ANNOTATING MEDIA FILES

• US 20070266304A1
• Filed: 05/15/2006
• Published: 11/15/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 05/15/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Maguire, Justin, Fletcher, Joseph, Miller, Michael
• Granted Patent: US 7,954,049 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/230
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/169 Annotation, e.g. comment data or footnotes

Abstract

A facility for annotating media files is described. In various embodiments, the facility displays a timeline indicating a duration of the media file, determines that an annotation is associated with the media file, and displays in an area near the timeline an indication of the associated annotation. In various embodiments, the facility displays a timeline indicative of a duration of the media file, receives an indication to add an annotation at an annotation time relative to the duration of the timeline, receives and stores an annotation, associates the annotation with the annotation time, and displays an indication of the stored annotation at an area near the timeline.

Claims

1. A method performed by a computer system for annotating a media file, comprising:

displaying a timeline, the timeline indicative of a duration of the media file;

receiving an indication to add an annotation at an annotation time relative to the duration indicated by the timeline;

receiving the annotation;

storing the received annotation;

associating the stored annotation with the annotation time; and

displaying at an area near the timeline an indication of the stored annotation, the area corresponding to the annotation time.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the media file is a digitized recording of a collaboration.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the media file is a multimedia file.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the indication to add an annotation is a selection of a context menu command.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein information associated with the annotation includes an identification of a user adding the annotation.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein information associated with the annotation includes an indication of a time relative to the beginning of the media file.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the annotation is text.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the annotation is an audio file.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein the annotation is a video file.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein the annotation is a multimedia file.

11. A system for annotating a media file, comprising:

a component that receives an annotation, the annotation added at an annotation time relative to an end of the media file, the annotation time identified by a position on a timeline representing a duration of the media file;

a component that stores the annotation and annotation time in association with the media file; and

a component that displays at an area near the timeline an indication of the annotation time.

12. The system of claim 11 further comprising an annotation creation component that creates an annotation based on a user action.

13. The system of claim 12 wherein the user action is to modify a shared document.

14. The system of claim 12 further comprising an annotation search component that searches for stored annotations matching a search criterion.

15. The system of claim 14 wherein the component that displays indications of stored annotations displays stored annotations matching the search criterion.

16. A computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions that, when executed, cause a computer system to perform a method for displaying annotations associated with a media file, the method comprising:

displaying a timeline indicating a duration of the media file;

determining that an annotation is associated with the media file; and

displaying in an area near the timeline an indication of the associated annotation.

17. The computer-readable medium of claim 16 further comprising:

receiving an indication to render the associated annotation; and

rendering the associated annotation.

18. The computer-readable medium of claim 17 wherein the rendering includes displaying a text annotation.

19. The computer-readable medium of claim 17 wherein the rendering includes playing back an audio annotation.

20. The computer-readable medium of claim 16 wherein the determining includes determining that the annotation matches a search criterion.