Method for interacting with a multimedia presentation served by an interactive response unit

Abstract

A system for interacting with a multimedia presentation includes one or more machine-readable codes embedded in a plurality of sequential frames or in individual slides of a multimedia presentation, the frames or slides defining at least one interactive portion of a larger multimedia presentation, a touch-screen driver extension resident on a digital medium and transferable over a network to the digital medium of a touch-screen operated multi-media device, the extension enabling interpretation at the multimedia-enabled interactive response unit of touch-screen taps input during play of the multimedia presentation, and a set of machine instructions resident on a digital medium coupled to or accessible to a multimedia-enabled interactive response system, the machine instructions executable by physical interaction with the one or more of the machine-readable codes in the multimedia presentation to serve one or more additional multimedia presentations to the touch-screen multimedia device.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A system for interacting with a multimedia presentation comprising:
 one or more machine-readable codes embedded in a plurality of sequential frames or in individual slides of a multimedia presentation, the frames or slides defining at least one interactive portion of a larger multimedia presentation;   a touch-screen driver extension resident on a digital medium and transferable over a network to the digital medium of a touch screen operated multi-media device, the extension enabling interpretation at the multimedia-enabled interactive response unit of touch-screen taps input during play of the multimedia presentation;   a set of machine instructions resident on a digital medium coupled to or accessible to a multimedia-enabled interactive response system, the machine instructions executable by physical interaction with the one or more of the machine-readable codes in the multimedia presentation to serve one or more additional multimedia presentations to the touch-screen multimedia device.   
     
     
         2 . The system of  claim 1  accessible through a Website. 
     
     
         3 . The system of  claim 1  accessible through a telephony carrier network. 
     
     
         4 . The system of  claim 1  wherein the one or more machine-readable codes include links to one or more multimedia presentations containing information related to but more detailed than the specific portion of the multimedia presentation interacted with. 
     
     
         5 . The system of  claim 1  wherein the physical action is tapping on a touch screen of the receiving device in a part of the multimedia presentation the user desires more information about. 
     
     
         6 . The system of  claim 1  wherein the physical action is key or voice input. 
     
     
         7 . The system of  claim 1  wherein the multimedia presentation is an instructional video or slide presentation. 
     
     
         8 . The system of  claim 1  wherein the machine-readable codes comprise metadata that describes one or more additional multimedia presentations related to the portion of the multimedia presentation containing the code. 
     
     
         9 . The system of  claim 8  wherein one or more machine-readable codes are embedded in one or more strategic portions in the additional multimedia presentations related to the portion of the multimedia presentation containing the original code, those machine-readable codes comprising metadata that describes one or more additional and related multimedia presentations. 
     
     
         10 . A method for interacting with a multimedia presentation served from a multimedia-enabled interactive response system to retrieve additional information comprising the steps:
 (a) viewing the multimedia presentation on a connected computing device having touch screen capability;   (b) interacting via touch screen to any portion of the multimedia presentation that more information is desired about;   (c) interpreting the action of step (b) at the multimedia-enabled interactive response unit; and   (d) if the touched area was tagged, executing machine instruction to interrupt the previous multimedia presentation and to serve one or more new multimedia presentations relative to the portion of the original multimedia presentation.   
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 10  practiced through a Website. 
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 10  practiced through a telephony carrier network. 
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 10  wherein in step (a), the multimedia presentation is an instructional video or slide presentation. 
     
     
         14 . The method of step  10  wherein in step (b), one or more machine-readable codes include links to one or more multimedia presentations containing information related to but more detailed than the specific portion of the multimedia presentation interacted with. 
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 10  wherein in step (b), the interaction is tapping on a touch screen of the receiving device in a part of the multimedia presentation the user desires more information about. 
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 10  wherein in step (b), the interaction is key or voice input. 
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 10  wherein in step (b), one or more machine-readable codes are embedded in one or more strategic portions in the original multimedia presentation, those machine-readable codes comprising metadata that describes one or more additional and related multimedia presentations. 
     
     
         18 . The method of  claim 10  wherein in step (b), one or more machine-readable codes are embedded in one or more strategic portions in the additional and related multimedia presentations, those machine-readable codes comprising metadata that describes one or more subsequent multimedia presentations relating to the previous presentations. 
     
     
         19 . The method of  claim 10  further including a preliminary step before step (a) for selecting a specific multimedia presentation from a list of two or more offered presentations to view. 
     
     
         20 . The method of  claim 10  wherein the interactive response unit detects repeated touch-screen taps in an area of the multimedia presentation that contains no metadata.