On-demand system for serving multimedia information in a format adapted to a requesting client

• US 6,615,252 B1
• Filed: 03/10/1998
• Issued: 09/02/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 03/10/1997
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Matsushita Electric Industrial Company Limited (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Matsushita Electric Industrial Company Limited (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Uenoyama, Tsutomu, Oka, Toshio, Hayakawa, Yoshihiro, Matsuzawa, Tomoko
• Primary Examiner(s): Powell, Mark R.
• Assistant Examiner(s): VU, THONG H
• Application Number:
  US09/037,716
• Time in Patent Office: 2,002 Days
• Field of Search: 709/214, 709/223, 709/224, 709/277, 709/204, 709/217, 709/227, 709/102, 707/501, 707/8, 707/10, 707/526, 717/5, 386/52, 370/85.7, 348/384
• US Class Current: 709/219
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/40 of multimedia data, e.g. slideshows comprising image and additional audio data retrieval of still image data G06F16/50; retrieval of audio data G06F16/60; retrieval of video data G06F16/70
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/48 Retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manually

Abstract

Prior to sending to a requesting client device a requested multimedia application which comprises a plurality of kinds of materials and a scenario which defines a role of each material, the server converts an input (or original) format of a certain kind of materials of the requested application into a format with which the requesting client device can deal and converts format-dependent data of the scenario accordingly. This enables every consuming device to consume any of the multimedia applications stored in the server regardless of the material format with which the consuming device can deal with respective to a certain kind of materials. Four schemes different in conversion timing of the materials and the scenario are disclosed. The original format of the materials may be limited to a master data format, eg., the DV format if the certain kind of materials are moving picture materials.

Claims

1. In a multimedia information service system wherein multimedia applications each comprising plural kinds of materials and a scenario which describes how each material plays its role in each multimedia application are supplied by a source device in an input format associated with the source device and used by a plurality of consuming devices associated with different formats, a server for serving one of said (multimedia) applications in a format with which a requesting one of the consuming devices can deal with respect to materials of a certain kind among the plural kinds, the server comprising:

means, responsive to a reception of a new application from said source device, for converting an input format of said certain kind of materials of said new application into all of said target formats associated with said input format;

means, responsive to said reception and operative on a scenario of said new application, for preparing scenarios, adapted to all of said target formats, of said new application, said adaptation including time scale adjustment; and

means responsive to a request for said one of said applications for serving said requesting one of said consuming devices with at least a scenario of said one of said applications which scenario has been adapted to said format with which said requesting one of said consuming devices can deal.

2. A server as defined in claim 1, wherein instead of converting said input format of said certain kind of materials, said input format converting means converts materials of a master data format from which said certain kind of materials of said input format have been obtained.

3. A server as defined in claim 2, wherein said master data format is a DV format.

4. A server as defined in claim 1, wherein said certain kind of materials is one of a moving picture, a still picture, and a text material.

5. A server as defined in claim 1, wherein said input format includes a certain resolution, and said target formats include resolutions different from one another and said certain resolution.

6. A server as defined in claim 1, wherein said input format includes a certain number of displayed colors, and said target formats include numbers of displayed colors which numbers are different from one another and from said certain number.

7. In a multimedia information service system wherein multimedia applications each comprising plural kinds of materials and a scenario which describes how each material plays its role in each multimedia application are supplied by a source device in an input format associated with the source device and used by a plurality of consuming devices associated with different formats, a server for serving one of said (multimedia) applications in a format with which a requesting one of the consuming devices can deal with respect to materials of a certain kind among the plural kinds, the server comprising:

means, responsive to a reception of a new application from said source device, for converting an input format of said certain kind of materials of said new application into all of said target formats associated with said input format;

means, responsive to a request for said one of said applications and operative on a scenario of said one of said applications which scenario is for said input format, for preparing a scenario of said one of said applications which scenario is adapted to said format with which said requesting one of said consuming devices can deal, said adaptation including time scale adjustment; and

means responsive to a request for said one of said applications for serving said requesting one of said consuming devices with at least a scenario of said one of said applications which scenario has been adapted to said format with which said requesting one of said consuming devices can deal.

8. A server as defined in claim 7, wherein instead of converting said input format of said certain kind of materials, said input format converting means converts materials of a master data format from which said certain kind of materials of said input format have been obtained.

9. A server as defined in claim 8, wherein said master data format is a DV format.

10. In a multimedia information service system wherein multimedia applications each comprising plural kinds of materials and a scenario which describes how each material plays its role in each multimedia application are supplied by a source device in an input format associated with the source device and used by a plurality of consuming devices associated with different formats, a server for serving one of said (multimedia) applications in a format with which a requesting one of the consuming devices can deal with respect to materials of a certain kind among the plural kinds, the server comprising:

means, responsive to a request for said one of said applications, for converting an input format of said certain kind of materials of said one of said applications into said format with which said requesting one of said consuming devices can deal;

means, responsive to said request and operative on a scenario of said one of said applications which scenario is for said input format, for preparing a scenario of said one of said applications which scenario is adapted to said format with which said requesting one of said consuming devices can deal, said adaptation including time scale adjustment; and

means responsive to a request for said one of said applications for serving said requesting one of said consuming devices with at least a scenario of said one of said applications which scenario has been adapted to said format with which said requesting one of said consuming devices can deal.

11. A server as defined in claim 10, wherein instead of converting said input format of said certain kind of materials, said input format converting means converts materials of a master data format from which said certain kind of materials of said input format have been obtained.

12. A server as defined in claim 11, wherein said master data format is a DV format.

13. In a multimedia information service system wherein multimedia applications each comprising plural kinds of materials and a scenario which describes how each material plays its role in each multimedia application are supplied by a source device in an input format associated with the source device and used by a plurality of consuming devices associated with different formats, a server for serving one of said (multimedia) applications in a format with which a requesting consuming device can deal with respect to materials of a certain kind among the plural kinds, the server comprising:

means, responsive to a reception of a new application from said source device, for making a first decision on whether to postpone conversions of an input format of said certain kind of materials of said new application until a request for said new application;

means responsive to a negative result of said first decision for converting said input format of said certain kind of materials of said new application into only predetermined ones of said target formats associated with said input format;

means responsive to a request for said one of said applications for making a second decision on whether said format with which said requesting consuming device can deal has been prepared for materials of said one of said applications; and

means responsive to a negative result of said second decision for converting said input format of said certain kind of materials of said one of said applications into said format with which said requesting consuming device can deal;

means, responsive to said request for said one of said applications and operative on a scenario of said one of said applications which scenario is for said input format, for preparing a scenario of said one of said applications which scenario is adapted to said format with which said requesting consuming device can deal, said adaptation including time scale adjustment; and

means responsive to a request for said one of said applications for serving said requesting consuming device with at least a scenario of said one of said applications which scenario has been adapted to said format with which said requesting consuming device can deal.

14. A server as defined in claim 13, wherein instead of converting said input format of said certain kind of materials, said input format converting means converts materials of a master data format from which said certain kind of materials of said input format have been obtained.

15. A server as defined in claim 14, wherein said master data format is a DV format.

16. In a multimedia information service system wherein multimedia applications each comprising plural kinds of materials and a scenario which describes how each material plays its role in each multimedia application are supplied by a source device in an input format associated with the source device and used by a plurality of consuming devices associated with different formats,

and wherein said scenario of each of said multimedia applications comprises a material description of each of materials constituting said multimedia application, each material description including format data indicative of a format of a material for which said each material description is intended and an event description of each of events controlling said application,

a server for serving one of said (multimedia) applications in a format with which a requesting one of the consuming devices can deal with respect to materials of a certain kind among the plural kinds, the server comprising:

means, responsive to a reception of a new application from said source device, for converting an input format of said certain kind of materials of said new application into all of said target formats associated with said input format;

means, responsive to said reception and operative on a scenario of said new application, for preparing scenarios, adapted to all of said target formats, of said new application, said adaptation including time scale adjustment; and

means responsive to a request for said one of said applications for serving said requesting one of said consuming devices with at least a scenario of said one of said applications which scenario has been adapted to said format with which said requesting one of said consuming devices can deal,

wherein said means for preparing least one scenario] scenarious comprises;

means operative on said each material description for converting said format data from said input format to said at least one of target formats to yield said at least one scenario for said at least one of target formats; and

means operative on each event description for rewriting said data dependent on said format by using information associated with said input format and said at least one of target formats to yield said at least one scenario for said at least one of target formats.

17. In a multimedia server supplied by a source device with multimedia applications, each comprising plural kinds of materials and a scenario which describes how each material plays its role in each multimedia application, and which serves a plurality of consuming devices, a method for serving one of said (multimedia) applications in a format with which a requesting one of the consuming devices can deal with respect to materials of a certain kind among the plural kinds, the method comprising the steps of:

in response to a reception of a new application from said source device, converting an input format of said certain kind of materials of said new application into all of said target formats associated with said input format;

in response to said reception and on the basis of a scenario of said new application, preparing scenarios of said new application which scenarios are adapted to all of said target formats, said adaptation including adjusting a time scale; and

in response to a request for said one of said applications, serving said requesting one of said consuming devices with at least a scenario of said one of said applications which scenario has been adapted to said format with which said requesting one of said consuming devices can deal.

18. In a multimedia server supplied by a source device with multimedia applications, each comprising plural kinds of materials and a scenario which describes how each material plays its role in each multimedia application, and which serves a plurality of consuming devices, a method for serving one of said (multimedia) applications in a format with which a requesting one of the consuming devices can deal with respect to materials of a certain kind among the plural kinds, the method comprising the steps of:

in response to a reception of a new application from said source device, converting an input format of said certain kind of materials of said new application into all of said target formats associated with said input format;

in response to a request for said one of said applications and on the basis of a scenario of said one of said applications which scenario is for said input format, preparing a scenario of said one of said applications which scenario is adapted to said format with which said requesting one of said consuming devices can deal, said adaptation including adjusting a time scale; and

in response to a request for said one of said applications, serving said requesting one of said consuming devices with at least a scenario of said one of said applications which scenario has been adapted to said format with which said requesting one of said consuming devices can deal.

19. In a multimedia server supplied by a source device with multimedia applications, each comprising plural kinds of materials and a scenario which describes how each material plays its role in each multimedia application, and which serves a plurality of consuming devices, a method for serving one of said (multimedia) applications in a format with which a requesting one of the consuming devices can deal with respect to materials of a certain kind among the plural kinds, the method comprising the steps of:

in response to a request for said one of said applications, converting an input format of said certain kind of materials of said one of said applications into said format with which said requesting one of said consuming devices can deal;

in response to said request and on the basis of a scenario of said one of said applications which scenario is for said input format, preparing a scenario of said one of said applications which scenario is adapted to said format with which said requesting one of said consuming devices can deal, said adaptation including adjusting a time scale; and

in response to a request for said one of said applications, serving said requesting one of said consuming devices with at least a scenario of said one of said applications which scenario has been adapted to said format with which said requesting one of said consuming devices can deal.

20. In a multimedia server supplied by a source device with multimedia applications, each comprising plural kinds of materials and a scenario which describes how each material plays its role in each multimedia application, and which serves a plurality of consuming devices, a method for serving one of said (multimedia) applications in a format with which a requesting consuming device can deal with respect to materials of a certain kind among the plural kinds, the method comprising the steps of:

in response to a reception of a new application from said source device, making a first decision on whether to postpone conversions of an input format of said certain kind of materials of said new application until a request for said new application;

in response to a negative result of said first decision, converting said input format of said certain kind of materials of said new application into only predetermined ones of said target formats associated with said input format;

in response to a request for said one of said applications, making a second decision on whether said format with which said requesting consuming device can deal has been prepared for materials of said one of said applications; and

in response to a negative result of said second decision, converting said input format of said certain kind of materials of said one of said applications into said format with which said requesting consuming device can deal;

in response to said request for said one of said applications and on the basis of a scenario of said one of said applications which scenario is for said input format, preparing a scenario of said one of said applications which scenario is adapted to said format with which said requesting consuming device can deal, said adaptation including adjusting a time scale; and

in response to a request for said one of said applications, serving said requesting consuming device with at least a scenario of said one of said applications which scenario has been adapted to said format with which said requesting consuming device can deal.

21. In a multimedia information service system wherein multimedia applications each comprising plural kinds of materials and a scenario which describes how each material plays its role in each multimedia application are supplied by a source device in an input format associated with the source device and used by a plurality of consuming devices associated with different formats,

and wherein said scenario of each of said multimedia applications comprises a material description of each of materials constituting the multimedia application and an event description of each of events controlling the application, each material description including format data indicative of a format of a material for which each material description is intended,

a server for serving one of the (multimedia) applications in a format with which a requesting one of the consuming devices can deal with respect to materials of a certain kind among the plural kinds, the server comprising:

means, responsive to a reception of a new application from said source device, for converting an input format of said certain kind of materials of said new application into all of said target formats associated with said input format;

means, responsive to a request for said one of said applications and operative on a scenario of said one of said applications which scenario is for said input format, for preparing a scenario of said one of said applications which scenario is adapted to said format with which said requesting one of said consuming devices can deal, said adaptation including time scale adjustment; and

means responsive to a request for said one of said applications for serving said requesting one of said consuming devices with at least a scenario of said one of said applications which scenario has been adapted to said format with which said requesting one of said consuming devices can deal,

wherein said means for preparing a scenario of said one of said applications comprises;

means operative on said each material description for converting said format data from said input format to said at least one of target formats to yield said at least one scenario for said at least one of target formats; and

means operative on each event description for rewriting said data dependent on said format by using information associated with said input format and said at least one of target formats to yield said at least one scenario for said at least one of target formats.

22. In a multimedia information service system wherein multimedia applications each comprising plural kinds of materials and a scenario which describes how each material plays its role in each multimedia application are supplied by a source device in an input format associated with the source device and used by a plurality of consuming devices associated with different formats,

and wherein the scenario of each of said multimedia applications comprises a material description of each of materials constituting the multimedia application and an event description of each of events controlling the application, each material description including format data indicative of a format of a material for which each material description is intended,

a server for serving one of said (multimedia) applications in a format with which a requesting one of the consuming devices can deal with respect to materials of a certain kind among the plural kinds, the server comprising:

means, responsive to a request for said one of said applications, for converting an input format of said certain kind of materials of said one of said applications into said format with which said requesting one of said consuming devices can deal;

means, responsive to said request and operative on a scenario of said one of said applications which scenario is for said input format, for preparing a scenario of said one of said applications which scenario is adapted to said format with which said requesting one of said consuming devices can deal, said adaptation including time scale adjustment; and

means responsive to a request for said one of said applications for serving said requesting one of said consuming devices with at least a scenario of said one of said applications which scenario has been adapted to said format with which said requesting one of said consuming devices can deal;

wherein said means for preparing a scenario of said one of said applications comprises;

means operative on said each material description for converting said format data from said input format to said at least one of target formats to yield said at least one scenario for said at least one of target formats; and

means operative on each event description for rewriting said data dependent on said format by using information associated with said input format and said at least one of target formats to yield said at least one scenario for said at least one of target formats.

23. In a multimedia information service system wherein multimedia applications each comprising plural kinds of materials and a scenario which describes how each material plays its role in each multimedia application are supplied by a source device in an input format associated with the source device and used by a plurality of consuming devices associated with different formats,

and wherein the scenario of each of said multimedia applications comprises a material description of each of materials constituting the multimedia application and an event description of each of events controlling the application, each material description including format data indicative of a format of a material for which each material description is intended,

a server for serving one of said (multimedia) applications in a format with which a requesting consuming device can deal with respect to materials of a certain kind among the plural kinds, the server comprising:

means, responsive to a reception of a new application from said source device, for making a first decision on whether to postpone conversions of an input format of said certain kind of materials of said new application until a request for said new application;

means responsive to a negative result of said first decision for converting said input format of said

certain kind of materials of said new application into only predetermined ones of said target formats associated with said input format;

means responsive to a request for said one of said applications for making a second decision on whether said format with which said requesting consuming device can deal has been prepared for materials of said one of said applications; and

means responsive to a negative result of said second decision for converting said input format of said certain kind of materials of said one of said applications into said format with which said requesting consuming device can deal;

means, responsive to said request for said one of said applications and operative on a scenario of said one of said applications which scenario is for said input format, for preparing a scenario of said one of said applications which scenario is adapted to said format with which said requesting consuming device can deal, said adaptation including time scale adjustment; and

means responsive to a request for said one of said applications for serving said requesting consuming device with at least a scenario of said one of said applications which scenario has been adapted to said format with which said requesting consuming device can deal,

wherein said means for preparing a scenario of said one of said applications comprises;

means operative on said each material description for converting said format data from said input format to said at least one of target formats to yield said at least one scenario for said at least one of target formats; and

means operative on each event description for rewriting said data dependent on said format by using information associated with said input format and said at least one of target formats to yield said at least one scenario for said at least one of target formats.