Data processing apparatus and method

• US 7,690,018 B2
• Filed: 08/27/2002
• Issued: 03/30/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 08/31/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha (Canon Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha (Canon Inc.)
• Inventors: Nakagawa, Toshiyuki
• Primary Examiner(s): Kelley; Christopher
• Assistant Examiner(s): Andramuno; Franklin S
• Application Number:
  US10/227,857
• Publication Number:
  US 20030046691A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,772 Days
• Field of Search: 725/86, 725/87, 725/93, 725/133
• US Class Current: 725/86
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/23412 for generating or manipulating the scene composition of objects, e.g. MPEG-4 objects
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/25825 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 21/25833 involving client hardware characteristics, e.g. manufacturer, processing or storage capabilities allocation of resources considering hardware capabilities in multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/5044; allocation of resources considering software capabilities in multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/5055
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2662 Controlling the complexity of the video stream, e.g. by scaling the resolution or bitrate of the video stream based on the client capabilities
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44012 involving rendering scenes according to scene graphs, e.g. MPEG-4 scene graphs
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/472 End-user interface for requesting content, additional data or services; End-user interface for interacting with content, e.g. for content reservation or setting reminders, for requesting event notification, for manipulating displayed content end-user interfaces for retrieving video data from a database G06F16/739; network services for supporting unicast streaming H04L65/612
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6582 Data stored in the client, e.g. viewing habits, hardware capabilities, credit card number arrangements where receivers interact with the broadcast H04H20/38
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8153 comprising still images, e.g. texture, background image

Abstract

A device information analysis circuit 108 analyzes type and capability of reception terminal, and in accordance with the result of analysis, a scene/object conversion circuit 1002 refers to object description data 103 and scene description data 104, and determines whether or not display positions and placement (layout of the respective objects in a display screen of the reception terminal) of respective objects must be changed. If it is determined that the display position and placement must be changed, the display positions and the placement of the respective objects described in the scene description data 104 and the object description data 103 are converted in accordance with the result of analysis by the device information analysis circuit 108.

Claims

1. A data processing apparatus for delivering coded multimedia data to a reception terminal connected to the apparatus via a network, comprising:

first determination means for determining a screen size of a display screen of the reception terminal, based on device information of the reception terminal;

second determination means for determining whether or not display positions and placement of respective objects constructing the multimedia data are to be transformed, based on the determined screen size;

transformation means for transforming first object description data and first scene description data constructing the multimedia data, when said second determination means determines that the display positions and placement must be transformed, so as to change object(s) constructing the multimedia data without changing contents of the object(s) and to change a layout of the changed object(s) in the display screen of the reception terminal, to generate second object description data and second scene description data respectively, in accordance with the determined screen size; and

selection means for selecting a coded bit stream of the object(s), described in the second object description data, from a predetermined storage device which holds a coded bit stream set for each object, wherein the coded bit stream sets are each coded by using a coding method suitable to a screen size of the display screen of the reception terminal,

wherein the second object description data and the second scene description data are encoded, wherein the result of coding is multiplexed with the coded bit stream of the object(s) selected by said selection means, so that coded multimedia data is generated, and wherein the coded multimedia data is delivered to the reception terminal.

2. The data processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said transformation means changes a translation field of the object(s) included in the first scene description data, and thereby changes the layout of the object(s) in the display screen of the reception terminal.

3. The data processing apparatus according to claim 2, wherein said transformation means changes a translation field of the object(s) included in the first scene description data in correspondence with the determined screen size of the reception terminal.

4. The data processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said transformation means changes a fileName field of the object(s) included in the first object description data, and thereby changes the object displayed in the display screen of the reception terminal.

5. The data processing apparatus according to claim 4, wherein said transformation means changes a fileName field of the object(s) included in the first object description data in correspondence with a type of the reception terminal.

6. The data processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the multimedia data is in conformity with the MPEG-4 system.

7. The data processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein each of the first scene description data and the second scene description data is described in BIFS.

8. The data processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the object includes a still image, a moving image, a CG, and a text.

9. A data processing method for delivering coded multimedia data to a reception terminal, comprising:

using a data processing apparatus, connected to the reception terminal via a network, to perform steps including;

a first determination step of determining a screen size of a display screen of said reception terminal, based on device information of the reception terminal;

a second determination step of determining whether or not display positions and placement of respective objects constructing the multimedia data are to be transformed, based on the determined screen size;

a transformation step of transforming first object description data and first scene description data constructing the multimedia data, when said second determination step determines that the display positions and placement must be transformed, so as to change object(s) constructing the multimedia data without changing contents of the object(s) and to change a layout of the changed object(s) in the display screen of the reception terminal, to generate second object description data and second scene description data respectively, in accordance with the determined screen size; and

a selection step of selecting a coded bit stream of the object(s), described in the second object description data, from a predetermined storage device which holds a coded bit stream set for each object, wherein the coded bit stream sets are each coded by using a coding method suitable to a screen size of the display screen of the reception terminal,

wherein the second object description data and the second scene description data are encoded, and wherein the result of coding is multiplexed with the coded bit stream of the object(s) selected by said selection step, so that coded multimedia data is generated, and wherein the coded multimedia data is delivered to the reception terminal.

10. A program for making a computer execute the data processing method according to claim 9.

11. A storage medium holding the program according to claim 10.