Selective compression

• US 7,103,099 B1
• Filed: 07/27/1999
• Issued: 09/05/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 07/27/1998
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Paz, Ofir, Fenster, Maier, Keren, Avishai, Feder, Meir
• Primary Examiner(s): WONG, ALLEN C
• Application Number:
  US09/744,662
• Time in Patent Office: 2,597 Days
• Field of Search: 375/240, 375/240.01, 375/240.12, 375/240.03, 375/240.04, 375/240.24, 375/240.02, 375/240.16, 386/112, 707/10, 382/171, 382/232, 345/698, 709/247, 582/166, 725/36
• US Class Current: 375/240.03
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/409 Data transfer via television network
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/538 for performing operations on behalf of the game client, e.g. rendering
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/5506 using advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: A63F 2300/577 for watching a game played by other players
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/124 Quantisation
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/132 Sampling, masking or truncation of coding units, e.g. adaptive resampling, frame skipping, frame interpolation or high-frequency transform coefficient masking
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/134 characterised by the element, parameter or criterion affecting or controlling the adaptive coding
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/587 involving temporal sub-sampling or interpolation, e.g. decimation or subsequent interpolation of pictures in a video sequence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/61 in combination with predictive coding
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/233 Processing of audio elementary streams monitoring, identification or recognition of audio in broadcast systems H04H60/58
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/23412 for generating or manipulating the scene composition of objects, e.g. MPEG-4 objects
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/234336 by media transcoding, e.g. video is transformed into a slideshow of still pictures or audio is converted into text
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/234354 by altering signal-to-noise ratio parameters, e.g. requantization
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/234363 by altering the spatial resolution, e.g. for clients with a lower screen resolution
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/234381 by altering the temporal resolution, e.g. decreasing the frame rate by frame skipping
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/23655 Statistical multiplexing, e.g. by controlling the encoder to alter its bitrate to optimize the bandwidth utilization
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2402 Monitoring of the downstream path of the transmission network, e.g. bandwidth available traffic monitoring in data switching networks H04L43/00; monitoring data switching networks utilization H04L43/0876
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2407 Monitoring of transmitted content, e.g. distribution time, number of downloads arrangements for monitoring programmes for broadcast or for distribution combined with broadcast H04H20/14
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/241 Operating system [OS] processes, e.g. server setup
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2543 Billing , e.g. for subscription services payment schemes, architectures or protocols G06Q20/00; e-commerce G06Q30/00; arrangements for billing for the use of broadcast information or broadcast-related information H04H60/21
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/262 : Content or additional data distribution scheduling, e.g. sending additional data at off-peak times, updating software modules, calculating the carousel transmission frequency, delaying a video stream transmission, generating play-lists scheduling strategies for dispatcher in multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/4881; arrangements for scheduling broadcast services or broadcast-related services H04H60/06; flow control in packet networks H04L47/10; establishing a time schedule or organising the servicing of application requests H04L67/62
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2668 : Creating a channel for a dedicated end-user group, e.g. insertion of targeted commercials based on end-user profiles information retrieval from the Internet by querying with filtering and personalisation G06F16/9535; arrangements for replacing or switching information during the broadcast H04H20/10; push services over packet-switching network H04L12/1859; adaptation of message content in packet-switching networks H04L51/063
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/274 : Storing end-user multimedia data in response to end-user request , e.g. network recorder
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/478 : Supplemental services, e.g. displaying phone caller identification, shopping application
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/488 : Data services, e.g. news ticker systems specially adapted for using meteorological information in broadcast systems H04H60/71
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6168 : involving cable transmission, e.g. using a cable modem
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6187 : involving transmission via a telephone network, e.g. POTS
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6405 : Multicasting data broadcast and multicast in packet switching networks H04L12/18
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6408 : Unicasting
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6547 : comprising parameters, e.g. for client setup
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6587 : Control parameters, e.g. trick play commands, viewpoint selection
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/812 : involving advertisement data advertising per se G06Q30/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8173 : End-user applications, e.g. Web browser, game
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8453 : by locking or enabling a set of features, e.g. optional functionalities in an executable program
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8543 : using a description language, e.g. Multimedia and Hypermedia information coding Expert Group [MHEG], eXtensible Markup Language [XML] information retrieval of semistructured data, the underlying structure being taken into account, e.g. mark-up language structure data G06F16/80
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8586 : by using a URL processing chained hypermedia data for information retrieval G06F16/94; information retrieval from the Internet by using URLs G06F16/955; URL in broadcast information H04H20/93; Web-based protocols H04L67/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/165 : Centralised control of user terminal subsequent to an upstream request signal H04N7/17345; Registering at central by two-way working H04N7/17309

Abstract

A method of generating a compressed video stream, comprising: providing a plurality of display commands which represents a display; generating a plurality of quantized transform coefficients from said display commands, wherein said quantization is different for different display commands; and creating a compressed video stream utilizing said coefficients.

Claims

1. In a server connected to a client over a network, a method of generating a compressed video stream of a user interface in order to provide said client with remote access to one or more computer programs running at said server, said method comprising:

executing a computer program at said server, said computer program providing a plurality of display commands which represent a user interface for said computer program;

drawing at least a portion of said user interface for said computer program on a virtual display at said server;

prior to compressing said user interface for remote display at said client, generating a plurality of quantized transform coefficients from said display commands, wherein one or more different quantized transform coefficients are generated for different display commands;

creating a compressed video stream or said user interface by utilizing said coefficients for said different display commands;

sending said compressed video stream to said client for remotely displaying said user interface at said client as a video stream as opposed to said plurality of display commands provided by said program;

receiving user input from said client that is directed to said user interface; and

based on the received user input from said client, sending a second compressed video stream to said client for remotely displaying a modified version of said user interface of said computer program.

2. A method according to claim 1, wherein said generating comprises looking up coefficients in a table.

3. A method according to claim 1, wherein said generating comprises calculating coefficients.

4. A method according to claim 1, comprising determining a display requirement and wherein said quantization is responsive to said determination.

5. A method according to claim 1, wherein said coefficients are generated quantized.

6. A method according to claim 1, wherein said coefficients are generated unquantized and comprising quantizing said generated coefficients.

7. A method according to claim 6, wherein said coefficients are quantized separately for different commands.

8. A method according to claim 6, wherein said coefficients are quantized separately for different image blocks.

9. A method according to claim 6, wherein said coefficients for an entire image are quantized together.

10. A method according to claim 6, wherein said quantization is responsive to a desired bandwidth of said stream.

11. A method according to claim 6, wherein said quantization is responsive to a desired quality of said stream.

12. A method according to claim 1, wherein said coefficients are quantized differently responsive to an identification of the command type.

13. A method according to claim 1, wherein said coefficients are quantized differently responsive to a display content generated by said command.

14. A method according to claim 1, wherein said coefficients are quantized differently responsive to a spatial effect of said command.

15. A method according to claim 1, wherein said coefficients are quantized differently, responsive to a frequency to which said coefficient corresponds.

16. A method according to claim 1, wherein said commands are provided and coefficients generated sequentially for individual commands.

17. A method according to claim 1, wherein said commands are provided and coefficients generated on a block-by-block basis.

18. A method according to claim 1, wherein said commands are provided and coefficients generated on a frame-by-frame basis.

19. A method according to claim 1, comprising varying said generation between corresponding commands on consecutive frames.

20. A method according to claim 19, wherein said varying comprises generating a different effective refresh rate for different commands.

21. A method according to claim 1, comprising preprocessing at least one or said commands prior to said generation.

22. A method according to claim 21, wherein said preprocessing interacts with said generation to require achieving a lower bit-rate for said command.

23. A method according to claim 21, wherein said preprocessing interacts with said generation to counteract visibility reducing effects of said generation.

24. A method according to claim 21, wherein said pre processing interacts with said generation to increase a visibility of an effect of a command.

25. A method according to claim 1, wherein providing said display commands comprises providing a plurality of sets of display commands, each corresponding to a different compressed stream.

26. A method according to claim 25, wherein a same display command is compressed differently for the different sets.

27. A method according to claim 1, wherein said plurality of display commands corresponds to an Internet browser user interface.

28. A method according to claim 1, wherein creating said compressed video stream comprises creating a stream including both an effect of said commands and at least a portion of an additionally provided compressed video stream.

29. A method according to claim 1, wherein a text display command is quantized using a finer quantization than a graphics command.

30. A method according to claim 1, comprising broadcasting said generated video stream to a plurality of users, using a compressed video transport stream.