Thumbnail Scene Index for Media Navigation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Users face difficulties in accessing and resuming playback of media content at specific scenes due to the lack of a convenient method to navigate through stored media, especially after falling asleep or becoming distracted during playback.
Innovation Solution
A media content scene index system that generates and presents thumbnail-sized images or video clips representing key scenes of a media program, allowing users to navigate and resume playback from desired locations within the program.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If users rely on metadata and single scene images to understand stored media content, then the device complexity remains low, but the ease of operation deteriorates because users cannot easily locate or resume at specific scenes
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the media content into discrete scenes by detecting scene changes in the video stream. Each scene is represented by a thumbnail image and time information, creating a segmented index that users can navigate. This segmentation allows users to jump to specific scenes without playing through the entire content, significantly improving ease of navigation while keeping the indexing mechanism relatively simple.
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs preliminary analysis of the media content to generate scene thumbnails and timestamps before the user needs to access the content. This preliminary action creates a ready-to-use scene index that enables rapid navigation and resume functionality, eliminating the need for complex real-time analysis when users interact with the stored content.
2Loss of time
If users manually fast forward or skip through media content to find a desired scene, then the device complexity remains low, but the loss of time increases significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The system pre-processes the media content to identify scene boundaries and generate thumbnail representations with associated timestamps. This preliminary action creates a searchable index that allows users to instantly locate any scene by scrolling through thumbnails rather than manually fast-forwarding through minutes or hours of content, dramatically reducing time loss while maintaining manageable system complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent creates simplified copies of the original media content in the form of thumbnail images that represent each scene. These thumbnail copies serve as a condensed index, allowing users to visually scan and select scenes of interest without processing or viewing the full-resolution original content, thereby minimizing time loss during scene location.
3Ease of operation
If users fall asleep or become distracted during media playback, then the viewing experience is interrupted, but the ease of operation deteriorates because users cannot easily resume at the exact stopping point
Solution Approach 1:
The media content is segmented into scenes with distinct visual representations. When users pause or stop playback, the system identifies the current scene and makes it easily accessible in the scene index. Users can visually recognize where they stopped by viewing the thumbnail and resume playback from that exact scene or a subsequent one, eliminating the need to recall the stopping location from memory.
Solution Approach 2:
The scene index provides visual feedback to users about their current position in the media content and available scenes. By displaying thumbnails with time information, the system gives users immediate feedback about where playback stopped and what scenes are available, making it easy to resume at the correct location without relying on user memory.
Data Source
AI summary
Scene-based program accessing systems and methods are operable to present a program at a scene corresponding to a selected thumbnail-sized image. An exemplary embodiment selects a plurality of image frames from a program based upon a scene separation duration; generates a thumbnail-sized image from each of the selected image frames, and presents the plurality of thumbnail-sized images on a scene index. The scene index is configured to present the plurality of thumbnail-sized images in a time ordered sequence corresponding to a subject matter presentation sequence of the program, and each of the selected image frames are temporally separated from each other by the scene separation duration.