Systems and methods for media stream processing

• US 8,799,499 B2
• Filed: 10/21/2011
• Issued: 08/05/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 08/22/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: UTC Fire & Security Americas Corporation, Inc. (Carrier Global Corporation)
• Original Assignee: UTC Fire & Security Americas Corporation, Inc. (Carrier Global Corporation)
• Inventors: Brannon, Robert H. Jr.
• Primary Examiner(s): Kim, Tae
• Assistant Examiner(s): Shepperd, Eric W
• Application Number:
  US13/317,566
• Publication Number:
  US 20120131219A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,019 Days
• Field of Search: 709/217, 709/219, 709/228, 709230-234, 709/246, 710/29, 710/60, 370231-235, 370266-267, 370252-253, 370/236, 380/212, 725 86- 90, 725101-103
• US Class Current: 709/231
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/613 for the control of the source by the destination control signals issued by the client directed to the server or network components specially adapted for selective content distribution H04N21/637
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/65 Network streaming protocols, e.g. real-time transport protocol [RTP] or real-time control protocol [RTCP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/765 intermediate
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/34 involving the movement of software or configuration parameters network booting or remote initial program loading [RIPL] G06F9/4416
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/23608 Remultiplexing multiplex streams, e.g. involving modifying time stamps or remapping the packet identifiers

Abstract

Portions of streaming media are selectively removed for storage and/or delivery over a computer network medium. The amount of data in a media stream itself may be selectively reduced and, the amount of data in the media stream may be selected for delivery and/or storage so that it is reduced in a manageable and consistent fashion. Data within a media stream of a given temporal duration may be selected for delivery and/or storage in such a way that leads to a proportional increase in the maximum speed at which data from the given temporal duration of the media stream may be transmitted and reviewed while simultaneously providing the benefit of reducing overall storage capacity requirements.

Claims

1. A method for processing streaming media including frames, the method comprising:

selectively removing at least one frame from the streaming media to form an altered media stream of reduced data size based upon a mode parameter that identifies which frames within a group of frames should be included in the altered media stream;

receiving a rate parameter that selectively specifies a selected frame rate at which the altered media stream is transmitted over a computer network medium, the selected frame rate being selectable between at least one of a same transmission rate as the streaming media, a slower transmission rate than the streaming media, and a faster transmission rate than the streaming media; and

transmitting the altered media stream over the computer network medium at the selected frame rate to a viewing client such that a speed of delivery of the altered streaming media at the viewing client is faster than a speed of delivery of the streaming media at the viewing client, and wherein the altered media stream covers a same temporal duration as the streaming media,

wherein selectively removing at least one frame is also based upon a play parameter that specifies a number of consecutive groups of frames to include in the altered media stream before removing at least one frame, and

wherein selectively removing at least one frame is also based upon a skip parameter that specifies a number of consecutive groups of frames to be excluded from the altered media stream.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the mode parameter is implemented using a real time streaming protocol (RTSP) uniform resources locator (URL).

3. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the streaming media comprises streaming video; and

transmitting the altered media stream over a computer network medium occurs in response to a request received via the computer network medium, wherein the request includes the mode parameter.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the streaming media comprises streaming video; and

the streaming video is transmitted to one of a media stream client and a viewing client.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the streaming media comprises streaming video; and

selectively removing at least one frame includes removing at least one frame from an original video stream to form an altered video stream of reduced data size.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein:

the original video stream comprises a compressed video stream that includes key frames and dependent frames; and

selectively removing at least one frame includes removing all the dependent frames from the original video stream to form the altered video stream, the altered video stream comprising only key frames of the streaming media.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the original video stream comprises a MPEG-4 compressed video stream.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein the original video stream comprises an H.264 compressed video stream.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the streaming media comprises an original video stream that comprises autonomous data units; and

selectively removing at least one frame comprises;

generating virtual frames from the autonomous data units of the original video stream; and

selectively removing at least one virtual frame from the original video stream to form an altered video stream of reduced data size.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the streaming media comprises streaming video;

wherein selectively removing at least one frame comprises;

selectively removing at least one frame from an original video stream of a given temporal fidelity to form a first altered video stream of reduced data size and having reduced temporal fidelity relative to the original video stream; and

transmitting the altered media stream comprises;

transmitting the first altered video stream over the computer network medium; and

transmitting at least one removed frame as a second altered video stream over the computer network medium after transmitting the first altered video stream over the computer network medium, the second altered video stream transmitted in response to a request received across the computer network medium.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the method further comprises:

receiving the second altered video stream over the computer network medium after receiving the first altered video stream over the computer network medium; and

reassembling the first altered video stream with the second altered video stream to form a reassembled video stream having higher temporal fidelity than the first altered video stream.

12. A method for processing streaming media including frames, the method comprising:

selectively removing frames from the streaming media, based on a mode parameter, a play parameter, and a skip parameter, to form an altered media stream of reduced data size but covering same given period of real time as the streaming media;

wherein the mode parameter specifies which frames within a group of frames should be included in the altered media stream, the play parameter specifies a number of consecutive groups of frames to include in the altered media stream before removing the at least one frame, and the skip parameter specifies a number of consecutive groups of frames to be excluded from the altered media stream;

receiving a rate parameter that selectively specifies the frame rate at which the altered media stream is transmitted over a computer network medium, the frame rate being selectable between at least one of a same transmission rate as the streaming media, a slower transmission rate than the streaming media, and a faster transmission rate than the streaming media; and

transmitting the altered media stream over the computer network medium at the frame rate to a viewing client such that a speed of delivery of the altered streaming media at the viewing client is faster than a speed of delivery of the streaming media at the viewing client, and wherein the altered media stream covers a same temporal duration as the streaming media.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein selectively removing frames is also based upon a rate parameter that specifies the frame rate at which the altered media stream is transmitted.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein the mode parameter is implemented using a real time streaming protocol (RTSP) uniform resources locator (URL).

15. The method of claim 12, wherein:

the streaming media comprises an original video stream that comprises autonomous data units; and

selectively removing frames comprises;

generating virtual frames from the autonomous data units of the original video stream; and

selectively removing at least one virtual frame from the original video stream to form an altered video stream of reduced data size.

16. The method of claim 12, wherein:

the streaming media comprises streaming video;

selectively removing frames comprises;

selectively removing at least one frame from an original video stream of a given temporal fidelity to form a first altered video stream of reduced data size and having reduced temporal fidelity relative to the original video stream; and

transmitting the altered media stream comprises;

transmitting the first altered video stream over the computer network medium; and

transmitting at least one removed frame as a second altered video stream over the computer network medium after transmitting the first altered video stream over the computer network medium, the second altered video stream transmitted in response to a request received across the computer network medium.

17. A method for processing streaming media including frames, the method comprising:

selectively removing frames from the streaming media, based on a mode parameter, a play parameter, and a skip parameter, to form an altered media stream of reduced data size but covering a same given period of real time as the streaming media;

wherein the mode parameter specifies which frames within a group of frames should be included in the altered media stream, the play parameter specifies a number of consecutive groups of frames to include in the altered media stream before removing the at least one frame, and the skip parameter specifies a number of consecutive groups of frames to be excluded from the altered media stream;

receiving a rate parameter that selectively specifies the frame rate at which the altered media stream is transmitted over a computer network medium, the frame rate being selectable between at least one of a same rate as the streaming media, a slower rate than the streaming media, and a faster rate than the streaming media;

transmitting the altered media stream over the computer network medium at the selected frame rate to a viewing client such that a speed of delivery of the altered streaming media at the viewing client is faster than a speed of delivery of the streaming media at the viewing client, and wherein the altered media stream covers a same temporal duration as the streaming media;

wherein the streaming media comprises streaming video;

wherein selectively removing frames comprises;

selectively removing at least one frame from an original video stream of a given temporal fidelity to form a first altered video stream of reduced data size and having reduced temporal fidelity relative to the original video stream; and

wherein transmitting the altered media stream comprises;

transmitting the first altered video stream over the computer network medium;

transmitting at least one removed frame as a second altered video stream over the computer network medium after transmitting the first altered video stream over the computer network medium, the second altered video stream transmitted in response to a request received across the computer network medium;

receiving the second altered video stream over the computer network medium after receiving the first altered video stream over the computer network medium; and

reassembling the first altered video stream with the second altered video stream to form a reassembled video stream having higher temporal fidelity than the first altered video stream.