REPRODUCING DEVICE, METHOD THEREOF, AND PROGRAM

• US 20150169155A1
• Filed: 01/31/2013
• Published: 06/18/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 02/08/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Yamada, Keiichiro
• Granted Patent: US 10,372,303 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/285 Clustering or classification
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/44 Browsing; Visualisation therefor
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/638 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/639 using playlists
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/64 Browsing; Visualisation therefor generation of a list or set of audio data G06F16/638
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0484 for the control of specific functions or operations, e.g. selecting or manipulating an object, an image or a displayed text element, setting a parameter value or selecting a range

Abstract

An apparatus includes a controller configured to generate a plurality of groups of content, control a display to display at least one content from each of at least two of the plurality of groups of content, and control the display to change display of the at least two of the plurality of groups of content based on a user command. Each group includes a plurality of content stored on a storage unit. The controller generates the plurality of groups based on information describing a selected content and information describing other content.

Claims

1. An apparatus comprising:

a controller configured to generate a plurality of groups of content, each group including a plurality of content stored on a storage unit, the controller generating the plurality of groups based on information describing a selected content and information describing other content,

control a display to display at least one content from each of at least two of the plurality of groups of content, and

control the display to change display of the at least two of the plurality of groups of content based on a user command.

2. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the information is text information.

3. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the controller is configured to control a reproducing unit to reproduce the selected content.

4. The apparatus according to claim 3, further comprising the storage unit, the display, and the reproducing unit.

5. The apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the controller is configured to control the display to change display of the at least two of the plurality of groups of content by moving display of the at least two of the plurality of groups in a first direction indicated by the user command without affecting reproduction of the selected content.

6. The apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the user command is a flick operation, and the controller is configured to move display of the at least two of the plurality of groups in a direction of the flick operation without affecting reproduction of the selected content.

7. The apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the controller is configured to change a content being reproduced based on a user command in a second direction substantially perpendicular to the first direction.

8. The apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the controller is configured to control display of the at least two of the plurality of groups such that items in each group are aligned in the first direction.

9. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the controller is configured to control display of the at least two of the plurality of groups such that only a first number of items in each group and a last number of items in each group are displayed.

10. The apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the controller is configured to control the display to display an image associated with each item being displayed, and an image associated with the selected content is lower than a center of the display.

11. The apparatus according to claim 10, wherein the controller is configured to control the reproducing unit to start or stop reproduction of the selected content when the image associated with the selected content is selected by a user.

12. The apparatus according to claim 10, wherein the controller is configured to control the reproducing unit to reproduce another content when the image associated with the another content is selected by a user.

13. The apparatus according to claim 10, wherein the controller is configured to control the display to display images associated with items in a current group above the image associated with the selected content.

14. The apparatus according to claim 13, wherein the controller is configured to control the display to highlight items associated with the current group.

15. The apparatus according to claim 13, wherein the controller is configured to control the reproduction device to reproduce a content in the current group which is directly above the selected content after reproduction of the selected content is finished.

16. The apparatus according to claim 10, wherein the controller is configured to control the display to display an image associated with a last member of each group as a thinner image than images associated with other content in each group.

17. The apparatus according to claim 10, wherein the controller is configured to control the display to display each image to have an increasing size as each image approaches the image associated with the selected content, and the image associated with the selected content is a largest image displayed.

18. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the controller determines the groups based on a title of each content, an artist name of each content, an album title of each content, a composer of each content, or a release year of each content.

19. A method comprising:

generating a plurality of groups of content, each group including a plurality of content stored on a storage unit, the controller generating the plurality of groups based on information describing a selected content and information describing other content,

controlling a display to display at least one content from each of at least two of the plurality of groups of content, and

controlling the display to change display of the at least two of the plurality of groups of content based on a user command.

20. A non-transitory computer readable medium encoded with a program that, when loaded on a processor, causes the processor to perform a method comprising:

generating a plurality of groups of content, each group including a plurality of content stored on a storage unit, the controller generating the plurality of groups based on information describing a selected content and information describing other content,

controlling a display to display at least one content from each of at least two of the plurality of groups of content, and

controlling the display to change display of the at least two of the plurality of groups of content based on a user command.