Multimedia structure and method for browsing multimedia with defined priority of multimedia segments and semantic elements

• US 20010056427A1
• Filed: 12/21/2000
• Published: 12/27/2001
• Est. Priority Date: 12/30/1999
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: LG Electronics, Inc. (LG Corporation)
• Original Assignee: LG Electronics, Inc. (LG Corporation)
• Inventors: Lee, Jin Soo, Yoon, Kyoung Ro, Jun, Sung Bae
• Granted Patent: US 6,678,689 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/743 a collection of video files or sequences
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/78 Retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manually
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99942 Manipulating data structure, e.g. compression, compaction, compilation
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99945 Object-oriented database structure processing

Abstract

A more efficient data structure and method for browsing a multimedia is disclosed. In the present invention, link information between segments and semantic elements of a multimedia data structure is generated with minimal use of storage. Also, priority or weight of segments is represented based on semantic elements and priority or weight of semantic elements is represented based on segments to allow a search of multimedia based on content. The priority or weight information is represented as an attribute of the link information to increase the efficiency of the storage and a method of automatically extracting the priority or weight information is disclosed.

Claims

1. A multimedia data structure comprising:

a structure information of a plurality of segments;

a semantic information of a plurality of semantic elements;

a link information which connects at least one segment to corresponding at least one semantic element, wherein said link information includes, as an attribute, one of at least a priority or weight information between each connected at least one segment and at least one semantic element.

2. A multimedia data structure of

claim 1

, wherein the link information is a link from a first semantic element to each segment which describes the first semantic element.

3. A multimedia data structure of

claim 2

, wherein the priority or weight information is based on the first semantic element and indicates the importance of the first semantic element in each of the linked segments.

4. A multimedia data structure of

claim 1

, wherein the link information is a link from a first segment to each semantic element which are described in the first segment.

5. A multimedia data structure of

claim 4

, wherein the priority or weight information is based on the first segment and indicates the importance of each linked semantic element in the first segment.

6. A multimedia data structure of

claim 1

, wherein the link information includes semantic based importance of a segment and segment based importance of a semantic element between the connected at least one segment and at least one semantic element.

7. A multimedia data structure of

claim 1

, wherein the link information is represented by one of connectors, relations, or locators.

8. A multimedia data structure of

claim 1

, wherein the priority or weight information is a value ranging from 0 to 1, where the value of 1 has the most importance.

9. A multimedia data structure of

claim 8

, wherein setting one of a priority or a weight value for an image by a ratio which is an amount of a semantic element that occupies the image;

setting a corresponding one of a priority or weight value for a video clip by a temporal ratio which is the length of a section in which a semantic element appears in a segment; and

setting a corresponding one of a priority or weight value for an audio by a ratio which is a combination of the degree of sound due to a semantic element and the length of time in which the sound is heard during a segment.

10. A system for browsing multimedia comprising:

receiving a user selection of either a semantic element from semantic information or a segment from structure information;

obtaining link information corresponding to a selected semantic element or segment, wherein the link information includes at least one of a priority or weight information as an attribute of the link information; and

displaying segments linked with a selected semantic element in sequence according to the priority or weight information using the link information, if a semantic element is selected for browsing based on semantic elements; and

displaying sections which describes semantic elements linked with a selected segment in sequence according to the priority or weight information using the link information, if a segment is selected for browsing based on segments.

11. A system of

claim 10

, wherein the link information connects a selected segment to corresponding at least one semantic element if a segment is selected, and wherein the link information connects a selected semantic element to corresponding at least one segment if a semantic element is selected.

12. A system of

claim 10

, wherein the link information is a link from a first semantic element to each segment which describes the first semantic element, if a first semantic element is selected.

13. A system of

claim 12

, wherein the priority or weight information is based on the first semantic element and indicates the importance of the first semantic element in each of the linked segments.

14. A system of

claim 10

, wherein the link information is a link from a first segment to each semantic element which are described in the first segment, if a first segment is selected.

15. A system of

claim 14

, wherein the priority or weight information is based on the first segment and indicates the importance of each linked semantic element in the first segment.

16. A system of

claim 10

, wherein the link information is represented by one of connectors, relations, or locators.

17. A system of

claim 10

, wherein the priority or weight information is a value ranging from 0 to 1, where the value of 1 has the most importance.

18. A method of displaying results of multimedia browsing comprising:

storing a structure information of a plurality of segments, and a semantic information of a plurality of semantic elements;

storing link information which links at least one segment to corresponding at least one semantic element, wherein said link information includes, as an attribute, at least one of a priority information or weight information between the connected at least one segment and at least one semantic element;

obtaining link information corresponding to a semantic element or a segment, selected by a user for browsing; and

displaying segments linked with a selected semantic element in sequence according to the priority or weight information using the link information, if a semantic element is selected for browsing based on semantic elements; and

displaying sections which describes semantic elements linked with a selected segment in sequence according to the priority or weight information using the link information, if a segment is selected for browsing based on segments.

19. A method of

claim 18

, wherein the priority or weight information of the link information includes semantic based importance of a segment and segment based importance of a semantic element between the connected at least one segment and at least one semantic element.

20. A method of

claim 18

, wherein the link information is represented by one of connectors, relations, or locators.