Patent ID: 8364009

Claim:
A method for indicating program scenes, the method comprising: selecting a plurality of image frames from a program based upon a scene separation duration, wherein selecting the plurality of time sequenced image frames further comprises, for each of the image frames: evaluating at least one characteristic of a first one of the selected image frames, wherein the evaluated characteristic for selecting another image frame is based upon at least one selected from a group consisting of a text characteristic, an edge characteristic, a color palate characteristic, a voice characteristic, a recognized face characteristic, and a recognized object characteristic; and selecting another image frame in proximity to the first one of the selected image frames when the evaluated characteristic indicates that the first one of the selected image frames is unsuitable for generating a thumbnail-sized image; generating the thumbnail-sized image from each of the selected image frames; and presenting the plurality of thumbnail-sized images on a scene index, wherein the scene index is configured to present the plurality of thumbnail-sized images in a time ordered sequence corresponding to a subject matter presentation sequence of the program, and wherein each of the selected image frames are temporally separated from each other by the scene separation duration.