System for node structure discovery in an audio-related system

• US 20050226430A1
• Filed: 03/25/2005
• Published: 10/13/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 03/26/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Harman International Industries Incorporated (Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Harman International Industries Incorporated (Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.)
• Inventors: Lee, John, Stevenson, Andrew, Kreifeldt, Richard Allen, Shuttleworth, Timothy J., Plunkett, William A., Werf, Bruce Vander
• Granted Patent: US 8,078,298 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 381/58
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/04 Studio equipment; Interconnection of studios
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/125 involving control of end-device applications over a network
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/51 Discovery or management thereof, e.g. service location protocol [SLP] or web services
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 2227/003 Digital PA systems using, e.g. LAN or internet
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 27/00 Public address systems circuits for preventing acoustic reaction H04R3/02; circuits for distributing signals to loudspeakers H04R3/12; monitoring or testing arrangements for public address systems H04R29/007; amplifiers H03F

Abstract

A system for determination of the functionality of an audio-related device that is operable in an audio system includes a performance equipment manager. The performance equipment manager may receive from an audio-related device an audio node structure representative of the corresponding audio-related device. The received audio node structure may be reviewed to determine if all the components included in the audio node structure are predefined within the performance equipment manager. For those components that are known, no discovery is necessary and actual values of changeable parameters in the audio-related device may be obtained. For unknown components of the audio node structure, the performance equipment manager may undertake discovery to identify additional portions of the audio node structure, and/or attributes related to the unknown components, in order to obtain actual values of changeable parameters related to the unknown components.

Claims

1. A system for determination of the functionality of an audio-related device operable in an audio system, the system comprising:

a graphical user interface core configured to receive a plurality of class attributes from an audio-related device; and

a plurality of plugins each configured to determine if an association with the audio-related device exists based on the class attributes;

where the plugins are further configured to receive an audio node structure indicative of the functionality of the audio-related device when an association exists, and to determine if a plurality of components included in the audio node structure are predefined.

2. The system of claim 1, where the graphical user interface core is further configured to query other plugins when one of the plugins in which an association exists identifies that one of the components is not predefined.

3. The system of claim 1, where the graphical user interface core comprises a discovery engine that is configured to be enabled by any one of the plugins to retrieve from the audio-related device additional information related to only those portions of the audio node structure that are not predefined.

4. The system of claim 1, where each of the plugins is configured to include access to at least one set of associated class attributes, and where the plugins are each configured to establish a communication link to the audio-related device through the graphical user interface core when the associated at least one set of class attributes corresponds to the received class attributes.

5. The system of claim 1, where each of the plugins further comprises a respective library storage module that includes a plurality of prestored class attributes that are comparable to the received class attributes.

6. The system of claim 1, where each of the plugins further comprises a retrieval engine configured to retrieve the audio node structure, and a class analysis module configured to analyze and confirm that the components are predefined.

7. The system of claim 1, where the audio node structure comprises a virtual device, an object and a state variable in a hierarchical configuration, so that when the virtual device is determined to be predefined, the object and state variable are also predefined.

8. The system of claim 1, where each of the plugins further comprises a respective library storage module that includes a plurality of predefined components that are comparable to the components included in the audio node structure.

9. A system for determination of the functionality of an audio-related device operable in an audio system, the system comprising:

an audio node discovery manager configured to receive class attributes descriptive of the audio-related device; and

a plugin configured to respond to an audio node query from the audio node discovery manager when the received class attributes that are included in the audio node query are recognized by the plugin;

where the plugin is further configured to retrieve an audio node structure from the audio-related device and compare the audio node structure to a stored, predefined audio node structure that is accessible by the plugin, and

where the audio node discovery manager is further configured to be enabled by the plugin to query another plugin for a portion of the audio node structure that is not prestored and accessible by the plugin.

10. The system of claim 9, where the plugin is further configured to enable a discovery engine to discover additional audio-related information about the audio-related device when neither said another plugin nor the plugin has access to prestored information on the portion of the audio node structure.

11. The system of claim 9, where the node discovery manager comprises a node attribute request engine that is configured to generate an attribute query when a new audio-related device is identified.

12. The system of claim 9, where the plugin comprises a retrieval engine and a library storage,

where the retrieval engine is configured to query the audio-related device for the audio node structure, and check the library storage for the existence of components included in the audio node structure.

13. The system of claim 12, where the audio node structure includes a virtual device, and the retrieval engine is configured to check for the existence of the virtual device in the library storage.

14. The system of claim 13, where the retrieval engine is further configured to query the audio-related device for objects included in the virtual device and then check for the existence of the objects in the library storage when the virtual device exists in the library storage and is identified as configurable.

15. The system of claim 9, where the plugin is further configured to enable a query of the audio-related device for only those portions of the audio node structure that are not prestored and accessible in the plugin.

16. The system of claim 9, where the audio node structure comprises a list of a plurality of virtual devices and the plugin is further configured to determine if each of the virtual devices included in the list are known, and enable further communication with the audio-related device for each of the virtual devices that are unknown.

17. The system of claim 9, further comprising a node communication instantiator configured to establish communications between the plugin and the audio-related device by establishment of a separate and independent communication path to the audio-related device so that the plugin does not need knowledge of the communication path to the audio-related device.

18. The system of claim 9, where each of the plugins further comprises a node structure storage configured to store the components included in the retrieved node structure and an indication of whether each of the components is known.

19. A system for discovery of the functionality of an audio-related device operable in an audio system, the system comprising:

a plugin that comprises a retrieval engine, a class analysis module and a library storage,

where the retrieval engine is enabled to retrieve an audio node structure that comprises a plurality of virtual devices from a corresponding audio-related device;

where the class analysis module is configured to compare the retrieved audio node structure to a plurality of predefined virtual devices stored in the library storage; and

where the retrieval engine is configured to enable the discovery of additional components of those virtual devices retrieved from the audio-related device that do not correspond to the predefined virtual devices.

20. The system of claim 19, further comprising a plugin search engine configured to be enabled by the retrieval engine to query the library storage of another plugin when any one of the retrieved virtual devices is not stored in said library storage of said plugin.

21. The system of claim 20, further comprising a discovery engine configured to be enabled by the retrieval engine to discover additional information about only those virtual devices that are not stored in the library storage of said plugin or said another plugin.

22. The system of claim 21, where the virtual device comprises a plurality of attributes descriptive of the virtual device and at least one of an object or a state variable or combinations thereof that are retrieved by the discovery engine.

23. The system of claim 19, where the predefined virtual devices include at least one of an object or a state variable or combinations thereof, that are also predefined.

24. The system of claim 19, where the retrieval engine is further configured to store an indication of those virtual devices included in the audio node structure that correspond to the predefined virtual device.

25. A method for discovery of the functionality of an audio-related device operable in an audio system, the method comprising:

identifying a plugin that is associated with an audio-related device based on attributes received from the audio-related device that are indicative of the audio-related device;

the plugin retrieving from the audio-related device an audio node structure representative of the audio-related functionality of the audio-related device,

determining if each of a plurality of components included in the audio node structure is known by the plugin; and

if not,

querying another plugin for unknown components.

26. The method of claim 25, where identifying a plugin comprises querying the audio-related device for class attributes indicative of the audio-related device.

27. The method of claim 25, further comprising enabling a discovery engine to query the audio-related device to discover any components of the audio node structure that are unknown by the plugin and said another plugin.

28. The method of claim 25, where the plugin retrieving from the audio-related device an audio node structure comprises receiving a list of virtual devices representative of functional units in the audio-related device, and identifying those virtual devices that correspond to predefined virtual devices stored in the plugin.

29. The method of claim 25, where querying another plugin comprises the plugin enabling a node discovery manager that is in communication with all of the plugins to query the other plugins.

30. A performance equipment manager operable to execute instructions for discovery of the functionality of an audio-related device operable in an audio system, the performance equipment manager comprising:

a memory device;

instructions stored in the memory device to receive a list of virtual devices indicative of the functionality of an audio-related device;

instructions stored in the memory device to identify any of the virtual devices on the list of virtual devices that is undefined;

instructions stored in the memory device to retrieve for each of the undefined virtual devices associated attributes and at least one of lists of objects, or lists of state variables or combinations thereof that are included in each of the undefined virtual devices; and

instructions stored in the memory device to store the attributes and an indication of the virtual devices that are predefined.

31. The method of claim 30, where instructions stored in the memory device to identify each of the virtual devices comprises instructions stored in the memory device to indicate each of the listed virtual devices that correspond to a stored, predefined virtual device that includes at least one of a predefined object or a predefined state variable, or combinations thereof.

32. A method for discovery of the functionality of an audio-related device operable in an audio system, the method comprising:

enabling a plugin with predetermined class attributes that correspond to the class attributes descriptive of the audio-related device;

querying the audio-related device with the enabled plugin for an audio node structure descriptive of the functionality of the audio-related device;

identifying known components included in the audio node structure that correspond to predefined components included in the enabled plugin;

querying another plugin for non-corresponding components of the audio node structure that are unknown; and

enabling a discovery engine to query the audio-related device for attributes of any components of the audio node structure that are unknown by the plugin and said another plugin.

33. The method of claim 32, further comprising storing the attributes of the audio node structure discovered by the discovery engine and indication of the components that are known.