Real-time receipt, decompression and play of compressed streaming video/hypervideo; with thumbnail display of past scenes and with replay, hyperlinking and/or recording permissively intiated retrospectively

A system for displaying hyperlinks in streaming digital hypervideo;

• a receiver receiving compressed streaming digital hypervideo containing both (i) hyperlinks and associated (ii) hotspot data across a digital communications network;
• a computer
• decompressing the received hypervideo, and
• extracting hotspot data from the decompressed hypervideo;
• and
• a display displaying (i) the decompressed hypervideo with (ii) accompanying hotspots overlying in selected locations the displayed hypervideo in accordance with the extracted hotspot data;
• wherein the location of hyperlinks within the streaming digital hypervideo may be discerned by a viewer of the display as the selected locations of the associated hotspots.

A method of parsing and displaying streaming digital hypervideo so that not only may hyperlinks associated with selected frames of the hypervideo be transitorily seen by a subscriber/user/viewer during a video display as the selected frames are viewed, but so that, regardless that the streaming digital hypervideo unfolds in real time and the selected frames recede into the past, the hyperlinks may be seen and held available sufficiently long so as to reasonably be acted upon by the subscriber/user/viewer, the method comprising:

• detecting as the streaming digital hypervideo unfolds scene changes in the streaming digital hypervideo;
• generating a multiplicity of static keyframes each of which keyframes is indicative of the hypervideo that is within a corresponding one of a multiplicity of successive scenes of the hypervideo as the hypervideo unfolds, in each which keyframe any hyperlink of the hypervideo scene is preserved;
• caching in a digital data cache recently unfolded digital hypervideo and any ones of the multiplicity of keyframes corresponding thereto;
• displaying from the cache both (i) the streaming digital hypervideo where both the hypervideo and its display are innately transitory, and also (ii) those keyframes, part of the multiplicity ultimately generated, that are indicative of the streaming digital hypervideo most recently previously displayed;
• wherein the displayed keyframes are not only static, but are not so quickly transitory as are the scenes of the streaming hypervideo with which the keyframes are associated, the static keyframes rather being displayed much longer than are the hypervideo scenes with which the keyframes are associated;
• wherein a subscriber/user/viewer of the displaying may click through a hyperlink that is upon a displayed keyframe, and therein branch the receiving or the playing of digital hypervideo or both the receiving and the playing, even though the exact scene in which the hyperlink was present has already been displayed in real time and is now in the past;
• wherein the subscriber/user/viewer need not pounce upon a hyperlink as it moves spatially rapidly or temporally transitorily, or both spatially rapidly and temporally transitorily, in the real time display of the received streaming digital hypervideo, but can click through upon a hyperlink within a longer-displayed static keyframe as and when desired.

A system for parsing and displaying streaming digital hypervideo so that not only may hyperlinks embedded therein be seen by a subscriber/user/viewer, but so that, regardless that the hypervideo unfolds in real time, the hyperlinks may be seen and held available sufficiently long so as to reasonably be acted upon by the subscriber/user/viewer, the system comprising:

• a detector of scene changes occurring in the streaming digital hypervideo as the hypervideo unfolds;
• a generator using the unfolding received streaming hypervideo and the detected scene changes to generate a multiplicity of keyframes each of which keyframes is associated with a corresponding one of a multiplicity of successive scenes as are defined by the detected scenes changes, in each which keyframe any hypervideo link of the associated hypervideo scene is preserved;
• a digital data cache in which recent digital hypervideo and the keyframes corresponding thereto are cached;
• and
• a display, obtaining recent digital hypervideo and corresponding keyframes from the cache, displaying both (i) the streaming digital hypervideo substantially in real time, and, in non-real time over a protracted period, (ii) a plurality of keyframes that are indicative of scenes of the streaming digital hypervideo most recently previously displayed;
• wherein a subscriber/user/viewer of the display may click through a hyperlink that is upon a displayed keyframe, and therein branch the display even though the exact scene in which the hyperlink was present has already been displayed in normal time;
• wherein the subscriber/user/viewer need not pounce upon a hyperlink as it moves spatially rapidly or temporally transitorily, or both spatially rapidly and temporally transitorily, within the streaming hypervideo during the real-time unfolding display of the streaming digital hypervideo, but can click through upon a hyperlink within a non-real-time protractedly displayed static keyframe as and when desired.

A method of parsing and displaying streaming digital hypervideo so that not only may hyperlinks embedded therein be transitorily seen by a subscriber/user/viewer during an unfolding video display, but so that, regardless that the hypervideo unfolds in real time, the hyperlinks may be seen and held available sufficiently long so as to reasonably be acted upon by the subscriber/user/viewer, the method comprising:

• receiving streaming digital hypervideo in which hypervideo are contained marks defining scene changes in the streaming digital hypervideo;
• generating from the received hypervideo and contained marks a multiplicity of keyframes each of which keyframes is indicative of the hypervideo that is within a corresponding one of a multiplicity of successive scenes as are defined by the scene change marks, in each which keyframe any hypervideo link of the hypervideo scene is preserved;
• caching in a digital data cache recently received digital hypervideo and the multiplicity of keyframes corresponding thereto;
• displaying both (i) the received streaming digital hypervideo substantially in real time, and, protractedly in non-real time, (ii) a plurality of keyframes, part of the multiplicity ultimately generated, that are indicative of the received streaming digital hypervideo most recently previously displayed;
• wherein a subscriber/user/viewer of the displaying may click through a hyperlink that is upon a displayed keyframe, and therein branch the receiving or the playing of digital hypervideo or both the receiving and the playing, even though the exact scene in which the hyperlink was present has already been displayed in normal time;
• wherein the subscriber/user/viewer need not pounce upon a hyperlink as it moves spatially rapidly or temporally transitorily, or both spatially rapidly and temporally transitorily, in the normal time display of the received streaming digital hypervideo, but can click through upon a hyperlink within a displayed keyframe as and when desired.

A computerized method of receiving and displaying streaming video data while caching, indexing and displaying thumb-nails of the same streaming video data to the purpose that a viewer of the streaming video data may arbitrarily regress and re-regress in time as desired, commencing and re-commencing and re-re-commencing the displaying of the video data from any arbitrary past time or times for howsoever many times as are desired, the infinitely flexible video instant replay method comprising:

• receiving streaming digital video data over time;
• first-displaying the received streaming digital video data substantially in real time;
• detecting scene changes in the streaming digital video data;
• caching in a digital data cache a multiplicity of scenes, as are defined by the detected scenes changes, of the received digital streaming video, oldest cached digital video scenes being discarded in favor of newest cached digital video scenes in a first-in, first-out cache maintenance scheme;
• second-displaying as a multiplicity of still thumbnail images the multiplicity of scenes, oldest thumbnail images being discarded in favor of newest thumbnail images in a first-displayed, first-discarded scheme;
• and,
• in response to a viewer selection of some particular second-displayed thumbnail image, re-commencing the first-displaying from the time of this viewer-selected one of the multiplicity of thumbnail images;
• wherein the viewer may arbitrarily regress and re-regress in time as desired, commencing and re-commencing and re-re-commencing the displaying of the digital streaming video data from any arbitrary past time or times for howsoever many times as are desired;
• wherein the viewer is accorded infinitely flexible video instant replay.

A digital video data cache indexing and maintenance method in support of viewer-controlled instant video replay, the method comprising:

• receiving digital streaming video data continuously over time substantially in real time;
• first-displaying the received digital streaming video data substantially in real time as and when received;
• detecting scenes transitions in the received digital streaming video data;
• caching in a digital data cache a multiplicity of scenes, as are defined by the detected scenes transitions, of the received digital streaming video, oldest cached digital video scenes being discarded in favor of newest cached digital video scenes in a first-in, first-out cache maintenance scheme;
• second-displaying as a multiplicity of still images the multiplicity of scenes, oldest images being discarded in favor of newest images in a first-displayed, first-discarded scheme;
• and,
• in response to a present selection of a viewer of some second-displayed scene image, re-initializing the first-displaying to commence from the time of this selected scene image, the receiving and the detecting and the caching continuing apace only that these operations will henceforth be dealing with digital video data that is in the future to that digital video data that is first-displayed.

A method of displaying and using digital streaming video data containing video hyperlinks, called interactive video, where, nonetheless to inexorable progress in displaying the video, the video hyperlinks are presented to a viewer user long enough, and slow enough, so that the user viewer can click on a hyperlink without tracking its occasionally rapid movement, and its occasionally transit appearance, on a display screen, the method of presenting streaming interactive video so that hyperlinks contained therein may reasonably be acted upon by mere humans comprising:

• first-displaying streaming digital video data containing video hyperlinks, thus interactive video, substantially in real time;
• detecting scenes transitions in the digital streaming video data;
• caching in a digital data cache a multiplicity of scenes, as are defined by the detected scenes transitions, of the received digital streaming video, the hyperlinks being preserved in the cache;
• second-displaying as a multiplicity of still images the multiplicity of scenes, oldest images being discarded in favor of newest images in a first-displayed, first-discarded scheme;
• and,
• responding to a click on hyperlink in a still image by a user viewer to branch the first-displaying identically that this first displaying would have been branched should the subscriber/user/viewer have been so fast, and so nimble, so as to click on the same video hyperlink in the first-displayed image;
• wherein the subscriber/user/viewer is accorded a reasonable time to think and to act in clicking on hyperlinks in the second display, and need not remain poised to spring upon a hyperlink during its potentially rapidly moving, and its potentially transitory, first display.