Media object management

#This invention relates to systems and methods of managing media objects.

#Individuals and organizations are rapidly accumulating large collections of digital content, including text, audio, graphics, animated graphics and full-motion video. This content may be presented individually or combined in a wide variety of different forms, including documents, presentations, music, still photographs, commercial videos, home movies, and meta data describing one or more associated digital content files. As these collections grow in number and diversity, individuals and organizations increasingly will require systems and methods for organizing and browsing the digital content in their collections. To meet this need, a variety of different systems and methods for browsing selected kinds of digital content have been proposed.

#For example, storyboard browsing has been developed for browsing full-motion video content. In accordance with this technique, video information is condensed into meaningful representative snapshots and corresponding audio content. One known video browser of this type divides a video sequence into equal length segments and denotes the first frame of each segment as its key frame. Another known video browser of this type stacks every frame of the sequence and provides the user with rich information regarding the camera and object motions.

#FIG. 1 is a diagrammatic view of a media management node coupled directly to a set of local media files and coupled indirectly to multiple sets of remote media files over a local area network and a global network infrastructure.

#FIG. 2 is a diagrammatic view of a computer system that is programmable to implement a method of managing media objects.

#FIG. 3 is a diagrammatic perspective view of a media file of indexed, temporally-ordered data structures and an automatically-generated selection of key data structures.

#In the following description, like reference numbers are used to identify like elements. Furthermore, the drawings are intended to illustrate major features of exemplary embodiments in a diagrammatic manner. The drawings are not intended to depict every feature of actual embodiments nor relative dimensions of the depicted elements, and are not drawn to scale.

#Referring to FIG. 1, in one embodiment, a media management node 10 includes a media manager 12 that is configured to enable all forms of digital content in a selected collection of media objects to be organized into a browsable context-sensitive, temporally-referenced media database. As used herein, the term “media object” refers broadly to any form of digital content, including text, audio, graphics, animated graphics and full-motion video. This content may be packaged and presented individually or in some combination in a wide variety of different forms, including documents, annotations, presentations, music, still photographs, commercial videos, home movies, and meta data describing one or more associated digital content files. The media objects may be stored physically in a local database 14 of media management node 10 or in one or more remote databases 16, 18 that may be accessed over a local area network 20 and a global communication network 22, respectively. Some media objects also may be stored in a remote database 24 that is accessible over a peer-to-peer network connection. In some embodiments, digital content may be compressed using a compression format that is selected based upon digital content type (e.g., an MP3 or a WMA compression format for audio works, and an MPEG or a motion JPEG compression format for audio/video works). The requested digital content may be formatted in accordance with a user-specified transmission format. For example, the requested digital content may be transmitted to the user in a format that is suitable for rendering by a computer, a wireless device, or a voice device. In addition, the requested digital content may be transmitted to the user as a complete file or in a streaming file format.

#A user may interact with media manager 12 locally, at media management node 10, or remotely, over local area network 20 or global communication network 22. Transmissions between media manager 12, the user, and the content providers may be conducted in accordance with one or more conventional secure transmission protocols. For example, each digital work transmission may involve packaging the digital work and any associated meta-data into an encrypted transfer file that may be transmitted securely from one entity to another.