System and method of interactively forming and editing digital user-arranged video streams in real-time from a plurality of simultaneously-displayed digital source video streams

• US 5,448,315 A
• Filed: 07/08/1994
• Issued: 09/05/1995
• Est. Priority Date: 09/15/1992
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Digital Pictures, Inc. (Nexstar Media Group, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Digital Pictures, Inc. (Nexstar Media Group, Inc.)
• Inventors: Soohoo, Kenneth
• Primary Examiner(s): Kostak, Victor R.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Flynn, Nathan J.
• Application Number:
  US08/273,264
• Time in Patent Office: 424 Days
• Field of Search: 360/13, 360/14.1, 360/14.2, 360/14.3, 358/311, 348/722, 348/903, 348/564, 348/584, 348/588, 395/152-161
• US Class Current: 348/722
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/262 Studio circuits, e.g. for mixing, switching-over, change of character of image, other special effects ; Cameras specially adapted for the electronic generation of special effects
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/2624 for obtaining an image which is composed of whole input images, e.g. splitscreen

Abstract

A system and method of digital video editing simultaneously displays a plurality of source video windows on a screen, each window showing a digital source video stream. The user may select among the source video windows at any time while they are being shown. The selected digital source video stream appears in a record video window, and continues to run in real-time in both the selected source video window and the record video window. All windows continuously display real-time video streams. The user may continue to make selections among the source video windows as often as desired, and may also select transformations, or special effects, from an on-screen list. The video stream playing in the record window thus forms a digital user-arranged version of selected portions of the source video streams, plus transformations, as selected by the user. The user'"'"'s selections are stored to permit subsequent playback of the digital user-arranged video stream in a playback window. A single digital audio stream, or selectable multiple digital audio streams, may accompany the source and user-arranged video streams.

Claims

1. A method of interactively forming and editing a digital user-arranged video stream in real-time from a plurality of simultaneously-displayed digital source video streams stored in an interleaved format on a common storage medium, comprising the steps of:

reading each digital source video stream from the common storage medium;

displaying each read digital source video stream in separate windows on a common display device;

during the display of the source video streams, accepting a first user input specifying selected portions of the source video streams;

forming a digital user-arranged video stream comprising a series of user-selected portions of the source video streams selected in response to the first user input; and

during the display of the source video streams, displaying the digital user-arranged video stream in a separate video window on the common display device.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of selectively re-editing the digital user-arranged video stream.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the digital source video streams each comprise a plurality of digital source video images stored in a compressed format;

and further comprising decompressing each digital source video image before displaying it.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein:

each digital source video image is stored in a compressed format according to a Lempel-Ziv compression technique; and

the decompression step comprises decompressing each digital source video image according to a Lempel-Ziv decompression technique.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein each digital source video image is stored in a compressed format according to a fixed Huffman compression technique;

and

the decompression step comprises decompressing each digital source video image according to a fixed Huffman decompression technique.

6. The method of claim 3, wherein:

each digital source video image is stored in a compressed format according to an adaptive Huffman compression technique; and

the decompression step comprises decompressing each digital source video image according to an adaptive Huffman decompression technique.

7. The method of claim 3, wherein:

each digital source video image is stored in a compressed format according to a Run-Length compression technique; and

the decompression step comprises decompressing each digital source video image according to a Run-Length decompression technique.

8. The method of claim 3, wherein a digital source audio stream is stored on the common storage medium interleaved with the digital source video streams, the method further comprising the steps of:

reading a digital source audio stream from the common storage medium; and

simultaneously with the step of displaying the digital user-arranged video stream, outputting the read digital source audio stream.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising the step of selectively re-editing the digital user-arranged video stream.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of:

storing a plurality of time-coded data stream indicators representing the user selections; and

after the digital user-arranged video stream has been formed, selectively performing the substeps of;

reading each digital source video stream from the common storage medium;

reading the stored time-coded data stream indicators; and

displaying selected portions of the digital source video streams as indicated by the time-coded data stream indicators in order to replay the digital user-arranged video stream.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising the steps of:

during the replaying of the digital user-arranged video stream, accepting a second user input specifying selected portions of the source video streams;

forming a second digital user-arranged video stream comprising a series of user-selected portions of the source video streams selected in response to the first user input and the second user input; and

displaying the second digital user-arranged video stream in a separate video window on the common display device.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of:

during the display of the source video streams, accepting a third user input specifying at least one selected video transformation; and

performing the selected video transformation on the digital user-arranged video stream; and

wherein the step of displaying the digital user-arranged video stream comprises displaying the transformed digital user-arranged video stream.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising the steps of:

storing a first plurality of time-coded data stream indicators representing the user selections;

storing a second plurality of time-coded transformation indicators representing the user-selected transformations;

after the digital user-arranged video stream has been formed, selectively performing the substeps of;

reading each digital source video stream from the common storage medium;

reading the stored time-coded data stream indicators and transformation indicators; and

transforming and displaying selected portions of the digital source video streams as indicated by the time-coded data stream indicators and transformation indicators in order to replay the digital user-arranged video stream with user-selected transformations.

14. A method of interactively forming and editing digital user-arranged video and audio streams in real-time from a plurality of simultaneously-displayed digital source video streams and a plurality of digital source audio streams, the plurality of digital source video and audio streams being stored in an interleaved format on a common storage medium, comprising the steps of:

reading each digital source video stream from the common storage medium;

reading each digital source audio stream from the common storage medium;

displaying each read digital source video stream in separate windows on a common display device;

during the display of the source video streams, accepting a first user input specifying selected portions of the source video streams and a fourth user input specifying selected portions of the source audio streams;

forming a digital user-arranged video stream comprising a series of user-selected portions of the source video streams selected in response to the first user input;

forming a digital user-arranged audio stream comprising a series of user-selected portions of the digital source audio streams selected in response to the fourth user input; and

during the display of the source video streams, performing the substeps of;

displaying the digital user-arranged video stream in a separate video window on the common display device; and

outputting the digital user-arranged audio stream.

15. The method of claim 14, further comprising the step of selectively re-editing the digital user-arranged video stream.

16. The method of claim 14, further comprising the steps of:

storing a plurality of time-coded data stream indicators representing the user selections; and

after the digital user-arranged video and audio streams have been formed, selectively performing the steps of;

reading each digital source video stream from the common storage medium;

reading each digital source audio stream from the common storage medium;

reading the stored time-coded data stream indicators;

displaying selected portions of the digital source video streams as indicated by the time-coded data stream indicators in order to replay the digital user-arranged video stream; and

outputting selected portions of the digital source audio streams as indicated by the time-coded data stream indicators in order to replay the digital user-arranged audio stream.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising the steps of:

during the replaying of the digital user-arranged video and audio streams, accepting a fifth user input specifying selected portions of the source video stream;

during the replaying of the digital user-arranged video and audio streams, accepting a sixth user input specifying selected portions of the source audio stream;

forming a second digital user-arranged video stream comprising a series of user-selected portions of the source video streams selected in response to the first user input and the fifth user input;

forming a second digital user-arranged audio stream comprising a series of user-selected portions of the source audio streams selected in response to the fourth user input and the sixth user input;

displaying the second digital user-arranged video stream in a separate video window on the common display device; and

outputting the second digital user-arranged audio stream.

18. The method of claim 14, further comprising the steps of:

during the display of the source video streams, accepting a seventh user input specifying at least one selected audio transformation;

performing the selected audio transformation on the digital user-arranged audio stream; and

wherein the step of outputting the digital user-arranged audio stream comprises outputting the transformed digital user-arranged audio stream.

19. The method of claim 18, further comprising the steps of:

storing a first plurality of time-coded data stream indicators representing the user selections;

storing a second plurality of time-coded transformation indicators representing the user-selected transformations;

after the digital user-arranged video and audio streams have been formed, selectively performing the steps of;

reading each digital source video stream from the common storage medium;

reading each digital source audio stream from the common storage medium;

reading the time-coded data stream indicators and transformation indicators;

transforming and displaying selected portions of the digital source video streams as indicated by the time-coded data stream indicators and transformation indicators in order to replay the digital user-arranged video stream with user-selected transformations; and

transforming and outputting selected portions of the digital source audio streams as indicated by the time-coded data stream indicators and transformation indicators in order to replay the digital user-arranged audio stream with user-selected transformations.

20. A system for interactively forming and editing a digital user-arranged video stream in real-time from a plurality of simultaneously-displayed digital source video streams stored in an interleaved format on a common storage medium, comprising:

a common storage medium for storing the digital source video streams in an interleaved format;

an input device for accepting user input during display of the source video streams;

a processor connected to the digital storage device and to the input device, for reading the digital source video streams and forming the digital user-arranged video stream from user-selected portions of the digital source video streams in response to the user input; and

a video display device connected to the processor, comprising;

a plurality of source video windows on a common screen for simultaneously displaying the digital source video streams; and

a record video window on the common screen for displaying the digital user-arranged video stream simultaneously with the display of the digital source video streams.

21. The system of claim 20, further comprising:

an input storage device for storing a plurality of time-coded data stream indicators representing the user selections; and

wherein the video display further comprises a selectively-activated video window for displaying selected portions of the digital source video streams as indicated by the time-coded data stream indicators in order to replay the digital user-arranged video stream.

22. The system of claim 20, further comprising transformation means connected to the processor for performing user-selected real-time transformations on the digital user-arranged video stream in response to the user input.

26. The system of claim 21, wherein:

the input device further accepts additional user input during replaying of the digital user-arranged video stream; and

the processor further forms a second digital user-arranged video stream from user-selected portions of the digital source video streams in response to the user input and the additional user input.

23. A system for interactively forming and editing digital user-arranged video and audio streams from a plurality of simultaneously-displayed digital source video streams and a plurality of digital source audio streams, the source audio and video streams being stored in an interleaved format on a common storage medium, comprising:

a common storage medium for storing the digital source video and audio streams in an interleaved format;

an input device for accepting user input during display of the source video streams;

a processor connected to the storage device and to the input device, for reading the digital source video and audio streams and forming the digital user-arranged video and audio streams from user-selected portions of the digital source video and audio streams in response to the user input;

a video display device connected to the processor, comprising;

a plurality of source video windows on a common screen for simultaneously displaying the digital source video streams; and

a record video window on the common screen for displaying the digital user-arranged video stream simultaneously with the display of the digital source video streams; and

an audio output device connected to the processor for outputting the digital user-arranged audio stream simultaneously with the display of the digital source video streams.

24. The system of claim 23, further comprising:

an input storage device for storing a plurality of time-coded data stream indicators representing the user selections; and

wherein the video display further comprises a selectively-activated video window for displaying selected portions of the digital source video streams as indicated by the time-coded data stream indicators in order to replay the digital user-arranged video stream; and

wherein the audio output device further outputs selected portions of the digital source audio streams as indicated by the time-coded data stream indicators in order to replay the digital user-arranged audio stream.

25. The system of claim 23, further comprising transformation means connected to the processor for performing user-selected real-time transformations on the digital user-arranged video and audio streams in response to the user input.

27. The system of claim 24, wherein:

the input device further accepts additional user input during replaying of the digital user-arranged video and audio streams; and

the processor further forms a second digital user-arranged video stream and a second digital user-arranged audio stream from user-selected portions of the digital source video and audio streams in response to the user input and the additional user input.