I . ` ll 1
Contents
1. Notice of Allowance mailed Feb 17 2010 Sonic Foundry Inc Sound Forge 6 0 copyright 2002 2003 Sonic Foundry Inc pp 1 14 and 129 142 http www sonycreativesoftware com download manuals soundforgefamily U S Appl No 11 195 265 filed Aug 1 2005 Final Office Action mailed Mar 18 2011 cited by examiner U S Patent Oct 23 2012 Sheet 1 of 3 US 8 295 682 B1 106 108 110 112 U S Patent Oct 23 2012 Sheet 2 of 3 US 8 295 682 B1 US 8 295 682 B1 Sheet 3 of 3 2012 Oct 23 U S Patent 9c 8c MYOMLAN W901 Oct IdAtIdS oze XNIT MYOMLAN JOVIYNSLNI woe NOILVOINNWNOD YOssga00ud sna Ore got got SOI AMOWSW JOVYOLS WOU NIV TE JOYLNOOD YOSYND yit 39lA3G LAdNI cle AV 1dSIG Old US 8 295 682 Bl 1 SELECTING PREVIOUSLY SELECTED SEGMENTS OF A SIGNAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to digital editing and more specifically to editing signal data BACKGROUND It is desirable in a variety of contexts to capture signals The nature of the signals may vary from context to context For example in a medical context it may be desirable to capture signals that represent heart activity In the context of sound studios it may be desirable to capture audio signals produced by music artists The techniques described herein are not limited to any particular type of recorded signal The digital representation of2. the signal editing application is able to adjust the selection history when insert deletes occur In addition if the selection history data stores both the sample range and the time range then the signal editing application can provide users with the option of jump ing to either the time based selection or the sample range based selection If the sample range does not equal the time range then the signal editing application may ask the user via preference or dialog which of the two ranges to use On the other hand if the sample range equals the time range then the user would not be asked Storing Parameter Values in the Selection History Data According to one embodiment various parameter values may be stored in the selection history data entry of a previ ously selected segment The parameter values may reflect for example the state of the signal editing application at the time that the segment was originally selected In response to user input that selects a previously selected segment using the navigation tool 100 the signal editing application assigns the parameter values from the segment s entry to the correspond ing operational parameters of the signal editing application As a result selection of a previously selected segment restores some properties of the signal editing tool to the state that the signal editing application was in at the time the segment was originally selected For example consider the visual depicti
3. OF A SIGNAL the contents of which are incorporated herein by this reference Many editing operations are performed on selected seg ments of the signal rather than on the entire signal For example in the operation mentioned above the user replaces with ambient noise only the segment of the signal that con tains the cough To allow users to perform operations that involve segments ofa signal signal editing applications typi cally have user interface controls that allow a user to select a segment of the signal The specific user interface controls that a signal editing application provides for selecting a segment of a signal may vary from application to application For example one signal editing application may allow a user to specify markers at user selected points in the visual depiction of the signal The user may then double click the cursor between two markers to automatically select the segment ofthe signal that is bounded by the two markers As another example a signal editing application may allow a user to select a segment by 1 press ing down on a mouse button at a first point in the visual depiction of the signal 2 dragging the cursor to a second point in the visual depiction of the signal and 3 releasing the mouse button In response to releasing the mouse button the segment between the first point and the second point is 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 2 selected A single sign
4. Selection 5 According to one embodiment selecting a new segment after navigating to a particular previously selected segment causes all segments that follow the particular previ ously selected segment to be purged from the history After such a purge the history would contain the following entries Selection 1 Selection 2 Selection 5 Thus Selections 3 and 4 have been removed from the history Automatically deleting subsequent entries in this manner is not always desirable especially for user named selections According to one embodiment user named selections are not implicitly purged in this manner but are retained and dis played in a separate user interface element For example such user named selections may be displayed in a pop up menu between the arrow buttons where users would also name new selections Instead of or in addition to implicit purging the user may be provided with controls that allow the user to purge 1 all entries in the selection history 2 all entries other than user labeled entries 3 a selected range of entries and or 4 selected individual entries In this manner the user may retain the selection history entries for important segments while still pruning the selection history list down to a manageable number of entries Depicting the Selected Segment Many signal editing applications generate visual depic tions ofa signal An example of such a depiction is illustrated in FIG 2 When a seg
5. empty selections where there is a starting point in the timeline but zero duration can be optionally added to the selection history via user preference As another example the signal editing tool may be configured to identify and merge the entries for identical selections For example when two selections are identical and are adjacent in the selection history the signal editing tool may be configured to retain a selection history entry for only one of the selections This techniques described herein can be applied in a variety of contexts including audio waveform applications as well for multitrack applications in audio video or other timeline oriented applications The techniques may be used to record selections made directly to data as well as to rulers clips and other such user interface elements When applied to clips and other such well named elements the automatic naming func tion is particularly useful Hardware Overview FIG 3 isa block diagram that illustrates a computer system 300 upon which an embodiment of the invention may be implemented Computer system 300 includes a bus 302 or other communication mechanism for communicating infor mation and a processor 304 coupled with bus 302 for pro cessing information Computer system 300 also includes a main memory 306 such as a random access memory RAM or other dynamic storage device coupled to bus 302 for storing information and instructions to be executed by pro
6. in the claims Hence no limitation element property feature advantage or attribute that 1s not expressly recited in a claim should limit the scope of such claim in any way The specification and drawings are accord ingly to be regarded in an illustrative rather than a restrictive sense What is claimed is 1 A method for selecting previously selected segments of a signal the method comprising reading signal data from a file that is an encoding of said signal based on the signal data read from the file a signal editing application generating a visual depiction of said signal receiving through a segment selection interface input that specifies boundaries of a segment in response to receiving the input generating an entry and storing the entry in selection history data wherein the selection history data includes a plurality of entries wherein said entry is one of the plurality of entries wherein each entry of the plurality of entries corresponds to a segment of said signal that was previously selected based on user interaction wherein each entry ofthe plurality ofentries includes infor mation that identifies the boundaries of the correspond ing segment US 8 295 682 B1 11 generating user interface controls that allow a user of the signal editing application to select a segment from among the segments that are identified in said selection history data and in response to input that selects a segment identifie
7. input that causes the signal editing appli cation to perform a second edit operation on a second segment of the signal wherein the second segment ofthe signal is modified based on the performance of the sec ond edit operation generating a second entry in response to performing the second edit operation on the second segment wherein the second entry corresponds to the second segment on which the second edit operation was performed storing the second entry in the selection history data generating user interface controls that allow a user of the signal editing application to select a segment from among the segments identified in said selection history data and in response to third input that selects a particular segment identified in said selection history data reading infor mation from the entry that corresponds to the particular segment to determine the boundaries of the particular segment and establishing the particular segment as the currently selected segment within said signal editing application wherein the method is performed by one or more comput ing devices 36 The method of claim 35 wherein generating the user interface controls comprises displaying a list of labels wherein each label in the list corresponds to an entry of the plurality of entries and the third input selects a label that corresponds to the par ticular segment 37 A non transitory computer readable medium carrying instructions which when e
8. input that selects button 106 the signal editing application re selects the first segment that is reflected in the selection history data In response to receiving user input that selects button 108 the signal editing application re selects the segment within the selection his tory data that immediately precedes the currently selected segment In response to receiving user input that selects but ton 110 the signal editing application re selects the segment within the selection history data that immediately follows the currently selected segment In response to receiving user input that selects button 112 the signal editing application re selects the last segment that is reflected in the selection history data According to one embodiment the buttons of browsing tool 102 are displayed with different visual depictions depending on whether the operations that correspond to the buttons are available For example if the user has not yet selected any segment then the selection history data will be empty and all of the buttons may be displayed as inactive For the purpose of illustration assume that the user then selects a segment S1 of the signal In response to the user s selection of a segment the signal editing application stores an entry in the selection history data for the segment S1 The entry may indicate the boundaries of S1 and that S1 is sequentially the first segment that the user selected At this point buttons 106 108
9. the segment of the signal in which the cough occurs and assign that segment the label cough The signal editing application stores the label cough in the entry within the selection history data for that particular segment Consequently at a future point in the editing process the user may use the US 8 295 682 Bl 5 random access tool 104 to select the label cough to cause the segment of the audio signal that contains the cough to be selected Automatically Generated Segment Labels Instead of or in addition to user specified labels the signal editing tool may include a mechanism for automatically gen erating labels for selected segments Such automatically gen erated labels may be stored in the selection history data along with the other information about the previously selected seg ments A variety of techniques may be used to automatically gen erate meaningful labels for selected segments The signal editing application may for example create a label for a selection based on a variety of criteria including but not limited to start point duration frame zero crossing points and markers For example in an embodiment where the boundaries of a selected segment are identified by two mark ers a label for the segment may be automatically generated based on the labels associated with the two markers Thus the label From Start Talking to End Talking may be auto matically generated in res
10. user may launch the signal editing applica tion again perform a few more edit operations save the changes and close the signal editing application During one editing session the user may want to perform an edit operation to a segment that was selected during a previous editing session Therefore according to one embodiment the signal editing tool includes a mechanism for durably storing the selection history data within or in con junction with the file that includes the signal data When the signal editing application loads the signal data from the file the signal editing application also loads selection history data that was stored for the signal As a result the user is able to easily select in one session segments that were previously selected in other sessions Clearing Purging Selection History Data Tt may not be necessary or even desirable to keep track of every segment that is selected during the editing of a signal an 5 40 45 50 65 6 Therefore various techniques are provided by which the user may explicitly or implicitly purge entries from the selection history data According to one embodiment when a user moves through the selection history and then makes a new selection some elements are automatically purged from the history For example a history may contain the following selections Selection 1 Selection 2 Selection 3 Selection 4 A user may navigate to Selection 2 and then make a new
11. 06 may optionally be stored on storage device 310 either before or after execution by processor 304 Computer system 300 also includes a communication interface 318 coupled to bus 302 Communication interface 318 provides a two way data communication coupling to a network link 320 that is connected to a local network 322 For example communication interface 318 may be an integrated services digital network ISDN card or a modem to provide a data communication connection to a corresponding type of telephone line As another example communication interface 318 may be a local area network LAN card to provide a data 0 20 40 45 50 55 65 10 communication connection to a compatible LAN Wireless links may also be implemented In any such implementation communication interface 318 sends and receives electrical electromagnetic or optical signals that carry digital data streams representing various types of information Network link 320 typically provides data communication through one or more networks to other data devices For example network link 320 may provide a connection through local network 322 to a host computer 324 or to data equip ment operated by an Internet Service Provider ISP 326 ISP 326 in turn provides data communication services through the world wide packet data communication network now com monly referred to as the Internet 328 Local network 322 and Internet 328 both use electrical elect
12. 110 and 112 may remain inactive since there is no first previous next or last selected segment in the selection history data other than the currently selected segment Buttons 106 and 108 become active when at least one segment precedes the currently selected segment in the selection history data Similarly but tons 110 and 112 become active when at least one segment follows the currently selected segment in the selection history data Assume that the user then selects another segment S2 ofthe signal In response to the user s selection of segment S2 the signal editing application stores an entry in the selection history data for segment S2 The entry for S2 may indicate the boundaries of S2 and that S2 is sequentially the second segment that the user selected At this point buttons 106 and 108 may become active since there is a previously selected segment within the selec tion history data that precedes the currently selected segment S2 Selection of button 106 would cause segment S1 to be re selected since segment S1 is the first segment reflected in the selection history data Selection of button 108 would un 0 20 40 45 55 60 65 4 cause segment S1 to be re selected since segment S1 imme diately precedes the currently selected segment S2 within the selection history data Buttons 110 and 112 would con tinue to be inactive since there are no segments within the selection his
13. a signal is referred to herein as sig nal data For a variety of reasons it may be desirable to edit the signal data after a signal has been digitally recorded For example an audio recording of a lecture may include a cough that should be removed In addition to problems created by the recording environment such as a coughing audience the recording process itself may introduce problems such as hissing or popping noises that should be removed from the recording Many signal editing applications are available for perform ing post recording edits to a captured signal In the context of audio signals many audio editing applications allow a user to listen to the audio While the audio is being played the user is presented with a visual representation of the signal with an indication of the location within the signal that is currently being played While listening to the audio and watching the visual representation of the signal the user may identify a problem that requires fixing For example the user may hear a cough and see a spike that represents the cough in the visual representation of the signal The user may then use a tool provided by the editing application to correct the prob lem For example the user may replace the segment of the signal that contains the cough with an ambient noise print as described in U S patent application Ser No 11 104 995 filed on Apr 12 2005 entitled PRESERVING NOISE DUR ING EDITING
14. al editing application may provide numerous alternative techniques for selected segments of the signal The techniques described herein are not limited to any particular techniques for selecting segments of a signal During the editing process it may be desirable to perform a second editing operation on the same segment on which a first editing operation was previously performed If the desired segment is still the currently selected segment then the segment does not have to be re selected to perform the second operation However if the desired segment is no longer selected then the user must re select the desired seg ment Manually trying to re select a previously selected segment is both tedious and error prone If the user fails to select the exact boundaries of the previously selected segment then the subsequent editing operation may create more problems that it fixes For example assume that a particular segment of an audio signal was previously converted to silence At a later point in the editing process the user may decide to change that particular segment to ambient noise However if the user is not able to select the exact boundaries of the segment that was converted to silence the attempt to convert the segment to ambient noise may leave a small segment of silence To assist the user in selecting a previously selected seg ment the signal editing application may keep track of previ ously selected segments However with
15. an etal 725 101 6 771 285 B1 8 2004 McGrath et al 715 723 7 055 166 B1 5 2006 Logan etal wee 725 32 7 424 677 B2 9 2008 Sezan etal 715 719 7 454 010 B1 11 2008 Ebenezer 7 702 014 B1 4 2010 Kellock et al 375 240 08 2001 0004268 Al 6 2001 Kubo et al 2001 0020953 Al 9 2001 Moriwake et al 345 723 2002 0010589 Al 1 2002 Nashida et al 2002 0180803 Al 12 2002 Kaplan et al DISPLAY 312 INPUT DEVICE 314 CURSOR CONTROL 316 2003 0123713 Al 7 2003 Geng 2003 0190090 Al 10 2003 Beeman et al 2003 0227468 Al 12 2003 Takeda 2004 0024758 Al 2 2004 Iwasaki Continued OTHER PUBLICATIONS Higgins D Wave Corrector v3 0 Vinyl Tape to CD R Processing Digital Audio Editing for the PC User Manual Jul 22 2004 Ganymede Test amp Measurement v3 0 from http web archive org web 20040722 132002 www wavecor co uk help300 pdf gt 86 pgs Continued Primary Examiner Thai Tran Assistant Examiner Mishawn Dunn 74 Attorney Agent or Firm Blakely Sokoloff Taylor amp Zafman LLP 57 ABSTRACT Techniques and interface controls are described which allow users of signal editing applications to easily select previously selected segments of the signal As the user selects segments of the signal the signal editing application automatically generates selection history data The selection history data that is generated fo
16. az United States Patent US008295682B1 10 Patent No US 8 295 682 B1 Bhatt 45 Date of Patent Oct 23 2012 54 SELECTING PREVIOUSLY SELECTED 2002 0188602 Al1 12 2002 Stubler et al 707 3 SEGMENTS OF A SIGNAL 2003 0014135 Al 1 2003 Moulios 2003 0067554 Al 4 2003 Klarfeld et al 348 461 SA E 2003 0084065 A1 5 2003 Linetal 707 104 1 75 Inventor Nikhil M Bhatt Cupertino CA US 2003 0093445 Al 5 2003 Schick et al 2003 0093790 Al 5 2003 Logan etal 725 38 73 Assignee Apple Inc Cupertino CA US Notice Subject to any disclaimer the term of this patent is extended or adjusted under 35 U S C 154 b by 2200 days 21 Appl No 11 181 660 22 Filed Jul 13 2005 51 Int CI GI1B 27 02 2006 01 52 U S Cl 386 278 386 282 725 37 369 47 13 369 83 715 723 58 Field of Classification Search 386 46 386 52 95 200 230 278 281 282 369 30 05 369 47 13 83 715 723 732 725 46 37 725 44 See application file for complete search history 56 References Cited U S PATENT DOCUMENTS 5 537 530 A 7 1996 Edgar et al 715 723 5 675 358 A 10 1997 Bullock et al 5 752 244 A 5 1998 Rose et al 5 999 173 A 12 1999 Ubillos 715 724 6 069 995 A 5 2000 Sugiyama et al 386 241 6 253 218 Bl 6 2001 Aoki et al 6 298 482 B1 10 2001 Seidm
17. cedes the currently selected segment 7 A non transitory computer readable medium carrying instructions which when executed by one or more proces sors causes the performance of the method recited in claim 6 8 The method of claim 4 wherein the user interface controls include a control for selecting the segment that immediately follows the currently selected segment and the control is displayed in an inactive state when the selec tion history data does not include an entry for any seg ment that follows the currently selected segment 9 A non transitory computer readable medium carrying instructions which when executed by one or more proces sors causes the performance of the method recited in claim 8 10 The method of claim 1 wherein each entry further includes a label associated with the corresponding segment 11 A non transitory computer readable medium carrying instructions which when executed by one or more proces sors causes the performance of the method recited in claim 10 12 The method of claim 10 further comprising automati cally generating the label associated with a segment in response to user selection of the segment 13 A non transitory computer readable medium carrying instructions which when executed by one or more proces sors causes the performance of the method recited in claim 12 14 The method of claim 1 wherein the segment is selected based on one or more markers and the label for the seg
18. cessor 304 Main memory 306 also may be used for storing temporary variables or other intermediate information during execution of instructions to be executed by processor 304 Computer system 300 further includes a read only memory ROM 308 or other static storage device coupled to bus 302 for storing static information and instructions for processor 304 A storage device 310 such as a magnetic disk or optical disk is provided and coupled to bus 302 for storing informa tion and instructions Computer system 300 may be coupled via bus 302 to a display 312 such as a cathode ray tube CRT for displaying information to a computer user n input device 314 includ ing alphanumeric and other keys is coupled to bus 302 for communicating information and command selections to pro cessor 304 Anothertype ofuser input device is cursor control 316 such as a mouse a trackball or cursor direction keys for communicating direction information and command selec tions to processor 304 and for controlling cursor movement on display 312 This input device typically has two degrees of freedom in two axes a first axis e g x and a second axis e g y that allows the device to specify positions in a plane US 8 295 682 B1 9 The invention is related to the use of computer system 300 for implementing the techniques described herein According to one embodiment of the invention those techniques are performed by computer system 300 in response to
19. d in said selection history data reading information from the entry for the segment to determine the boundaries of the segment and establishing the segment as the currently selected segment within said signal editing application wherein the method is performed by one or more comput ing devices 2 The method of claim 1 wherein each entry further includes a sequence value that indicates the sequence in which the corresponding segment was selected relative to when other segments reflected in the selection history data were selected 3 A non transitory computer readable medium carrying instructions which when executed by one or more proces sors causes the performance of the method recited in claim 2 4 The method of claim 2 wherein the user interface con trols include controls that allow a user to browse through the segments reflected in the selection history data in an order that reflects the sequence values stored in the entries within the selection history data 5 A non transitory computer readable medium carrying instructions which when executed by one or more proces sors causes the performance of the method recited in claim 4 6 The method of claim 4 wherein the user interface controls include a control for selecting the segment that immediately precedes the currently selected segment and the control is displayed in an inactive state when the selec tion history data does not include an entry for any seg ment that pre
20. e signal editing application at the time the particular segment was originally selected and in response to input that re selects the particular segment based on said selection history data assigning the one or more parameter values to operational parameters of said signal editing application wherein the method is performed by one or more comput ing devices 32 The method of claim 31 wherein the signal editing application generates a visual depiction of the signal 33 A non transitory computer readable medium carrying instructions which when executed by one or more proces sors causes the performance of the method recited in claim 32 34 A non transitory computer readable medium carrying instructions which when executed by one or more proces sors causes the performance of the method recited in claim 31 35 A method for selecting segments ofa signal the method comprising receiving first input that causes a signal editing application to perform a first edit operation on a first segment of the signal wherein the first segment ofthe signal is modified based on the performance of the first edit operation generating a first entry in response to performing the first edit operation on the first segment wherein the first entry corresponds to the first segment on which the first edit operation was performed 20 25 35 40 45 14 storing the first entry in selection history data receiving second
21. executed by one or more proces sors causes the performance of the method recited in claim 27 29 The method ofclaim 1 wherein the information within an entry of the plurality of entries that identifies the bound aries ofthe corresponding segment includes information that identifies a sample range of the corresponding segment 30 A non transitory computer readable medium carrying instructions which when executed by one or more proces sors causes the performance of the method recited in claim 29 US 8 295 682 Bl 13 31 A method for selecting previously selected segments of a signal the method comprising asignal editing application generating a visual depiction of said signal generating selection history data in response to user inter action with a segment selection interface that includes the visual depiction of said signal wherein the selection history data includes a plurality of entries wherein each entry of the plurality of entries corresponds to a segment of said signal that was selected during said user interaction wherein each entry includes information that identifies the boundaries of the corresponding segment storing in an entry of the plurality of entries that is asso ciated with a particular segment one or more parameter values of the signal editing application that were in effect at the time the particular segment was selected wherein the one or more parameter values reflect the state of th
22. he indicators the signal editing tool re selects the segment that corresponds to the selected indicator In the illustrated example random access tool 104 includes a pull down menu When the pull down menu con trolis selected the user is presented with a list of menu items The menu items are labels that correspond to the segments reflected in the selection history data In response to user input that selects the label associated with a particular seg ment the signal editing application 1 selects the segment that corresponds to the selected label 2 ceases to display the list of labels and 3 displays the label associated with the selected segment In the example shown in FIG 1 the ran dom access tool 104 displays the label From Start Talking to End Talking indicating that the segment associated with that label is the currently selected segment To facilitate the use of the random access tool 104 the labels that are presented to the user should be meaningful to the user Various techniques for associating meaningful labels with selected segments shall now be described in greater detail User Specified Segment Labels According to one embodiment the signal editing applica tion may include controls that allow users to specify the labels that are used to identify segments within the selection history data For example while listening to playback of an audio signal a user may notice a cough The user may then select
23. identify a previously selected segment may no longer corre spond to the signal data that was in the previously selected segment For example a user may select the first 1000 samples of a file then insert 2000 samples at the front of the file and then use the selection history If only sample numbers are stored in the selection history data then the selection history would highlight the first 1000 samples which actually were just inserted and not the same ones that the user origi nally selected However the data the user typically wants under these circumstances is now sample range 2000 2999 which contains the sounds the user selected originally Based on the time range information the proper range can be re selected Instead of or in addition to using sample ranges the bound aries of selections may be represented within the selection history data by time ranges Thus a selected segment that begins with a sample taken at time T5 and ending with a sample taken at time T50 may be represented within the selection history data by the time range T5 T50 Unlike sample numbers the time values associated with samples do not change when the samples are moved around within the audio file Thus the use of time ranges to record the bound aries of selections is especially useful when users are per forming insertion and deletion operations and when users name selections e g cough By storing the selections as time ranges
24. lects segments of the signal the signal editing application automatically generates selection history data The selection history data that is generated for a selected segment indicates the boundaries of the selected segment and the sequence in which the selected segment was selected relative to other previously selected segments To US 8 295 682 B1 3 facilitate the identification of the previously selected seg ments the selection history data may also include user speci fied and or automatically generated labels for some or all of the previously selected segments The signal editing application provides controls for re selecting the previously selected segments that are reflected in the selection history data In response to user input received through these controls the signal editing tool rese lects a previously selected segment based on the boundaries indicated in the selection history data Various user interface controls that facilitate the selection of previously selected segments are described hereafter in greater detail Selection Navigation Tool Referring to FIG 1 it is a block diagram of a selection navigation tool 100 for navigating through previously se lected segments of a signal according to one embodiment of the invention Selection navigation tool 100 includes a brows ing tool 102 and a random access tool 104 Browsing tool 102 includes several buttons 106 108 110 and 112 In response to receiving user
25. ment is automatically generated based on labels associated with the one or more markers 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 12 15 A non transitory computer readable medium carrying instructions which when executed by one or more proces sors causes the performance of the method recited in claim 14 16 The method of claim 10 further comprising providing a mechanism by which users may specify labels for segments 17 A non transitory computer readable medium carrying instructions which when executed by one or more proces sors causes the performance of the method recited in claim 16 18 The method of claim 10 further comprising displaying to a user the labels associated with the segments represented in the selection history data receiving first input that selects a label and in response to the first input establishing segment associ ated with the label as the currently selected segment 19 A non transitory computer readable medium carrying instructions which when executed by one or more proces sors causes the performance of the method recited in claim 18 20 The method of claim 1 further comprising durably storing the selection history data that was generated during one editing session of the signal and reloading the selection history data during a subsequent editing session of the signal 21 A non transitory computer readable medium carrying instructions which when executed by one or more
26. ment of the signal is selected the selected segment is typically shown in a manner that visually distinguishes the selected segment from the rest of the signal According to one embodiment when the navigation tool 100 is used to select a previously selected segment the visual depiction of the signal is modified accordingly The modifi cation includes 1 depicting the portion of the signal that contains the newly selected segment and 2 depicting the newly selected segment in a manner that visually distin guishes the segment from the remainder of the signal Representing Selection Boundaries As mentioned above the selection history data includes information that indicates the boundaries of previously se lected signal segments According to one embodiment the boundaries are stored as sample ranges For example for a particular selection the selection history data may include information about the sample numbers ofthe samples within the signal data that correspond to the boundaries ofthe selec tion Thus in an audio file that includes 10 000 samples a particular signal segment may correspond to sample 500 to sample 2000 When the particular segment is selected the US 8 295 682 Bl 7 signal editing application may store the range 500 2000 in the selection history data to identify the selected segment Unfortunately due to insertion or deletion operations the sample range that is stored in the selection history data to
27. on of the signal that is illustrated in FIG 2 At any given time the depiction of the signal represents the signal at a particular zoom level The zoom level determines the number of pixels that are used per unit of the signal Thus at a low zoom level a second s worth of audio signal may be depicted in 10 pixels along the x axis At a higher zoom level the same second s worth of audio signal may be depicted in 1000 pixels along the x axis The zoom level of the visual depiction of the signal is an example of a parameter value that may be stored as part of the 0 a 5 40 45 55 60 8 selection history data For example assume that the visual depiction of the signal is at zoom level 5 when a segment S1 is selected In response to the selection the signal editing application stores in the selection history data 1 the bound aries of S1 2 a sequence indicator for S1 3 an automati cally generated label for S1 and 4 an indication that S1 was selected at zoom level 5 After 51 has been selected the user may change the zoom level and perform any number of subsequent operations However when the user uses the navigation tool 100 to re select segment S1 the signal editing application automati cally restores the zoom level to zoom level 5 Variations and Enhancements The selection history tools and techniques described herein may be enhanced in a variety of ways For example in one embodiment
28. out user interface tools that facilitate the selection of previously selected seg ments the process of selecting previously selected segments may still be cumbersome BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The present invention is illustrated by way of example and not by way of limitation in the figures of the accompanying drawings and in which like reference numerals refer to similar elements and in which FIG 1 is a block diagram of a navigation tool for selecting previously selected segments of a signal according to an embodiment of the invention FIG 2 is a block diagram that illustrates the visual depic tion ofa signal according to an embodiment of the invention and FIG 3 is a block diagram ofa computer system upon which embodiments of the invention may be implemented DETAILED DESCRIPTION In the following description for the purposes of explana tion numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the present invention It will be apparent however that the present invention may be prac ticed without these specific details In other instances well known structures and devices are shown in block diagram form in order to avoid unnecessarily obscuring the present invention Overview Techniques and interface controls are provided which allow users of signal editing applications to easily select previously selected segments of a signal According to one embodiment as the user se
29. ponse to user selection of a segment that extends from a marker labeled Start Talking to a marker labeled End Talking Automatically generated labels may also reflect other meaningful points within the signal For example the label From Signal Start to Start Talking may be automatically generated for a selected segment that extends from the begin ning of the signal to a marker that is labeled Start Talking Similarly the label From End Talking to Signal End may be automatically generated for a selected segment that extends from a marker labeled End Talking to the end of the recorded signal These are merely examples of techniques that may be used for automatically generating meaningful labels that are pre sented to the user by the random access tool 104 The user may override such automatically generated labels with user specified labels as described above According to one embodiment the label associated with the currently selected segment is displayed by navigation tool 100 regardless of whether the segment was selected using the browsing tool 102 or the random access tool 104 Durably Storing the Selection History Data It is not uncommon for users to perform editing operations in multiple sessions For example a user may launch a signal editing application perform a few edit operations save the changes and close the signal editing application At a later point in time the
30. proces sors causes the performance of the method recited in claim 20 22 The method of claim 1 wherein the signal that is encoded in the file has a starting point and the information within an entry that identifies the bound aries ofthe corresponding segment includes information that identifies a time range of the corresponding seg ment relative to the starting point ofthe signal 23 A non transitory computer readable medium carrying instructions which when executed by one or more proces sors causes the performance of the method recited in claim 22 24 The method of claim 1 wherein the information within an entry that identifies the boundaries of the corresponding segment includes information that identifies both a time range of the corresponding segment and a sample range of the corresponding segment 25 A non transitory computer readable medium carrying instructions which when executed by one or more proces sors causes the performance of the method recited in claim 24 26 A non transitory computer readable medium carrying instructions which when executed by one or more proces sors causes the performance ofthe method recited in claim 1 27 The method of claim 1 wherein the input specifies a first user specified point on the visual depiction of said signal and a second user specified point on the visual depiction of said signal 28 A non transitory computer readable medium carrying instructions which when
31. processor 304 executing one or more sequences of one or more instruc tions contained in main memory 306 Such instructions may be read into main memory 306 from another machine read able medium such as storage device 310 Execution of the sequences of instructions contained in main memory 306 causes processor 304 to perform the process steps described herein In alternative embodiments hard wired circuitry may be used in place of or in combination with software instruc tions to implement the invention Thus embodiments of the invention are not limited to any specific combination of hard ware circuitry and software The term machine readable medium as used herein refers to any medium that participates in providing data that causes a machine to operation in a specific fashion In an embodiment implemented using computer system 300 vari ous machine readable media are involved for example in providing instructions to processor 304 for execution Such a medium may take many forms including but not limited to non volatile media volatile media and transmission media Non volatile media includes for example optical or mag netic disks such as storage device 310 Volatile media includes dynamic memory such as main memory 306 Trans mission media includes coaxial cables copper wire and fiber optics including the wires that comprise bus 302 Transmis sion media can also take the form of acoustic or light waves such as those genera
32. r a selected segment indicates the bound aries of the selected segment and the sequence in which the selected segment was selected relative to other previously selected segments The signal editing application provides controls for re selecting the previously selected segments that are reflected in the selection history data In response to user input received through these controls the signal editing tool reselects a previously selected segment based on the boundaries indicated in the selection history data 40 Claims 3 Drawing Sheets COMMUNICATION INTERFACE 318 US 8 295 682 B1 Page2 2004 0133927 2004 0139400 2004 0189827 2004 0199277 2005 0010475 2005 0063668 2005 0192924 2006 0041613 2006 007 1942 2006 0071947 2006 0119619 2006 0248472 2009 0138829 U S PATENT DOCUMENTS Al Al Al Al Al Al Al Al Al Al Al Al Al 7 2004 7 2004 9 2004 10 2004 1 2005 3 2005 9 2005 2 2006 4 2006 4 2006 6 2006 11 2006 5 2009 Sternberg et al Allam et al Kim et al RS 348 231 4 Bianchi et al Perkowski et al Hosoi et al Drucker et al Fackelmayer et al Ubillos et al Ubillos et al Fagans et al Helie et al Ogikubo 386 52 715 810 715 853 2010 0303257 Al 12 2010 Moulios et al OTHER PUBLICATIONS U S Appl No 10 960 888 filed Oct 6 2004 mailed Apr 23 2007 U S Appl No 11 104 995 filed Apr 12 2005
33. romagnetic or opti cal signals that carry digital data streams The signals through the various networks and the signals on network link 320 and through communication interface 318 which carry the digital data to and from computer system 300 are exemplary forms of carrier waves transporting the information Computer system 300 can send messages and receive data including program code through the network s network link 320 and communication interface 318 In the Internet example a server 330 might transmit a requested code for an application program through Internet 328 ISP 326 local network 322 and communication interface 318 The received code may be executed by processor 304 as it is received and or stored in storage device 310 or other non volatile storage for later execution In this manner com puter system 300 may obtain application code in the form of a carrier wave In the foregoing specification embodiments of the inven tion have been described with reference to numerous specific details that may vary from implementation to implementa tion Thus the sole and exclusive indicator of what is the invention and is intended by the applicants to be the inven tion is the set of claims that issue from this application in the specific form in which such claims issue including any sub sequent correction Any definitions expressly set forth herein for terms contained in such claims shall govern the meaning of such terms as used
34. ted during radio wave and infra red data communications All such media must be tangible to enable the instructions carried by the media to be detected by a physical mechanism that reads the instructions into a machine Common forms of machine readable media include for example a floppy disk a flexible disk hard disk magnetic tape or any other magnetic medium a CD ROM any other optical medium punchcards papertape any other physical medium with patterns of holes a RAM a PROM and EPROM a FLASH EPROM any other memory chip or car tridge a carrier wave as described hereinafter or any other medium from which a computer can read Various forms of machine readable media may be involved incarrying one or more sequences of one or more instructions to processor 304 for execution For example the instructions may initially be carried on a magnetic disk of a remote com puter The remote computer can load the instructions into its dynamic memory and send the instructions over a telephone line using a modem A modem local to computer system 300 can receive the data on the telephone line and use an infra red transmitter to convert the data to an infra red signal An infra red detector can receive the data carried in the infra red signal and appropriate circuitry can place the data on bus 302 Bus 302 carries the data to main memory 306 from which processor 304 retrieves and executes the instructions The instructions received by main memory 3
35. tory data that follow the currently selected seg ment S2 Assume that the user selects button 108 causing segment S1 to be re selected In addition to re selecting segment S1 selection of button 108 causes buttons 110 and 112 to become active Button 110 becomes active because the selection his tory data includes an entry for a segment S2 that follows the entry for the currently selected segment S1 Selection of button 110 at this point would cause segment S2 to once again be selected and button 110 to become inactive It should be noted that the sequence used by browsing tool 102 is the sequence in which the segments were selected as indicated in the selection history data and does not necessar ily correspond to the relative sequence ofthe segments within the signal itself Thus segment S2 may be sequentially after segment S1 in the selection history data even though segment S2 precedes segment S1 in the signal Random Access Selection of Previously Selected Segments Referring againto FIG 1 navigation tool 100 also includes a random access tool 104 Random access tool 104 provides controls that allow the user to directly select any of the seg ments reflected in the selection history data According to one embodiment random access tool 104 includes a control which when selected presents the user with indicators for each ofthe segments reflected in the selection history data In response to user input that selects one of t
36. xecuted by one or more proces sors causes the performance of the method recited in claim 36 38 The method of claim 35 wherein the signal is an audio signal the first input is received while a visual depiction of the audio signal is displayed 39 A non transitory computer readable medium carrying instructions which when executed by one or more proces sors causes the performance of the method recited in claim 38 40 A non transitory computer readable medium carrying instructions which when executed by one or more proces sors causes the performance of the method recited in claim 35
Download Pdf Manuals
Related Search