2225results about "Metadata multimedia retrieval" patented technology

A portable wireless communications subscriber audio and/or video player apparatus and system and method for selecting, requesting, downloading, and playing audio and/or video data content files from an Internet-based database server. The wireless link is preferably implemented in accordance with the WiFi protocol, which allows connectivity to the Internet by being in proximity with a local base station or WiFi hotspot (i.e., publicly available local wireless access hub connected to the Internet). The portable wireless communications subscriber audio and/or video player apparatus and system preferably include a security means for monitoring and blocking unauthorized use of the player apparatus and system. The player apparatus further preferably has the capability to communicate with other neighboring player apparatus for the purpose of exchanging content data files, playlists and personal messages.

In one embodiment, the invention is a method and apparatus for annotating media streams. One embodiment of a method for facilitating creation of an annotated media stream by a user includes receiving the media stream from the user, mapping at least one item of supplemental content to at least a portion of the media stream to produce the annotated media stream, and storing the annotated media stream. In another embodiment, a method for distributing an annotated media stream provided by a user includes receiving the annotated media stream from the user, where the annotated media stream includes at least one item of supplemental content mapped to at least a portion of a media stream to produce the annotated media stream, storing the annotated media stream, receiving a request from a viewer to view the annotated media stream, and distributing the annotated media stream to the viewer. In another embodiment, a method for distributing an annotated media stream provided by a user includes distributing the annotated media stream to a viewer, where the annotated media stream includes at least one item of supplemental content mapped to at least a portion of a media stream to produce the annotated media stream, and collecting a commission when the annotated media stream is viewed by the viewer. In one embodiment, the collecting requires further action on a part of the viewer (such as selection of a hyperlink contained in the at least one item of supplemental content or consummation of a commercial transaction).

A method of generating an object oriented interactive multimedia file, including encoding data comprising at least one of video, text, audio, music and/or graphics elements as a video packet stream, text packet stream, audio packet stream, music packet stream and/or graphics packet stream respectively, combining the packet streams into a single self-contained object, said object containing its own control information, placing a plurality of the objects in a data stream, and grouping one or more of the data streams in a single contiguous self-contained scene, the scene including format definition as the initial packet in a sequence of packets. An encoder for executing the method is provided together with a player or decoder for parsing and decoding the file, which can be wirelessly streamed to a portable computer device, such as a mobile phone or a PDA. The object controls provide rendering and interactive controls for objects allowing users to control dynamic media composition, such as dictating the shape and content of interleaved video objects, and control the objects received.

In embodiments, the present invention provides a method and system for delivery of content on a mobile media platform, providing an automated tag processing facility, and delivering content to a mobile device, wherein content delivery is based at least in part on the automated tag processing.

The present invention relates to systems and/or methods that generate playlist(s) for a library or collection of media items via selecting a plurality of seed items, at least one of which is an undesirable seed item. Some of the seed items are desirable indicating that a user prefers additional media items similar to the desirable seed items and others are undesirable indicating that the user prefers additional media items dissimilar to the undesirable seed items. Additionally, the seed items can be weighted to establish a relative importance of the seed items. The invention compares media items in the collection with the seed items and determines which media items are added into the playlist by computation of similarity metrics or values. The playlist can be regenerated by adding desirable seed items to the playlist and removing media items from the playlist (e.g., undesirable seed items).

The content metadata directory system connects consumers of identified content to managed metadata databases and other digital resources. The system manages links between identifiers in content objects and metadata sources. It supports a variety of different type of content identifiers and allows for overlap among different content identification schemes. One method of associating a content object with metadata uses a combination of a content identifier and a bounding identifier to enable handling of disparate sets of content identifiers for content objects with potentially conflicting content identifiers. The method receives a content identifier for a content object from among a set of content identifiers and provides a unique bounding identifier for the set of content identifiers. This unique bounding identifier is used in combination with the content identifier to form a globally unique identifier for the content object. This globally unique identifier is associated with a metadata source, which enables routing of a user to the metadata source.

Systems and methods for generating and playing a sequence of media objects based on a mood gradient are also disclosed. A mood gradient is a sequence of items, in which each item is media object having known characteristics or a representative set of characteristics of a media object, that is created or used by a user for a specific purpose. Given a mood gradient, one or more new media objects are selected for each item in the mood gradient based on the characteristics associated with that item. In this way, a sequence of new media objects is created but the sequence exhibits a similar variation in media object characteristics. The mood gradient may be presented to a user or created via a display illustrating a three-dimensional space in which each dimension corresponds to a different characteristic. The mood gradient may be represented as a path through the three-dimensional space and icons representing media objects are located within the three-dimensional space based on their characteristics.

A network system includes a client computer that can present multimedia content to a user and an annotation server that can transmit, to the client computer, annotations for the multimedia content. Users can be presented with annotations generated by other users and can create their own annotations that can be viewed by others. Users can be notified of new annotations by an electronic mail (email) message, can create new annotations by email messages, and can easily access a temporal segment of multimedia content corresponding to a new annotation based on information in email messages.

A media organizer and entertainment center includes an importer for importing individual media/data selections and automatically assigning each selection at least one associated category flag pursuant to predetermined or user defined criteria. The center also includes a storage device for storing compressed data corresponding to the plurality of individual media/data selections and the associated category flags and a retriever for retrieving selections from the storage device based upon user selection of one or more of the associated category flags, and a data decompresser that translates the compressed data into playable digital or audio media data. With the center, playable digital or audio media data can be advantageously transported, organized, played or recorded through or on a variety of products or devices.

A media indexer method, a media indexer, and/or a media indexer computer useable medium. The media indexer includes a central processor and a memory carrying thereon media indexer software which carries out steps including receiving a media signal, identifying keyframes of the media signal, establishing metadata for each identified keyframe, tagging each identified keyframe with metadata established for the associated keyframe, and outputting the media signal in a form unchanged from the received media signal, and/or a form including identified keyframes of the received media signal, each identified keyframe including a representative media keyframe event with metadata associated with the corresponding media keyframe event. The media indexer can generate parallel index signals that are synchronized to the time rate of the received media signal, and can input and output data using standard compatible file formats for file sharing and data manipulations with other compatible files and software.

A reference to auxiliary data is steganographically encoded within a media signal. The auxiliary data is stored in a metadata database that maps the reference encoded in the media signal to its corresponding metadata. Various application programs and devices can access the metadata by extracting the reference from the media signal, and querying the database for metadata corresponding to the reference. The metadata database may be implemented in a network server to make metadata readily available to devices and applications distributed throughout a network. This steganographic link to metadata may be used to retrieve metadata across media management systems. In one configuration, for example, media management systems have metadata servers that maintain metadata for a collection of media signals. The metadata server is responsible for responding to requests for metadata associated with media titles in its collection. In the event that a metadata server does not have metadata associated with a particular media title, it forwards the reference extracted from the media signal to a metadata router, which in turn, re-directs the request to the appropriate metadata server.

User interfaces for browsing and/or searching are described. In one embodiment, a method includes displaying a first display area for display representations of documents matching a search query, the first display area configured to display content of the documents which can have a plurality of different types of content including at least one of text-based content and a folder, and displaying a second display area for selecting a selected document to be displayed in the first display area. Other embodiments are also described, and computer readable media and apparatuses are also described.

A computerized method and apparatus is disclosed for merging content segments from a number of discrete media content (e.g., audio/video podcasts) in preparation for playback. The method and apparatus obtain metadata corresponding to a plurality of discrete media content. The metadata identifies the content segments and their corresponding timing information, such that the metadata of at least one of the plurality of discrete media content is derived using one or more media processing techniques. A number of the content segments are selected to be merged for playback using the timing information from the metadata. The merged media content can be implemented as a playlist identifying the content segments to be merged for playback. The merged media content can also be generated by extracting the content segments to be merged for playback from each of the media files/streams and then merging the extracted segments into one or more merged media files/streams.

Steps after a user finds an attractive product until he or she buys it are successively performed so that he or she can buy it stressfreely. The user photographs an attractive product with a portable camera telephone terminal 1 and transmits image data 7 to a server 3 through Internet 2. The server 3 has a DB 4 in which images such as various types of products, persons, and logo marks are registered and a DB 5 in which related information of image data registered in the DB 4 is registered. The server 3 performs an image recognizing process for the image data 7, retrieves data that match the image data 7 with a high match rate from the image data registered in the DB 4, and extracts corresponding related information from the DB 5. The related information is provided to the user through the Internet 2. By only transmitting the image data 7, the user can obtain related information of an attractive product. When the user accesses a site 6 for the product corresponding to the related information, he or she can obtain detailed information and buy the product.

An information-processing apparatus is connectable to a reproduction apparatus and includes: storage sections each for storing contents and for storing a host database having attributes of each of the contents stored in the content storage section; a section for identifying contents stored in the reproduction apparatus; a section for extracting the attributes of each of the identified contents from the host database; a section for creating plural tables provided with different types and each put in a layer structure having the titles of the identified contents as a lowest-level layer and the name of each group having some of the identified contents as a high-level layer based on the extracted attributes; and a section for transferring the created tables including at least a first table showing titles arranged in accordance with a first rule as the titles of the identified contents and a second table showing titles, which are arranged in accordance with a second rule as the titles of the identified contents, for the name of every group including some of the identified contents.

A method for forming a composite multimedia product pertaining to a digital image captured of a scene. The method includes sharing the digital image with a remote user, and facilitating a conversation with the remote user across a communication network. A portion of the conversation that is relevant to the shared digital image is automatically extracted and combined with the digital image to form the composite multimedia product.

A method and system are described for providing a streamlined method for using, for example, streaming media samples to promote and sell music, videos and related merchandise on the Internet in response to searches for entertainment related information. When a consumer enters an Internet search query that includes a Media Keyword, a corresponding media sample or sample set is identified for the consumer to select to receive as a stream or download onto the Consumer Device, along with search results pertaining to the requested information and purchasing options. The media sample or sample set is provided as a link in a web page containing search results generated for the consumer. The media sample link may be indicated on the web page as a preferred, personalized or sponsored search result.

A method and system for searching multimedia files from multimedia content sites on the internet and downloading search result to mobile devices. The system and method includes a crawling server for indexing multimedia items, a search server, a data storage server, a download server and a wireless messaging server in data communication with the internet and in wireless communication with SS7 wireless networks, and a wireless mobile device having circuitry for establishing data communications with the wireless application protocol network and a display for displaying information generated by the search server. The methods further include crawling the Internet to index multimedia items; enabling search from both desktop PC and mobile devices to find desired multimedia items; providing options to send search result to mobile devices; downloading search result directly on a mobile device; detecting downloading method from downloading request; delivering notification message to mobile device and invoking the link on the mobile device to initiate download; creating file descriptor for downloading; and downloading the multimedia item to mobile devices.

An exemplary method for identifying media may include receiving user input associated with a request for media, where that user input includes unstructured natural language speech including one or more words; identifying at least one context associated with the user input; causing a search for the media based on the at least one context and the user input; determining, based on the at least one context and the user input, at least one media item that satisfies the request; and in accordance with a determination that the at least one media item satisfies the request, obtaining the at least one media item.

A system and method for searching content. The method comprises receiving from a first user metadata relating to generating a guide for content. A guide is generated relating to the content. The guide facilitates navigation of the content on a device. The metadata is forwarded to a metadata analyzer where the metadata is processed to produce processed metadata. The processed metadata is forwarded to an index server. An index is generated for the content based on the metadata at the index server. A query is received from a second user, the index is searched and a result is forwarded to the second user in response to the query. The result includes at least a uniform resource identifier relating to at least some of content. The second user may add additional metadata relating to the content.