Data-driven media management within an electronic device

• US 9,659,090 B2
• Filed: 02/18/2014
• Issued: 05/23/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 06/28/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Chapman, Gregory R., Guetta, Anthony J., Lindahl, Aram, Coffman, Patrick L., Batson, James D., Rostaing, Andrew, Borogove, Meriko L.
• Primary Examiner(s): Elbin, Jesse A
• Application Number:
  US14/183,206
• Publication Number:
  US 20140222178A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,190 Days
• Field of Search: 700 94, 381119, 381123, 455 306, 710 5- 7, 710 12, 710 14, 710 36- 45, 719518, 719322, 719329
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/60 of audio data
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/16 Sound input; Sound output speech processing G10L
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/165 Management of the audio stream, e.g. setting of volume, audio stream path

Abstract

A method and apparatus for intelligently routing and managing audio signals within an electronic device is disclosed. The routing is responsive to a set of logical and physical policies which are stored in data tables which can be updated as needed.

Claims

1. A non-transitory machine-readable medium storing instructions which, when executed by a processing system of an electronic device, cause the processor to perform operations including:

receiving multiple media playback requests from a plurality of applications executing on the electronic device, each playback request including a category associated with a plurality of default policies; and

for at least one media playback request, determining a route for media associated with the playback request based at least in part on the default policies associated with the category, wherein determining the route for the media is based at least in part on one or more factors, wherein at least one of the one or more factors is independent of the application from which the media playback request was received.

2. The medium of claim 1, further comprising changing policies without modifying executable code on the electronic device.

3. The medium of claim 1, wherein determining the route for the media comprises determining whether to enable a vibration means and simultaneously direct the media to one of a plurality of outputs.

4. The medium of claim 1, wherein determining the route for the media comprises determining whether to blink a display and simultaneously direct the media to one of a plurality of outputs.

5. The medium of claim 1, wherein the category is one or more of music, video soundtrack, voice telephone call, telephone voice mail, e-mail notification, short message service (SMS) notification, user interface sounds, ring tones, or alerts.

6. The medium of claim 5, wherein the one or more factors include a current usage status of the electronic device.

7. The medium of claim 6, wherein the current usage status indicates which of a plurality of outputs have been coupled to into the electronic device.

8. The medium of claim 7, wherein the current usage status further indicates an order in which the plurality of outputs were been coupled to the electronic device.

9. A system for managing media on an electronic device,

the system comprising:

one or more processors;

a media policy module executing on the one or more processors, the media policy module to receive, store, and process a plurality of policies and priorities and to output policy findings;

a media route manager in communication with the media policy module, to implement the policy findings output by the media policy module;

wherein the media route manager receives a first media playback request from a first application, and a second media playback request from a second application, the first application different than the second application;

wherein the first media playback request indicates a first category associated with a first set of default policies;

wherein the second media playback request indicates a second category associated with a second set of default policies; and

wherein the media policy module determines how to route media associated with at least the first and second media playback requests based, at least in part, on the policies associated with the categories indicated by the media playback requests.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the categories include two or more of music, video soundtrack, voice telephone call, telephone voice mail, e-mail notification, short message service (SMS) notification, user interface sounds, ring tones, or alerts.

11. The system of claim 9, wherein at least one set of default policies includes a policy to prohibit a specific type of media routing and to broadcast a specific category to multiple outputs.

12. The system of claim 9, wherein at least one set of default policies includes a policy to blink a display and simultaneously direct the media to one of a plurality of outputs.

13. The system of claim 9, wherein at least one set of default policies includes a policy to set a volume of a media stream to a different volume than requested based at least in part on the category of the request.

14. The system of claim 9, wherein at least one set of default policies includes a policy to lower a volume of a first media stream to increase emphasis on a second media stream.

15. The system of claim 9, wherein the media route manager is to perform volume-matching among a plurality of audio processors.

16. A method of managing media playback requests on an electronic device, the method comprising:

receiving a first media playback request and a second media playback request from a first application executing on the electronic device, each playback request indicating a media category;

determining how to route media associated with the first and second media playback requests based on a set of criteria including the media category of each playback request and a set of default policies associated with the media category;

routing the media associated with the first media playback request to a first output;

routing the media associated with the second media playback request to a second output that is different than the first output.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the one or more criteria include a current usage status of the electronic device.

18. The method of claim 17, further comprising determining the current usage status of the electronic device, wherein the current usage status indicates which of a plurality of outputs have been coupled to the electronic device and an order in which the plurality of outputs were been coupled to the electronic device.

19. One or more volatile or non-volatile, non-transitory computer-readable storage media storing instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, cause performance of the method recited in claim 18.

20. The method of claim 16, wherein determining how to route media associated with the first playback request comprises determining whether to enable a vibration means and simultaneously direct the media to one of a plurality of outputs.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein determining how to route the media associated with the first playback request further comprises determining whether to blink a display while simultaneously directing the media to one of the plurality of outputs.

22. One or more volatile or non-volatile, non-transitory computer-readable storage media storing instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, cause performance of the method recited in claim 21.

23. The method of claim 16, further comprising performing volume-matching among a plurality of audio processors.

24. The method of claim 23, further comprising changing policies without modifying executable code on the electronic device.

25. One or more volatile or non-volatile, non-transitory computer-readable storage media storing instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, cause performance of the method recited in claim 24.

26. One or more volatile or non-volatile, non-transitory, computer-readable storage media storing instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, cause performance of the method recited in claim 16.