System and method for using benchmarking to account for variations in client capabilities in the distribution of a media presentation

• US 20010047422A1
• Filed: 01/22/2001
• Published: 11/29/2001
• Est. Priority Date: 01/21/2000
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Adam Nemitoff, Altay Murat, Brennan J. Mcternan, Vishal Bangia
• Original Assignee: Adam Nemitoff, Altay Murat, Brennan J. Mcternan, Vishal Bangia
• Inventors: Nemitoff, Adam, Murat, Altay, Bangia, Vishal, McTernan, Brennan J.
• Application Number:
  US09/767,603
• Publication Number:
  US 20010047422A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/231
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9577 Optimising the visualization of content, e.g. distillation of HTML documents
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1836 with heterogeneous network architecture
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/185 with management of multicast group membership
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1859 adapted to provide push services, e.g. data channels
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1877 Measures taken prior to transmission
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1881 with schedule organisation, e.g. priority, sequence management
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2463/101 applying security measures for digital rights management data processing systems or methods, specially adapted for commerce, e.g. marketing, shopping, billing, auctions or e-commerce G06Q30/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0442 wherein the sending and receiving network entities apply asymmetric encryption, i.e. different keys for encryption and decryption cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for public-key encryption H04L9/30
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/062 for key distribution, e.g. centrally by trusted party cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for key distribution involving a central third party H04L9/0819
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1101 Session protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/612 for unicast
• 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 65/756 adapting media to device capabilities
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/2871 Implementation details of single intermediate entities
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/30 Profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/56 Provisioning of proxy services store-and-forward switching systems in data switching networks H04L12/54
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/565 Conversion or adaptation of application format or content adding application control or application functional data H04L67/561
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/568 Storing data temporarily at an intermediate stage, e.g. caching
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/59 Providing operational support to end devices by off-loading in the network or by emulation, e.g. when they are unavailable
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/75 : Indicating network or usage conditions on the user display
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/16 : Implementation or adaptation of Internet protocol [IP], of transmission control protocol [TCP] or of user datagram protocol [UDP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/161 : Implementation details of TCP/IP or UDP/IP stack architecture; Specification of modified or new header fields
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/163 : In-band adaptation of TCP data exchange; In-band control procedures
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/164 : Adaptation or special uses of UDP protocol
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/165 : Combined use of TCP and UDP protocols; selection criteria therefor
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/22 : Parsing or analysis of headers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 : in the application layer [OSI layer 7]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 : Network security protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 13/194 : Transmission of image signals
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/23412 : for generating or manipulating the scene composition of objects, e.g. MPEG-4 objects
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2343 : involving reformatting operations of video signals for distribution or compliance with end-user requests or end-user device requirements video transcoding H04N19/40; media packet handling at the source H04L65/762
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/234318 : by decomposing into 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

Systems and methods are presented that allow the efficient distribution of rich media to clients by maximizing the use of available bandwidth and client processing capabilities. A rich media presentation is divided into discrete components, and a producer of the presentation specifies how a presentation is to be assembled and where resources needed for the presentation are to be found. This information is packaged into a data structure and sent to clients. Clients use this data structure to retrieve the necessary resources for the presentation. Producers are able to prioritize the particular resources that form part of the ultimate presentation according to their importance in the presentation, and clients can retrieve the resources most suitable for their capabilities, including processing power, graphics production speed, and bandwidth. A benchmarker routine running on the client helps identify these capabilities just before retrieval of the presentation components, to more closely assess the conditions under which the client will retrieve, assemble and present the desired show.

Claims

1. A method implemented by a client computer for retrieving a multimedia presentation from a server over a network and presenting the presentation, the method comprising:

performing one or more benchmarking tests on the client computer to determine one or more operational parameters of the client computer;

retrieving a presentation data structure from the server identifying a plurality of software elements and data resources used in reproducing the presentation, the software elements and resources being associated with varying types of operational parameters;

selecting a subset of the elements and resources based upon the client'"'"'s operational parameters determined in the benchmarking tests; and

retrieving the selected elements and resources to thereby reproduce the presentation.

2. The method of

claim 1

, wherein performing one or more benchmarking tests comprises testing the client computer'"'"'s CPU speed.

3. The method of

claim 2

, wherein testing CPU speed comprises measuring time spent by the CPU processing transformations of vertices in a three-dimensional renderer.

4. The method of

claim 1

, wherein performing one or more benchmarking tests comprises testing the client computer'"'"'s graphics fill rate.

5. The method of

claim 4

, wherein testing the graphics fill rate comprises measuring time spent by a three-dimensional renderer running on the client computer in filling triangles.

6. The method of

claim 4

, wherein testing the graphics fill rate comprises measuring time spent by a three-dimensional renderer running on the client computer in reading texture maps.

7. A computer readable medium storing program code for, when executed, causing a computer to perform a method for retrieving a multimedia presentation from a server over a network and presenting the presentation, the method comprising:

performing one or more benchmarking tests on the client computer to determine one or more operational parameters of the client computer;

retrieving a presentation data structure from the server identifying a plurality of software elements and data resources used in reproducing the presentation, the software elements and resources being associated with varying types of operational parameters;

selecting a subset of the elements and resources based upon the client'"'"'s operational parameters determined in the benchmarking tests; and

retrieving the selected elements and resources to thereby reproduce the presentation.

8. The medium of

claim 7

, wherein the step performed by the computer of performing one or more benchmarking tests comprises testing the client computer'"'"'s CPU speed.

9. The method of

claim 8

, wherein the step performed by the computer of testing CPU speed comprises measuring time spent by the CPU processing transformations of vertices in a three-dimensional renderer.

10. The method of

claim 7

, wherein the step performed by the computer of performing one or more benchmarking tests comprises testing the client computer'"'"'s graphics fill rate.

11. The method of

claim 10

, wherein the step performed by the computer of testing the graphics fill rate comprises measuring time spent by a three-dimensional renderer running on the client computer in filling triangles.

12. The method of

claim 10

, wherein the step performed by the computer of testing the graphics fill rate comprises measuring time spent by a three-dimensional renderer running on the client computer in reading texture maps.