System and method for musical playlist selection in a portable audio device

Abstract

A portable audio playing device implements a jukebox manager function to permit the simple generation of musical playlists and the alteration or editing of existing playlists. Data, such as MPEG-3 data or other conventional audio format data, may be readily downloaded into the system for storage in a solid state memory or in a spinning media device. The audio tracks are associated with one or more metatags that are used to describe the content of each track. The metatags and associated audio tracks are stored in a data structure that may be implemented as a database or other convenient data structure that readily permits searching by user-specified search terms. The user generates a new playlist by selecting one or more metatags corresponding to the desired musical tracks. The system queries the data structure using the user-specified metatags and automatically generates a playlist containing one or more audio tracks whose metatags correspond to the user-specified metatags. Alternatively, the system may perform the same query and simply generate a results list that will allow the user to manually specify which of the audio tracks identified by the search process will be added to the newly created playlist. The system also permits the simple editing of existing playlists. New audio tracks may be added in the manner described above using metatags for searching or maybe manually added from the list of stored audio tracks. The system readily supports different audio formats and different playlist types.

1 . A system for the display and control of music selection in a hand-held portable multi-media device, the system comprising:
 a housing sized to be held by a user;   a circuit board within the housing;   a battery power supply to provide electrical power to electrical circuitry on the circuit board;   a data structure to store a plurality of music data files, each music selection data file having identification data associated therewith;   a display to display data comprising a playlist indicating music data files to be played;   an input device operable by the user to select identification data associated with desired music data files for the playlist;   a processor responsive to the input device to select the music data files for the playlist based on the user selected identification data;   a CODEC to receive the selected music data files and convert the selected music data files to audio data; and   an audio output driver coupled to the CODEC to receive the audio data therefrom, the audio output driver further having an output and providing analog signals to the output for connection to an audio output device.   
   
   
       2 . The system of  claim 1  wherein the data structure contains music data files having different data format types. 
   
   
       3 . The system of  claim 1  wherein the data associated with the stored music data files comprises song names and the display displays the song names, the user manually generating the playlist by operating the user input device to select song names and the processor generating the playlist based on the selected song names. 
   
   
       4 . The system of  claim 1  wherein the data associated with the stored music data files comprises metatags and the display displays the metatags, the user generating the playlist by operating the user input device to select metatags and the processor generating the playlist based on the selected metatags. 
   
   
       5 . The system of  claim 1 , further comprising an associated data structure wherein the associated data comprises a plurality of data types, the processor analyzing the music data file to determine one or more associated data types and storing each of the data types for each music data file in the associated data structure in association with the music data file. 
   
   
       6 . The system of  claim 5  wherein the processor selects the music data files for the playlist by generating an indicator to indicate a storage location in the associated data structure for an associated data type for each of the selected music data files. 
   
   
       7 . The system of  claim 1  wherein the associated data comprises a plurality of data types and the user selects a desired data type using the user input device, the display displaying the user-selected data type associated with each of the plurality of music data files. 
   
   
       8 . The system of  claim 1  wherein the associated data comprises a plurality of data types and the display displays all associated data types for a user-selected one of the music data files. 
   
   
       9 . The system of  claim 1 , further comprising a selection data structure wherein the playlist is stored for subsequent use. 
   
   
       10 . The system of  claim 1  wherein the processor alters the stored playlist and wherein the altered playlist is stored for subsequent use. 
   
   
       11 . The system of  claim 1  wherein the processor is responsive to the input device to select music data files based on user-selection of a plurality of identification data associated with the music data files. 
   
   
       12 . A method for the automatic control of music selection in a hand-held portable multi-media device, the method comprising:
 storing a plurality of music data files, each music selection data file having identification data associated therewith;   sensing user operation of an input device to select identification data associated with desired music data files for the playlist;   selecting a portion of the music data files to generate the playlist based on the user selected identification data;   processing the selected music data files with a CODEC to convert the selected music data files to audio data; and   providing the audio data to an output for connection to an audio output device.   
   
   
       13 . The method of  claim 12  wherein the music data files have different data format types. 
   
   
       14 . The method of  claim 12  wherein the data associated with the stored music data files comprises song names, the method further comprising displaying the song names and sensing user-operation of the input device to manually generate the playlist by operating the user input device to select song names wherein selecting comprises generating the playlist based on the selected song names. 
   
   
       15 . The method of  claim 12  wherein the data associated with the stored music data files comprises metatags, the method further comprising displaying the metatags and sensing user-operation of the input device to select metatags wherein selecting comprises generating the playlist based on the selected metatags. 
   
   
       16 . The method of  claim 12  wherein the associated identification data comprises a plurality of data types, the method further comprising analyzing the music data file to determine one or more associated data types and storing each of the data types for each music data file in association with the music data file. 
   
   
       17 . The method of  claim 12 , further comprising sensing user input to select a plurality of identification data wherein selecting music data files is based on the user-selected plurality of identification data associated with the music data files. 
   
   
       18 . A computer-readable media that causes a processor to control of music selection in a hand-held portable multi-media device by performing the steps of:
 storing a plurality of music data files, each music selection data file having identification data associated therewith;   sensing user operation of an input device to select identification data associated with desired music data files for the playlist;   selecting a portion of the music data files to generate the playlist based on the user selected identification data;   processing the selected music data files with a CODEC to convert the selected music data files to audio data; and   providing the audio data to an output for connection to an audio output device.   
   
   
       19 . The computer-readable media of  claim 18  wherein the data associated with the stored music data files comprises metatags, the computer-readable media causing the processor to perform the steps of displaying the metatags and sensing user-operation of the input device to select metatags wherein selecting comprises generating the playlist based on the selected metatags. 
   
   
       20 . The computer-readable media of  claim 18 , further causing the processor to sense user input to select a plurality of identification data and select music data files based on the user-selected plurality of identification data associated with the music data files.