Bookmarks and watchpoints for selection and presentation of media streams

• US 8,225,194 B2
• Filed: 09/03/2003
• Issued: 07/17/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 01/09/2003
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Kaleidescape Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Kaleidescape Incorporated
• Inventors: Rechsteiner, Paul, Neely, Shawn R., Kesteloot, Lawrence, Malcolm, Michael A., Watson, Stephen
• Primary Examiner(s): Robinson, Greta
• Application Number:
  US10/655,496
• Publication Number:
  US 20040139047A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,240 Days
• Field of Search: 707/104.1, 707/1, 707/100, 707/102, 707/200, 707/705, 707/736, 707/746, 707/800, 707/805, 709/231, 715/500.1, 715/700, 715/704, 715/716, 715/735, 715/744, 715/853, 715/854, 715/855, 715/200, 715/205, 715/206
• US Class Current: 715/206
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/034 on discs G11B27/036, G11B27/038 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/105 of operating discs
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47214 for content reservation or setting reminders; for requesting event notification, e.g. of sport results or stock market stock exchange data over packet-switching network H04L12/1804; push services over packet-switching network H04L12/1859; notification of incoming messages in packet switching networks H04L51/224
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/858 Linking data to content, e.g. by linking an URL to a video object, by creating a hotspot

Abstract

Selection and presentation of media streams, in which presentation is not limited by order imposed by the digital content representative of those media streams, in response to bookmarks and watchpoints settable and usable by a user. Bookmarks reference a location within the media stream, not necessarily pre-selected and possibly dynamically selected, in which a presentation can be started or restarted therefrom. Watchpoints reference a location within the media stream, or a presentation state for the media stream, in which an action can be triggered thereby. Bookmarks and watchpoints provide a general technique for presenting selections from media streams in response to metadata.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method of providing bookmarks and watchpoints for selection and presentation of media streams, comprising:

creating a bookmark associated with a media stream; and

creating a watchpoint having a watchpoint trigger and a watchpoint action, wherein said watchpoint trigger comprises a condition and is associated with said bookmark, such that when a presentation device presenting said media stream reaches said bookmark, said watchpoint action occurs if said condition is fulfilled, and wherein said media stream comprises a plurality of subportions, and said method further comprising;

determining which of said plurality of subportions are available to a user; and

presenting those subportions of said media stream which are available to said user.

2. A computer-implemented method of providing bookmarks and watchpoints for selection and presentation of media streams, comprising:

creating a bookmark associated with a media stream; and

creating a watchpoint having a watchpoint trigger and a watchpoint action, wherein said watchpoint trigger comprises a condition and is associated with said bookmark, such that when a presentation device presenting said media stream reaches said bookmark, said watchpoint action occurs if said condition is fulfilled, and wherein said watchpoint action includes;

applying a set of parameters while selecting a particular media stream; and

presenting at least a portion of that particular media stream under control of those parameters.

3. A method as in claim 2, wherein said condition is associated with a feature of the presentation device on which the media stream is being presented.

4. A method as in claim 2, wherein that media stream includes a movie originally encoded on multiple physical volumes of media.

5. A method as in claim 2, wherein said watchpoint action includes a sequence of more than one instruction.

6. A method as in claim 2, wherein said watchpoint action includes a sequence of more than one instruction collectively capable of being recorded, retrieved, sent, or received.

7. A method as in claim 2, wherein said watchpoint action comprises manipulating any bookmark or watchpoint.

8. A method as in claim 2, wherein said watchpoint action comprises a sequence of sub-actions.

9. A method as in claim 8, wherein that sequence of sub-actions includes steps of maintaining at least some state information between sub-actions.

10. A method as in claim 2, wherein said watchpoint action includes directing an action of a device communicatively coupled to said presentation device.

11. A method as in claim 2, wherein said watchpoint action includes obtaining a response to a request for viewer preferences.

12. A method as in claim 2, wherein said condition comprises:

determining whether said presentation device has decoded or presented a selected portion of said media stream.

13. A method as in claim 2, wherein said watchpoint trigger includes a location of said presentation device.

14. A method as in claim 2, wherein said watchpoint trigger includes a status of said presentation device.

15. A method as in claim 2, wherein said watchpoint trigger includes a type of said presentation device.

16. A method as in claim 2, wherein those parameters are selected from a group having at least one of the following elements:

which demographic grouping or maturity level is associated with that particular media stream;

whether a particular language is associated with that particular media stream;

whether subtitles are associated with that particular media stream;

or

whether a particular scene is absent from that particular media stream.

17. A computer-implemented method of providing bookmarks and watchpoints for selection and presentation of media streams, comprising:

creating a bookmark associated with a media stream; and

creating a watchpoint having a watchpoint trigger and a watchpoint action, wherein said watchpoint trigger comprises a condition and is associated with said bookmark, such that when a presentation device presenting said media stream reaches said bookmark, said watchpoint action occurs if said condition is fulfilled, and wherein said watchpoint action comprises;

selecting one or more alternative scenes for presenting within a particular media stream; and

presenting at least a portion of that particular media stream under control of those alternative scenes.

18. A computer-implemented method of providing bookmarks and watchpoints for selection and presentation of media streams, comprising:

creating a bookmark associated with a media stream; and

creating a watchpoint having a watchpoint trigger and a watchpoint action, wherein said watchpoint trigger comprises a condition and is associated with said bookmark, such that when a presentation device presenting said media stream reaches said bookmark, said watchpoint action occurs if said condition is fulfilled, and wherein said watchpoint action comprises;

creating one or more bookmarks or watchpoints other than already available in the media stream.

19. A computer-implemented method of providing bookmarks and watchpoints for selection and presentation of media streams, comprising:

creating a bookmark associated with a media stream; and

creating a watchpoint having a watchpoint trigger and a watchpoint action, wherein said watchpoint trigger comprises a condition and is associated with said bookmark, such that when a presentation device presenting said media stream reaches said bookmark, said watchpoint action occurs if said condition is fulfilled, and wherein said watchpoint action comprises;

maintaining, in response to a status of said presentation device, information regarding one or more of;

a user preference;

the availability of licenses at said presentation device;

said media stream;

a particular presentation of said media stream;

said presentation device;

or one or more viewers.

20. A computer-implemented method of providing bookmarks and watchpoints for selection and presentation of media streams, comprising:

creating a bookmark associated with a media stream; and

creating a watchpoint having a watchpoint trigger and a watchpoint action, wherein said watchpoint trigger comprises a condition and is associated with said bookmark, such that when a presentation device presenting said media stream reaches said bookmark, said watchpoint action occurs if said condition is fulfilled, and wherein said watchpoint trigger includes a date or time zone associated with said presentation device.

21. A computer-implemented method of providing bookmarks and watchpoints for selection and presentation of media streams, comprising:

creating a bookmark associated with a media stream; and

creating a watchpoint having a watchpoint trigger and a watchpoint action, wherein said watchpoint trigger comprises a condition and is associated with said bookmark, such that when a presentation device presenting said media stream reaches said bookmark, said watchpoint action occurs if said condition is fulfilled, and wherein said watchpoint trigger includes a set of demographic information about one or more viewers.

22. A computer-implemented method of providing bookmarks and watchpoints for selection and presentation of media streams, comprising:

creating a bookmark associated with a media stream; and

creating a watchpoint having a watchpoint trigger and a watchpoint action, wherein said watchpoint trigger comprises a condition and is associated with said bookmark, such that when a presentation device presenting said media stream reaches said bookmark, said watchpoint action occurs if said condition is fulfilled, and wherein said watchpoint trigger includes a set of explicit or implicit parental controls.

23. A computer-implemented method of providing bookmarks and watchpoints for selection and presentation of media streams, comprising:

creating a bookmark associated with a media stream; and

creating a watchpoint having a watchpoint trigger and a watchpoint action, wherein said watchpoint trigger comprises a condition and is associated with said bookmark, such that when a presentation device presenting said media stream reaches said bookmark, said watchpoint action occurs if said condition is fulfilled, and wherein said watchpoint trigger includes a set of explicit or implicit user preferences.

24. A computer-implemented method of providing bookmarks and watchpoints for selection and presentation of media streams, comprising:

creating a bookmark associated with a media stream; and

creating a watchpoint having a watchpoint trigger and a watchpoint action, wherein said watchpoint trigger comprises a condition and is associated with said bookmark, such that when a presentation device presenting said media stream reaches said bookmark, said watchpoint action occurs if said condition is fulfilled, and wherein said watchpoint trigger includes a set of metadata available to said presentation device.

25. A computer-implemented method of providing bookmarks and watchpoints for selection and presentation of media streams, comprising:

creating a bookmark associated with a media stream; and

creating a watchpoint having a watchpoint trigger and a watchpoint action, wherein said watchpoint trigger comprises a condition and is associated with said bookmark, such that when a presentation device presenting said media stream reaches said bookmark, said watchpoint action occurs if said condition is fulfilled, and wherein said watchpoint trigger includes a status of availability of a license to said presentation device.

26. A computer-implemented method of providing bookmarks and watchpoints for selection and presentation of media streams, comprising:

creating a bookmark associated with a media stream; and

creating a watchpoint having a watchpoint trigger and a watchpoint action, wherein said watchpoint trigger comprises a condition and is associated with said bookmark, such that when a presentation device presenting said media stream reaches said bookmark, said watchpoint action occurs if said condition is fulfilled, and wherein said watchpoint trigger includes a status of one or more devices other than said presentation device.

27. A computer-implemented method of utilizing a watchpoint associated with a media stream, comprising:

creating said watchpoint, said watchpoint comprising;

a watchpoint trigger associated with said media stream and a logical state of a presentation device; and

a watchpoint action;

detecting an occurrence of said watchpoint trigger during presentation of said media stream; and

performing said watchpoint action, conditioned upon said occurrence of said watchpoint trigger, wherein said watchpoint trigger comprises a bookmark associated with said media stream.

28. The computer-implemented method of claim 27, wherein said watchpoint trigger comprises a media stream state associated with said media stream.

29. The computer-implemented method of claim 27, wherein said watchpoint trigger comprises a user interaction.

30. The computer-implemented method of claim 27, wherein said watchpoint trigger comprises a presentation environment consideration.

31. The computer-implemented method of claim 27, wherein said watchpoint action comprises accessing a location within said media stream.

32. A computer-implemented method of utilizing a watchpoint associated with a media stream, comprising:

creating said watchpoint, said watchpoint comprising;

a watchpoint trigger associated with said media stream and a logical state of a presentation device; and

a watchpoint action;

detecting an occurrence of said watchpoint trigger during presentation of said media stream; and

performing said watchpoint action, conditioned upon said occurrence of said watchpoint trigger, wherein said watchpoint trigger comprises availability of a feature of said presentation device.

33. A computer-implemented method of utilizing a watchpoint associated with a media stream, comprising:

creating said watchpoint, said watchpoint comprising;

a watchpoint trigger associated with said media stream and a logical state of a presentation device; and

a watchpoint action;

detecting an occurrence of said watchpoint trigger during presentation of said media stream; and

performing said watchpoint action, conditioned upon said occurrence of said watchpoint trigger, wherein said watchpoint action comprises accessing a bookmark associated with said media stream.

34. A computer-implemented method of utilizing a watchpoint associated with a media stream, comprising:

creating said watchpoint, said watchpoint comprising;

a watchpoint trigger associated with said media stream and a logical state of a presentation device; and

a watchpoint action;

detecting an occurrence of said watchpoint trigger during presentation of said media stream; and

performing said watchpoint action, conditioned upon said occurrence of said watchpoint trigger, wherein said watchpoint action comprises accessing a location within another media stream.

35. A computer-implemented method of utilizing a watchpoint associated with a media stream, comprising:

creating said watchpoint, said watchpoint comprising;

a watchpoint trigger associated with said media stream and a logical state of a presentation device; and

a watchpoint action;

detecting an occurrence of said watchpoint trigger during presentation of said media stream; and

performing said watchpoint action, conditioned upon said occurrence of said watchpoint trigger, wherein said watchpoint action comprises accessing a bookmark associated with another media stream.

36. A computer-implemented method of utilizing a watchpoint associated with a media stream, comprising:

creating said watchpoint, said watchpoint comprising;

a watchpoint trigger associated with said media stream and a logical state of a presentation device; and

a watchpoint action;

detecting an occurrence of said watchpoint trigger during presentation of said media stream; and

performing said watchpoint action, conditioned upon said occurrence of said watchpoint trigger, wherein said watchpoint action comprises setting a presentation state of said presentation device.

37. A computer-implemented method of utilizing a watchpoint associated with a media stream, comprising:

creating said watchpoint, said watchpoint comprising;

a watchpoint trigger associated with said media stream and a logical state of a presentation device; and

a watchpoint action;

detecting an occurrence of said watchpoint trigger during presentation of said media stream; and

performing said watchpoint action, conditioned upon said occurrence of said watchpoint trigger, wherein said watchpoint action comprises setting a presentation state for a presentation environment.

38. A computer-implemented method of utilizing a watchpoint associated with a media stream, comprising:

creating said watchpoint, said watchpoint comprising;

a watchpoint trigger associated with said media stream and a logical state of a presentation device; and

a watchpoint action;

detecting an occurrence of said watchpoint trigger during presentation of said media stream; and

performing said watchpoint action, conditioned upon said occurrence of said watchpoint trigger, wherein said detecting comprises detecting said logical state of said presentation device.

39. The computer-implemented method of claim 38, wherein said detecting said logical state comprises reading a plurality of registers of said presentation device.

40. The computer-implemented method of claim 38, wherein said logical state corresponds to a presentation state of said presentation device.

41. The computer-implemented method of claim 38, wherein said logical state corresponds to a virtual machine state of said presentation device.

42. The computer-implemented method of claim 38, wherein said detecting comprises detecting a current state of said media stream.

43. The computer-implemented method of claim 38, wherein said watchpoint comprises a plurality of watchpoint actions, and said performing comprises performing said plurality of watchpoint actions, conditioned upon said occurrence of said watchpoint trigger.

44. The computer-implemented method of claim 38, wherein said watchpoint comprises a plurality of watchpoint triggers, and said detecting comprises detecting an occurrence of each of said plurality of watchpoint triggers.