Methods and apparatus for integrating external applications into an MPEG-4 scene

• US 10,334,278 B2
• Filed: 10/17/2016
• Issued: 06/25/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 07/08/1999
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: AT&T Corporation (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property II LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Cheok, Lai-tee, Puri, Atul, Schmidt, Robert
• Primary Examiner(s): Huynh, Thu V
• Application Number:
  US15/295,458
• Publication Number:
  US 20170034535A1
• Time in Patent Office: 981 Days
• 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 40/103 Formatting, i.e. changing of presentation of documents automatic justification G06F40/189; automatic line break hyphenation G06F40/191
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/134 Hyperlinking
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/85 using pre-processing or post-processing specially adapted for video compression
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47205 for manipulating displayed content, e.g. interacting with MPEG-4 objects, editing locally
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8586 by using a URL processing chained hypermedia data for information retrieval G06F16/94; information retrieval from the Internet by using URLs G06F16/955; URL in broadcast information H04H20/93; Web-based protocols H04L67/02

Abstract

A method of decoding, composing and rendering a scene. First information is obtained, the first information including a part of a MPEG-4 BIFS scene description stream and at least one coded MPEG-4 media stream. The first information is decoded by invoking a BIFS scene decoder and one or more specific media decoders that are required by the scene. Second information is obtained, the second information including a second part of a BIFS scene description stream that contains a reference to an external application. The second information is decoded by invoking the BIFS scene decoder and an external application decoder. An integrated scene is composed, the integrated scene including one or more decoded MPEG-4 media objects and one or more external application objects specified in the decoded scene descriptions streams. The composed integrated scene is rendered on a display.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

a processor; and

a computer-readable storage device storing instructions which, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to perform operations comprising;

obtaining first information comprising a part of a scene description stream and a coded media stream conforming to a coding standard;

decoding the first information using a scene decoder and a specific application decoder associated with a scene description to yield a decoded media object;

obtaining second information comprising a second part of the scene description stream that contains a reference to an external application that decodes data in a manner that does not conform to the coding standard, wherein the reference to the external application identifies a location of the external application;

decoding the second information using the scene decoder and the external application to yield an external application object;

composing an integrated scene comprising the decoded media object and the external application object to yield a composed integrated scene; and

rendering the composed integrated scene.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the scene description stream comprises a BIFS scene description stream.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the BIFS scene description stream comprises an MPEG-4 BIFS scene description stream.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the coded media stream comprises a coded MPEG-4 media stream.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the coded media stream comprises a plurality of coded media streams.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the reference to the external application comprises a coded representation of a universal resource locator.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the reference to the external application comprises a universal resource locator identifying the location of the external application.

8. A system comprising:

a processor; and

a computer-readable storage device storing instructions which, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to perform operations comprising;

obtaining first information comprising a first part of a scene description stream and a coded media stream conforming to a coding standard;

decoding the first information using a scene decoder and a specific application decoder associated with a scene description;

obtaining second information comprising a second part of the scene description stream that contains a reference to an external application that decodes data in a manner that does not conform to the coding standard, wherein the reference to the external application comprises a start time and a stop time;

decoding the second information using the scene decoder and the external application to yield an external application object;

composing an integrated scene comprising a decoded media object and the external application object to yield a composed integrated scene;

rendering the composed integrated scene;

starting the external application at the start time; and

stopping the external application at the stop time.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the scene description stream comprises a BIFS scene description stream.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the BIFS scene description stream comprises an MPEG-4 BIFS scene description stream.

11. The system of claim 8, wherein the coded media stream comprises a coded MPEG-4 media stream.

12. The system of claim 8, wherein the coded media stream comprises a plurality of coded media streams.

13. The system of claim 8, wherein the reference to the external application further comprises a coded representation of a universal resource locator.

14. The system of claim 8, wherein the reference to the external application further comprises a universal resource locator identifying a location of the external application.

15. A system comprising:

a processor; and

a computer-readable storage device storing instructions which, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to perform operations comprising;

obtaining first information comprising a first part of a scene description stream and a coded media stream conforming to a coding standard;

decoding the first information using a scene decoder and a specific application decoder associated with the scene description to yield a decoded media object;

obtaining second information comprising a second part of the scene description stream that contains a reference to an external application that decodes data in a manner that does not conform with the coding standard, wherein the reference to the external application comprises description information;

decoding the second information using the scene decoder and the external application to yield an external application object;

composing an integrated comprising the decoded media object and the external application object to yield a composed integrated scene;

rendering the composed integrated scene; and

displaying a prompt in the composed integrated scene based on the description information.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the scene description stream comprises a BIFS scene description stream.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the BIFS scene description stream comprises an MPEG-4 BIFS scene description stream.

18. The system of claim 15, wherein the coded media stream comprises a coded MPEG-4 media stream.

19. The system of claim 15, wherein the reference to the external application further comprises a coded representation of a universal resource locator.

20. The system of claim 15, wherein the reference to the external application further comprises a universal resource locator identifying a location of the external application.