Media editor for non-linear editing system

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BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The invention relates to non-linear editing systems and, more particularly, to a media editor for the storage, editing and retrieval of audio/visual information.

2. Description of the Related Technology

Linear video editing systems, such as those for videotape and photographic film, are old in the art. In contrast, current personal computer (PC) systems, such as those of the Apple.RTM. Macintosh.RTM. and Intel.RTM. architecture, offer non-linear video editing systems. Non-linear editing on computer oriented systems involves digitizing analog media data recorded from a linear source, such as videotape or film, and storing the digitized media data on a storage device, such as a magnetic disk drive. Once digitized, the non-linear editing system permits rapid access to media data at any point in the linear sequence for subsequent manipulation of media data portions into any order. For example, non-linear editing systems enable the combination of audio clips with other video clips and the formation of new clips using portions of other clips.

The non-linear video editing capability typically resides in a plug-in card for the NuBus or PCI expansion bus of a Macintosh architecture PC or the ISA, EISA or PCI expansion bus of an Intel architecture PC. These non-linear video editing systems typically use compression techniques developed by the Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG) or the Motion Picture Experts Group (MPEG). For example, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,577,190, Peters discloses a media editing system that receives, digitizes, stores and edits audio and video source material, using JPEG compression, for later manipulation by a computer, such as an Apple Macintosh. Similarly, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,508,940, Rossmere, et al., disclose a multimedia random access audio/video editing system including a main control unit that receives data and commands over a SCSI bus from a personal computer having an analog I/O board coupled to audio and video processing boards using JPEG compression. Moreover, Reber et al. disclose a system and method for the management of media data in a non-linear editing system that enables dynamic linking of digitized media data with a specific source reference at run time in U.S. Pat. No. 5,584,006. Lastly, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,438,423, Lynch, et al., disclose a system and method for continuously storing the video content of a program, using JPEG or MPEG compression, in a recirculating random access buffer having sufficient capacity to store a substantial portion of the program.

Unfortunately, consumers currently have no cost effective alternatives for enhancement of their camcorder movies and digital pictures without having to incur substantial costs to purchase a personal computer with a high resolution computer graphics monitor, associated add-in cards and software for non-linear editing. In addition, conventional non-linear editing systems are designed for expert users, such as a professional movie editor, to edit a large number of unrelated movie clips stored on the same linear film or videotape. Thus, conventional non-linear editing system tools are complex and require a high degree of manual interaction and configuration to produce a final edited result. In contrast, consumers often capture closely related events, such as vacations and birthday parties, on videotape using their camcorders. To edit these camcorder tapes, consumers require easy to use non-linear editing systems that facilitate editing without a high degree of computer or editing skill and time spent to configure plug-in cards and software. Similarly, manufacturers currently have no viable, cost effective means for incorporating non-linear editing functionality into their home entertainment components because currently available non-linear editing systems are specifically adapted for personal computer plug-in applications and functionality, instead of home entertainment components. Conventional non-linear editing systems, such as Adobe.RTM. Premiere.RTM., provide user interfaces designed for rendering on high resolution non-interlaced computer graphics monitors. Although computer graphics monitors are viewed from a distance of one to two feet, consumers must often zoom-in on portions of the user interface to perform non-linear editing functions. In contrast, conventional television sets having low resolution interlaced displays, commonly available in home entertainment environments, render poor quality images of these user interfaces designed for high resolution graphics monitors. To compound matters, consumers often view their television sets from a distance of several feet, where a poor quality rendition of a user interface severely impedes its use. Consumers require a non-linear editing system adapted for use with conventional television sets.

Furthermore, current personal computer based non-linear editing systems are specifically adapted to an RGB (red, green and blue) color space used for non-interlaced computer graphics monitors or CRTs. However, RGB is a poor choice for representing real-world images because equal bandwidths are needed to describe each color component while the human eye is more sensitive to luminance (the Y or black and white component) than color components (the U and V components). The equal bandwidth of the RGB format provides the same pixel depth and display resolution for each of the three color components. For example, an NTSC video frame requires about 1012 kilobytes of RGB data, whereas only 675 kilobytes of YUV (4:2:2) data are needed for the same NTSC video frame. Television displays are adapted to receive 29.97 NTSC frames/sec. Thus, to receive an uncompressed NTSC video feed, a non-linear editing system requires a bandwidth of at least 30.3 megabytes/sec. To support the increased bandwidth requirements of the RGB format, non-linear editing systems require expensive dual port video RAMs, instead of low cost synchronous DRAMs. A reduction in the RGB bandwidth requirements needed for PC based nonlinear editing systems is needed to make a non-linear editing system affordable for home use.

In addition, some conventional PC systems use a block memory mover, such as the blitter of the Commodore AMIGA, to manipulate the pixels comprising a rectangular region of a computer display image without intervention of the microprocessor. A personal computer can display images on its display in a wide variety of resolutions, such as 640.times.480 pixels or 1280.times.1024 pixels. A plurality of RGB bits represents each pixel of a display image. Typically, the block memory mover has to copy the bits comprising the pixels of the rectangular region from one location of frame buffer memory to another location of frame buffer memory, implemented using expensive video RAM, to maintain standard computer display resolutions. Unfortunately, conventional block memory movers are designed only to move pixels within a controllable mask, which merely defines whether or not to move specific pixels of the displayed image. Thus, PC based non-linear editing systems do not use conventional block memory movers to perform non-linear editing functions, such as shaped cuts and mixing. Moreover, the use of a block memory mover to perform shaped cuts degrades the output video quality as the fine edges of a shaped cut appear very jagged without some form of anti-aliasing when displayed on a low resolution television set. To bring non-linear editing systems into the home, improved block memory movers capable of performing non-linear editing functions are needed.

Lastly, current PC based non-linear editing systems use conventional memory controllers to access frame buffer memory, which is implemented using expensive FIFOs or VRAMs in order to meet the bandwidth requirements for video data transfers. However, for the same storage capacity, a FIFO currently costs about 20 times more than a DRAM, while a VRAM currently costs about 5 times more than a DRAM. Unfortunately, conventional memory controllers can not support the bandwidth requirements for video data transfers by accessing DRAM memory. Thus, to provide cost effective, non-linear editing systems for home use, consumers require an improved memory controller capable of supporting video bandwidth requirements using DRAM memory. Moreover, conventional non-linear editing systems also increase system cost by using additional dedicated processors, such as audio DSPs or the CPU of the personal computer, for audio editing functions. In summary, consumers have a substantial unmet need for cost effective, non-linear editing systems for home audio and video applications that do not require the use or purchase of an expensive personal computer.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention provides an economical solution for the incorporation and editing of hypermedia, such as motion pictures, music, animation and photographs, into a wide variety of present and future platforms. By eliminating the need for a costly personal computer, the present invention enables the incorporation of conventional home entertainment components, such as VCRs, camcorders and compact disc players, into an economical, stand-alone, non-linear hypermedia editing system. The present invention allows consumers to capture hypermedia from real-time on-line sources, such as broadcast radio and television, pay per view cable/satellite television services and the World Wide Web portion of the Internet, as well as off-line sources, such as video cassette tapes, laserdiscs, DVDs and compact discs. Analog hypermedia is digitized and may be compressed for storage. Consumers may replay the captured hypermedia in addition to selectively capturing and manipulating hypermedia portions, or clips, using the graphical user interface (GUI) of the present invention. Captured clips appear as icons on the GUI and consumers may combine captured clips by manipulating their respective icons to effect a wide variety of editing functions, such as fades, dissolves, wipes, and animated effects. Consumers may also use the point, click, drag and drop functionality of the GUI to integrate captured clips onto a timeline to form a motion picture clip. In a similar manner, consumers may edit and incorporate still photographs, audio, text and other data for incorporation into a clip.

The present invention includes a Shaped Cut, Relocate, Alpha and Mixer (SCRAM) engine, which can operate on display images in real-time to mix, shape cut and relocate portions of images in a range of configurable sizes down to a size of 4.times.1 pixels. In contrast to prior art block memory movers, the SCRAM engine of the present invention provides for the specification of a pixel weighting, which enables the drawing and movement of objects, having a selectable degree of transparency, for anti-aliasing of graphic objects and text during video overlay operations. In addition, the SCRAM engine provides for the movement of objects on a television set without the appearance of jagged edges, thereby overcoming substantial limitations of conventional block memory movers. Similarly, the SCRAM engine provides for the creation of transitions between hypermedia portions and may be used as a high speed drawing tool. Moreover, the SCRAM engine improves system performance, while reducing system cost, by executing complex pixel manipulation functions typically performed by a costly microprocessor of a PC based non-linear editing system. The present invention likewise includes an improved memory controller that provides for multiple sequential accesses to DRAM memory at video data rates. Lastly, the present invention provides for a wide variety of output mediums for the edited results, such as television sets, color printers, videotapes, DVDs, computer displays and audio speakers.

One aspect of the present invention includes a media editor for non-linear editing of hypermedia comprising a video controller to receive a video portion of a hypermedia input, an input frame controller, in communication with the video controller, to provide a plurality of video frames representing the video portion, a memory controller to receive the video frames from the input frame controller for storage in a memory, wherein the memory controller accesses the memory, and an editing engine, in communication with the memory controller, to receive and manipulate the video frames.

Another aspect of the present invention includes an editing engine for manipulating hypermedia comprising a first transition controller to retrieve a first frame from a memory controller, a second transition controller to retrieve a second frame from the memory controller, an alpha transition controller to retrieve an alpha frame from the memory controller, and a video ALU to receive and integrate the first frame, the second frame and the alpha frame so as to form a transition frame.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating an example of an environment for practicing the present invention.

FIG. 2a is a front side elevational view of an embodiment of a remote control of the present invention.

FIG. 2b is a top plan view of the remote control shown in FIG. 2a.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating the major functional units of the remote control shown in FIG. 2.

FIG. 4a is a front side elevational view of an embodiment of a main unit of the present invention.

FIG. 4b is a cutaway front side elevational view of an embodiment of an open connector panel of the main unit of FIG. 4a.

FIG. 4c is a rear side elevational view of the main unit shown in FIG. 4a.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram illustrating the major functional units of a main unit of the present invention.

FIG. 6a is a block diagram illustrating the architecture of a media editor of the present invention.

FIG. 6b is a block diagram illustrating the major functional units of a SCRAM engine of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart illustrating a method of operating the non-linear editing system of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart illustrating a method of manipulating hypermedia of the present invention.

FIG. 9 illustrates an embodiment of a graphical user interface for the capture of hypermedia.

FIG. 10 illustrates an embodiment of a graphical user interface having a storyboard.

FIG. 11 illustrates an embodiment of a graphical user interface for the creation of a transition.

FIG. 12 illustrates an embodiment of a graphical user interface for the creation of graphics.

FIG. 13 is a task flow diagram illustrating the tasks a consumer can perform using the graphical user interface of the present invention.

FIG. 14 is a diagram illustrating the display flow of the graphical user interface of FIG. 9.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

The following detailed description of the presently preferred embodiments presents a description of certain specific embodiments to assist in understanding the claims. However, one may practice the present invention in a multitude of different embodiments as defined and covered by the claims.

For convenience, the description comprises four sections: the Non-Linear Editing System, the Media Editor, Operation of the Non-Linear Editing System and Summary. The first section describes the non-linear editing system of the present invention, the next section provides an overview of the media editor of the present invention, the following section describes the operation of the non-linear editing system and the remaining section summarizes advantageous features of the present invention.

The term hypermedia refers to the integration of text, graphics, sound, video, and other data, or any combination into a primarily associative system for information presentation, storage and retrieval. For example, hypermedia includes motion pictures, music, animation and photographs. Hypermedia environments enable users to make associations between topics. For example, a hypermedia presentation on navigation may include associations, or links, to such topics as astronomy, bird migration, geography, satellites and radar. Multimedia, the combination of sound, graphics, animation and video information, is related to hypermedia in that hypermedia combines the elements of multimedia with associations to link the information.

I. Non-Linear Editing System

FIG. 1 illustrates an environment for practicing the present invention. A non-linear editing system 100 of the present invention communicates with a network 102. Network devices may include computing devices, cable and satellite TV tuners, Web television sets, wireless phones and information kiosks, among others. Computing devices communicating with the network 102 may include clients, such as a network computer and a mobile computer 110, and servers 112, such as a wide area network 114 including a plurality of local area networks 116, each having associated computing devices. To ob