U.S. patent application number 13/198977 was filed with the patent office on 2013-02-07 for system and method for managing and distributing audio recordings.
The applicant listed for this patent is Jeffrey Stier. Invention is credited to Jeffrey Stier.
Application Number | 20130033971 13/198977 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 47626878 |
Filed Date | 2013-02-07 |
United States Patent
Application |
20130033971 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
Stier; Jeffrey |
February 7, 2013 |
System and Method for Managing and Distributing Audio
Recordings
Abstract
Disclosed are system, methods and computer program products for
recording, playing back, responding to and sharing audio
recordings. In one example embodiment, the system includes an audio
management server that stores and distributes through various
third-party websites audio clips, such as voice, music, sounds, and
other recordings made by system users. The audio clips can be
recorded by system users directly through a central website hosted
by the server. Alternatively, the audio clips can be recorded on
various third-party websites using audio widgets provided by the
audio management server. In addition, the recorded audio clips can
be shared on various other third-party websites, such as blogs,
social networking sites, celebrity sites and the like, using the
audio widget provided by the server.
Inventors: |
Stier; Jeffrey; (New York,
NY) |
|
Applicant: |
Name |
City |
State |
Country |
Type |
Stier; Jeffrey |
New York |
NY |
US |
|
|
Family ID: |
47626878 |
Appl. No.: |
13/198977 |
Filed: |
August 5, 2011 |
Current U.S.
Class: |
369/1 ;
G9B/27.005 |
Current CPC
Class: |
H04N 21/6125 20130101;
H04N 21/8106 20130101; H04N 21/8586 20130101; H04N 21/2743
20130101; H04N 21/4622 20130101; H04N 21/8173 20130101; H04N 21/251
20130101; H04N 21/4143 20130101; H04N 21/4753 20130101; H04N
21/25866 20130101; H04N 21/8352 20130101 |
Class at
Publication: |
369/1 ;
G9B/27.005 |
International
Class: |
G11B 27/022 20060101
G11B027/022 |
Claims
1. A method for recording, playing back, responding to and sharing
audio clips comprising: providing to a first third-party website an
audio widget that allows website visitors to record, play back,
respond to and share audio clips; receiving from the audio widget
an audio clip recorded by a first website visitor and an identifier
of the first third-party website where the audio clip was recorded;
storing information received from the audio widget in an audio
server; posting on the first third-party website at least one of a
link to the audio clip and the audio widget operable to play back,
respond to and share the audio clip; receiving from the audio
widget on the first third-party website a request by the website
visitor to share the audio clip on a second third-party website;
and posting on the second third-party website at least one of the
link to the audio clip and the audio widget operable to play back,
respond to and share the audio clip.
2. The method of claim 1 further comprising: receiving from the
second third-party website a request by a second website visitor to
play back the audio clip, wherein the request includes the link to
the audio clip; and redirecting the second website visitor to the
first third-party website where the second website visitor can play
back the audio clip using the audio widget.
3. The method of claim 2, wherein storing information received from
the audio widget in an audio server further comprises: assigning by
the audio server a unique identifier to the audio clip; and
generating by the audio server a link to the audio clip, the link
comprising an identifier of the audio server and the unique
identifier of the audio clip.
4. The method of claim 3, wherein storing information received from
the audio widget in the audio server further comprises: requesting
the first website visitor to provide login information to the audio
server, the login information including first website visitor's
username and password; if the first website visitor provides the
requested login information, accessing a user account of said first
website visitor in the audio server; and storing in the user
account the unique identifier of the audio clip and the identifier
of the first third-party website; and if the first website visitor
does not provide the requested login information, unanimously
storing on the audio server the unique identifier of the audio clip
and the identifier of the first third-party website.
5. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving from the first
third-party website a request to share the audio clip on a second
third-party website further comprises: requesting the first website
visitor to provide a login information for the second third-party
website, the login information including visitor's username and
password; and if the first website visitor provides the requested
login information, posting on the second third-party website the
link to the audio clip.
6. The method of claim 4 further comprising: receiving by the audio
server a request to display user account statistics data;
collecting statistics data from the user account, the statistics
data includes one or more of a list of all audio clips recorded by
the account user, a list of third-party websites where the audio
clips were posted, the number of times each audio clip was played
back; and displaying the collected statistics data in a user
interface of the audio server.
7. A method for recording, playing back, responding to and sharing
audio clips comprising: storing in an audio server a first audio
clip recorded on a first third-party website; posting on a second
third-party website a link for accessing the first audio clip;
receiving a request from a website visitor to play back the first
audio clip, wherein the request includes a link to the first audio
clip on the audio server; determining if the playback request came
from the first or second third-party website; if the playback
request came from the first third-party website where the first
audio clip was recorded, providing to the first third-party website
the first audio clip and an audio widget operable to play back,
respond to and share the first audio clip; and if the playback
request came from the second third-party website, redirecting the
website visitor to the first third-party website and providing to
the first third-party website the first audio clip and the audio
widget operable to play back, respond to and share the audio
clip.
8. The method of claim 7, wherein storing in an audio server a
first audio clip further comprises: assigning by the audio server a
unique identifier to the first audio clip; and generating by the
audio server a link to the first audio clip, the link comprising an
identifier of the audio server and the unique identifier of the
first audio clip.
9. The method of claim 7, wherein determining if the playback
request came from the first or second third-party website further
comprises: determining from the playback request a website which
sent the playback request; and comparing said website with the
first website where the first audio clip was recorded.
10. The method of claim 7, wherein, after the playback of the audio
clip on the first website, identifying a user of the audio server
who recorded the first audio clip; accessing a user account of the
identified user in the audio server; updating in the user account a
playback counter associated with the first audio clip; and if the
playback request came from the second third-party website, storing
in the user account an identifier of the second third-party
website.
11. The method of claim 7 further comprising: receiving from the
website visitor a request to record a second audio clip in response
to the first audio clip recorded on the first third-party website;
recording the second audio clip using the audio player widget of
the first website; and posting on the first and second third-party
websites links to the second audio clip.
12. The method of claim 11 further comprising: receiving from the
website visitor a request to record a third audio clip in response
to the second clip recorded on the first third-party website;
recording the third audio clip using the audio widget of the first
website; and posting on the first and second third-party websites
links to the third audio clip.
13. A method for recording, playing back, responding to and sharing
audio clips comprising: receiving from a second third-party website
a request by a website visitor to play back a first audio clip
recorded on a first third-party website; redirecting the website
visitor to the first third-party website; providing to the first
website the requested first audio clip and an audio widget operable
to play back, respond to and share the first audio clip; receiving
from the first third-party website a request by the website visitor
to record a second audio clip in response to the first audio clip;
recording the second audio clip using the audio widget on the first
third-party website; posting on the first and second third-party
websites at least one of links to the first and second audio clip
and audio widgets for playback, responding to and sharing of said
audio clips.
14. The method of claim 13 further comprising: storing in an audio
server (i) the first audio clip and a unique identifier of the
first audio clip (ii) the second audio clip and a unique identifier
of the second audio clip; and (iii) an indicator that the second
audio clip was recorded in response to the first audio clip.
15. The method of claim 13 further comprising: determining whether
the first and second audio clips were recorded by the same or
different website visitors.
16. The method of claim 15, wherein, if the first and second audio
clips were recorded by the same website visitor, the method further
comprises: identifying said website visitor in user account records
of an audio server; accessing a user account of said website
visitor in the audio server; and storing in the user account (i)
the identifier of the first audio clip and an identifier of the
first third-party website; (ii) the identifier of the second audio
clip and an identifier of the second third-party website; and (iii)
the indicator that the second audio clip was recorded in response
to the first audio clip.
17. The method of claim 15, wherein, if the first and second audio
clips were recorded by different website visitors, the method
further comprises: identifying a first website visitor who recorded
the first audio clip; accessing a first user account of the first
website visitor in the audio server; storing in the first user
account the identifier of the first audio clip, an identifier of
the first website, the identifier of the second audio clip, and the
indicator that the second audio clip was recorded in response to
the first audio clip; and identifying a second website visitor who
recorded the second audio clip; accessing a second user account of
the second website visitor in the audio server; storing in the
second user account the identifier of the second audio clip, an
identifier of the second website, the identifier of the first audio
clip, and the indicator that the second audio clip was recorded in
response to the first audio clip.
18. The method of claim 13 further comprising: receiving from the
website visitor a request to display one or more second audio clips
recorded in response to the first audio clip; identifying in the
audio server at least one second audio clip recorded in response to
the first audio clip by at least one second website visitor; and
displaying a list of one or more second audio clips to the website
visitor.
Description
TECHNICAL FIELD
[0001] The present invention relates to the field of management and
distribution of audio recordings and, in particular, to systems,
methods and computer program products for recording, playing back,
responding to and sharing audio clips on the Internet.
BACKGROUND
[0002] The popularity of the Internet and World Wide Web has
spurred the growth in the number of online blogs, chats, social
networking sites, celebrity sites and other types of websites that
facilitate communication between website visitors. Typically,
visitors can post text, graphics and video content, view content
posted by other visitors and comment on the content posted on these
websites. However, visitors' comments are typically limited to text
or simple graphics due to limitations of the current Web
technologies. In particular, currently-available systems do not
efficiently allow visitors to record audio comments associated with
content published on the website, share the recorded audio comments
with other website visitors, respond in audio form to the recorded
audio comments, and publish the recorded audio comments on other
Web platforms, thereby fueling further discourse. Accordingly,
there is a need for a new system for management and distribution of
audio comments on the Web.
SUMMARY
[0003] Disclosed are system, methods and computer program products
for recording, playing back, responding to and sharing audio
comments or clips on the Internet. In one example embodiment, the
system includes an audio management server that stores and
distributes audio clips, such as voice, music, sounds, and other
recordings made by system users. In one example embodiment, the
audio clips can be recorded by system users directly through a
central website hosted by the server. In another example
embodiment, the audio clips can be recorded on various third-party
websites, such as blogs, social networking sites, celebrity sites
and the like, using audio web widgets provided by the audio
management server. Yet in another embodiment, audio clips can be
recorded using an application for a smart phone, tablet computer or
other portable electronic device provided by the audio management
server.
[0004] In one example embodiment, a method for recording, playing
back, responding to and sharing audio clips involves the audio
server receiving from a first third-party website a request by a
website visitor to record an audio clip. The audio management
server provides to the first website an audio widget operable to
record, play back, respond to and share audio clips. The audio
widget records an audio clip from a website visitor, assigns a
unique identifier to the recorded audio clip and a unique
identifier of the first website, and returns this information to
the audio server. The server stores the received information in a
database. The server then provides to the audio widget a link to be
posted on the first website for accessing the recorded audio clip
through the audio widget. If the server receives from the audio
widget on the first website a request by the website visitor to
share the audio clip on a second third-party website, the server
posts on the second website the link or the audio widget for
accessing the recorded audio clip through the first website where
the audio clip was recorded.
[0005] In another example embodiment, a method for recording;
playing back, responding to and sharing audio clips comprises the
audio management server storing an audio clip recorded on a first
third-party website. The server then posts on a second third-party
website a link for accessing the audio clip. When the server
receives a request by a website visitor to play back the audio
clip, the server determines if the playback request came from the
first third-party website or the second third-party website. If the
request came from the first third-party website where the audio
clip was recorded, the server provides to the first third-party
website the requested audio clip and an audio widget operable to
play back, respond to and share the requested audio clip. If the
request came from the second third-party website, the server
redirects the website visitor to the first website where the audio
clip was recorded for playback of the audio clip on the first
website using the audio widget of the first third-party
website.
[0006] In another example embodiment, a method for recording,
playing back, responding to and sharing audio clips comprises the
audio management server receiving from a second website a request
by a website visitor to play back a first audio clip, which was
recorded on a first website and whose link was posted on the second
website. The server redirects the visitor to the first website
where the audio clip was recorded and provides to the first website
the requested first audio clip and an audio widget operable to play
back, respond to and share the first audio clip. When the server
receives from the first third-party website a request by the
website visitor to record a second audio clip in response to the
first audio clip, the server instructs the audio widget on the
first website to record the second audio clip. The server then
posts on the first and second third-party websites links for
accessing the first and second audio clip and/or the audio widgets
for playing back, responding to and sharing the audio clips.
[0007] The above simplified summary of example embodiments serves
to provide a basic understanding of the invention. This summary is
not an extensive overview of all contemplated aspects of the
invention, and is intended to neither identify key or critical
elements of all embodiments nor delineate the scope of any or all
embodiments. Its sole purpose is to present one or more embodiments
in a simplified form as a prelude to the more detailed description
of the invention that follows. To the accomplishment of the
foregoing, the one or more embodiments comprise the features
described and particularly pointed out in the claims.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0008] The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated into and
constitute a part of this specification, illustrate one or more
example embodiments of the invention and, together with the
detailed description serve to explain their principles and
implementations.
[0009] In the drawings:
[0010] FIG. 1 illustrates a schematic diagram of the audio
management system in accordance with one example embodiment.
[0011] FIG. 2 illustrates one example embodiment of the audio
widget.
[0012] FIG. 3 illustrates an exemplary interface of the audio
management application.
[0013] FIG. 4 illustrates another exemplary interface of the audio
management application.
[0014] FIGS. 5A and B illustrate a flow chart of a method of
operation of the audio management system in accordance with one
example embodiment.
[0015] FIGS. 6A and B illustrate a flow chart of another method of
operation of the audio management system in accordance with another
example embodiment.
[0016] FIGS. 7A and B illustrate a flow chart of yet another method
of operation of the audio management system in accordance with
another example embodiment.
[0017] FIG. 8 illustrates a schematic diagram of a computer system
in accordance with one example embodiment.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EXAMPLE EMBODIMENTS
[0018] Example embodiments of the present invention are described
herein in the context of systems, methods and computer program
products for recording, playing back, responding to and sharing of
audio clips through a plurality of third-party websites. Those of
ordinary skill in the art will realize that the following
description is illustrative only and is not intended to be in any
way limiting. Other embodiments will readily suggest themselves to
those skilled in the art having the benefit of this disclosure.
Reference will now be made in detail to implementations of the
example embodiments of the invention as illustrated in the
accompanying drawings. The same reference indicators will be used
to the extent possible throughout the drawings and the following
description to refer to the same or like items.
[0019] FIG. 1 illustrates one exemplary embodiment of a system for
managing and distributing audio recordings. The system 100
comprises a computer server 110 with an audio management
application 120 deployed thereon, an audio content database 130,
and a user account database 140. In one embodiment, the system 100
is accessible via the Internet 150 by visitors 163, 165 and 175 of
third-party websites 160 and 170, which may interact with the audio
management application 120 via application program interfaces
(APIs) 121 and 121. A third-party website includes a website
owned/operated by an individual or company unaffiliated with
owner/operator of system 100, but which may be registered with
system 100. In another embodiment, the system 100 may be directly
accessed by registered user 185 and 195 through a central website
125 provide by application 120 hosted by the audio management
server 110. In one example embodiment, the server 110 may comprise
a single server or a group of servers. In another embodiment, the
system 100 may employ cloud servers, whereby the number of servers
110 may be scalable and may differ at any given time, depending on
the number of users and/or visitors who are utilizing the system
100 at different time points.
[0020] In one example embodiment, the audio management application
120 may be implemented as a stand-alone application for use on a
portable communication device, such as a smart phone or a tablet
computer. In this case, the application 120 will utilize device's
wireless or cellular network interface to communicate with the
audio management server 110. In this embodiment, the application
120 will include substantially the same functionality as in the
embodiments of the web-based application 120 described above. In
particular, the application 120 may be configured to perform the
functions of recording audio clips on the portable communication
device, playback of the recorded audio clips, storage of the audio
clips on the server 110, retrieval of audio clips and responses to
the audio clips from the server 110, recording of response audio
clips, and sharing of audio clips on various third-party websites.
Other functionality of the application 120 for portable
communication devices may include, but not limited to customization
of audio web widgets posted on third-party websites, geo tagging of
the recorded audio clips or response audio clips, attachment of
photos to the audio clips, etc.
[0021] In one example embodiment, an audio management application
120 provides a central website 125, accessible via a Web browser to
registered system users 185 and 195. Access to the website 125 may
be controlled, so that the user must log in or be otherwise
authenticated as being authorized to use the application 120. In
one example embodiment, the application 120 allows registered users
185 and 195 to record audio clips, playing back the recorded clips,
share the recorded audio clips through various social networking
sites, such as Facebook.RTM. and Twitter.RTM., email the recorded
audio clips to others, listen to audio responses recorded by
others, and record responses to the audio clips through the website
125. In other example embodiments, the application 120 also allows
registered users 185 and 195 to review statistical information
about the number of times the user-recorded audio clips were played
back and the source websites from which the audio clips were
accessed for playback.
[0022] To effectuate the above functions, the audio management
system 100 maintains an audio content database 130 and a user
account database 140. In one example embodiment, the audio content
database 130 stores all recorded audio clips along with a unique
identifier of each audio clip and identifier of the source website
(e.g., website's URL) where the clip was recorded. The audio clips
can be stored in MP3 format or other known digital audio encoding
format. In another example embodiment, the audio content database
130 may also stores additional metadata associated with the audio
clips including, but not limited to, the descriptive name of the
clip, duration of clip, text comments associated with the clip,
photos or other images associated with the clip and other metadata.
In one example embodiment, the audio content database 130 may also
store, for each audio clip, a list of identifiers of related audio
clips, e.g., one or more audio clips recorded in response to the
original audio clip. In this manner, the server 110 can reconstruct
an audio conversation thread between users.
[0023] In one example embodiment, the user account database 140
stores a plurality of user accounts of registered users 185 and
195. Each user account may include user's name and logging
information. Each user account further contains a list of
identifiers of audio clips recorded by the user, identifier of a
source website (e.g., website's URL) where each clip was recorded,
identifiers of the websites (e.g., websites' URLs) where the audio
clips were shared, information about the number of times each audio
clip was played back, identifiers of websites from which the audio
clips were accessed. The following list is not inclusive and there
may be other items of information stored in the user account
database 140. For example, the user account may also store
user-provided customization data for audio widgets used for
recording, playing back, responding to and sharing audio clips on
third-party websites 160 and 170, as will be described in a greater
detail below. In one example, the non-audio related metadata
described above, such as text comments, photos and images,
associated with the audio clips may be stored in the user account
database 140 instead of the audio content database 130. Yet in
another example, the user account may store login information for
other websites, such as Facebook.RTM. and Twitter.RTM., through
which the user may wish to share the recorded audio clips.
[0024] As indicated above, the recording, playback, responding to
and sharing of audio clips on third-party websites 160 or 170 may
be implemented using an audio web widget 161 or 171 provided by the
audio management server 110 in accordance with one example
embodiment. An audio widget may be implemented as a stand-alone web
application or script provided by the server 110 that can be
embedded into third-party websites by a website owner/developer.
Alternatively, the audio widget may be provided as a downloadable
web application or script implemented using Web technologies, such
as JavaScript, Flash, HTML and CSS. In the latter case, the owner
of the third-party website 160 may post on its site a link (e.g.,
an HTML button), which, when activated by a website visitor 163,
would instruct the visitor's Web browser to retrieve from the audio
management server 110 an audio widget 161 for recording, playback,
responding to and sharing of audio clips on the website 160. The
audio widget 161 may be activated as a pop-up widget or an inline
widget anywhere on the website 160.
[0025] FIG. 2 depicts one example embodiment of the audio widget
provided by the audio management server 110. Audio widget 200 may
be downloaded/activated when a website visitor 163 clicks "record
blurt" button 205 posted on the third-party website 160. In one
example embodiment, the audio widget 200 may have a multi-modular
format with each module 210-240 performing one or more different
functions. The modules may be closed by the user or automatically
when it is no longer needed. Modules 210 and 220 may be used to
record a new audio clip. Module 215 provides a record button 215
for recording a new audio clip. The duration of the recording may
be limited to 30 seconds or different duration. Pressing of the
record button 210 activates Wowza.RTM. Media Server or another
application capable of recording/playback of streaming audio from
the visitor's computer microphone in real-time. The recording may
be stopped using stop button 225. The widget 200 may encapsulate
the recorded audio clip in a FLV container and transcode it into
MP3 format. The widget 200 then uses APIs 121 and 121 to send the
audio clip to the server 110 for storage in the database 130.
[0026] In one example embodiment, the audio management server 110
assigns a unique identifier to the new audio clip, stores the audio
clip in the audio content database 130, and returns to the audio
widget 200 a link 235 for accessing the audio clip for playback.
The audio clip may be played back using players 233 of module 230.
In one example embodiment, the audio clip link 235 may include a
URL of the server 130 (e.g., http://blurts.com) and the unique
identifier of the audio clip (e.g., abc121). In one example
embodiment, the server 110 may automatically post the audio clip
link 235 on the website 160, so when the visitor 163 leaves the
website 160 and a new visitor 165 subsequently visits the website
160, the audio clip link 235 will be displayed on the website 160.
The visitor 165 may play back, respond to and share the audio clip
associated with link 235 using module 240 of the embedded audio
widget 200. If the audio widget 200 is not embedded on the website
160, it may be loaded by the visitor's Web browser when the visitor
165 clicks on the audio clip link 235 posted on the website
160.
[0027] In one example embodiment, the audio widget 200 also allows
the website visitor 163 to store the recorded audio clip into
his/her account on the audio management server 110. In particular,
if the website visitor 163 is a registered user of the audio
management application 120, or wishes to become one, the visitor
may login into his/her user account, or open a new account, by
pressing "account" button 231 of the widget 200 and entering user
name and login information. The widget 200 will pass this
information through APIs 121 and 121 to the audio management
application 120. The application 120 will use the received
information to identify visitor's user account in the database 140
and update it with information about newly recorded audio clip.
This information may include, but not limited to, the assigned
identifier of the audio clip and an identifier of the website 160
where the audio clip was recorded. If the visitor 163 does not
register with or have a user account on the server 110, the
recorded audio clip may be saved anonymous by the audio management
server 110 according to one embodiment.
[0028] In another example embodiment, the audio widget 200 also
allows visitors to share the recorded audio clips through various
Web platforms, such as popular social networking sites, and the
like. In particular, when the visitor 163 presses "share" button
237, the audio widget 200 opens a menu of third-party platforms
with which the audio clip can be shared. The available Web
platforms include, but not limited to: Facebook.RTM., Twitter.RTM.,
LinkedIn.RTM., MySpace.RTM., Google+.RTM., Flickr.RTM. and the
like. The visitor 163 may select one or more websites 170 for
sharing the audio clip and provide the required website login
information. If the visitor 163 is already registered with the
server 110, the server will retrieve from the visitor's user
account in the database 140 the required login information for the
selected website 170. This information may have been previously
provided by the user during the registration process. The server
110 will then post on the selected website 170, directly or using a
third-party service, the audio clip link 235 for accessing the
audio clip from the audio management server 110.
[0029] Once the audio clip link 235 is posted on another website
170, such as Facebook.RTM., Twitter.RTM. or other social networking
site, the system 100 allows a visitor 175 of the website 170 to
play back, respond to and further share the audio clip. In
particular, when the visitor 175 clicks on the audio clip link 235
posted on the website 170, the visitors' Web browser sends an HTML
request to the audio management server 110 to retrieve the audio
clip associated with the link. In response, the server 110
retrieves a unique identifier of the audio clip from the link 235
and uses it to identify the associate audio clip. The server 110
also compares an identifier of the website from which the request
for the audio clip came from with the identifier of the website
where the audio clip was recorded, which is stored in the audio
content database 130. In the given example, the audio clip was
recorded on website 160 and the request for the audio clip came
from website 170. Therefore, server 110 will determine that two
website identifiers are different. When the two website identifiers
are different, the server 110 is configured to redirect the
visitor's Web browser to the website 160 wherein the clip was
recorded. Once on the website 160, the server 110 activates the
audio widget 200, which in turn loads the requested audio clip for
playback using player 243 of the module 240 to the visitor 175.
[0030] In one example embodiment, the audio widget 200 also allows
website visitor 175 (or visitor 165) to record their own second
audio clip in response to the first audio clip recorded by visitor
163. In particular, once the visitor 175 listened to the first
audio clip using module 240 of the audio widget 200, the visitor
may press "blurt-back" button 245, which activates modules 210 and
220 for recording and storing a second audio clip. Functionality of
these modules has been described above. Once the second audio clip
is recorded and stored by the by the audio content database 130, a
registered visitor 175 may store the recorded audio clip into
his/her account on the audio management server 110, as described
above. In addition, the server 100 associates the identifier of the
second audio clip with the identifier of the second audio clip in
the database 130 to indicate that the second audio clip relates to
the first audio clip, whereby reconstructing an audio conversation
thread among multiple system users.
[0031] Yet in another example embodiment, the visitor 175 or any
other visitor of the website 160 may view and play back the entire
audio conversation thread comprising multiple audio clips recorded
by various visitors of website 160 or other websites where the
audio clip was shared. In particular, the visitor 175 can press
"blurt-backs" button 247 of the module 240 of the audio widget 200
in response to which the widget retrieves from the server 100
information about all audio clips related to (e.g., recorded in
response to) the first audio clip or any other clip in the audio
conversation thread. The audio widget 200 may than generate a copy
of module 240 for each related audio clip in the given audio
conversation thread. For each audio clip, the module 240 may
indicated the name of the user who recorded the clip (or anonymous
user if the audio clip was recorded by an unregistered visitor),
the date and time when the audio clip was recorded, and an
identifier of the website where the clip was recorded or from which
the visitor who recorded the clip was redirected from. The visitor
175 may then play back each audio clip one at a time using player
243 of the module 240 of the widget 200.
[0032] Yet in another embodiment, the visitor 175 may share any one
of the related audio clips through various Web platforms, such as
popular social networking sites and the like. In particular, the
visitor 175 may press "share" button 237 in the module 240 and the
audio widget 200 will opens a menu of third-party Web platforms on
which the audio clip can be shared. As indicated above, the
available Web platforms include, but not limited to: Facebook.RTM.,
Twitter.RTM., LinkedIn.RTM., MySpace.RTM., Google+.RTM.,
Flickr.RTM. and others. The visitor 175 may then select one or more
websites 170 for sharing the audio clip and provide the required
website login information. The server 110 will then post an audio
clip link 235 on the selected website 170. In this manner, by
sharing links to the first audio clip recorded on website 160 to
other websites, the visitor traffic from those websites is driven
to the website 160, where through multiple audio responses to the
first audio clip, a single audio clip grows into an audio
conversation thread consisting of numerous audio clips recorded by
different visitors.
[0033] As mentioned above, the information about audio conversation
threads is collected by the audio management application 120 and
stored in the accounts of registered users. This information may be
accessed by a registered system user through the central website
125 provided by the application 120. FIG. 3 depicts an exemplary
user account interface of the central website 125. The interface
300 includes information about each audio conversation thread
initiated by the user of said account. Section 310 shows the
original audio clip recorded by the user and various associated
metadata, such as title, time and date of recoding, audio clip
link, duration of the clip, and the number of times the clip was
shared and where. Section 320 shows a list of audio responses
associated with the original audio clip as well as various
information about the audio response, including but not limited to
the title of each clip, time and date of recoding, audio clip link,
duration of the clip, the number of times the clip was shared and
where, and the names of users who recorded the response clips.
[0034] FIG. 4 depicts another exemplary user account interface of
the central website 125 provided by of the application 120. This
interface 400 shows statistical information about audio clip 405
and associated audio conversation thread. For example, section 410
shows a list of listening sources, i.e., the URLs of websites where
audio clip 405 was played back or was redirected for playback from.
Pie chart 420 shows the number of times that audio clip 405 was
played back. Time chart 430 tracks the number of listens of clip
405 over time. The collected statistical information is not limited
to the above-described and may include other types of information
about audio clips and the associated audio conversation thread. In
addition, other graphical or numerical forms may be used to
represent the collected statistical data.
[0035] In one example embodiment, the audio management server 110
may perform a speech-to-text conversion of the stored audio clips
for data mining or other purposes. For example, the server 110 may
analyze the text of an individual audio clips or the entire audio
conversation thread to determine its subject matter. This
information may be used to determine interests and views of the
user who recorded the original clip as well as to identify other
users who contributed to the audio conversation thread, and
therefore share similar interests or views. In addition, this
information may be used to monetize the audio management system by
inserting contextual ads into the audio widget 200 when it plays
back a particular audio clip. Thus, for example, if an audio
conversation thread published on website 160 discusses a new model
of a gaming console, and the audio conversation thread between
several website visitors indicates that these visitors are
interested in purchasing the discussed gaming console, the audio
management server 110 may insert an advertisement of a major
consumer electronics retailer with a discount or sale offer on the
discussed gaming console.
[0036] Yet in one example embodiment, the users of the audio
management system 100 may monetize their audio clips by charging
listeners for each playback of the audio clip. For example, a
celebrity person may register with the audio management system 100
and record using the central website 125 a short statement,
announcement or message to his/her fans, and share the recorded
audio clip on his/her Facebook.RTM. or Twitter.RTM. webpage. The
server 110 would allow the celebrity to assign a monetary value
(e.g., $0.10) for each listen of the audio clip. The audio widget
200 and server 110 may be configured to use PayPal.RTM. or other
online money transfer system to collect payments from listeners and
transfer the money to the celebrity's account. If the celebrity has
a large number of Facebook or Twitter followers, the celebrity may
collect substantial amount of money from the fans who listened to
his/her audio clips. In another example embodiment, the celebrity
may embed the audio widget 200 on his personal website, record the
audio clips on his personal website, and post the clips on his/her
Facebook.RTM. or Twitter.RTM. webpages. When the fans will click on
the audio clip link, they will be redirected to celebrity's
personal website, thereby driving visitor traffic to celebrity's
website.
[0037] FIGS. 5A and B depict a flow chart of a method of operation
of the audio management system in accordance with one example
embodiment. At step 505, the audio management server receives from
a first website a request by a first website visitor to record an
audio clip on the first website. At step 510, the server provides
to the first website an audio widget operable to record, play back,
respond to and share audio clips. At step 515, the audio widget
records an audio clip from the first website visitor. At step 520,
the widget requests the visitor to provide login information for
the user account on the server. At step 525, the audio widget sends
the recorded audio clip and visitor's log information to the
server. At step 530, the server receives the audio clip, assigns a
unique identifier to the audio clip, stores the audio clip in the
audio content database, and generates a link to the audio clip. In
one example embodiment, the link comprises an identifier of the
audio server and unique identifier of the audio clip. The server
also access user account using the provided login information, and
stores the audio clip identifier and a first website identifier in
the user account. If the visitor did not provide account login
information, the audio clip may be stored unanimously.
[0038] At step 535, the server provides to the audio widget an
audio clip link to be posted on the first website for accessing the
audio clip through the audio widget. At step 540, the server
receives from the audio widget on the first website a request by
the first website visitor to share the recorded audio clip on a
second website. At step 545, the server retrieves from the user
account login information for the second website or requests the
first website visitor to provide the required login information. At
step 550, the server posts on the second website the audio clip
link or the audio widget for recording, playback, responding to and
sharing of the audio clip. At step 555, the server stores in the
user account an identifier of the second website where the audio
clip was posted. At step 560, the server receives from the second
website a request by a second website visitor to play back the
audio clip whose link is posted on the second website. At step 565,
the server redirects the visitor to the first website where the
audio clip was recorded. At step 570, the server provides the
requested audio clip to the audio widget on the first website for
playback of the clip to the second website visitor.
[0039] FIGS. 6A and B depict a flow chart of another method of
operation of the audio management system in accordance with another
example embodiment. At step 605, the audio management server stores
a first audio clip recorded on a first website. At step 610, the
server generates a link for accessing the first audio clip from the
audio server. At step 615, the server posts on the second website
the audio clip link for accessing the first audio clip. At step
620, the server receives a request by a website visitor to play
back the first audio clip. At step 625, the server determines from
the request an identifier of the website where the request came
from. At step 630, the server compares the website identifier with
the first website wherein the clip was recorded. At step 635, the
server determines if the playback request came from the first
website or the second website. If the request came from the second
website, at step 640, the server redirects the website visitor to
the first website where the first audio clip was recorded for
playback of the first audio clip on the first website. If the
request came from the first website or the visitor has been just
redirected to the first website, at step 645, the server provides
to the first website the first audio clip and an audio widget that
enables the visitor to play back, respond to and share the first
audio clip on the first website.
[0040] At step 650, after the playback of the first audio clip on
the first website, the server identifies a user of the audio server
who recorded the first audio clip. At step 655, the server accesses
the user account, updates a playback counter associated with the
first audio clip, and stores an identifier of the second website in
the user account. At step 660, the server receives from the website
visitor a request to record a second audio clip in response to the
first audio clip recorded on the first website and instructs the
audio widget on the first website to record the second audio clip.
At step 665, the server posts on the first and second websites
audio clip links for accessing the second audio clip. At step 670,
the server receives from the website visitor a request to record a
third audio clip in response to the second audio clip recorded on
the first website. At step 675, the server provides audio widget
for recording the third audio clip of the first website. At step
680, the server posts on the first and second websites audio clip
links for accessing the third audio clip recorded on the first
website.
[0041] FIGS. 7A and B depict a flow chart of yet another method of
operation of the audio management system in accordance with another
example embodiment. At step 705, the audio management server
receives from a second website a request by a website visitor to
play back a first audio clip, which was recorded on a first website
and whose link was posted on the second website. At step 710, the
server redirects the visitor to the first website where the audio
clip was recorded. At step 715, the server provides to the first
website the requested first audio clip and an audio widget operable
to play back, respond to and share the first audio clip. At step
720, the server receives from the first website a request by a
website visitor to record a second audio clip in response to the
first audio clip. At step 725, the audio widget on the first
website records the second audio clip. At step 730, the server
posts on the first and second websites audio clip links for
accessing the first and second audio clips or the audio widgets for
playing back, responding to and sharing the first and second audio
clips.
[0042] At step 735, the server determines whether the first and
second audio clips were recorded by the same or different website
visitors. If it is determined at step 740 that the clips were
recorded by the same visitor, at step 745, the server stores in the
user account of said visitor the identifier of the first audio clip
and an identifier of the first website, the identifier of the
second audio clip and an identifier of the second website, and the
indicator that the second audio clip was recorded in response to
the first audio clip. If the first and second audio clips were
recorded by different visitors, at step 750, the server stores in
the user account of the first website visitor who recorded the
first audio clip the identifier of the first audio clip, an
identifier of the first website, the identifier of the second audio
clip, and the indicator that the second audio clip was recorded in
response to the first audio clip. At step 755, the server stores in
the user account of the second website visitor who recorded the
second audio clip the identifier of the second audio clip, an
identifier of the second website, the identifier of the first audio
clip, and the indicator that the second audio clip was recorded in
response to the first audio clip.
[0043] FIG. 8 depicts one example embodiment of a computer system
5, which could be used to implement the audio management server 110
of the audio management system 100. As shown, computer system 5 may
include one or more processors 15, memory 20, one or more hard disk
drive(s) 30, optical drive(s) 35, serial port(s) 40, graphics card
45, audio card 50 and network card(s) 55 connected by system bus
10. System bus 10 may be any of several types of bus structures
including a memory bus or memory controller, a peripheral bus and a
local bus using any of a variety of known bus architectures.
Processor 15 may include one or more Intel.RTM. Core 2 Quad 2.33
GHz processors or other type of microprocessor.
[0044] System memory 20 may include a read-only memory (ROM) 21 and
random access memory (RAM) 23. Memory 20 may be implemented as in
DRAM (dynamic RAM), EPROM, EEPROM, Flash or other type of memory
architecture. ROM 21 stores a basic input/output system 22 (BIOS),
containing the basic routines that help to transfer information
between the components of computer system 5, such as during
start-up, RAM 23 stores operating system 24 (OS), such as
Windows.RTM. XP Professional or other type of operating system,
that is responsible for management and coordination of processes
and allocation and sharing of hardware resources in computer system
5. Memory 20 also stores applications and programs 25, such as
services 306. Memory 20 also stores various runtime data 26 used by
programs 25.
[0045] Computer system 5 may further include hard disk drive(s) 30,
such as SATA magnetic hard disk drive (HDD), and optical disk
drive(s) 35 for reading from or writing to a removable optical
disk, such as a CD-ROM, DVD-ROM or other optical media. Drives 30
and 35 and their associated computer-readable media provide
non-volatile storage of computer readable instructions, data
structures, applications and program modules/subroutines that
implement algorithms and methods disclosed herein. Although the
exemplary computer system 5 employs magnetic and optical disks, it
should be appreciated by those skilled in the art that other types
of computer readable media that can store data accessible by a
computer system 5, such as magnetic cassettes, flash memory cards,
digital video disks, RAMs, ROMs, EPROMs and other types of memory
may also be used in alternative embodiments of the computer
system.
[0046] Computer system 5 further includes a plurality of serial
ports 40, such as Universal Serial Bus (USB), for connecting data
input device(s) 75, such as keyboard, mouse, touch pad and other.
Serial ports 40 may be also be used to connect data output
device(s) 80, such as printer, scanner and other, as well as other
peripheral device(s) 85, such as external data storage devices and
the like. System 5 may also include graphics card 45, such as
nVidia.RTM. GeForce.RTM. GT 240M or other video card, for
interfacing with a monitor 60 or other video reproduction device.
System 5 may also include an audio card 50 for reproducing sound
via internal or external speakers 65. In addition, system 5 may
include network card(s) 55, such as Ethernet, WiFi, GSM, Bluetooth
or other wired, wireless, or cellular network interface for
connecting computer system 5 to network 70, such as the
Internet.
[0047] In various embodiments, the algorithms and methods described
herein may be implemented in hardware, software, firmware, or any
combination thereof. If implemented in software, the functions may
be stored as one or more instructions or code on a non-transitory
computer-readable medium. Computer-readable medium includes both
computer storage and communication medium that facilitates transfer
of a computer program from one place to another. A storage medium
may be any available media that can be accessed by a computer. By
way of example, and not limitation, such computer-readable medium
can comprise RAM, ROM, EEPROM, CD-ROM or other optical disk
storage, magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage devices,
or any other medium that can be used to carry or store desired
program code in the form of instructions or data structures and
that can be accessed by a computer. Also, any connection may be
termed a computer-readable medium. For example, if software is
transmitted from a website, server, or other remote source using a
coaxial cable, fiber optic cable, twisted pair, digital subscriber
line (DSL), or wireless technologies such as infrared, radio, and
microwave are included in the definition of medium.
[0048] In the interest of clarity, not all of the routine features
of the embodiments are disclosed. It will be appreciated that in
the development of any actual implementation of the invention,
numerous implementation-specific decisions must be made in order to
achieve the developer's specific goals, and that these specific
goals will vary from one implementation to another and from one
developer to another. It will be appreciated that such a
development effort might be complex and time-consuming, but would
nevertheless be a routine undertaking of engineering for those of
ordinary skill in the art having the benefit of this
disclosure.
[0049] Furthermore, it is to be understood that the phraseology or
terminology used herein is for the purpose of description and not
of limitation, such that the terminology or phraseology of the
present specification is to be interpreted by the skilled in the
art in light of the teachings and guidance presented herein, in
combination with the knowledge of the skilled in the relevant
art(s). Moreover, it is not intended for any term in the
specification or claims to be ascribed an uncommon or special
meaning unless explicitly set forth as such.
[0050] The various embodiments disclosed herein encompass present
and future known equivalents to the known components referred to
herein by way of illustration. Moreover, while embodiments and
applications have been shown and described, it would be apparent to
those skilled in the art having the benefit of this disclosure that
many more modifications than mentioned above are possible without
departing from the inventive concepts disclosed herein.
* * * * *
References