Synchronized vehicle media content sharing moderation

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016191584-A1
Application number	US-201414586319-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Dec 30, 2014
Priority date	Dec 30, 2014
Publication date	Jun 30, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

A master media consumption device may stream media content to a plurality of slave media consumption devices for video playback, and may send playback status updates to the plurality of slave media consumption devices and the master media device to maintain synchronization of the audio and video playback. A device may identify as a master media device when connected to a computing platform of a vehicle, and as a media consumption device otherwise when the device is connected to the master media device. The device, when operating as the media consumption device, may display a video portion of an instance of media content; and when operating as the master media device, may provide an audio portion of the media content to the computing platform.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A system comprising:
a master media consumption device, configured to
stream media content to a plurality of slave media consumption devices for video playback;
provide a media content playback status to a computing platform of a vehicle for display via the vehicle; and
send playback status updates to the plurality of the slave media consumption devices to maintain synchronization of the playback.

2 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the master media consumption device is further configured to:
receive a playback status request from one of the slave media consumption devices polling the master media consumption device; and responsive to the request, send a playback status update to the one of the slave media consumption devices including a current playback position of the media content.

3 . The system of claim 2 , wherein the one of the slave media consumption devices is further configured to:
adjust the current playback position according to a round-trip delay time between the playback status request and the playback status update; compare a device playback position of the media content to the current playback position, as adjusted; and update a device playback position of the media content when the current playback position, as adjusted, is greater than a minimum threshold difference within which playback position variance is acceptable and less than a maximum threshold difference indicative of an unreliable playback status update.

4 . The system of claim 1 , wherein one of the master media consumption device or the slave media consumption devices is further configured to retrieve the media content from a remote media server.

5 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the master media consumption device is further configured to utilize a hypertext transfer protocol server to serve the media content over a Wi-Fi in-vehicle network.

6 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the master media consumption device is further configured to:
receive a pause request from the computing platform via the master media device; and responsive to receipt of the pause request, set the playback status to pause to cause the plurality of slave media consumption devices and the master media device to discontinue the playback.

7 . The system of claim 6 , wherein the pause request is received based on at least one of an incoming call and identification by the vehicle of a driving condition requiring halting the playback.

8 . A non-transitory computer-readable medium embodying instructions that, when executed by a processor of a mobile device, are configured to cause the mobile device to:
identify the mobile device in a media sharing system as a master media device when connected to a computing platform of a vehicle, as a master media consumption device when streaming media content over an in-vehicle network, and as a slave media consumption device when receiving the media content over the in-vehicle network; when operating as the master media device, provide a media content playback status to the computing platform for in-vehicle display; and when operating as the slave media consumption device, periodically poll the master media consumption device for the playback status to synchronize playback of the media content over the in-vehicle network.

9 . The medium of claim 8 , further embodying instructions configured to cause the device to, when operating as the master media device, receive a pause request from the computing platform, and send the pause request to the media consumption device to cause the media consumption device to pause video playback.

10 . The medium of claim 9 , wherein the pause request is received based on at least one of an incoming call and identification by the vehicle of a driving condition requiring halting the playback.

11 . The medium of claim 9 , further embodying instructions configured to cause the device to send the pause request as a projected Bluetooth low energy characteristic.

12 . The medium of claim 8 , further embodying instructions configured to cause the device to, when operating as the master media consumption device, send playback status updates to other devices in the media sharing system to maintain synchronization of the playback.

13 . The medium of claim 12 , wherein the playback status updates include a current playback position and a current playback status indicative of whether playback is active.

14 . The medium of claim 8 , further embodying instructions configured to cause the device to, when operating as the master media consumption device, retrieve the media content from a remote media server and serve the media content to other devices in the media sharing system over a local vehicle network.

15 . A computer-implemented method comprising:
identifying a mobile device in a media sharing system as a master media device when connected to a computing platform of a vehicle, as a master media consumption device when streaming media content, and as a slave media consumption device when receiving the media content over an in-vehicle network; and when operating as the master media device, providing a media content playback status to the computing platform for in-vehicle display.

16 . The method of claim 15 , further comprising, when operating as the master media device, receive a pause request from the computing platform, and send the pause request to the media consumption device to cause the media consumption device to pause video playback.

17 . The method of claim 16 , further comprising receiving the pause request based on at least one of an incoming call and identification by the vehicle of a driving condition requiring halting the playback.

18 . The method of claim 16 , further comprising sending the pause request as a projected Bluetooth low energy characteristic.

19 . The method of claim 15 , further comprising, when operating as the master media consumption device, sending playback status updates to other devices in the media sharing system to maintain synchronization of playback of the media content, wherein the playback status updates include a current playback position.

20 . The method of claim 15 , further comprising, when operating as the master media consumption device, retrieving the media content from a remote media server and serving the media content to other devices in the media sharing system over a local vehicle network.

Assignees

• Myine Electronics Inc

Inventors

• Dickow Justin
• Smereka Scott
• Grover Joey Ray
• Fischer Joel J
• Burke Michael

Classifications

• H04W4/008

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H04L65/4076 Primary

  Electricity · mapped topic

• H04L67/12

  specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks · CPC title

• H04N21/8547

  involving timestamps for synchronizing content · CPC title

• H04W4/80 Primary

  Services using short range communication, e.g. near-field communication [NFC], radio-frequency identification [RFID] or low energy communication · CPC title