Verification of semantic constraints in multimedia data and in its announcement, signaling and interchange

• US 9,414,022 B2
• Filed: 09/08/2010
• Issued: 08/09/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 05/03/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Comcast Cable Communications Management LLC (Comcast Corporation)
• Original Assignee: TVWorks LLC (Comcast Corporation)
• Inventors: Adams, Glenn
• Primary Examiner(s): BLOOMQUIST, KEITH D
• Application Number:
  US12/877,492
• Publication Number:
  US 20100332558A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,162 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/143 Markup, e.g. Standard Generalized Markup Language [SGML] or Document Type Definition [DTD]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/146 Coding or compression of tree-structured data
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/151 Transformation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/226 Validation
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/235 Processing of additional data, e.g. scrambling of additional data or processing content descriptors
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/25891 being end-user preferences retrieval of video data in a video database based on user preferences G06F16/739; arrangements for recognizing users' preferences H04H60/46; user profiles in network data switching protocols H04L67/306; processing of user preferences or user profiles in wireless networks H04W8/18
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4349 by extracting from data carousels, e.g. extraction of software modules from a DVB carousel
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/435 Processing of additional data, e.g. decrypting of additional data, reconstructing software from modules extracted from the transport stream
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/443 OS processes, e.g. booting an STB, implementing a Java virtual machine in an STB or power management in an STB
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/466 Learning process for intelligent management, e.g. learning user preferences for recommending movies services using the results of monitoring in broadcast systems H04H60/61
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/812 involving advertisement data advertising per se G06Q30/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/84 Generation or processing of descriptive data, e.g. content descriptors systems specially adapted for using meta-information in broadcast systems H04H60/73
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8545 for generating interactive applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17309 Transmission or handling of upstream communications

Abstract

A collection of well-formed, but possibly semantically invalid, binary encoded multimedia data components or packages as well as the binary encoded announcement, signaling, and interchange protocols used in their transmission are converted into one or more well-formed extensible markup language (XML) files. Such XML files may then be validated according to one or more pre-defined XML schemas, or similar schema languages, in order to verify that the data and protocol structures and substructures adhere to prior defined semantic constraints.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

generating, by a computing device, first extensible markup language (XML) content based on first encoded video, the first encoded video comprising video data formatted according to a first version of a protocol or a multimedia format;

validating the first XML content according to a first schema, resulting in validated first content that adheres to one or more constraints of the first version of the protocol or the multimedia format;

converting the validated first content to a second schema;

generating second XML content based on second encoded video; and

validating the second XML content according to the second schema.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

generating multimedia data using the second schema.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the second schema comprises an XML schema.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

generating, using the second schema, third encoded video compliant with a second version of the protocol or the multimedia format.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more constraints comprise a semantic constraint on a data value range for the first version of the protocol or the multimedia format.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more constraints comprise a co-occurrence constraint of the first version of the protocol or the multimedia format.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein validating the first XML content according to the first schema comprises validating that a data value of the video data is within the data value range.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein validating the first XML content according to the first schema comprises validating according to the co-occurrence constraint by at least:

determining a first data value of the first encoded video, and

validating that a second data value of the first encoded video is an acceptable value according to the first data value.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the protocol or the multimedia format comprises an enhanced television binary exchange format (EBIF).

10. A method, comprising:

generating, by a computing device, first extensible markup language (XML) content based on first encoded video, the first encoded video comprising video data that is expected to be formatted according to a first version of a protocol or a multimedia format;

validating the first XML content according to one or more constraints of the first version of the protocol or the multimedia format on the video data, resulting in validated content that adheres to the one or more constraints;

generating second XML content based on second encoded video; and

validating, based on the validated content, the second XML content.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the one or more constraints comprise at least one of a data value constraint and a co-occurrence constraint.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein validating the first XML content comprises validating that a data value of the first encoded video is an acceptable value.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein validating the first XML content comprises:

determining a first data value of the first encoded video, and

validating that a second data value of the first encoded video is an acceptable value according to the first data value.

14. The method of claim 10, wherein validating the first XML content comprises validating the first XML content according to a schema.

15. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

converting the validated content to converted content; and

generating, using the converted content, third encoded video compliant with a second version of the protocol or the multimedia format.

16. The method of claim 10, wherein the protocol or the multimedia format comprises an enhanced television binary exchange format (EBIF).

17. A method, comprising:

generating, by a computing device, first extensible markup language (XML) content based on first binary encoded multimedia data, the first binary encoded multimedia data comprising multimedia data that is to be validated according to a first version of a protocol or a multimedia format;

validating the first XML content according to one or more constraints of the first version of the protocol or the multimedia format on the multimedia data, resulting in validated content that adheres to the one or more constraints;

generating second XML content based on second binary encoded multimedia data; and

validating, based on the validated content, the second XML content.

18. The method of claim 17, further comprising:

converting the validated content to converted content; and

generating, using the converted content, third binary encoded multimedia data compliant with a second version of the protocol or the multimedia format.

19. The method of claim 17, wherein the one or more constraints comprise a data value constraint of the first version of the protocol or the multimedia format and a co-occurrence constraint of the first version of the protocol or the multimedia format.

20. The method of claim 17, wherein the protocol or the multimedia format comprises an enhanced television binary exchange format (EBIF).