METHOD FOR INDICATING A VOLUME OF AN AUDIO SINK OF A PORTABLE ELECTRONIC DEVICE

• US 20110087964A1
• Filed: 01/20/2010
• Published: 04/14/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 10/08/2009
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Blackberry Limited
• Original Assignee: Blackberry Limited
• Inventors: FAHMY, Samer, PATTERSON, Andrew Robert, HARDY, Michael Thomas
• Application Number:
  US12/690,887
• Publication Number:
  US 20110087964A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/716
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/165 Management of the audio stream, e.g. setting of volume, audio stream path
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72427 for supporting games or graphical animations
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2250/02 including a Bluetooth interface

Abstract

A method includes rendering data for display on a display screen of a portable electronic device and rendering an overlay for display on the display screen, the overlay being superimposed over the data and including a volume indicator and an audio sink indicator.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

rendering data for display on a display screen of a portable electronic device; and

rendering an overlay for display on the display screen, the overlay being superimposed over the data and comprising a volume indicator and an audio sink indicator.

2. A method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the overlay is rendered in response to a volume adjustment event.

3. A method as claimed in claim 2, wherein the volume adjustment event is one of:

addition of an audio sink and removal of an audio sink.

4. A method as claimed in claim 2, wherein the volume adjustment event is actuation of a button of the portable electronic device.

5. A method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the volume indicator is a volume level indicator.

6. A method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the volume indicator is a volume control indicator.

7. A method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the overlay comprises a power level indicator corresponding to a wireless audio sink.

8. A method as claimed in claim 7, wherein the wireless audio sink is a Bluetooth™

device.

9. A method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the audio sink indicator is a symbol.

10. A method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the audio sink indicator (58) is text.

11. A method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the audio sink indicator (58) is a combination of symbol and text.

12. A method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the overlay comprises a background field.

13. A method as claimed in claim 2, wherein a volume of media being output from an audio sink is adjusted in response to the volume adjustment event.

14. A method as claimed in claim 13, wherein the media is one of:

an audio file stored on the portable electronic device, an audio file received by the portable electronic device.

15. A method as claimed in claim 1, wherein rendering data for display on a display screen of the portable electronic device is performed in a first computer process and rendering the overlay for display on the display screen is performed in a second computer process.

16. The method as claimed in claim 1, comprising:

after rendering the overlay, re-rendering the data to cause the overlay to disappear.

17. A computer-readable medium comprising instructions executable on a processor of the portable electronic device for implementing the method of claim 1.

18. A portable electronic device comprising:

a processor for rendering data for display on a display screen of the portable electronic device and rendering an overlay for display on the display screen, the overlay comprising a volume indicator and an audio sink indicator and being superimposed over the data; and

a volume adjustment device in communication with the processor, the volume adjustment device for communicating with a media player application stored in a memory of the portable electronic device;

wherein active audio sink and current volume level of the active audio sink is obtained from the media player application.

19. A method comprising:

displaying data on a display screen of a portable electronic device; and

displaying an overlay on the display screen, the overlay being superimposed over the data and comprising a volume indicator and an audio sink indicator.

20. A computer-readable medium comprising instructions executable on a processor of the portable electronic device for implementing the method of claim 19.