Method for automatically providing a compressed rendition of a video program in a format suitable for electronic searching and retrieval

Abstract

A compressed rendition of a video program is provided in a format suitable for electronic searching and retrieval. An electronic pictorial transcript representation of the video program is initially received. The video program has a video component and a second information-bearing media component associated therewith. The pictorial transcript representation includes a representative frame from each segment of the video component of the video program and a portion of the second media component associated with the segment. The electronic pictorial transcript is transformed into a hypertext format to form a hypertext pictorial transcript. The hypertext pictorial transcript is subsequently recorded in an electronic medium.

We claim: 
     
       1. A method for automatically providing a compressed rendition of a video program in a format suitable for electronic searching and retrieval, said method comprising the steps of:
 receiving electronic data representing a condensed version of a video program, said video program having a video component and a second information-bearing media component associated therewith, said electronic data representation including a representative frame from each segment of the video component of the video program and a portion of said second media component associated with said segment;   automatically transforming said electronic data representation into a hypertext format to form a hypertext pictorial transcript; and   recording said hypertext pictorial transcript in an electronic medium.   
     
     
       2. The method of  claim 1  wherein said second media component is closed-caption text. 
     
     
       3. The method of  claim 1  wherein said second media component is audio and wherein said portions of said audio component are represented by hypertext anchors. 
     
     
       4. The method of  claim 1  wherein said hypertext format is hypertext markup language. 
     
     
       5. The method of  claim 1  wherein said hypertext pictorial transcript comprises a plurality of hypertext pages, each of said pages having a prescribed maximum size. 
     
     
       6. The method of  claim 5  wherein said prescribed maximum size is determined by a maximum number of frames per page. 
     
     
       7. The method of  claim 5  wherein said plurality of hypertext pages are interconnected by hypertext links. 
     
     
       8. The method of  claim 1  wherein said hypertext pictorial transcript has at least one standard page layout. 
     
     
       9. The method of  claim 8  wherein said standard page layout includes a subset of representative frames selected by at least one criterion that reduces bandwidth. 
     
     
       10. The method of  claim 9  wherein said criterion removes substantially redundant representative frames. 
     
     
       11. The method of  claim 9  further comprising the step of replacing said substantially redundant frames with hypertext anchors. 
     
     
       12. The method of  claim 9  wherein said criterion removes alternating ones of sequentially occurring representative frames. 
     
     
       13. The method of  claim 9  wherein said criterion removes representative frames below a prescribed image size. 
     
     
       14. The method of  claim 9  wherein said criterion removes representative frames above a prescribed image size. 
     
     
       15. The method of  claim 9  wherein said criterion removes representative frames that differ from other representative frames by less than a prescribed amount. 
     
     
       16. The method of  claim 9  wherein said criterion removes representative frames taken from segments below a threshold length. 
     
     
       17. The method of  claim 9  wherein said criterion removes representative frames taken from advertisements. 
     
     
       18. The method of  claim 1  wherein said hypertext pictorial transcript has a user customizable page layout. 
     
     
       19. The method of  claim 1  further comprising the steps of generating and recording an index page to the hypertext pictorial transcript. 
     
     
       20. The method of  claim 19  wherein said index page includes links to individual pages of the hypertext pictorial transcript. 
     
     
       21. The method of  claim 20  wherein said index page includes hypertext index terms indexed to pages of the hypertext pictorial transcript. 
     
     
       22. The method of  claim 1  wherein said hypertext pictorial transcript has a plurality of standard page layouts selectable by a user. 
     
     
       23. The method of  claim 1  further comprising the step of transmitting said hypertext pictorial transcript over a communications network. 
     
     
       24. The method of  claim 23  wherein said network is the World Wide Web. 
     
     
       25. The method of  claim 1  wherein said hypertext pictorial transcript comprises a plurality of hypertext pages. 
     
     
       26. The method of  claim 25  wherein said hypertext pages are divided based on topic segmentation. 
     
     
       27. The method of  claim 25  wherein said hypertext pages are divided based on a change in closed-caption format. 
     
     
       28. A method for automatically providing a compressed rendition of a video program in a format suitable for electronic searching and retrieval, said method comprising the steps of:
 receiving electronic data representing a condensed version of a video program, said video program having a video component and a second information-bearing media component associated therewith, said electronic data representation including a representative frame from each segment of the video component of the video program and a portion of said second media component associated with said segment;   automatically transforming said electronic data representation into a hypertext format to form a hypertext pictorial transcript; and   recording said hypertext pictorial transcript in an electronic medium.   
     
     
       29. A method for automatically providing a compressed rendition of a video program in a format suitable for electronic searching and retrieval, said method comprising the steps of:
 receiving electronic data representing a condensed version of a video program, said video program having a video component and a second information-bearing media component associated therewith, said electronic data representation including a representative frame from each segment of the video component of the video program and a portion of said second media component associated with said segment;   automatically transforming said electronic data representation into a hypertext format to form a hypertext pictorial transcript;   recording said hypertext pictorial transcript in an electronic medium;   receiving input indicating selection of a particular selectable hypertext pictorial transcript format of a plurality of selectable hypertext pictorial transcript formats displayed within a first graphical user interface;   displaying said hypertext pictorial transcript within a second graphical user interface according to said particular selectable hypertext pictorial transcript format; and   modifying said hypertext pictorial transcript displayed within the second graphical user interface, wherein said hypertext pictorial transcript is modified to cause a visual emphasis of a portion of said hypertext pictorial transcript, wherein the portion of said hypertext pictorial transcript includes a first portion having a first image appearing immediately before a keyword and includes a second portion having a second image appearing immediately after the keyword, wherein the visual emphasis includes displaying the first image at a first image resolution and the second image at a second image resolution and displaying a third image of a third portion of said hypertext pictorial transcript at a third image resolution, wherein the first image resolution and the second image resolution are greater than the third image resolution, and wherein the third portion is distinct from the first portion and the second portion.   
     
     
       30. The method of claim 29, wherein said information-bearing media component is closed-caption text. 
     
     
       31. The method of claim 29, wherein said information-bearing media component is audio and wherein said portions of said information-bearing media component are represented by hypertext anchors. 
     
     
       32. The method of claim 29, wherein said hypertext format is hypertext markup language. 
     
     
       33. The method of claim 29, wherein said hypertext pictorial transcript comprises a plurality of hypertext pages, each of said hypertext pages having a prescribed maximum size. 
     
     
       34. The method of claim 33, wherein said prescribed maximum size is determined by a maximum number of frames per page. 
     
     
       35. The method of claim 33, wherein said plurality of hypertext pages are interconnected by hypertext links. 
     
     
       36. The method of claim 29, wherein said hypertext pictorial transcript has a standard page layout. 
     
     
       37. The method of claim 36, wherein said standard page layout includes a subset of representative frames selected based on a criterion that reduces bandwidth. 
     
     
       38. The method of claim 37, wherein said criterion removes substantially redundant representative frames. 
     
     
       39. The method of claim 38, further comprising replacing said substantially redundant representative frames with hypertext anchors. 
     
     
       40. The method of claim 37, wherein said criterion removes alternating ones of sequentially occurring representative frames. 
     
     
       41. The method of claim 38, wherein said criterion removes representative frames below a prescribed image size. 
     
     
       42. The method of claim 37, wherein said criterion removes representative frames above a prescribed image size. 
     
     
       43. The method of claim 37, wherein said criterion removes representative frames that differ from other representative frames by less than a prescribed amount. 
     
     
       44. The method of claim 37, wherein said criterion removes representative frames taken from segments below a threshold length. 
     
     
       45. The method of claim 37, wherein said criterion removes representative frames taken from advertisements. 
     
     
       46. The method of claim 29, further comprising generating and recording an index page to the hypertext pictorial transcript. 
     
     
       47. The method of claim 46, wherein said index page includes links to individual pages of the hypertext pictorial transcript. 
     
     
       48. The method of claim 47, wherein said index page includes hypertext index terms indexed to pages of the hypertext pictorial transcript. 
     
     
       49. The method of claim 29, further comprising transmitting said hypertext pictorial transcript over a communications network. 
     
     
       50. The method of claim 33, wherein said hypertext pages are divided based on topic segmentation. 
     
     
       51. The method of claim 29, wherein each of said plurality of selectable hypertext pictorial transcript formats are predetermined. 
     
     
       52. The method of claim 29, wherein at least one of said plurality of selectable hypertext pictorial transcript formats is customizable. 
     
     
       53. The method of claim 29, further comprising displaying said hypertext pictorial transcript within said second graphical user interface according to a default hypertext pictorial transcript format when said input indicating selection of said particular selectable hypertext pictorial transcript is not received. 
     
     
       54. The method of claim 29, wherein the first image resolution corresponds to a full sized version of the first image, wherein the second image resolution corresponds to a full sized version of the second image, and wherein the third image resolution does not correspond to a full sized version of the third image. 
     
     
       55. The method of claim 54, wherein the third image includes a hypertext link to the full sized version of the third image.