System and method for compiling and playing a multi-channel video

• US 9,258,459 B2
• Filed: 01/23/2013
• Issued: 02/09/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 01/24/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Radical Switchcam, LLC
• Original Assignee: Radical Switchcam, LLC
• Inventors: Hartley, Christopher Albert
• Primary Examiner(s): Tran, Thai
• Assistant Examiner(s): MESA, JOSE M
• Application Number:
  US13/748,203
• Publication Number:
  US 20130188932A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,112 Days
• Field of Search: 386/282
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/10 Indexing; Addressing; Timing or synchronising; Measuring tape travel
• 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 21/43072 of multiple content streams on the same device
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44008 involving operations for analysing video streams, e.g. detecting features or characteristics in the video stream arrangements characterised by components specially adapted for monitoring, identification or recognition of video in broadcast systems H04H60/59
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44016 involving splicing one content stream with another content stream, e.g. for substituting a video clip
• 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 21/482 End-user interface for program selection broadcast systems using EPGs H04H60/72
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/04 Synchronising for television systems using pulse code modulation H04N7/56
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/765 Interface circuits between an apparatus for recording and another apparatus
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/91 Television signal processing therefor
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 9/8205 involving the multiplexing of an additional signal and the colour video signal
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 9/87 Regeneration of colour television signals H04N9/80 takes precedence

Abstract

A system and method for compiling video segments including defining an event; providing a multi-user video aggregation interface; receiving a plurality of video segments through the aggregation interface; determining event-synchronized alignment of the plurality of videos; and assembling a multi-channel video of event, the multi-channel video file configured with at least two video segments that have at least partially overlapping event-synchronized alignment.

Claims

1. A method for compiling a plurality of video segments comprising:

defining an event;

providing a multi-user video aggregation interface;

receiving the plurality of video segments through the aggregation interface;

determining event-synchronized alignment of the plurality of video segments through aligning the plurality of video segments according to a unified audio signal of the plurality of video segments, comprising;

characterizing an identifier of each video segment of the plurality of video segments;

correlating the video segment identifiers by comparing a peak correlation coefficient against a threshold correlation coefficient, wherein the peak correlation coefficient is selected from a plurality of correlation coefficients; and

determining whether the peak correlation coefficient is greater than the threshold correlation coefficient, wherein the peak correlation coefficient greater than the threshold correlation coefficient substantially proves a relationship between at least two video segments of the plurality of video segments;

assembling a multi-channel video file of the event by compiling the at least two video segments that have at least partially overlapping event-synchronized alignment, thereby forming a plurality of overlapping video segments;

displaying currently available video channels in a channel selection interface based on at least one of author, location, quality, rating, or suitable property of the plurality of video segments;

categorizing and grouping a plurality of non-overlapping video segments in the channel selection interface, wherein the plurality of non-overlapping video segments are formed by portions of the at least two video segments having no common event-synchronized alignment; and

providing channel selection of both the plurality of overlapping video segments and the plurality of non-overlapping video segments.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein defining an event includes:

creating an event resource; and

adding participants to the event resource,

wherein the received plurality of video segments are captured by the participants.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein providing a multi-user video aggregation interface comprises providing a participant application configured to transmit a video segment captured by a participant to a server of the video aggregation interface.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising,

at the participant application, tracking actions of a participant;

automatically generating participant directions based on tracked actions; and

coordinating participant communication to the participant application, which comprises communicating the generated participant directions to at least one participant application.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein tracking actions comprises

tracking participant location, quality of captured video segments, and current video capture state.

6. The method of claim 3, wherein receiving a plurality of video segments comprises receiving at least one video segment through a video stream transmitted by the participant application.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the aggregation interface is a search interface that comprises receiving a search input of a user;

and

wherein receiving a plurality of video segments through the aggregation interface comprises selecting video content based on the search input.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the multi-channel video file configured with at least two video segments is configured to point to a video stream source.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the aggregation interface is a file upload interface.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein determining event-synchronized alignment of the plurality of video segments further comprises:

aligning the plurality of video segments based on the correlated video segment identifiers.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein a characterized identifier is a hash token extracted from the spectrogram peaks of the audio signal.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein providing a multi-user video aggregation interface comprises providing a participant application configured to transmit a video segment captured by a participant to a server of the video aggregation interface.

13. The method of claim 10, further comprising receiving a new video segment;

and

augmenting the synchronized alignment of at least one video segment of the multi-channel video file.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein determining event-synchronized alignment further includes synchronizing the timestamps of the plurality of video segments along a single timeline.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of video segments of the multi-channel video file are configured in a media data representation within the multi-channel video file.

16. A method comprising:

defining an event resource;

adding at least a first participant and a second participant to the event resource;

providing a participant application to at least the first participant and the second participant;

receiving a first video segment transmitted from the participant application of the first participant to a multi-channel service;

receiving a second video segment transmitted from the participant application of the second participant to the multi-channel service;

determining event-synchronized alignment of at least the first video segment and the second video segment through aligning at least the first video segment and the second video segment according to a unified audio signals, comprising;

characterizing an identifier of at least the first video segment and the second video segment;

correlating the identifier of the first video segment and the second video segment by comparing a peak correlation coefficient against a threshold correlation coefficient, wherein the peak correlation coefficient is selected from a plurality of correlation coefficients; and

determining whether the peak correlation coefficient is greater than the threshold correlation coefficient, wherein the peak correlation coefficient greater than the threshold correlation coefficient substantially proves a relationship between the first video segment and the second video segment;

assembling a multi-channel video file by compiling the first video segment and the second video segment overlapping at least partially in the event-synchronized alignment, thereby forming a plurality of overlapping video segments;

displaying currently available video channels in a channel selection interface based on at least one of author, location, quality, rating, or suitable property of the first video segment and the second video segment;

categorizing and grouping a plurality of non-overlapping video segments in the channel selection interface, wherein the plurality of non-overlapping video segments are formed by portions of the first video segment and the second video segment having no event-synchronized alignment; and

providing channel selection of both the plurality of overlapping video segments and the plurality of non-overlapping video segments.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein determining event-synchronized alignment of at least the first video segment and the second video segment comprises:

determining an event-synchronized alignment of the first video segment and the second video segment based on the correlated identifier of the first video segment and the second video segment.