Interface and related methods for dynamically generating a filter graph in a development system

• US 20050283766A1
• Filed: 08/29/2005
• Published: 12/22/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 12/06/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Rudolph, Eric H., Miller, Daniel J.
• Granted Patent: US 7,853,921 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 717/136
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/00 Arrangements for software engineering testing or debugging G06F11/36; administrative, planning or organisation aspects of software project management G06Q10/06
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/20 Software design

Abstract

A system is presented including a plurality of sources, and an interface, selectively coupled to the plurality of sources, to generate and implement a development project of processing chains, wherein the interface dynamically loads a processing chain for each of the plurality of media sources at a point during the execution of the project when the chain is required, and wherein the interface is configured to unload at least a subset of the chains when they are not required.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

a plurality of sources; and

an interface, selectively coupled to the plurality of sources, to generate and implement a development project of processing chains at least one chain of which comprises multiple filters, wherein the interface loads a processing chain for each of the plurality of media sources at a point during the execution of the project when the chain is required, and wherein the interface is configured to unload at least a subset of the chains when they are not required.

2. A system according to claim 1, wherein the interface is a render engine, exposed to a media processing system implemented on a computing system.

3. A system according to claim 1, further comprising an application program, coupled to the interface, to enable a user to define a media processing project.

4. A system according to claim 1, wherein the interface only loads those processing chains required during the next M seconds of project execution and, if the currently loaded chain-count does not exceed a threshold, T, where M and T are greater than 0.

5. A system according to claim 4, wherein M is less than a time required to load a processing chain.

6. A system according to claim 4, wherein if the currently loaded chain-count has reached a threshold, T, the interface identifies one or more currently loaded chains that can be unloaded.

7. A system according to claim 6, wherein the interface identifies one or more currently loaded chains that will not be used during the next N seconds to unload, where N is greater than 0.

8. A system according to claim 7, wherein M is less than N.

9. A system according to claim 7, wherein the interface determines whether the identified one or more chains will be required during subsequent execution of the project, or in a future project and, if so, caches the identified chain(s).

10. A system according to claim 7, wherein the interface determines whether unloading of the identified one or more chains reduces the chain-count below a maximum allowable threshold, V, and, if so, loads the chains required in the next M seconds, wherein V is greater than 0.

11. A system according to claim 9, whereupon determining that the chain-count is not below V, the interface identifies one or more lowest priority chains and unloads the identified chain(s), wherein V is greater than 0.

12. A system according to claim 10, wherein the interface removes the identified chains from the active project and caches the removed chains.

13. A system according to claim 10, wherein the interface loads the chains required during the next M seconds.

14. A system according to claim 6, wherein the interface unloads a chain when all matrix switch filter(s) of the filter graph provide an indication that the chain is no longer required.

15. A system according to claim 4, wherein T is set to one (1).

16. A system according to claim 15, whereby setting T equal to one (1), the interface will be required to search for and potentially unload chains which are not required to support execution of the project for the next N seconds.

17. A computer-implemented method for generating and managing a development project, the method comprising:

identifying processing chains required to support execution of the development project over the next M seconds; and

loading the identified processing chains as long as a currently loaded chain-count does not exceed an initial threshold, T, wherein T and M are greater than 0.

18. A method according to claim 17, further comprising:

identifying currently loaded chains that will not be used during the next N seconds, wherein N is greater than 0; and

removing the identified chains from the development project.

19. A method according to claim 18, further comprising:

determining whether the chain-count has dropped below a maximum allowable chain-count, V, after removing the identified chains from the development project, wherein V is greater than 0;

identifying one or more low priority chains and removing them from the development project; and

loading the chains required in the next M seconds.

20. A method according to claim 18, wherein removing the identified chains comprises:

determining whether the identified chains will be required during subsequent execution of the development project or future development projects; and

caching the identified chains if they will be used during subsequent execution of the development project and/or future projects.