Detection and control of multimedia applications

• US 9,395,871 B2
• Filed: 01/29/2013
• Issued: 07/19/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 01/29/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Marra, Gregory Matthew, Wald, Gideon, Cushing, Kathryn, Wiltzius, Thomas Christian
• Primary Examiner(s): Bycer, Eric J
• Application Number:
  US13/753,440
• Publication Number:
  US 20150253936A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,267 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0481 based on specific properties of the displayed interaction object or a metaphor-based environment, e.g. interaction with desktop elements like windows or icons, or assisted by a cursor's changing behaviour or appearance
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0482 Interaction with lists of selectable items, e.g. menus
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04847 Interaction techniques to control parameter settings, e.g. interaction with sliders or dials
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/16 Sound input; Sound output speech processing G10L
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/162 Interface to dedicated audio devices, e.g. audio drivers, interface to CODECs
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/165 Management of the audio stream, e.g. setting of volume, audio stream path
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/6016 in the receiver circuit

Abstract

A mechanism for automatically detecting and controlling active multimedia applications is provided. Software is installed on a computing device that detects a plurality of active multimedia sources, and then determines that one or more of the plurality of active multimedia sources accept remote control of one or more multimedia features. A software multimedia user interface, including graphically displayed interactive volume controls for the detected multimedia sources, is displayed and configured to enable a user to remotely control the respective audio levels of each detected multimedia program by graphic manipulation of respective interactive volume controls.

Claims

1. A non-transitory machine-readable medium having machine-executable instructions stored thereon, which when executed by a machine or computer cause the machine or computer to perform a method, comprising:

detecting a plurality of multimedia programs that receive streaming multimedia content from an external location;

determining that two or more of the plurality of multimedia programs accept being controlled remotely to adjust one or more multimedia features of the two or more multimedia programs, the one or more multimedia features including a playback of multimedia content; and

providing a graphic multimedia interface for display on a computing device, including one or more graphically displayed interactive controls for each multimedia program determined to accept being controlled remotely,

wherein the graphic multimedia interface is configured to, on a user manipulation of an interactive control, remotely control a multimedia program associated with the manipulated interactive control by sending one or more messages to the multimedia program to adjust one or more multimedia features of the multimedia program.

2. The machine-readable medium of claim 1, wherein detecting the plurality of multimedia programs comprises:

receiving a plurality of registration requests from the plurality of multimedia programs, each registration request facilitating an addition of an active multimedia source to a list of registered active multimedia sources;

registering a plurality of active multimedia sources corresponding to the plurality of multimedia programs; and

identifying the plurality of active multimedia sources in the list of registered multimedia sources.

3. The machine-readable medium of claim 2, the method further comprising:

receiving, from the multimedia interface, a command to adjust a volume level associated with a respective registered active multimedia source; and

adjusting the volume level of audio for the respective registered active multimedia source while keeping volume level for other registered active multimedia sources unchanged.

4. The machine-readable medium of claim 1, the method further comprising:

determining, from two or more of the detected multimedia programs, content information provided by the two or more of the detected multimedia programs; and

providing the content information for display in connection with interactive controls associated with the two or more of the detected multimedia programs.

5. The machine-readable medium of claim 1, the method further comprising:

receiving, at a multimedia subsystem executing on the computing device, streaming multimedia content from a detected multimedia program, the detected multimedia program receiving the streaming multimedia content from a multimedia component system located remote from the computing device.

6. The machine-readable medium of claim 5, the method further comprising:

receiving, from the multimedia interface, one or more commands to control one or more features of the multimedia component system; and

on receiving the one or more commands, remotely controlling, via the detected multimedia program, the one or more features of the multimedia component system according to the received one or more commands.

7. The machine-readable medium of claim 1, the method further comprising:

receiving, at a multimedia subsystem executing on the computing device, streaming multimedia content from a detected multimedia program, the detected multimedia program being a user-facing multimedia application executing independent of the multimedia subsystem.

8. The machine-readable medium of claim 7, wherein the user-facing multimedia application is one of a stand-alone media player, internet-radio application, a website providing audio content in a web browser, a website providing video content in the web browser, a browser component providing audio content, and a browser component providing video content.

9. The machine-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the plurality of multimedia programs comprise one or more native applications and one or more web applications.

10. The machine-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the two or more of the plurality of multimedia programs are determined to accept remote control of one or more multimedia features by querying an interface provided by an application programming interface (API) framework.

11. The machine-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the one or more interactive controls include a volume control, the multimedia interface being configured to remotely control a volume level associated with streaming multimedia content provided by a multimedia program by graphic manipulation of the volume control.

12. The machine-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the one or more multimedia features comprise one of a volume level, a playback of multimedia content, and a selectable list of available multimedia content.

13. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

initiating, at a computing device, a display of a graphic multimedia interface;

determining, on initiating the display of the multimedia interface, a plurality of multimedia programs available to receive streaming multimedia content from respective remote audio sources; and

providing the multimedia interface for display on a display screen associated with the computing device, the multimedia interface operating independent of the plurality of multimedia programs,

wherein the multimedia interface includes a plurality of graphically displayed interactive controls for remotely controlling the plurality of multimedia programs and to control one or more multimedia features of the plurality of multimedia programs by providing one or more messages to the plurality of multimedia programs, the one or more multimedia features including a playback of multimedia content.

14. The computer-implemented method of claim 13, wherein determining the plurality of multimedia programs comprises:

receiving a plurality of registration requests from the plurality of multimedia programs, a registration request for adding an active multimedia source to a group of registered active multimedia sources;

registering a plurality of active multimedia sources corresponding to the plurality of multimedia programs; and

identifying the plurality of active multimedia sources from the group of registered active multimedia sources.

15. The computer-implemented method of claim 13, further comprising:

receiving a user-initiated manipulation of an interactive control corresponding to a multimedia program; and

changing a state of a multimedia feature for the corresponding multimedia program according to the manipulation of the interactive control while keeping a current state of other multimedia features for other multimedia programs unchanged.

16. The computer-implemented method of claim 15, wherein the interactive control is a volume control, the multimedia interface being configured to remotely control a volume level associated with streaming multimedia content by graphic manipulation of the volume control.

17. The computer-implemented method of claim 13, further comprising:

determining content information for an audio source corresponding to one of the plurality of multimedia programs; and

providing the content information for display in connection with an interactive control for a multimedia program associated with the audio source.

18. The computer-implemented method of claim 17, wherein the content information is a title or description associated with audio data received from the audio source.

19. The computer-implemented method of claim 13, the method further comprising:

receiving, at a multimedia subsystem executing on the computing device, streaming multimedia content from a multimedia program, the multimedia program receiving the multimedia data from a multimedia component system located remote from the computing device.

20. The computer-implemented method of claim 13, the method further comprising:

receiving, at a multimedia subsystem executing on the computing device, streaming multimedia content from a multimedia program, the multimedia program being a user-facing multimedia application executing independent of the multimedia subsystem.

21. The computer-implemented method of claim 20, wherein the user-facing multimedia application is one of a stand-alone media player, internet-radio application, a website providing audio content in a web browser, a website providing video content in the web browser, a browser component providing audio content, and a browser component providing video content.

22. The computer-implemented method of claim 13, wherein the plurality of multimedia programs comprise one or more native applications and one or more web applications.

23. The computer-implemented method of claim 13, wherein the one or more of the plurality of multimedia programs are determined to accept remote control of one or more multimedia features by querying an interface provided by an application programming interface (API) framework.

24. A system, comprising:

a display screen;

a processor; and

a memory including instructions that, when executed by the processor, causes the processor to;

initiate a display of a graphic multimedia interface;

determine, on initiating the display, a plurality of multimedia programs available to receive streaming multimedia content from respective remote audio sources, the multimedia programs comprising one or more native applications and one or more web applications;

provide the multimedia interface for display on the display screen, the multimedia interface operating independent of the plurality of multimedia programs and including one or more graphically displayed interactive controls for each of the determined plurality of multimedia programs, each interactive control configured to remotely control one of the determined plurality of multimedia programs by graphic manipulation of the interactive control to adjust one or more multimedia features, the one or more multimedia features including a playback of multimedia content;

receive a user-initiated manipulation of an interactive control corresponding to a multimedia program; and

change a state of a multimedia feature for the corresponding multimedia program according to the user-initiated manipulation of the interactive control while keeping a current state of other multimedia features for other multimedia programs unchanged.