ASYNCHRONOUS MEDIA FOUNDATION TRANSFORM

• US 20090323818A1
• Filed: 06/27/2008
• Published: 12/31/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 06/27/2008
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Evans, Glenn F., Weiss, Rebecca C., Grigorovitch, Alexandre V., Speed, Robin C.B.
• Application Number:
  US12/163,444
• Publication Number:
  US 20090323818A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 375/240.18
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4622 Retrieving content or additional data from different sources, e.g. from a broadcast channel and the Internet web site content organization and management for information retrieval from the Internet G06F16/958; transmission by internet of broadcast information H04H60/82; stock exchange data over packet-switching network H04L12/1804; push services including data channel over packet-switching network H04L12/1859
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8173 End-user applications, e.g. Web browser, game
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/818 OS software

Abstract

This disclosure describes methods, systems, and programming interfaces for more efficiently processing media data in a media pipeline. In one embodiment, media flow in a media system is coordinated using a media foundation transform supported by a programming interface. The programming interface generates input and output events to the requisite media system thereby permitting the media foundation transform control over when input frames are requested and received and output frames are retrieved.

Claims

1. A system for processing media data comprising:

a pipeline of discrete components, the discrete components comprising;

one or more media sources;

one or more asynchronous media foundation transforms (AsyncMFTs), wherein media data received from the one or more media sources is acted upon by the one or more AsyncMFTs;

one or more media sinks receiving the media data from the one or more AsyncMFTs; and

at least one media foundation interface, wherein the media foundation interface comprises;

listening for an event requesting the media data from at least one of the one or more media sources; and

listening for an event requesting that the one or more AsyncMFTs send the media data to the one or more media sinks.

2. The media system of claim 1, further comprising one or more paths within the pipeline, wherein the one or more paths comprises one or more AsyncMFTs.

3. The media system of claim 1, wherein the pipeline controls the operation of the AsyncMFT.

4. The media system of claim 1, wherein the AsyncMFT operates in isolation from remaining discrete components of the pipeline.

5. The media system of claim 1, wherein the media foundation interface comprises an IMFMediaEventGenerator interface and an IMFTransform interface.

6. The media system of claim 1, further comprising an event signaling that an output frame is ready for pickup by the AsyncMFT.

7. The media system of claim 1 wherein the media source comprises at least one of a substantially real-time content or a non real-time content.

8. The media system of claim 1, wherein the AsyncMFT acting upon the media data comprises at least one of an audio codec, a video codec, an audio effect, a video effect, a multiplexer, a demultiplexer, a tee, a color space converter, a sample-rate converter, or a video scaler.

9. The media system of claim 1, wherein the AsyncMFT is software based or hardware based.

10. One or more computer-readable storage media containing instructions that are executable by a computing device to perform actions comprising:

generating media data from a source object, wherein the media data is comprised of one or more media frames;

implementing at least one interface of an AsyncMFT within a media pipeline to coordinate a flow of the one or more media frames, wherein the one or more interfaces makes an input call and an output call; and

receiving the one or more media frames at a pipeline object.

11. One or more computer-readable storage media of claim 10, wherein the pipeline object comprises a media sink which presents the media frames for playback.

12. One or more computer-implemented method of claim 10, further comprising one or more paths within the media foundation pipeline, wherein a first path is for a video rendering and a second path is for an audio rendering.

13. A programming interface for implementing an asynchronous method for processing media data within a media system, the method comprising:

generating a first event requesting input from an upstream object; and

providing an output frame to a downstream object.

14. The programming interface of claim 13, wherein the upstream object comprises a media source or one or more asynchronous media foundation transformers.

15. The programming interface of claim 14, wherein the media source comprises at least one of a substantially real-time content or a non real-time content.

16. The programming interface of claim 13, wherein the downstream object comprises a media sink or a second media foundation transform.

17. The programming interface of claim 16, wherein the media sink comprises a renderer sink.

18. The programming interface of claim 17, further comprising a renderer sink is associated with a particular type of media content.

19. The programming interface of claim 16, wherein the media sink comprises an archive sink.

20. The programming interface of claim 13, generating a second event requesting that the output frame be sent to the downstream component.