may be further adjusted by factoring the frequency of use. This adjustment may reflect that even though a user may often opt to purchase DMC, the level of usage indicates that the user would be better off renting the DMC. A license profile 220 may contain a field 222 that tracks the license duration normally used. Again, the license duration may be further adjusted by factoring the frequency of use. A license profile 220 may contain a field 223 that tracks if a user normally purchases licenses that are transferable. This option allows users to purchase DMC as a gift, such as for a relative below the age of majority, like a son or daughter, and preview the content themselves before transferring the DMC to that minor aged relative. A license profile 220 may contain a field 224 that tracks if a user tends to synchronize the DMC with the user's media library. The DMC, residing on, for example, the MTD 110, may be synchronized with the user's media library, residing on, for example, a user's personal computer, or vice versa. Such synchronization may affect the licensing of the DMC.
The source profile 230 may be used to track past source choices by the user and to determine which factors are most important to that user in determining a DMC source 130. A source profile 230 may contain a field 231 that tracks the frequency of use of discount coupons in licensing DMC. A second field 232 may track the amount of the discount, either tracking the average discount of the coupons used, or tracking a minimum discount used. A source profile 230 may contain a field 233 that tracks the delivery speed of the DMC source 130, possibly storing a ranking of the content delivery speed of the DMC source 130 among the options presented. A source profile 230 may contain a field 234 that tracks the security of the DMC source 130, possibly storing a ranking of the security of the DMC source 130 among the options presented. A source profile 230 may contain a field 235 that tracks the frequency of use of bulk buying in licensing DMC. A source profile 230 may contain a field 236 that tracks whether a user has a tendency to purchase from a single source, possibly because of an established user-source relationship. Established relationships may be tracked by storing the identity of all DMC sources 130 used within a set period of time, and purging all DMC sources 130 that are not used above a set threshold.
The controller/processor 510 may be any programmed processor known to one of skill in the art. However, the decision support method can also be implemented on a general-purpose or a special purpose computer, a programmed microprocessor or microcontroller, peripheral integrated circuit elements, an application-specific integrated circuit or other integrated circuits, hardware/electronic logic circuits, such as a discrete element circuit, a programmable logic device, such as a programmable logic array, field programmable gate-array, or the like. In general, any device or devices capable of implementing the decision support method as described herein can be used to implement the decision support system functions of this invention.
The memory 520 may include volatile and nonvolatile data storage, including one or more electrical, magnetic or optical memories such as a random access memory SAM), cache, hard drive, or other memory device. The memory may have a cache to speed access to specific data. The memory 520 may also be connected to a compact disc-read only memory (CD-ROM), digital video disc-read only memory (DVD-ROM), DVD read write input, tape drive or other removable memory device that allows media content to be directly uploaded into the system.
The digital media processor 540 is a separate processor that may be used by the system to more efficiently present digital media. Such digital media processors may include video cards, audio cards, or other separate processors that enhance the reproduction of digital media.
The Input/Output interface 550 may be connected to one or more input devices that may include a keyboard, mouse, pen-operated touch screen or monitor, voice-recognition device, or any other device that accepts input. The Input/Output interface 550 may also be connected to one or more output devices, such as a monitor, printer, disk drive, speakers, or any other device provided to output data.
The network interface 560 may be connected to a communication device, modem, network interface card, a transceiver, or any other device capable of transmitting and receiving signals over a network. The network interface 560 may be used to transmit the media content to the selected media presentation device. The network interface may also be used to download the media content from a media source, such as a website or other media sources. The components of the computer system 500 may be connected via an electrical bus 570, for example, or linked wirelessly.
Client software and databases may be accessed by the controller/processor 510 from memory 520, and may include, for example, database applications, word processing applications, the client side of a client/server application such as a billing system, as well as components that embody the decision support functionality of the present invention. The user access data may be stored in either a database accessible through the database interface 540 or in the memory 520. The computer system 500 may implement any operating system, such as Windows or UNIX, for example. Client and server software may be written in any programming language, such as ABAP, C, C++, Java or Visual Basic, for example.
Although not required, the invention is described, at least in part, in the general context of computer-executable instructions, such as program modules, being executed by the electronic device, such as a general purpose computer. Generally, program modules include routine programs, objects, components, data structures, etc. that perform particular tasks or implement particular abstract data types. Moreover, those skilled in the art will appreciate that other embodiments of the invention may be practiced in network computing environments with many types of computer system configurations, including personal computers, hand-held devices, multi-processor systems, microprocessor-based or programmable consumer electronics, network PCs, minicomputers, mainframe computers, and the like.
Embodiments may also be practiced in distributed computing environments where tasks are performed by local and remote processing devices that are linked (either by hardwired links, wireless links, or by a combination thereof through a communications network.
Embodiments within the scope of the present invention may also include computer-readable media for carrying or having computer-executable instructions or data structures stored thereon. Such computer-readable media can be any available media that can be accessed by a general purpose or special purpose computer. By way of example, and not limitation, such computer-readable media can comprise RAM, ROM, EEPROM, CD-ROM or other optical disk storage, magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage devices, or any other medium which can be used to carry or store desired program code means in the form of computer-executable instructions or data structures. When information is transferred or provided over a network or another communications connection (either hardwired, wireless, or combination thereof to a computer, the computer properly views the connection as a computer-readable medium. Thus, any such connection is properly termed a computer-readable medium. Combinations of the above should also be included within the scope of the computer-readable media.
Computer-executable instructions include, for example, instructions and data which cause a general purpose computer, special purpose computer, or special purpose processing device to perform a certain function or group of functions. Computer-executable instructions also include program modules that are executed by computers in stand-alone or network environments. Generally, program modules include routines, programs, objects, components, and data structures, etc. that perform particular tasks or implement particular abstract data types. Computer-executable instructions, associated data structures, and program modules represent examples of the program code means for executing steps of the methods disclosed herein. The particular sequence of such executable instructions or associated data structures represents examples of corresponding acts for implementing the functions described in such steps.
Although the above description may contain specific details, they should not be construed as limiting the claims in any way. Other configurations of the described embodiments of the invention are part of the scope of this invention. For example, the principles of the invention may be applied to each individual user where each user may individually deploy such a system. This enables each user to utilize the benefits of the invention even if any one of the large number of possible applications do not need the functionality described herein. In other words, there may be multiple instances of the electronic devices each processing the content in various possible ways. It does not necessarily need to be one system used by all end users. Accordingly, the appended claims and their legal equivalents should only define the invention, rather than any specific examples given.
