Abstract:
A media control apparatus that is sensitive to touch along a length of an actuation sensing area. User actuation at different positions is translated into events for use by an application to access different media recording elements, based on an association between the positions and the media recording elements.

Description:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS 
     This application is a continuation of Ser. No. 08/895,530, Jul. 17, 1997, U.S. Pat. No. 6,084,569, which is a continuation of Ser. No. 08/215,131 filed on Mar. 18, 1994, is now abandoned. 
    
    
     FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
     This invention relates to controllers for editing sequences of stored media samples, such as video and audio material. 
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     Post-production video, film, and sound editors must frequently look for, and play back, portions of a sequence of recorded material, such as a digitized video or audio recording. They can do this by using well known button-type interfaces, which include a series of control buttons such as: “play”, “stop”, “fast-forward”, and “rewind”. These allow the editor to sequentially move through the recorded material and play it back. Jog knobs, shuttle knobs, levers, and sliders are also available for moving through the material sequentially in order to find and play a given sequence. 
     In PCT Publication No. WO 93/21595, published Oct. 28, 1993, entitled “MEDIA COMPOSER INCLUDING POINTER-BASED DISPLAY OF SEQUENTIALLY STORED SAMPLES,” Eric C. Peters and Joseph H. Rice present a mouse-based method of accessing video material. In this interface, a user can use a mouse to move a cursor to a location within a time line displayed on a video screen. This time line represents a sequence of recorded material, such as one or more video sequences. By selecting a position in the time line, the editor can display the image corresponding to that position. This interface is currently used in the “Media Composer” editing system, which is available from Avid Technology, Inc., of Tewksbury, Mass. 
     The time line in this system can display a cursor in the time line to indicate the currently selected position. It can also associate a series of representative frames of the video material with the time line, to assist the editor in finding a desired location within the material. The use of this time line in transition editing operations is discussed in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/049,028, filed on Apr. 16, 1993, entitled “METHOD AND USER INTERFACE FOR CREATING, SPECIFYING AND ADJUSTING MOTION PICTURE TRANSITIONS”, filed by Eric C. Peters, and Joseph H. Rice. 
     Digital audio editing operations have also been performed using a mouse-based time line approach. These types of operations are described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 07/997,716, filed Dec. 31, 1992 and entitled “DISPLAY SYSTEM FACILITATING COMPUTER ASSISTED AUDIO EDITING”, filed by Mark J. Norton. Further discussion of audio editing using time lines is presented in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/045,650, filed on Apr. 9, 1993, entitled “DIGITAL AUDIO WORKSTATION PROVIDING DIGITAL STORAGE AND DISPLAY OF VIDEO INFORMATION”, filed by Peter J. Fasciano, et al. 
     A specialized mechanical user interface for video editing is presented in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 07/932,703, entitled “MECHANICAL USER INTERFACE”, filed by Henry Sharpe III et al. This interface includes a slider which communicates with an Apple MacIntosh via the Apple Desktop Bus standard. The user can actuate the slider to play back video material at an adjustable rate, or frame-by-frame. The above applications are herein incorporated by reference. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     Generally, the invention features associating media recording elements in a sequence with positions on a linear sensor, and presenting a corresponding one of the media recording elements to the user in response to the position of the users touch. In another general aspect, the invention features a media control apparatus which includes a linear actuator and a plurality of media storage areas ordered according to a time sequence. The linear actuator includes an actuation sensing area sensitive to user actuation at one of a plurality of positions along a length of the sensing area. The apparatus can be responsive to a position signal output of the linear actuator to access one of the media recording storage areas corresponding to a user-selected position. The apparatus can also include a linear display area mounted in parallel with the linear actuator. 
     This invention is advantageous in that it is easy to understand, even for editors who have never used a computer input device, such as a mouse. With this system, users can quickly access video and audio information with simple, intuitive hand movements. Users do not need to hunt for a mouse on a desk, nor do they need to look for a cursor on a computer screen and then move it to a control area. In some instances, the user may not even need to look at any control information on a computer screen, allowing him or her to concentrate on the actual material to be manipulated. 
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
     FIG. 1 is a perspective drawing of an editing control panel according to the invention; 
     FIG. 2 is a block diagram of circuitry for use in connection with the editing control panel of FIG. 1; and 
     FIG. 3 is a state diagram illustrating operations using the editing control panel of FIG.  1 . 
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
     Referring to FIG. 1, an editing control panel  10  includes a jog-shuttle wheel  12 , a fader bar  14 , an X-Y image size/perspective joy stick  16 , and an X-Y position/skew joy stick  18 . The panel also includes first, second, third, fourth, and fifth banks of assignable buttons  20 ,  22 ,  24 ,  26 ,  28 , which may be defined by the user, or by system software. A linear touch bar  30  sits across the panel, parallel to and just below a three-line linear screen  32  with a built-in driver. The fifth bank of switches is aligned parallel to, and above, the LCD screen. 
     Referring also to FIG. 2, the touch strip  30  can be a capacitive or resistive touch sensor with a built-in digital interface. This type of touch strip is commercially available and operates by sensing a capacitance or resistance change on the strip due to contact by the user&#39;s skin. Integral interface circuitry translates this capacitance change into a digital value, which indicates where the user touched the touch strip. The digital value generated by the touch strip may be provided on a bus  34  to a local processor  36  located within the control panel  10 . 
     The microprocessor  36  is also responsive to the switches in the fifth bank  28  via another bus  38 , and it provides display information to the display  32  via output lines  40 . Similar connections supply signals from the jog-shuttle wheel  12 , the fader bar  14 , the two joy sticks  16 ,  18 , and the first, second, third, and fourth banks of assignable buttons  20 ,  22 ,  24 ,  26 . As is well known, the processor is associated with storage  35 , such as semiconductor memory storage. 
     The processor has bidirectional input-output (IO) lines  31 , which lead to a connector  33  on the rear of the housing of the control panel  10 . These lines and connector are configurable according to any of a number of serial or parallel interface standards, such as the well-known Apple Desktop Bus (ADB) standard, which is a bidirectional serial bus used to connect keyboards, mice, and other peripheral devices to Apple personal computers. This connector can therefore be connected to an Apple MacIntosh personal computer  60  via a cable  37 . The personal computer  60  includes a processor  39 , which is associated with storage  42 , such as semiconductor storage  44 , and disk storage  46 . A display  48 , and speakers  50 ,  52  are also responsive to the processor. 
     The storage  42  of the computer holds various stored digital sequences  43 ,  45 . These can include code sequences, such as the computer&#39;s operating system, applications, and drivers. They can also include recording data, such as a series of digitized images. These can be stored in a series of storage areas  49  indexed by indexing information stored in further storage areas  51 . 
     Preferably, one of the applications run by the computer is the “Media Composer” application  53  referenced above. Also stored in the computer should be a control panel device driver  47 , which interfaces the signals received from the control panel via the serial interface to the “Media Composer” application as described below. 
     In operation, referring to FIGS. 1-3, the control panel  10  enters an awaiting input state  100 . When the user touches a point on the touch strip  30 , it provides the microprocessor  36  with an indication that this contact has occurred, along with a value indicating where it occurred, via the bus  34  (step  102 ). The microprocessor receives this command, translates it to an event code, and forwards it to the personal computer via the serial interface. The microprocessor time-multiplexes this event code with other signals from the other controls, such as the switches and joysticks. 
     The personal computer&#39;s processor  47  receives the touch command event code, and uses the driver  47  to translate it into a signal, which the computer&#39;s operating system interprets as mouse input event. Specifically, in the case of a user touching a point on the touch strip, the command is translated into an indication that the user had pressed the mouse button while the cursor was at a corresponding point on the time line displayed in the application. For example, touching the touch strip  30  at its central point will be translated into an indication that the user had “single-clicked” with the mouse at the central point of the time line. 
     In response to this translated event, the application causes the processor to use the indexing information  51  to retrieve a frame corresponding to the touched position from the stored video material, and display it on the display  48 . In retrieving this frame, the processor accesses information indicating what the desired scale for the time line and touch strip is. For example, if a ten minute digitized video sequence is stored in the disk storage  46 , and the touch bar reports a value indicating that the user has touched it at it&#39;s center, the processor will retrieve and display the central frame in that sequence, i.e., the frame at the five minute mark. 
     If the user lifts his or her finger from the touch strip  30  (step  106 ), the touch strip reports this to the microprocessor  36 , which translates and relays it to the computer&#39;s processor  39 . The driver  47  presents this command to the processor as a release of a mouse button, and the application leaves the frame displayed on the display  48 . 
     If instead of lifting his or her finger, the user slides it along the touch strip  30  in a forward or reverse direction, the touch strip will provide continuous updated position values to the microprocessor  36  (step  108 ). The microprocessor and driver translate these values into updated mouse positions, with the mouse button being pressed. The processor will respond to this sliding motion by successively displaying the frames before or after the initially displayed frame. These are displayed at the same rate at which the user drags his or her finger, and this is known as a “scrub” mode. The driver or microprocessor procedures may have to perform non-linear translations in order to achieve a pleasing playback response. Sampled audio information may also be retrieved from the storage by the processor and played through one or more speakers  50 ,  52 . This audio information may be played in synchrony with the displayed video information, or it may be played alone. 
     When the user then lifts his or her finger from the touch strip  30 , it reports this to the microprocessor  36  (step  112 ). The control panel then returns to the awaiting input state  100 , and the application leaves the currently displayed frame on the display, as described above. If, instead of lifting his or her finger (step  112 ), he or she stops dragging it (step  111 ), the scrub mode will also stop with the current frame displayed (step  104 ). Lifting his or her finger (step  106 ), will then again return the control panel to the awaiting input state  100 . 
     A cursor  54  is displayed in the screen  32 , under control of the microprocessor  36 . The position of this cursor is in alignment with the last finger position reported to the microprocessor by the touch strip. It remains aligned with this last position even after the user&#39;s finger has been lifted from the touch strip  30 . 
     Different scales can be used for the touch strip  30 . The user can make adjustments to this scale by providing a scale command (step  114 ) to the application running on the computer processor  39 . This scale command can be provided to the processor through the computer&#39;s keyboard, its mouse, or through a button on the control panel assigned to this function. Actuation of the assigned button is detected by the microprocessor  36 , which translates it into an event code that is sent to the computer  60 . 
     In the computer  60 , the driver  47  translates the received scale code into an application input event. The application responds to this event by redefining the correspondence between the touch strip and the sequence of stored material. This can be done by updating the indexing material to assign new points in the stored material to correspond to the ends of the time line. In this way, the user may “zoom” in or out in the material, or he or she may switch from working on one set of images to the next. 
     It is noted that the screen  32  has three lines, with the two bottom lines devoted to the cursor  54 , The top line of the LCD screen can be used for displaying button label codes  27 ,  29 . The computer  37  downloads these to the microprocessor  36 , which translates them and provides them to the screen. A larger LCD screen could also be used, and representative frames of the stored material could be displayed along the touch strip in a similar way. 
     The above embodiment presents a control panel peripheral for use on the Apple Desktop bus with a driver routine stored in an Apple MacIntosh computer. The system could also be implemented with other types of computers, and other types of interfaces, such as IBM-PC parallel, IBM-PC serial, and SCSI interfaces. Analog recording or computer graphics recordings could also be displayed. Driver and microprocessor functionality could be implemented in the form of dedicated logic circuitry, and other hardware/software tradeoffs are also possible. Instead of being touch sensitive, the touch bar could also be a pressure sensitive bar, or another type of linear, absolute and random access control. With a pressure sensitive bar, an additional dimension of control is available. For example, the pressure with which the user presses upon the strip could be mapped to display brightness, audio volume, or the like. Furthermore, although it is preferable to use a straight, linear touch strip, such a linear touch strip could include some amount of curvature. 
     The present invention has now been described in connection with a number of specific embodiments thereof. However, numerous modifications which are contemplated as falling within the scope of the present invention should now be apparent to those skilled in the art. Therefore, it is intended that the scope of the present invention be limited only by the scope of the claims appended hereto.