System and method for enabling objects within video to be searched on the internet or intranet

• US 8,341,152 B1
• Filed: 09/12/2006
• Issued: 12/25/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 09/12/2006
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Creatier Interactive LLC
• Original Assignee: Creatier Interactive LLC
• Inventors: Bates, Daniel L.
• Primary Examiner(s): Mofiz, Apu
• Assistant Examiner(s): BIBBEE, JARED M
• Application Number:
  US11/519,267
• Time in Patent Office: 2,296 Days
• Field of Search: 707/706, 707/736, 707/722
• US Class Current: 707/736
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/7837 using objects detected or recognised in the video content

Abstract

A method and system for generating and linking keywords to objects in videos, and then providing an internet searchable web page is disclosed. The objects also may be associated with hyperlinks to further information, further objects, or further videos or web pages. First, objects within a video are selected. Then software for tracking the objects throughout a video is used to determine in which frames the object appears. Data corresponding all frames in which the object first appears and last appears is determined. Second, an object descriptor term or phrase is associated with the object. The object descriptor is then used to generate a set of keywords, which along with the object descriptor, are stored in memory in association with the object and video, preferably an XML file or other format. Then, the keywords or keyword phrases are converted to a search engine searchable computer language, e.g., HTML, CSS, and posted to a web page. When a user searches the internet using a search term that sufficiently matches, in accordance with the search engine'"'"'s search strategy, keywords (or the object descriptor itself which should be included in the set of searchable keywords in a searchable language) that are associated with an object in a video, the results will include a listing with a link to the video or videos at the video segment in which the object appears. The video thus can start playing at the first frame the object appears in and may end at the last frame the object appears in.

Claims

1. A method of making an object within a video segment of a video searchable by keyword or keyword phrases on a network having at least one search engine that searches on keywords, the method comprising the steps of:

viewing at least a video segment of the video;

electronically selecting at least one physical object appearing within a plurality of frames of the video segment by clicking on the object;

tracking the selected object through each frame of the video segment;

determining (i) a first video frame of the video segment in which the selected object first appears and (ii) a last video frame of the video segment in which the selected object last appears;

determining (i) object location data describing a location of the selected object within the first video frame and the last video frame of the video segment in which the selected object appears and (ii) video server location data for the video segment;

determining an object link descriptor in words for the selected object and associating the object link descriptor with (i) the video location data and (ii) the object location data;

providing a clickable hyperlink for the selected object;

generating a plurality of keywords associated with the object link descriptor;

storing (i) the video server location data, (ii) the object location data, (iii) the object link descriptor, (iv) the keywords, and (v) the selected object clickable hyperlink, in a computer memory in a computer file associated with the object; and

posting on a phantom web page, which is not visible to a user, (i) the stored keywords in a search-engine-searchable language, and (ii) computer file information corresponding to the stored video server location data, object location data, object link descriptor, and the selected object clickable hyperlink.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of determining location data for the object in a frame of a video is accomplished using computer software, and the keywords are automatically generated.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the object is tracked throughout the rest of the video using its characteristics to locate the object in each frame.

4. The method of claim 1 further comprising a step of providing in the computer file hyperlink location data for at least one hyperlink from the object to at least one of information, another web page, another object, another video, an image and a sound file.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein in the step of determining an object descriptor in words, the object descriptor is determined by selecting at least one word as the object descriptor which is descriptive of the object that was viewed and selected in the step of viewing a video segment, and the step of generating keywords is performed automatically from the object descriptor.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein in the step of storing data, the data is stored in an XML file.

18. The method of claim 1, wherein the selecting step includes the step of selecting plural objects, and wherein the posting step includes the step of posting a phantom web page for each of the selected objects.

19. The method of claim 1, wherein the providing a clickable hyperlink step includes the step of providing a clickable hyperlink in each frame of the video segment.

7. A method of making video segments containing an object within a video searchable by keyword on the internet having at least one search engine that searches on keywords, the method comprising the steps of:

viewing at least a video segment of a video;

electronically selecting at least one visible object appearing within a plurality of frames of the video segment by clicking on the object;

tracking the selected object in each frame of the video segment;

determining (i) a first video frame of the video segment in which the selected object first appears and (ii) a last video frame of the video segment in which the selected object last appears;

determining (i) object location data describing a location of the selected object within the first video frame of the video segment in which the selected object first appears and the last video frame of the video segment in which the selected object last appears, and (ii) video server location data for the video;

determining an object descriptor in words for the selected object and associating the object descriptor with both the video server location data and the object location data;

generating plural keywords associated with the object from the object descriptor;

providing a clickable link for the selected object;

storing in a computer memory in a computer file associated with the object;

(i) the video server location data, (ii) the object location data, (iii) the object descriptor, (iv) the keywords, and (v) the selected object clickable link; and

posting (i) the keywords in a search-engine-searchable language on a phantom web page, wherein the phantom web page itself is not viewable on the internet, and (ii) computer file information corresponding to the stored video server location data, object location data, object link descriptor, and the selected object clickable link.

8. The method of claim 7 further comprising a step of searching the internet for search terms sufficiently matching at least one of the object descriptor and set of keywords to provide search results including a link to the video segment containing the object.

9. The method of claim 7 wherein in the step of locating the object, software is used to locate the object in each frame in which the object appears including a frame in which the object first appears and a frame in which the object last appears.

10. The method of claim 8 further comprising a step of cuing any videos that appear in the search results that contain the object to begin playing where the object first appears.

17. The method of claim 10 further comprising a step of automatically ending playing of the video segment at said last frame.

20. The method of claim 7, wherein the selecting step includes the step of selecting plural objects, and wherein the posting step includes the step of posting a phantom web page for each of the selected objects.

21. The method of claim 7, wherein the providing a clickable hyperlink step includes the step of providing a clickable link in each frame of the video segment.

11. A method assigning keywords to objects that are tracked through a video and hyperlinked to web pages with additional information related to the object for use with searching video databases, comprising the steps of:

viewing at least a video segment of a video;

electronically selecting at least one visible, physical object appearing within plural frames of the video segment, by clicking on the object;

tracking the selected object throughout each frame of the video segment;

determining (i) a first video frame of the video segment in which the selected object first appears and (ii) a last video frame of the video segment in which the selected object last appears;

determining (i) object location data for the selected object within the first video frame and the last video frame of the video segment in which the object appears and (ii) video server location data for a location of the video segment;

providing at least one clickable hyperlink associated with the object;

determining an object link descriptor in words and associating the object link descriptor with (i) the video location data for the video segment and (ii) the object location data for the object;

generating plural keywords associated with the object from the object link descriptor;

storing, in a computer memory in a computer file associated with the object;

(i) the video server location data, (ii) the object location data, (iii) the object link descriptor, (iv) the keywords, and (v) the selected object clickable hyperlink; and

posting on a phantom web page, which is not visible to a user;

(i) the keywords or keyword phrases in a search-engine-searchable language on a phantom web page, and (ii) computer file information corresponding to the stored video server location data, object location data, object link descriptor, and the selected object clickable hyperlink.

12. The method of claim 11 wherein the user can search the internet or any other database for videos containing certain objects so that when the search terms used match the keywords assigned to an object in a video the results will include that video.

13. The method of claim 12 wherein, when the search results indicate a video, that video is automatically is cued to begin playing at said first frame.

14. The method of claim 13 wherein the person watching the video can click on the object within the video and be linked to a website containing further information on the object.

15. The method of claim 14 wherein the further information comprises at least one of product information, pricing information, further advertising or any other information related to the object.

16. The method of claim 13 further comprising a step of automatically ending playing of the video segment at said last frame.

22. The method of claim 11, wherein the selecting step includes the step of selecting plural objects, and wherein the posting step includes the step of posting a phantom web page for each of the selected objects.

23. The method of claim 11, wherein the providing a clickable hyperlink step includes the step of providing a clickable hyperlink in each frame of the video segment.