Surveillance Video Timeline Navigation 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 through video segments and display subsets of video frames corresponding to different time periods, with a server system encoding and transmitting compressed video segments in response to user requests.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of information
If conventional video surveillance interfaces are used to display live and saved videos, 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 video feeds, a timeline region displaying temporal information and video segments, and a controls region for user interactions. This segmentation allows each region to specialize in presenting specific types of information without overwhelming the user, thereby reducing information loss while managing interface complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces a temporal dimension through the timeline visualization, transforming the conventional single-dimension video playback into a two-dimensional presentation (spatial video frame + temporal timeline position). This additional dimension provides context about video segments and their temporal relationships without significantly increasing interface complexity.
2Ease of operation
If the entire video stream is displayed continuously, then the user can see all video content, but the user cannot efficiently navigate to specific time periods or segments
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary action by pre-generating and displaying a timeline representation of the entire video stream before user interaction. This timeline shows key events, segment boundaries, and temporal structure in advance, allowing users to quickly navigate to specific time periods without manually scrubbing through the entire video, thereby improving navigation efficiency and reducing time loss.
Solution Approach 2:
The timeline acts as an intermediary between the user and the video content. Instead of directly interacting with the continuous video stream, users interact with the timeline representation, which mediates access to specific video segments. This intermediary layer enables efficient navigation by allowing users to jump to relevant time periods based on timeline markers and events.
3Loss of information
If the user interface provides detailed timeline and video segment information, then user satisfaction improves, but the interface becomes more complex
Solution Approach 1:
Different regions of the user interface are assigned different levels of information density and functional complexity. The video display region focuses on visual content, the timeline region provides temporal context with variable detail levels, and the controls region offers targeted interaction options. This local quality differentiation allows detailed information presentation in appropriate areas without making the entire interface overly complex.
Solution Approach 2:
The user interface is designed dynamically, allowing the timeline region to adjust its level of detail based on user interactions and current context. When users hover over or select specific time periods, the interface dynamically reveals more detailed segment information. This dynamic adaptation provides comprehensive information when needed while maintaining a cleaner interface during normal operation, balancing information completeness with interface simplicity.
Data Source
AI summary
A method at an electronic device with a display includes: displaying a user interface having a first region and a second region; receiving, and displaying in the first region of the user interface, a live video stream of a physical environment captured by a remote video camera; displaying, in the second region, a timeline corresponding to a timespan for a first portion of a duration during which the live video stream may have been recorded; in response to receiving a user interaction to move the timespan to a second portion of the duration, transitioning the displayed timeline to a new timeline that corresponds to the timespan for the second portion, and while transitioning, displaying, in the first region, a subset of video frames representing the first and/or second portion of the duration.