System and method for multimedia authoring and playback
First Claim
1. An authoring system comprising:
- presentation data including at least one container object containing at least two media objects containing media data, the media data including at least one of text data or picture data;
hierarchical structuring of the presentation data by nesting container objects within container objects to form a hierarchical object space;
a playback display for playing back the presentation data by presenting the media data in the playback display, the playback display being associated with a master container object that contains the set of playing objects whose media data is displayed in the playback display;
a destination container object which is directly contained within the master container object, and which is associated with a nested sub-display shown within the playback display, and which contains at least two media objects which are playing and whose media data is displayed within the sub-display; and
user-initiated navigation through the hierarchical object space comprising a preemption of playback for die playing objects contained in the master container object which are not contained within the destination container object, and further comprising a transition whereby the nested sub-display is no longer displayed in the playback display and the media data previously displayed in the nested sub-display becomes displayed in the playback display overall.
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0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A system and method for authoring and playback of multimedia content together with sharing, interconnecting and navigating the content using a computer network is disclosed. Creation, presentation and sharing of multimedia content and applications takes place within an active authoring environment, where data is always “live,” and any piece of content can be played alongside any other piece of content at any time. In this environment, there are no formal delineations between one “presentation” and another based on such things as file boundaries, other data storage constructs or the like. Instead, any piece of content can potentially be part of the “current” presentation at any time simply by being “started.” As a result, three factors become critically important: (1) the framework in which content is organized, stored and distributed; (2) the control mechanisms by which content is played and presented, and (3) as with any authoring system, the methods and means by which users create and edit content. In each of these areas, the present invention makes significant innovations which are highly complementary, resulting in a new type of software application that seamlessly integrates authoring, playback and networking in an active, shared, rich media environment optimized for personal communications.
272 Citations
7 Claims
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1. An authoring system comprising:
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presentation data including at least one container object containing at least two media objects containing media data, the media data including at least one of text data or picture data; hierarchical structuring of the presentation data by nesting container objects within container objects to form a hierarchical object space; a playback display for playing back the presentation data by presenting the media data in the playback display, the playback display being associated with a master container object that contains the set of playing objects whose media data is displayed in the playback display; a destination container object which is directly contained within the master container object, and which is associated with a nested sub-display shown within the playback display, and which contains at least two media objects which are playing and whose media data is displayed within the sub-display; and user-initiated navigation through the hierarchical object space comprising a preemption of playback for die playing objects contained in the master container object which are not contained within the destination container object, and further comprising a transition whereby the nested sub-display is no longer displayed in the playback display and the media data previously displayed in the nested sub-display becomes displayed in the playback display overall. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
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Specification