GENERATING SYNCHRONIZED INTERACTIVE LINK MAPS LINKING TRACKED VIDEO OBJECTS TO OTHER MULTIMEDIA CONTENT IN REAL-TIME

• US 20090083815A1
• Filed: 09/19/2008
• Published: 03/26/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 09/19/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Eustace P. Isidore, Orlando Mcmaster
• Original Assignee: Eustace P. Isidore, Orlando Mcmaster
• Inventors: McMaster, Orlando, Isidore, Eustace P.
• Granted Patent: US 8,843,959 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 725/110
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4725 using interactive regions of the image, e.g. hot spots details of information retrieval from the Internet by using URLs G06F16/955; processing chained hypermedia data for information retrieval G06F16/94
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47815 Electronic shopping payment schemes, payment architectures or payment protocols for electronic shopping systems G06Q20/12
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8586 by using a URL processing chained hypermedia data for information retrieval G06F16/94; information retrieval from the Internet by using URLs G06F16/955; URL in broadcast information H04H20/93; Web-based protocols H04L67/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17318 Direct or substantially direct transmission and handling of requests

Abstract

The method, system and computer program product generate online interactive maps linking tracked objects (in a live or pre-recorded video sequence) to multimedia content in real time. Specifically, an object tracking and link generation (OTLG) utility allows a user to access multimedia content by clicking on moving (or still) objects within the frames of a video (or image) sequence. The OTLG utility identifies and stores a clear image(s) of an object or of multiple objects to be tracked and initiates a mechanism to track the identified objects over a sequence of video or image frames. The OTLG utility utilizes the results of the tracking mechanism to generate, for each video frame, an interactive map frame with interactive links placed in the map frame at a location corresponding to the object'"'"'s tracked location in each video frame.

Claims

1. A method for providing linked content within an electronic display, the method comprising:

receiving the linked content, including link information associated with one or more viewable images within the linked content;

displaying the linked content on a display device;

enabling manipulation of a selecting affordance that enables individual identification of specific ones of the viewable images within the linked content displayed on the display device;

in response to a selection via the selecting affordance of one of the viewable images with an associated link information, automatically providing additional information corresponding to the selected viewable image, wherein the additional information is hidden from view when the selected viewable image is not currently being selected by the selecting affordance; and

enabling access, via a secondary source, to third party information related to the selected viewable image when a link corresponding to the selected viewable image is subsequently selected.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the additional information includes a selectable link, that when selected triggers an access to the secondary source; and

said enabling access comprises;

detecting a selection of the selectable link;

retrieving, via the selectable link, an address corresponding to a location of the third party information at the secondary source; and

generating a query that includes the address and transmitting the query to the secondary source via an external connection to the secondary source.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

identifying an object of a plurality of objects within one frame of an image, wherein the image is one frame of a plurality of frames of a running multimedia sequence;

generating a dynamic interactive link corresponding to the object;

associating the dynamic interactive link to the object;

tracking the object via the dynamic interactive link, as the object is presented within other frames of the plurality of frames, wherein the object is tracked as the object changes appearance and location within the running multimedia sequence.

4. The method of claim 3, said associating the dynamic interactive link further comprising:

determining a location of the object on a display;

determining an ideal placement of the dynamic interactive link, utilizing a set of tracking parameters; and

selecting a set of optimal characteristics for displaying the dynamic interactive link, said set of optimal characteristics comprising one or more of a color of the dynamic interactive link, a relative brightness of the dynamic interactive link compared to a brightness of the object and a background on which the object is displayed, a size of the dynamic interactive link, and a shape of the dynamic interactive link.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

generating a transparent frame having similar dimensions to the plurality of frames;

placing one or more dynamic interactive links on to the transparent frame at the ideal placement for each of the one or more dynamic interactive links to generate an interactive link map;

overlaying each frame of the plurality of frames with the transparent frame to associated the interactive link map with the corresponding objects to which each of the one or more dynamic interactive links correspond;

selectively enabling dynamic interactive links of the transparent frame to be visible by turning on a view-enable features of the transparent frame in response to a trigger;

monitoring for receipt of the trigger to turn on the view-enable features of the transparent frame; and

maintaining the transparent frame in an invisible state when the view-enable features are turned off.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

overlaying each of the plurality of frames with a modified version of the interactive link map, which provides a modification of a presence and/or location of each dynamic interactive link within a modified version of the overlay frame to track a relative presence and location of each viewable object in each new frame of the plurality of frames; and

synchronizing the interactive map link with the new frame, including synchronizing the interactive map link to correspond to any detected changes in frame size, frame speed, and frame positioning.

7. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

detecting a request for listing all interactive links within one or more frames;

providing a list of the interactive links within one or more of an overlay view or a dashboard view or a frame border view in response to the request, wherein the frame border view provides a set of interactive links at the border of the interactive link map without directly tracking the objects within the frame; and

dynamically accessing multimedia content by activation of the functional feature associated with a selected dynamic interactive link.

8. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

enabling functionality corresponding to the interactive link map during a display of content from a multimedia device, including one or more of a digital video disc (DVD), compact disc (CD), an other digital media;

maintaining a functionality of the interactive links during changes detected in frame size, frame speed, and frame positioning; and

displaying the functionality for dynamic interactive links within a paused frame when a running multimedia sequence is paused.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

detecting when a coordinate location of a mouse click miss occurs within a preset distance from one or both of a previous and a current location of an interactive link corresponding to a moving object; and

in response to detecting the mouse click miss within the preset distance, automatically displaying a new selection window, which enables selection of one or more of a plurality of link options, wherein said selection of link options include one or more of;

(a) selecting from among a set of identified selectable links within the preset distance from the coordinate location of the mouse click miss on a current frame being displayed at a time the mouse click miss is detected; and

(b) selecting from among a displayed set of selectable links that were located within a small perimeter distance of the coordinate location within a pre-set number of frames previously displayed before the mouse click miss was detected.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

displaying information corresponding to the viewable object within the linked content within a dashboard provided at one of;

(a) a single location of the display screen, wherein the viewable object within the linked content is identified with a single dimension entry of the dashboard, wherein said displaying includes providing a horizontal coordinate and a vertical coordinate of the viewable object relative to the linked content within the frame;

or

(b) two or more locations of the display screen selected based on a horizontal coordinate position and a vertical coordinate position, wherein the two or more locations align each section of the dashboard perpendicularly to each other;

resizing the frames relative to the display device to create one or more spaces for location of the dashboards.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

enabling access to the information associated with the interactive links by use of audio input, including speech;

converting a received audio input to a text representation;

connecting the text representation to an identifier (ID) of a viewable object, which ID most closely matches the text representation of the received audio input;

automatically providing access to information related to the viewable object with the matching ID.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein said automatically providing comprises:

opening a second window to view the information;

retrieving the information into the second window, said retrieving including retrieving from the secondary source when retrieval from the secondary source is required;

enabling zoom functionality in the second window; and

when the retrieved information in the second window is a next running multimedia sequence;

automatically pausing the next running multimedia sequence; and

waiting for detection of an input to play the next running multimedia sequence.