Interactive video distribution systems – Program – message – or commercial insertion or substitution
Reexamination Certificate
1998-10-07
2002-12-10
Faile, Andrew (Department: 2611)
Interactive video distribution systems
Program, message, or commercial insertion or substitution
C725S109000, C370S503000, C370S509000, C348S563000, C348S584000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06493872
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention is in the field of video broadcasting and editing and pertains more particularly to methods and apparatus for receiving separate video and video enhancement data-streams from different sources and combining them to be displayed synchronously.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
With continuing development of new and better ways of delivering television and other video presentations to end users, and parallel development of computerized information systems, such as the Internet and the associated World Wide Web (WWW), there have been concerted efforts to integrate various systems to provide enhanced information delivery and entertainment systems. For example, developers are introducing integrated systems combining TVs with computer subsystems, so a TV may be used as a WEB browser, or a PC may be used for enhanced TV viewing.
In some systems computer elements, such as a CPU, memory, and the like, are built into the familiar chassis of a TV set. In such a system, the TV screen becomes the display monitor in the computer mode. In such a system, conventional TV elements and circuitry are incorporated along with the computer elements, and capability is provided for a user to switch modes, or to view recorded or broadcast video with added computer interaction. One may thus, with a properly equipped system, select to view analog TV programs, digital TV programs, conventional cable TV, satellite TV, pay TV from various sources, and browse the WWW as well, displaying WEB pages and interacting with on-screen fields and relational systems for jumping to related information, databases, and other WEB pages. The capabilities are often integrated into a single display, that is, one may view a broadcast presentation and also have a window on the display for WEB interaction.
In some other systems, computer elements are provided in an enclosure separate from the TV, often referred to in the art as a set-top box. Set-top box systems have an advantage for providers in that they may be connected to conventional television sets, so end users don't have to buy a new TV along with the computer elements.
In such integrated systems, whether in a single enclosure or as set-top box systems, user input is typically through a hand-held device quite similar to a familiar remote controller, usually having infra-red communication with the set-top box or a receiver in the integrated TV. For computer modes, such as WEB browsing, a cursor is displayed on the TV screen, and cursor manipulation is provided by buttons or other familiar pointer apparatus on the remote. Select buttons are also provided in the remote to perform the familiar function of such buttons on a pointer device, like a mouse or trackball more familiar to computer users.
Set-top boxes and computer-integrated TVs adapted as described above typically have inputs for such as a TV antenna (analog), cable TV (analog or digital), more recently direct-satellite TV (digital), and may also connect to video cassette recorders and to mass storage devices such as hard disk drives and CD-ROM drives to provide a capability for uploading video data from such devices and presenting the dynamic result as a display on the TV screen.
The present inventors have noted that with the coupling of computer technology with TV, many capabilities familiar to computer users have been made available to TV users. For example, ability to provide text annotation for TV presentations is considerably enhanced. Computer techniques such a Pix-on-Pix are now available, wherein separate TV presentations may be made in separate windows, or overlaid windows on the display screen. Separate windows may also support display from separate sources, such as an analog TV program in one window, a computer game in another, and a video conference in a third.
With the technologies described above becoming more available in the market place, it has become desirable to further integrate the technologies described so that a user viewing a video presentation might be enabled to gather additional information about a specific image entity or entities portrayed in a video through interactive method. An ultimate goal is to provide a means for advertisers to promote and sell products through user interaction in a way that minimizes steps required by such a user to access additional information regarding traditionally advertised products such as through commercials and the like.
In typical prior art video authoring systems, end users receive a single video stream that contains the video data and any added annotated data such as subtitling, sponsor logos, information blocks, and the like. However, it is desirable to build upon the goal stated in the preceding paragraph above, by having separate streams, one containing video data, and the other containing annotative data, that may arrive at and end user's location via different delivery media and be displayed synchronously on a suitable display screen.
Although the inventor knows of an authoring system that may deliver separate streams via separate media, as described above with respect to co-pending patent applications listed under the Cross-Reference to Related Documents section and provided herein as reference, a problem exists with respect to the unpredictable nature of latency conditions inherent to separate media networks that may be chosen to deliver such data streams.
A typical broadcast system may experience a variable latency rate in the broadcast of a video stream of up to several hundred milliseconds. This latency, defined as a variable delay period of signal transmission from the point of broadcast to the end point (end user), is experienced at the users end. Quality of lines, connections, and other interferences may affect such latency conditions.
Internet delivery systems which transmit data using switched-packet-technology also experience unpredictable latency problems, similar to that described above, as well as competition from a host of other data transfer events due to the fact that, generally speaking, bandwidth must be shared. While measures may be taken at the user's end to improve downloading capabilities such as employing a better modem or using an integrated services digital network (ISDN) connection, unpredictable latency is still a problem.
Because the latency factor regarding such delivery or broadcast methods cannot be reliably predicted, the prospect of sending separate data or video streams over different networks and then re-synchronizing them to be displayed as one stream on a user's display system is a formidable challenge.
What is clearly needed is a method and apparatus that would allow a user receiving two separate data-streams via separate and unrelated delivery systems to re-synchronize and combine the streams into one stream, containing both the video data and the annotation data, for the purpose of displaying the combined and synchronous stream on a suitable display monitor for viewing. Such a method and apparatus would also allow product advertisers more option with regards to personalizing advertisements for target end users.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In a preferred embodiment of the present invention a system for marking a first data stream relative to a second data stream is provided, the two streams synchronized, comprising a pipeline having an input for each data stream; a reader noting selected data in the pipeline from the second data stream; and a writer writing the selected data to the first data stream in the pipeline.
In a preferred embodiment the selected data comprises numbers identifying frames in the second data stream, and there may also be timing markers placed by the writer in the first data stream. Typically the first data stream is a live video data stream and the second data stream is an annotation data stream authored in synchronization with the first data stream. The annotation data stream may include tracking data derived from tracking an entity in the first data stream.
In some cases the numbers identifying frames in the second data str
Chakraborty Indranil
Rangan P. Venkat
Shah Mehul
Shastri Vijnan
Boys Donald R.
Central Coast Patent Agency Inc.
Faile Andrew
Innovatv
Srivastava Vivek
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