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 - 20 . (canceled) 
     
     
         21 . A method for searching for multimedia content in an environment including a client system and a server system, comprising:
 selecting a particular location within a source multimedia stream;   retrieving a temporal position for the particular location of the source multimedia stream automatically from a media player which plays the source multimedia stream in the client system;   transmitting an identification of the source multimedia stream and the temporal position from the client system to the server system;   locating at least one of pieces of information associated with a segment of the source multimedia stream coffesponding to the identification and the temporal position, the pieces of information including one or more keywords and one or more thumbnail images of captured frames;   searching multimedia database for one or more target multimedia content hits based on at least one of the pieces of information; and   returning said one or more target multimedia content hits to the client system.   
     
     
         22 . The method of  claim 21 , wherein the temporal position is represented by media time or broadcast time. 
     
     
         23 . The method of  claim 21 , wherein the temporal position is retrieved from a multimedia bookmark associated with the source multimedia stream. 
     
     
         24 . The method of  claim 21 , wherein said step of selecting the particular location is performed when the media player in the client system is operated, and is initiated by a user click of a search button in the media player. 
     
     
         25 . A method for searching for multimedia content in an environment including a client system and a server system, comprising:
 selecting a particular location within a source multimedia stream;   retrieving a temporal position for the particular location of the source multimedia stream automatically from a media player which plays the source multimedia stream in the client system;   transmitting the identification of the source multimedia stream and the temporal position from the client system to the server system;   adjusting the temporal position using a media profile of the source multimedia stream corresponding to the identification of the source multimedia stream;   locating at least one of pieces of information associated with a segment of the source multimedia stream corresponding to the identification and the adjusted temporal position, the pieces of information including one or more keywords and one or more thumbnail images of captured frames;   searching multimedia database for one or more target multimedia content hits based on at least one of the pieces of information; and   returning said one or more target multimedia content hits to the client system.   
     
     
         26 . The method of  claim 25 , wherein the media profile contains a list of offsets between positions of a reference multimedia stream and positions of the source multimedia stream corresponding thereto, the source multimedia stream being a variation stream of the reference multimedia stream. 
     
     
         27 . The method of  claim 26 , wherein the positions are represented by media time or broadcasting time. 
     
     
         28 . The method of  claim 27 , wherein the media profile further contains a time scale factor of the media time encoded in a different temporal data rate with respect to that of the reference multimedia stream. 
     
     
         29 . A method of searching for a multimedia content, comprising:
 selecting a particular location within a source multimedia stream;   retrieving a temporal position for the particular location of the source multimedia stream automatically from a media player which plays the source multimedia stream; adjusting the temporal position using a media profile of the source multimedia stream;   locating at least one of pieces of information associated with a segment of the source multimedia stream conesponding to the identification and the adjusted temporal position, the pieces of information including one or more keywords and one or more thumbnail images of captured frames;   searching multimedia database for one or more target multimedia content hits based on at least one of the pieces of information; and   retrieving target temporal positions of the target multimedia content hits each having a keyword or a thumbnail image that matches at least one of the pieces of information;   wherein the target temporal positions contain at least one temporal position that is different from the temporal position of the source media content.   
     
     
         30 . The method of  claim 29 , further comprising presenting target multimedia contents each having the target temporal positions of the target multimedia hits. 
     
     
         31 . The method of  claim 29 , wherein said step of selecting the particular location is performed when the media player is operated. 
     
     
         32 . The method of  claim 29 , wherein said step of selecting the particular location is initiated by a user click of a search button in the media player. 
     
     
         33 . The method of  claim 29 , wherein the temporal position is retrieved from a multimedia bookmark associated with the source multimedia content. 
     
     
         34 . The method of  claim 29 , wherein the media profile contains a list of offsets between positions of a reference multimedia stream and positions of the source multimedia stream corresponding thereto, the source multimedia stream being a variation stream of the reference multimedia stream. 
     
     
         35 . The method of  claim 34 , wherein the temporal position is represented by media time or broadcasting time. 
     
     
         36 . The method of  claim 35 , wherein the media profile further contains a time scale factor of the media time encoded in a different temporal data rate with respect to that of the reference multimedia stream.