Patent ID: 7631326

Claim:
A method for outputting one or more supplemental media streams designed to assist sense impaired people in conjunction with a main media stream, comprising: outputting a main media stream on a display device; repeatedly monitoring for and detecting triggering events while outputting the main media stream; and upon detecting a triggering event: determining which of the one or more supplemental media streams are associated with the triggering event; determining for each associated supplemental media stream whether each associated supplemental media stream is to be output synchronously or asynchronously with the main media stream, wherein the determination whether to output each associated supplemental media stream synchronously or asynchronously is made automatically without user intervention based on information provided in either the triggering event or each supplemental media stream; and iteratively outputting each associated supplemental media stream either synchronously or asynchronously with the main media stream according to the results of the previous determinations such that upon determining that a supplemental media stream is to be output asynchronously with the main media stream, the output of the main media stream is automatically suspended without user intervention while the supplemental media stream is output on the display device.