Method and apparatus for storing and replaying creation history of multimedia software or other software content

• US 20060010420A1
• Filed: 04/26/2001
• Published: 01/12/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 09/30/1994
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Peterson, Alan R., Spohrer, James C.
• Granted Patent: US 7,721,264 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 717/106
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/453 Help systems
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/034 on discs G11B27/036, G11B27/038 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/105 of operating discs
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/854 Content authoring
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 715/967 Visual or iconic programming

Abstract

An authoring or other software tool is provided which allows users of the tool to review the creation and evolution of all or part of a content such as a multimedia title created using a tool incorporating the invention. According to the invention, an authoring tool comprises a recording mechanism for recording actions performed during the development or modification of software content in a manner that preserves, directly or indirectly, the relative chronological order of the actions and a playback mechanism for performing or otherwise simulating recorded actions. Preferably, the playback of an action includes annotation using text, recorded or computer-generated voice, video and/or graphic animation. Preferably, an authoring tool embodying the invention allows an author to specify criteria for which actions are to be played back, thereby providing an author with a mechanism for focusing on a particular subset of the recorded actions.

Claims

1-18. -18. (canceled)

19. A method for recording and reviewing actions performed during development of software content created using a tool on a computer system having a processor and memory, said method comprising the steps of:

receiving one or more user events;

determining which events and sequences of events constitute actions;

determining whether an explanation accompanies an action;

recording the determined actions; and

recording the determined explanations such that a recorded explanation of a recorded action is associated with the recorded action.

20. A method as defined in claim 33, said method further comprising the following steps:

receiving a user request for playback of recorded actions;

accessing recorded actions and associated recorded explanations; and

playing back recorded actions and any associated recorded explanations.

21. A method as defined in claim 33, wherein said step of determining whether an explanation accompanies an action includes the step of prompting a user for an explanation with respect to an action being recorded.

22. A method for recording and reviewing actions performed during development of software content created using a tool on a computer system having a processor and memory, said method comprising the steps of:

receiving one or more user events;

determining which events and sequences of events constitute actions;

recording the determined actions;

receiving a user request for playback of recorded actions;

accessing recorded actions; and

playing back recorded actions, varying the levels of detail in the replay according to a current context in which the replay is occurring.

23. A computer-readable medium having stored thereon instructions for causing a computer to perform the following steps:

displaying a starting state of multimedia content;

determining automatically which recorded actions satisfy a specified arbitrary criteria; and

playing back a sequence of only those determined recorded actions in chronological order on an output device.

24. A computer-readable medium having stored thereon instructions for causing a computer to perform the following steps:

receiving a user event;

determining whether said received user event indicates a playback request; and

if said received user event indicates a playback request, then determining automatically which recorded actions to play back by determining which recorded actions meet a specified arbitrary criteria and playing back those determined recorded actions and if said received user event does not indicate a playback request, then determining whether there is an action to record and recording the action if it is determined that there is an action to record.

25. A computer-readable medium having stored thereon instructions for causing a computer to perform the following steps:

receiving a user event;

determining whether said received user event indicates a playback request; and

if said received user event indicates a playback request, then determining automatically which recorded actions to play back by determining which recorded actions meet a specified fixed criteria, said specified fixed criteria being selectable from a plurality of fixed criteria, and playing back those determined recorded actions and if said received user event does not indicate a playback request, then determining whether there is an action to record and recording the action if it is determined that there is an action to record.

26. A computer-readable medium having stored thereon an action class list comprising a plurality of action class description fields, each action class description field having a first field containing data which specifies a particular action class and a second field containing data which specifies a generic explanation of the action specified in the corresponding first field, the action class list arranged to be used during playback of an action to determine an explanation associated with the action class of the action and to accompany the played back action with the determined explanation.

27. A computer-readable medium as defined in claim 42 wherein said second field identifies a software routine capable of producing an explanation based upon properties of a recorded action.