A PATENT APPLICATION ON embedding hyperlinks into audio signals - This application from Apple seeks to patent the idea of...putting hypertextual information into sound streams. 10 minutes of your time can help narrow US patent applications before they become patents. Follow @askpatents on twitter to help.
QUESTION - Have you seen anything that was published before 2/7/2012 that discusses:
Embedding textual information (e.g. a hyperlink) into a sound stream. The information could be added as meta information to the audio file or it could be embedded into the sound, interleaved with normal audio.
See AppleInsider
EXTRA CREDIT - A reference to anything that meets all of the criteria to the question above AND ALSO involves embedding a hyperlink so that it is inaudible or so that it is audible to listeners and where the metadata is a link or where it contains information about the audio stream.
TITLE: Audio Hyperlinking
- Publication Number: US 20130204413 A1
- Application Number: US 13/368,129
- Assignee: Apple, Inc.
- Prior Art Date: Seeking prior Art predating 2/7/2012
- Open for Challenge at USPTO: Open through 2/8/2014
Claim 1 requires each and every element below:
A non-transitory computer readable medium, comprising:
Computer code to cause an audio stream to playback on an electronic device;
Computer code to traverse a hyperlink encoded with the audio stream to a destination object during playback of the audio stream; and
Computer code to perform an activity corresponding to the destination object.
In English this means:
A computer program, comprising:
Code to to play an audio stream
Code to follow a hyperlink encoded with the audio stream to a destination object (e.g. a webpage)
Code to perform an activity corresponding to the destination object (e.g. display the webpage)
Good prior art would be evidence of a system that did each and every one of these steps prior to 2/7/2012
You're probably aware of ten pieces of art that meet this criteria already... separately, the applicant is claiming encoding the hyperlink so that it is inaudible or so that it is audible to listeners and where the metadata is a link or where it contains *information about the audio stream**.
I think that some of claims were implemented before 2012.. Adding metadata to an audio file as a separate stream, hiding metadata in the sound stream, recognition of metadata from audio signal. So, prior art is welcome...
"Audio Hyperlink from one audio track to another" from the Applicant
What is good prior art? Please see our FAQ.
Want to help? Please vote or comment on submissions below. We welcome you to post your own request for prior art on other questionable US Patent Applications.
PS I'm not sure if I will be able to send information of found prior arts to patent office, so I ask you to send this to it.