Combining and displaying multimedia content

• US 20070204209A1
• Filed: 02/28/2006
• Published: 08/30/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 02/28/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Park, Jae Pum, Shahpurwala, Shabbir Abbas, Truelove, Benjamin Nicholas, Lewis, William Mountain, Chan, Chunkit
• Granted Patent: US 7,979,790 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/203
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/4393 Multimedia presentations, e.g. slide shows, multimedia albums

Abstract

A method and system to manage rendering of multimedia content are provided. A theme specifies a collection of layouts defining multimedia content placement. The multimedia content is processed to extract one or more characteristics. The layouts are selected and populated with multimedia content based on the one or more characteristics associated with the multimedia content. The multimedia content is rendered by transitioning through the selected layouts.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method to display multimedia content, the method comprising:

receiving multimedia content;

selecting a theme having a collection of layouts to organize the multimedia content;

populating the layouts with the multimedia content based on characteristics of the multimedia content; and

displaying the layouts having the multimedia content by way of camera movements and content movements.

2. The computer-implemented method according to claim 1, wherein displaying the layouts having the multimedia content by way of camera movements further comprises, presenting the layouts in a sequence associated with the theme.

3. The computer-implemented method according to claim 2, wherein the sequence is selected based on an aspect ratio associated with the multimedia content.

4. The computer-implemented method according to claim 2, wherein the sequence is altered based on a count of multimedia content remaining to be displayed.

5. The computer-implemented method according to claim 1, wherein the multimedia content include video and image content.

6. The computer-implemented method according to claim 5, wherein the layouts simultaneously display video and image content.

7. The computer-implemented method according to claim 6, wherein the layouts include a default display time, and the default display time for layouts having video content is equated to a play time associated with the video content.

8. A computer-readable medium storing a data structure that provides a graphical layout, the data structure comprising:

a collection of multimedia content; and

one or more themes to organize the multimedia content, wherein the themes further comprises,

a collection of layouts describing placement of the collection of multimedia content, and

a cadence defining transitions between layouts in the collection based on characteristics associated with the multimedia content.

9. The computer-readable medium according to claim 8, wherein the one or more themes specify default parameters for the collection of layouts.

10. The computer-readable medium according to claim 8, wherein the transitions are camera movements.

11. The computer-readable medium according to claim 8, wherein the layout includes placeholders that define the placement of the collection of multimedia content.

12. The computer-readable medium according to claim 11, wherein the placeholders are geometric shapes.

13. The computer-readable medium according to claim 11, wherein the placeholders scales to fit the multimedia content.

14. The computer-readable medium according to claim 8, wherein the layout is described in a markup language.

15. A system to manage multimedia content, the system comprising:

a collection having multimedia content and layouts;

a synthesizer to select layouts based on characteristics associated with the multimedia content and generate buffers for the multimedia content; and

a graphics-processing unit to render the buffers.

16. The system according to claim 15, wherein the synthesizer calculates aspect ratios associated with the multimedia content.

17. The system according to claim 16, wherein the layout is selected based on the aspect ratio of the multimedia content.

18. The system according to claim 15, wherein the buffers are periodically updated with multimedia content.

19. The system according to claim 18, wherein the layout includes background content related to previously rendered multimedia content.

20. The system according to claim 19, wherein the buffers are rendered on the background content.