Abstract:
System and method for creating a database of user media and associated user comments wherein the user&#39;s comments are collected, collated, stored, and made available to users through a Commenting Theater that allows for the simultaneous representation of and access to the entirety of an archived complex group conversation without reliance upon text. The present invention provides a method for creating electronic collections of media with associated user comments contained and collated into a single entity “VoiceThread Media Player” that has an integral capacity to host a complex electronic conversation and allows content owners to manage a group conversation wherein all of the comments and referenced media remain separate and repurposable data entities and yet both the media content and the resulting conversation are presented in a unified, coherent and casually accessible manner.

Description:
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS 
       [0001]    The present invention claims priority to U.S. patent application for SYSTEM OF ARCHIVING AND REPURPOSING A COMPLEX GROUP CONVERSATION REFERENCING NETWORKED MEDIA, Application No. 60/801,150 filed May 17, 2006. 
     
     BACKGROUND 
       [0002]    Today there exists a tremendous desire for sharing media, and to converse our thoughts and comments about it, and yet there is currently no single tool available in which allows an end user to simultaneously consume media and participate in complex group conversations concerning it, and there currently exists no single tool for a content creator to not only publish their media, but to include a forum for discussion within the media product&#39;s publishing vehicle. Prior art separates media vehicles from conversations about it, media is consumed in a ‘player’ and then conversations referencing the media take place in a separate contextual environment, i.e. usually a text forum controlled by the website-displaying the media. 
         [0003]    The currently described system can casually capture and repurpose complex group conversations referencing shared media; particularly when the conversation takes place across a network and over a variable time period. While there have been developed many forms of networked conversation such as, online forums, e-mail list-servers, web logs, and even the ranking of shared media, they all represent truncated and singular aspects of normal conversations, and none are capable of offering at-a-glance casual access to an entire conversation. 
         [0004]    With reference to  FIG. 1 , we see a commonly used graphical representation of a short conversation involving 10 people with a total of 15 comments. The method employed in  FIG. 1  is graphically incapable of displaying the complexity of a true live conversation because the comments must be organized according to one meta data category above all others. In this case the comments are organized by chronology. It is also possible to organize the comments based upon any other meta-data type, i.e. time of comment, subject of comment, author of comment etc., resulting in the commonly used forms found in the prior art. Inevitably there are significant difficulties textually representing complex conversations. 
         [0005]    The text based reduction of a conversation as shown in  FIG. 1 , is a profoundly inefficient method of providing access to a conversation&#39;s total complexity in part because it requires choosing only one organizing principle. While even a small child shows the capacity to categorize objects and statements using multiple criteria simultaneously, textual records of conversations cannot render such complexity in an easily usable manner. What is needed is an improved method for displaying electronic messaging between a group of people through a computer network. 
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
       [0006]    The present invention provides a system for capturing and converting an asynchronous group conversation about shared media into an apparently synchronous one, using a unique database structure and a novel graphical code called a Commenting Theater. The inventive system significantly enhances accessibility and usability of the asynchronous group conversation. 
         [0007]    A VoiceThread Media Player is a collection of media, and references to media, structured to receive comments by invitation of its creator(s). In an embodiment, the invitations are transmitted to a plurality of invitees through network interfaces such as a personal computers and or portable devices etc. In response to the invitations, the invitees prepare and submit their individual comments. The invitee comments are collected by a server computer and assigned metadata as they are collected. As the comments are collected and reviewed, the desired media content is chosen and sequenced is an order specified by a user and placed into the VoiceThread Media Player. The unique Metadata created by interaction with the system is used to reformulate all comments into an easily accessible and navigable format. 
         [0008]    The system presented here addresses the shortcomings of all prior tools for the collecting, collating, storing, and repurposing of a plurality of user&#39;s comments referencing shared media and made in a network setting, and over time. While there are many potential uses, one instructive example of it&#39;s utility is to capture and archive the type of conversation that takes place at a family, social group, business, or academic gathering where media is displayed while members make and share comments. Such conversations have always had great utility and have been enjoyed by people in a broad swath of society but they required a physical presence at a particular time, and archiving, repurposing, and accessing such conversations would normally require the deployment and use of expensive and complex recording equipment. 
         [0009]    In one embodiment of the invention, media, or references to media are uploaded to a server and then collated into a VoiceThread Media Player collection by a user. The collection is given a name and assigned a unique identifying code. The metadata includes but is not limited to: name of VoiceThread Media Player, name of creator, date of creation, size, user assigned data tags and description, licensing agreement, copyright information, and available metadata of enclosed media. All of this metadata is stored in the VoiceThread Media Player data file. Upon completion of this process, an uncommented VoiceThread Media Player is created that is ready to be distributed for commentary to invited participants. A further aspect of the preferred embodiment provides a means of displaying without the requirement of text various information including but not limited to: the number of members who have commented on a particular subject media, the number of comments that they have made, the order of their comments, popularity of their comments as well as additional metadata categories. 
         [0010]    The subject media is presented in a framed or frameless media space and is surrounded by a channel reserved for avatar thumbnail images the represent the number of users involved in the conversation. As users make their comments, their avatars become visible and functions to represent them in the particular conversation. The avatar may not accompanied by any text in its default view. All additional metadata associated with the avatar is made accessible either through a graphical code, or through a graphical “drawer” mechanism where text information is hidden by default. 
         [0011]    A further aspect of the invention provides viewers of the VoiceThread Media Player with access to any part of an extended complex conversation by allowing the click selection of any commenter present regardless of their chronological placement in the conversation. 
         [0012]    A further aspect of the invention provides viewers of the VoiceThread Media Player access to any part of a complex conversation by allowing the click selection of any particular comment represented in a graphical Comment Navigation Bar. 
         [0013]    This invention&#39;s use of a graphical code to represent all parts of an entire complex conversation simultaneously offers users casual access to the conversation in numerous ways: replaying it in chronological order, replaying only comments that have not yet been heard, replaying a single comment, replaying only comments by a single user. Again, without the reliance upon text, the viewer is instantly informed of the number of, location of, and provided access to any particular comment in a complex conversation. 
         [0014]    A further aspect of the invention provides for the collection of user comments through a system that automatically adds meta-data to the comment file such as commenter&#39;s name and unique identification number, date and time, associated media, and associated VoiceThread Media Player. By collecting and including the above metadata with each comment, a powerful database is created without any additional effort by the user. The comments within the database can now be repurposed so that those made by a particular user, or those made in a particular time period, or those made about particular media, or comments defined by any of the metadata attributes, can be instantaneously repurposed to suit the needs of the user. 
         [0015]    A further aspect of the invention is the ability of a single group conversation concerning a single media entity to occur in an infinite number of locations simultaneously. Currently, conversational forums concerning media are not integral to any player of media, but rather to the webpage or website that is displaying the media. So while a piece of media may be displayed in a plurality of locations, the corresponding conversations about this media will be balkanized, occurring only in the contextual space that hosts the media. For example, the same movie clip may be viewed on many different websites but any group conversation about the movie clip is limited to the visitors of each individual website, resulting in a thousand separate conversations. The present invention&#39;s integral forum allows for a conversation to be broadly accessible, thereby increasing user participation. 
     
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         [0016]    Embodiments of the inventive apparatus will be described in more detail with reference to the accompanying drawings in which: 
           [0017]      FIG. 1  is a diagram displaying standard graphical reformation of a group conversation to a list format that represents the most common prior art; 
           [0018]      FIG. 2  is a diagram of the Commenting Theater in a single room format; 
           [0019]      FIG. 3  is a diagram of the Commenting Theater with a two-room format; 
           [0020]      FIG. 4  is a diagram of the Comment Navigation Bar; 
           [0021]      FIG. 5  is a diagram of a dispersed forum network; 
           [0022]      FIG. 6  is a flow chart of the editorial functions of the Two Room format; 
           [0023]      FIG. 7  is a diagram of the data structure of a VoiceThread Media Player; 
           [0024]      FIG. 8  is a diagram of the data structure of the user data file; and 
           [0025]      FIG. 9  is an example of a Commenting Theater. 
       
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
       [0026]    In a preferred embodiment of this invention, the system is used as a method for displaying media with an integral ability to accept and display user commentary about the media. The media can be a photo, a video segment, an audio recording or any other type of media that participants can comment upon. When a participant comments on the media, an avatar representing the participant is automatically generate within an avatar channel space reserved for the conversation participants. 
         [0027]    Rather than the lines of text representing the communications depicted in FIG.  1 ., in an embodiment, the inventive system uses a device called a Commenting Theater. One possible configuration of the Commenting Theater is a VoiceThread Player  310  shown in  FIG. 2 . In this embodiment, the subject media is centrally positioned on a media stage  320  and is surrounded by an avatar channel having multiple avatars  360  that functions as a metaphor of the physical space that encompasses an actual live conversation. Invited users may participate in the conversation by commenting using the commenting controls  340 . Successful use of the commenting controls  340  causes an avatar thumbnail image of the participant to appear and represent their comment. This avatar channel  360  will automatically populate with the avatars of participants as they enter the conversation. The display of the avatars mimics the physical arrival of a new participant in the location of a live oral conversation. All avatars within the Commenting Theater of the VoiceThread Player  310  are displayed by default with no textual information. The graphical design and symbology may represent the meta-data of, but is not limited to, presence, popularity, chronological order, number of comments, relative length of comments, etc. 
         [0028]    A preferred embodiment utilizes a Comment Navigation Bar  370 . A more detailed illustration of an embodiment of the Comment Navigation Bar  440 , media stage  320  and avatars  360  as displayed is illustrated in  FIG. 4   a .  FIG. 4   b  is an enlarged view of the Comment Navigation Bar  370  that displays and provides access to any point within a complex conversation. The length of the Comment Navigation Bar  370  represents the total length of the conversation and each segment represents a different comment. The comments are sequentially arranged from left to right, with the first comment on the left side of the Comment Navigation Bar  370  and the last comment is on the right side. The graphical length of each of the comment segments represents the duration of each comment. 
         [0029]    In an embodiment, a participant&#39;s first comment can be played simply by clicking on their avatar in the avatar channel. The comments made by the participant are graphically displayed as highlighted segments  431  of the Comment Navigation Bar  370 . The Comment Navigation Bar also illustrates the number of comments that were made in response to a comment by the selected participant in a conversation, their lengths relative to each other, how many comments has a particular participant made, and when the comments were made within the chronological timeline of the conversation. In  FIG. 4 , the selected avatar  430  is the third avatar down on the left side. This avatar selection can be done by positioning a cursor over the avatar and clicking a select button. In response to the avatar selection, the Comment Navigation Bar highlights a number of comment segments  431  that were made by the selected avatar. As discussed, the sequence of comments is from left to right. Subsequent to the selected avatar&#39;s first comment, there are six comments and subsequent to the selected avatar&#39;s second comment there are nine comments having a variety of durations. 
         [0030]    Importantly, the Comment Navigation Bar  370  can also allow include a Comment Scrubber  450  that is used to quickly access any point in a complex conversation. The Comment Scrubber  450  may be click-dragged to any location within the entire conversation to provide near-instant access to any commentary. When the Comment Scrubber  450  is released, the system plays the selected conversation segment and subsequent segments of the Comment Navigation Bar  370 . The selected avatar  430  that is making the comment may be highlighted as the Comment Scrubber  450  travels over and presents each comment segment. 
         [0031]    In an embodiment, the VoiceThread Media Player  410  has a Two Room format that is illustrated in  FIGS. 3 and 6 . The Two Room format adds an additional avatar channel  400  positioned on the bottom of the screen that acts a ‘waiting room’ for avatars. This additional avatar channel  400  may be able to scroll which would potentially provide a limitless avatar capacity. Like the previous examples, the upper left and right side portions of the VoiceThread Media Player  410  that represent the first room avatar channel  360 . With reference to  FIG. 6 , the editor may use the following procedures to process the room two comments. All new participant&#39;s comments are added to the Room Two avatar channel  400 , which employs a scrolling mechanism  390  to facilitate a potentially limitless number of commenters who may participate  601 . A viewer can clicking on or place a cursor over the desired participant&#39;s avatar in the Room Two channel  400  to access the room two participant&#39;s comments. 
         [0032]    In an embodiment, the room two participant&#39;s comments are moderated by an editor or editors so that the way that room two participant&#39;s comments are displayed on the VoiceThread Media Player can be controlled. The editor moderates the conversation by choosing from various editorial options such as: show, hide delete and elevate when reviewing any of the individual comments  603 . If the editor selects the show option, the room two participant&#39;s comments are publicly visible to all invited users. Alternatively, if the editor chooses the ‘Hide’ option, the participants comments are made invisible to all but the editor(s) and the commenter. Using the delete option, the comments may be deleted altogether. 
         [0033]    If the ‘Elevate’ option is selected, the comment by the Room Two participant is moved up into the Room One avatar channel. If a Room Two comment is elevated, the avatar associated with the person making the comment may also be moved or copied to the Room One avatar channel  360 . There are various other possible editor control options. The described Two Room format thereby allows the creator(s) of the VoiceThread Media Player  410  to manage and curate an extremely large discussion forum where all of the commentary is easily accessible and yet the most useful and compelling commentary is presented and grouped together in the Room One avatar channel  360 . 
         [0034]    In an embodiment, these same editorial controls can be applied to the comments in Room One. The editor of Room One may reviewing any or all of the individual comments. In the same manner described above, the editorial options can include: show, hide and delete  603 . The editor can decided to demoted a comment made by a Room One participant so that it is only published in Room Two. The associated avatar may also be moved or copied from the Room One avatar channel  360  to the Room Two avatar channel  400 . 
         [0035]    The editor&#39;s ability to curate the commentary enables a compact and succinct summary of the most compelling commentary to be easily browsed and consumed by a casual visitor to the VoiceThread Media Player  410 . A preferred embodiment utilizes a database structure and data entities within the database that allow for the collection, organization, storage, and repurposing of archived group conversations. These data entities and relationships are shown as charts in  FIGS. 7 and 8 . 
         [0036]    The chart shown in  FIG. 7  is a possible configuration of metadata associated with the VoiceThread Player  701  and the pages  731  displayed on the VoiceThread Player  701 .  FIG. 7  specifies that the VoiceThread Media Player data structure that may contain, but is not limited to, the following types of meta data:
       1. Privacy state  703 , a “public” VoiceThread Media Player may be published on a list of publicly viewable VoiceThread Media Players, a private VoiceThread Media Player is not publicly listed and requires an invitation from the creator to view   2. Licensing state  705 , must have a defined licensing status indicating the creator&#39;s preferred method of publication   3. VoiceThread Media Player ID  707 , a unique identifier of every VoiceThread Media Player   4. Title  709     5. Description  711 , a text description of the contents of the VoiceThread Media Player which contains searchable text   6. Creation date  713     7. VoiceThread Media Player Page(s)  713  data entity       
 
         [0044]    The VoiceThread Player  701  contains one or more  715  VoiceThread Pages. The VoiceThread Pages data entity may contain, but is not limited to, the following types of meta data.
       1. A media file and associated meta data  714     2. A referenced to media file  715  and associated meta data   3. Text description  717 , a text description of the contents of the media file that contains searchable text   4. VoicePage page ID  719 , a unique identifier of every VoicePage   5. The VoiceThread Media Player ID  721  of the hosting VoiceThread Media Player   6. The user ID  723  of the creator of the VoiceThread Media Player   7. Comment data entity(s)  725         
 
         [0052]    The VoiceThread Pages  713  may also contain comments  725 . The comment data entity may contain, but is not limited to, the following types of metadata:
       1. a user ID  727  of the comment&#39;s author   2. the VoicePage ID  729  of the hosting VoicePage   3. the VoiceThread Media Player ID  731  of the hosting VoiceThrea Media Player   4. a comment ID  733     5. file location  735  of the audio or text comment   6. privacy state  737  of the comment   7. a creation time  739  of the comment   8. a popularity rating  741         
 
         [0061]    The user&#39;s access to the VoiceThread Player  701  depends upon the VoiceThread ID  751  and the User ID  753 . If this information is submitted and authorized, the user can access  755  the stored pages  713  and view the pages through the VoiceThread Player  701 . 
         [0062]    In an embodiment, the User ID  753  is obtained by setting up a user file.  FIG. 8  is a chart showing the information within a User file. A user file may contain, but is not limited to the following types of meta data:
       1. a user name  853     2. a unique user identifier  855     3. an e-mail address of the user  857     4. a password  859     5. a privacy preference  861     6. an avatar thumbnail image of the user  851         
 
         [0069]    The user file may also contain personal information  881  which may include but is not limited to the following meta data types:
       1. location of web log  883     2. user specified shared links  885     3. a popularity rating  887     4. a VoiceThread Media Player library  889  which may include a listing of the VoiceThread Media Players created by the user, as well as those bookmarked by user   5. a comment history  891  catalog of users comments   6. names of groups  893  that a user has chosen to affiliate with   7. user mailing address  895     8. user credit card information  897         
 
         [0078]    The user file may also contain an associated contact list created by the user. The contact list  901  is a data entity containing the basic user account information of registered users selected by the user. Each entry in the contacts list  901  may include but is not limited to: user ID  903 , contact name  905 , contact e-mail  907  and contact list ID  909 . Once the user file is created and the VoiceThread Player access is granted, the user can create pages for the VoiceThread Player as illustrated in  FIG. 7 . 
         [0079]    In contrast to existing text based message displays, in a live person-to-person conversation, comments are made casually, usually while looking at the persons and or subject. Once a comment has been made, we then look to our fellow conversant for a response. While ad-hoc metadata is of course present in all live conversations, i.e. the persons involved have names and the comments are made at a particular time in a particular place, this data, while usually known, remains invisible, and for good reason. The display of unnecessary textual metadata is distracting and requires the unnecessary notation of, and cerebral processing of data that is likely immaterial to the user. The display of, and the processing and evaluation of this immaterial metadata in a text form inhibits the ability for an archived complex conversation to seem casual, thereby inhibiting accessibility and usability. 
         [0080]    A preferred embodiment of the invention uses the network structure shown in  FIG. 5 . whereby a conversational forum is made integral to media presented within the VoiceThread Media Player, unlike prior art wherein conversational forums are integral to a single website presenting the media.  FIG. 5 . Shows the VoiceThread Server  470  creating and distributing a single VoiceThread Media Player to six different websites  551  through a network  559  such as the internet, allowing the content of the VoiceThread Media Player #222  460  to simultaneously harvest the attention of the sum of all of the website visitors  480  of all of the websites wherein it resides. Each of these websites may be similar in appearance to the VoiceThread Media Players shown in  FIGS. 2 ,  3 ,  4  and  6 . The small squares on each VoiceThread Media Player represent the individual visitors  480  to each of these web sites  551 . 
         [0081]    This structure fundamentally shifts ownership of a conversational forum from the website owner to the media content owner and allows these content owners to directly harvest the rewards of creating compelling content, rewards including, but not limited to, the display of a single source of copyrighted material and advertising. In an embodiment, an advertising message may occupy a portion of the display. When a user clicks on the advertising portion of the display the system can respond in a number of ways. In a first embodiment, an advertising browser window can be opened on top of the VoiceThread Media Player window. The new advertising browser window may include access to the advertiser&#39;s web site or provide a smaller advertising display that includes links to the advertiser&#39;s web site. Rather than having individuals download copyrighted material and reposting the copyrighted material on individual websites, the inventive system allows the owner of the copyrighted material to transmit the material to many different websites. The operator may collect revenues based upon the clicks on the advertisements shown on the VoiceThread Media Player. 
         [0082]    With reference to  FIG. 9 , an example of an embodiment of the VoiceThread Media Player  951  is illustrated. In this example, the media stage  961  is occupied by a family photo and the avatars  970  surrounding the center photo in the Room One avatar channel  960  are avatars of the invitees who might be family members and friends. The avatars  970  have been assigned or created by the users and may include photos, illustrations, caricatures, etc. There are three avatars  970  on the left side of the media stage  961  and three avatars  970  on the right side. In this embodiment, there are comment indicators  921  that are numbered in polygons around each of the avatars  970  that indicate the comments associated with each avatar  970 . In an embodiment, the comment indicators  921  can be used with or without the navigation controls. The viewer can hear each comment by placing a cursor over the comment indicators or by dragging the comment scrubber  450  over the desired segment of the navigation bar  370 . In this illustration, comment scrubber  450  has moved to the second comment by the avatar  970  in the upper right. To indicate that the avatar  970  is being played, a “halo”  995  has been placed around the avatar  970 . There may also be an indicator  981  that specifies which comment is from the avatar  970  is being played. In other embodiments any other method for indicating which avatar&#39;s comment is being played may be applied. Also as discussed above, all other comments by this avatar  970  have been indicated in the comment navigation bar  370 . There is also a right facing triangle  997  in the middle right avatar indicating that this is the next avatar  970  to comment and a left facing triangle  999  in the lower right avatar indicating that the previous comment was from this avatar  970 . In other embodiments there are other methods for indicating which avatar&#39;s comment was previously played and which avatar&#39;s comment is next to be played. 
         [0083]    As discussed, the VoiceThread Media Player can be used to play back archived media and comments. Once all of the avatars have been created and all of the comments have been recorded, an editor can edit the comments and organize them in any order. Frequently this will be chronological but the comments can also be automatically organized based upon the message metadata or manually organized as desired by the editor. The organized information can then be saved by the editor and stored on a server so that they can be accessed and viewed by any authorized viewer computer that has access to the server. 
         [0084]    In an embodiment, the authorized viewer can review an archived piece of media and associated comments by logging onto a website provided by the server computer and after confirming authorization, the server will allow the viewer access to listings of media. The listings may include a thumbnail of the media, a text description of the media or other indications of the media. The viewer may have access to all public media and some private media depending upon the viewer&#39;s authorization. For example, the viewer may have access to media assembled by friends and family and other public media, but may not have access to private media prepared by unknown participants. In some embodiments, a single electronic document includes the media, avatars and comments information. In other embodiments, an electronic folder is associated with the media and the folder contains different documents for the media, avatars and comments. 
         [0085]    As discussed, the inventive system is displays a media which can be any type of presentable information, including but not limited to: artistic images, digital photographs, text, video clips, audio tracks, etc. The media can be in any appropriate format including: jpeg, pdf, mp3, mp4, etc. In an embodiment, the common format of the media is converted by the inventive system to a proprietary format that can be presented by the Media Player but cannot be easily duplicated electronically. This proprietary format conversion feature is applied to the media submitted by the user before distribution to the commenting theater and allows the owners of the copyrighted subject media to control the distribution of the media and prevent unauthorized duplication of the subject media. 
         [0086]    The discussion can be a series of audio messages recordings about the media which are played back through the VoiceThread Media Player. This works very well for purely visual media, but can also be applied as a supplement to the audio portion of the media. The relative volumes of the audio portion of the media and the participants&#39; comments can be adjusted so that both can be clearly heard simultaneously. In other embodiments, the Player displays text which represents the participants&#39; comments. Thus, if the media has an audio component, a person can listen to the media&#39;s audio component and simultaneously read the comments. The comment text may be displayed sequentially in an order based upon any selected metadata in a space on the Player such as adjacent to or within the media stage. 
         [0087]    While the present invention has been described in terms of a preferred embodiment above, those skilled in the art will readily appreciate that numerous modifications, substitutions and additions may be made to the disclosed embodiment without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention. It is intended that all such modifications, substitutions and additions fall within the scope of the present invention that is best defined by the claims below.