Patent Publication Number: US-11656840-B2

Title: Systems and methods for aggregating content

Description:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS 
     This application is a continuation of the parent application U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/445,202, filed on Feb. 28, 2017 entitled “SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR AGGREGATING CONTENT”, and claims priority to U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 62/440,591, filed Dec. 30, 2016, the contents of both are hereby incorporated by reference. 
    
    
     TECHNICAL FIELD 
     The present disclosure generally relates to data communication over a network. More particularly, the following discussion relates to systems, methods, and devices for producing audio representations of aggregated content. 
     BACKGROUND 
     It is often desirable for users to consume aggregated content available from a number of websites and other sources over a network, such as the Internet. For example, rather than relying on a single website news source, many users prefer to read content compiled from multiple, less mainstream news sites. 
     Furthermore, many users consume news and other information while driving or engaging in other activities that do not permit such news to be read directly. While audiobooks and other means of performing text-to-speech conversion exist, such systems tend to produce overly mechanical, unemotional readings of such text, resulting in an unsatisfactory listening experience. 
     Accordingly, there is a need for improved methods of producing and consuming audio representations of content gathered from network sources. These and other desirable features and characteristics will become apparent from the subsequent detailed description and the claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and this background section. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING FIGURES 
       Exemplary embodiments will hereinafter be described in conjunction with the following drawing figures, wherein like numerals denote like elements, and: 
         FIG.  1    is a conceptual block diagram illustrating a network in accordance with one embodiment. 
         FIG.  2    is a conceptual block diagram depicting the producing of aggregated audio content in accordance with one embodiment. 
         FIG.  3    is a conceptual block diagram depicting the producing of aggregated audio content in accordance with another embodiment. 
         FIG.  4    is a conceptual block diagram depicting the producing of aggregated audio content in accordance with one embodiment. 
         FIGS.  5 - 6    are flowcharts illustrating methods in accordance with various embodiments. 
         FIGS.  7 ,  8  and  9    depict various ways of characterizing speech-to-text emotional states in accordance with one or more embodiments. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
     Systems and methods are provided for producing audio representations of aggregated content. In accordance with various embodiments, the text content used for aggregation (e.g., the aggregated content itself, or the individual text source) include “emotion tags” or other meta-information indicating how the text content should be read. These emotion tags are then used in the text-to-speech process to produce an audio representation of the aggregated content that includes emotion, thereby improving the listening experience for the user. 
     Referring to  FIG.  1   , one or more audio playback devices (or simply “devices”)  106  is configured to receive and process media content from one or more content sources (or simply “sources”)  108  (e.g.,  108   a - d ). Device  106  may correspond to any combination of hardware and software configured to receive and process media content from a content source (e.g., one or more of content servers  108 ), including, for example, a motor vehicle media system, a mobile smart-phone, a computer system (such as desktop computer, laptop computer, tablet computer, or the like), a set top box, a television monitor, a place-shifting device, a television receiver, a dedicated media player, or the like. Similarly, sources  108  (e.g.,  108   a - d ) include any combination of hardware and software configured to provide content (e.g., audio and/or visual content) to device  106  over network  102 . In some embodiments, sources  108  are servers providing web content (e.g., via HTML, CSS, Javascript, etc.), including text-based news content. Also shown in  FIG.  1    is a computing device  104  (including a processor, storage, memory, etc.) configured to request and receive content from sources  108 , process that content, and provide aggregated content (in audio form) to device  106 , as discussed in further detail below. 
     While the environment illustrated in  FIG.  1    is shown as a single network  150 , in practice the environment may include any number of wired and/or wireless network operating within the geographic proximity of a home, office or other structure and that are generally under the control of a single user, family or operator (e.g., a WLAN, the Internet, and the like). 
     Device  106  may be any device, component, module, hardware and/or the like that is capable of communicating with the server  104  over network  102 . As mentioned above, depending on the embodiment, client device  304  may be realized as a motor vehicle media system, a conventional personal computer, portable computer, a tablet computer, workstation and/or other computing system, a mobile (or cellular) telephone, a smartphone, a personal digital assistant, a video game player, and/or any other device capable of receiving content from sources  108  and presenting audio and/or visual content. In this regard, the device  106  includes a display device, such as a monitor, screen, or another conventional electronic display, capable of graphically presenting visual and audio content, data and/or information that is generated or otherwise provided  104 . The device  106  may further include a user input device, such as a keyboard, a mouse, a touchscreen, or the like, capable of receiving input data and/or other information from the user of the device  106 . The device  106  also includes a processing system and a data storage element (or memory) that is coupled to or otherwise accessed by the processing system and stores programming instructions (e.g., an application downloadable over an “app store”). The processing system may be realized as any sort of processor, microprocessor, microcontroller, digital signal processor, or any other suitable processing device, or any suitable combination thereof. The device  106  may reside at a geographic location that is remote or otherwise physically distinct from the geographic location of the servers  104  and content sources  108 . 
     Device  106  and or server  104  may execute a conventional browser or other client application that is compatible with standard Internet, world wide web (WWW), transmission control protocol, and/or Internet Protocol (TCP/IP), and/or other formats. Such browsers are typically capable of displaying active or other documents formatted in accordance with published protocols and/or computer languages (e.g., hypertext markup language (HTML), extensible markup language (XML), cascading style sheets (CSS), Javascript, and/or the like). Many browsers are also capable of executing “plugin” applications, applets or the like. Such plugins may be formatted in accordance with ActiveX, JAVA, Javascript and/or any number of other formats. A number of commonly used web browsers are available for a number of different computing platforms, and the subject matter described herein is not limited to any particular browser application. In the illustrated embodiment, device  106  further includes a media player application. The media player may be a standalone media player, or the media player may be implemented as a plugin or other applet that runs within the device  106  as desired. In some embodiments, the media player is initially obtained from a networked host, such as server  104 . The media player may be retrieved on an as-needed basis in some embodiments, or may be stored at device  106  for subsequent execution. 
     In the illustrated embodiment, server  104  may be realized as one or more server computers or other device(s) coupled to the network  102  and capable of interacting with the device  106  and content sources  108 . The server  104  may be implemented with a server computer system or data processing system that is based upon any processor, architecture and/or operating system, and will typically be implemented using a processing system, memory, and input/output features. Various embodiments may be implemented using dedicated or shared hardware servers; other implementations may make use of virtual server features as part of a “cloud computing” service, such as any of the cloud computing services provided by any number of providers. 
     While  FIG.  1    illustrates a single server  104 , many practical embodiments of the system  300  may provide a cluster or other collection of multiple host servers to support any desired number of simultaneous communications with multiple clients and/or multiple media devices. This cluster may also incorporate appropriate routing, load balancing, access and security mechanisms and or any number of other features. In various embodiments, each server  104  is an actual or virtual computer system executing an operating system in conjunction with a processing system, memory and/or I/O features to provide a computing core that is capable of executing a portal application, as well as any number of daemons, processes, applications or other modules as desired. 
     The user of the device  106  is able to direct server  104  (e.g., via a configuration step intended to select desired content sources  108 ) to connect to the portal application supported by content sources  108  via the network  102 , for example, by directing a client application to a URL or other network address associated with sources  108 . 
     Referring now to  FIG.  2   , in one embodiment, one or more text (or HTML) content from content sources  208 A,  208 B, and  208 C, each including “emotion tagging” as discussed in further detail below) is aggregated into emotion-tagged aggregated content  210 . Emotion-tagged aggregated content  210  is then converted (via a suitable text-to-speech conversion  215 ) to an audio file (or audio representation) of emotion-tagged aggregated content  210 . 
       FIG.  3    depicts another embodiment in which the content sources  208 A-B are not themselves emotion-tagged, but rather such tagging is performed after aggregation. That is, aggregated content  310  undergoes a tagging process  315  (e.g., a manual process, an automatic machine-learning model process, etc.) to produce emotion-tagged aggregated content  320 . This aggregated content  320  is then subjected to text-to-speech conversion to produce an audio file of aggregated content  330  that can then be played by a user via device  106 . 
       FIG.  4    depicts yet another embodiment in which each content source  208  has been emotion-tagged, but is individually converted to audio via individual text-to-speech conversions  401 , resulting in corresponding audio files (of non-aggregated content)  408 A,  408 B, and  408 C. These individual audio files are then themselves aggregated to form aggregated audio content  410 . 
       FIG.  5    is a flowchart illustrating a method  500  corresponding to the embodiment depicted in  FIG.  2   . As illustrated, this method includes first ( 501 ) selecting preferred content from a plurality of sources, wherein the sources are emotion-tagged, aggregating the emotion-tagged preferred content sources ( 502 ), and then creating (assembling, editing, mixing, etc.) an audio representation of the emotion-tagged aggregated content ( 503 ). 
       FIG.  6    is a flowchart illustrating a method  600  corresponding to the embodiment depicted in  FIG.  3   . As illustrated, this method includes first ( 601 ) selecting preferred content from a plurality of sources, wherein the sources are not emotion-tagged, aggregating the preferred content sources ( 602 ), creating emotion-tagged aggregated content ( 603 ), then creating (assembling, editing, mixing, etc.) an audio representation of the emotion-tagged aggregated content ( 604 ). 
       FIG.  7    is a flowchart illustrating a method  700  corresponding to the embodiment depicted in  FIG.  4   . As illustrated, this method includes first ( 701 ) selecting preferred content from a plurality of sources, wherein the sources are emotion-tagged, creating audio of each of the emotion-tagged content sources ( 702 ), and then aggregating the audio of the emotion-tagged preferred content sources ( 703 ). 
     As used herein, the phrase “emotion-tagged” or “emotitag” or the like refers to any embedded or meta-information specifying how text-to-speech conversion should take place (e.g., step  503  in  FIG.  5   ). That is, the purpose of the emotion tags is to produce audio that includes emotions that replicate the way that a news announcer, pundit, or other human being might read the text. 
     In some embodiments, the content (e.g., the individual sources  108  and/or the aggregated content  210 ) includes custom HTML tags, CSS styles, XML tags, or the like that specify particular emotions. Without loss of generality, the following example is framed as custom HTML tags: &lt;anger&gt;I can&#39;t believe what congress just did&lt;/anger&gt;. &lt;sarcasm&gt; The guy we all know and love started it all &lt;/sarcasm&gt;. &lt;vigilance&gt;We must keep an eye on that guy&lt;/vigilance&gt;. &lt;awe&gt; But thankfully our favorite new addition is leading the charge &lt;/awe&gt;. &lt;acceptance&gt;So perhaps everything will work out OK.&lt;/acceptance&gt;. 
     The number and type of emotional tags may vary, depending upon design considerations.  FIG.  8   , for example, depicts what is known as the Plutchick wheel of emotions, which may be used in determining appropriate emotion tags.  FIG.  9    depicts a simpler, Lovheim-cube-based representation of emotions that also may be used in determining appropriate emotion tags. It will be appreciated that the emotion taxonomies depicted in these figures are merely provided as an example, and that the range of possible embodiments is not so limited. 
     Regardless of the particular tags used, it will be appreciated that the various steps illustrated above may be performed by any combination of server  104  and  106 . For example, device  106  may be provided with emotion-tagged text, whereupon it uses that text to convert it to suitable speech. In other embodiments, server  104  performs these steps. In some embodiments, device  106  pulls content from content sources  108 . In other embodiments, server  104  pulls and compiles the aggregated content. 
     The audio file produced in connection with the illustrated steps may be any suitable format, including various uncompressed, lossles, lossy, or other formats. Suitable formats include, for example, WAV, MP3, AIFF, OGG, M4A, WMA, or any other suitable format. The audio may be streamed and/or downloaded onto device  106 . 
     In addition to producing an audio version of the aggregated content, a visual representation of an avatar, human being, or other entity may be created (and displayed to the user). That is, an animated avatar (e.g., with moving lips and appropriate expression based on the emotion tags) may be used to “read” the news to the user using a display present within device  106 . 
     Selection of preferred sources may be performed by the user via a suitable user interface that allows the user to select the sources and optionally specify a “weighting factor” or the like that controls how often that source is used for the aggregated content. That is, the user may specify that content from cnn.com should be given a relatively low weight of “1”, while fox.com should be given a relatively high weight of “8”. 
     Many other modifications and enhancements could be provided in a wide array of alternate but equivalent embodiments. The term “exemplary” is used herein to represent one example, instance or illustration that may have any number of alternates. Any implementation described herein as exemplary is not necessarily to be construed as preferred or advantageous over other implementations. While several exemplary embodiments have been presented in the foregoing detailed description, it should be appreciated that a vast number of alternate but equivalent variations exist, and the examples presented herein are not intended to limit the scope, applicability, or configuration of the invention in any way. To the contrary, various changes may be made in the function and arrangement of elements described without departing from the scope of the claims and their legal equivalents.