Apparatus and Method for Context-based Storage and Retrieval of Multimedia Content

Abstract

Disclosed is a solution that tags and stores video, audio, pictures, text, and other content, along with their associated metadata to allow for contextual retrieval and customized playback of stored content.

What we claim are the following: 
     
         1 . A method for retrieving stored multimedia content comprising:
 receiving at least a partial search term entered by a user;   generating one or more candidate search terms from the partial search term;   displaying on a display device the one or more candidate search terms;   receiving a selected candidate search term;   using the selected candidate search term and user-context data associated with a current context of the user to identify one or more search results from among the stored multimedia content; and   displaying on the display device a list of the one or more identified search results, which can then be presented to the user.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising using user-context data associated with contexts of other users to generate the one or more one or more search results. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising using the user-context data associated with the current context of the user to generate the one or more candidate search terms from the partial search term. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising using user-context data associated with contexts of other users to generate the one or more candidate search terms from the partial search term. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising using the candidate search term to identify a text snippet from each identified search result and displaying a plurality of text snippets with the one or more identified search results listed. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising using the user's media consumption patterns to determine how to present to the user a selected search result. 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising presenting to the user a selected search result, including:
 identifying portions of the selected search result using viewer-provided text comprising comments of users who have commented on the selected search result; and   presenting the identified portions of the selected search result.   
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising presenting to the user a selected search result, including:
 presenting a tag cloud associated with the selected search result comprising one or more tags selected from textual tag data generated from an analysis of the selected search result; and   presenting a portion of the selected search result corresponding to a tag in the tag cloud selected by the user.   
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising presenting to the user a search result selected from the one or more identified search results and displaying a list of one or more related search results that relate to subject matter in the selected search result. 
     
     
         10 . A method for retrieving stored multimedia content comprising:
 receiving at least a partial search term of characters entered by a user;   generating a search term from the partial search term;   using the search term to identify one or more search results from among the stored multimedia content; and   presenting to the user a search result selected from the one or more identified search results, including:
 using user-context data associated with a current context of the user to generate summary information from the selected search result; and 
 presenting the summary information to the user. 
   
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 10 , further comprising identifying one or more segments of the selected search result to generate the summary information. 
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 11  further comprising using the search term to identify the one or more segments of the selected search result. 
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 11 , further comprising using the user-context data associated with the current context of the user to identify the one or more segments of the selected search result. 
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 11 , wherein the one or more segments of the selected search result are the most viewed segments. 
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 10 , further comprising generating textual tag data from an analysis of the selected search result and generating a tag cloud associated with the selected search result comprising one or more tags selected from the textual tag data to generate the summary information. 
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 15 , further comprising using the search term to identify the one or more tags from the textual tag data of the selected search result. 
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 15 , further comprising using the user-context data associated with the current context of the user to identify the one or more tags from the textual tag data of the selected search result. 
     
     
         18 . The method of  claim 10 , further comprising mining viewer-provided text, that is associated with the selected search result, comprising comments of users who have replayed and commented on the selected search result to generate the summary information. 
     
     
         19 . The method of  claim 18 , further comprising using the search term to mine the viewer-provided text. 
     
     
         20 . The method of  claim 18 , further comprising using the user-context data associated with the current context of the user to mine the viewer-provided text. 
     
     
         21 . A system comprising:
 a computer processor; and   a data store having stored thereon computer-executable program code, which when executed by the computer processor, causes the computer processor to:
 receive at least a partial search term entered by a user; 
 generate one or more candidate search terms from the partial search term; 
 display on a display device the one or more candidate search terms; 
 receive a selected candidate search term; 
 use the selected candidate search term and user-context data associated with a current context of the user to identify one or more search results from among the stored multimedia content; and 
 display on the display device a list of the one or more identified search results, which can then be presented to the user.