System and method for interactive and real-time visualization of distributed media

• US 10,404,763 B2
• Filed: 07/10/2017
• Issued: 09/03/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 04/24/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Mersive Technologies Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Mersive Technologies Incorporated
• Inventors: Jaynes, Christopher O.
• Primary Examiner(s): Patel, Hemant S
• Application Number:
  US15/645,087
• Publication Number:
  US 20170310714A1
• Time in Patent Office: 785 Days
• Field of Search: 348 1401- 1416, 370259-271, 370351-357, 37920101, 709201-207, 709217-248
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/101 Collaborative creation, e.g. joint development of products or services
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 3/4092 Image resolution transcoding, e.g. by using client-server architectures
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1069 Session establishment or de-establishment
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1089 by adding media; by removing media
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1093 by adding participants; by removing participants
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/4015 where at least one of the additional parallel sessions is real time or time sensitive, e.g. white board sharing, collaboration or spawning of a subconference
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/613 for the control of the source by the destination control signals issued by the client directed to the server or network components specially adapted for selective content distribution H04N21/637
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/762 at the source reformatting of additional data in video distribution servers H04N21/2355
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/567 Multimedia conference systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2407 Monitoring of transmitted content, e.g. distribution time, number of downloads arrangements for monitoring programmes for broadcast or for distribution combined with broadcast H04H20/14
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/482 End-user interface for program selection broadcast systems using EPGs H04H60/72
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/147 Communication arrangements, e.g. identifying the communication as a video-communication, intermediate storage of the signals selecting H04Q

Abstract

A method for providing control and visualization of media. A first media stream having an initial resolution is received from a source computer; the first media stream is rescaled to generate a second media stream with a second resolution; the second media source stream is transmitted to a destination computer; after receiving instructions from the destination computer indicating a selection of the second media stream, the stream is rescaled in accordance with the received rescaling information, to generate a third media stream with a third resolution, which is transmitted to the destination computer.

Claims

1. A system for providing control and visualization of media comprising:

a host computer including;

a memory configured to store;

a first media source stream, received from a first media source computer, and having a first resolution,

a resealed first media source stream based on the first media source stream and having a second resolution based on a number of media streams simultaneously displayed on a shared display at the same time and a resolution of the shared display,

a source map indicating position of each resealed first media source stream displayed on the shared display;

instructions, received from a destination computer in response to a user of the destination computer interacting with the source map on the destination computer, indicating a selection of the resealed first media source stream and resealing information for the destination computer, and

a second resealed first media source stream having a third resolution based on the resealing information;

the shared display configured to display the resealed first media source stream; and

,

a processor in communication with the memory configured to control transmission of the source map to, receipt of the instructions from, and transmission of the second rescaled first media source stream to, the destination computer.

2. The system of claim 1, the source map including a plurality of thumbnails each representing a plurality of media source streams as positioned on the shared display.

3. The system of claim 1, the source map including a graphical representation depicting the size and position of the rescaled first media source stream and other rescaled media source streams displayed on the shared display.

4. The system of claim 1,

the memory further configured to store:

a second media source stream, received from at least one of the first media source computer and a second media source computer, having an initial resolution,

a rescaled second media source stream having a second resolution, the second resolution based on a number of media source streams simultaneously displayed on the shared display, and the resolution of the shared display,

the source map further indicating position of the rescaled second media source stream as displayed on the shared display.

5. The system of claim 1, the processor further configured to:

capture first metadata, including a user name, a time of selection of one of the media source streams, an interconnected computer, and an indicia of the selected media source stream

capture second metadata when the selected media source stream is no longer being viewed at the interconnected computer,

generate viewing statistics based on the first and second metadata.

6. The system of claim 1, the processor further configured to:

collect event data from each of a plurality of interconnected computers including start viewing time, end viewing time, and media ID, for each media source stream selected by each the interconnected computer,

generate viewing event information, based on the event data, indicating which users are current viewing the first media source stream, and,

displaying a percentage of users who are viewing any of the selected media streams on the shared display.

7. The system of claim 5, the viewing statistics being transmitted to each of a plurality of interconnected computers.

8. The system of claim 5, the viewing statistics including the number of users currently viewing a selected media source stream.

9. The system of claim 5, the viewing statistics including the percentage of a plurality of interconnected computers viewing selected media source streams.

10. A system for indicating if a particular media source is being inspected by at least one of a plurality of interconnected computers, comprising:

a host computer including a memory configured to store;

a media source stream from a source computer of the plurality of interconnected computers,

a selection of the first media source stream received from a destination computer of the plurality of interconnected computers,

first metadata defining a first viewing event including a user name, a time of selection of the media source stream, and indicia of the media source stream selected,

second metadata defining a second viewing event when the transmitted media source stream is no longer being displayed at the destination viewer,

computer readable instructions that when executed by a processor of the host computer;

(1) transmit the media source stream to the destination computer in response to the selection,

(2) transform the first and second metadata into viewing statistics, and

(3) send the viewing statistics to a moderator computer, the moderator computer being one of the interconnected computers, the viewing statistics including an indicator identifying the destination computer when a time between the first event and the second viewing event is greater than a predetermined threshold.

11. The system of claim 10, the computer readable instructions further configured to send the viewing statistics to a shared display coupled with the host computer and separate from each of the source computer and the destination computer.

12. The system of claim 10,

the memory further configured to store additional metadata from each of the interconnected computers including start viewing time, end viewing tie, and media ID, for each media source stream selected by the interconnected computers;

the computer readable instructions further configured to utilize the additional metadata to indicate, within the viewing statistics, the percentage of users who are viewing any media stream stored in the memory.

13. The system of claim 12, the viewing statistics including a number of users currently viewing a selected media source stream.

14. The system of claim 12, the viewing statistics including a user name associated with all users currently viewing a selected media source stream.

15. The system of claim 12, the viewing statistics including a difference between an end time and a start time that a user has been viewing a selected media source.

16. The system of claim 12, the viewing statistics including a number of users that have been viewing a selected media source stream longer than a predetermined amount of time.

17. The system of claim 10, the first and second metadata including a user name and a unique ID for a user of the destination computer.