Timeline Video Interface for Alert Event Context
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current video surveillance systems lack efficient and informative user interfaces for presenting live and saved video feeds, providing inadequate context and control flow for users.
Innovation Solution
A method is implemented on an electronic device with a display and processors to display a user interface with separate regions for live video streams and timelines, allowing users to interactively transition between video segments and display subsets of video frames, while a server system encodes and transmits compressed video segments in response to client requests.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of information
If conventional video surveillance interfaces are used, then the system is simple to implement, but the user interface provides inadequate context and control flow information
Solution Approach 1:
The user interface is segmented into multiple functional regions: a video display region showing live or recorded footage, a timeline region displaying temporal segments with thumbnails, and a controls region. This segmentation allows each region to specialize in presenting specific information types, thereby reducing information loss without proportionally increasing overall interface complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent adds a temporal dimension to the video interface by introducing a timeline that displays video segments chronologically. This timeline dimension allows users to navigate and understand the temporal context of recorded events, providing additional contextual information that complements the spatial video display.
2Loss of information
If the entire video timeline is displayed at once, then users have complete temporal context, but the interface becomes cluttered and harder to navigate
Solution Approach 1:
The timeline is segmented into discrete video segments, each represented by a thumbnail and time marker. Users can interact with individual segments to navigate to specific points in time, rather than scrolling through an overwhelming continuous timeline. This segmentation preserves temporal context while improving navigability.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent extracts key temporal information from the full video stream and presents it as discrete timeline segments with representative thumbnails. This extraction allows users to grasp the temporal structure of recorded events without being overwhelmed by the complete video duration, maintaining contextual awareness while simplifying interaction.
3Manufacturing precision
If high-resolution video frames are displayed continuously, then video quality is maintained, but data transmission and processing requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system extracts representative thumbnail frames from the full-resolution video stream for display in the timeline region. These thumbnails provide visual context and temporal orientation without requiring transmission and processing of complete high-resolution video data, thereby reducing energy consumption while maintaining video quality where needed.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements partial video frame transmission by sending only selected key frames and thumbnails rather than continuous full-resolution video data. This partial action approach maintains adequate video quality for monitoring purposes while significantly reducing the energy required for data transmission and processing.
Data Source
AI summary
A method at a server system includes: receiving a video stream from a remote video camera, wherein the video stream comprises a plurality of video frames; selecting a plurality of non-contiguous frames from the video stream, the plurality of non-contiguous frames being associated with a predetermined time interval; encoding the plurality of non-contiguous frames as a compressed video segment associated with the time interval; receiving a request from an application running on a client device to review video from the remote video camera for the time interval; and in response to the request, transmitting the video segment to the client device for viewing in the application.