WO2006046167A2

WO2006046167A2 - Associative content exchange/copy mechanism

Info

Publication number: WO2006046167A2
Application number: PCT/IB2005/053414
Authority: WO
Inventors: Elmo Marcus Attila Diederiks; Bartel Marinus Van De Sluis; Mark Verberkt
Original assignee: Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V.
Priority date: 2004-10-25
Filing date: 2005-10-18
Publication date: 2006-05-04
Also published as: WO2006046167A3

Abstract

The present invention relates to a system and a process for transfer of electronic content items from first memory means (102) associated with a first system (101) to second memory means (104) associated with a second system (103). The system comprises means for user selection of at least one content item to be transferred and means for transfer thereof. The means for transfer are further operatively arranged for searching the first memory means for additional content items related to the user selected content item and either automatically transfer these additional content items or present to the user a suggestion to transfer also these additional content items.

Description

Associative content exchange/copy mechanism

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Field of the Invention

The present invention relates generally to content transfer systems and, more particularly, to a content transfer system for transfer of electronic content items from first memory means associated with a first system to second memory means associated with a second system.

Prior Art

Storage capacity for portable devices currently seems to double every twelve months, which means that future portable devices will likely be able to store large amounts of content items. It is also expected that future portable devices will be able to act as universal content containers allowing various types of digital content items to be stored and rendered on them, such as photos, music, video, recorded television programs etc. Due to the currently relatively large file sizes for these type of content item files, for a foreseeable future it is likely to remain virtually impossible to carry along a complete digital content item collection of a user stored on a portable device.

Due to the above limitations, for the foreseeable future a user will likely have to select a subset of content items to be carried along on this users portable device.

Considering the steadily increasingly large amount of storage capacity available to the user, in order to make full use of the storage capacity of the portable device, the exercise of composing a subset of content items fitting the storage capacity on a file by file basis will be a fairly cumbersome and time consuming exercise.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Therefore it is an object of the present invention to provide an improved content item transferring system, which reduces the composition conflicts of the prior art content item transferring systems.

Accordingly, system for transfer of electronic content items from first memory means associated with a first system to second memory means associated with a second system is provided. The content transferring system comprises; means for user selection of at least one content item to be transferred and means for transfer thereof, wherein said means for transfer are further operatively arranged for searching the first memory means for additional content items related to the user selected content item and either automatically transfer these additional content items or present to the user a suggestion to transfer also these additional content items.

In a preferred implementation of the system for transfer of electronic content items of the present invention, the first system is a stationary system or device and the second system a portable system or device. In the system for transfer of electronic content items the content from the first memory means preferably further comprises information for establishing content relation.

In a preferred implementation of the system for transfer of electronic content items of the present invention, the information for establishing content relation comprises content descriptors. In yet a more preferred implementation of the system for transfer of electronic content items of the present invention, the content descriptors comprise at least one of a content type identifier, a content style/genre identifier, a usage history identifier and metadata or any combination of these.

In yet still a more preferred implementation of the system for transfer of electronic content items of the present invention, the degree of relation is assigned either a label or a numerical value.

In a further more preferred implementation of the system for transfer of electronic content items of the present invention, the order in which content items are to be transferred is determined in accordance with the degree of relation, as identified by the assigned label or numerical value.

In a yet further more preferred implementation of the system for transfer of electronic content items of the present invention, which content items are to be transferred is determined such that only content items having a degree of relation, as identified by the assigned label or numerical value, above a predetermined threshold value are to be transferred.

In yet still a more preferred implementation of the system for transfer of electronic content items of the present invention, the order in which content items are to be transferred is determined in accordance with the degree of relation, as identified by the assigned label or numerical value and which content items are to be transferred is determined such that only content items having a degree of relation, as identified by the assigned label or numerical value, above a predetermined threshold value are to be transferred.

In a still further more preferred implementation of the system for transfer of electronic content items of the present invention, said means for transfer are further operatively arranged for transferring additional content items to the second memory means either until these second memory means lack storage space for further content items or as long as additional content items related to the user selected content item is found.

Also provided is a process for transfer of electronic content items from first memory means associated with a first system to second memory means associated with a second system. The process comprising the steps of; user selection of at least one content item to be transferred; transfer of said user selected content item; searching the first memory means for additional content items related to the user selected content item; and either automatically transferring these additional content items or presenting to the user a suggestion to transfer also these additional content items.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

These and other features, aspects, and advantages of the apparatus and methods of the present invention will become better understood with regard to the following description, appended claims, and accompanying drawings where:

Figure 1 illustrates a schematical view of a media playback system of the present invention of the present invention.

Figure 2 illustrates a flow chart of a manually controlled process for transfer of electronic content items in accordance with the present invention. Figure 3 illustrates a flow chart of an automated process for transfer of electronic content items in accordance with the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT Although this invention is applicable to numerous and various types of system and devices, it has been found particularly useful in the environment of portable systems or devices 103 (Fig. 1). Therefore, without limiting the applicability of the invention to portable systems or devices 103, the invention will be described in such environment. It will however be obvious to the person skilled in the art that the present invention is suited for transfer of electronic content between devices and/or systems having unequal memory storage capacity, e.g. also for transfer of electronic content from portable systems or devices to stationary systems or devices, or from portable systems or devices to portable systems or devices, or even from stationary systems or devices to stationary systems or devices. The present invention is applicable in portable systems or devices 103 that are able to store part of a content collection from a stationary system or device 101 containing a "Ml content collection", such as a personal computer (PC) or a Networked Home system. The invention comprises a content exchange/copy mechanism, which in a preferred embodiment is user initiated and where the user always feels in control. The system reduces the burden of selecting content to be copied and helps the user to maximize usage of available storage space on the a portable system or device by copying to the portable system or device content associated with previously user selected content.

The basic idea of the present invention is to use available types of content descriptors or meta-data as dimensions, which are used to determine the similarity between content. Based on the determined similarity and a threshold value, which can be either predetermined or adaptive and dependent on the situation, user or available storage capacity, it can be decided whether content is associated/similar to content that has been selected by the user to copy, exchange or transfer to or from the portable system or device. This associated content can then be transferred automatically, copied by the system or suggested to the user to be copied, exchanged or transferred in addition to the user selected content.

The inventive system can e.g. automatically copy content items that are related to content items that the user copies manually. The copy or exchange actions by the user can be supported by any existing, known or new interaction or user interface mechanism, such as selecting from content lists, dragging content from a listing onto an icon, by means of voice control, by means of gestures, using tangible interfaces or multi- modal solutions. This automatic copying of related content can continue as long as a connection is in place, storage space is available and/or related content is found.

The content relations that are used for the automatic copying can be of any one of the following types: - content type (medium, e.g. video, photo, music) content style/genre (e.g. holiday movie, landscape, jazz) meta-data (e.g. time and place of acquiring/creating the content) usage history (e.g. last time, place or context of usage) or any combination of these (e.g. a combination of the dimensions content type, genre, time of creation and last place of usage)

The system can consider the relation between: each content item and each user-selected content item for each dimension, which results in a set of similarity values. This set of similarity values can also be averaged. each content item and the set of user-selected content items for each dimension, which results in a set of overall similarity values. This set of overall similarity values can also be averaged. the user-selected content items to determine the dimension along with the set of user-selected content items having the highest commonality. Each content item can be compared to each user-selected content item for each of these key dimensions, which results in a set of key similarity values. This set of key similarity values can also be averaged. the user-selected content items to determine the "virtual" content item that is representative for the whole set of user-selected content items on all dimensions used. Each content item can be compared to this "virtual" content item for each of the dimensions, which results in a set of virtual similarity values. This set of virtual similarity values can also be averaged. .

The "strength" of the relation, the similarity, between content items can be labeled, e.g. strong, normal, weak, or expressed as a number, e.g. between 0 and 10. This can be done for each dimension that is used.

Multiple similarity values can be recalculated to determine an average similarity which again can be labeled e.g. strong, normal, weak, or expressed as a number, e.g. between 0 and 10. These calculations can be performed in various ways, such as average, or weighted average for instance depending on the situation or the user profile. If the user copies multiple content items, the system can also analyze the relations between these user-selected content items first. Subsequently the resulting commonality of the user-selected content items can be labeled e.g. strong, normal, weak, or expressed as a number, e.g. between 0 and 10. This can be done for each dimension that is used. This can be used to determine the most important dimension on which other content items should be compared to this set of user-selected content items. This key dimension can be the one, which has the highest commonality value. In this case the "strength" of the key relations of content items with the set of user-selected content items can be labeled e.g. strong, normal, weak, or expressed as a number, e.g. between 0 and 10. Alternatively, a number of key dimensions can be chosen, for instance all dimensions with a commonality value above a certain threshold value. In this case the "strength" of the key relations of a content item with the set of user-selected content items on all of these selected dimension can be labeled e.g. strong, normal, weak, or expressed as a number, e.g. between 0 and 10.

These multiple key similarity values can also be recalculated to determine an average key similarity which again can be labeled e.g. strong, normal, weak, or expressed as a number, e.g. between 0 and 10. These calculations can be performed in various ways, such as average, or weighted average for instance depending on the situation or the user profile.

If the user copies multiple content items, the system can also analyze the relations between these user-selected content items. Subsequently an average of the user- selected content items can be determined and handled as a new single content item. The

"strength" of the relation between content items and this "virtual" content item can be labeled e.g. strong, normal, weak, or expressed as a number, e.g. between 0 and 10. This virtual similarity can be calculated for each dimension that is used.

Multiple virtual similarity values can be recalculated to determine an average virtual similarity, which again can be labeled e.g. strong, normal, weak, or expressed as a number, e.g. between 0 and 10. These calculations can be performed in various ways, such as average, or weighted average for instance depending on the situation or the user profile.

For each of the above mentioned similarity values the system can make use of two strategies, either separately or in combination, in order to determine which content items should be automatically copied: copy the content item with the highest similarity first, subsequently the content item with the second highest similarity, and so on. copy only the content items that have a similarity above a certain threshold value, which can be predetermined or adaptive and dependent on the situation, user or available storage capacity.

Finally the system can either automatically copy the related content or merely suggest to the user to also exchange or copy the related content, e.g. by highlighting it, by offering it at the top of a list, or by selecting it for the user without performing the actual exchange or copy action. Referring now to Figure 1, there is illustrated schematically a media playback system of the present invention. The system includes: a first system or device, such as a stationary system or device 101, having first memory means 102 containing a full electronic content items collection; a second system or device, such as a portable system or device 103, having second memory means 104 and further being operatively arranged for communication 105 with the first stationary system or device 101. This communication can be wired or wireless using any known present or future communications means and/or protocols. The system further comprises: means for user selection of a content item to be transferred from the first memory means 102 to the second memory means 104; means for transfer of said at least one memory item from the first memory means 102 to the second memory means 104, wherein said means for transfer are further operatively arranged for searching the first memory means 102 for additional content items related to the user selected content item and either automatically transfer these additional content items from said first memory means 102 to said second memory means 104 or present to the user a suggestion to transfer also these additional content items. The means for user selection (not shown) can be any known or future means for user selection, such as a graphical user interface and associated control keys.

Referring now to the flowchart of Figure 2, there is illustrated manually controlled process for transfer of electronic content items from first memory means associated with a first system or device, such as a stationary system or device, to second memory means associated with a second system or device, such as a portable system or device.

At step 201, the process is initiated.

At step 202, the user performs a selection of at least one content item to be transferred from the first memory means 102 to the second memory mans 104 and said user selected content item is transferred.

At step 203, the first memory means 102 are searched for additional content items related to the user selected content item and if no such related content items are found the process is terminated at step 208, otherwise the process continues to step 204.

At step 204, the user is presented a suggestion to copy the related additional content items found in step 203. This presentation can e.g. be made to display means (not shown) associated with the second device, e.g. portable device 103.

At step 205, the user perform a selection whether to transfer the suggested content items or not. If the user chooses not to transfer the suggested content items the process is terminated at step 208, otherwise the process continues to step 206. At step 206, the additional content items related to the user selected content item are transferred from the first memory means 102 to the second memory means 104. At step 207, it is established whether the second memory means 104 have further storage space available. If it is established that he second memory means 104 have further storage space available the process is repeated from step 203, otherwise the process is terminated at step 208.

At step 208, the process is terminated.

Referring now to the flowchart of Figure 3, there is illustrated an automated process for transfer of electronic content items from first memory means associated with a first system or device, such as a stationary system or device, to second memory means associated with a second system or device, such as a portable system or device. Similar reference numeral endings in Figure 3 denote similar steps as described above with reference to Figure 2. At step 301, the process is initiated.

At step 302, the user performs a selection of at least one content item to be transferred from the first memory means 102 to the second memory mans 104 and said user selected content item is transferred.

At step 303, the first memory means 102 are searched for additional content items related to the user selected content item and if no such related content items are found the process is terminated at step 308, otherwise the process continues to step 306.

At step 306, the additional content items related to the user selected content item are transferred from the first memory means 102 to the second memory means 104. At step 307, it is established whether the second memory means 104 have further storage space available. If it is established that he second memory means 104 have further storage space available the process is repeated from step 303, otherwise the process is terminated at step 308.

At step 308, the process is terminated.

Those skilled in the art will recognize that the process illustrated in Figures 2 and 3 resolve the composition conflicts described above. That is, a user is assisted in making full use of the available storage capacity of his/her system or device.

While there has been shown and described what is considered to be preferred embodiments of the invention, it will, of course, be understood that various modifications and changes in form or detail could readily be made without departing from the spirit of the invention. It is therefore intended that the invention be not limited to the exact forms described and illustrated, but should be constructed to cover all modifications that may fall within the scope of the appended claims.

Claims

CLAIMS:

1. A system for transfer of electronic content items from a first memory (102) associated with a first system (101) to a second memory (104) associated with a second system (103), comprising means for user selection of at least one content item to be transferred and means for transfer thereof, wherein said means for transfer are further operatively arranged for searching the first memory for additional content items related to the user selected content item and either automatically transfer these additional content items or present to the user a suggestion to transfer also these additional content items.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the first system (101) is a stationary system or device and the second system (103) is a portable system or device.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the content items from the first memory means comprises information for establishing content relation.

4. The system of claim3, wherein the information for establishing content relation comprises content descriptors.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the content descriptors comprise at least one of a content type identifier, a content style/genre identifier, a usage history identifier and metadata or any combination of these.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the degree of relation is assigned either a label or a numerical value.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the order in which content items are to be transferred is determined in accordance with the degree of relation, as identified by the assigned label or numerical value.

8. The system of claim 6, wherein which content items are to be transferred is determined such that only content items having a degree of relation, as identified by the assigned label or numerical value, above a predetermined threshold value are to be transferred.

9. The system of claim 6, wherein the order in which content items are to be transferred is determined in accordance with the degree of relation, as identified by the assigned label or numerical value and which content items are to be transferred is determined such that only content items having a degree of relation, as identified by the assigned label or numerical value, above a predetermined threshold value are to be transferred.

10. The system of any one of claims 1 to 9, wherein said means for transfer are further operatively arranged for transferring additional content items to the second memory means either until these second memory means lack storage space for further content items or as long as additional content items related to the user selected content item is found.

11. The system of claim 2, wherein said portable system or device is a mobile phone handset.

12. The system of claim 2, wherein said portable system or device is a media playback device.

13. The system of claim 2, wherein said portable system or device is a personal display appliance.

14. The system of claim 2, wherein said portable system or device is a laptop personal computer.

15. A process for transfer of electronic content items from first memory means associated with a first system to second memory means associated with a second system, comprising the steps of: user selection of at least one content item to be transferred; transfer of said user selected content item; searching the first memory means for additional content items related to the user selected content item; and either automatically transferring these additional content items or presenting to the user a suggestion to transfer also these additional content items.

16. Computer program product comprising computer executable instructions for programming a computer to execute the process as claimed in to claim 15.

17. Record carrier carrying the computer program product as claimed in claim 16.