User interface for creating viewing and temporally positioning annotations for media content

• US 7,506,262 B2
• Filed: 10/18/2004
• Issued: 03/17/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 09/15/1998
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Bargeron, David M, Gupta, Anoop
• Primary Examiner(s): Luu; Sy D
• Application Number:
  US10/967,451
• Publication Number:
  US 20050081159A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,611 Days
• Field of Search: 715/719, 715/733, 715/751, 715/230, 715/233
• US Class Current: 715/751
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/4393 Multimedia presentations, e.g. slide shows, multimedia albums
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/48 Retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manually
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/748 Hypervideo linking data to content, e.g. by linking an URL to a video object in the context of video distribution systems H04N21/858
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/7867 using information manually generated, e.g. tags, keywords, comments, title and artist information, manually generated time, location and usage information, user ratings
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/12 Use of codes for handling textual entities
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/169 Annotation, e.g. comment data or footnotes

Abstract

In a networked client/server system, media content as well as annotations corresponding to the media content can be transmitted from a server(s) to a client. A user interface is presented to the user to facilitate creating new annotations and viewing annotations. According to one embodiment, the client further assists the user in identifying a temporal range of the media content to which the new annotation is to correspond.

Claims

1. A computer system having a processor and a computer-readable storage memory, the computer system comprising:

means for presenting a user interface at a client computer, the user interface enabling a user to add a new annotation corresponding to media content;

means for receiving a user request to add the new annotation;

means for forwarding information for the new annotation to an annotation server, the information including data associated with the user interface;

means for analyzing at least a portion of the media content to identify a likely temporal location of the media content to associate the new annotation with; and

means for presenting the likely temporal location to the user via the user interface.

2. A system as recited in claim 1, wherein each of the means for presenting, the means for receiving, the means for forwarding, the means for analyzing, and the means for presenting comprises computer-executable instructions.

3. A computer system having a processor and a computer-readable storage memory, the computer system comprising:

means for presenting a user interface at a client computer, the user interface enabling a user to add a new annotation corresponding to media content;

means for receiving a user request to add the new annotation;

means for analyzing at least a portion of the media content to identify a likely temporal location of the media content to associate the new annotation with; and

means for presenting the likely temporal location to the user via the user interface.

4. A system as recited in claim 3, wherein the likely temporal location comprises a likely beginning temporal location of the media content to associate the new annotation with.

5. A system as recited in claim 3, further comprising:

means for receiving an acceptance or rejection of the likely temporal location from the user via the user interface;

means for using, in response to receiving an acceptance from the user, the likely temporal location as the temporal location of the media content to associate the new annotation with; and

means for analyzing, in response to receiving a rejection from the user, at least another portion of the media content to identify another likely temporal location of the media content to associate the new annotation with, and presenting the other likely temporal location to the user via the user interface.

6. A system as recited in claim 5, wherein the portion of the media content and the other portion of the media content are two different portions of the media content.

7. A system as recited in claim 3, further comprising means for using the likely temporal location as the temporal location of the media content to associate the new annotation with.

8. A system as recited in claim 3, wherein the means for presenting comprises means for displaying a video frame of the media content corresponding to the likely temporal location.

9. A system as recited in claim 3, wherein the means for presenting comprises means for displaying a presentation time of the media content that corresponds to the likely temporal location.

10. A system as recited in claim 3, wherein the means for analyzing comprises means for analyzing audio content.

11. A system as recited in claim 3, wherein the means for analyzing comprises means for analyzing video content.

12. A system as recited in claim 3, wherein each of the means for presenting a user interface, the means for receiving a user request, the means for analyzing, and the means for presenting the likely temporal location comprises computer-executable instructions.

13. A computer system with a processor and a computer-readable storage memory the computer system comprising:

means for presenting a graphical user interface at a client computer, the graphical user interface enabling a user to add a new annotation corresponding to media content;

means for receiving a user request to add the new annotation;

means for presenting, to the user via the graphical user interface, a plurality of likely temporal locations of the media content to associate the new annotation with; and

means for receiving a user selection of one of the plurality of likely temporal locations to be the temporal location of the media content to associate the new annotation with.

14. A system as recited in claim 13, wherein the means for presenting the plurality of likely temporal locations comprises means for identifying a different one of the plurality of likely temporal locations to the user each time the user actuates a rewind button of the user interface.

15. A system as recited in claim 13, wherein the means for presenting comprises means for displaying a visual indication of the likely temporal location for each of the plurality of likely temporal locations.

16. A system as recited in claim 15, wherein the visual indication includes one or more of:

a video frame of the media content, a numerical presentation time of the media content, and an indicator on a graphical time bar.

17. A system as recited in claim 13, wherein each of the means for presenting a graphical user interface, the means for receiving a user request, the means for presenting a plurality of likely temporal locations, and the means for receiving a user selection comprises computer-executable instructions.

18. A method comprising:

presenting a graphical user interface at a client computer, the graphical user interface enabling a user to add a new annotation corresponding to media content;

receiving a user request to add the new annotation;

identifying a user request time that is a time, with reference to the presentation time of the media content, that the user request is received; and

selecting, based on the user request time, a presentation time of the media content to associate the new annotation with, wherein the presentation time is a different time than the user request time.

19. A method as recited in claim 18, wherein the selecting comprises selecting a begin time and an end time of the media content to define a segment of the media content to associate the new annotation with, and wherein the begin time is prior to the user request time and the end time is subsequent to the user request time.

20. A computer system having a processor and a computer-readable storage memory, the computer system comprising:

means for presenting a graphical user interface at a client computer, the graphical user interface enabling a user to add a new annotation corresponding to media content;

means for receiving a user request to add the new annotation;

means for identifying a user request time that is a time, with reference to the presentation time of the media content, that the user request is received; and

means for selecting, based on the user request time, a presentation time of the media content to associate the new annotation with, wherein the presentation time is a different time than the user request time.

21. A system as recited in claim 20, wherein the means for selecting comprises means for selecting a begin time and an end time of the media content to define a segment of the media content to associate the new annotation with, and wherein the begin time is prior to the user request time and the end time is subsequent to the user request time.

22. A method comprising:

presenting a plurality of annotation identifiers corresponding to multimedia content that enable a user to request selected ones of the plurality of annotations, based on the plurality of annotation identifiers, each of the plurality of annotations including annotation content and a temporal range identifier that identifies a segment of the multimedia content to which the annotation corresponds, and each of the plurality of annotations being available from an annotation server; and

rendering the requested annotations.

23. A computer system having a processor and a computer-readable storage memory, the computer system comprising:

means for presenting a plurality of annotation identifiers corresponding to multimedia content that enable a user to request selected ones of the plurality of annotations, based on the plurality of annotation identifiers, each of the plurality of annotations including annotation content and a temporal range identifier that identifies a segment of the multimedia content to which the annotation corresponds, and each of the plurality of annotations being available from an annotation server; and

means for rendering the requested annotations.