Analysis of media content via extensible object

• US 7,730,047 B2
• Filed: 04/07/2006
• Issued: 06/01/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 04/07/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Qian, Richard J., Oakley, Randolph Bruce, Hugill, Christopher Michael, Kutruff, Andrew D., Patten, Michael J.
• Primary Examiner(s): Wu; Yicun
• Application Number:
  US11/400,141
• Publication Number:
  US 20070239779A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,516 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 707/705
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/48 Retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manually

Abstract

A system and method are provided for analyzing media content and generating related metadata as it is provided to a computer. In one embodiment, the system includes an extensible analysis object managing a plurality of plug-ins for analyzing the media content and generating metadata related to the media content.

Claims

1. A method of generating metadata relating to media content comprising:

receiving the media content from a recording device and storing the media content in a media content queue of a computer said media content queue comprising a first in first out memory;

decoding the media content in the media content queue via a processor of the computer;

selecting a first one of a plurality of analysis objects to analyze media content;

analyzing the decoded media content with the first selected analysis object to generate first metadata relating to said media content, wherein said analyzing is managed by an extensible analysis object having an application programming interface interfacing with the plurality of analysis objects, and wherein the plurality of analysis objects are plug-ins analyzing the media content via the application programming interface of the extensible analysis object, wherein each of the plurality of plug-ins adds analysis functionality to the extensible analysis object;

analyzing the media content with a second one of the plurality of analysis objects to generate second metadata, wherein the first metadata and the second metadata are provided to the extensible analysis object for storing in a metadata queue of the computer;

storing the first and second metadata in the metadata queue of the computer;

encoding the decoded media content from the media content queue via the processor of the computer;

generating a table of contents corresponding to the metadata stored in the metadata queue;

storing the first and second metadata stored in the metadata queue, the table of contents, and the encoded media content as a media file on a computer readable storage medium associated with the computer.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the table of contents is stored in a header of the media file;

said method further comprising capturing the media content by storing the media content in the media content queue and by creating the media file relating to the media content stored in the media content queue and wherein the analyzing and capturing occur simultaneously.

3. A computer readable storage medium having instructions thereon for executing the method of claim 1.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the first analysis object analyses the media content for at least one of:

an audio pattern, a video pattern, a face, a color histogram, a motion vector analysis, a date stamp, a timecode, a color set, a scene change, an object, and a person'"'"'s voice.

5. The method of claim 1 further comprising providing the media content to the media content queue by at least one of:

(1) a recording device providing the media content to the queue by rendering said media content, and (2) a recoding device providing the media content to the queue by streaming the media content.

6. The method of claim 2 wherein all of the plurality of analysis objects are selected to analyze the media content, and said analyzing occurs in response to capturing said media content.

7. A system for generating a media file relating to media content comprising:

a computer including a processor for receiving the media content from a recording device;

a media content queue of the computer for storing the received media content;

a transcoder object executed by the processor for decoding the media content stored in the media content queue and subsequently encoding the decoded media content;

a computer readable medium associated with the computer for storing a media file corresponding to the media content stored in the media content queue; and

an extensible analysis object executed by the processor for analyzing the decoded media content from the transcoder object and generating metadata related to the media content simultaneously as the media content is received from the recording device and the media file is stored on the computer readable medium;

a plurality of plug-ins managed by the extensible analysis object for analyzing the media content and generating the metadata related to said media content, wherein at least one of the plurality of plug-ins analyzes the media content and generates metadata related to said media content slower than the media content is received at the computer from the recording device such that analyzing the media content takes longer to complete than receiving the media content from the recording device;

a metadata queue of the computer for storing the generated metadata; and

a table of contents object for generating a table of contents corresponding to the metadata stored in the metadata queue, wherein the processor stores the table of contents, the metadata stored in the metadata queue, and the encoded media content in the media file.

8. The system of claim 7 wherein:

the table of contents is stored in a header of the media file, and

the encoded media content is stored in the media file between the table of contents and the metadata.

9. The system of claim 7 wherein the extensible analysis object has an application programming interface for interfacing with the plurality of plug-ins.

10. The system of claim 7 wherein the metadata relates to at least one characteristic of the media content, said characteristic including at least one of:

an audio pattern, a video pattern, a face, a color histogram, a motion vector analysis, a date stamp, a timecode, a color set, a scene change, an object, and a person'"'"'s voice.

11. The system of claim 7 wherein a first plug-in of the plurality of plug-ins and a second plug-in of the plurality of plug-ins are managed by the extensible analysis object for analyzing the media content, said first plug-in generating a first metadata related to said media content and said second plug-in generating a second metadata related to said media content, and wherein the first and second metadata are stored in the media file.

12. The system of claim 7 further comprising at least one of (1) a recording device for providing the media content to the computer by rendering said media content, and (2) a recoding device for providing the media content to the computer by streaming the media content.

13. The system of claim 7 wherein the extensible analysis object invokes one or more of the plug-ins in response to receiving the media content.

14. A computer implemented system for generating metadata relating to media content comprising:

a transcoder object for decoding the media content and subsequently encoding the decoded media content;

a plurality of plug-ins for analyzing the media content to generate metadata relating to the media content;

a media content queue of the computer for storing the media content as the media content is received from a recording device and for providing the stored media content to one or more of the plurality of plug-ins, wherein the transcoder object decodes the media content provided to the one or more of the plurality of plug-ins; and

a metadata queue of the computer for receiving and storing the metadata generated by the one or more plug-ins to which the stored media content is provided;

a computer readable storage medium of the computer for storing a media file including the metadata in the metadata queue and including the encoded media content; and

a table of contents object for generating a table of contents corresponding to the metadata stored in the metadata queue, wherein the table of contents, the metadata stored in the metadata queue, and the encoded media content is stored in the media file.

15. The system of claim 14

wherein the table of contents is stored in a header of the media file and the media content is stored between the table of contents and the metadata.

16. The system of claim 14 further comprising an extensible analysis object having an application programming interface interfacing with the plurality of plug-ins, wherein the plurality of plug-ins are invoked by the extensible analysis object via the application programming interface, and wherein the generated metadata is provided to the extensible analysis object via the application programming interface.

17. The system of claim 14 wherein the media content is analyzed for at least one of:

an audio pattern, a video pattern, a face, a color histogram, a motion vector analysis, a date stamp, a timecode, a color set, a scene change, an object, and a person'"'"'s voice.

18. The system of claim 14 further comprising a device for providing the media content to the media content queue, wherein providing the media content to the media content queue and analyzing the media content to generate metadata occur simultaneously and analyzing the media content occurs in response to receiving the media content from the device.