Patent ID: 8117651

Claim:
A method usable by a media player to communicate with an accessory configured to interact with the media player according to a media player accessory protocol that defines a plurality of application commands to invoke a plurality of media player application functions, the method comprising: initiating an authentication operation to authenticate the accessory; sending a request to the accessory requesting first authentication information; receiving the first authentication information from the accessory; validating the first authentication information; during the authentication operation, receiving one of the plurality of application commands of the media player accessory protocol from the accessory based on validation of the first authentication information and, in response to the received application command, invoking one of the plurality of media player application functions; receiving second authentication information from the accessory, the second authentication information being different from the first authentication information; determining whether the authentication operation completed successfully or failed based on validation of the second authentication information; in the event that the authentication operation completed successfully, receiving a subsequent one of the plurality of application commands from the accessory and, in response to the subsequent application command, invoking a subsequent one of the plurality of media player application functions; and in the event that the authentication operation failed, ignoring any subsequent application command received from the accessory.