Non-linear interactive video navigation

• US 20050188408A1
• Filed: 10/22/2004
• Published: 08/25/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 10/22/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Video Networks IP Holdings Limited
• Original Assignee: Video Networks IP Holdings Limited
• Inventors: Ellis, William, Wallis, Emily Claire Louise, Taylor, James Wilson, Davies, Rhodri William Talfan
• Granted Patent: US 9,055,352 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 725/87
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/234381 by altering the temporal resolution, e.g. decreasing the frame rate by frame skipping
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2387 Stream processing in response to a playback request from an end-user, e.g. for trick-play
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/26258 for generating a list of items to be played back in a given order, e.g. playlist, or scheduling item distribution according to such list retrieval of multimedia data based on playlists G06F16/40
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/426 Internal components of the client ; Characteristics thereof H04N5/44 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4325 by playing back content from the storage medium reproduction of recorded television signals H04N5/76; reproduction of recorded television signals H04N9/79
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4532 involving end-user characteristics, e.g. viewer profile, preferences monitoring of user activities for profile generation for accessing a video database G06F16/739; user profiles in network data switching protocols H04L67/306; processing of user preferences or user profiles in wireless networks H04W8/18
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47 End-user applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47202 for requesting content on demand, e.g. video on demand
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/482 End-user interface for program selection broadcast systems using EPGs H04H60/72
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6543 for forcing some client operations, e.g. recording remote booting in general G06F9/4416
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6587 Control parameters, e.g. trick play commands, viewpoint selection
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8113 comprising music, e.g. song in MP3 format
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/812 involving advertisement data advertising per se G06Q30/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/816 involving special video data, e.g 3D video
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/84 Generation or processing of descriptive data, e.g. content descriptors systems specially adapted for using meta-information in broadcast systems H04H60/73
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8543 using a description language, e.g. Multimedia and Hypermedia information coding Expert Group [MHEG], eXtensible Markup Language [XML] information retrieval of semistructured data, the underlying structure being taken into account, e.g. mark-up language structure data G06F16/80
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/858 Linking data to content, e.g. by linking an URL to a video object, by creating a hotspot
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17336 Handling of requests in head-ends

Abstract

A system and method for delivering interactive video and audio content items, e.g., movie clips, music videos, adverts, to a user playback device, such as a television (TV) set. In a preferred embodiment, the content items are delivered within a video on demand (VoD) environment. Each content item has associated attributes that detail the navigational properties for that content item. The content items are delivered as entries in a content sequence. Nonlinear navigation of the video content sequence is facilitated by querying the associated attributes for the current content item and enabling navigational actions (e.g. FF/REW/PAUSE/SKIP/Jump to target) for that content item accordingly. The content items thus permit varying degrees of user interaction. The user interaction is not bound by predetermined navigational rules, since the user is free to experience the sequenced VoD content items in any order.

Claims

1. A method for delivering video on demand (VoD) content items, the method comprising:

storing a plurality of content items in a content store, each content item having associated attributes, wherein at least one of the associated attributes of each content item characterizes which navigation actions are available for the content item;

storing the associated attributes for each content item in an attribute store;

storing a content sequence list, which determines the order in which content items are obtained from the content store, and

serving each content item in the content sequence list to a remote user device in accordance with the respective associated attributes of each sequenced content item, thereby enabling navigation within VoD content items in the content sequence in accordance with navigation attributes.

2. A method as claimed in claim 1, the content sequence list is a manually prepared list.

3. A method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the associated attribute is a “

can skip”

flag and the navigation action is a skip action, the action being available if the “

can skip”

flag indicates that the content item is skippable.

4. A method as claimed in claim 1, wherein at least one of the navigation attributes is a target property, and wherein the navigation action is a jump action, in which the playback point jumps from the current content item to a target in accordance with the target property.

5. A method as claimed in claim 4, wherein the target is a further content item and the target property is a content identifier corresponding to the further content item.

6. A method as claimed in claim 5, wherein the content item is a music video promotional content item, the further content item is a corresponding music video content item.

7. A method as claimed in claim 4, wherein the target is a further content sequence and the target property is a sequence identifier corresponding to the further content sequence.

8. A method for facilitating navigation from a current streaming video content item to another streaming video content item, each of the video content items having associated attributes, the method comprising:

displaying an interactive navigation menu screen, the screen including at least one user selectable portion and a user controllable cursor, the or each selectable portion representing available navigation actions associated with the current video content item;

receiving a user selection signal corresponding to the selection of one of the selectable portions of the screen; and

automatically initiating the performance of the selected action in accordance with the attributes of the current video content item,

wherein at least one of the attributes of the current video content item characterise which navigation action are available for selection.

9. A system for delivering video on demand (VoD) content items, the system comprising:

a content store for storing a plurality of content items, each content item having associated attributes, wherein at least one of the associated attributes of each content item characterizes which navigation actions are available for the content item;

an attribute store for storing the associated attributes for each content item;

a list store for storing a content sequence list, which determines the order in which content items are obtained from the content store, and

a content server for serving each content item in the content sequence list to a remote user device in accordance with the respective associated attributes of each sequenced content item, thereby enabling navigation within VoD content items in the content sequence in accordance with navigation attributes.

10. A system for facilitating navigation from a current streaming video content item to another streaming video content item, each of the video content items having associated attributes, the system comprising:

means for displaying an interactive navigation menu screen, the screen including at least one user selectable portion and a user controllable cursor, the or each selectable portion representing available navigation actions associated with the current video content item;

means for receiving a user selection signal corresponding to the selection of one of the selectable portions of the screen; and

means for automatically initiating the performance of the selected action in accordance with the attributes of the current video content item,

wherein at least one of the attributes of the current video content item characterize which navigation action are available for selection.

11. A system as claimed in claim 10, wherein the action is altering the displayed video stream to an associated video content item on the display.