Enhancing a Rendering System to Distinguish Presentation Time from Data Time

Abstract

A machine-implemented method: (A) maintains a value of a data time parameter representing an amount of time required by a rendering system to render a portion of temporal sequence presentation data at a default presentation rate; (B) provides the value of the data time parameter to a first component of the rendering system; (C) calculates, based on the value of the data time parameter, a value of a presentation time parameter representing an amount of time elapsed during rendering of the portion of the temporal sequence presentation data; and (D) provides the value of the presentation time parameter to a second component of the rendering system; wherein the value of the presentation time parameter is not equal to the value of the data time parameter.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A method, performed by at least one machine, for rendering temporal sequence presentation data in a machine-implemented rendering system, the temporal sequence presentation data being tangibly stored in a first computer-readable medium and comprising an unmodified plurality of n data elements corresponding to a portion of the temporal sequence presentation data, wherein each of the data elements in the unmodified plurality share a fixed specified presentation duration, the method comprising steps of:
 (A) generating a modified plurality of data elements corresponding to the portion of the temporal sequence presentation data;   (B) maintaining a value of a presentation time parameter tangibly stored in a second computer-readable medium and representing an amount of time required to render the modified plurality of data elements;   (C) providing the value of the presentation time parameter to a first component of the rendering system; and   (D) providing a value of a data time parameter to a second component of the rendering system, wherein the value of the data time parameter represents n multiplied by the fixed specified presentation duration;   wherein the value of the presentation time parameter is not equal to the value of the data time parameter.