Patent ID: 8341524
Filing Date: 2012-12-25
Classification: G06F

Abstract:
1. In a portable electronic device that includes a display, a media storage device and a user input device, and is operable to present media items each having associated metadata, a method for searching media items stored on the portable electronic device the method comprising: activating a search function; presenting a search window in accordance with the activated search function, the search window including a text box; receiving, by the portable electronic device, a character string at the text box; searching, by the portable electronic device, media items stored in the media storage by comparing the character string to at least a portion of the metadata of the media items to identify those media items that match at least a portion of the character string, wherein the metadata uniquely identifies each of the media items and is stored on the portable electronic device; generating, by the portable electronic device, for all of the media items stored locally, a bitmap wherein each bit in the bitmap corresponds to one of the media items stored locally at the portable electronic device and provides an indication of whether or not the media item matched at least the portion of the received character string; displaying, by the portable electronic device, at least a subset of the identified media items that match the portion of the character string; receiving, by the portable electronic device, a second character string at the text box; based upon the second character string and the character string, determining that the bitmap is relevant to a search using the second character string; and searching, by the portable electronic, including examining according to the second character string the metadata of only the media items whose bit in the bitmap indicates the media item matched at least the portion of the received character string.