Patent · US Expired

Seamless multimedia branching

US6343298B1 · kind B1 · utility

45Cited by
20References
42Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateJun 13, 2000
Grant dateJan 29, 2002
Priority date
Expiry dateJun 13, 2020

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC Y)Emerging Cross-Sectional Technologies
  • CPC primaryY10S707/99953
  • WIPO fieldComputer technology
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

Described above are methods of authoring multimedia titles and of storing and delivering multimedia content that implements guaranteed seamless branching on digital media with high seek latency and a fixed upper bound on this latency. Continuous media content is arranged as individual clips on a storage medium. Seamless branches between clips are identified by an author. A method is disclosed to identify individual clips as carrier clips or non-carrier clips to guarantee specified seamless behavior while optimizing bridge memory usage and availability of seamless jumps. Bridge data of a particular target media clip is interleaved or otherwise associated on the storage medium with a carrier clip that is upstream of the target media clip, and delivered along with the upstream media clip. As bridge data are delivered, they are stored in bridge memory, to be used to implement a subsequent seamless branch. After the branch is implemented or after the branch is no longer an option, the bridge data is cleared from the bridge memory. Additional methods are disclosed for dealing with intervening file access and for accounting for no-latency branches that are possible when using some forms o…

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.