Earmarking media documents

• US 8,296,315 B2
• Filed: 11/03/2006
• Issued: 10/23/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 11/03/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Tedesco, Megan Lesley, Jubelirer, Matthew, Abanami, Thamer A.
• Primary Examiner(s): Boccio, Vincent
• Assistant Examiner(s): Corbo, Griselle
• Application Number:
  US11/556,478
• Publication Number:
  US 20080109405A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,181 Days
• Field of Search: 707/104.1, 707/769, 707/E17.108, 725/40, 725/50, 725/51, 725/53
• US Class Current: 707/769
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/50 of still image data
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/51 Indexing; Data structures therefor; Storage structures

Abstract

A media object being played by a user may be marked by creating a mark object comprising the playback time when the mark was created. The time may be used to reference metadata with information about the media object at the time referenced. The metadata may be used to launch web searches corresponding to elements of the media at the time in question, for example, a back up singer at a point in a music track or the name of a resort in a movie. The searches may be performed from media player or the mark object may be transferred to a networked computer for performing the searches. The technique is equally applicable to portable media players, software or firmware media players on computers, or set top boxes.

Claims

1. A computer-readable memory storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed, cause a computing device to perform a method comprising:

receiving input from a user at a particular playback time of a media object being played on a media player;

creating a mark object associated with the media object during playback of the media object, the mark object including;

a media object identifier of the media object;

a time marker corresponding to the particular playback time of the media object; and

metadata extracted from the media object;

storing the mark object at the media player;

causing a remote storage location to be searched using the mark object and based on the media object and the particular playback time of the media object;

receiving, from the remote storage location, data references associated with the media object and the particular playback time of the media object, the data references including search criteria used to initiate web searches for additional data about the media object, the search criteria being related to elements in a particular scene of the media object at the particular playback time;

storing the search criteria as locally available media object metadata associated with the media object, the locally available media object metadata organized by time range;

launching one or more web searches for the additional data about the media object during the playback of the media object using the search criteria;

receiving results from the one or more web searches during the playback of the media object;

adding the results to the locally available media object metadata; and

supplementing the mark object with the locally available media object metadata.

2. The computer-readable memory of claim 1, wherein the method further comprises downloading the mark object to an electronic device.

3. The computer-readable memory of claim 1, wherein:

the media object comprises the media object identifier, and

creating the mark object comprises extracting the media object identifier from the media object.

4. The computer-readable memory of claim 1, wherein:

the media object comprises a universal resource locator (URL),

creating the mark object comprises extracting the URL from the media object, and

executing the search of the remote storage location comprises accessing a site referenced by the URL.

5. The computer-readable memory of claim 1, wherein the metadata extracted from the media object includes a title and a publisher reference.

6. The computer-readable memory of claim 1, wherein the search criteria includes search key metadata and one or more time range-specific URLs.

7. The computer-readable memory of claim 6, wherein the mark object includes executable code for presenting a user with media object-related search options associated with performing an external search using the mark object, the search options allowing the user to search using keywords from the search key metadata, select from a list of the URLs, and view the locally available media object metadata before performing the external search.

8. The computer-readable memory of claim 1, wherein the method further comprises selecting time-specific media object metadata based on a time range corresponding to the time marker from the locally available media object metadata associated with the media object.

9. The computer-readable memory of claim 1, wherein:

the media player displays a cursor-oriented user interface, and the input from the user comprises a cursor click that indicates a location of 5 an element being displayed in the particular scene at the particular playback time of the media object.

10. The computer-readable memory of claim 1, wherein the method further comprises accessing the mark object and 10 displaying the results after the playback of the media object is complete.

11. A method comprising:

receiving input from a user at a particular playback time of a media object being played on a media player;

creating a mark object associated with the media object during playback of the media object, the mark object including a media object identifier of the media object and a time marker corresponding to the particular playback time of the media object;

causing a remote storage location to be searched using the mark object and based on the media object and the particular playback time of the media object;

receiving, from the remote storage location, data references associated with the media object and the particular playback time of the media object, the data references including search criteria used to initiate web searches for additional data about the media object, the search criteria related to elements in a particular scene of the media object at the particular playback time;

storing the search criteria as locally available media object metadata associated with the media object, the locally available media object metadata organized by time range;

launching one or more web searches for the additional information about the media object during the playback of the media object using the search criteria;

receiving results from the one or more web searches during the playback of the media object;

adding the results to the locally available media object metadata;

supplementing the mark object with the locally available media object metadata; and

presenting media object-related search options associated with performing an external search using the mark object, the search options enabling a user to search using keywords from the search criteria and to view the locally available media object metadata.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the elements in the particular scene of the media object at the particular playback time include a product being used by an actor.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the search criteria comprises at least one of a URL of a product page, a product identifier, and a product brand name.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein:

the media player displays a cursor-oriented user interface, and

the input from the user comprises a cursor click that indicates a location of an element being displayed in the particular scene at the particular playback time of the media object.

15. The method of claim 11, wherein the time marker corresponding to the particular playback time of the media object comprises one of a cumulative time from the media object start, a frame identifier, a media stream time identifier, a media stream packet identifier, and a time range identifier.

16. The method of claim 11, further comprising downloading the mark object from a computer incorporating the media player to a portable media player device.

17. A computing device comprising:

a processor for executing computer-executable instructions; and

memory storing computer-executable instructions for performing a method comprising;

receiving input from a user at a particular playback time of a media object being played on a media player;

creating a mark object associated with the media object during playback of the media object, the mark object including a media object identifier of the media object and a time marker corresponding to the particular playback time of the media object;

causing a remote storage location to be searched using the mark object and based on the media object and the particular playback time of the media object;

receiving, from the remote storage location, data references associated with the media object and the particular playback time of the media object, the data references including search criteria used to initiate web searches for additional data about the media object, the search criteria related to elements in a particular scene of the media object at the particular playback time;

storing the search criteria as locally available media object metadata associated with the media object, the locally available media object metadata organized by time range;

launching one or more web searches for the additional information about the media object during the playback of the media object using the search criteria;

receiving results from the one or more web searches during the playback of the media object;

adding the results to the locally available media object metadata;

supplementing the mark object with the locally available media object metadata; and

presenting media object-related search options associated with performing an external search using the mark object, the search options enabling a user to search using keywords from the search criteria and to view the locally available media object metadata.