Query by humming for ringtone search and download
US9396257B2 · kind B2 · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Dec 29, 2011 |
| Grant date | Jul 19, 2016 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Dec 29, 2031 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
- CPC primaryH04W88/02
- WIPO fieldDigital communication
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
Described is a technology by which a user hums, sings or otherwise plays a user-provided rendition of a ringtone (or ringback tone) through a mobile telephone to a ringtone search service (e.g., a WAP, interactive voice response or SMS-based search platform). The service matches features of the user's rendition against features of actual ringtones to determine one or more matching candidate ringtones for downloading. Features may include pitch contours (up or down), pitch intervals and durations of notes. Matching candidates may be ranked based on the determined similarity, possibly in conjunction with weighting criterion such as the popularity of the ringtone and/or the importance of the matched part. The candidate set may be augmented with other ringtones independent of the matching, such as the most popular ones downloaded by other users, ringtones from similar artists, and so forth.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.