System and method of organizing data to facilitate access and streaming

• US 8,046,338 B2
• Filed: 05/29/2008
• Issued: 10/25/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 01/26/1998
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: AT&T Corporation (AT&T, Inc.), Trustees Of Columbia University In The City Of New York (Columbia University)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property II LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Kalva, Hari, Eleftheriadis, Alexandros, Basso, Andrea, Puri, Atul, Schmidt, Robert Lewis
• Primary Examiner(s): Wu; Yicun
• Application Number:
  US12/129,157
• Publication Number:
  US 20080228825A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,244 Days
• Field of Search: 707/687, 375/240, 714/18
• US Class Current: 707/687
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 20/1217 on discs
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 2220/213 Read-only discs
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 2220/2545 CDs
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/105 of operating discs
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/3027 used signal is digitally coded
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1101 Session protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/70 Media network packetisation
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/23412 for generating or manipulating the scene composition of objects, e.g. MPEG-4 objects
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44012 involving rendering scenes according to scene graphs, e.g. MPEG-4 scene graphs

Abstract

File formats systems and methods are disclosed that provide a framework that integrates concepts, such as objects based audio-visual representation, meta-data and object oriented programming, to achieve a flexible and generic representation of the audiovisual information and the associated methods to operate on the audiovisual information. A system and method are disclosed for storing data processed from presentation data. The data is stored according to a method comprising coding input presentation data by identifying objects from within the presentation data, coding each object individually and organizing the coded data into access layer data units. The access layer data units are stored throughout a plurality of segments, each segment comprising a segment table in a header portion thereof and those access layer data units that are members of the respective segment, there being one entry in the segment table for each access layer data unit therein. A plurality of extended segments are also stored, each of the extended segments further comprising one or more of the access layer data units that include protocol specific data, the extended segments each represented by a extended segment header. The data of an accessible object is also stored, including an accessible object header and identifiers of the plurality of extended segments, each of the extended segments being a member of the same object.

Claims

1. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing computer-readable data processed from input presentation data including identifiable objects, the processed data stored by a method comprising:

individually coding each identifiable object to yield coded data;

organizing the coded data into data units by access layer;

storing the data units within a plurality of segments, each segment comprising a segment table in a header portion thereof and those access layer data units that are members of a respective segment, there being one entry in the segment table for each data unit stored therein, wherein the header portion comprises data representing a size of an access unit, a number of resynchronization points per data unit, an average number of resynchronization points per one of the data units, and a data unit table; and

storing data of an object for access, including an object header and identifiers of a group of layer data units, each data unit of the data units being a member of a same respective object, wherein, the data of the object for access are used to deliver at least one of audio content and video content.

2. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the object header includes data representing the segment table, a temporal extension to the object, and a number of temporally contiguous data units contained in the object.

3. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 1, wherein the object header further indicates a segment size for segments having a constant size and further indicates whether resynchronization points were present in the coded data.

4. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 2, wherein the temporally contiguous access layer data units are organized into a plurality of extended segments, the extended segments each represented by an extended segment header.

5. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 4, wherein the extended segment header includes data representing an access layer data unit table, resynchronization point positions, at least one of a master and a slave flag, and an extended segment temporal extension.

6. A method for storing coded data organized into access layer data units from input presentation data, the method comprising:

storing the access layer data units within a plurality of segments, each segment comprising a segment table in a header portion thereof and those access layer data units that are members of a respective segment, there being one entry in the segment table for each access layer data unit stored therein, wherein the header portion comprises data representing a size of an access layer data unit, a number of resynchronization points per access layer data unit, an average number of resynchronization points per one of the data units, and a data unit table, and wherein, the access layer data units are used to deliver at least one of audio content and video content.

7. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing computer-readable data processed from presentation data including identifiable objects, the data stored according to a method comprising:

coding input presentation data by;

identifying objects from within the presentation data;

coding each object individually;

organizing the coded data into data units by access layer; and

storing the data units within a plurality of segments, each segment comprising a segment table in a header portion thereof and those access layer data units that are members of a respective segment, there being one entry in the segment table for each data unit stored therein, wherein the header portion comprises data representing a size of an access unit, a number of the resynchronization points per data unit, an average number of resynchronization points per one of the data units, and a data unit table; and

storing data of an object for access, including an object header and identifiers of a group of layer data units, each data unit of the data units being a member of a same respective object, wherein, the data of the object for access are used to deliver at least one of audio content and video content.

8. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 7, wherein the data units are not temporally adjacent.

9. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 7, wherein the data units are members of different objects.

10. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 7, wherein the object header comprises a logical header that includes data representing a logical object table, a logical object temporal extension, resynchronization points, and decodability points.

11. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing computer-readable coded data organized into access layer data units processed from presentation data, the data stored according to a method comprising:

storing the access layer data units within a plurality of segments, each segment comprising a segment table in a header portion thereof and those access layer data units that are members of a respective segment, there being one entry in the segment table for each access layer data unit stored therein, wherein the header portion comprises data representing a size of an access unit, a number of the resynchronization points per data unit, an average number of resynchronization points per one of the data units, and a data unit table, wherein, the stored the access layer data units are used to deliver at least one of audio content and video content.

12. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 11, wherein the method of storing the data on the non-transitory computer-readable medium further comprises:

storing a plurality of extended segments, each of the extended segments further comprising at least one of the access layer data units that include protocol specific data, the extended segments each represented by an extended segment header; and

storing data of an accessible object, including an accessible object header and identifiers of the plurality of extended segments, each of the extended segments being a member of the same object.

13. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 12, wherein the coded data is MPEG-4 data.

14. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 13, wherein the method of storing the data on the computer-readable medium further comprises:

storing a plurality of extended segments, each of the extended segments further comprising at least one of the access layer data units that include protocol specific data, the extended segments each represented by an extended segment header; and

storing data of an accessible object, including an accessible object header and identifiers of the plurality of extended segments, each of the extended segments being a member of the same object.