METHODS AND APPARATUS FOR DIVIDING AN AUDIO/VIDEO STREAM INTO MULTIPLE SEGMENTS USING TEXT DATA

• US 20090307741A1
• Filed: 06/09/2008
• Published: 12/10/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 06/09/2008
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Echostar Technologies LLC (Echostar Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Echostar Technologies LLC (Echostar Corporation)
• Inventors: Casagrande, Steven M.
• Application Number:
  US12/135,360
• Publication Number:
  US 20090307741A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 725/137
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 2220/2562 DVDs [digital versatile discs]; Digital video discs; MMCDs; HDCDs
• 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: H04N 21/23424 involving splicing one content stream with another content stream, e.g. for inserting or substituting an advertisement
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/435 Processing of additional data, e.g. decrypting of additional data, reconstructing software from modules extracted from the transport stream
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47 End-user applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6125 involving transmission via Internet transmission by internet of broadcast information H04H60/82
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/812 involving advertisement data advertising per se G06Q30/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8456 by decomposing the content in the time domain, e.g. in time segments
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/0885 for the transmission of subtitles
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/24 Systems for the transmission of television signals using pulse code modulation H04N21/00 takes precedence

Abstract

Various embodiments of apparatus and/or methods are described for identifying multiple segments of content in a recorded audio/video stream. Thus, an audio/video stream may be segmented into various logical chapters, scenes or other sections and the like. The segments of the audio/video stream may then be selectably viewed by a user. A DVR presents the selected segments and automatically skips over the undesignated segment of the audio/video stream.

Claims

1. A method for presenting a recorded audio/video stream, the method comprising:

recording an audio/video stream that includes associated closed captioning data;

receiving autonomous location information referencing the closed captioning data to identify at least one video location within the audio/video stream;

processing the closed captioning data to identify the at least one video location;

identifying boundaries of multiple segments of the audio/video stream based on the at least one video location;

receiving user input requesting to view at least one of the segments of the audio/video stream; and

outputting the at least one of the segments for presentation on a presentation device.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving the autonomous location information further comprises:

receiving the autonomous location information separately from the audio/video stream.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

sorting the closed captioning data according to a presentation order of the closed captioning data; and

storing the sorted closed captioning data in a data file separate from the audio/video stream;

wherein processing the closed captioning data comprises lexically analyzing the sorted closed captioning data in the data file to identify the at least one video location.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving the autonomous location information further comprises:

receiving at least one data segment contained in the closed captioning data;

receiving a beginning offset, associated with the at least one data segment, that is relative to the video location, the beginning offset identifying a beginning location of the at least one of the segments of the audio/video stream; and

receiving an ending offset, associated with the at least one data segment, that is relative to the video location, the ending offset identifying an ending location of the at least one of the segments of the audio/video stream.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the at least one data segment is unique within the at least one of the segments of the audio/video stream.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving user input further comprises:

generating a selection menu of the segments of the audio/video stream; and

receiving a user selection of the at least one of the segments of the audio/video stream from the selection menu.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein generating the selection menu further comprises:

generating the selection menu based on data associated with the autonomous location information.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein the user selection designates a subset of the segments of the audio/video stream for presentation, and wherein outputting the at least one of the segments for presentation further comprises:

outputting the subset of the segments of the audio/video stream in an original temporal order, skipping output of undesignated segments of the audio/video stream.

9. The method of claim 6, wherein the user selection designates a subset of the segments of the audio/video stream for presentation and a user defined presentation order for the subset of the segments of the audio/video stream, and wherein outputting the at least one of the segments for presentation further comprises:

outputting the subset of the segments of the audio/video stream in the ser defined presentation order, skipping output of undesignated segments of the audio/video stream.

10. A method for presenting a recorded audio/video stream, the method comprising:

recording an audio/video stream including a plurality of segments and associated closed captioning data;

receiving autonomous location information referencing the closed captioning data to identify at least one video location within the audio/video stream, the video location associated with at least one of the segments of the audio/video stream that a receiving device is restricted from temporally moving through at a non-real time presentation rate;

processing the closed captioning data to identify the at least one video location;

identifying boundaries of the at least one of the segments of the audio/video stream based on the at least one video location;

receiving user input requesting to temporally move through the at least one of the segments of the audio/video stream at the non-real time presentation rate; and

outputting the at least one of the segments of the audio/video stream at a real-time presentation rate of the audio/video stream responsive to the user input.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein receiving the autonomous location information further comprises:

receiving the autonomous location information separately from the audio/video stream.

12. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

sorting the closed captioning data according to a presentation order of the closed captioning data; and

storing the sorted closed captioning data in a data file separate from the audio/video stream;

wherein processing the closed captioning data comprises lexically analyzing the sorted closed captioning data in the data file to identify the at least one video location.

13. The method of claim 10, wherein receiving the autonomous location information further comprises:

receiving at least one data segment contained in the closed captioning data;

receiving a beginning offset, associated with the at least one data segment, that is relative to the video location, the beginning offset identifying a beginning location of the at least one of the segments of the audio/video stream;

receiving an ending offset, associated with the at least one data segment, that is relative to the video location, the ending offset identifying an ending location of the at least one of the segments of the audio/video stream; and

receiving restriction data, associated with the at least one data segment, that indicates that the receiving device is restricted from temporally moving through the at least one segment at the non-real time presentation rate.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the at least one data segment is unique within the at least one of the segments of the audio/video stream.

15. A receiving device comprising:

a communication interface that receives an audio/video stream including associated closed captioning data;

a storage unit that stores the audio/video stream;

control logic that;

receives autonomous location information separately from the audio/video stream, the autonomous location information referencing the closed captioning data to identify at least one video location within the audio/video stream;

processes the closed captioning data to identify the at least one video location;

identifies boundaries of multiple segments of the audio/video stream based on the at least one video location;

receives user input requesting to view at least one of the segments of the audio/video stream; and

an audio/video interface that outputs the at least one of the segments for presentation on a presentation device responsive to the user input.

16. The receiving device of claim 15, wherein the control logic sorts the closed captioning data according to a presentation order of the closed captioning data, stores the sorted closed captioning data in a data file separate from the audio/video stream, and lexically analyzes the sorted closed captioning data in the data file to identify the at least one video location.

17. The receiving device of claim 15, wherein the autonomous location information comprises at least one data segment contained in the closed captioning data, a beginning offset, associated with the at least one data segment, that is relative to the video location, the beginning offset identifying a beginning location of the at least one of the segments, and an ending offset, associated with the at least one data segment, that is relative to the video location, the ending offset identifying an ending location of the at least one of the segments of the audio/video stream.

18. The receiving device of claim 15, wherein the at least one data segment is unique within the at least one of the segments of the audio/video stream.

19. The receiving device of claim 18, wherein the audio/video interface generates a selection menu of the segments of the audio/video stream and the control logic receives a user selection of the at least one of the segments of the audio/video stream for output to the presentation device.

20. The receiving device of claim 19, wherein the audio/video interface generates the selection menu based on data associated with the autonomous location information.

21. The receiving device of claim 20, wherein the user selection designates a subset of the segments of the audio/video stream for presentation, and wherein the audio/video interface outputs the subset of the segments of the audio/video stream in an original temporal order, skipping output of undesignated segments of the audio/video stream.

22. The receiving device of claim 20, wherein the user selection designates a subset of the segments of the audio/video stream for presentation and a user-defined presentation order for the subset of the segments of the audio/video stream, and wherein the audio/video interface outputs the subset of the segments of the audio/video stream in the user-defined presentation order, skipping output of undesignated segments of the audio/video stream.

23. A receiving device comprising:

a communication interface that receives an audio/video stream including a plurality of segments and associated closed captioning data;

a storage unit that stores the audio/video stream;

control logic that;

receives autonomous location information referencing the closed captioning data to identify at least one video location within the audio/video stream, the video location associated with at least one of the segments of the audio/video stream that a user is restricted from temporally moving through at a non-real time presentation rate;

processes the closed captioning data to identify the at least one video location;

identifies boundaries of the at least one of the segments of the audio/video stream based on the at least one video location;

receives user input requesting to temporally move through the at least one of the segments of the audio/video stream at the non-real time presentation rate; and

an audio/video interface that outputs the at least one of the segments of the audio/video stream at a real-time presentation rate of the audio/video stream.

24. The receiving device of claim 23, wherein the autonomous location information is received separately from the audio/video stream.

25. The receiving device of claim 23, wherein the control logic sorts the closed captioning data according to a presentation order of the closed captioning data, stores the sorted closed captioning data in a data file separate from the audio/video stream, and lexically analyzes the sorted closed captioning data in the data file to identify the at least one video location.

26. The receiving device of claim 23, wherein the autonomous location information comprises at least one data segment contained in the closed captioning data, a beginning offset, associated with the at least one data segment, that is relative to the video location, the beginning offset identifying a beginning location of the at least one of the segments, and an ending offset, associated with the at least one data segment, that is relative to the video location, the ending offset identifying an ending location of the at least one of the segments.

27. The receiving device of claim 23, wherein the at least one data segment is unique within the at least one of the segments of the audio/video stream.