Systems and methods for recording content within digital video

• US 8,737,820 B2
• Filed: 06/17/2011
• Issued: 05/27/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 06/17/2011
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Synchronoss Technologies Incorporated
• Original Assignee: SnapOne, Inc. (Synchronoss Technologies Incorporated)
• Inventors: Hilem, Nick
• Primary Examiner(s): Vaughn, Jr., William C
• Assistant Examiner(s): KHAN, ASHER R
• Application Number:
  US13/162,807
• Publication Number:
  US 20120321281A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,075 Days
• US Class Current: 386/343
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/7867 using information manually generated, e.g. tags, keywords, comments, title and artist information, manually generated time, location and usage information, user ratings
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/105 of operating discs
• 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 21/433 Content storage operation, e.g. storage operation in response to a pause request, caching operations
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47217 for controlling playback functions for recorded or on-demand content, e.g. using progress bars, mode or play-point indicators or bookmarks specific graphical features in visual interfaces H04N21/4312
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4756 for rating content, e.g. scoring a recommended movie
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4788 communicating with other users, e.g. chatting arrangements for providing for computer conferences, e.g. chat rooms, to substation in data switching networks H04L12/1813; distributed application using peer-to-peer [P2P] networks H04L67/104
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/84 Generation or processing of descriptive data, e.g. content descriptors systems specially adapted for using meta-information in broadcast systems H04H60/73
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 9/8233 the additional signal being a character code signal

Abstract

A method for recording user content within a digital video is provided. The method may display a visual timeline associated with the digital video at a user interface, reserve one or more frames of the digital video for insertion of the user content, temporally indicate the reserved frames on the visual timeline using one or more visual tags, retrievably store the user content at a storage device, associate the user content to the reserved frames of the digital video, and enable the user content to be played back in parallel with the digital video at the reserved frames. The user content may include any one or more of text data, audio data, image data and video data. The reserved frames may be selected based on input provided by a user through the user interface.

Claims

1. A method for recording user content within a digital video, comprising the steps of:

displaying a visual timeline associated with the digital video at a user interface during playback of the digital video;

reserving one or more frames of the digital video for insertion of the user content, the reserved frames being selected based on input provided by a user through the user interface without pausing playback of the digital video;

temporally indicating the reserved frames on the visual timeline using one or more visual tags;

retrievably storing the user content at a storage device;

associating the user content to the reserved frames of the digital video; and

enabling the user content to be played back in parallel with the digital video at the reserved frames.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the user content is generated by the user at the user interface.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the storage device is accessible over a shared network to a plurality of users through a plurality of user interfaces.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the user content provided by a plurality of users and user interfaces are enabled to be collectively received and played back with the associated digital video.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the user content provided by different users are so indicated the visual timeline using the visual tags.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein user selection of one visual tag enables the user to add user content to the reserved frames corresponding to the selected visual tag.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein user selection of one visual tag enables individual playback of the user content associated with the reserved frames corresponding to the selected visual tag.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the user content includes any one or more of text data, audio data, image data and video data.

9. A system for recording user content within a digital video, comprising:

a storage device configured to retrievably store the digital video and the user content; and

a primary network device in communication with the storage device, the primary network device having at least one processor configured to generate a visual timeline associated with the digital video during playback of the digital video, reserve one or more frames of the digital video for insertion of the user content without pausing playback of the digital video, temporally indicate the reserved frames on the visual timeline using one or more visual tags, associate the user content to the reserved frames of the digital video, and enable the user content to be played back in parallel with the digital video at the reserved frames.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein each of the visual timeline, the digital video, the visual tags and the user content is configured to be displayed at a user interface of at least one secondary network device.

11. The system of claim 9, wherein the reserved frames are selected by a user through a user interface of at least one secondary network device that is in communication with the primary network device.

12. The system of claim 9, wherein the user content is provided by a user through a user interface of at least one secondary network device that is in communication with the primary network device.

13. The system of claim 9, wherein the processor of the primary network device is configured to collectively receive and enable playback of user content provided by a plurality of users from a plurality of secondary network devices.

14. The system of claim 9, wherein the processor of the primary network device is configured to generate visual tags that distinguish user content provided by different users.

15. The system of claim 9, wherein user selection of one visual tag enables a user to add user content to the reserved frames corresponding to the selected visual tag, the user content being added through a user interface of a secondary network device.

16. The system of claim 9, wherein user selection of one visual tag enables individual playback of the user content associated with the reserved frames corresponding to the selected visual tag, the user content being played back at a user interface of a secondary network device.

17. The system of claim 9, wherein the user content includes one or more of text data, audio data, image data and video data.

18. A system for recording user content within a digital video over a social network, comprising:

a database configured to retrievably store the digital video and the user content;

a plurality of client devices each having a user interface and being in communication with the database through the network; and

at least one server device in communication with each of the database and the client devices, the server device having at least one processor configured to generate a visual timeline associated with the digital video during playback of the digital video, reserve one or more frames of the digital video without pausing playback of the digital video for insertion of the user content in response to user input received from the user interface of one or more of the client devices, temporally indicate the reserved frames on the visual timeline using one or more visual tags, retrievably store the user content at the database, associate the user content to the reserved frames of the digital video, and enable the user content to be played back in parallel with the digital video at the reserved frames.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the processor of the server device is enabled to collectively associate user content provided by different users with the digital video, the user content being provided through different user interfaces and client devices.

20. The system of claim 18, wherein each visual tag is selectable by the user from the user interface, the selection of the visual tag enables the user to add user content to the reserved frames corresponding to the visual tag and playback user content associated with the reserved frames corresponding to the visual tag.