This application claimed priority to Taiwanese Patent Application No. 101137227, filed on Oct. 9, 2012. The entirety of the above-mentioned patent application is hereby incorporated by reference herein and made a part of this specification.
The present disclosure relates to a user interface operating method, an electronic device with the user interface and a program product storing a program for operating the user interface.
Embedded marketing involves repeatedly placing a product in a context (such as a show or a program) to strengthen the impression of the audience for the product. By blending the product into the show or conversations therein, it may raise the audience's interest for the product. However, when the audience wishes to know more about a particular product, they can only do so by later looking at reports or discussions in print media or the Internet. Thus, there is a need to access comprehensive real time information.
Currently, a QR code for a product can be displayed on the TV screen at the same time the product appears in the program, which allows a user to take a photo of the QR code using a mobile phone to obtain the URL (Uniform Resource Locator) of a web page containing more information about the product. However, this method loses the sense of implicitly of embedded marketing. Also, a TV screen filled with QR codes may affect the enjoyment of the audience watching the show, and such a blunt and direct selling technique may even cause aversion towards the product in some audiences.
Moreover, with the evolution of smart phones, in addition to placing marketing messages in shows and programs, smart phone applications are now often used for marketing purposes as well. For example, contents described in a food program are recorded and shared by using an application, so viewers can obtain information needed by inquiring the application after watching the program. The audience does not have to search the contents of interest on the Internet by themselves. Instead, they can obtain relatively comprehensive information by simply inquiring the application. However, the application usually presents contents that were introduced in the program in a textual format, which may prove to be difficult for the audience to recall the context of program, and even as to which particular product he/she was interested at the time of watching the program.
Therefore, there is a need in the field to develop a method for enabling the audience to readily obtain information about a product or a service during or after watching a show, which has the product or the service embedded therein.
The present disclosure provides a user interface operating method. In an exemplary embodiment, the user interface operating method includes the following steps of displaying a time image, a multimedia object corresponding to a time point in the time image, and first information of the multimedia object corresponding to the time point on a user interface of an electronic device; triggering a search process if the time image and the multimedia object corresponding to the time point in the time image overlap with each other on the user interface, wherein the search process includes searching for, based on the first information, multimedia objects corresponding to other time points in the time image related to the first information; and displaying on the user interface the multimedia objects corresponding to other time points in the time image found in the search process.
The present disclosure also provides a program product storing a program for operating a user interface, and when the program product is loaded and executed on a computer, the aforementioned user interface operating method is performed.
Further, the present disclosure provides an electronic device with a user interface. In an exemplary embodiment, the electronic device with the user interface includes a user interface for displaying a time image, a multimedia object corresponding to a time point in the time image, and first information of the multimedia object corresponding to the time point; a trigger module for triggering a search process if the time image and the multimedia object corresponding to the time point in the time image overlap with each other on the user interface, wherein the search process includes searching for, based on the first information, multimedia objects corresponding to other time points in the time image related to the first information; and a display module for displaying on the user interface the multimedia objects corresponding to other time points in the time image and found in the search process.
In an exemplary embodiment, a user interface operating method is disclosed. The user interface operating method includes the following steps of displaying a time image and a multimedia object on a user interface; retrieving data in the multimedia object when a touch on the user interface is detected; and triggering a search process if the time image and the multimedia object overlap with each other on the user interface, wherein the search process includes searching for multimedia information related to the data in the multimedia object.
In an exemplary embodiment, users may use the aforementioned electronic device having the user interface or implementing the aforementioned user interface operating method to readily browse first information corresponding to multimedia objects and other multimedia objects or second information related to the first information.
The present disclosure can be more fully understood by reading the following detailed description of the embodiments, with reference made to the accompanying drawings, wherein:
In the following detailed description, for purpose of explanation, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the disclosed embodiments. It will be apparent, however, that one or more embodiments may be practiced without these specific details. In other instances, well-known structures and devices are schematically shown in order to simplify the drawing.
The user interface 10 is used for displaying a time image, a multimedia object corresponding to a time point in the time image, and first information corresponding to the multimedia object at the time point. In
It should be noted that the multimedia objects Ax, Ay and Az can be pictures, pictures combined with texts, pictures combined with audio or video clips retrieved from a file at the system end. System end may set up association among the time point at which the multimedia object is retrieved, the retrieved multimedia object and the first information, so that when time points are displayed in the time image area B by the user interface 10, the picture, the picture combined with texts, the picture combined with audio or the video clip retrieved at this time point can be displayed in the multimedia browsing area A, and the relevant first information can be displayed in the information display area C. The first information may be, for example, the name, a product type, a web address and the like of a particular product in the multimedia object. Moreover, the segmentations of the user interface 10 are not limited to just the multimedia browsing area A, the time image area B and the information display area C.
The trigger module 12 is used for triggering a search process when a multimedia object corresponding to a time point in the time image overlaps with the time image on the user interface 10. The search program may include searching for multimedia objects corresponding to other time points in the time image related to the first information.
More particularly, the electronic device 1 may also include a detection module 11 for detecting whether a trigger action is completed by a multimedia object corresponding to a time point in the time image and the time image, i.e. detecting whether a multimedia object corresponding to a time point in the time image overlaps with the time image on the user interface 10. If the electronic device 1 has a touch screen, the trigger action may be a user's finger selecting of any of the multimedia objects Ax, Ay and Az in the multimedia browsing area A of the user interface 10 and dragging it to a corresponding time point in the time image area B so that the two are completely or partially overlap with each other. In addition, a curser may also be used to select and drag one of the multimedia objects Ax, Ay and Az in the multimedia browsing area A of the user interface 10 to a corresponding time point in the time image area B so that the two are completely or partially overlap with each other. When the trigger action is accomplished by the time image and the multimedia object corresponding to the time point in the time image, the first information of the multimedia object at the time point is read in the search process. In other words, if the detection module 11 detects that a trigger action is completed by any of the multimedia objects in the multimedia browsing area A and a corresponding time point in the time image area B, the search process is executed to read the first information of the multimedia object overlapping the time image area B. If no trigger action is detected, the search process is not executed.
The display module 13 is used for displaying on the user interface 10 the multimedia objects at other time points found in the search process. More particularly, the system end already associates the same or similar multimedia objects from a file with the first information in advance, such that based on this first information, multimedia objects at other time points related to this first information can be found and displayed on the multimedia browsing area A.
In addition, the search process includes based on the first information, searching for second information related to the first information, and outputting the found second information to the user interface 10 for display. Specifically, the first information can be used as an outline (e.g. indicating name and type) for a particular product in the corresponding multimedia object, and the system end may associate second information with the first information in advance, for example, promotion of the product or pictures of the product exhibited at other angles, to be displayed in the information display area C. Therefore, the search process triggered by the trigger module 12 includes not only searching for related multimedia objects at other time points based on the first information, but also searching for second information, which is associated with the first information and further illustrates the contents of a product in a multimedia object.
Further, as shown in
Furthermore, the electronic device 1 includes an inspection module (not shown). The inspection module can be used to check the bandwidth or quality of communication of the electronic apparatus 1 to determine the number of multimedia objects at other time points to be displayed on the user interface 10.
It should also be noted that the electronic device 1 can be, for example, a portable electronic device such as a mobile phone, a computer or a TV. The display screen of the mobile phone can be a touch screen or an ordinary display screen.
As shown in
In step S203, the first information of the multimedia object corresponding to the time point is read. It should be noted that there is no specific order between steps S204 to S205 and S206 to S207 shown in
In step S204, it is performed to search for multimedia objects corresponding to other time points in the time image related to the first information, and in step S205, the multimedia objects corresponding to other time points in the time image related to the first information found are output to the user interface for display.
In step S206, it is performed to search for second information related to the first information, and in step S207, the second information found are output to the user interface for display.
Further, before displaying on the user interface the multimedia objects corresponding to other time points in the time image found by the search process, the method further includes checking the bandwidth or communication quality of the electronic device in order to determine the number of multimedia objects at other time points to be displayed on the user interface.
Moreover, the present disclosure provides a program product storing a program for operating the aforementioned user interface. When the program product is loaded onto and executed by a computer, the user interface operating method shown in
It should be noted that a user interface 20 can be in a portable electronic device such as a mobile phone, a tablet PC and etc, a television or a computer. In addition, multimedia objects can be pictures, pictures combined with texts, pictures combined with audio or video clips.
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Specifically, an electronic device 2 includes a user interface 20, on which a video played by the electronic device 2 and a playback timeline B1 are displayed. When a use's hand or stylus touches the video on the user interface 20, the electronic device 2 then retrieves data in the video, such as pictures, pictures combined with texts, pictures combined with audio, video clips or the like. As shown in
In summary, a user interface operating method, an electronic device with the user interface and program product storing a program for operating the user interface are disclosed. By detecting overlap of the time image and an multimedia object on the user interface, a search process can be triggered to search for multimedia objects at other time points or the second information related to the first information, and the multimedia objects at other time points or the second information found by the search process can then be displayed on the user interface. Therefore, when implementing embedded marketing, the system end can define first information associated with multimedia objects retrieved in a video or program in advance. When a user makes a multimedia object to come in contact with the time image, the electronic device can then search for other associated multimedia objects or second information based on the first information. As such, while the video or program is in progress, the user can readily browse multimedia information provided by the system end through the user interface operating method and the electronic device with the user interface.
It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications and variations can be made to the disclosed embodiments. It is intended that the specification and examples be considered as exemplary only, with a true scope of the disclosure being indicated by the following claims and their equivalents.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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101137227 | Oct 2012 | TW | national |