METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR NAVIGATING A MEDIA PROGRAM VIA A TRANSCRIPT OF MEDIA PROGRAM DIALOG

• US 20110145428A1
• Filed: 12/10/2009
• Published: 06/16/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 12/10/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hulu LLC (The Walt Disney Company)
• Original Assignee: Hulu LLC (The Walt Disney Company)
• Inventors: Wang, Zhibing, Narang, Varun, Wei, Eugene Chuan-Huai
• Granted Patent: US 8,332,530 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/231
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/745 the internal structure of a single video sequence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/7844 using original textual content or text extracted from visual content or transcript of audio data
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0481 based on specific properties of the displayed interaction object or a metaphor-based environment, e.g. interaction with desktop elements like windows or icons, or assisted by a cursor's changing behaviour or appearance
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1101 Session protocols

Abstract

A method and apparatus for navigating a media program via a searchable transcript of the dialog of the media program is disclosed. In one embodiment, a textural transcript of the dialog is generated, wherein the textural transcript comprising a plurality of portions wherein each portion is associated with a segment of the media program, a command is accepted to display the transcript and in response to that command, user interface data is transmitted to the client computer for presentation in a user interface, wherein the user interface comprising a concurrently presented media program player and the textural transcript.

Claims

1. A method of navigating a media program having dialog, comprising the steps of:

generating a textural transcript of the dialog, the textural transcript comprising a plurality of portions wherein each portion is associated with a segment of the media program;

accepting a command to display the transcript; and

transmitting user interface data to the client computer for presentation in a user interface, the user interface comprising a concurrently presented media program player and the textural transcript.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of:

accepting a selection of a portion of the transcript;

navigating to the segment of the media program associated with the selected portion of the textural transcript in response to the accepted selection.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the media program is encoded with closed captioning information and the step of generating a textural transcript of the dialog of the media program comprises the steps of:

playing the media program;

decoding the closed captioning information of the played media program;

associating the decoded closed captioning information with a temporal index of the media program; and

generating the textural transcript from the decoded closed captioning information and the temporal index.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of:

selecting a frame from a segment of the media program;

generating a thumbnail from the selected frame of the segment;

associating the generated thumbnail with the portion of the transcript associated with the segment of the media program; and

adding the generated thumbnail to the textural transcript.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the transcript concurrently presented with the media program comprises the generated thumbnail proximate the portion of the transcript associated with the segment of the media program.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein the user interface data further comprises a histogram having a plurality of features, each feature representing at least one of the segments of the media program and indicating how often the represented at least one of the segments of the media program has been viewed by a second client computer and a third client computer.

7. The method of claim 4, wherein the histogram is generated by performing steps comprising the steps of:

streaming at a first set of the media program segments to a first client computer;

streaming a second set of the media program segments to a second client computer;

generating the histogram from the combined first set of media program segments and the second set of media program segments.

8. The method of claim 6, further comprising the steps of:

accepting a first user input in the client computer to select one of the features; and

displaying the portion of the textural transcript associated with the segment represented by the selected feature.

9. The method of claim 6, further comprising the steps of:

accepting a search query having a keyword;

searching the textural transcript for a keyword; and

annotating the histogram to delineate the media program segments having dialog including the keyword.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the portion comprises a phrase.

11. An apparatus for navigating a media program having dialog, comprising:

means for generating a textural transcript of the dialog, the textural transcript comprising a plurality of portions wherein each portion is associated with a segment of the media program;

means for accepting a command to select the media program from a client computer; and

means for transmitting user interface data to the client computer for presentation in a user interface, the user interface comprising a concurrently presented media program player and the textural transcript.

12. The apparatus of claim 11, further comprising:

means for accepting a selection of a portion of the transcript; and

means for navigating to the segment of the media program associated with the selected portion of the textural transcript in response to the accepted selection.

13. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the media program is encoded with closed captioning information and the means for generating a textural transcript of the dialog of the media program comprises:

means for playing the media program;

means for decoding the closed captioning information of the played media program;

means for associating the decoded closed captioning information with a temporal index of the media program; and

means for generating the textural transcript from the decoded closed captioning information and the temporal index.

14. The apparatus of claim 11, further comprising:

means for selecting a frame from a segment of the media program;

means for generating a thumbnail from the selected frame of the segment;

means for associating the generated thumbnail with the portion of the transcript associated with the segment of the media program; and

means for adding the generated thumbnail to the textural transcript.

15. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the transcript concurrently presented with the media program comprises the generated thumbnail proximate the portion of the transcript associated with the segment of the media program.

16. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the user interface data further comprises a histogram having a plurality of features, each feature representing at least one of the segments of the media program and indicating how often the represented at least one of the segments of the media program has been viewed by a second client computer and a third client computer.

17. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the histogram is generated by means comprising:

means for streaming at a first set of the media program segments to a first client computer;

means for streaming a second set of the media program segments to a second client computer;

means for generating the histogram from the combined first set of media program segments and the second set of media program segments.

18. The apparatus of claim 16, further comprising:

means for accepting a first user input in the client computer to select one of the features; and

means for displaying the portion of the textural transcript associated with the segment represented by the selected feature.

19. The apparatus of claim 16, further comprising:

means for accepting a search query having a keyword;

means for searching the textural transcript for a keyword; and

means for annotating the histogram to delineate the media program segments having dialog including the keyword.

20. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the portion comprises a phrase.

21. An apparatus for navigating a media program having dialog, comprising:

a first module for generating a textural transcript of the dialog, the textural transcript comprising a plurality of portions wherein each portion is associated with a segment of the media program;

a second module for accepting a command to select the media program from a client computer; and

a third module for transmitting user interface data to the client computer for presentation in a user interface, the user interface comprising a concurrently presented media program player and the textural transcript.

22. The apparatus of claim 21, further comprising:

a user interface for accepting a selection of a portion of the transcript and for navigating to the segment of the media program associated with the selected portion of the textural transcript in response to the accepted selection.

23. The apparatus of claim 21, wherein the media program is encoded with closed captioning information and the means for generating a textural transcript of the dialog of the media program comprises:

a media player playing the media program;

a decoder for decoding the closed captioning information of the played media program;

a fourth module for associating the decoded closed captioning information with a temporal index of the media program, and for generating the textural transcript from the decoded closed captioning information and the temporal index.

24. The apparatus of claim 21, further comprising:

a thumbnail generation module, comprising;

for selecting a frame from a segment of the media program, for generating a thumbnail from the selected frame of the segment, and for associating the generated thumbnail with the portion of the transcript associated with the segment of the media program, and for adding the generated thumbnail to the textural transcript.

25. The apparatus of claim 24, wherein the transcript concurrently presented with the media program comprises the generated thumbnail proximate the portion of the transcript associated with the segment of the media program.

26. The apparatus of claim 24, wherein the user interface data further comprises a histogram having a plurality of features, each feature representing at least one of the segments of the media program and indicating how often the represented at least one of the segments of the media program has been viewed by a second client computer and a third client computer.

27. The apparatus of claim 24, wherein the histogram is generated by a histogram generation module, for generating the histogram from a combined first set of media program segments streamed to a first client computer and a second set of media program segments streamed to a second computer.

28. The apparatus of claim 26, wherein the user interface accepts a first user input in the client computer to select one of the features and displays the portion of the textural transcript associated with the segment represented by the selected feature.

29. The apparatus of claim 26, wherein the user interface further accepts a search query having a keyword and annotates the histogram to delineate the media program segments having dialog including a keyword based upon a search of the textural transcript for the keyword.