Video preview module to enhance online video experience

Abstract

A Video Preview Module, a fast and adaptable software module designed to generate an on-the-fly video storyboard that enhances the online video browsing experience of the user. The VP module is a client-side implementation. This allows the module to be scalable and adaptable in bringing a uniform online video browsing experience over multiple consumer devices.

1 . Client-side apparatus comprising:
 processor;   video display configured for being controlled by the processor;   network interface by which the processor is configured to receive Internet video from a server over the Internet;   user input device configured for communicating with the processor to send user selection signals to the processor;   the processor configured for executing a video preview module (VPM) to create an “on-the-fly” storyboard of the Internet video, the storyboard including only a subset of frames in the video, the processor presenting the storyboard on the video display;   wherein the VPM when executed by the processor uses a feature selection vector to establish an initial storyboard, and the feature selection vector is a frame luminance histogram.   
     
     
         2 . The apparatus of  claim 1 , wherein the VPM further includes a controller block serving as overall manager of the VPM and configured for executing initialization and run-time controls of all blocks, event handling, and responses. 
     
     
         3 . The apparatus of  claim 2 , wherein the controller block is configured to receive at least a size and a resolution of the display and based at least partially thereon determines how many frames from the Internet video to use to establish the storyboard. 
     
     
         4 . The apparatus of  claim 1 , wherein the VPM is configured to fetche “M” chunks of data for each of a sequence of non-overlapping sections of the Internet video. 
     
     
         5 . The apparatus of  claim 1 , wherein each chunk of data is established by an intraframe (I-frame). 
     
     
         6 . The apparatus of  claim 1 , wherein the chunks of data are equally spaced chunks from each other in a respective section of the Internet video and are separated from each other by data in the Internet video. 
     
     
         7 . The apparatus of  claim 1 , wherein the VPM is configured to establish multiple parallel streaming connections to a link associated with the Internet video. 
     
     
         8 . The apparatus of  claim 1 , wherein the VPM is configured to receive frames from the streamer block, decode the frames, and send the frames into a queue for processing. 
     
     
         9 . The apparatus of  claim 4 , wherein the VPM is configured to use the feature selection vector to establish an initial storyboard using only a subset of the “M” chunks of data. 
     
     
         10 . The apparatus of  claim 9 , wherein the initial storyboard is presented on the display and subsequently an expanded storyboard established by all of the “M” chunks of data fetched by the streamer block VPM is presented on the display. 
     
     
         11 . The apparatus of  claim 9 , a frame characterized by a histogram with a first number of levels is selected for the storyboard over a frame characterized by a histogram having a second number of levels based on the first number of levels being more than the second number of levels. 
     
     
         12 . Consumer electronics (CE) device comprising:
 display;   network interface;   processor configured for controlling the display and for communicating through the network interface;   the processor configured for executing logic including:
 receiving one or more parameters associated with the display; 
 based on the one or more parameters associated with the display determining an integer number “M” of data chunks to be extracted from each of a sequence of sections of a video; 
 responsive to a user selection of a video link presented on the display, communicating with a server on a wide area network to receive from the server a video associated with the video link; 
 extracting “M” data chunks from at least plural sections of the video received from the server on the wide area network; 
 decoding the data chunks; 
 establishing a storyboard using only the “M” data chunks from each of the plural sections of the video received from the server on the wide area network; and 
 presenting the storyboard on the display wherein “M” varies with the format of the video. 
   
     
     
         13 . The CE device of  claim 12 , wherein the processor is configured for, prior to establishing a storyboard using only the “M” data chunks from each of the plural sections of the video received from the server on the wide area network establishing an initial storyboard using only of a subset of the “M” data chunks and presents the initial storyboard on the display. 
     
     
         14 . The CE device of  claim 13 , wherein the processor is configured to use a feature selection vector to establish the initial storyboard. 
     
     
         15 . The CE device of  claim 14 , wherein the initial storyboard is presented on the display and subsequently an expanded storyboard established by all of the “M” data chunks is presented on the display. 
     
     
         16 . The CE device of  claim 14 , wherein the feature selection vector is one or more of I-frame size, a frame luminance histogram. 
     
     
         17 . A Video Preview Module (VPM) contained on a computer readable storage medium that is not a carrier wave, the VPM being executable by a processor to generate an on-the-fly video storyboard that enhances online video browsing experiences of users, the VPM when executed by the processor using frame luminance histogram information to select frames from a video, the frames selected from the video establishing the storyboard. 
     
     
         18 . The VPM of  claim 17 , comprising:
 a streamer block which when executed configures the processor for establishing one or more parallel connections to an Internet server to obtain from the server an Internet video;   a decoder cooperating with the streamer block which when executed configures to the processor to stream in portions of video content from various locations of the Internet video, the decoder which when executed configures to the processor for decoding frames from the Internet video;   a frame selector which when executed configures to the processor for operating on data from the streamer block to select a subset of frames from the stream for the storyboard for presentation of the storyboard on a display under control of a display block.   
     
     
         19 . The VPM of  claim 18 , wherein the VPM further includes a controller block which when executed configures to the processor for serving as overall manager of the VPM and executing initialization and run-time controls of all blocks, event handling, and responses. 
     
     
         20 . The VPM of  claim 19 , wherein the controller block is configured to receive at least a size and a resolution of the display and based at least partially thereon determines how many frames from the Internet video to use to establish the storyboard.