Random access editing of media

• US 7,383,497 B2
• Filed: 01/21/2003
• Issued: 06/03/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 01/21/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Glenner, Steve, Wong, Curtis G., Drucker, Steven M.
• Primary Examiner(s): Hong; Stephen
• Assistant Examiner(s): Queler; Adam M
• Application Number:
  US10/348,277
• Publication Number:
  US 20040143604A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,960 Days
• Field of Search: 715/530, 715/513, 715/512, 715/515, 715/526, 715/716, 715/230, 715/231
• US Class Current: 715/231
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/40 of multimedia data, e.g. slideshows comprising image and additional audio data retrieval of still image data G06F16/50; retrieval of audio data G06F16/60; retrieval of video data G06F16/70
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/48 Retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manually

Abstract

The present invention provides a unique system and method for facilitating browsing, sorting, clustering, and filtering any number of media objects grouped together in a quick and easy manner. In particular, the invention involves annotating the media objects, which have been clustered, sorted, and/or filtered en masse rather than individually, with metadata. The media objects may be selected by a user and annotated with a plurality of metadata as desired by a user in order to optimize utilization of the media objects. The media objects may also be combined and/or mixed in any number of ways to create new media objects. Media objects may include an audio component, a visual component, a portion thereof, and/or any combination thereof.

Claims

1. A media generation computer comprising:

a component that receives a plurality of media objects;

a component that clusters the plurality of media objects into subset groups;

a component that annotates en masse the plurality of media objects in a subset group with at least a subset of metadata, the subset of metadata includes at least one of intrinsic metadata inferred from inherent properties of the plurality media objects or extrinsic metadata supplied by a user;

a component that generates at least one new media object via combining media objects in a subset group based at least in part upon the metadata associated therewith; and

a component that embeds a first media object into a second media object to generate at least one new media object.

2. The computer of claim 1, wherein the plurality of media objects and

the new media object comprise a respective historical component corresponding thereto that tracks and records metadata associated with the respective media objects to facilitate random access and retrieval of at least a subset of the media objects.

3. The computer of claim 1 combining the subset of media objects randomly.

4. The computer of claim 1 combining the subset of media objects based at least in part upon a predetermined order.

5. The computer of claim 1 further comprising a data fusion component that identifies corollaries among the media objects.

6. The computer of claim 1, the first media object being an audio file and the second media object being a video file.

7. The computer of claim 1, farther comprising a pattern recognition component that facilitates combining the media objects.

8. The computer of claim 1 further comprising a classifier that facilitates combining the media objects.

9. The computer of claim 1 further comprising a matching component that modifies the first object so as to coincide with properties of the second object.

10. The computer of claim 9, the matching component modifying a length of an audio file to match a length of a video file.

11. The computer of claim 1 further comprising a filter that excludes undesired objects from the combination.

12. The computer of claim 11, the filter comprising a classifier that has been trained explicitly and/or implicitly so as to recognize user preferences.

13. The computer of claim 12, the filter excluding portions of an object.

14. The computer of claim 1 further comprising a visualization component that provides for displaying respective portions of the plurality of objects.

15. The computer of claim 14, the visualization component displaying a subset of frames of a plurality of frames of a video media object.

16. The computer of claim 14, the visualization component displaying a graphical representation of a subset of audio portions of a plurality of audio portions of an audio media object.

17. The computer of claim 1 mixing a plurality of audio media objects.

18. The computer of claim 1 further comprising a delivery component for transmitting the new media object to another computer.

19. The computer of claim 1, the combining of media objects being based at least in part on a subset of metadata thereof.

20. The computer of claim 1, further comprising a component that scrubs metadata from the plurality of objects.

21. The computer of claim 1, further comprising a component that removes metadata from the new object.

22. A computer readable medium having stored thereon computer executable components for carrying out the system of claim 1.

23. A computer-implemented method of editing media to generate new media comprising:

receiving a plurality of media objects, at least a portion of which are annotated with metadata, the metadata is at least one of extrinsic metadata and intrinsic metadata;

identifying the metadata;

grouping the plurality of media objects into one or more clusters comprising a subset of the media objects inferred to be related based upon the identified metadata;

combining the subset of the media objects in a cluster to generate a new media object, the combining being based at least in part upon the identified metadata and the cluster; and

embedding a first media object into a second media object to facilitate combining media objects.

24. The computer-implemented method of claim 23, wherein the media objects comprise at least one of a video object and an audio object.

25. The computer-implemented method of claim 23, wherein the media objects comprise at least one of a movie, a video, a picture, a photograph, streaming video, a document, text, e-mail, a message, sounds, music, songs, and/or any portion thereof and/or any combination thereof.

26. The computer-implemented method of claim 23, wherein the new media object comprises any one of a video, a movie, a slideshow, a song, music, a document, a message, a collage, and/or any combination thereof.

27. The computer-implemented method of claim 23, further comprising correlating the media objects, wherein correlating the media objects comprises:

employing the metadata annotated to the media objects to identify keynote portions to facilitate selecting a length of the media object suitable to form a transition from media object to media object based at least in part upon a user'"'"'s instructions; and

truncating the selected media objects to a suitable length.

28. The computer-implemented method of claim 23, wherein the new media object is saved and retained for future use.

29. The computer-implemented method of claim 23, further comprising ordering the media objects in a component based at least upon a user'"'"'s instructions.

30. A computer-implemented method of mixing media to generate new media comprising:

selecting one or more portions of a visual object based at least upon metadata thereof;

selecting one or more portions of an audio object based at least upon metadata thereof;

adding the selected visual object portions and the selected audio object portions to a bin component;

annotating with metadata the visual object portions and audio object portions in the bin component en masse; and

generating a new media object via embedding the selected audio object portions in the bin component into the selected visual object portions in the bin component, the new media object is annotated with metadata from visual object portions and the audio object portions.

31. The computer-implemented method of claim 30, wherein the new media object is annotated with the metadata from the respective visual and audio components.

32. A computer that facilitates generating media comprising:

means for grouping one or more media objects based at least in part upon respective metadata thereof;

means for annotating a group of media objects en masse with at least one of additional intrinsic or extrinsic metadata;

means for combining a group of media objects to generate a new media object, the new media object is annotated with metadata from the group of media objects; and

means for embedding a first media object into a second media object to facilitate combination of media objects.