Abstract:
A digital video recording device and a method for book-marking any user selected location in a multimedia presentation that is recorded. The method includes the step of annotating without interruption during a playback operation of the digital recording device a user accessible mark corresponding to a user selected location appearing anywhere within a digitally recorded multimedia presentation. The method further includes the step of determining the user selected location based on the annotated mark, and selectively resuming playback of the multimedia presentation from the selected location. The annotation step can further include identifying an index value that uniquely identifies the user selected location, and storing the index value in a data store. The index value can be a time measurement, a frame identifier or a data quantity measurement. A user identification, a bookmark identification, a date or a time can be stored with the index value in the data store.

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
         [0001]    1. Technical Field  
           [0002]    The present invention relates to the field of digital video recording, and more particularly to operational features in a personal video recorder.  
           [0003]    2. Description of the Related Art  
           [0004]    Digital video recorders allow users to view broadcast multimedia presentations on a delayed schedule, and even permit delayed viewing while the broadcast continues. After initiating recording on a storage medium, the user can begin playback of the portion of multimedia presentation just recorded. Furthermore the playback can be paused while the remainder of the broadcast presentation continues to be recorded. In addition the user can restart playback of the recording from where it was paused.  
           [0005]    However, if multiple users are viewing a recorded presentation and one person pauses the playback, the other users are then unable to view the playback while it remains paused. This can be very inconvenient if the playback is paused for a substantial amount of time. Either the other users must wait for the pausing viewer to restart the presentation, or the other viewers can un-pause the multimedia presentation, thereby making it difficult for the pausing viewer to resume viewing without missing some of the program content.  
           [0006]    Some digital video recorders can bookmark a program playback where the last viewer stopped the presentation. However, in these systems the bookmark is typically erased when the playback is re-commenced. Therefore, if multiple users were distracted from the original viewing of the presentation and one of the users resumes viewing, to finish the presentation without waiting for the other distracted users, the other distracted users will subsequently be unable to resume viewing from where they left off. Further, only a single bookmark can be created in present digital video recorders. Hence if multiple users cease viewing at different locations within the programming, only one of the users is able to resume the playback from the paused location. Hence, what is needed is a device that can implement multiple non-volatile digital bookmarks on a multimedia device.  
         SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
         [0007]    The present invention relates to a digital video recording device and a method for book-marking any user selected location in a recorded presentation.  
           [0008]    The method includes the step of annotating, without interruption during a playback operation of the digital recording device, a user accessible mark corresponding to a user selected location within a digitally recorded multimedia presentation. The method further includes the step of determining the user selected location based on the annotated mark, and selectively resuming playback of the recording from the selected location.  
           [0009]    The annotation step can further include identifying an index value that uniquely identifies the user selected location, and storing the index value in a data store. The index value can be a time measurement, a frame identifier or a data quantity measurement. A user identification, a bookmark identification, a date or a time can be stored with the index value in the data store.  
           [0010]    The system for book-marking any user selected location in a multimedia presentation can include annotating means and means for determining the user selected location based on the annotated mark. The system can further include a processor, a user interface communicatively coupled to the processor, and a storage communicatively coupled to the processor. 
       
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0011]    [0011]FIG. 1 is a block diagram of multimedia components that implement non-volatile bookmarking in accordance with the present invention.  
         [0012]    [0012]FIG. 2 is a flow chart showing the method of applying bookmarks within a multimedia presentation in accordance with the present invention.  
         [0013]    [0013]FIG. 3 is a flow chart showing the method of retrieving bookmarks for selected playback of a multimedia presentation in accordance with the present invention. 
     
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION  
       [0014]    Referring to FIG. 1, a block diagram of a recording and playback device  100  that facilitates non-volatile bookmaking is shown. The recording and playback device or mutimedia device can be a digital video recorder, a personal video recorder, a digital videodisk (DVD) player, a compact disk (CD) player, or any other device that processes multimedia for presentation. As defined herein, the term multimedia can include video image representative data, audio data, graphical data or any combination thereof. A broadcast multimedia presentation is a particular multimedia presentation, for example a television program that is propagated from a source by RF or cable transmission to one or more receiver destinations. As defined herein, multimedia is descriptive of signals representative of video, audio, still and graphical images or any combination thereof.  
         [0015]    The multimedia device  100  can include a user interface  102 , which can further include a display, a remote control unit, a keypad, buttons, a touch screen, voice recognition, tactile recognition, etc. The multimedia device  100  can also include a processor  104 . The processor  104  can be a multimedia processor, a microprocessor, a digital signal processor, or any other processing device. Further, the processor  104  can be a combination of processing devices which facilitate different processing tasks. For example, processor  104  can comprise microprocessor and a video processor. The multimedia device also can include storage device  106 . Storage unit  106  can be a magnetic disk medium, an optical disk medium, an electronic storage medium, and/or other data storage device. For example, storage device  106  can be a hard disk drive, a rewritable optical disk, random access memory or a combination of these.  
         [0016]    Multimedia source  108  can provide multimedia data for a multimedia presentation. For example, if the multimedia device  100  is a digital video recorder, the multimedia source  108  can be a multimedia broadcast, such as a television broadcast. In another example the multimedia device  100  can be a DVD player. The multimedia source  108  thus can be a DVD operating in a DVD playback apparatus integrated within device  100 . The DVD playback apparatus can include a drive mechanism, a pickup, a control CPU, a servo control unit and navigation data generation circuitry. The DVD playback apparatus can also include other DVD player components, as would be known to one skilled in the art of DVD player design.  
         [0017]    Presentation apparatus  110  can include a video display device, audio system, or a combination of video and audio components. The presentation apparatus  110  can be integrated into the multimedia device  100 . For example, video or visual images can be displayed by a cathode ray tube display, LCD or LED display array. Audio or acoustic signals can be presented to the user by loud speaker, ear phone or other acoustic transducer providing bone conduction. Nevertheless, presentation apparatus  110  also can be external to the multimedia device  100 , for example if the presentation apparatus  110  is a television or video display monitor. Each of the user interface  102 , storage device  106 , multimedia source  108  and presentation apparatus  110  can be communicatively coupled to processor  104 .  
         [0018]    [0018]FIG. 2 is a flow chart  200  showing a method for annotating bookmarks in order to reference specific locations within a multimedia presentation. The process starts at step  202 . Referring to step  204 , a viewer can annotate a user accessible mark (bookmark) at the current location within the multimedia playback by means of user interface  102 , which communicates the bookmark information to the processor  104 . Communication between processor  104  and user interface  102  is bi-directional thereby allowing bookmark request submission to the processor and bookmark retrieval data, for example bookmark owner name to be communicated to and displayed by the user interface. The bookmark can be annotated without interruption in playback of the multimedia presentation. The bookmark can enable the user to re-start a playback of the recorded multimedia presentation at some later time from the location identified by the bookmark. If other users desire to annotate bookmarks in the multimedia presentation, they can do so as well. As used herein, the term “annotate” means storing relevant information, for example, a location in a presentation to be bookmarked, a bookmark identifier, for example user name, and/or comments about the bookmark. Thus bookmarks can enable user annotation for subsequent replay and review without interruption to other users viewing and advantageously bookmaking their own individual review locations within the program presentation.  
         [0019]    Referring to step  206 , when the processor  104  receives a bookmark request the processor can determine the current location of playback in the multimedia presentation. In one arrangement the processor can communicate with the storage  106  to determine the current multimedia playback location. This arrangement is particularly useful if the multimedia device  100  is a personal video recorder and a multimedia presentation is played from multimedia data recorded on the storage  106 . In another arrangement the processor can determine the current multimedia playback location directly from the multimedia source  108 . For example, the multimedia device  100  can be a CD or DVD player and the multimedia presentation can be played directly from a CD or DVD. In an alternate embodiment, the user can specify a particular location in the multimedia presentation to be bookmarked.  
         [0020]    Multimedia playback location information can be determined by an index value. The index value can be a time measurement, a frame identifier, a data quantity measurement, or any other method of identifying a location in a multimedia presentation. For example, in the case the storage unit  106  is a hard disk drive and the multimedia presentation is stored as MPEG data, the bookmark can be the current disk storage sector or a byte offset from the start of the file, and a presentation time stamp (PTS) of a bookmarked frame of video. The storage sector or byte offset can be used to tell the hard disk drive where to start reading the data, and the PTS can be used to tell the processor  104  exactly which frame to resume with. To select the desired bookmark from a list of available bookmarks, the user may be presented with a series of still pictures, thumbnails or minified pictures representing the video frame marked by the bookmark.  
         [0021]    After the multimedia playback current location is determined, the bookmark information can be stored or annotated at step  208 . The bookmark information preferably includes at least the current program location data determined in step  206  and a bookmark identification. The bookmark identification is preferably any type of information that can be used to allow a user to readily identify a previously established bookmark. For example, a reference number or alpha numeric identifier can be used for this purpose. The bookmark can be stored on the same medium as a multimedia programming when reproduced from a recordable medium, or in a separate storage location when the program source is non-recordable, such as a DVD. Further, additional information can be stored with the current program location data. For example, user name or identification, date, time and additional program information can be stored with the multimedia location data. All of the data stored in response to a bookmark request can be collectively referred to as a bookmark.  
         [0022]    A plurality of bookmarks can be written to storage  106 . When a new bookmark is created, it can be uniquely identified so that it is differentiated from other bookmarks and in addition is readily identifiable by a plurality of individual users. Either the user can name a bookmark or the bookmark can be given a default identification, for example a sequential number, date and time, name of show or movie, name of the user, or any combination of the above. In one arrangement the bookmarks can remain within storage  106  until deleted by a user. In this way an exemplary DVD can be temporarily removed from player  100  with the stored bookmarks being re-associated with the specific DVD when reinserted. In another arrangement bookmarks can be removed when the multimedia presentation that they refer to are removed from storage  106 .  
         [0023]    Referring to step  210 , playback continues during bookmaking or annotation. Thus playback can continue throughout the bookmarking process without interruption to the multimedia presentation. In another embodiment, the user can be given an option to pause the multimedia presentation during annotation, for example to allow playback image scrutiny and or image titling or description.  
         [0024]    [0024]FIG. 3 is a flow chart showing the method of resuming playback from a bookmarked location within a multimedia presentation. The process begins at step  302 . Referring to step  304 , a user can select a bookmark identifying a location from which the playback will be initiated. In one arrangement, a menu of bookmark selections can be presented to the user via the user interface  102 , for example a user may be presented with a displayed menu of still pictures or thumbnails that represent individual frames of video images marked or annotated by bookmarks. In a further arrangement a selection of bookmarks with, for example user&#39;s identification, thumbnail image, and description can be presented for user selection via presentation apparatus  110  by use of an on screen display capability. The user can select a specific bookmark from the menu using the user interface  102 , for example with a remote control which permits a cursor to be scrolled or a specific bookmark selected, with the selection forwarded to processor  104 . Referring to step  306 , the index value contained in or referring to the selected bookmark can be read from storage  106  and communicated to processor  104 .  
         [0025]    Playback of the multimedia programming data is initiated from the location identified by the index value, as shown in step  308 , and the multimedia program data can be forwarded to the presentation apparatus  110  for presentation or visual display to the user. If storage  106  contains a recording of the multimedia presentation then the multimedia presentation data can be read from storage  106 , for example if the multimedia device is a personal video recorder. If the multimedia source  108  contains a recording of the multimedia presentation, for example a DVD player, then the multimedia presentation data can be read from the multimedia source  108 . The multimedia presentation can continue until the presentation is complete, as shown in step  310 . Alternatively, the user can create another bookmark if it is desired to stop the presentation and finishing viewing it at a different time, or if the user wishes to return to a specific portion of the presentation at a later time.  
         [0026]    It should be understood that the examples and embodiments described herein are for illustrative purposes only and that various modifications or changes in light thereof can be suggested by persons skilled in the art and are to be included within the spirit and purview of this application. The invention can take many other specific forms without departing from the spirit or essential attributes thereof for an indication of the scope of the invention.