Seamless multimedia branching
First Claim
1. A method of authoring a media title comprising a plurality of continuous media clips connected by seamless branches, the media clips having bridge data, the method comprising:
- assigning certain media clips to be non-carrier clips;
assigning other media clips to be carrier clips;
identifying a target bridge set corresponding to respective media clips wherein a target bridge set corresponding to a particular media clip comprises (a) target bridge sets of all non-carrier clips that are immediate targets of the particular media clip and (b) the bridge data of all carrier clips that are immediate targets of the particular media clip;
identifying the largest target bridge set, wherein the largest target bridge set corresponds to a minimum requirement for bridge memory; and
scheduling delivery of bridge data for media clips during immediately upstream carrier clips.
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Accused Products
Abstract
Described above are methods of authoring multimedia titles and of storing and delivering multimedia content that implements guaranteed seamless branching on digital media with high seek latency and a fixed upper bound on this latency. Continuous media content is arranged as individual clips on a storage medium. Seamless branches between clips are identified by an author. A method is disclosed to identify individual clips as carrier clips or non-carrier clips to guarantee specified seamless behavior while optimizing bridge memory usage and availability of seamless jumps. Bridge data of a particular target media clip is interleaved or otherwise associated on the storage medium with a carrier clip that is upstream of the target media clip, and delivered along with the upstream media clip. As bridge data are delivered, they are stored in bridge memory, to be used to implement a subsequent seamless branch. After the branch is implemented or after the branch is no longer an option, the bridge data is cleared from the bridge memory. Additional methods are disclosed for dealing with intervening file access and for accounting for no-latency branches that are possible when using some forms of storage devices.
83 Citations
29 Claims
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1. A method of authoring a media title comprising a plurality of continuous media clips connected by seamless branches, the media clips having bridge data, the method comprising:
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assigning certain media clips to be non-carrier clips; assigning other media clips to be carrier clips; identifying a target bridge set corresponding to respective media clips wherein a target bridge set corresponding to a particular media clip comprises (a) target bridge sets of all non-carrier clips that are immediate targets of the particular media clip and (b) the bridge data of all carrier clips that are immediate targets of the particular media clip; identifying the largest target bridge set, wherein the largest target bridge set corresponds to a minimum requirement for bridge memory; and scheduling delivery of bridge data for media clips during immediately upstream carrier clips. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6)
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7. A method of scheduling bridge data delivery in a seamless domain of media clips having bridge data and having seamless branches between the media clips, the method comprising the following steps:
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assigning at least one of the media clips to be a carrier clip and at least another of the media clips to be non-carrier clip, wherein said carrier and non-carrier clips are connected by seamless branches to target media clips; defining target bridge sets corresponding to respective media clips, wherein a target bridge set for a particular media clip comprises a union of (a) target bridge sets of non-carrier clips that are immediate targets of the particular media clip and (b) bridge data of media clips that are immediate targets of the particular media clip; and scheduling the target bridge set of a particular carrier clip to be delivered during said carrier clip. - View Dependent Claims (8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15)
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16. A method of determining minimum requirements for bridge memory in a system having a plurality of continuous media clips interconnected by seamless branches from source clips to target clips, each media clip being designated as a carrier clip or a non-carrier clip and having bridge data, the method comprising the following steps:
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identifying target bridge sets corresponding to respective media clips, wherein a target bridge set for a particular media clip comprises a union of (a) target bridge sets of non-carrier clips that are immediate targets of the particular media clip and (b) bridge data of media clips that are immediate targets of the particular media clip; and determining sizes of the target bridge sets; wherein the minimum requirement for bridge memory corresponds to the largest target bridge set. - View Dependent Claims (17, 18, 19, 20, 21)
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22. A computer-readable storage medium containing computer-executable instructions for performing steps comprising:
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specifying a plurality of continuous media clips; designating seamless branches from source media clips to target media clips, in response to user instructions; designating as carrier clips a plurality of media clips that are not assigned by a user to be non-carrier clips; defining target bridge sets corresponding to respective media clips, wherein a target bridge set for a particular media clip comprises a union of (a) target bridge sets of non-carrier clips that are immediate targets of the particular media clip and (b) bridge data of media clips that are immediate targets of the particular media clip; and scheduling the target bridge set of a particular carrier clip to be delivered during said carrier clip. - View Dependent Claims (23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29)
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Specification