Abstract:
Displaying art work or thumbnail images representative of movies, television (TV) programs/episodes and other media content is an appealing and often intuitive way of displaying available media content in a media content browser. However, computer displayable cover art is not necessarily available for all titles. For example, an older movie may not have computer displayable cover art because at the time the movie title was made available it was not anticipated that the movie title might be selectable through a media browser. After considering this description one will understand how the features of various implementations are configured to enable various systems, methods and devices to create computer displayable cover art or thumbnail images for media titles to be displayed by a media browser.

Description:
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS 
     This Application is a United States National Stage Application filed under 35 U.S.C. §371 of PCT Patent Application Serial No. PCT/US2012/060095 filed on Oct. 12, 2012, which claims the benefit of and priority to U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 61/547,633 filed on Oct. 14, 2011, which are hereby incorporated by reference in their entireties. 
    
    
     TECHNICAL FIELD 
     The disclosed implementations relate generally to systems, methods and devices configured to create cover art for media content displayable by a media browser. 
     BACKGROUND 
     Displaying art work or thumbnail images representative of movies, television (TV) programs/episodes and other media content is an appealing and often intuitive way of displaying available media content in a media content browser. However, computer displayable cover art is not necessarily available for all titles. For example, an older movie may not have computer displayable cover art because at the time the movie title was made available it was not anticipated that the movie title might be selectable through a media browser. 
     Prior solutions to this problem are ad hoc and burden the end user. For example, one possible solution is to allow a user to supply cover art or a thumbnail image for titles lacking cover art. In other words, the user is forced to become a curator for the content that the user is attempting to sort through in order to identify media content to view or listen to. This task is wholly inconvenient for users that merely want to find media content to view or listen to. Moreover, the task can become extraordinarily burdensome when the user is attempting to search through large libraries of media content. 
     SUMMARY 
     The aforementioned deficiencies and other problems are reduced or eliminated by the disclosed systems, methods and devices. Various implementations of systems, methods and devices within the scope of the claims each have several aspects, no single one of which is solely responsible for the desirable attributes described herein. Without limiting the scope of the claims, some prominent features of example implementations are described herein. After considering this description one will understand how the features of various implementations are configured to enable various systems, methods and devices to create computer displayable cover art or thumbnail images for media titles to be displayed by a media browser. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
       So that the manner in which features of the present disclosure can be understood in detail, a more particular description, briefly summarized above, may be had by reference to aspects, some of which are illustrated in the appended drawings. It is to be noted, however, that the appended drawings illustrate only certain typical aspects of this disclosure and are therefore not to be considered limiting of its scope, for the description may admit to other effective aspects. 
         FIG. 1  is a block diagram of a client-server environment according to some implementations. 
         FIG. 2  is a block diagram of a client-server environment according to some implementations. 
         FIG. 3  is a block diagram of a configuration of a server system according to some implementations. 
         FIG. 4  is a block diagram of a configuration of a client device according to some implementations. 
         FIG. 5  is a flowchart representation of a method according to some implementations. 
         FIG. 6  is a flowchart representation of a method according to some implementations. 
         FIG. 7  is a flowchart representation of a method according to some implementations. 
     
    
    
     In accordance with common practice the various features illustrated in the drawings may not be drawn to scale. Accordingly, the dimensions of the various features may be arbitrarily expanded or reduced for clarity. In addition, some of the drawings may not depict all of the components of a given system, method or device. Finally, like reference numerals may be used to denote like features throughout the specification and figures. 
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
     Reference will now be made in detail to various implementations, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings. In the following detailed description, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of aspects of the implementations. However, the invention may be practiced without these specific details. In other instances, well-known methods, procedures, components, and circuits have not been described in detail so as not to unnecessarily obscure aspects of the disclosed implementations. 
       FIG. 1  is a block diagram of a simplified example client-server environment  100  according to some implementations. While certain specific features are illustrated, those skilled in the art will appreciate from the present disclosure that various other features have not been illustrated for the sake of brevity and so as not to obscure more pertinent aspects of the implementations disclosed herein. To that end, the client-server environment  100  includes a client device  102 , a set-top box  103 , a television (TV)  110 , a communication network  104 , a media server  130 , a broadcast system  140 , a content provider  150 , an associated database  170  and a third party database  180 . The client device  102 , the set-top box  103 , the media server  130 , the broadcast system  140 , the content provider  150 , the associated database  170  and the third party database  180  are capable of being connected to the communication network  104  in order to exchange information with one another and/or other devices and systems. 
     In some implementations, the media server  130  is implemented as a single server system, while in other implementations it is implemented as a distributed system of multiple servers. Solely for convenience of explanation, the media server  130  is described below as being implemented on a single server system. Similarly, in some implementations, the broadcast system  140  is implemented as a single server system, while in other implementations it is implemented as a distributed system of multiple servers. Solely, for convenience of explanation, the broadcast system  140  is described below as being implemented on a single server system. Similarly, in some implementations, the content provider  150  is implemented as a single server system, while in other implementations it is implemented as a distributed system of multiple servers. Solely, for convenience of explanation, the content provider  150  is described below as being implemented on a single server system. Moreover, the functionality of the broadcast system  140  and the content provider  150  can be combined into a single server system. Additionally and/or alternatively, while only one broadcast system and only one content provider is illustrated in  FIG. 1  for the sake of brevity, those skilled in the art will appreciate from the present disclosure that fewer or more of each may be present in an implementation of a client-server environment. 
     The communication network  104  may be any combination of wired and wireless local area network (LAN) and/or wide area network (WAN), such as an intranet, an extranet, including a portion of the Internet. It is sufficient that the communication network  104  provides communication capability between the one or more client devices  102  and the media server  130 . In some implementations, the communication network  104  uses the HyperText Transport Protocol (HTTP) to transport information using the Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP). HTTP permits client devices  102  to access various resources available via the communication network  104 . However, the various implementations described herein are not limited to the use of any particular protocol. 
     In some implementations, the media server  130  includes a front end server  134  that facilitates communication between the media server  130  and the communication network  104 . The front end server  134  receives content information  164  from the one or more client devices  102 . As described in greater detail below with reference to  FIGS. 3 and 4 , in some implementations, the content information  164  is a metadata related to media content (e.g. a movie or TV program), a portion thereof, and/or a reference to a portion thereof. A reference to a portion of a video stream may include a time indicator and/or a digital marker referencing the content of the media content. 
     A content feed (or channel) is a resource or service that provides a list of content items that are present, recently added, or recently updated at a feed source. A content item in a content feed may include the content associated with the item itself (the actual content that the content item specifies), a title (sometimes called a headline), and/or a description of the content, a network location or locator (e.g., URL) of the content, or any combination thereof. For example, if the content item identifies a text article, the content item may include the article itself inline, along with the title (or headline), and locator. Alternatively, a content item may include the title, description and locator, but not the article content. Thus, some content items may include the content associated with those items, while others contain links to the associated content but not the full content of the items. A content item may also include additional metadata that provides additional information about the content. For example, the metadata may include a time-stamp or embedded selectable website links. The full version of the content may be any machine-readable data, including but not limited to web pages, images, digital audio, digital video, Portable Document Format (PDF) documents, and so forth. 
     In some implementations, a content feed is specified using a content syndication format, such as RSS. RSS is an acronym that stands for “rich site summary,” “RDF site summary,” or “Really Simple Syndication.” “RSS” may refer to any of a family of formats based on the Extensible Markup Language (XML) for specifying a content feed and content items included in the feed. In some other implementations, other content syndication formats, such as the Atom syndication format or the VCALENDAR calendar format, may be used to specify content feeds. 
     In some implementations, the set-top box  103  is any suitable computer device capable of connecting to the communication network  104 , receiving video streams, extracting information from video streams and presenting video streams for the display using the TV  110  (or another display device). For example, the set-top box  103  can be a set-top box for receiving cable TV and/or satellite TV, a digital video recorder (DVR), a digital media receiver, a TV tuner, a computer, and/or any other device that outputs TV signals. In some implementations, the set-top box  103  displays a video stream on the TV  110 . In some implementations the TV  110  can be a conventional TV display that is not connectable to the Internet and that displays digital and/or analog TV content received via over the air broadcasts or a satellite or cable connection. 
     As is typical of televisions, the TV  110  includes a display  118  and speakers  119 . Additionally and/or alternatively, the TV  110  can be replaced with another type of display device  108  for presenting video content to a user. For example, the display device may be a computer monitor that is configured to receive and display audio and video signals or other digital content from the set-top box  103 . In some implementations, the display device is an electronic device with a central processing unit, memory and a display that is configured to receive and display audio and video signals or other digital content form the set-top box  103 . For example, the display device can be a LCD screen, a tablet device, a mobile telephone, a projector, or other type of video display system. The display device can be coupled to the set-top box  103  via a wireless or wired connection. 
     In some implementations, the set-top box  103  receives video streams  161  via a TV signal  162 . As used herein, a TV signal is an electrical, optical, or other type of data transmitting medium that includes audio and/or video components corresponding to a TV channel. In some implementations, the TV signal  162  is a terrestrial over-the-air TV broadcast signal or a sign distributed/broadcast on a cable-system or a satellite system. In some implementations, the TV signal  162  is transmitted as data over a network connection. For example, the client device  102  can receive video streams from an Internet connection. Audio and video components of a TV signal are sometimes referred to herein as audio signals and video signals. In some implementations, a TV signal corresponds to a TV channel that is being displayed on the TV  110 . 
     In some implementations, the client device  102  is configured to support and/or supplement the operation of the set-top box  103  as it operates in combination with the TV  110 . For example, the client device  102  may monitor the output of the set-top box  103  in order to provide additional and/or supplemental content associated with the content provided by the set-top box  103 . More specifically, the client device  103  may provide additional information about particular movies or television programs or options to allow a user to select additional content associated with the playing movie or television program. In some implementations, the client device  103  also provides a media browser that can be displayed on the TV  110 . The media browser, in some implementations, provides a graphical interface in which available movie titles or the like are displayed using computer displayable cover art or thumbnail images representative of the title. In some implementations, the client device  102  resides between the set-top box  103  and the TV  110  or is integrated with the TV  110 , so that the client device  102  can overlay graphics on top of the video signal coming out of the set-top box  103 . In some implementations, the client device  102  is configured to send commands to the set-top box  103  to tune to a particular channel or access a particular title on demand. 
       FIG. 2  is a block diagram of a client-server environment  200  according to some implementations. The client-server environment  200  illustrated in  FIG. 2  is similar to and adapted from the client-server environment  100  illustrated in  FIG. 1 . Elements common to both share common reference indicia, and only the differences between the client-server environments  100 ,  200  are described herein for the sake of brevity. 
     As a non-limiting example, within the client-server environment  200 , the client device  103 , the set-top box  102 , the TV  110  and an additional client device  120  (e.g. a tablet computer or laptop, etc.) are present together in a first residential location  201 . In operation, the client device  103  receives information from the set-top box  102  associated with the media content presented on the TV  110 . If the media content does not have associated cover art or a thumbnail image suitable for display by a media browser, the client device  103  then communicates a query to the media server  130 . In some implementations, the client device  103  is configured to detect the media content playing on the TV  110  and report content associated with the media content playing on the TV  110  to the media server  130  so that the media server can form a query to retrieve relevant art to create cover art or a related thumbnail image. More specific details pertaining to how cover art or thumbnail images are created are described below with reference to the remaining drawings and continued reference to  FIGS. 1 and 2 . 
       FIG. 3  is a block diagram of a configuration of the media server  130  according to some implementations. In some implementations, the media server  130  includes one or more processing units (CPU&#39;s)  302 , one or more network or other communications interfaces  308 , memory  306 , and one or more communication buses  304  for interconnecting these and various other components. The communication buses  304  optionally include circuitry (sometimes called a chipset) that interconnects and controls communications between system components. Memory  306  includes high-speed random access memory, such as DRAM, SRAM, DDR RAM or other random access solid state memory devices; and may include non-volatile memory, such as one or more magnetic disk storage devices, optical disk storage devices, flash memory devices, or other non-volatile solid state storage devices. Memory  306  may optionally include one or more storage devices remotely located from the CPU(s)  302 . Memory  306 , including the non-volatile and volatile memory device(s) within memory  306 , comprises a non-transitory computer readable storage medium. In some implementations, memory  306  or the non-transitory computer readable storage medium of memory  306  stores the following programs, modules and data structures, or a subset thereof including an operation system  316 , a network communication module  318 , an art generation module  131 , a content database  136 , and applications  138 . 
     The operating system  316  includes procedures for handling various basic system services and for performing hardware dependent tasks. 
     The network communication module  318  facilitates communication with other devices via the one or more communication network interfaces  308  (wired or wireless) and one or more communication networks, such as the Internet, other wide area networks, local area networks, metropolitan area networks, and so on. With further reference to  FIG. 1 , the network communication module  318  may be incorporated into the front end server  134 . 
     The content database  136  includes content files  328  and/or links to content files  230 . In some implementations, the content database  136  stores advertisements, videos, images, music, web pages, email messages, SMS messages, a content feeds, advertisements, coupons, playlists, XML documents and any combination thereof. In some implementations, the content database  1376  includes links to advertisements, videos, images, music, web pages, email messages, SMS messages, content feeds, advertisements, coupons, playlists, XML documents and any combination thereof. 
     The art generation module  131  receives content information  164  from the client device  102 , generates a set of instructions  332  and sends a set of instructions  332  to the client device  102 . Additionally and/or alternatively, the media server  130  can receive content information  164  from the client device  102 . The art generation module  131  includes an query instruction generation module  320 , a genre matching module  322 , a content correlation engine  323 , and an optical character recognition (OCR) and code recognition module  327 . 
     In some implementations, the OCR and code recognition module  327  is configured to apply an optical character recognition technique to video frames to determine information about the movie title, such as title and genre information. 
     The genre matching module  322  matches at least a portion of the content information  164  to metadata store locally or retrieved by a search engine. The metadata is sent to the query instruction generation module  320 . The genre matching module  322  includes content information  164  received from at least the client device  102 . The content information  164  includes genre information  324 , a listing of actors  326  and a title information  329 . In some implementations, the content information  164  also includes the year a movie or TV program was produced, and for a TV program the season and the number of particular episodes. 
     The query instruction generation module  320  generates a set of instructions  332  based on the available metadata in order submit a query that may retrieve relevant cover art or the like. 
     In some implementations, the set of instructions  332  includes instructions to execute and/or display one or more queries or the results of one or more queries on the client device  120 . For example, when executed by the client device  102 , the set of instructions  332  may cause the client device  102  to display an application that was minimized or running as a background process, or the set of instructions  132  may cause the client device  120  to execute the application. In some implementations, the set of instructions  332  include instructions that cause the client device  120  to download one or more content files  328  that may include relevant art. In some implementations the art generation module also prepares the artwork for display. In some implementations, the instructions  132  relate to generation and display of the art generation module. In some implementations the art generation module also stores the generated art for reuse and display in the Google TV user interface. In various implementations, the generated artwork can be cached at the server for future reuse or use by other users/viewers. 
     The applications  138  include one or more applications that can be executed on the client device  120 . In some implementations, the applications include a media application, a feed reader application, a browser application, an advertisement application, a coupon book application and a custom application. 
     Each of the above identified elements may be stored in one or more of the previously mentioned memory devices, and each of the modules or programs corresponds to a set of instructions for performing a function described above. The set of instructions can be executed by one or more processors (e.g., the CPUs  302 ). The above identified modules or programs (i.e., trigger module  118 ) need not be implemented as separate software programs, procedures or modules, and thus various subsets of these modules may be combined or otherwise re-arranged in various implementations. In some implementations, memory  306  may store a subset of the modules and data structures identified above. Furthermore, memory  306  may store additional modules and data structures not described above. 
     Although  FIG. 3  shows a media server,  FIG. 3  is intended more as functional description of the various features which may be present in a set of servers than as a structural schematic of the implementations described herein. In practice, and as recognized by those of ordinary skill in the art, items shown separately could be combined and some items could be separated. For example, some items (e.g., operating system  316  and network communication module  318 ) shown separately in  FIG. 3  could be implemented on single servers and single items could be implemented by one or more servers. The actual number of servers used to implement the media server  130  and how features are allocated among them will vary from one implementation to another, and may depend in part on the amount of data traffic that the system must handle during peak usage periods as well as during average usage periods. 
       FIG. 4  is a block diagram of a configuration of the client device  102  according to some implementations. The client device  102  typically includes one or more processing units (CPU&#39;s)  402 , one or more network or other communications interfaces  408 , memory  406 , and one or more communication buses  404 , for interconnecting these and various other components. The communication buses  404  optionally include circuitry (sometimes called a chipset) that interconnects and controls communications between system components. The client device  102  may also include a user interface comprising a display device  413  and a keyboard and/or mouse (or other pointing device)  414 . Memory  406  includes high-speed random access memory, such as DRAM, SRAM, DDR RAM or other random access solid state memory devices; and may include non-volatile memory, such as one or more magnetic disk storage devices, optical disk storage devices, flash memory devices, or other non-volatile solid state storage devices. Memory  406  may optionally include one or more storage devices remotely located from the CPU(s)  402 . Memory  406 , or alternatively the non-volatile memory device(s) within memory  406 , comprises a non-transitory computer readable storage medium. In some implementations, memory  406  or the computer readable storage medium of memory  306  store the following programs, modules and data structures, or a subset thereof including operation system  416 , network communication module  418 , an art generation module  426  and local data  420 . 
     The client device  102  includes a video input/output  430  for receiving and outputting video streams. In some implementations, the video input/output  430  is configured to receive video streams from radio transmissions, satellite transmissions and cable lines. In some implementations the video input/output  430  is connected to a set top box. In some implementations, the video input/output  430  is connected to a satellite dish. In some implementations, the video input/output  430  is connected to an antenna. 
     In some implementations, the client device  102  includes a television tuner  432  for receiving video streams or TV signals. 
     The operating system  416  includes procedures for handling various basic system services and for performing hardware dependent tasks. 
     The network communication module  418  facilitates communication with other devices via the one or more communication network interfaces  404  (wired or wireless) and one or more communication networks, such as the Internet, other wide area networks, local area networks, metropolitan area networks, and so on. 
     The data  420  includes video streams  161 . 
     The art generation module  426  derives content information  164  from a video stream  161  in order to determine if cover art or the like is required, and then either generates art or generates a query to retrieve relevant art. In some implementations, the content information  161  includes various types of metadata associated with the video stream, such a title, genre, etc. The user preferences  329  include a collection of display attributes that are preferred by a local user (e.g. the user  221 ). In some implementations, the content information is derived from a video stream. In some implementations, the content information is derived from a service, such as TMS, that provides metadata for identified media content (media content that is responsive to a user search query or a predefined query, such as for popular media content items or for media content items that are similar to other media content items recently viewed by the user). 
     Each of the above identified elements may be stored in one or more of the previously mentioned memory devices, and each of the modules or programs corresponds to a set of instructions for performing a function described above. The set of instructions can be executed by one or more processors (e.g., the CPUs  402 ). The above identified modules or programs (i.e., sets of instructions) need not be implemented as separate software programs, procedures or modules, and thus various subsets of these modules may be combined or otherwise re-arranged in various implementations. In some implementations, memory  306  may store a subset of the modules and data structures identified above. Furthermore, memory  406  may store additional modules and data structures not described above. 
     Although  FIG. 4  shows a client device,  FIG. 4  is intended more as functional description of the various features which may be present in a client device than as a structural schematic of the implementations described herein. In practice, and as recognized by those of ordinary skill in the art, items shown separately could be combined and some items could be separated. 
       FIG. 5  is a flowchart representation of a method  500  according to some implementations. In some implementations, the method is performed by a client device or server in order to create cover art or a thumbnail image representative of a movie title or an episode of a TV program or the like. In other words, the method of creating cover art can be implemented on a client device or a server. For example, in some implementations, the method  500  is performed at least in part by the art generation module  131 . As represented by block  5 - 1 , the method includes identifying the movie title or the title of an episode of a TV program. In some implementations, identifying a title includes retrieving metadata. In some implementations, identifying a title includes performing a screen capture (i.e. a “screen scrape”) associated with one or more frames of the media content, and applying an optical character recognition technique to extract the title from the opening credits or the like. 
     As represented by block  5 - 2 , the method includes submitting a query to a third party database (e.g. the associated database  170  and the third party database  180 ). As represented by block  5 - 3 , the method includes receiving search results from the third party database. As represented by block  5 - 4 , the method includes determining whether or not cover art or the like is available from the database. If cover art or the like is available (“Yes” path from block  5 - 4 ), as represented by block  5 - 5 , the method includes utilizing the retrieved cover art or the like as the computer displayable cover art. In turn, the cover art may be displayed by a media browser displayed to a user. 
     On the other hand, if cover art is not available (“No” path from block  5 - 4 ), as represented by block  5 - 6 , the method includes identifying the genre of the movie or TV program. In some implementations, the genre may be identified by accessing metadata associated with the title, or by searching for the genre based on the title and/or additional metadata. Subsequently, as represented by block  5 - 7 , the method includes creating cover art using the title, and one or more of a respective font and/or a respective background, both of which are selected based at least on the identified genre. In some embodiments, the title font and/or the background used to represent media content items are selected to distinguish visually media content items associated with respective genres. In some embodiments, the title font and/or background are chosen without attempting to convey any associated meaning of the genre. For example, the background image for “Sports” items might have blue and white horizontal stripes whereas “Mystery” items might have red circles on a gray background. In other embodiments, the title font and/or background are chosen to convey an associated meaning of the genre. For example, for media content items that are associated with the “Horror” genre, the font selected to represent the title of the media content items could have a gothic style and/or a background associated with horror content, such as the image of a bat, or a jagged pattern in color combinations associated with horror content (such as black and purple). As another example, media content items that are associated with the “Sports” genre could have a red and white striped background reminiscent of the red stitches and white leather of a baseball and/or a traditional font. 
     In some embodiments, the art generation module  131  generates the background used to represent a media content item. In some embodiments, the art generation module  131  issues a query to a web-based service, such as Google Image Search, to identify one or more images associated with the genre of a media content item, and selects one of those images as the background for cover art representing media content items of that genre. In some embodiments, the art generation module  131  can associate with cover art representing a media item of a particular genre a sound signature that is associated with that genre. In some embodiments, the sound signatures can be entirely computer generated. In other embodiments, the sound signatures can be sampled sounds or pre-recorded sound snippets, including sounds characteristic of a genre (e.g., a creaky door for media content items that are associated with the Horror genre). 
       FIG. 6  is a flowchart representation of a method according to some implementations. In some implementations, the method is performed by a client device or server in order to create cover art or a thumbnail image representative of a movie title, an episode of a TV program or the like. As represented by block  6 - 1 , the method includes identifying the movie title or the title of an episode of a TV program. In some implementations, identifying a title includes retrieving metadata. In some implementations, identifying a title includes performing a screen capture (i.e. a “screen scrape”) associated with one or more frames of the media content, and applying an optical character recognition technique to extract the title from the opening credits or the like. 
     As represented by block  6 - 2 , the method includes generating a search engine query to retrieve cover art. As represented by block  6 - 3 , the method includes submitting a query to a server (e.g. media server  130 ). As represented by block  6 - 4 , the method includes receiving search results from the server. As represented by block  6 - 5 , the method includes determining whether or not cover art or the like is available. If cover art is not available (“No” path from block  6 - 5 ), as represented by block  6 - 9 , the method includes modifying the query based on heuristics or the like, and then submitting the modified query as represented by block  6 - 3 . 
     On the other hand, if cover art or the like is available (“Yes” path from block  6 - 5 ), as represented by block  6 - 6 , the method includes filtering the retrieved cover art based at least on quality. In some implementations, other types of filtering may also be included in order to specifically adjust the type of cover art that is utilized. As represented by block  6 - 7 , the method includes selecting cover art from the filtered results. As represented by block  6 - 8 , the method optionally includes creating cover art from the selected cover art based at least on user preferences. 
       FIG. 7  is a flowchart representation of a method according to some implementations. In some implementations, the method is performed by a client device or server in order to create cover art or a thumbnail image representative of a movie title, an episode of a TV program or the like. As represented by block  7 - 1 , the method includes identifying the movie title or the title of an episode of a TV program. In some implementations, identifying a title includes retrieving metadata. In some implementations, identifying a title includes performing a screen capture (i.e. a “screen scrape”) associated with one or more frames of the media content, and applying an optical character recognition technique to extract the title from the opening credits or the like. 
     As represented by block  7 - 2 , the method includes determining whether or not there is access to a licensed database including licensed computer displayable cover art. If a licensed database is not available (“No” path from block  7 - 2 ), as represented by block  7 - 3 , the method includes generating text-based cover art using genre information (e.g. as described with reference to  FIG. 5 ). 
     On the other hand, if a licensed database is available (“Yes” path from block  7 - 2 ), as represented by block  7 - 4 , the method includes generating a search engine query to retrieve cover art. As represented by block  7 - 5 , the method includes submitting a query to a server (e.g. media server  130 ). As represented by block  7 - 6 , the method includes receiving search results from the server. As represented by block  7 - 7 , the method includes determining whether or not cover art or the like is available. If cover art is not available (“No” path from block  7 - 7 ), as represented by block  7 - 11 , the method includes modifying the query based on heuristics or the like, and then submitting the modified query as represented by block  7 - 5 . 
     On the other hand, if cover art or the like is available (“Yes” path from block  7 - 7 ), as represented by block  7 - 8 , the method includes filtering the retrieved cover art based at least on quality. In some implementations, other types of filtering may also be included in order to specifically adjust the type of cover art that is utilized. As represented by block  7 - 9 , the method includes selecting cover art from the filtered results. As represented by block  7 - 10 , the method optionally includes creating cover art from the selected cover art based at least on user preferences. 
     Various aspects of embodiments within the scope of the appended claims are described below. It should be apparent that the aspects described herein may be embodied in a wide variety of forms and that any specific structure and/or function described herein is merely illustrative. Based on the present disclosure one skilled in the art should appreciate that an aspect described herein may be implemented independently of any other aspects and that two or more of these aspects may be combined in various ways. For example, an apparatus may be implemented and/or a method may be practiced using any number of the aspects set forth herein. In addition, such an apparatus may be implemented and/or such a method may be practiced using other structure and/or functionality in addition to or other than one or more of the aspects set forth herein. 
     It will also be understood that, although the terms “first,” “second,” etc. may be used herein to describe various elements, these elements should not be limited by these terms. These terms are only used to distinguish one element from another. For example, a first contact could be termed a second contact, and, similarly, a second contact could be termed a first contact, which changing the meaning of the description, so long as all occurrences of the “first contact” are renamed consistently and all occurrences of the second contact are renamed consistently. The first contact and the second contact are both contacts, but they are not the same contact. 
     The terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particular embodiments only and is not intended to be limiting of the claims. As used in the description of the embodiments and the appended claims, the singular forms “a”, “an” and “the” are intended to include the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. It will also be understood that the term “and/or” as used herein refers to and encompasses any and all possible combinations of one or more of the associated listed items. It will be further understood that the terms “comprises” and/or “comprising,” when used in this specification, specify the presence of stated features, integers, steps, operations, elements, and/or components, but do not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, integers, steps, operations, elements, components, and/or groups thereof. 
     As used herein, the term “if” may be construed to mean “when” or “upon” or “in response to determining” or “in accordance with a determination” or “in response to detecting,” that a stated condition precedent is true, depending on the context. Similarly, the phrase “if it is determined [that a stated condition precedent is true]” or “if [a stated condition precedent is true]” or “when [a stated condition precedent is true]” may be construed to mean “upon determining” or “in response to determining” or “in accordance with a determination” or “upon detecting” or “in response to detecting” that the stated condition precedent is true, depending on the context. 
     The foregoing description, for purpose of explanation, has been described with reference to specific embodiments. However, the illustrative discussions above are not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the invention to the precise forms disclosed. Many modifications and variations are possible in view of the above teachings. The embodiments were chosen and described in order to best explain the principles of the invention and its practical applications, to thereby enable others skilled in the art to best utilize the invention and various embodiments with various modifications as are suited to the particular use contemplated.