Interface and related methods for dynamically generating a filter graph in a development system

• US 6,959,438 B2
• Filed: 12/06/2000
• Issued: 10/25/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 12/06/2000
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Rudolph, Eric H., Miller, Daniel J.
• Primary Examiner(s): An, Meng-Al T.
• Assistant Examiner(s): ZHEN, LI B
• Application Number:
  US09/732,087
• Publication Number:
  US 20020099732A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,784 Days
• Field of Search: 719/321, 719/322, 709/231
• US Class Current: 719/322
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/00 Arrangements for software engineering testing or debugging G06F11/36; administrative, planning or organisation aspects of software project management G06Q10/06
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/20 Software design

Abstract

A system is presented including a plurality of sources, and an interface, selectively coupled to the plurality of sources, to generate and implement a development project of processing chains, wherein the interface dynamically loads a processing chain for each of the plurality of media sources at a point during the execution of the project when the chain is required, and wherein the interface is configured to unload at least a subset of the chains when they are not required.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

a plurality of sources; and

an interface, selectively coupled to the plurality of sources, to generate and implement a media processing development project of processing chains at least one chain of which comprises multiple filters, wherein the interface loads a processing chain for each of the plurality of media sources at a point during the execution of the project when the chain is required, and wherein the interface is configured to unload at least a subset of the chains when they are not required, wherein unloading of said subset is accomplished based, at least in part, on a generated execution list comprising;

a chain identifier field which maintains a list of chains utilized in the project;

a source identifier field which contains information denoting a project source;

a project time field which denotes at what point during the project execution of a source chain is required;

a source time field which denotes what portion of a source file is required; and

a dependencies field which denotes whether an associated chain is dependent on any other chains.

2. A system according to claim 1, wherein the interface is a render engine, exposed to a media processing system implemented on a computing system.

3. A system according to claim 1, further comprising an application program, coupled to the interface, to enable a user to define a media processing project.

4. A system according to claim 1, wherein the interface only loads those processing chains required during the next M seconds of project execution and, if the currently loaded chain-count does not exceed a threshold, T, where M and T are greater than 0.

5. A system according to claim 4, wherein M is less than a time required to load a processing chain.

6. A system according to claim 4, wherein if the currently loaded chain-count has reached a threshold, T, the interface identifies one or more currently loaded chains that can be unloaded.

7. A system according to claim 6, wherein the interface identifies one or more currently loaded chains that will not be used during the next N seconds to unload, where N is greater than 0.

8. A system according to claim 7, wherein M is less than N.

9. A system according to claim 7, wherein the interface determines whether the identified one or more chains will be required during subsequent execution of the project, or in a future project and, if so, caches the identified chain(s).

10. A system according to claim 7, wherein the interface determines whether unloading of the identified one or more chains reduces the chain-count below a maximum allowable threshold, V, and, if so, loads the chains required in the next M seconds, wherein V is greater than 0.

11. A system according to claim 9, whereupon determining that the chain-count is not below V, the interface identifies one or more lowest priority chains and unloads the identified chain(s), wherein V is greater than 0.

12. A system according to claim 10, wherein the interface removes the identified chains from the active project and caches the removed chains.

13. A system according to claim 10, wherein the interface loads the chains required during the next M seconds.

14. A system according to claim 6, wherein the interface unloads a chain when all matrix switch filter(s) of the filter graph provide an indication that the chain is no longer required.

15. A system according to claim 4, wherein T is set to one (1).

16. A system according to claim 15, whereby setting T equal to one (1), the interface will be required to search for and potentially unload chains which are not required to support execution of the project for the next N seconds.

17. A computer-implemented method for generating and managing a media processing development project, the method comprising:

identifying processing chains required to support execution of the development project over the next M seconds, wherein at least some of said processing chains comprise multiple filters;

loading the identified processing chains as long as a currently loaded chain-count does not exceed an initial threshold, T, wherein T and M are greater than 0; and

unloading a subset of loaded processing chains based, at least in part, on a generated execution list comprising;

a chain identifier field which maintains a list of chains utilized in the project;

a source identifier field which contains information denoting a project source;

a project time field which denotes at what point during the project execution of a source chain is required;

a source time field which denotes what portion of a source file is required; and

a dependencies field which denotes whether an associated chain is dependent on any other chains.

18. A method according to claim 17, further comprising:

identifying currently loaded chains that will not be used during the next N seconds, wherein N is greater than 0; and

removing the identified chains from the development project.

19. A method according to claim 18, further comprising:

determining whether the chain-count has dropped below a maximum allowable chain-count, V, after removing the identified chains from the development project, wherein V is greater than 0;

identifying one or more low priority chains and removing them from the development project; and

loading the chains required in the next M seconds.

20. A method according to claim 18, wherein removing the identified chains comprises:

determining whether the identified chains will be required during subsequent execution of the development project or future development projects; and

caching the identified chains if they will be used during subsequent execution of the development project and/or future projects.

21. A method according to claim 17, wherein T is set to one (1) such that an implementing media processing system always attempts to unload unused chains prior to loading chains.

22. A computer-implemented method for managing a media processing project, the method comprising:

identifying each of a plurality of sources required to satisfy the media processing project;

determining when one or more chain(s) associated with each of the plurality of sources is required to support execution of the media processing project; and

selectively loading and unloading each of the chains during execution of the filter graph based, at least in part, on when each of the chains are required to support execution of the media processing project, at least some selectively loaded and unloaded chains comprising multiple filters, wherein unloading of said chains is accomplished based, at least in part, on a generated execution list comprising;

a chain identifier field which maintains a list of chains utilized in the project;

a source identifier field which contains information denoting a project source;

a project time field which denotes at what point during the project execution of a source chain is required;

a source time field which denotes what portion of a source file is required; and

a dependencies field which denotes whether an associated chain is dependent on any other chains.

23. A method according to claim 22, wherein loading and unloading chains comprises:

identifying which processing chain(s) will be required within the next M seconds of project execution; and

loading the identified processing chain(s) if a currently loaded chain-count does not exceed a threshold, T, wherein M and T are greater than 0.

24. A method according to claim 23, further comprising:

identifying one or more processing chains that will not be required in the next N seconds if the chain-count threshold T has been reached, wherein N is greater than 0; and

removing the identified one or more processing chains from the processing project.

25. A method according to claim 24, wherein removing the identified one or more processing chains comprises:

determining whether the identified processing chains will be required during subsequent execution of the media processing project, or a future processing project; and

caching at least a subset of the processing chains if they will be required during subsequent execution of the media processing project, or future processing project(s).

26. A method according to claim 24, further comprising:

determining whether removing one or more of the identified processing chains reduces the chain-count below a maximum allowable threshold, V wherein V is greater than 0; and

identifying one or more low priority processing chains to remove to reduce the chain-count below the maximum allowable threshold if it is determined that the chain-count exceeds the maximum allowable threshold V.

27. A method according to claim 26, wherein V is greater than T.

28. A method according to claim 23, wherein T is set to one (1).

29. A storage medium comprising a plurality of executable instructions which, when executed by a computer, implements an interface to manage development and execution of a media processing development project, wherein the interface identifies processing chains at least some of which comprise multiple filters required to support execution of the development project over the next M seconds, and loads the identified processing chains as long as a currently loaded chain-count does not exceed an initial threshold, T, wherein M and T are greater than 0, and wherein the interface unloads chains based, at least in part, on a generated execution list comprising:

a chain identifier field which maintains a list of chains utilized in the project;

a source identifier field which contains information denoting a project source;

a project time field which denotes at what point during the project execution of a source chain is required;

a source time field which denotes what portion of a source file is required; and

a dependencies field which denotes whether an associated chain is dependent on any other chains.

30. A storage medium according to claim 29, wherein the interface identifies one or more processing chains that will not be required to support execution of the development project over the next N seconds, and removes such chains from the development project, wherein N is greater than 0.

31. A storage medium according to claim 30, wherein T is set equal to one (1) to force the interface to identify chains to unload before loading each chain required to support processing of the development project over the next M seconds.

32. A storage medium according to claim 30, wherein the interface determines whether removed processing chains will be required in support of subsequent processing of the development project and/or a future development project and, if so, caches the removed processing chains for subsequent use.