Media frame object visualization system

• US 20060161867A1
• Filed: 03/20/2006
• Published: 07/20/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 01/21/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Glatzer, Asta L., Glenner, Steve, Wong, Curtis G., Drucker, Steven M., DeMar, Steven D.
• Granted Patent: US 7,657,845 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/810
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/54 Browsing; Visualisation therefor
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/64 Browsing; Visualisation therefor generation of a list or set of audio data G06F16/638
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/68 Retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manually
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/743 a collection of video files or sequences
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/78 Retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manually
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/93 Document management systems
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 715/974 Slider control as on-screen object in operator interface

Abstract

The present invention provides a unique system and method for facilitating browsing, sorting, clustering, and filtering any number of media objects grouped together in a quick and easy manner. In particular, the invention involves annotating the media objects, which have been clustered, sorted, and/or filtered en masse rather than individually, with metadata. The media objects may be selected by a user and annotated with a plurality of metadata as desired by a user in order to optimize utilization of the media objects. The media objects may also be combined and/or mixed in any number of ways to create new media objects. Media objects may include an audio component, a visual component, a portion thereof, and/or any combination thereof.

Claims

1. A media object visualization system comprising:

a media object display area that facilitates at least one of browsing, clustering, filtering and sorting of a plurality of media objects;

one or more bin components that facilitate grouping, annotating, and manipulating selected media objects included therein; and

when one or more bin components are selected and placed in a receiving bin component, one or more metadata associated with the receiving bin component are annotated to one or more media objects in the one or more selected bin components.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more metadata associated with the receiving bin component are selectively annotated to the one or more media objects in the one or more selected bin components.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the one or more metadata associated with the receiving bin component are selectively annotated to one or more media objects in the one or more selected bin components based upon user preferences.

4. The system of claim 2, wherein the selective annotation of the one or more media objects is at least one of hierarchical-based, temporal-based, class-based, and serial-based.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the serial-based annotation includes a first media object through an Nth media object from the one or more selected bin components being placed in the receiving bin component, N being an integer greater than one, the first media object is annotated with a first subset of metadata and the Nth media object is annotated with a Mth subset of metadata, M being an integer greater than one, any media objects between the first media object and the Nth media object are annotated serially with subsets of data between the first subset of data and the Mth subset of data.

6. The system of claim 4, wherein the serial-based annotation is based upon user preferences.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more selected bin components are automatically placed in the receiving bin component upon the user typing a number associated with the receiving bin component.

8. The system of claim 1, further comprising one or more category filter components that facilitate clustering, sorting, annotating and filtering the selected media objects.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein when one or more category filter components are selected, only media objects that have metadata that match the category requirements of each of the selected one or more category filter components are displayed in the media object display area.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the display size of media objects in the media object display area is altered as the quantity of media objects displayed in the media object display area changes.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the plurality of media objects are maintained in an original form in a database.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more selected bin components are deleted after being placed in the receiving bin component and the one or media objects in the one or more selected bin components are placed in the receiving bin component.

13. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more media objects are selective placed in the receiving bin component based upon user preferences.

14. The system of claim 1, wherein each bin component is displayed with a count of media objects contained within each bin.

15. A computer readable medium having a computer usable component for a media object visualization, comprising:

a media object display area that facilitates at least one of browsing, clustering, filtering and sorting any number of media objects;

one or more bin components that facilitate grouping, annotating, and manipulating selected media objects included therein; and

when one or more bin components are selected and placed in a receiving bin component, one or more metadata associated with the receiving bin component are annotated to one or more media objects in the one or more selected bin components.

16. The system of claim 15, further comprising a correlation component, the correlation component analyzes a plurality of media objects that are at least one of user selected and located in a bin component for correlations based upon metadata associated with each of the plurality of media objects.

17. The system of claim 16, the metadata is generated based at least upon analysis of each of the plurality of media objects via at least one of pattern recognition, speech recognition, content analysis, and face detection.

18. The system of claim 15, the correlation component grouping at least one subset of the plurality of media objects based upon identified correlations between at least two media objects.

19. The system of claim 15, the correlation component annotating at least one subset of the plurality of media objects based upon identified correlations between at least two media objects.

20. A media object visualization system comprising:

means for at least one of browsing, clustering, filtering and sorting of a plurality of media objects; and

means for grouping, annotating, and manipulating selected media objects included in one or more bin components, when one or more bin components are selected and placed in a receiving bin component, one or more metadata associated with the receiving bin component are annotated to one or more media objects in the one or more selected bin components.