Client device and server device

• US 20040128701A1
• Filed: 09/25/2003
• Published: 07/01/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 09/26/2002
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba (Toshiba Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba (Toshiba Corporation)
• Inventors: Kaneko, Toshimitsu, Kambayashi, Toru, Nakazawa, Chihiro, Takahashi, Hideki, Kikuchi, Yoshihiro
• Application Number:
  US10/669,553
• Publication Number:
  US 20040128701A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 725/136
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/43074 of additional data with content streams on the same device, e.g. of EPG data or interactive icon with a TV program
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4325 by playing back content from the storage medium reproduction of recorded television signals H04N5/76; reproduction of recorded television signals H04N9/79
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/435 Processing of additional data, e.g. decrypting of additional data, reconstructing software from modules extracted from the transport stream
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6581 Reference data, e.g. a movie identifier for ordering a movie or a product identifier in a home shopping application
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8133 specifically related to the content, e.g. biography of the actors in a movie, detailed information about an article seen in a video program
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/84 Generation or processing of descriptive data, e.g. content descriptors systems specially adapted for using meta-information in broadcast systems H04H60/73
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8547 involving timestamps for synchronizing content
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17318 Direct or substantially direct transmission and handling of requests

Abstract

In order to eliminate viewer'"'"'s waiting time for downloading metadata on a network when enjoying hypermedia by combining videos in viewer'"'"'s possession and the metadata, a client device holds video data, metadata related to the video data is recorded in a server device; the server device sends the metadata to the client device through the network at the request from the client device; and the client device processes the sent metadata, thus realizing hypermedia together with local video data.

Claims

1. A client device capable of accessing a hypermedia-data server device through a network, comprising:

a playback unit to play back a moving image;

a time-stamp transmission unit to transmit the time stamp of the image in playback mode to the server device;

a metadata receiving unit to receive metadata having information related to the contents of the image at each time stamp from the server device by streaming distribution in synchronization with the playback of the moving image; and

a controller to display the received metadata or performing control on the basis of the metadata in synchronization with the playback of the image.

2. A client device according to claim 1, wherein the metadata includes:

object-area data specifying the area of an object appearing in the image corresponding to each time stamp; and

data specifying contents to be displayed when the area specified by the object-area data is designated or an action to be performed when the area specified by the object-area data is designated.

3. A client device according to claim 1, wherein, when the metadata is received by streaming distribution, the time-stamp transmitting unit adjusts timer time at which the time stamp to be transmitted to the server device is produced in accordance with the time stamp of the image.

4. A server device capable of accessing a hypermedia-data client device through a network, comprising:

a metadata storage unit to store metadata having information related to the contents of an image corresponding to each time stamp of a moving image to be played back by the client device;

a time-stamp receiving unit to receive the time stamp of the image to be played back, the time stamp being transmitted from the client device; and

a metadata transmission unit to transmit the stored metadata to the client device by streaming distribution in synchronization with the playback of the image in accordance with the received time stamp.

5. A server device according to claim 4, wherein the metadata includes:

object-area data specifying the area of an object appearing in the image corresponding to each time stamp; and

data specifying contents to be displayed when the area specified by the object-area data is designated or an action to be performed when the area specified by the object-area data is designated.

6. A server device according to claim 4, wherein the metadata transmission unit adjusts a timer time to be used when the metadata to be distributed and the distribution timing are determined in accordance with the received time stamp.

7. A server device according to claim 4, wherein, when the metadata to be distributed and the distribution timing are determined, the metadata transmission unit determines the transmission timing of partial data in the metadata by using data-transmission interval calculated from the timer time and the data transfer speed of the streaming distribution and an allowed time difference between the time stamp and the partial data of the metadata to be transmitted next.

8. A server device according to claim 4, further comprising:

a position-correspondence-table storage unit to store position-correspondence table in which a time stamp and a storage position of metadata related to the time stamp are in correspondence with each other;

wherein, upon receiving playback start time for the moving image, the metadata transmission unit sequentially sends the metadata by streaming distribution from a metadata storage position specified with reference to the position-correspondence table.

9. A server device according to claim 4, further comprising:

a first-table storage unit to store a first table that brings the sections of the time stamps related to a plurality of pieces of the metadata into correspondence with information for specifying the metadata; and

a second-table storage unit to store a second table that brings the time stamps into correspondence with storage positions of metadata related to the time stamps;

wherein, upon receiving playback start time for the moving image, the metadata transmission unit sends partial data of the metadata specified with reference to the first table by streaming distribution, and then sequentially sends the metadata from the storage position specified with reference to the second table by streaming distribution.

10. A method for playing back a moving image in a client device capable of accessing a hypermedia-data server device through a network, comprising:

playback step of playing back the moving image;

time-stamp transmission step of transmitting the time stamp of the image in playback mode to the server device;

metadata receiving step of receiving metadata having information related to the contents of the image at each time stamp from the server device by streaming distribution in synchronization with the playback of the moving image; and

control step of displaying the received metadata or performing control on the basis of the metadata in synchronization with the playback of the image.

11. A method for transmitting data in a server device capable of accessing a hypermedia-data client device through a network, comprising:

time-stamp receiving step of receiving the time stamp of an image to be played back, the time stamp being transmitted from the client device; and

metadata transmission step of transmitting metadata having information related to the contents of an image corresponding to each time stamp of a moving image to be played back by the client device to the client device by streaming distribution in synchronization with the playback of the image on the basis of the received time stamp.