1. Field of the Invention
Embodiments of the invention relate to technology for communicating information via a user platform.
2. Description of Related Art
Various systems and methods exist to communicate audio and visual information, including broadcast radio and television, satellite radio and television, cable television, telephone, cellular telephone, facsimile, voice over internet protocol (VoIP), personal video recorders (PVR), personal computers (PC), game consoles, personal digital assistants (PDA), and software applications operable over networks such as the Internet. The various systems differ both in the transmission types and methodologies employed to communicate information, and in the devices and interfaces designed to receive and interact with the information. Based on the technology behind the distribution systems, these various means of communicating information also differ in scope, or size of audience.
The entire production process of media creation and content development has moved into the digital domain over the last twenty years, from recording to editing to finishing. The price of this technology continues to drop, lowering the barriers to entry and allowing the tools for the creation of content to fall into more and more hands. This digitization of the production process is more or less complete, constituting a replacement of analog tools with digital ones, and creating a vast new group of publishers.
The digitization of publishing, distribution and delivery, is still in a state of flux, with the final outcome more likely to be a new context for communicating information. Reasons for this are at least threefold: the ease of creation of digital content and its corresponding pervasiveness; the simplicity of distributing that content to a worldwide audience; and the ability to inexpensively communicate with others around the globe. Termed user-generated content, this enormous new stream of multimedia is coming online to compete and coexist with the output from terrestrial broadcasters, satellite and cable providers, radio stations, and other traditional publishers, the current controllers of distribution. Most of this new traffic is centered on the Internet, using standard web browser software, enhanced with plug-ins for 2-D animation/video.
Many of the world's media publishing and communications networks now terminate at the end user with an inexpensive computer. Inexpensive tools exist to create content. Users can subscribe and connect to a worldwide web through these existing networks, publishing and viewing published media, and communicating with each other, but not in an integrated fashion.
Current methods for displaying information on a computer display involve icon- or hyperlink-based point-and-click operations enacted upon windowed or paged 2D screens. Selecting an object involves hovering over the item to be selected, which can sometimes bring up a small textual informational overlay, or more recently 2D animation effects such as size scaling of the item to be selected, and then explicitly clicking to select. Drop-down menus invoke lists for further decision-making.
Media playback can occur through the use of a variety of media players from many industry participants, usually functioning via a play list-type interface. Most can play audio and video files, one at a time, with the need to go back to the desktop or browser environment to pick new material, unless a play list has been loaded. Playback of simultaneous files is not generally supported in consumer media applications, nor are overlapping audio fields, though sometimes multiple instances of the same application can be opened to run simultaneously. Many Voice-Over-IP (VoIP) applications exist but target communication only, with chat, and sometimes accompanied with file sharing. Webcam video input is possible from some providers. Screen display layout is designed for close-up viewing, especially on small handheld devices such as smart phones and PDAs. The majority of applications employ text which can not be read from 10 feet away. The majority of applications do not employ handheld remote controls. Videogames represent the most advanced use of 3D computer display, processor power, and input devices. Virtual environments exist both as games and as more social destinations. User interaction is usually complex, although recently casual gaming has become popular. Gaming still remains the primary activity of these types of programs, versus the more routine activities of everyday life, but advanced gaming consoles are starting to offer movie and music downloads.