EDITING SYSTEMS

• US 20160133295A1
• Filed: 11/09/2015
• Published: 05/12/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 11/07/2014
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: H4 Engineering, Inc.
• Original Assignee: H4 Engineering, Inc.
• Inventors: Boyle, Christopher T., Glover, Gordon Jason
• Application Number:
  US14/936,500
• Publication Number:
  US 20160133295A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/46 Extracting features or characteristics from the video content, e.g. video fingerprints, representative shots or key frames
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/031 Electronic editing of digitised analogue information signals, e.g. audio or video signals
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/322 used signal is digitally coded

Abstract

An automated video editing apparatus and software are presented. The apparatus is designed to modify automated video recording systems enabling them to collect data used in creating a library of markers observable within the collected data such that the markers may help to identify highlight moments in recorded videos and to create short video clips of the highlight moments. The apparatus and method as described free the user of the burden of reviewing many hours of video recordings of non-events, such as waiting for a sportsman'"'"'s turn in a competition or waiting for an exciting wave while surfing in the sea.

Claims

1. ) An automated video editing method, said method comprising the steps of:

a) recording a video of a subject;

b) creating a time stamp of the start of recording;

c) storing the recording of the subject in a video file together with metadata;

d) during recording of the subject periodically receiving transmissions of a first data stream from a tag, the first data stream comprising acceleration, orientation, and location data associated with the subject, including a time of generation of the acceleration, orientation, and location data;

e) creating a second data stream by executing computations on the first data stream and by measuring changes in the relative intensity of the received transmissions of the first data stream;

f) creating a data file comprising a time-dependent data series of the first data stream, the second data stream, and the metadata, arranged within the data file according to time of generation from the start of the recording;

g) using characteristic time-dependent changes in the data file as criteria signifying activity changes of the subject for a given activity type to identify highlights in the video file;

h) automatically editing the video file to create video clips timed and sized such that each video clip includes at least one of the identified highlights.

2. ) The automated video editing method of claim 1, further comprising the step of ranking highlights by the likely interest level of viewers based on the characteristic time-dependent changes in the data file that are used to identify the highlights.

3. ) The automated video editing method of claim 1, further comprising the step of automatically identifying the activity type of the subject based on the data file.

4. ) The automated video editing method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of detecting a user input created by an input device usable by the subject, storing the user input as user input data in the data file, and using the user input data to identify a highlight.

5. ) The automated video editing method of claim 1, further comprising the step of appending music to a video clip.

6. ) A video editing system that edits a video of a subject into video clips, said system comprising:

a) a video recorder that records video files and configured to be communicatively coupled with a base;

b) a tag associated with the subject and configured to periodically obtain and to transmit location, acceleration, and orientation data;

c) the base configured to receive a signal carrying the data transmitted from the tag, to compute additional data from the received data, to create a data file comprising said data as well as user input and other metadata, and to synchronize the data file with the video file;

d) an editing device configured to store the video file, the data file, and a library of highlight markers wherein said markers, in certain combination, are characteristic of highlights of certain activity types;

the editing device also configured to search the data file for characteristic combinations of highlight markers and to determine highlight times; and

the editing device also configured to create video clips that comprise parts of the video file recorded around the highlight times.

7. ) The video editing system of claim 6, said base configured to periodically detect an intensity of the signal received from the tag and to add the intensity data to the data file.

8. ) The video editing system of claim 6, said tag comprising a subject input device configured to create a highlight alert transmitted to the base and added to the data file and stored in the editing device;

the editing device configured to create a video clip that comprises parts of the video file recorded around the highlight alert time.

9. ) The video editing system of claim 6, further comprising an editing device configured to display the automatically edited clips and configured to have user controls permitting changing the timing and the duration of the edited video clips and to accept or reject the video clips.

10. ) The video editing system of claim 9, further comprising an editing device configured to rank the edited clips according to the likely viewer interest in the edited clips.

11. ) The video editing system of claim 9, the editing device configured to append music clips from a music database to the video clips.

12. ) An automated video editing method, said method comprising the steps of:

a) recording a video of a subject;

b) creating a time stamp of the start of recording;

c) storing the recording of the subject in a video file;

d) during recording of the subject periodically receiving by a base transmissions comprising acceleration, orientation, location, and time data from a tag associated with the subject;

e) using the base to compute derived data from the data received from the tag as these data are received;

f) creating a data file comprising the data received from the tag, derived data computed by the base, user input data, and metadata obtained in the process of recording the video and received from the video recorder, and arranging the data within the data file into a time sequence according to the time when obtained and starting at the time of the start of the recording;

g) storing a database of characteristic changes in a time sequence of data as criteria to identify activity changes of the subject for a given activity type and to identify highlights in the video file;

h) using the criteria stored in the database to identify activity changes of the subject and to identify highlights in the video file;

i) automatically editing the video file to create video clips timed and sized such that each video clip includes at least one of the identified highlights.

13. ) The automated video editing method of claim 12, also comprising the step of creating a ranking of the clips according to likely interest of viewers.

14. ) The automated video editing method of claim 12, also comprising accepting user input preferences prior to automatically editing the video file.

15. ) The automated video editing method of claim 12, also comprising enabling user input to modify the automatically edited clips.

16. ) The automated video editing method of claim 15, also comprising adding user input to the database of characteristic changes in the time sequence of data used to identify highlights.