Media player communication with an accessory using a display remote lingo

• US 8,171,195 B2
• Filed: 08/16/2010
• Issued: 05/01/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 04/27/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Schubert, Emily Clark, Leung, Wang Chun, Lydon, Gregory T., Krueger, Scott, Holden, Paul Phillip, Archibald, John, Bolton, Lawrence G., Novotney, Donald J., Filson, John Benjamin, Tupman, David
• Primary Examiner(s): Phan, Raymond
• Application Number:
  US12/857,230
• Publication Number:
  US 20100312932A1
• Time in Patent Office: 624 Days
• Field of Search: 710313-315, 710 8- 19, 710 62- 64, 710104-110, 710300-306, 710 72- 74, 455414-420, 4555561-5562, 455571-572
• US Class Current: 710/105
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 13/409 Mechanical coupling back panels H05K7/1438
• CPC Class Codes: H01R 13/6456 comprising keying elements at different positions along the periphery of the connector
• CPC Class Codes: H01R 2105/00 Three poles
• CPC Class Codes: H01R 24/58 Contacts spaced along longitudinal axis of engagement
• CPC Class Codes: H01R 27/00 Coupling parts adapted for co-operation with two or more dissimilar counterparts for dissimilar contact members H01R13/35; supported only by co-operation with a counterpart H01R31/00; with a holder adapted for supporting apparatus to which its counterpart is attached H01R33/90
• CPC Class Codes: H01R 31/06 Intermediate parts for linking two coupling parts, e.g. adapter with a holder adapted for supporting apparatus to which its counterpart is attached H01R33/94

Abstract

An interface and protocol allow a media player to communicate with external accessories over a transport link. The protocol includes a core protocol functionality and a number of accessory lingoes. Examples of accessory lingoes include a microphone lingo, a simple remote lingo, a display remote lingo, an RF transmitter lingo, and an extended interface lingo.

Claims

1. A method of operating a media player, the method comprising:

establishing, by the media player, a communication link to an accessory using a media player accessory protocol comprising a general lingo, a simple remote lingo, and a display remote lingo;

communicating, by the media player, with the accessory using a plurality of commands of the display remote lingo to provide play status information from the media player to the accessory;

receiving control information from the accessory using a command of the simple remote lingo; and

performing an operation in response to the control information received from the accessory.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the play status information includes one or more of a play state indication, a track index, a track position, or a track length.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the control information includes information indicating operation of one or more controls from a group consisting of Play/Pause, Volume Up, Volume Down, Next Track, and Previous Track.

4. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

communicating, by the media player, with the accessory using one or more commands of the display remote lingo to provide to the accessory information about an indexed track queued for playback.

5. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

communicating, by the media player, with the accessory using one or more commands of the display remote lingo to provide a list of equalizer profiles supported by the media player.

6. The method of claim 5 further comprising:

receiving, by the media player from the accessory, an equalizer setting command of the display remote lingo, the equalizer setting command instructing the media player to set an equalizer according to a specified one of the equalizer profiles; and

setting the equalizer according to the specified one of the equalizer profiles.

7. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

prior to communicating with the accessory using the commands of the display remote lingo, receiving, by the media player, an identification command of the general lingo from the accessory, the identification command indicating that the accessory supports the display remote lingo.

8. The method of claim 7 further comprising:

prior to communicating with the accessory using the commands of the display remote lingo, completing, by the media player, an authentication procedure that authenticates the accessory to the media player.

9. A media player comprising:

a playback engine capable of queuing a plurality of tracks for playback and playing the queued tracks; and

an interface capable of communicating with an accessory in accordance with a media player accessory protocol, the media player accessory protocol comprising a general lingo having a first plurality of commands and a display remote lingo having a second plurality of commands,

wherein the commands of the display remote lingo include;

a first command receivable by the media player from the accessory, the first command requesting information about one or more media assets queued for playback by the playback engine; and

a second command sendable by the media player to the accessory, the second command providing information about one or more media assets queued for playback by the playback engine.

10. The media player of claim 9 wherein the commands of the display remote lingo further include:

a third command receivable by the media player from the accessory, the third command requesting information about a state of the media player;

a fourth command sendable by the media player to the accessory, the fourth command providing information about the state of the media player; and

a fifth command receivable by the media player from the accessory, the fifth command instructing the media player to change a state of the media player.

11. The media player of claim 9 wherein the commands of the display remote lingo further include:

a third command receivable by the media player from the accessory, the third command requesting information about one or more equalizer profiles supported by the media player;

a fourth command sendable by the media player to the accessory, the fourth command providing information about the one or more equalizer profiles supported by the media player; and

a fifth command receivable by the media player from the accessory, the fifth command instructing the media player to set an equalizer according to a selected one of the one or more equalizer profiles supported by the media player.

12. The media player of claim 9 wherein the commands of the display remote lingo further include:

a third command receivable by the media player from the accessory, the third command instructing the media player to enable asynchronous event notification for media player events; and

a fourth command sendable by the media player to the accessory, the fourth command indicating that an event change has occurred.

13. The media player of claim 9 wherein the commands of the display remote lingo further include:

a third command receivable by the media player from the accessory, the third command requesting a status bitmask of state information from the media player; and

a fourth command sendable by the media player to the accessory, the fourth command including the status bitmask of state information.

14. The media player of claim 9 wherein:

the media player accessory protocol further comprises a simple remote lingo, the simple remote lingo including a button status command receivable by the media player from the accessory, the button status command including control information indicating operation of a user control; and

the playback engine is configured to perform an action in response to the control information included in a received button status command.

15. A computer program product comprising a computer readable storage medium encoded with program instructions that, when executed by a processor in a media player, cause the processor to execute a method comprising:

establishing, by the media player, a communication link to an accessory using a media player accessory protocol comprising a general lingo and a display remote lingo;

receiving from the accessory a first command of the display remote lingo, the first command requesting a number of tracks queued in a playback engine of the media player;

sending to the accessory a second command of the display remote lingo, the second command providing the number of tracks queued in the playback engine of the media player;

receiving from the accessory a third command of the display remote lingo, the third command requesting information about a specific one of the tracks queued in the playback engine of the media player; and

sending to the accessory a fourth command of the display remote lingo, the fourth command including the requested information about the specific one of the tracks queued in the playback engine of the media player.

16. The computer program product of claim 15 wherein the media player accessory protocol further comprises a simple remote lingo and wherein the method further comprises:

receiving from the accessory a button status command of the simple remote lingo, the button status command including information indicating user operation of an input control; and

performing an action in response to the information.

17. The computer program product of claim 15 wherein the third command includes an information-type field identifying one or more specific items of information as being requested.

18. The computer program product of claim 17 wherein the one or more specific items of information include at least one of a track title, an artist name, an album name, a track genre, or track chapter information.

19. The computer program product of claim 15 wherein the method further comprises:

receiving from the accessory a fifth command of the display remote lingo, the fifth command requesting power and battery information from the media player; and

sending to the accessory a sixth command of the display remote lingo, the sixth command providing the power and battery information.

20. The computer program product of claim 15 wherein the method further comprises:

receiving from the accessory a fifth command of the display remote lingo, the fifth command requesting information about a sound check state of the media player;

sending to the accessory a sixth command of the display remote lingo, the sixth command providing the information about the sound check state of the media player;

receiving from the accessory a seventh command of the display remote lingo, the seventh command instructing the media player to set the sound check state to a desired state; and

setting the sound check state to the desired state.

21. The computer program product of claim 15 wherein the method further comprises:

receiving from the accessory a fifth command of the display remote lingo, the fifth command instructing the media player to set the current playing track, wherein the fifth command includes a track index specifying a track to be set as the current playing track; and

selecting, as the current playing track, a track corresponding to the track index.