SERVER APPARATUS AND METHOD OF AQUIRING CONTENTS

• US 20120150795A1
• Filed: 06/20/2011
• Published: 06/14/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 06/23/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sovereign Peak Ventures, LLC (Dominion Harbor Enterprises, LLC)
• Original Assignee: Panasonic Intellectual Property Corporation of America (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Sasaki, Takamitsu
• Granted Patent: US 8,719,218 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/609
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/1748 De-duplication implemented within the file system, e.g. based on file segments de-duplication techniques in storage systems for the management of data blocks G06F3/0641
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/51 Indexing; Data structures therefor; Storage structures
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00244 with a server, e.g. an internet server fax-servers or the like for store and forward H04N1/324
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/32117 in a separate transmission or protocol signal prior to or subsequent to the image data transmission, e.g. in digital identification signal [DIS], in non standard setup [NSS] or in non standard field [NSF] for mode signalling H04N1/333
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/23113 involving housekeeping operations for stored content, e.g. prioritizing content for deletion because of storage space restrictions storage management, e.g. defragmentation G06F3/0604; snloading stored programs G06F9/445; housekeeping operations in file systems, e.g. deletion policies G06F16/10; buffering arrangements in a network node or in an end terminal in packet networks H04L49/90
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/0084 Digital still camera
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/3226 of identification information or the like, e.g. ID code, index, title, part of an image, reduced-size image
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/3278 Transmission

Abstract

A server apparatus (200) includes a content segment acquisition unit (202) that sequentially acquires, from a client device (300), comparison counterpart segments constituting a part of a candidate content, each corresponding to each of comparison segments constituting a part of acquired contents, a duplication decision unit (204) that compares, each time the comparison counterpart segment is acquired, the comparison counterpart segment and the corresponding comparison segment to thereby decide whether a content having the comparison segment that agrees with the comparison counterpart segment is included in the acquired contents, and a content acquisition unit (208) that acquires the candidate content from the client device and stores the candidate content in the storage unit (211) in the case where such a content is not included. The content segment acquisition unit (202) aborts acquisition of a subsequent comparison counterpart segment in the case where the above content is not included.

Claims

1. A server apparatus that stores a content acquired from a client device in a storage unit, said server apparatus comprising:

a content segment acquisition unit configured to sequentially acquire, from the client device, comparison counterpart segments constituting a part of a candidate content, the comparison counterpart segments respectively corresponding to one of a plurality of comparison segments constituting a part of one or more already acquired contents stored in the storage unit;

a duplication decision unit configured to compare, each time said content segment acquisition unit acquires the comparison counterpart segment, the comparison counterpart segment and the comparison segment corresponding to the comparison counterpart segment, to thereby decide whether a content including the comparison segment that agrees with the comparison counterpart segment is present among the already acquired contents; and

a content acquisition unit configured to acquire the candidate content from the client device and store the candidate content in the storage unit in the case where said duplication decision unit decides that a content including the comparison segment that agrees with the comparison counterpart segment is not present among the already acquired contents,

wherein said content segment acquisition unit is configured to abort acquisition of a subsequent comparison counterpart segment of the candidate content, in the case where said duplication decision unit decides that a content including the comparison segment that agrees with the comparison counterpart segment is not present among the already acquired contents.

2. The apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising

a segment designation unit configured to designate data of a predetermined size from an initial portion of the already acquired content, data of a predetermined size from a central portion of the already acquired content, and data of a predetermined size preceding an end portion of the already acquired content, as the comparison segments.

3. The apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising

a segment designation unit configured to designate the comparison segments such that a ratio of the comparison segments to the already acquired content satisfies a predetermined ratio.

4. The apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein a priority is given to each of the plurality of comparison segments, and

said content segment acquisition unit is configured to acquire each of the comparison counterpart segments in order of the priority of the comparison segment to which the comparison counterpart segment corresponds.

5. The apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein said duplication decision unit is further configured to decide whether a content including the plurality of comparison segments that agrees with the plurality of comparison counterpart segments is present among the already acquired contents, in the case where said duplication decision unit decides that a content including the comparison segment that agrees with the comparison counterpart segment is present among the already acquired contents,

said server apparatus further comprising

a display unit configured to display information about the candidate content in the case where said duplication decision unit decides that a content including the plurality of comparison segments that agrees with the plurality of comparison counterpart segments is present among the already acquired contents.

6. The apparatus according to claim 5,

wherein said display unit is further configured to accept, from a user, an instruction indicating whether to acquire the candidate content from the client device, and

said content acquisition unit is configured to acquire the candidate content from the client device in accordance with the instruction accepted by the display unit.

7. The apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein said duplication decision unit is further configured to decide whether a content including the plurality of comparison segments that agrees with the plurality of comparison counterpart segments is present among the already acquired contents, in the case where said duplication decision unit decides that a content including the comparison segment that agrees with the comparison counterpart segment is present among the already acquired contents, and

said content acquisition unit is configured to acquire the candidate content from the client device and store the acquired candidate content in the storage unit, in the case where said duplication decision unit decides that a content including the plurality of comparison segments that agrees with the plurality of comparison counterpart segments is present among the already acquired contents.

8. The apparatus according to claim 7,

wherein said content acquisition unit is configured to acquire, in the case of acquiring a plurality of the candidate contents from the client device, the candidate contents with respect to which it has been decided that a content including the comparison segment that agrees with the comparison counterpart segment is not present among the already acquired contents, in preference to the candidate contents with respect to which it has been decided that a content including the plurality of comparison segments that agrees with the plurality of comparison counterpart segments is present among the already acquired contents.

9. The apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein a priority is given in advance to each of the plurality of candidate contents, and

said content segment acquisition unit is configured to preferentially acquire the comparison counterpart segment of the candidate content having a higher priority among the plurality of candidate contents.

10. The apparatus according to claim 9,

wherein said duplication decision unit is further configured to (i) decide, in the case where said duplication decision unit decides that a content including the comparison segment that agrees with the comparison counterpart segment is present among the already acquired contents, whether a content including more than one comparison segment that agrees with more than one of the plurality of comparison counterpart segments is present among the already acquired contents, and (ii) degrade the priority of the candidate content from the priority given in advance, in the case where said duplication decision unit decides that the content including the more than one comparison segment that agrees with the more than one of the plurality of comparison counterpart segments is present among the already acquired contents.

11. The apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein said duplication decision unit is further configured to decide whether a content including a plurality of comparison segments that agrees with the plurality of comparison counterpart segments is present among the already acquired contents, in the case where said duplication decision unit decides that a content including the comparison segment that agrees with the comparison counterpart segment is present among the already acquired contents, and

said content acquisition unit is configured

to acquire the candidate content from the client device and store the acquired candidate content in the storage unit in the case where said duplication decision unit decides that a content including the plurality of comparison segments that agrees with the plurality of comparison counterpart segments is not present among the already acquired contents, and

not to acquire the candidate content from the client device in the case where said duplication decision unit decides that a content including the plurality of comparison segments that agrees with the plurality of comparison counterpart segments is present among the already acquired contents.

12. The server apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising

a segment ID generation unit configured to (i) generate from the comparison segment a comparison ID being a code of a fixed length having a smaller data size than the comparison segment and representing the comparison segment, and (ii) generate from the comparison counterpart segment a comparison counterpart ID being a code of a fixed length having a smaller data size than the comparison counterpart segment and representing the comparison counterpart segment,

wherein said duplication decision unit is configured to compare the comparison counterpart ID and the comparison ID, to thereby compare the comparison counterpart segment and the comparison segment.

13. The server apparatus according to claim 12,

wherein said segment ID generation unit is configured to generate the comparison ID and the comparison counterpart ID on the basis of a hash function.

14. The apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein said server apparatus is configured as an integrated circuit.

15. A method of acquiring a content from a client device for storing the content in a storage unit, said method comprising:

sequentially acquiring, from the client device, comparison counterpart segments constituting a part of a candidate content, the comparison counterpart segments respectively corresponding to one of a plurality of comparison segments constituting a part of one or more already acquired contents stored in the storage unit;

comparing the comparison counterpart segment and the comparison segment corresponding to the comparison counterpart segment each time the comparison counterpart segment is acquired in said acquiring of comparison counterpart segments, thereby deciding whether a content including the comparison segment that agrees with the comparison counterpart segment is present among the already acquired contents; and

acquiring the candidate content from the client device and storing the candidate content in the storage unit in the case where it is decided that the content including the comparison segment that agrees with the comparison counterpart segment is not present among the already acquired contents,

wherein said acquiring of comparison counterpart segments further includes aborting acquisition of a subsequent comparison counterpart segment of the candidate content, in the case where it is decided that the content including the comparison segment that agrees with the comparison counterpart segment is not present among the already acquired contents.

16. A non-transitory computer-readable recording medium on which a program causing a computer to execute said method according to claim 15 is recorded.