Two-Dimensional Timeline Display for Video Clip Browsing
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current video editing software lacks an intuitive interface for efficiently browsing and editing video clips, making it difficult for users to navigate and synchronize video segments with additional content like audio tracks and transitions.
Innovation Solution
A digital media system that displays video clips as a series of thumbnails in a two-dimensional timeline, allowing users to preview frames by hovering over thumbnails, select segments without clicking, and anchor overlay content to specific points in the video, enabling seamless editing and synchronization.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If video clips are displayed in a traditional linear timeline interface, then the editing process becomes straightforward, but the interface becomes complex and difficult to navigate for large repositories of video clips
Solution Approach 1:
The patent transforms the traditional one-dimensional linear timeline into a two-dimensional grid interface where video clips are displayed as thumbnails arranged in rows and columns. This dimensional change allows users to browse and select clips more efficiently while maintaining intuitive navigation through the timeline structure.
Solution Approach 2:
The video library is segmented into individual thumbnail representations that can be independently selected and manipulated. Each thumbnail represents a discrete video clip or segment, allowing users to navigate through large repositories by selecting individual items rather than scrolling through a continuous timeline.
2Productivity
If users must click multiple times to select and edit video segments, then precise selection is achieved, but user effort and time increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The interface pre-arranges video clips in a grid of thumbnails with time information displayed, allowing users to quickly locate and identify desired clips before selection. The timeline is pre-divided into manageable segments represented as thumbnails, enabling rapid navigation without multiple clicking operations.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent creates visual copies of video clips as thumbnails that represent the actual content. These thumbnail copies can be selected, manipulated, and edited independently, allowing users to work with visual representations rather than navigating through raw video data, thereby reducing selection time and effort.
3Adaptability or versatility
If additional content like audio tracks and transitions are added to the timeline, then the video becomes more sophisticated, but synchronization becomes difficult and error-prone
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges multiple types of media content (video clips, audio tracks, transitions) into a unified two-dimensional grid interface. All content types are displayed together in the same timeline structure, allowing users to synchronize and edit them simultaneously rather than managing them as separate layers, thereby improving synchronization ease.
Solution Approach 2:
The timeline interface is designed as a universal structure that can accommodate and display different types of media content (video, audio, transitions) using the same visual language and interaction mechanisms. This multi-functionality allows users to apply the same selection and synchronization operations across all content types, simplifying the workflow.
Data Source
AI summary
A computer-implemented method includes displaying, within a user interface in a digital media system, a media pane having a vertical direction and horizontal direction, displaying, within the media pane, a plurality of thumbnail groups, each thumbnail group comprising one or more thumbnails collectively representing a corresponding media item, a first thumbnail group being displayed as arranged in a first row extending across the media pane in the horizontal direction such that the first thumbnail group is displayed substantially adjacent to a first vertical edge of the media pane and subsequent thumbnail groups are displayed substantially adjacent to one another in the first row until a thumbnail group in the first row is displayed substantially adjacent to a second vertical edge of the media pane, and displaying a next thumbnail group in a second row vertically displaced from the first row.