Home movie maker

• US 6,400,378 B1
• Filed: 09/26/1997
• Issued: 06/04/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 09/26/1997
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.), Sony Electronics Inc. (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.), Sony Electronics Inc. (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Snook, Stephen Tupper
• Primary Examiner(s): Black, Thomas
• Assistant Examiner(s): JUNG, DAVID YIUK
• Application Number:
  US08/938,284
• Time in Patent Office: 1,712 Days
• Field of Search: 707/1-206, 707/501-540, 707/500.1, 345/302-349, 345/433, 345/145, 345/434-435, 345/716-726
• US Class Current: 715/716
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 2220/41 Flat as opposed to hierarchical combination, e.g. library of tapes or discs, CD changer, or groups of record carriers that together store one title
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 2220/90 Tape-like record carriers
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/024 on tapes G11B27/028, G11B27/029 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/032 on tapes G11B27/036, G11B27/038 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/034 on discs G11B27/036, G11B27/038 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/28 by using information signals recorded by the same method as the main recording G11B27/22 takes precedence
• 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: Y10S 707/99943 Generating database or data structure, e.g. via user interface
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99945 Object-oriented database structure processing

Abstract

The home movie editor of the present invention provides a simple but effective user interface and control mechanism which enables the user to edit video. The editor is preferably operable on a personal computer found in many homes today. The home movie editor consists of the graphical user interface and device control modules which interface via a bus to the video playback and recording hardware. The editor scans in video clips as thumbnails and displays the thumbnails in the clip window of the display. Using a cursor and cursor control device, the user can drag and drop clips into the edit window which visually depicts a sequence of edited clips showing the sequence of thumbnails. The clip insertion function is simplified by the insertion pointer that points to the clip boundary closest to the location of the cursor.

Claims

1. A home movie editing system, comprising:

a first input configured to receive at least one input video stream comprising at least one video clip;

a video clip window on a display device, said video clip window configured to display thumbnails of the video clips input, each of said thumbnails comprising a frame of video of a corresponding clip;

a video clip edit window on a display device, said video clip edit window configured to display a sequence of thumbnails of selected video clips;

a cursor control device controlling a cursor on the display, said cursor control device configured to use the cursor to select video clips displayed in the video clip window, drag each selected video clip into the video clip edit window and drop the selected video clips at a determined location in the video clip edit window; and

wherein said video clip edit window further includes an insert marker, said insert marker configured to point to the closest video clip boundary relative to the location of the cursor, said insert marker configured to identify a point of insertion of a video clip dragged to the video clip edit window.

2. The home movie editing system as set forth in claim 1, further comprising a view clip window, said view clip window enabling a user to view a video corresponding to a selected video clip.

3. The home movie editing system as set forth in claim 1, further comprising a library window, said library window identifying the video clips currently accessible.

4. The home movie editing system as set forth in claim 1, further comprising a video control bus coupled to the system, said video control bus enabling the system to send control information to control a video play device and a video control device and to communicate data between the video play device and video control device.

5. The home movie editing system as set forth in claim 1, further comprising an audio control window, said audio control window graphically representing a relative loudness of audio tracks, said relative loudness modifiable by changing the graphical representation.

6. The home movie editing system as set forth in claim 1, further comprising a controller configured to generate a plurality of thumbnails of video clips, said video clip window configured to display a subset of the plurality of thumbnails according to a selected resolution.

7. The home movie editing system as set forth in claim 1, further comprising a controller configured to generate output information of video clips corresponding to the sequence of thumbnails of selected video clips in the video clip edit window.

8. A method for editing an input video comprising at least one clip:

receiving at least one input video stream comprising at least one video clip;

generating at least one thumbnail of the at least one video clip;

displaying the thumbnails in a video clip window;

providing a pointer on the display, said pointer under control of a cursor control device;

selecting at least one video clip in the video clip window using pointer;

dragging selected video clips to a video clip edit window;

displaying an insert marker in the video clip edit window, said insert marker pointing to a closest video clip boundary relative to the location of the pointer in the video clip edit window and identifying a point of insertion of each selected video clip dragged to the video clip edit window;

dropping selected video clips at determined locations in the video clip edit window; and

displaying in the video clip edit window thumbnails of selected video clips in the sequence reflected by the locations the selected video clips were dropped.

9. The method as set forth in claim 8, wherein the step of generating output information comprises:

outputting control information to a coupled playback device to playback the selected video clips in the sequence shown in the video clip window; and

outputting control information to a coupled recording device to record the selected clips played back by the coupled playback device.

10. The method as set forth in claim 8, further comprising:

displaying an audio window graphically indicating the relative loudness of audio tracks corresponding to the clips; and

using the pointer to modify the graphical indication of relative loudness to change the relative loudness of the audio tracks.

11. The method as set forth in claim 8, wherein displaying in the video clip window comprises the step of setting a thumbnail resolution indicative of the frequency of video clips selected and displaying a set defined by the resolution.

12. The method as set forth in claim 8, further comprising generating output information of video clips corresponding to the sequence thumbnails of selected video clips in the video clip window.

13. The method as set forth in claim 8, further comprising:

selecting a clip and selecting a first predetermined control function; and

providing a view clip window on the display to enable a user to view video of the selected video clip.

14. The computer readable medium as set forth in claim 13, further comprising executable instructions that when executed, cause the processing system to further perform generating output information corresponding to the sequence of selected video clips in the video clip window.

15. The computer readable medium as set forth in claim 13, further comprising executable instructions that when executed, cause the processing system to further perform:

displaying an audio window graphically indicating the relative loudness of audio tracks corresponding to the clips; and

enabling use of the pointer to modify the graphical indication of relative loudness to change the relative loudness of the audio tracks.

16. The computer readable medium as set forth in claim 13, further comprising executable instructions that when executed, cause the processing system to further perform:

enabling selection of a video clip and selection of a first predetermined control function; and

providing a view clip window on the display to enable a user to view video of the selected video clip.

17. The computer readable medium as set forth in claim 13, further comprising executable instructions that when executed, cause the processing system to further perform:

displaying a library window comprising a listing of available video clips;

enabling use of the pointer to select available video clips; and

displaying selected available video clips in the video clip window.

18. The method as set forth in claim 8, further comprising:

displaying a library window comprising a listing of available video clips;

using the pointer to select available video clips; and

displaying selected available video clips in the video clip window.

19. A computer readable medium containing executable instructions which, when executed in a processing system, causes the system to perform editing functions, comprising:

receiving at least one input video stream comprising at least one video clip;

generating at least one thumbnail of the at least one video clip;

displaying the thumbnails in a video clip window;

providing a pointer on the display, said pointer under control of a cursor control device;

enabling selection of at least one video clip in the video clip window using the pointer;

enabling a drag of the selected clips to a video clip edit window;

displaying an insert marker in the video clip edit window, said insert marker pointing to a closest video clip boundary relative to the location of the pointer in the video clip edit window and identifying a point of insertion of each selected video clip dragged to the video clip edit window;

enabling the drop of the selected video clips at determined locations in the video clip edit window;

displaying in the video clip edit window thumbnails of selected clips in the sequence reflected by the locations the selected video clips were dropped.