Methods, systems and media players for rendering different media types

• US 20050188310A1
• Filed: 02/22/2005
• Published: 08/25/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 03/26/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Novak, Michael J., Harris, Geoffrey, Olson, Kipley J., Feller, Chris, Dideriksen, Tedd
• Granted Patent: US 7,272,794 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/728
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/10 Indexing; Addressing; Timing or synchronising; Measuring tape travel

Abstract

Methods and systems are described that assist media players in rendering different media types. In some embodiments, a unified rendering area is provided and managed such that multiple different media types are rendered by the media player in the same user interface area. This unified rendering area thus permits different media types to be presented to a user in an integrated and organized manner. An underlying object model promotes the unified rendering area by providing a base rendering object that has properties that are shared among the different media types. Object sub-classes are provided and are each associated with a different media type, and have properties that extend the shared properties of the base rendering object. In addition, an inventive approach to visualizations is presented that provides better synchronization between a visualization and its associated audio stream.

Claims

1. A media player comprising:

a user interface configured to enable a user to interact with the media player to play different types of media; and

a rendering area within the user interface and within which multiple different types of media can be rendered for the user.

2. The media player of claim 1 wherein the media player is configured to render all visual media types that can be rendered by the media player in the rendering area.

3. The media player of claim 1 wherein the different types of media comprise video types, animation types, and skin types.

4. The media player of claim 1 wherein the different types of media comprise video types, animation types, HTML types and skin types.

5. The media player of claim 1 wherein the different types of media comprise video types, animation types, and visualization types that can be presented and generally synchronized with audio media that can be played by the media player.

6. A media rendering method comprising:

providing a media player user interface;

providing a rendering area within the user interface; and

rendering different media types within the rendering area.

7. The media rendering area of claim 6, wherein said rendering comprises rendering all visual media that can be rendered by the media player in the rendering area.

8. The media rendering area of claim 6, wherein said rendering comprises rendering video types, animation types, and visualization types associated with audio media in the rendering area.

9. The media rendering area of claim 6, wherein said rendering comprises:

providing multiple different rendering objects each of which are associated with a different media type; and

hosting all of the different rendering objects within the rendering area.

10. An object model comprising:

a base rendering object associated with a rendering area in which multiple different media types can be rendered, the rendering area providing at least a portion of a media player user interface that can be viewed by a user; and

multiple different media type rendering objects each of which being associated with a different media type that can be rendered in the rendering area, the different media type rendering objects being configured to render their associated media.

11. The object model of claim 10, wherein the different media type rendering objects comprise a skin rendering object that is configured to render a skin.

12. The object model of claim 10, wherein the different media type rendering objects comprise a video rendering object that is configured to render video.

13. The object model of claim 10, wherein the different media type rendering objects comprise a audio rendering object that is configured to provide a visualization.

14. The object model of claim 13 further comprising one or more effects associated with the audio rendering object, individual effects being configured to render an associated visualization.

15. The object model of claim 10, wherein the different media type rendering objects comprise a animation rendering object that is configured to render animation.

16. The object model of claim 10, wherein the different media type rendering objects comprise a HTML rendering object that is configured to render HTML.

17. The object model of claim 10, wherein the different media type rendering objects comprise one or more of:

a skin rendering object that is configured to render a skin, a video rendering object that is configured to render video, a audio rendering object that is configured to provide a visualization, a animation rendering object that is configured to render animation, and a HTML rendering object that is configured to render HTML.

18. The object model of claim 10, wherein one or more of the media type rendering objects can host one or more other media type rendering objects.