Interval Research Corporation

Interval Licensing LLC

Interval Research Group

Brygg A Ullmer

Jesse Lee Dorogusker

Subutai Ahmad

James H Boyden

S Joy Mountford

Neal A Bhadkamkar

Thomas J Dougherty

Paul A Freiberger

Steve B Cousins

Daniel E Cummings

Philip A Van Allen

Philippe P Piernot

Emanuel E Farber

Christopher D Horner

A system and method for review of news content (audio, video and/or textual news content), such that an overview of the news content can be quickly ascertained and flexibility in the manner in which it is presented are provided. News programs (e.g. television news programs) and news stories (e.g., on-line news) are acquired and the system enables the user to easily move among and randomly access the segments of news programs and quickly locate the segments of a particular subject. News stories related to the segment of news program being viewed can be identified and displayed. Flexible playback allows speeding-up the display of the news program while displaying summary of one or more program segments and accelerating playback of a paused program after resuming from the pause. The system can additionally indicate to the user which news story is currently being viewed, and which news stories have already been viewed.

Browser for use in navigating a body of information, with particular application to browsing information represented by audiovisual data

The invention facilitates and enhances review of a body of information, such as a set of audio, video and text data or some combination thereof, enabling the body of information to be quickly reviewed so to obtain an overview of the content of the body of information and allowing flexibility in reviewing. In on embodiment, the content is acquired from a first set of one or more sources, i.e. TV news, and text news stories are acquired from a second set of one or more sources, i.e. On-line services. The invention enables the user to access the information randomly, thereby enhancing the speed of accessing/locating among news stories/programs pertaining particular subject. Additionally, the user while observing a particular news story, the invention can identify and display related news stories.

The present invention teaches a variety of methods and systems for providing computer/human interfaces. According to one method, the user interfaces with an electronic device such as a computer system by engaging a sensor with desired regions of an encoded physical medium. The encoded physical medium is preferably chosen to provide intuitive meaning to the user, and is thus an improved metaphor for interfacing with the computer system. Suitable examples of the encoded physical medium include a data-linked book magazine, globe, or article of clothing. Some or all of the selected regions have had certain information encoded therein, information suitable for interfacing and controlling the computer system. When the user engages the sensor with a region having a certain encoded information, the certain encoded information is interpreted and an appropriate action taken. For example, the sensor or the computer system may provide suitable feedback to the user. The encoded physical medium may have test and/or graphic illustrations that draw the user in or provide meaningful clues or instructions perhaps related to the encoded information. The sensor may have at least one identification number (ID) providing information such as user identity, sensor type, access type, or language type. The sensor can transmit the certain decoded information together with the at least one ID to the computer system.

Methods and systems for providing human/computer interfaces

The present invention teaches a variety of methods and systems for providing computer/human interfaces. According to one method, the user interfaces with an electronic device such as a computer system by engaging a sensor with desired regions of an encoded physical medium. The encoded physical medium is preferably chosen to provide intuitive meaning to the user, and is thus an improved metaphor for interfacing with the computer system. Suitable examples of the encoded physical medium include a data-linked book, magazine, globe, or article of clothing. Some or all of the selected regions have had certain information encoded therein, information suitable for interfacing and controlling the computer system. When the user engages the sensor with a region having certain encoded information, the certain encoded information is interpreted and an appropriate action taken. For example, the sensor or the computer system may provide suitable feedback to the user. The encoded physical medium may have text and/or graphic illustrations that draw the user in or provide meaningful clues or instructions perhaps related to the encoded information. One scheme for storing the certain encoded data is a spectral encoding scheme. In a preferred embodiment, the spectral encoding scheme uses red, green, blue (RGB). The content is encoded according to the intensities of the RGB colors within the hot spot. In another embodiment, a marker color is inserted into the hot spot to indicate that content is encoded therein.

The present invention teaches a variety of methods and systems for providing computer/human interfaces. According to one method, the user interfaces with an electronic device such as a computer system by engaging a sensor with desired regions of an encoded physical medium. The encoded physical medium is preferably chosen to provide intuitive meaning to the user, and is thus an improved metaphor for interfacing with the computer system. Suitable examples of the encoded physical medium include a data-linked book, magazine, globe, or article of clothing. Some or all of the selected regions have had certain information encoded therein, information suitable for interfacing and controlling the computer system. When the user engages the sensor with a region having certain encoded information, the certain encoded information is interpreted and an appropriate action taken. For example, the sensor or the computer system may provide suitable feedback to the user. The encoded physical medium may have text and/or graphic illustrations that draw the user in or provide meaningful clues or instructions perhaps related to the encoded information. The sensor may have at least one identification number (ID) providing information such as user identity, sensor type, access type, or language type. The sensor can transmit the certain decoded information together with the at least one ID to the computer system.

The invention facilitates and enhances review of a body of information (that can be represented by a set of audio data, video data, text data or some combination of the three), enabling the body of information to be quickly reviewed to obtain an overview of the content of the body of information and allowing flexibility in the manner in which the body of information is reviewed. In a particular application of the invention, the content of audiovisual news programs is acquired from a first set of one or more information sources (e.g., television news programs) and text news stories are acquired from a second set of one or more information sources (e.g., on-line news services or news wire services). In such a particular application, the invention can enable the user to access the news stories of audiovisual news programs in a random manner so that the user can move quickly among news stories or news programs. The invention can also enable the user to quickly locate news stories pertaining to a particular subject. Additionally, when the user is observing a particular news story in a news program, the invention can identify and display related news stories. The invention can also enable the user to control the display of the news programs by, for example, speeding up the display, causing a summary of one or more news stories to be displayed, or pausing the display of the news stories. Additionally, the invention can indicate to the user which news story is currently being viewed, as well as which news stories have previously been viewed.

The invention enables the display of an image to be paused, then, at the end of the pause, resumed at an accelerated rate until a time at which the content of the display corresponds to the content that would have been displayed had the image been displayed at the normal display rate without the pause, at which time display of the image at the normal display rate resumes. The invention can be used with display systems that display pre-recorded images (such as are found on video or audio cassettes, or video or audio compact discs, for example) or with display systems that display images based upon display data that is only momentarily available to the display system (such as occurs in the display of television or radio broadcasts). The invention can be used with either analog or digital display systems. Further, the invention can be used with any type of image display, such as, for example, audio displays, video displays or audiovisual displays. The invention enables a great deal of flexibility in observing the display of an image, allowing a user to pause and resume the display as desired, without having to spend more time to view the displayed image than would otherwise be the case, and without missing any part of the displayed image.

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Cambridge, MA, United States of America

Brygg A Ullmer