System and method for multimedia authoring and playback

• US 20020112180A1
• Filed: 12/19/2001
• Published: 08/15/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 12/19/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Resource Consortium Limited, LLC
• Original Assignee: Sparkpoint Software Incorporated
• Inventors: McMahon, Michael J., Land, Michael Z., McConnell, Peter N.
• Granted Patent: US 7,155,676 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 713/200
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/034 on discs G11B27/036, G11B27/038 take precedence
• 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 system and method for authoring and playback of multimedia content together with sharing, interconnecting and navigating the content using a computer network is disclosed. Creation, presentation and sharing of multimedia content and applications takes place within an active authoring environment, where data is always “live,” and any piece of content can be played alongside any other piece of content at any time. In this environment, there are no formal delineations between one “presentation” and another based on such things as file boundaries, other data storage constructs or the like. Instead, any piece of content can potentially be part of the “current” presentation at any time simply by being “started.” As a result, three factors become critically important: (1) the framework in which content is organized, stored and distributed; (2) the control mechanisms by which content is played and presented, and (3) as with any authoring system, the methods and means by which users create and edit content. In each of these areas, the present invention makes significant innovations which are highly complementary, resulting in a new type of software application that seamlessly integrates authoring, playback and networking in an active, shared, rich media environment optimized for personal communications.

Claims

1. An authoring system comprising:

presentation data comprising one or more container objects containing one or more objects that include media data, and one or more pointer objects that reference a base object for data, creating a virtual hierarchy, wherein the presentation data is structured in a hierarchy such that container objects can be nested within container objects;

a playback display that presents the media data; and

means for processing the presentation data;

wherein authoring is capable of being accomplished during interrelated playback of the presentation.

2. The authoring system of claim 1, further comprising a control display.

3. An authoring system comprising:

presentation data comprising one or more container objects containing one or more objects that include media data, wherein the presentation data is structured in a hierarchy such that container objects can be nested within container objects;

means for processing the presentation data and navigating through the hierarchy thereof, including the selection of a container object in response to input;

a playback display that presents the media data, wherein the current playback output for the playback display is replaced by the playback output of the selected container object; and

wherein authoring is capable of being accomplished during interrelated playback of the presentation.

4. The authoring system of claim 3, wherein the presentation data objects all include data specifying whether the object is navigable.

5. An authoring system comprising:

presentation data comprising one or more container objects containing one or more objects that include media data, wherein the presentation data is structured in a hierarchy such that container objects can be nested within container objects;

a playback display that presents the media data;

means for processing the presentation data; and

one or more sub-display container objects, each of which, when played back by the playback display, displays the playback of its contained presentation data in a nested sub-display embedded within the display of a container object;

wherein authoring is capable of being accomplished during interrelated playback of the presentation.

6. The authoring system of claim 5, wherein the nesting of sub-displays within sub-displays corresponds to nesting of ‘

sub-display’

container objects within ‘

sub-display’

container objects.

7. The authoring system of claim 5, wherein the means for processing the presentation data receives input, associated with each ‘

sub-display’

container object, that specifies if the sub-display functionality is enabled.

8. The authoring system of claim 7, wherein at least one of the ‘

sub-display’

container objects are pointer objects, each having its own user option specified independently from its base object.

9. An authoring system comprising:

presentation data comprising one or more container objects containing one or more objects that include media data, wherein the presentation data is structured in a hierarchy such that container objects can be nested within container objects;

means for processing the presentation data and navigating therethrough, including the selection of a container object in response to input;

a playback display having an output presentation of the media data, wherein the current playback output for the playback display is replaced by the playback output of the selected container object;

one or more sub-display container objects, each of which when played back by the playback display, displays the playback of its contained presentation data in a nested sub-display embedded within the display of a container object.

10. An authoring system comprising:

presentation data comprising one or more container objects containing one or more objects that include media data;

a playback display for presenting the media data;

means for processing the presentation data including the starting of a container object in response to input;

one or more sub-display container objects, each of which when played back by the playback display, displays the playback of its contained presentation data in a nested sub-display embedded within the display of a container object;

wherein the current playback output for the playback display is replaced by the playback output of the started container object.

11. An authoring system comprising:

presentation data comprising one or more container objects containing one or more objects including media data;

a playback display for playing back the presentation data by presenting media data in the playback display;

one or more sub-display container objects, each of which when played back by the playback display, displays the playback of its contained presentation data in a nested sub-display embedded within the display of a container object;

wherein user input is accepted to change the object position and object size of a selected object at the same time.

12. The authoring system of claim 11, wherein the user input that changes the object position and the user input that changes the object size are input actions suitable for being performed by the user'"'"'s left and right hands simultaneously.

13. The authoring system of claim 12, wherein the object position is changed by user input from a mouse, and wherein the object size is changed by user input from two adjacent switches.

15. The authoring method as recited in claim 14, further comprising, during the step of presenting the media data on a playback display, the step of replacing the current playback output for the playback display by the playback output of the selected container object.

16. The authoring method as recited in claim 14, further comprising the steps of:

storing in the one or more data bases one or more sub-display container objects; and

when playing back each sub-display container object, displaying the playback of its contained presentation data in a nested sub-display embedded within the display of a container object.

14. An authoring method comprising the steps of:

storing in one or more databases presentation data comprising one or more container objects containing one or more objects that include media data, and one or more pointer objects that reference a base object for data, creating a virtual hierarchy, wherein the presentation data is structured in a hierarchy such that container objects can be nested within container objects;

presenting the media data on a playback display;

processing the presentation data; and

authoring during interrelated playback of the presentation data.

17. An article of manufacture embodying a program of instructions executable by a machine, the program of instructions including authoring instructions for:

storing in one or more databases presentation data comprising one or more container objects containing one or more objects that include media data, and one or more pointer objects that reference a base object for data, creating a virtual hierarchy, wherein the presentation data is structured in a hierarchy such that container objects can be nested within container objects;

presenting the media data on a playback display;

processing the presentation data; and

authoring during interrelated playback of the presentation data.