Interactive Story Tracks via Parallel Audio-Visual Channels
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current audio-visual media technologies, such as television and movies, are limited to presenting a single story with static beginning, middle, and end, lacking the ability to create and exhibit multi-dimensional experiences with interrelated stories and parallel tracks that viewers can alternate between.
Innovation Solution
A method for creating and exhibiting multi-dimensional audio-visual content by simultaneously delivering parallel 'tracks' or 'channels' that allow viewers to switch between interrelated stories or story parts, using multiple laser DVD players and synchronization mechanisms to maintain logical consistency and parallelism across tracks.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If traditional television and motion picture methodologies are used, then a single story with static beginning, middle, and end is presented, but the ability to create multi-dimensional experiences with interrelated stories and parallel tracks is lost
Solution Approach 1:
The production is divided into multiple independent parallel tracks, each representing a complete story or storyline. These tracks are created separately using traditional production methodologies, then synchronized during exhibition. This segmentation allows each track to maintain narrative coherence while enabling multi-dimensional viewing experiences through track switching.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention adds a temporal dimension to traditional linear storytelling by enabling viewers to switch between multiple parallel tracks that unfold simultaneously. This creates a multi-dimensional narrative space where stories intersect and diverge, transforming the single linear timeline into a branched temporal structure.
2Ease of operation
If multiple laser DVD players and synchronization mechanisms are used to deliver parallel tracks, then viewers can alternate between interrelated stories, but the system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
A synchronization mechanism acts as an intermediary between multiple laser DVD players and the display system. This mediator coordinates the playback of parallel tracks, ensuring they remain synchronized and can be seamlessly switched between. The intermediary handles the complexity of coordination, leaving the viewer interface simple and intuitive.
Solution Approach 2:
The exhibition system is designed to play multiple complete stories simultaneously on a single DVD, with each track being independently viewable. This multi-functionality allows the same physical medium to support both traditional linear viewing and interactive multi-track switching, accommodating different viewing preferences without requiring separate systems.
3Loss of information
If parallel tracks are simultaneously delivered, then a comprehensive and flexible narrative is provided, but the synchronization and coordination difficulty increases
Solution Approach 1:
All parallel tracks are pre-synchronized during the production and encoding phase. Timecodes and synchronization markers are embedded in each track before distribution, ensuring that when played back simultaneously, the tracks remain coordinated without requiring complex real-time synchronization during exhibition.
Solution Approach 2:
The synchronization mechanism continuously monitors the playback status of all parallel tracks and makes real-time adjustments to maintain synchronization. This feedback loop detects and corrects any drift between tracks, ensuring narrative consistency is maintained throughout the viewing experience.
Data Source
AI summary
A means of creating and means of exhibiting a multi-dimensional production consisting of two or more interrelated stories, story lines or story parts, in audio-visual media, by simultaneously delivering or streaming parallel “tracks” or “channels,” between and among which the viewer(s) can alternate at will to create a variable, interactive audio-visual experience or product. The technology is adaptable to a variety of delivery systems including, but not limited to, commercial broadcast television, pay television (cable and satellite) and theatrical release (i.e., movies in theaters).