HTTP agent-driven content negotiation for scalable video coding

• US 20060047779A1
• Filed: 07/12/2004
• Published: 03/02/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 07/12/2004
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Sharp Laboratories of America Incorporated (Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Sharp Laboratories of America Incorporated (Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd.)
• Inventors: Deshpande, Sachin G.
• Application Number:
  US10/890,796
• Publication Number:
  US 20060047779A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/218
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/735 Filtering based on additional data, e.g. user or group profiles
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9577 Optimising the visualization of content, e.g. distillation of HTML documents
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/23439 for generating different versions
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4621 Controlling the complexity of the content stream or additional data, e.g. lowering the resolution or bit-rate of the video stream for a mobile client with a small screen arrangements for using the results of monitoring on user's side in broadcast systems H04H60/65; flow control in packet networks H04L47/10
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/64322 IP
• 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

Abstract

A client can discover the quality-selection parameters that are available from a server for a particular scalable-coded video resource using an HTTP-based agent-driven content negotiation technique. A client sends an HTTP-based request to a server for a list of variants of the resource. The server receives the HTTP-based request and, in response, generates and sends to the client an HTTP-based response containing a list of available variants. The list of available variants can be based on at least one of a resolution, a frame rate, a bit-rate and a color depth. The client then selects an appropriate variant for consumption at the client.

Claims

1. A system, comprising:

a resource that is available in a plurality of variants; and

a request receiver receiving an HTTP-based request for the resource, the request receiver responding to the request by generating an HTTP-based response containing a list of available variants.

2. The system according to claim 1, wherein the resource is a scalable-encoded video resource.

3. The system according to claim 1, wherein the resource is a scalable-encoded audio resource.

4. The system according to claim 1, wherein the resource is a scalable-encoded image resource.

5. The system according to claim 1, wherein the list of available variants is based on at least one of a resolution, a frame rate, a bit-rate and a color depth.

6. The system according to claim 5, wherein at least one variant is specified by a discrete value.

7. The system according to claim 5, wherein at least one variant is specified by a range of values.

8. The system according to claim 1, wherein at least one variant is represented by a Uniform Resource Locator (URL).

9. The system according to claim 8, wherein the URL is an HTTP-based URL.

10. The system according to claim 8, wherein the URL is a non-HTTP-based URL.

11. The system according to claim 1, wherein the HTTP-based response includes a header containing the list of available variants.

12. The system according to claim 11, wherein the header is an Alternates response header.

13. The system according to claim 11, wherein the header includes an extension-attributes field describing the available variants.

14. The system according to claim 11, wherein the HTTP-based response further includes an entity that further contains the list of variants.

15. The system according to claim 1, wherein the HTTP-based response includes a header that contains a URL pointing to a default variant.

16. The system according to claim 15, wherein the header is a Location header.

17. The system according to claim 1, wherein the HTTP-based response includes an entity containing the list of variants.

18. The system according to claim 17, wherein the list of variants is in a plain text-based format.

19. The system according to claim 17, wherein the list of variants is in an HTML-based format.

20. The system according to claim 17, wherein the list of variants includes at least one description relating to a frame-rate, a bit-rate, a resolution, a quality and a color depth.

21. The system according to claim 1, wherein the HTTP-based response includes a features attribute describing at least one of a frame-rate, a bit-rate, a resolution and a color depth.

22. The system according to claim 1, wherein the HTTP-based response includes an extension attribute describing at least one of a frame-rate, a bit-rate, a resolution and a color depth.

23. The system according to claim 1, further comprising a client sending the HTTP-based request to the request receiver and receiving the HTTP-based response containing a list of available variants from the request receiver.

24. The system according to claim 23, wherein the client automatically selects a variant based on one of a resolution, a frame rate, a bit-rate and a color depth.

25. The system according to claim 23, wherein a variant is manually selected at the client.

26. The system according to claim 25, wherein the list of variants is displayed for manual selection.

27. A system, comprising

a request generator sending an HTTP-based request for a resource at a server;

and

a variant selector selecting an available variant for the resource based on an HTTP-based response containing a list of available variants received from the server.

28. The system according to claim 27, wherein the variant selector automatically selects a variant based on one of a resolution, a frame rate, a bit-rate and a color depth.

29. The system according to claim 27, wherein a variant is manually selected at the client.

30. The system according to claim 27, wherein the resource is a scalable-encoded video resource.

31. The system according to claim 27, wherein the resource is a scalable-encoded audio resource.

32. The system according to claim 27, wherein the resource is a scalable-encoded image resource.

33. The system according to claim 27, wherein the list of available variants is based on at least one of a resolution, a frame rate and a bit-rate,

34. The system according to claim 33, wherein at least one variant is specified by a discrete value.

35. The system according to claim 33, wherein at least one variant is specified by a range of values.

36. The system according to claim 27, wherein at least one variant is represented by a Uniform Resource Locator (URL).

37. The system according to claim 36, wherein the URL is an HTTP-based URL.

38. The system according to claim 36, wherein the URL is a non-HTTP-based URL.

39. The system according to claim 27, wherein the HTTP-based response includes a header containing the list of available variants.

40. The system according to claim 39, wherein the header is an Alternates response header.

41. The system according to claim 39, wherein the header includes an extension-attributes field describing the available variants.

42. The system according to claim 27, wherein the HTTP-based response includes a header containing a URL pointing to a default variant.

43. The system according to claim 42, wherein the header is a Location header.

44. The system according to claim 42, wherein the HTTP-based response further includes an entity that further contains the list of variants.

45. The system according to claim 27, wherein the HTTP-based response includes an entity containing the list of variants.

46. The system according to claim 45, wherein the list of variants is in a plain text-based format.

47. The system according to claim 45, wherein the list of variants is in an HTML-based format.

48. The system according to claim 45, wherein the list of variants includes at least one description relating to a frame-rate, a bit-rate, a resolution, a quality and a color depth.

49. The system according to claim 27, wherein the HTTP-based response includes a features attribute describing at least one of a frame-rate, a bit-rate, a resolution and a color depth.

50. The system according to claim 27, wherein the HTTP-based response includes an extension attribute describing at least one of a frame-rate, a bit-rate, a resolution and a color depth.

51. A method for selecting a variant of a scalable-content resource, the method comprising:

receiving an HTTP-based request at a server from a client for the resource; and

generating an HTTP-based response containing a list of available variants for the resource.

52. The method according to claim 51, further comprising sending the HTTP-based response to the client.

53. The method according to claim 51, wherein the resource is a scalable-encoded video resource.

54. The method according to claim 51, wherein the resource is a scalable-encoded audio resource.

55. The method according to claim 51, wherein the resource is a scalable-encoded image resource.

56. The method according to claim 51, wherein the list of available variants is based on at least one of a resolution, a frame rate, a bit-rate and a color depth.

57. The method according to claim 56, wherein at least one variant is specified by a discrete value.

58. The method according to claim 56, wherein at least one variant is specified by a range of values.

59. The method according to claim 51, wherein at least one variant is represented by a Uniform Resource Locator (URL).

60. The method according to claim 59, wherein the URL is an HTTP-based URL.

61. The method according to claim 59, wherein the URL is a non-HTTP-based URL.

62. The method according to claim 51, wherein the HTTP-based response includes a header containing the list of available variants.

63. The method according to claim 62, wherein the header is an Alternates response header.

64. The method according to claim 62, wherein the header includes an extension-attributes field describing the available variants.

65. The method according to claim 62, wherein the HTTP-based response further includes an entity that further contains the list of variants.

66. The method according to claim 51, wherein the HTTP-based response includes a header containing a URL pointing to a default variant.

67. The method according to claim 66, wherein the header is a Location header.

68. The method according to claim 51, wherein the HTTP-based response includes an entity containing the list of variants.

69. The method according to claim 68, wherein the list of variants is in a plain text-based format.

70. The method according to claim 68, wherein the list of variants is in an HTML-based format.

71. The method according to claim 68, wherein the list of variants includes at least one description relating to a frame-rate, a bit-rate, a resolution, a quality and a color depth.

72. The method according to claim 51, further comprising sending the HTTP-based request to the server from the client;

and

receiving at the client the HTTP-based response containing a list of available variants.

73. The method according to claim 72, further comprising automatically selecting at the client a variant based on one of a resolution, a frame rate, a bit-rate and a color depth.

74. The method according to claim 72, further comprising manually selecting a variant at the client.

75. The method according to claim 74, further comprising displaying the list of variants for manual selection.

76. The method according to claim 51, wherein the HTTP-based response includes a features attribute describing at least one of a frame-rate, a bit-rate, a resolution and a color depth.

77. The method according to claim 51, wherein the HTTP-based response includes an extension attribute describing at least one of a frame-rate, a bit-rate, a resolution and a color depth.

78. A method for selecting a variant of a scalable-content resource, the method comprising:

sending an HTTP-based request for a resource at a server; and

selecting an available variant for the resource based on an HTTP-based response received from the server containing a list of available variants.

79. The method according to claim 78, wherein selecting an available variant includes automatically selecting a variant based on one of a resolution, a frame rate, a bit-rate and a color depth.

80. The method according to claim 78, wherein selecting an available variant includes manually selecting a variant at the client.

81. The method according to claim 78, wherein the resource is a scalable-encoded video resource.

82. The method according to claim 78, wherein the resource is a scalable-encoded audio resource.

83. The method according to claim 78, wherein the resource is a scalable-encoded image resource.

84. The method according to claim 78, wherein the list of available variants is based on at least one of a resolution, a frame rate, a bit-rate and a color depth.

85. The method according to claim 84, wherein at least one variant is specified by a discrete value.

86. The method according to claim 84, wherein at least one variant is specified by a range of values.

87. The method according to claim 78, wherein at least one variant is represented by a Uniform Resource Locator (URL).

88. The method according to claim 87, wherein the URL is an HTTP-based URL.

89. The method according to claim 87, wherein the URL is a non-HTTP-based URL.

90. The method according to claim 78, wherein the HTTP-based response includes a header containing the list of available variants.

91. The method according to claim 90, wherein the header is an Alternates response header.

92. The method according to claim 90, wherein the header includes an extension-attributes field describing the available variants.

93. The method according to claim 90, wherein the HTTP-based response further includes an entity that further contains the list of variants.

94. The method according to claim 78, wherein the HTTP-based response includes a header containing a URL pointing to a default variant.

95. The method according to claim 78, wherein the header is a Location header.

96. The method according to claim 78, wherein the HTTP-based response includes an entity containing the list of variants.

97. The method according to claim 96, wherein the list of variants is in a plain text-based format.

98. The method according to claim 96, wherein the list of variants is in an HTML-based format.

99. The method according to claim 96, wherein the list of variants includes at least one description relating to a frame-rate, a bit-rate, a resolution, a quality and a color depth.

100. The method according to claim 78, wherein the HTTP-based response includes a features attribute describing at least one of a frame-rate, a bit-rate, a resolution and a color depth.

101. The method according to claim 78, wherein the HTTP-based response includes an extension attribute describing at least one of a frame-rate, a bit-rate, a resolution and a color depth.

102. An HTTP-based message containing a list of available variants of a resource, comprising a features attribute describing at least one of a frame-rate, a bit-rate, a resolution and a color depth relating to the available variants of the resource.

103. An HTTP-based message containing a list of available variants of a resource, comprising an extension attribute describing at least one of a frame-rate, a bit-rate, a resolution and a color depth relating to the available variants of the resource.