Sharing media information between applications on client devices

• US 10,447,748 B2
• Filed: 05/12/2016
• Issued: 10/15/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 05/12/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Bendahan, Aurie, Schmidt, Edward T., Paulson, Nicholas J., Ketterman, Jason P., Magahern, Charles
• Primary Examiner(s): Sison, June Y
• Assistant Examiner(s): Dabipi, Dixon F
• Application Number:
  US15/153,641
• Publication Number:
  US 20170331869A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,251 Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/60 Network streaming of media packets
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/612 for unicast
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46

Abstract

A media process may receive, from a client application, a request for media information about a range of media items in a queue of a media application, the request being sent while the media application is executing. The queue includes a previous set of media items that have been played by the media application, a current item (e.g., currently playing), and a future set of items that are to be played The request may specify the range to include the current item and at least one item from the previous set and/or future set. The daemon sends a request to the media application and receives media information from the application. The received media information may include an order of media items and an identifier for each item in the range of items. The received information may be sent to the client application for displaying information about the range of items.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving, at a media process from a first client application on a first device, a request for media information about a first range of media items in a playlist of a media application, the request being sent while the media application is executing on the first device, wherein the media information includes an order of media items and an identifier for each media item in the first range of media items, and wherein the media application is configured to play the first range of media items in the order specified in the media information,

wherein the playlist includes a previous set of media items that have been played by the media application, a currently playing media item-, and a future set of media items that are to be played, and wherein the request specifies the first range to include the currently playing media item and at least one media item from one or more of the previous set of media items that have been played and the future set of media items that are to be played;

sending a request, by the media process to the media application, for the media information;

receiving, by the media process, at least a portion of media information from the media application, the received media information including the order of media items and the identifier for each media item in the first range of media items; and

sending, by the media process, the media information received from the media application to the first client application for displaying information about the first range of media items being played by the media application.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the media application is a music player application or a video player application, and wherein the media information includes metadata identifying, for each media item, one or more of a title, an artist, an album name, a duration, a publisher, a genre, and artwork.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the first range of media items is a numeric range for a number of media items that have been played in the media application or a number of media items that are queued to be played in the media application.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the first range of media items is a time range of media items that have been played in the media application within the time range or are queued to be played in the media application within the time range.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving, at the media process, from the media application, a changed order of the media items in the future set; and

sending the changed order to the first client application for displaying information about the future set.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving, at the media process, from the media application, changed media information for one or more media items in the first range of media items, the changed media information indicating a change to content of the one or more media items; and

sending the changed media information to the first client application for displaying the changed media information for the one or more media items.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving, at the media process, from the media application, updated media information indicating a change to the currently playing media item; and

sending the updated media information to the first client application for displaying information about the change to the currently playing media item.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving, at the media process, from a second client application on the first device, a request for media information about a second range of media items in the playlist of the media application, wherein the request specifies the second range to include the currently playing media item and at least one media item in the second range from one or more of the previous set and the future set;

sending a request from the media process to the media application;

receiving at least a portion of media information about the second range of media items at the media process from the media application, the received media information including the order of media items and the identifier for each media item in the first range of media items; and

sending the received media information to the second client application for displaying information about the second range of media items.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the second client application is one of a control center or a lock screen of the device.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving, at the media process, a communication indicating that a new media application is executing on the device;

sending, from the media process to the new media application, a request for media information about a range of media items in a playlist of the new media application, wherein the playlist includes a previous set of media items that have been played by the new media application, a current media item, and a future set of media items that are to be played, and wherein the request specifies the range to include the current media item and at least one media item from one or more of the previous set and the future set;

receiving at least a portion of media information at the media process from the new media application, the received media information including an order of media items and an identifier for each media item in the range of media items; and

sending the received media information to the first client application for displaying information about the range of media items for the new media application.

21. The method according to claim 1, wherein is the media process is a media daemon that is on a second device.

22. The method according to claim 21, wherein the media process on the second device sends the received media information to the first client application on the first device in order to share the media information on the first client application on the first device with a second client application on the second device.

23. The method according to claim 1, wherein the first client application is one of a lock screen application, a control center application, a user interface application, or a proxy application.

24. The method according to claim 1, wherein the first client application is an application that is of a different type than the media application.

25. The method according to claim 1, wherein the first client application and the media application are stored on the first device.

11. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium having executable instructions stored thereon, that if executed by a processor of a computing device, cause the processor to perform operations, the operations comprising:

receiving, at a media process, from a first client application on a first client device, a request for media information about a first range of media items in a playlist of a media application, the request being sent while the media application is executing on the first client device, wherein the media information includes an order of media items and an identifier for each media item in the first range of media items, and wherein the media application is configured to play the first range of media items in the order specified in the media information,

wherein the playlist includes a previous set of media items that have been played by the media application, a current media item, and a future set of media items that are to be played, and wherein the request specifies the first range to include the currently playing media item and at least one media item from one or more of the previous set of media items that have been played and the future set of media items that are to be played;

sending a request, by the media process to the media application, for the media information;

receiving, by the media process, at least a portion of media information from the media application, the received media information including the order of media items and the identifier for each media item in the first range of media items; and

sending, by the media process, the media information received from the media application to the first client application for displaying information about the first range of media items being played by the media application.

12. The computer readable storage medium of claim 11, wherein the instructions further comprise:

displaying, by the first client application, information about the range of media items on a display of the first client device.

13. The computer readable storage medium of claim 11, wherein the instructions further comprise:

receiving, at the media process, from a second client application on a second client device, the request for media information about the first range of media items in the playlist of the media application;

sending a request from the media process to the media application;

receiving at least a portion of media information at the media process from the media application, the received media information including the order of media items and the identifier for each media item in the first range of media items; and

sending the received media information to the first client application for displaying information about the first range of media items.

14. The computer readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein the first client device is a smartphone and the second client device is a wearable device.

15. An electronic device comprising:

a processor;

a display; and

a memory having instructions stored thereon, that, if executed by the processor,

cause the processor to perform operations comprising;

sending, by a media process to a media application, a request for media information about a range of media items in a playlist of the media application, the request being sent while the media application is executing, wherein the media information includes an order of media items and an identifier for each media item in the range of media items, and wherein the media application is configured to play the range of media items in the order specified in the media information,

wherein the playlist includes a previous set of media items that have been played by the media application, a current media item, and a future set of media items that are to be played, and wherein the request specifies the range to include the currently playing media item and at least one media item from one or more of the previous set of media items that have been played and the future set of media items that are to be played;

receiving, by the media process, at least a portion of media information from the media application, the received media information including the order of media items and the identifier for each media item in the range of media items;

sending, by the media process, the media information received from the media application to a first client application;

receiving, by the client application, the media information; and

displaying, by the client application, information about the range of media items being played by the media application on the display.

16. The device of claim 15, wherein the device is a wearable device, and wherein the information about the range of media items is displayed in a complication for displaying media information.

17. The device of claim 15, wherein the media application is a music player application or a video player application, and wherein the media information includes metadata identifying, for each media item, one or more of a title, an artist, an album name, a duration, a publisher, a genre, and artwork.

18. The device of claim 15, wherein the range of media items is a tunable numeric range N for a number of a last N media items that have been played in the media application or a next N media items that are queued to be played in the media application.

19. The device of claim 15, wherein the range of media items is a time range of media items that have been played in the media application within the time range or are queued to be played in the media application within the time range.

20. The device of claim 19, wherein the time range is a user-selected range of N minutes for a number of media items that have been played in the media application within a past N minutes or are queued to be played in the media application within a next N minutes.