Dynamic scene description emulation for playback of audio/visual streams on a scene description based playback system

• US 7,216,288 B2
• Filed: 06/27/2001
• Issued: 05/08/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 06/27/2001
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Westerink, Peter Hans, Wood, Stephen Peter
• Primary Examiner(s): Herndon; Heather R.
• Assistant Examiner(s): BLACKWELL, JAMES H
• Application Number:
  US09/892,802
• Publication Number:
  US 20030016747A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,141 Days
• Field of Search: 715/500.1, 715/513, 709/247, 709/231, 348/473, 348/699, 382/260, 382/236, 386/126, 370/535
• US Class Current: 715/201
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/25 with scene description coding, e.g. binary format for scenes [BIFS] compression
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/40 using video transcoding, i.e. partial or full decoding of a coded input stream followed by re-encoding of the decoded output stream
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/23412 for generating or manipulating the scene composition of objects, e.g. MPEG-4 objects
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44012 involving rendering scenes according to scene graphs, e.g. MPEG-4 scene graphs

Abstract

A method, and program storage device apparatus for adapting multi-media presentations of various formats to a new format suitable for playback on a general scene description based playback system. More specifically, when mult-media presentations do not contain scene description components, such components appropriate to the multi-media presentation will be constructed. The multi-media presentation will then be presented together with the created scene description components to the playback system for decoding rendering.

Claims

1. A method of permitting a scene description based player to play a set of elementary streams having no scene description, said method comprising:

said player detecting if there is a scene description stream in a set of elementary streams, said scene description stream providing information on the position and interrelationship of audio visual objects in a scene; and

if no scene description stream is detected, said player generating a scene description stream for displaying said set of elementary streams, wherein said scene description stream is used to permit said player to play said set of elementary streams.

2. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein, said set of multimedia streams comprises at least one of a single audio stream and a single visual stream, said generating a scene description stream comprises constructing an MPEG-4 scene replacement command with an MPEG-4 scene graph having nodes for rendering said audio and/or visual streams, generating an object descriptor stream by constructing MPEG-4 object descriptor update commands, and constructing an MPEG-4 initial object descriptor for describing said object descriptor stream and a scene description stream.

3. A method as recited in claim 2, wherein said plurality of commands comprises at least one of the following commands:

a scene replacement command, a node insertion command, and a node deletion command.

4. A method as recited in claim 1,wherein said scene description stream is generated by an MPEG-4 scene description generator.

5. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein said scene description stream comprises a plurality of MPEG-4 scene description stream commands.

6. An apparatus for permitting a scene description based player to play a set of elementary streams having no scene description stream, said apparatus comprising:

a scene description detector at said player for detecting in a received set of elementary streams whether there is a description stream providing information on the position and interrelationship of audio visual objects in a scene; and

a scene description stream generator at said player for generating a scene description stream for displaying said set of elementary streams when no scene description stream is detected, wherein said scene description stream is used to permit said player to play said set of elementary streams.

7. A program storage device readable by a machine, tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable by the machine to perform method steps for permitting a scene description based player to play a set of elementary streams having no scene description stream, said method comprising:

detecting at said player if there is an scene description stream in a set of received elementary streams, said scene description stream providing information on the position and interrelationship of audio visual objects in a scene; and

if no scene description stream is detected, said player generating a scene description stream for displaying said set of elementary streams, wherein said scene description stream is used to permit said player to play said set of elementary streams.

8. A method of using an MPEG-4 player to playback a presentation that contains only audio visual streams, said method comprising the steps for said player of:

constructing a scene graph with nodes for rendering visual and audio for a presentation with visual and audio;

encoding said scene graph in a scene replacement command;

constructing object descriptor update messages for said visual and audio;

encoding said object descriptor update messages to generate an object descriptor stream;

constructing an initial object descriptor which describes said object descriptor and scene description streams; and

supplying said initial object descriptor, said object descriptor stream and said scene description stream to said MPEG-4 player to permit playback of said presentation.

9. A method of permitting a MPEG-4 systems based player to play a set of elementary streams having no MPEG-4 systems streams, said method comprising the steps for said player of:

detecting if there is an MPEG-4 system stream, said MPEG-4 system stream providing information on the position and interrelationship of audio visual objects in a scene; and

if no MPEG-4 system stream is detected, generating an initial object descriptor, a scene description stream, and a object descriptor stream for displaying said set of elementary streams, wherein said initial object descriptor, said scene description stream, and said object descriptor stream are used to permit said player to play said set of elementary streams.

10. A method as recited in claim 9, wherein said MPEG-4 system stream is detected by checking for the presence of an initial object descriptor stream.

11. A method as recited in claim 9, wherein said MPEG-4 system stream is detected by checking for the presence of a scene description scene stream.

12. A method as recited in claim 9, wherein said MPEG-4 system stream is detected by checking for the presence of an object descriptor stream.

13. A method of permitting a Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language (SMIL) based player to play a set of elementary streams having no SMIL document, said method comprising:

said player detecting if there is an SMIL document, said SMIL document providing information on the position and interrelationship of audio visual objects in a scene; and

if no SMIL document is detected, said player generating an SMIL document, where said SMIL document is used to permit said player to play said set of elementary streams.

14. An apparatus for permitting an SMIL based player to play a set of elementary streams having no SMIL document, said apparatus comprising:

an SMIL document detector at said player for detecting if there is an SMIL document, said SMIL document providing information on the position and interrelationship of audio visual objects in a scene; and

an SMIL document generator at said player for generating an SMIL document if no SMIL document is detected, where said SMIL document is used to permit said player to play said set of elementary streams.

15. A program storage device readable by a machine, tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable by the machine to perform method steps for permitting a scene description based player to play a set of elementary streams having no scene description stream, said method comprising:

said player detecting if there is a Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language (SMIL) document, said SMIL document providing information on the position and interrelationship of audio visual objects in a scene; and

if no SMIL document is detected, said player generating an SMIL document, where said SMIL document is used to permit said player to play said set of elementary streams.