Audio book smart pause

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9378651-B2
Application number	US-201314108908-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 17, 2013
Priority date	Dec 17, 2013
Publication date	Jun 28, 2016
Grant date	Jun 28, 2016

Abstract

A user device that plays back audio books for a user can include a dynamic pause that provides a user with greater flexibility in when to pause playback of an audio book. Dynamic pause includes initiating playback of an audio book using a user device; receiving a pause request as input to the user device, the pause request received at an input time index during playback of the audio book; retrieving a subset of candidate pause points, each candidate pause point comprising a time index within the audio book that corresponds to a break point located within an eBook corresponding to the audio book; selecting one of the candidate pause points from the subset, the time index of the selected candidate pause point determining a pause time index when playback is to be paused; and pausing the playback at the pause time index.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A computer-implemented method, comprising:
initiating playback of an audio book using a user device;
receiving a pause request as input to the user device, the pause request received at an input time index during playback of the audio book;
retrieving a subset of candidate pause points, each candidate pause point comprising (1) a time index within the audio book that corresponds to a break point located within an eBook corresponding to the audio book, and (2) a type score based on a type of the break point as it appears in the eBook, the subset of candidate pause points comprising candidate pause points corresponding to break points of different types;
responsive to receiving the pause request, selecting one of the candidate pause points from the subset based on the time indices and the type scores of the candidate pause points, the time index of the selected candidate pause point determining a pause time index when playback is to be paused; and
pausing the playback at the pause time index.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
continuing playback of the audio book until the pause time index is reached.

3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
adjusting a playback time index to the time index of the candidate pause point,
responsive to a resume input, resuming playback from the playback time index.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein retrieving the subset of candidate pause points comprises retrieving candidate pause points comprising time indices within a threshold amount of time after the input time index.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein retrieving the subset of candidate pause points comprises retrieving a threshold number of candidate pause points comprising time indices after the input time index.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein selecting comprises:
computing a pause score for each of the candidate pause points in the retrieved subset, wherein the pause score for one of the candidate pause points comprises a time contribution based a difference in time between the input time index and the time index of the candidate pause point, and further comprises the type score; and
selecting one of the candidate pause points based on the pause scores of the candidate pause points in the subset.

7. A computer system, comprising:
a computer-readable storage medium comprising executable computer program code for:
initiating playback of an audio book using a user device;
receiving a pause request as input to the user device, the pause request received at an input time index during playback of the audio book;
retrieving a subset of candidate pause points, each candidate pause point comprising (1) a time index within the audio book that corresponds to a break point located within an eBook corresponding to the audio book, and (2) a type score based on a type of the break point as it appears in the eBook, the subset of candidate pause points comprising candidate pause points corresponding to break points of different types;
responsive to receiving the pause request, selecting one of the candidate pause points from the subset based on the time indices and the type scores of the candidate pause points, the time index of the selected candidate pause point determining a pause time index when playback is to be paused; and
pausing the playback at the pause time index.

8. The system of claim 7 , further comprising code for:
continuing playback of the audio book until the pause time index is reached.

9. The system of claim 7 , further comprising code for:
adjusting a playback time index to the time index of the candidate pause point,
responsive to a resume input, resuming playback from the playback time index.

10. The system of claim 7 , wherein retrieving the subset of candidate pause points comprises retrieving candidate pause points comprising time indices within a threshold amount of time after the input time index.

11. The system of claim 7 , wherein retrieving the subset of candidate pause points comprises retrieving a threshold number of candidate pause points comprising time indices after the input time index.

12. The system of claim 7 , wherein selecting comprises:
computing a pause score for each of the candidate pause points in the retrieved subset, wherein the pause score for one of the candidate pause points comprises a time contribution based a difference in time between the input time index and the time index of the candidate pause point, and further comprises the type score; and
selecting one of the candidate pause points based on the pause scores of the candidate pause points in the subset.

13. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing executable computer program instructions. the computer program instructions comprising instructions for:
initiating playback of an audio book using a user device;
receiving a pause request as input to the user device, the pause request received at an input time index during playback of the audio book;
retrieving a subset of candidate pause points, each candidate pause point comprising (1) a time index within the audio book that corresponds to a break point located within an eBook corresponding to the audio book, and (2) a type score based on a type of the break point as it appears in the eBook, the subset of candidate pause points comprising candidate pause points corresponding to break points of different types;
responsive to receiving the pause request, selecting one of the candidate pause points from the subset based on the time indices and the type scores of the candidate pause points, the time index of the selected candidate pause point determining a pause time index when playback is to be paused; and
pausing the playback at the pause time index.

14. The storage medium of claim 13 , further comprising code for:
continuing playback of the audio book until the pause time index is reached.

15. The storage medium of claim 13 , further comprising code for:
adjusting a playback time index to the time index of the candidate pause point,
responsive to a resume input, resuming playback from the playback time index.

16. The storage medium of claim 13 , wherein retrieving the subset of candidate pause points comprises retrieving candidate pause points comprising time indices within a threshold amount of time after the input time index.

17. The storage medium of claim 13 , wherein retrieving the subset of candidate pause points comprises retrieving a threshold number of candidate pause points comprising time indices after the input time index.

18. The storage medium of claim 13 , wherein selecting comprises:
computing a pause score for each of the candidate pause points in the retrieved subset, wherein the pause score for one of the candidate pause points comprises a time contribution based a difference in time between the input time index and the time index of the candidate pause point, and further comprises the type score; and
selecting one of the candidate pause points based on the pause scores of the candidate pause points in the subset.

19. The method of claim 1 , wherein the break points corresponding to the subset of candidate pause points include at least one from the group consisting of a raw text break point or a format demarcation.

20. The system of claim 7 , wherein the break points corresponding to the subset of candidate pause points include at least one from the group consisting of a raw text break point or a format demarcation.

21. The storage medium of claim

Assignees

• Google Inc

Inventors

• Duga Brady

Classifications

• B42D9/007

  Loose bookmarkers · CPC title

• G10L15/26

  Speech to text systems (G10L15/08 takes precedence) · CPC title

• G09B19/04

  Speaking (with audible presentation of the material to be studied G09B5/04) · CPC title

• G06F3/165 Primary

  Management of the audio stream, e.g. setting of volume, audio stream path · CPC title

• G06F16/489

  using time information · CPC title