Time-based graphical user interface for multimedia content

• US 20060020962A1
• Filed: 05/02/2005
• Published: 01/26/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 04/30/2004
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Vulcan SA (Ampco-Pittsburgh Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Vulcan SA (Ampco-Pittsburgh Corporation)
• Inventors: Sterling, Daniel R., Stacie, Michael, Tanumihardja, Marcellino, Stark, Korina J.B.
• Application Number:
  US11/121,302
• Publication Number:
  US 20060020962A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 725/32
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/95 Retrieval from the web
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/034 on discs G11B27/036, G11B27/038 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/329 on a disc [VTOC]
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/34 Indicating arrangements indicating means incorporated in magazine or cassette G11B23/046 and G11B23/0875; indicating measured values in general G01D
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2818 from a device located outside both the home and the home network access arrangements H04L12/2856; for remote control or remote monitoring of applications H04L67/025; arrangements for transmitting signals characterised by the use of a wireless eletrical link G08C17/00; telephonic communication systems adapted for combination with remote control systems H04M11/007
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/282 based on user interaction within the home receiver circuitry for displaying additional information being controlled by a remote control apparatus H04N21/42204
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2834 Switching of information between an external network and a home network access arrangements H04L12/2856
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2012/2849 Audio/video appliances
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72403 with means for local support of applications that increase the functionality
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72415 for remote control of appliances
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4131 home appliance, e.g. lighting, air conditioning system, metering devices home automation data switching networks exchanging configuration information on appliance services H04L12/2807
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4147 PVR [Personal Video Recorder] H04N5/76 takes precedence ; arrangements for broadcast with accumulation-type receivers H04H20/40
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4227 Providing Remote input by a user located remotely from the client device, e.g. at work
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4312 involving specific graphical features, e.g. screen layout, special fonts or colors, blinking icons, highlights or animations
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4314 for fitting data in a restricted space on the screen, e.g. EPG data in a rectangular grid
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4316 for displaying supplemental content in a region of the screen, e.g. an advertisement in a separate window
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/43615 Interfacing a Home Network, e.g. for connecting the client to a plurality of peripherals home Audio Video Interoperability [HAVI] data switching networks H04L12/2805
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4622 Retrieving content or additional data from different sources, e.g. from a broadcast channel and the Internet web site content organization and management for information retrieval from the Internet G06F16/958; transmission by internet of broadcast information H04H60/82; stock exchange data over packet-switching network H04L12/1804; push services including data channel over packet-switching network H04L12/1859
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47 End-user applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47214 for content reservation or setting reminders; for requesting event notification, e.g. of sport results or stock market stock exchange data over packet-switching network H04L12/1804; push services over packet-switching network H04L12/1859; notification of incoming messages in packet switching networks H04L51/224
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/482 : End-user interface for program selection broadcast systems using EPGs H04H60/72
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4821 : using a grid, e.g. sorted out by channel and broadcast time
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4828 : for searching program descriptors retrieval of video data G06F16/739
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4858 : for modifying screen layout parameters, e.g. fonts, size of the windows
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/163 : by receiver means only

Abstract

A graphical user interface (“GUI”) for a content management system is provided, such as to present information associated with various forms of multimedia content. In some situations, the GUI includes information presented simultaneously using at least first and second time scales, such as to provide relatively detailed information for content corresponding to a shorter time scale (e.g., to display content listings with details about content that corresponds to a time period at the shorter time scale) and to provide relatively limited information for content corresponding to a longer time scale (e.g., indications of other content of potential interest corresponding to times outside the time period of the shorter time scale). In addition, in some situations the relatively limited information for content corresponding to the longer time scale may be selectable by the user to provide various functionality related to that content.

Claims

1. A method for a computing device to present information about multimedia content via a graphical user interface, the method comprising:

receiving metadata information for each of a plurality of indicated pieces of multimedia content that are each associated with at least one time-related characteristic;

determining a plurality of the indicated pieces of multimedia content that have associated time-related characteristics that correspond to a selected period of time, and identifying one or more other of the indicated pieces of multimedia content that have associated time-related characteristics that do not correspond to the selected period of time; and

displaying to a user of the computing device a graphical user interface having information about pieces of multimedia content available for presentation, the displayed graphical user interface including at least some of the received metadata information for each of the determined plurality of pieces of multimedia content, the displayed graphical user interface further including a first timebar that includes indications of times outside the selected period of time and that includes a graphical indicator for each of at least one of the identified one or more other pieces of multimedia content, each graphical indicator for an identified piece of multimedia content being displayed on the first timebar at an indicated time that corresponds to the associated time-related characteristic of the identified piece of multimedia content, so that metadata information is displayed for pieces of multimedia content that have time-related characteristics corresponding to the selected period of time and so that indications are displayed for at least some pieces of multimedia content that have time-related characteristics outside the selected period of time.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the pieces of multimedia content include any one or combination of music, photograph, image, video, advertisement, news clip, presentation, article, videogame, and Internet content, wherein the associated time-related characteristic of the pieces of multimedia content is one of a record date and time-of-day, a release date and time-of-day, a broadcast date and time-of-day, a receipt date and time-of-day, a creation date and time-of-day, a revision date and time-of-day, and a download date and time-of-day, wherein the pieces of multimedia content include pieces of multimedia content from a plurality of multimedia content sources, and wherein the received metadata information includes information for each of the pieces of multimedia content that includes a title and genre and one or more people associated with the pieces of multimedia content.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving one or more indications from the user of one or more criteria that can be related to at least one piece of multimedia content of interest, and wherein the identifying of the one or more other pieces of multimedia content is performed such that the identified one or more pieces of multimedia content each satisfy the indicated criteria, so that the graphical indicators displayed in the first timebar reflect pieces of multimedia content that satisfy the indicated criteria.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein the indicated criteria include one or more of a specified title value, a specified date value, a specified associated person value, a specified text value, a specified relationship value, a specified alphabetical value, a specified rating value, or a specified categorization value, including a value that pertains to at least one of a genre, a device used to create the content, a person who created the content, a source from which the content was acquired, a subject matter of the content, a file size, a color, a number of pixels, a frame rate, a measure of resolution, a display size of the content, and a use restriction on the content, and wherein the identifying of the one or more other pieces of multimedia content includes determining that the received metadata for the identified one or more pieces of multimedia content includes the specified values.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

modifying the graphical user interface in a manner that the first timebar has indications that are different than the indications of time and that represent at least one of the indicated criteria; and

displaying a second timebar simultaneously with the first timebar, the second timebar including indications that are subsets of the indications of the first timebar that represent the at least one of the indicated criteria, the second timebar further having a region associated therewith that is capable to present metadata information for pieces of multimedia content that correspond to the indications of the second timebar and that have been organized and manipulated by the user based on at least one of the indicated criteria.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein displaying the second timebar with the region associated therewith that is capable to present metadata information for pieces of multimedia content that have been organized and manipulated by the user based on at least one of the indicated criteria includes presenting the metadata information in the region according to a hierarchical relationship between the metadata information.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising displaying an appearance, of the metadata information for pieces of multimedia content that have time-related characteristics corresponding to the selected period of time or of the at least some pieces of multimedia content that have time-related characteristics outside the selected period of time, in a similar manner for similar multimedia content types and in a different manner for different multimedia content types.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing status information pertaining to at least one of the pieces of multimedia content.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein providing the status information includes providing status information associated with a plurality of devices that respectively control presentation of the pieces of multimedia content, at least some of the plurality of devices being associated with different multiple first timebars on the graphical user interface, each first timebar further being associated with a second timebar that can be displayed simultaneously with their associated first timebar, the second time bar having indications that are subsets of the indications of their associated first timebar.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein the graphical indicators included in the first timebar are displayed in such a manner as to have differing appearances, the appearance of each graphical indicator for an identified piece of multimedia content being specified so as to indicate a status of the identified piece of multimedia content relative to one or more statuses of other identified pieces of multimedia content.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein at least some of the indications in the first timebar of the times outside the selected period of time are each user-selectable, the method further comprising:

receiving an indication of a selection by the user of one of the user-selectable indications of time in the first timebar;

selecting a new period of time based on the selected time indication; and

updating the displayed graphical user interface to include at least some of the received metadata information for each piece of multimedia content whose associated time-related characteristic corresponds to the selected new period of time.

12. The method of claim 1 wherein the indicated times for the first timebar represent a first time period and wherein the selected time period is a second distinct time period that is selected as a subset of the first time period, wherein the displayed graphical user interface further includes a second timebar that is displayed simultaneously with the first timebar and that indicates a plurality of segments of time within the second time period, wherein the displayed graphical user interface further includes a region associated with the second timebar that includes indications of a plurality of multimedia content sources, wherein the determined plurality of pieces of multimedia content include pieces of multimedia content from the plurality of multimedia content sources whose associated time-related characteristics correspond to one of the plurality of segments of time, and wherein the at least some metadata information about the determined plurality of pieces of multimedia content that is included in the displayed graphical user interface is displayed in a grid format within the region associated with the second timebar and includes detail information for each of the determined plurality of pieces of multimedia content.

13. A computer-readable medium whose contents enable a computing device to present information about multimedia content via a user interface, by performing a method comprising:

receiving information related to a plurality of pieces of multimedia content that are each associated with at least one organizational characteristic having a plurality of values; and

presenting a user interface to provide information regarding the pieces of multimedia content, by;

rendering a first bar on the user interface that corresponds to a first group of the values of the organizational characteristic;

rendering a region on the user interface that corresponds to a second group of the values of the organizational characteristic that is a subset of the first group;

populating the region with the received information for pieces of multimedia content that have associated organizational characteristic values corresponding to the second group; and

adding one or more indicators to the rendered first bar that correspond to pieces of multimedia content that have associated organizational characteristic values corresponding to values in the first group that are not in the second group.

14. The computer-readable medium of claim 13 wherein the organizational characteristic is one of time, one or more predefined types of relationships between pieces of content, and one or more categorization types.

15. The computer-readable medium of claim 13 wherein the computer-readable medium is a memory of the computing device and/or is a data transmission medium transmitting to the computing device a generated data signal containing the contents.

16. The computer-readable medium of claim 13 wherein the contents are instructions that when executed cause the computing device to perform the method.

17. A computing system configured to present information about multimedia content, comprising:

a display; and

a content management system configured to present on the display a graphical user interface having information about pieces of multimedia content, the presented graphical user interface including a first timebar that corresponds to a first time period and including detail information for each of a plurality of pieces of multimedia content associated with a second time period, the first timebar including one or more graphical indicators corresponding to one or more pieces of multimedia content that are each associated with a portion of the first time period that is outside of the second time period.

18. The computing system of claim 17, further comprising a device to control presentation of pieces of multimedia content on one or more presentation devices, and wherein the presented graphical user interface further includes user-selectable controls to allow a user to control the presentation of certain pieces of multimedia content on the one or more presentation devices via instructions sent to the device.

19. The computing system of claim 17 wherein the content management system includes software executing in memory of the computing system.

20. The computing system of claim 17 wherein the content management system consists of a means for presenting on the display a graphical user interface having information about pieces of multimedia content, the presented graphical user interface including a first timebar that corresponds to a first time period and including detail information for each of a plurality of pieces of multimedia content associated with a second time period, the first timebar including one or more graphical indicators corresponding to one or more pieces of multimedia content that are each associated with a portion of the first time period that is outside of the second time period.