1. Technical Field
The invention relates to the operation of audio and video equipment in a computer environment. More particularly, the invention relates to automatically compensating for a user's reaction time when stopping the forward or reverse progression through audio or video program media in a computer environment.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Multimedia devices such as VCRs, DVD players, MP3 players, cassette players, CD players, video tape editors, and the new class of Personal Video Recorders (PVR) are extremely popular with consumers. Almost every household in the United States has at least one of these devices.
Multimedia devices must have some way of jumping through the program material to allow the user to select his desired position in the program material. This has commonly been achieved using a fast forward and reverse mode. The fast forward mode moves through the program material in a forward progression and the reverse mode moves backwards in program material.
The user simply presses a button (normally on a remote control) to initiate a fast forward or reverse mode and then presses a button to terminate the fast forward or reverse mode. The time that it takes the user to recognize the audio or video passage that he desires, to press the button to terminate the fast forward or reverse progression, and the multimedia device to react to the user's command and stop the progression varies among multimedia devices.
Several factors are involved in this time lag. The first is the user's reaction time. The average human being has a fairly slow reaction time to visual events. That is, the time that it takes for a human being to recognize a visual event and to physically react is relatively slow. Military tests have shown that this reaction time is, for pilots, on the average of one tenth of a second.
The second factor is the time that it takes for the user's command to be sent from the device that he is using to the multimedia device (typically a negligible value) and the device's ability to react to the command and stop the media. This factor varies with the multimedia device and the media itself.
The third factor is the speed of the fast forward or reverse mode. The faster speed results in the further progression through the program material and therefore a larger error factor.
The position where the program material stopped is normally not where the user had expected it to be. The user typically must correct for the error by fast forwarding or reversing the program material once again to get to the expected position.
It would be advantageous to provide an automatic playback overshoot correction system that corrects for the difference between the user's expected stop position in the program media and the actual position where the media was stopped. It would further be advantageous to provide a system that is transparent to the user during operation.