Mood-sensing MP3 player
On January 5th, 2006, Disney filed a patent on a portable media player that would sense the user’s mood by testing their heart rate and body temperature, and use that to attempt to select appropriate music. Neat idea, right? Some friends and I had the same idea half a year ago, and discussed it on a public IRC server. The following conversation took place on July 30th, 2005. (Some unrelated bits of conversation have been removed for clarity.)
[07:30] <Ryan> Also, I had an idea for a mood-sensitive hardware mp3 player. To turn it on, you press your thumb on a temperature/heart-rate sensor, and then it plays songs and you tell it on a 1-5 scale how much you like that song at that time.
[07:37] <luser_> heh
[07:37] <luser_> i was thinking about a sort of mood-playlist generator
[07:37] <luser_> 1) get a bunch of data from somewhere about similarity of songs in your library
[07:37] <luser_> like same artist is similar, same album is very similar, same genre is similar, etc
[07:38] <luser_> 2) Start playing random songs
[07:38] <luser_> 3) If the user skips a song, lower that song’s score, and lower the scores of all songs connected to that song
[07:38] <luser_> 4) Try to pick a highly rated song for next in the list
[07:39] <luser_> assuming you can get useful similarity data, you should start to get similar songs pretty quickly
[07:39] <luser_> with very little user input
[07:40] <Ryan> You could use the Amazon API to find similar artists/albums.
[07:40] <luser_> ooh
[07:40] <luser_> that’d be hot
[07:40] <luser_> anyway, that’s mostly how we use the iPod in the car
[07:40] <luser_> put it on random, and skip stuff we don’t want to hear
[07:54] <Ryan> This will only really work if you can correlate it with mood somehow. Your algorithm didn’t actually take that into account.
[07:54] <luser_> eh
[07:54] <luser_> you determine the mood from what songs they skip
[07:55] <luser_> i’m looking for the lowest amount of user interaction
[07:55] <luser_> all you’re saying is basically “don’t play songs like that”
[07:55] <Ryan> Ah, I guess that works.
[07:57] <Ryan> I still like the idea of correlating it with body temperature and heart rate.
[08:02] <luser_> correlating with body temperature and heart rate would be crazy
[08:03] <luser_> the cool thing about my idea is that you could theoretically get a decent listening
experience out of a flash mp3 player with just “Play” and “Next Track” buttons
[13:21] <Vito`> luser…: just skipping songs you don’t like works if you already know the song.
[13:21] <Vito`> 1-5 rankings are dumb, should just be thumbs up/thumbs down
[13:21] <Vito`> but if it’s a lot of new music, I, at least, tend to listen to the entire track to at least give it a fair shake.
[13:22] <Vito`> but that’s me
[13:22] <Vito`> I like the idea of skipping a track to drop it in the ratings
[13:33] <luser_> i’m thinking where you already have a library of music
[13:33] <luser_> and you just want a playlist that fits your mood
[13:33] <Vito`> Yeah.
[13:33] <Vito`> No, I totally get it, just two buttons is great.
[13:33] <luser_> getting the data should be pretty easy
So does this count as prior art that could be used to challenge the Disney patent? I doubt it, but if anyone out there is a patent lawyer and wants to take on the case, be my guest. I’d love to see Disney get a little less money!
February 4th, 2006 at 3:05 pm
I wish id really have a mp3 biult in like yours.
February 7th, 2006 at 3:50 pm
I know that your question was somewhat rhetorical. I am very curious about patent law (the monster we have created!), so I asked Infineon’s patent counsel about it.
“Briefly, no, this discussion cannot be used as prior art. But, yes, it can be used as prior invention - but, it’s not easy. Your brother-in-law and other inventors would have to file a patent application with the hopes of accomplishing either of two things:
1. Obtain patent protection for claims that are different from what the large company gets - however, if the large company has good patent counsel, they will get the broadest coverage possible - unless your brother-in-law’s idea is different in some way; or
2. Essentially copy the claims of the application filed by the large company into your patent application to provoke what is called an “Interference” by the United States Patent and Trademark Office. Once an Interference is declared between two applications, then the parties are required to provide evidence of dates of inventorship to try to determine who was the first to invent. As you may guess, Interference practice is a complicated, time consuming and expensive venture. Interference practice is a specialty area within patent law because there are many rules and deadlines that could easily be overlooked by an inexperienced attorney.
In most cases, the issue of who invented first arises out of some litigation involving multiple patents rather than in an Interference.
Another point to consider is that large companies move slowly. So, if the patent application was just filed, I would say that there is a 90% chance that the company can prove inventorship prior to a date six months ago (prior to documented discussion by your brother-in-law).
Finally, while the U.S. continues to use a “first-to-invent” system rather than a “first-to-file” system as in other countries, the reality is that it is best to file a patent application as soon as possible because it is tough/expensive to prove prior inventorship.”
February 8th, 2006 at 11:06 am
Meg,
Wow, that’s interesting. I didn’t actually expect to get an actual lawyer’s advice, and what he says pretty much confirms my suspicions — that, while it might be possible to fight Disney’s patent, it would be extremely expensive, difficult, and time-consuming to do so, and we’d most likely end up losing anyway.
I come up with ideas for inventions I’d like to see on a regular basis, but the patent application process is so expensive and difficult that I’ve really never given it a second thought. Besides, unless I’m really willing to commit myself to attempting to start an entirely new business, there’s probably no way I would make any money off the ideas. Too bad, ’cause I think most of them would be pretty useful.
May 21st, 2006 at 6:01 am
Also see prior art from April 2005: The Next button should be huge (and it also needs to record use: hitting Next is a useful datapoint) and There are two buttons my screenless iPod shuffle really needs: Next Track and More Like This.
August 17th, 2006 at 5:10 pm
ahhhh crap I was going to use this idea for my senior project. now i’m back to square one. everything i seem to come up with has been made already!
October 13th, 2006 at 4:47 pm
Not sure if that is such a good idea. Some people would never get out of their funk.
December 21st, 2006 at 7:52 am
I wounder how much money it would take to get a lawyer and fight Disney so that that they get a little less money… More money, more money, more money!
robert
http://attorney-blogs.info/