Generating media presentations

• US 8,261,177 B2
• Filed: 06/16/2006
• Issued: 09/04/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 06/16/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Krishnaswamy, Vinay, Oker, James E., Soin, Ravipal S., Rajkumar, Ramraj, Comeau, Stephane, Schreiber, Patrick
• Primary Examiner(s): HAILU, TADESSE
• Application Number:
  US11/424,744
• Publication Number:
  US 20070294619A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,272 Days
• Field of Search: 715202-204, 715/240, 715/249, 715/704
• US Class Current: 715/202
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/103 Formatting, i.e. changing of presentation of documents automatic justification G06F40/189; automatic line break hyphenation G06F40/191
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/166 Editing, e.g. inserting or deleting

Abstract

A presentation application provides for authoring and playback of a presentation. A presentation is an interactive collection of activities. An activity may include one or more frames, wherein each frame includes one or more modules. A module may consist of media content such as video, text, images or other content. A user may provide input during playback of the presentation. In response to the input, the module or frame receiving the input may call an action on a presentation activity, frame or module, thereby allowing the user to navigate through the presentation and accomplish objectives. When authoring a presentation, a user may associate a user initiated event or internally generated event with a module action. Authoring may be performed through an authoring interface provided by an authoring tool. The authoring tool may save a presentation as a package which can be distributed.

Claims

1. A method for generating a presentation, comprising:

providing an interface for authoring a media presentation;

configuring a first presentation module within a first frame of the presentation through the interface, configuring said first presentation module within said first frame of the presentation including mapping one or more actions associated with the first presentation module to one or more events associated with the first presentation module;

configuring a second presentation module within a second frame of the presentation through the interface;

receiving input in the first frame to generate script code for the first presentation module within the first frame; and

inserting the script code into a presentation file associated with the presentation, the inserted script code derived from the received input, said step of inserting script code performed in response to said step of receiving input; and

invoking a call to the second frame responsive to the input received in the first frame.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein said configuring the first presentation module in the first frame includes:

creating actions that can be called on the first presentation module.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein said configuring the first presentation module in the first frame includes:

configuring the first presentation module to persist in two or more frames.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising linking the first presentation module in the first frame to the second presentation module in the second frame, wherein said linking includes:

configuring an event associated with the first presentation module; and

associating a call by the first presentation module to the second presentation module in response to the event.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the event is a user selection of the first presentation module.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein the event is selected from a list in the interface.

7. The method of claim 4, wherein the call invokes the second presentation module in the second frame.

8. The method of claim 4, wherein the call is selected from a list in the interface.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

configuring transitions between two or more frames.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

configuring a persistent background frame or a persistent foreground frame.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

packaging the presentation into a presentation file.

12. One or more processor readable storage devices having processor readable code embodied on said processor readable storage devices, said processor readable code for programming one or more processors to perform a method comprising:

configuring a first presentation module within a first frame of a presentation;

configuring a second presentation module within a second frame of the presentation;

loading the presentation, wherein the first presentation module in the first frame is linked to the second presentation module in the second frame;

initiating playback of the presentation;

receiving user input to select the first presentation module in the first frame;

determining that the received user input is associated with a script, said user input is associated with the script if the selected first presentation module in the first frame is configured to execute the script;

executing the script associated with the first presentation module in the first frame in response to said determining; and

generating a presentation module event associated with the first presentation module in the first frame in response to executing the script;

performing an action associated with the first presentation module in response to the generated presentation module event, the action including invoking the second presentation module in the second frame.

13. One or more processor readable storage devices according to claim 12, wherein said step of loading the presentation includes:

identifying an initial frame and a persistent frame within the presentation.

14. One or more processor readable storage devices according to claim 12, wherein said step of initiating playback includes:

presenting an initial frame of the presentation to a user.

15. One or more processor readable storage devices according to claim 12, further comprising:

detecting a system initiated presentation module event; and

calling an action associated with the system initiated presentation module event.

16. One or more processor readable storage devices according to claim 12, the method further comprising navigating between frames of the presentation, wherein said navigating between frames of the presentation includes:

generating a user initiated presentation module event in response to executing the script;

calling an action associated with the user initiated presentation module event.

17. One or more processor readable storage devices according to claim 12, the method further comprising:

recording information associated with user input received during presentation playback.

18. A method for generating a presentation, comprising:

providing an interface for authoring a media presentation;

configuring a first presentation module within a first frame of the presentation through the interface, configuring said first presentation module within said first frame of the presentation including configuring a first set of one or more actions associated with the first presentation module and a first set of one or more events associated with the first presentation module, and mapping the first set of one or more actions associated with the first presentation module to the first set of one or more events associated with the first presentation module;

configuring a second presentation module within a second frame of the presentation through the interface, configuring said second presentation module within said second frame of the presentation including configuring a second set of one or more actions associated with the second presentation module and a second set of one or more events associated with the second presentation module, and mapping the second set of one or more actions associated with the second presentation module to the second set of one or more events associated with the second presentation module;

linking the first presentation module in the first frame to the second presentation module in the second frame;

configuring a rule for persisting data associated with user input received during playback of the presentation; and

invoking a call by the first presentation module in the first frame to the second presentation module in the second frame in response to the user input received during playback of the presentation.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein said step of configuring a rule includes:

storing user input received during playback of an activity.

20. The method of claim 18, wherein said step of configuring a rule includes:

selecting content to provide to a user in one of the first frame and the second frame in response to results of a user quiz.