Efficient binary coding scheme for multimedia content descriptions

• US 20020138514A1
• Filed: 10/22/2001
• Published: 09/26/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 10/20/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.), Sony Electronics Inc. (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.), Sony Electronics Inc. (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Tabatabai, Ali, Rising, Hawley K. III, Visharam, Mohammed Z.
• Granted Patent: US 7,398,275 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/512
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/143 Markup, e.g. Standard Generalized Markup Language [SGML] or Document Type Definition [DTD]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/149 Adaptation of the text data for streaming purposes, e.g. Efficient XML Interchange [EXI] format
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2353 specifically adapted to content descriptors, e.g. coding, compressing or processing of metadata

Abstract

An encoding methodology encodes an instance document describing multimedia content by determining a context node in the content description and using a schema associated with the context node to determine the maximum number of children attributes and elements of the context node. Values for required attributes and elements are encoded into required attributes and required elements sections, respectively. Values for each optional attribute and optional element present in the content description are encoded into corresponding optional attributes and optional elements sections. In one aspect, a mask is encoded that indicates which of the optional attributes or optional elements are present in the content description. In another aspect, identifiers for the optional attributes or optional elements are also encoded and a count of the optional attributes or optional elements is used in place of the mask. A corresponding decode methodology extracts the values of the attributes and elements from the encoded instance document to re-create the content description.

Claims

1. A computerized method for encoding an instance document representing a content description, the method comprising:

determining a context node in the content description;

obtaining a schema associated with the context node, the schema defining the required attributes, optional attributes, required elements, and optional elements for the context node, with the optional attributes and optional elements having an order;

creating a required attributes section containing a value for each required attribute for the context node;

creating an optional attributes section containing a value for each optional attribute for the context node that appears in the content description and further containing a header;

creating a required elements section containing a value for each required element for the context node; and

creating an optional elements section containing a value for each optional element for the context node that appears in the content description and further containing a header.

2. The computerized method of claim 1, wherein creating the optional attributes section comprises:

including a mask in the header of the optional attributes, the mask indicating which of the optional attributes defined in the schema are present in the content.

3. The computerized method of claim 2, wherein creating the optional attributes section further comprises:

including an order field in the header of the optional attributes section, the order field indicating the optional attributes present in the content correspond to the order of the optional attributes in the schema.

4. The computerized method of claim 1, wherein creating the optional attributes section comprises:

including an order field in the header of the optional attributes section, the order field indicating that the optional attributes present in the content do not correspond to the order of the optional attributes in the schema;

including a number field in the header of the optional attributes section, the number field indicating a count of the optional attributes present in the content description; and

associating an attribute identifier with the value of each optional attribute present in the content description.

5. The computerized method of claim 1, wherein creating the required elements section comprises:

associating an element identifier with the value for a required element if the schema defines a choice of values for the corresponding required element.

6. The computerized method of claim 1, wherein creating the required elements section comprises

including a terminator field for a required element in the required elements section if the schema defines the corresponding required element as an unbounded sequence.

7. The computerized method of claim 1, wherein creating the optional elements section comprises:

including a mask in the header of the optional elements, the mask indicating which of the optional elements defined in the schema are present in the content description.

8. The computerized method of claim 7, wherein creating the optional elements section further comprises:

including an order field in the header of the optional elements section, the order field indicating the optional elements present in the content description correspond to the order of the optional elements in the schema.

9. The computerized method of claim 7, wherein creating the optional elements section further comprises:

associating a repeat field with the value of an optional element if the schema defines the corresponding optional element as having multiple occurrences.

10. The computerized method of claim 1, wherein creating the optional elements section comprises:

including an order field in the header of the optional elements section, the order field indicating that the optional elements present in the content do not correspond to the order of the optional elements in the schema;

including a number field in the header of the optional elements section, the number field indicating a count of the optional elements present in the content description; and

associating an element identifier with the value of each optional element present in the content description.

11. The computerized method of claim 10, wherein creating the optional elements section further comprises:

associating a repeat field with each value of an optional element if the schema defines the corresponding optional element as having multiple occurrences; and

associating the element identifier with only one value of the optional element if the schema defines the corresponding optional element as having multiple occurrences.

12. The computerized method of claim 1, wherein creating the required attributes section comprises:

associating an element identifier with the value of each required attribute.

13. The computerized method of 1, wherein creating the optional attributes section comprises:

associating an attribute identifier with the value of each optional attribute present in the content.

14. The computerized method of 1, wherein creating the required elements section comprises:

associating an element identifier with the value of each required element.

15. The computerized method of 14, wherein creating the required elements section further comprises:

including a terminator field for a required element in the required elements section if the schema defines the corresponding required element as an unbounded sequence.

16. The computerized method of 1, wherein creating the optional elements section comprises:

associating an element identifier with the value of each optional element present in the content description.

17. The computerized method of 16, wherein creating the optional elements section further comprises:

associating a repeat field with each value of an optional element if the schema defines the corresponding optional element as having multiple occurrences; and

associating the element identifier with only one value of the optional element if the schema defines the corresponding optional element as having multiple occurrences.

18. The computerized method of 1 further comprising:

creating a reset field, the reset field specifying a different context in the content description.