Use of formal logic specification in construction of semantic descriptions

• US 7,089,543 B2
• Filed: 07/15/2002
• Issued: 08/08/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 07/13/2001
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.), Sony Electronics Inc. (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.), Sony Electronics Inc. (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Rising, Hawley K. III
• Primary Examiner(s): Khatri, Anil
• Application Number:
  US10/197,355
• Publication Number:
  US 20030037301A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,485 Days
• Field of Search: 717132-133, 717141-144, 717155-157, 706/45, 706/47, 706/55
• US Class Current: 717/144
• 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: H04N 21/235 Processing of additional data, e.g. scrambling of additional data or processing content descriptors
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/435 Processing of additional data, e.g. decrypting of additional data, reconstructing software from modules extracted from the transport stream
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/84 Generation or processing of descriptive data, e.g. content descriptors systems specially adapted for using meta-information in broadcast systems H04H60/73

Abstract

An occurrence description scheme that describes an occurrence of a semantic entity in multimedia content is encoded into a content description for the content. The occurrence description scheme is extracted from the content description and used by an application to search, filter or browse the content when a full structural or semantic description of the content is not required.

Claims

1. A computerized method comprising:

identifying one or more valid content descriptions that can be used as a source of a new content description that is a semantic description representing relationships among entities and events portrayed in the corresponding content;

applying a set of formal logic rules to the one or more valid content descriptions; and

constructing the new content description conforming to the set of formal logic rules from the one or more valid content descriptions.

2. The computerized method of claim 1 wherein constructing the new content description comprises:

determining that the set of formal logic rules permits a reconstruction operation with respect to the one or more valid content description; and

performing the reconstruction operation to construct the new description.

3. The computerized method of claim 2 wherein the reconstruction operation is at least one of a concatenation operation, a split operation, and a modification operation.

4. The computerized method of claim 1 wherein the new content description is represented by a graph.

5. The computerized method of claim 4 wherein the set of formal logic rules includes a subset of formal logic rules pertaining to nodes in the graph and a subset of formal logic rules pertaining to edges in the graph.

6. The computerized method of claim 1 wherein the set of formal logic rules is based on one or more axioms and one or more rules of inference.

7. The computerized method of claim 1 wherein each of the one or more valid content descriptions is a valid semantic description.

8. A computerized method comprising:

applying a set of formal logic rules to a content description that is a semantic description representing relationships among entities and events portrayed in the corresponding content; and

validating the content description if the content description is in conformity with the set of formal logic rules.

9. The computerized method of claim 8 further comprising:

creating the content description from one or more valid content descriptions.

10. The computerized method of claim 9 wherein the content description is created using a plurality of predefined operations comprising a concatenation operation, a split operation, and a modification operation.

11. The method of claim 8 further comprising:

receiving the content description from an encoder.

12. The computerized method of claim 8 wherein the content description is represented by a graph.

13. The computerized method of claim 12 wherein the set of formal logic rules includes a subset of formal logic rules pertaining to nodes in the graph and a subset of formal logic rules pertaining to edges in the graph.

14. The computerized method of claim 8 wherein the set of formal logic rules is based on one or more axioms and one or more rules of inference.

15. The computerized method of claim 8 wherein the content descriptions is a semantic description.

16. A computer readable storage medium that provides instructions, which when executed on a processor cause the processor to perform a method comprising:

identifying one or more valid content descriptions that can be used as a source of a new content description that is a semantic description representing relationships among entities and events portrayed in the corresponding content;

applying a set of formal logic rules to the one or more valid content descriptions; and

constructing the new content description conforming to the set of formal logic rules from the one or more valid content descriptions.

17. The computer-readable medium of claim 16 wherein the new content description is represented by a graph.

18. The computer-readable medium of claim 16 wherein the set of formal logic rules is based on one or more axioms and one or more rules of inference.

19. The computer-readable medium of claim 16 wherein each of the one or more valid content descriptions is a valid semantic description.

20. A computer readable medium that provides instructions, which when executed on a processor cause the processor to perform a method comprising:

applying a set of formal logic rules to a content description that is a semantic description representing relationships among entities and events portrayed in the corresponding content; and

validating the content description if the content description is in conformity with the set of formal logic rules.

21. The computer-readable medium of claim 20 wherein the method further comprises:

creating the content description from one or more valid content descriptions.

22. The computer-readable medium of claim 21 wherein the content description is created using a plurality of predefined operations comprising a concatenation operation, a split operation, and a modification operation.

23. A computerized system comprising:

a memory; and

at least one processor coupled to the memory, the processor executing a set of instructions which cause the processor to identify one or more valid content descriptions that can be used as a source of a new description, to apply a set of formal logic rules to the one or more valid content descriptions, and to construct the new content description conforming to the set of formal logic rules from the one or more valid content descriptions, wherein the new content description is a semantic description representing relationships among entities and events portrayed in the corresponding content.

24. The system of claim 23 wherein the new content description is represented by a graph.

25. The system of claim 23 wherein the set of formal logic rules is based on one or more axioms and one or more rules of inference.

26. The system of claim 23 wherein each of the one or more valid content descriptions is a valid semantic description.

27. A computerized system comprising:

a memory; and

at least one processor coupled to the memory, the processor executing a set of instructions which cause the processor to apply a set of formal logic rules to a content description, and to validate the content description if the content description is in conformity with the set of formal logic rules, wherein the content description is a semantic description representing relationships among entities and events portrayed in the corresponding content.

28. The system of claim 27 wherein the set of instructions further causes the processor to create the content description from one or more valid content descriptions.

29. The system of claim 28 wherein the content description is created using a plurality of predefined operations comprising a concatenation operation, a split operation, and a modification operation.