Prioritizing media content requests

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12073146-B2
Application number	US-202217818054-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 8, 2022
Priority date	Jun 4, 2014
Publication date	Aug 27, 2024
Grant date	Aug 27, 2024

Abstract

Example techniques relate to prioritizing media content requests. An example implementation involves a computing system receives an explicit request to play back a playlist on one or more playback devices of a media playback system. The computing system causes the playback devices to play back a given audio track of the playlist. While the playback devices are playing back first tracks of the playlist, the computing system receives one or more implicit requests for second audio tracks in the playlist. While the playback devices are playing back the second audio tracks of the playlist, the computing system receives an explicit request to play back audio content on a mobile device. The computing system determines that the request to play back the audio content on the mobile device is a higher priority than the requests for second audio tracks and switches playback from the playback devices to the mobile device.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A computing system comprising:
at least one processor;
at least one non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising program instructions that are executable by the at least one processor such that the computing system is configured to:
receive, from a first playback device authenticated with the computing system via a first account, a first request for first media content, wherein the first request is associated with a first playback command received by the first playback device at a first time;
receive, from a second playback device authenticated with the computing system via the first account, a second request for second media content, wherein the second request is associated with a second playback command received by the second playback device at a second time;
determine that the second time is later than the first time; and
based at least on the determination that the second time is later than the first time, send the second media content to the second playback device.

2. The computing system of claim 1 , wherein the at least one non-transitory computer-readable medium further comprises program instructions such that the computing system is configured to:
based at least on the determination that the second time is later than the first time, forego sending the first media content to the first playback device.

3. The computing system of claim 1 , wherein the at least one non-transitory computer-readable medium further comprises program instructions such that the computing system is configured to:
after receiving the first request from the first playback device, send the first media content to the first playback device; and
while sending the first media content to the first playback device, receive the second request from the second playback device.

4. The computing system of claim 3 , wherein sending the second media content to the second playback device comprises discontinuing sending of the first media content to the first playback device.

5. The computing system of claim 3 , wherein sending the second media content to the second playback device comprises sending the second media content to the second playback device concurrently with the first media content sent to the first playback device.

6. The computing system of claim 1 , wherein:
the first request includes first data indicating the first time at which the first playback command was received; and
the second request includes second data indicating the second time at which the second playback command was received.

7. The computing system of claim 6 , wherein the first data and the second data include at least one of:
respective timestamp data indicating the time at which the respective playback devices detected the respective playback commands; or
respective duration data indicating a duration that has passed since the respective playback devices received the respective playback commands.

8. The computing system of claim 1 , wherein the determination that the second time is later than the first time comprises comparing first data associated with the first request with second data associated with the second request.

9. A non-transitory computer-readable medium having stored thereon instructions executable by one or more processors to cause a computing system to perform functions comprising:
receiving, from a first playback device authenticated with the computing system via a first account, a first request for first media content, wherein the first request is associated with a first playback command received by the first playback device at a first time;
receiving, from a second playback device authenticated with the computing system via the first account, a second request for second media content, wherein the second request is associated with a second playback command received by the second playback device at a second time;
determining that the second time is later than the first time; and
based at least on the determination that the second time is later than the first time, sending the second media content to the second playback device.

10. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 9 , further having stored thereon instructions to cause the computing system to perform functions comprising:
based at least on the determination that the second time is later than the first time, foregoing sending the first media content to the first playback device.

11. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 9 , further having stored thereon instructions to cause the computing system to perform functions comprising:
after receiving the first request from the first playback device, sending the first media content to the first playback device; and
while sending the first media content to the first playback device, receiving the second request from the second playback device.

12. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 11 , wherein sending the second media content to the second playback device comprises discontinuing sending of the first media content to the first playback device.

13. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 11 , wherein sending the second media content to the second playback device comprises sending the second media content to the second playback device concurrently with the first media content sent to the first playback device.

14. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 9 , wherein:
the first request includes first data indicating the first time at which the first playback command was received; and
the second request includes second data indicating the second time at which the second playback command was received.

15. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 14 , wherein the first data and the second data include at least one of:
respective timestamp data indicating the time at which the respective playback devices detected the respective playback commands; or
respective duration data indicating a duration that has passed since the respective playback devices received the respective playback commands.

16. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 14 , wherein the determination that the second time is later than the first time comprises comparing first data associated with the first request with second data associated with the second request.

17. A method to be performed by a computing system, the method comprising:
receiving, from a first playback device authenticated with the computing system via a first account, a first request for first media content, wherein the first request is associated with a first playback command received by the first playback device at a first time;
receiving, from a second playback device authenticated with the computing system via the first account, a second request for second media content, wherein the second request is associated with a second playback command received by the second playback device at a second time;
determining that the second time is later than the first time; and
based at least on the determination that the second time is later than the first time, sending the second media content to the second playback device.

18. The method of claim 17 , further comprising:
based at least on the determination that the second time is later than the first time, foregoing sending the first media content to the first playback device.

19. The method of claim 17 , further comprising:
after receiving the first request from the first playback device, sending the first media content to the first play

Assignees

• Sonos Inc

Inventors

• Corbin Keith

Classifications

• H04R2227/005

  Audio distribution systems for home, i.e. multi-room use · CPC title

• H04R27/00

  Public address systems (circuits for preventing acoustic reaction H04R3/02; circuits for distributing signals to loudspeakers H04R3/12; {monitoring or testing arrangements for public address systems H04R29/007}; amplifiers H03F) · CPC title

• G06F9/4881

  Scheduling strategies for dispatcher, e.g. round robin, multi-level priority queues · CPC title

• G05B15/02

  electric · CPC title

• H04N21/4518

  involving characteristics of one or more peripherals, e.g. peripheral type, software version, amount of memory available or display capabilities · CPC title