Method and System for Indexing and Searching Timed Media Information Based Upon Relevance Intervals

• US 20090125534A1
• Filed: 01/07/2009
• Published: 05/14/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 07/06/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Comcast Cable Communications Management LLC (Comcast Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Streamray Incorporated (FriendFinder Networks Inc.)
• Inventors: Rubinoff, Robert, Sibley, Tim V., Aveni-Deforge, Kyle, Davis, Anthony Ruiz, Unger, Noam Carl, Morton, Michael Scott
• Granted Patent: US 8,117,206 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/245 Query processing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/31 Indexing; Data structures therefor; Storage structures
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/3344 using natural language analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/41 Indexing; Data structures therefor; Storage structures
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/435 Filtering based on additional data, e.g. user or group profiles
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/447 Temporal browsing, e.g. timeline
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/7844 using original textual content or text extracted from visual content or transcript of audio data
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/205 Parsing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/253 Grammatical analysis; Style critique
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/263 Language identification
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/913 Multimedia
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99931 Database or file accessing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99935 Query augmenting and refining, e.g. inexact access

Abstract

A method and system for indexing, searching, and retrieving information from timed media files based upon relevance intervals. The method and system for indexing, searching, and retrieving this information is based upon relevance intervals so that a portion of a timed media file is returned, which is selected specifically to be relevant to the given information representations, thereby eliminating the need for a manual determination of the relevance and avoiding missing relevant portions. The timed media includes streaming audio, streaming video, timed HTML, animations such as vector-based graphics, slide shows, other timed media, and combinations thereof.

Claims

1-174. -174. (canceled)

175. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

determining by a computer, for each of a plurality of information representations associated with a content of a timed media file, a segment of the timed media file based on the information representation; and

storing, for each of the plurality of information representations, data that associates the information representation with the determined segment.

176. The computer-implemented method of claim 175, further comprising determining the plurality of information representations based on a content of the timed media file.

177. The computer-implemented method of claim 175, further comprising determining the plurality of information representations based on an audio content of the timed media file.

178. The computer-implemented method of claim 175, further comprising determining the plurality of information representations based on a video content of the timed media file.

179. The computer-implemented method of claim 175, wherein at least two of the determined segments overlap with each other.

180. The computer-implemented method of claim 175, further comprising performing speech recognition of the content of the timed media file, and wherein determining comprises, for each of the information representations, the segment based on a result of the speech recognition.

181. The computer-implemented method of claim 175, further comprising performing optical character recognition of the content of the timed media file, and wherein determining comprises, for each of the information representations, the segment based on a result of the optical character recognition.

182. The computer-implemented method of claim 175, further comprising:

determining, for each of the information representations, a magnitude of relevance of the segment to the information representation; and

storing data representing each of the magnitudes of relevance.

183. A computer-readable medium storing computer-executable instructions for performing a method, the method comprising determining, for each of a plurality of information representations associated with a timed media file, a segment of the timed media file based on the information representation.

184. The computer-readable medium of claim 183, wherein the method further comprises determining the plurality of information representations based on a content of the timed media file.

185. The computer-readable medium of claim 183, further comprising determining the plurality of information representations based on an audio content of the timed media file.

186. The computer-readable medium of claim 183, further comprising determining

the plurality of information representations based on a video content of the timed media file.

187. The computer-readable medium of claim 183, wherein at least two of the determined segments overlap with each other.

188. The computer-readable medium of claim 183, wherein the method further comprises performing speech recognition of the content of the timed media file, and wherein determining comprises, for each of the information representations, the segment based on a result of the speech recognition.

189. The computer-readable medium of claim 183, wherein the method further comprises performing optical character recognition of the content of the timed media file, and wherein determining comprises, for each of the information representations, the segment based on a result of the optical character recognition.

190. The computer-readable medium of claim 183, wherein the method further comprises determining, for each of the information representations, a magnitude of relevance of the segment to the information representation.