Interactive Video Pre-fetching to Reduce Switching Delays
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Modern video players experience delays when switching between video content segments, particularly in interactive sequences, which can lead to a less immersive and frustrating user experience due to the time required to load new content from storage or remote sources.
Innovation Solution
Implementing a system that pre-fetches associated video content segments by analyzing the structure and statistical information of interactive video sequences, using priority schemes to determine which segments to load ahead of time, and managing storage and loading based on selectability and load status.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If video content segments are loaded from storage or remote sources during playback, then the video player can provide interactive content sequences with multiple selectable segments, but delays occur when switching between segments due to loading time
Solution Approach 1:
The system pre-loads associated video content segments into memory before they are needed for playback. When a user selects a segment during interactive video playback, the associated segments have already been loaded in the background, eliminating the delay that would otherwise occur when attempting to load them on-demand.
Solution Approach 2:
The video player dynamically adjusts its loading behavior based on the interactive nature of the content. It identifies selectable segments and their associations, then adaptively pre-loads content based on user selections and playback context, rather than using a static loading strategy.
2Ease of operation
If video content is loaded into memory from hard drive or remote sources, then playback can occur, but the loading process causes noticeable delays that limit user interaction and immersion
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary loading of video segments into memory during background operations or during playback of other segments. This ensures that when users need to interact with the video content or switch segments, the data is already available in memory, eliminating interaction delays.
3Loss of time
If the system loads multiple video segments in advance to reduce switching delays, then playback switching becomes seamless, but more storage media and memory are required
Solution Approach 1:
The system applies different loading strategies to different video segments based on their characteristics and associations. It identifies which segments are selectable or associated with currently playing segments and prioritizes loading only those specific segments, rather than loading all segments uniformly, thus optimizing storage utilization.
Solution Approach 2:
The system changes the state of video segments from unloaded to loaded based on dynamic parameters such as user selections, segment associations, and playback context. This selective parameter change approach ensures that only necessary segments occupy storage media at any given time.
Data Source
AI summary
A computing device plays at least one first video content segment. The video content segment may be a portion of an interactive video content sequence including multiple segments that may each be selected during play of one or more of the other segments. The computing device determines one or more second video content segments that are associated with the first video content segment. Such determination may be made by analyzing information describing an interactive video content sequence of which the video content segment is a part. The computing device attempts to load one or more second video content segments. In this way, play of the video content segments may reduce and/or avoid delays in changing the video content being played.