Information providing apparatus

• US 7,178,159 B1
• Filed: 04/26/2000
• Issued: 02/13/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 04/27/1999
• 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: Komiya, Daisaku, Yamada, Kazunori, Takaki, Toshimasa, Ando, Atsushi, Inoue, Akino, Oka, Toshio, Uenoyama, Tsutomu
• Primary Examiner(s): Miller; John
• Assistant Examiner(s): Lonsberry; Hunter B.
• Application Number:
  US09/559,159
• Time in Patent Office: 2,484 Days
• Field of Search: 725143-146, 725/43, 725/61, 725/62, 348441-452, 375/240.21
• US Class Current: 725/43
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 9/004 Predictors, e.g. intraframe, interframe coding
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1101 Session protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/612 for unicast
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/70 Media network packetisation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/756 adapting media to device capabilities
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/765 intermediate
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/80 Responding to QoS
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 Network security protocols
• 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 19/162 User input
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/172 the region being a picture, frame or field
• 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 19/59 involving spatial sub-sampling or interpolation, e.g. alteration of picture size or resolution
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/61 in combination with predictive coding
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/222 Secondary servers, e.g. proxy server, cable television Head-end provisioning of proxy services in data packet switching networks H04L67/56
• 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 21/25808 Management of client data terminal profiles in network data switching protocols H04L67/303
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/25825 involving client display capabilities, e.g. screen resolution of a mobile phone optimising the visualisation of content during browsing in the Internet G06F16/9577; processing of terminal status or physical abilities in wireless networks H04W8/22; authentication in wireless network security H04W12/06
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/41407 embedded in a portable device, e.g. video client on a mobile phone, PDA, laptop constructional details of equipment or arrangements specially adapted for portable computer application G06F1/1626; arrangements specially adapted for mobile receivers in broadcast systems H04H20/57
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6131 : involving transmission via a mobile phone network wireless downlink channel access H04W74/006
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6377 : directed to server one-way streaming services wherein the source is controlled by the destination H04L65/613
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/658 : Transmission by the client directed to the server

Abstract

A system is arranged by a service providing apparatus 109 for storing a plurality of contents data 110 and capable of transmitting the contents data via network interfaces 116a/116b and a communication path 112; and also a service relaying apparatus 101 for producing compressed moving picture data having a high image quality from still picture data, and capable of transmitting the compressed moving picture data via network interfaces 115a/115b and another communication path 111 to a reproducing terminal 106. As a result, desirable contents data can be displayed by the reproducing terminal which owns a capability of displaying the compressed moving picture data, but does not own such a capability of displaying the desirable contents data.

Claims

1. An information providing apparatus for acquiring contents data representing a high quality still image from a service providing apparatus capable of storing the contents data and of transmitting the contents data in response to a request from a remote user terminal, and for providing the contents data to the remote user terminal, said information providing comprising:

reproducing means for reproducing the contents data;

picture data relaying means for relaying still picture data obtained from the contents data reproduced by the reproducing means;

moving picture coding means for producing compressed moving picture data having a high image quality by transforming still picture data coded using a still picture coding format into said compressed moving picture data coded using a moving picture coding format, said still picture data being obtained from said picture data relaying means, wherein said producing utilizes a stepwise image quality complementary type coding system for complementing an image quality in a stepwise manner, and wherein

said moving picture coding means is also for transmitting the compressed moving picture data to the user terminal to display a still display picture using said moving picture coding format; and

control means for determining an area of the still picture data coded into the compressed moving picture data in response to a user selection of a portion of the still display picture made from the remote user terminal, and for notifying the selected area to the moving picture coding means.

2. An information providing apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein

said control means is capable of producing a control signal used to change the reproducing state of the reproducing means by receiving a manipulation of the user terminal, and is capable of transmitting the control signal to the reproducing means;

and wherein

the moving picture coding means produces compressed moving picture data from said still picture data, the content of which is sequentially changed by changing a setting condition of a coding process operation.

3. An information providing apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the moving picture coding means also produces audio data having a designated data format from audio data contained in the contents data, and also produces multiplexed AV data by multiplexing the compressed moving data with the audio data, and transmits the multiplexed AV data to the user terminal.

4. An information providing apparatus for providing data to a remotely located user terminal in response to a request, comprising:

storing means for storing contents data including still picture data;

reproducing means for reproducing the contents data;

picture data relaying means for relaying the still picture data originated from the contents data reproduced by the reproducing means;

moving picture coding means for producing compressed moving picture data having a high image quality by transforming the still picture image data coded using a still picture coding format into said compressed moving picture data coded using a moving picture coding format, wherein said producing utilizes a stepwise image quality complementary type coding system for complementing an image quality in a stepwise manner, and wherein

said moving picture coding means is also for transmitting the compressed moving picture data to the remotely located user terminal for displaying a still display image using said moving picture coding format; and

control means for determining an area of still picture data coded into the compressed moving picture data in response to a user selection of a portion of the still display image made from the remote user terminal, and for notifying the selected area to the moving picture coding means.

5. An information providing apparatus as claimed in claim 4, wherein

said control means is also for producing a control signal used to change the reproducing state of the reproducing means by receiving a manipulation of the user terminal, and is further for transmitting the control signal to the reproducing means;

and wherein

the moving picture coding means produces compressed moving picture data from the still picture data, the content of which is sequentially changed by changing a setting condition of coding process operation.

6. An information providing apparatus as claimed in claim 4, wherein the moving picture coding means also produces audio data having a designated data format from audio data contained in the contents data, and also produces multiplexed AV data by multiplexing the compressed moving picture data with the audio data, and also transmits the multiplexed AV data to the user terminal.

7. An information providing system for acquiring content data from a service providing system and for providing a communication service to a remotely located mobile terminal, wherein the content data represents a high quality still image coded using a still picture coding format, said information providing system comprising:

moving picture coding means for producing compressed moving picture data by transforming said still coding picture format of the content data into said compressed moving picture data coded using a moving picture coding format and using a stepwise image quality complementary coding system; and

transmitting means for transmitting the compressed moving picture data to the mobile terminal, wherein

the mobile terminal displays a still display image representing the high quality still image from the compressed moving picture data using said moving picture coding format, such that image processing of the content data is primarily conducted by the information providing system to thereby reduce a processing load and/or a memory requirement on the mobile terminal.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the mobile terminal displays the display image in progressively more detail over some period of time.

9. The system of claim 7, wherein the mobile terminal is a mobile terminal capable of displaying compressed moving picture images.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the mobile terminal is a PDA or a portable telephone.

11. The system of claim 7, wherein the mobile terminal is a PDA or a portable telephone.

12. The system of claim 7, further comprising control means for determining an area of a portion of the display image, wherein the portion is chosen by a user manipulation at the mobile terminal, and wherein the control means provides the determined area to the moving picture coding means.

13. An information providing system for acquiring content data from a service providing system and for providing a communication service to a remotely located mobile terminal capable of displaying compressed moving picture data and connected to a communication network, wherein the content data represents a high quality still image coded using a still picture coding format, said information providing system comprising:

moving picture coding means for producing compressed moving picture data coded using a moving picture coding format by transforming the content data coded using the still picture coding format into the moving picture data coded using a moving picture coding format, and using a stepwise image quality complementary coding system; and

transmitting means for transmitting the compressed moving picture data to the mobile terminal via the communication network such that image processing is conducted at the information providing system to thereby reduce a processing load and/or a memory requirement on the mobile terminal, and wherein

the mobile terminal displays a still display image representing the high quality still image from the compressed moving picture data using said moving picture coding format.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the mobile terminal is a PDA or a portable telephone.

15. The system of claim 13, wherein the mobile terminal displays the still display image in progressively more detail over some period of time.

16. The system of claim 13, further including control means for determining an area of a portion of the display image, wherein the portion is chosen by a user manipulation at the mobile terminal, and wherein the control means provides the determined area to the moving picture coding means, which then produces new compressed moving picture data from the content data using the stepwise image quality complementary coding system, wherein the new compressed moving picture data corresponds to the chosen portion of the display image for displaying the chosen portion on the mobile device in a larger fashion.

17. A system comprising:

a mobile terminal including telephone capability for connecting to a telephone network and capable of displaying compressed moving picture data;

a service providing system for providing content data representing a high quality still image coded using a still picture coding format as a service; and

an information providing system for acquiring the content data from the service providing system and for providing a communication service to the mobile terminal, said information providing system including;

moving picture coding means for producing compressed moving picture data coded using a moving picture coding format by transforming the content data coded using the still picture coding format into the moving picture coding data coded using the moving picture coding format, and for providing compressed moving picture data to the mobile terminal for display on the mobile terminal,

transmitting means for transmitting the compressed moving picture data to the mobile terminal, wherein the mobile terminal displays a still display image representing the high quality still image from the compressed moving picture data using said moving picture coding format,

control means for determining an area of the still picture data coded into the compressed moving picture data in response to a user selection of a portion of the still display image from the user terminal, and for notifying the selected area to the moving picture coding means, wherein

the moving picture coding means then produces new compressed moving picture data from the content data corresponding to the user selected portion of the display image for displaying the selected portion on the mobile terminal in a larger fashion as a zoomed still image;

wherein

the information providing system operates such that a primary portion of image processing of the content data is conducted at the information providing system to thereby reduce a processing load and/or a memory requirement on the mobile terminal.