System And Method For Arranging Segments Of A Multimedia File

Abstract

A method and system are provided for tagging, indexing, searching, retrieving, manipulating, and editing video images on a wide area network such as the Internet. A first set of methods is provided for enabling users to add bookmarks to multimedia files, such as movies, and audio files, such as music. The multimedia bookmark facilitates the searching of portions or segments of multimedia files, particularly when used in conjunction with a search engine. Additional methods are provided that reformat a video image for use on a variety of devices that have a wide range of resolutions by selecting some material (in the case of smaller resolutions) or more material (in the case of larger resolutions) from the same multimedia file. Still more methods are provided for interrogating images that contain textual information (in graphical form) so that the text may be copied to a tag or bookmark that can itself be indexed and searched to facilitate later retrieval via a search engine.

1 - 45 . (canceled)  
     
     
         46 . A method for virtual editing multimedia files, the method comprising: 
 providing one or more video files;    creating a metadata file for each of the video files, each of the metadata files having at least one segment to be edited; and    creating a single edited metafile containing the segments to be edited from each of the metadata files;    wherein when the edited metadata file is accessed, the user is able to play the segments to be edited in the edited order.    
     
     
         47 . A method for virtual editing multimedia files, the method comprising: 
 providing one or more video files;    creating a metadata file for each of the video files, each of the metadata files having at least one segment to be edited; and    creating a single edited metafile containing links to the segments to be edited from each of the metadata files in an edited order;    wherein when the edited metadata file is accessed, the user is able to play the segments to be edited in the edited order.    
     
     
         48 . A method for editing a multimedia file comprising: 
 providing a metafile, the metafile having at least one segment that is selectable;    selecting a segment in the metafile;    determining if a composing segment should be created, and if the composing segment should be created, then creating a composing segment in a hierarchical structure;    specifying the composing segment as a child of a parent composing segment;    determining if metadata is to be copied or if a URI is to be used;    if the metadata is to be copied, then copying metadata of the selected segment to the component segment;    if the URI is to be used, then writing a URI of the selected segment to the component segment;    writing a URL of an input video file to the component segment;    determining if all URLs of any sibling files are the same; and    if the URL is the same as any of the sibling's URLs, then writing the URL to the parent composing segment and deleting the URLs of all sibling segments.    
     
     
         49 . The method of  claim 48 , the method further comprising: 
 determining if another segment is to be selected; and    if another segment is to be selected, then performing the step of selecting a segment in a metafile.    
     
     
         50 . The method of  claim 49 , the method further comprising: 
 determining if another metafile is to be browsed; and    if another metafile is to be browsed, then performing the step of providing a metafile.    
     
     
         51 . The method of  claim 46  wherein the metafile is an XML file.  
     
     
         52 . The method of  claim 47  wherein the metafile is an XML file.  
     
     
         53 . The method of  claim 48  wherein the metafile is an XML file.  
     
     
         54 . A virtual video editor comprising: 
 a network controller, the network controller constructed and arranged to access remote metafiles and remote video files;    a file controller, the file controller in operative connection to the network controller, the file controller constructed and arranged to access local metafiles and local video files, and to access the remote metafiles and the remote video files via the network controller;    a parser, the parser constructed and arranged to receive information about the files from the file controller;    an input buffer, the input buffer constructed and arranged to receive parser information from the parser;    a structure manager, the structure manager constructed and arranged to provide structure data to the input buffer;    a composing buffer, the composing buffer constructed and arranged to receive input information from the input buffer and structure information from the structure manager to generate composing information; and    a generator, the generator constructed and arranged to receive the composing information from the composing buffer;    wherein the generator generates output information in a pre-selected format.    
     
     
         55 . The virtual video editor of  claim 54 , the editor further comprising: 
 a playlist generator, the playlist generator constructed and arranged to receive structure information from the structure manager in order to generate playlist information; and    a video player, the video player constructed and arranged to receive the playlist information from the playlist generator and file information from the file controller in order to generate display information.    
     
     
         56 . The virtual video editor of  claim 55 , the editor further having a display device constructed and arranged to receive the display information from the video player and to display the display information to a user.  
     
     
         57 - 83 . (canceled)