Interface and related methods for dynamically generating a filter graph in a development system

• US 20050283760A1
• Filed: 08/29/2005
• Published: 12/22/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 12/06/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Rudolph, Eric H., Miller, Daniel J.
• Granted Patent: US 7,940,275 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 717/120
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/00 Arrangements for software engineering testing or debugging G06F11/36; administrative, planning or organisation aspects of software project management G06Q10/06
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/20 Software design

Abstract

A system is presented including a plurality of sources, and an interface, selectively coupled to the plurality of sources, to generate and implement a development project of processing chains, wherein the interface dynamically loads a processing chain for each of the plurality of media sources at a point during the execution of the project when the chain is required, and wherein the interface is configured to unload at least a subset of the chains when they are not required.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method comprising:

providing a plurality of sources; and

providing an interface, selectively coupled to the plurality of sources, to generate and implement a media processing development project of processing chains at least one chain of which comprises multiple filters, wherein the interface loads a processing chain for each of the plurality of media sources at a point during the execution of the project when the chain is required, and wherein the interface is configured to unload at least a subset of the chains when they are not required, wherein unloading of said subset is accomplished based, at least in part, on a generated execution list comprising;

a chain identifier field which maintains a list of chains utilized in the project;

a source identifier field which contains information denoting a project source;

a project time field which denotes at what point during the project execution of a source chain is required;

a source time field which denotes what portion of a source file is required; and

a dependencies field which denotes whether an associated chain is dependent on any other chains.

2. A method according to claim 1, wherein the interface is a render engine, exposed to a media processing system implemented on a computing system.

3. A method according to claim 1, further comprising providing an application program, coupled to the interface, to enable a user to define a media processing project.

4. A method according to claim 1, wherein the interface only loads those processing chains required during the next M seconds of project execution and, if the currently loaded chain-count does not exceed a threshold, T, where M and T are greater than 0.

5. A method according to claim 4, wherein M is less than a time required to load a processing chain.

6. A method according to claim 4, wherein if the currently loaded chain-count has reached a threshold, T, the interface identifies one or more currently loaded chains that can be unloaded.

7. A method according to claim 6, wherein the interface identifies one or more currently loaded chains that will not be used during the next N seconds to unload, where N is greater than 0.

8. A method according to claim 7, wherein M is less than N.

9. A method according to claim 7, wherein the interface determines whether the identified one or more chains will be required during subsequent execution of the project, or in a future project and, if so, caches the identified chain(s).

10. A method according to claim 7, wherein the interface determines whether unloading of the identified one or more chains reduces the chain-count below a maximum allowable threshold, V, and, if so, loads the chains required in the next M seconds, wherein V is greater than 0.

11. A method according to claim 9, whereupon determining that the chain-count is not below V, the interface identifies one or more lowest priority chains and unloads the identified chain(s), wherein V is greater than 0.

12. A method according to claim 10, wherein the interface removes the identified chains from the active project and caches the removed chains.

13. A method according to claim 10, wherein the interface loads the chains required during the next M seconds.

14. A method according to claim 6, wherein the interface unloads a chain when all matrix switch filter(s) of the filter graph provide an indication that the chain is no longer required.

15. A method according to claim 4, wherein T is set to one (1).

16. A method according to claim 15, whereby setting T equal to one (1), the interface will be required to search for and potentially unload chains which are not required to support execution of the project for the next N seconds.

17. A system for generating and managing a media processing development project, the system comprising:

means for identifying processing chains required to support execution of the development project over the next M seconds, wherein at least some of said processing chains comprise multiple filters;

means for loading the identified processing chains as long as a currently loaded chain-count does not exceed an initial threshold, T, wherein T and M are greater than 0; and

means for unloading a subset of loaded processing chains based, at least in part, on a generated execution list comprising;

a chain identifier field which maintains a list of chains utilized in the project;

a source identifier field which contains information denoting a project source;

a project time field which denotes at what point during the project execution of a source chain is required;

a source time field which denotes what portion of a source file is required; and

a dependencies field which denotes whether an associated chain is dependent on any other chains.

18. A system according to claim 17, further comprising:

means for identifying currently loaded chains that will not be used during the next N seconds, wherein N is greater than 0; and

means for removing the identified chains from the development project.

19. A system according to claim 18, further comprising:

means for determining whether the chain-count has dropped below a maximum allowable chain-count, V, after removing the identified chains from the development project, wherein V is greater than 0;

means for identifying one or more low priority chains and removing them from the development project; and

means for loading the chains required in the next M seconds.

20. A system according to claim 18, wherein said means for removing the identified chains comprises:

means for determining whether the identified chains will be required during subsequent execution of the development project or future development projects; and

means for caching the identified chains if they will be used during subsequent execution of the development project and/or future projects.