System and method for recording a presentation for on-demand viewing over a computer network

• US 7,552,228 B2
• Filed: 01/14/2008
• Issued: 06/23/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 06/15/1999
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Warrin, Paul O., Parasnis, Shashank Mohan, Poon, Paul C.
• Primary Examiner(s): BOUTAH, ALINA A
• Application Number:
  US12/013,988
• Publication Number:
  US 20080126943A1
• Time in Patent Office: 526 Days
• Field of Search: 715/730, 709/203, 709/217, 709/223, 709/227, 709/231, 709/248
• US Class Current: 709/231
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1831 Tracking arrangements for later retrieval, e.g. recording contents, participants activities or behavior, network status
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/612 for unicast
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/613 for the control of the source by the destination control signals issued by the client directed to the server or network components specially adapted for selective content distribution H04N21/637

Abstract

A system and method for recording and playback of a live presentation that enables a reproduction of audio and visual aspects of the live presentation and enables on-demand viewing of the presentation at a later time. A live presentation comprising a plurality of presentation slides, audio content, and optionally, visual content are recorded as a data stream, so that when the recording of the data stream is played, the presentation slides are displayed in substantial synchrony with reproduced audio and visual content on a viewer'"'"'s computer, thereby reproducing the live presentation. The plurality of presentation slides are saved as HTML files to a predetermined location that is accessible by the viewer'"'"'s computer over a computer network, such as the Internet. During the presentation, the live audio and visual content is captured and encoded into the data stream, which is in an active streaming format (ASF), and the data stream is saved to a file. Also, slide display commands produced in conjunction with the display of the presentation slides during the presentation are interleaved into the data stream. In response to a viewer'"'"'s request to view the presentation at a later time, the data stream file is downloaded to the viewer'"'"'s computer and played back using a media player, which decodes the data stream file to replicate the live audio and visual content of the presentation. As the slide display commands are encountered during playback of the data stream file, corresponding HTML slide files are downloaded over the computer network to the viewer'"'"'s computer and displayed so that they are substantially synchronized with the reproduced audio and visual content of the presentation.

Claims

1. A computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions for reproducing on a viewing computer a presentation that was previously presented live, said viewing computer having a display, said presentation including a predefined content portion with a plurality of presentation slides that were displayed in response to slide triggering events during the presentation when it was presented live, and a live portion comprising live audio and/or visual content performed in conjunction with display of said plurality of presentation slides during the presentation when it was presented live, execution of the computer-executable instructions causing the view computer to:

(a) produce a recording of the presentation when it was presented live by performing the steps of;

(i) producing a data stream comprising data corresponding to the live portion of the presentation, wherein the live portion of the presentation is captured as a plurality of video frames comprising a plurality of keyframes and deltaframes;

(ii) generating slide display commands corresponding to said slide triggering events captured in real time during the presentation when presented live, each slide display command controlling display of an associated presentation slide when the recording is played;

(iii) automatically including the slide display commands with the data corresponding to the live portion of the presentation in the data stream as the data stream is being produced, said slide display commands being automatically time indexed in regard to the keyframes and deltaframes within the data stream based upon the time when the slide triggering events occurred in the presentation when presented live; and

(iv) saving the data stream to the data stream file that is accessible by the viewing computer;

(b) save the predefined content portion to at least one presentation slide file that is accessible by the viewing computer;

(c) access the data stream file with the viewing computer;

(d) reproduce the live portion of the presentation on the display of the viewing computer by playing the data stream file;

(e) extract the slide display commands from the data stream as the slide display commands are encountered while playing the data stream file;

(f) in response to each slide display command that is extracted in the proceeding step, access data corresponding to its associated presentation slide with the viewing computer; and

(g) reproduce each of the plurality of presentation slides on the display of the viewing computer as data corresponding to that presentation slide is accessed by the viewing presentation slide is displayed at substantially an identical item relative to when displayed during the live portion of the presentation when presented live.

2. The computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the viewing computer accesses the data corresponding to the presentation slides with a browser program.

3. The computer-readable medium of claim 2, wherein each of said plurality of presentation slides is associated with a corresponding HTML slide file that is saved to a predetermined location on a network accessible by the viewing computer and at least a portion of said slide display commands comprise a link to the predetermined location of an associated HTML slide file on the network, each of said HTML slide files being opened in the browser program in response to its associated slide display command, said browser program interpreting the HTML slide files to reproduce said plurality of presentation slides.

4. The computer-readable medium of claim 3, wherein the link to each HTML slide files comprises an absolute reference to a location on the network at which the HTML slide file corresponding to the link is stored.

5. The computer-readable medium of claim 4, wherein each of the absolute references comprises a base portion identifying a base directory on a network resource in or below which the HTML slide files are stored, and a relative portion, identifying a location at which the HTML slide files are stored relative to the base directory, further comprising the steps of:

(a) passing the base portion to the browser program to indicate a location of the base directory;

(b) removing the base portion from each of the links m said slide display commands so as leave only the relative portion of the link; and

(c) using the relative portion of each link to enable the browser program to access the HTML file associated with that link.

6. The computer-readable medium of claim 2, wherein the browser program includes a display area having a primary frame, and a secondary frame, a media player screen appearing in the secondary frame, said presentation slide files being reproduced in the primary frame, and said live visual content being reproduced in the media player screen.

7. The computer-readable medium of claim 6, wherein execution of the computer-executable instructions further causes the computer system to:

(a) indicate a location at which the data stream file is stored to the viewing computer;

(b) direct the data stream to the secondary frame; and

(c) play the data stream in the secondary frame after at least a portion of the data stream file is received, to reproduce the live portion of the presentation.