Media Player Instance Pooling for Latency Reduction
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Solution Overview
Problem
Resource-constrained devices, such as mobile devices, face challenges in reducing media playback latency due to limitations in processing power, storage, and bandwidth, making existing latency reduction techniques ineffective.
Innovation Solution
Implementing a client-side technique where multiple media player instances are pre-instantiated and maintained in a prepared state, allowing for immediate transition to playback upon request, with content determination based on current media output and user patterns, and optionally leveraging cloud-based services for resource-intensive processing.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of time
If prefetching media content to temporary storage is used to reduce latency, then playback latency is reduced, but resource consumption (bandwidth, processing power, storage) increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent pre-instantiates multiple media player instances and maintains them in a prepared state before actual playback requests. This preliminary action allows the system to skip the initialization phase when playback is requested, thereby reducing latency without requiring prefetching of media content to temporary storage, thus avoiding the associated resource consumption.
2Loss of time
If multiple media player instances are pre-instantiated to reduce latency, then playback latency is reduced, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent divides the media player functionality into multiple independent instances that can be pre-prepared and maintained in a ready state. By segmenting the player into reusable instances, the system reduces initialization overhead for each playback request while managing complexity through instance pooling and state management.
Solution Approach 2:
Multiple media player instances are created and prepared in advance, before actual playback requests occur. This preliminary instantiation and preparation eliminates the need for time-consuming initialization when playback is requested, reducing latency while the complexity is managed through efficient instance management.
3Productivity
If resource-intensive latency reduction techniques are used, then playback performance is improved, but adaptability to resource-constrained devices is reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The patent performs initialization and preparation actions in advance, maintaining media player instances in a ready state. This approach achieves low-latency playback performance without requiring resource-intensive operations during actual playback, making the system adaptable to resource-constrained devices while maintaining high playback performance.
Data Source
AI summary
This disclosure describes, in part, client-side techniques for reducing latency time experienced in requesting playback of media content using media players. In some examples, the techniques described herein include executing or calling one more functions to create and maintain a group, or “pool,” of media player instances which are in a prepared (i.e., ready) state. In this way, rather than beginning the process of instantiating a media player instance upon receiving a playback request or command for media content, the media player instance of the media content for which playback is requested is already in the prepared state and able to transition into a playing state more quickly, which reduces latency time.