Patent Document ID: 5535063
Application ID: 08378914

Base Claim:
1. A system for providing random access to a data set, preferably an audio and/or video data set, comprising: means, including a user interface, for capturing of said indicia hand generated by a user during a serial rendition of said data set so that each indicium is time correlated with a respective part of said data set, such indicia being available for subsequent selection by a user; and means for indexing into said data set to identify the part thereof that is time correlated with any indicium a user selects from said indicia; said system being characterized by including. means for automatically time-stamping each indicium upon its generation by the user, and means for automatically time-stamping the part of said data set with which said indicium is time correlated substantially concurrently with the time-stamping of said indicium, with all such time-stamping being referenced to a common time base; means for automatically storing, retrieving and displaying said user-generated indicia; and means for determining the time-stamp of each user-selected indicium for use by said indexing means; said user interface being adapted for electronically both capturing and displaying said user generated indicia.

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Claim 2:
2. The system according to claim 1, wherein said indexing means includes means for identifying the part of the data set having the same time-stamp as that determined by the determining means.