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`Automatic Hierarchical Cateogrization of Music by Metadatas*
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`SONY Exhibit 1003 - Page 2
`SONYExhibit 1003 - Page 2
`
`

`

`PATENT
`Attorney Docket No.: 17002-022500US
`Client Reference No.: CT-1139
`
`AUTOMATIC HIERARCHICAL CATEGORIZATION OF MUSIC BY
`METADATA
`
`CROSS-REFERENCES TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
`This application is related to Application No. /,_, entitled “System for
`
`Selecting and Playing Songs in a Playback Device with a Limited User Interface,” (Atty.
`
`Docket No. 17002-020800); and Application No. /_,_, entitled “Audioplayback
`
`Device with Power Savings Storage Access Mode,” (Atty. Docket No. 17002-022400), all
`
`filed January 5, 2001, the disclosures of which are incorporated herein by reference.
`
`BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
`Today, portable consumerelectronic devices are more powerful than ever.
`
`For example, small, portable music playback devices can store hundreds, even thousands, of
`
`compressed songs and can play back the songs at high quality. With the capacity for so many
`
`songs, a playback device can store many songs from different albums,artists, styles of music,
`etc.
`
`Music jukeboxes implemented in software executed by a digital computer and
`
`portable MP3 and CD players both provide facilities for forming playlists. For example, the
`
`OOZICplayer, distributed by the assignee of the present application, runs on a host PC and
`
`has a playlist feature that allows selection of tracks from the PC’s hard disk to be included in
`
`the playlist.
`
`10
`
`
`
`As storage capacity increases and songs are compressedto shorterfile lengths
`
`the number of songs that can be stored increases rapidly. Major problemsfacing the
`
`25
`
`consumerare organizing and accessingthe tracks.
`
`Typically, portable devices have a user interface including a smatl screen and
`
`buttons. Using such a compact user interface to navigate and select among hundredsof songs
`
`is inefficient and often frustrating. The display screen can only showafew songtitles at one
`
`time, and the limited controls makeit difficult for a user to arbitrarily select, or move among,
`
`30
`
`the songs.
`
`The creation of playlists is one technique to organize the playing of songs. A
`
`set of songs can be includedin a playlist which is given a name and stored. Whenthe playlist
`
`is accessed, the set of songs can be played utilizing various formats such as sequential play or
`
`shuffle.
`
`SONY Exhibit 1003 - Page 3
`SONYExhibit 1003 - Page 3
`
`

`

`However, the creation ofplaylists itself becomes problematic as the numberof
`
`songs increases, since the user often arbitrarily selects songs from a large numberoftracks to
`form a playlist. This selection mechanism: can befairly tedious; does not necessarily
`produceplaylists that are of interest to the user over the course of time; may not remain
`
`up-to-date if new songs are added thatlogically fit into a previously created playlist(e.g.
`
`“Favorites by Band X” might become outof date if a new favorite by Band X is added after
`
`the playlist was created); and leads to “lost” songs that are not members of any playlist.
`
`Accordingly, improved techniques for organizing and grouping tracks useful
`
`in a portable music player are needed.
`
`SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
`According to one aspect of the present invention, a technique is provided for
`
`organizing tracks on a portable music player by automatically filing tracks in a hierarchical
`
`order based on attributes of the tracks.
`
`According to another aspect of the invention, metadata is associated with each
`
`track that is used to automatically define the track’s appropriate place in the hierarchy.
`
`According to another aspect of the invention, the hierarchy is displayed on the
`
`portable music player so that a user can traverse the organizational hierarchyto find
`
`individualtracks or find playlists composed oflogical groups of tracks.
`
`According to another aspect of the invention, the hierarchy is derived by using
`
`metadata associated with the audio content that was obtained through any source of metadata
`
`(c.g. CDDB metadata, id3 v2 metadata, other obtainable metadata) and subsequently stored
`
`with or alongside the file that stores the track.
`
`According to another aspect of the invention, a file is formatted so that an
`
`unaltered track is stored as file data and information about the track is stored in file attribute
`
`files.
`
`Other features and advantages of the invention will be apparent in view of the
`
`following detailed description and appended drawings.
`
`BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
`Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram ofa tree structure for hierarchicalfiling of
`
`tracks;
`
`10
`
`
`
`25
`
`30
`
`SONY Exhibit 1003 - Page 4
`SONYExhibit 1003 - Page 4
`
`

`

`Fig. 2 is a definition file that specifies the hierarchy depicted in Fig. 1;
`
`Fig. 3 is a user’s view of the hierarchy;
`
`Fig. 4 is a schematic diagram ofa user interface displaying the hierarchical
`
`category structure;
`
`Fig. 5 is a diagram ofa file format for storing filed data andfile attributes;
`
`Fig. 6 is a flow chart depicting steps for filing tracks according to the
`
`hierarchicaltree structure;
`
`Fig. 7 depicts a tree resulting from searching the tracks; and
`
`Fig. 8 depicts a format for a user interface.
`
`DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
`A preferred embodimentof the invention will now be described in the context
`
`of a portable personal player that plays audio files stored in memory. Thefiles may be in
`
`MP3, wav.or other digital formats.
`
`In the presently described embodiment, users are able to see the tracks on their
`
`player in some organized fashion other than as a single list of tracks. As will be described in
`
`more detail below, in one embodimenttracks are sorted utilizing a tree structure having
`
`branches labeled according to types of metadata associated with the tracks
`
`For example, a track recorded as “Golden Slumbers” by the Beatles that
`
`appears on their album “Hey Jude” might appear as a track under the album “Abbey Road” as
`
`well as a track underthelist of tracks by the Beatles. It might appear as a track underthe
`
`genre “Pop Rock”as well as “Songs from the 60’s.” Furthermore, the organization can have
`
`5
`
`10
`
`
`
`more complex hierarchies. For example, the category of “Pop Rock” might contain
`o9 ce
`
`25s
`
`subcategories “British Musicians,”
`
`“American Musicians” and “Other Musicians”. In all
`
`cases, the track is automatically filed into all appropriate locations without requiring user
`
`interaction.
`
`In the currently defined embodiment,a tree structure is defined byafile
`
`having the following structure.
`
`30
`
`Thefirst line of a TreeDef.inf file contains a version number:
`
`V1.0
`
`Each subsequentline(at least in v1.0) contains lines of the following format:
`
`CATEGORY_NAME|TRACK_TYPEMASKICATEGORY_STRUCTURE
`
`SONY Exhibit 1003 - Page 5
`SONYExhibit 1003 - Page 5
`
`

`

`CATEGORY_NAMEsare the top-level names of the branch under which
`
`tracks are sorted. They include things like “Album,” “Artist,” “Voice Tracks,” “All Tracks,”
`etc.
`
`TRACKTYPE_MASKstell which types of tracks are to be filed underthis
`
`5
`
`particular branch. The actual value is a hexadecimal numerical value (in ‘Ox’ format,e.g.
`
`0x01) generated by ORing the following flags together as appropriate:
`
`enum tTrackType
`4
`
`kTTNothing=0x00,
`kTTSong=0x01,
`
`kTTVoice=0x02,
`
`kKTTBook=0x04,
`
`kTTMacro=0x08,
`
`kTTPlaylist=0x10
`
`3
`
`So, for example, the “Album”branch has a TRACKTYPEMASKof
`
`kTTSong, because only songsare filed under that branch, but the “All Tracks” branch has a
`
`TRACKTYPEMASKof (kTTSong | kTTVoice | kKTTBook).
`
`Other elements might be added to tTrackType (e.g. kTTVideo) as appropriate.
`
`CATEGORY_STRUCTURESstell how to file the songs based on their
`
`10
`
`
`
`metadata information. The CATEGORYSTRUCTURE isastring of charactersthattell,
`
`from left to right, the order of hierarchy. The characters come from the following enum
`constants:
`
`25
`
`30
`
`enum tFileTag
`
`t
`
`kFTNone='"@',
`
`kFTTrackType="T’,
`
`kFTTitle="N',
`
`kFTAudioFile=F',
`
`kFTArtist='M',
`
`kFTAlbum="'L',
`
`SONY Exhibit 1003 - Page 6
`SONYExhibit 1003 - Page 6
`
`

`

`kFTGenre='G',
`
`kFTSource='S',
`
`kFTYear=’Y’,
`
`kFTArtistCountry=’C’
`
`3s
`
`Thus, a CATEGORY_STRUCTURE of LNtells to create a subcategory that
`
`is a list of Albums, each of which contains a list of Tracks.
`
`In total, a line like:
`
`Album|0x01|LN
`
`Says to create a branch called “Album”which contains tracks of type
`
`kTTSong organized first by album name, and then by track name.
`
`The following is an example ofa tree definition file similar (though not
`
`identical) to the hierarchy presented in the Nomad Jukebox product(the ‘B’ before each
`
`FileTag was used to identify that these are basic tags so that we wouldn’t run out of letters in
`
`the alphabet as we included more complex metadata — thus each group of twoletters
`
`represents a level in the hierarchy):
`
`V1.0
`
`Album/0x01/[BLBN
`
`Artist|0Ox01|]BMBN
`
`Genre|0x01|BGBN
`
`Voice Tracks|0x02/|BSBGBN
`
`Playlists/Ox10/BN
`
`Macros|0x08|BN
`
`All Tracks|0x07|BN
`
`10
`
`
`
`
`25
`
`Fig. 1 depicts a hypothetical organization hierarchy. The tree shows how
`
`tracks might be listed (as leaves in the tree) after having been organized. Example values for
`
`30
`
`nodes in the tree are shown as well. The same track may appear more than onceasa leaf in
`
`the tree, as described above, if it fits into multiple categories (e.g. a song that appears on the
`
`Abbey Road branch would also appear in the Beatles branch). In the example shown,the
`
`first branch contains tracks organized by album. As shownin the example, this music
`
`collection contains three tracks from “Abbey Road”and three tracks from “Hits from the
`
`SONY Exhibit 1003 - Page 7
`SONYExhibit 1003 - Page 7
`
`

`

`60’s”. The second branch contains tracks organized by artist, and sub organized by where the
`
`artist is from. Thus, a user browsing would first select the “Artists” branch and then choose
`
`between “British Artists” and “American Artists”, Finally, they would select the particular
`
`artist, In the third branch,all tracks are shown.
`
`Thetree definition file that would specify the hierarchy shown in Figure 1 is
`
`shown in Figure 2.
`
`The first line identifies the version ofthe tree definitionfile.
`
`The second line defines the “Albums” branch. Thefirst part of the line,
`
`10
`
`
`
`“Albums”defines the name of the branch. The second part, “Ox01,” defines that all musical
`
`tracks should be categorized on this branch. The third part, “BLBN,”defines that the branch
`
`lists first the namesof all albums (BL) and then tracks on those albums (BN).
`
`Thethird line defines the “Artists” branch. The first part of the line “Artists”
`
`defines the name of the branch. The secondpart,“0x01,” defines that all musical tracks
`
`should be categorized on this branch. Thethird part, “BCBMBN,”defines that the branch
`
`lists first the names ofall countries where artists in this collection come from (BC) and under
`
`those items, the artists’ names (BM), and then tracks by thoseartists (BN).
`
`Fig. 3 shows whata user’s view ofthis hierarchy might be if he/she were
`
`shown a fully expanded view of the 6-song tree. Notice that each song appears three times,
`
`once in each branch.
`
`In consumerproducts the tree define file is not edited directly but through a
`
`user interface, one example of which is depicted in Fig. 4. An example of a user interface for
`
`viewing songs by category and editing the tree structure is depicted in Fig. 4.
`
`An embodimentof the inventionis utilized in the Nomad® Jukebox,
`
`manufactured by the assignee of the present invention, and described more fully in the
`
`25
`
`copending application, filed on the same date as the present application, entitled “System for
`
`Selecting and Playing Songs in a Playback Device with a Limited User Interface,” (Attny.
`
`Docket No. 17002-020800).
`
`In a preferred embodiment, metadata is associated with each track and
`
`includes such informationastitle, genre, artist name, type, etc. In the preferred embodiment,
`
`30
`
`software stored in a portable player and executed by the onboard processor automatically
`
`files each track in the correct category utilizing the associated metadata and the tree define
`
`file. The program code can be stored in any computer readable medium including magnetic
`
`storage, CD ROM,optical media, or digital data encoded on an electromagnetic signal.
`
`SONY Exhibit 1003 - Page 8
`SONYExhibit 1003 - Page 8
`
`

`

`Thus, the user is automatically provided with a powerful and flexible tool for
`
`organizing and categorizing the tracks stored on the portable player.
`
`If the tracks are formatted in MP3 format the metadata can be stored in ID3
`
`tags included in the MP3file. In one embodimentof the invention, the tracks are stored in
`
`5
`
`alternate file format including file data and file attributes. The file data is the music track
`
`itself and the file attributes part of the file includes fields of arbitrary size which are used to
`
`store metadata characterizing the track stored as the file data. Again this metadata includes
`
`information about the track suchastitle, genre, artist name, type, etc.
`
`There are several advantages to using the alternate file format. Metadata of
`
`10
`
`types not easily included in an ID3 tag can be utilized. Further, the original track format is
`
`not changed, so that error correction data such as checksumsare valid. Finally, any file
`
`format can be used (e.g. WAV, WMA,etc.) because the metadata is stored separately, and
`
`thus audio formats that have limited support for metadata can still be stored on the portable
`
` player in native format without transcoding. The formatted files are formed by software
`
`stored in the portable music player and executed by an on-board processor.
`
`The metadata for each track is utilized to file each track, using the categories
`
`defined in the hierarchical structure as described above, without any input from the user.
`
`Fig. 5 is a schematic diagram ofthe alternative file format includingfile data
`
`in the form of an MP3 track, and metadata fields for holding data indicating the nameof the
`
`
`
`A particular embodimentof a file format will now be described. All tracks are
`
`created with someset of attributes as shown below:
`
`Definition of TrackInfo Data Field
`
`
`
`Attribute Count
`
`
`
`Attr 1 name len
`
` album the track is from, the nameofthe song, the genre of the song, and the type oftrack.
`
`
`
`
`
`
`Field Offset|Size Description
`
`
`The numberof attribute follow for the track
`
`Attr 1 type Binary = 0, ASCII = 1
`
`
`Length of attribute namestring
`
`Attr] data len Length of attribute data
`
`
`
`Attr 1 Data Attribute data
`
`
`Attrl Name
`
`Attribute namestring
`
`SONY Exhibit 1003 - Page 9
`SONYExhibit 1003 - Page 9
`
`

`

`
`
`
`
`Attr N type
`
`
`
`
`
`
`Attrl data len
`
`
`
`
`
`
`
`Attr 1 name len
`
`Attrl Name
`
`
`
`
`
`
`
`Attr 1 Data
`
`Required Attributes
`
`*
`
`
`Attribute Name
`Value(s)
`
`Remarks
`
`TITLE
`
`ASCII string
`
`Reg
`
`Jukebox
`
`
`
`CODEC “MP3”, “WMA”, “WAV”|RequiredBy Jukebox
`
`
`TRACKID
`DWORD
`
`Set By
`
`Jukebox
`
`ALBUM
`
`ASCII string
`
`
`ARTIST
`ASCII string
`
`GENRE
`
`LENGTH
`
`ASCII string
`
`In seconds
`
`
`TRACKSIZE
`In bytes
`
`Optional
`
`Optional
`
`Optional
`
`Optional
`
`Optional
`
`TRACK NUM
`
`1-n (rack within album
`
`Optional
`
`Theseattributes can be subsequently changeable via a host application,
`
`5
`
`running on a personal computer connected to the portable music player.
`
`Fig. 6 showsa flow chart of an embodiment the process used to build the
`
`hierarchical database of tracks. It starts by iterating through each track, and, for each track,
`
`iterating through each branchto find if the track belongs on the branch, and, if so, where. In
`
`this case, the term track could refer to any content, e.g. a music track, a spoken word track, or
`
`10
`
`even a videotrack.
`
`SONY Exhibit 1003 - Page 10
`SONYExhibit 1003 - Page 10
`
`

`

`Also, the hierarchical catalog of tracks can be used to form playlists in a
`
`structured manner. For example, if a user wants to hear Jazz and Blues the entire sub-
`
`categories can be selected to form oneplaylist.
`
`An alternative hierarchical catalog generation technique will now be
`
`described. In this alternative embodiment, at system startup and as tracks are added or
`
`changed,the hierarchy is generated as an in-memory tree structure. Each track is added to
`
`the tree using the categories ALBUM, ARTIST and GENRE.
`
`The following example showsthe algorithm for adding a track. Forclarity,
`
`only the attributes used by the tree are shown.
`
`10
`
`
`
`“Rock”
`
`1
`
`The following function is executed to build the in-memory memory tree.
`
`Build Tree Q
`
`For each track,
`
`Add Track To Category(Album,Track)
`
`Add Track To Category(Artist, Track)
`
`Add Track To Category(Genre,Track)
`
`End of Build Tree
`
`20
`
`Fig. 7 depicts a tree which could result from implementing Build Tree()
`
`function. Note that “Stardust” does not have any entries for Album or Artist. The host
`
`software running on a computer connected to the portable music player could be utilized to
`
`add missing attributes to the “Stardust” track and, optionally, edit the title attribute. The
`
`25
`
`Build TreeQ function would then reinsert this track in the correct location im the tree.
`
`Fig. 8 is an embodiment of a user interface according to another embodiment
`
`of the invention. In this example the root node is labeled “My Configuration” and the
`
`Playlist category has been selected and the Playlist subcategory “Meddle” has been selected.
`
`SONY Exhibit 1003 - Page 11
`SONYExhibit 1003 - Page 11
`
`

`

`Note that the types of Metadata, in this example, Track Name, Artist, Album, Tempo and.
`
`Dance, are listed across the top of the screen, and the attribute values for each trackare listed
`
`in a row across the screen. Various control buttons are displayed to the right of configuration
`
`window that facilitate quickly invoking selected processing on a selected track.
`
`5
`
`The invention has now been described with reference to the preferred
`
`embodiments. Alternatives and substitutions will now be apparent to personsofskill in the
`art.
`
`
`
`10
`
`SONY Exhibit 1003 - Page 12
`SONYExhibit 1003 - Page 12
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`

`

`
`
`=eOOWOWHYDNHNBPWN
`
`ewNe
`
`_
`
`SaDBwmB&BWDPHKe
`
`WHAT IS CLAIMEDIS:
`
`A method, performed by a processorin a portable digital music player,
`1.
`for filing audio tracks stored on a computer readable media, with each audio track having
`metadata associated therewith including category value data for namingattributes ofthe track
`and type data indicating the type of track, said method comprisingtheacts of:
`reading a definition file that defines an ordered hierarchical tree structure, with
`the file including category names for naming the branch underwhichtracksare sorted, track
`type information specifying which typeoftracks are to be sorted underthe branch, and
`structure information defining howto file tracks based on associated metadata;
`for eachtrack,iteratively determining, base on metadata describingthe track,
`if the track belongs in the branch, and, for each branch in which the track belongs, traversing
`the branch to determine the appropriate location to file the track.
`
`2.
`
`The method of claim 1, where said act of searching further comprises
`
`the acts of:
`
`utilizing track type information to file only tracks of a specified type under a
`particular branch.
`
`The methodof claim 1 further comprising the acts of:
`3.
`for each branch,utilizing category structure information to file tracks in a
`
`specified attribute order.
`
`The method of claim 1, where said portable digital music player
`4.
`includesa display screen and a userinterface for interacting with the display, further
`comprising the acts of:
`
`displaying the categories and subcategories on the display in a hierarchical
`
`order;
`
`displaying all names oftracks associated with a category or sub-category
`whena userutilizes the interface to select a category or sub-category;
`
`11
`
`SONY Exhibit 1003 - Page 13
`SONYExhibit 1003 - Page 13
`
`

`

`utilizing the pointer to access and play a track when a userselects a track
`
`name through the user interface. and
`
`10
`
`11
`
`utilizing the pointer to access and play a collection of tracks within a category
`or subcategory whena userselects a category or subcategory throughthe userinterface.
`
`A method, implemented by a processor in a portable digital music
`5.
`player, for associating metadata with audio tracks comprisingthe actsof:
`opening a formattedfile for each track comprisinga file data portion andafile
`attributes portion, with the file attributes portion includinga plurality of fields corresponding
`to category types and file types;
`
`OoOoITHmHFPWYYN
`aoaNOOF&FWYNYFS
`
`
`
`storing an unmodified audio track in thefile data portion of the formatted file;
`
`and
`
`storing category type and file type information about the unmodified track in
`
`correspondingfields.
`
`A method, performed by a processorin a portable digital music player,
`6.
`for filing audio tracks, stored on a computer readable media, under categories in an in-
`memory tree structure, with each audio track having metadata associated therewith including
`category name data for naming, said method comprising the acts of:
`
`upon startup or when a track is added or changed, searching the metadata of
`each track; and
`
`for each track, automatically filing the track by category name under each
`
`selected category to form a hierarchicaltrack filing scheme.
`
`7.
`
`The method of claim 6 further comprising theactof:
`
`selecting the categories to be the Album includingthetrack,the title of the
`
`track, and the nameofthe artist that recorded the track.
`
`12
`
`SONY Exhibit 1003 - Page 14
`SONYExhibit 1003 - Page 14
`
`

`

`includes a display screen andauser interface for interacting with the display, further
`
`8.
`
`The methodof claim 6, where said portable digital music player
`
`10
`
`0ONDOHBPWYYH
`OoOtDANHFPWDNYN
`SebhWwWNHFF©
`
`
`
`comprising the acts of:
`
`displaying the categories on the display in a hierarchical order;
`
`displaying all namesoftracks associated with a category when a userutilizes
`
`the interface to select a category ;
`
`accessing and playing a track whena userselects a track name through the
`user interface. and
`
`accessing and playing a collection of tracks within a category when a user
`
`selects a category throughthe user interface.
`
`9.
`
`A computer program product comprising:
`
`a computer readable medium having program code embodied therein for filing
`
`audio tracks stored on a computer readable media, with each audio track having metadata
`
`associated therewith including category value data for namingattributes of the track and type
`data indicating the type oftrack, said program code comprising:
`
`program code, executed by a processor, for reading a definition file that
`
`defines an ordered hierarchical tree structure, with the file including category names for
`naming the branch under whichtracks are sorted, track type information specifying which
`type oftracksare to be sorted underthe branch, andstructure information defining how to
`file tracks based on associated metadata;
`
`program code, executed by a processor, for each track, for iteratively
`
`determining, base on metadata describing the track, if the track belongsin the branch, and,
`
`for each branch in which the track belongs, traversing the branch to determine the appropriate
`location to file the track.
`
`10.
`
`A computer program product comprising:
`
`nA&WwWNY
`
`a computer readable medium for having program code embodied therein for
`filing audio tracks, stored on a computer readable media, under categories in an in-memory
`tree structure, with each audio track having metadata associated therewith including category
`name data for naming, said program code comprising:
`
`13
`
`SONY Exhibit 1003 - Page 15
`SONYExhibit 1003 - Page 15
`
`

`

`OoOnDN
`
`program code, executed by a processor, upon startup or when a track is added
`
`or changed, for searching the metadata of each track; and
`
`program code, executed by a processor, for each track, for automatically filing
`
`the track by category name under each selected category to form a hierarchical track filing
`
`10
`
`scheme.
`
`
`
`14
`
`SONY Exhibit 1003 - Page 16
`SONYExhibit 1003 - Page 16
`
`

`

`PATENT
`Attorney Docket No.: 17002-022500US
`Client Reference No.: CT-1139
`
`AUTOMATIC HIERARCHICAL CATEGORIZATION OF MUSIC BY
`METADATA
`
`ABSTRACTOF THE DISCLOSURE
`A method, performed by software executing on the processor of a portable
`
`5
`
`music playback device, that automatically files tracks according to hierarchical structure of
`
`categories to organize tracks in a logical order. A user interface is utilized to change the
`
`hierarchy, view track names, and select tracks for playback or other operations.
`
`SF 1174925 v2
`
`
`
`15
`
`SONY Exhibit 1003 - Page 17
`SONYExhibit 1003 - Page 17
`
`

`

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