Motion video signal processing for recording or reproducing – Local trick play processing – With randomly accessible medium
Reexamination Certificate
1999-04-23
2003-09-16
Tran, Thai (Department: 2615)
Motion video signal processing for recording or reproducing
Local trick play processing
With randomly accessible medium
C386S349000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06621980
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
This invention pertains to the storage and interactive playing of segmented continuous play media sequences, and more particularly to digitally stored interactive multimedia content.
Continuous play media (“multimedia”) can be defined as minimally containing a stream of image or text content forming a perceived continuity when presented to an observer/user. Continuous play media may further contain content streams forming perceived audio continuities when presented to an observer/user. Continuous play media may further contain other content streams including but not limited to closed captioned support for the acoustically impaired or closed captioned presentation of dialogue in one or more alternative languages.
Image content streams as used herein will include but not be limited to motion video streams as well as streams of text moving with regards to the displayed view available to the user/observer. Programs may generate these image streams, where the displayed view is altered in a manner rendered essentially continuous. Implementation environments for such generating programs include but are not limited to language environments for C, C++, Java, Lingo™ by Macromedia as well as various low level machine independent and/or machine dependent assembly languages. Examples of such implementations include but are not limited to motion picture preambles and postambles, often incorporating still images, textual credits and copyrights often further accompanied by music with a motion background or moving text providing a sense of continuity to the user/observer. Such image content streams may be further accompanied by acoustic effects which augment, and in some cases, establish the sense of continuity experienced by the user/observer.
Contemporary technology has driven down the cost of storing continuous play media, allowing the recording of large amounts of audio-video content onto a compact disk or DVD disk by a growing number of people, businesses and institutions. Continuous play media recordings and the playing of such recordings began in large numbers with the video tape players and their successors, Video Cassette Recorders (VCRs). Such technologies could record and play one to several hours of television grade audio-video content. The user could control the player to rewind, fast forward, pause, stop and start at a given moment in the recorded presentation. Many of these units could record material, usually received from a television signal, as well as play pre-recorded material. Standard implementations of this technology record or play only one multi-media stream at a time without multiplexing schemes supporting multiple simultaneous streams.
More recently, digital continuous play media technologies based upon image compression techniques such as QuickTime™ by Apple, MPEG 1, MPEG 2 and DVD have become quite popular. Such technologies are typically used to create a single long playing sequence, such as a motion picture, documentary or training session. User controls for playing such recordings are very similar to earlier controls found on video tape players and VCRs. All of these prior methods of playing and storing continuous play media have a limitation in presenting complex subjects, namely that there presentation is flat, there is no way for the user/observer to alter the stream to delve into a topic as a contiguous part of the stream.
The Internet and World Wide Web have accelerated the proliferation of hypertext documents. Hypertext possesses highlighted triggers embedded into a viewed document, which when selected, cause the document viewer to display a different view of either the same document or a different document. There is a “back” button on most hypertext viewing systems, which when pushed, causes the view to return to the previous view. These hypertext documents are rapidly creating a new class of interactive documents, allowing a much higher level of complexity to be traversed by readers of greatly varying backgrounds. People may follow many of the hypertext links, or few of the hypertext links depending upon their preferences. However, the approach of hypertext is not continuous play media, it does not create audio-visual streams, but screens of text and pictures primarily, which only move when the user/observer urges them to move. When a hypertext document references a continuous play media file, such as a Quicktime file, it is loaded and played with controls much as a VCR possesses.
Television, long one of the dominant cultural forces in image content presentation has reached a difficult impasse. Television in the United States is largely supported by revenues from advertising. The Internet threatens such revenues. The reason is that many perceive the Internet as a better basis for advertising because people who are interested in a product can find out what they want to know about the product as they wish to find it out via hyper links. Today's television advertising is constrained to present sound bites of very short duration possessing no ability for the potential customer to direct an inquiry into facts they wish to know. Instead, television today forces repeated transmission of the same limited amount of information, never getting beyond the simplest of messages concerning a product. What is needed is a method by which an advertiser's purchased bandwidth can be more efficiently utilized to permit potential customers to query a larger cross section of information about the products advertised while insuring that the basic product pitch is seen.
FIG. 1
displays a relevant prior art system comprising an enclosure
10
, housing a display device
12
, selector device
14
, and communication (
16
and
18
) between selector device and system plus speakers (
20
). Enclosure
10
is shown herein with minimal detail by way of illustration. In practice, prior art system enclosures relevant to this invention include but are not limited to television-style cases, desktop computer enclosures, notebook computer enclosures. Many of these enclosures
10
incorporate speakers
20
without them being perceived separately as indicated in this figure. Note that there are a number of systems containing more than one enclosure, such as a number of desktop computers, televisions with set top boxes and often, additional content players such as DVD players.
Relevant prior art display devices
12
are also widely varied in form and specifics of operation. Relevant prior art display devices
12
may present black and white or color images. Relevant prior art display devices
12
may support either a vector or raster format. Relevant prior art display devices
12
may present images in either a 2-D, 3-D or multi-dimensional presentation view or collection of views.
Relevant embodiments of selector device
14
include but are not limited to contemporary television channel selectors, home entertainment center remote controls, computer pointing devices including but not limited to 3-D and 2-D mouse-style pointers, pen tablets track balls, touch pads, key pads and joysticks. As illustrated in
FIG. 1
, the selector device communicates via physical transport mechanism
16
with an interface
18
housed in enclosure
10
. Relevant physical transport mechanisms
16
include but are not limited to infra-red, micro-wave and other similar wireless transport layers, as well as wires and optical fiber. The mechanism by which communication is carried out based upon the specific physical transport mechanism employed is not relevant to this invention and will not be discussed for that reason. Additional
10
devices such as printers and keyboards may be attached to various relevant, prior art systems. Keyboards may house touch pads and mouse sticks which in certain cases are the relevant selector device of that system.
FIG. 2
displays a block diagram of an exemplary prior art system such as displayed in FIG.
1
. The units (
12
,
14
,
20
,
36
and
44
) on the left side of this figure all have a major role in the input and output flows proce
Gould Eric Justin
Strickland Rachel M.
MonkeyMedia, Inc.
Silicon Valley IP Group PC
Tran Thai
Zilka Kevin J.
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