WO2010071455A1 - File transfer method and apparatus - Google Patents

File transfer method and apparatus Download PDF

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Publication number
WO2010071455A1
WO2010071455A1 PCT/NZ2009/000292 NZ2009000292W WO2010071455A1 WO 2010071455 A1 WO2010071455 A1 WO 2010071455A1 NZ 2009000292 W NZ2009000292 W NZ 2009000292W WO 2010071455 A1 WO2010071455 A1 WO 2010071455A1
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WO
WIPO (PCT)
Prior art keywords
electronic file
broadcast
user
file
order signal
Prior art date
Application number
PCT/NZ2009/000292
Other languages
French (fr)
Inventor
Nathan James Muller
Richard John Montgomerie
Ian Ryan
Original Assignee
Muller Montgomerie Media Limited
Priority date (The priority date is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the date listed.)
Filing date
Publication date
Application filed by Muller Montgomerie Media Limited filed Critical Muller Montgomerie Media Limited
Publication of WO2010071455A1 publication Critical patent/WO2010071455A1/en

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Classifications

    • G—PHYSICS
    • G06—COMPUTING; CALCULATING OR COUNTING
    • G06Q—INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY [ICT] SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES; SYSTEMS OR METHODS SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
    • G06Q20/00—Payment architectures, schemes or protocols
    • G06Q20/30—Payment architectures, schemes or protocols characterised by the use of specific devices or networks
    • G06Q20/32—Payment architectures, schemes or protocols characterised by the use of specific devices or networks using wireless devices
    • G06Q20/325—Payment architectures, schemes or protocols characterised by the use of specific devices or networks using wireless devices using wireless networks
    • G06Q20/3255—Payment architectures, schemes or protocols characterised by the use of specific devices or networks using wireless devices using wireless networks using mobile network messaging services for payment, e.g. SMS
    • G—PHYSICS
    • G06—COMPUTING; CALCULATING OR COUNTING
    • G06Q—INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY [ICT] SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES; SYSTEMS OR METHODS SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
    • G06Q20/00—Payment architectures, schemes or protocols
    • G06Q20/08—Payment architectures
    • G06Q20/12—Payment architectures specially adapted for electronic shopping systems
    • G—PHYSICS
    • G06—COMPUTING; CALCULATING OR COUNTING
    • G06Q—INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY [ICT] SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES; SYSTEMS OR METHODS SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
    • G06Q20/00—Payment architectures, schemes or protocols
    • G06Q20/30—Payment architectures, schemes or protocols characterised by the use of specific devices or networks
    • G06Q20/32—Payment architectures, schemes or protocols characterised by the use of specific devices or networks using wireless devices
    • G06Q20/322—Aspects of commerce using mobile devices [M-devices]
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04H—BROADCAST COMMUNICATION
    • H04H60/00—Arrangements for broadcast applications with a direct linking to broadcast information or broadcast space-time; Broadcast-related systems
    • H04H60/68—Systems specially adapted for using specific information, e.g. geographical or meteorological information
    • H04H60/73—Systems specially adapted for using specific information, e.g. geographical or meteorological information using meta-information
    • H04H60/74—Systems specially adapted for using specific information, e.g. geographical or meteorological information using meta-information using programme related information, e.g. title, composer or interpreter

Definitions

  • the present invention relates to a method and apparatus for file transfer.
  • PDA's personal digital assistants
  • Broadcast automation systems are generally used by broadcasters to schedule their play lists. Such systems utilise software which enables the broadcaster to program exactly what content (usually in the form of electronic files) will be broadcast at any particular time in a desired sequence. Such broadcast automation systems are also capable of outputting play list data in real time which identifies the content involved and the time of transmission for such content. This information may be output by the broadcast automation system in real time as content is broadcast.
  • the present applicant invented a method and apparatus specifically configured to enable impulse purchases of multi-media files, which is described in New Zealand Patent No. 535397.
  • the user of the system listens/views to a particular broadcast (say a song).
  • the broadcast signal not only contains the song, but also data which identifies the song as well. This data is received by the user. If the user decides to order that song (or other broadcast content) then it can do so by using the additional data identifying that song. This is achieved by the user transmitting an order signal to the broadcaster or an associated entity.
  • the broadcaster then sends an electronic file in a suitable format for the user to use which has been stored by the user in their appropriate recording device, for example MP3 player, phone or computer.
  • This system readily enables the user to impulse purchase broadcast content as soon as it is received by the user.
  • the first is that often the data received by the user from the broadcast is corrupted. This is particularly the case when the broadcaster is a radio station.
  • the data can be corrupted by a number of means. For example, often the corruption is a result of the user not receiving the broadcast in a good format. For example, the user may be positioned in an area with poor radio reception, is travelling and consequently having variable reception, or even a badly tuned antenna. All of these can lead to incomplete data being received from the radio station and thus not clearly identifying the content of the broadcast material sufficiently to accurately place an order for same.
  • the radio station may have its own database which is separate to the database from which the broadcast content is purchased. Entries in the database may be suitable for the radio station, but insufficiently accurate to enable accurate identification of a track for purchase purposes.
  • the term 'comprise 1 may, under varying jurisdictions, be attributed with either an exclusive or an inclusive meaning.
  • the term 'comprise' shall have an inclusive meaning - i.e. that it will be taken to mean an inclusion of not only the listed components it directly references, but also other non-specified components or elements. This rationale will also be used when the term 'comprised' or 'comprising' is used in relation to one or more steps in a method or process.
  • a computer program configured to be executable by a processor to perform a method of identifying and receiving at least one electronic file being broadcast by a broadcaster, the method including the steps of;
  • an identification and reception apparatus configured to request and receive an electronic file corresponding to a file being broadcast by a broadcaster, said apparatus including,
  • a transmitter configured to transmit an order signal confirming a user's intention to purchase an electronic file that was broadcast, and a receiver configured to receive the purchased electronic file transmission time of an order signal, and
  • storage media configured to store the received electronic file.
  • an identification and delivery apparatus configured to deliver at least one electronic file being broadcast by a broadcaster, the apparatus including
  • a receiver configured to receive an order signal from a user, the order signal being configured to uniquely identify an electronic file corresponding to the file broadcast at the time, and
  • storage media configured to store a plurality of electronic files
  • a transmitter configured to transmit an electronic file corresponding to the file being ordered to the user.
  • a computer program configured to be executable by a processor to perform a method of identifying and delivering at least one electronic file being broadcast by broadcaster, the method being characterised by the steps of;
  • an identification and delivery apparatus configured to deliver at least one electronic file corresponding to a file that was broadcast from a broadcaster, said apparatus including,
  • a receiver configured to receive an order signal from a user
  • storage media configured to store a plurality of electronic files
  • a transmitter configured to transmit an electronic file identified by the user's order signal to said ordering user.
  • the broadcaster is a computer or television or radio system or a system formed from the combination thereof.
  • the present invention encompasses a method of identifying and receiving an electronic file and also an apparatus configured to assist in the identification and reception of such an electronic file. These aspects of the present invention may be employed by a user to receive an indication of the content of an electronic file that was broadcast and to subsequently transmit an order signal identifying this file, and to receive a copy of the file for the user's own purposes.
  • the file sent to the user is a direct copy of the file that was or is being broadcast.
  • an aspect of the present invention will have a file sourced from another storage media than the one from which the file is being broadcast.
  • a broadcaster radio station
  • may transmit a particular song yet there may be a separate storage media (such as iTunes) from which a copy of the song is sourced and sent to the user.
  • iTunes a separate storage media
  • the user will transmit an order signal while the file is actually being broadcast.
  • variations of the present invention allow flexibility in the timing of the order signals in relation to the broadcast of the electronic file.
  • the present invention allows for the identification of an electronic file to be purchased through matching a transmission time for an order signal with a time at which an electronic file is broadcast by a broadcaster.
  • Order signals transmitted during the broadcast time of an electronic file may therefore confirm at least one user's intention to purchase the electronic file currently being broadcast.
  • a method of identifying an electronic file to be delivered may be implemented through in one instance investigating the transmission time of a received order signal from a user. This transmission time may be matched to a broadcast time to identify the electronic file being broadcast and hence the electronic file to be purchased and delivered to a user.
  • electronic files may be identified through the order signal involved also incorporating an identifier adapted to uniquely to identify an electronic file being broadcast, or an electronic file which has previously been broadcast. This identifier may allow some flexibility with respect to when order signals should be transmitted in such embodiments.
  • aspects of the present invention may also encompass a method of identifying and delivering at least one electronic file, and also an identification and delivery apparatus configured to implement such a method.
  • these aspects of the present may be employed by an entity associated with the broadcaster to transmit such electronic files to users on receipt of an order signal from such users.
  • the identifier of the broadcast content is in the form of the artist, the track and the length. However, often this information is corrupted either through poor reception of the broadcast transmission, or through the broadcaster transmitting incorrect data in the first place.
  • a method of identifying an electronic file to be delivered following a broadcast characterised by the steps of:
  • An essential part of the present invention is the ability to access the database containing identifying information relating to the electronic files likely to be purchased.
  • the system (herein after referred to as a track comparator) gives access to the complete list of available song tracks.
  • the system is able to search through the list and find the best match by progressively filtering through the information received.
  • the system may choose to compare artist with incomplete information, then track names and finally the track length to find the most likely track. This will allow the system to always return the correct track, or if the exact track is not available return another track by the same artist.
  • this embodiment of the present invention will be used in relation to a database from which the electronic files can be purchased.
  • the track comparator uses its own calculations and third party sources such as the CDDB music database which is accessible via the internet.
  • the track comparator will have to correct the badly formed track information so that it can make a sensible request to the external system such as the digital music store.
  • Various sorting techniques may be used including statistical analysis to find the best match.
  • the present invention includes computer executable instructions configured to operate the method according with the present invention, identification and delivery apparatus.
  • such an order signal may also encompass or incorporate identification or address details for the user to facilitate payment for the electronic file delivered and provide an address to deliver the electronic file to.
  • a second storage means may be queried for an electronic file matching the identifier received with the order signal.
  • the second storage means may be queried for an electronic file with a broadcast time which it matches the transmission time of a received order signal. Any matching electronic file may then be retrieved from such a second storage means and delivered to the ordering user.
  • the electronic file identified by an identifier may be the electronic file currently being broadcast by the broadcaster.
  • the electronic file identified by the identifier is an electronic file previously broadcast by the broadcaster.
  • the identified electronic file is transmitted to another storage means associated with the user.
  • a computer system may be formed from a programmable logic unit or other processing device on which computer software may be run.
  • Computer software may be defined as a set of instructions able to be interpreted by a computer system and capable of performing a task.
  • a computer system loaded with appropriate computer software may be employed to implement a method of purchasing an electronic file, a more preferably, multimedia files, in accordance with preferred methods of the present invention.
  • computer hardware loaded with appropriate software can be used to codify and arrange a variety of information formats (such as compressed video, audio and image formats) and translate such content into a form capable of being transmitted via a transmission network to a buyer.
  • Such video content information may incorporate image sequences of a kind similar to digital video, streaming video, flash animations, 3D animations or any moving picture expert group (mpeg) standard.
  • the video format information may also incorporate still images of a kind similar to graphic image file (GIF), joint photographic expert group (JPEG), Macintosh picture (PICT), tagged image file (TIFF) or lmagepac file formats.
  • the audio format content with which the present invention is amenable may be defined as any sequence of signals being within the acoustic range available to humans that, when generated by a computer system provides an audibly recognised output.
  • audio content may be formed as wave (WAV) files, MP3 format files or may be formed using other high quality audio compression and streaming technologies.
  • the present invention addresses a number of problems associated with the prior art.
  • a user may impulse buy an electronic file immediately on seeing or viewing this. There is no barrier to the user purchasing the electronic files. That is, there is no need for the system to query the user as to the accuracy of the information surrounding the file to be purchased. Instead, by independently searching through databases using a filtering technique, the correct file can be identified and the order sent regarding same without input from the user system.
  • the user can be confident that the correct file will be identified and returned as a consequence to the present invention.
  • the user is made aware of the track or interview they want to purchase prior to confirmation of purchase.
  • Figure 1 is a schematic block diagram showing an apparatus which may be used to implement the method of the present invention in accordance with one embodiment
  • Figure 2 is a flow diagram showing consecutive processes executed by a system adapted to perform the method of the present invention in accordance with preferred embodiments.
  • Figure 3 shows a schematic block diagram of a system which may be used to implement methodology of the present invention where order signal transmission times are employed to identify the electronic file to be purchased.
  • Figures 4 and 5 show universal modelling language sequence and system diagrams which illustrate one particular method of implementing aspects of the present invention.
  • Figure 6 shows an algorithm showing how a database can be interrogated in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention.
  • the present invention relates to a method and apparatus adapted to enable the purchase of electronic files, and more preferably, multimedia files being broadcast by a broadcaster.
  • an apparatus 1 comprising a broadcaster 2 and a first entity formed as computer server 3.
  • Broadcaster 2 may be formed as a computer, television or radio system, or combination thereof, and may be adapted to broadcast multimedia files having audio and/or video content.
  • the broadcaster 2 may be a radio station which also provides online streaming of their radio programme from an associated website. Such online radio stations play digitised music running from hard drives associated with in-house computing systems which show details of the current "on- air" song to be shown on their website.
  • broadcaster 2 may be a terrestrial or cable television network and/or may also be adapted to broadcast multimedia files having content derived from live and/or pre-recorded events, such as music concerts, stage shows, sporting fixtures and the like.
  • the broadcaster 2 being a radio station which broadcasts stored multimedia files as audible sound files.
  • the broadcaster 2 may be a formed from any one of the above mentioned systems and need not be limited to a radio system adapted to broadcast only music files.
  • the broadcaster 2 is therefore adapted to broadcast sound files in a manner which renders a sequence of signals being within the acoustic range available to humans that produces an audibly recognisable output.
  • an electronic file may be considered to produce an audible output when broadcast by broadcaster 2.
  • an electronic file may be a file corresponding to a musical track.
  • Such sound files to be broadcast are stored in a first storage means 4 associated with the broadcaster 2.
  • the sound files may be stored in the first storage means in any one of a variety of formats.
  • the most common storage format for such sound files is waveform sound (WAV) format. Accordingly, reference will now be made to the sound files being stored in a first storage means 4 in WAV format, but this should in no way be seen as limiting.
  • WAV waveform sound
  • user 6 a plurality of users 6a - 6c (hereinafter referred to as user 6).
  • user 6 will receive an indication of the content of the sound file being broadcast by broadcaster 2.
  • An indication of the content of the electronic file may be provided by the broadcaster 2 playing the sound file "on-air” or broadcasting the name of a sound track about to be played "on-air”.
  • the user 6 will, upon hearing a sound file being played by the broadcaster 2, have thus received an indication of the content of the electronic file.
  • the user 6 may also receive an identifier from the broadcaster 2.
  • an electronic file to be identified for purchase it may not be necessarily for a user to receive an identifier from the broadcaster.
  • a transmission time for an order signal maybe matched to a broadcast time for a specific electronic file to identify this electronic file for purchase. It is envisaged that where the electronic file is a song, then the identifier can include the artist, the title and the length of the song track.
  • a user 6 may then purchase the sound file being broadcast by the broadcaster 2.
  • the user 6 may transmit an order signal which includes the identifier to confirm an intention to purchase the identified sound file.
  • the transmission time of the order signal may be used to identify an electronic file to be purchased.
  • Such an order signal may be transmitted from user 6 as an e-mail from a computing device or as a text message or e-mail from a mobile phone, PDA or other communications device.
  • the order signal may be transmitted from user 6 to a first entity, which is preferably formed as a computing server 3.
  • the server 3 may include all the computing hardware and software necessary to receive and extract the identifier (from the signal) in order to identify the sound file intended to be purchased by the user 6.
  • the user may utilise a computing peripheral devices, such as a mouse, to click on an on-screen icon which represents an sound file purchase option. Once the on-screen icon has been clicked a signal which includes the identifier for the selected sound file may be generated and transmitted to the server 3 via a communications network (such as the Internet).
  • a communications network such as the Internet
  • server 3 may provide a hosting website able to be visited by user 6 to independently purchase sound files in a manner used by standard electronic commerce applications.
  • user 6 may authenticate personal information by logging into the website prior to being permitted to purchase saleable sound files.
  • a storage means 5 which is adapted to store the same sound files as are stored in storage means 4.
  • the sound files are stored in storage means 5 in a second format which is different from the format in which the sound files are stored in the storage means 4.
  • the sound files may preferably be stored in storage means 5 in MP3 format to enable their efficient retrieval and subsequent economical transmission via a communications network to users 6.
  • MP3 format alternative information formats of the sound files stored in the storage means 5 are envisaged and reference to MP3 format only should in no way be seen as limiting. Accordingly, all sound files are stored in the storage means 4 in WAV format and these same electronic files are also stored in the storage means 5 in MP3 format.
  • the identifier is then matched with the corresponding sound file stored in storage means 4. Once the appropriate sound file has been located it may then be retrieved from storage means 4 and transmitted to a user specified storage means or destination.
  • user 6 may, upon hearing a sound track being broadcast, send an appropriate signal to server 3 to effect the almost instantaneous purchase of that sound file.
  • server 3 may then transmit an appropriate signal to server 3 to effect the almost instantaneous purchase of that sound file.
  • that sound file in MP3 format is then transmitted to storage means specified by the user.
  • the present invention may also provide a method adapted to facilitate payment for the purchase of such sound file(s).
  • a user's mobile phone account may be debited by a nominal fee corresponding to the retail price of the sound file.
  • a users Internet service provider account, landline telephone account, electricity/gas account or a credit card account may be debited as appropriate to pay for the purchase.
  • the user may have a subscriber account with the broadcaster 2 which may be debited as necessary.
  • Figure 2 is a flow diagram showing consecutive processes executed by a system adapted to perform the method of the present invention in accordance with preferred embodiments.
  • boxes 10, 11 and 12 which respectively represent a radio system, a radio/television system with streaming website functionality and a cable and/or terrestrial television network. It is to be appreciated that these entities represent real time impulse purchase stimulus.
  • an order signal which can include an identification code (which uniquely identifies the multimedia file) to an electronic commerce website running a web server 13.
  • the web server 13 will be adapted to receive the transmitted order signal and extract the identification code from same.
  • the web server may match the transmission time of the order signal with an electronic file being broadcast at the same time.
  • Such a signal may be transmitted to web server 13 via text message, e-mail message, on-screen icon "clicking" or the like.
  • the web server 13 will typically check that user's mobile phone number against a database 15 of registered customers. This will ensure prearranged authorisation for making such purchases has been given by the owner of the mobile phone. If the user is a first time user then that user may optionally be directed to an ecommerce website 18 via a text message and required to fulfil registration requirements before the purchase is further processed. Accordingly, a user may still purchase (without pre- registration) a multimedia file(s) and have the purchase cost added to their mobile phone account.
  • Further checks will include ascertaining whether the pre-existing user has sufficient mobile phone credit (if that is the preferred payment option) to pay for the intended purchase. Such a feature may be implemented using a standard credit check subroutine 14 provided by mobile cellular service providers.
  • Other preference checks 20 will include ascertaining that users account purchasing preferences to ensure all personalised payment options are correctly followed with the current purchase procedure.
  • Box 17 represents the establishment of process and payment methods wherein a user is able to select default payment methods from a collection of alternatives (as described above).
  • an ecommerce hosting web site displays (on-screen) all information required by a user to facilitate purchase of the multimedia file. Accordingly, box 16 represents a user clicking on an on-screen icon to indicate an intention to purchase a multimedia file broadcast by a radio/television system having streaming website functionality and/or a cable/terrestrial television network.
  • an on-screen prompt such as a login screen (represented as box 19) serves to gather authorisation information from the user to validate that user's purchasing rights.
  • the login routine may request that a user enters their e-mail address, mobile phone number and or password details.
  • the system is in an activate mode 21 and is ready to process the user request.
  • the purchased multimedia file is sent to storage means associated with the user.
  • the alternative transmission modes associated with the purchased files are represented in Figure 2 as boxes 22-25.
  • Box 22 illustrates the transmission of purchased files as MP3 format multimedia files to a user's mobile phone.
  • Box 23 illustrates the transmission of purchased files as MP3 format electronic files to a users e-mail address.
  • Boxes 24 and 25 represent the option for a user to receive a text or e-mail message respectively, the text or e-mail message comprising login information to a web site such that the when the user logs onto the website, access to a web page containing the purchased multimedia file as a downloadable electronic file is achieved.
  • Figure 3 shows a schematic block diagram of a system which may be used to implement methodology of the present invention where order signal transmission times are employed to identify the electronic file to be purchased.
  • Figure 3 illustrates the use of a broadcast automation system (1) which produces output data and supplies same to a first entity (2) provided in accordance with the present invention.
  • This first entity is also in communication with a number of users, preferably through a cellular communication network (3) or internet protocol computer network (4) communications.
  • the first entity may interrogate the output data provided by the broadcast automation system to build a database in real time which will record information such as the name of the particular kind of file (such as a song track or name), and the start and end of broadcast times for that particular electronic file.
  • the first entity (2) may also receive communications from users linked via cellular networks in a form of SMS or text messages which provide the order signal required to indicate the user's intention to purchase a particular electronic file.
  • a similar approach may also be taken with respect to users linked to the first entity (2) via computer or internet based communications. In such instances personal computers may be used to dispatch order signals to the first entity (2) to instigate the methodology of the present invention.
  • the first entity may be configured in such embodiments to match the time at which order signals are transmitted to a particular electronic file indicated as being broadcast at the same time from the data received from the broadcast automation system.
  • the first entity may be configured to only identify electronic files from a received order signal, where the purchase payment and file delivery functions may be implemented by other components or entities if required.
  • the first entity may in fact function only to identify a particular electronic file to be purchased, and subsequently advise a delivery system to deliver this file to a particular user, as well as instructing a purchasing system to debit the user for the cost of the electronic file purchased.
  • the first entity may act as a facilitator between cellular service or internet service providers (who may handle the payment management functions), and also media retail organisations that may facilitate the delivery of electronic files on demand to users.
  • the present invention provides an efficient and unobtrusive method and apparatus for purchasing an electronic file, and in particular, multimedia files broadcast by radio and/or television systems.
  • Radio and television broadcasters employ broadcast automation software to schedule and control the broadcast of their tracks/programmes.
  • One way this is done is for the automation software to write a text file which contains information such as track title, artist, and may include the time the track started playing, duration etc.
  • the present invention may interrogate the outputted data from the automation system and add this information to a database.
  • the invention may be associated with an SMS gateway which will receive text messages from the cellular networks and relay them to the invention.
  • the Short- Code sent to an SMS number associated with the invention would be a code number for "buy the currently playing track now".
  • the invention upon receiving an SMS request, will check the time at which the cellular gateway received the SMS message (the information travels with the SMS message).
  • the invention will then interrogate the database to identify which track/programme was playing at the time the SMS request as received and then applying the technique as described with reference to Figure 6 below to account for any inaccuracies in the database being queried.
  • SMS message will then be sent back through the SMS gateway to the user, identifying the track/programme and/or advising them how to complete the purchase.
  • Figure 6 illustrates an algorithm which shows how a database, whether a digital music store or an independent database can be interrogated to determine the likely track which matches this poor data provided.
  • the first and most simple matching the present invention performs is comparing the name and artist to the known names and artists of its music database. If there is no suitably strong match from the name and artist it will then take into account the length of the track to try and narrow down the search results to a more positive match. This length information can be retrieved from a standard music database such as a CDDB if there is no suitable track length information available in then local music database.
  • the "bad track” in this example is the track information received from the radio station.
  • the track information is then passed to the comparator. This takes the incomplete information and searches the database (digital music store database - Vodafone's for example) of known tracks for the best match.
  • the database might contain:
  • the comparator would then find the closest match. It does this by a lexographic search of the artist, followed by the title, and finally the length. If a unique value cannot be found it will choose the most recently added track that matches all the previous criteria. The "Good track” is then returned. In this case:
  • the application also stores the statistics about the current track playing, the offered track and whether the user bought this track.
  • the application can then weight its results by the number of bought tracks when comparing the requested track to the offered track.
  • the database stores the original bad unformatted track information as well as the the track offered to the end user. It also stores whether the user bought this track or requested a different track. Using this information it is possible to see which tracks the user rejected and which tracks the user accepted for the original bad unformatted track data. This data can be used to dynamically change the weighting of tracks depending on what the end users actually accept.

Abstract

A method of identifying an electronic file or media to be delivered following a broadcast, characterised by the steps of receiving identifying information in relation to the' broadcast content of an electronic file, comparing the identifying information against a data base, determining from the comparison above, the most likely electronic file corresponding to the identifiers, generating an order signal for an equivalent electronic file.

Description

FILE TRANSFER METHOD AND APPARATUS
TECHNICAL FIELD
The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for file transfer.
Reference will now be made to use of the present invention for purchasing an electronic multimedia file broadcast by a broadcaster - although this should not be seen as limiting.
BACKGROUND ART
The volume of products purchased over the Internet has increased dramatically in recent years. Similarly, the range of products able to be purchased online has also greatly increased.
Buyers now purchase products using mobile telephones, laptop computers, personal digital assistants (PDA's) and many other hand-held and/or mobile devices.
The emergence of compression algorithms (such as MP3) in conjunction with the digital file format has facilitated online sales of large multimedia products, such as digital audio and video files. The digitisation and compression of these otherwise typically large non-digitised files has resulted in digital multimedia files being more economically transmittable over a network, such as the Internet, and storable on computers or video/music players.
As a result, the popularity of the conventional method of purchasing music CDs and video DVD's from specialist retail stores is now diminishing as buyers are now favouring these more cost effective and accessible online and/or mobile cellular purchasing methods. A key factor motivating a buyer to participate in any transaction is "impulse", which is a consumers desire to make a purchase immediately following awareness of a saleable product. The targeting of buyers who exhibit, or at least have the potential to exhibit, such "impulse buying" habits can therefore become a very important factor when attempting to maximise product sales.
The ability for digital multimedia files to be compressed and transmitted across networks connecting computers with mobile telephones, PDAs and like technologies, means that purchases and transactions involving such network transmittable multimedia files are well suited to Internet and mobile cellular technologies. A further reason is that the product itself (such as an MP3 file) may be transmitted directly to the buyer at the point of purchase. Accordingly, buyers may receive their purchased goods within the time it takes for the compressed file to be transmitted over the network to a pre-specified destination.
This notional ability to receive purchased products in a relatively short time period from the time of purchase, and without having to visit specialist retails stores, is particularly amendable to the impulse driven purchasing paradigm.
Broadcast automation systems are generally used by broadcasters to schedule their play lists. Such systems utilise software which enables the broadcaster to program exactly what content (usually in the form of electronic files) will be broadcast at any particular time in a desired sequence. Such broadcast automation systems are also capable of outputting play list data in real time which identifies the content involved and the time of transmission for such content. This information may be output by the broadcast automation system in real time as content is broadcast. To address the previous issues the present applicant invented a method and apparatus specifically configured to enable impulse purchases of multi-media files, which is described in New Zealand Patent No. 535397.
Their invention essentially works as follows:
The user of the system listens/views to a particular broadcast (say a song). The broadcast signal not only contains the song, but also data which identifies the song as well. This data is received by the user. If the user decides to order that song (or other broadcast content) then it can do so by using the additional data identifying that song. This is achieved by the user transmitting an order signal to the broadcaster or an associated entity.
The broadcaster then sends an electronic file in a suitable format for the user to use which has been stored by the user in their appropriate recording device, for example MP3 player, phone or computer.
This system readily enables the user to impulse purchase broadcast content as soon as it is received by the user.
However, there are a few problems associated with this product.
The first is that often the data received by the user from the broadcast is corrupted. This is particularly the case when the broadcaster is a radio station.
The data can be corrupted by a number of means. For example, often the corruption is a result of the user not receiving the broadcast in a good format. For example, the user may be positioned in an area with poor radio reception, is travelling and consequently having variable reception, or even a badly tuned antenna. All of these can lead to incomplete data being received from the radio station and thus not clearly identifying the content of the broadcast material sufficiently to accurately place an order for same.
Another reason for the incomplete data may be that the broadcaster itself may not have the full data within its records. For example, the radio station may have its own database which is separate to the database from which the broadcast content is purchased. Entries in the database may be suitable for the radio station, but insufficiently accurate to enable accurate identification of a track for purchase purposes.
It is an object of the present invention to address the foregoing problems or at least to provide the public with a useful choice.
All references, including any patents or patent applications cited in this specification are hereby incorporated by reference. No admission is made that any reference constitutes prior art. The discussion of the references states what their authors assert, and the applicants reserve the right to challenge the accuracy and pertinency of the cited documents. It will be clearly understood that, although a number of prior art publications are referred to herein, this reference does not constitute an admission that any of these documents form part of the common general knowledge in the art, in New Zealand or in any other country.
It is acknowledged that the term 'comprise1 may, under varying jurisdictions, be attributed with either an exclusive or an inclusive meaning. For the purpose of this specification, and unless otherwise noted, the term 'comprise' shall have an inclusive meaning - i.e. that it will be taken to mean an inclusion of not only the listed components it directly references, but also other non-specified components or elements. This rationale will also be used when the term 'comprised' or 'comprising' is used in relation to one or more steps in a method or process.
Further aspects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the ensuing description which is given by way of example only.
DISCLOSURE OF INVENTION
According to one aspect of the present invention there is provided a computer program configured to be executable by a processor to perform a method of identifying and receiving at least one electronic file being broadcast by a broadcaster, the method including the steps of;
(i) a user receiving an indication of the content of the electronic file being broadcast, and
(ii) transmitting an order signal to an entity associated with the broadcaster, the order signal confirming the user's intention to purchase an electronic file corresponding to the file that was broadcast, and
(iii) receiving the purchased electronic file, and
(iv) storing the received electronic file in the storage means.
According to yet another aspect of the present invention there is provided an identification and reception apparatus configured to request and receive an electronic file corresponding to a file being broadcast by a broadcaster, said apparatus including,
a transmitter configured to transmit an order signal confirming a user's intention to purchase an electronic file that was broadcast, and a receiver configured to receive the purchased electronic file transmission time of an order signal, and
storage media configured to store the received electronic file.
According to a further aspect of the present invention there is provided an identification and delivery apparatus configured to deliver at least one electronic file being broadcast by a broadcaster, the apparatus including
a receiver configured to receive an order signal from a user, the order signal being configured to uniquely identify an electronic file corresponding to the file broadcast at the time, and
storage media configured to store a plurality of electronic files, and
a transmitter configured to transmit an electronic file corresponding to the file being ordered to the user.
According to a further aspect of the present invention there is provided a computer program configured to be executable by a processor to perform a method of identifying and delivering at least one electronic file being broadcast by broadcaster, the method being characterised by the steps of;
(i) receiving an order signal from a user for a file corresponding to the file that was broadcast, order signal, and
(ii) querying storage media for the corresponding electronic file, and
(iii) retrieving the matching electronic file and transmitting said retrieved electronic file to the user. According to yet another aspect of the present invention there is provided an identification and delivery apparatus configured to deliver at least one electronic file corresponding to a file that was broadcast from a broadcaster, said apparatus including,
a receiver configured to receive an order signal from a user,
storage media configured to store a plurality of electronic files, and
a transmitter configured to transmit an electronic file identified by the user's order signal to said ordering user.
The broadcaster is a computer or television or radio system or a system formed from the combination thereof.
The present invention encompasses a method of identifying and receiving an electronic file and also an apparatus configured to assist in the identification and reception of such an electronic file. These aspects of the present invention may be employed by a user to receive an indication of the content of an electronic file that was broadcast and to subsequently transmit an order signal identifying this file, and to receive a copy of the file for the user's own purposes.
In preferred embodiments of the present invention, the file sent to the user is a direct copy of the file that was or is being broadcast. However, it is conceivable that an aspect of the present invention will have a file sourced from another storage media than the one from which the file is being broadcast. For example, a broadcaster (radio station) may transmit a particular song, yet there may be a separate storage media (such as iTunes) from which a copy of the song is sourced and sent to the user. It is envisaged that in most cases the user will transmit an order signal while the file is actually being broadcast. However, it is envisaged that in some situations the user may not actually send an order signal until after the broadcast, variations of the present invention allow flexibility in the timing of the order signals in relation to the broadcast of the electronic file.
In preferred embodiments the present invention allows for the identification of an electronic file to be purchased through matching a transmission time for an order signal with a time at which an electronic file is broadcast by a broadcaster. Order signals transmitted during the broadcast time of an electronic file may therefore confirm at least one user's intention to purchase the electronic file currently being broadcast.
Thus a method of identifying an electronic file to be delivered may be implemented through in one instance investigating the transmission time of a received order signal from a user. This transmission time may be matched to a broadcast time to identify the electronic file being broadcast and hence the electronic file to be purchased and delivered to a user.
Alternatively, electronic files may be identified through the order signal involved also incorporating an identifier adapted to uniquely to identify an electronic file being broadcast, or an electronic file which has previously been broadcast. This identifier may allow some flexibility with respect to when order signals should be transmitted in such embodiments.
Further aspects of the present invention may also encompass a method of identifying and delivering at least one electronic file, and also an identification and delivery apparatus configured to implement such a method. Preferably these aspects of the present may be employed by an entity associated with the broadcaster to transmit such electronic files to users on receipt of an order signal from such users.
However, this method will only work if incomplete data in the broadcaster's database is corrected through use of a preferred embodiment the present invention as below.
It should be appreciated that typically, the identifier of the broadcast content is in the form of the artist, the track and the length. However, often this information is corrupted either through poor reception of the broadcast transmission, or through the broadcaster transmitting incorrect data in the first place.
According to a further aspect of the present invention there is provided a method of identifying an electronic file to be delivered following a broadcast, characterised by the steps of:
a) receiving identifying information in relation to the broadcast content of an electronic file, and
b) comparing the identifying data against a data base, and
c) determining from the comparison in b) the most likely electronic file corresponding to the identifiers, and
d) subsequently generating an order signal for an equivalent electronic file.
Reference throughout the specification shall be made to the electronic file to have the content of a song, although it should be appreciated that the present invention could apply to other types of media, for example videos. In general, there are only three pieces of identifying information relating to a transmitted song, namely the artist, the track name and the length. However other information could be used such as album, and key lyrics or music bite.
However, as discussed often identifying information is corrupted.
An essential part of the present invention is the ability to access the database containing identifying information relating to the electronic files likely to be purchased.
In one embodiment of the present invention the system (herein after referred to as a track comparator) gives access to the complete list of available song tracks. The system is able to search through the list and find the best match by progressively filtering through the information received.
For example, the system may choose to compare artist with incomplete information, then track names and finally the track length to find the most likely track. This will allow the system to always return the correct track, or if the exact track is not available return another track by the same artist.
It is envisaged that this embodiment of the present invention will be used in relation to a database from which the electronic files can be purchased.
However, it may be that it is not possible to have access to the database from which the files are to be purchased, and therefore it may not be searchable.
Therefore, as an alternate embodiment to the present invention the track comparator uses its own calculations and third party sources such as the CDDB music database which is accessible via the internet. Thus, prior to placing an order for the electronic file, the track comparator will have to correct the badly formed track information so that it can make a sensible request to the external system such as the digital music store.
It is envisaged that a similar filtering algorithm would be used as the first system, however the main difference is that this is used in relation to an independent database to that from which the content is to be purchased.
Various sorting techniques may be used including statistical analysis to find the best match.
In preferred embodiments this aspect of the present invention will be used with the apparatus and methods previously described.
It should be appreciated that the present invention includes computer executable instructions configured to operate the method according with the present invention, identification and delivery apparatus.
In a further preferred embodiment such an order signal may also encompass or incorporate identification or address details for the user to facilitate payment for the electronic file delivered and provide an address to deliver the electronic file to.
Preferably, on receipt of such an order signal a second storage means may be queried for an electronic file matching the identifier received with the order signal. Alternatively, the second storage means may be queried for an electronic file with a broadcast time which it matches the transmission time of a received order signal. Any matching electronic file may then be retrieved from such a second storage means and delivered to the ordering user.
Preferably, the electronic file identified by an identifier may be the electronic file currently being broadcast by the broadcaster. Alternatively, the electronic file identified by the identifier is an electronic file previously broadcast by the broadcaster. Those skilled in the art should appreciate that in instances where an order signal incorporates an identifier the transmission time of the order signal need not necessarily be correlated within the broadcast time of the electronic file involved.
Preferably, the identified electronic file is transmitted to another storage means associated with the user.
For the purposes of the foregoing description those skilled in the art should appreciate that a computer system may be formed from a programmable logic unit or other processing device on which computer software may be run. Computer software may be defined as a set of instructions able to be interpreted by a computer system and capable of performing a task.
A computer system loaded with appropriate computer software may be employed to implement a method of purchasing an electronic file, a more preferably, multimedia files, in accordance with preferred methods of the present invention. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that computer hardware loaded with appropriate software can be used to codify and arrange a variety of information formats (such as compressed video, audio and image formats) and translate such content into a form capable of being transmitted via a transmission network to a buyer.
Such video content information may incorporate image sequences of a kind similar to digital video, streaming video, flash animations, 3D animations or any moving picture expert group (mpeg) standard. Furthermore, the video format information may also incorporate still images of a kind similar to graphic image file (GIF), joint photographic expert group (JPEG), Macintosh picture (PICT), tagged image file (TIFF) or lmagepac file formats.
The audio format content with which the present invention is amenable may be defined as any sequence of signals being within the acoustic range available to humans that, when generated by a computer system provides an audibly recognised output. For example, such audio content may be formed as wave (WAV) files, MP3 format files or may be formed using other high quality audio compression and streaming technologies.
Those skilled in the art should appreciate that the form and scope of the video format content and audio format content may vary according to the requirements or desires of users of the present invention.
The present invention addresses a number of problems associated with the prior art.
A user may impulse buy an electronic file immediately on seeing or viewing this. There is no barrier to the user purchasing the electronic files. That is, there is no need for the system to query the user as to the accuracy of the information surrounding the file to be purchased. Instead, by independently searching through databases using a filtering technique, the correct file can be identified and the order sent regarding same without input from the user system.
Further, the user can be confident that the correct file will be identified and returned as a consequence to the present invention. In preferred embodiments the user is made aware of the track or interview they want to purchase prior to confirmation of purchase. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS
Further aspects of the present invention will become apparent from the following description which is given by way of example only and with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:
Figure 1 is a schematic block diagram showing an apparatus which may be used to implement the method of the present invention in accordance with one embodiment, and
Figure 2 is a flow diagram showing consecutive processes executed by a system adapted to perform the method of the present invention in accordance with preferred embodiments.
Figure 3 shows a schematic block diagram of a system which may be used to implement methodology of the present invention where order signal transmission times are employed to identify the electronic file to be purchased.
Figures 4 and 5 show universal modelling language sequence and system diagrams which illustrate one particular method of implementing aspects of the present invention.
Figure 6 shows an algorithm showing how a database can be interrogated in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention. BEST MODES FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a method and apparatus adapted to enable the purchase of electronic files, and more preferably, multimedia files being broadcast by a broadcaster.
With reference initially to Figure 1 , there is shown an apparatus 1 comprising a broadcaster 2 and a first entity formed as computer server 3.
Broadcaster 2 may be formed as a computer, television or radio system, or combination thereof, and may be adapted to broadcast multimedia files having audio and/or video content. For example, the broadcaster 2 may be a radio station which also provides online streaming of their radio programme from an associated website. Such online radio stations play digitised music running from hard drives associated with in-house computing systems which show details of the current "on- air" song to be shown on their website. Alternatively, broadcaster 2 may be a terrestrial or cable television network and/or may also be adapted to broadcast multimedia files having content derived from live and/or pre-recorded events, such as music concerts, stage shows, sporting fixtures and the like.
Reference throughout this specification will now be made to the broadcaster 2 being a radio station which broadcasts stored multimedia files as audible sound files. However, those skilled in the art should appreciate that the broadcaster 2 may be a formed from any one of the above mentioned systems and need not be limited to a radio system adapted to broadcast only music files.
The broadcaster 2 is therefore adapted to broadcast sound files in a manner which renders a sequence of signals being within the acoustic range available to humans that produces an audibly recognisable output. Accordingly, an electronic file may be considered to produce an audible output when broadcast by broadcaster 2. For example, an electronic file may be a file corresponding to a musical track.
Such sound files to be broadcast are stored in a first storage means 4 associated with the broadcaster 2. The sound files may be stored in the first storage means in any one of a variety of formats. However, in the radio industry the most common storage format for such sound files is waveform sound (WAV) format. Accordingly, reference will now be made to the sound files being stored in a first storage means 4 in WAV format, but this should in no way be seen as limiting.
Throughout this specification reference will now be made to persons listening to the broadcast being made by broadcaster 2 as being a plurality of users 6a - 6c (hereinafter referred to as user 6).
Initially, user 6 will receive an indication of the content of the sound file being broadcast by broadcaster 2. An indication of the content of the electronic file may be provided by the broadcaster 2 playing the sound file "on-air" or broadcasting the name of a sound track about to be played "on-air". The user 6 will, upon hearing a sound file being played by the broadcaster 2, have thus received an indication of the content of the electronic file.
Prior to, during or after receiving an indication of the content of the sound file being broadcast, the user 6 may also receive an identifier from the broadcaster 2.
Those skilled in the art should however appreciate that for an electronic file to be identified for purchase it may not be necessarily for a user to receive an identifier from the broadcaster. As discussed previously, a transmission time for an order signal maybe matched to a broadcast time for a specific electronic file to identify this electronic file for purchase. It is envisaged that where the electronic file is a song, then the identifier can include the artist, the title and the length of the song track.
Upon receiving or hearing the identifier as supplied in such embodiments, a user 6 may then purchase the sound file being broadcast by the broadcaster 2. In particular, the user 6 may transmit an order signal which includes the identifier to confirm an intention to purchase the identified sound file. However, in alternative embodiments, the transmission time of the order signal may be used to identify an electronic file to be purchased.
Such an order signal may be transmitted from user 6 as an e-mail from a computing device or as a text message or e-mail from a mobile phone, PDA or other communications device.
The order signal may be transmitted from user 6 to a first entity, which is preferably formed as a computing server 3. The server 3 may include all the computing hardware and software necessary to receive and extract the identifier (from the signal) in order to identify the sound file intended to be purchased by the user 6.
In alternative embodiments, such as those in which the broadcaster 2 is formed as an online streaming radio system, the user may utilise a computing peripheral devices, such as a mouse, to click on an on-screen icon which represents an sound file purchase option. Once the on-screen icon has been clicked a signal which includes the identifier for the selected sound file may be generated and transmitted to the server 3 via a communications network (such as the Internet).
Similarly, server 3 may provide a hosting website able to be visited by user 6 to independently purchase sound files in a manner used by standard electronic commerce applications. In such an embodiment, user 6 may authenticate personal information by logging into the website prior to being permitted to purchase saleable sound files.
Associated with the server 3 is a storage means 5 which is adapted to store the same sound files as are stored in storage means 4. In preferred embodiments, the sound files are stored in storage means 5 in a second format which is different from the format in which the sound files are stored in the storage means 4.
For example, the sound files may preferably be stored in storage means 5 in MP3 format to enable their efficient retrieval and subsequent economical transmission via a communications network to users 6. However, those skilled in the art should appreciate that alternative information formats of the sound files stored in the storage means 5 are envisaged and reference to MP3 format only should in no way be seen as limiting. Accordingly, all sound files are stored in the storage means 4 in WAV format and these same electronic files are also stored in the storage means 5 in MP3 format.
Once the transmitted signal has been received by server 3, and the sound file identifier extracted from that signal, the identifier is then matched with the corresponding sound file stored in storage means 4. Once the appropriate sound file has been located it may then be retrieved from storage means 4 and transmitted to a user specified storage means or destination.
Accordingly, user 6 may, upon hearing a sound track being broadcast, send an appropriate signal to server 3 to effect the almost instantaneous purchase of that sound file. Once the user 6 has thus confirmed an intention to purchase the sound file, that sound file in MP3 format is then transmitted to storage means specified by the user. The present invention may also provide a method adapted to facilitate payment for the purchase of such sound file(s). For example, a user's mobile phone account may be debited by a nominal fee corresponding to the retail price of the sound file. Alternatively, a users Internet service provider account, landline telephone account, electricity/gas account or a credit card account may be debited as appropriate to pay for the purchase. Furthermore, the user may have a subscriber account with the broadcaster 2 which may be debited as necessary.
Figure 2 is a flow diagram showing consecutive processes executed by a system adapted to perform the method of the present invention in accordance with preferred embodiments.
Shown are boxes 10, 11 and 12 which respectively represent a radio system, a radio/television system with streaming website functionality and a cable and/or terrestrial television network. It is to be appreciated that these entities represent real time impulse purchase stimulus.
When a user elects to purchase an electronic file representing a multimedia file or presentation (such as a sound file or television/video presentation), that user will transmit an order signal which can include an identification code (which uniquely identifies the multimedia file) to an electronic commerce website running a web server 13. The web server 13 will be adapted to receive the transmitted order signal and extract the identification code from same. Alternatively, the web server may match the transmission time of the order signal with an electronic file being broadcast at the same time. Such a signal may be transmitted to web server 13 via text message, e-mail message, on-screen icon "clicking" or the like.
If the user is making a purchase of a multimedia file using a mobile phone the web server 13 will typically check that user's mobile phone number against a database 15 of registered customers. This will ensure prearranged authorisation for making such purchases has been given by the owner of the mobile phone. If the user is a first time user then that user may optionally be directed to an ecommerce website 18 via a text message and required to fulfil registration requirements before the purchase is further processed. Accordingly, a user may still purchase (without pre- registration) a multimedia file(s) and have the purchase cost added to their mobile phone account.
Further checks will include ascertaining whether the pre-existing user has sufficient mobile phone credit (if that is the preferred payment option) to pay for the intended purchase. Such a feature may be implemented using a standard credit check subroutine 14 provided by mobile cellular service providers. Other preference checks 20 will include ascertaining that users account purchasing preferences to ensure all personalised payment options are correctly followed with the current purchase procedure.
Box 17 represents the establishment of process and payment methods wherein a user is able to select default payment methods from a collection of alternatives (as described above).
In instances in which the real time impulse purchase stimulus is Internet based an ecommerce hosting web site displays (on-screen) all information required by a user to facilitate purchase of the multimedia file. Accordingly, box 16 represents a user clicking on an on-screen icon to indicate an intention to purchase a multimedia file broadcast by a radio/television system having streaming website functionality and/or a cable/terrestrial television network.
Once a user elects to purchase a multimedia file then an on-screen prompt such as a login screen (represented as box 19) serves to gather authorisation information from the user to validate that user's purchasing rights. For example, the login routine may request that a user enters their e-mail address, mobile phone number and or password details. Once the user has been authenticated then the system is in an activate mode 21 and is ready to process the user request.
Accordingly, and irrespective of the specific real time impulse stimulus the purchased multimedia file is sent to storage means associated with the user. The alternative transmission modes associated with the purchased files are represented in Figure 2 as boxes 22-25.
Box 22 illustrates the transmission of purchased files as MP3 format multimedia files to a user's mobile phone. Box 23 illustrates the transmission of purchased files as MP3 format electronic files to a users e-mail address.
Boxes 24 and 25 represent the option for a user to receive a text or e-mail message respectively, the text or e-mail message comprising login information to a web site such that the when the user logs onto the website, access to a web page containing the purchased multimedia file as a downloadable electronic file is achieved.
Figure 3 shows a schematic block diagram of a system which may be used to implement methodology of the present invention where order signal transmission times are employed to identify the electronic file to be purchased.
Figure 3 illustrates the use of a broadcast automation system (1) which produces output data and supplies same to a first entity (2) provided in accordance with the present invention. This first entity is also in communication with a number of users, preferably through a cellular communication network (3) or internet protocol computer network (4) communications. The first entity may interrogate the output data provided by the broadcast automation system to build a database in real time which will record information such as the name of the particular kind of file (such as a song track or name), and the start and end of broadcast times for that particular electronic file.
The first entity (2) may also receive communications from users linked via cellular networks in a form of SMS or text messages which provide the order signal required to indicate the user's intention to purchase a particular electronic file. A similar approach may also be taken with respect to users linked to the first entity (2) via computer or internet based communications. In such instances personal computers may be used to dispatch order signals to the first entity (2) to instigate the methodology of the present invention.
The first entity may be configured in such embodiments to match the time at which order signals are transmitted to a particular electronic file indicated as being broadcast at the same time from the data received from the broadcast automation system.
Those skilled in the art should also appreciate that the functions of identifying electronic files, retrieving and delivering electronic files, and subsequently facilitating purchase and payment transactions may all be separated or become compartmentalised with respect to one another.
For example, in one preferred embodiment, the first entity may be configured to only identify electronic files from a received order signal, where the purchase payment and file delivery functions may be implemented by other components or entities if required. In such embodiments the first entity may in fact function only to identify a particular electronic file to be purchased, and subsequently advise a delivery system to deliver this file to a particular user, as well as instructing a purchasing system to debit the user for the cost of the electronic file purchased. In such instances the first entity may act as a facilitator between cellular service or internet service providers (who may handle the payment management functions), and also media retail organisations that may facilitate the delivery of electronic files on demand to users.
Accordingly, the present invention provides an efficient and unobtrusive method and apparatus for purchasing an electronic file, and in particular, multimedia files broadcast by radio and/or television systems.
Radio and television broadcasters employ broadcast automation software to schedule and control the broadcast of their tracks/programmes.
These modern automation systems which run the broadcasters "playlists" have the capacity to output information which details the 'track' or 'programme' that is currently playing.
One way this is done is for the automation software to write a text file which contains information such as track title, artist, and may include the time the track started playing, duration etc.
The present invention may interrogate the outputted data from the automation system and add this information to a database.
The invention may be associated with an SMS gateway which will receive text messages from the cellular networks and relay them to the invention. The Short- Code sent to an SMS number associated with the invention would be a code number for "buy the currently playing track now". The invention, upon receiving an SMS request, will check the time at which the cellular gateway received the SMS message (the information travels with the SMS message).
The invention will then interrogate the database to identify which track/programme was playing at the time the SMS request as received and then applying the technique as described with reference to Figure 6 below to account for any inaccuracies in the database being queried.
An SMS message will then be sent back through the SMS gateway to the user, identifying the track/programme and/or advising them how to complete the purchase.
It is advantageous for users to be able to hear or see a multimedia presentation, such as a sound or video file, and then simply text, e-mail or interact with an onscreen icon to impulsively purchase that musical track or video.
Figure 6 illustrates an algorithm which shows how a database, whether a digital music store or an independent database can be interrogated to determine the likely track which matches this poor data provided.
Two examples are given below, one whereby the first database being interrogated is a digital music store, and the other database being interrogated is an independent database.
The first and most simple matching the present invention performs is comparing the name and artist to the known names and artists of its music database. If there is no suitably strong match from the name and artist it will then take into account the length of the track to try and narrow down the search results to a more positive match. This length information can be retrieved from a standard music database such as a CDDB if there is no suitable track length information available in then local music database.
Example One:
The "bad track" in this example is the track information received from the radio station.
Artist: Brtney Spe, Title: Womanser, Length:3:44
This is clearly badly formed, it is misspelled and missing letters.
The track information is then passed to the comparator. This takes the incomplete information and searches the database (digital music store database - Vodafone's for example) of known tracks for the best match.
For example the database might contain:
Artist: Beyonce, Title: Single Ladies, Length:3:44
Artist: Britney Spears, Title: Toxic, Length:3:30
Artist: Britney Spears, Title: Baby one more time, Length:3:02
Artist: Britney Spears.Title: Womanizer, Length:3:44 ...
The comparator would then find the closest match. It does this by a lexographic search of the artist, followed by the title, and finally the length. If a unique value cannot be found it will choose the most recently added track that matches all the previous criteria. The "Good track" is then returned. In this case:
Artist: Britney Spears, Title: Womanizer, Length:3:44
Example Two:
In this case the "bad track" information received is:
Artist: Justin Timb.Title: S, Length:3:27
This is a terribly named track. The comparator will have to try and make sense of this badly named track.
It will query a CDDB with what little information it has. It will first query with just the artist. In this case that would return all of the tracks by Justin Timberlake. It will then try and filter via the title of the track. However there will still be many results as there are lots of songs starting with 1S1.
The application also stores the statistics about the current track playing, the offered track and whether the user bought this track.
Using this information the application can then weight its results by the number of bought tracks when comparing the requested track to the offered track.
Details of the database statistic matching:
The database stores the original bad unformatted track information as well as the the track offered to the end user. It also stores whether the user bought this track or requested a different track. Using this information it is possible to see which tracks the user rejected and which tracks the user accepted for the original bad unformatted track data. This data can be used to dynamically change the weighting of tracks depending on what the end users actually accept.
So finally the weighted results are returned with the most heavily weighted track match result being returned to the user.
Aspects of the present invention have been described by way of example only and it should be appreciated that modifications and additions may be made thereto without departing from the scope of the appended claims.

Claims

WHAT I/WE CLAIM IS:
1. A computer program configured to be executable by a processor to perform a method of identifying and receiving at least one electronic file being broadcast by a broadcaster, the method including the steps of;
(i) a user receiving an indication of the content of the electronic file being broadcast, and
(ii) transmitting an order signal to an entity associated with the broadcaster, the order signal confirming the user's intention to purchase an electronic file corresponding to the file that was broadcast, and
(v) receiving the purchased electronic file, and
(vi) storing the received electronic file in the storage means.
2. An identification and reception apparatus configured to request and receive an electronic file corresponding to a file being broadcast by a broadcaster, said apparatus including,
a transmitter configured to transmit an order signal confirming a user's intention to purchase an electronic file that was broadcast, and
a receiver configured to receive the purchased electronic file transmission time of an order signal, and
storage media configured to store the received electronic file.
3. An identification and delivery apparatus configured to deliver at least one electronic file being broadcast by a broadcaster, the apparatus including
a receiver configured to receive an order signal from a user, the order signal being configured to uniquely identify an electronic file corresponding to the file broadcast at the time, and
storage media configured to store a plurality of electronic files, and
a transmitter configured to transmit an electronic file corresponding to the file being ordered to the user.
4. A computer program configured to be executable by a processor to perform a method of identifying and delivering at least one electronic file being broadcast by broadcaster, the method being characterised by the steps of;
(i) receiving an order signal from a user for a file corresponding to the file that was broadcast, order signal, and
(ii) querying storage media for the corresponding electronic file, and
(iii) retrieving the matching electronic file and transmitting said retrieved electronic file to the user.
5. An identification and delivery apparatus configured to deliver at least one electronic file corresponding to a file that was broadcast from a broadcaster, said apparatus including,
a receiver configured to receive an order signal from a user,
storage media configured to store a plurality of electronic files, and a transmitter configured to transmit an electronic file identified by the user's order signal to said ordering user.
6. A method of identifying an electronic file to be delivered following a broadcast, characterised by the steps of:
a) receiving identifying information in relation to the broadcast content of an electronic file, and
b) comparing the identifying information against a data base, and
c) determining from the comparison in b) the most likely electronic file corresponding to the identifiers, and
d) subsequently generating an order signal for an equivalent electronic file.
7. A method as claimed in claim 6 wherein the identifying information includes at least one of the following:
artist, track, album, track length, key lyrics and music bites.
8. A method as claimed in either claim 1 or claim 2 wherein the information compared as in accordance with the following steps:
i) comparing artist with incomplete information, and
ii) tracking names, and
iii) comparing with track length.
9. A method as claims in any one of claims 6 to 8 characterised by the further step of comparing information with a third party source.
10. A method as claimed in any one of claims 6 to 9 including the step of applying statistical analysis to determine the most likely electronic file identified.
11. A method as claimed in any one of claims 6 to 10 in combination with any of the computer programs and apparatus claimed in claims 1 to 5.
12. A computer program substantially as herein described with reference to and as illustrated by the drawings in the Best Modes Section.
13. An identification and reception apparatus substantially as herein described with reference to and as illustrated by the drawings in the Best Modes Section.
14. An identification and delivery apparatus substantially as herein described with reference to and as illustrated by the drawings in the Best Modes Section.
15. A method of identifying in an electronic file to be delivered substantially as herein described with reference to and as illustrated by the drawings in the Best Modes Section.
PCT/NZ2009/000292 2008-12-17 2009-12-15 File transfer method and apparatus WO2010071455A1 (en)

Applications Claiming Priority (2)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
NZ573753 2008-12-17
NZ57375308 2008-12-17

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US6925489B1 (en) * 1999-11-22 2005-08-02 Agere Systems Inc. Methods and apparatus for identification and purchase of broadcast digital music and other types of information
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