Crossfade of media playback between different media processes

• US 7,571,016 B2
• Filed: 09/08/2005
• Issued: 08/04/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 09/08/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Olson, Kipley J., Nelson, Patrick Nicholas, Rahman, Shafiq Ur, Mohammed, Sohail Baig, Debique, Kirt A., Barde, Sumedh N., Grigorovitch, Alexandre, Sherwani, Adil Ahmed
• Primary Examiner(s): Kuntz; Curtis
• Assistant Examiner(s): Flanders; Andrew C
• Application Number:
  US11/221,664
• Publication Number:
  US 20070076547A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,426 Days
• Field of Search: 700/94, 369 1- 12, 381/119, 381/10, 381/11, 381/56, 381/61, 381104-109
• US Class Current: 700/94
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/10 Protecting distributed programs or content, e.g. vending or licensing of copyrighted material protection in video systems or pay television H04N7/16 ; Digital rights management [DRM]
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 20/00086 Circuits for prevention of unauthorised reproduction or copying, e.g. piracy indicating unauthorised use of record carriers in general G11B23/28; scrambling for television signal recording H04N5/913; network architectures or network protocols for network security H04L63/00; cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for secret or secure communication H04L9/00
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 20/10527 Audio or video recording; Data buffering arrangements G11B20/12 - G11B20/18 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 2020/10546 specifically adapted for audio data
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 2020/10759 content data
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/038 Cross-faders therefor

Abstract

A method of crossfading a plurality of audio files comprising opening a first process, opening a second process hosting an audio renderer in which a first audio file of the plurality of audio files is cross faded with a second audio file of the plurality of audio files.

Claims

1. A method of crossfading a plurality of audio files comprising:

opening a first process controlled by one or more processors, the first process including a first source and a decoder, the first source being coupled to the decoder;

opening a second process controlled by the one or more processors and hosting an audio renderer in which a first audio file of the plurality of audio files is cross faded with a second audio file of the plurality of audio files, wherein the second process is a protected process, the second process including a second source, a crossfade and a sink, wherein the first source and the second source are coupled to the crossfade, and wherein the decoder and the crossfade are coupled to the sink, and wherein the first audio file is an unprotected media file provided to the first source and the second audio file is a protected media file provided to the second source, wherein the entire first audio file and the second audio file are output via the crossfade and the sink in the second process.

2. The method of claim 1 in which the first process is an unprotected process.

3. The method of claim 1 in which the first process includes a media pipeline.

4. The method of claim 1 in which the second process includes a media pipeline.

5. The method of claim 1 in which the sink is buffered.

6. A system for cross fading comprising:

one or more memories; and

one or more processors operated with the one or more memories to provide;

a first process including a first source and a first buffered crossfade, wherein the first source is coupled to the first buffered crossfade, and wherein an unprotected media file is associated with the first source, and

a second process including a second source, a second buffered crossfade and a sink, wherein the second process is in a protected environment, wherein the second source is coupled to the second buffered crossfade, wherein the second buffered crossfade is coupled to the sink, and wherein the first crossfade is coupled to the sink, wherein a protected media file is associated with the second source, and wherein the entire unprotected media file and the protected media file are output via the second buffered crossfade and the sink in the second process.

7. The system for crossfading of claim 6 in which the first process is opened in a unprotected environment.

8. A system for cross fading comprising;

one or more memories; and

one or more processors operated with the one or more memories to provide;

a first process including a first source and a decoder, an unprotected media file being coupled to the first source, and the first source being coupled to a decoder; and

a second secure process including a second source, a cross fade and a sink, a protected media file being coupled to the second source, the second source being coupled to the cross fade, the cross fade being coupled to the sink, the decoder being coupled to the sink, and the first source being coupled to the cross fade, wherein the entire unprotected media file and the protected media file are output via the cross fade and the sink in the second process.

9. The system for cross fading of claim 8 in which an output of the decoder is buffered between the decoder and the sink.