MULTIMEDIA DISTRIBUTION AND PLAYBACK SYSTEMS AND METHODS USING ENHANCED METADATA STRUCTURES

• US 20090307258A1
• Filed: 06/08/2009
• Published: 12/10/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 06/06/2008
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Sonic IP Incorporated (Endeavor Group Holdings Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Sonic IP Incorporated (Endeavor Group Holdings Inc.)
• Inventors: Kirkby, Loren, Braness, Jason, Soroushian, Kourosh, Priyadarshi, Shaiwal
• Application Number:
  US12/480,251
• Publication Number:
  US 20090307258A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/234318 by decomposing into objects, e.g. MPEG-4 objects
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/23614 Multiplexing of additional data and video streams arrangements for simultaneous broadcast of plural pieces of information H04H20/28
• 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 21/4348 Demultiplexing of additional data and video streams
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8126 involving additional data, e.g. news, sports, stocks, weather forecasts
• 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 21/8405 represented by keywords
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8543 using a description language, e.g. Multimedia and Hypermedia information coding Expert Group [MHEG], eXtensible Markup Language [XML] information retrieval of semistructured data, the underlying structure being taken into account, e.g. mark-up language structure data G06F16/80
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8547 involving timestamps for synchronizing content
• 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 metadata systems and methods are provided that enhance the playback features of multimedia files. A metadata structure is used that includes metadata tags and objects to allow access to various data typically not available to most playback devices.

Claims

1. A method of playing back metadata content stored in a media file, comprising:

providing a media file to a playback device, the media file having at least one metadata object and an association with content data, the metadata object referencing at least one facet of the content data;

decoding the content data by the playback device;

displaying content on a display screen from the decoded content data; and

decoding the at least one metadata object based on the displayed content by the playback device.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the at least one metadata object has at least one metadata tag associated with at least one metadata value.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the media file further comprises at least one metadata table, the at least one metadata table having at least one identifier and at least one metadata object.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein the at least one metadata table is positioned at the end of the media file.

5. The method of claim 3 wherein the at least one metadata table includes a reserved space allowing the at least one metadata table to grow without having to re-calculate and re-write all the elements of the file.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the media file further comprises at least one metadata track incorporated throughout the content data and the track includes a metadata object, or a reference to a metadata object in a metadata table.

7. The method of claim 2 wherein the media file further comprises a global identifier that is static for the media file.

8. The method of claim 2 wherein the content data comprises video, audio, or subtitle frames and the at least one metadata tag references at least one facet of at least one video, audio or subtitle frame and further comprising rendering text using a single embedded compacted font to match text for subtitle frames or the at least one metadata tag.

9. The method of claim 2 wherein the at least one metadata tag includes an extension providing a further description of the tag.

10. The method of claim 6 wherein the at least one metadata track is associated with at least one content track and at least one metadata track header.

11. The method of claim 10 further comprising decoding the at least one metadata track based on a user playback instruction.

12. The method of claim 2 further comprising assigning the at least one metadata tag to a portion of the content data by associating at least one identifier to the portion of the content data and the at least one metadata tag.

13. The method of claim 1 wherein the at least one metadata object describes a region of interest relative to the displayed content.

14. The method of claim 2 wherein the at least one metadata value refers to remote content and further comprising converting the remote content to a localized content.

15. The method of claim 2 further comprising launching other applications based on the decoded metadata object.

16. The method of claim 2 further comprising extracting the at least one metadata object prior to displaying content and controlling the displaying of content based on the extracted at least one metadata object.

17. A system for playback of a media file, comprising:

a media server configured to locate media files, each media file having an immutable global identifier; and

a client processor in network communication with the media server and configured to send requests for a media file to the media server, the media server configured to locate and transmit the requested media file based on the global identifier and the client processor further comprises a playback engine configured to decode a metadata track within the transmitted media file, the metadata track referring to content data in the transmitted media file.

18. The system of claim 17 wherein the playback engine decodes the metadata track by accessing a metadata table having an identifier and metadata objects.

19. The system of claim 17 wherein the playback engine displays metadata information based on the decoded metadata track.

20. A method of creating a media file having metadata information, the method comprising:

supplying a source of metadata information to an encoder;

supplying a source of content to an encoder;

generating a metadata object from the supplied metadata information by the encoder, the generated metadata object referencing at least one portion of the supplied content; and

integrating the metadata object with the supplied content to form a media file by the encoder.

21. The method of claim 20 wherein the content comprises video, audio and subtitle information.

22. The method of claim 20 further comprising generating a metadata table referencing the metadata object generated from the supplied metadata information.

23. The method of claim 20 wherein the metadata object comprises a presentation time and a duration.

24. The method of claim 20 further comprising extracting multiple referenced metadata objects within the metadata information source and storing a copy of the referenced metadata object in a metadata table.

25. The method of claim 24 further comprising extracting global metadata objects within the metadata information source and storing a copy of each global metadata object along with an associated identifier.

26. The method of claim 25 further comprising generating a metadata track and metadata track header including the associated identifiers.

27. The method of claim 20 further comprising integrating the metadata table into the media file.

28. The method of claim 27 further comprising integrating a global unique identifier into the media file.