Portable electronic device with local search capabilities

• US 20080065988A1
• Filed: 09/11/2006
• Published: 03/13/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 09/11/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Computer Incorporated (Apple Inc.)
• Inventors: Lee, Jeff, Gupta, Sandeep, Marriott, Greg, Huang, Szu-Wen
• Granted Patent: US 8,341,524 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/716
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/43 Querying
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/48 Retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manually
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/632 Query formulation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/68 Retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manually

Abstract

Improved methods and systems that assist a user in searching media items on a portable electronic device are disclosed. According to one aspect of the invention, a portable electronic device is provided with a search function that enables a user to search for media items resident on the portable electronic device. The search function can search through different types of media items. Those of the media items that are deemed matching can be ranked in order of relevance and displayed in a list for the user. Thereafter, the user can navigate the list to select one of the listed media items for playback. According to another aspect of the invention, various graphical user interfaces can be presented on a portable electronic device to assist a user in interacting with the portable electronic device to utilize a search function.

Claims

1. A method for searching media items stored on a portable electronic device having a display, a media storage device and a user input device, said method comprising:

receiving search criteria from the user input device;

searching media items stored in the media storage to identify those of the media items that match the search criteria; and

displaying at least a subset of those of the identified media items that match the search criteria.

2. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein said method further comprises:

receiving a selection of one of the identified media items; and

subsequently presenting the selected media item.

3. A method as recited in claim 2, wherein said presenting comprises displaying media content corresponding to the selected media item.

4. A method as recited in claim 2, wherein said presenting comprises playing media content corresponding to the selected media item.

5. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein the user input device comprises a rotational user input device.

6. A method as recited in claim 5, wherein the user applies a rotational action to the rotational user input device to identify each character of the search criteria to be input.

7. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein the search criteria is a character string of one or more characters.

8. A method as recited in claim 1,

wherein said searching is associated with a search function supported by the portable electronic device, and

wherein the search function can be activated by user interaction with a menu choice presented in a plurality of different screens of a hierarchical arrangement of screens.

9. A method as recited in claim 8, wherein the operation of the search function is dependent on the one of the different screens from which the menu choice was selected to activate the search function.

10. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein said method further comprises:

storing search data following said searching; and

subsequently utilizing the stored search data to process other related search criteria.

11. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein said method further comprises:

storing search data following said searching; and

subsequently utilizing the stored search data to re-display at least a subset of those of the identified media items that match the search criteria.

19. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein the user input device comprises a rotational user input device.

20. A method as recited in claim 19, wherein the user applies a rotational action to the rotational user input device to input each character of the search criteria;

12. A method for searching media items stored on a portable electronic device having a display, a media storage device and a user input device, said method comprising:

displaying a search screen on the display;

receiving a single search character input for at least a portion of a search term from the user input device;

searching for one or more media items stored in the media storage that match the one or more search characters;

ranking the one or more matching media items; and

displaying, in accordance with said ranking, at least a subset of those of the matching media items.

13. A method as recited in claim 12, wherein said method further comprises:

determining whether all the search characters for the search term have been received; and

displaying a search results screen on the display after said determining determines that all the one or more search characters for the search term have been received.

14. A method as recited in claim 13, wherein the search results screen includes a listing of at least a subset of the matching media items.

15. A method as recited in claim 13, wherein said method further comprises:

receiving a play request to play one of the matching media items;

playing the requested one of the matching media items; and

displaying a media play screen while the requested one of the matching media items is being played.

16. A method as recited in claim 15, wherein said method further comprises:

determining whether the requested one of the matching media items has completed playing; and

re-displaying the search results screen on the display after said determining determines that the requested one of the matching media items has completed playing.

17. A method as recited in claim 15, wherein said method further comprises:

subsequently determining whether the search screen is to be displayed instead of the media play screen while the requested one of the matching media items is being played; and

re-displaying the search screen on the display after said determining determines that the search screen is to be displayed instead of the media play screen while the requested one of the matching media items is being played.

18. A method as recited in claim 17, wherein said method further comprises:

thereafter automatically re-displaying the media play screen instead of the search screen after a predetermined period of inactivity with respect to the search screen.

21. A method as recited in claim 12, wherein the portable electronic device is a battery-powered, media player.

22. A computer readable medium including at least computer program code for searching digital data stored on a portable electronic device, where the portable electronic device has a display, a data storage device and a user input device, said computer readable medium comprising:

computer program code for receiving search criteria from the user input device;

computer program code for searching digital data items stored in the media storage device to identify those of the digital data items that match the search criteria; and

computer program code for displaying at least a subset of those of the identified digital data items that match the search criteria.

23. A computer readable medium as recited in claim 22,

wherein said computer program code for searching provides a search function supported by the portable electronic device,

wherein the search function can be activated by a user interaction with a menu choice presented in a plurality of different screens of a hierarchical arrangement of screens, and

wherein the operation of the search function is dependent on the one of the different screens from which the menu choice was selected to activate the search function.

24. A computer readable medium as recited in claim 22, wherein the user input device comprises a rotational user input device, and

wherein said computer program code for receiving search criteria from the user input device comprises computer program code for receiving a rotational action with respect to the rotational user input device to identify at least one character of the search criteria to be input.

25. A media playback device, comprising:

a display device;

a user input device.

at least one memory device capable of storing a plurality of media items and computer program code for displaying, navigating playing or searching the plurality of media items; and

a processing device operatively connected to said display device, said user input device and said at least one memory device, said processing device capable of executing the computer program code for displaying, navigating, playing or searching the plurality of media items,

wherein the computer program code for displaying, navigating, playing or searching the plurality of media items includes at least;

computer program code for receiving at least one search character input for at least a portion of a search term from said user input device;

computer program code for searching for one or more media items stored in the media storage that match the one or more search characters;

computer program code for ranking the one or more matching media items; and

computer program code for displaying at least a subset of those of the matching media items on said display device in accordance with the ranking.

26. A media playback device as recited in claim 25, wherein the computer program code for displaying, navigating, playing or searching the plurality of media items further comprises:

computer program code for displaying a search screen on said display device to assist with receiving of the at least one search character.

27. A media playback device as recited in claim 26, wherein said computer program code for displaying at least a subset of those of the matching media items on said display device in accordance with the ranking comprises:

computer program code for displaying a search results screen on said display device.

28. A media playback device as recited in claim 25, wherein said user input device is a rotational input device capable of receiving a rotational user input.

29. A media playback device as recited in claim 25, wherein said media playback device is a battery-powered, handheld media playback device.