Methods and systems for managing media content in a playback queue

A processing system, comprising:

• at least one processor;
• a communication interface, controlled by the at least one processor, to communicate with a user device associated with a user;
• and
• a memory having stored therein machine executable instructions, that when executed by the at least one processor, cause the processing system to perform operations comprising:
• receiving, by a processing system, a plurality of data samples generated from an application in a user device for a plurality of media files, the media application including a media file being played and an ordered queue of upcoming playback media files following the media file being played, the plurality of data samples being based at least in part on a plurality of contextual features associated with a user of the user device in association with a user's interaction with a least one media file of the plurality of media files, the plurality of contextual features being collected utilizing at least one sensing module of the user device;
• computing, by the processing system, one or more probability distributions based at least in part on the data samples, the plurality of data samples being associated with an affinity measure m indicative of the user's interaction with the at least one of the plurality of media files, wherein m is in the range [−γ, γ], whereby γ is an arbitrary numerical value assigned by the processing system, wherein a greater value of m indicates a greater affinity of the user for the at least one of the plurality of media files;
• determining, by the processing system, a ranking of the plurality of media files based on the one or more probability distributions over the plurality of media files in association with the plurality of data samples;
• recommending, by the processing system, one or more media files from the ranking of the plurality of media files to the user at a User Interface (UI) of the user device;
• and
• playing back the one or more media files through the UI of the user device.

A computer program product comprising at least one computer-readable storage medium, the computer-readable storage medium comprising a set of instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, cause a processing system to perform operations comprising:

• receiving, by a processing system, a plurality of data samples generated from an application in a user device of for a plurality of media files, the media files including a media file being played and an ordered queue of upcoming playback media files following the media file being played, the plurality of data samples being based at least in part on a plurality of contextual features associated with a user of the user device in association with a user's interaction with a least one media file of the plurality of media files, the plurality of contextual features being collected utilizing at least one sensing module of the user device;
• computing, by the processing system, one or more probability distributions based at least in part on the data samples, the plurality of data samples being associated with an affinity measure m indicative of a user's interaction with the at least one of the plurality of media files, wherein m is in the range [−γ, γ], whereby γ is an arbitrary numerical value assigned by the processing system, wherein a greater value of m indicates a greater affinity of the user for the at least one of the plurality of media files;
• determining, by the processing system, a ranking of the plurality of media files based on the one or more probability distributions over the plurality of media files in association with the plurality of data samples;
• recommending, by the processing system, one or more media files from the ranking of the plurality of media files to the user at a User Interface (UI) of the user device;
• and
• playing back the one or more media files through the UI of the user device.