Web Video, Hyperlinks, and Natural User Interfaces

HTML Working Group,
Web and Television Working Group,


Greetings. I would like to describe some ideas about interactive web video, hyperlinks, and natural user interfaces. The ideas include some browser topics for navigating interconnected hypervideo content.  Hyperlinks can interconnect both hypertext and hypervideo and, by combining some ideas from both web browsers and media players, enhanced navigation for interconnected hypervideo can be facilitated.

Envisioned are media playlists or queues available for content in each browser tab.  With context menus or natural user interface gestures, a wide set of features can be facilitated for hyperlinks in multimedia and video.  Some are indicated:


Open link. The current tab navigates to the linked to content.
Open link in new tab. A new tab opens with the linked to content. The new tab is paused while the user continues to watch the content in the initial tab.
Open link in new tab and switch to new tab. As per (2) but the current tab becomes paused and the new tab becomes visible and starts playing.
Enqueue link. The playlist of the current tab has the linked to item enqueued.
Enqueue link next. The linked to item is placed to be after the currently playing one, with any previously queued objects queued after it.
Enqueue link into. If tabs' playlists were visualizable in browsers, users could intuitively place linked to items arbitrarily into playlist queues.
Play link and return. The linked to item plays and the linking to video is returned to after the linked to video or media fragment concludes.
Place link into a playlist object. Users could drag and drop or gesture links into playlist objects for later viewing. Playlist objects are envisioned as useful for storing lists of media objects during and between browser sessions.


A Playlist API could describe interfaces to playlists of or queues of media objects including media fragments.  A Video DOM API for hypervideo and other time-based media could include a means to programmatically explore video structure and objects in video including hyperlinks.



Kind regards,
Adam Sobieski