Method and apparatus to determine and use audience affinity and aptitude

1. A method for inferring audience affinity or aptitude with regard to content or properties of portions of a media work which comprises:

presenting the media work to an audience;

obtaining user input regarding presentation rates for the portions of the media work;

correlating the content or properties of the portions with the presentation rates; and

associating audience affinity or aptitude with the presentation rates for the correlated content or properties.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the presentation rates include a rate which causes a portion to be skipped.

3. A method of utilizing audience affinity or aptitude associated with content or properties to present a media work which comprises:

detecting the content or properties in a portion of the media work;

associating the audience affinity or aptitude associated with the detected content or properties with a presentation rate for the portion; and

presenting the portion at the presentation rate.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein associating includes accepting user input to determine the presentation rate.

5. A method of presenting a media work which comprises:

detecting content or properties in portions of the media work;

associating a presentation order with the detected content or properties that is different from the order of detection;

reordering the portions according to die presentation order; and

presenting the media work in accordance with the presentation order.

6. A method of presenting a media work which comprises:

detecting content or properties in portions of the media work;

associating a presentation order with the detected content or properties that is different from the order of detection; and

presenting the media work in accordance with the presentation order;

wherein the step of associating further comprises associating a presentation rate of the portion with the detected content or properties; and the step of presenting comprises presenting the media work in accordance with the presentation order and the presentation rates.

7. A method of testing aptitude of an audience for content or properties of portions of a media work which comprises:

presenting the media to the audience;

obtaining user input regarding presentation rates for the portions of the media work; and

correlating the presentation rates with the aptitude for the content or properties of the portions.

8. A method of presenting a media work which comprises:

detecting media work content properties in a portion of the media work;

associating a presentation rate of the portion with the detected media work content properties; and

presenting the portion at the presentation rate;

wherein the presentation rates provide a substantially uniform rate of content presentation.

9. A method of presenting a media work which comprises:

detecting media work content properties in a portion of the media work;

associating a presentation rate of the portion with the detected media work content properties;

presenting the portion at the presentation rate; and

wherein the media work content properties comprise indicia of actions of objects.

10. A method of determining the duration of an altered media work having a presentation rate of one or more of its segments that differs from that of a media work used to create the altered media work, which method comprises:

segmenting the media work into segments having a single presentation rate;

determining the length of the segments of the media work;

computing the duration of the segments of the media work after application of the presentation rate; and

summing the durations to determine the duration of the altered media work.

11. The method of claim 10 which further comprises:

excising segments from the media work having a presentation rate that exceeds a predetermined threshold.