Method and system for allowing users to access and/or share media libraries ...

(12) United States Patent

DeMartin et al.

US006226672B1

(io) Patent No.: US 6,226,672 Bl (45) Date of Patent: *May 1,2001

(54) METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR ALLOWING USERS TO ACCESS AND/OR SHARE MEDIA LIBRARIES, INCLUDING MULTIMEDIA COLLECTIONS OF AUDIO AND VIDEO INFORMATION VIA A WIDE AREA NETWORK

(75) Inventors: Frank DeMartin, Bogota; Peter

Douma, Wyckoff, both of NJ (US);
Denise Miccoli, Yonkers, NY (US)

(73) Assignees: Sony Corporation, Tokyo (JP); Sony Electronics, Inc., Park Ridge, NJ (US)

( * ) Notice: This patent issued on a continued prosecution application filed under 37 CFR 1.53(d), and is subject to the twenty year patent term provisions of 35 U.S.C. 154(a)(2).

Subject to any disclaimer, the term of this patent is extended or adjusted under 35 U.S.C. 154(b) by 0 days.

(21) Appl. No.: 08/850,520

(22) Filed: May 2, 1997

(51) Int. C I. G06F 15/16

(52) U.S. CI 709/219; 709/202; 709/203;

709/206; 709/217; 709/246; 709/238; 369/30;

369/24; 369/83; 369/84; 369/85

(58) Field of Search 369/2, 14, 49,

369/30; 707/5; 709/206, 219, 217, 203, 238, 231; 348/7, 6; 455/45, 4.2; 345/328,

302

(56) References Cited

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(List continued on next page.)

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831608 * 11/1997 (GB) .

OTHER PUBLICATIONS

MCS/Others to Offer Internet Music Service, Nov. 1996.*

The Split and Merge (SAM) Protocol for Interactive

Video-on-Demand Systems, Jan. 1997.*

Scheduling Video Programs in Near Video-On-Demand

Systems, Jan. 1997.*

Tunes.com.*

Musicmaker.com.*

Using a music oriented Web site, a "student" user requests a tutorial or tour of a musical artist or genre on the World Wide Web portion of the Internet. The "expert" user peruses the "student" personal music library and creates a playlist for that library to assist in further understanding of the music by the "student" user. The playlist is transferred to a server which generates a command file. This command file is sent to the "student" user to control various multimedia components according to the "expert" user's selection. This tutorial may be accompanied by the "expert" user's personal commentary on his/her selections.

14 Claims, 5 Drawing Sheets

U.S. PATENT DOCUMENTS

5,787,423 * 7/1998 Hirakawa 707/5

5.796,945 * 8/1998 Tarabella 395/326

5,818,435 * 10/1998 Kozuka et al 345/302

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5,953,005 * 9/1999 Liu 345/302

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5,963,916 * 10/1999 Kaplan 705/26

5,973,722 * 10/1999 Wakai et al 348/8

5,983,069 * 11/1999 Cho et al 455/3.1

5,995,951 * 11/1999 Ferguson 706/10

6,118,450 * 9/2000 Proehl et al 345/349

* cited by examiner