1. Field of the Invention
This application relates to the field of audio systems. More specifically, the application relates to systems for delivering and rendering audio signals based on the location of an audio device.
2. Related Art
It is known to provide audio and video content to remote devices, such as personal computers and internet enabled televisions. With the advancement of wireless devices and smart telephones, mobile devices are now capable of receiving audio and video content while a person is on the move. Many of these wireless devices have location identification apparatus, such as global location receivers built into them. There has been some interest in downloading internet advertising to smart phones and other display devices based upon a device's location. But such approaches have been limited to graphical and text information. The downloading of audio content to a personal media player (PMP) associated with a person's location does not exist.
Thus, there is a need in the art for improvements that address the aforementioned problems and facilitate the identification of audio content based upon the location of a PMP. The aforementioned shortcomings and others are addressed by systems and related methods according to aspects of the invention.
In view of the above, systems and methods are provided for delivering audio content to an audio device from a cloud access server (CAS) that resides in a cloud network based upon the location of the audio device. The CAS receives a message that indicates the location of the audio device. Based upon the location, the CAS causes audio content to be identified and downloaded to the audio device. Such processing may include the CAS receiving a device identifier along with an indication of the location.
Other devices, apparatuses, systems, methods, features and advantages of the invention will be or will become apparent to one with skill in the art upon examination of the following figures and detailed description. It is intended that all such additional systems, methods, features and advantages be included within this description, be within the scope of the invention, and be protected by the accompanying claims.
The description below may be better understood by referring to the following figures. The components in the figures are not necessarily to scale, emphasis instead being placed upon illustrating the principles of the invention. In the figures, like reference numerals designate corresponding parts throughout the different views.
Cloud computing has brought a paradigm shift to the way in which information is hosted, processed, and exchanged, where cloud computing is defined as the delivery of computing as a service rather than a product, whereby shared resources, software and information are provided to computers and other devices as a utility over a network (typically the Internet). Accessibility, scalability, and reliability advantages of cloud computing has resulted in new types of processing and seemingly infinite storage capacity. One technology that may benefit from this paradigm shift is the delivery of audio content. Audio content may now be stored in the network cloud and accessed by many different audio devices in response or association with their location. Each of these audio devices may have a location identifier that may be sent to a cloud audio server (CAS) and results in the downloading of the associated audio content.
The PMP 102 may have a GPS receiver 116 that receives satellite position signals for determination of the PMP's 102 location. In other implementations, other location determination approaches may be employed, such as input by a user and position data provided via the wireless network.
Turning to
The DSP 208 is able to access the audio content (i.e. audio data stream or audio data in memory) and generate audio signals from the audio content. In the current example implementation the processor 202 and DSP 208 are shown as being separate, but in other implementations the processor 202 and DSP 208 may be combined into a single processor or a single DSP. The memory 204 is depicted as a single memory, but in practice the memory may be divided between different types of memory located in more than one location within the PMP 102. Examples of such memory may be removable SD random access memory (RAM), RAM located within the DSP, RAM located within the processor, and display buffers associated with display 104.
Audio content may be downloaded to the PMP 102 via wireless internet antenna 108 by wifi transceiver 206 and stored in memory 204 for access by the DSP 208 when audio signals are desired from the audio content. The PMP 102 may access cloud implemented servers to receive the audio content. In some implementations, the audio content that is accessed may be streaming audio content. The streaming content is received via Wi-Fi transceiver 206 and routed to the DSP 208 for generation of audio signals that may be heard via speaker 210 made available at earphone jack 110.
Turning to
The identification of the audio content may be based upon location, such as by a point of interest. The audio content may also be based partially upon location and partially upon a user profile 410 and 412. The user profile may indicate the type of music, historic information, local news, or even emergency notices and be incorporated into audio content request. For example, if jazz music is indicated as being preferred in a user profile, jazz artist recording associated with that location or region may be downloaded. If historic information is indicated, then audio content explaining historic places that are at or near the location of the PMP 102 may be automatically downloaded and played. The request for audio data to be downloaded may be sent automatically to the CAS 302 from the PMP 102 upon an event occurring, such as a button being pressed, menu item selected, or other user action. Additionally, an event may be a predetermined change in location or region (such as every 5 mile change in location results in a request for audio content).
The audio content once stored in the PMP 102 would be stored in the memory using a first-in, first-delete approach when the memory fills up. The PMP 102 may indicate that a downloaded item is not to be automatically deleted by a user using a menu displayed on display 104 and controls 106. In other implementations, the PMP 102 may be configured to only download audio content until the memory is full. After which, the PMP 102 may stop sending audio content requests to the CAS 302.
The CAS 302 may then access the information and data contained in the content request and the location information in order to identify audio content 506. The identified audio content may reside on the CAS 302 or on other servers in the cloud network 318. The CAS 302 may then direct or initiate the downloading of the identified audio content 508. The identified audio content may reside on the CAS 302 or in other implementations, may reside on a server located in the cloud network 318 that is directed to download (or stream) the processed audio content to the PMP 102.
Turning to
An audio content request message may then be generated at the PMP 102 and transmitted to the CAS 302 in step 606. In response to the audio content request message, audio content is downloaded 608 to the PMP 102.
It will be understood, and is appreciated by persons skilled in the art, that one or more processes, sub-processes, or process steps described in connection with
The software in software memory may include an ordered listing of executable instructions for implementing logical functions (that is, “logic” that may be implemented either in digital form such as digital circuitry or source code or in analog form such as analog circuitry or an analog source such an analog electrical, sound or video signal), and may selectively be embodied in any computer-readable medium for use by or in connection with an instruction execution system, apparatus, or device, such as a computer-based system, processor-containing system, or other system that may selectively fetch the instructions from the instruction execution system, apparatus, or device and execute the instructions. In the context of this disclosure, a “computer-readable medium” is any tangible means that may contain or store the program for use by or in connection with the instruction execution system, apparatus, or device. The tangible computer readable medium may selectively be, for example, but is not limited to, an electronic, magnetic, optical, electromagnetic, infrared, or semiconductor system, apparatus or device. More specific examples, but nonetheless a non-exhaustive list, of tangible computer-readable media would include the following: a portable computer diskette (magnetic), a RAM (electronic), a read-only memory “ROM” (electronic), an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM or Flash memory) (electronic) and a portable compact disc read-only memory “CDROM” (optical). Note that the computer-readable medium may even be paper (punch cards or punch tape) or another suitable medium upon which the can be electronically captured, then compiled, interpreted or otherwise processed in a suitable manner if necessary, and stored in a computer memory.
The foregoing description of implementations has been presented for purposes of illustration and description. It is not exhaustive and does not limit the claimed invention to the precise form disclosed. Modifications and variations are possible in light of the above description or may be acquired from practicing the invention. The claims and their equivalents define the scope of the invention.