VIDEO PREVIEW MODULE TO ENHANCE ONLINE VIDEO EXPERIENCE

• US 20110113336A1
• Filed: 07/27/2010
• Published: 05/12/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 11/06/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Gunatilake, Priyan Deveka
• Granted Patent: US 8,438,484 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/723
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/51 Indexing; Data structures therefor; Storage structures
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 18/21 Design or setup of recognition systems or techniques; Extraction of features in feature space; Blind source separation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 18/22 Matching criteria, e.g. proximity measures
• CPC Class Codes: G06N 5/04 Inference or reasoning models
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/535 Tracking the activity of the user network monitoring arrangements H04L43/00; recording of computer activity G06F11/34
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44008 involving operations for analysing video streams, e.g. detecting features or characteristics in the video stream arrangements characterised by components specially adapted for monitoring, identification or recognition of video in broadcast systems H04H60/59
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/440263 by altering the spatial resolution, e.g. for displaying on a connected PDA
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/472 End-user interface for requesting content, additional data or services; End-user interface for interacting with content, e.g. for content reservation or setting reminders, for requesting event notification, for manipulating displayed content end-user interfaces for retrieving video data from a database G06F16/739; network services for supporting unicast streaming H04L65/612
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/80 Camera processing pipelines; Components thereof

Abstract

A Video Preview Module, a fast and adaptable software module designed to generate an on-the-fly video storyboard that enhances the online video browsing experience of the user. The VP module is a client-side implementation. This allows the module to be scalable and adaptable in bringing a uniform online video browsing experience over multiple consumer devices.

Claims

1. Client-side apparatus comprising:

processor;

video display controlled by the processor;

network interface by which the processor receives Internet video from a server over the Internet;

user input device communicating with the processor to send user selection signals to the processor;

the processor executing a video preview module (VPM) to create an “

on-the-fly”

storyboard of the Internet video, the storyboard including only a subset of frames in the video, the processor presenting the storyboard on the video display, the VPM including;

a streamer block establishing one or more parallel connections to the server to obtain from the server the Internet video;

a decoder cooperating with the streamer block to stream in portions of video content from various locations of the Internet video, the decoder decoding frames from the Internet video;

a frame selector operating on data from the streamer block to select a subset of frames from the stream for the storyboard for presentation of the storyboard on the display under control of a display block.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the VPM further includes a controller block serving as overall manager of the VPM and executing initialization and run-time controls of all blocks, event handling, and responses.

3. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the controller block receives at least a size and a resolution of the display and based at least partially thereon determines how many frames from the Internet video to use to establish the storyboard.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the streamer block fetches “

M”

chunks of data for each of a sequence of non-overlapping sections of the Internet video.

5. The apparatus of claim 4, wherein each chunk of data is established by an intraframe (I-frame).

6. The apparatus of claim 4, wherein the chunks of data are equally spaced chunks from each other in a respective section of the Internet video and are separated from each other by data in the Internet video.

7. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the streamer block establishes multiple parallel streaming connections a link associated with the Internet video.

8. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the decoder receives frames from the streamer block, decodes the frames, and sends the frames into a queue for processing by the frame selector.

9. The apparatus of claim 4, wherein the frame selector uses a feature selection vector to establish an initial storyboard using only a subset of the “

M”

chunks of data fetched by the streamer block.

10. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the initial storyboard is presented on the display and subsequently an expanded storyboard established by all of the “

M”

chunks of data fetched by the streamer block is presented on the display.

11. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the feature selection vector is one or more of I-frame size, a frame luminance histogram.

12. Consumer electronics (CE) device comprising:

housing;

display on the housing;

network interface;

processor controlling the display and communicating through the network interface;

the processor executing logic including;

receiving one or more parameters associated with the display;

based on the one or more parameters associated with the display determining an integer number “

M”

of data chunks to be extracted from each of a sequence of sections of a video;

responsive to a user selection of a video link presented on the display, communicating with a server on a wide area network to receive from the server a video associated with the video link;

extracting “

M”

data chunks from at least plural sections of the video received from the server on the wide area network;

decoding the data chunks;

establishing a storyboard using only the “

M”

data chunks from each of the plural sections of the video received from the server on the wide area network; and

presenting the storyboard on the display.

13. The CE device of claim 12, wherein the processor prior to establishing a storyboard using only the “

M”

data chunks from each of the plural sections of the video received from the server on the wide area network establishes an initial storyboard using only of a subset of the “

M”

data chunks and presents the initial storyboard on the display.

14. The CE device of claim 13, wherein the processor uses a feature selection vector to establish the initial storyboard.

15. The CE device of claim 14, wherein the initial storyboard is presented on the display and subsequently an expanded storyboard established by all of the “

M”

data chunks is presented on the display.

16. The CE device of claim 14, wherein the feature selection vector is one or more of I-frame size, a frame luminance histogram.

17. A Video Preview Module (VPM) contained on a non-transitory computer readable storage medium and executable by a client side processor to generate an on-the-fly video storyboard that enhances online video browsing experiences of users, the VPM being scalable and adaptable in bringing a uniform online video browsing experience over multiple consumer devices.

18. The VPM of claim 17, comprising:

a streamer block establishing one or more parallel connections to an Internet server to obtain from the server an Internet video;

a decoder cooperating with the streamer block to stream in portions of video content from various locations of the Internet video, the decoder decoding frames from the Internet video;

a frame selector operating on data from the streamer block to select a subset of frames from the stream for the storyboard for presentation of the storyboard on a display under control of a display block.

19. The VPM of claim 18, wherein the VPM further includes a controller block serving as overall manager of the VPM and executing initialization and run-time controls of all blocks, event handling, and responses.

20. The VPM of claim 19, wherein the controller block receives at least a size and a resolution of the display and based at least partially thereon determines how many frames from the Internet video to use to establish the storyboard.