| Patent application number | Description | Published |
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| 20100082346 | SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR TEXT TO SPEECH SYNTHESIS - Algorithms for synthesizing speech used to identify media assets are provided. Speech may be selectively synthesized form text strings associated with media assets. A text string may be normalized and its native language determined for obtaining a target phoneme for providing human-sounding speech in a language (e.g., dialect or accent) that is familiar to a user. The algorithms may be implemented on a system including several dedicated render engines. The system may be part of a back end coupled to a front end including storage for media assets and associated synthesized speech, and a request processor for receiving and processing requests that result in providing the synthesized speech. The front end may communicate media assets and associated synthesized speech content over a network to host devices coupled to portable electronic devices on which the media assets and synthesized speech are played back. | 04-01-2010 |
| 20100082347 | SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR CONCATENATION OF WORDS IN TEXT TO SPEECH SYNTHESIS - Algorithms for synthesizing speech used to identify media assets are provided. Speech may be selectively synthesized form text strings associated with media assets. A text string may be normalized and its native language determined for obtaining a target phoneme for providing human-sounding speech in a language (e.g., dialect or accent) that is familiar to a user. The algorithms may be implemented on a system including several dedicated render engines. The system may be part of a back end coupled to a front end including storage for media assets and associated synthesized speech, and a request processor for receiving and processing requests that result in providing the synthesized speech. The front end may communicate media assets and associated synthesized speech content over a network to host devices coupled to portable electronic devices on which the media assets and synthesized speech are played back. | 04-01-2010 |
| 20100188405 | SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR THE GRAPHICAL REPRESENTATION OF THE WORKOUT EFFECTIVENESS OF A PLAYLIST - Systems and methods are provided for a graphical representation of the workout effectiveness of a playlist. A particular playlist or collection of media items can be received. A burn graph can then be generated from the playlist, where the burn graph represents the expected effort level of a user who is exercising while listening to the playlist. The expected effort level can be determined by analyzing, for example, the beats per minute, tempo, mood, brightness, or genre of the media in the playlist. Additional user information such as, for example, a user's weight, age, height, stride length, resting heart rate, data from prior workouts, user's mood, or any combination of the above, can be taken into account when generating the burn graph. | 07-29-2010 |
| 20100197463 | SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR PROVIDING AUTOMATED WORKOUT REMINDERS - Systems and methods are provided for monitoring a user's progress towards a workout goal spanning multiple workouts and providing a workout reminder based on the progress. An electronic device can monitor the user's progress towards the goal by monitoring the user's rate of motion and/or one or more physiological parameters of the user. Based on the user's progress towards the goal, the electronic device can provide a workout reminder. For example, if a user's progress is not sufficient to achieve the workout goal, the electronic device may provide a reminder to the user. The reminder can include a visual and/or audio alert to the user, and the reminder may interrupt other functions on the device. | 08-05-2010 |
| 20100198375 | AUDIO USER INTERFACE FOR DISPLAYLESS ELECTRONIC DEVICE - This invention is directed to an audio menu provided in an electronic device having no display. The electronic device can further include an input interface having only a single sensing element (e.g., a single button) for controlling audio playback of the device and for accessing and controlling the device audio menu. In response to a particular input detected by the single sensing element, the electronic device can enable an audio menu mode and play back audio clips associated with different menu options. The user can provide selection instructions using the single sensing element during the playback of an audio clip to select the menu option associated with the played back audio clip. In some embodiments, the audio menu can be multi-dimensional (e.g., the device plays back audio clips for sub-options in response to a selection of a menu option). Suitable menu options can include, for example, groupings of audio (e.g., playlists), options to toggle (e.g., a shuffle option), or options associated with particular metadata tags associated with audio available to the device. | 08-05-2010 |
| 20110016120 | PERFORMANCE METADATA FOR MEDIA - Systems and methods for generating and using performance metadata associated with a media piece (e.g., music or video) are provided. An electronic device can monitor a user's workout performance while playing a particular media piece. Workout performance may include the user's rate of motion and/or one or more physiological metrics of the user. Based on the user's workout performance, the electronic device can create new or modify existing performance metadata associated with the media piece. In some embodiments, the performance metadata based on a particular user's workout performance in response to a media piece may be combined with collective performance metadata based on the workout performances of multiple users in response to the media piece. The combined performance metadata may then be stored as new collective metadata. Accordingly, the collective performance metadata can represent the average response to a media piece over multiple users. | 01-20-2011 |
| 20110054838 | SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR TRANSITIONING BETWEEN PEDOMETER MODES - Systems and methods are provided that allow steps to be counted in multiple pedometer modes. For example, a pedometer application on an electronic device can count steps in an ambient mode of operation and a session mode of operation. By maintaining separate counters for each pedometer mode and continuously monitoring the desired mode of operation, the pedometer application can accurately count the number of steps during a certain time period. In response to detecting a change in the desired mode, the pedometer application can seamlessly switch to the corresponding mode counter. In some embodiments, the pedometer application can display graphical representations of historical step information for one or more pedometer modes. | 03-03-2011 |
| 20110082902 | SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR PROVIDING MEDIA POOLS IN A COMMUNICATIONS NETWORK - Systems, methods and machine-readable media are disclosed for providing media pools in a communications network. For example, a media pool application on an electronic device can generate media pools (e.g., static media pools and temporary media pools) in a communications network. In addition, the media pool application can provide one or options for a user to manage the media pools. In some embodiments, the media pool application can provide one or more candidate media pools that a user may join. For example, the one or more candidate media pools can be generated based on metadata associated with media items that are located on one or more electronic devices in the communications network. | 04-07-2011 |
| 20110113051 | Recommending media items - This is directed to recommending media items of a user's media library. In particular, this is directed to transferring a portion of the user's media library to an electronic device so that the user may discover the portion of the media library. The library can recommend particular media items to the user using any suitable approach, including for example based on one or more preference profiles. The user can accept or reject recommended media items as they are played back to further adjust the user's preference profile, and to revise the selection of recommended media items stored on the device. | 05-12-2011 |
| 20110118858 | LOCAL STORAGE OF A PORTION OF STREAMED MEDIA ITEMS - This invention is directed to playing back streamed media items using an electronic device. In particular, this is directed to locally storing one or more clips corresponding to a media item such that the clips can be immediately played back in response to a user request to play back the media item. While the clips are played back, the electronic device can retrieve the remaining segments of the media item from the user's media library as a media stream over a communications network. Once the playback of the clip is complete, the electronic device can seamlessly switch playback to the media stream received from the user's library. The electronic device can authenticate with the remote library using any suitable approach, including for example one or more passwords and tokens. | 05-19-2011 |
