(19)
`
`(12)
`
`Europäisches Patentamt
`
`European Patent Office
`
`Office européen des brevets
`
`*EP001463258A1*
`EP 1 463 258 A1
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`(11)
`
`EUROPEAN PATENT APPLICATION
`
`(43) Date of publication:
`29.09.2004 Bulletin 2004/40
`
`(21) Application number: 03394035.4
`
`(22) Date of filing: 28.03.2003
`
`(51) Int Cl.7: H04L 29/06
`
`(84) Designated Contracting States:
`AT BE BG CH CY CZ DE DK EE ES FI FR GB GR
`HU IE IT LI LU MC NL PT RO SE SI SK TR
`Designated Extension States:
`AL LT LV MK
`
`(71) Applicant: Mobile Integrated Solutions Limited
`Dublin 2 (IE)
`
`(72) Inventor: Lindahl, Göthe
`90594 Urnea (SE)
`
`(74) Representative: Lane, Cathal Michael
`c/o Tomkins & Co.
`5 Dartmouth Road
`Dublin 6 (IE)
`
`(54)
`
`A system and method for transferring data over a wireless communications network
`
`(57)
`A system and method that enables a selective
`transmission of one more datafiles to a remote client de-
`vice from a central server where they are stored is de-
`scribed. The system provides for a subdivision of data-
`files into one or more transmission portions. Each of the
`datafiles and the subdivisions thereof is associated with
`
`search parameters to enable a user at a remote device
`to interrogate the system so as to select a subset of the
`stored datafiles for subsequent retrieval and playing at
`the client device. A bookmarking provision is addition-
`ally provided that enables a resumption of playing at or
`a direct skip to a portion of the played tranmission por-
`tion.
`
`Printed by Jouve, 75001 PARIS (FR)
`
`EP1 463 258A1
`
`Amazon v. Audio Pod
`US Patent 10,805,111
`Amazon EX-1004
`
`

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`EP 1 463 258 A1
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`Description
`
`Field of the Invention
`
`[0001] The present invention relates to a method and
`an apparatus for transmitting media-data over a com-
`munications network, and in particular for transmitting
`data in the form of audio books or the like over a wireless
`network. Within the present specification the term "me-
`dia-data" is intended to encompass any data type relat-
`ing to audio in the form of books or music or the like,
`visual imagery such as films, sporting events etc., or
`similar type material as will be well known to those
`skilled in the art.
`
`Background to the Invention
`
`[0002] Audio or digital talking books are well known
`in the art. They provide the user with means of being
`able to enjoy the contents of a book by simply listening
`to a recording of a storyteller reading the book aloud,
`rather than having to physically read the book. This is
`of particular benefit to a number of groups of society,
`especially those people with vision difficulties for exam-
`ple, who, before the advent of audio books, would have
`had to rely on a friend to read a book aloud if they wished
`to enjoy the book. Audio books are also of great benefit
`to those people who work in jobs where they are permit-
`ted to listen to music as they work, or who spend a large
`amount of their time driving, as an audio book provides
`them with the opportunity to pass their time by listening
`to a story as they work or travel.
`[0003] Audio books may be provided through a variety
`of media. Typically, the recording is stored on a cassette
`tape, a CD or a DVD. When a user wishes to hear the
`audio book, they can then insert the chosen form of au-
`dio book in its corresponding media player, and initiate
`a play of the audio book. Typically, these media are pro-
`vided with the means of enabling a user to control the
`play of the audio book. For example, a user may wish
`to stop or pause play during the course of the storytell-
`ing, and subsequently resume the story from the paused
`point. The books are typically of a long duration and re-
`quire multiple hours to enable a user to listen to an entire
`book. It is unusual that a user will complete the listening
`at one sitting and various techniques have been devel-
`oped to ensure that a listener can stop at one point and
`then pick up the story at a later time from the same point.
`The simplest technique is for the user to press the stop
`button, as discussed above, but other techniques which
`provide for the navigation of audio files, are also known.
`One such technique is known as the DAISY (Digital Ac-
`cessible Information SYstem) and was created original-
`ly to facilitate the visually impaired.
`[0004] Audio books created using the DAISY format
`consist of navigable audio files which may be accessed
`with a portable player or via computer. It enables read-
`ers to examine a book by page, by section, by chapter,
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`or use a table of contents or an index. Users can navi-
`gate through the audio and/or electronic text version of
`the book by moving among the headings, chapters, and
`pages. This is achieved by the standard through the cre-
`ation of a structured text file integrated with a human-
`narrated audio file. DAISY books are typically stored on
`currently available media such as CDs or DVDs. The
`DAISY format also enables multiple DAISY Digital Talk-
`ing Books to be stored on the one media.
`[0005]
`In the past number of years, there has been a
`huge growth in the world-wide communications net-
`work, and in particular in the use of the internet and wire-
`less communications. During this time, the capacity and
`speeds of communication networks have been signifi-
`cantly improved, which has enabled the technology sec-
`tor to provide innovations that heretofore would have
`been thought as inconceivable to provide over a com-
`munication channel. In the field of audio for example,
`the ISO standard known as MPEG (Moving Picture Ex-
`perts Group) has enabled the transfer of digital audio
`files via a communications network such as the internet.
`This standard involves the compressing of the audio
`files for transmission over a network. This has enabled
`music enthusiasts to obtain audio files of their favourite
`track on the internet and download them to their person-
`al computer for playing either on the computer, or on a
`dedicated MP3 player. Such transmission of data has
`been possible due to the bandwidth associated with the
`internet connections, and the fact that when download-
`ing or retrieving information from a remote site, the user
`can maintain a prolonged connection with the remote
`server of a duration sufficient to enable a complete
`download of the desired file or files.
`[0006] Such bandwidth is not yet possible over wire-
`less communications channels such as those provided
`in the GSM mobile telecommunication networks. Al-
`though the bandwidth has improved with the advent of
`2.5 and 3G technology it has not yet reached the speeds
`possible using fixed lines. With the developments in the
`new network protocols more and more applications
`have been developed for mobile handsets and the func-
`tionality associated therewith. It will, for example, be well
`known to those in the art that mobile handset function-
`ality has extended beyond that of a simple telephone
`and now includes the ability to serve as a media player
`etc. In such applications the user can retrieve and store
`short audio files such as songs etc and then play them
`using their mobile handset. It is also known to transmit
`video images over such networks which can then be
`viewed on the handset. With all these known applica-
`tions the type of file that is transmitted is a relatively
`short file which can be retrieved and played independ-
`ently of other data files. Such applications are well suited
`to the habits of most users who do not wish to maintain
`an extended download connection but rather like to be
`able to download in a reduced time frame and then listen
`or view what they have downloaded.
`[0007]
`It will be appreciated that it would be of great
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`EP 1 463 258 A1
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`4
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`benefit to be able to also provide audio books over such
`communication channels, such as a wireless narrow-
`band communication channel. However the current
`MP3 format, while providing all the necessary features
`required for its intended usage of downloading one or
`more individual tracks, does not provide a suitable for-
`mat for transmission of audio books over wireless nar-
`rowband links. As detailed above, audio books typically
`contain a large amount of data -for example, it would not
`be unusual for an audio book to include data for nine
`hours of listening. This makes it difficult to download it
`to small devices with a small storage space. Even by
`using the MP3 format for compressing the audio files,
`the download time is too long to provide a practical im-
`plementation for audio books, especially over wireless
`narrowband links. Furthermore, the MP3 format does
`not provide any means of controlling the audio stream,
`which would be required if it were to be used for audio
`books, or other files of large size.
`[0008] Although the DAISY standard identified above
`supports a variety of audio file standards, including the
`MP3 audio file format, it is not suitable for use over a
`narrowband wireless network. Furthermore, the DAISY
`standard enables the user to play an audio file by high-
`lighting that portion of the text of the book which they
`wish to listen to. However the DAISY standard does not
`provide any facility for a user to use voice control to con-
`trol the playback of the book, which would be a very use-
`ful feature, especially for example when playback is to
`be initiaited on mobile phone devices.
`[0009] There is therefore a need to provide a method
`and apparatus for transmitting large files such as audio
`books or other media data types over a wireless tele-
`communications network.
`
`Summary of the Invention
`
`[0010] Accordingly the present invention provides a
`networked architecture that enables a communication
`between one or more remote client devices and a cen-
`tral server. The central server maintains a datastore of
`media datafiles that may be retrieved by a user for play-
`ing on a suitable media player provided on their client
`device. Each of the datafiles is sub-dividable, the sub-
`division being effected to enable a searching and down-
`load of smaller portions of the larger datafile.
`[0011] The independent claims define features of a
`system and method according to the present invention.
`By providing a system and method according to the
`present invention it is possible to enable a user to obtain
`selective portions of media datafiles over a telecommu-
`nications network.
`[0012] Advantageous embodiments of the present in-
`vention are described in dependent claims.
`[0013] These and other features of the present inven-
`tion will be better understood with reference to preferred
`embodiments of the invention described hereinafter with
`reference to the following drawings.
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`Brief Description of the Drawings
`
`[0014]
`
`Figure 1 shows a diagram of a typical environment
`in which the present invention could be used,
`Figure 2 shows a process flow of the present inven-
`tion of a typical user interaction at the client device
`with the server device, viewed from the client side
`of the system and
`Figure 3 shows a process flow of the present inven-
`tion of a typical user interaction at the client device
`with the server device, viewed from the server side
`of the system.
`
`Detailed Description of the Drawings
`
`[0015] The present invention provides a system for
`transmitting large data files such as audio books over a
`communications network, and in particular over wireless
`telecommunications networks. In a preferred applica-
`tion, the invention enables a user of the system to select
`an audio book from a library of audio books and to down-
`load part or all of the audio book to a network device for
`playback on demand. The invention also provides the
`user with the facility to stop and later resume playback
`starting from the stopped point as desired. Additionally,
`the invention provides its users with the option of giving
`voice commands to select and manage their audio
`books. It will be appreciated that the implementation of
`the techniques of the present invention to the field of
`audio books is an example of the type of data file that
`can be managed and downloaded by a user and that it
`is not intended to limit the invention to such media types.
`For the sake of convenience, and for brevity of explana-
`tion, an application of the invention to the field of audio
`books will now follow.
`[0016] Figure 1 shows a pictorial diagram of a typical
`implementation of the present invention. The system
`300 of the present invention includes a client device
`such as a mobile handset and a server device which are
`connected to each other via a communications network.
`Typically the communications network will be a wireless
`network 305, such as a GSM type network. The client
`device 310 may be for example a special audio book
`device, a hand-held computer, a mobile phone or a gate-
`way device to an existing sound device such as a car
`stereo. The client device 310 may be connected directly
`to the server device using a wireless connection 305.
`Alternatively, the client device 305 may be connected to
`the internet via a fixed line, or placed in a download sta-
`tion 315, which in turn is connected to the internet 320.
`[0017] The server device 325 is adapted to store data
`relating to the audio books and its associated registered
`users, and to transmit this data to and to receive data
`from the client device as required. In this illustrated ex-
`ample, the server device comprises two main databas-
`es: a user datastore 330 and an audio book library 335.
`
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`The user datastore contains details associated with the
`registered users of the system in the form of user pro-
`files, for example details of the current audio books each
`user is subscribed to, and a bookmark file containing
`pointers associated with the passage they last listened
`to for each audio book they are currently reading (i.e.
`for each recording of a reading of a book which they
`have subscribed to listen to). The user data store addi-
`tionally contains information about the user as a sub-
`scriber to one and more books, a unique identifier as-
`sociated with the user such as a subscriber Identity con-
`nected to the IMEI-code (International Mobile Equip-
`ment Identity), to the MSISDN (Mobile Station Interna-
`tion ISDN like +353 (99) 999 1234) number or any other
`secure identification. The datastore may additionally in-
`clude information, or point
`to additional datastores
`where the information is stored, to enable a charging
`and billing of the user. The user datastore will also in-
`clude information pertaining to book related information
`such as specific bookmarks linked to books that the user
`has subsribed to. The audio book library contains a da-
`tastore of audio books which may be selected for read-
`ing (i.e. hearing) by a registered user. The audio book
`library may also contain information about book prices,
`the category the book belongs too or is sorted under,
`author, publisher, ISBN number (International Standard
`Book Number), Year published etc. search attributes
`and reader information. It will be appreciated therefore
`that the user datastore is user specific whereas the au-
`dio book library is simple a datastore of available books
`for subsequent downloading by a user. It will be further
`appreciated that by providing a searchable book library
`it is possible for a remote user to access the audio book
`libarary and by virtue of effecting a search strategy can
`obtain a book of choice.
`[0018]
`In order to provide such a searchable facility it
`is necessary to arrange the audio datastore in a manner
`that enables an effective searching. As will be appreci-
`ated, the present invention provides for the selective
`download of books or other media data files of choice,
`but also enables the selective retrieval of specific por-
`tions of that book. To enable such a dual download it is
`necessary that the library is arranged that a first search
`can be conducted to narrow down the files of interest
`and a second search then enables a search within that
`narrowed range. The segmentation of individual data
`files into two or more specific sub-portions requires an
`administrative interaction with each of the stored data-
`files so as to define specific sub-portions within each of
`the larger files;
`the sub-portions being individually
`searchable and retrievable from the larger parent file.
`[0019] Each of the audio files, or in alternative embod-
`iments other types of datafile are desirably input to the
`system of the present invention from an external source.
`In the example of the application to an audio book en-
`vironment, the datafile for a specific book is relayed from
`a storage device such as a CD/DVD/tape or the like via
`a transcoder to the audio book library. In order to provide
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`the searching that is enabled by the system and method
`of the invention, it is necessary to characterise both the
`parent datafile that makes a specific book and the sub-
`divisions thereof, which may be used for later download,
`with search parameters. This may be done externally
`prior to importation of the datafile to the audio library or
`may be done subsequent to importation.
`[0020]
`In order to provide an effective service it is im-
`portant that the system of the invention is provided with
`some sort of control over who can and cannot interface
`with the system. In a preferred embodiment, the present
`invention is adapted to provide an audio book service to
`registered users only. In order to provide this function-
`ality, the system is additionally provided with an authen-
`tication means for enabling the system to verify whether
`a user is a registered user of the system. If the system
`verifies that the user requesting access is previously
`registered, the system permits them to avail of its serv-
`ices. Alternatively, if the user is not a registered user,
`the system is adapted to register the new user. In a pre-
`ferred embodiment, the invention utilises the authenti-
`cators that are inherent on most mobile devices such as
`the device IMEI number or the SIM card MSISDN. Au-
`thentication is provided through the client passing the
`MSISDN number found on the SIM-card for the wireless
`network subscription or the device IMEI number, to the
`server. Both of these numbers can be used to track a
`specific person, but the MSISDN number is preferable
`as it identifies a network service subscriber as opposed
`to the IMEI number which only identifies an owner of a
`device. Desirably this information is pulled from the re-
`mote device by the authenticating server, and as such
`it is not possible for the remote user to "invent" some
`arbitary number for presentation to the server. The pull-
`ing of such authenticator numbers from the remote de-
`vice is well known in the art of telecommunications.
`[0021] The system may also be adapted to provide for
`the charging for the services it provides to a registered
`user. When a registered user requests a book, the sys-
`tem presents the user with the cost associated with sub-
`scribing to that particular book. The server contains in-
`formation about the cost for each book, per chapter or
`other chargeable part, which is sent to the client. The
`system will then only transmit the book to the registered
`user on receipt of payment of this book subscription fee
`or if such a fee is already marked as "pay receipted" in
`the server. In the charging mechanism the telecom op-
`erator could also be involved in charging and billing
`based upon the URL the user is accessing. This service
`already exist among several telecom operators. In this
`case the user will have the cost for the book specified
`on the telecom operators phone bill, otherwise the sys-
`tem will produce an invoice periodically sent to the user,
`containing only the charge for the book and not any
`transmission charges, which can be found on the tele-
`com operators invoice.
`[0022] The present invention is adapted to transmit
`the audio book stored at the server device 325 to the
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`client device 310 on request. The invention is adapted
`so that the audio book may be transcoded to an audio
`format that fits small client devices with small storage,
`and which is also suitable for low bandwidth transmis-
`sion. It provides for two modes of transmission of the
`audio book data file from the server device to the client
`device. Transmission may be either a selective down-
`load of an audio file of a chapter of a selected book, or
`a transmission using streaming technology. The user is
`not restricted to chapters. He/she can randomly book-
`mark and then resume from that bookmarked location,
`but charging is restricted to the whole book, index, chap-
`ter or any other logical cohesion totally separate from
`bookmarking. The user can also keep several book-
`marks for one book. It might be that the user finds im-
`portant parts he/she wants to return to later, and as such
`may require the use of the multiple bookmarks within
`one book.
`[0023]
`In a preferred embodiment of the invention,
`transmission is carried out using streaming technology,
`as this technology enables a user to download only the
`required data needed for the next couple of seconds.
`This means that the transmission of the audio data over
`the network is only 1-5 seconds ahead of the actual play-
`ing of the audio and very little intermediate storage is
`needed which suites small wireless devices. During the
`number of seconds the transmission is ahead of the
`playing of the audio, it should have time to recover trans-
`mission failures and decode the data into audio ready
`to be played. A typical protocol used in the streaming
`transmission case is RTSP (Real Time Streaming Pro-
`tocol) over RTP (real Time Protocol) and UDP/IP (User
`Datagram Protocol/Internet Protocol). However,
`the
`present invention is adapted to also enable the down-
`loading of audio books on a chapter per chapter basis
`or any other logical unit, so that the system may be used
`in conjunction with small client devices, which may be
`only capable of receiving data using the HTTP (Hyper
`Text Transfer Protocol) protocol (i.e. via selected down-
`load).
`[0024]
`In one embodiment of the present invention,
`selected download is accomplished using the HTTP
`protocol, while streaming is accomplished using the RT-
`SP protocol. However any other suitable protocols could
`be used to provide the same functionality.
`[0025] As previously mentioned, one of
`the main
`problems currently associated with the provision of au-
`dio books over a narrowband communications network
`has been the bandwidth requirement of narrowband net-
`works. The prior art audio books which make use of the
`DAISY standard support use the MPEG format to effect
`a transmission of the files. However the MPEG format
`is unable to provide the required transmission speeds
`over a narrowband link. The present invention over-
`comes this problem by providing a high level speech en-
`coder adapted for use with the DAISY audio book stand-
`ard or some other suitable segmentation technique.
`The provision of a high level speech encoder enables
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`the bandwidth demand to be brought down to 2-10K bits
`per second, and thus enables the transmission of an au-
`dio book over a narrowband link. In one embodiment of
`the present invention, the high level speech encoding
`software used is the Speex speech codec. This speech
`codec provides very good quality speech encoding at a
`low bit rate. A speech encoder is integrated in the server
`and a speech decoder is integrated in the client. The
`encoding at the server, which is CPU intensive, can be
`processed in advance using the codec on raw audio ma-
`terial or transcoding it from other formats and storing the
`data in the book library. Alternatively, the encoding can
`be conducted at the same time as the book is transmit-
`ted to the client if the server is capable of doing so. The
`client does not have to use a lot of CPU resources to
`decode the material it receives. The format must support
`an easy and simple decoding process. When the down-
`load technique is used the downloaded file is stored in
`its compressed format to save space. As such it may be
`necessary to store multiple copies of the same datafile
`at the server; a first copy being in an uncompressed
`state and suitable for search or as a master copy, where-
`as the second copy will be used for the download pur-
`poses and is retrieved for specific downloads.
`[0026] The present invention also provides the option
`for the user to issue commands to the server device by
`means of voice commands. This provision is of major
`benefit in many situations, for example it enables the
`use of the system in situations where people are re-
`quired to have their hands free for other duties. Raw or
`very simple compression of the voice command is cap-
`tured at the client and transmitted to the server. The
`server may pass this voice command to a voice-to-text
`system of which several exist today. The output text from
`the voice-to-text system is captured by the server and
`transmitted to the client. In some client devices simple
`voice-to-text functionality already exist that can be used
`by the client. Examples of such techniques include for
`example the ART (Advanced Research Technologies)
`(http://www.artcomp.com) Smartspeak™ product which
`isaimed for the Symbian OS mobile phones. These sys-
`tems have API's (Application Programming Interface)
`for external systems to use, and as such can be adapted
`for application with the system of the present invention.
`[0027] These and other features of the present inven-
`tion will be more clearly understood with reference to
`typical process flows of the invention, as shown in the
`accompanying Figures 2 and 3.
`[0028] Figure 2 shows a process flow of the present
`invention of a typical user interaction at the client device
`310 with the server device 325, when viewed from the
`client side of the system. In order for a user to gain ac-
`cess to the system of the present invention, the user
`must first register with the system. This could be done
`through a web page or the client presenting the user with
`a menu where necessary information can be entered.
`The client automatically sends the MSISDN or the IMEI
`numbers which can be retrieved from the hardware or
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`the SIM-card by the client. The client sends these num-
`bers every time a new contact is taken with the server.
`The provision of a registration of a user with the system
`enables the system to authenticate the user every sub-
`sequent time they wish to access the system. In step
`101 a registered user who has requested access to the
`system of the present invention is authenticated at the
`client device 310. It will be appreciated that the authen-
`tication takes place at the beginning of any communica-
`tion link between the client device and the server device.
`The Security integrity could be increased by introducing
`encryption, but by sending the SIM-cards MSISDN and
`IMEI numbers, which are trusted by the telecom opera-
`tors, it should be sufficient in most cases.
`[0029] Typically the authentication is carried out by
`comparing an identifier presented by the user device
`with a previously stored identifier, associated with the
`user, at the server . If the pair of user identifiers matches,
`the user is granted access to the system and a session
`is established. However it will be appreciated that the
`exact authentication procedure will depend on the type
`of client device 310 being used by the user, and may
`also differ in the type of material being requested. Nor-
`mally the phone or the device carrying a "phone com-
`munication card" has a SIM-card with a MSISDN
`number and a device on a Wireless LAN (IEEE 802.11
`etc) has a hardware MAC (Medium Access Control) ad-
`dress, that can both be read by an application using
`these devices through an API, and they can not be tam-
`pered with. For example, if the client device is a mobile
`phone, the authentication may be carried out by com-
`paring the user's mobile phone SIM-card ID with a pre-
`viously stored, on the server, SIM-card ID associated
`with the mobile phone of the registered user. In the au-
`thentication answer the server could send a small list of
`already payed or free digital rights to read a book like in
`step 101. It will be further appreciated that authentica-
`tion based on hardware identifiers could be supplement-
`ed with additional security features such as incorpora-
`tion of PIN numbers, biometric identification, credit card
`authentication or the like.
`[0030]
`In step 102 the client device queries the user
`whether they wish to hear a new audio book, or to
`resume playback of a previously requested audio book.
`If the user requests a new book, the process moves to
`step 104, alternatively if the user requests to resume
`playback of a previously requested book, the process
`moves to step 103. In step 104 a request is made to the
`server device 325 to provide an index of the library of
`audio books stored in the audio book library 335 for in-
`spection by the user. The server device responds by
`providing a library index of all the audio books stored for
`display by the client device (step 106).An alternative is
`to let the user navigate among categories and then se-
`lect a book within a category of books. The user may
`then scroll through the list displayed at the client device
`of all the audio books available on the system. As the
`user scrolls through the list, the title of each book is
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`transmitted vocally. The user may then select their cho-
`sen audio book from the index by either a manual com-
`mand or a voice command. In an alternative process
`flow, the user may choose to search for an audio book
`by providing a title, author, ISBN number, or another
`suitable unique identifier associated with a stored audio
`book to the client device. Once the user has selected
`the audio book they require by any of the above means,
`the selected book is transmitted from the client device
`to the server device (step 107).
`[0031] Alternatively, if the user requests to resume
`playback from the last heard passage of a previously
`requested book, the process moves to step 103, where
`the bookmark (i.e. the point in the book where the user
`had paused reading) associated with the book which the
`user wishes to resume reading is obtained from the
`server, and the starting point for the current audio read-
`ing session may then be determined (step 105). Before
`the audio file is requested from the server a check is
`done that it is not on local memory (step 109).
`[0032] Before the selected new book that is not book-
`marked is transmitted from the server device to the client
`device the system verifies if the registered user has pre-
`viously subscribed to the book i.e. whether the book has
`been accepted to be paid for (step 119). If the user has
`not subscribed to the book, the user is presented with
`the cost (step 120), which can be either accepted (step
`121) or rejected (121a) by the user. If the user rejects
`the charge, the system denies the user access to its
`services and the session ends.
`[0033] Alternatively, if the user accepts the charge by
`pressing a button on the remote device termed the "ac-
`cepted button" or by giving a vocal command corre-
`sponding to the accept button, which is sent to the server
`to be stored in the users data store, the user is sub-
`scribed to the book (step 122). Once the system has
`determined that the user has subscribed to the book,
`the process moves to step 109. In step 109 the system
`checks if the book is already loaded on the client device,
`for example in the case where the user had already
`transmitted and heard a portion of the book in an earlier
`session. If the audio book has not been already loaded,
`the file is transmitted to the client device from the server
`device. At this stage, the transmission method for the
`transfer of the audio book file is determined (step 110).
`This will typically be decided by a parameter set at in-
`stallation by an installation program. On application of
`a simple test of the communication capabilities that exist
`on the device, the installation program determines by
`use of different communication protocols etc. and by ef-
`fecting a check on other capabilities like storage capa-
`bilities etc. what are the preferably tranmission methods
`for the specific remoted device. These parameters rep-
`resent default parameters for this device and could
`therefore be changed by the user afterwards if so de-
`sired.. As previously mentioned, the transmission may
`be either carried out by streaming or by selective down-
`load. If the selected transmission method is streaming,
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`the process moves to step 111, where the audio file, or
`portions of it if so selected, is buffered and transmitted.
`Alternatively, the process moves to step