The present disclosure relates generally to wireless communications and more particularly to re-directing streaming multimedia from one media rendering entity to another, corresponding entities and methods.
The Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) standard allows mobile communication devices or entities to discover neighboring UPnP devices and to exchange services with the neighboring devices. The exchange of multimedia content among entities is among the primary interests within the definition of the UPnP services. UPnP enables sending streamed content from a UPnP Media Server to a UPnP media rendering entity. However, UPnP does not allow streaming content to be redirected from one UPnP media rendering entity to another UPnP media rendering entity.
The various aspects, features and advantages of the disclosure will become more fully apparent to those having ordinary skill in the art upon careful consideration of the following Detailed Description thereof with the accompanying drawings described below. The drawings may have been simplified for clarity and are not necessarily drawn to scale.
In
In one embodiment, communication terminal receiving a content stream, for example, from a content server, monitors a condition of the communication terminal or entity, as illustrated in block 210 of
In one embodiment, the communication terminal detects a user input indicating a desire to re-direct streaming content. In this embodiment, the user could provide some input for example, using a hard or soft switch at a user interface of the device. In other embodiments, the condition may be not necessarily be provided directly by the user. For example, the condition monitored may be a quality of service of the communications link, the available data rate, network load, or some other factor related to the link. In battery operated wireless communication terminals, the condition monitored may be a power level of the battery, as discussed more fully below.
In some embodiments, the communication entity receiving the streaming content also renders the content, rather than merely store it, at the communication entity. In some embodiments where content is being rendered, the rendering is paused and/or stopped after detecting the condition, as illustrated at block 230 in
Generally, the re-direction of the content may be performed manually or automatically. If re-direction is performed manually, the user may be prompted to re-direct the streaming content, as illustrated at block 240 in
For automatic re-direction applications, in
The process flow of
Generally, content is re-directed midstream, without restarting the download or transfer. In some embodiments, a complete copy of the content is transferred to the other entity. For example, the content may be re-directed to the other entity midstream and then the transmission of the content may be re-started to provide any portion of content that was not received by the other entity. Alternatively, the downloading of the content to the other entity may be restarted by the content server upon receipt of the re-direction request.
In
In the illustrative UPnP compliant device, the battery device communicates directly with the UPnP controller entity. In other embodiments, the battery device communicates indirectly with the UPnP communication entity, for example, by a controller or processor, capable of interfacing with the UPnP controller entity. The interface between the battery device and the controller entity may thus be an open or proprietary interface protocol. In one implementation, the Battery device sends a “low battery” notification to the controller 304, which prompts the re-direction of content. The “low battery” indicator could be set at a fixed threshold, for example, 25 percent power remaining. In such an embodiment, the “low battery” signal may be sent to the UPnP controller entity only when the battery power level reaches the threshold. Alternatively, the battery device may provide a signal indicating the remaining power as a percentage of total power. For example, this variable may have a range from 0 to 100 wherein 100 indicates that the battery is fully charged and 0 indicates that the battery is empty. The controller could use this information along with other information, for example, the operation of other power depleting device or features on the communication entity, to determine whether and when to initiate or prompt the user to initiate re-direction.
While the present disclosure and the best modes thereof have been described in a manner establishing possession and enabling those of ordinary skill to make and use the same, it will be understood and appreciated that there are equivalents to the exemplary embodiments disclosed herein and that modifications and variations may be made thereto without departing from the scope and spirit of the inventions, which are to be limited not by the exemplary embodiments but by the appended claims.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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06300319 | Mar 2006 | EP | regional |
Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind | 371c Date |
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PCT/US2007/061432 | 2/1/2007 | WO | 00 | 9/16/2008 |
Publishing Document | Publishing Date | Country | Kind |
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WO2007/117753 | 10/18/2007 | WO | A |
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