The invention relates to multimedia applications. The invention also relates to method and apparatus for producing a packaged presentation.
Today, many consumers use DVD authoring tools to prepare DVD presentations and to burn these presentations on DVD's, which they can then distribute. An important feature of DVD presentations is the creation of menus and sub-menus that contain scene selections. The creation of such menus and sub-menus is often time consuming. For instance, to create scene selections, the user typically manually specifies one or more sub-menus for the scene selections, and then manually associates each scene selection link in the specified menus to a video clip. Therefore, there is a need in the art for an application that automatically produces menus and specifies scene selections for DVD's. More generally, there is a need for a method that can take marked-up multi-image content from an editing application and produce portions of a marked-up packaged presentation on a DVD.
Some embodiments of the invention provide a computerized method for creating a scene selection from a marker for a multi-image content. The method allows identification of a multi-image content. The multi-image content includes several markers. Each marker represents an image of the multi-image content. The markers are identified to generate several scenes. Each generated scene is referenced to its corresponding marker from which it is identified.
The novel features of the invention are set forth in the appended claims. However, for purpose of explanation, several embodiments of the invention are set forth in the following figures.
In the following description, numerous details are set forth for purpose of explanation. However, one of ordinary skill in the art will realize that the invention may be practiced without the use of these specific details. In other instances, well-known structures and devices are shown in block diagram form in order not to obscure the description of the invention with unnecessary detail.
As shown in
From the received markers and the received multi-image content, the packaging application 105 automatically generates a packaged multi-image presentation. This presentation includes at least a set of references that are derived from at least some of the received markers. Each reference in the presentation identifies an image in the packaged multi-image presentation that the application 105 generates. In some embodiments, the packaging application 105 includes a set of one or more menus, and the references to the images are items in at least one of the menus. Also, in some embodiments, the packaging application 105 allows the user to record the packaged presentation on distributable media.
Several embodiments of the invention are described below for the case where the packaging application 105 is a DVD authoring application, and the editing/creating application 110 is a video editing application. The discussion below first describes the video editing application, its output, and the markers that it uses. The discussion then focuses on the use of the output and markers in the DVD authoring application.
Above the clip window is a timeline 220 and a time marker 225. When the clip is playing, the time marker 225 moves along the timeline 220 to specify the portion of the clip that is playing at each instance in time. A user can also drag the time marker 225 to a particular time on the timeline 220 to see the frame at that time and/or to play the video clip starting at that particular time.
The application 200 also includes buttons 235 and 240 to create frame markers, which in this application are referred to as chapter markers. A user can create several chapter markers for the video clip. As further illustrated below, each marker is a link to a frame of the video clip. Accordingly, the markers allow the user to jump to a desired frame in the video clip.
To add a chapter marker, the user typically clicks and drags the time marker 225 along the timeline 220. Frames of the video clip are displayed on display 205 as the time marker is dragged. When a user reaches a frame that the user desires to be chapter marked, the user stops dragging the time marker 225 and selects the add chapter button 235. A chapter marker icon appears behind the stopped time marker 225 and at the location where the user stopped the time marker 225. Each marker icon is a reference to a frame appearing at the instance in time the marker icon specifies on the timeline 220.
Once a marker is added, the application also illustrates the marker in a marker window 230. Accordingly, in the example illustrated in
Each time a user clicks on a marker's icon in the timeline 220 or the marker's link in the window 230, the application displays in the display window 205 the frame associated with the marker. In
Once the user is finished creating and editing the video clip, the user can launch a DVD application to package the created video clip into a DVD presentation that the user might then burn onto a DVD. To launch the DVD application, the user can click on a DVD launch button 265. When launching the DVD application, the editing application 200 supplies the DVD application with the video clip 215, a list of the marker's specified for this clip, and the clip's title.
Once launched, the DVD application then generates one or more menus or sub-menus.
As shown in
As shown in
The sub-menu in
As shown in
After 705, the process then determines whether the marker list includes at least one marker. In the embodiment illustrated in
If the process determines (at 710) that the received list does not include at least one marker, the process specifies (at 715) the title of the first scene-selection sub-menu as “Scene 1” and then terminates. Otherwise, the process sets (at 720) a variable Current_Page to 1 and sets a variable N to 2. The variable Current_Page represents a page of the scene-selection sub-menu, while the variable N corresponds to the scene selection number.
The marker's in the received marker list are sorted based on the order that they appear in the video clip. In other words, the first marker on the list is the first marker in the clip, the second marker on the list is the second marker in the clip, and so on. After 720, the process selects (at 725) the top most marker on the list that it has not yet examined. On the sub-menu Current_Page, it then defines (at 730) the Nth scene-selection button. It names this button with the name of the marker that was last selected at 725. It also links this button with the frame identified by the frame reference of the marker that was last selected at 725.
Next, the process determines (at 735) whether it has examined all the markers on the received marker list. If so, the process (at 740) specifies the title on the sub-menu Current_Page. This title is based on the value of the variable N. For instance, the title of the sub-menu Current_Page (1) N is not equal to 7, 13, 19, 25, or 31, is “Scenes S to N”, where S is (Current_Page-1)*6+1, or (2) when N equals 7, 13, 19, 25, or 31, is “Scene N”. After 740, the process terminates.
When the process determines (at 735) that it has not examined all the markers on the received marker list, the process determines (at 745) whether N mod 6 equals 0. If not, the process increments (at 750) N by 1, and returns to 725, which was described above. Otherwise, the process specifies (at 755) as “Scenes S to N”, where S is (Current_Page-1)*6+1. After 755, the process determines (at 760) whether Current_Page mod 6 is zero. If not, the process defines (at 765) a new sub-menu page. It defines a back arrow in the new sub-menu page, and links this back arrow to the sub-menu Current_Page. It defines a forward arrow in the sub-menu Current_Page and links it to the newly specified sub-menu page. In the newly specified sub-menu page, the process might also specify a button that links to the main menu page. At 765, the process then increments the Current_Page by 1. After 765, the process transitions to 725, which was described above. When the process determines (at 760) that the Current_Page mod 6 is zero, it terminates.
The bus 905 collectively represents all system, peripheral, and chipset buses that communicatively connect the numerous internal devices of the computer system 900. For instance, the bus 905 communicatively connects the processor 910 with the read-only memory 920, the system memory 915, and the permanent storage device 925.
From these various memory units, the processor 910 retrieves instructions to execute and data to process in order to execute the processes of the invention. The read-only-memory (ROM) 920 stores static data and instructions that are needed by the processor 910 and other modules of the computer system.
The permanent storage device 925, on the other hand, is read-and-write memory device. This device is a non-volatile memory unit that stores instruction and data even when the computer system 900 is off. Some embodiments of the invention use a mass-storage device (such as a magnetic or optical disk and its corresponding disk drive) as the permanent storage device 925.
Other embodiments use a removable storage device (such as a floppy disk or Zip® disk, and its corresponding disk drive) as the permanent storage device. Like the permanent storage device 925, the system memory 915 is a read-and-write memory device. However, unlike storage device 925, the system memory is a volatile read-and-write memory, such as a random access memory. The system memory stores some of the instructions and data that the processor needs at runtime. In some embodiments, the invention's processes are stored in the system memory 915, the permanent storage device 925, and/or the read-only memory 920.
The bus 905 also connects to the input and output devices 930 and 935. The input devices enable the user to communicate information and select commands to the computer system. The input devices 930 include alphanumeric keyboards and cursor-controllers. The output devices 935 display images generated by the computer system. For instance, these devices display IC design layouts. The output devices include printers and display devices, such as cathode ray tubes (CRT) or liquid crystal displays (LCD).
Finally, as shown in
While the invention has been described with reference to numerous specific details, one of ordinary skill in the art will recognize that the invention can be embodied in other specific forms without departing from the spirit of the invention. Thus, one of ordinary skill in the art would understand that the invention is not to be limited by the foregoing illustrative details, but rather is to be defined by the appended claims.
Number | Name | Date | Kind |
---|---|---|---|
5519828 | Rayner | May 1996 | A |
5737552 | Lavallee et al. | Apr 1998 | A |
5752029 | Wissner | May 1998 | A |
5778108 | Coleman, Jr. | Jul 1998 | A |
5956026 | Ratakonda | Sep 1999 | A |
5995095 | Ratakonda | Nov 1999 | A |
6064438 | Miller | May 2000 | A |
6111562 | Downs et al. | Aug 2000 | A |
6230172 | Purnaveja et al. | May 2001 | B1 |
6307550 | Chen et al. | Oct 2001 | B1 |
6453459 | Brodersen et al. | Sep 2002 | B1 |
6714216 | Abe | Mar 2004 | B2 |
6760042 | Zetts | Jul 2004 | B2 |
6912327 | Hori et al. | Jun 2005 | B1 |
6954894 | Balnaves et al. | Oct 2005 | B1 |
6988244 | Honda et al. | Jan 2006 | B1 |
7030872 | Tazaki | Apr 2006 | B2 |
7124366 | Foreman et al. | Oct 2006 | B2 |
7127149 | Lin | Oct 2006 | B1 |
7165219 | Peters et al. | Jan 2007 | B1 |
7200836 | Brodersen et al. | Apr 2007 | B2 |
20020019833 | Hanamoto | Feb 2002 | A1 |
20020167540 | Dobbelaar | Nov 2002 | A1 |
20020180803 | Kaplan et al. | Dec 2002 | A1 |
20020194195 | Fenton et al. | Dec 2002 | A1 |
20020198909 | Huynh et al. | Dec 2002 | A1 |
20030016240 | Hanes | Jan 2003 | A1 |
20030090507 | Randall et al. | May 2003 | A1 |
20030189588 | Girgensohn et al. | Oct 2003 | A1 |
20030193520 | Oetzel | Oct 2003 | A1 |
20030210261 | Wu et al. | Nov 2003 | A1 |
20040017390 | Knowlton et al. | Jan 2004 | A1 |
20040021684 | Millner | Feb 2004 | A1 |
20040085340 | Dimitrova et al. | May 2004 | A1 |
20040125124 | Kim et al. | Jul 2004 | A1 |
20040125129 | Marsh | Jul 2004 | A1 |
20040125133 | Pea et al. | Jul 2004 | A1 |
20040201610 | Rosen et al. | Oct 2004 | A1 |
20040221227 | Wu | Nov 2004 | A1 |