Electrical computers and digital processing systems: multicomput – Computer-to-computer protocol implementing – Computer-to-computer data transfer regulating
Reexamination Certificate
1999-07-16
2001-05-29
Lim, Krisna (Department: 2153)
Electrical computers and digital processing systems: multicomput
Computer-to-computer protocol implementing
Computer-to-computer data transfer regulating
C709S237000, C345S215000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06240459
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND
1. Field of the Invention
This invention pertains to the field of computer networking, and more particularly to the use of network protocols to provide services to users which are related to audio recordings.
2. Related Art
Over the past few years, on-line services have experienced explosive growth and have become a major new form of entertainment. Alongside this new entertainment, more traditional forms such as musical recordings have continued to be consumed on a massive scale.
The traditional experience of the musical recording is listening by a small group of persons gathered together in a room. The music fills the room acoustically, but there is little associated visual content, and there is only a limited interaction with the recording, consisting essentially of deciding which tracks to play and performing simple transformations on the recorded sound, such as setting the volume or applying an audio equalizer. This traditional experience dates back to the early age of 78 r.p.m. musical recordings almost a century ago.
The traditional production of a musical recording complements the traditional experience of the recording. The recording is produced in a number of recording sessions, subject to careful mixing and editing, and then released to the public. At that point, the recording is in a fixed form, nowadays an audio CD, whose purpose is to record as faithfully as possible the final sonic experience designed by its authors, the musicians, producer, and recording engineers.
Music videos have supplemented the traditional experience of musical recordings by allowing the association of visual content with tracks of such a recording. In practice, however, music videos have been broadcast, with all the problems of lack of user control which that implies, and they have not contributed to interactivity or participation by the consumer.
On-line services offer opportunities for enriching the experience associated with musical recordings. The present invention is addressed to computer programs, systems, and protocols which can fulfil this promise.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is therefore an object of this invention to provide computer programs, systems, and protocols which allow producers to deliver entertainment complementary to musical recordings by means of on-line services such as the Internet. It is a further object of this invention to provide computer programs, systems, and protocols which allow such complementary entertainment to be meaningfully interactive for the consumer, such that the consumer can also be a creator of the experience.
It is a further object of the invention to achieve the foregoing objects by means of implementations designed to attain integration with existing environments and programs, particularly on the Internet, while retaining the flexibility to adapt to the continuing evolution of standards for on-line services.
In one aspect of the invention, software is provided which permits a computer program running on a remote host to control a compact disk (CD) player, DVD player, or the like on a user's computer. (For convenience, we use the term “CD player” to refer also to DVD players and similar devices.) The software is designed to permit the remote host both to initiate actions on the CD player and to become aware actions which the user has initiated by other control means, such as the buttons on the CD player's front panel or a different CD player control program. This aspect of the invention is a building-block for the provision of complementary entertainment for musical recordings when those recordings are fixed in the prevailing contemporary form, the audio CD.
In a second aspect of the invention, visual content, including interactive content, may be delivered over an on-line service in such a way that it is synchronized to the delivery of content from a musical recording. Such visual content may, for example, be synchronized to the playing of an audio CD in the user's computer. The visual content is thematically linked to the musical recording, for example in the manner of a music video.
In a third aspect of the invention, a method is provided for assigning a unique identifier to musical recordings consisting of a number of tracks. A unique identifier is a useful complement to the delivery of visual content in conjunction with the playing of an audio CD in that it allows the software which delivers the visual content to be sure that the audio CD is in fact the correct CD to which the visual content corresponds. If the visual content is designed, for example, to accompany the Rosary Sonatas of Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber, it would presumably not function well if the CD in the user's player were, the soundtrack for the film Mary Poppins. The unique identifier also allows a CD to be used as a key to access a premium Web area. Furthermore, the unique identifier can allow the user to be directed to an area of the Web corresponding to the CD which is in the user's machine.
In a fourth aspect of the invention, the immensely popular on-line service generally referred to as a “chat room” may be enhanced by means of a link to a musical recording to which all persons in the room are listening. The chat room experience as it exists today in on-line services has a disembodied quality by comparison with traditional face-to-face social encounters, in which there are identifiable surroundings. The only common experience to the chat users today are the words of the chat as they fly by on a computer screen, and perhaps the user icons (“avatars”) or other visual content occupying a small space on the screen. The use of a musical recording in conjunction with a chat room opens up the possibility of restoring to the experience a degree of the shared ambience of traditional social encounters. Furthermore, the musical recording offers a focal point that allows chat-seekers to group together by means of shared interests in a particular type of recording.
REFERENCES:
patent: 4618890 (1986-10-01), Kouyama et al.
patent: 4675757 (1987-06-01), Block
patent: 4679085 (1987-07-01), Johnson et al.
patent: 5450597 (1995-09-01), Klappert et al.
patent: 5471576 (1995-11-01), Yee
patent: 5603016 (1997-02-01), Davies
patent: 5617502 (1997-04-01), Ort et al.
patent: 5642171 (1997-06-01), Baumgartner et al.
patent: 5721827 (1998-02-01), Logan et al.
patent: 5774664 (1998-06-01), Hidary et al.
patent: 5778181 (1998-07-01), Hidary et al.
patent: 5778187 (1998-07-01), Monteiro et al.
patent: 5796393 (1998-08-01), McNaughton et al.
patent: 5796952 (1998-08-01), Davis et al.
patent: 5809250 (1998-09-01), Kisor
patent: 5809512 (1998-09-01), Kato
patent: 5815634 (1998-09-01), Daum et al.
patent: 5915091 (1999-06-01), Ludwig et al.
patent: 6130987 (2000-10-01), Tanaka
patent: 6160548 (2000-12-01), Lea et al.
patent: 194 143 (1986-09-01), None
patent: WO97/05616 (1997-02-01), None
M. Mascha et al. “Interactive education: Transistioning CD-ROMs to the Web” Computer Network and ISDN Systems, vol. 27, No. 2, Nov. 1994, pp. 267-272.
International Search Report for PCT/US 98/07660 mailed Nov. 26, 1998.
Greenberg Ann E.
Roberts Dale Tyson
CDDB Inc.
Lim Krisna
Staas & Halsey , LLP
LandOfFree
Network delivery of interactive entertainment synchronized... does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.
If you have personal experience with Network delivery of interactive entertainment synchronized..., we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Network delivery of interactive entertainment synchronized... will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-2566661