Apple patent: portable media device with improved video acceleration abilities

Posted by Dennis Sellers Jul 5, 2007 at 5:35am

A new Apple patent (number 2007015768) for a portable media device with improved video acceleration abilities has appeared at the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office. First appearing in 2006, it seems to involve the 5G (video enabled) iPod, the iPhone and, most likely, an upcoming “true” video iPod.

Improved techniques for performing accelerated video presentation on a media device are disclosed. The improved techniques enable smooth, uniform accelerated video presentation by displaying key frames from a video file in a periodic fashion. The rate and direction of accelerated video presentation can be controlled. The improved techniques are well suited for use with portable media devices.

Conventionally, video players are able to output video to a display device. Video players can be software applications operating on a personal computer or a specialized electronic device, such as a DVD player. These video players allow a user to playback a video. In addition, these video players allow other functions, such as fast forward and rewind operations, to be invoked by their user. Unfortunately, however, these conventional video players are not well suited for portable media devices being battery-powered and having limited processing capacity, so there’s a need for improved techniques for presenting video on portable media players.

Here’s Apple’s summary of the invention: “The invention relates to improved techniques for performing accelerated video presentation on a media device. The improved techniques enable smooth, uniform accelerated video presentation by displaying key frames from a video file in a periodic fashion. The rate and direction of accelerated video presentation can be controlled.

“The invention is well suited for use with portable media devices. The portable media devices can, for example, be battery-powered media playback devices. The battery-powered media playback devices can be highly portable, such as handheld or pocket-sized media players.

“The invention can be implemented in numerous ways, including as a method, system, device, apparatus, or computer readable medium. Several embodiments of the invention are discussed below.

“As a method for presenting video in an accelerated manner, one embodiment of the invention includes at least the acts of: receiving a request for accelerated presentation of a video, the video including a plurality of frames stored in a video file, some of the frames being key frames; identifying, after receiving the request, a next key frame in the video file for the video; retrieving the identified next key frame of the video file; and presenting the identified next key frame of the video.

“As a method for playing a video on a media playback device in an accelerated manner, where the media playback device has a display device, one embodiment of the invention includes at least the acts of: determining a next key frame in a video file for the video; identifying a storage location and at least one attribute of the next key frame; retrieving the next key frame based on the storage location and the at least one attribute; decoding the next key frame; and outputting the decoded key frame to the display device.

“As a media playback device, one embodiment of the invention includes at least: a media store that stores video files, the video files including frames, and at least some of the frames are key frames; a processor capable of processing video concerning at least one of the video files in an accelerated manner by successively providing key frames of the at least one of the video files; an output device; and a decoder configured to receive the frames of the video from the processor and to output video presentation information to the output device.

“As a media playback device, another embodiment of the invention includes at least: a user input device configured to receive a user video acceleration input; a media store that stores video files, the video files including frames, and at least some of the frames are key frames; a key frame table capable of storing key frame information pertaining to at least a plurality of the key frames of the video file; a processor capable of processing video concerning at least one of the video files in an accelerated manner in response to the user video acceleration input, the processor operates to process the video by successively outputting key frames of the video file associated with the video; an output device; and a decoder configured to receive the frames of the video from the processor and output video presentation information to the output device.

“As a computer readable medium including at least computer program code for presenting video in an accelerated manner, one embodiment of the invention includes at least: computer program code for receiving a request for accelerated presentation of a video, the video including a plurality of frames stored in a video file, some of the frames being key frames; computer program code for identifying, after receiving the request, a next key frame in the video file for the video; computer program code for retrieving the identified next key frame of the video file; and computer program code for presenting the identified next key frame of the video.”

The inventors are Mythya K. Girish, Aram Lindahl and Joseph Mark Williams.

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