Method and system for media landmark identification

• US 7,908,556 B2
• Filed: 06/14/2007
• Issued: 03/15/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 06/14/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: R2 Solutions LLC (Acacia Research Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Yahoo! Inc. (Apollo Global Management, Inc.)
• Inventors: Shamma, David A., Shafton, Peter
• Primary Examiner(s): Vu; Kieu
• Assistant Examiner(s): Shih; Haoshian
• Application Number:
  US11/763,391
• Publication Number:
  US 20080313570A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,370 Days
• Field of Search: 715/751, 715/758, 715/716, 715/719, 715/720, 715/721, 715/722, 715/727, 715/846, 709/223
• US Class Current: 715/719
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24573 using data annotations, e.g. user-defined metadata
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9038 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/957 Browsing optimisation, e.g. caching or content distillation
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/034 on discs G11B27/036, G11B27/038 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/34 Indicating arrangements indicating means incorporated in magazine or cassette G11B23/046 and G11B23/0875; indicating measured values in general G01D

Abstract

Methods and systems are described for allowing a user to quickly determine parts of a media item in which the user will be interested. In the methods and systems described, a timeline is provided for the media item and semantic icons are used as media landmarks along the timeline. The semantic icons are related to the content or a description of the content at the location in the media item corresponding to the semantic icon'"'"'s location on the timeline. The semantic icons, in addition to providing some immediate contextual information at a glance, also allow a user access to annotations of the media item. Semantic icons can represent tags, users who have created or modified annotations for the segment of the media item, or other relevant information. The semantic icons may also be used to determine a relative level of interest in different parts of the media item both with respect to the user and with respect to other users.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving, by a computing device, a request from a user identifying a renderable media item;

creating, by the computing device, a semantic icon from a tag in an annotation associated with a first time in the media item; and

transmitting, by the computing device, a graphical user interface to the user for display, the graphical user interface showing the semantic icon on a timeline as a representation of the annotation, the semantic icon being displayed in a first size and, upon selection by the user, changes to a second size corresponding to a size of a segment of the media item.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein creating the semantic icon further comprises:

selecting an image that represents the tag.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein selecting the image further comprises:

transforming the tag via a transformation selected from a speech-to-text algorithm, an image recognition algorithm, and an image stylization algorithm; and

matching the transformed tag to the image.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a selection of the semantic icon from the user; and

displaying the tag in response to the selection.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

receiving an indication that the selection of the semantic icon is a mouse-over selection.

6. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

receiving a de-selection of the semantic icon from the user; and

removing the display of the tag from the graphical user interface in response to the de-selection.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the annotation is further associated with a second time in the media item which is different from the first time in the media item, the method further comprising:

defining a width of the semantic icon based on the difference between the first time and the second time.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the media item is selected from a video item, a music item, and a slideshow.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the tag is selected from an image, a video item, and an audio item.

10. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium comprising executable instructions tangibly stored thereon for performing a method, the method comprising the steps of:

transmitting a graphical user interface to a user for display by a computing device, the graphical user interface displaying;

a semantic icon disposed along a media timeline element depicting an attribute of an annotation to a media item, the semantic icon being displayed in a first size and, upon selection by the user, changes to a second size corresponding to a size of a segment of the media item, the media item beginning at a time associated with the annotation if the semantic icon is selected by the user via a first type of selection, and

a tag associated with the annotation that is displayed on the display if the semantic icon is selected by the user via a second type of selection.

11. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 10, wherein the attribute depicted by the semantic icon is the tag associated with the annotation.

12. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 10, wherein the attribute depicted by the semantic icon is an identity of a contributing user who created the annotation.

13. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 10, wherein the first type of selection is different from the second type of selection via the first type of selection having a different duration than the second type of selection.

14. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 10, wherein the semantic icon is displayed at a location on the media timeline element dictated by the annotation.

15. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 10, wherein the annotation identifies a segment of the media item and the semantic icon is displayed with a size corresponding to a size of the segment of the media item.

16. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein the second type of selection is a single mouse-click selection.

17. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium comprising executable instructions tangibly stored thereon for performing a method, the method comprising the steps of:

receiving a request from a user identifying a renderable media item;

creating a semantic icon from a tag in an annotation associated with a first time in the media item; and

transmitting a graphical user interface to the user for display, the graphical user interface showing the semantic icon on a timeline as a representation of the annotation, the semantic icon being displayed in a first size and, upon selection by the user, changes to a second size corresponding to a size of a segment of the media item.