System and method for indexing, searching, identifying, and editing multimedia files

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 . A method of searching for multimedia content, comprising: 
 receiving a first piece of information identifying the multimedia content;    using said first piece of information to locate a second piece of information identifying the multimedia content; and    performing a search for multimedia content based on said second piece of information.    
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1  additionally comprising performing a search based on said first piece of information.  
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 2  additionally comprising presenting the results from said searches performed based on said first and said second pieces of information.  
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1  wherein said using said first piece of information includes performing a search based on said first piece of information to locate said second piece of information.  
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1  wherein said first piece of information comprises one of an image and positional information and said second piece of information comprises annotated text.  
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 1  wherein said first piece of information comprises positional information and said second piece of information comprises image information.  
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 1  wherein said first piece of information is received from a multimedia bookmark.  
     
     
         8 . A method of searching for multimedia content, comprising: 
 receiving a first piece of information identifying the multimedia content;    using said first piece of information to locate a second piece of information identifying the multimedia content;    performing a search for multimedia content based on said second piece of information; and    collecting relevance information based on prior user searches, said relevance information being used to perform said search.    
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 8  wherein said relevance information includes at least one of content or concept information.  
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 8  wherein said relevance information is based on links, said method additionally comprising storing said links in a queue.  
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 10  wherein said storing said links in a queue includes storing a new link at a head of said queue and deleting an oldest link from an end of said queue.  
     
     
         12 . A method for searching for multimedia content based on a first piece of information saved in a multimedia bookmark, comprising: 
 transmitting said first piece of information saved in a multimedia bookmark from a client system to a server system in response to user selection of the multimedia bookmark;    using the first piece of information to locate a second piece of information;    generating a query based on said second piece of information;    searching one or more storage devices with said query; and    presenting results from said searching.    
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 12  additionally comprising generating a query based on said first piece of information; searching said one or more storage devices with said query; and presenting results from said searching.  
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 12  additionally comprising generating a query based on said first piece of information and wherein using said first piece of information includes performing a search based on said first piece of information to locate said second piece of information.  
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 12  wherein said first piece of information comprises one of an image and positional information and said second piece of information comprises annotated text.  
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 12  wherein said first piece of information comprises positional information and said second piece of information comprises image information.  
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 12  wherein said first piece of information comprises image data, said method further comprising using the image data as a query frame for a frame based search of the storage devices.  
     
     
         18 . The method of  claim 12  wherein said first piece of information comprises positional information, said method further comprising using the positional information to locate a frame, and using said located frame as a query frame for a frame based search of the storage devices.  
     
     
         19 . The method of  claim 12  wherein said second piece of information comprises annotated text, and wherein said generating a query comprises using the annotated text as a keyword for a text based search of the storage devices.  
     
     
         20 . The method of  claim 12  additionally comprising collecting relevance information based on prior user input, said relevance information being used to perform said searching.