Methods and apparatus for archiving, indexing and accessing audio and video data
First Claim
1. A method of processing image data representing at least one image, the method comprising:
- receiving information including at least one of image quality information and image use information;
selecting a first encoding format from a plurality of supported encoding formats as a function of said received information;
encoding said image data according to the first encoding format to thereby generate first encoded image data representing said image; and
storing the first encoded image data using a digital data storage device.
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Accused Products
Abstract
Archival storage and retrieval of audio/video information is described. Audio and/or video information is digitized, compressed and stored in an intermediate archive format (IAF), which preserves the content at a high-enough quality for subsequent retrieval and conversion into various formats required at the time of use or distribution. A single capture operation is performed with ancillary metadata being added to facilitate subsequent searching, indexing and format conversion. Captured data content is catalogued and indexed at or subsequent to the creation of an IAF file that includes the archived information. The IAF includes a family of audio-video digital encoding formats based on public standards. The encoding format used in any particular application is determined at encoding time from information provided by the archive system user. At encoding, the particular encoding scheme is selected to optimize a tradeoff between storage constraints and end use quality requirements.
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Citations
50 Claims
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1. A method of processing image data representing at least one image, the method comprising:
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receiving information including at least one of image quality information and image use information;
selecting a first encoding format from a plurality of supported encoding formats as a function of said received information;
encoding said image data according to the first encoding format to thereby generate first encoded image data representing said image; and
storing the first encoded image data using a digital data storage device. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24)
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25. A digital storage medium comprising computer executable instructions for controlling a computer system to:
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receive information including at least one of image quality information and image use information;
select a first encoding format from a plurality of supported encoding formats as a function of said received information;
encode image data according to the first encoding format to thereby generate first encoded image data representing said image; and
store the first encoded image data using a digital data storage device.
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26. A system for processing and storing at least one of audio and video data, the system comprising:
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a compression module supporting a plurality of different encoding formats, the compression module including a plurality of encoding modules, each encoding module capable of performing data encoding according to a different standardized encoding format;
a control module for selecting from the plurality of encoding formats, an encoding format to be used with a given set of data supplied to the compression module; and
a data storage device coupled to the compression module for storing encoded data generated by said compression module. - View Dependent Claims (27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37)
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38. A method of operating a system to process image data representing an image, the method comprising:
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receiving image source information indicating at least one of a type of storage media previously used to store the image data and a storage format in which the image data was stored;
automatically selecting a first encoding format from a plurality of supported encoding formats as a function of said received information;
operating the system to encode said image data according to the first encoding format to thereby generate first encoded image data representing said image; and
storing the first encoded image data using a digital data storage device. - View Dependent Claims (39, 40, 41, 42)
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43. A method of processing image data representing an image, the method comprising:
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receiving image quality information;
selecting an encoding quality level from a plurality of supported encoding quality levels as a function of the received image quality information;
encoding said image data to the selected quality level according to a first encoding format to thereby generate first encoded image data representing said image; and
storing the first encoded image data using a digital data storage device. - View Dependent Claims (44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50)
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Specification