Patent Application
20100119215
The present invention relates generally to the field of media and, in particular, to playing, viewing, and controlling video or other media.
Current media players may be used for playing live or pre-recorded content, which may be played by streaming the content over the Internet to a media player, or loading the content (e.g., source media file) from a local media storage device to a media player. Content may be comprised of audio, video, slideshow pictures, or any combinations thereof. Content may be represented according to one of many media file types (e.g., MP3, M3U, MPEG(-1, -2, -4), QuickTime Movie, AU, MIDI, JPEG, GIF, TIFF). Media players today also may offer features for controlling content, even during play. For example, media players today may offer features for playing content at a normal or accelerated speed, reverse playing content at a normal or accelerated speed, pausing the play of content, forwarding or reversing paused content, and skipping-over active content to new content. However, current media players do not provide a feature, by default or according to one or more conditions, for preventing: the skipping-over of active content, forwarding of paused content, or playing of content at an accelerated speed. Moreover, current media players also do not provide a feature, by default or according to one or more conditions, for preventing the spoilage or viewing of content ahead, or alerting the viewer of the possibility of such spoilage or viewing of content ahead. Also, because current media players do not provide at least such features, they do not provide for disabling such features, by default or according to one or more conditions.
Accordingly, the present invention is directed to a system and method for playing and controlling content that substantially obviates one or more problems due to limitations and disadvantages of the related art.
An embodiment of the present invention provides a computer-implemented method for playing content of a media file comprising opening a media file, wherein the media file is stored locally or remotely; playing content of the media file at a default speed; and controlling access to non-played content of the media file according to a condition.
Additional features and advantages of the invention will be set forth in the description which follows, and in part will be apparent from the description, or may be learned by practice of the invention. The objectives and other advantages of the invention will be realized and attained by the structure particularly pointed out in the written description and claims hereof as well as the appended drawings.
To achieve these and other advantages and in accordance with the purpose of the present invention, as embodied and broadly described, a system comprises one or more processors; memory; one or more programs stored in memory, the one or more programs comprising instructions to: open a media file, wherein the media file is stored locally or remotely; play content of the media file at a default speed; and control access to non-played content of the media file according to a condition, wherein the condition is used to prevent spoilage or viewing ahead of the non-played content.
In another aspect, a computer-readable storage medium stores one or more programs configured for execution by a computer, the one or more programs comprising instructions to: open a media file, wherein the media file is stored locally or remotely; play content of the media file at a default speed; and control access to non-played content of the media file according to a condition, wherein the condition is used to prevent spoilage or viewing ahead of the non-played content.
It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description are exemplary and explanatory and are intended to provide further explanation of the invention as claimed.
The accompanying drawings, which are included to provide a further understanding of the invention and are incorporated in and constitute a part of the specification, illustrate embodiments of the invention and together with the description serve to explain the principles of the invention. In the drawings:
Reference will now be made in detail to embodiments, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings. In the following detailed description, numerous non-limiting specific details are set forth in order to assist in understanding the subject matter presented herein. It will be apparent, however, to one of ordinary skill in the art that various alternatives may be used without departing from the scope of the present invention and the subject matter may be practiced without these specific details. For example, it will be apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art that the subject matter presented herein can be implemented on any type of standalone system or client-server compatible system containing any type of client, network, server, and database elements.
In some embodiments, media files are loaded locally from storage or remotely and may subsequently be opened by a media player 1001 (
In some embodiments, the media player 1001 may play the media file contents at a default speed (e.g., at a specific frame(s)/second(s) rate), which may depend on the type of media file and/or the media file's contents. In addition, before, during, or after playing the contents of a media file, the control functions and features of the media player 1001 may be used to accelerate the speed at which the content of an opened media file is played. The control functions and features of the media player 1001 may further be used to pause the playing of media file content, skip-over content of the media file, and/or reverse-play content of the media file.
In some embodiments, the media player 1001 may include a feature for setting conditions that may control viewer access to non-played content of a loaded media file. For example, in
In some embodiments, the media player 2001 (
In some embodiments, the default value of the condition may be manipulated through the media player 2001 and changed from its original or current value. For example, the default value may be manipulated from preventing access to the non-played content 2003 of a media file to permitting such access, regardless of whether such access may allow spoilage or viewing ahead of the non-played content 2003 of the media file. Alternatively, the default value may be manipulated from permitting access to the non-played content 2003 of the media file, to preventing such access and, therefore, preventing the possibility of viewing ahead or “spoiling” the non-played content.
In some embodiments, the media player 2007 prevents the non-played content 2009 from being viewed/played. An indicator within the active content 2010 window of the media player 2007 may show that the media player 2007 is preventing the non-played content 2009 from being played. The indicator may appear according to either the default value of the condition responsible for controlling access to the non-played content 2009, or a manipulated value of the condition. If, for example, the condition is set, according to the default value or a manipulated value, to prevent access to the non-played content 2009, the indicator may appear in the active content 2010 window of the media player 2007. If, for example, the condition is set, according to the default value or a manipulated value, to permit access to the non-played content 2009, the indicator may not appear in the active content 2010 window of the media player 2007.
In some embodiments, the non-played content 2009 may be restricted from play when, for example, the user attempts to accelerate play or skip-over content using the control features/functions of the media player 2007. The user's actions may occur during a time when the active content 2010 is being played, paused, or at anytime after the media file is loaded for play.
In some embodiments, the indicator may be represented according to an icon, a blurred or distorted image, a still-frame or image, a blocked-out frame or image, some other type of restrictive indicator, and/or a frame or image rendered non-viewable. If, according to the condition for controlling access to the non-played content 3003, the user/viewer may be permitted access to the non-played content 3003, the indicator is removed from the active content 3010 window of the media player and the non-played content may become accessible 3009. The non-played content that may become accessible 3009 may, for example, be the next frame (or, image) in sequence or, alternatively, a frame further in sequence if the user/viewer invokes, for example, accelerated play or skip-over.
In some embodiments, the condition for controlling access to the non-played content 3003 may be superseded, providing 3010/preventing 3004 access to the non-played content 3003, according to one or more events. For example, the condition may be superseded, providing 3010 access to the non-played content whenever the user/viewer invokes the control functions/features of the media player 3001 and chooses to accelerate play (e.g., forward), and/or skip-over non-played content. The indicator for preventing access to the non-played content 3003 may be shown in the active content 3004 window but the user may choose to further invoke the control features of the media player 3001 and continue to accelerate play and/or skip-over non-played content 3003. Such events and/or other events, known to or envisioned by one of ordinary skill in the art, may comprise the events for superseding the condition.
In some embodiments, after the indicator is removed from the active content 3010 window of the media player 3007 in response to one or more events that supersede the condition for controlling access to the non-played content 3009, the indicator may appear after some non-played content is played and another attempt is made by the user to invoke the control features of the media player 3001 to forward and/or skip-over non-played content 3003. At that time, the indicator is again shown in the active content window 3004 of the media player 3001 but the user may again choose to further invoke the control features of the media player 3001 and continue to accelerate play and/or skip-over non-played content 3003. In accordance with these events, the indicator may again be removed from the active content 3010 window and the non-played content 3009 may be displayed to the user.
In some embodiments, the condition for controlling access to the non-played content 3003 may be set to permit only a specific number of superseding forwards and/or skip-over requests within a certain time period, session, media file, content restrictions/characteristics, and/or in accordance with user-level permissions.
In some embodiments, the condition for controlling access to the non-played content 3003 may be set such that it may not permit any superseding forwards and/or skip-over requests. In such an instance, the condition would broadly prevent spoilage and/or viewing ahead of non-played content 3003.
In some embodiments, the communications module 5001 receives and transmits data over a network (e.g., network 10) through one or more ports (e.g., HTTP port 80); the interpreter 5002 may interpret scripts/mark-up languages and execute them in accordance with their instructions; the browser components 5003 may implement features such as those for navigating the Internet, supporting add-in(s)/on(s), implementing custom user options and executing in accordance with those options (e.g., permissions, home page preference, bookmarks, script preferences, history preferences, privacy preferences, web page preferences, and/or other Internet/user options); and, the embedded media player 5004 (which may, in some embodiments, be an add-in/on) may play media content in accordance with the present invention as described herein.
In some embodiments, the feature components 5010 may implement features such as media playlist management, media type conversion, media compression/decompression, media playlist/library synchronization, media ripping/burning from/to external storage mediums, and/or media player options (e.g., window size, volume, media quality, play speed); the content reader 5011 may read and decode the contents of a media file, where the media file contents may be represented according to a specific file type and compressed; and, the controller 5012 may implement features for opening, navigating, controlling access to, and/or manipulating media files and/or their content.
It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications and variations can be made to the present invention without departing from the spirit or scope of the invention. Thus, it is intended that the present invention cover the modifications and variations of this invention provided they come within the scope of the appended claims and their equivalents.
