US Patent 6907570 Video and multimedia browsing while switching between views

Preferred implementations of the invention permit a user to seamlessly switch from a first media stream to a second media stream in a synchronized way, such that the second media stream picks up where the first media stream left off. In this way, the user experiences events chronologically but without interruption. In a preferred implementation, a user watching a skim video switches to a full length video when, for example, the skim video reaches a frame that is of particular interest to the user. The full length video begins at a point corresponding to the frame in the skim video that is of interest to the user, without skipping over video segments, so that the user does not experience any time gaps in the story line.