Method and system for utilizing embedded MPEG-7 content descriptions

• US 7,664,830 B2
• Filed: 03/29/2002
• Issued: 02/16/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 03/29/2002
• 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): Caldwell; Andrew
• Assistant Examiner(s): AILES, BENJAMIN A
• Application Number:
  US10/112,610
• Publication Number:
  US 20030187950A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,881 Days
• Field of Search: 709/218, 705/400, 707/10
• US Class Current: 709/218
• 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: G06F 16/48 Retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manually

Abstract

An apparatus for selecting digital material objects containing MPEG-7 content descriptions in response to MPEG-7 content description queries. The apparatus comprises an MPEG-7 content description query generation tool coupled with a search engine configured for searching and comparing embedded MPEG-7 META tag information within file headers, or database information thereof, to the MPEG-7 content description query. The query tool and search engine may be implemented separately or in combination. By way of example, the MPEG-7 query generation tool is implemented within an application program such as a browser, or web site, to allow the user to readily and accurately define the content being sought. The content query being sent to a search engine configured for performing MPEG-7 content searches that return hits based on content related matches.

Claims

1. A system for selecting digital material objects containing MPEG-7 content descriptions, comprising:

means for generating MPEG-7 content description queries in response to information entered about the digital material objects being sought; and

means for searching a collection of digital material objects which contain embedded MPEG-7 content descriptions in response to queries received from said means for query generation;

wherein elements of the embedded MPEG-7 content description within searched digital material objects are compared against portions of the MPEG-7 content description query and resulting matches are selected for return.

2. A system as recited in claim 1, wherein said means for generating MPEG-7 content description queries comprises:

a computer; and

programming executable on said computer for carrying out the operations of capturing user input within a buffer and converting said user input into MPEG-7 content description queries.

3. A system as recited in claim 2, wherein said programming comprises:

an application program executable on said computer.

4. A system as recited in claim 3, wherein said application program comprises:

a browser or plug-in for use within a browser.

5. A system as recited in claim 3, wherein said application program comprises:

an interactive web site.

6. A system as recited in claim 5, further comprising:

means for collecting query information about generated content description queries and resultant searches from said interactive web site; and

means for communicating said query information to a destination site as selected from said resultant searches from said interactive web site.

7. A system as recited in claim 6, wherein said means for collecting query information comprises:

data structures associated with said interactive web site.

8. A system as recited in claim 6, wherein said means for communicating said query information comprises:

a link to said data structure which is passed to said destination web site.

9. A system as recited in claim 1, further comprising:

a library of MPEG-7 related queries and functions from which the user may build a content description query.

10. A system as recited in claim 1, further comprising:

a database containing MPEG-7 content descriptions rules.

11. A system as recited in claim 1, further comprising:

a syntax checker which utilizes MPEG-7 content description rules from said database to monitor the user query being built and to alert said user to improper syntax so that correction may be performed.

12. A system as recited in claim 1, further comprising:

a hit processing routine configured for ordering responses being returned from said collection searching means according to user selected preferences.

13. A system as recited in claim 12:

wherein said hit processing routine is configured to order the responses based on the terms and relationships found within the submitted query.

14. A system as recited in claim 12:

wherein said hit processing routine is configured to order the responses based on an explicit ordering statement which expresses a set of terms and relationships upon which response ordering is to be based.

15. A system as recited in claim 1:

wherein said means for searching a collection of digital material objects is configured to perform the search over the Internet.

16. A system as recited in claim 1, wherein said means for searching a collection of digital material objects comprises:

a search engine configured for matching elements from a received MPEG-7 content description query to elements within MPEG-7 content descriptions that are embedded within the collection of digital materials.

17. A system as recited in claim 1, wherein said means for searching a collection of digital material objects comprises:

a search engine configured for matching elements from a received MPEG-7 content description query to elements associated with MPEG-7 content descriptions within a database containing information about a collection of digital material objects which contain embedded MPEG-7 descriptors.

18. A system as recited in claim 1:

wherein said means for generating MPEG-7 content descriptions is configured for generating queries for use in selecting multimedia content sought by said user in response to capturing non-textual descriptions of the content sought.

19. A system for generating queries for use in selecting content being sought by a user, comprising:

a computer configured to communicate over a network with users submitting queries;

query interface programming executable on said computer for capturing descriptions of the content sought by said user; and

converter programming executable on said computer configured for converting captured descriptions into textual MPEG-7 content descriptions which are formatted for submission to a properly configured search engine capable of searching content resources having embedded MPEG-7 content descriptions using a string search routine.

20. A system as recited in claim 19:

wherein said query interface programming is configured to capture descriptions of multimedia content elements.

21. A system as recited in claim 20:

wherein said multimedia content elements are selected from the group of multimedia content consisting essentially of audio, video, animations, music, images, sound effects, graphics, CAD files, recordings, and icons.

22. A system as recited in claim 19:

wherein said query interface programming and converter programming comprise a portion of an application program executable on said computer.

23. A system as recited in claim 19:

wherein said query interface programming and converter programming comprise a portion of a browser, or browser plug-in.

24. A system as recited in claim 19:

wherein said query interface programming and converter programming comprise a portion of an interactive web site.

25. A system as recited in claim 19, further comprising:

a non-text capture routine within the query interface programming configured to capture non-textual information provided by the user to which the generated MPEG-7 content description is responsive.

26. A system as recited in claim 25:

wherein said non-text capture routine is capable of capturing sketch input.

27. A system as recited in claim 25:

wherein said non-text capture routine is capable of capturing statistics relating to content being sought.

28. A system as recited in claim 19, further comprising:

a library of predetermined MPEG-7 content queries, MPEG-7 content query elements, and query functions that are configured for display within said means for generating queries.

29. A system as recited in claim 28:

wherein said query interface is configured so that elements may be copied from said library and pasted into a query being built.

30. A system as recited in claim 19:

wherein said query interface programming is configured for processing macro functions that allow user content selection input to be received in a generalized format which is later expanded into a search engine compatible format.

31. A system configured for searching through a collection of multimedia data resources to find digital material objects, comprising:

a first computer configured to communicate over a network with users submitting queries;

query interface programming executable on said first computer for capturing descriptions of the content sought by said user;

converting programming executable on said first computer configured for converting captured description into MPEG-7 content descriptions which are formatted for submission to a search engine configure for searching content resources having embedded MPEG-7 content descriptions;

a second computer having a network interface for communication to and from users submitting queries to said first computer; and

programming executable on said second computer, said programming comprising,

an interface routine of said second computer configured for receiving MPEG-7 content descriptions, and

a string search routine configured to search through an associated database, or file collection, and return information about files whose associated headers contain MPEG-7 content description elements that coincide with the MPEG-7 content descriptions received by said interface routine.

32. A system as recited in claim 31, further comprising:

a parser routine which receives MPEG-7 content descriptions from said interface routine of said computer and is configured to convert the received MPEG-7 content descriptions into a simplified format which allows the string search routine to operate at a higher search speed.

33. A system as recited in claim 32:

wherein said conversion to a simplified format comprises disassembling the MPEG-7 content description into elements which may be searched for in parallel.

34. A method of searching content-laden objects having embedded MPEG-7 content descriptions, comprising:

constructing queries from non-text information captured by a query interface within a query generation tool, said queries being generated having MPEG-7 descriptors and description schemes;

submitting said queries to a search engine capable of matching elements of said query against embedded MPEG-7 content descriptions associated with digital material objects within the searched collection of content-laden objects; and

posting search results responsive to the matching elements and returning information about the associated digital material object.

35. A method as recited in claim 34, further comprising:

parsing the submitted query into a simplified format for use by the search engine;

toward speeding searches by the search engine through the content-laden objects.

36. A method as recited in claim 34, further comprising:

billing users for usage of the query generation tool according to a usage metric as selected from a group of usage metrics consisting essentially of time units, utilized resources, subscription rate, actions, and combinations thereof.

37. A method as recited in claim 36, further comprising:

restricting user billing to usage that is followed by a user access of the query results.

38. A method of searching content-laden multimedia objects having embedded MPEG-7 content descriptions, comprising:

capturing of non-textual query information from a user;

converting said non-textual query information into a textual search query based on MPEG-7 descriptors for receipt by a search engine;

executing said search query on a search engine to generate a set of search results, at a given search site;

selecting a link from the search results to open a destination site; and

passing said query information from said search site to said destination site.

39. A method as recited in claim 38:

wherein said query information comprises a query string utilized producing said destination link.

40. A method as recited in claim 38:

wherein said query information comprises an order value indicative of where said destination link fell in the search returns.

41. A method as recited in claim 38:

wherein said query information comprises a return link to the search site.

42. A method as recited in claim 38:

wherein said return link is unique for the given query so that programming executable for said destination site may extract further information from said search site.

43. A method as recited in claim 42:

wherein said further information may be extracted in exchange for remuneration from the organization associated with said destination site.

44. A system for generating queries for use in selecting multimedia content being sought by a user, comprising:

a computer configured to communicate with users submitting queries;

query interface programming executable on said computer for capturing non-textual descriptions of the content sought by said user; and

converter programming executable on said computer configured for capturing non-textual descriptions and converting them into MPEG-7 content descriptions formatted for submission to a search engine configured for responding to MPEG-7 search queries by posting search results containing information about multimedia digital material objects which match said non-textual descriptions.

45. A system as recited in claim 44:

wherein said query interface programming is configured for capturing sketch input as the non-textual description provided by the user.

46. A system as recited in claim 44:

further comprising programming within said query interface programming for capturing statistics relating to content being sought.

47. A system as recited in claim 44:

further comprising programming within said query interface programming for providing a library of query elements from which a user generates a query for content being sought.

48. A system as recited in claim 47:

wherein said query interface programming is configured for copying elements from said library and pasting them into a query being built.