Patent ID: 7480864

Claim:
A method of processing a set of media items, said method comprising the steps of: (a) selecting a sub-set of said media items; (b) concurrently displaying (i) a spatial representation of the selected sub-set and (ii) a temporal representation of the selected sub-set; (c) selecting one of a temporal navigation mode and a spatial navigation mode; (d) providing a spatial navigation command, if the spatial navigation mode has been selected, to the spatial representation to thereby modify the selection of the sub-set of said media items, to thereby contemporaneously change the spatial representation and the corresponding temporal representation; and (e) providing a temporal navigation command, if the temporal navigation mode has been selected, to the temporal representation to thereby modify the selection of the sub-set of said media items, to thereby contemporaneously change the temporal representation and the corresponding spatial representation, wherein the selected sub-set includes at least one of wholly encompassed media items and partially encompassed media items from the set; the displayed spatial representation of the selected sub-set can include, dependent on spatial selection rules, at least one of representations of said wholly encompassed media items, and spatial representations of said partially encompassed media items; and the displayed temporal representation of the selected sub-set can include, dependent on temporal selection rules, at least one of a temporal representation of said wholly encompassed media items, and a temporal representation of said partially encompassed media items, the method further comprising, in relation to said partially encompassed media items, the steps of: determining whether a pixel area of the partially encompassed media items captured by the selecting step exceeds a pixel threshold; and if the pixel area exceeds the pixel threshold; displaying, depending upon the pixel area captured by the selecting step, a part of the partially encompassed media items in the spatial representation of the selected sub-set; and displaying, depending upon the pixel area captured by the selecting step, time segments of the partially encompassed media items in the temporal representation of the selected sub-set.