System and method for automating the creation of customized multimedia content

• US 20070038938A1
• Filed: 08/15/2005
• Published: 02/15/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 08/15/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Disney Enterprises Incorporated (The Walt Disney Company)
• Original Assignee: Disney Enterprises Incorporated (The Walt Disney Company)
• Inventors: Canora, David, Colglazier, Michael, Swirsky, Robert, Goodman, Eric, Weaver, Ronald
• Granted Patent: US 8,201,073 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/731
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 2220/2562 DVDs [digital versatile discs]; Digital video discs; MMCDs; HDCDs
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/034 on discs G11B27/036, G11B27/038 take precedence

Abstract

A method and system for enabling the creation of custom-choreographed multimedia content by combining content selected by a user with additional predefined content not selected by the user using an intelligent scripting and video rendering engine. The system and method reduce the user'"'"'s involvement in preparing the multimedia content to simply selecting specific content the user wants to include in the final multimedia product and leaves the choreography and creation of the final product to the system and method, which intelligently script the final multimedia product based on the particular content selected by a user and/or any characteristics associated with the selected content.

Claims

1. A method of automatically creating customized media content, the method comprising:

generating a first set of metadata for at least a portion of predefined media content;

receiving user-selected media content from a user to be included in the customized media content;

receiving input from the user corresponding to the user-selected media content;

generating a second set of metadata from the input;

automatically selecting at least the portion of the predefined media content if a threshold for similarity has been surpassed as a result of comparing the first set of metadata with the second set of metadata according to a set of rules;

creating a script for the customized multimedia content, the script including a reference to the user-selected media content and a reference to at least the portion of the predefined media content; and

generating the customized multimedia content by parsing and verifying the script.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the first set of metadata describes a characteristic of the predefined content.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the second set of metadata describes a characteristic of the predefined content.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the threshold for similarity threshold that requires an exact match between the search string of the first metadata and the second metadata.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the threshold for similarity requires a match between the search string of the first set of metadata and at least a portion of the second set of metadata.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the threshold for similarity requires a match between at least a portion of the search string of the first set of metadata and at least a portion of the second set of metadata.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the script further includes additional metadata for the customized multimedia content.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the additional metadata is a media identifier.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein the additional metadata is color identifier.

10. The method of claim 7, wherein the additional metadata is a display time.

11. The method of claim 7, wherein the additional metadata is type of media.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the input from the user is a selection of a theme.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the input from the user is a title for the customized multimedia content.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the input from the user is an order of user-selected media content.

15. A method of automatically creating customized multimedia content, the method comprising:

receiving content media selected by a user to be included in the customized multimedia content;

automatically creating a script for the customized multimedia content based upon a set of rules associated with the user-selected content; and

generating the customized multimedia content by parsing and verifying the created script.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the script is created without further interaction from the user after the user selects the content to include.

17. The method of claim 15, further comprising selecting additional predefined media content to include in the created script based upon the user-selected media content.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the set of rules determines a relationship between the user-selected media content and the predefined media content in the customized multimedia content.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein generating the customized multimedia content comprises:

validating all user-selected media content and predefined media content identified in the script;

converting the script into rendering instructions; and

processing the rendering instructions to create the customized multimedia content.

20. The method of claim 15, wherein the user-selected content media contains metadata.

21. The method of claim 20, further comprising selecting additional predefined media content to include in the created script based upon the metadata contained in the user-selected media content.

22. The method of claim 15, further comprising generating a multimedia disc using the customized multimedia content.

23. The method of claim 15, wherein the user-selected media content includes at least one of images, video, audio, text and graphics.

24. The method of claim 23, wherein said predefined media content includes at least one of images, video, audio, text and graphics.

25. The method of claim 24, wherein said customized multimedia content includes a combination of at least two of images, video, audio, text and graphics.

26. The method of claim 15, wherein the script is created into a description file.

27. The method of claim 26, wherein the description file is rendered into a video file when creating the customized multimedia content.

28. The method of claim 17, wherein the user-selected media content comprises images and the predefined media content comprises at least one of video, audio, text, graphics and images.

29. A system of automatically creating customized multimedia content, the system comprising:

an input device that receives media content selected by a user to be included in the customized multimedia content;

a scripting engine that automatically creates a script for the customized multimedia content based upon a set of rules associated with the user-selected content; and

a rendering engine that parses and verifies the script to generate the customized multimedia content.

30. The system of claim 29, wherein the scripting engine creates the script without further interaction from the user after the user selects the content to include.

31. The system of claim 29, wherein the system further permits a user to select additional predefined media content to include in the created script based upon the user-selected media content.

32. The system of claim 31, wherein the set of rules determines a relationship between the user-selected media content and the predefined media content in the customized multimedia content.

33. The system of claim 32, wherein the rendering engine further:

validates all user-selected media content and predefined media content identified in the script;

converts the script into rendering instructions; and

processes the rendering instructions to create the customized multimedia content.

34. The system of claim 29, wherein the user-selected content media contains metadata.

35. The system of claim 34, wherein the scripting engine permits to further select additional predefined media content to include in the created script based upon the metadata contained in the user-selected media content.

36. The system of claim 29, further comprising a media creation device that generates a multimedia disc using the customized multimedia content.

37. The system of claim 29, wherein the user-selected media content includes at least one of images, video, audio, text and graphics.

38. The system of claim 37, wherein said predefined media content includes at least one of images, video, audio, text and graphics.

39. The system of claim 38, wherein said customized multimedia content includes a combination of at least two of images, video, audio, text and graphics.

40. The system of claim 29, wherein the scripting engine creates the script as a description file.

41. The system of claim 40, wherein the rendering engine renders the description file into a video file when creating the customized multimedia content.

42. The system of claim 41, wherein the user-selected media content comprises images and the predefined media content comprises at least one of video, audio, text, graphics and images.

43. A computer-readable medium having instructions stored therein for automatically creating customized multimedia content, the instructions comprising:

receiving content media selected by a user to be included in the customized multimedia content;

automatically creating a script for the customized multimedia content based upon a set of rules associated with the user-selected content; and

generating the customized multimedia content by parsing and verifying the created script.

44. The computer-readable medium of claim 43, further comprising selecting additional predefined media content to include in the created script based upon the user-selected media content.

45. The computer-readable medium of claim 44, wherein the set of rules determines a relationship between the user-selected media content and the predefined media content in the customized multimedia content.

46. The computer-readable medium of claim 45, wherein generating the customized multimedia content comprises:

validating all user-selected media content and predefined media content identified in the script;

converting the script into rendering instructions; and

processing the rendering instructions to create the customized multimedia content.

47. The computer-readable medium of claim 43, wherein the user-selected content media contains metadata.

48. The computer-readable medium of claim 47, further comprising selecting additional predefined media content to include in the created script based upon the metadata contained in the user-selected media content.