Discovery, preview and control of media on a remote device

• US 9,317,505 B2
• Filed: 11/30/2012
• Issued: 04/19/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 11/30/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Lenovo PC International Limited (Lenovo Group Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Lenovo Singapore Pte Limited (Lenovo Group Ltd.)
• Inventors: Childs, Philip Lee, Vanover, Michael Terrell, Wang, Hui, Chen, Shaowei
• Primary Examiner(s): NGUYEN, KIM T
• Application Number:
  US13/690,110
• Publication Number:
  US 20140156694A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,236 Days
• Field of Search: 707/705, 707/769
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/438 Presentation of query results

Abstract

An aspect provides a method, including: sending a media query from a controller user device to a second user device; receiving media meta data at the controller user device in response to the media query of the second user device, the received media meta data comprising media meta data regarding a media file currently playing on the second user device and media meta data regarding one or more queued media files; providing at the controller user device a visual display based on the received media meta data, the visual display comprising a visual indication of the media file currently playing on the second user device and a preview of the one or more queued media files to be played on the second user device; and issuing one or more control action commands from the controller user device to the second user device. Other aspects are described and claimed.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

sending a media query from a controller user device to a second user device;

receiving media meta data at the controller user device in response to the media query to the second user device, the received media meta data comprising media meta data associated with a media file currently playing on the second user device and media meta data associated with one or more queued media files to be played on the second user device, wherein the controller user device does not transmit the media file to the second user device;

providing at the controller user device a visual display based on the received media meta data, the visual display comprising a visual indication of the media file currently playing on the second user device and a preview of the one or more queued media files to be played on the second user device; and

issuing one or more control action commands from the controller user device to the second user device to play one of the one or more queued media files.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the visual display further comprises a media file control action interface.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising using the media file control action interface to issue one or more control commands from the controller user device to the second user device.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the one or more control commands issued from the controller user device comprises a control command affecting the media file currently playing on the second user device.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein the one or more control commands issued from the controller device comprises a control command providing one or more queued media files to be played on the second user device.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the visual indication of the media file currently playing on the second user device comprises a thumbnail image.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the preview of the one or more queued media files to be played on the second user device comprises a preview of one or more queued media files derived from a third user device.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the media meta data does not include media file data.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the media file currently playing on the second user device comprises a video file, and further wherein the one or more queued media files to be played on the second user device comprise one or more video files.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the controller device comprises a tablet computing device.

11. An information handling device, comprising:

one or more processors; and

a memory operatively coupled to with the one or more processors that stores instructions executable by the one or more processors to perform acts comprising;

sending a media query from the information handling device to a second user device;

receiving media meta data at the information handling device in response to the media query to the second user device, the received media meta data comprising media meta data associated with a media file currently playing on the second user device and media meta data associated with one or more queued media files to be played on the second user device, wherein the information handling device does not transmit the media file to the second user device;

providing a visual display based on the received media meta data, the visual display comprising a visual indication of the media file currently playing on the second user device and a preview of the one or more queued media files to be played on the second user device; and

issuing one or more control action commands to the second user device to play one of the one or more queued media files.

12. The information handling device of claim 11, wherein the media meta data does not include media file data.

13. The information handling device of claim 12, further comprising using a media file control action interface to issue one or more control commands to the second user device.

14. The information handling device of claim 13, wherein the one or more control commands comprises a control command affecting the media file currently playing on the second user device.

15. The information handling device of claim 13, wherein the one or more control commands issued from the information handling device comprises a control command providing one or more queued media files to be played on the second user device.

16. The information handling device of claim 11, wherein the visual indication of the media file currently playing on the second user device comprises a thumbnail image.

17. The information handling device of claim 11, wherein the preview of the one or more queued media files to be played on the second user device comprises a preview of one or more queued media files derived from a third user device.

18. The information handling device of claim 11, wherein the media file currently playing on the second user device comprises a video file, and further wherein the one or more queued media files to be played on the second user device comprise one or more video files.

19. The information handling device of claim 11, wherein the information handling device is a tablet computing device having a touch screen display.

20. A program product, comprising:

a non-signal storage device having computer program code embodied therewith, the computer program code comprising;

computer program code that sends a media query from a controller user device to a second user device;

computer program code that receives media meta data at the controller user device in response to the media query to the second user device, the received media meta data comprising media meta data associated with a media file currently playing on the second user device and media meta data associated with one or more queued media files to be played on the second user device, wherein the controller user device does not transmit the media file to the second user device;

computer program code that provides at the controller user device a visual display based on the received media meta data, the visual display comprising a visual indication of the media file currently playing on the second user device and a preview of the one or more queued media files to be played on the second user device; and

computer program code that issues one or more control action commands from the controller user device to the second user device to play one of the one or more queued media files.