Techniques for receiving information during multimedia presentations and communicating the information

• US 7,653,925 B2
• Filed: 11/30/2000
• Issued: 01/26/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 11/17/1999
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ricoh Company Limited
• Original Assignee: Ricoh Company Limited
• Inventors: Graham, Jamey, Hart, Peter E., Hull, Jonathan J., Lee, Dar-Shyang, Baxter, Michael, Gage, Pamela
• Primary Examiner(s): Kelley; Christopher
• Assistant Examiner(s): BROWN, RUEBEN M
• Application Number:
  US09/728,453
• Publication Number:
  US 20020056082A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,344 Days
• Field of Search: 725/91, 725/93, 725109-110, 725/114, 725/116, 725/78, 725/37, 715/723, 715/231, 715/748, 345/370, 345/723
• US Class Current: 725/37
• 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: G11B 27/11 by using information not detectable on the record carrier
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/28 by using information signals recorded by the same method as the main recording G11B27/22 takes precedence

Abstract

Techniques for receiving information during multimedia presentations and for communicating the received information to one or more information access devices. A presentation recorder adapter receives information during a multimedia presentation and communicates the information to access devices. The adapter may receive multimedia presentation information, comprising video information and audio information, from a first source. The adapter may also receive information from a second source separate from the first source during the multimedia presentation. For example, the second source may be an attendee of the multimedia presentation. The adapter may transmit the multimedia presentation information received from the first source and the information received from the second source to one or more information access devices.

Claims

1. A method performed by a presentation recorder device of communicating information received during a multimedia presentation, comprising:

receiving first information at the presentation recorder device from a first system coupled to the presentation recorder device, the first information including at least one of video information or audio information generated using the first system from a presentation file;

receiving second information at the presentation recorder device from a set of capture devices, the second information including at least one of video information or audio information from a capture device in the set of capture devices, the second information captured by the capture device during the multimedia presentation;

analyzing video information received from the first system or video information received from the capture device with the presentation recorder device to determine a textual difference between a first video frame and a second video frame using one or more optical character recognition techniques;

selecting a set of one or more keyframes with the presentation recorder device from the analyzed video information received from the first system or the analyzed video information received from the capture device in response to a user-configurable threshold and the textual difference between a first video frame and a second video frame;

analyzing the first information and the second information with the presentation recorder device to extract textual information with the presentation recorder device from video information or the audio information in the first information or video information or the audio information in the second information using one or more text recognition techniques;

generating a presentation representation at the presentation recorder device of the first information and the second information, the presentation representation including a representation of each keyframe in the set of keyframes and the textual information extracted by the presentation recorder device from the first information or the second information;

communicating at least a portion of the presentation representation from the presentation recorder device to one or more devices, the communicated portion of the presentation representation including one or more keyframes from the set of keyframes and a portion of the textual information.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

synchronizing audio information at the presentation recorder device received from the first system or from the capture device with the selected set of keyframes.

3. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

storing the set of keyframes in a memory associated with the presentation recorder device.

4. The method of claim 3 further comprising:

receiving a request at the presentation recorder device from a device requesting transmission of the one or more keyframes in the set of keyframes;

in response to the request, determining at the presentation recorder device the one or more keyframes in the set of keyframes requested by the device and corresponding audio information; and

wherein communicating at least a portion of the presentation representation further comprises transmitting the corresponding audio information from the presentation recorder device to the device.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein the request received from the device requests transmission of a portion of the first information received by the presentation recorder device from the first system.

6. The method of claim 4 wherein the request received from the device requests transmission of a portion of the second information received by the presentation recorder device from the capture device.

7. The method of claim 4 wherein the request received from the device requests transmission of audio information from the first information or the second information received by the presentation recorder device.

8. The method of claim 4 wherein the request received from the device requests transmission of video information from the first information or the second information received by the presentation recorder device.

9. The method of claim 4 wherein the request received from the device requests transmission of audio or video information received by the presentation recorder device from the first system and the capture device between a start time and an end time.

10. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

synchronizing the one or more keyframes at the presentation recorder device with audio information received from the first system and with audio information received from the capture device; and

storing third information using the presentation recorder device associating the one or more keyframes with the audio information received from the first device, the audio information received from the capture device, and the portion of the textual information.

11. The method of claim 10 further comprising:

generating a web page with the presentation recorder device for each keyframe in the one or more keyframes, each web page including a video frame;

assigning a uniform resource locator (URL) with the presentation recorder device to each web page; and

wherein communicating at least a portion of the presentation representation comprises transmitting at least one URL assigned to a web page from the presentation recorder device to the one or more devices.

12. The method of claim 11 further comprising:

receiving a request at the presentation recorder device from a device identifying a first URL;

in response to the request, determining with the presentation recorder device a first web page corresponding to the first URL; and

wherein communicating at least a portion of the presentation representation comprises transmitting the first web page from the presentation recorder device to the device.

13. The method of claim 1 wherein selecting the set of one or more keyframes at the presentation recorder device in response to the user-configurable threshold comprises selecting at the presentation recorder device frames of video at a predetermined sampling interval.

14. A computer readable storage medium configured to store computer program code executable by a presentation recorder device for communicating information received during a multimedia presentation, the computer readable storage medium comprising:

code for receiving first information from a first system, the first information comprising at least one of video information or audio information generated from a presentation file;

code for receiving second information from a capture device, the second information including at least one of video information or audio information captured by the capture device during the multimedia presentation;

code for analyzing video information received from the first system or video information received from the capture device to determine a textual difference between a first video frame and a second video frame using one or more optical character recognition techniques;

code for selecting a set of one or more keyframes from the analyzed video information received from the first system or analyzed video information received from the capture device in response to a user-configurable threshold and the textual difference between a first video frame and a second video frame;

code for analyzing the first information and the second information to extract textual information from video information or the audio information in the first information or video information or the audio information in the second information using one or more text recognition techniques;

code for generating a presentation representation of the first information and the second information, the presentation representation including a representation of each keyframe in the set of keyframes and the textual information extracted from the first information or the second information;

code for communicating at least a portion of the presentation representation to one or more devices, the communicated portion of the presentation representation including one or more keyframes from the set of keyframes and a portion of the textural information.

15. The computer readable storage medium of claim 14 further comprising:

code for synchronizing audio information received from the first system or from the capture device with the selected set of keyframes.

16. The computer readable storage medium of claim 14 further comprising:

code for storing the set of keyframes in a memory coupled to the adapter.

17. The computer readable storage medium of claim 16 further comprising:

code for receiving a request from a device requesting transmission of the one or more keyframes in the set of keyframes;

in response to the request, code for determining the one or more keyframes in the set of keyframes requested by the device and corresponding audio information; and

wherein the code for communicating at least a portion of the presentation representation further comprises code for transmitting the corresponding audio information to the device.

18. The computer readable storage medium of claim 17 wherein the request received from the device requests transmission of a portion of the first information received from the first system.

19. The computer readable storage medium of claim 17 wherein the request received from the device requests transmission of a portion of the second information received from the capture device.

20. The computer readable storage medium of claim 17 wherein the request received from the device requests transmission of audio information from the first information or the second information received from the first system and the capture device.

21. The computer readable storage of claim 17 wherein the request received from the device requests transmission of video information from the first information or the second information received from the first system and the capture device.

22. The computer readable storage medium of claim 17 wherein the request received from the device requests transmission of audio or video information received from the first system and the capture device between a start time and an end time.

23. The computer readable storage medium of claim 14 further comprising:

code for synchronizing the one or more keyframes with audio information received from the first system and with audio information received from the capture device; and

code for storing third information associating the one or more keyframes with the audio information received from the first system, the audio information received from the capture device, and the portion of textual information.

24. The computer readable storage medium of claim 23 comprising:

code for generating a web page for each keyframe in the one or more keyframes, each web page including a video frame;

code for assigning a uniform resource locator (URL) to each web page; and

wherein the code for communicating at least a portion of the presentation representation comprises code for transmitting at least one URL assigned to a web page to the one or more devices.

25. The computer readable storage medium of claim 24 further comprising:

code for receiving a request from a device identifying a first URL;

in response to the request, code for determining a first web page corresponding to the first URL; and

wherein the code for communicating at least a portion of the presentation representation comprises code for transmitting the first web page to the device.

26. The computer readable storage medium of claim 23 wherein the code for analyzing video information or the audio information in the first information or video information or the audio information in the second information to extract textual information from the first information or the second information using one or more text recognition techniques comprises:

code for obtaining the textual information from the audio information received from the capture device in response to a speech recognition technique;

code for identifying a speaker associated with the audio information received from the capture device based on a voice recognition technique; and

code for annotating the textual information in the presentation representation with information associated with the identified speaker.

27. The computer readable storage medium of claim 14 wherein the code for analyzing the video information received from the first system or video information received from the capture device comprises:

code for comparing a first frame of video to a subsequent second frame of video;

code for identifying the second frame as textually different from the first frame; and

code for storing both the first frame of video and the second frame of video.

28. The computer readable storage medium of claim 27 wherein the code for comparing a first frame of video to a subsequent second frame of video further comprises:

code for comparing image pixels of the first frame of video and the second frame of video.

29. The computer readable storage medium claim 14 wherein the code for analyzing the first information or the second information comprises:

code for determining a portion of the textual information in response to applying speech recognition to audio information in the first information or the second information.

30. The computer readable storage medium of claim 14 wherein the code for selecting the set of keyframes in response to the user- configurable threshold comprises code for selecting frames of video at a predetermined sampling interval.

31. A system for communicating information received during a multimedia presentation, the system comprising:

a processor; and

a memory coupled to the processor and configured to store a set of program modules executable by the processor, the program modules comprising;

an input module configured to;

receive first information from a first system, the first information including at least one of video information or audio information generated from a presentation file,

receive second information from a capture device, the second information including at least one of video information or audio information captured by the capture device during the multimedia presentation;

a processing module configured to;

analyzing video information received from the first system or video information received from the capture device to determine a textual difference between a first video frame and a second video frame using one or more optical character recognition techniques,

select a set of one or more keyframes from the analyzed video information received from the first system or the analyzed video information received from the capture device based on the textual difference between a first video frame and a second video frame in response to a user-configurable threshold,

analyze the first information and the second information to extract textual information from the first information or the second information using one or more text recognition techniques, and

generate a presentation representation of the first information and the second information, the presentation representation including a representation of each keyframe in the set of keyframes and the textual information extracted by the presentation recorder device from the first information or the second information; and

a communication module configured to communicate at least a portion of the presentation representation to one or more devices, the communicated portion of the presentation representation including one or more keyframes from the set of keyframes and a portion of the textural information.

32. The system of claim 31 wherein the processing module is further configured to synchronize audio information received from the first system or the capture device with the selected set of keyframes.

33. The system of claim 31 wherein the processing module is further configured to store the selected set of keyframes in a storage device.

34. The system of claim 33 wherein the processing module is further configured to:

receive a request from a device requesting transmission of the one or more keyframes in the set of keyframes;

determine, in response to the request, the one or more keyframes in the set of keyframes requested by the device and corresponding audio information; and

wherein the communication module is further configured to communicate at least a portion of the presentation representation by transmitting the corresponding audio information to the device.

35. The system of claim 34 wherein the request received from the device requests transmission of a portion of the first information received from the first system.

36. The system of claim 34 wherein the request received from the device requests transmission of a portion of the second information received from the capture device.

37. The system of claim 34 wherein the request received from the device requests transmission of audio information from the first information or the second information received from the first system and the capture device.

38. The system of claim 34 wherein the request received from the device requests transmission of video information from the first information or the second information received from the first system and the capture device.

39. The system of claim 34 wherein the request received from the device requests transmission of audio or video information received from the first system and the capture device between a start time and an end time.

40. The system of claim 33 wherein the processing module is further configured to:

select the one or more keyframes in the set of keyframes as a plurality of video frames from video information received by the input module;

synchronize the plurality of video frames with audio information received from the first system and with audio information received from the capture device by the input module; and

store third information associating the plurality of video frames with the audio information received from the first device, the audio information received from the second device, and the portion of the textual information.

41. The system of claim 40 wherein the processing module is further configured to:

generate a web page for each video frame in the plurality of video frames, each web page including a video frame, and

assign a uniform resource locator (URL) to each web page; and

wherein the communication module is further configured to communicate at least a portion of the presentation representation by transmitting at least one URL assigned to a web page to the one or more devices.

42. The system of claim 41 wherein the processing module is further configured to:

receive a request from a device identifying a first URL, and

determine, in response to the request, a first web page corresponding to the first URL; and

wherein the communication module is further configured to communicate at least a portion of the presentation representation by transmitting the first web page to the device.

43. The system of claim 40 wherein the processing module is further configured to:

receive a request from a device requesting transmission of a set of video frames from the plurality of video frames; and

wherein, in response to the request, the communication module is further configured to communicate at least a portion of the presentation representation by transmitting the set of video frames to the device.

44. A method of communicating information received during presentation of information from a presentation file, the method comprising:

receiving, at a presentation adapter, at least one of video information or audio information from a first data processing system communicably coupled to the presentation adapter, the at least one of video information or audio information received during presentation of the information from the presentation file and generated as a result of outputting contents of the presentation file;

analyzing, with the presentation adapter, video information received from the first data processing system to determine a textual difference between a first video frame and a second video frame using an optical character recognition technique;

selecting, at the presentation adapter, a set of one or more keyframes from the analyzed video information received from the first data processing system based on the textual difference between a first video frame and second video frame in response to a user-configurable threshold;

analyzing, at the presentation adapter, audio information received from the first data processing system to extract textual information using one or more text recognition techniques;

generating, at the presentation adapter, a representation of the presentation file including a representation of each keyframe in the set of keyframes and the textual information extracted from the audio information;

transmitting the representation of the presentation file from the presentation adapter including one or more keyframes of the set of keyframes and a portion of the textual information to a second data processing system, wherein the second data processing system is enabled to output the at least a portion of the representation of the presentation file received from the presentation adapter.

45. The method of claim 44 wherein analyzing the video information received from the first data processing system comprises:

comparing a first frame of video to a subsequent second frame of video;

identifying the second frame as textually different from the first frame; and

storing both the first frame of video and the second frame of video.

46. The method of claim 45 wherein comparing a first frame of video to a subsequent second frame of video further comprises:

comparing image pixels of the first frame of video and the second frame of video.

47. The method of claim 44 wherein analyzing audio information received from the first data processing system comprises:

determining a portion of the textual information in response to applying speech recognition at the presentation adapter to the audio information.