Managing application states in an interactive media environment
Applications are managed in an interactive media environment by the creation of a logical model for the lifetime of an application. The model is applicable to concurrently and/or consecutively running applications and governs the creation of applications, manipulation of applications by other applications, resource consumption, visibility of an application to a user, and application shutdown in the interactive media environment using the construct of application “state.” A set of Booleans flags is utilized and unique combinations of elements in the Boolean flag set define a plurality of application states
1 . A method for managing an application in an interactive media environment, the application providing one or more graphic objects that are synchronous with a video stream, the method comprising the steps of:
enabling a logical model for application lifetime in the interactive media environment wherein the logical model includes a plurality of application states;
defining each application state in the plurality of application states by a unique combination of Boolean flags; and
managing the application during runtime with other applications in the interactive media environment according to the defined applications states.
2 . The method of claim 1 where the Boolean flags are selected from a plurality of Boolean flags including valid, selected, ready, loaded, shutdown in progress, loading, active and error.
3 . The method of claim 2 where the valid Boolean flag is true when a title time associated with the video stream falls within a specified timespan for the application and where the application state is valid when the valid Boolean flag is true.
4 . The method of claim 3 where the specified timespan is included in an application playlist, the playlist describing navigation or synchronization or initial configuration for the interactive media environment.
5 . The method of claim 4 where the application playlist is encoded in a markup document such as an XML document file as defined by the World Wide Web Consortium.
6 . The method of claim 1 where the step of managing includes allocating resources available in the interactive media environment to the applications depending on the application state.
7 . The method of claim 2 where the selected Boolean flag is true when static attributes of the application match current dynamic attributes of a player object in the interactive media environment and where the application state is selected when the selected Boolean flag is true.
8 . The method of claim 2 where the ready Boolean flag is true when the application state becomes valid and where the application state is ready when the ready Boolean flag is true.
9 . The method of claim 8 where the ready Boolean flag is associated with an autorun flag for the application whereby the autorun flag is set to ready when the application state becomes valid.
10 . The method of claim 1 where the application provides one or more graphic objects that are frame-synchronous with a video stream.
11 . The method of claim 2 where the application is in an active state when the valid, selected and ready Boolean flags are all true.
12 . The method of claim 1 where the application includes a script host having zero or more script files and zero or more markup documents as identified in a manifest file.
13 . The method of claim 12 where the markup file is a single logical XML document file and may include a plurality of physical files by using an XML <include>element.
14 . The method of claim 12 where the application further includes resources available to the one or more script files and the zero or one markup document.
15 . An interactive media player for use in an interactive media environment, comprising:
a video content processor for processing a video object comprising streaming video having a plurality of frames;
an interactive content processor for processing a plurality of application objects, each application object providing one or more graphic objects that are synchronous with the video object, and
an application manager operating on the interactive content processor for managing the application objects according an application state, the application state being defined by a unique combination of Boolean flags that are described in an markup document.
16 . The interactive media player of claim 15 where the application state further includes a persistent application state and a transient application state.
17 . The interactive media player of claim 15 where synchronicity between the graphic objects and video is selected from one of time-synchronous, frame-synchronous and content-synchronous.
18 . A method for shutting down an application running in an interactive media environment, the application providing one or more graphic objects that are synchronous with a video stream, the method comprising the steps of:
(a) pausing a current title running on a player in the interactive media environment to thereby hold the application in a valid state whereby a title time associated with the video object falls within a specified timespan for the application;
(b) sending a shut down event to a shut down event handler in the application;
(c) repeating step (b) until the shut down event handler returns a value of true;
(d) resuming play of the current title; and
(e) deleting any scripthost and any markup document associated with the application to thereby shut down the application.
19 . The method of claim 18 further including a step of holding activation of other applications until the shut down event handler returns a value of true.
20 . At least one computer-readable medium encoded with instructions which, when executed by a processor, performs the method of claim 18.