Computer graphics processing and selective visual display system – Display driving control circuitry – Controlling the condition of display elements
Reexamination Certificate
1996-12-05
2001-01-09
Zimmerman, Mark (Department: 2772)
Computer graphics processing and selective visual display system
Display driving control circuitry
Controlling the condition of display elements
C345S215000, C345S215000, C704S255000, C707S793000, C707S793000, C707S793000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06172675
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
This invention is related to the manipulation of a body of information represented by sets of chronologically ordered data and, in particular, to the indirect manipulation of a secondary set or sets of data through manipulation of a primary set or sets of data that is/are temporally related to the secondary set or sets of data and whose elements can be aligned with those of the secondary set or sets of data. Most particularly, the invention is related to the indirect manipulation of audio or audio-visual data using text data that can be related to the audio or audio-visual data.
It is desirable to be able to manipulate a body of information in a variety of ways—such as summarizing, rearranging, editing, selectively accessing or searching the body of information—to facilitate digestion of the content of the body of information by users. For example, the body of information could be a videotape of a temporal event (i.e., an action or actions that occur over a period of time). It is useful to be able to summarize the content of the videotape (particularly if it is long), access content occurring at a particular time in the videotape, search for particular content in the videotape, or rearrange or otherwise edit the content of the videotape.
A body of information is typically represented as a set or sets of data. The data can be in different forms (e.g., digital or analog) and of different types (e.g., audio, video, text). A body of information can oftentimes be represented in different ways by related sets of data of different forms and/or types. For example, a temporal event can be represented by a videotape having analog data, digital data, or both. Additionally, the videotape can include video data, audio data and text data, each type of data describing actions that occur at particular times during the event.
Enabling a particular body of information to be easily manipulated in a manner that suits the ends of particular users can be problematic. The recent explosive growth in the amount of information that is available digitally provides an illustration of the problem: trying to get just an overview of a large body of digital information can be overwhelming, and attempting to find specific material within the body of information can be like searching for a needle in a haystack. Thus, there is a need generally for methods and systems for enabling bodies of information—and, in particular, bodies of digital information—to be easily and flexibly manipulated.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The invention enables a body of information to be manipulated (e.g., summarized, rearranged, edited, selectively accessed or searched) so that a user can digest the content of the body of the information more easily and can access the information more readily. The body of information is represented by at least two sets of temporally related data. Manipulation of a second one of the sets of data in a predetermined manner is accomplished indirectly through direct manipulation of a first one of the sets of data in the predetermined manner. The direct manipulation of the first set of data produces a manipulated first set of data which can include some or all of the first set of data, but does not include the entire first set of data in the same order which existed originally. The first and second sets of data are aligned to establish a temporal correspondence between the data of the two sets. Data from the second set of data that corresponds (based on the alignment) to data from the manipulated first set of data is manipulated to produce the manipulated second set of data, such that the same temporal correspondences that exist between the data of the first and second sets of data also exist between data of the manipulated first and second sets of data.
The invention takes advantage of the fact that some forms or types of data more readily lend themselves to particular manipulations and operations than other forms or types of data. For example, digital text data is well-suited to syntactic and semantic analysis in general and to word-based manipulation in particular. Such manipulations can advantageously be used to manipulate a body of information that can be represented by digital text data. In one embodiment of the invention, digital text data of a body of information is manipulated (e.g., summarized), the digital text data is aligned with either digital video data or digital audio data of the body of information, and the digital video data or digital audio data is manipulated according to the manipulation of the digital text data and the alignment of the digital text data with the digital video data or digital audio data. Such an embodiment is useful in, for example, manipulating a videotape or audiotape that includes an associated text transcript. It is also, for example, often easier to manipulate digital data than it is to manipulate analog data. Thus, the invention usually converts analog data (e.g., analog video data) to digital data (e.g., digital video data) prior to manipulation of any of the data. Generally, the invention manipulates a set of data that is in a form or of a type that is relatively difficult to manipulate, or that cannot be manipulated in a certain fashion, by manipulating a related set of data that is in a form and of a type that is relatively easy to manipulate.
Where the body of information includes more than two sets of temporally related data, the additional sets of data can also be manipulated in accordance with the invention. If alignment exists between two sets of data, an additional data set can be aligned with either one, yielding mutual alignment among the three sets. In general, an additional set of data can be aligned with any set of data that has already been aligned with another set of data that either has previously been manipulated or that has been aligned with a previously manipulated set of data. A manipulation of the additional data set is produced from data in the additional data set that corresponds (based on the alignment) to data in a previously manipulated data set. For example, where either video data or audio data has been manipulated indirectly by directly manipulating text data, as described above, the other of the video or audio data can be manipulated by aligning that data with either the text data or the one of the video or audio data that has been previously manipulated, then manipulating the other of the video or audio data according to the previous manipulation of the data with which the other of the video or audio data has been aligned. As an even more specific example, a body of information, such as a videotape, that includes a set of video data, a set of audio data and a set of text data can be manipulated by manipulating the text data, aligning the text data with the audio data and then manipulating the audio data, then using alignment of the audio and video data to manipulate the video data.
As indicated above, the invention enables a body of information to be manipulated in any desired manner. For example, the invention can be used to summarize the body of information, quickly giving an overview of the content of the entire body of information or a defined portion. The invention can also be used to rapidly access a particular portion or portions of the body of information, enabling rapid retrieval of specific information of interest. Further, the invention can be used to search for particular information within the body of information. Additionally, the invention can be used to edit the body of information (e.g., rearrange or delete portions of the body of information) in any desired manner to achieve any of a number of purposes, such as creation of a video collage or implementation of an information filter.
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Ahmad Subutai
Farber Emanuel E.
Graham David R.
Interval Research Corporation
Nguyen Kimbinh T.
Zimmerman Mark
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