Media data representation and management

• US 20070033225A1
• Filed: 10/11/2005
• Published: 02/08/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 08/04/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Davis, Darren
• Granted Patent: US 7,636,509 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4332 by placing content in organized collections, e.g. local EPG data repository interfaces, Database management systems or updating for information retrieval G06F16/23; details of retrieval of video data and associated meta data in video database G06F16/739
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/443 OS processes, e.g. booting an STB, implementing a Java virtual machine in an STB or power management in an STB
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8405 represented by keywords

Abstract

Managing media objects on a computing device executing a media player application for rendering one or more of the media objects. The media objects have metadata associated therewith. A media object is defined to represent the media object, which includes a plurality of properties where at least one of the properties of the media object is representative of media content of the media object and where at least another one of the properties of the media object is representative of metadata associated with the media object. The media object is dynamically exposed to the media player application for performing one or more operations on the properties. The properties of the media object are alternatively exposed without exposing the media object represented thereby. Alternatively, a set of rules for each of the properties is defined, and one or more operations are dynamically exposed as a function of the defined set of rules.

Claims

1. A method implemented at least in part by a computing device for managing media items on the computing device, said computing device executing a media player application for rendering or managing one or more of the media items, each of said media items having metadata associated therewith, said method comprising:

defining a media object representative of the media item, said media object including a plurality of properties, at least one of said properties of the media object being representative of media content of the media item, at least another one of said properties of the media object being representative of metadata associated with the media item; and

dynamically exposing the media object to the media player application for performing one or more operations on the properties.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising defining a set of rules for each of the properties, and wherein dynamically exposing the media object includes dynamically exposing one or more operations for each of the properties as a function of the defined set of rules.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing a notification to the media player application when one or more of the properties of the media object are modified.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising defining a collection object representative of one or more media items, said collection object including a plurality of properties, at least one of said properties of the collection object being representative of the media items represented thereby.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the collection object comprises a media object.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein each of the plurality of properties of the media object is represented by a variant type, and wherein said variant type allowing a single read/write operation for a list of properties.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein one or more media items are accessible by the computing device via a data communication network, wherein at least one of the items is representative of one or more of the following:

a playlist selected from the media items and the media collection.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising parsing the playlist locally at the computing device to resolve the playlist for rendering the media items by the media player application.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising defining a plurality of media objects each representative of a media item and organizing the media objects as a media collection in a hierarchical structure, said media items represented by the media objects in the collection based on one or more of the following:

sharing at least one common feature based on metadata associated with the media items, or defined by the user.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the hierarchical structure is a tree structure.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein dynamically exposing the media object comprises dynamically exposing the properties of the media object without exposing the media item represented thereby.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising defining an item player object representative of the media player application, said item player object including one or more properties, at least one of said properties of the item player object being representative of media playback operations.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising exposing the item player object for performing one or more of the following operations:

media transport, manipulating the state of one or more output devices, obtaining state information pertaining to rendering, and sending event notifications of different states during rendering.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein one or more computer-readable media have computer-executable instructions for performing the method of claim 1.

15. One or more computer-readable media having computer-executable components for managing media items on a computing device, said computing device executing a media player application for managing and/or rendering one or more of the media items, each of said media items having metadata associated therewith, said computer-executable components comprising:

a collection discovery component for selecting one or more media objects for a collection, said collection having metadata associated therewith;

a media collection component for defining a plurality of objects, said objects including at least a media object or a collection object, said media object being representative of one or more of the media items in the collection, said media object including a property representative of metadata associated with said one of the media items in the collection, said collection object including a property representative of metadata associated with the collection; and

a collection rendering component for exposing the objects to the media player application for performing one or more operations on either the media object property or the collection property or both.

16. The computer-readable media of claim 15, wherein:

the media collection component is further configured to define a set of rules for the exposure of a media object property or a collection property, and wherein the media component is further configured to dynamically expose a correct property as a function of the defined set of rules;

the media collection component is further configured to provide a notification to the media player application when one or more of the properties of the media object are modified;

the media collection component is further configured to organize the media collection in a hierarchical structure, said media collection including the one or more media objects, each of the one or more media objects in the collection is defined based on one or more of the following;

sharing at least one common feature based on metadata associated with the media objects, or defined by user defined criteria;

the collection rendering component is configured to parse a playlist locally at the computing device to resolve the playlist for rendering the remote media objects by the media player application; and

the collection rendering component is further configured to dynamically expose the parsed media object property or the collection property without exposing the media object or the collection represented thereby.

17. The computer-readable media of claim 15, wherein the one or more media items are accessible by the computing device via a data communication network, and wherein at least one of the items is representative of one or more of the following:

a playlist selected from the media items and the media collection.

18. At least one computer-readable medium having a data structure stored thereon, said data structure comprising a media object representative of a media item, said media object including a plurality of properties, at least one of said properties of the media object being representative of media content of the media item, at least another one of said properties of the media object being representative of metadata associated with the media item, said media object being exposed to a media player application for performing one or more operations on the properties.

19. The data structure of claim 18, wherein each property of the media object is represented by a variant type, and wherein said variant type allowing a single read/write operation for the plurality of properties types.

20. The data structure of claim 18, further comprising a collection object representative of one or more media objects, said collection object including a plurality of properties, at least one of the plurality of properties of the collection object being representative of the media objects represented by the collection object, and further comprising a hierarchical structure for organizing a collection of media objects each being representative of a media item, said collection represented by the media objects in the hierarchical structure being defined based on one or more of the following:

sharing at least one common feature based on metadata associated with the media items, or defined by user selections.