Mosaic Thumbnail Generation for Trick Play Preview
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Solution Overview
Problem
Media players face performance issues when loading multiple images to display multiple thumbnails for video content, as existing methods generate thumbnails from single images, leading to inefficiencies.
Innovation Solution
The system generates and utilizes mosaic images comprising multiple thumbnails corresponding to frames of video content at different time points, allowing for efficient selection and display of thumbnails in response to viewer commands, such as trick play requests, and enables recreation of video content using these thumbnails.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If multiple images are loaded to display multiple thumbnails, then the media player can provide video content previews at multiple time points, but the media player experiences performance issues
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines multiple video frames into a single mosaic image containing all thumbnail representations. Instead of loading and managing multiple separate image files, the system creates one consolidated mosaic image that encapsulates all thumbnail data, thereby improving performance while maintaining the ability to display previews at multiple time points.
Solution Approach 2:
The mosaic image is generated in advance before playback, with all thumbnails pre-positioned according to their corresponding video time points. This preliminary organization allows the media player to quickly retrieve and display relevant thumbnails during trick play operations without requiring real-time image loading or processing, thus enhancing performance.
2Device complexity
If thumbnails are generated from single images, then the system is simpler to implement, but multiple images must be accessed to display multiple thumbnails causing performance issues
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges the functionality of multiple separate thumbnail generation processes into a single mosaic image creation process. By consolidating all thumbnail generations into one unified structure, the system maintains implementation simplicity while eliminating the performance penalties associated with accessing multiple separate image files.
3Loss of information
If multiple images are loaded for trick play requests, then comprehensive video content previews are available, but loading and processing time increases
Solution Approach 1:
The mosaic image is constructed in advance with all thumbnails organized by their corresponding video time points. During trick play operations, the system can immediately retrieve the required thumbnail from the pre-organized mosaic image without needing to load or process multiple separate image files, thereby eliminating delays while maintaining complete preview availability.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent extracts only the specific thumbnail portion needed from the mosaic image based on the trick play request, rather than loading the entire mosaic or multiple separate images. This selective extraction minimizes processing time while ensuring all necessary video content previews remain accessible.
Data Source
AI summary
Methods and systems are described for displaying a thumbnail preview of video content. In an aspect, one or more mosaic images made up of thumbnails corresponding to frames of the video content at multiple time points can be loaded into the system or created by the methods described. In an aspect, the selected thumbnail, as well as any other thumbnails, can be selected in response to receiving a command (e.g., trick play request) from the viewer. The command can dictate the direction from the selected thumbnail that the next thumbnails will be selected. The command can also dictate the frequency with which thumbnails will be selected from the mosaic image. In an aspect, frames comprised of thumbnails can be encoded to create the video content.