Patent ID: 11962840
Assignee: nan
Field: Audio-visual technology (Electrical engineering)
Classification: CPC H  G | IPC H

Claim 4:
5. A mobile computing device, comprising:
communication circuitry for wireless communication over a wireless local area network;
a display;
a processor; and
a memory storing computer program instructions which, when executed by the processor, cause the mobile computing device to perform a cast method, the cast method comprising:
performing a discovery process to discover one or more media playback devices over the wireless local area network, wherein each media playback device is configured to be discovered by the mobile computing device through the discovery process and to play back a media content item casted by the mobile computing device;
identifying at least one target media playback device out of the discovered media playback devices as a destination of casting of the media content item, wherein the media content item includes one of (a) an audio content item containing an audio stream without a video stream, (b) a video content item containing a video stream without an audio stream, and (c) a movie content item containing both of audio and video streams;
casting the media content item to the target media playback device over the wireless local area network, causing the target media playback device to fetch streaming of the media content item and play back the streamed media content item, while maintaining display of a first graphical user interface (GUI) on the display, allowing a user to monitor and control the casting through the first GUI, wherein the casting comprises one of (a) casting the audio stream of the audio content item to the target media playback device, (b) casting the video stream of the video content item to the target media playback device, (c1) casting only one of audio and video streams of the movie content item to the target media playback device while playing back locally the other of audio and video streams of the movie content item, and (c2) casting both of audio and video streams of the movie content item to the target media playback device based on user selection of a graphical icon being displayed on the first GUI corresponding to an icon stored in a database for representing a type of product category of the target media playback device;
when the casted media content item is being played back by the target media playback device, controlling the ongoing casting in response to a user input on the first GUI;
while the casting destined to the target media playback device is in progress, continuously comparing the quality of the wireless local area network communication with the target media playback device (Qa) with the quality of another wireless local area network communication with another discovered media playback device (Qb) to determine whether the mobile computing device becomes closer to said another media playback device than to the target media playback device; and
in response to the quality Qb being better than the quality Qa by a predetermined threshold as a result of the comparing, automatically switching the destination of the ongoing casting by terminating the ongoing casting of the media content item to the target media playback device and initiating casting of the media content item to said another discovered media playback device, wherein:
terminating the ongoing casting comprises storing a resume position at which the casting is terminated in the duration of the media content item, and
initiating casting comprises initiating casting of the media content item at the resume position, thereby seamlessly switching the destination of the ongoing casting to a media playback device closer to the user in response to a movement of the mobile computing device.