Portable media player as a remote control
Contents
1. a Dec 20 2005 now Pat No 7 702 279 Prim ty Examiner 57 ABSTRACT 51 Int CI A portable multimedia player is used to wirelessly access and H04H 7 00 2006 01 control a media server that is streaming digital media by way 52 US 204224222 455 3 06 455 3 03 455 3 04 ofa wireless interface to media unit such as stereo speak 455 420 725 86 725 61 ers in the case of streaming digital audio In one embodiment 58 Field of Classification Search 455 3 06 the portable multimedia player is wirelessly synchronized to 455 3 03 3 04 420 509 517 556 1 575 1 455 418 185 1 6 3 707 104 1 725 37 725 135 81 31 61 86 705 270 275 200 705 500 503 27 709 204 381 77 104 381 107 See application file for complete search history a selected one s of a number of digital media files stored on the media server in sucha way that digital media file metadata song title author etc associated with the selected digital media file s only is transferred from the media server to be stored in the portable media player 21 Claims 7 Drawing Sheets 05 8 112 032 2 Page 2 U S PATENT DOCUMENTS 2006 0085821 A9 4 2006 Simmons et al 2006 0194612 Al 8 2006 Chen 2007 0214182 1 9 2007 Rosenberg 707 104 1 FOREIGN PATENT DOCUMENTS WO 2005 031605 4 22. Application No 200680048494 4 dated Apr 26 2011 cited by examiner U S Patent Feb 7 2012 Sheet 1 of 7 US 8 112 032 B2 er Ed Es wem N zd N Media unit 106 112 112 j u Stereo system i 110 1 1 A 7 X 7 EM 114 Ke p TNR 1 Media server jc ct 104 B 109 FIG 1 108 116 Portable multimedia player 102 100 U S Patent Feb 7 2012 Sheet 2 of 7 WIRELESS NETWORK SPEAKER 214 INTERFACE 226 USER CODEC INPUT 212 208 PROCESSOR 202 224 216 206 220 222 2 US 8 112 032 B2 200 DISPLAY 210 zu BUS FILE SYSTEM STORAGE DISK 204 U S Patent Feb 7 2012 Sheet 3 of 7 US 8 112 032 B2 FIG 3 U S Patent Feb 7 2012 Sheet 4 of 7 US 8 112 032 B2 Media player generates and forwards a multimedia metadata 402 request to the media server In response to the multimedia metadata request the media server locates the requested metadata associated with the 404 media file s stored on the media server Media server provides a multimedia 406 metadata response back to the multimedia player Display plurality of multimedia 408 metadata by multimedia player Receive user selection of at least one of the displayed multimedia 410 metadata In response to the user selection the 41
3. decoder CODEC 212 The CODEC 212 then produces analog output signals for a speaker 214 The speaker 214 can be a speaker internal to the media player 200 or external to the media player 200 For example headphones or earphones that connect to the media player 200 would be considered an external speaker For example in a particular embodiment the available media assets are arranged in a hierarchical manner based upon a selected number and type of groupings appropriate to the available media assets For example in the case where the media player 200 is an MP3 type media player the available media assets take the form of MP3 files each of which cor responds to a digitally encoded song or other audio rendition stored at least in part in the file system 204 The available media assets or in this case songs can be grouped in any manner deemed appropriate In one arrangement the songs can be arranged hierarchically as a list of music genres at a first level a list of artists associated with each genre at a second level a list of albums for each artist listed in the second level at a third level while at a fourth level a list of songs for each album listed in the third level and so on The media player 200 also includes a wireless network interface 226 arranged to wirelessly transmit any selected data from the media player 200 to any appropriately config ured receiver unit e g the wireless network interface 114 over a wireless networ
4. for a user to enter IP addresses or configure DNS servers Various aspects of Bonjour are generally known to those skilled in the art and are disclosed in the white paper entitled Bonjour dated October 2003 and published by Apple Inc which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety Additional implementation details may be found in the following co pending patent applications commonly owned with the present application which are hereby incor porated by reference in their entirety 1 Method and Appa ratus for Configuring a Wireless Device Through Reverse Advertising application Ser No 10 102 321 filed Mar 19 2002 2 Method and Apparatus for Supporting Duplicate Suppression When Issuing Multicast DNS Queries Using DNS_Format Message Packets application Ser No 10 102 174 filed Mar 19 2002 and 3 Method and Apparatus for Implemented a Sleep Proxy for Services on a Network Application No 60 496 842 filed Aug 20 2003 To facilitate communications between the personal com puter 104 and the media unit 106 such as to provide media sharing functionality the wireless network interface 114 for the media unit 106 will advertise over the network that it supports audio streaming to the media unit 106 As required for standard Bonjour operation the wireless network inter face 114 will publish the availability ofa service the name of the device providing the service the network address of the de
5. of available media items is stored on the multimedia player 102 a user has the option of selecting any of the media items associated with the stored metadata to be remotely played For example the user can select a new song to be played using the GUI 310 that can display at least a portion of the stored metadata that was previously received from the personal computer 104 As illustrated by FIG 5B once a particular media item has been selected a multimedia file request 602 is generated at the media player 102 consistent with the metadata corresponding to the selected media item The multimedia file request 602 is then forwarded to the personal computer 104 It should be noted that the media file request 602 need only include descriptive information e g metadata necessary to uniquely identify the selected song by the personal computer 104 At no time is the song data itself transferred from the US 8 112 032 B2 13 media player 102 to the personal computer 104 thereby avoiding any copyright infringement based upon protected content Indeed it may be that the multimedia player 102 does not include the song data In addition since the media file request 602 represents a small data transfer on the order of a few kilobytes the amount of power required for the genera tion and forwarding of the media file request 602 from the multimedia player 102 to the personal computer 104 is sub stantially reduced over that which would be required
6. personal computer 104 and the wireless network inter face 114 media data corresponding to one or more media items e g songs can be transmitted from the personal com puter 104 to the wireless network interface 114 The trans mission can pertain to a file transfer of the media data media file or streaming of the media data The connection remains open so long as media data is being transmitted Once media data is no longer being transmitted for example at the end of playback of a song or album the connection enters an idle state While in this idle state the media source can begin successfully transmitting data at any time as the connection has not been closed Thus it would not be necessary to rene gotiate or otherwise reestablish the connection However while the media source has a connection in this idle state it can also accept an attempt to establish a con nection with another media source If such an attempt occurs the connection with the first media source will be closed and anew connection will be established Preferably in such case the first source will also be notified that its connection has been terminated Additionally for digital rights management purposes it may be desirable to determine that the media unit 106 is authorized to receive an audio data stream and or that the communications link between the personal computer 104 and the media unit 106 is secure e g encrypted Typically this requir
7. server Here the media catalog is a listing of the available media items e g digital media files stored on the media server In one embodiment the media catalog contains media item metadata song title author etc In this embodiment the digital media items e g digital media files themselves need not be transferred to the portable media player As a result only a relatively small amount of data is required to be trans ferred to the portable multimedia player thereby saving valu able battery resources In addition by not transferring the digital media items themselves potential copyright infringe ment issues can be avoided When a user wishes to access and or control the media server in order to effectuate a change in the media item data 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 4 being streamed to the media unit e g changing a song being played as an example the user selects anew media item e g song to be played by interacting with the portable multime dia player In one implementation the portable multimedia player can display a plurality of user selectable items that correspond to different digital media items e g song files The user of the portable multimedia player can select one of the user selectable items to specify a media item to be played Once selected the portable multimedia player wirelessly informs the media server of the specified media item to be played In one example the
8. the media file request need only include descriptive infor mation e g metadata necessary to uniquely identify the selected song by the media server At no time is the song data itself transferred from the media player to the media server thereby avoiding any copyright infringement based upon pro tected content Indeed it may be that the multimedia player does not include the song data In addition since the media file request represents a small data transfer on the order of a few kilobytes the amount of power required for the genera tion and forwarding of the media file request from the multi media player to the media server is substantially reduced over that which would be required to send the full media file In this way a user can effectively provide remote control of the media unit e g the stereo system by way of the media server without adversely affecting battery life of the multimedia player Once the media server has received the media file request an appropriate media file is retrieved from the media server and wirelessly forwarded by way of the wireless network interface across the wireless network to a media unit such as the stereo 110 In some cases the media file being wirelessly forwarded is accompanied by an associated control command to control the stereo system such as to change the volume treble bass etc FIGS 5A 5B graphically illustrate a data flow between the multimedia player 102 the media server 1
9. via the wireless network interface when the portable digital media player is operated in a second mode The media server includes at least a wireless network interface configured to facilitate communication between the US 8 112 032 B2 3 media server and at least the portable digital media player and a storage medium configured to store media files and computer program code The computer program code includ ing at least computer program code for wirelessly receiving a media item indication from the portable digital media player computer program code for identifying a media item stored in the storage medium using the received media item indication computer program code for accessing the identi fied media item and computer program code for initiating playback of the identified media item BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG 1 shows a representative wireless media network and a wireless battery powered portable multimedia player in accordance with an embodiment of the invention FIG 2 shows a schematic functional block diagram of a portable media player according to one embodiment of the invention FIG 3 illustrates a representative multimedia player in accordance with an embodiment of the invention FIG 4 shows flow diagram of remotely accessing a media server in order to effect a change to a streamed digital media file according to one embodiment of the invention FIGS 5A 5B shows how the multimedia player can be use
10. 005 OTHER PUBLICATIONS U S Appl No 11 245 937 filed Oct 7 2005 Salling Clicker 2 2 1 User Manual Salling Software AB 2005 Remote for iTunes URM IST product information datasheet Keyspan http www keyspan com products usb urml15t down loaded Sep 25 2005 pp 1 2 Express Remote URM 17A product information datasheet Keyspan http www keyspan com products usb urml15t down loaded Sep 25 2005 pp 1 2 Keyspan Express Remote Supports Apple s Airport Express Press Release Keyspan Nov 10 2004 Keyspan Express Remote Product Fact Sheet Keyspan Nov 2004 Communication pursuant to Article 94 3 EPC for European Patent Application No 06845481 8 dated Oct 31 2008 Keyspan DMR Software v1 3 for Mac OS X User Manual rev 04 09 01A1 Office Action for U S Appl No 11 314 291 mailed Oct 28 2008 Office Action for U S Appl No 11 314 291 mailed Apr 21 2009 Notice of Allowance for U S Appl No 11 314 291 mailed Jul 17 2009 Notice of Allowance for U S Appl No 11 314 291 mailed Dec 2 2009 Office Action for Japanese Patent Application No 2008 547340 dated Feb 10 2011 with translations Extended European Search Report for European Patent Application No 10189518 3 dated Jan 28 2011 Kasahara Possible issues and futures of DLNA DLNA guideline v1 1 will be released this July Jan 26 2005 Notification ofthe First Office Action for Chinese Patent
11. 04 and the media unit 106 in accordance with an embodiment of the invention Once a user has interacted with the multimedia player 102 to for example select a new song to be played the multimedia player 102 generates a multimedia metadata request 502 that is then forwarded to the personal computer 104 In response to the multimedia metadata request 502 the personal com puter 104 locates the requested metadata associated with the media file s 106 e g audio tracks stored on the personal computer 104 Typically the multimedia metadata request 502 is a request for a catalog of all media items available on the personal computer 104 The catalog is typically predeter mined and stored on the personal computer 104 However if not the catalog can be generated when requested The catalog requested need not be for all the media items available on the personal computer 104 In any event for a given media item e g song the metadata can include song title author track duration etc that corresponds to the requested song and is typically much smaller in size than the associated media file Once the metadata has been identified the personal computer 104 can provide a multimedia metadata response 504 back to the multimedia player 102 for storage thereon In this case the song title author or other identifying indicia is returned to the multimedia player 102 where it is stored for later retrieval Once the appropriate metadata e g catalog
12. 2 media player generates and forwards a multimedia file request to the media server 400 Media server locates and retrieves appropriate media file based on the descriptive information provided in the 414 media file request 416 Wireless transfer media file from the media server to a media unit for play ena FIG 4 U S Patent Feb 7 2012 Sheet 5 of 7 US 8 112 032 B2 2 N p X XN Media unit 106 2112 112 Stereo system 110 i 2 7 uet gt N Yu 114 Eu m oa J Media server ER 104 i 109 FIG 5A 108 116 Metadata request 502 Requested metadata 204 Portable multimedia A player 102 100 U S Patent Feb 7 2012 Sheet 6 of 7 US 8 112 032 B2 di H Y Media unit 1 106 112 112 Stereo system 110 1 7 PL N 7 2 Sda 114 EAS gt 1 1 1 Media server 7 nu 109 media file 504 FIG 5B 108 116 H Media file request 602 Requested Portable A multimedia 100 m player 102 U S Patent 600 Feb 7 2012 Sheet 7 of 7 start READ MEDIA PLAYER INFORMATION FROM THE THE MEDIA PLAYER COMPARE THE PLAYER MEDIA INFORMATION WITH HOST
13. US 8 112 032 B2 MEDIA DATABASE ON NS 602 MEDIA INFORMATION FROM 604 THE MEDIA DATABASE THE HOST COMPUTER DETERMINE WHICH MEDIA ITEMS TO COPY BASED ON THE uS 606 COMPARISON INFORMATION COPY THE DETERMINED MEDIA ITEMS AND UPDATE THE APPROPRIATE MEDIA 608 DATABASE S END FIG 6 US 8 112 032 B2 1 PORTABLE MEDIA PLAYER AS A REMOTE CONTROL CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION This application is a continuation of U S patent applica tion Ser No 11 314 291 filed Dec 20 2005 now U S Pat No 7 702 279 and entitled PORTABLE MEDIA PLAYER AS A LOW POWER REMOTE CONTROL AND METHOD THEREOF which is hereby incorporated herein by refer ence BACKGROUND Due to the increasing capacity and capability of personal computers it has become popular to use a personal computer as a repository for multimedia content such as songs movies etc Particularly with music the increased popularity of stor ing multimedia data in the form of digital audio files having various formats such as MP3 AAC and AIFF on a personal computer has resulted in a variety of products and services For example music players e g MP3 player such as the iPod multimedia device and media management applica tions such as iTunes software which as produced by Apple Inc of Cupertino Calif are popular products With the abil ity to store large numbers and types of digit
14. a received by the media unit 106 can be played by the media unit 106 namely played by the stereo system 110 The media unit 106 receives this audio data buffers some portion of the data and begins playing back the audio data once the buffer has reached a predetermined capacity For example the media unit 106 may have a total of 8 seconds of buffering but 5 20 40 45 50 55 8 may begin playback when 2 seconds of audio data have been received Additionally itis also possible for the buffer to have a varying capacity determined for example by network traf fic or reliability conditions In a preferred embodiment the audio channel is separate from a control channel For reasons explained below it is advantageous to have the data channel separate from the control channel However a single channel could be used for data and control information One advantage to using separate control and data channels is improved response to user commands As noted above the media unit 106 includes buffering of data which compen sates for network delays latency etc If control commands are included in the data stream these commands would not be reached until the media unit 106 plays through the buffer meaning there would be a delay of up to several seconds before implementing the user command This is obviously undesirable and thus a separate channel for control data provides an enhanced user experience The packets sent ove
15. a2 United States Patent US008112032B2 10 Patent No US 8 112 032 B2 Ko et al 45 Date of Patent Feb 7 2012 54 PORTABLE MEDIA PLAYER AS A REMOTE 56 References Cited CONTROL U S PATENT DOCUMENTS 75 Inventors Steve Ko San Francisco CA US 5 845282 12 1998 Alley et al Stephen O Lemay San Francisco CA 6 192 340 2 2001 Abecassis 704 270 08 6 914 551 2 7 2005 Vidal 7 230 563 2 6 2007 Vidal 7 231 516 6 2007 Sparrell et al 73 Assignee Apple Inc Cupertino CA US 7 574 177 B2 8 2009 Tupman et al 7 702 279 B2 4 2010 Koetal 455 3 06 Notice Subject to any disclaimer the term of this 22 patent is extended adjusted under 35 2004 0090984 Al 5 2004 Saint Hilaire et al U S C 154 b by 0 days 2004 0133914 Al 7 2004 Smith et al l i 2004 0183756 1 9 2004 Freitas etal 345 73 This patent is subject to a terminal dis 2005 0042983 Al 2 2005 Borgward claimer 2005 0273790 Al 12 2005 Kearney et al Continued 21 Appl 12 612 493 FOREIGN PATENT DOCUMENTS 22 Filed Nov 4 2009 02 065732 8 2002 Continued 65 Prior Publication Data OTHER PUBLICATIONS US 2010 0049835 Al Feb 25 2010 International Search Report amp Written Opinion for International Patent Application PCT US2006 047825 mailed May 9 2007 Related U S Application Data Continued 63 Continuation of application No 11 314 291 filed on
16. according to one embodiment of the invention The synchronization processing 600 is for example performed by the personal computer 104 illustrated in FIG 1 More specifically the synchronization processing 600 is performed by a media management application e g iTunes software The synchronization processing 600 initially reads 602 player media information from a media database on a media player Next the player information is compared 604 with first media file information from a media database on a host computer e g personal computer Such comparison pro duces comparison information concerning differences between the player information and the host information Next the synchronization processing 600 determines 606 one or more media items to copy between the host computer and the media player based on the comparison information For example media items e g audio files for songs can be compared using media metadata such as song title album name and or artist name which pertain to characteristics or attributes of the media items Thereafter the determined one or more media items are copied 608 and the appropriate metadata are updated to the corresponding media database Following the operation 608 the synchronization processing 600 is complete and ends According to one embodiment the comparison of player media information and host media information is performed using media attributes of the various media items Namely a med
17. aces 114 and 116 Furthermore the portable multimedia player 102 can com municate with the media server 104 in a wireless manner over the same wireless network as used between the media server 104 and the media unit 106 or another wireless network When the media unit 106 described herein is used to play multimedia content from the media server 104 hereafter personal computer the media unit 106 is plugged into a wall outlet for power The wireless network interface 114 acts as a wireless base station for the wireless network thus enabling the personal computer 104 to communicate with the media unit 106 The wireless network interface 114 is also con nected to the stereo system 110 to enable playback of audio files stored on the computer 104 by the stereo system 110 The connection between the wireless network interface 114 and the stereo system 110 may be by way of a digital fiber optic cable that would connect to a digital audio input port on the stereo system 110 As briefly described above the wireless network interface 114 has the ability to receive multimedia information from the personal computer 104 over a wireless network connec tion and output this media information to an entertainment device e g the stereo system 110 Although it is contem plated that audio video audio video and or other forms of multimedia may be used with the media system described herein one exemplary embodiment relates to the sharing of audio data
18. ad Only Memory ROM 222 The ROM 222 can store programs utilities or processes to be executed in a non volatile manner The RAM 220 provides volatile data storage such as for the cache 206 The media player 200 also includes a user input device 208 that allows a user of the media player 200 to interact with the media player 200 For example the user input device 208 can take a variety of forms suchas a button keypad dial etc Still further the media player 200 includes a display 210 screen display that can be controlled by the processor 202 to display information to the user data bus 224 can facilitate data transfer between at least the file system 204 the cache 206 5 20 35 40 45 50 65 10 and the processor 202 The media player 200 also includes a bus interface 216 that couples to a data link 218 The data link 218 allows the media player 200 to couple to a host computer over a wired connection In one embodiment the media player 200 serves to store a plurality of media assets e g songs in the file system 204 When a user desires to have the media player 200 play a particular media item a list of available media assets is dis played on the display 210 Then using the user input device 208 a user can select one of the available media assets The processor 202 upon receiving a selection of a particular media item supplies the media data e g audio file for the particular media item to a coder
19. al audio files in such portable music players services such as iTunes amp Music Store provided by Apple Inc of Cupertino Calif have been developed that allow consumers to purchase music and other digital multimedia data in a form suitable for storage and playback using portable music players and personal comput ers In so doing many consumers use their personal computer as a primary vehicle for obtaining storing and accessing multimedia data Although the quality of multimedia playback by computers has improved dramatically in the last several years these systems still lag behind typical entertainment devices stereos televisions projection systems etc in terms of per formance fidelity and usability for the typical consumer Therefore in order to utilize the higher quality playback systems it has become common to install home network systems whereby an individual s personal computer is linked either wirelessly or wired to a home entertainment system forming in the process a media system The media system integrates several interfaces and feature sets into an integrated platform In this way the individual is able to listen view or otherwise access this multimedia data stored on a personal computer using these various entertainment devices For example a wireless network interface e g 802 11g based Airport Express wireless network interface manufactured by Apple Inc of Cupertino Calif communicates wireless
20. ation or vice versa In another situation a user can configure the dial 302 1 to scroll forward with a clockwise rotation in combination with a user supplied input event in the form of a press of the depressable button 302 2 to scroll forward in discrete steps for example as opposed to a continuous scroll action In this way a user can program any ofthe buttons 302 singly or inany combination to perform any function Although the multimedia player 300 makes use of the dial 302 1 and various input buttons 302 2 through 302 6 in another embodiment the dial 302 1 can be replaced by a touch pad preferably a touch pad supporting circular inputs Also the buttons 302 2 through 302 6 can be provided else where For example if a touch pad is used the buttons 302 2 through 302 6 can be associated with portion of the touch pad dispersed about and beyond the outer periphery of the touch pad or provided underneath the touch pad FIG 4 shows flow diagram of remotely accessing a media server in order to effect a change to a streamed digital media file according to one embodiment of the invention The pro cess 400 begins by the multimedia player generating a mul timedia metadata request that is then forwarded to the media server 402 In response to the multimedia metadata request the media server locates the requested metadata associated with the media file s 404 stored on the media server Typi cally the multimedia metadata request is a
21. d One suitable form of encryption is AES using a pre defined key determined as described above FIG 2 shows a schematic functional block diagram of a portable media player 200 according to one embodiment of the invention The media player 200 is for example suitable for use as the battery powered portable multimedia player 102 shown in FIG 1 The media player 200 includes a processor 202 that pertains to a microprocessor or controller for con trolling the overall operation of the media player 200 The media player 200 stores media data pertaining to media assets in a file system 204 and a cache 206 The file system 204 15 typically a storage disk or a plurality of disks The file system 204 typically provides high capacity storage capability for the media player 200 However since the access time to the file system 204 is relatively slow the media player 200 can also include a cache 206 The cache 206 is for example Random Access Memory RAM provided by semiconductor memory The relative access time to the cache 206 is substan tially shorter than for the file system 204 However the cache 206 does not have the large storage capacity ofthe file system 204 Further the file system 204 when active consumes more power than does the cache 206 The power consumption is particularly important when the media player 200 is a portable media player that is powered by a battery not shown The media player 200 also includes a RAM 220 and a Re
22. d to remotely access the personal computer to effect any number of changes in the music being streamed to and played by the stereo FIG 6 that is a flow diagram of synchronization processing according to one embodiment of the invention DETAILED DESCRIPTION Reference will now be made in detail to a particular embodiment of the invention an example of which is illus trated in the accompanying drawings While the invention will be described in conjunction with the particular embodi ment it will be understood that it is not intended to limit the invention to the described embodiment To the contrary it is intended to cover alternatives modifications and equivalents as may be included within the spirit and scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims According to one embodiment a battery operated portable multimedia player is used to wirelessly access and or control a media server The media server can be implemented by a variety of computing devices As an example the media server can be implemented by a personal computer In response to such wireless access and or control the media server can operate to stream digital media by way of a wire less interface to a media unit e g a home audio system such as a stereo in the case of streaming digital audio In one embodiment the portable multimedia player wire lessly communicates with the media server so as to receive a media catalog of available media items on the media
23. direct the living room stereo to play his favorite album and he may direct the bedroom television to show a home movie This extensible architecture allows a user to configure relationships between sources and destinations of media data without regard or need for buying all components from the same vendor or other such considerations that might otherwise be required to per mit interoperability of disparate devices on a wireless net work Once the wireless network interface 114 is discovered on the wireless network the media software running on personal computer 104 e g iTunes will recognize the associated stereo system 110 as a destination for audio data and will automatically provide the particular device e g stereo sys tem 110 as a selectable destination within the user interface US 8 112 032 B2 7 When the user selects a particular device from those avail able a variety of authentication and security exchanges can take place For example if password protection is provided as a security feature the user may be prompted for a password required to use the media unit 106 1 stereo system 110 for audio file playback Additionally ifthe user attempts to select a device that is already in use for example by another user the media unit 106 1 wireless network interface 114 will send a message indicating that it is busy through the user interface Once a connection is established between a media source e g a
24. e identified media file to the remote media unit 11 A media server as recited in claim 8 wherein the computer program code including at least computer program code for determining if a control com mand is to be sent to the remote media unit to control a function of the remote media unit 12 A media server as recited in claim 11 wherein the computer program code including at least computer program code for wirelessly sending the control command to the remote media unit if it is determined that the control command is to be sent to the remote media unit whereby the remote media unit is able to playback the appropriate media file in accordance with the at least one control command 13 A media server as recited in claim 1 wherein the computer program code including at least computer program code for wirelessly receiving a user command from the portable media player 14 A media server as recited in claim 13 wherein the user command controls playback of the identified media item 15 A media server as recited in claim 13 wherein the user command controls at least one action at the media server 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 16 16 media server as recited in claim 13 wherein the user command requests that a playback attribute of playback of the identified media item be changed 17 A media server as recited in claim 16 wherein the playback attribute comprises a volume change 18 A media server as reci
25. e media unit 106 In a preferred embodiment media files may be stored on personal computer 104 in one or more formats including for example MP3 Motion Picture Expert s Group Layer 3 AAC Ad vanced Audio Coding a k a MPEG 4 audio WMA Win dows Media Audio etc The media software running on the personal computer 104 decodes these various audio formats eliminating the need for the media unit 106 to include decod ers for multiple formats This also reduces the hardware per formance requirements of media unit 106 Yet another advan tage of performing decoding on the personal computer 104 is that various effects may be applied to the audio stream for example cross fading between tracks volume control equal ization and or other audio effects Many of these effects would be difficult or impossible to apply ifthe media unit 106 were to apply them for example because of computational resources required In one embodiment the decoded audio data is compressed by personal computer 104 before transmission to media unit 106 This compression is often accomplished using a lossless compression algorithm to provide maximum audio fidelity One suitable compressor is the Apple Lossless Encoder which is available in conjunction with Apple s iTunes soft ware The media unit 106 does require a decoder for the compression codec used It is also desirable that the data stream sent from personal computer 104 to the media unit 106 be encrypte
26. e medium 108 configured as a hard drive In the described embodiment the media server 104 is wirelessly coupled to the media unit 106 that in this case takes the form of a stereo system 110 having a number of speakers 112 In the described embodiment the stereo system 110 includes a wireless network interface 114 The wireless network inter US 8 112 032 B2 5 face 114 supports a wireless network The wireless network can take the form of for example a WiFi interface accord ing to the IEEE 802 11b or 802 11g standards Other wireless network standards could also be used either in alternative to the identified standards or in addition to the identified stan dards Such other network standards could include the IEEE 802 11a standard or the Bluetooth standard An antenna required for wireless networking is typically included within the housing of the wireless network interface 114 Such an antenna may take a variety of forms such as an antenna printed on a standard PCB printed circuit board Such anten nas are well known to those skilled in the art The wireless network supported by the wireless network interface 114 can enable wireless communications between the media server 104 and the media unit 106 In such case the media server 104 also includes or couples to a wireless net work interface 116 such that the media server 104 and the media unit 106 can communicate over the local wireless network via the wireless network interf
27. erence surface such as a desktop is needed The multimedia player 102 can be used to remotely access and or control the personal computer 104 to effect any num ber of changes in the music being streamed to and played by US 8 112 032 B2 11 the media unit 106 namely the stereo system 110 Such changes include selecting different songs playlists changing volume bass treble etc each at the discretion of the user of the multimedia player 102 FIG 3 illustrates a representative multimedia player 300 in accordance with an embodiment of the invention that is suit able for use as the multimedia player 102 illustrated in FIG 1 having a number of input buttons 302 Such input buttons 302 take the form of a rotatable dial 302 1 in the form of a wheel capable of rotation in either a clockwise or counterclockwise direction having at its center a depressable input button 302 2 arranged to receive a user input event such as a press event Other input buttons 302 include input buttons 302 3 through 302 6 each available to receive user supplied input action It should be noted that each of the above described buttons can be programmed or otherwise configured singly or in any combination to perform a particular function or suite of func tions For example if so desired the rotatable dial 302 1 can be configured to associate a scroll forward function with a clockwise rotation ofthe dial 302 1 and a scroll back function with a counterclockwise rot
28. es some form ofauthentication and is preferably based on a public key private key system In one embodiment each media unit 106 may be provided with a plurality of private keys embedded in read only memory ROM The media software is then provided with a corresponding plurality of public keys This allows identification data transmitted from the mediaunit 106to the media software to be digitally signed by the media unit 106 using its private key by which it can be authenticated by the media software using the appropriate public key Similarly data sent from the media software to the media unit 106 may be encrypted using a public key so that only a media unit 106 using the corresponding private key can decrypt the data The media software and the media unit 106 may determine which of their respective pluralities of keys to use based on the exchange of a key index telling them which of their respective keys to use without the necessity of trans mitting entire keys Itis preferable that authentication of a media unit 106 occur upon initial establishment of a connection to the media soft ware Upon successful authentication the media software running on personal computer 104 will open a network con nection to the media unit s audio channel and begin sending data In this embodiment the media data is pushed from the media software to media unit 106 rather than being pulled by the media unit 106 from the media software The media dat
29. herein the media item indication corresponds to a selected at least one of the media items from the list 4 A media server as recited in claim 3 wherein the list comprises a catalog of media files available at the media server 5 A media server as recited in claim 1 wherein the com puter program code including at least computer program code for wirelessly sending metadata pertaining to one or more of the media items to the portable media player for display thereon 6 A media server as recited in claim 5 wherein the meta data for each of the one or more of the media items including at least descriptive information for the corresponding media files 7 A media server as recited in claim 1 wherein the storage medium stores a library having a plurality of media files and wherein the media item corresponds to one of the plurality of media files stored in the library 8 A media server as recited in claim 7 wherein the identified media file includes multimedia con tent and wherein the computer program code including at least computer program code for wirelessly sending the multi media content from the media server to a remote media unit 9 media server as recited in claim 8 wherein the sending of the multimedia content comprises streaming the multime dia content to the remote media unit 10 A media server as recited in claim 8 wherein the sending of the multimedia content comprises electronically transferring th
30. ia item on the media player can be deemed the same media item as resident on the host computer if its media attributes sufficiently match Examples of media attributes include title album track artist composer and genre These attributes are particular to a particular media item In addition other media attributes can pertain to quality characteristics of 0 20 25 40 45 50 60 65 14 the media item Examples of such media attributes include bit rate sample rate equalization setting volume adjustment start stop and total time as well as associated preference file s Hence in one embodiment if the above identified media attributes pertaining to a media item on the media player all match those same media attributes pertaining to a media item on the host computer then the two media items stored on different devices can be deemed the same even though still further attributes or characteristics may cause these media items to not be exact duplications of one another For example if modification dates associated with respective files storing the media items were different this difference in modification date would not trigger the copying of such media items from the host computer to the media player when the above identified media attributes match However if the programmable button preference files do not match then only the programmable button preference files are updated Hence the intelligence of the synchro
31. k In the embodiment shown in FIG 1 the wireless network interface 226 that takes the form of for example a WiFi interface according to the IEEE 802 11b or 802 11g standards Other wireless network standards could also be used either in alternative to the identified standards or in addition to the identified standards Such other network standards could include the IEEE 802 11a standard or the Bluetooth standard In one embodiment the media player 200 is a portable computing device dedicated to processing media such as audio For example the media player 200 can be a music player e g MP3 player a game player a remote controller a portable communication device and the like These devices are generally battery operated and highly portable so as to allow a user to listen to music play games or video record video or take pictures communicate with others and or con trol other devices In one implementation the media player 200 is a handheld device that is sized for placement into a pocket or hand of the user By being handheld the media player 200 is relatively small and easily handled and utilized by its user By being pocket sized the user does not have to directly carry the device and therefore the device can be taken almost anywhere the user travels e g the user is not limited by carrying a large bulky and often heavy device as in a portable computer Furthermore the device may be operated by the users hands no ref
32. ly with other devices and to serve as a wireless base station or as a repeater to increase the range of a pre existing wireless network The network interface available on the personal computer can be used to link to any entertainment device such as a stereo system television or home theatre system This would allow for example streaming of multimedia data from a personal computer connected to the network interface wired or wireless to an entertainment device connected to the mul timedia interface Unfortunately however in order to control certain aspects of the playback of the multimedia data such as changing a song an entire playlist or even controlling volume a listener wishing to make such changes must be in physical contact with the personal computer in which the multimedia data being played is stored For example if a 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 2 listener is in a living room listening to music being streamed to a living room based stereo by a computer wirelessly linked thereto located in an upstairs den changing the song being played would require the listener to physically walk to the upstairs den where the computer was located and select the desired song One approach used to solve the problem of remote access and control is provided by a zone based system exemplified by Sonos Digital Music System manufactured by Sonos Inc of Santa Barbara Calif that utilizes distributed units Son
33. m code includes at least computer program code for binding the portable media player and the media server computer pro gram code for wirelessly receiving a media item indication from the portable media player computer program code for identifying a media item stored in the storage medium using the received media item indication computer program code for accessing the identified media item and computer pro gram code for initiating playback of the identified media item In another embodiment a media system having a media server and a portable digital media player is described The portable digital media player includes at least a wireless net work interface a display device arranged to display a user interface having a number of user selectable items a proces sor unit configured to operate the portable digital media player in a first mode or a second mode and a storage medium configured to store computer program code The computer program code including at least computer program code for displaying a list of digital media files on a display device of the portable digital media player computer program code for receiving a selection signal to play a digital media file com puter program code for playing the selected digital media file on the portable digital media player when the portable digital media player is operated in a first mode and computer pro gram code for wirelessly sending the selected digital media file to the media server
34. mputer in such a way that the digital media player wirelessly controls the com puter It should be noted that the binding of the personal computer and the digital media player includes synchronizing the digital content stored in the digital media player with the media items stored in the computer over a connector such as a USB 2 0 or FireWire cable In this way the requirement of additional user interface on the digital media player for choosing connecting to and authenticating with the com puter is eliminated Therefore in this way only an additional user interface having a top level menu remote control as an example is needed to control the computer which when selected automatically connects and authenticates the com puter bound to the portable digital media player FIG 1 shows wireless media system 100 that includes a battery powered portable multimedia player 102 a media server 104 and a media unit 106 in accordance with an embodiment of the invention As configured the media server 104 includes a local storage medium 108 that can take any appropriate form such as a hard disk drive flash memory etc arranged to store multimedia content 109 that can include digitized music e g songs short video files or full length video files e g movies For the sake of this discussion the media server 104 is taken to be a personal computer arranged to store a number of digital audio files e g song files in the local storag
35. nization processing allows the amount of data transfer to be properly managed such that it is relatively low or minimized Although the synchronization processing 700 makes use of media data bases at the host computer and the media player in another embodiment the needed host media information and the player media information can be gathered from the media items themselves In one implementation such media infor mation can be acquired from metadata provided with the media items However by providing the media databases synchronization is able to be performed more efficiently and quickly While the invention has been disclosed with respect to a limited number of embodiments numerous modifications and variations will be appreciated by those skilled in the art For example for this disclosure the term computer does not necessarily mean any particular kind of device combina tion of hardware and or software nor should it be considered restricted to either a multi purpose or single purpose device Additionally although the invention has been described par ticularly with respect to the output or distribution of multi media information it should be understood that the inventive concepts disclosed herein are also generally applicable to the input or collection of such information It is intended that all such variations and modifications fall with in the scope of the following claims What is claimed is 1 media server configured t
36. o wirelessly interact with a portable media player the portable media player having a display screen the media server comprising a wireless network interface configured to facilitate com munication between the media server and at least the portable media player and storage medium configured to store media files and com puter program code the computer program code includ ing at least computer program code for associating the portable media player and the media server computer program code for wirelessly receiving a media item indication from the portable media player computer program code for identifying a media item stored in the storage medium using the received media item indication computer program code for accessing the identified media item and computer program code for initiating playback of the identified media item wherein the portable media player is configured to store locally a plurality of media items receive a play selec tion for at least one of the media items locally stored on US 8 112 032 B2 15 the portable media player and in response to the play selection play the at least one of the media items locally stored on the portable media player 2 A media server as recited in claim 1 wherein the com puter program code including at least computer program code for wirelessly sending a list of one or more of the media items to the portable media player 3 A media server as recited in claim 2 w
37. os Zone Players and a controller unit Sonos Con troller Unfortunately these units require substantial invest ment in equipment in order to provide the requisite zone based remote access and control For example Sonos Digital Music System requires a user to purchase or otherwise acquire a controller as well as one or more zone players depending upon the area Therefore what is desired is a system that leverages exist ing devices such as an iPod AirPort Express a Mac running iTunes to provide the remote access and control that would otherwise require the purchase of specialized equipment such as zone controller units and zone players SUMMARY A portable multimedia player such as the iPodTM manu factured by Apple Inc of Cupertino Calif is used to wire lessly access and control a media server such as a personal computer running iTunes software In one embodiment media server can stream digital media by way of a wireless interface to a media unit such as a stereo speakers in the case of streaming digital audio In one embodiment a media server configured to wire lessly interact with a portable media player having a display screen is described The media server can include at least a wireless network interface configured to facilitate communi cation between the media server and at least the portable media player and a storage medium configured to store media files and computer program code The computer progra
38. portable multimedia player trans mits only some or all of the metadata corresponding to the new media item along with a control signal indicating for example that a media item currently being played is to be replaced by the new media item associated with the control signal In another implementation the portable multimedia player can display a user interface that enables the user to control how a media item is to be played For example the control provided can alter change or provide play characteristic such as volume equalization etc or navigation such as next previous play stop etc In such cases a control signal alone can be sent since the associated media item is already known by the media server Once received by the media server e g personal com puter the media server can then inform the media unit of the control operation requested by the user via the portable mul timedia player For example if the control operation is a new selected media item to be played the current media item being played by the media unit is discontinued and transfer of media data pertaining to the new selected media item begins such that the new selected media item can be played In this way the user can indirectly remotely control the output of the media unit using a battery powered portable multimedia player in a power efficient manner In yet another embodiment a portable digital media player such as an iPod is bound to a personal co
39. r the data channel in this example the audio data are preferably TCP packets in the general form specified by the real time streaming protocol RTSP stan dard RTSP is a standard communication protocol known to those skilled in the art Therefore implementation details of such a system are not discussed here although they may be found in Real Time Streaming Protocol Specification dated Feb 16 2004 and prior versions presently available from http www rtsp org and which are hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety Additionally although TCP trans mission control protocol is preferably used because of its robustness UDP user datagram protocol may also be used particularly in applications where the overhead associated with TCP would be undesirable In either case the data packets can use RTP real time protocol headers and will include both sequence numbers and time stamp information However when TCP is used this sequence and time stamp information is not required for detecting missing packets or reordering packets because TCP automatically provides guaranteed packet delivery and cor rect sequencing However the timing and sequence informa tion is useful for feedback from the media unit 106 to the media control software For example the media unit 106 may periodically provide information about where it is in the playback of the media stream This may be accomplished by the media unit 106 transmitting over the con
40. request for a catalog of all media items available on the media server The catalog is typically predetermined and stored on the media server However if not the catalog can be generated when requested The catalog requested need not be for all the media items available on the media server In any event for a given media item e g song the metadata can include song title author track duration etc that corresponds to the requested song and is typically much smaller in size than the associated media file Once the metadata has been identified the media server can provide a multimedia metadata response 406 back to the multimedia player for storage thereon In this case the song title author or other identifying indicia is returned to the multimedia player where it is stored for later retrieval Once the appropriate metadata e g catalog of available media items is stored on the multimedia player the multi media player displays the available metadata or portions thereof 408 At this point a user has the option of selecting any ofthe media items associated with the displayed metadata 410 For example the user can select a new song to be played Once a particular media item has been selected a multimedia file request is generated at the media player consistent with 0 5 40 45 50 12 the metadata corresponding to the selected media item and is then forwarded to the media server 412 It should be noted that
41. st a wireless network interface configured to facilitate communication between the media server and at least the portable digital media player and a storage medium configured to store media files and computer program code the computer program code including at least computer program code for wirelessly receiving a media item indication from the portable digital media player computer program code for identifying a media item storedinthe storage medium using the received media item indication computer program code for accessing the identified media item and computer program code for initiating playback of the identified media item 21 A media system as recited in claim 20 wherein the computer program code stored in the storage medium of the portable digital media player further includes computer program code for binding the portable digital media player and the media server
42. stored on a personal computer with an entertain ment device such as a stereo system To provide a relatively simple and user friendly interface to the media output features of media unit 106 it 1 advanta geous to provide access to the media unit 106 from a media application running on the personal computer 104 which is also preferably the application normally used to create manipulate or otherwise access the particular type of media file In one exemplary embodiment the media application be the iTunes software for music management and playback produced by Apple Inc Using the media application the media unit 106 may be selected as a destination for media playback The personal computer 104 can be programmed such that the audio content of a media file to be played will be sent to the media unit 106 while system sounds e g beeps alerts etc will continue to be presented at the personal computer 104 Communications between the personal computer 104 and the media unit 106 over a wireless network e g wireless network 100 is initiated through a discovery process One example of such a discovery process uses Bonjour which is a technology that enables automatic discovery of computers devices and services on IP networks Also known as Zero 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 6 Configuration Networking Bonjour uses standard IP proto cols to allow devices to automatically find each other without the need
43. ted in claim 1 wherein the identified media file pertains to a song or a playlist 19 A media server as recited in claim 1 wherein the computer program code for associating comprises computer program code for binding the portable media player and the media server 20 A media system comprising a media server and a portable digital media player wherein the portable digital media player includes at least a wireless network interface a display device arranged to display a user interface having a number of user selectable items a processor unit configured to operate the portable digi tal media player in a first mode or a second mode and a storage medium configured to store computer program code the computer program code including at least computer program code for displaying a list of digital media files on a display device of the portable digi tal media player the digital media files stored on the portable digital media player computer program code for receiving a selection signal to play a digital media file computer program code for playing the selected digital media file on the portable digital media player when the portable digital media player is operated in a first mode and computer program code for wirelessly sending the selected digital media file to the media server via the wireless network interface when the portable digital media player is operated in a second mode wherein the media server includes at lea
44. to send the full media file In this way a user can effectively provide remote control of the media unit e g the stereo system 110 by way of the personal computer 104 without adversely affecting battery life of the multimedia player 102 Once the personal computer 104 has received the media file request 602 an appropriate media file 604 is retrieved from the personal computer 104 based on the descriptive informa tion provided in the media file request 602 In one embodi ment the appropriate media file 604 is retrieved from the hard drive 108 and wirelessly forwarded by way of the wireless network interface 116 across the wireless network to the stereo system 110 via the wireless network interface 114 In some cases the media file being wirelessly forwarded is accompanied by an associated control command to control the stereo system 110 such as to change the volume treble bass etc In some cases the multimedia player 102 will periodically wirelessly synchronize to the personal computer 104 The synchronization can be manually or automatically initiated The synchronization can synchronize metadata as well as media data between the multimedia player 102 and the per sonal computer 104 Often the synchronization only pro vides a subset of the available metadata and media items from the personal computer 104 to the multimedia player 102 which has less storage capacity FIG 6 shows a flow diagram of synchronization process ing 600
45. trol channel an indication of the packet currently being played back Alternatively the media unit 106 may indicate the packet just received as well as the status ofthe device s buffers This information is useful to the media software for multiple purposes For example if the media software determines that the buffers on the media unit 106 are low additional data may be transmitted to the device in faster than real time to insure that the device s buffers do not become completely empty This information may also be used by the media software for synchronizing visual effects displayed on a monitor display of the personal computer 104 or other device with the sound being output from the media unit 106 1 the stereo system 110 Visual effects to be synchronized with the audio playback may take a variety of forms including various artistic visualizations which provide visual effects that are synchronized with the beats of the music Another use for the packet sequence and time stamp infor mation relates to the case in which the media unit 106 receives an instruction to stop playback and discard all data received up to that point In such a case buffering by the media unit US 8 112 032 B2 9 106 requires that the packets to be discarded be identified which is most readily accomplished using the sequence and timestamp information The data payload of the RTP packets contains the audio information to be played back by th
46. vice and one or more configuration parameters that are related to the service The registration of this service adver tises particular audio capabilities of the system e g 44 1 kHz sample rate 16 bit sample size and 2 channel stereo samples The registration of the service might also include security encryption compression and other capabilities and or parameters that are necessary for communicating with the device In alternative embodiments additional services may be designed to specify a variety of parameters relating to one or more multimedia input or output devices attached to the media unit 106 Devices that might have particular applica bility ina home network environment include speakers video display terminals cameras microphones etc The automatic discovery aspects of devices within the net work permit its use in architecting easily configured home networks according to a user s preferences and designs For example a user with a large library of music on a computer in one room ofa house can create a wireless multimedia network for his entire home simply by deploying a few ofthe disclosed wireless network interfaces throughout his home For example he can put one near the stereo in the living room and one by the television in the bedroom By connecting the appropriate multimedia interface he can serve audio video or other content to these devices with a simple selection at his personal computer For example he may
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