UNIFIED MEDIA SEARCH

• US 20120095992A1
• Filed: 12/09/2011
• Published: 04/19/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 03/04/2008
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: North American Resources, LLC
• Original Assignee: North American Resources, LLC
• Inventors: Cutting, Timothy, Garcen, Mike
• Application Number:
  US13/316,355
• Publication Number:
  US 20120095992A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/722
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/43 Querying
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/438 Presentation of query results

Abstract

A user input of a search term is received. One or more local resources are searched using the search term. One or more Internet services are searched using the search term. Search results of media located on the local resources that match the search terms and search results of media provided by the Internet services are graphically displayed together in a unified results display.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

receiving, by a computing device, a command to perform a search;

searching, by the computing device, a local resource for media items associated with a search term;

searching, by the computing device, an Internet service for additional media items associated with the search term using an application programming interface (API) associated with the Internet service;

consolidating local search results of the media items located on the local resource and remote search results of the additional media items provided by the Internet service; and

grouping the local search results and the remote search results into groups based on properties of the media items in the local search results and properties of the additional media items in the remote search results, wherein the groups are graphically displayable.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

storing a login and a password associated with a user account of the Internet service; and

automatically logging into the Internet service using the stored login and password after receiving the search term to establish a session with the Internet service.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining representative group images for the groups; and

graphically displaying the groups using the representative group images.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the local resource comprises at least one of a first storage unit internal to the computing device or a second storage unit external to the computing device, the method further comprising:

receiving a user selection of at least one local resource or remote resource to exclude from searches, wherein the Internet service is a remote resource; and

searching local resources and remote resources other than the at least one local resource or remote resource.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein one or more of the media items and the additional media items include metadata that identifies the properties of the one or more of the media items and the additional media items, and wherein the metadata is usable to perform operations on subsets of the media items and the additional media items.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

narrowing the search results based on at least one of the media type, the date or the search result source.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the local search results and the remote search results are grouped into the groups based on at least one of media type, date or search result source.

8. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium including instructions that, when executed by a processing device, cause the processing device to perform a method comprising:

receiving, by a computing device, a command to perform a search;

searching, by the computing device, a local resource for media items associated with a search term;

searching, by the computing device, an Internet service for additional media items associated with the search term using an application programming interface (API) associated with the Internet service;

consolidating local search results of the media items located on the local resource and remote search results of the additional media items provided by the Internet service; and

grouping the local search results and the remote search results into groups based on properties of the media items in the local search results and properties of the additional media items in the remote search results, wherein the groups are graphically displayable.

9. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 8, the method further comprising:

generating a search query based on the search term;

adding the search query to a search queue; and

performing the searching of the local resource and of the Internet service in response to the search query advancing in the search queue.

10. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 8, the method further comprising:

receiving a user input of the search term or a user selection of the search term from a remote control device.

11. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 8, the method further comprising:

storing a login and a password associated with a user account of the Internet service; and

automatically logging into the Internet service using the stored login and password after receiving the search term to establish a session with the Internet service.

12. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 8, the method further comprising:

determining representative group images for the groups; and

graphically displaying the groups using the representative group images.

13. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 12, the method further comprising:

determining, for each group, a number of search results included in the group; and

displaying, for each group, a representative group image along with the determined number of search results.

14. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 8, wherein the local resource comprises at least one of a first storage unit internal to the computing device or a second storage unit external to the computing device, the method further comprising:

receiving a user selection of at least one local resource or remote resource to exclude from searches, wherein the Internet service is a remote resource; and

searching local resources and remote resources other than the at least one local resource or remote resource.

15. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 8, wherein one or more of the media items and the additional media items include metadata that identifies the properties of the one or more of the media items and the additional media items, and wherein the metadata is usable to perform operations on subsets of the media items and the additional media items.

16. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 8, the method further comprising narrowing the search results based on at least one of the media type, the date or the search result source.

17. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 8, wherein the local search results and the remote search results are grouped into the groups based on at least one of media type, date or search result source.

18. A computing device comprising:

a memory to store instructions for performing a unified media search; and

a processing device, coupled to the memory, to execute the instructions, wherein the instructions cause the processing device to perform the following in response to receiving a command to perform a search;

search a local resource for media items associated with a search term;

search an Internet service for additional media items associated with the search term using an application programming interface (API) associated with the Internet service;

consolidate local search results of the media items located on the local resource and remote search results of the additional media items provided by the Internet service;

group the local search results and the remote search results into groups based on properties of the media items in the local search results and properties of the additional media items in the remote search results; and

display the groups to a display device.

19. The computing device of claim 18, wherein the instructions further cause the processing device to

determine representative group images for the groups;

and

graphically display the groups using the representative group images.

20. The computing device of claim 18, wherein the computing device is a home media center and the media items comprise one or more of audio data, video data, digital still images, electronic documents and spreadsheets.

21. The computing device of claim 18, wherein the instructions further cause the processing device to narrow the search results based on at least one of the media type, the date or the search result source.