System and method for associating historical information with sensory data and distribution thereof

• US 6,862,556 B2
• Filed: 07/13/2001
• Issued: 03/01/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 07/13/2000
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: BELO Company A Business Trust In The State of Delaware
• Original Assignee: The BELO Company (DallasNews Corp.)
• Inventors: Feola, Christopher J., Jennings, James C. IV
• Primary Examiner(s): ASSOUAD, PATRICK J
• Application Number:
  US09/905,406
• Publication Number:
  US 20020111773A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,327 Days
• Field of Search: 702/187, 715/517, 715/530, 369/47.1, 369/47.13, 382/276, 382/300, 382/317, 345/629, 345/689, 345/723, 360/5, 360/18, 386/4, 358/1.1, 358/1.2, 358/1.4, 709/200, 709/201, 713/183, 713/184
• US Class Current: 702/187
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/972 Access to data in other repository systems, e.g. legacy data or dynamic Web page generation
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/32128 attached to the image data, e.g. file header, transmitted message header, information on the same page or in the same computer file as the image for information embedded in the image H04N1/32144
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/3222 of processing required or performed, e.g. forwarding, urgent or confidential handling
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/3242 of processing required or performed, e.g. for reproduction or before recording H04N2201/3256 and subgroups take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/3277 The additional information being stored in the same storage device as the image data
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/3278 Transmission

Abstract

Historical data elements and historical information may be generated based on input parameters and/or functional operations being applied to the sensory data or content. In one embodiment, at least one historical data element is concatenated to a sensory data element, and the historical information is maintained. The sensory data, historical data elements, and historical information may be stored in a single datafile. A recording device may record the sensory data and input parameters. The recording device may apply or encode the historical data elements to the sensory data. Alternatively, a post-processing system may receive the sensory data with or without the historical information and encode the sensory data and historical data elements into a datafile. The datafile may be communicated across a network, possibly via a parser, to licensees or consumers of the content.

Claims

1. A system for associating historical information with corresponding sensory data received from a recording device and for performing functional operations on the sensory data, the sensory data including a plurality of sensory data elements, said system comprising:

a memory for storing the sensory data and associated historical information;

a display for viewing the sensory data stored in the memory;

a computing device coupled to said memory and said display, said computing device operable to generate a plurality of historical data elements corresponding to the historical information, at least one historical data element being uniquely associated with a corresponding sensory data element; and

an input device coupled to said computing device for selecting a functional operation to be applied to at least one sensory data element, said computing device forming at least one historical data element and corresponding historical information.

2. The system according to claim 1, wherein the sensory data includes at least one of the following:

visual, auditory, aural, pressure, and temperature.

3. The system according to claim 1, wherein the historical information includes data representative of the functional operations performed on at least one sensory data element.

4. The system according to claim 1, wherein the historical data elements are binary values corresponding to the historical information.

5. The system according to claim 1, wherein each of the at least one historical data element is concatenated with the uniquely associated sensory data element.

6. The system according to claim 1, wherein the sensory data remains unmodified.

7. The system according to claim 1, wherein said computing device renders the sensory data according to the historical data elements and corresponding historical information.

8. A system for preserving historical operations associated with sensory data, the system comprising:

a memory for storing the sensory data and historical information representative of the historical operations;

a processor, coupled to said memory, operable to generate the historical information based upon the historical operations being performed, said processor further generating historical data elements associated with the historical information, and corresponding the historical data elements to the sensory data; and

a storage medium coupled to said processor for storing the sensory data, historical information, and historical data elements.

9. The system according to claim 8, wherein the sensory data includes a plurality of sensory data elements having at least one historical data element corresponding therewith.

10. The system according to claim 9, wherein the at least one historical data element is appended to a corresponding sensory data element.

11. The system according to claim 8, further comprising a data port, coupled to said processor, operable to communicate the sensory data.

12. The system according to claim 8, further comprising a display, coupled to said processor, for displaying at least a portion of the sensory data as affected by the historical operations.

13. The system according to claim 8, wherein the sensory data and historical data elements are stored in a datafile.

14. A method for maintaining functional operations applied to sensory data, the method comprising:

forming a plurality of first and second data fields having one-to-one correspondence, a first data field including a sensory data element, and a second data field including an historical data element corresponding to at least one functional operation performed on the sensory data element; and

storing the plurality of first and second data fields.

15. The method according to claim 14, wherein the first and second data fields are concatenated.

16. The method according to claim 14, further comprising generating indicia representative of the at least one functional operation.

17. The method according to claim 16, further comprising generating an end-of-operation identifier after said generating indicia.

18. The method according to claim 14, wherein the sensory data is unaltered by the at least one functional operation.

19. The method according to claim 14, wherein the historical data element is indicative of applicability of the corresponding at least one functional operation to the corresponding sensory data element.

20. A system for generating sensory data and historical information, the system comprising:

means for recording sensory information;

means for converting the sensory information into sensory data;

at least one measuring device, associated with said means for recording, for measuring input parameters while recording the sensory information;

a processing unit coupled to said at least one measuring device, said processing unit generating historical information and associated historical data elements based on the measured input parameters, said processing unit further corresponding the historical data elements with the sensory data, the historical data elements being indicative of applicability of the associated historical information to the corresponding sensory data;

memory coupled to said processing unit, for storing the sensory data and historical data elements; and

a communication port, coupled to said processing unit, for communicating the sensory data and historical data elements.

21. The system according to claim 20, wherein the sensory data includes a plurality of sensory data elements, at least one sensory data element having at least one historical data element concatenated thereto.

22. The system according to claim 21, wherein the at least one historical data element is a binary value indicative of applicability of the generated historical information to at least one sensory data element.

23. The system according to claim 22, wherein the sensory information is at least one of the following:

visual, auditory, aural, pressure, and temperature.

24. The system according to claim 20, wherein the historical information includes functional operations performed on the sensory data.

25. The system according to claim 20, wherein the sensory data, historical information, and historical data elements are stored in a single datafile.

26. A system for performing functional operations on sensory data and maintaining the functional operations applied to the sensory data as historical information, the system comprising:

a processor;

software, operating on said processor, for performing the functional operations on at least one sensory data element, said processor generating historical information representative of the functional operations, and at least one historical data element associated with the historical information, the at least one historical data element further being associated with the at least one sensory data element; and

a display coupled to said processor, for displaying a rendered image of the sensory data as modified by the functional operations.

27. The system according to claim 26, wherein the at least one historical data element is concatenated to the at least one sensory data element.

28. The system according to claim 26, wherein the sensory data is unmodified.

29. A computer-readable medium having stored thereon sequences of instructions, the sequences of instructions, when executed by a processor, causes the processor to:

perform a functional operation on at least one sensory data element;

generate at least one historical information data element representative of the functional operation;

generate an historical data element associated with the at least one historical information data element; and

concatenate the historical data element with the at least one sensory data element.

30. The computer-readable medium according to claim 29, wherein the sequences of instructions further cause the processor to render the at least one sensory data element as altered by the functional operation.

31. A system for distributing a sensory datafile having historical information associated therewith, the system comprising:

a network for communicating information between at least two points coupled to said network; and

a server, located at a first point, operable to communicate a datafile including sensory data and historical data elements, at least one historical data element being concatenated to a sensory data element and indicative of at least one functional operation performed on the sensory data element.

32. The system according to claim 31, wherein the datafile further includes historical information representative of the functional operations.

33. The system according to claim 31, further comprising a parser, in communication with said server, operable to modify the sensory data according to said historical data elements and at the at least one functional operation.

34. The system according to claim 33, wherein the sensory data is unmodified.

35. The system according to claim 33, further comprising a database, coupled to said parser, for storing information representative of permission for a licensee to modify the datafile.

36. The system according to claim 31, wherein said network includes one of a local area network, wide area network, wireless network, and the Internet.

37. A method for generating a sensory datafile being capable of maintaining a plurality of functional operations applied to sensory data, said method comprising:

receiving the sensory data;

generating historical information representative of a functional operation applied to at least one sensory data element; and

appending at least one historical data element to the at least one sensory data element, the at least one historical data element identifying applicability of the historical information to the associated at least one sensory data element.

38. The method according to claim 37, wherein each of the sensory data elements is appended by at least one historical data element.

39. A system, comprising:

a computing device operable to receive a datafile including sensory data and associated historical information, the historical information being representative of functional operations applied to at least one sensory data element.

40. The system according to claim 39, wherein the sensory data includes a plurality of sensory data elements, each sensory data element having at least one historical data element appended thereto, and indicative of at least one historical information data element being applied to the associated sensory data element.

41. The system according to claim 39, wherein said computing device is further operable to render the sensory data as affected by the historical information.

42. The system according to claim 39, wherein said computing device further is operable to undo historical information applied to the sensory data.