Capturing and Sharing Media Content

• US 20070168543A1
• Filed: 01/07/2007
• Published: 07/19/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 06/07/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sling Media LLC (Echostar Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Sling Media Incorporated (Echostar Corporation)
• Inventors: Krikorian, Jason, Krikorian, Blake
• Granted Patent: US 7,975,062 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/231
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/034 on discs G11B27/036, G11B27/038 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/80 characterised by transmission among terminal devices
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1101 Session protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/4015 where at least one of the additional parallel sessions is real time or time sensitive, e.g. white board sharing, collaboration or spawning of a subconference
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/60 Network streaming of media packets
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/611 for multicast or broadcast systems for broadcast or conference H04L12/18; arrangements for broadcast or distribution combined with broadcast H04H20/00; arrangements for broadcast applications with a direct linkage to broadcast information or to broadcast space-time H04H60/00; selective distribution of broadcast services, e.g. multimedia broadcast multicast service [MBMS], H04W4/06
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/613 for the control of the source by the destination control signals issued by the client directed to the server or network components specially adapted for selective content distribution H04N21/637
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/70 Media network packetisation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/762 at the source reformatting of additional data in video distribution servers H04N21/2355
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/765 intermediate
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/102 characterised by the element, parameter or selection affected or controlled by the adaptive coding
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/107 between spatial and temporal predictive coding, e.g. picture refresh
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/115 Selection of the code volume for a coding unit prior to coding
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/117 Filters, e.g. for pre-processing or post-processing sub-band filter banks H04N19/635
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/132 Sampling, masking or truncation of coding units, e.g. adaptive resampling, frame skipping, frame interpolation or high-frequency transform coefficient masking
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/137 Motion inside a coding unit, e.g. average field, frame or block difference
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/14 Coding unit complexity, e.g. amount of activity or edge presence estimation H04N19/146 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/152 by measuring the fullness of the transmission buffer
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/162 User input
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/164 Feedback from the receiver or from the transmission channel
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/172 : the region being a picture, frame or field
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/182 : the unit being a pixel
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/188 : the unit being a video data packet, e.g. a network abstraction layer [NAL] unit
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/40 : using video transcoding, i.e. partial or full decoding of a coded input stream followed by re-encoding of the decoded output stream
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/61 : in combination with predictive coding
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/80 : Details of filtering operations specially adapted for video compression, e.g. for pixel interpolation H04N19/635, H04N19/86 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/85 : using pre-processing or post-processing specially adapted for video compression
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/23406 : involving management of server-side video buffer
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/23424 : involving splicing one content stream with another content stream, e.g. for inserting or substituting an advertisement
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/235 : Processing of additional data, e.g. scrambling of additional data or processing content descriptors
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/25891 : being end-user preferences retrieval of video data in a video database based on user preferences G06F16/739; arrangements for recognizing users' preferences H04H60/46; 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 21/2743 : Video hosting of uploaded data from client
• 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 21/4331 : Caching operations, e.g. of an advertisement for later insertion during playback
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/435 : Processing of additional data, e.g. decrypting of additional data, reconstructing software from modules extracted from the transport stream
• 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 21/4383 : Accessing a communication channel
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4384 : involving operations to reduce the access time, e.g. fast-tuning for reducing channel switching latency
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44004 : involving video buffer management, e.g. video decoder buffer or video display buffer
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4402 : involving reformatting operations of video signals for household redistribution, storage or real-time display details of conversion of video standards at pixel level H04N7/01; video transcoding H04N19/40; adapting incoming signals to the display format of the display terminal G09G5/005; media handling at the source in data packet switching networks H04L65/764
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4788 : communicating with other users, e.g. chatting arrangements for providing for computer conferences, e.g. chat rooms, to substation in data switching networks H04L12/1813; distributed application using peer-to-peer [P2P] networks H04L67/104
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/632 : using a connection between clients on a wide area network, e.g. setting up a peer-to-peer communication via Internet for retrieving video segments from the hard-disk of other client devices broadcast-related systems characterised by transmission among terminal devices H04H60/80; distributed application using peer-to-peer [P2P] networks H04L67/104
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6587 : Control parameters, e.g. trick play commands, viewpoint selection
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/812 : involving advertisement data advertising per se G06Q30/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/165 : Centralised control of user terminal subsequent to an upstream request signal H04N7/17345; Registering at central by two-way working H04N7/17309

Abstract

A media device allows users to watch and capture portions from a media stream. Users may then share the captured media content with other users. In one embodiment, the media device receives a media stream, plays the media stream, and caches a portion of the media stream as it is being played. A user can define a media clip by selecting its boundaries in the cached portion of the media stream. The media device creates the media clip based on the user'"'"'s input and enables the user to transmit the media clip to another system, such as a community website for sharing it with other users.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for sharing media content, the method comprising:

playing a media stream on a display of the local computing device;

receiving a user command to capture a portion of the media stream via a user interface while playing the media stream;

responsive to receiving the user selection, creating a clip comprising at least a portion of the received media stream; and

responsive to creating the clip, transmitting the clip to a remote computing system.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the media stream is received from a place-shifting media system.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

caching the received media stream in a memory of the local computing device.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a user selection that defines a start point and an end point for the clip within the media stream, the user selection used in creating the clip.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the user selection is received via a graphical interface that allows a review of the media stream.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving information related to the clip; and

associating the information with the clip.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the information is received at least in part from a user input.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein the information is received at least in part from an automatic process for obtaining information about the clip.

9. The method of claim 6, wherein the information is received at least in part by extracting meta data embedded in the media stream.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein transmitting the clip comprises uploading the clip to a media content sharing website.

11. A computer program product for sharing media content, the computer program product comprising a computer-readable medium containing computer program code for performing a method comprising:

playing a media stream on a display of the local computing device;

receiving a user command to capture a portion of the media stream via a user interface while playing the media stream;

responsive to receiving the user selection, creating a clip comprising at least a portion of the received media stream; and

responsive to creating the clip, transmitting the clip to a remote computing system.

12. The computer program product of claim 11, wherein the media stream is received from a place-shifting media system.

13. The computer program product of claim 11, further comprising:

caching the received media stream in a memory of the local computing device.

14. The computer program product of claim 11, further comprising:

receiving a user selection that defines a start point and an end point for the clip within the media stream, the user selection used in creating the clip.

15. The computer program product of claim 14, wherein the user selection is received via a graphical interface that allows a review of the media stream.

16. The computer program product of claim 11, further comprising:

receiving information related to the clip; and

associating the information with the clip.

17. The computer program product of claim 16, wherein the information is received at least in part from a user input.

18. The computer program product of claim 16, wherein the information is received at least in part from an automatic process for obtaining information about the clip.

19. The computer program product of claim 16, wherein the information is received at least in part by extracting meta data embedded in the media stream.

20. The computer program product of claim 11, wherein transmitting the clip comprises uploading the clip to a media content sharing website.

21. An integrated media system for sharing media content, the system comprising:

a media player module for playing a media stream, the media stream received by the integrated media stream;

a media editor module for caching the media stream, receiving user selection of the cached media stream, and creating a clip comprising at least a portion of the cached media stream based on the user selection; and

a network client module for transmitting the clip to a remote computing system.

22. A method for sharing media content, the method comprising:

receiving a media stream on a local computing device;

playing the media stream on an integrated user interface;

receiving a first user command to capture the media stream via the integrated user interface;

responsive to receiving the first user command, displaying a media edit window via the integrated user interface;

receiving a user selection for defining a portion of the media stream via the media edit window;

responsive to receiving the user selection, creating a clip comprising the defined portion of the media stream based on the user selection;

receiving a second user command to transmit the clip to a computing system via the integrated user interface; and

responsive to receiving the second user command, transmitting the clip to the computer system.

23. The method of claim 22, further comprising:

receiving information related to the clip via the integrated user interface; and

associating the received information with the clip.

24. A computer program product for sharing media content, the computer program product comprising a computer-readable medium containing computer program code for performing a method comprising:

receiving a media stream on a local computing device;

playing the media stream on an integrated user interface;

receiving a first user command to capture the media stream via the integrated user interface;

responsive to receiving the first user command, displaying a media edit window via the integrated user interface;

receiving a user selection for defining a portion of the media stream via the media edit window;

responsive to receiving the user selection, creating a clip comprising the defined portion of the media stream based on the user selection;

receiving a second user command to transmit the clip to a computing system via the integrated user interface; and

responsive to receiving the second user command, transmitting the clip to the computer system.