Cloud Queue Tombstones for Cross-Device Playback Sync
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Existing media playback systems face challenges in maintaining consistency between cloud-based audio queues and local playback devices, leading to potential discrepancies and delays in media item updates.
Innovation Solution
A method and system for maintaining consistency between cloud-based and local playback queues by adding an indication of media item removal to the cloud queue, which is maintained until a threshold number of requests is reached, ensuring timely synchronization across devices.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If media items are removed from the cloud queue without adding an indication, then the cloud queue remains clean and simple, but local playback devices may not detect the removal and synchronization reliability deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a tombstone entry as an intermediary indicator in the cloud queue. When a media item is removed, instead of simply deleting it, a tombstone entry is added to mark the removal. This tombstone acts as a mediator that local playback devices can detect to identify that a media item has been removed, thereby ensuring synchronization reliability without directly modifying the media item structure itself.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the state parameter of the queue by introducing a new element type (tombstone) that indicates removal. This parameter change allows the system to convey removal information without altering the fundamental structure of media items, maintaining queue simplicity while improving synchronization reliability through the addition of metadata about removal events.
2Reliability
If tombstone indications are kept in the queue indefinitely, then synchronization reliability is maintained, but queue size and data storage increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies preliminary action by sending a notification to local playback devices before removing the tombstone entry from the queue. The system waits for confirmation that local devices have processed the removal information (received more than a threshold number of requests) before deleting the tombstone. This ensures that synchronization reliability is maintained during the period when tombstones are present, and only after confirmation does the system reduce queue data volume by removing the tombstone.
3Reliability
If the system waits for threshold requests before removing tombstones, then synchronization reliability improves, but time delay increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements feedback by monitoring the number of requests received from local playback devices and using this feedback to determine when to remove tombstone entries. The system continuously checks whether the threshold number of requests has been reached and automatically removes tombstones when the condition is met. This feedback mechanism balances synchronization reliability with time efficiency, as tombstones are retained only as long as necessary to ensure reliable synchronization.
Data Source
AI summary
Example techniques relate to cloud queue tombstones. An example implementation may involve a computing system receiving instructions to remove a particular media item from a playback queue. Based on the instructions, the computing system removes the particular media item from the playback queue and adds, to the playback queue, a tombstone indicator indicating that the particular media item has been removed from the playback queue. The computing system receives, from the media playback system, a request for a window of one or more media items from the playback queue. Based on the request, the computing system sends, to the media playback system, data representing a particular window of media items from the playback queue, wherein the particular window includes the tombstone indicator. The computing system detects a given tombstone removal trigger from among multiple tombstone removal triggers and based on the detecting, removes the tombstone indicator from the playback queue.