Thumbnail Cache
A thumbnail management system is provided for an intelligent TV. Thumbnails may accumulate over time and require removal from a data storage device. Thumbnails may expire based, in part, on the type of media they represent, such as broadcast programs, movies, pay-per-view, games, and user content, such as music and images. Thumbnails may also be removed upon removal of the referencing media file.
1 . A method of operation of a thumbnail engine of an electronic device, comprising:
accessing, by a processor associated with the electronic device, a thumbnail image in a storage, the thumbnail image being associated with a media file; and
upon the occurrence of a thumbnail expiration event, marking the thumbnail image for deletion; and
upon the occurrence of a delete event and determining the thumbnail image is identified for deletion, deleting the thumbnail image from the storage.
2 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising retrieving a stored thumbnail image by a thumbnail identifier.
3 . The method of claim 2 , further comprising:
receiving requests for the thumbnail image;
storing a timestamp of the receive request associated with the thumbnail image; and
returning the thumbnail image.
4 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the expiration event occurs upon determining the amount of free space in the storage is below a threshold free space value.
5 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the expiration event occurs upon determining the last access of the thumbnail image was prior to a threshold expiration value.
6 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the expiration event further comprises determining that the time the thumbnail was last accessed prior to the time another thumbnail was accessed.
7 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the expiration event further comprises determining the thumbnail image is associated with a media that has been deleted.
8 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
associating the thumbnail image with a media type in accord with a category associated with the media; and
wherein marking the thumbnail image for deletion, further comprises, marking the thumbnail image for deletion upon determining the thumbnail image in accord with the media type.
9 . The method of claim 8 , wherein the category associated with the media is at least one of text, audio, video frame, a plurality of video frames, live programming, media provider, media creator, still image and interactive content.
10 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
scanning the media;
extracting a raw thumbnail image from the scanned media;
processing the raw thumbnail image; and
performing the creating of the thumbnail image from the processed raw thumbnail image.
11 . The method of claim 10 , wherein the processing of the raw thumbnail image comprises at least one of scaling, cropping and rotating.
12 . An electronic device, comprising:
a storage;
a processor;
wherein the storage contains a thumbnail associated with the media file; and
wherein the processor automatically marks the thumbnail for deletion upon the determination of an expiration event.
13 . The device of claim 12 , wherein the processor retrieves the thumbnail upon receiving a request associated with an identifier associated with the thumbnail.
14 . The device of claim 12 , wherein the processor automatically marks the thumbnail for deletion upon the determination of an expiration event associated with a category of the media.
15 . The device of claim 12 , wherein the processor automatically marks the thumbnail for deletion upon the determination that the associated media has been deleted.
16 . The device of claim 12 , wherein the processor deletes the thumbnail upon determining that the thumbnail is marked for deletion and the free space in the storage is below a threshold.
17 . A non-transitory computer readable medium with instructions thereon to cause a computer to perform:
creating a thumbnail image associated with a media;
storing a thumbnail image in a storage associated with the electronic device;
associating the thumbnail image with the media; and
upon the occurrence of a thumbnail expiration event marking the thumbnail image for deletion.
18 . The medium of claim 17 , further comprising instructions to retrieve a stored thumbnail image by a thumbnail identifier.
19 . The medium of claim 17 , further comprising instructions to:
20 . receive a request for the thumbnail image;
store a timestamp of the receive request associated with the thumbnail image; and
return the thumbnail image.
21 . The medium of claim 17 , further comprising instructions to cause the deletion of the thumbnail image upon determining the thumbnail image is marked for deletion and amount of free space in the storage is below a threshold free space value.