REAL-TIME SCRUBBING OF ONLINE VIDEOS

• US 20130097508A1
• Filed: 10/12/2012
• Published: 04/18/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 10/14/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Autodesk, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Autodesk, Inc.
• Inventors: Grossman, Tovi, Fitzmaurice, George, Matejka, Justin Frank
• Granted Patent: US 11,314,405 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/720
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04855 Interaction with scrollbars
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/612 for unicast
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/613 for the control of the source by the destination control signals issued by the client directed to the server or network components specially adapted for selective content distribution H04N21/637
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2343 involving reformatting operations of video signals for distribution or compliance with end-user requests or end-user device requirements video transcoding H04N19/40; media packet handling at the source H04L65/762
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/234309 by transcoding between formats or standards, e.g. from MPEG-2 to MPEG-4 or from Quicktime to Realvideo conversion of standards in analog television systems H04N7/01
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/234336 by media transcoding, e.g. video is transformed into a slideshow of still pictures or audio is converted into text
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/234345 the reformatting operation being performed only on part of the stream, e.g. a region of the image or a time segment
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/234363 by altering the spatial resolution, e.g. for clients with a lower screen resolution
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/440263 by altering the spatial resolution, e.g. for displaying on a connected PDA
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/440281 by altering the temporal resolution, e.g. by frame skipping television signal recording using magnetic recording on tape for reproducing at a rate different from the recording rate H04N5/783
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6587 Control parameters, e.g. trick play commands, viewpoint selection

Abstract

A method for traversing a streaming video file includes receiving a representative streaming video file that includes less information than a higher-resolution streaming video file and spans the entire streaming video file. Based on navigation information associated with the representative streaming video file, a playback engine navigates to a different portion of the streaming video file. The navigation information may be based on input information received from a viewer of the streaming video file. One advantage of the disclosed method is that it enables fast and accurate navigation of a streaming video.

Claims

1. A method for traversing a streaming video file, the method comprising:

receiving a representative video file of the streaming video file that includes less information than the streaming video file and spans the entire streaming video file; and

based on navigation information associated with the representative video file, causing a playback engine to navigate to a different portion of the streaming video file.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the representative video file has a lower pixel resolution than the streaming video file.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the representative video file has fewer total frames than the streaming video file.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the number of frames in the representative video file is selected based on a pixel width of a timeline slider associated with the streaming video file.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein the total number of frames in the representative video file is no greater than a number of pixels that make up the width of a timeline slider associated with the streaming video file.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving the representative video file immediately prior to receiving the streaming video file.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the representative video file is received concurrently with the streaming video file.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the navigation information is based on input information received from a viewer of the streaming video file.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising displaying the representative video file in substantially the same dimensions as the streaming video when the input information is generated by the viewer.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the representative video file includes meta data associated with the streaming video file that changes over the course of the streaming video file.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

prior to receiving the representative video file, receiving an initial representative video file that includes less information than the representative video file and spans the entire streaming video file; and

based on navigation information associated with the initial representative video file, causing a playback engine to navigate to a different portion of the streaming video file.

12. A computer readable medium storing instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to traverse a streaming video file, by performing the steps of:

receiving the representative video file of the streaming video file that includes less information than the streaming video file and spans the entire streaming video file; and

based on navigation information associated with the representative video file, causing a playback engine to navigate to a different portion of the streaming video file.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the representative video file has a lower pixel resolution than the streaming video file.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein the representative video file has fewer total frames than the streaming video file.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the number of frames in the representative video file is selected based on a pixel width of a timeline slider associated with the streaming video file.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein the total number of frames in the representative video file is no greater than a number of pixels that make up the width of a timeline slider associated with the streaming video file.

17. The method of claim 12, further comprising receiving the representative video file immediately prior to receiving the streaming video file.

18. The method of claim 12, wherein the representative video file is received concurrently with the streaming video file.

19. The method of claim 12, wherein the navigation information is based on input information received from a viewer of the streaming video file.

20. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

prior to receiving the representative video file, receiving an initial representative video file that includes less information than the representative video file and spans the entire streaming video file; and

based on navigation information associated with the initial representative video file, causing a playback engine to navigate to a different portion of the streaming video file.