Abstract: To allow a video clip to be rendered within an e-mail, the video stream is converted into an animated image object (e.g. a GIF (Graphics Interchange Format) object) and stored on a server system. An HTML image element/tag (<img . . . >) is created that references the animated image object at the server, for embedding in a conventional HTML-encoded e-mail message. When the receiving e-mail application processes the HTML encoding, the processing of the HTML image element causes the referenced animated image object to be downloaded and displayed, thereby automatically presenting a recreation of the video stream. To facilitate efficient transmission to the receiving device, the size of the animated image object is preferably optimized before transmission, the optimization including general optimization techniques, as well as optimizations based on the particular characteristics associated with the receiving device and/or the communications link to the receiving device.

Abstract: To allow a video clip to be rendered within an e-mail, the video stream is converted into an animated image object (e.g. a GIF (Graphics Interchange Format) object) and stored on a server system. An HTML image element/tag (<img . . . >) is created that references the animated image object at the server, for embedding in a conventional HTML-encoded e-mail message. When the receiving e-mail application processes the HTML encoding, the processing of the HTML image element causes the referenced animated image object to be downloaded and displayed, thereby automatically presenting a recreation of the video stream. To facilitate efficient transmission to the receiving device, the size of the animated image object is preferably optimized before transmission, the optimization including general optimization techniques, as well as optimizations based on the particular characteristics associated with the receiving device and/or the communications link to the receiving device.

Abstract: To allow a video clip to be rendered within an e-mail, the video stream is converted into an animated image object (e.g. a GIF (Graphics Interchange Format) object) and stored on a server system. An HTML image element/tag (<img . . . >) is created that references the animated image object at the server, for embedding in a conventional HTML-encoded e-mail message. When the receiving e-mail application processes the HTML encoding, the processing of the HTML image element causes the referenced animated image object to be downloaded and displayed, thereby automatically presenting a recreation of the video stream. To facilitate efficient transmission to the receiving device, the size of the animated image object is preferably optimized before transmission, the optimization including general optimization techniques, as well as optimizations based on the particular characteristics associated with the receiving device and/or the communications link to the receiving device.