DEVICES AND METHODS FOR PROVIDING NAVIGATION IMAGES ASSOCIATED WITH ADAPTIVE BIT RATE VIDEO CONTENT

• US 20140282262A1
• Filed: 03/15/2013
• Published: 09/18/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 03/15/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: ARRIS Enterprises LLC (CommScope Holding Company, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: General Instrument Corporation (CommScope Holding Company, Inc.)
• Inventors: Hughes, Gary, Gregotski, Mark
• Granted Patent: US 9,317,188 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/838
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0484 for the control of specific functions or operations, e.g. selecting or manipulating an object, an image or a displayed text element, setting a parameter value or selecting a range
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2387 Stream processing in response to a playback request from an end-user, e.g. for trick-play
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/26258 for generating a list of items to be played back in a given order, e.g. playlist, or scheduling item distribution according to such list retrieval of multimedia data based on playlists G06F16/40
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44209 Monitoring of downstream path of the transmission network originating from a server, e.g. bandwidth variations of a wireless network arrangements for maintenance or administration in data switching networks involving bandwidth and capacity management H04L41/0896
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8456 by decomposing the content in the time domain, e.g. in time segments
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/85406 involving a specific file format, e.g. MP4 format
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8549 Creating video summaries, e.g. movie trailer retrieval in video databases by using presentations in form of a video summary G06F16/739

Abstract

Systems and methods that improve navigation within video content in an adaptive streaming environment are provided herein.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

receiving a top level manifest file for a media asset;

selecting a media segment file having a predetermined bitrate from the top level manifest file;

receiving a first collection of thumbnail images corresponding to the media segment file, the first collection of thumbnail images corresponding to images that coarsely represent chapters throughout the duration of the media segment file; and

receiving a second collection of thumbnail images corresponding to the media segment file, the second collection of thumbnail images corresponding to images that more finely represent chapters throughout the duration of the media segment file,

wherein the first collection and second collection of thumbnail images are received at different times.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein a tag in the top level manifest file indicates if the first collection of thumbnail images is available.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

pairing each thumbnail image within the first collection of thumbnail images with a time offset or a segment number corresponding to a media segment starting point.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein each thumbnail image is paired using a uniform resource locator (URL) for the thumbnail image.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein the pairing is performed using a look-up table.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein said receiving the second collection of thumbnail images is performed as a background task when processor capacity is available.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the first collection of thumbnail images comprises a collection of 100 thumbnail images that span from the beginning of the media segment to the end of the media segment.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the second collection of thumbnail images comprises a collection of thumbnail images that are periodically spaced at a time interval corresponding to a duration of corresponding media files, the thumbnail images spanning from the beginning to the end of an entire audiovisual media.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the first collection and second collection of thumbnail images are compressed using a standard format.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a third collection of thumbnail images corresponding to the media segment file, the third collection of thumbnail images corresponding to images that more finely represent chapters throughout the duration of the media segment file.

11. A system, comprising:

an adaptive bitrate (ABR) player configured to;

receive a top level manifest file for a media asset;

select a media segment file having a predetermined bitrate from the top level manifest file;

receive a first collection of thumbnail images corresponding to the media segment file, the first collection of thumbnail images corresponding to images that coarsely represent chapters throughout the duration of the media segment file; and

receive a second collection of thumbnail images corresponding to the media segment file, the second collection of thumbnail images corresponding to images that more finely represent chapters throughout the duration of the media segment file,

wherein the first collection and second collection of thumbnail images are received at different times.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the ABR player is further configured to:

perform bandwidth availability estimation prior to selecting a media segment file having a predetermined bitrate.

13. The system of claim 11, wherein the ABR player is further configured to:

receive a second level manifest file for the media asset.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the ABR player is further configured to:

determine the media segment file from the second level manifest file.

15. The system of claim 11, wherein the ABR player is further configured to:

receive multiple media files in succession.

16. The system of claim 11, wherein the ABR player is further configured to:

determine if bandwidth availability changes and adjusting media file segment selection based on available bandwidth.

17. The system of claim 11, wherein the ABR player is further configured to:

recognize a tag in the top level manifest file, wherein the tag indicates that thumbnail images are available for retrieval.

18. The system of claim 11, further comprising:

an image handler in communication with the ABR player, the image handler configured to;

recognize a tag in the top level manifest file, wherein the tag indicates that thumbnail images are available for retrieval.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the image handler is further configured to:

decompress the first collection and second collection of thumbnail images.

20. The system of claim 11, further comprising:

an application graphic user interface (GUI) in communication with the ABR player, the GUI configured to;

provide a progress bar and playback location indicator to a user.