System and method for authoring multimedia contents description metadata

• US 20040133605A1
• Filed: 12/19/2003
• Published: 07/08/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 12/20/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute
• Original Assignee: Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute
• Inventors: Yang, Seung Jun, Kang, Kyeongok, Kim, Jinwoong, Chang, Hyun Sung
• Granted Patent: US 7,234,104 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/104.1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/48 Retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manually

Abstract

Disclosed is a system for authoring metadata that describe multimedia contents. A storage device loads information on a currently edited metadata document so as to describe multimedia contents, and a metadata editor visualizes the loaded metadata document according to a predetermined method, and allows a user to edit the metadata document. A multimedia access reproducer accesses the input multimedia contents to reproduce corresponding multimedia contents, and an inter-media metadata interface links the multimedia access reproducer and the metadata editor to browse contents and effectively edit information relating to a specific interval of multimedia contents. A metadata output device outputs information on the loaded metadata document according to a predefined format.

Claims

1. A system for authoring metadata for describing multimedia contents, comprising:

a storage device for loading information of a currently authored metadata document so as to describe input multimedia contents;

a metadata editor for visualizing the loaded metadata document according to a predetermined method, and allowing a user to edit the metadata document;

a multimedia access reproducer for accessing the input multimedia contents, and reproducing the corresponding multimedia contents;

an inter-media metadata interface for linking the multimedia access reproducer and the metadata editor, and allowing to browse contents and effectively edit information that relates to a specific interval of multimedia data; and

a metadata output device for outputting the loaded metadata document information according to a predefined format when the authoring is finished.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the storage device loads metadata schema information.

3. The system of claim 2, further comprising a real-time validity identifier for referring to the metadata schema information on the edited component to check whether editing results are valid when an event for editing contents of the metadata is generated from the user through the metadata editor.

4. The system of claim 2, wherein the metadata schema information is stored as a separately described document format, and is loaded to the storage device according to a selection by the user.

5. The system of claim 2, further comprising a metadata input device for editing previously authored metadata.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the metadata input device identifies the validity of the input metadata, and loads the identified metadata information into the storage device.

7. The system of claim 5, wherein the metadata input device extracts valid portions and loads them into the storage device when invalid portions are found after checking the validity of the input metadata.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the metadata editor visualizes contents of the metadata on a predefined visualization sheet, and accesses a specific interval and reproduces contents through the inter-media metadata interface and the multimedia access reproducer when the contents of the corresponding metadata are related to the corresponding interval.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the visualization sheet is separately generated by an author, or selected by the metadata author from among a plurality of previously generated sheets.

10. The system of claim 8, wherein the metadata editor defines the visualization sheet through the HTML (hyper text markup language) and various objects which can be inserted into the HTML, and uses the objects to allow the user to receive a message of the edited contents when the user edits the contents.

11. The system of claim 8, wherein the metadata editor includes a user interface for visualizing the time axis of the multimedia contents, and allows the user to select a specific interval through the user interface and input metadata information relating to the selected interval.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein the format of the metadata output through the metadata output device is the XML (extensible markup language).

13. A method for authoring metadata for describing multimedia contents, comprising:

(a) loading information on a metadata document of earlier authoring so as to describe input multimedia contents;

(b) visualizing the metadata document loaded in the storage device according to a predetermined method; and

(c) allowing a user to use the visualized metadata document and edit the metadata document in linkage with the corresponding multimedia contents.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein (b) comprises visualizing the contents of the metadata on a visualization sheet predefined as to all or part of metadata components.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein (c) comprises allowing the user to access a specific interval of multimedia contents and reproduce multimedia contents when the contents of the metadata relate to the specific interval of the multimedia contents to thereby edit the metadata document.

16. A recording medium for storing a software program for authoring metadata for describing multimedia contents, comprising:

a metadata editing module for visualizing a metadata document loaded in a storage device according to a predetermined method, and allowing a user to edit the metadata document;

a multimedia access reproducing module for accessing the input multimedia contents and reproducing corresponding multimedia contents;

an inter-media metadata interface module for linking the multimedia access reproducing module and the metadata editing module to browse contents and effectively edit information relating to a specific interval of the multimedia contents; and

a metadata output module for outputting metadata document information loaded in the storage device according to a predefined format when the authoring is finished.