Visibility of media contents of UPnP media servers and initiating rendering via file system user interface

• US 7,308,489 B2
• Filed: 05/29/2003
• Issued: 12/11/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 05/29/2003
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Original Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Inventors: Weast, John C.
• Primary Examiner(s): Luu; Le Hien
• Application Number:
  US10/447,705
• Publication Number:
  US 20040243700A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,657 Days
• Field of Search: 709/217, 709/218, 709/219, 709/208, 709/203, 725/94, 725/112, 725/114, 707/10, 707/200, 386/46, 713/165
• US Class Current: 709/219
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/40 of multimedia data, e.g. slideshows comprising image and additional audio data retrieval of still image data G06F16/50; retrieval of audio data G06F16/60; retrieval of video data G06F16/70
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2812 describing content present in a home automation network, e.g. audio video content retrieval from the Internet G06F16/95
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/282 based on user interaction within the home receiver circuitry for displaying additional information being controlled by a remote control apparatus H04N21/42204
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2012/2849 Audio/video appliances

Abstract

A computing device is equipped with file system services and media related services that automatically make visible to a user of the computing device, through an user interface of the file system, availability of media contents, on discovery of the availability of the media contents from one or more UPNP media servers. In various embodiments, the file system services and the media related services are further equipped to cause a selected one of the media contents to be rendered by an appropriate one of UPNP media renders, in response to a request to “render” the selected one of the media contents. In other embodiments, the file system services and the media related services may also facilitate removal of discovered media contents as well as addition of media contents to a media server.

Claims

1. In a networked computing device of a network domain, an automated method of operation comprising:

discovering first media contents available from a UPNP media server of the network domain;

in response to said discovery, automatically creating first corresponding entries in a file system of the networked computing device for the first media contents available from the first UPNP media server, to enable the availability of the first media contents be visible to a user of the networked computing device through an user interface of the file system of the networked computing device;

discovering at least some of the first media contents being available from a second UPNP media server of the network domain, the second UPNP media server being separate and distinct from the first UPNP media server; and

in response to said discovery of said first media contents being available from the second UPNP media server, updating said first corresponding entries to denote the at least some of the first media contents as being also available from the second UPNP media server.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein said automatic creating of first corresponding entries in a file system comprises creating for the at least some of the first media contents corresponding pseudo media files in the file system.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein said automatic creating of first corresponding entries in a file system further comprises storing for the at least some of the first media contents, meta data describing the at least some of the first media contents as properties of the corresponding pseudo media files.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein said automatic creating of first corresponding entries in a file system comprises storing for the at least some of the first media contents, meta data describing at least some of the first media contents as properties of the corresponding entries.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the method further comprises

receiving through the user interface of the file system, a request to display meta data describing a selected one of the first media contents in a form of a file system request to display descriptive information of the corresponding entry of the selected one of the first media contents;

and

in response, displaying the requested meta data describing the selected one of the first media contents.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the method further comprises discovering presence of the first UPNP media server in the network domain.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the first UPNP media server resides in the networked computing device.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the method further comprises

discovering second media contents available from the second UPNP media server of the network domain, the second UPNP media server being separate and distinct from the first UPNP media server;

and

in response to said discovery of said second media contents being available from the second UPNP media server, automatically creating second corresponding entries in the file system of the networked computing device for the second media contents available from the second UPNP media server, to enable the availability of the second media contents be visible to the user of the networked computing device, in conjunction with the first media content, through the same user interface of the file system of the networked computing device.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the method further comprises

receiving through the user interface of the file system, a request to render a selected one of the first media contents in a form of a request to launch the corresponding entry of the selected one of the first media contents;

and

in response, causing the selected one of the first media contents to be made available from the first UPNP media server to a UPNP media renderer of the network domain to render.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the method further comprises

receiving a file system entry deletion request for a selected one of the first corresponding entries;

and

in response, deleting the selected one of the first corresponding entries from the file system, to make the corresponding media content unavailable for selection, notwithstanding its availability from the UPNP media server.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the method further comprises

receiving a file system entry addition request to add a corresponding entry of a media content to the first corresponding entries of the media contents available from the UPNP media server;

and

in response, causing the media content which corresponding entry is to be added to be added to and available from the UPNP media server.

12. A computing device comprising

storage medium having stored therein a plurality of programming instructions designed to provide

(a) file system services of a file system, and

(b) media related services including a media content management service that

automatically causes entries corresponding to first media contents to be created in the file system to makes visible, through a user interface of the file system, availability of the first media contents, on discovery of the availability of the first media contents from a first UPNP media server of a network domain,

discovers at least some of the first media contents being available from a second UPNP media server of the network domain, the second UPNP media server being separate and distinct from the first UPNP media server, and

in response to said discovery of said first media contents being available from the second UPNP media server, updates said first corresponding entries to denote the at least some of the first media contents as being also available from the second UPNP media server;

and

at least one processor coupled to the storage medium to execute the programming instructions.

13. The computing device of claim 12, wherein said media content management service is designed to automatically cause entries corresponding to the first media contents to be created in the file system by causing corresponding pseudo media files to be created in the file system for the at least some of the first media contents.

14. The computing device of claim 13, wherein said media content management service is further designed to include with said causation of automatic creation of corresponding pseudo media files for the at least some of the first media contents, causation of creation of meta data describing the at least some of the first media contents as properties of the corresponding pseudo media files.

15. The computing device of claim 12, wherein said media content management service is designed to include with said causation of automatic creation of corresponding entries, causation of storage of meta data describing the at least some of the first media contents as properties of the corresponding entries.

16. The computing device of claim 12, wherein the file system services include a display service designed to facilitate and service generic requests to display properties of entries of the file system, as well as media content tailored requests to display meta data of the first media contents.

17. The computing device of claim 12, wherein said computing device is part of the network domain, and said media content management service is further designed to discover presence of said first UPNP media server in the network domain.

18. The computing device of claim 12, wherein the first programming instructions further implement the first UPNP media server.

19. The computing device of claim 12, wherein said media content management service is further designed to automatically cause second entries corresponding to second media contents be created in the file system, to make visible the availability of the second media contents, on discovery of the second media contents being available from the second UPNP media server.

20. The computing device of claim 12, wherein said media content management service is further designed to automatically cause applicable ones of the first entries to be updated to reflect the availability of the corresponding first media contents, to make visible the availability of the second media contents, on discovery of the second media contents being available from the second UPNP media server.

21. The computing device of claim 12, wherein the file system services and the media content management service are further designed to facilitate a user of the computing device in requesting rendering of a selected one of the first media contents, via an user interface of the file system, and in response, causing the selected one of the first media contents be made available from the first UPNP media server to a UPNP media renderer to render.

22. The computing device of claim 21, wherein the computing device is a selected one of a desktop computer, a laptop computer, a tablet computer, a palm sized computing device, a pocket personal computer, and a personal digital assistant.

23. The computing device of claim 12, wherein the file system services and the media content management service are further designed to enable a user to delete a selected one of the first corresponding entries using a file system entry deletion request;

in response, the file system services and the media content management service cause the selected one of the first corresponding entries to be deleted from the file system, to make the corresponding media content unavailable for selection, notwithstanding its availability from the first UPNP media server.

24. The computing device of claim 12, wherein the file system services and the media content management service are further designed to enable a user to add a media content to the first UPNP media server, by adding a corresponding entry of the media content to the first corresponding entries of the first media contents available from the first UPNP media server.

25. An article of manufacture comprising:

a recordable medium; and

a plurality of programming instructions recorded thereon, the programming instructions are designed to implement for a computing device

(a) tile system services of a file system, and

(b) media related services including a media content management service that

automatically causes entries corresponding to first media contents to be created in the file system to make visible, through a user interface of the file system, availability of the first media contents, on discovery of the availability of the first media contents from a first UPNP media server of a network domain,

discovers at least some of the first media contents being available from a second UPNP media server of the network domain, the second UPNP media server being separate and distinct from the first UPNP media server; and

in response to said discovery of said first media contents being available from the second UPNP media server, updates said first corresponding entries to denote the at least some of the first media contents as being Iso available from the second UPNP media server.

26. The article of claim 25, wherein the media content management service is further designed to make visible through the same user interface of the file system, availability of second media contents, on discovering the second media contents being available from the second UPNP media server, the first and second UPNP media servers being separate and distinct from each other.