Data-driven media management within an electronic device

• US 10,430,152 B2
• Filed: 05/22/2017
• Issued: 10/01/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 06/28/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Batson, James D., Borogove, Meriko L., Chapman, Gregory R., Coffman, Patrick L., Guetta, Anthony J., Lindahl, Aram, Rostaing, Andrew
• Primary Examiner(s): Elbin, Jesse A
• Application Number:
  US15/602,000
• Publication Number:
  US 20170255635A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• Field of Search: 700 94, 381119, 381123, 455 306, 710 5, 710 6, 710 7, 710 12, 710 14, 710 36- 45, 719518, 719322, 719329
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/60 of audio data
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/16 Sound input; Sound output speech processing G10L
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/165 Management of the audio stream, e.g. setting of volume, audio stream path

Abstract

A method and apparatus for intelligently routing and managing audio signals within an electronic device is disclosed. The routing is responsive to a set of logical and physical policies which are stored in data tables which can be updated as needed.

Claims

1. A non-transitory machine-readable medium storing instructions which, when executed by a processing system of an electronic device, cause the processing system to perform operations comprising:

receiving a request to playback a piece of media from an application executing on the electronic device, the request specifying a category of media associated with the piece of media, the category being associated with a first routing policy indicating a first priority of routing the piece of media to a first output of the electronic device and a second routing policy indicating a second priority of routing the piece of media to a second output of the electronic device, wherein the first priority is higher than the second priority;

determining whether the second output is made available for outputting media later than the first output;

in response to determining that the second output is made available later than the first output, routing the piece of media to the second output instead of the first output and despite the first output being available; and

in response to determining that the second output is not made available later than the first output, routing the piece of media to the first output according to the first routing policy.

2. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprises adjusting the second priority of the second routing policy to be higher than the first priority of the first routing policies, such that when future requests to playback other pieces of media associated with the category are received, the other pieces of media are to be routed to the second output of the electronic device.

3. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the first output is one of a plurality of outputs that comprises a built-in speaker, headphones, a user interface (UI) speaker, and a wireless speaker, and the second output is a different one of the plurality of outputs than the first output.

4. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the second output is a latest output of a plurality of outputs that is made available for outputting media, wherein the category is further associated with a third routing policy indicating that any piece of media associated with the category is to be routed to the latest output of the plurality of outputs that is made available, regardless of priorities of other routing policies associated with the category.

5. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 4, wherein the request is a first request, the piece of media is a first piece of media, and the category is a first category, wherein the operations further comprise

receiving a second request to playback a second piece of media from another application executing on the electronic device, the second request specifying a second category of the second piece of media, the second category being associated with the third routing policy and a fourth routing policy indicating that any piece of media associated with the second category is not to be routed to the second output;

and

routing the second piece of media to one of the outputs of the plurality of outputs other than the second output according to the fourth routing policy.

6. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 1,

wherein the operations further comprise, in response to the receiving the request, routing the piece of media to the first output according to the first routing policy,

wherein routing the piece of media to the second output of the electronic device comprises rerouting the piece of media from the first output of the electronic device to the second output of the electronic device.

7. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the operations of determining whether the second output is made available comprises detecting that the second output is connected to the electronic device through actions of a user of the electronic device.

8. A system for managing media on an electronic device, comprising:

one or more processors;

a non-transitory computer-readable medium, operatively coupled to the one or more processors, the computer-readable medium storing instructions which, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform operations including;

receiving a request to playback a piece of media from an application executing on the electronic device, the request specifying a category of media associated with the piece of media, the category being associated with a first routing policy indicating a first priority of routing the piece of media to a first output of the electronic device and a second routing policy indicating a second priority of routing the piece of media to a second output of the electronic device, wherein the first priority is higher than the second priority;

determining whether the second output is made available for outputting media later than the first output;

in response to determining that the second output is made available later than the first output, routing the piece of media to the second output instead of the first output and despite the first output being available; and

in response to determining that the second output is not made available later than the first output, routing the piece of media to the first output of the electronic device according to the first routing policy.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the operations further comprises adjusting the second priority of the second routing policy to be higher than the first priority of the first routing policies, such that when future requests to playback other pieces of media associated with the category are received, the other pieces of media are to be routed to the second output of the electronic device.

10. The system of claim 8, wherein the first output is one of a plurality of outputs that comprises a built-in speaker, headphones, a user interface (UI) speaker, and a wireless speaker, and the second output is a different one of the plurality of outputs than the first output.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the second output of the electronic device is a latest output of the plurality of outputs that is made available for outputting media, wherein the category is further associated with a third routing policy indicating that any piece of media associated with the category is to be routed to the latest output of the plurality of outputs that is made available, regardless of priorities of other routing policies associated with the category.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the request is a first request, the piece of media is a first piece of media, and the category is a first category, wherein the operations further comprise

receiving a second request to playback a second piece of media from another application executing on the electronic device, the second request specifying a second category of the second piece of media, the second category being associated with the third routing policy and a fourth routing policy indicating that any piece of media associated with the second category is not to be routed to the second output;

and

routing the second piece of media to one of the outputs of the plurality of outputs other than the second output according to the fourth routing policy.

13. The system of claim 8,

wherein operations further comprise, in response to the receiving the request, routing the piece of media to the first output according to the first routing policy,

wherein routing the piece of media to the second output comprises rerouting the piece of media from the first output to the second output.

14. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 8, wherein the operations of determining whether the second output is made available comprises detecting that the second output is connected to the electronic device through actions of a user of the electronic device.

15. A method of managing media on an electronic device, comprising:

receiving a request to playback a piece of media from an application executing on the electronic device, the request specifying a category of media associated with the piece of media, the category being associated with a first routing policy indicating a first priority of routing the piece of media to a first output of the electronic device and a second routing policy indicating a second priority of routing the piece of media to a second output of the electronic device, wherein the first priority is higher than the second priority;

determining whether the second output is made available for outputting media later than the first output;

in response to determining that the second output is made available later than the first output, routing the piece of media to the second output instead of the first output and despite the first output being available; and

in response to determining that the second output is not made available later than the first output, routing the piece of media to the first output of the electronic device according to the first routing policy.

16. The method of claim 15 further comprising adjusting the second priority of the second routing policy to be higher than the first priority of the first routing policies, such that when future requests to playback other pieces of media associated with the category are received, the other pieces of media are to be routed to the second output of the electronic device.

17. The method of claim 15, wherein the first output is one of a plurality of outputs that comprises a built-in speaker, headphones, a user interface (UI) speaker, and a wireless speaker, and the second output is a different one of the plurality of outputs than the first output.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the second output of the electronic device is a latest output of the plurality of outputs that is made available for outputting media, wherein the category is further associated with a third routing policy indicating that any piece of media associated with the category is to be routed to the latest output of the plurality of outputs that is made available, regardless of priorities of other routing policies associated with the category.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein request is a first request, the piece of media is a first piece of media, and the category is a first category, wherein the method further comprises

receiving a second request to playback a second piece of media from another application executing on the electronic device, the second request specifying a second category of the second piece of media, the second category being associated with the third routing policy and a fourth routing policy indicating that any piece of media associated with the second category is not to be routed to the second output;

and

routing the second piece of media to one of the outputs of the plurality of outputs other than the second output according to the fourth routing policy.

20. The method of claim 15 further comprising, in response to the receiving the request, routing the piece of media to the first output according to the first routing policy, wherein routing the piece of media to the second output comprises re-routing the piece of media from the first output to the second output.

21. The method of claim 15, wherein determining whether the second output is made available comprises detecting that the second output is connected to the electronic device through actions of a user of the electronic device.