Patent ID: 8091103

Claim:
A method of linking content of a video signal to information sources, the method comprising: creating, at a server having a processor, an object directory having a plurality of object records, each object record containing: an identifier of a respective object selected from a plurality of objects; an image of said respective object; a description of said respective object; and a set of network addresses of servers providing further description of said respective object; storing said object directory in a memory device associated with said server; acquiring a plurality of video recordings and a plurality network addresses of sources of said video recordings; creating, at said server, a video-content directory having a plurality of overlay directories, each overlay directory corresponding to a respective video recording from among said plurality of video recordings, each said overlay directory containing: an identifier of a respective video recording; a set of identifiers of selected objects tracked in a display of said respective video recording; and coordinates of at least one tracked image of each said selected object; storing said video-content directory in said memory device;— receiving at said server a request from a computer for access to a specific video recording; and upon ascertaining that said specific video recording belongs to said plurality of video recordings, sending from said server to said computer: a network address, from among said plurality of network addresses, providing said specific video recording; a specific overlay directory, from among said plurality of overlay directories, corresponding to said specific video recording; sending, from a communication module of said server to each authoring computer, of a plurality of authoring computers, authoring instructions which cause said each authoring computer to: access a video-source directory, stored in said server, containing network addresses of a plurality of video sources, to obtain a network address of a selected video source; access said object directory; acquire a specific video recording from said selected video source; track specific product images belonging to said object directory and appearing in a display of said specific video recording to produce an overlay directory of said specific video recording; and transmit said overlay directory to said server; receiving said overlay directory from said each authoring computer at said communication module; and appending said overlay directory to said video-content directory.