PROGRAMMING ENVIRONMENT AND METADATA MANAGEMENT FOR PROGRAMMABLE MULTIMEDIA CONTROLLER

摘要

A multimedia controller, based on a general purpose computer, which is ca pable of interfacing with, controlling or managing a wide variety of audio, video, telecommunications, data communications or other devices. A configura tion tool, based on a graphical user interface, provides a simple, schematic way to configure even highly complex systems having numerous components or devices which are to be interconnected with or interfaced to the multimedia controller. A user interface programming tool enables a user to customize th e appearance and functionality of a graphical user interface to the multi-me dia controller. A metadata manager automatically collects metadata that is a vailable within the multimedia controller, automatically detects the presenc e of new media and collects metadata from it, and may also access web resour ces to locate additional pertinent metadata.