METADATA RECORDATION AND NAVIGATION FOR STITCHED CONTENT

• US 20180122426A1
• Filed: 07/19/2016
• Published: 05/03/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 07/22/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: ARRIS Enterprises LLC (CommScope Holding Company, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: ARRIS Enterprises LLC (CommScope Holding Company, Inc.)
• Inventors: Gopalakrishnan, Veerabadhran, Arunkumar, Lakshmi, Subbarayan, S., Singh, Virendra, Babburi, Rajasekhar
• Granted Patent: US 10,490,226 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/005 Reproducing at a different information rate from the information rate of recording for television signals H04N5/783
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/327 Table of contents
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/329 on a disc [VTOC]

Abstract

Methods, systems, and computer readable media described herein may facilitate the detection and use of stitch points during trickplay navigation of a content stream. A multimedia device may automatically detect stitch points in a transport stream based upon PTS (presentation time stamp) discontinuities. The multimedia device may generate a slot table that organizes the frames of a piece of content into segments having sequential or linear PTS values. The multimedia device may compare a target PTS to the various PTS ranges of the slot table to identify a region to be searched for a metadata index associated with the target PTS. Once the target PTS is mapped to the appropriate metadata index, the multimedia device may fetch the appropriate frame for presentation.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving a target presentation time stamp;

identifying a slot entry of a slot table, the slot entry having a presentation time stamp range within which the target presentation time stamp falls;

among a first index of the identified slot entry and the last index of the identified slot entry, identifying the index that is associated with a presentation time stamp value that is nearest to the target presentation time stamp;

based on the value of the target presentation time stamp relative to the value of the presentation time stamp associated with the identified index, determining a direction for carrying out a search of one or more indexes of the slot entry;

comparing the target presentation time stamp to one or more presentation time stamps associated with one or more indexes of the identified slot entry starting with the identified index and proceeding sequentially from the identified index in the determined direction until an index having a presentation time stamp matching the target presentation time stamp is found; and

identifying the index having the presentation time stamp that matches the target presentation time stamp as a target index.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein determining a direction for carrying out the search of one or more indexes of the slot entry comprises:

if the target presentation time stamp is not greater than the presentation time stamp associated with the identified index, comparing the target presentation time stamp to one or more presentation time stamps associated with one or more indexes of the identified slot entry starting with the identified index and proceeding sequentially from the identified index in a direction in which presentation time stamps of indexes are decreasing until an index having a presentation time stamp matching the target presentation time stamp is found; and

if the target presentation time stamp is not less than the presentation time stamp associated with the identified index, comparing the target presentation time stamp to one or more presentation time stamps associated with one or more indexes of the identified slot entry starting with the identified index and proceeding sequentially from the identified index in a direction in which presentation time stamps of indexes are increasing until an index having a presentation time stamp matching the target presentation time stamp is found.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

retrieving a frame for presentation, the frame being associated with the index identified as the target index.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the slot table comprises a plurality of slot entries, wherein each respective one slot entry of the plurality of slot entries comprises information associated with one or more metadata file indexes that are between a strategic point and another strategic point or content boundary.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the at least one strategic point is identified as a strategic point index within the metadata file.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the strategic point is recognized when a discontinuity in presentation time stamp values occurs.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein the strategic point index comprises an identification of a presentation time stamp value associated with a preceding frame, a presentation time stamp value associated with a following frame, and an identification of the location of a previous strategic point index within the metadata file.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining that a presentation time stamp value of a last queried index falls within the presentation time stamp range associated with the identified slot entry; and

wherein the index that is associated with a presentation time stamp value that is nearest to the target presentation time stamp is identified from among the last queried index, a first index of the identified slot entry, and the last index of the identified slot entry.

9. An apparatus comprising one or more modules configured to:

receive a target presentation time stamp;

identify a slot entry of a slot table, the slot entry having a presentation time stamp range within which the target presentation time stamp falls;

among a first index of the identified slot entry and the last index of the identified slot entry, identify the index that is associated with a presentation time stamp value that is nearest to the target presentation time stamp;

based on the value of the target presentation time stamp relative to the value of the presentation time stamp associated with the identified index, determine a direction for carrying out a search of one or more indexes of the slot entry;

compare the target presentation time stamp to one or more presentation time stamps associated with one or more indexes of the identified slot entry starting with the identified index and proceeding sequentially from the identified index in the determined direction until an index having a presentation time stamp matching the target presentation time stamp is found; and

identify the index having the presentation time stamp that matches the target presentation time stamp as a target index.

10. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein determining a direction for carrying out the search of one or more indexes of the slot entry comprises:

if the target presentation time stamp is not greater than the presentation time stamp associated with the identified index, comparing the target presentation time stamp to one or more presentation time stamps associated with one or more indexes of the identified slot entry starting with the identified index and proceeding sequentially from the identified index in a direction in which presentation time stamps of indexes are decreasing until an index having a presentation time stamp matching the target presentation time stamp is found; and

if the target presentation time stamp is not less than the presentation time stamp associated with the identified index, comparing the target presentation time stamp to one or more presentation time stamps associated with one or more indexes of the identified slot entry starting with the identified index and proceeding sequentially from the identified index in a direction in which presentation time stamps of indexes are increasing until an index having a presentation time stamp matching the target presentation time stamp is found.

11. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the one or more modules are further configured to:

retrieve a frame for presentation, the frame being associated with the index identified as the target index.

12. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the slot table comprises a plurality of slot entries, wherein each respective one slot entry of the plurality of slot entries comprises information associated with one or more metadata file indexes that are between a strategic point and another strategic point or content boundary, and wherein the at least one strategic point is identified as a strategic point index within the metadata file.

13. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the strategic point is recognized when a discontinuity in presentation time stamp values occurs.

14. One or more non-transitory computer readable media having instructions operable to cause one or more processors to perform the operations comprising:

receiving a target presentation time stamp;

identifying a slot entry of a slot table, the slot entry having a presentation time stamp range within which the target presentation time stamp falls;

among a first index of the identified slot entry and the last index of the identified slot entry, identifying the index that is associated with a presentation time stamp value that is nearest to the target presentation time stamp;

based on the value of the target presentation time stamp relative to the value of the presentation time stamp associated with the identified index, determining a direction for carrying out a search of one or more indexes of the slot entry;

comparing the target presentation time stamp to one or more presentation time stamps associated with one or more indexes of the identified slot entry starting with the identified index and proceeding sequentially from the identified index in the determined direction until an index having a presentation time stamp matching the target presentation time stamp is found; and

identifying the index having the presentation time stamp that matches the target presentation time stamp as a target index.

15. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 14, wherein determining a direction for carrying out the search of one or more indexes of the slot entry comprises:

if the target presentation time stamp is not greater than the presentation time stamp associated with the identified index, comparing the target presentation time stamp to one or more presentation time stamps associated with one or more indexes of the identified slot entry starting with the identified index and proceeding sequentially from the identified index in a direction in which presentation time stamps of indexes are decreasing until an index having a presentation time stamp matching the target presentation time stamp is found; and

if the target presentation time stamp is not less than the presentation time stamp associated with the identified index, comparing the target presentation time stamp to one or more presentation time stamps associated with one or more indexes of the identified slot entry starting with the identified index and proceeding sequentially from the identified index in a direction in which presentation time stamps of indexes are increasing until an index having a presentation time stamp matching the target presentation time stamp is found.

16. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 14, wherein the instructions are further operable to cause one or more processors to perform the operations comprising:

retrieving a frame for presentation, the frame being associated with the index identified as the target index.

17. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 14, wherein the slot table comprises a plurality of slot entries, wherein each respective one slot entry of the plurality of slot entries comprises information associated with one or more metadata file indexes that are between a strategic point and another strategic point or content boundary.

18. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 17, wherein the at least one strategic point is identified as a strategic point index within the metadata file.

19. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 18, wherein the strategic point is recognized when a discontinuity in presentation time stamp values occurs.

20. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 14, wherein the instructions are further operable to cause one or more processors to perform the operations comprising:

determining that a presentation time stamp value of a last queried index falls within the presentation time stamp range associated with the identified slot entry; and

wherein the index that is associated with a presentation time stamp value that is nearest to the target presentation time stamp is identified from among the last queried index, a first index of the identified slot entry, and the last index of the identified slot entry.