Seek Guide Snapping for Accurate Media Playback Resumption
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Solution Overview
Problem
Users often inaccurately select playback positions in media content, leading to confusing or context-less resumptions due to finger size and touch screen inaccuracy, especially on smartphones.
Innovation Solution
Implementing seek guides with probabilistic distributions based on user-selected reference positions to set optimal playback points, using transcription data to position guides at meaningful intervals like word or sentence beginnings, and selecting the most likely guide for accurate resumption.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Speed
If a user directly selects a playback position on the scrub bar, then the user can quickly navigate to a specific point in media content, but the user may accidentally skip to a confusing or context-less position
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces seek guides as intermediary elements between the user's selection on the scrub bar and the final playback position. These seek guides act as mediators that snap the playback position to contextually relevant points (such as scene changes, segment boundaries, or meaningful content markers), preventing direct jumps to confusing positions while maintaining fast navigation capability
Solution Approach 2:
The system provides feedback by displaying seek guide indicators on the scrub bar that show users where they will actually jump to when selecting positions. This feedback mechanism allows users to understand the snap-to behavior in advance, making the navigation more predictable and reliable while preserving quick access to key content sections
2Ease of operation
If a user uses a touch screen to drag a cursor on the scrub bar, then the user can interact with the interface, but the user's finger may block the screen or be too large to select a precise position
Solution Approach 1:
The scrub bar is segmented into multiple discrete seek guide positions rather than treating it as a continuous scale. This segmentation allows users to interact with distinct, easily targetable points (such as scene markers or segment boundaries) rather than trying to precisely position a cursor, making touch screen interaction more accurate and accessible
Solution Approach 2:
Seek guides serve as intermediary target points that bridge the gap between the user's coarse touch input and the precise playback position needed. By providing these intermediate snap points, the system compensates for the imprecision inherent in touch screen interaction while maintaining ease of use
Data Source
AI summary
Systems and methods for snapping to seek positions in media content using seek guides are provided. Seek guides may be associated with a media content item. Each seek guide may have a position and a radius. When a user seeks to a reference position, a seek guide selector may select a seek guide to use in setting a new playback position. The seek guide selector may use a probabilistic distribution positioned based on the reference position to select a seek guide. Probabilities may be calculated for each seek guide using a cumulative distribution function, and a seek guide may be selected based on the calculated probabilities.