METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR MANAGING MULTIMEDIA FILES
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Accused Products
Abstract
A system for locating, segmenting, annotating and retrieving multimedia files, provides a database of metadata (68) relating to multimedia files (70), a database manager (64), and a database client (66) for accessing the data contained within the database. The database client (66), together with the metadata database (68) and database manager (64) provide a variety of different functionalities, namely a deep linking functionality, a segmentation functionality, a metadata annotation functionality, a retrieval functionality, and an access functionality. The user, through database client (68) annotates the multimedia file or segment of multimedia file with metadata which is saved in the database (68). When the user desires to locate a multimedia file, the metadata is searched or browsed to locate the database entry associated with the multimedia file in question. The system further provides the ability for the user to load, open and start the playing of a multimedia file from a point intermediate to its start and end point, and without the user having to experience the portion between the start point and the intermediate point, break down larger files into shorter segments or individual frames (or still images) or regions within frames (or still images) without creating additional copies of the selected segments of the multimedia files of interest, thereby avoiding copyright issues from arising.
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Citations
31 Claims
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1-10. -10. (canceled)
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11. A system comprising:
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a data repository for storing a multimedia file; a metadata database, wherein the metadata database comprises a uniform resource locator (URL) associated with the multimedia file, but does not store the multimedia file; a database manager communicatively coupled to the metadata database, wherein the database manager comprises; an annotation module for defining and recording multimedia metadata in the metadata database, wherein the multimedia metadata is based on received input and describes the multimedia file and wherein the multimedia metadata comprises one or more of; classification term hierarchies that comprise branches of a knowledge tree; segment information that defines a segment of interest in the multimedia file; and keywords, including a title or other textual information assigned to one or more of the multimedia file or the segment of interest; and a search and retrieval module for identifying the segment of interest in the multimedia file, wherein the search and retrieval module; searches the metadata database by reference to one or more of;
(i) the keywords and (ii) the classification term hierarchies; andpresents the segment of interest without presenting the multimedia file in its entirety. - View Dependent Claims (12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 31)
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21. A method for distributing multimedia files, the method comprising:
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identifying a location of a multimedia file; creating a database entry for metadata associated with the identified location; assigning a short title to the database entry; assigning keywords and classification term hierarchies comprising branches of a knowledge tree to the database entry; creating at least a second database entry by virtually segmenting the multimedia file into segments of interest, wherein the segments of interest comprise one or more of video and audio segments, still frames, and regions within still frames, and wherein virtually segmenting the multimedia file into segments of interest comprises one or more of;
(i) assigning a short title to the at least the second database entry based on received input, and (ii) assigning keywords and classification term hierarchies comprising branches of a knowledge tree to the at least the second database entry based on received input;receiving one or more queries comprising one or more of classification term hierarchies and keywords; and providing results of the one or more queries, wherein the results of the one or more queries provide the multimedia file or the segment of interest.
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22. A method for distributing multimedia files, the method comprising:
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identifying a location of a multimedia file; virtually segmenting the identified multimedia file into at least two segments of interest, wherein the at least two segments of interest comprise one or more of;
(i) a video segment, (ii) an audio segment, (iii) a still frame, and (iv) a region within a still frame;storing metadata associated with the at least two segments of interest in a metadata database, wherein each of the at least two segments of interest has an associated entry; annotating the associated entry of one or more of the at least two segments of interest based on received input, wherein annotating the associated entry of the one or more of the at least two segments of interest comprises annotating the associated entry with at least one of;
(i) a keyword, and (ii) classification term hierarchies comprising branches of a knowledge tree. - View Dependent Claims (23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30)
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Specification