Accessing annotations across multiple target media streams
First Claim
Patent Images
1. One or more computer-readable media containing a computer program for annotating streaming media, wherein the program performs steps comprising:
- receiving an annotation retrieval request from a user of a client computer;
accessing, based on the annotation retrieval request, a group identifier in a hierarchical annotation storage structure, wherein the group identifier identifies a plurality of media streams each corresponding to different media content;
retrieving multiple annotations in the hierarchical annotation storage structure that are at a lower hierarchical level than the group identifier; and
providing the multiple annotations to a client computer to be presented to a user.
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Accused Products
Abstract
An annotation server uses a hierarchical annotation storage structure to maintain a correspondence between a plurality of multimedia stream annotations and a hierarchically higher group identifier. The annotations corresponding to the different multimedia streams can easily be accessed concurrently by referencing the group identifier.
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Citations
25 Claims
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1. One or more computer-readable media containing a computer program for annotating streaming media, wherein the program performs steps comprising:
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receiving an annotation retrieval request from a user of a client computer;
accessing, based on the annotation retrieval request, a group identifier in a hierarchical annotation storage structure, wherein the group identifier identifies a plurality of media streams each corresponding to different media content;
retrieving multiple annotations in the hierarchical annotation storage structure that are at a lower hierarchical level than the group identifier; and
providing the multiple annotations to a client computer to be presented to a user. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
comparing all of the annotations at the lower hierarchical level to search criteria; and
identifying the annotations at the lower hierarchical level that satisfy the search criteria.
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4. One or more computer-readable media as recited in claim 1, wherein the receiving comprises receiving, as part of the annotation retrieval request, a stream identifier identifying one media stream of the plurality of media streams.
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5. One or more computer-readable media as recited in claim 4, wherein the stream identifier comprises a uniform resource locator (URL).
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6. One or more computer-readable media as recited in claim 4, wherein the accessing comprises determining the group identifier based at least in part on a portion of the stream identifier.
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7. One or more computer-readable media as recited in claim 1, wherein the receiving comprises receiving, as part of the annotation retrieval request, a portion of a stream identifier identifying one media stream of the plurality of media streams.
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8. A method comprising:
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receiving user input identifying annotation search criteria;
accessing a plurality of annotations corresponding to a plurality of multimedia streams to identify a set of annotations that satisfy the search criteria, wherein each of the plurality of multimedia streams corresponds to different multimedia content, and wherein the accessing comprises, using a hierarchical annotation storage structure to determine which groups of the plurality of annotations to access in order to identify the set of annotations, identifying a group identifier node corresponding to the request, and accessing all lower level nodes in the hierarchical annotation storage structure that correspond to the group identifier; and
presenting the set of annotations to the user. - View Dependent Claims (9, 10)
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11. A computer-readable medium having stored thereon a data structure, comprising:
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a first data node containing data representing an annotation group identifier, wherein the group identifier identifies a plurality of annotations corresponding to a plurality of media streams, and wherein each of the plurality of media streams corresponds to different multimedia content; and
a second data node containing data representing a first plurality of annotations corresponding to the annotation group identifier, the first data node being at a hierarchically higher level than the second data node in a hierarchical storage structure. - View Dependent Claims (12, 13, 14, 15, 16)
a third data node containing data representing a second plurality of annotations corresponding to the annotation group identifier, the first data node being at a hierarchically higher level than the third data node in the hierarchical storage structure.
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13. A computer-readable medium as recited in claim 12, wherein the second node and the third node are at the same hierarchical level.
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14. A computer-readable medium as recited in claim 11, wherein the first node is one hierarchical level higher than the second node.
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15. A computer-readable medium as recited in claim 11, wherein each of the first plurality of annotations corresponds to a multimedia stream.
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16. A computer-readable medium as recited in claim 11, further comprising:
a third data node containing data representing a plurality of annotation group identifiers, including the annotation group identifier represented by the data contained in the first data node, the third data node being at a hierarchically higher level than the first data node in the hierarchical storage structure.
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17. A system comprising:
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an annotation database that stores one or more collections of annotations in a hierarchical annotation storage structure having the annotations at a first hierarchical level and a set of group identifiers at a second hierarchical level, wherein each of the annotations identifies at least a segment of a media stream of one or more media streams, wherein each group identifier identifies two or more of the media streams, and wherein each media stream corresponds to different media content; and
an annotation manager to control storage and retrieval of the plurality of annotations from the annotation database, wherein the annotation manager is configured to perform steps comprising;
identifying, based at least in part on the set of group identifiers, a plurality of the one or more collections of annotations to search, searching the plurality of annotations to identify one or more annotations that satisfy a search criteria, and presenting the one or more annotations to a user. - View Dependent Claims (18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25)
managing presentation, to the user, of media stream segments corresponding to the one or more annotations.
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19. system as recited in claim 18, further comprising:
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a multimedia server coupled to the annotation manager;
a client computer coupled to the multimedia server and to the annotation manager; and
wherein the media stream segments corresponding to the one or more annotations are streamed to the client computer from the multimedia server.
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20. A system as recited in claim 17, further comprising:
a client computer, coupled to the annotation manager, to receive the annotations and display them to the user.
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21. A system as recited in claim 17, further comprising:
a client computer, coupled to the annotation manager, configured to present a graphical user interface to the user in order to allow the user to input the search criteria.
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22. A system as recited in claim 17, wherein the client computer is further configured to:
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receive annotation set information from the user;
receive, from the annotation manager, media stream identifiers of one or more media streams corresponding to the annotation set; and
display the media stream identifiers to the user.
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23. A system as recited in claim 22, wherein the annotation manager is further configured to:
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receive the annotation set information from the client computer;
access a media stream target table to determine which of the one or more media streams corresponds to the annotation set; and
return the identifiers of the one or more media streams identified in the target table to the client computer as the media stream identifiers.
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24. A system as recited in claim 17, wherein the search criteria includes a group identifier.
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25. A system as recited in claim 24, wherein the group identifier comprises a portion of a uniform resource locator (URL).
Specification