Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC

Khurshed Mazhar

James Morris Alkove

Daniel F Plastina

Kirt A Debique

Scott Colville

Olivier Colle

James Charles Finger, Ii

John Yovin

Kevin P Larkin

Arthur William James Freeman

Patrick Nelson

Sohail Baig Mohammed

Bret P O'Rourke

Shafiq Rahman

Mark Daniel VanAntwerp

David M Nadalin

Kevin Warne

An exemplary system includes a media control operable to begin playing a media segment automatically after buffering the media segment, and a host application operable to receive a reference to the media segment, initialize the media control with the media segment, and cause the media control to postpone playing of the media segment after the media segment is buffered. An exemplary method includes receiving a playlist referencing a first media segment and a second media segment, the second media segment operable to play automatically without a prompt after being loaded, presenting the first media segment, and prerolling the second media segment.

Incorporating interactive media into a playlist

An arrangement is provided where all applications in an interactive media environment run on a single application thread in a media player. Event queues are utilized to schedule the application thread's processing of workitems corresponding to events that occur in the environment. Workitems include methods to be invoked when the workitem is processed and arguments for the method. Workitems further include a begin time and an end time and are ordered in the event queue first by begin time followed by the order in which they were inserted into the queue. The application thread marks workitems whose begin times corresponds to the current or previous time and then processes marked workitems from the queue in order. Such processing is committed so that once the application thread begins processing of a workitem it does not stop. Workitems are dropped from the event queue if their end times have been passed.

Queueing events in an interactive media environment

In an interactive media environment, a model is provided where applications, each comprising zero or more script components and zero or more markup components, are themselves handled as visual elements having a Z order. A resource-efficient rendering order is provided where the application that has focus in an interactive media environment (by virtue of its receipt of user events) is rendered first. The remaining applications are rendered in top down order, i.e., in reverse Z order. Rendering is performed by drawing into one or more graphics buffers associated with respective applications. Frames for applications are composited from the graphics buffers bottoms up, in Z order, to provide the display with the correct appearance.

Rendering and compositing multiple applications in an interactive media environment

In an interactive media environment, input events are distributed to a plurality of applications where each application includes zero or more script components and zero or more markup files and has a Z order which corresponds to the position of the applications' visual elements on a display. An input event processing order is utilized where the application that has focus in an interactive media environment (by virtue of its receipt of user events) is provided with the first opportunity to consume the input event. If the focused application does not consume the input event, it is then delivered to the remaining applications in top down, inverse Z order. Each application is enabled with the ability to consume an input event, pass it on to lower Z ordered applications, hide it from lower Z ordered applications, or otherwise handle it. Input event processing stops when an application consumes the input event.

Distributing input events to multiple applications in an interactive media environment

Radio client/server architectures and graphical user interfaces for toolbars and explorer bars utilized in conjunction with Web browsers providing streaming-media content are disclosed. In one aspect of the present invention, the graphical user interface is of a Web browser with a radio toolbar that displays one or more buttons capable of controlling a source of streaming media. The graphical user interface can also include a menu bar, a standard-buttons toolbar, an address toolbar, horizontal or vertical explorer bars, a links toolbar and/or a status bar. The architecture aspect of the present invention includes a plurality of computer-executable components. One component is a radio server that plays a radio source of streaming-media. Another component is an interface for communicating with the radio server. A third component is at least one radio-client that communicates through the interface in order to provide instructions to the radio server.

Windows radio toolbar

Incorporating interactive media into a playlist allows for media, operable to play automatically without a prompt after being loaded, to be loaded into a playlist and played from the playlist without overlapping playback with other media in the playlist. Incorporating interactive media into a playlist involves employing a playlist, a media wrapper, a media control, and a media player to preroll media, immediately stop playing the prerolled media while other media is playing, signal that media has finished playing in order to seamlessly begin playing the next media in the playlist.

Media content is arranged into a number of sets of video, audio, or data samples, referred to as clips, which are rendered by a media content manager. A playlist, which is handled by a presentation manager, specifies the time-ordered sequence of clips playable to a user. Certain actions are taken during media content play to minimize glitches perceived by the user, including determining a time offset value that is used to decide how far in advance of a scheduled play time to begin pre-rendering an upcoming clip. The time offset value is determined using one or more static characteristics associated with a media source for the upcoming clip, such as the location of the media source, codec parameters, or encryption complexity, and one or more dynamic characteristics of the presentation system, such as retrieval states, (including play speeds) of media clips, processing loads, or clock frequencies.

Aspects of media content rendering

Various systems and methods described above permit a user's content experience (e.g. music playing experience) to be monitored and for metadata describing this experience to be collected. This metadata can be dynamically updated as a user experiences media content and then used to impart to the user a personalized experience that is tailored to that specific user. A user's metadata can, in some instances, provided across a wide variety of computing devices on which the user may experience the media content, thus standardizing the user's personalized media experience. In addition, intelligent or 'smart' playlists can be provided which, in some instances, can be dynamically and automatically updated to reflect current user experiences, thus providing a highly personalized and enjoyable content experience.

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Kirkland, WA, United States of America

Khurshed Mazhar