System for transmitting digital data over a limited bandwidth link in plural blocks

• US 7,739,714 B2
• Filed: 12/24/2002
• Issued: 06/15/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 02/14/1996
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Distributed Media Solutions, LLC (IP Investments Group LLC)
• Original Assignee: KWOK CHU & Shindler LLC (Intellectual Ventures LLC)
• Inventors: Guedalia, Jacob Leon
• Primary Examiner(s): Lonsberry; Hunter B.
• Application Number:
  US10/330,581
• Publication Number:
  US 20030135867A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,730 Days
• Field of Search: 725/86, 725 90- 96
• US Class Current: 725/90
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/33 in the spatial domain
• 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 21/23106 involving caching operations prefetching while addressing of a memory level in which the access to the desired data or data block requires associative addressing means within memory systems or architectures G06F12/0862; caching at an intermediate stage in a data network H04L67/568
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/234318 by decomposing into objects, e.g. MPEG-4 objects
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/234327 by decomposing into layers, e.g. base layer and one or more enhancement layers
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/26216 involving the channel capacity, e.g. network bandwidth admission control, resource allocation in open networks H04L12/5692; flow control in packet networks H04L47/10; establishing a schedule or organising the servicing of application requests taking into account QoS H04L67/61
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4331 Caching operations, e.g. of an advertisement for later insertion during playback
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44016 involving splicing one content stream with another content stream, e.g. for substituting a video clip
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47205 for manipulating displayed content, e.g. interacting with MPEG-4 objects, editing locally
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/147 Communication arrangements, e.g. identifying the communication as a video-communication, intermediate storage of the signals selecting H04Q
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17318 Direct or substantially direct transmission and handling of requests

Abstract

A system for transmitting digital data representing an original over plural transmission links, at least some of which have limited bandwidth, including a digital data source storing digital data representing the original, a digital data receiver receiving the digital data representing the original via one of the plural transmission links having limited bandwidth and a digital data transmitter operative to transmit the digital data representing the original to the receiver over a transmission link having a limited bandwidth in plural blocks which are sequentially transmitted at a rate determined by the limited bandwidth, each block being an incomplete collection of data which includes parts of multiple frames, each frame being viewable in a selectable order by the receiver even when less than all of the plural blocks have been received, receipt of subsequent blocks by the receiver being used to cumulatively improve the quality of the digital data viewed by the receiver.

Claims

1. A method performed by a computing system having a processor for providing on-line virtual reality movies to a user, comprising:

inputting a cyclic movie sequence into an encoder;

determining by the processor a number of portions for each frame of the cyclic movie sequence so that the movie sequence can be progressively delivered so that each progressively delivered portion is combined with a previously delivered portion to improve a resolution of each rendered frame;

forming partial frames using the determined number of portions;

specifying hot-spots and independent objects for interaction within a partial frame; and

transmitting the formed partial frames to a database associated with the user.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein forming the partial frames includes forming a partial resolution frame and subtracting the partial resolution frame from an original version of the frame.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein transmitting the formed partial frames includes compression encoding the partial frames.

4. A system for providing on-line virtual reality movies, comprising:

a processor and memory;

a production workstation for producing on-line virtual reality movies;

an encoder for preparing the on-line virtual reality movies for transmission; and

a server including;

a repository for the on-line virtual reality movies; and

a transceiver for transmitting the on-line virtual reality movies progressively part by part wherein each progressively delivered part is combined with a previously delivered part to improve a rendered resolution.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the encoder includes a partial frame generator and a controller.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein the encoder includes a compressor for compression encoding image parts produced in the workstation.

7. The system of claim 4, further comprising

a transceiver associated with a user for receiving on-line virtual reality movie parts transmitted by the server;

an asynchronous database for supplying the user with images upon request, independent of transmission, and a decoder for integrating partial frames and facilitating a progressively updated display of images; and

a workstation associated with the user for presentation of the on-line virtual reality movies to the user.

8. The system as of claim 7, wherein the decoder includes a decompressor and a partial frame integrator.

9. An object movie processing system for encoding a digital object movie, storing it on a server computer and delivering it to client computers on-line upon request, the system comprising:

a processor and memory;

an encoder for compressing a digital object movie into a series of encoded data blocks stored in a database, each block comprising a sequence of encoded frames;

a storage device that stores the database on a server computer;

a processing unit for accepting a request by a client computer for on-line delivery of the object movie and for determining one or more data blocks to transmit based on a bandwidth associated with the client computer;

a transmitter for delivering the determined data blocks to the client computer;

a decoder for decompressing the data blocks back into object movie data at the client computer;

an accumulator for ordering the data blocks at the client computer to reconstruct the original digital object movie; and

a player on the client computer for playing the reconstructed digital object movie.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the encoder includes a bit-rate controller to pre-select a sequence of bandwidths or quality levels for the database.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the transmitter, decoder, accumulator and player operate to transmit additional data blocks to the client computer.

12. A system for transmitting model based data representations of three dimensional images over plural transmission links having limited bandwidth, the system comprising:

a processor and memory;

a digital data source storing model based data representations of three dimensional images;

an image processor for rendering views of the model based data representations into raster bitmap format;

a digital data receiver for receiving the digital data in the raster bitmap format over one of the plural transmission links having limited bandwidth; and

a digital data transmitter for transmitting the digital data in the raster bitmap format to the receiver over a transmission link having a limited bandwidth, wherein the digital data is ordered into plural blocks based on a transmission rate determined by the limited bandwidth;

wherein each block is an incomplete collection of data that includes parts of multiple frames.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the model based data representations comprise VRML representations.

14. The system of claim 12, wherein the model based data representations comprise CAD-CAM representations.

15. The system of claim 12, wherein the image processor renders views selected by a user.

16. A method performed by a computing system having a processor for transmitting model based data representations of three dimensional images over plural transmission links having limited bandwidth, the method comprising:

storing by the processor model based data representations of three dimensional images;

rendering views of the model based data representations into raster bitmap format;

receiving the digital data in the raster bitmap format over one of the plural transmission links having limited bandwidth; and

transmitting the digital data in the raster bitmap format to the receiver over a transmission link having a limited bandwidth, wherein the digital data is ordered into plural blocks based on a transmission rate determined the limited bandwidth.

18. The method of claim 16, wherein the model based data representations comprise CAD-CAM representations.

19. The method of claim 16, wherein the image processor renders views selected by a user.

17. The method of 16, wherein the model based data representations comprise VRML representations.

20. A system for transmitting data, the system comprising:

a processor and memory;

means for receiving data to be transmitted including two or more frames; and

means for generating data blocks from the received data, wherein at least one of the generated blocks includes an incomplete frame;

means for determining a transmission order of the generated data blocks based on content of the data blocks; and

means for transmitting the data blocks in the determined transmission order.

21. A system for receiving data, the system comprising:

a processor and memory;

means for receiving digital data representing an original in sequential blocks, each block being an incomplete collection of the original and including parts of multiple frames;

means for combining the received blocks; and

means for presenting at least a part of each frame to a viewer before less than all of the blocks containing parts of each frame have been received.