Portable Media Device and Method for Presenting Viewing Content During Travel

Abstract

A portable media device for use in cooperation with passenger entertainment systems installed in vehicles, such as automobiles and aircraft, and methods for manufacturing and using same. The portable media device is configured to communicate with one or more content sources, which provide viewing content and which may be proximate to, and/or remote from, the portable media device. Preferably being configured to wirelessly communicate with the content sources, the portable media device can select content from any available content source and can download and present the selected content in any conventional manner. The selected content can be streamed to the portable media device for contemporaneous presentation and/or stored by the portable media device for viewing at any time, including after disembarking the vehicle once travel is completed. As desired, the portable media device likewise can be configured to transmit appropriate upload content to the content sources.

1 . A portable media device for presenting selected viewing content, comprising:
 a communication interface for receiving viewing content;   a user interface for providing a content selection instruction and a content presentation instruction;   an audio system for audibly presenting an audio portion of the selected viewing content;   a video system for visually presenting a video portion of the selected viewing content;   a control system for selecting the selected viewing content from among the received viewing content in accordance with said content selection instruction and for controlling said audio and video presentation of the selected viewing content in accordance with said content presentation instruction; and   a device identification system for providing device identification data including device status information for said portable media device,   wherein a device management database system for maintaining a historical record for said portable media device updates said historical record in accordance with said device identification data and provides device configuration instructions for configuring said portable media device for future use, and   wherein a device management interface system provides said device identification data received from said portable media device to said device management database system and updates said device status information stored by said device identification system in accordance with said device configuration instructions provided by said device management database system.