Multiple household management

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12506935-B2
Application number	US-202418424077-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 26, 2024
Priority date	Jan 23, 2013
Publication date	Dec 23, 2025
Grant date	Dec 23, 2025

Abstract

Embodiments described herein include systems and methods for providing a management interface for controlling multiple households. The management interface may be provided as an application on a mobile device or as an Internet webpage. An example implementation involves a device displaying representations of: a plurality of households; an indication of a selected household; one or more zones within the selected household; and a representation of media being played by a selected zone of the one or more zones. While displaying the representations, the device receives, from a server, data indicating updated information associated with the plurality of households; and, in response, updates the graphical display to display at least an updated representation of media being played by the selected zone.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1 . At least one non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising program instructions that are executable by at least one processor such that a computing device is configured to:
cause display of a control interface corresponding to a first user account, the control interface comprising playback controls to control playback of multiple playback queues, wherein the multiple playback queues comprise a first playback queue associated with at least one first playback device and a second playback queue associated with at least one second playback device, wherein the first user account is assigned to a first role among a plurality of roles comprising the first role, a second role, and a third role, and wherein the first role permits the first user account to control playback of the first playback queue and the second playback queue; cause the control interface to display permission setting controls comprising a playback queue modification control selectable to control a playback queue modification setting, the playback queue modification control set to the first role among the plurality of roles, wherein control of the playback queues by (i) second user accounts assigned to the second role and (ii) third user accounts assigned to the third role is prohibited when the playback queue modification setting is set to the first role among the plurality of roles; receive data representing an input to the playback queue modification control that modifies the playback queue modification setting from the first role to the second role among the plurality of roles; and according to the received data representing the input to the playback queue modification control, set the playback queue modification setting to the second role, wherein control of the playback queues by the first user account assigned to the first role and the second user accounts assigned to the second role is permitted when the playback queue modification setting is set to the second role among the plurality of roles, and wherein control of the playback queues by the third user accounts assigned to the third role is prohibited when the playback queue modification control is set to the second role among the plurality of roles.

2 . The at least one non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1 , wherein the at least one non-transitory computer-readable medium further comprises program instructions that are executable by the at least one processor such that the computing device is configured to:
cause the playback queue modification setting of the playback queue modification control on the control interface to be updated from the first role to the second role.

3 . The at least one non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1 , wherein the multiple playback queues further comprise a third playback queue associated with at least one third playback device, wherein a first media playback system associated with a first local area network comprises the at least one first playback device comprises the at least one first playback device, and wherein a second media playback system associated with a second local area network comprises the at least one third playback device.

4 . The at least one non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 3 , wherein the at least one non-transitory computer-readable medium further comprises program instructions that are executable by the at least one processor such that the computing device is configured to:
cause the control interface to display an additional playback queue modification control selectable to control an additional playback queue modification setting, the additional playback queue modification control set to the third role among the plurality of roles, wherein control of the third playback queue by (i) the first user account assigned to the first role, (ii) the second user accounts assigned to the second role and (ii) the third user accounts assigned to the third role is permitted when the playback queue modification setting is set to the first role among the plurality of roles.

5 . The at least one non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 4 , wherein the at least one non-transitory computer-readable medium further comprises program instructions that are executable by the at least one processor such that the computing device is configured to:
while the playback queue modification control is set to the first role among the plurality of roles, receive data representing an input to the additional playback queue modification control that modifies the additional playback queue modification setting from the third role to the second role among the plurality of roles; and according to the received data representing the input to the additional playback queue modification control, set the additional playback queue modification setting to the second role, wherein control of the third playback queue by the first user account assigned to the first role and the second user accounts assigned to the second role is permitted when the additional playback queue modification setting is set to the second role among the plurality of roles, and wherein control of the third playback queue by the third user accounts assigned to the third role is prohibited when the additional playback queue modification control is set to the second role among the plurality of roles.

6 . The at least one non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 3 , wherein the first media playback system is located at a first commercial location, and wherein the second media playback system is located at a second commercial location.

7 . The at least one non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1 , wherein the permissions setting controls further comprise a playback queue display control selectable to control a playback queue display setting, the playback queue display control set to the second role among the plurality of roles, wherein display of the playback queues by the third user accounts assigned to the third role is prohibited when the playback queue display setting is set to the first role among the plurality of roles.

8 . The at least one non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1 , wherein the permissions setting controls further comprise a music library control selectable to control a music library access setting, the music library control set to the first role among the plurality of roles, wherein access to a music library comprising media items from multiple streaming audio services by (i) the second user accounts assigned to the second role and the third user accounts assigned to the third role is prohibited when the music library setting is set to the first role among the plurality of roles.

9 . The at least one non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1 , wherein the at least one non-transitory computer-readable medium further comprises program instructions that are executable by the at least one processor such that the computing device is configured to:
receive data representing an input to representing a command to change a role of a particular user account from the third role to the second role; and according to the command, configure the particular user account with the second role.

10 . The at least one non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1 , wherein the multiple playback queues correspond to respective sets of one or more playback devices in multiple media playback systems, and wherein the at least one non-transitory computer-readable medium further comprises program instructions that are executable by the at least one processor such that the computing device is configured to:
cause the control interface to display a list of the multiple media playback systems

Assignees

• Sonos Inc

Inventors

• Kuper Ron
• Coburn Iv Arthur L
• Meyer John
• Delaney Mike

Classifications

• H04L67/10

  in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network (software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46) · CPC title

• H04L41/22

  comprising specially adapted graphical user interfaces [GUI] · CPC title

• G06F3/04847

  Interaction techniques to control parameter settings, e.g. interaction with sliders or dials · CPC title

• G06F3/0482

  Interaction with lists of selectable items, e.g. menus · CPC title

• G11B27/34

  Indicating arrangements  {(indicating means incorporated in magazine or cassette G11B23/046 and G11B23/0875; indicating measured values in general G01D)} · CPC title