Scalably presenting a collection of media objects

• US 20040128308A1
• Filed: 12/31/2002
• Published: 07/01/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 12/31/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Inventors: Obrador, Pere
• Granted Patent: US 7,131,059 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/102
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/4393 Multimedia presentations, e.g. slide shows, multimedia albums
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/743 a collection of video files or sequences
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/78 Retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manually
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/7834 using audio features
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/785 using colour or luminescence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/7857 using texture G06F16/7837 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/031 Electronic editing of digitised analogue information signals, e.g. audio or video signals
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/11 by using information not detectable on the record carrier

Abstract

Systems and methods of presenting media objects are described. In one aspect, a group of media objects is selected from the collection based upon media object relevance to one or more data structures of a selected media file of indexed, temporally-ordered data structures. One or more of the selected media file and the media objects of the selected group are transmitted to a client for contemporaneous presentation at a selected summarization level. In another aspect, media objects in the collection are grouped into multiple clusters based upon one or more media object relevance criteria. The media object clusters are arranged into a hierarchy of two or more levels. A selected cluster is transmitted to a client for contemporaneous presentation at a selected summarization level.

Claims

1. A method of scalably presenting a collection of media objects, comprising:

selecting a group of media objects from the collection based upon media object relevance to one or more data structures of a selected media file of indexed, temporally-ordered data structures; and

transmitting to a client one or more of the selected media file and the media objects of the selected group for contemporaneous presentation at a selected summarization level.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising selecting the summarization level based upon one or more resource constraints.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein a resource constraint corresponds to a communication channel resource constraint or a client resource constraint.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the communication channel resource constraint corresponds to one or more of a bandwidth constraint, a transmission constraint, and a client reception constraint.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein the client resource constraint corresponds to a processing constraint or a display constraint, or both.

6. The method of claim 3, wherein the client resource constraint corresponds to a received client preference indication.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein media object relevance corresponds to browsable links between media objects of the selected group and one or more data structures of the selected media file.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein transmitting at a lowest summarization level comprises transmitting all of the data structures of the selected media file in sequence and transmitting each media object of the selected group in timed relationship with a respective linked data structure of the selected media file.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the selected media file comprises a sequence of full-motion video frames and a corresponding synchronized audio sequence, and transmitting at the lowest summarization level comprises synchronously transmitting the full-motion video frames and the audio sequence compressed to a high quality level.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein transmitting at a second summarization level comprises transmitting in sequence a first subset of the data structures of the selected media file and transmitting each media object of the selected group in timed relationship with the subset of data structures.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the selected media file comprises a sequence of full-motion video frames and a corresponding synchronized audio sequence, and transmitting at the second summarization level comprises synchronously transmitting key sequences of full-motion video frames and the audio sequence compressed to an intermediate audio quality level.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein transmitting at a third summarization level comprises transmitting in sequence a second subset of data structures of the selected media file smaller than the first subset and transmitting graphical representations of each media object of the selected group in timed relationship with the second subset of data structures.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the selected media file comprises a sequence of full-motion video frames and a corresponding synchronized audio sequence, and transmitting at the third summarization level comprises synchronously transmitting full-motion video key frames and the audio sequence compressed to a low audio quality level.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein transmitting at a fourth summarization level comprises transmitting a single data structure representative of the selected media file.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the selected media file comprises a sequence of full-motion video frames and a corresponding synchronized audio sequence, and transmitting at the fourth summarization level comprises synchronously transmitting a single full-motion video key frame and one or more key sentences representative of the audio sequence and compressed to a low audio quality level.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein media object relevance corresponds to a selected context similarity between media objects and the one or more data structures of the selected media file.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein context similarity corresponds to one or more of color similarity, motion activity similarity, texture content similarity, audio similarity, data similarity, name similarity, inclusion of similar objects, inclusion of similar persons or similar places.

18. The method of claim 16, wherein transmitting at a lowest summarization level comprises transmitting all of the data structures of the selected media file in sequence and transmitting each media object of the selected group.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein transmitting at a second summarization level comprises transmitting a first subset of the data structures of the selected media file in sequence and transmitting each media object of the selected group.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein transmitting at a third summarization level comprises transmitting in sequence a second subset of data structures of the selected media file smaller than the first subset and transmitting graphical representations of each media object of the selected group.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein transmitting at a fourth summarization level comprises transmitting a single data structure representative of the selected media file.

22. The method of claim 1, further comprising selecting the summarization level based upon a time constraint.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein the selected media file comprises a sequence of full-motion video frames and transmitting the selected media file comprises transmitting representative portions of the selected media file selected to accommodate the time constraint.

24. The method of claim 1, further comprising selecting the summarization level based upon a time constraint and a resource constraint.

25. A system for presenting a collection of media objects, comprising a media manager operable to:

select a group of media objects from the collection based upon media object relevance to one or more data structures of a selected media file of indexed, temporally-ordered data structures; and

transmit to a client one or more of the selected media file and the media objects of the selected group for contemporaneous presentation at a selected summarization level.

26. The system of claim 25, wherein media object relevance corresponds to browsable links between media objects of the selected group.

27. The system of claim 25, wherein media object relevance corresponds to a selected context similarity between media objects and the one or more data structures of the selected media file.

28. A method of scalably presenting a collection of media objects, comprising:

grouping media objects in the collection into multiple clusters based upon one or more media object relevance criteria;

arranging the media object clusters into a hierarchy of two or more levels; and

transmitting a selected cluster to a client for contemporaneous presentation at a selected summarization level.

29. A system for scalably presenting a collection of media objects, comprising a media manager operable to:

group media objects in the collection into multiple clusters based upon one or more media object relevance criteria;

arrange the media object clusters into a hierarchy of two or more levels; and

transmit a selected cluster to a client for contemporaneous presentation at a selected summarization level.