Digital media system with request-based merging of metadata from multiple databases
First Claim
1. A method for accessing information from an overall collection of metadata records, wherein the overall collection includes a local database of metadata records and a remote database of metadata records, and wherein each metadata record in the overall collection includes information regarding a particular digital media source, the method comprising:
- in response to user interaction with a user interface, identifying at least one selection criterion for selecting metadata records from which to display information;
retrieving a candidate set of metadata records from the remote database;
identifying a remote set of metadata records in the candidate set that satisfy the at least one selection criterion;
identifying a local set of metadata records in the local database that satisfy the at least one selection criterion;
merging the remote set and the local set to produce a merged set of metadata records that satisfy the at least one selection criterion; and
displaying selected information from at least one metadata record in the merged set.
1 Assignment
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Accused Products
Abstract
A digital media system includes a changer control system that controls an optical disc changer. The changer control system includes a local database of metadata records containing information regarding the optical discs in the optical disc changer. The changer control system is also networked to a digital media server that stores digital media files. The digital media server includes a remote database of metadata records containing information regarding the digital media files. The changer control system provides a user interface that allows a user to access information regarding both the optical discs in the optical disc changer and the digital media files stored in the digital media server. To provide this information, a file system of the changer control system creates a merged set of selected metadata records from the local database and the remote database, in response to a request from the user interface.
128 Citations
29 Claims
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1. A method for accessing information from an overall collection of metadata records, wherein the overall collection includes a local database of metadata records and a remote database of metadata records, and wherein each metadata record in the overall collection includes information regarding a particular digital media source, the method comprising:
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in response to user interaction with a user interface, identifying at least one selection criterion for selecting metadata records from which to display information;
retrieving a candidate set of metadata records from the remote database;
identifying a remote set of metadata records in the candidate set that satisfy the at least one selection criterion;
identifying a local set of metadata records in the local database that satisfy the at least one selection criterion;
merging the remote set and the local set to produce a merged set of metadata records that satisfy the at least one selection criterion; and
displaying selected information from at least one metadata record in the merged set. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 13, 17, 18, 19)
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11. A method for accessing information from an overall collection of metadata records, wherein each metadata record in the overall collection includes information regarding a particular digital media source, and wherein the overall collection including a local database of metadata records and a remote database of metadata records, each metadata record in the local database being associated with a local record number based on its order in the local database and a collection record number based on its order in the overall collection, each metadata record in the remote database being associated with a remote record number based on its order in the remote database and a collection record number based on its order in the overall collection, the method comprising:
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in response to user interaction with a user interface, the user interface requesting a specified range of N collection record numbers;
obtaining a sparse map of the remote database;
identifying a candidate set of metadata records based on the sparse map;
retrieving the candidate set of metadata records from the remote database;
identifying a remote set of metadata records in the candidate set that have collection record numbers in the specified range;
identifying a local set of metadata records in the local database that have collection record numbers in the specified range;
merging the remote set and the local set to produce a merged set of metadata records;
providing the merged set of metadata records to the user interface;
the user interface displaying selected information from at least one metadata record in the merged set. - View Dependent Claims (12, 14, 15, 16)
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20. A digital media system, comprising:
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an optical disc changer containing a plurality of optical discs;
a digital media server, wherein the digital media server stores a plurality of digital media files and includes a remote database of metadata records containing information regarding the digital media files; and
a changer control system communicatively coupled to the optical disc changer and to the digital media server, wherein the changer control system comprises;
(a) a local database of metadata records containing information regarding the optical discs in the optical disc changer;
(b) a user interface for allowing a user to access information regarding the optical discs in the optical disc changer and the digital media files stored in the digital media server; and
(c) a file system for creating, in response to a request from the user interface, a merged set of metadata records from selected metadata records in the local database and selected metadata records in the remote database. - View Dependent Claims (21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29)
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Specification