Method and system for controlling the playback of multimedia content

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9639321-B2
Application number	US-201514709386-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 11, 2015
Priority date	Nov 14, 2012
Publication date	May 2, 2017
Grant date	May 2, 2017

Abstract

The present disclosure provides method and system for controlling the playback of multimedia content. The method includes: enumerating currently running multimedia input sources to determine a number of currently running multimedia input sources by calling a system application programming interface (API), each multimedia input source having a corresponding multimedia player; determining, when the number of the currently running multimedia input sources is greater than 1, that the multimedia input sources conflict; and controlling, when the multimedia input sources conflict, a corresponding multimedia player to pause or close so as to remove the conflict. According to the present disclosure, when an audio conflict occurs, a corresponding multimedia player can be automatically paused or closed, or a user can be automatically notified of positions of multimedia players, which greatly improves convenience of operating the multimedia player when the audio conflict occurs and brings better experience to the user.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for controlling the playback of multimedia content, comprising:
at a computing device having one or more processors and memory for storing program modules to be executed by the one or more processors:
enumerating currently running multimedia input sources to determine a number of currently running multimedia input sources by calling a system application programming interface (API), each multimedia input source having a corresponding multimedia player;
determining, according to the number of the currently running multimedia input sources, whether the multimedia input sources conflict, further including determining, when the number of the currently running multimedia input sources is greater than 1, that the multimedia input sources conflict; and
controlling, when the multimedia input sources conflict, a corresponding multimedia player to pause or close so as to remove the conflict, further comprising:
determining whether conflicting multimedia input sources are associated with a same type of multimedia player; and
when the conflicting multimedia input sources are associated with the same type of multimedia player, pausing or closing the corresponding multimedia player by calling the system API through external control.

2. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the step of controlling the corresponding multimedia player to pause or close further comprises:
when the conflicting multimedia input sources are associated with different types of multimedia players, enumerating and prompting process information of currently running multimedia players.

3. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the step of controlling the corresponding multimedia player to pause or close further comprises:
when the conflicting multimedia input sources are associated with different types of multimedia players, terminating the corresponding multimedia players by calling a termination function of the system API.

4. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the step of determining whether the conflicting multimedia input sources are associated with a same type of multimedia player further comprises:
acquiring a session control object by calling the system API;
obtaining process information of the currently running multimedia players by using a process acquiring function of the session control object; and
determining, by comparing the process information, whether the currently running multimedia players are multimedia players of the same type.

5. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the multimedia players corresponding to the multimedia input sources are embedded in web pages.

6. A computing device having one or more processors, memory and one or more programs stored in the memory and to be executed by the one or more processors, the one or more programs further including instructions for:
enumerating currently running multimedia input sources to determine a number of currently running multimedia input sources by calling a system application programming interface (API), each multimedia input source having a corresponding multimedia player;
determining, according to the number of the currently running multimedia input sources, whether the multimedia input sources conflict, further including determining, when the number of the currently running multimedia input sources is greater than 1, that the multimedia input sources conflict; and
controlling, when the multimedia input sources conflict, a corresponding multimedia player to pause or close so as to remove the conflict, further comprising:
determining whether conflicting multimedia input sources are associated with a same type of multimedia player; and
when the conflicting multimedia input sources are associated with the same type of multimedia player, pausing or closing the corresponding multimedia player by calling the system API through external control.

7. The computing device according to claim 6 , wherein the one or more programs further comprise instructions for:
enumerating and prompting process information of currently running multimedia players when the conflicting multimedia input sources are associated with different types of multimedia players.

8. The computing device according to claim 6 , wherein the one or more programs further comprise instructions for:
terminating the corresponding multimedia players by calling a termination function of the system API when the conflicting multimedia input sources are associated with different types of multimedia players.

9. The computing device according to claim 6 , wherein the one or more programs further comprise instructions for:
acquiring a session control object by calling the system API;
obtaining process information of the currently running multimedia players by using a process acquiring function of the session control object; and
determining, by comparing the process information, whether the currently running multimedia players are multimedia players of the same type.

10. The computing device according to claim 6 , wherein the multimedia players corresponding to the multimedia input sources are embedded in web pages.

11. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium storing one or more programs for execution by one or more processors of a computing device having memory for storing the one or more programs, the one or more programs further including instructions for:
enumerating currently running multimedia input sources to determine a number of currently running multimedia input sources by calling a system application programming interface (API), each multimedia input source having a corresponding multimedia player;
determining, according to the number of the currently running multimedia input sources, whether the multimedia input sources conflict, further including determining, when the number of the currently running multimedia input sources is greater than 1, that the multimedia input sources conflict; and
controlling, when the multimedia input sources conflict, a corresponding multimedia player to pause or close so as to remove the conflict, further comprising:
determining whether conflicting multimedia input sources are associated with a same type of multimedia player; and
when the conflicting multimedia input sources are associated with the same type of multimedia player, pausing or closing the corresponding multimedia player by calling the system API through external control.

12. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium according to claim 11 , wherein the one or more programs further comprise instructions for:
enumerating and prompting process information of currently running multimedia players when the conflicting multimedia input sources are associated with different types of multimedia players.

13. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium according to claim 11 , wherein the one or more programs further comprise instructions for:
terminating the corresponding multimedia players by calling a termination function of the system API when the conflicting multimedia input sources are associated with different types of multimedia players.

14. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium according to claim 11 , wherein the one or more programs further comprise instructions for:
acquiring a session control object by calling the system API;
obtaining process information of the currently running multimedia players by using a process acquiring function of the session control object; and
determining, by comparing the process information, whether the currently running multimedia players are multimedia players of the same type.

Assignees

• Tencent Tech Shenzhen Co Ltd

Inventors

• Lu Sixi

Classifications

• G06F3/165 Primary

  Management of the audio stream, e.g. setting of volume, audio stream path · CPC title

• H04N21/42607

  for processing the incoming bitstream · CPC title

• H04N21/4425

  Monitoring of client processing errors or hardware failure · CPC title

• H04N21/439

  Processing of audio elementary streams · CPC title

• H04N21/47217

  for controlling playback functions for recorded or on-demand content, e.g. using progress bars, mode or play-point indicators or bookmarks (specific graphical features in visual interfaces H04N21/4312) · CPC title