Method for content-based non-linear control of multimedia playback

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9485544-B2
Application number	US-201213687497-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 28, 2012
Priority date	May 14, 2001
Publication date	Nov 1, 2016
Grant date	Nov 1, 2016

Abstract

A system and method are provided for content-based non-linear control of video data playback. A multimedia database having multimedia data including multimedia content data is searched based on a user query to determine a first set of multimedia data. The multimedia data includes indexes to and condensed representations of corresponding video data stored in a video database. A portion of the first set of multimedia data is displayed at a control device in response to the user query. A user of the control device selects an element of the first set of multimedia data for video playback and video data corresponding to the element delivered to a video device for playback. A user of the control device selects an element of the first set of multimedia data for additional information and a second set of multimedia data corresponding to the element delivered to the control device.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method comprising:
receiving, via a graphical user interface of a mobile control device and from a user, a search term, wherein the mobile control device communicates over a communication network with a plurality of external devices comprising a multimedia server, a video server, and a plurality of video devices;
in response to receiving the search term, searching a plurality of multimedia data stored in a database at the multimedia server based on the search term to determine matched multimedia data associated with the search term comprising a condensed representation pertaining to a video content, offline transcriptions, and closed captions associated with the video content, wherein the condensed representation, the offline transcriptions, and the closed captions associated with the video content are stored in the database;
receiving, from the database, the matched multimedia data, wherein the matched multimedia data is generated by a media extraction device by automatically:
analyzing a plurality of video content and identifying video shot boundaries in the plurality of video content;
extracting multimedia data from the plurality of video content and the closed captions, the multimedia data comprising at least one text extracted from the closed captions and a frame from the plurality of video content comprising a multimedia image scene corresponding to the at least one text; and
extracting small segments of organized multimedia data based on topic boundaries according to topics and the video shot boundaries, each small segment being smaller than a respective program containing the small segments;
displaying, with the matched multimedia data and via the graphical user interface, a plurality of command icons for controlling which identified video device, of the plurality of video devices, selected video content will be played on;
receiving, via the graphical user interface of the mobile control device and from the user, a choice from the matched multimedia data to yield the selected video content;
identifying a first display device of the plurality of video devices connected to the mobile control device via the communication network;
identifying a second display device of the plurality of video devices connected to the mobile control device via the communication network, the second display device being distinct from the first display device; and
receiving, via the graphical user interface of the mobile control device, a user input to play video content associated with the selected video content on one of the first display device and the second display device,
wherein the plurality of command icons remains on the graphical user interface of the mobile control device after the first display device or the second display device has been selected for control so that the user can assert control commands regardless of where the user is in a navigation session.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of video content is indexed by one of a title, a length, a rating, and a scene.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the search term is received as an utterance.

4. The method of claim 3 , further comprising converting the utterance to text via automatic speech recognition.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the database comprises ancillary data used to index the plurality of video content.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein the ancillary data comprises one of offline transcriptions, manual annotations, topic classifications, post-production scripts, metadata, and genre classifications.

7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising displaying the matched multimedia data to the user to make the choice.

8. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
transmitting the selected video content to the database; and

presenting the selected video content on a separate device.

9. A system comprising:
a processor; and
a computer-readable storage medium having instructions stored which, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to perform operations comprising:
receiving, via a graphical user interface of a mobile control device and from a user, a search term, wherein the mobile control device communicates over a communication network with a plurality of external devices comprising a multimedia server, a video server, and a plurality of video devices;
in response to receiving the search term, searching a plurality of multimedia data stored in a database at the multimedia server based on the search term to determine matched multimedia data associated with the search term comprising a condensed representation pertaining to a video content, offline transcriptions, and closed captions associated with the video content, wherein the condensed representation, the offline transcriptions, and the closed captions associated with the video content are stored in the database;
receiving, from the database, the matched multimedia data, wherein the matched multimedia data is generated by a media extraction device by automatically:
analyzing a plurality of video content and identifying video shot boundaries in the plurality of video content;
extracting multimedia data from the plurality of video content and the closed captions, the multimedia data comprising at least one text extracted from the closed captions and a frame from the plurality of video content comprising a multimedia image scene corresponding to the at least one text; and
extracting small segments of organized multimedia data based on topic boundaries according to topics and the video shot boundaries, each small segment being smaller than a respective program containing the small segments;
displaying, with the matched multimedia data and via the graphical user interface, a plurality of command icons for controlling which identified video device, of the plurality of video devices, selected video content will be played on;
receiving, via the graphical user interface of the mobile control device and from the user, a choice from the matched multimedia data to yield the selected video content;

identifying a first display device of the plurality of video devices connected to the mobile control device via the communication network;
identifying a second display device of the plurality of video devices connected to the mobile control device via the communication network, the second display device being distinct from the first display device; and
receiving, via the graphical user interface of the mobile control device, a user input to play video content associated with the selected video content on one of the first display device and the second display device,
wherein the plurality of command icons remains on the graphical user interface of the mobile control device after the first display device or the second display device has been selected for control so that the user can assert control commands regardless of where the user is in a navigation session.

10. The system of claim 9 , wherein the plurality of multimedia data is indexed by one of a title, a length, a rating, and a scene.

11. The system of claim 9 , wherein the search term is received as an utterance.

12. The system of claim 11 , the computer-readable storage medium having additional instructions stored which, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to perform operations comprising converting the utterance to text via automatic speech recognition.

13. The system of claim 9 , wherein the database comprises ancillary data used to index the plurality of multimedia data.

14. The system of claim 13 , wherein the ancillary data comprises one of offline tran

Assignees

• At & T Ip Ii Lp

Inventors

• Chen Edward Y
• Gibbon David Crawford
• Ruedisueli Laurence W
• Shahraray Behzad

Classifications

• G06F16/738

  Presentation of query results · CPC title

• H04N21/8586

  by using a URL (processing chained hypermedia data for information retrieval G06F16/94; information retrieval from the Internet by using URLs G06F16/955; URL in broadcast information H04H20/93; Web-based protocols H04L67/02) · CPC title

• H04N21/6587

  Control parameters, e.g. trick play commands, viewpoint selection · CPC title

• H04N21/4622

  Retrieving content or additional data from different sources, e.g. from a broadcast channel and the Internet (web site content organization and management for information retrieval from the Internet G06F16/958; transmission by internet of broadcast information H04H60/82; stock exchange data over packet-switching network H04L12/1804; push services including data channel over packet-switching network H04L12/1859) · CPC title

• H04N21/278

  Content descriptor database or directory service for end-user access {(details of content or meta data based information retrieval of video data in video databases G06F16/739)} · CPC title