Patent Publication Number: US-2007106521-A1

Title: System and method to process media with preset credit

Description:
BACKGROUND  
      1. Field  
      This invention relates generally to media, and more specifically to a system and method to process media with preset credit.  
      2. Related Art  
      Modern technologies enable digital media. Not only are existing documents converted into digital format, creation of new documents is also adapting to digital formats. For examples, in the music industry, most songs, new and old, are now available in digital formats such as MP3 or WMA. The movie industry distributes new titles using digital format and DVD. The publishing industry starts to distribute books in electronic format such as PDF or Microsoft Word™. The financial industry has been adopting electronic formats for security document filing for several years. Many other fields and industries have adopted, or are in process of adopting, digital formats for document creation and distribution.  
      Although document formats have adapted to new technologies, the ability to view or play a document has not changed fundamentally. For example, a consumer purchases a song on a disc. She believes that since she pays for the song, she can play the song for a very long time. She is not aware that the song-playing software that plays the song may become obsolete and will not be supported in the next release. She will not be able to purchase compatible software to play the song. That means, even though she still owns the disc containing the song, she will not be able to play the song. In another scenario, the software requires a computing device that is no longer available three years later. She faces the same problem as in the other scenario. In other words, the digital song she purchases has a very limited meaningful life.  
      For another example, a customer rented a movie on a DVD. The rental is for 2 days, but he forgets to return the DVD on time. When he returns the DVD after a month, the movie rental company charges him one dollar for each day late. Although he did not view the movie after the 2 day rental period, he is still required to pay the late return penalty.  
      In another scenario, a song library distributor wants to sell selected albums of love songs of the 50&#39;s, 60&#39;s, 70&#39;s, 80&#39;s and 90&#39;s. Since the distributor does not know which era will attract the most customers, it wants to minimize the production cost by producing one DVD containing all albums. Customers can select the decade of choice, and activates only the selected albums but not the others. In this scenario, the cost of the document is minimal. If the distributor produces individual DVD for each era, the distributor will end up with a high unsold inventory for some eras while popular selling eras will suffer shortage.  
      The above illustrates a need to introduce a new media format that connects a document to a specification of limited availability of the document in the media.  
     SUMMARY  
      A preset credit media includes: a document part, and availability information and credit for the document part. The document part is all or less than all of an audio file, a visual file, a text file, or a data file. The availability information includes a monetary cost or time availability for the document part. The credit includes a monetary credit, a time credit, or a transaction credit for the document part. To play the document part, it is determined if enough credit exists for the document part to be played, based on the availability information and the credit. If so, the document part is retrieved from the preset credit media and played. The credit is modified accordingly. To change a preset credit media, a change request is received and verified. Any combination of the document part, the availability information, and the credit may be modified according to the change request. 
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS  
       FIG. 1  illustrates a structure for a Preset Credit Media.  
       FIG. 2  illustrates a process to play a document part from a Preset Credit Media.  
       FIG. 3  illustrates a process to change a Preset Credit Media.  
       FIG. 4  illustrates a process of setting a Preset Credit Media. 
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION  
       FIG. 1  illustrates a structure for a Preset Credit Media. A Preset Credit Media  110  includes a document  130 , availability information  140  and credit  150 . In one embodiment, a document  130  is an audio file, such as a song, a speech, a recorded sound, or an audio clip. In one embodiment, a document  130  is a video file, such as a movie, an animation clip, a video clip, a television program recording, or a video recording. In one embodiment, a document  130  is an article, such as a book, a piece of news, a written paper, a contract document, a spreadsheet, or presentation slides. In one embodiment, a document  130  is a picture, such as a photo, a graphical image, a graph, a table.  
      In one embodiment, a document  130  is a file folder, an album, a directory, or a volume. For example, a document  130  is a music album containing a plurality of songs; document  130  is a book volume containing a book series; a document  130  is a file folder of computer presentation files; a document  130  is a collection of binary data files; a document  130  is a collection of movies; a document  130  is a collection of photo albums.  
      A document part is a part of document  130 . A document part can be the entire document  130 . For example, document  130  is a book and a document part is a chapter; document  130  is a song album and a document part is a song; document  130  is a movie and a document part is a movie clip; document  130  is a computer presentation file and a document part is a slide. In one embodiment, document  130  is an album and a document part is the album.  
      In one embodiment, availability information  140  includes a monetary cost about the document  130 . For example, an article titled “ABC” is available for 10 dollars; a song titled “XYZ” is available for 10 cents per play; a movie directory titled “Star Wars Episodes” is available for $1 per movie per play; a photo titled “Yellow Stone Glacier” is available for no charge; a music album is available for 50 cents per song per play; the document  130  is available for $100.  
      In one embodiment, availability information  140  includes time availability for the document  130 . For example, a song album titled “ABCD” is available until Jul. 21, 2007; a book titled “EFGH” is available between 8 am and 5 pm during weekends; a photo album titled “Yellow Stone in Autumn” is available for 48 hours after it is first accessed; a movie titled “Fantasia” is always available; a movie folder is available during week days; the document  130  is available for 3 months.  
      In one embodiment, credit  150  includes monetary credit about the document  130 . For example, an article titled “ABC” has 50 dollar credit; a song titled “XYZ” has 1 dollar credit; a movie directory titled “Star Wars Episodes” has $5 credit; a book title “ABCDE” has zero dollar credit; a music album titled “Winder Classics” has $10 credit; the document  130  has $200 credit.  
      In one embodiment, credit  150  includes time credit about the document  130 . For example, a song album titled “ABCD” has 4 hours of credit; a book titled “EFGH” has 100 hours of credit; a photo album titled “Yellow Stone in autumn” has 10 days of credit; a movie titled “Fantasia” has 6 months of credit; the document  130  has one year of credit.  
      In one embodiment, credit  150  includes transaction credit about the document  130 . For example, a song title “Welcome to Olympics 2020” has credit for unlimited number of plays; a song album titled “RAP 2015” has credit for 10 plays; a movie titled “Trojan” has credit for 1 play; the document  130  has credit for 100 plays.  
       FIG. 2  illustrates a process to play a document part from a Preset Credit Media. The process of playing includes a plurality of steps.  
      Credit retriever  252  retrieves, from Preset Credit Media  210 , availability information  240  and credit  250 .  
      Credit checker  254  checks if there is sufficient credit to play document part  230 . In one embodiment, the availability information  240  is a monetary cost, and the credit  250  is a monetary credit. Credit checker  254  calculates the cost to play document part  230  based on the availability information  240 . In one embodiment, the document part  230  is a song of an album, and the album is available for a dollar per song. The cost to play document part  230  is one dollar. In another embodiment, the document part  230  is a movie titled “ABCD”, and the movie is available for $10. The cost to play document part  230  is $10. Credit checker  254  determines if credit  250  is larger than or the same as the cost to play document part  230 , there is sufficient credit to play document part  230 .  
      In one embodiment, availability information  240  is time availability and the current time is within the time availability, there is sufficient credit to play document part  230 .  
      In one embodiment, credit  250  is a time credit and the value is higher than 0, there is sufficient credit to play document part  230 . In one embodiment, credit  250  has a value higher than or the same as the time necessary to play the document part  230 , there is sufficient credit to play document part  230 .  
      In one embodiment, credit  250  is a transaction credit and the value is higher than 0, there is sufficient credit to play document part  230 .  
      In one embodiment, Preset Credit Media  210  has a plurality of availability information and a plurality of credit, determining if there is sufficient credit to play document part  230  requires examining a combination of availability information and credit.  
      Document retriever  256  retrieves document part  230  from Preset Credit Media  210 . For example, document retriever  256  retrieves a song in an album; a movie in a movie album; an article in a directory; a chapter in a book.  
      If there is sufficient credit to play document part  230 , document player  258  plays document part  230 . For example, document player  258  plays a song in an album; a movie in a movie album. For example, document player  258  plays a chapter in a book by displaying the chapter. For example, document player  258  presents an article in a directory.  
      Credit modifier  259  modifies the credit  250  of Preset Credit Media  210 .  
      In one embodiment, credit  250  is a monetary credit. Credit modifier  259  modifies credit  250  based on an amount specified in the availability information  240 . In one embodiment, credit  250  is reduced based on document part  230  played by document player  258 . For example, document part  230  includes two songs and availability information is  25  cents per song per play. Credit  250  is reduced by 50 cents. In another embodiment, the document part  230  includes a promotional song and availability information is 25 cents per play. Credit  250  is increased by 25 cents.  
      In one embodiment, the credit  250  is a time credit. Credit modifier  259  modifies credit  250  by reducing credit  250  based on the duration of document part  230 . In one embodiment, credit  250  is reduced by the duration of the play time of document player  258  while playing document part  230 .  
      In one embodiment, the credit  250  is a transaction credit. Credit modifier  259  modifies credit  250  by reducing credit  250  based on document part  230 . For example, document part  230  includes two songs. Credit  250  is reduced by 2.  
       FIG. 3  illustrates a process to change a Preset Credit Media. A process to change Preset Credit Media  310  includes a plurality of steps applied to a change request.  
      In one embodiment, a change request includes a key. Gatekeeper  362  checks if the key is valid. In one embodiment, Gatekeeper  362  includes a memory, and matches the key with a plurality of pre-stored keys in the memory. If there is a match, the key is valid. In one embodiment, Gatekeeper  362  sends a query to a network to check if the key is valid.  
      In one embodiment, a change request includes data to be stored in Preset Credit Media  310 . In one embodiment, the data includes a document part. Media modifier  364  stores the document part into Preset Credit Media  310 . In one embodiment, the data includes availability information. Media modifier  364  updates the availability information of Preset Credit Media  310  with the availability information in the data. In one embodiment, the data includes credit. Media modifier  364  updates the credit of Preset Credit Media  310  with the credit in the data.  
      In one embodiment, the change request includes a request to remove a document part. Media modifier  364  deletes the document part from Preset Credit Media  310 .  
      In one embodiment, the change request includes a change type specifying if the change request is for a document, for availability information, or for credit. In one embodiment, the change type specifies if the change request is for monetary cost, or for time availability. In one embodiment, the change type specifies if the change request is for monetary credit, for time credit, or for transaction credit. Gatekeeper  362  checks if the key is valid with respect to the change type. In one embodiment, different change types associate to different keys.  
      In one embodiment, media modifier  364  processes change requests only for certain change type. For example, media modifier  364  processes change requests for document. For example media modifier  364  does not process change requests for credit.  
      Preset Credit Media can be used in many applications. For example, the change request can be initiated by a merchant, a media rights owner, or a consumer. For another example, the network is a network of a copyright owner of the document. Different variations of steps in  FIG. 3  are described in the following to illustrate different applications.  
       FIG. 4  illustrates a process of setting a Preset Credit Media with time credit. The process includes a plurality of steps applied to a setting request.  
      In one embodiment, the setting request includes a key. Gatekeeper  462  checks if the key is valid by matching the key with a plurality of pre-stored keys in memory. In another embodiment, Gatekeeper  462  checks if the key is valid by sending a query to a network.  
      Setter  464  modifies Preset Credit Media  410  based on a setting. In one embodiment the setting is based on the setting request. In one embodiment, the setting is based on the key in the setting request. In one embodiment, Gatekeeper  462  obtains the setting using the key, and sends the setting to setter  464 . In another embodiment, setter  464  includes a memory, for example storage or program memory. The setting is stored in the memory. In one embodiment the setting includes a time credit.  
      In one embodiment, setter  464  modifies by overwriting Preset Credit Media  410  with the setting. In another embodiment, setter  464  modifies by adjusting Preset Credit Media  410  with the setting, for example increasing time credit for Preset Credit Media  410  by an amount specified in the setting.  
      In one embodiment, the plurality of steps includes the step of key deactivator  466 . Key deactivator  466  deactivates the key. In one embodiment, key deactivator  466  deactivates or removes a plurality of pre-stored keys from memory. In another embodiment, key deactivator  466  informs a network to deactivate the key.  
      In an application where a merchant can set a price on Preset Credit Media, the application uses the steps illustrated in  FIG. 4  by replacing time credit in the step of setting Preset Credit Media with monetary cost.  
      In an application where a merchant can set a credit on document, the application uses the steps illustrated in  FIG. 4  by replacing time credit in the step of setting Preset Credit Media with a credit, a combination of time credit, monetary credit and transaction credit.  
      In an application where a customer can select a document part in a Preset Credit Media, the application uses the steps illustrated in  FIG. 4  by replacing time credit in the step of setting Preset Credit Media with time availability. In one embodiment, the step of setting Preset Credit Media includes further setting a credit of Preset Credit Media.  
      Foregoing described embodiments of the invention are provided as illustrations and descriptions. They are not intended to limit the invention to precise form described. In particular, it is contemplated that functional implementation of invention described herein may be implemented equivalently in hardware, software, firmware, and/or other available functional components or building blocks, and that networks may be wired, wireless, or a combination of wired and wireless. Other variations and embodiments are possible in light of above teachings, and it is thus intended that the scope of invention not be limited by this Detailed Description, but rather by Claims following.