Media management system and process

• US 9,348,829 B2
• Filed: 03/27/2014
• Issued: 05/24/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 03/29/2002
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.), Sony Pictures Entertainment Incorporated (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.), Sony Pictures Entertainment Incorporated (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Kohut, Michael, Goodman, Larry, Koffman, Mark, Mercs, Jim
• Primary Examiner(s): AL HASHEMI, SANA A
• Application Number:
  US14/227,516
• Publication Number:
  US 20140214907A1
• Time in Patent Office: 789 Days
• Field of Search: 707/609, 707/687, 707/758, 707/781, 707/828
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/13 File access structures, e.g. distributed indices arrangements of input from, or output to, record carriers G06F3/06
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/50 of still image data
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 17/00 Speaker identification or verification techniques

Abstract

A system and method for managing a plurality content items employs an ingest station which may digitize the content items, generate metadata corresponding to each of the content items, and store the metadata and the content items in a storage medium or mediums. The content items may be audio content, video content, or audio/video content. The system and method may provide an association between the metadata and a corresponding content item to facilitate retrieval of the content item. The content items may be retrieved, at least in part, by searching the metadata and employing the association between the metadata and a corresponding content item to locate the desired content item.

Claims

1. A method for managing a plurality of content items comprising:

automatically generating metadata corresponding to at least one content item of the plurality of content items when the at least one content item is copied for archiving,

wherein the metadata comprises metadata matrix including information about the at least one content item and a format of the at least one content item, the format including sample rate, bit depth, and sync source;

archiving the at least one content item;

linking the metadata with the at least one content item using a virtual link including sort codes,

wherein the sort codes enable the virtual link of the metadata with the at least on content item to be sorted; and

storing the linked metadata and the virtual link for retrieval of the at least one content item.

2. The method for managing a plurality of content items according to claim 1, further comprising

retrieving the at least one content item using the sort codes of the virtual link.

3. The method for managing a plurality of content items according to claim 1,

wherein the plurality of content items includes a plurality of audio content items;

wherein the plurality of audio content items comprises multiple versions of at least one of the plurality of audio content items; and

wherein at least two of the multiple versions were produced from a non-recorded source at different times.

4. The method for managing a plurality of content items according to claim 1,

wherein the plurality of content items includes a plurality of audio content items;

and

wherein archiving the at least one content item comprises automatically dividing each of the at least one of the plurality of audio content items into a plurality of smaller audio content items.

5. The method for managing a plurality of content items according to claim 4, further comprising

automatically populating fields of the metadata corresponding to each of the at least one of the plurality of audio content items that have been divided with information that describes the relationship of the each of the plurality of smaller audio content items to the each of the at least one of the plurality of audio content items.

6. The method for managing a plurality of content items according to claim 1, wherein automatically generating metadata corresponding to each of the at least one content item of the plurality of content items when the at least one content item is copied for archiving comprises

applying voice recognition processing to each of the at least one content item to generate additional archive data.

7. The method for managing a plurality of content items according to claim 6, further comprising

automatically generating additional metadata corresponding to the generated additional archive data.

8. A system for managing a plurality of content items comprising:

at least one ingest station for inputting a plurality of content items and metadata corresponding to each of the plurality of content items generated when each of the plurality of content items is copied for archiving, the at least one ingest station configured to link the metadata with at least one content item of the plurality of content items using a virtual link including sort codes,

wherein the sort codes enable the virtual link of the metadata the at least o content item to be sorted,

wherein the metadata comprises metadata matrix including information about the at least one content item and a format of the at least one content item, the format including sample rate, bit depth, and sync source;

a first storage medium for archiving the plurality of content items;

a second storage medium for storing the linked metadata and the virtual link for retrieval of each of the plurality of content items.

9. The system for managing a plurality of content items according to claim 8, further comprising

a device for retrieving the at least one content item using the sort codes of the virtual link.

10. The system for managing a plurality of content items according to claim 8,

wherein the plurality of content items includes a plurality of audio content items;

wherein the plurality of audio content items comprises multiple versions of at least one of the plurality of audio content items; and

wherein at least two of the multiple versions were produced from a non-recorded source at different times.

11. The system for managing a plurality of content items according to claim 8,

wherein the plurality of content items includes a plurality of audio content items;

and

wherein the at least one ingest station comprises a device for automatically dividing each of the plurality of audio content items into a plurality of smaller audio content items.

12. The system for managing a plurality of content items according to claim 11, wherein the device for automatically dividing each of the plurality of audio content items into a plurality of smaller audio content items comprises

a device for automatically populating fields of the metadata corresponding to each of the plurality of audio content items that have been divided with information that describes the relationship of the each of the plurality of smaller audio content items to the each of the plurality of audio content items.

13. The system for managing a plurality of content items according to claim 8, wherein the at least one ingest station further comprises

a device for applying voice recognition processing to each of the plurality of content items to generate additional archive data.

14. The system for managing a plurality of content items according to claim 13, wherein the at least one ingest station further comprises

a device for automatically generating additional metadata corresponding to the generated additional archive data.

15. A method for managing a plurality of content items comprising:

identifying at least one content item for copying;

copying the at least one content item;

generating metadata corresponding to the at least one content item when the at least one content item is copied,

wherein the metadata comprises metadata matrix including information about the at least one content item and a format of the at least one content item, the format including sample rate, bit depth, and sync source;

linking the metadata with the at least one content item using a virtual link including sort codes,

wherein the sort codes enable e virtual link of the metadata with the at least one content tem to be sorted; and

storing the at least one content item along with the linked metadata and the virtual link for later retrieval of the at least one content item using sort codes of the virtual link.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the at least one content item comprises

at least one scene of a movie recorded as at least one movie data.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising

automatically generating additional metadata using a voice recognition processing applied to the at least one movie data to identify actors in the at least one scene.

18. The method of claim 17, further comprising

linking the additional metadata to the at least one movie data.

19. The method of claim 15, wherein generating the metadata corresponding to the at least one content item when the at least one content item is copied further comprises

generating the metadata when a content item is produced or created, or after the content item has been created.

20. The method of claim 15, wherein the generated metadata includes at least one of the title of a movie to which an audio file relates, a language of dialog in the audio file, a run-time of the audio file, and version information.