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For example, researchers are currently investigating METHOD AND FACILITY FOR DYNAMIC VIDEO the possibility of replacing mass media vehicles such as COMPOSITION AND VIEWING newspapers and magazines, which can offer only static
images, with video material organized into related segI. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 5 ments through which a viewer can browse. These seg
A. Program-Listing Appendix ments re,lated, to ^ n"mber Acc°r<JThis application is filed with an appendix containing "f* *?th according to subject
source-code listings relationships, the user could follow his or her own
B. Field of the Invention lft c*°*n ^th^ throu«h ,the TMteTM1' viewing inbjectt The present invention relates generally to the field of 10 of mte=reslm 8reater, dePth **** oth" sub"
video production, editing, presentation, authoring and F*f"eTM°". « *> anfisvc »"
viewing, and in particufcr to a computer-resident facil- ttvet^ ^"T "*", * orcheStrate the
ity thaf permits editing and relational linkage among rclf ^ ?d~ «gments t
.r . „ *^ . . ?. . 6 6 Application of digital technology to video composi
digitally represented video segment. 15 ... ^ ^tlso enhance the human interface to
C_ Description of the Related Art such material. The aiialog or immturized-image system
The types of available media for storing and access- ^ ^ * nts b words or ^ or
ing video images have increased significantly in recent ^ ^ J^^. Both forms of identifi
years. Magnetic videotape and other forms of analog ^ for a ^ ^
electronic storage have largely supplanted the trad!- ^ QUt anM^t For 1Ci , ^ ■ of , sports
tional media, which are based on silver-halide represen- fi ^ ^ intefpreted ^ connoting M u^ge segment
tat.ons of miniaturized images. With the reductions in ... {0 ^ ^ ^4,^ „,« facet of ^ or
computer cycle time and the cost of memory devices h„ ,e of , or ^ itsdf ^ ^ ^
that have recently been achieved, dIgital storage of still oftm ^ dij Ued ^ a verbal referencc> but
and moving video images is increasingly becoming 25 subject ^ to description „ a few words, an
feasible and may ultimately replace analog-electronic vcrbal characterization may ^ too long for
m „!a. ... _ . , labelling purposes. These identification techniques and
Digitized v,deo offers substantial advantages over their attcndant limitations stem la^ly from the
both miniaturaed-image and analog-electronic storage straints by non-digital image storage and as
forms. All miniaturized-image and many analog devices Jq sembly.
require serial access of desired material, necessitating Current applications of digital video technology are lengthy forwarding or rewinding operations to retrieve limited by available date-compression algorithms and remotely located material. By contrast, the mechanical st0rage devices. Typically, only a small amount of madevices that manipulate digitally stored date, such as ^risi can be stored in digitally compressed, full-motion magnetic or optical disk assemblies, operate at a higher 35 formati and this technique finds significant cornrate of speed and with greater accuracy than those mercial application only in post-production creation of associated with the earlier video technologies. This is relatively short "special-effect" segments (such as peeldue primarily to the topology of digital devices, which mg) However, hardware power and capacity continue allows virtually any portion thereof to be accessed to increase, and an infrastructure supporting widewithin a short interval. 40 spread delivery of digital services will accompany inBoth miniaturized-image and analog media must gen- stallation of fiberoptic trunks (which has already beerally be physically modified in order to accommodate gun). Consequently, while digitized video images are duplication or translocation of material. For example, not currently commonplace, this situation will likely film editing requires cutting and splicing by using spe- change in the near future.
cialized equipment; videotape editing requires analo- 45 Exploiting the flexibility and speed of digitally stored
gous permanent alterations to the tape. Transfers of video requires an approach to composition that empha
overlapping material to more than one new location sizes the capabilities of modern computational equip
require even more effort, because the overlap portions ment. A digital composition system should be capable
must be copied onto new blank media before being 0f designating video segments interactively for storage
inserted. Digital technology, in contrast, permits rapid 50 or immediate playback, organizing multilayered rela
and straightforward duplication or translocation of a tionships among the specified segments, and displaying
particular video segment, which can be accomplished to the user an ordered and adequately labelled selection
with simple memory operations. of related segments for viewing or editing.
The mechanical limitations associated with non-digi- „ „„„ ,
tal video technology place fundamental limitations on 55 11 DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION the manner in which image information can be pres- A. Summary of the Invention ented. Because the final image sequence must reside on The present invention provides a computational facila single portion of recording medium, the order in ity that achieves the foregoing by importing relational which image information is presented is effectively database concepts into the domain of video viewing, unalterable. Absent a parallel array of multiple, coordi- 60 video composition and editing. The present invention nated playback devices, viewers cannot be offered the establishes a common data structure applicable to all opportunity to depart from the linear image sequence as image source material and segments thereof, which originally defined and recorded, or to selectively in- contains data entered directly by the user, derived from voke related sequences. Non-digital technology thus the image source material through computational malimits the viewer's ability to interact with and tailor the 65 nipulation (e.g. automated tagging or labelling), and/or presentation to suit individual interests, as well as the inferred from the user's pattern of activity. The set of composer's ability to create relationships among dis- active data structures is then incorporated into a suitcrete video segments based on content or other criteria. able relational schema that permits designation of rela
