Providing compressed video

• US 20020053075A1
• Filed: 01/25/2001
• Published: 05/02/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 07/27/1998
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: WebTV Networks Inc. (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Feder, Meir, Paz, Ofir, Keren, Avishai
• Application Number:
  US09/770,766
• Publication Number:
  US 20020053075A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 725/10
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/409 Data transfer via television network
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/538 for performing operations on behalf of the game client, e.g. rendering
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/5506 using advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/577 for watching a game played by other players
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/124 Quantisation
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/132 Sampling, masking or truncation of coding units, e.g. adaptive resampling, frame skipping, frame interpolation or high-frequency transform coefficient masking
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/134 characterised by the element, parameter or criterion affecting or controlling the adaptive coding
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/587 involving temporal sub-sampling or interpolation, e.g. decimation or subsequent interpolation of pictures in a video sequence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/61 in combination with predictive coding
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/233 Processing of audio elementary streams monitoring, identification or recognition of audio in broadcast systems H04H60/58
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/23412 for generating or manipulating the scene composition of objects, e.g. MPEG-4 objects
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/234336 by media transcoding, e.g. video is transformed into a slideshow of still pictures or audio is converted into text
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/234354 by altering signal-to-noise ratio parameters, e.g. requantization
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/234363 by altering the spatial resolution, e.g. for clients with a lower screen resolution
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/234381 by altering the temporal resolution, e.g. decreasing the frame rate by frame skipping
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/23655 Statistical multiplexing, e.g. by controlling the encoder to alter its bitrate to optimize the bandwidth utilization
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2402 Monitoring of the downstream path of the transmission network, e.g. bandwidth available traffic monitoring in data switching networks H04L43/00; monitoring data switching networks utilization H04L43/0876
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2407 Monitoring of transmitted content, e.g. distribution time, number of downloads arrangements for monitoring programmes for broadcast or for distribution combined with broadcast H04H20/14
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/241 Operating system [OS] processes, e.g. server setup
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2543 Billing , e.g. for subscription services payment schemes, architectures or protocols G06Q20/00; e-commerce G06Q30/00; arrangements for billing for the use of broadcast information or broadcast-related information H04H60/21
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/262 : Content or additional data distribution scheduling, e.g. sending additional data at off-peak times, updating software modules, calculating the carousel transmission frequency, delaying a video stream transmission, generating play-lists scheduling strategies for dispatcher in multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/4881; arrangements for scheduling broadcast services or broadcast-related services H04H60/06; flow control in packet networks H04L47/10; establishing a time schedule or organising the servicing of application requests H04L67/62
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2668 : Creating a channel for a dedicated end-user group, e.g. insertion of targeted commercials based on end-user profiles information retrieval from the Internet by querying with filtering and personalisation G06F16/9535; arrangements for replacing or switching information during the broadcast H04H20/10; push services over packet-switching network H04L12/1859; adaptation of message content in packet-switching networks H04L51/063
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/274 : Storing end-user multimedia data in response to end-user request , e.g. network recorder
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/478 : Supplemental services, e.g. displaying phone caller identification, shopping application
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/488 : Data services, e.g. news ticker systems specially adapted for using meteorological information in broadcast systems H04H60/71
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6168 : involving cable transmission, e.g. using a cable modem
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6187 : involving transmission via a telephone network, e.g. POTS
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6405 : Multicasting data broadcast and multicast in packet switching networks H04L12/18
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6408 : Unicasting
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6547 : comprising parameters, e.g. for client setup
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6587 : Control parameters, e.g. trick play commands, viewpoint selection
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/812 : involving advertisement data advertising per se G06Q30/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8173 : End-user applications, e.g. Web browser, game
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8453 : by locking or enabling a set of features, e.g. optional functionalities in an executable program
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8543 : using a description language, e.g. Multimedia and Hypermedia information coding Expert Group [MHEG], eXtensible Markup Language [XML] information retrieval of semistructured data, the underlying structure being taken into account, e.g. mark-up language structure data G06F16/80
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8586 : by using a URL processing chained hypermedia data for information retrieval G06F16/94; information retrieval from the Internet by using URLs G06F16/955; URL in broadcast information H04H20/93; Web-based protocols H04L67/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/165 : Centralised control of user terminal subsequent to an upstream request signal H04N7/17345; Registering at central by two-way working H04N7/17309

Abstract

A computer may be remotely accessed. At a first location, display commands are generated. The display commands are covered into a compressed video data stream. Each display element (5) is checked if it is encoded (52). If object is encoded, it is transcribed into MPEG (54). The image is adjusted for display (56) and compression (58). Additional steps of motion determination (60), change detection (62), compression depth and frame determination (66, 68) are executed. Then the data is transmitted to a second location. The display commands are decompressed and displayed as an image at the second location.

Claims

1. A charge accumulation method, comprising:

tracking a plurality of display transmissions from a server generating compressed video streams to a display unit which displays said streams, which transmissions utilize a variable video stream quality;

determining, for each transmission, a quality level of the video stream; and

generating a charge for using said transmissions, utilizing said determined quality levels.

2. A method according to claim 1, wherein said display transmissions comprise TV program transmission.

3. A method according to claim 1, wherein said display transmission comprises a transmission of a computer generated display.

4. A method according to claim 3, wherein said computer generated display comprises a WWW browser display.

5. A method according to any of claims 1-4, wherein generating a charge comprises generating a charge responsive to a predetermined quality level.

6. A method of interactive TV, comprising:

displaying, at on an interactive TV, a WWW page including indications for TV channels;

detecting an interaction of a user with one of said indications; and

displaying a TV channel on said interactive TV responsive to said detection of interaction.

7. A method according to claim 6, wherein said TV channel comprises a pay-on-demand movie.

8. A method of interactive TV, comprising:

providing a compressed video stream representing a TV channel;

overlaying on said compressed video stream an interaction layer, including at least one control;

receiving from a viewer of said video stream an interaction with said control, wherein said overlaying comprises overlaying a compressed interaction layer on said compressed video, without decompressing said compressed video; and

modifying said compressed video stream responsive to said received interaction.

9. A method of generating a plurality of displays, comprising:

generating a first set of display commands, by a first program;

generating at least a second set of display commands, by at least a second program;

differentially affecting said first and said second programs, to generate said display commands; and

converting each of said first and said second sets of display commands into a compressed video stream,

wherein said differentially affecting comprises differentially affecting to meet an instantaneous resource limitation.

10. A method of generating a plurality of displays, comprising:

generating a first set of display commands, by a first program;

generating at least a second set of display commands, by at least a second program;

differentially modifying said first and said sets of display commands; and

converting each of said first and said second sets of display commands into a compressed video stream,

wherein said differentially modifying comprises differentially modifying to meet an instantaneous resource limitation.

11. A method according to claim 9 or claim 10, wherein said resource limitation comprises a transmission bandwidth limitation.

12. A method according to claim 9 or claim 10, wherein said resource limitation comprises a limitation on CPU available to perform said conversion.

14. A method according to claim 13, wherein one channel of said at least one second channel is targeted for said display location.

15. A method according to claim 13, wherein transmitting comprises transmitting over a satellite network.

16. A method according to claim 13, wherein different display locations utilize different ones of said at least one second channel to modify said first channel.

19. A method according to claim 18, wherein said personalization comprises a scrolling of an object in said site.

20. A method according to claim 18, comprising assigning a third channel for use as a base image channel for said display unit, responsive to an interaction with said WWW site.

21. A method according to claim 18, comprising modifying an interactivity level of said site responsive to an availability of channels.

13. A method of transmitting a plurality of similar compressed video channels, comprising:

transmitting a base compressed image stream on a first channel;

transmitting modifications to said base image stream on at least one second channel;

receiving, at a display location, said first and said second channel;

modifying said first channel utilizing said second channel; and

displaying said modified first channel at said display location.

17. A method according to any of claims 13-16, wherein said first channel carries a TV program and wherein said at least one second channel carries advertisements.

18. A method according to any of claims 13-16, wherein said first channel carries a WWW site and wherein said at least one second channel carries personalizations of said site.