Limited social TV apparatus

• US 8,074,251 B2
• Filed: 06/05/2006
• Issued: 12/06/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 06/05/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Xerox Corporation (Xerox Holdings Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Palo Alto Research Center, Inc. (Xerox Holdings Corp.)
• Inventors: Aoki, Paul M, Szymanski, Margaret H., Thornton, James D.
• Primary Examiner(s): Beliveau, Scott
• Assistant Examiner(s): STANLEY, MARK P
• Application Number:
  US11/447,751
• Publication Number:
  US 20070283380A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,010 Days
• Field of Search: 725/131
• US Class Current: 725/131
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/21805 enabling multiple viewpoints, e.g. using a plurality of cameras
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44 Processing of video elementary streams, e.g. splicing a video clip retrieved from local storage with an incoming video stream or rendering scenes according to encoded video stream scene graphs
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4788 communicating with other users, e.g. chatting arrangements for providing for computer conferences, e.g. chat rooms, to substation in data switching networks H04L12/1813; distributed application using peer-to-peer [P2P] networks H04L67/104
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8547 involving timestamps for synchronizing content
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/10 Adaptations for transmission by electrical cable H04N7/12 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/15 Conference systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17318 Direct or substantially direct transmission and handling of requests

Abstract

One aspect of the disclosed technology is a limited social television system that provides a light-weight process that allows multiple audience members to close the loop of interaction and create a compelling feeling of “shared experience” on the part of the response-reviewer.

Claims

1. An apparatus for presenting an extracted video stream to a user, said apparatus comprising:

a media access logic which accesses said extracted video stream;

a first presentation logic which presents content from said extracted video stream accessed by the media access logic;

a position monitor logic which monitors a first playback position in a time dimension of said extracted video stream;

a commentary layer selection logic which selects, from a plurality of commentary layers associated with the extracted video stream, a commentary layer that includes multiple commentary clips, each commentary clip including a trigger position indexed to the extracted video stream, which enables the selected layers to be played back sequentially;

a determining logic which determines that the commentary clips are overlapped;

a proximity detector which detects proximity of said first playback position to a commentary clip trigger position associated with one or more commentary clips of the selected layers; and

a second presentation logic which adjusts a playback vector of the extracted video stream to slow the presentation of the extracted video stream based on time required to sequentially play the overlapping commentary clips in a non-overlapping fashion, such that the overlapping commentary clips are sequentially presented during the slowed presentation of the extracted video stream.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising:

a communication mechanism which receives a command request from a social-space related user selectable control; and

an internal control handler which processes said command request to perform an operation related to the extracted video stream.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the proximity detector also detects proximity of said first playback position to an insertion coordinate associated with replacement/additional content;

and

wherein the second presentation logic also presents said replacement/additional content at said insertion coordinate instead of said extracted-video stream content.

4. The apparatus of claim 3, further comprising:

a completion logic which detects completion of the presentation of said replacement/additional content; and

a resumption logic which, responsive to the completion logic, resumes presentation of said extracted video stream content at a resumption coordinate within said extracted-experiential data stream.

5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein each of a plurality of commentary clips of the selected layers has a respective commentary clip trigger position and wherein the plurality of commentary clips are associated with a group.

6. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein the plurality of commentary clips are enabled for presentation as said group.