Patent Application
20100088642
Embodiments of the present invention relate to the field of electronics. More particularly, embodiments of the present invention relate to a graphical user interface operable on a television set.
Recently more functionality has been integrated within television sets. For example, some television sets are operable to provide Internet access and surfing capabilities in addition to television capability to show television broadcasting. Television sets may also provide various capabilities for creating and editing multimedia files, e.g., editing slideshows, editing a video clip, etc.
Unfortunately, television sets heretofore have generally poor graphical user interface (GUI) tools and are therefore not user friendly for editing or creating multimedia files. For example, while a television set may provide capabilities to create or edit a multimedia file, it is often difficult for the viewer to navigate through menus due to lacking GUI capability. As such, television sets generally do not allow much flexibility in creating or editing multimedia files.
Moreover, television sets currently do not facilitate a preview of the content as the multimedia file is being edited or created. In other words, a user cannot view the changes as they occur without manually exiting the edit mode. Requiring users to exit the edit mode in order to view their changes is not only time consuming and laborious but it is also inconvenient. It is especially inconvenient for a user to exit the edit mode each time that the user wishes to make a change and view the change, in particular when there are many incremental changes to be made.
Accordingly, a need has arisen to provide an improved graphical user interface (GUI) operable for a television set; the GUI being user friendly and well suited for editing and creating multimedia files. More specifically, a need has arisen to provide a GUI for a television set to enable a user to visually create and edit multimedia files in a non-personal computer (PC) like fashion. Moreover, it is advantageous to provide a preview window in edit mode such that changes to the multimedia files can be previewed simultaneously as the changes occur. Thus, a user can view the changes in a preview window as they occur without the need to exit the edit mode. It will become apparent to those skilled in the art in view of the detailed description of the present invention that the embodiments of the present invention remedy the above mentioned needs and provide the above referenced advantages.
In one embodiment of the present invention, a non-PC like GUI for creating and editing a multimedia file is provided for operation on a television set. The GUI according to one embodiment comprises a plurality of selectable media categories, e.g., a photo album, a music album, a text category, an animation category, etc. At least one of the selectable media categories contains a selectable media item, e.g., a music file, a picture, a word document, etc. It is appreciated that at least one selectable non-media category may be also provided. For example, a setting category for adjusting the setting and adjusting the display effect of a multimedia file may be provided.
The GUI may further include a workspace on-screen display window that is divided into sections where each section corresponds to a selectable category, e.g., audio category, visual category, setting category, etc. A graphical representation of a selectable media item may be displayed in its corresponding section in the workspace window when a user selects the selectable media item. As soon as the user makes the selection of the selectable media item, the content is previewed in a preview window of the GUI. As a result, changes to a multimedia file can be previewed simultaneously as they occur, thereby eliminating the need to exit the edit mode in order to view the changes to the content of the multimedia file.
More specifically, an embodiment of the present invention pertains to a GUI rendered on a television display. The GUI includes a plurality of selectable media categories, wherein the plurality of selectable media categories includes at least one selectable media item. The plurality of selectable media categories may include a photo media category and a music media category.
The GUI further includes a workspace on-screen display window comprising sections, wherein at least one of the sections is associated with at least one of the plurality of selectable media categories, and wherein the workspace window responsive to a user selecting a media item renders a graphical representation of the user selected media item in its corresponding section. Moreover, the GUI includes a preview window, wherein the preview window graphically displays a content of the user selected media item while the workspace window renders the graphical representation of the user selected media item, wherein the preview occurs automatically and immediately after the user selected media item.
According to one embodiment, the GUI may further include expanded media items associated with a selectable media category, wherein the expanded media items are user selectable, and wherein the expanded media items are displayed responsive to a user selecting the selectable media category. In one embodiment, the expanded media items are graphically collapsed responsive to a user selection.
It is appreciated that the GUI may further include additional functionalities. For example, the GUI may include a transport control operable to control display of the content of the user selected media item in the preview window. In one exemplary embodiment, the transport control is selected from a group consisting play, pause, stop, rewind and fast forward operations. In one embodiment, the GUI includes a selectable effect category including at least one selectable effect item operable to configure transition and representation of the content of the user selected media item in said preview window.
Embodiments of the present invention are illustrated by way of example, and not by way of limitation, in the figures of the accompanying drawings and in which like reference numerals refer to similar elements and in which:
Reference will now be made in detail to embodiments of the present invention, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings. While the invention will be described in conjunction with these embodiments, it will be understood that they are not intended to limit the invention to these embodiments. On the contrary, the invention is intended to cover alternatives, modifications and equivalents, which may be included within the spirit and scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims. Furthermore, in the following detailed description of the present invention, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the present invention. However, it will be evident to one of ordinary skill in the art that the present invention may be practiced without these specific details. In other instances, well known methods, procedures, components, and circuits have not been described in detail as not to unnecessarily obscure aspects of the invention.
Some portions of the detailed descriptions which follow are presented in terms of procedures, steps, logic blocks, processing, and other symbolic representations of operations on data bits that can be performed on television set memory. These descriptions and representations are the means used by those skilled in the art to most effectively convey the substance of their work to others skilled in the art. A procedure, television set executed step, logic block, process, etc., is here, and generally, conceived to be a self-consistent sequence of steps or instructions leading to a desired result. The steps are those requiring physical manipulations of physical quantities.
Usually, though not necessarily, these quantities take the form of electrical or magnetic signals capable of being stored, transferred, combined, compared, and otherwise manipulated in a computer system. It has proven convenient at times, principally for reasons of common usage, to refer to these signals as bits, values, elements, symbols, characters, terms, numbers, or the like.
It should be borne in mind, however, that all of these and similar terms are to be associated with the appropriate physical quantities and are merely convenient labels applied to these quantities. Unless specifically stated otherwise as apparent from the following discussions, it is appreciated that throughout the present invention, discussions utilizing terms such as “processing” or “creating” or “transferring” or “executing” or “determining” or “instructing” or “issuing” or “halting” or “clearing” or “accessing” or “aggregating” or “obtaining” or “selecting” or “calculating” or “measuring” or “querying” or “receiving” or “sending” or “providing” or “storing” or “displaying” or “rendering” or “expanding” or “collapsing” or the like, refer to the action and processes of a television set, or similar electronic computing device, that manipulates and transforms data represented as physical (electronic) quantities within the television set's registers and memories into other data similarly represented as physical quantities within the television set memories or registers or other such information storage, transmission or display devices.
A Television Set Enabled Player with a Preview Window
Referring now to
The GUI 110 includes a plurality of selectable categories 120. The GUI 110 may further include an on-screen workspace window 130 and an on-screen preview window 140. The remote control 150 may be used to navigate through a menu and to make a selection of various selectable categories 120 and the items therein. For example, the user may use the arrow buttons on the remote control 150 to navigate through the selectable items, categories, etc., in order to select the desired item and/or category. It is appreciated that the remote control 150 may be infrared (IR) and/or radio frequency (RF) enabled, etc. A graphical representation of the selected media items may be displayed on-screen in the workspace window 130 while their corresponding content are automatically being rendered in the preview window 140. Thus, a user may view the changes in the preview window 140 as they occur without a need to exit the edit mode.
The plurality of selectable categories 120 may include multimedia categories such as photos 121, music 122, text 124 and animation 125. The photos 121 category may include various photo albums and pictures. The music 122 category may include various tunes and music including albums and songs. The text 124 category may include textual based information. The animation 125 category may include various animations. It is appreciated that each selectable category may further include additional selectable categories. For example, the music 122 category may contain various selectable albums, e.g., Beatles, 50 Cent, etc., where each album contains various songs and music.
The plurality of selectable categories 120 may also include at least one non-multimedia category such as effect category 123. The effect 123 category may configure the transition and representation of the content of the multimedia file. The effect 123 category may include wipe, collage, fade, maze and the speed by which content is being transitioned, e.g., the transition speed from one slide to the next.
In one embodiment, the workspace window 130 may be divided into a plurality of on-screen regions or sections, e.g., non-audio content 132, audio content 134 and settings 136. It is appreciated that the GUI may contain any number of sections even though only three sections are shown. As such, three sections within the workspace window 130 are merely exemplary and this illustration is not intended to limit the scope of the present invention.
Each section may correspond to at least one selectable category that may be a multimedia category or non-multimedia category. For example, media items from the selectable multimedia categories, e.g., photos 121, text 124 and animation 125, may correspond to the non-audio content 132 section. As such, graphical representations of non-audio multimedia items, e.g., photo, animation, etc., are displayed in the non-audio content 132 section when a user selects a multimedia item from the photo 121, text 124 and/or the animation 125 category.
Similarly, the audio content 134 section may correspond to the music 122 category. Thus, items selected from the music 122 category may be graphically represented in the audio content 134 section. According to one embodiment, the settings 136 section may correspond to the effect 123 category. Thus, the effect items selected from the effect 123 category may be graphically rendered in the settings 136 section.
It is appreciated that when an item, e.g., a media item, is selected by a user via the remote control 150, the graphical representation of the selected media item is displayed in its corresponding section of the workspace window 130. In conjunction with displaying the graphical representation of the selected media item in the workspace window 130, the content of the selected media item is rendered in the preview window 140. For example, if the selected media item is a music file, the graphical representation of the music file is displayed in the audio content 134 section while the content, e.g., the music file itself, is automatically rendered in the preview window 140, which plays the selected music file. Similarly, if the media item is a photograph, the graphical representation of the photograph is displayed in the non-audio content 132 section of the workspace 130 window while the content, e.g., the photograph itself, is automatically rendered in the preview window 140.
As a result, the user may preview the changes to the multimedia file as they occur, thereby eliminating the need to exit the edit mode to view the changes. Moreover, the GUI 110 is user friendly and intuitive since the selected items, e.g., media items, and the selectable categories are graphically represented in their corresponding sections and their content is previewed in the preview window.
Referring now to
Referring now to
The user may select multimedia items from the graphically expanded multimedia items. For example, the user may select pic 222 multimedia item. Selecting a multimedia item causes the graphical representation of the selected item to be displayed in the appropriate section within the workspace window 130. For example, selection of the pic 222, if a non-audio content, may cause the graphical representation of pic 222 to be displayed in the non-audio content 132 section of the work space 130, as shown in
It is appreciated that additional multimedia items may be selected in a similar manner. For example, a music item, e.g., a song, within the music 122 category may be similarly selected. The selection of the music item causes the graphical representation of the music item to be displayed in the audio content 134 section of the workspace window 130. The rendition of the graphical representation of the music item in the audio content 134 section of the workspace 130 occurs at the same time that the content of the music item is rendered in the preview window 140. For example, when the audio item is selected after the selection of the pic 222, the audio content of the music item may be rendered via speakers as the content of pic 222 is being rendered in the preview window 140.
Referring now to
It is appreciated that the items within the effect 123 category are exemplary and should not be construed as limiting the scope of the present invention but are merely given as examples of various embodiments. It is further appreciated that the graphically expanded effect 123 category may be graphically collapsed in a fashion similar to that described above.
The user may select the collage 226 item within the effect 123 category. As a result, a graphical representation of the collage 226 item is displayed within the settings 136 section of the workspace window 130. Simultaneously, the collage 226 effect is applied to the content of the selected content, pic 222. Thus, the content of pic 222 is rendered with the collage 226 effect in the preview window 140 as the selection occurs and without a need to exit the edit mode.
Referring now to
Selection of the options 310 may provide additional functionality for the transport functionality as shown in
It is appreciated that in one embodiment, the placement of the content rendered in the preview window 140 may be controlled by dragging the highlighted portion of the bar 330 back and forth. It is further appreciated that the transport functionality may also be provided via the remote control 150. For example, the play, stop, rewind, fast forward and the pause buttons on the remote control 150 may be used alternatively or in conjunction with the plurality of buttons 310, 320, 322, 324, 326, 328 and 330. It is appreciated that the transport functionalities described are exemplary and should not be construed as limiting the scope of the present invention.
Referring now to
At step 430, a workspace window is displayed. For example, the workspace window 130 may be displayed on a liquid crystal display (LCD) or any other suitable display technology. According to one embodiment, the workspace window 130 includes multiple sections wherein each section is associated with at least one of the selectable categories, e.g., the photo 121 category. In one embodiment, the workspace window 130 includes three on-screen sections, the non-audio content 132, the audio content 134 and the settings 136 section. However, it is appreciated that any number of sections may be included and the three sections described above are exemplary and not intended to limit the scope of the present invention.
Optionally, at step 440, in response to a user selecting one of the selectable media categories, items associated with the selected category are graphically expanded. In other words, items within the selectable category are displayed for user selection. It is appreciated that graphically expanding the items within a selectable media category may be by selecting another selectable media category and/or by selecting a graphical icon on the GUI 110 that indicates expansion of the items. It is appreciated that step 440 is equally applicable to non-media categories, e.g., effect category, and the items therein.
Optionally, at step 450, the expanded items may be graphically collapsed responsive to a user selection. In one exemplary embodiment, the expanded items are graphically collapsed when the user selects a different selectable category. According to one embodiment, the collapse of the expanded items may be via a graphical icon on the GUI that indicates that the selection of the icon collapses the expanded items.
At step 460 of
Optionally, at step 480, a transport control may be displayed in order to control the rendition of the content of the user selected media items in the preview window 140. For example, the transport control may include graphical icons representing play, stop, pause, fast forward, rewind and etc., that controls the rendition of the content in the preview window 140. It is appreciated that the transport control may be via the play, stop, pause, fast forward and rewind buttons that are located on the remote control 150.
The exemplary television set 500 also includes a main memory 506, such as a random access memory (RAM) or other dynamic storage device, coupled to bus 502 for storing information and instructions to be executed by processor 504. Main memory 506 also may be used for storing temporary variables or other intermediate information during execution of instructions to be executed by processor 504. The exemplary television set 500 further includes a read only memory (ROM) 508 or other static storage device coupled to bus 502 for storing static information and instructions for processor 504. A non-volatile storage device 510, such as a magnetic disk or optical disk, is provided and coupled to bus 502 for storing information and instructions and may store the persistent internal queue. According to one embodiment, the instructions for implementing the virtual device may be stored on any one of the memory components (e.g., RAM, ROM, non-volatile storage device and etc.). The exemplary television set 500 may be coupled via bus 502 to a display 512, such as a cathode ray tube (CRT), for displaying information to a computer user.
The term “computer-readable medium” as used herein refers to any medium that participates in providing instructions to processor 504 for execution. Such a medium may take many forms, including but not limited to, non-volatile media, volatile media, and transmission media. Non-volatile media includes, for example, optical or magnetic disks, such as storage device 510. Volatile media includes dynamic memory, such as main memory 506. Transmission media includes coaxial cables, copper wire and fiber optics, including the wires that comprise bus 502. Transmission media can also take the form of acoustic or light waves, such as those generated during radio wave and infrared data communications.
Common forms of computer-readable media include, for example, a floppy disk, a flexible disk, hard disk, magnetic tape, or any other magnetic medium, a CD-ROM, any other optical medium, punch cards, paper tape, any other physical medium with patterns of holes, a RAM, a PROM, and EPROM, a FLASH-EPROM, any other memory chip or cartridge, a carrier wave as described hereinafter, or any other medium from which a computer or a television set can read.
In the foregoing specification, embodiments of the invention have been described with reference to numerous specific details that may vary from implementation to implementation. Thus, the sole and exclusive indicator of what is, and is intended by the applicants to be, the invention is the set of claims that issue from this application, in the specific form in which such claims issue, including any subsequent correction. Hence, no limitation, element, property, feature, advantage or attribute that is not expressly recited in a claim should limit the scope of such claim in any way. The specification and drawings are, accordingly, to be regarded in an illustrative rather than a restrictive sense.
