FIELD OF THE DISCLOSURE

The present disclosure generally relates to techniques for adjusting the streaming of content by a media player device based on a user's location, orientation, or attention relative to the media player device.

BACKGROUND

Users have come to expect a large variety of content that is immediately accessible across any variety of devices by streaming or downloading such content via a network connection. However, that content can be consumed in a variety of ways, and the transmission of content to a user's devices may incur costs for the user or may reduce available network resources for transmitting other content to the same or different users. As the quality of the content (which generally corresponds to bitrate) increases, so too does the cost or resource utilization of content delivery. Further, many users default to the highest-quality content, even in situations where the content bitrate could be lowered without impacting a user's experience. Thus, many users are unintentionally incurring unnecessary charges and detrimentally impacting network performance.

SUMMARY

Techniques for detecting a user's location, motion, and/or orientation relative to a media player device and changing various aspects of a content delivery stream accordingly are provided herein. Generally, the techniques described herein involve determining whether high-bandwidth content is necessary for a user's enjoyment, given the location, orientation, and/or attention of the user. For instance, if the user's activities indicate that degraded content would likely not be noticed by the user, then lower-bitrate content may be provided. The user's location, motion, and/or orientation relative to the content playback device may be determined based on the location, motion and/or orientation of a personal computing device (such as a smart phone, tablet, smart watch, fitness tracker, smart headphones or other headset, laptop, etc.) associated with the user relative to the media player device (such as another smart phone or tablet, a smart speaker or digital assistant device, a TV, a computer, a monitor, etc.). The bitrate, content source, version of content, and the like may be adjusted to account for the user's interaction with the content. This may reduce the costs (to both the user and to the provider) of content delivery to the user, while maintaining the user's experience and freeing network resources for use by other users.

As one example, when a user is watching a movie streamed to the user's television, if the user turns away from the television (e.g., changes orientation) or moves to another room in which the television is not visible (e.g., changes location), then the system may determine that video outputted by the television cannot be seen by the user. In such a case, audio content may be streamed while video content is not, or video content may be transitioned to a lower-quality stream. When the system determines that the user is approaching the television or is paying attention to the television, video streaming may be re-enabled, and/or transitioned to a higher-quality stream.

As another example, audio quality may be degraded as a listener moves further from a streaming audio source. This degradation may not be perceptible to the user as the distance between the audio source and the user lowers the perceived “maximum fidelity” of the audio. Again, this may result in a savings (to both the user and to the provider) in transmission cost and reduces network congestion.

Moreover, as another example, the quality or bitrate of the stream from a media player device may be adjusted based on the user's use of his or her personal computing device. For instance, a user who is actively browsing the internet or working on a document via his or her personal computing device while a movie or TV show is streamed by a media player device may not be paying full attention to the content streaming via the media player device, and thus, the bitrate (or otherwise quality) of the content streaming via the media player device may be lowered.

As yet another example, the system may determine a maximum resolution at which a media player device can output content, whether audible or visual. Bandwidth dedicated to content transmission may be downshifted and lower-quality content transmitted to match the maximum output resolution, even if the content stream requested has a higher bandwidth. This may be useful, for example, when a user begins enjoying content on a first, high-resolution media player device but switches the content stream to a second, low-resolution media player device.

Adjusting streaming based on a user's activities may also be used to provide features for “rewinding” the content to where it was when the user returns from having been inattentive, not physically present, or facing away from the content for any period of time, or for pausing the content while the user is inattentive, not physically present, or facing away from the content. If content is paused or rewound, the playback speed can be accelerated to allow the user to catch up to real time (e.g., when the user is watching live content, such as a sporting event).

In an aspect, a method is provided, the method comprising: streaming media content by a media player device; receiving, by the media player device, a signal from a personal computing device associated with a user; determining, by the media player device, an indication of the attention of the user to the media player device based on the signal from the personal computing device associated with the user; and modifying, by the media player device, one or more characteristics of the streaming of the media content based on the indication of the attention of the user associated with the personal computing device.

In another aspect, a media player device is provided, the media player device comprising: one or more of an audio output or a video output; one or more processors; and a non-transitory program memory communicatively coupled to the one or more processors and storing executable instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the processors to: stream media content via one or more of the audio output or the video output; receive a signal from a personal computing device associated with a user; determine an indication of the attention of the user to the media player device based on the signal from the personal computing device associated with the user; and modify one or more characteristics of the streaming of the media content based on the indication of the attention of the user associated with the personal computing device.

