Apparatus and method for aggregating disparate storage on consumer electronics devices

• US 20050010671A1
• Filed: 06/18/2003
• Published: 01/13/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 06/18/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: SBC Knowledge Ventures LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Grannan, Michael F.
• Granted Patent: US 8,069,255 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/229
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2812 describing content present in a home automation network, e.g. audio video content retrieval from the Internet G06F16/95
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/303 Terminal profiles

Abstract

A media management module maintains and uses device profile data stored on a computer-readable medium. The device profile data includes, for each of at least one device in a user premise, a respective first data element to indicate whether a device is to remain in or be removable from the user premise, and a respective second data element to indicate whether a memory associated with the device is resident or removable from the device.

Claims

1. An apparatus comprising:

device profile data stored on a computer-readable medium, the device profile data including, for each of at least one device in a user premise, a respective first data element to indicate whether a device is to remain in or be removable from the user premise, and a respective second data element to indicate whether a memory associated with the device is resident or removable from the device.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the device profile data further comprises a respective third data element to indicate a device type of each device.

3. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the device profile data further comprises a respective third data element to indicate at least one type of media that is playable by each device.

4. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the device profile data further comprises a respective third data element to indicate a first free memory location of each device.

5. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the device profile data further comprises at least one data element to indicate an available memory range of each device.

6. The apparatus of claim 5 wherein the at least one data element comprises a third data element to indicate a memory base address and a fourth data element to indicate a memory high address.

7. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the device profile data further comprises a respective third data element to indicate a media management attribute of each device, the media management attribute selected from the group consisting of a master device, a slave device, and a client device.

8. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the device profile data further comprises a respective third data element to uniquely identify each device.

9. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the at least one device comprises a plurality of devices.

10. The apparatus of claim 9 further comprising:

a media management server (MMS) module to maintain the device profile data and to manage storage of media assets in the plurality of devices based on the device profile table.

11. The apparatus of claim 10 wherein the MMS module is to receive a request from a requesting device to store a media file, and to warn a user if the media file is to be stored on a removable device based on the first data element.

12. The apparatus of claim 10 wherein the MMS module is to receive a request from a requesting device to store a media file, and to warn a user if the media file is to be stored on a device with removable storage based on the second data element.

13. The apparatus of claim 10 wherein the MMS module is to find a best fit memory block in the plurality of devices to store the media file if sufficient memory is unavailable on the requesting device to store the media file.

14. The apparatus of claim 10 further comprising media asset data stored by the computer-readable medium, the media asset data associated with the media assets.

15. The apparatus of claim 14 wherein the media asset data comprises, for each of the media assets, a respective first data element to uniquely identify the media asset, a respective second data element to indicate a title of the media asset, a respective third data element to indicate a category of the media asset, a respective fourth data element to indicate a media type of the media asset, a respective fifth data element to indicate a distribution source of the media asset, a respective sixth data element to identify the device where the media asset is stored, and a respective seventh data element to identify a base address where the media asset is stored in a memory of the device.

16. The apparatus of claim 10 wherein the MMS module, in response to receiving a de-allocation request from a requesting device, is to determine which media files are stored either entirely or partially on the requesting device using the media asset data, to copy the media files to a temporary storage, and to delete the device from the device profile data.

17. The apparatus of claim 16 wherein the MMS module is to store the media files in remaining ones of the devices and to modify the media asset data associated with the media files.

18. The apparatus of claim 10 wherein the MMS module and the computer-readable medium are provided by a computing device having a processor, a main memory, secondary storage and a network interface.

19. The apparatus of claim 18 wherein the computing device comprises a personal computer.

20. The apparatus of claim 18 wherein the computing device comprises a home gateway.

21. The apparatus of claim 18 wherein the computing device comprises a set top box to receive at least one of satellite and cable television services.

22. The apparatus of claim 18 wherein the network interface comprises at least one of an Ethernet interface, a Universal Serial Bus interface, a power line networking interface, an 802.11 wireless interface, a Bluetooth interface, and an Ultra Wideband interface.

23. The apparatus of claim 10 wherein the MMS module is to configure itself as a slave module for redundancy if a presence of an existing MMS module in another one of the devices is detected.

24. The apparatus of claim 10 wherein the MMS module is to manage data replication across multiple ones of the devices to ensure that identical pieces of data are stored on different devices for redundancy.

25. An apparatus comprising:

a device having a memory; and

a media management client (MMC) module in the device, the MMC module to provide a user option to initialize a media management memory feature by broadcasting a message over a home network to query for an existence of a media management server (MMS) device, sending a first data element to indicate whether the device is to remain in or be removable from the home network, and sending a second data element to indicate whether the memory is resident or removable from the device.

26. The apparatus of claim 25 wherein after initialization, the MMC module is to send subsequent requests to store media files to the MMS device.

27. The apparatus of claim 26 wherein the MMC module is to request that the MMS device retrieve one of the media files for playback by the device.

28. The apparatus of claim 25 wherein the MMC module is pre-installed on the device.

29. The apparatus of claim 25 wherein the device comprises a digital camera.

30. The apparatus of claim 25 wherein the device comprises a music player.

31. The apparatus of claim 25 wherein the device comprises a set top box to receive at least one of satellite and cable television services.

32. The apparatus of claim 25 wherein to initialize the media management memory feature, the MMC module is further to send a third data element to indicate a device type of the device.

33. The apparatus of claim 25 wherein to initialize the media management memory feature, the MMC module is further to send a third data element to indicate at least one type of media that is playable by the device.

34. The apparatus of claim 25 wherein to initialize the media management memory feature, the MMC module is further to send a third data element to indicate a first free memory location of the device.

35. The apparatus of claim 25 wherein to initialize the media management memory feature, the MMC module is further to send at least one data element to indicate an available memory range of the device.

36. The apparatus of claim 35 wherein the at least one data element comprises a third data element to indicate a memory base address and a fourth data element to indicate a memory high address.

37. The apparatus of claim 25 wherein to initialize the media management memory feature, the MMC module is further to send a respective third data element to uniquely identify the device.

38. A method comprising:

receiving, via a home network, a request from a remote device to store a media file, the request including a media type, a size, and a priority of the media file;

determining whether the remote device has enough available storage to store the media file;

if the remote device has enough available storage, allocating memory in the remote device to store the media file;

if the remote device does not have enough available storage;

finding at least one memory block to store the media file in at least one other device on the home network;

warning a user if the at least one other device is removable from the home network or has a removable memory;

providing the user an option to cancel the request;

allocating the at least one memory block to store the media file; and

updating a media asset data structure so the media file can be located and played by the remote device and one or more other devices on the home network.

39. The method of claim 38 wherein said finding at least one memory block comprises finding a best fit memory block.

40. The method of claim 38 wherein the at least one other device comprises a plurality of other devices.

41. The method of claim 40 further comprising breaking the media file into pieces to store the media file in memory blocks of the plurality of other devices.

42. A method comprising:

receiving a request from a device to retire from a multi-device aggregated storage over a home network;

scanning a media asset data structure to determine which media files are stored, either entirely or partially, on the device;

copying each of the media files stored on the device to a temporary storage area;

sequentially requesting deletion of each of the media files from the device;

removing an entry for the device from a device profile data structure; and

sequentially adding each of the media files in the temporary storage area to the aggregated storage provided by at least one remaining device in the home network.