Methods and apparatuses for viewing, browsing, navigating and bookmarking videos and displaying images

• US 20040128317A1
• Filed: 02/12/2003
• Published: 07/01/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 07/24/2000
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: VMark, Inc. (VALID Soluciones Tecnológicas SA)
• Original Assignee: VMark, Inc. (VALID Soluciones Tecnológicas SA)
• Inventors: Kim, Jung-Rim, Kim, Hyeokman, Sull, Sanghoon, Chun, Seong Soo, Yoon, Ja-Cheon
• Application Number:
  US10/365,576
• Publication Number:
  US 20040128317A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/104.1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/743 a collection of video files or sequences
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/745 the internal structure of a single video sequence
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 2220/20 Disc-shaped record carriers
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 2220/41 Flat as opposed to hierarchical combination, e.g. library of tapes or discs, CD changer, or groups of record carriers that together store one title
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/034 on discs G11B27/036, G11B27/038 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/105 of operating discs
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/28 by using information signals recorded by the same method as the main recording G11B27/22 takes 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
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47214 for content reservation or setting reminders; for requesting event notification, e.g. of sport results or stock market stock exchange data over packet-switching network H04L12/1804; push services over packet-switching network H04L12/1859; notification of incoming messages in packet switching networks H04L51/224

Abstract

Locally generating content characteristics for a plurality of video programs which have been recorded and displaying the content characteristics of the plurality of video programs, thereby enabling users to easily select the video of interest as well as a segment of interest within the selected video. The content characteristic can be generated according to user preference, and will typically comprise at least one key frame image or a plurality of images displayed in the form of an animated image or a video stream shown in a small size.

Claims

1. Method of accessing video programs that have been recorded, comprising:

displaying a list of the recorded video programs;

locally generating content characteristics for a plurality of video programs which have been recorded; and

displaying the content characteristics of the plurality of video programs, thereby enabling users to easily select the video of interest as well as a segment of interest within the selected video.

2. Method, according to claim 1, further comprising:

for each of a plurality of recorded video programs, displaying information including at least one of the title, recording time, duration and channel of the video program.

3. Method, according to claim 1, wherein:

generating the content characteristic according to user preference.

4. Method, according to claim 3, further comprising:

obtaining the user preference from a video bookmark history.

5. Method, according to claim 1, wherein;

the content characteristic comprises at least one key frame image.

6. Method, according to claim 1, wherein;

the content characteristic comprises a plurality of images displayed in the form of an animated image or a video stream shown in a small size.

7. Method, according to claim 6, wherein:

the video stream can be fast rewound or forwarded.

8. Method, according to claim 1, further comprising:

displaying, for each of a plurality of stored video programs, a text field and an image field; and

scrolling through the fields to select a video program of interest.

9. Method, according to claim 8, wherein:

the text field comprises at least one of title, recording time, duration and channel of the video; and

the image field comprises at least one of still image, a plurality of images displayed in the form of an animated image or a video stream shown in a small size.

10. Method, according to claim 8, further comprising:

displaying an animated image or video stream for the selected video program.

11. Method, according to claim 8, wherein;

the image field comprises a video stream of the video program shown in a small size.

12. Method, according to claim 8, further comprising:

displaying a preview of the selected video program.

13. Method, according to claim 8, further comprising:

displaying a live broadcast.

14. Method, according to claim 1, wherein:

the content characteristics comprise reduced-sized images/frames.

15. Method, according to claim 14, further comprising:

generating the reduced-sized images/frames by partially decoding rather than fully decoding video frames, using either a partial decoder chip or a CPU.

16. Method, according to claim 14, wherein the reduced-sized images are generated based on the bookmarked relative time or byte position of a desired reduced-sized image from the beginning of the multimedia content.

17. Method, according to claim 1, wherein the content characteristic comprises a reduced-size image corresponding to a larger, original image, and further comprising displaying the reduced-size image by:

reducing the original image to a size which is larger than the size of a display area; and

cropping the reduced-size image to fit within the display area.

18. Method, according to claim 1, wherein the content characteristic comprises a reduced-size image corresponding to a larger, original image, and further comprising displaying the reduced-size image by:

partially decoding an appropriate part of an image, and

reducing the resulting image size.

19. Method of browsing video programs in broadcast streams comprising:

browsing channels;

generating content characteristics from the associated broadcast streams; and

displaying the content characteristics.

20. Method, according to claim 19, wherein:

the content characteristic comprise temporally sampled reduced-size images from the associated broadcast streams.

21. Method, according to claim 20, further comprising:

generating the reduced-sized images by partially decoding rather than fully decoding video frames, using either a partial decoder chip or a CPU.

22. Method, according to claim 19, further comprising:

selecting a first broadcast stream and displaying the broadcast stream along with displaying the content characteristics.

23. Method, according to claim 19, further comprising:

with a first tuner, selecting the first broadcast stream, and

with a second tuner, browsing other channels.

24. Method, according to claim 19, further comprising:

browsing frequently-tuned channels based on information about a user'"'"'s channel preferences.

25. Method, according to claim 24, further comprising:

collecting information about which channels the user watches, when and for how long they are watched; and

controlling channel browsing based on the collected information.

26. Method, according to claim 19, further comprising:

displaying favorite channels or services based on user'"'"'s viewing preferences.

27. Method, according to claim 19, further comprising:

displaying information from an electronic program guide (EPG).

28. Method, according to claim 19, wherein the content characteristic comprises a reduced-size image corresponding to a larger, original image, and further comprising displaying the reduced-size image by:

reducing the original image to a size which is larger than the size of a display area; and

cropping the reduced-size image to fit within the display area.

29. Method, according to claim 19, wherein the content characteristic comprises a reduced-size image corresponding to a larger, original image, and further comprising displaying the reduced-size image by:

partially decoding an appropriate part of an image, and

reducing the resulting image size.

30. Method of displaying an electronic program guide (EPG), comprising:

prioritizing a user'"'"'s favorite channels; and

displaying the user'"'"'s favorite channels in the order of preference in the EPG.

31. Method, according to claim 30, wherein:

a list of favorite channels is specified by the user.

32. Method, according to claim 30, wherein:

a list of favorite channels is determined automatically by analyzing user history data and tracking the user'"'"'s channels of interest.

33. Method, according to claim 32, further comprising:

collecting information about which channels the user watches, when and for how long they are watched; and

and automatically determining the user'"'"'s channels of interest based on the collected information.

34. Method of scheduled recording based on an electronic program guide (EPG), comprising:

storing an EPG;

selecting a program for recording;

scheduling recording of the program based on information in the EPG to start a predetermined time before the scheduled start time and to end a predetermined time after the scheduled end time.

further comprising;

checking for updated EPG information of actual broadcast times a predetermined time before and a predetermined time after recording the program, and accessing the exact start and end positions for the recorded program based on the actual broadcast times; and

gathering program start scenes and storing them in a database, extracting features from them, and then updating the EPG by matching between features in the database and those from the live input signal.