Interactive media frame display

• US 7,739,597 B2
• Filed: 07/01/2003
• Issued: 06/15/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 02/24/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Glatzer, Asta L., Glenner, Steve, Wong, Curtis G., Drucker, Steven M.
• Primary Examiner(s): KE, PENG
• Application Number:
  US10/611,641
• Publication Number:
  US 20040168118A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,541 Days
• Field of Search: 715/700, 715718-726, 715727-732
• US Class Current: 715/721
• 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 that facilitates remote browsing, viewing, and manipulating any suitable number of media items from a host location. In particular, the invention involves pulling desired media items from one or more host locations to view and/or edit them on a remote interactive media display, thereby freeing up use of the host location/computer. The media items sent to the remote interactive media display via wireless or wired connection are easily edited, organized, and viewed in any suitable order, arrangement, and timed-cycle with respect to per item viewing as well as viewing of items coincident with a real time calendar. The media items can be annotated and otherwise modified from the remote display and saved to the host location. The remote interactive media frame also includes a local storage for storing media items, thereby facilitating portability of the media frame when disconnected from the host.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented interactive media frame display system comprising the following computer executable components:

a host component comprising at least one host media store;

a media frame component that facilitates full interactivity by a user to remotely browse and selectively view a plurality of media items in a display cycle, the plurality of media items comprise digital picture or video and are stored in the at least one host media store, the media frame component comprising;

an annotation component that annotates one or more media items with one or more metadata, the one or more metadata comprising at least one of an intrinsic metadata comprising at least a user behavior and an extrinsic metadata comprising at least a generic training data, the annotation component comprising;

a metadata generation component comprising an analyzing component that identifies one or more properties associated with the media items;

a communication connection between the media frame component and the host component, the communication connection enabling the media frame display to;

retrieve a plurality of media items from the host media store,

store them in a local store,

arrange a subset of the media items in a display cycle,

perform edit operations to a metadata of at least one of the media items, and

transmit back to the host media store the at least one of modified metadata, and/or the display cycle of the subset of the media items, wherein the local data store is operably connected to the interactive media frame display; and

a calendar functionality component enabling the one or more media items to be viewed within a viewing cycle coincident with a real time calendar based at least in part on metadata associated with the media items.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the host component comprising one or more host locations, the host locations comprising at least one of a server and a computer, such that each host location comprises at least one host media store.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the host locations being arranged in wireless network configuration with the media frame component.

4. The system of claim 2, wherein the host locations being arranged in hard wired network configuration with the media frame component.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the communication component being at least one of a wireless connection and a hard wire connection.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the analyzing component comprising a classifier.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the analyzing component comprising a pattern recognition component.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the metadata generation component generating new metadata based at least in part upon a cluster of media items retrieved from one or more host locations by analyzing the media items for at least one property common among them.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein analyzing the media items comprises at least one of face recognition, content analysis, and intrinsic metadata comparison.

10. The system of claim 1, further comprising a local data store that stores one or more media items retrieved from one or more host locations.

11. The system of claim 1, further comprising an interface component comprising at least one of a microphone component, one or more command buttons, and a touch screen.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the one or more command buttons correspond to at least one of play, back, reverse, forward, stop, pause, menu, mode, edit mode, view mode, annotation function, order function, skip, populated metadata lists, file size, media item size, speed, time, date, volume, save, delete, scroll bar, scroll tool, and power.

13. The system of claim 1, further comprising a microprocessor that controls, operates, and tracks retrieval of the one or more media items from one or more host locations.

14. The system of claim 1, wherein the media item comprises at least one of a photograph, a picture, a video, a video clip, a song, a sound, a document, or an electronic mail message.

15. The system of claim 1, further comprising one or more audio output components.

16. The system of claim 12, wherein the one or more audio components are one or more speakers.

17. The system of claim 1, wherein the calendar being located on at least one of the interactive media frame display and the host location.

18. The system of claim 1 is pocket-sized thereby facilitating transportability of viewing favorite media items.

19. The system of claim 1 wherein the interactive media frame display is implemented on a television.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein the television comprises at least two modes:

TV mode and passive mode, such that retrieving, viewing, browsing and manipulating media items pulled from the host location are performed in the passive mode.

21. The system of claim 1, the media frame component comprising an artificial intelligence component that facilitates viewing of the media items based at least in part upon one or more of historical data relating to media items received at the media frame component or viewing preferences.

22. The system of claim 21, the media frame component automatically searches for new media items added in the host media store and processes them according to previously set annotation and viewing parameters for existing related items.

23. A computer-implemented method of browsing, viewing, and/or manipulating one or more media items from a remote interactive media frame display comprising:

retrieving one or more media items from at least one host location;

displaying the one or more media items on the interactive media frame, wherein the media items comprise digital picture or video;

receiving a user input that includes a request to browse or view the one or more media items in a display cycle;

performing one or more acts on the one or more media items based at least in part upon the user input;

annotating the one or more media items with one or more metadata;

viewing the one or more favorite media items on the display for enjoyment, wherein the viewing of the one or more media items is in connection with a real time calendar, thereby facilitating a user to view desired media items at a desired time of year, and wherein viewing one or more favorite media items on the display comprises performing at least one of the following;

designating a percentage of media items having a common metadata from the retrieved media items as a favorite media item for viewing;

designating the display cycle to cyclically display the favorite media items in connection with at least one of an amount of viewable time per media item or a length of time one or more media items are available for viewing on the display;

ordering the one or more media items into an alternate display cycle based at least in part upon any one of metadata and user preferences;

removing/adding the one or more media items from/to the display cycle;

storing the one or more media items in a local data store operably connected to the interactive media frame display; and

transmitting back to the host media store the at least one of annotations to the media items and the altered display cycle of the media items.

24. The method of claim 23, further comprising sending the one or more retrieved media items from the host location to the interactive media frame via one of a wireless connection or a hard wired connection.

25. The method of claim 23, further comprising detecting a user interface prior to receiving the user input.

26. The method of claim 25, wherein the user interface comprising at least one of one or more command buttons, an audio receiver component, or a touch screen.

27. The method of claim 26, the one or more command buttons comprising at least one of play, back, reverse, forward, stop, pause, menu, mode, edit mode, view mode, annotation function, order function, skip, populated metadata lists, file size, media item size, speed, time, date, volume, save, delete, scroll bar, scroll tool, and power.

28. The method of claim 26, the audio receiver component being a microphone.

29. The interactive media frame display of claim 28, further comprising means for searching for media items from one or more host locations that have metadata in common with a retrieved media item.

30. The interactive media frame display of claim 28, the means for performing one or more acts to the one or more media items comprising at least one of the following:

means for annotating the one or more media items with one or more metadata;

means for viewing one or more favorite media items on the display for enjoyment;

means for ordering the one or more media items based at least in part upon any one of metadata and user preferences; and

means for removing the one or more media items from the interactive media frame.

31. The method of claim 23, wherein annotating the one or more media items with one or more metadata comprises:

selecting one or more media items; and

tagging the media items with metadata as a group and/or individually.

32. The method of claim 31, further comprising storing the tagged media items in at least one of a local data store and a respective host media store.

33. The method of claim 23, wherein ordering the one or more media items based at least in part upon anyone of metadata and user preferences comprises.

34. The method of claim 23, wherein the one or more media items are viewed in at least one of individually, in clusters, whereby more than one media item is viewable at the same time, and in a slide show.

35. The method of claim 23, wherein the calendar being located at the host location.

36. The method of claim 23, wherein the media items in the interactive media frame comprising items retrieved from one or more host locations.

37. The method of claim 36, wherein the respective media items comprise a host identifier metadata such that changes made to the media items are communicated to their respective host locations.

38. The method of claim 23, further comprising searching for media items from one or more host locations that have metadata in common with a retrieved media item.

39. The method of claim 23 implemented with respect to a television, wherein the remote interactive media frame is an interactive TV media frame.

40. The method of claim 39, wherein the television comprises at least two modes:

TV mode and passive mode, such that the method is performed while the television is in the passive mode.

41. A computer-implemented interactive media frame display system comprising the following components:

a media frame component that facilitates full interactivity by a user to remotely browse, manipulate, and view a plurality media items in a display cycle wherein a user designates one or more of a percentage of related media items to display in a single cycle or a time of display for each media item within the display cycle or a period for which each media item is displayed in the display cycle, and wherein the display cycle of the media items is associated with a real-time calendar to facilitate setting the period of display for each media item;

a communication component that connects the media frame component to at least a remote host media store such that it facilitates retrieval of the one or more media items from the remote host media store by the media frame component and transmission of at least one media item modified at the media frame back to the remote host media store;

a local store operably connected to the media frame component for storing the one or more media items retrieved from the remote host media store and the at least one of modified media items or operations performed on the media items.

42. The system of claim 41, wherein the media frame component comprising a scrubbing component that removes tagged metadata from the one or more media.

43. The system of claim 41, further comprising one or more of the remote host media stores for storing a plurality of media items to view, and manipulate via the media frame component.

44. The system of claim 41, the modified media item communicated to the host component includes at least one media item annotated with one of one or more keywords or phrases via a user audio input such that the media item is annotated remotely from the host media store.