Waldeck Technology, LLC

Abo Enterprises, LLC

Napo Enterprises, LLC

Novara Technology, LLC

Sean T Purdy

Scott Curtis

Steven L Petersen

Kenneth Jennings

Alfredo Celino Issa

Gregory Morgan Evans

Eugene Farrelly

Hugh Blake Svendsen

Ravi Reddy Katpelly

A method and system for previewing a media item recommendation queue. A server receives a request from a first device for at least a portion of a media item recommendation queue associated with a second device. The server provides to the first device a plurality of recommendation queue entries from a top portion of the media item recommendation queue associated with the second device. The order of the plurality of recommendation queue entries in the media item recommendation queue is based on a plurality of priority indicators associated with the second device. The server receives a request from the first device to couple the second device to the first device and couples the second device to the first device, wherein media item recommendations generated by the second device are directed to the first device.

Method and system for previewing recommendation queues

Systems and methods are disclosed for obtaining secondary indications of locations of users for use by a location-based service. In one embodiment, a secondary indication of a location of one or more users is obtained from a source of secondary indications of locations of users. The secondary indication includes a location of the one or more users and timing information defining when the one or more users were or will be located at the location. The secondary indication of the location of the one or more users is then stored and utilized to provide the location-based service. In one embodiment, the secondary indication is utilized to store historical aggregate user profile data by location and/or to provide aggregate user profile data for crowds of users formed via a spatial crowd formation process.

Secondary indications of user locations and use thereof by a location-based service

A system and method are provided for maintaining a historical record of anonymized user profile data for mobile device users and serving historical requests. In one embodiment, a central system, which includes one or more servers, operates to obtain current locations and user profiles for users of mobile devices. The central system processes the current locations and the user profiles of the users over time to maintain a historical record of anonymized user profile data by location. By anonymizing the user data, privacy of the users of the mobile devices is maintained. The central system may then use the historical record of anonymized user profile data to respond to historical requests. The historical requests may be made by users of the mobile devices, subscribers, and/or third-party services.

Serving a request for data from a historical record of anonymized user profile data in a mobile environment

A system and device are provided for intelligently, or programmatically, assigning weights for one or more criterion utilized to score media content items based on an analysis of a group of media content items. In general, scoring criteria to be used to score media content items for a user are defined. A group of media content items associated with the user is then analyzed with respect to the criteria to provide results such as a number or percentage of media content items from the group of media content items that satisfy each of the scoring criteria. Based on the results of the analysis, a weight is assigned to each of the scoring criteria. Thereafter, media content items are scored as a function of the weights assigned to the scoring criteria.

Intelligent default weighting process for criteria utilized to score media content items

A system and method for bandwidth sharing in a distributed wireless client application using inverse multiplexing termination. The system includes: a group of collocated client playback devices having wide area network (WAN) and local area network (LAN) connectivity, and a centralized inverse multiplexing (IMUX) server which optimizes shared bandwidth of both the WAN via inverse multiplexing and the LAN using either broadcast or multicast of all virtual multiplexing paths to all other client playback devices of the group of collocated client playback devices. Other embodiments are disclosed.

Bandwidth sharing in a distributed wireless client application using inverse multiplexing termination

Systems and methods are disclosed for creating a user profile for a subject user based on historical aggregate profile data for locations at which the subject user was previously located. In one embodiment, one or more location and time period pairs are determined for the subject user, each defining a previous location of the subject user and a time period during which the subject user was at the location. For a plurality of location and time period pairs, a plurality of historical aggregate profiles for a corresponding plurality of sub-bands within the time period defined by each location and time period pair in the plurality of location and time period pairs is obtained. A user profile for the subject user is created based on the plurality of historical aggregate profiles for the corresponding plurality of sub-bands based on relevancy ratings for the plurality of sub-bands.

Profile construction using location-based aggregate profile information

A system and method are provided for maintaining a historical record of anonymized user profile data for mobile device users. In one embodiment, a central system, which includes one or more servers, operates to obtain current locations and user profiles for users of mobile devices. The central system processes the current locations and the user profiles of the users over time to maintain a historical record of anonymized user profile data by location. By anonymizing the user data, privacy of the users of the mobile devices is maintained. The central system may then use the historical record of anonymized user profile data to respond to historical requests. The historical requests may be made by users of the mobile devices, subscribers, and/or third party services.

Maintaining a historical record of anonymized user profile data by location for users in a mobile environment

A system and method are provided for intelligently, or programmatically, assigning weights for one or more criterion utilized to score media content items based on an analysis of a group of media content items. In general, scoring criteria to be used to score media content items for a user are defined. A group of media content items associated with the user is then analyzed with respect to the criteria to provide results such as a number or percentage of media content items from the group of media content items that satisfy each of the scoring criteria. Based on the results of the analysis, a weight is assigned to each of the scoring criteria. Thereafter, media content items are scored for the user as a function of the weights assigned to the scoring criteria.

Systems and methods are disclosed for providing a Graphical User Interface (GUI) for representing a reference item and a number of items of interest. In one embodiment, each item of interest is assigned to one of a number of concentric regions in a two-dimensional space based on one or more attributes of the item of interest. The concentric regions in the two-dimensional space are centered at a location in the two-dimensional space that corresponds to the reference item. A GUI is then generated such that the GUI includes concentric display regions that correspond to the concentric regions in the two-dimensional space, where a select concentric display region provides an expanded view of the items of interest located within the corresponding region in the two-dimensional space and the remaining concentric display region(s) provide collapsed view(s) of the items of interest in the corresponding region(s) of the two-dimensional space.

Relative item of interest explorer interface

Systems and methods are disclosed for creating a user profile for a subject user based on historical aggregate profile data for locations at which the subject user was previously located. In one embodiment, one or more location and time period pairs are determined for the subject user. Each location and time period pair defines a previous location of the subject user and a time period during which the subject user was at the previous location. Historical aggregate profile data is obtained for the location and time period pairs. For each location and time period pair, the historical aggregate profile data is generally an aggregation of user profiles of a number of users relevant to the location and time period pair. A user profile for the subject user is then created based on the historical aggregate profile data for the one or more location and time period pairs.

A system and method are provided for maintaining a historical record of anonymized user profile data for mobile device users. In one embodiment, a central system, which includes one or more servers, operates to obtain current locations and user profiles for users of mobile devices. The central system processes the current locations and the user profiles of the users over time to maintain a historical record of anonymized user profile data by location. By anonymizing the user data, privacy of the users of the mobile devices is maintained. The central system may then use the historical record of anonymized user profile data to respond to historical requests. The historical requests may be made by users of the mobile devices, subscribers, and/or third-party services.

A system and method for tracking crowds of users are provided. In one embodiment, a central system, which includes one or more servers, operates to obtain current locations for users of mobile devices. Based on the current locations of the users, the central system forms crowds of users. As a result of movement of the users and corresponding location updates, the crowds move and change over time. In order to track at least some of the crowds, crowd snapshots for those crowds are created over time and stored. The crowd snapshots preferably maintain anonymity of the users in the crowd at the time the crowd snapshots are created. Thereafter, the crowd snapshots may be used to generate crowd tracking data for select crowds.

Anonymous crowd tracking

Systems and methods for allowing media recommendations to be hyped in a media recommendation system. Recommenders desiring to emphasize a particular media recommendations sent to recipients can 'hype' the media recommendation. Hyping is a request for the media recommendation to be used or played sooner by the recipient that it otherwise would if the media recommendation were not hyped. Typically, hyping a media recommendation increases its priority or order of placement in a recipient's media queue, which controls the order of usage or play. The higher the placement, the sooner the media recommendation may be used or played by the recipient. A hype score may be calculated for a hyped media's recommendation to control the order of placement of hyped media recommendations in the recipient's media queue. The hype score may be a function of a hype value and a natural score as if the media recommendation were not hyped.

Growing community of inventors

Durham, NC, United States of America

Sean T Purdy