Patent ID: 7603682

Claim:
A computer implemented method for determining an interest level in various portions of a video at a client device, the method comprising: retrieving a media stream by the client device, wherein the media stream comprises a plurality of frames; retrieving a composite rating counter by the client device, the composite rating counter comprising a plurality of interest levels, wherein each of the interest levels corresponds to one of the plurality of frames; viewing the media stream at the client device, at least one of several playback rates; responsive to viewing a frame of the plurality of frames at normal playback rate, increasing an interest level of the plurality of interest levels associated with the frame by a normal amount; responsive to viewing the frame at a faster-than-normal playback rate, increasing an associated rating counter by a decreased amount; responsive to receiving a user selection of the frame indicating an increased interest level in the frame, increasing the associated rating counter by an increased amount; responsive to receiving a user selection of the frame indicating an decreased interest level in the frame, decreasing the associated rating counter by an increased amount; responsive to a user resizing a window to a size larger than a default window size to view the frame, increasing the interest level by a proportional amount; responsive to the user resizing a window to a size smaller than the default window size to view the frame, decreasing the interest level by the proportional amount, wherein the proportional amount is represented by the equation X′=W rs *X, wherein X is the increase of individual interest level calculated using the playback rate for the corresponding frame of media stream, X′ is the increase of individual interest level adjusted using the window size, and W rs is the relative size of the resized window as compared to the default updating the composite rating counter based on a current count of the interest level; storing the composite rating counter.