Patent Publication Number: US-2010132005-A1

Title: Recapping media content

Description:
FIELD OF INVENTION 
     The present invention relates generally to the field of media and, in particular, to playing, viewing, and controlling video or other media. 
     BACKGROUND OF INVENTION 
     Current media players may be used for playing live or pre-recorded content, which may be played by streaming the content over the Internet to a media player, or loading the content (e.g., source media file) from a local media storage device to a media player. Content may be comprised of audio, video, slideshow pictures, or any combinations thereof. Content may be represented according to one of many media file types (e.g., MP3, M3U, MPEG(-1, -2, -4), QuickTime Movie, AU, MIDI, JPEG, GIF, TIFF). Media players today also may offer features for controlling content, even during play. For example, media players today may offer features for playing content at a normal or accelerated speed, reverse playing content at a normal or accelerated speed, pausing the play of content, forwarding or reversing paused content, and skipping-over active content to new content. However, current media players do not provide a feature for recapping earlier media content according to a recapping control variable, then displaying descriptive information related to the recapped media content. Moreover, current media players also do not provide a feature where the descriptive information related to the recapped media content may be text, images, audio, or a combination thereof. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     Accordingly, the present invention is directed to a system and method for playing and controlling content that substantially obviates one or more problems due to limitations and disadvantages of the related art. 
     An object of the present invention is to provide a computer-implemented method for opening a media file or receiving a media broadcast, wherein the media file or media broadcast are stored locally or remotely; playing content of the media file or media broadcast at a default speed; and controlling the playing with control features, wherein the control features include at least a feature for recapping earlier media content. 
     Additional features and advantages of the invention will be set forth in the description which follows, and in part will be apparent from the description, or may be learned by practice of the invention. The objectives and other advantages of the invention will be realized and attained by the structure particularly pointed out in the written description and claims hereof as well as the appended drawings. 
     To achieve these and other advantages and in accordance with the purpose of the present invention, as embodied and broadly described, a system comprises one or more processors; memory; one or more programs stored in memory, the one or more programs comprising instructions to: open a media file or receive a media broadcast, wherein the media file or media broadcast are stored locally or remotely; play content of the media file or media broadcast at a default speed; and control the play with control features, wherein the control features include at least a feature for recapping earlier media content. 
     In another aspect, a computer-readable storage medium stores one or more programs configured for execution by a computer, the one or more programs comprising instructions to: open a media file or receive a media broadcast, wherein the media file or media broadcast are stored locally or remotely; play content of the media file or media broadcast at a default speed; and control the play with control features, wherein the control features include at least a feature for recapping earlier media content. 
     It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description are exemplary and explanatory and are intended to provide further explanation of the invention as claimed. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
       The accompanying drawings, which are included to provide a further understanding of the invention and are incorporated in and constitute a part of the specification, illustrate embodiments of the invention and together with the description serve to explain the principles of the invention. In the drawings: 
         FIG. 1  is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary system in accordance with the present invention; 
         FIG. 2  illustrates an exemplary embodiment of a media player user interface in accordance with the present invention; 
         FIG. 3  illustrates an exemplary embodiment of a media player user interface implementing recapping with descriptive information in accordance with the present invention; 
         FIG. 4  illustrates an exemplary system block diagram in accordance with the present invention; and 
         FIG. 5  illustrates an exemplary module block diagram in accordance with the present invention. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
     Reference will now be made in detail to embodiments, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings. In the following detailed description, numerous non-limiting specific details are set forth in order to assist in understanding the subject matter presented herein. It will be apparent, however, to one of ordinary skill in the art that various alternatives may be used without departing from the scope of the present invention and the subject matter may be practiced without these specific details. For example, it will be apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art that the subject matter presented herein can be implemented on any type of standalone system or client-server compatible system containing any type of client, network, server, and database elements. 
       FIG. 1  is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary system  1000  in accordance with the present invention. The exemplary system  1000  comprises a computer  1010 , and/or a television or other display device  1020  connected to a receiver or other media device  1021 , both of which may further be connected to a network  10  (e.g., Wide Area Network (WAN), Metropolitan Area Network (MAN), or Local Area Network (LAN)) over a wired (e.g., TCP/IP over Ethernet, IEEE 802.3) or wireless (e.g., WiFi (802.11), GSM, GPRS, W-CDMA, EDGE, or the like) communications protocol/layer. The network  10  may further be connected to one or more servers  1030  with access to one or more media storage devices (e.g., storage servers, databases, or the like). The servers  1030  may receive requests over the network  10  to retrieve and transmit one or more media files/broadcasts that may contain media content (e.g., movies/videos, live/recorded television (TV) programming, pictures, music, or the like). Alternatively, the computers  1010  and/or receivers or other media devices  1021  may load media files/broadcasts locally from storage (e.g., hard drive, flash drive, CD-ROM/RW, tape drive, solid state memory, or the like), or via a connection to one or more other computers or servers (e.g., remotely). The active content  1002  window of an exemplary media player may display the content of a media file/broadcast, with corresponding descriptive information  1004  by invoking a recapping feature. 
       FIG. 2  illustrates an exemplary embodiment of a media player user interface in accordance with the present invention. An exemplary instance of the media player user interface  2001  comprises an active content  2002  window and a subset of media navigation features  2003 . The subset of media navigation features  2003  includes a play button, a stop button, a pause button, a reverse play with acceleration button (e.g., rewind), and a forward play with acceleration button (e.g., fast forward). Not all of these elements of the exemplary instance of the media player user interface  2001  are necessarily required for its proper operation. 
       FIG. 3  illustrates an exemplary embodiment of a media player user interface implementing recapping with descriptive information in accordance with the present invention. An exemplary instance of the media player user interface  3001  comprises an active content  3002  window, a subset of media navigation features  3003 , and a descriptive information component  3004 . Not all of these elements of the exemplary instance of the media player user interface  3001  are necessarily required for its proper operation. 
     In some embodiments,  FIGS. 2-3  may incorporate other media navigation features that may include a back feature, a restart scene feature, a return to threshold feature, and/or a return to critical point feature. 
     In some embodiments, media files/broadcasts are loaded locally from storage or remotely and may subsequently be opened by a media player  1001 . The media player  1001  may be a standalone program running on the computer  1010  or the receiver or other media device  1021 . Alternatively, the media player  1001  may be executed within a browser or other program and may access media files/broadcasts stored locally or remotely. The contents of a loaded media file/broadcast being played by the media player  1001  may be displayed via the screen of the computer  1010  or the TV  1020  or other display device. The media player  1001  may play the contents of the media file/broadcast in sequence order from the first frame to the last frame and the user/viewer may enjoy the current content being played  1002 . 
     In some embodiments, the media player  1001  may play the media file/broadcast contents at a default speed (e.g., at a specific frame(s)/second(s) rate), which may depend on the type of media file/broadcast and/or the media file&#39;s/broadcast&#39;s contents. In addition, before, during, or after playing the contents of a media file/broadcast, the control functions and features of the media player  1001  may be used to accelerate the speed at which the content of an opened media file is played. The control functions and features of the media player  1001  may further be used to pause the playing of media file content, skip-over content of the media file, reverse-play content of the media file, and/or recap earlier media content. 
     In some embodiments, the media player  1001  may include a feature for recapping earlier media content according to a recapping control variable. The recapping control variable may be used by the feature for recapping earlier media content in order to determine which earlier media content to recap. The recapping control variable may comprise an earlier time in the media content, a threshold point in the media content, an earlier/specific scene in the media content, and/or a critical point in the media content (e.g., narration, theme, climax, ending). The exemplary media player  1001  also presents the played content  1002  and descriptive text (or other information) for the recapped content  1004  being played. 
     In some embodiments, the media player  2001  may set a value of a recapping control variable responsible for recapping earlier content of an opened media file. The value of the variable may be enforced by a module (e.g.,  FIG. 5 ;  5009 ) associated with the instance of the media player  2001 . The value may, for example, be set to recap earlier media content according to an earlier time of the media content, a threshold point in the media content, an earlier/specific scene in the media content, and/or a critical point in the media content (e.g., narration, theme, climax, ending). The value may be set by the initial instance of the media player  2001 , and/or the viewer/user. The value of the variable may be read by the module associated with the recapping earlier media content feature and media content may be recapped accordingly, upon activating/invoking a media navigation feature (e.g., the reverse play with acceleration button of the subset of media navigation features  2003 , or a back button). 
     In some embodiments, the value of the variable may be manipulated through the media player  2001  and changed from its original or current value. For example, the variable may be manipulated for recapping earlier media content according to time (e.g., ten seconds, one minute, 5 minutes, 20 minutes, 1 hour, or any other applicable time interval), or according to an earlier/specific scene, or according to any specification known to those skilled in the art. Alternatively, the value may be manipulated for recapping earlier media content according to a critical point, or according to a threshold point, or according t any specified point known to those skilled in the art. 
     In some embodiments, the recapping of earlier media content feature includes displaying descriptive information related to the recapped media content  3004 . For example, by activating/invoking a media navigation feature such as the back button or the reverse play with acceleration button of the subset of media navigation features  3003 , closed-captioning text, other descriptive text, an image, audio, or a combination of any of the foregoing may be displayed in the descriptive information  3004  component. Descriptive information may also be displayed via a pop-up window or other graphical user interface component (GUI) without departing from the scope of the present invention. The media player  3001  module (e.g.,  FIG. 5 ;  5009 ) for implementing the recapping of earlier media content feature may retrieve the corresponding descriptive information from a text file containing the respective information, along with timestamp, threshold, scene, critical point, or other hook for linking the point to which the media content is being recapped with the respective descriptive information. In the case of a media file/broadcast, where closed captioning may be available, the descriptive information may comprise closed captioning corresponding to the point to which the media content is being recapped. The closed captioning may be displayed via the active content window  3002  or the descriptive information  3004  component. 
       FIG. 4  illustrates an exemplary system block diagram in accordance with the present invention. The exemplary system  4000  for implementing an exemplary embodiment of the present invention comprises a computer processing unit (CPU)  4001 , memory  4002 , display device(s)  4003 , a network interface card (NIC)  4004 , auxiliary device(s)/component(s)  4005 , and local storage  4006 . These elements may communicate over one or more local buses. The CPU  4001  may fetch instructions to execute from memory  4002 , where the instructions may be from an operating system  4007  and, further, from a browser  4008  (with or without having an embedded media player) and/or media player  4009  (with or without being embedded in a browser) executing via the operating system  4007 . The media player  4009  may receive/fetch media files from local storage  4006  and/or over a network  10  using the NIC  4004  for communication with one or more servers  1030 . The media player  4009  may also be embedded within a browser  4008  and may access media files in local storage  4006  and/or over a network  10 . The display device(s)  4003  may be a laptop or computer display, TV screen, or other display capable of receiving display signals. The display signals may comprise, for example, one or more frames per second of video or other media content. The media content may be opened and played by the media player  4009 . Other auxiliary device(s)/component(s)  4005  may also receive or otherwise communicate via the local bus. For example, a portable media player, mobile telephone, or other auxiliary device may act as a source/sink of media files. The auxiliary device(s)/component(s)  4005  may also be additional display devices and/or media devices capable of supporting the execution of the media player. 
       FIG. 5  illustrates an exemplary module block diagram in accordance with the present invention. The exemplary modules  5000  for implementing an exemplary embodiment of the present invention comprise browser modules  5001 - 5004  and/or media player modules  5010 - 5012 . The browser modules  5001 - 5004  may comprise a communications module  5001 , an interpreter  5002  (e.g., HTML or script/mark-up language interpreter), browser components  5003  (e.g., navigation functions, add-in(s)/on(s), custom user options), and an embedded media player  5004 . The media player modules  5010 - 5012  may comprise feature components  5010 , a content reader  5011 , and a controller  5012 . The browser modules may be used to implement the browser-related features of the exemplary embodiments, while the media player modules may be used to implement the media player-related features of the exemplary embodiments. 
     In some embodiments, the communications module  5001  receives and transmits data over a network (e.g., network  10 ) through one or more ports (e.g., HTTP port  80 ); the interpreter  5002  may interpret scripts/mark-up languages and execute them in accordance with their instructions; the browser components  5003  may implement features such as those for navigating the Internet, supporting add-in(s)/on(s), implementing custom user options and executing in accordance with those options (e.g., permissions, home page preference, bookmarks, script preferences, history preferences, privacy preferences, web page preferences, and/or other Internet/user options); and, the embedded media player  5004  (which may, in some embodiments, be an add-in/on) may play media content in accordance with the present invention as described herein. 
     In some embodiments, the feature components  5010  may implement features such as media playlist management, media type conversion, media compression/decompression, media playlist/library synchronization, media ripping/burning from/to external storage mediums, media player options (e.g., window size, volume, media quality, play speed); the content reader  5011  may read and decode the contents of a media file, where the media file contents may be represented according to a specific file type and compressed; and, the controller  5012  may implement features for opening, navigating, controlling access to, and/or manipulating media files and/or their content. 
     It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications and variations can be made to the present invention without departing from the spirit or scope of the invention. Thus, it is intended that the present invention cover the modifications and variations of this invention provided they come within the scope of the appended claims and their equivalents.