Abstract:
To improve precision when generating multimedia presentations synchronized to background music, number of beats of the background music is determined. The beats of the background music are grouped to form presentation segments, and digital images are assigned to the presentation segments. Presentation display templates that further segment display of the digital images for synchronization with beats of the background music are also provided.

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     1. Field of the Invention 
     The present invention relates to methods of generating multimedia presentations, and more particularly, to a method and related system for generating a presentation according to number of beats in background music. 
     2. Description of the Prior Art 
     Multimedia technology is rapidly advancing, bringing levels of digital media integration previously unseen and unheard of. Images, text, and video clips are set to music to generate presentations that stimulate clear communication with their audience. And, as networking technology is improving, with increased available bandwidth and better compression, access to higher-quality multimedia content is becoming ubiquitous through the Internet. 
     Production of such multimedia presentations is often performed within a multimedia presentation development environment. The development environment allows a presentation designer to add, modify, coordinate, or delete the music files, digital images, video clips, and text that go into their presentation on-the-fly, while also providing on-demand previews of their work-in-progress. 
     Please refer to  FIG. 1 , which is a diagram of a presentation editing interface according to the prior art. One often painstaking aspect of presentation design is arranging display of the digital images, video clips, or text over the course of the digital music. In  FIG. 1 , the horizontal axis represents time, and the vertical axis shows layers for assigning media. Typically, the designer will assign a start time and an end time to a particular media element, with one or more media elements, e.g. an image, text, or a clip, assigned to each layer, e.g. Layer  1 , Layer  2 , etc. As shown in  FIG. 1 , the presentation begins with an element on Layer  1 , followed by an element on Layer  2 , which is then followed by an element on Layer  3 . The elements on Layer  1 , Layer  2 , and Layer  3  disappear, i.e. are no longer displayed, at the same time. The presentation ends with an element displayed on Layer  70 . 
     The conventional presentation editing interface has a major problem. Namely, it is desirable for the multimedia elements to be assigned to the time axis in correspondence with the rhythm of the music. However, the start time and end time of each element are assigned manually, which means that the designer must alternately assign/modify the start/end times and preview the presentation, listening carefully to make sure that the elements are displayed and disappear at appropriate times. In  FIG. 1 , only one element is assigned to each layer, but in practice, each layer could have many elements, and the example of seventy layers is within normal expectations for this type of presentation. While the process described above may be reasonable for a small number of elements, as the number of layers and elements increase, matching each element to the music becomes an excessively cumbersome task. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     According to the present invention, a method of generating a presentation with background music comprises determining number of beats of the background music, grouping the beats into at least one presentation segment, and assigning at least one digital image to each presentation segment. 
     According to the present invention, a presentation system for generating a presentation with matched background music and digital images comprises an audio processor for determining number of beats of the background music, an organizer coupled to the audio processor for grouping the beats into at least one presentation segment, and a user interface coupled to the organizer comprising an assigning unit for assigning at least one digital image to each presentation segment. 
     These and other objectives of the present invention will no doubt become obvious to those of ordinary skill in the art after reading the following detailed description of the preferred embodiment that is illustrated in the various figures and drawings. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         FIG. 1  is a diagram of a presentation editing interface according to the prior art. 
         FIG. 2  is a diagram of beat information of music. 
         FIG. 3  is a diagram of segmenting the music of  FIG. 2  according to the present invention. 
         FIG. 4  is a diagram of assigning presentation display templates to the presentation display segments according to the present invention. 
         FIG. 5  is a diagram of a presentation display template according to the present invention. 
         FIG. 6  is a diagram of a second presentation display template according to the present invention. 
         FIG. 7  is a diagram of a presentation system according to the present invention. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
     Please refer to  FIG. 2 , which is a diagram of beat information of music. The background music for the presentation is first analyzed through well-known processes to determine the number of beats of the background music. Note that, in other embodiments, background music for the presentation can also be analyzed to determine beats per minute (BPM) or a number of beats per measure. For purposes of explanation,  FIG. 2  shows an example of music  20  having 280 beats, indicated as Beat  1 , Beat  2 , Beat  3 , . . . , Beat  280 . It should be noted that the present invention can also receive the beats information for the background music through an input device or a definitions file. In other words, the present invention is not limited to utilizing audio processing analysis methods for determining the beats. 
     Please refer to  FIG. 3 , which is a diagram of segmenting the music  20  of  FIG. 2  according to the present invention. The present invention groups the beats into at least one presentation segment. As shown in  FIG. 3 , the music  20  is segmented into a first presentation segment  201  having four beats (Beats  1 - 4 ), a second presentation segment  202  having six beats (Beats  5 - 10 ), and so on. A last presentation segment  250  has eight beats (Beats  273 - 280 ). Of course, the music  20  could also be segmented into one segment, i.e. Beats  1 - 280 , but preferably the music  20  is segmented into more than one segment, such as in the example illustrated in  FIG. 3 . Further, once the music  20  has been segmented, multiple segments can be merged to form longer segments, or one segment can be split to form shorter segments. For example, through a user interface or editing interface, user can select two consecutive segments by an input device such as a mouse and then right click on the segments to choose “combine” mode to merge two segments into a longer one. 
     Please refer to  FIG. 4 , which is a diagram of applying presentation display templates to the presentation segments shown in  FIG. 3 . As shown in  FIG. 4 , a 4-beat 1-image template 4B1I is applied to the first presentation segment  201 , a 6-beat 3-image template 6B3I is applied to the second presentation segment  202 , and an 8-beat 8-image template 8B8I is applied to the last presentation segment  250 . In general, the presentation display segment of the present invention can be an N-beat K-image template, where N is the number of beats that the presentation display segment is displayed for, and K is the number of images displayed in the presentation display segment. 
     Please continue to refer to  FIG. 4 . Finally, a number of digital images matching the number of images in each presentation display template are assigned to each presentation segment to complete the presentation. The digital images assigned to the presentation segments can be assigned automatically given a path to a plurality of digital images, or manually by the designer. If the digital images are assigned automatically, the digital images can be assigned by file name, date according to image metadata, randomly, or by any other characteristic of the digital images. Also, the present invention is not limited to assigning one digital image to each presentation segment, but also includes assigning multiple digital images to each presentation segment. 
     Please refer to  FIGS. 5 and 6 , which are diagrams of presentation display templates shown on a display device. Each presentation display template comprises a predetermined digital image arrangement. The template  1  shown in  FIG. 5  comprises four sections, and can be seen as the 4-beat 1-image template 4B1I mentioned above. When the digital image (Image  1 ) is assigned to the template  1  shown in  FIG. 5 , which is assigned to a presentation segment, such as the first presentation segment  201  in  FIG. 2 , the user interface or editing interface divides the digital image into four parts that are displayed in sequence with the four beats (Beats  1 - 4 ) of the first presentation segment  201 . In this way, the designer need only assign a desired digital image to the presentation segment, and the user interface or editing interface will automatically display the digital image in time with the background music according to Template  1  shown in  FIG. 5 . 
     Another exemplary default template (Template  2 ) shown in  FIG. 6  comprises six sections, and can be seen as the 6-beat 3-image template 6B3I shown in  FIG. 4 . As shown, Image  2  is split and displayed in the first three sections (from left to right, and top to bottom), Image  3  is split and displayed in the top right two sections, and Image  4  is also fully displayed in the bottom right section. 
     Of course, the designer can also assign a template to each presentation segment manually and modify the image arrangement if they are not satisfied with the default template assigned by the user interface or editing interface. For example, the editing interface can further split Image  3  of  FIG. 6  into two or more sub-images by right click on Image  3  and select “split to 2” or “split to 3” and etc. And, the number of templates in the editing interface is not limited. The types of templates are also not limited to four-part or six-part templates. Many songs utilize time signatures that would make three-beat, two-beat, or even five-beat presentation display templates preferable. Thus, the number of sections in each template is also not limiting on the present invention. 
     Finally, the designer can also search for templates based on a number of digital images to be displayed in the presentation segment, and then assign the template to the presentation segment. Then, the designer can input the digital images and select where to display each digital image within the template. 
     Please refer to  FIG. 7 , which is a diagram of a presentation system  70  according to the present invention. The presentation system  70  is used for generating a presentation with matched background music and digital images. The presentation system  70  comprises an audio processor  72  for determining number of beats of the background music, an organizer  74  coupled to the audio processor  72  for grouping the beats into at least one presentation segment, and a user interface  76  coupled to the organizer  74  comprising an assigning unit  761  for assigning at least one digital image to each presentation segment. The presentation system  70  further comprises an input device  78  coupled to the user interface  76  for a user to provide input to the presentation system  70 , and a display device  79  coupled to the user interface  76  for displaying information about the presentation system  70 . It should be noted that the user interface  76  is a typical interface for transmitting information between the presentation system  70  and a user, whereas the editing interface mentioned above is a specific type of user interface, or a portion of the user interface  76 , which is used particularly for performing editing operations on the presentation, such as selecting templates, merging and splitting presentation segments, etc. 
     Compared to the prior art, the present invention provides a method of generating a multimedia presentation that is both precise and powerful. The presentation system of the present invention significantly increases the precision of synchronizing display of digital images with background music by automatically corresponding image display with beat information of the background music. This allows the designer to produce more meaningful, higher quality presentations, and even lowers the barrier to entry for less-skilled designers to put together multimedia presentations to share with friends and family. 
     Those skilled in the art will readily observe that numerous modifications and alterations of the device and method may be made while retaining the teachings of the invention.