Method and apparatus to indicate an encoding status for digital content

• US 7,269,564 B1
• Filed: 11/30/1998
• Issued: 09/11/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 08/13/1998
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Milsted, Kenneth Louis, Gong, Qing
• Primary Examiner(s): NGUYEN, NGA B
• Application Number:
  US09/201,475
• Time in Patent Office: 3,207 Days
• Field of Search: 705/1, 704/500, 704/503, 704/504, 704/201.1, 704/229, 704/230, 386/27, 386/33, 348/97, 375/225, 375/240.18, 380/276, 380/28, 380/29, 380/30
• US Class Current: 705/1.1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/10 Protecting distributed programs or content, e.g. vending or licensing of copyrighted material protection in video systems or pay television H04N7/16 ; Digital rights management [DRM]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/16 Program or content traceability, e.g. by watermarking
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2135 Metering
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/3674 involving authentication
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/382 insuring higher security of transaction
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/3829 involving key management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0617 Representative agent
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0623 Item investigation
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0633 Lists, e.g. purchase orders, compilation or processing
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2209/603 Digital right managament [DRM]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2463/101 applying security measures for digital rights management data processing systems or methods, specially adapted for commerce, e.g. marketing, shopping, billing, auctions or e-commerce G06Q30/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2463/102 applying security measure for e-commerce data processing systems or methods, specially adapted for e-commerce G06Q30/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0428 wherein the data content is protected, e.g. by encrypting or encapsulating the payload
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/52 specially adapted for the location of the user terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/0822 using key encryption key
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/0825 using asymmetric-key encryption or public key infrastructure [PKI], e.g. key signature or public key certificates
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services

Abstract

A method of determining an encoding rate for digital content. According to the method, the a sample of the content data is encoded for a predetermined period of time. The encoding rate is calculated by knowing the size of the sample of content encoded and the length of time necessary for encoding. In another embodiment, the encoding rate calculated for a specific encoding algorithm and encoding bit rate is averaged with any previously stored encoding rate for this encoding algorithm and encoding bit rate. In accordance with another aspect of the invention, an apparatus is described to carry out the above method.

Claims

1. A method of measuring a rate of encoding for digital content, the method in a first program comprising the steps of:

selecting an encoding algorithm and a bit rate;

encoding a selected sample of digital content for a predetermined period of time;

calculating a measured rate of encoding using the selected sample and the predetermined period of time, so as to provide an interim rate of completion for a subsequent process of encoding the content with the algorithm and the bit rate which has been selected; and

transferring the measured rate of encoding to a second program for monitoring the rate of encoding in a batch process.

2. The method as defined in claim 1, further comprising the step of:

displaying the measured rate of encoding during the encoding of the digital content.

3. The method as defined in claim 1, further comprising the steps of:

storing the measured rate of encoding; and

associating the measured rate of encoding with a specific encoding bit rate and a specific encoding algorithm.

4. The method as defined in claim 2, wherein the step of displaying the measured rate of encoding includes displaying the percentage of digital content encoded as compared to the total amount of digital content to be encoded.

5. The method as defined in claim 2, wherein the step of displaying the measured rate of encoding includes displaying the amount of time remaining to encode the total amount of digital content to be encoded.

6. A method of measuring a rate of encoding for digital content, the method in a first program comprising the steps of:

determining if a previously calculated measured rate of encoding has been stored for a specific encoding algorithm and a bit rate and if the previously calculated measured rate of encoding is stored then performing the sub-steps of;

retrieving a previously calculated measured rate of encoding so as to provide an interim rate of completion for a subsequent process of encoding the content with the specific encoding algorithm and the bit rate;

encoding digital content;

calculating a current measured rate of encoding for the encoding of the digital content so as to provide an interim rate of completion for encoding; and

updating the previously calculated measured rate of encoding using the current measured rate of encoding;

transferring the measured rate of encoding to a second program for monitoring the rate of encoding in a batch process.

7. The method as defined in claim 6, wherein the step of determining if a previously calculated measured rate of encoding has been stored for a specific encoding algorithm and a bit rate and if the previously calculated measured rate of encoding is not stored then performing the sub-steps of:

selecting an encoding algorithm and a bit rate;

encoding a selected sample of digital content for a predetermined period of time;

calculating a measured rate of encoding using the selected sample and the predetermined period of time; and

storing the measured rate of encoding.

8. The method as defined in claim 6, further comprising the step of using the previously calculated measured rate of encoding for displaying the measured rate of encoding during the encoding of the digital content.

9. The method as defined in claim 6, wherein the step of updating the previously calculated rate of encoding includes the sub-steps of:

averaging the previously calculated measured rate of encoding and the current measured rate of encoding; and

storing the measured rate of encoding which has been averaged as a new value for the previously calculated measured rate of encoding.

10. The method as defined in claim 6, wherein the step of updating the previously calculated measured rate of encoding includes the sub-steps of:

averaging the previously calculated measured rate of encoding and the current measured rate of encoding; and

storing the average measured rate of encoding as a new value for the previously calculated measured rate of encoding if the measured rate of encoding does not deviate from the previously calculated measured rate of encoding by a configured threshold.

11. The method as defined in claim 9, wherein the sub-step of storing the average measured rate of encoding includes associating the previously calculated measured rate of encoding with a specific encoding bit rate and a specific encoding algorithm.

12. The method as defined in claim 6, further comprising the step of displaying the measured rate of encoding during the encoding of the digital content.

13. A method of measuring a rate of encoding for digital content, the method in a first program comprising the steps of:

selecting an encoding algorithm and a bit rate;

encoding a selected sample of digital content;

calculating a measured rate of encoding using the selected sample and an amount of time it took to encode the selected sample so as to provide an interim rate of completion for a subsequent process of encoding the content with the algorithm and a bit rate which has been selected; and

transferring the measured rate of encoding to a second program for monitoring the rate of encoding in a batch process.

14. A system for measuring a rate of encoding for digital content in a batch process, the system comprising:

a first program including;

a receiver for receiving digital content to be encoded;

an encoder for encoding a selected sample of the digital content for a predetermined period of time using an encoding algorithm and bit rate;

means for calculating a measured rate of encoding using the selected sample of digital content and the predetermined period of time so as to provide an interim rate of completion for a subsequent process of encoding the content with the algorithm and the bit rate; and

means for transferring the measured rate of encoding to a second program for monitoring the rate of encoding.

15. The system as defined in claim 14, further comprising a display for displaying the measured rate of encoding during the encoding of the digital content.

16. The system as defined in claim 14, further comprising:

storage for storing the measured rate of encoding; and

means for associating the measured rate of encoding with a specific encoding bit rate and a specific encoding algorithm.

17. The system as defined in claim 15, further comprising means for displaying the percentage of digital content encoded as compared to the total amount of digital content to be encoded.

18. The system as defined in claim 15, further comprising means for displaying the amount of time remaining to encode the total amount of digital content to be encoded.

19. A system for measuring a rate of encoding for digital content in a batch process, the system comprising:

a first program including;

means for retrieving a previously calculated measured rate of encoding so as to provide an interim rate of completion for a subsequent process of encoding the content with a specific encoding algorithm and a bit rate;

an encoder for encoding digital content;

means for calculating a current measured rate of encoding of the digital content;

means for updating the previously calculated measured rate of encoding based on the current measured rate of encoding; and

means for transferring the measured rate of encoding to a second program for monitoring the rate of encoding.

20. The system as defined in claim 19, wherein the means for retrieving a previously calculated measured rate of encoding includes means for associating the previously calculated encoding rate with a specific encoding bit rate and a specific encoding algorithm.

21. The system as defined in claim 19, further comprising a display for displaying the measured rate of encoding during the encoding of the digital content using the previously calculated measured rate of encoding.

22. The system as defined in claim 19, wherein the means for updating the previously calculated measured rate of encoding comprises:

means for averaging the previously calculated measured rate of encoding and the current measured rate of encoding; and

storage for storing the previously averaged encoding rate as the previously calculated encoding rate.

23. The system as defined in claim 19, wherein the means for updating the previously calculated measured rate of encoding comprises:

means for averaging the previously calculated measured rate of encoding and the current measured rate of encoding if the current measured rate of encoding does not deviate from the previously calculated measured rate of encoding by the configured threshold; and

storage for storing the previously averaged measured rate of encoding as the previously calculated measured rate of encoding.

24. The system as defined in claim 22, wherein the storage includes means for associating the previously calculated measured rate of encoding with a specific encoding bit rate and a specific encoding algorithm.

25. The system as defined in claim 21, wherein the display includes means for displaying the percentage of digital content encoded as compared to the total amount of digital content to be encoded.

26. The system as defined in claim 21, wherein the display includes means for displaying the amount of time remaining to encode the total amount of digital content to be encoded.

27. A system for measuring a rate of encoding for digital content in a batch process, the system comprising:

a first program including;

a receiver for receiving digital content to be encoded;

an encoder for encoding a selected sample size of the digital content;

means for calculating a measured rate of encoding rate using the selected sample size of digital content and the period of time it took to encode the selected sample size of digital content so as to provide an interim rate of completion for a subsequent process of encoding the content with an algorithm and a bit rate which has been selected; and

means for transferring the measured rate of encoding to a second program for monitoring the rate of encoding.

28. A computer readable medium containing program instructions for determining an encoding rate for digital content in a batch process, the program instructions for a first program comprising instructions for:

selecting an encoding algorithm and a bit rate;

encoding a selected sample of digital content for a predetermined period of time;

calculating a measured rate of encoding using the selected sample and the predetermined period of time so as to provide an interim rate of completion for a subsequent process of encoding the content with the algorithm and the bit rate which has been selected; and

transferring the measured rate of encoding to a second program for monitoring the rate of encoding.

29. The computer readable medium in claim 28 wherein in the step of calculating further comprising calculating a measured rate of encoding R_CURRENT using a length of the selected sample divided by the predetermined period of time.

30. The computer readable medium in claim 28 further comprising the instruction for displaying the measured rate of encoding during the encoding of the digital content.

31. The computer readable medium in claim 28 further comprising the instruction for:

storing the measured rate of encoding; and

associating the measured rate of encoding with a specific encoding bit rate and a specific encoding algorithm.

32. The computer readable medium in claim 30, wherein the instruction for displaying the measured rate of encoding includes displaying the percentage of digital content encoded as compared to the total amount of digital content to be encoded.

33. The computer readable medium in claim 30, wherein the instruction for displaying the measured rate of encoding includes displaying the amount of time remaining to encode the total amount of digital content to be encoded and displaying the amount of time remaining to encode the total amount of digital content to be encoded.

34. A computer readable medium containing program instructions for measuring a rate of encoding for digital content in a batch process, the program instructions for a first program comprising instructions for:

encoding a selected sample of digital content;

calculating an encoding rate using a selected sample size and the amount of time it took to encode the selected sample so as to provide an interim rate of completion for a subsequent process of encoding the content with an algorithm and a bit rate which has been selected; and

transferring the measured rate of encoding to a second program for monitoring the rate of encoding.