Apple's abstract

Methods and system for transferring images between devices is disclosed. For example, differently scaled images by a host device may automatically and/or selectively be transferred to a media player for display. In turn, appropriately scaled images may be transferred automatically and/or selectively to another display device for example a TV, camera or printer. The selectivity may occur either at the host level or at the player level.

Blah, blah, blah, and it all boils down to the following:

The iPod & television

In TV mode, the TV thumbnail(s) 866 is outputted to a TV for display as shown in FIG. 11F. The TV display may mimic what is being shown on the media player. For example, the TV display may display any of the previous screen shots (FIGS. 11C, 11D, 11E) or variations thereof. During a slide show, for example, the TV screen image may be based on the same original image as the current image in the slide show window.

If the album option is not selected, the method proceeds to block 820 where a determination is made as to whether or not the setting option is selected. If the setting option is selected, the method proceeds to block 822 where a setting menu is presented to the user on the display. The setting menu may include control settings pertaining to one or more display events. In fact, the setting menu may serve as a control panel for reviewing and/or customizing the control settings, i.e., the user may quickly and conveniently review the control settings and make changes thereto. Once the user saves the changes, the modified control settings will be employed to handle future display events. By way of example, the settings may include features that allow a user to assign music tracks to albums, to turn the assigned music on/off, to turn TV out on/off, to choose between modes, etc. The settings may also allow a user to select slide shows and whether to display the images in full screen or slide show mode and whether to show the images in random or sequenced order as well as to end or repeat when finished.

Neo's Note: Patent Point 95 states that "The wireless network, connection or channel can be radio-frequency based, so as to not require line-of-sight arrangement between sending and receiving devices. Hence, synchronization can be achieved while a media player remains in a bag, vehicle or other container.

Operational Method

Patent FIG. 10 is a media device operational method 800, in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention. The operational method 800 may for example be performed on a portable media device [iPod], and more particularly a portable music/photo player. The method 800 generally begins at block 802 where a main menu is presented to a user on a display. See for example FIG. 11A, which shows the main menu 850 presented on the display. The main menu 850 generally includes several options 852 associated with operating the media device. By way of example, the main menu 850 may include options 852 such as music, photos, extras, settings, shuffle songs and backlight. In most cases, each of the options 852 includes its own sub menu of sub options, which are associated with the main option. Each of these sub options may open another sub menu of sub options or they may initiate an action. By way of example, the music submenu may include music library, playlist, and browse options and the photo sub menu may include photo library, album and slide show setting options.

Following block 802, the method proceeds to block 804 where a determination is made as to whether the photo option was selected. If not, the method waits or proceeds back to block 802. If so (as shown by the slider bar in FIG. 11A), the method proceeds to block 806 where the photo sub menu is presented to the user on the display. By way of example, see FIG. 11B which shows the photo sub menu 854 presented on the display. The photo sub menu 854 may include one or more photo options 856, which may represent different modes of photo viewing, and which may give the user the ability to change settings associated with photo viewing. In the illustrated embodiment, the sub menu 854 includes a photo library option, one or more album options and a photo settings options.

Following block 806, the method proceeds to block 808 where a determination is made as to whether or not the library option is selected. If the library option is selected, the method proceeds to block 810 where all the stored images are retrieved. Thereafter, in block 812, the images are displayed based on predetermined settings. If the library is not selected, the method proceeds to block 814 where a determination is made as to whether or not the album option is selected. If the album option is selected, the method proceeds to block 816 where only the album images are retrieved. Thereafter, in block 818, the images are displayed based on predetermined settings.

In either of blocks 812 and 818, the entire group or some portion of the retrieved group can be displayed. The amount displayed generally depends on the number of images inside the library or album. If it is large, the screen may not be capable of displaying all of the images at once. In cases such as these, some of the images are kept out of the viewing area until the user decides to pull them up. The manner in which they are displayed generally depends on the desired display configuration established in the settings menu.

In browse mode, a large group of tiny thumbnails 858 are displayed in columns and rows as shown in FIG. 11C. The user can browse through the tiny thumbnails 858 via a scrolling action either image by image or row by row or column by column, etc. As the user scrolls through the images a new set of data (e.g., images or line of images) is brought into view in the viewing area. In most cases, once the viewing area is full, each new set of data appears at the edge of the viewing area and all other sets of data move over one position. That is, the new set of data appears for each set of data that moves out of the viewing area. In some cases, when a particular image is selected while browsing, the full screen version of that image is displayed as shown in FIG. 11E. Alternatively, the configuration shown in FIG. 11D may be displayed with the current image being the medium thumbnail of the image selected, and the previous and next images being the small thumbnails of the images located next to the image selected.

In slide show mode, only the previous, current, and next images are displayed. The previous and next images may be small thumbnails 860 while the current image may be a medium thumbnail 862 as shown in FIG. 11D. The user may traverse through the retrieved images by clicking a forward or back button, i.e., the forward button causes the current image to move to the previous image, the next image to move to the current image, and a new image to move into the next image. In some cases, when the current image is selected while traversing through the slide show, the full screen version 864 of that image is displayed as shown in FIG. 11E.

Notice

Macsimum News presents only a brief summary of patents with associated graphic(s) for journalistic news purposes as each such patent application and/or grant is revealed by the U.S. Patent & Trade Office. Readers are cautioned that the full text of any patent applications and/or grants should be read in its entirety for further details. Today's report relates to patent application [url=http://appft1.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-bool.html&r=7&f=G&l=50&co1=AND&d=PG01&s1=%22Apple+Computer%22&OS="Apple+Computer"&RS="Apple+Computer"]20060088228.[/url]

Inventors listed on the patent include: Greg Marriott, Jesse Boettcher, Thomas Dowdy, David Heller, Jeff Miller and Jeffrey L. Robbin.

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