Cross-track edit indicators and edit selections

• US 8,418,082 B2
• Filed: 05/01/2009
• Issued: 04/09/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 05/01/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Meaney, Brian, Pendergast, Colleen, Lyons, Charles, DeVore, Douglas
• Primary Examiner(s): Augustine, Nicholas
• Assistant Examiner(s): VU, TOAN H
• Application Number:
  US12/434,617
• Publication Number:
  US 20100281379A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,439 Days
• Field of Search: 715/723, 715/763, 715/202, 715/203, 715/204, 715/208, 715/530, 715/500, 715/731, 715/862, 715/830, 386/278, 386/281, 345/473
• US Class Current: 715/856
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/031 Electronic editing of digitised analogue information signals, e.g. audio or video signals
• 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

A method of defining a media editing application for creating media presentations. The method provides a composite display area for displaying a set of clip shapes that represent media clips. It also provides a consolidated editing tool for (1) identifying clip-shape edit points that are near a cursor'"'"'s location as the cursor moves from track to track in the composite display area and (2) collectively selecting the identified clip-shape edit points along multiple track in order to receive an edit operation to collectively perform on said the clip-shapes of the identified edit points.

Claims

1. A method of defining a media editing application for creating composite presentations, the method comprising:

providing a composite display area comprising a plurality of tracks to display a plurality of clip shapes representing media clips in the composite presentation; and

providing a consolidated editing tool for;

identifying edit locations of different zones of different clip shapes on multiple different tracks that are at or near a location indicator as the location indicator moves from track to track in the composite display area;

displaying, for each of the identified edit locations, a graphical indication of an editing operation to perform on the different clip shapes; and

collectively selecting the identified edit locations of the different clip shapes along the different tracks in order to collectively perform the editing operation on the different clip shapes at the identified edit locations.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying edit locations of different zones of the different clip shapes comprises:

detecting, in the composite display area, the location of the location indicator with respect to a particular clip shape; and

associating the detected location with an edit location of the particular clip shape.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying edit locations of different zones of the different clip shapes comprises:

detecting that the location indicator has traversed back to a first track with a first clip shape after having previously traversed near the first clip shape on the first track to a second clip shape on a second track and after edit locations for the first and second clip shapes have been selected; and

removing the selected edit location for the second clip shape after said detecting.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein identifying edit locations of different zones of the different clip shapes further comprises:

removing the edit location that was selected for the first clip shape in the previous traversal of the location indicator near the first clip shape.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein identifying edit locations of different zones of the different clip shapes further comprises identifying a new edit location for the first clip shape.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein identifying edit locations of different zones of the different clip shapes further comprises identifying an edit location for a third clip shape on the first track, said edit location for the third clip shape near the location of the location indicator when the location indicator traverses back to the first track from the second track.

7. A non-transitory computer readable medium storing a media editing application that when executed by at least one processing unit creates media presentations, the media editing application comprising sets of instructions for:

displaying, in a composite display area, at least first and second clip shapes that represent first and second media clips in the media presentation, wherein each clip shape spans at least a portion of the composite display area in a horizontal direction, and the first clip shape is displayed above or below the second clip shape so that at least parts of the first and second clip shapes span a same portion of the composite display area;

identifying edit locations of different zones of the first and second clip shapes that are at or near a location indicator as the location indicator moves substantially in a vertical direction in the composite display area;

displaying, for each of the identified edit locations, a graphical indication of an editing operation to perform on the first and second clip shapes; and

collectively selecting the identified edit locations of the first and second clip shapes in order to collectively perform the editing operation on the first and second clip shapes at the identified edit locations.

8. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 7, wherein the set of instructions for identifying edit locations of different zones of clip shapes comprises sets of instructions for:

detecting, in the composite display area, the location of the location indicator with respect to a particular clip shape; and

associating the detected location with an edit location of the particular clip shape.

9. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 7, wherein the composite display area comprises a plurality of tracks, wherein the first clip shape is display on a first track and the second clip shape is displayed on a second track, wherein the set of instructions for identifying edit locations comprises sets of instructions for:

detecting that the location indicator has traversed back to the first track with the first clip shape after having previously traversed near the first clip shape on the first track to the second clip shape on the second track and after edit locations for the first and second clip shapes have been selected; and

removing the selected edit location for the second clip shape after said detecting.

10. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 9, wherein the set of instructions for identifying edit locations further comprises a set of instructions for removing the edit location that was selected for the first clip shape in the previous traversal of the location indicator near the first clip shape.

11. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 10, wherein the set of instructions for identifying edit locations of different zones of clip shapes further comprises a set of instructions for identifying a new edit location for the first clip shape.

12. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 10, wherein the set of instructions for identifying edit locations further comprises a set of instructions for identifying an edit location for a third clip shape on the first track, said edit location for the third clip shape near the location of the location indicator when the location indicator traverses back to the first track from the second track.

13. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 7, wherein the media editing application further comprises a set of instructions for specifying the edit operation for each selected edit location.

14. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 7, wherein the media editing application further comprises a set of instructions for specifying the same edit operation for each selected edit location.

15. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 14, wherein the set of instructions for specifying the same edit operation for each selected edit location comprises sets of instructions for:

identifying a particular edit operation based on the location of the location indicator with respect to a first-selected clip shape; and

assigning the particular edit operation to each subsequently selected edit location.

16. A non-transitory computer readable medium storing a media editing application that when executed by at least one processing unit provide a graphical user interface (GUI) for creating a composite presentation, the GUI comprising:

a composite display area comprising a plurality of tracks to display a plurality of clip shapes representing media clips in the composite presentation; and

a consolidated editing tool for;

identifying edit locations at different zones of different clip shapes on multiple different tracks that are at or near a position identifier as the position identifier moves from track to track in the composite display area;

displaying, for each of the identified edit locations, a graphical indication of an editing operation to perform on the different clip shapes, and

collectively selecting the identified edit locations of the different clip shapes along the different tracks in order to collectively perform the editing operation on the different clip shapes at the identified edit locations.

17. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 16, wherein the GUI further comprises a timeline representing a duration of the composite presentation, wherein the plurality of tracks spans the timeline in a horizontal direction and the position identifier moves substantially in a vertical direction across the plurality of track to identify the edit locations of the different clip shapes.

18. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 16, wherein each clip shape is defined by at least two boundaries, wherein identifying the edit locations comprises identifying the boundaries of the different clip shapes as the position identifier moves from track to track in the composite display area.