Method and systems for scalable representation of multimedia data for progressive asynchronous transmission

• US 8,056,108 B2
• Filed: 10/08/2010
• Issued: 11/08/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 02/14/1996
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Distributed Media Solutions, LLC (IP Investments Group LLC)
• Original Assignee: Intellectual Ventures I LLC (Intellectual Ventures LLC)
• Inventors: Guedalia, Jacob
• Primary Examiner(s): Lonsberry; Hunter B
• Application Number:
  US12/901,446
• Publication Number:
  US 20110090098A1
• Time in Patent Office: 396 Days
• Field of Search: 725/90, 725/95, 725/100, 725/134
• 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 for encoding original digital audio and video data to be stored on a server computer for on-line delivery to client computers, comprising:

encoding the digital audio and video data into at least one database comprising a series of encoded data blocks, each block comprising a sequence of encoded frames, with the property that successive blocks when decoded and integrated together provide successively higher bandwidth versions of the audio or video for online playback;

storing the database on a server computer;

processing a request by a client computer for on-line delivery of the audio or video in order to determine which data blocks to transmit, so as to accommodate the client bandwidth;

transmitting the necessary data blocks to the client;

decoding the data blocks on the client computer;

integrating the data blocks together on the client computer to reconstruct an appropriate version of the original digital audio; and

playing the reconstructed audio on the client computer.

2. A method according to claim 1 wherein said step of encoding includes a bit-rate control device enabling the producer to pre-select the sequence of bandwidths or quality levels for the database.

3. A method according to claim 1 wherein said steps of transmitting, decoding, integrating and playing are repeated in succession a number of times in order to transmit additional data blocks to the client, thereby upgrading the quality of the audio or video while it is replayed.

4. A method for encoding an original digital panorama to be stored on a server computer for on-line delivery to client computers, comprising the steps of:

encoding the digital panorama into a database comprising a series of encoded data blocks, each block comprising a sequence of encoded frames, with the property that successive blocks when decoded and integrated together provide successively higher bandwidth versions of the panorama for on-line playback;

storing the database on a server computer;

processing a request by a client computer for on-line delivery of the panorama in order to determine which data blocks to transmit, so as to accommodate the client bandwidth;

transmitting the necessary data blocks to the client;

decoding the data blocks on the client computer;

integrating the data blocks together on the client computer to reconstruct an appropriate version of the original digital panorama; and

playing the reconstructed panorama on the client computer.

5. A method according to claim 4 wherein said step of encoding includes a bit-rate control device enabling the producer to pre-select the sequence of bandwidths or quality levels for the database.

6. A method according to claim 4 wherein said steps of transmitting, decoding, integrating and playing are repeated in succession a number of times in order to transmit additional data blocks to the client, thereby upgrading the quality of the panorama while it is replayed.

7. A method for encoding original digital large still image data to be stored on a server computer for on-line delivery to client computers, comprising the steps of:

encoding the large digital image into a database comprising a series of encoded data blocks, each block comprising a sequence of encoded multi-resolution tiles of the image, with the property that successive blocks when decoded and integrated together provide successively higher quality versions of the tiles for display;

storing the database on a server computer;

processing a request by a client computer for on-line delivery of the image in order to determine which data blocks to transmit;

transmitting the necessary data blocks to the client;

decoding the data blocks on the client computer;

integrating the data blocks together on the client computer to reconstruct an appropriate version of the original multi-resolution image tiles; and

interactively displaying the reconstructed tiles on the client computer.

8. A method according to claim 7 wherein said step of encoding includes a compression control device enabling the producer to pre-select the sequence of quality levels for the database.

9. A method according to claim 8 wherein said step of encoding operates on a plurality of images forming an animation, and each encoded data block is comprised of multi-resolution tiles from the plurality of images.

10. An audio processing system operative on digital audio data for encoding the digital audio, storing it on a server computer and delivering it to client computers on-line upon request comprising:

an encoder for compressing the digital audio into a database comprising a series of encoded data blocks, each block comprising a sequence of encoded frames, with the property that successive blocks when decoded and integrated together provide successively higher bandwidth versions of the audio for on-line playback;

a storage device for archiving the database on a server computer;

a processing unit for accepting a request by a client computer for on-line delivery of the audio and determining which data blocks to transmit, so as to accommodate the client bandwidth;

a transmitter for delivering the necessary data blocks to the client;

a decoder for decompressing the data blocks back into audio data on the client computer;

an accumulator for integrating the data blocks together on the client computer to reconstruct an appropriate version of the original digital audio; and

a player on the client computer for playing the reconstructed digital audio.

11. The system as claimed in claim 10 wherein said encoder includes a bit-rate controller enabling the user to pre-select the sequence of bandwidths or quality levels for the database.

12. The system as claimed in claim 10 wherein the transmitter, decoder, accumulator and player repeatedly operate in succession a number of times in order to transmit additional data blocks to the client, thereby upgrading the quality of the audio while it is being replayed.

13. A panorama processing system operative on digital panorama data for encoding the digital panorama, storing it on a server computer and delivering it to client computers on-line upon request comprising:

an encoder for compressing the digital panorama into a database comprising a series of encoded data blocks, each block comprising a sequence of encoded frames, with the property that successive blocks when decoded and integrated together provide successively higher bandwidth versions of the panorama for on-line playback;

a storage device for archiving the database on a server computer;

a processing unit for accepting a request by a client computer for on-line delivery of the panorama and determining which data blocks to transmit, so as to accommodate the client bandwidth;

a transmitter for delivering the necessary data blocks to the client;

a decoder for decompressing the data blocks back into panorama data on the client computer;

an accumulator for integrating the data blocks together on the client computer to reconstruct an appropriate version of the original digital panorama; and

a player on the client computer for playing the reconstructed digital panorama.

14. The system as claimed in claim 13 wherein said encoder includes a bit-rate controller enabling the user to pre-select the sequence of bandwidths or quality levels for the database.

15. The system as claimed in claim 13 wherein the transmitter, decoder, accumulator and player repeatedly operate in succession a number of times in order to transmit additional data blocks to the client, thereby upgrading the quality of the panorama while it is being replayed.

16. An image processing system operative on large digital image data for encoding the digital image, storing it on a server computer and delivering it to client computers on-line upon request comprising:

an encoder for compressing the large digital image into a database comprising a series of encoded data blocks, each block comprising a sequence of encoded multi-resolution tiles of the image, with the property that successive blocks when decoded and integrated together provide successively higher quality versions of the image tiles;

a storage device for archiving the database on a server computer;

a processing unit for accepting a request by a client computer for on-line delivery of the image and determining which data blocks to transmit;

a transmitter for delivering the necessary data blocks to the client;

a decoder for decompressing the data blocks back into image tile data on the client computer;

an accumulator for integrating the data blocks together on the client computer to reconstruct an appropriate version of the original multi-resolution image tiles; and

an interactive viewer on the client computer for displaying the reconstructed image tiles.

17. The system as claimed in claim 16 wherein said encoder includes a compression controller enabling the user to pre-select the sequence of quality levels for the database.

18. The system as claimed in claim 16 wherein said encoder operates on a plurality of images forming an animation, and each encoded data block is comprised of multi-resolution tiles from the plurality of images.

19. A system for encoding a digital movie, comprising:

an encoder configured to compress a digital movie into a database comprising a series of encoded data blocks, each block comprising a sequence of encoded frames, wherein successive blocks when decoded and integrated together provide successively higher bandwidth versions of the digital movie for on-line playback;

a storage device configured to store the database;

a processing unit configured to receive a request from a client computer for on-line delivery of the digital movie and to determine which data blocks to transmit, so as to accommodate bandwidth over which the request was received; and

a transmitter configured to transmit to the client data blocks corresponding to the digital movie.

20. The system of claim 19 further comprising components available for download to a client computer, comprising:

a decoder configured to decompress at the client computer the data blocks into digital movie data;

an accumulator configured to integrate at the client computer the data blocks to reconstruct an appropriate version of the original digital movie; and

a player configured to play at the client computer the reconstructed digital movie.