Method of Transmitting Data in a Communication System

• US 20090234919A1
• Filed: 03/11/2009
• Published: 09/17/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 03/13/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Skype S.Ã R.L. (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Wurm, Karlheinz, Jefremov, Andrei
• Granted Patent: US 9,699,099 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/204
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0858 One way delays
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/0894 Packet rate
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/10 Flow control; Congestion control
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/22 Traffic shaping
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/26 using explicit feedback to the source, e.g. choke packets
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/263 Rate modification at the source after receiving feedback
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/38 by adapting coding or compression rate

Abstract

A method of transmitting image data from a first node to a second node during a communication event, wherein the second node comprises a display for displaying image data at the second node, said method comprising; receiving at the first node, information indicating at least one display characteristic with which image data received at the second node will be displayed on said display; inputting image data at the first node; determining a processing step to be applied to the inputted image data to generate adapted image data, such that at least one characteristic of the adapted image data is optimised for said at least one display characteristic; applying the processing step to generate the adapted image data; and transmitting the adapted image data to the second terminal.

Claims

1. A method of transmitting image data from a first node to a second node during a communication event, wherein the second node comprises a display for displaying image data at the second node, said method comprising;

receiving at the first node, information indicating at least one display characteristic with which image data received at the second node will be displayed on said display;

inputting image data at the first node;

determining a processing step to be applied to the inputted image data to generate adapted image data, such that at least one characteristic of the adapted image data is optimised for said at least one display characteristic;

applying the processing step to generate the adapted image data; and

transmitting the adapted image data to the second terminal.

2. A method as claimed in claim 1 wherein the display characteristic comprises an indication of one of:

a resolution of the display;

a size of an area of the display in which at least a portion of the received image data is displayed;

a colour depth of the display;

a capacity to represent light nuances on the display;

a screen depth of the display;

an aspect ratio of an area of the display in which the received image is displayed;

magnification to be applied to the received image data;

or a portion of the received image data to be displayed.

3. A method as claimed in claim 1 wherein the step of determining a processing step to be applied to the inputted image data to generate adapted image data, such that at least one characteristic of the adapted image data is optimised for said at least one display characteristic, comprises determining an encoding parameter for encoding the input image data based on the display characteristic.

4. A method as claimed in claim 3 wherein the encoding parameter relates to a level of colour information;

a level of light information;

a resolution value;

an aspect ratio;

a frame rate;

a compression complexity of the adapted image;

bit rate.

5. A method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the display characteristic is updated during the communication event.

6. A method as claimed in claim 5, wherein the encoding parameter is updated in response to the receiving information indicating the updated display characteristic.

7. A method as claimed in claim 4 wherein the encoding parameter is determined according to a function of the display characteristic.

8. A method as claimed in claim 4 wherein the step of determining the encoding parameter comprises:

querying a look up table with the display characteristic; and

retrieving the encoding parameter at which the inputted image is to be encoded.

9. A method as claimed in claim 1 wherein determining a processing step to be applied to the inputted image data to generate adapted image data, such that at least one characteristic of the adapted image data is optimised for said at least one display characteristic achieves an acceptable level of perceived quality for the image displayed.

10. A method as claimed in claim 4 wherein the step of applying the processing step to generate the adapted image data comprises:

encoding the image data according to the determined encoding parameter.

17. A computer program product comprising program code means which when executed by a computer implement the steps according to the method of claim 1.

11. A method of transmitting image data from a first node to a second node during a communication event, wherein the second node comprises a display for displaying image data at the second node, said method comprising;

receiving at the first node, information indicating at least one display characteristic with which image data received at the second node will be displayed on said display;

inputting image data at the first node;

determining a processing step to be applied to the inputted image data to generate adapted image data, such that an acceptable quality threshold is met when the adapted image data is displayed with the display characteristic;

applying the processing step to generate the adapted image data; and

transmitting the adapted image data to the second terminal.

12. A method as claimed in claim 11 wherein the image data is captured from a camera.

13. A method as claimed in claim 11 wherein the image data is screen sharing data.

14. A transmitting terminal arranged to transmit image data to a receiving terminal during a communication event, wherein the receiving terminal comprises a display for displaying image data, said transmitting terminal comprising:

a receiver for receiving information indicating at least one display characteristic with which image data received at the receiving terminal will be displayed on said display;

an image inputting system for inputting image data at the transmitting terminal;

a control block for determining a processing step to be applied to the inputted image data to generate adapted image data, such that at least one characteristic of the adapted image data is optimised for said at least one display characteristic;

a processing block for applying the processing step to generate the adapted image data; and

a transmitter for transmitting the adapted image data to the second terminal.

15. method as claimed in claim 14 wherein the transmitting terminal is one of:

an end user node, a server relaying image data from an end user node, a server distributing pre-stored image data.

16. A receiving terminal for receiving image data transmitted from a transmitting terminal during a communication event, said receiving terminal comprising:

a display for displaying image data received by the receiving terminal, a display reporter unit arranged to determine information indicating a display characteristic with which image data received at the second node will be displayed on said display; and

a transmitter for transmitting said information indicating said display characteristic to the transmitting terminal, such that the transmitting terminal may adapt the image data to be transmitted to the receiving terminal in order to optimise at least one characteristic of the image for said at least one display characteristic.