Automatic media control

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2022030302-A1
Application number	US-202016936206-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Jul 22, 2020
Priority date	Jul 22, 2020
Publication date	Jan 27, 2022
Grant date	—

Abstract

Media can be automatically controlled. A media control service can be configured to detect changes in the active application on a computing device and, in response, mute, pause or otherwise control the audio of one or more non-active applications to thereby prevent overlapping of audio. The media control service may leverage a policy to customize such control for a particular user, use case or other scenario. The media control service may also leverage machine learning to adapt such control based on a user's interactions with the computing device.

First claim

1 . A method, performed by a media control service executing on a computing device, for automatically controlling media, the method comprising:
identifying a plurality of audio sessions on the computing device by obtaining identifiers of a plurality of applications that created the plurality of audio sessions and using the identifiers to obtain display names of the plurality of applications; determining that one or more audio sessions of the plurality of audio sessions do not pertain to an active application by comparing a display name of the active application to the display names of the plurality of applications that created the plurality of audio sessions; and preventing audio from the one or more audio sessions from being audibly output on the computing device.

2 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
detecting that the active application has changed; wherein the plurality of audio sessions are identified in response to detecting that the active application has changed.

3 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the active application is an application having a window in the foreground or with focus.

4 - 5 . (canceled)

6 . The method of claim 1 , wherein preventing audio from the one or more audio sessions from being audibly output on the computing device comprises muting the one or more audio sessions.

7 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the one or more audio sessions include all audio sessions on the computing device that do not pertain to the active application.

8 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the one or more audio sessions include all audio sessions on the computing device that do not pertain to the active application except for an audio session used to play alerts and system notifications.

9 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
accessing a policy; based on the policy, determining that the audio from the one or more audio sessions should be prevented from being audibly output on the computing device.

10 . The method of claim 9 , further comprising:
based on the policy, determining that the audio from another of the plurality of audio sessions should not be prevented from being audibly output on the computing device.

11 . The method of claim 9 , wherein determining that the audio from the one or more audio sessions should be prevented from being audibly output on the computing device comprises determining, based on one or more characteristics of the active application, that the audio from the one or more audio sessions should be prevented from being audibly output on the computing device.

12 . The method of claim 9 , further comprising:
employing machine learning to customize the policy.

13 . One or more computer storage media storing computer executable instructions which when executed implement a media control service that is configured to perform a method for automatically controlling media, the method comprising:
identifying an active application; obtaining a display name of the active application; identifying a plurality of audio sessions on the computing device; obtaining display names of a plurality of applications that created the plurality of audio sessions; using the display name of the active application and the display names of the plurality of applications that created the plurality of audio sessions to identify a first audio session of the plurality of audio sessions that the active application created; and preventing audio from one or more other audio sessions of the plurality of audio sessions from being audibly output on the computing device.

14 . The computer storage media of claim 13 , further comprising:
in conjunction with identifying the active application, identifying that the active application has changed.

15 . The computer storage media of claim 13 , wherein preventing audio from the one or more other audio sessions from being audibly output on the computing device comprises muting the one or more other audio sessions.

16 . The computer storage media of claim 15 , wherein the one or more other audio sessions do not include an audio session used to play alerts and system notifications.

17 . The computer storage media of claim 13 , further comprising:
employing a policy to determine that the audio from the one or more other audio sessions should be prevented from being audibly output on the computing device.

18 . A computing device comprising:
one or more processors; and one or more computer storage media storing computer executable instructions which when executed by the one or more processors implement a media control service that is configured to perform a method for selectively muting audio sessions, the method comprising:
identifying an active application;
obtaining a display name of the active application;
identifying a plurality of audio sessions on the computing device;
obtaining display names of a plurality of applications that created the plurality of audio sessions;
using the display name of the active application and the display names of the plurality of applications that created the plurality of audio sessions to determine that one or more audio sessions of the plurality of audio sessions was not created by the active application; and
muting the one or more audio sessions.

19 . The computing device of claim 18 , wherein the method further comprises:
determining that the active application has changed; in conjunction with determining that the active application has changed, identifying a second plurality of audio sessions on the computing device; determining that one or more audio sessions of the second plurality of audio sessions do not pertain to the active application that has changed; and muting the one or more audio sessions of the second plurality of audio sessions.

20 . The computing device of claim 18 , wherein the one or more computer storage media also store a policy module which when executed provides one or more policies to the media control service;
wherein the media control service employs the one or more policies to determine that the one or more audio sessions should be muted.

Assignees

• Dell Products Lp

Inventors

• Chavan Deepthi
• Maryala Anil
• Vooradi Bharathvamsi
• Prakash Smriti
• Reddy Nalapareddy Reddy Dheeraj
• Koyya Vishnu Ajit Kishore Reddy

Classifications

• H04L65/60

  Network streaming of media packets · CPC title

• G06N20/00

  Machine learning · CPC title

• H04L65/1066

  Session management · CPC title

• G10L25/51

  for comparison or discrimination · CPC title

• H04N21/4431

  characterized by the use of Application Program Interface [API] libraries · CPC title