User-Defined Channel

• US 20150141140A1
• Filed: 11/20/2013
• Published: 05/21/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 11/20/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Freeding, Aimee, Lampe, Kyle, White, Matthew, Shepherd, James
• Granted Patent: US 9,999,836 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 463/31
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/63 by the player, e.g. authoring using a level editor
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 13/86 Watching games played by other players
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/031 Electronic editing of digitised analogue information signals, e.g. audio or video signals
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/102 Programmed access in sequence to addressed parts of tracks of operating record carriers access by moving the head G11B3/08, G11B5/54, G11B7/085, G11B21/022; by moving the record carrier G11B15/005, G11B17/005, by driving of both record carrier and head G11B15/1816
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/34 Indicating arrangements indicating means incorporated in magazine or cassette G11B23/046 and G11B23/0875; indicating measured values in general G01D
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2668 Creating a channel for a dedicated end-user group, e.g. insertion of targeted commercials based on end-user profiles information retrieval from the Internet by querying with filtering and personalisation G06F16/9535; arrangements for replacing or switching information during the broadcast H04H20/10; push services over packet-switching network H04L12/1859; adaptation of message content in packet-switching networks H04L51/063
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2743 Video hosting of uploaded data from client
• 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

Example apparatus and methods facilitate providing a user-defined channel that presents content from, for example, a virtual video playlist. The playlist may include raw or edited dips of user-generated video content (e.g., video game highlights, smart phone recordings). The clips may be edited with sound, text, graphics, special effects or in other ways and then organized into the playlist. The playlist may be organized to facilitate presenting a collection of clips as a continuous show. For example, a user may produce a playlist of goals scored in their favorite video game. The highlights may be of goals scored by the user, in which case the video may come from the user'"'"'s device, or of goals scored by other players, in which case the video may come from another users device or playlist. Playback of the playlist may be manipulated with respect to order, frequency, or other parameters.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

identifying a highlight clip associated with a video game;

associating the highlight clip with a set of clips arranged in a virtual video playlist associated with an owner, and

providing the set of clips for viewing collectively on a user-defined channel as controlled by the virtual video playlist.

2. The method of claim 1, where identifying the highlight clip comprises detecting that the highlight clip has been generated by the player, detecting that the highlight clip has been generated by the video game, or detecting a user interface action that selects the highlight clip.

3. The method of claim 1, where the highlight clip is stored in a computer memory on a device on which the video game was played.

4. The method of claim 1, comprising selectively editing the highlight clip, where editing the highlight clip includes adding a voice-over to the highlight clip, trimming the highlight clip, adding another highlight clip to the highlight clip, adding text to the highlight clip, adding a graphic to the highlight clip, or adding a video effect to the highlight clip, where the video effect is a picture-in picture effect, a side-by-side effect, or a timing effect.

5. The method of claim 4, where an editor for editing the highlight clip runs on a device on which the video game was played.

6. The method of claim 1, comprising establishing clip metadata for the highlight clip, where the clip metadata comprises a name for the highlight clip, a date on which the highlight dip was generated, a date on which the highlight clip was edited, a date on which the highlight clip was associated with the set of clips, a rating for the highlight clip, a length for the highlight clip, a video game from which the highlight clip was generated, or an identifier of the player of the video game.

7. The method of claim 6, where the clip metadata is produced on a device on which the video game was played.

8. The method of claim 1, where associating the highlight clip with the set of clips comprises storing the highlight clip with the set of clips, storing a pointer to the highlight clip with pointers associated with the set of clips, storing the highlight dip on a device on which the highlight clip was generated, storing the highlight clip on a device on which the highlight clip was edited, storing the highlight clip on a remote device, or storing the highlight clip using a service.

9. The method of claim 1, where providing the set of clips for viewing collectively comprises providing the set of clips for viewing on a device on which the highlight clip was generated, providing the set of clips for viewing on a device on which the highlight clip was edited, providing the set of clips for viewing on another device, or providing the set of clips to a service.

10. The method of claim 1, where providing the set of clips for viewing collectively comprises automatically controlling the frequency with which members of the set of clips are presented or controlling the order in which members of the set of clips are presented.

11. The method of claim 1, comprising selectively adding members to the set of clips, selectively removing members from the set of clips, selectively changing the order in which members of the set of clips are presented, or selectively changing the frequency with which members of the set of clips are presented.

12. The method of claim 1, comprising updating an electronic viewing guide with information concerning the user-defined channel, where the information concerning the user-defined channel comprises a channel name, a channel owner, a number of clips associated with the channel, a running time for the channel, a graphic associated with the channel, an update time associated with the channel, a rating associated with the channel, a popularity associated with the channel, or a placement indicator for the channel.

13. The method of claim 1, comprising updating a social status associated with the player of the video game or the owner of the user-defined channel based, at least in part, on a popularity of the highlight clip or a popularity of the user-defined channel.

14. A computer-readable storage medium storing computer-executable instructions that when executed by a computer cause the computer to perform a method, the method comprising:

identifying a highlight clip associated with a video game by detecting that the highlight clip has been generated by the player, by detecting that the highlight clip has been generated by the video game, or by detecting a user interface action that selects the highlight clip, where the highlight clip is stored in a computer memory on a device on which the video game was played;

selectively editing the highlight clip, where editing the highlight clip includes adding a voice-over to the highlight clip, trimming the highlight clip, adding another highlight clip to the highlight clip, adding text to the highlight clip, adding a graphic to the highlight clip, or adding a video effect to the highlight clip, where the video effect is a picture-in picture effect, a side-by-side effect, or a timing effect, and where an editor for editing the highlight clip runs on the device on which the video game was played;

establishing clip metadata for the highlight clip, where the clip metadata comprises a name for the highlight clip, a date on which the highlight clip was generated, a date on which the highlight clip was edited, a date on which the highlight clip was associated with the set of clips, a rating for the highlight clip, a length for the highlight clip, a video game from which the highlight clip was generated, or an identifier of the player of the video game, and where the clip metadata is produced on the device on which the video game was played;

associating the highlight clip with a set of clips arranged in a virtual video playlist associated with an owner, where associating the highlight clip with the set of clips comprises storing the highlight clip with the set of clips, storing a pointer to the highlight clip with pointers associated with the set of clips, storing the highlight clip on the device on which the highlight clip was generated, storing the highlight clip on the device on which the highlight clip was edited, storing the highlight clip on a remote device, or storing the highlight clip using a service;

providing the set of clips for viewing collectively on a user-defined channel as controlled by the virtual video playlist, where providing the set of clips for viewing collectively comprises providing the set of clips for viewing on the device on which the highlight clip was generated, providing the set of clips for viewing on the device on which the highlight clip was edited, providing the set of clips for viewing on another device, or providing the set of clips to a service, and where providing the set of clips for viewing collectively comprises automatically controlling the frequency with which members of the set of clips are presented or controlling the order in which members of the set of clips are presented, based, at least in part, on a random order, on a most frequently viewed order, on a least frequently viewed order, on a most recently created order, or on a least recently created order;

selectively adding members to the set of clips, selectively removing members from the set of clips, selectively changing the order in which members of the set of clips are presented, or selectively changing the frequency with which members of the set of clips are presented, based, at least in part, on how frequently the member is viewed, on how recently the member has been viewed, on how recently the member was created, or randomly;

updating an electronic viewing guide with information concerning the user-defined channel, where the information concerning the user-defined channel comprises a channel name, a channel owner, a number of clips associated with the channel, a running time for the channel, a graphic associated with the channel, an update time associated with the channel, a rating associated with the channel, a popularity associated with the channel, or a placement indicator for the channel, and

updating a social status associated with the player of the video game or the owner of the user-defined channel based, at least in part, on a popularity of the highlight clip or a popularity of the user-defined channel.

15. An apparatus, comprising:

a processor;

a memory;

a set of logics configured to provide a virtual video playlist of user-generated video content, and

an interface to connect the processor, the memory, and the set of logics, the set of logics comprising;

a first logic configured to acquire a user-generated video content;

a second logic configured to organize the user-generated video content into the virtual video playlist, and

a third logic configured to control how the user-generated video content associated with the virtual video playlist is played.

16. The apparatus of claim 15, where the first logic is configured to acquire the user-generated video content from an automatic highlight producer associated with a video game, from a video game data store in response to a user interface action, from an application data store in response to a user interface action, from a highlight producer associated with a player of the video game, from a memory in a phone configured with a video camera, from a video camera, or from a different virtual video playlist in response to a user interface action.

17. The apparatus of claim 16, where the second logic is configured to store the user-generated video content that was organized into the virtual video playlist in a combination of the memory on the apparatus, a memory associated with a device from which the user-generated video content was acquired, and a service.

18. The apparatus of claim 16 where the third logic is configured to control the order in which an element of the virtual video playlist is played or the frequency with which the element of the virtual video playlist is played based, at least in part, on an age of the element, a creator of the element, a number of times the element has been viewed, a popularity of the element, or a length of the element.

19. The apparatus of claim 16, comprising a fourth logic configured to edit user-generated video content, where the fourth logic is configured to edit the user-generated video content by adding a voice-over to the user-generated video content, by adding music to the user-generated video content, by combining two or more pieces of user-generated video content into a single piece of user-generated video content, by adding text to the user-generated video content, by adding a graphic to the user-generated video content, or by adding a video effect to the user-generated video content.

20. The apparatus of claim 19, comprising:

a fifth logic configured to manipulate a social status of a user that generated the user-generated video content, where the social status is manipulated based, at least in part, on a popularity of the virtual video playlist; and

a sixth logic configured to manage a playlist guide that presents information about the virtual video playlist.