Data-Driven Media Management Within An Electronic Device

• US 20120005380A1
• Filed: 09/09/2011
• Published: 01/05/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 06/28/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Batson, James D., Borogove, Meriko L., Chapman, Gregory R., Coffman, Patrick L., Guetta, Anthony J., Lindahl, Aram, Rostaing, Andrew
• Granted Patent: US 8,694,140 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 710/38
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/60 of audio data
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/16 Sound input; Sound output speech processing G10L
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/165 Management of the audio stream, e.g. setting of volume, audio stream path

Abstract

A method and apparatus for intelligently routing and managing audio signals within an electronic device is disclosed. The routing is responsive to a set of logical and physical policies which are stored in data tables which can be updated as needed.

Claims

1. A method of managing media on an electronic device, comprising:

receiving a first media playback request and a second media playback request from a first application that is executing on the electronic device;

determining how to route media associated with the first and second media playback requests based on one or more criteria;

routing the media associated with the first media playback request to a first output;

routing the media associated with the second media playback request to a second output that is different than the first output;

wherein the method is performed by one or more computing devices.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining a current usage status of the electronic device; and

the one or more criteria include the current usage status of the electronic device.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the current usage status indicates which of a plurality of outputs have been plugged into the electronic device.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the current usage status further indicates an order in which the plurality of outputs were been plugged into the electronic device.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more criteria include a category associated with each media playback request.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising establishing a set of default policies for each audio category of a plurality of audio categories.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein determining how to route media associated with the first playback request further comprises determining whether to enable a vibration means and simultaneously direct the media to one of a plurality of outputs.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein determining how to route media associated with the first playback request further comprises determining whether to blink a display and simultaneously direct the media to one of a plurality of outputs.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising changing policies without modifying executable code on the electronic device.

14. One or more volatile or non-volatile computer-readable media storing instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, cause performance of the method recited in claim 1.

15. One or more volatile or non-volatile computer-readable media storing instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, cause performance of the method recited in claim 2.

16. One or more volatile or non-volatile computer-readable media storing instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, cause performance of the method recited in claim 3.

17. One or more volatile or non-volatile computer-readable media storing instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, cause performance of the method recited in claim 4.

18. One or more volatile or non-volatile computer-readable media storing instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, cause performance of the method recited in claim 5.

19. One or more volatile or non-volatile computer-readable media storing instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, cause performance of the method recited in claim 6.

20. One or more volatile or non-volatile computer-readable media storing instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, cause performance of the method recited in claim 7.

21. One or more volatile or non-volatile computer-readable media storing instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, cause performance of the method recited in claim 8.

22. One or more volatile or non-volatile computer-readable media storing instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, cause performance of the method recited in claim 9.

26. One or more volatile or non-volatile computer-readable media storing instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, cause performance of the method recited in claim 3.

10. A method of managing media on an electronic device, comprising:

receiving, from a plurality of applications that are executing on the electronic device, at a media router manager that executes on the electronic device, multiple media playback requests;

for at least one media playback request, the media route manager determining how to route media associated with the media playback request based on one or more factors, wherein at least one of the one or more factors is independent of the identity of the application from which the media playback request was received;

wherein the method is performed by one or more computing devices.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the one or more factors include a category associated with the media playback request.

23. One or more volatile or non-volatile computer-readable media storing instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, cause performance of the method recited in claim 10.

24. One or more volatile or non-volatile computer-readable media storing instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, cause performance of the method recited in claim 11.

12. A method of managing media on an electronic device, comprising:

receiving, from a plurality of applications that are executing on the electronic device, at a media route manager that executes on the electronic device, a plurality of media playback requests;

wherein the plurality of media playback requests indicate categories for media associated with the media playback requests;

wherein a first media playback request of the plurality of media playback requests is from a first application of the plurality of applications;

wherein a second media playback request of the plurality of media playback requests is from a second application, of the plurality of applications, that is different than the first application;

determining how to route media associated with the media playback requests based, at least in part, on the categories indicated by the media playback requests,

wherein the method is performed by one or more computing devices.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the categories include two or more of music, video soundtrack, voice telephone call, telephone voice mail, e-mail notification, short message service (SMS) notification, user interface sounds, ring tones, or alerts.

25. One or more volatile or non-volatile computer-readable media storing instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, cause performance of the method recited in claim 12.