Patent Publication Number: US-2009238538-A1

Title: System and method for automated compilation and editing of personalized videos including archived historical content and personal content

Description:
RELATED APPLICATIONS 
     This application claims priority to U.S. Application No. 61/038,131 filed Mar. 20, 2008. 
    
    
     FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
     The present disclosure and inventions pertain generally to methods for creating on-line personalized multimedia files, and more specifically to creating a personalized documentary video file or movie incorporating user-supplied digital images and home movies combined with archival stock video footage, and mixed and/or synchronized with a musical soundtrack. 
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     With the advent of low-cost digital photography, consumers have been exploring new ways to share and distribute heirloom family images in an emotionally compelling way. A variety of related product categories have emerged in recent years to answer this need. Online photo sharing sites such as Snapfish, Shutterfly, Flickr, Bluestring, and Picasa Web Albums allow users to remotely store their photographs on remote web servers, and selectively share those images with friends and family. Social networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook feature photo sharing as a primary component of users&#39; profiles. However, the vast majority of this activity represents merely the exchange of unadorned 4×6″ prints through digital means. No attempt is generally made to enhance the images or add other storytelling elements. Digital slideshow applications such as Smilebox and Fliptrack represent a significant advance over simple photo sharing, enabling users to distribute photo collections with a variety of creative enhancements such as backgrounds, transitions, captions, and synchronized music. These applications improve the user&#39;s ability to create compelling narratives, although they tend to be time-consuming to produce and are not intended to place the story in any sort of historical context. 
     Users wanting to create a more sweeping personal narrative have tended not to use Web. 2.0 photo sharing technologies, but instead have turned to independent professionals specializing in the production of multimedia works known as “Life Story Videos”, “Biography Videos”, or “Family History Videos.” These works are specially commissioned to commemorate an important life milestone, such as a birthday, anniversary, graduation, wedding, or the like. Producers will typically videotape one or more personal interviews with family members, and collect a variety of photos, home movies, documents, and other memorabilia about the subject. The collected materials will be digitally edited with stock archival footage, soundtrack music, audio/visual effects and titling to produce a professional-looking, personalized documentary film. These kinds of projects may take weeks or months to complete and may cost thousands of dollars, putting them beyond the reach of most consumers. Such productions are generally not practical for widespread consumer use, such as in connection with personalized electronic media and greetings. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     The present disclosure and related inventions include the elements of an internet-based methodology for quickly and easily producing personalized life story documentaries at a very low cost by automated or facilitated selection, editing, video effects and compiling functions for creating a customized or personalized video file. In one representative embodiment, a database of digitized stock archival film footage is collected featuring significant events and famous personalities of the past, or any historical information of any age or time period. A separate database includes a selection of popular musical works which may be indexed to or contemporaneous with the archival film footage or not. A web interface enables users to compile a personalized or customized documentary video file by initially answering a series of questions about the subject, such as, if for an individual: age, gender, and interests (i.e., news/events, sports, music, film, celebrities, etc.) and particular occasion if any. The user is then invited or prompted to upload a variety of effects, such as digital photos and/or videos, for example from different stages or eras of the recipient&#39;s life, tagging each with the approximate year taken and other relevant information. In alternate embodiments, any other digital images or files of any compatible type can also be uploaded and incorporated into the personalized or customized documentary video file, including but not limited to: news clippings, birth certificates, marriage licenses, diplomas, or any other material that is capable of being digitally scanned. In a further embodiment, the user can record or upload a voiceover narrative, sound effects, or other audio content to be played in combination with the personalized or customized documentary video file. 
    
    
     
       DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         FIG. 1  is a diagram representing the personalized video system platform; 
         FIG. 2  is a flow chart representing the services provided by the personalized video system; 
         FIG. 3  is a diagram representing the process of creating a personalized video; 
         FIG. 4  is a representative user input screen; 
         FIG. 5  is a representative ‘upload visual image’ screen, and 
         FIG. 6  is a representative ‘create a message’ screen. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED AND ALTERNATE EMBODIMENTS 
       FIG. 1  illustrates a schematic embodiment of certain operative elements of a representative embodiment of a personalized or customized documentary video file creation system (hereinafter referred to generally as “personalized video system” or “system” configured to create a “personalized video”) of the disclosure and all related inventions. A user wishing to create a personalized video connects to the personalized video system  100  using a user computer or mobile device  10  which connects over the internet to an application server  20 . It should be noted that although  FIG. 1  illustrates only one user computer or mobile device  10 , many remote computers can be simultaneously performing the steps of the present disclosure and related inventions. The application server  20  is where the business logic  30  and related algorithms of the system may be stored. The application server  20  writes information to and receives information from an application database server  40 . The application database server  40  contains separate databases containing such information as user content, historical or archival media (video) content, and a music library. The application server  20  is also configured for content distribution and email processing of the program-generated personalized video. 
     As further described herein, the term ‘personalized video’ as used herein refers to a personalized life story, documentary-style video. 
       FIG. 2  contains a flow chart that identifies the services provided by the personalized video system and how they interact and respond to user input. The services provided by the personalized video system are the media upload and format services  50 , media matching and assembly services  60 , and the content distribution service  70 . The media upload and format services  50  facilitate the upload of user supplied photos, video or music and are invoked whenever the user attempts to add any user-supplied files to the personalized video system. It also ensures that the files uploaded by the user are in a proper readable format. Once the pictures, video or music has been uploaded successfully, these files are passed to and used by the media matching and assembly services  60 . These services include the algorithms that essentially assemble and create the personalized video. Once the video has been assembled, the user has the option of previewing, editing or further customizing the video. Once satisfied, the video is passed to the content distribution services  70  where various forms of distribution of the video are available. The personalized video may be distributed through a variety of means, including e-mail, private web pages, links on social networking pages, DVD, or other electronic formats. 
       FIG. 3  contains a flow chart representing the process involved in creating a personalized video, from the user&#39;s perspective. As mentioned above, a user wishing to create a personalized video connects over the internet to the personalized video system  100  using a computer or mobile device  10 . The first step in creating the video is to construct a profile of the recipient by selecting the occasion for the video  102 , if any, the recipient&#39;s age  104 , the user&#39;s relationship to the recipient  106 , the recipient&#39;s gender  108 , and the recipient&#39;s interests  110  (music, sports, art, business). The answers to each question are an important element in creating a video that captures elements of a recipient&#39;s life story or in creating a videographic mini-biography. The next step is to optionally add a message to be displayed as part of the personalized video. The message may be selected from three or more pre-defined messages  112  provided by the application. The user may also compose his or her own customized message  114 , either in lieu of or in addition to the pre-defined message. The user will then be prompted to upload any visual images, photographs, or video  116 . The user may import photos from one or several photo sharing websites or may simply upload them from a storage device such as a hard drive, CD or zip drive. It is preferred that the user upload at least three visual images, as personal photos are an important aspect of capturing the recipient&#39;s life story. However, photos or images are not required to produce a video. If photos or video have been uploaded, the next step is to tag or supply the date  118  of each photograph or video. This information will be used to chronologically order each of the provided visual images for presentation in the documentary-styled video. The user will also have the option of adding captions to the uploaded photos. If there are no user-supplied images or if the user has completed uploading and tagging, photos, the media matching and assembly process begins. 
     The media matching and assembly process is accomplished by a series of algorithms that consider the user-supplied data and user-supplied photographs, if any, to produce a personalized video. The personalized video system contains a collection of digitized stock archival still and motion picture footage featuring significant events and famous personalities of the last century. One component of the media matching and assembly process  60  involves selecting the appropriate archive footage based upon the user-supplied information given in response to the questions about the recipient. The recipient&#39;s age, gender, and general interests are all regarded by the algorithm when selecting the appropriate archive materials. For example, if the recipient is a twenty-eight year-old male whose interests include sports and more specifically, basketball, the algorithm would likely select sports-related archival footage, such as perhaps the Chicago Bull&#39;s Michael Jordan winning a third consecutive NBA championship in 1993. Likewise, if the recipient is a forty year-old male who was born in July of 1969, the algorithm may select archival footage of Neil Armstrong&#39;s walk on the Moon on Jul. 21, 1969. 
     The user-supplied answers to questions posed about the recipient are also used by an algorithm to select appropriate music to be used as a background for the personalized video. The personalized video system contains a selection of popular musical works spanning the last century. The user may also upload music to be used in the video. The recipient&#39;s age, interests, relationship to the user, and the occasion for the video may all be used to select an appropriate soundtrack for the video. In addition to selecting the music, an algorithm will also be used to synchronize the display of visual images with the music. The music track selected by one algorithm will be used by another algorithm to analyze the beat patterns of the music so that the user-supplied photographs and archival footage will be displayed in fully timed synchronization with the music. 
     In addition to selecting appropriate archival footage and music and synchronizing the display of visual images with the music, algorithms may also be used as part of the video assembly process to enhance still images, add video effects (pan, zoom, etc.), and generate static or animated titles and captions. 
     Once the personalized video system has assembled the video, a preview  120  is presented to the user for viewing. If the user is satisfied with the video, he or she may complete the process. If the user is not satisfied with the video, he/she has the option of editing or further customizing  122  the video. Customizing the video may involve selecting different music  124  or uploading new music  126 , or re-arranging, adding or deleting  128  video images from the video. 
     As mentioned above, once the user is satisfied with the video, the video is passed to the content distribution services  70  where various forms of distribution of the video  130  are available. The personalized video may be distributed through a variety of means, including e-mail, private web pages, links on social networking pages, DVD, or other electronic formats. 
     A representative user input screen is presented in  FIG. 4 . The user must select the approximate age of the recipient in the drop-down age menu  132 , the recipient&#39;s gender in the drop-down gender menu  134 , and select the recipient&#39;s interests from the drop-down interests menu  136 .  FIG. 5  is a representative user upload screen. The user must tell the system whether or not he/she has any photos to upload by selecting either the ‘yes’  138  or ‘no’ radio button  140 . If the user selects ‘no’  140 , then he/she can select the continue button  148  to proceed to the next screen. If the user selects ‘yes’  138 , then he/she may begin to upload photos by clicking on the browse button  142 , directing, the system where to find the photos and entering the approximate year the photo was taken into the year text box  144 . The user must agree to the terms of service and acknowledge that he/she owns the rights to the photo, in order to upload the photo by selecting the ‘add your photo now’ button  146 . The same process is repeated for each photo selected to be added to the video. When the user is finished uploading photos, he/she may select the ‘continue’ button  148  to proceed to the caption or message screen. 
     A representative caption or message screen is shown in  FIG. 6 . The user must first select a message type by choosing the event or occasion for the video from the drop down menu  150 . After selecting the occasion, the personalized video system will display four pre-determined sentiments  152 ,  154 ,  156 ,  158  the user may choose to add to the video. To select a pre-determined message, the user must simply click on the check box next to the chosen message. The user may alternatively choose to customize a message and may do so by entering the customized text into the message box  160  located near the bottom of the screen. Finally, the user may preview the personalized video by selecting the ‘preview’ button  162  or may send or publish the video by selecting the ‘send your e-card’ button  164 . 
     The foregoing embodiments of the present invention have been presented for the purposes of illustration and description. These descriptions and embodiments are not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the invention to the precise form disclosed, and obviously many modifications and variations are possible in light of the above disclosure. The embodiments were chosen and described in order to best explain the principle of the invention and its practical applications to thereby enable others skilled in the art to best utilize the invention in its various embodiments and with various modifications as are suited to the particular use contemplated.