Method and apparatus for allowing a media client to obtain media data from a media server

• US 8,037,401 B2
• Filed: 03/10/2008
• Issued: 10/11/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 04/05/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Lipton, Daniel I.
• Primary Examiner(s): RIES, LAURIE ANNE
• Application Number:
  US12/075,389
• Publication Number:
  US 20080201416A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,310 Days
• Field of Search: 715/201, 715/202, 715/203, 715/229, 369/30.37, 369/30.38
• US Class Current: 715/201
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/612 for unicast
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/06 specially adapted for file transfer, e.g. file transfer protocol [FTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/568 Storing data temporarily at an intermediate stage, e.g. caching
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2343 involving reformatting operations of video signals for distribution or compliance with end-user requests or end-user device requirements video transcoding H04N19/40; media packet handling at the source H04L65/762
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6581 Reference data, e.g. a movie identifier for ordering a movie or a product identifier in a home shopping application
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8456 by decomposing the content in the time domain, e.g. in time segments
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17318 Direct or substantially direct transmission and handling of requests

Abstract

Some embodiments of the invention provide a computer system that includes a media server, a media client, and a media-server interface. The media server application produces media data, where the media data has a plurality of segments. For example, in some embodiments, the media data is a movie with video and audio components. In this example, the segments of the movie can be specified in two groups, where one group includes the frames of video in the movie and the other group includes the seconds of audio in the movie. The media client application is typically an application that needs to process the media data of the media server application without the need to have any familiarity with the implementation of the media server application. The media-server interface directs the server application to successively generate individual segments of the media data and to store each generated segment in a location that is accessible by the media client. The server application generates each segment in a format that is comprehensible to the media client application. The media client application retrieves each segment from its stored location and processes the segment.

Claims

1. A computer system comprising:

a storage for storing a media server application, a media client application, and a media-server interface, the media server application for producing media data, wherein the media data has a plurality of segments, the media client application for retrieving and processing the segments of the media data, the media-server interface for allowing the media server application to generate one segment of the media data in a format that is comprehensible to the media client application and to store the generated segment in a location accessible by the media client application; and

at least one processing unit for executing said media server application, media client application, and media-server interface.

2. The computer system of claim 1, wherein at least one segment of the media data is a frame of video.

3. The computer system of claim 2, wherein at least one segment of the media data is a particular duration of audio.

4. The computer system of claim 1, wherein at least one segment of the media data is a particular duration of audio.

5. The computer system of claim 1, wherein the computer system includes a memory mapped file, which is the location in which the generated segment is stored.

6. A method for receiving media data by a media client application executing on a computing device, wherein the media data has a plurality of segments, the method comprising:

directing a media server application to successively generate segments of the media data in a format that is comprehensible to the media client application, and to store the generated segments in a location accessible by the media client application; and

retrieving and processing the generated segments, wherein each segment that is stored in the location is retrieved by the media client application before the media server application stores another segment in the location.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein at least one segment of the media data is a frame of video.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein at least one segment of the media data is a particular duration of audio.

9. An interface of a computing device, said interface for transferring media data from a media server to a media client, said media server and said media client stored on said computing device, said interface comprising:

a first command for establishing a session between the media server and the media client;

a second command for directing the media server to successively store segments of the media data in a storage of said computing device, said storage accessible by the media client; and

a third command for ending the session between the media server and the media client.

10. The interface of claim 9, wherein the second command is further for directing the media server to successively generate the segments of the media data.

11. The interface of claim 10, wherein the segments are generated in a format understandable by the media client.

12. The interface of claim 9, wherein a particular segment is at least one of a duration of audio and a duration of video.

13. The interface of claim 9, wherein the storage is a memory of said computing device.

14. A method for transferring media data from a media server to a media client using an interface of a computing device, said media server and said media client stored on said computing device, said method comprising:

establishing a session between the media server and the media client;

directing the media server to successively store segments of the media data in a storage of said computing device, said storage accessible by the media client; and

ending the session between the media server and the media client.

15. The method of claim 14 further comprising directing the media server to successively generate the segments of the media data.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein a particular segment is at least one of a duration of audio and a duration of video.

17. A method for providing media data by a media server executing on a computing device, said method comprising:

receiving a set of requests for the media data that includes a plurality of segments;

successively generating segments of the media data in a format understandable by a media client application; and

successively storing the generated segments of the media data in a storage of said computing device, wherein said storage is accessible by the media client application.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the client application is an application executing on said computing device.

19. The method of claim 17, wherein the storage is a memory of said computing device.

20. The method of claim 17 further comprising:

receiving a request to start a session to provide the media data to the media client application; and

receiving a request to end the session.

21. The method of claim 17, wherein a particular segment is at least one of a duration of audio and a duration of video.

22. A computer readable medium storing a media server application for providing media data to a media client application, the media server application executable by at least one processor, the media server application comprising sets of instructions for:

receiving a set of requests for media data that includes a plurality of segments;

successively generating segments of the media data in a format understandable by the media client application; and

successively storing the generated segments of the media data in a storage, wherein said storage is accessible by the media client application.

23. The computer readable medium of claim 22, wherein the media server application further comprises sets of instructions for:

receiving a request to start a session to provide the media data to the media client application; and

receiving a request to end the session.

24. The computer readable medium of claim 22, wherein the media server application is a film editing application.

25. The computer readable medium of claim 22, wherein the media client application encodes frames of video and durations of audio according to a particular format.

26. A computer readable medium storing a media server interface for transferring media data from a media server of a computing device to a media client of the computing device, the media-server interface executable by at least one processor, the media-server interface comprising sets of instructions for:

establishing a session between the media server and the media client;

directing the media server to successively store segments of the media data in a storage of said computing device, said storage accessible by the media client; and

ending the session between the media server and the media client.

27. The computer readable medium of claim 26, wherein the set of instructions for establishing the session comprises a set of instructions for specifying that the storage is at least one of a first memory-mapped file for storing and retrieving a video frame and a second memory-mapped file for storing and retrieving a duration of audio.

28. The computer readable medium of claim 27, wherein the set of instructions for ending the session comprises a set of instructions for de-allocating the specified memory-mapped files.

29. The computer readable medium of claim 26, wherein the segments are stored in a format understandable by the media client.

30. A computer readable medium storing an interface for transferring media data from a media server stored on a computing device to a media client stored on the computing device, the interface, media server, and media client executable by at least one processor of the computing device, wherein the interface comprises sets of instructions for:

issuing a first command for establishing a session between the media server and media client;

issuing a second command for directing the media server to successively store segments of the media data in a storage of the computing device, the storage accessible by the media client; and

issuing a third command for ending the session between the media server and the media client.

31. The computer readable medium of claim 30, wherein the first command specifies the media data to transfer to the media client and a set of parameters related to the media data.

32. The computer readable medium of claim 31, wherein the set of parameters specifies whether the media server should output audio data.

33. The computer readable medium of claim 30, wherein the interface further comprises sets of instructions for:

determining whether the media server is running; and

starting, when the media server is not running, the media server.