Apparatus and method for media play in home network

• US 9,807,450 B2
• Filed: 11/29/2013
• Issued: 10/31/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 11/29/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: DRNC Holdings, Inc. (InterDigital, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Huawei Device Company Limited (Huawei Investment & Holding Co., Ltd.)
• Inventors: Zhang, Yajun, Shan, Zhenwei, Zhu, Yu
• Primary Examiner(s): Chowdhury, Sumaiya A
• Application Number:
  US15/100,587
• Publication Number:
  US 20160309219A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,432 Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2807 Exchanging configuration information on appliance services in a home automation network arrangements for maintenance or administration involving network analysis for automatically determining the actual topology of a network H04L41/12; hardware or software tools for network management using graphical user interfaces H04L41/22; address allocation H04L61/50
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2816 Controlling appliance services of a home automation network by calling their functionalities arrangements in telecontrol or telemetry systems for selectively calling a substation from a main station; in which substation desired apparatus is selected for applying a control signal thereto or for obtaining measured values therefrom H04Q9/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/283 Processing of data at an internetworking point of a home automation network
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2012/2849 Audio/video appliances
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/43615 Interfacing a Home Network, e.g. for connecting the client to a plurality of peripherals home Audio Video Interoperability [HAVI] data switching networks H04L12/2805
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/64723 Monitoring of network processes or resources, e.g. monitoring of network load traffic related reporting in data switching networks H04L43/062
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8586 by using a URL processing chained hypermedia data for information retrieval G06F16/94; information retrieval from the Internet by using URLs G06F16/955; URL in broadcast information H04H20/93; Web-based protocols H04L67/02

Abstract

A control device and a computer program product configured to complete the functions of determining that a task needs to be executed, where the task is a task to distribute the media content to a media play apparatus, acquiring device information of the multiple media distribution devices, selecting an available media distribution device from the multiple media distribution devices according to the device information, where the available media distribution device may be configured to process the media content such that the media content has an adaptive media stream format suitable for the media play device, and assigning, when there are multiple available media distribution devices, at least one segment of the media content to each of the available media distribution devices such that the multiple available media distribution devices jointly process the media content.

Claims

1. A control device configured to control media content distribution in a home network, wherein the home network comprises the control device, a media play device, and multiple media distribution devices, and wherein the control device comprises:

a network interface;

a memory; and

a processor,

wherein the network interface and the memory are coupled to the processor,

wherein the network interface is configured to communicate with the media play device and the media distribution devices,

wherein the memory is configured to store a computer executable instruction, and

wherein the processor is configured to execute the computer executable instruction in order to complete the following operations;

determine that a task needs to be executed, wherein the task is distributing a media content to the media play device;

acquire device information of the multiple media distribution devices;

select at least one available media distribution device from the multiple media distribution devices according to the device information, wherein the available media distribution device is configured to process the media content such that the media content has an adaptive media stream format suitable for the media play device; and

assign a child task to each of the available media distribution devices when there are multiple available media distribution devices,

wherein the child task instructs each of the available media distribution devices to process at least one segment of the media content such that the multiple available media distribution devices jointly process the media content,

wherein the home network is a digital living network alliance (DLNA) network,

wherein the control device communicates with the media play device and the media distribution devices using a dynamic adaptive streaming over hypertext transfer protocol (DASH) protocol,

wherein assigning the child task to each of the available media distribution devices comprises sending a uniform resource identifier fragment of the at least one segment of the media content to each of the available media distribution devices,

wherein the uniform resource identifier fragment of each segment of the media content comprises range information of the segment of the media content and a first address of the segment of the media content,

wherein the range information is used to indicate a range of the task that needs to be processed by the available media distribution device, and

wherein the first address of the segment of the media content is used to indicate a storage address of the segment of the media content.

2. The control device according to claim 1, wherein determining that the task needs to be executed comprises:

monitoring the multiple media distribution devices;

acquiring a data packet from a first media distribution device of the media distribution devices when the first media distribution device starts to download the data packet;

determining whether the data packet carries metadata of the media content; and

determining that the task needs to be executed when the data packet carries the metadata of the media content.

3. The control device according to claim 2, wherein the metadata comprises second address information and length information of the media content, and wherein the second address information is used to indicate a storage address of the media content.

4. The control device according to claim 2, wherein the data packet carries the metadata of the media content, and wherein determining that the task needs to be executed further comprises:

sending a download command to the first media distribution device; and

determining that another task needs to be executed when a request for continue playing is received from the media play device or when a preset first time period arrives but no request for stop playing is received from the media play device.

5. The control device according to claim 1, wherein determining that the task needs to be executed comprises determining, according to a message sent by one media distribution device of the multiple media distribution devices, that the task needs to be executed.

6. The control device according to claim 1, wherein assigning the child task to each of the available media distribution devices further comprises:

dividing the media content into at least a first part and a second part;

assigning at least one segment of the first part to each of the available media distribution devices; and

assigning at least one segment of the second part to each of the available media distribution devices when a request for continuing assigning the task is received from the media play device or when a preset second time period arrives but no request for stopping assigning is received from the media play device,

wherein assigning at least one segment of the first part or the second part to each of the available media distribution devices comprises sending a uniform resource identifier fragment of the at least one segment of the media content of the first part or the second part to each of the available media distribution devices,

wherein the uniform resource identifier fragment of each segment of the media content comprises range information of the segment of the media content of the first part or the second part and a first address of the segment of the media content,

wherein the range information is used to indicate a range of the task that needs to be processed by the available media distribution device, and

wherein the first address of the segment of the media content is used to indicate a storage address of the segment of the media content of the first part or the second part.

7. The control device according to claim 1, wherein the processor is further configured to execute the computer executable instruction in order to complete the following operations:

receive, from each of the available media distribution devices, a description file of the at least one segment of the media content, wherein the description file comprises third address information of the at least one segment of the media content that has been processed, wherein the at least one segment of the media content that has been processed is generated by the available media distribution device according to the segment of the media content and that has the adaptive media stream format suitable for the media play device, and wherein the third address information is used to indicate a storage address of the at least one segment of the media content that has been processed; and

send all the description files to the media play device such that the media play device may play the media content.

8. The control device according to claim 1, wherein the device information comprises at least one of a device status, a device type, a device capability, a use frequency of a user, and a device priority.

9. A non-transitory computer readable medium configured to control media content distribution in a home network, wherein the home network comprises a control device, a media play device, and multiple media distribution devices, wherein the non-transitory computer readable medium comprises a non-volatile computer readable storage medium, wherein the non-volatile computer readable storage medium is configured to store a computer executable instruction, and wherein when a processor of the control device executes the computer executable instruction, the control device is configured to perform the following operations:

determine that a task needs to be executed, wherein the task is distributing a media content to the media play device;

acquire device information of the multiple media distribution devices;

select at least one available media distribution device from the multiple media distribution devices according to the device information, wherein the available media distribution device is configured to process the media content such that the media content has an adaptive media stream format suitable for the media play device; and

assigning a child task to each of the available media distribution devices when there are multiple available media distribution devices,

wherein the child task instructs each of the available media distribution devices to process at least one segment of the media content such that the multiple available media distribution devices jointly process the media content,

wherein the home network is a digital living network alliance (DLNA) network,

wherein the control device communicates with the media play device and media distribution device using a dynamic adaptive streaming over hypertext transfer protocol (DASH) protocol,

wherein assigning the child task to each of the available media distribution devices comprises sending a uniform resource identifier fragment of the at least one segment of the media content to each of the available media distribution devices,

wherein the uniform resource identifier fragment of each segment of the media content comprises range information of the segment of the media content and a first address of the segment of the media content,

wherein the range information is used to indicate a range of the task that needs to be processed by the available media distribution device, and

wherein the first address of the segment of the media content is used to indicate a storage address of the segment of the media content.

10. The non-transitory computer readable medium according to claim 9, wherein determining that the task needs to be executed comprises:

monitoring the multiple media distribution devices;

acquiring a data packet from a first media distribution device of the media distribution devices when the first media distribution device starts to download the data packet;

determining whether the data packet carries metadata of the media content; and

determining that the task needs to be executed when the data packet carries the metadata of the media content.

11. The non-transitory computer readable medium according to claim 10, wherein the metadata comprises second address information and length information of the media content, and wherein the second address information is used to indicate a storage address of the media content.

12. The non-transitory computer readable medium according to claim 10, wherein the data packet carries the metadata of the media content, and wherein determining that the task needs to be executed further comprises:

sending a download command to the first media distribution device; and

determining that another task needs to be executed when a request for continuing playing is received from the media play device, or when a preset first time period arrives but no request for stopping playing is received from the media play device.

13. The non-transitory computer readable medium according to claim 9, wherein determining that the task needs to be executed comprises determining, according to a message sent by one media distribution device of the multiple media distribution devices, that the task needs to be executed.

14. The non-transitory computer readable medium according to claim 9, wherein assigning the child task to each of the available media distribution devices comprises:

dividing the media content into at least a first part and a second part;

assigning at least one segment of the first part to each of the available media distribution devices; and

assigning at least one segment of the second part to each of the available media distribution devices when a request for continuing assigning the task is received from the media play device, or when a preset second time period arrives but no request for stopping assigning is received from the media play device, wherein assigning at least one segment of the first part or the second part to each of the available media distribution devices comprises sending a uniform resource identifier fragment of at least one segment of the media content of the first part or the second part to each of the available media distribution devices, wherein the uniform resource identifier fragment of each segment of the media content comprises range information of the segment of the media content of the first part or the second part, and a first address of the segment of the media content, wherein the range information is used to indicate a range of the task that needs to be processed by the available media distribution device, and wherein the first address of the segment of the media content is used to indicate a storage address of the segment of the media content of the first part or the second part.

15. The non-transitory computer readable medium according to claim 9, wherein when executing the computer executable instruction, by the processor, the control device is further configured to perform the following operations:

receive, from each of the available media distribution devices, a description file of the at least one segment of the media content, wherein the description file comprises third address information of the segment of the media content that has been processed, wherein the segment of the media content that has been processed is generated by the available media distribution device according to the segment of the media content and has the adaptive media stream format suitable for the media play device, and wherein the third address information is used to indicate a storage address of the segment of the media content that has been processed; and

send all the description files to the media play device such that the media play device may play the media content.

16. The non-transitory computer readable medium according to claim 9, wherein the device information comprises at least one of a device status, a device type, a device capability, a use frequency of a user, and a device priority.