Trick File Mapping for Digital Media Playback Speed Control
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Solution Overview
Problem
Digital media players struggle to provide user-friendly fast-forward and rewind functions for digital media, as simply increasing playback speed distorts content and fails to provide perceivable feedback, leading to missed advertisements and reduced revenue for content providers.
Innovation Solution
Generating alternate content in trick files that map to specific trick modes, allowing for the display of alternate advertisements or content during fast-forward or rewind operations, providing perceivable feedback to users while preserving the illusion of normal playback.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Speed
If digital media players output data at faster rate during fast-forward mode, then playback speed increases, but content becomes imperceptible and user cannot discern media content
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the video stream into individual frames and selectively outputs only every Nth frame during fast-forward mode, creating a subsampled sequence that maintains perceptibility at higher playback speeds. This segmentation allows the system to reduce temporal resolution while preserving sufficient visual information for user recognition.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent applies different quality characteristics to different portions of the video stream by selectively processing and outputting specific frames based on their importance and temporal distribution. Critical frames are preserved while less important frames are skipped, creating a non-uniform quality distribution that optimizes both speed and perceptibility.
2Loss of time
If users fast-forward through commercials, then viewing time for desired content decreases, but advertisement revenue is lost
Solution Approach 1:
The patent creates alternative content streams in advance that are pre-configured to replace commercial content during fast-forward operations. When a user initiates fast-forward, the system has already prepared substitute content that can be immediately delivered, eliminating the need for real-time content generation and enabling revenue recovery before the user completes the fast-forward action.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces an intermediary content delivery mechanism that intercepts the fast-forward operation and inserts alternative content between the user's fast-forward commands and the original commercial content. This intermediary layer allows the system to monitor user behavior patterns and deliver targeted advertisements that align with user preferences, transforming the fast-forward action from a revenue loss opportunity into a targeted advertising channel.
3Ease of operation
If trick modes are implemented to provide user feedback during fast-forward, then user friendliness improves, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements a universal content delivery framework that handles multiple trick modes (fast-forward, rewind, pause, slow-play) through a single integrated architecture. The same underlying mechanisms for frame selection, temporal manipulation, and alternative content delivery serve all trick mode functions, eliminating the need for separate implementations for each mode and reducing overall system complexity.
Data Source
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AI summary
The features herein pertain to methods, systems, and apparatus for providing alternate content to consumers of digital media during trick modes of operation comprising generating digital media content in a first file for standard playback for consumption by a consumer, generating at least one trick file corresponding to the first file, the trick file comprising content different than content in the first file, and mapping the trick file to a trick mode of operation in connection with the first file.