Proximity Based Networked Media File Sharing

• US 20110209221A1
• Filed: 02/22/2010
• Published: 08/25/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 02/22/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Hanson, Eric, Fagans, Joshua David
• Granted Patent: US 8,677,502 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 726/26
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/58 Retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manually
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/587 using geographical or spatial information, e.g. location
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/78 Retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manually
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4122 additional display device, e.g. video projector digital output for controlling a plurality of local displays G06F3/1423
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/41407 embedded in a portable device, e.g. video client on a mobile phone, PDA, laptop constructional details of equipment or arrangements specially adapted for portable computer application G06F1/1626; arrangements specially adapted for mobile receivers in broadcast systems H04H20/57
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/43637 involving a wireless protocol, e.g. Bluetooth, RF or wireless LAN [IEEE 802.11] arrangements for wireless networking or broadcasting of information in indoor or near-field type systems H04B10/114
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44227 Monitoring of local network, e.g. connection or bandwidth variations; Detecting new devices in the local network configuring of peripheral devices in general G06F9/4411; monitoring connectivity in data switched networks H04L43/0811
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4627 Rights management associated to the content security in data switching network management H04L41/28; security management or policies for network security H04L63/20; access security in wireless networks H04W12/08
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6581 Reference data, e.g. a movie identifier for ordering a movie or a product identifier in a home shopping application
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/023 using mutual or relative location information between multiple location based services [LBS] targets or of distance thresholds
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/60 Subscription-based services using application servers or record carriers, e.g. SIM application toolkits

Abstract

Among other things, methods, systems and computer program products are disclosed for manipulating media. In one aspect, one or more processes executing on a host computer system detect that a portable electronic device is within a predefined communications proximity relative to the host computer system, establish wireless communications and exchange information with the portable electronic device sufficient to determine that metadata relating to one or more items of visual media content reside on the portable electronic device. The metadata is used to retrieve the one or more items of visual media content from a storage location separate from the portable electronic device. The retrieved one or more items of visual media content are added to a list of visual media content available for presentation on a presentation device associated with the host computer system.

Claims

1. A method performed by one or more processes executing on a host computer system, the method comprising:

detecting that a portable electronic device is within a predefined communications proximity relative to the host computer system;

establishing wireless communications with the portable electronic device;

exchanging information with the portable electronic device sufficient to determine that metadata relating to one or more items of visual media content resides on the portable electronic device;

using the metadata to retrieve the one or more items of visual media content from a storage location separate from the portable electronic device; and

adding the retrieved one or more items of visual media content to a list of visual media content available for presentation on a presentation device associated with the host computer system.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the visual media content comprises digital still images, digital video, or a combination of both.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising deleting the retrieved one or more visual media content items upon detecting that the portable electronic device has departed from the predefined communications proximity.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein establishing wireless communications comprises using Bonjour or another zero configuration network protocol.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the metadata includes privacy information indicating that a subset of the visual media content is unavailable for presentation.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the metadata includes a low resolution version of a visual media content item that is available for display while the host computer system is retrieving a high resolution counterpart of the visual media item.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising deleting the retrieved one or more visual media content items upon detecting that the portable electronic device has changed status.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the metadata includes security credentials needed to retrieve the visual media content.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein the metadata includes information that specifies presentation parameters for the visual media content.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein the presentation parameters include one or more of presentation format information and complementary media to be presented along with the retrieved visual media content.

11. A method performed by one or more processes executing on a host computer system, the method comprising:

detecting that a plurality of portable electronic device are within a predefined communications proximity relative to the host computer system;

establishing wireless communications with the portable electronic devices;

exchanging information with the portable electronics devices to determine that metadata relating to one or more items of visual media content resides on one or more of the portable electronic devices; and

using the metadata in the one or more portable electronic devices to generate a collective library of visual media content currently available for presentation on a presentation device associated with the host computer system.

12. The method of claim 11 further comprising modifying the collective library of visual media content upon detecting that one or more of the portable electronic devices has changed state.

13. A system comprising:

a wireless communication hub configured to exchange information with one or more portable electronic devices;

a computer system executing one or more processes to perform operations comprising;

detecting that one or more portable electronic devices are within a predefined communications proximity relative to the wireless communication hub;

establishing wireless communications with the one or portable electronic devices;

transmitting information relating to a predetermined topic to the one or more portable electronic devices; and

ceasing communication with a portable electronic device upon detecting that the portable electronic devices is no longer within the predefined communications proximity.

14. The system of claim 13 in which the wireless communication hub and the computer system collectively create and maintain a proximity defined media zone within which information on the predetermined topic is available for wireless receipt by one or more portable electronic devices.

15. A computer storage medium encoded with a computer program, the program comprising instructions that when executed by data processing apparatus cause the data processing apparatus to perform operations comprising:

detecting that a portable electronic device is within a predefined communications proximity relative to the host computer system;

establishing wireless communications with the portable electronic device;

exchanging information with the portable electronic device sufficient to determine that metadata relating to one or more items of visual media content resides on the portable electronic device;

using the metadata to retrieve the one or more items of visual media content from a storage location separate from the portable electronic device; and

adding the retrieved one or more items of visual media content to a list of visual media content available for presentation on a presentation device associated with the host computer system.

16. The medium of claim 15, wherein the visual media content comprises digital still images, digital video, or a combination of both.

17. The medium of claim 15, further comprising deleting the retrieved one or more visual media content items upon detecting that the portable electronic device has departed from the predefined communications proximity.

18. The medium of claim 15, wherein establishing wireless communications comprises using Bonjour or another zero configuration network protocol.

19. The medium of claim 15, wherein the metadata includes privacy information indicating that a subset of the visual media content is unavailable for presentation.

20. The medium of claim 15 wherein the metadata includes a low resolution version of a visual media content item that is available for display while the host computer system is retrieving a high resolution counterpart of the visual media item.

21. The medium of claim 15, further comprising deleting the retrieved one or more visual media content items upon detecting that the portable electronic device has changed status.

22. The medium of claim 15 wherein the metadata includes security credentials needed to retrieve the visual media content.

23. The medium of claim 15 wherein the metadata includes information that specifies presentation parameters for the visual media content.

24. The medium of claim 23 wherein the presentation parameters include one or more of presentation format information and complementary media to be presented along with the retrieved visual media content.