Patent Application
20080306936
The invention relates generally to a method and apparatus for providing video, audio, or other digital content to a mobile handset.
In recent years, mobile handsets (such as cellular phones and PDAs) have become more powerful and now offer additional functionality beyond just voice communication. For instance, many mobile handset devices today allow users to perform web browsing on the Internet, receive emails, and play video and audio content streamed from over a wireless network. Such devices contain increasingly powerful processors and enhanced video and audio capability. However, their storage capacity is generally much smaller than the capacity of PCs and notebook computers. As a result, users of mobile handsets are reliant upon video and audio content that is streamed rather than downloaded and stored permanently. In addition, the relatively small screen and buttons on a mobile handset result in a user interface that is more tedious for a user than when compared to a user interface on a typical PC. It is desirable from a user's perspective to be able to access the desired content with as few clicks or keystrokes as possible.
The Apple iPod™ is a popular consumer electronic device that stores music locally and allows the user to listen to it. The user is able to provide a rating for a particular song on the iTunes software application on a PC that is intermittently synchronized with the iPod. For example, if the PC contains the song “Hey Jude,” then the user is able to provide it a rating of between one to five stars. That rating is transferred to the iPod when it is synchronized with the PC. Through this method, the user is able to rate the songs on his or her iPod and can compile playlists consisting of his or her most favorite songs based on the ratings, which enables the user to more quickly access those favorite songs.
For other mobile handsets that are not synchronized with PCs, however, the above-describe method would be a tedious and laborious process. Due to the size constraints of a mobile device, it would take a substantially greater amount of time for a user to rate songs individually on a mobile handset as opposed to on a PC. Thus, what is needed is an improved method and apparatus for creating a compilation of user preferences with as little user intervention as possible.
In accordance with the invention, a method and apparatus are provided to create a compilation of user preferences of content available on or through the mobile handset and to provide access to the preferred content and to other content sharing characteristics similar to that of the preferred content.
The service unit 30 may include a user information storage unit 32 that stores information about each user of the mobile handset service system including user billing information and user service personalization information. The service unit 30 may also have a billing server 34 that performs a billing operation for the services provided to the user. In the example shown in
The service unit 30 may further include a menu/personalization unit 48, a reporting unit 50, a streaming unit 52, a log database 54 and a data mining unit 56. The menu/personalization unit 48, the reporting unit 50, the streaming unit 52 and the data mining unit 56 may preferably each be server computers. The menu/personalization unit generates and delivers the mobile device service user interfaces to the user that may also be customized by the user based on the customization information stored in the user information storage unit 32. The streaming unit may preferably support the real-time streaming protocol (RTSP) and the hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) and may deliver/stream the service content to the mobile device over the link 24. The streaming unit may request the service content from the content store 44 and may store service content information in the log store 54. The reporting unit 50 may generate a report about various aspects of the service unit and its operations. The data mining unit 56 collects user behavior information which is then mined to determine any recommendations and personalizations for users of the system.
A user of mobile handset 22 can run various applications on the handset, such as an application that enables the user to listen to music, an audiobook or eBook, or other audio programming or to watch a movie, TV show, or other video content streamed from streaming unit 52. A user also can access Internet content, such as a website. In one embodiment of the invention, menu/personalization unit 48 keeps track of a user's actions on the mobile handset. For example, it can create a database record which tracks the audio content (e.g., songs, RSS feeds, podcasts, programs, radio stations, etc.) that the user listens to, the date and time that the user listened to it, the duration, etc. It also can track websites visited, video content viewed, etc. Menu/personalization unit 48 can then create data to be used by mobile handset 22 to create a user interface icon or link that allows the user to easily access the content that menu/personalization unit 48 has determined to be preferred by the user based on the user's past actions. For example, it can create a folder that contains links to a favorite radio station, a favorite website, a favorite set of information (e.g., the weather in Denver, Colo.), etc. This minimizes the amount of clicks, keystrokes, etc. that a user must engage in before accessing the desired content.
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The weighting process (78) can take into account characteristics such as frequency of access to the content (or other content from the same genre), the duration of the access, the date and time of the access, or any other patterns in the user's behavior as to that content (or other content from the same genre). For example, one possible formula is the following: VALUE=X*Duration of Total Listening Time of Relevant Content (e.g., number of seconds of listening to hip hop music)−Y*Duration of Total Listening Time of Other Content Since Last Access to Relevant Content (e.g., the amount of time spent listening to other content since the last time the user listened to hip hop music). The values of X and Y are chosen by the operator of menu/personalization unit 48. The purpose of weighting process (78) is to generate a value that is indicative of whether the particular content is a “favorite” of the user. Preferably, it reflects more than just the most recent content accessed. Because menu/personalization unit 48 is able to track the activity of mobile handset 22, it is able to identify patterns in the user's behavior and create a menu of the user's favorite content.
Another embodiment for weighting process (78) would be to create a value that reflects the total number of accesses to the content by mobile handset 22 over a certain time period (or since the first use of the mobile handset 22), or to create a value that reflects the total number of accesses to the content or to other content sharing similar characteristics (such as all songs by the same artist) over a certain time period (or since the first use of mobile handset 22), or to create some combination of the two aforementioned values.
While the foregoing has been with reference to particular embodiments of the invention, it will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that changes in these embodiments may be made without departing from the principles and spirit of the invention, the scope of which is defined by the appended claims.
