Web-based system for generation of interactive games based on digital videos

• US 8,826,357 B2
• Filed: 02/19/2009
• Issued: 09/02/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 06/03/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Fink, Michael, Junee, Ryan, Bar, Sigalit, Barzilai, Aviad, Elias, Isaac, Frumar, Julian, Ho, Herbert, Kerem, Nir, Ratner, Simon, Schrock, Jasson Arthur, Tavory, Ran
• Primary Examiner(s): Bruckart, Benjamin R
• Assistant Examiner(s): Malangone, Carmine
• Application Number:
  US12/389,359
• Publication Number:
  US 20090297118A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,021 Days
• Field of Search: 725/112, 725115-116
• US Class Current: 725/115
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/6018 where the game content is authored by the player, e.g. level editor or by game device at runtime, e.g. level is created from music data on CD
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/632 by branching, e.g. choosing one of several possible story developments at a given point in time
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/69 Involving elements of the real world in the game world, e.g. measurement in live races, real video
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/7867 using information manually generated, e.g. tags, keywords, comments, title and artist information, manually generated time, location and usage information, user ratings
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/048 Interaction techniques based on graphical user interfaces [GUI]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0482 Interaction with lists of selectable items, e.g. menus
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/252 Processing of multiple end-users' preferences to derive collaborative data
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/25875 involving end-user authentication restricting access to computer systems by authenticating users using a predetermined code G06F21/33; arrangements for secret or secure communication including means for verifying the identity or authority of a user of the system H04L9/32; networks authentication protocols H04L63/08; authentication in wireless network security H04W12/06
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2743 Video hosting of uploaded data from client
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/454 Content or additional data filtering, e.g. blocking advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47205 for manipulating displayed content, e.g. interacting with MPEG-4 objects, editing locally
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4781 Games
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8541 involving branching, e.g. to different story endings
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8583 by creating hot-spots
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17318 Direct or substantially direct transmission and handling of requests

Abstract

Systems and methods are provided for adding and displaying interactive annotations for existing online hosted videos. A graphical annotation interface allows the creation of annotations and association of the annotations with a video. Annotations may be of different types and have different functionality, such as altering the appearance and/or behavior of an existing video, e.g. by supplementing it with text, allowing linking to other videos or web pages, or pausing playback of the video. Authentication of a user desiring to perform annotation of a video may be performed in various manners, such as by checking a uniform resource locator (URL) against an existing list, checking a user identifier against an access list, and the like. As a result of authentication, a user is accorded the appropriate annotation abilities, such as full annotation, no annotation, or annotation restricted to a particular temporal or spatial portion of the video.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method comprising:

storing a source video file in a video database;

storing annotations in an annotations database in association with the source video file;

providing to a remote client device a user interface comprising a video area displaying one or more frames of the source video file;

providing to the client device a first web-based user interface portion associated with the source video file and comprising visual representations of a plurality of different annotation types;

responsive to receiving a user selection of one of the annotation types from the client device, providing to the client device a second web-based user interface portion comprising at least one text area for entering a start time, an end time, and a uniform resource locator (URL) for a new annotation;

receiving a user designation of a spatial location in a frame of the source video file based on a user click within the displayed one or more frames of the source video file;

receiving a user designation of the start time, the end time, and the URL from the client device via the second user interface portion, the URL separately encoding both an identifier of a target video file and a time location within the target video file, the target video file being different from the source video file;

adding, to the annotations database in association with the source video file, a first annotation corresponding to the designated start time, end time, and URL, and further corresponding to the spatial location in the frame of the source video file;

responsive to receiving a request from the client device for the source video file, transmitting the source video file and the associated first annotation to the client device; and

responsive to receiving a user selection of the first annotation, causing playback of the target video file to begin at the time location within the target video file.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

transmitting to the client device a pause annotation associated with a time of the source video file at which a plurality of the annotations are displayed, the pause annotation causing playback of the source video file to halt when the associated time is reached.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the first annotation is associated with a time range of the source video file during which the first annotation is displayed.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining an annotation authorization level of a user of the client device;

responsive to the determined authorization level indicating that the user is authorized to annotate the source video file;

providing the first web-based user interface portion.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising providing a third user interface portion comprising a visual timeline graphically displaying time locations within the source video file the first annotation and of a plurality of other annotations associated with the source video file.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein at least one of the annotations associated with the source video file was received from a user other than the user of the client device, the method further comprising providing a user interface portion comprising user interface means for selecting a set of the annotations to be displayed within the user interface portion according to identities of users that submitted the annotations.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the user designation of the start time specifies a particular second within the source video file and a frame number relative to the particular second.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising verifying that one or more of the designated start time, end time, and location is within a collaborative region defined by an owner of the first video file, the collaborative region specifying at least one of a temporal subset of the first video file and a spatial subset of frames of the first video file.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the owner of the first video file is a user that submitted the first video file for storage in the video database.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of different annotation types visually represented in the first web-based user interface portion comprise a type for creating a textual annotation and a type for creating a pause annotation.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the client device displays the first annotation as part of the source video file during playback of the source video file, and wherein the user selection of the first annotation occurs during the playback of the source video file.

12. A computer-readable non-transitory storage medium storing a computer program executable by a processor, actions of the computer program comprising:

storing a source video file in a video database;

storing annotations in an annotations database in association with the source video file;

providing to a remote client device a user interface comprising a video area displaying one or more frames of the source video file;

providing to the client device a first web-based user interface portion associated with the source video file and comprising visual representations of a plurality of different annotation types;

responsive to receiving a user selection of one of the annotation types from the client device, providing to the client device a second web-based user interface portion comprising at least one text area for entering a start time, an end time, and a uniform resource locator (URL) for a new annotation;

receiving a user designation of a spatial location in a frame of the source video file based on a user click within the displayed one or more frames of the source video file;

receiving a user designation of the start time, the end time, and the URL from the client device via the second user interface portion, the URL separately encoding both an identifier of a target video file and a time location within the target video file, the target video file being different from the source video file;

adding, to the annotations database in association with the source video file, a first annotation corresponding to the designated start time, end time, and URL, and further corresponding to the spatial location in the frame of the source video file; and

responsive to receiving a request from the client device for the source video file, transmitting the source video file and the associated first annotation to the client device.

13. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 12, the actions of the computer program further comprising:

transmitting to the client device a pause annotation associated with a time of the source video file at which a plurality of the annotations are displayed, the pause annotation causing playback of the source video file to halt when the associated time is reached.

14. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 12, wherein the first annotation is associated with a time range of the source video file during which the first annotation is displayed.

15. A computer system comprising:

an annotations database storing annotations in association with a source video file; and

an annotation server;

providing to a remote client device a user interface comprising a video area displaying one or more frames of the source video file;

providing to the client device a first web-based user interface portion associated with the source video file and comprising visual representations of a plurality of different annotation types;

responsive to receiving a user selection of one of the annotation types from the client device, providing to the client device a second web-based user interface portion comprising at least one text area for entering a start time, an end time, and a uniform resource locator (URL) for a new annotation;

receiving a user designation of a spatial location in a frame of the source video file based on a user click within the displayed one or more frames of the source video file;

receiving a user designation of the start time, the end time, and the URL from the client device via the second user interface portion, the URL separately encoding both an identifier of a target video file and a time location within the target video file, the target video file being different from the source video file;

adding, to the annotations database in association with the source video file, a first annotation corresponding to the designated start time, end time, and URL, and further corresponding to the spatial location in the frame of the source video file; and

responsive to receiving a request from the client device for the source video file, transmitting the source video file and the associated first annotation to the client device.

16. The system of claim 15, the annotation server additionally transmitting to the client device a pause annotation associated with a time of the source video file at which a plurality of the annotations are displayed, the pause annotation causing playback of the source video file to halt when the associated time is reached.

17. The system of claim 15, wherein the first annotation is associated with a time range of the source video file during which the first annotation is displayed.

18. A computer-implemented method comprising:

accessing a source video in a video database;

accessing annotations stored in an annotations database in association with the source video;

providing to a remote client device a web-based user interface associated with the source video and comprising;

a video area displaying one or more frames of the source video, visual representations of a plurality of different annotation types, and one or more user interface elements for specifying a start time, an end time, and a URL for a new annotation;

receiving, from the client device via the user interface, a user designation of the start time, the end time, the URL, and a spatial location in a frame of the source video, the URL encoding an identifier of a target video that is different from the source video, and the user designation of the spatial location being based on a user click within the displayed one or more frames of the source video;

adding, to the annotations database in association with the source video, a first annotation corresponding to the designated start time, end time, and URL, and further corresponding to the spatial location in the frame of the source video; and

responsive to receiving a request from a remote client device for the source video, transmitting the source video and the associated first annotation to the requesting client device.