Periodic Broadcast and Location of Evolving Media Content with Application to Seminar and Stroke Media

• US 20080040746A1
• Filed: 10/19/2007
• Published: 02/14/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 06/14/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Shae, Zon-Yin, Tseng, Belle
• Granted Patent: US 9,219,884 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 725/44
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/30 using hierarchical techniques, e.g. scalability H04N19/63 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17318 Direct or substantially direct transmission and handling of requests

Abstract

Techniques are provided for broadcasting history or coarse representations or both of stroke media and other media. Levels are created for media, and the levels are periodically broadcast. The levels segment the media and allow the media to be examined with details that range from coarse to fine or examined with varying importance or both. The periodic broadcast of the levels provides history of the media. In particular, for stroke data, levels of detail are determined through a certain method. Each level of detail is periodically broadcast. The levels of detail may be shown by themselves or combined at a receiver to create segmented views of the stroke data. A user can select a coarse view of the stroke data to quickly see the stroke history. Additionally, techniques are provided for quickly and repeatedly accessing data elements in already existing data structures. Generally, a description is created that describes data elements in a preexisting data structure. One or more links are created, from the description, which allow a user to directly access particular data elements for the preexisting data structure.

Claims

1. A method for periodically broadcasting media content, the method comprising the steps of:

creating a plurality of levels for the media content; and

periodically transmitting each level.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of creating a plurality of levels the media content comprises creating two levels for the media content.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the step of creating further comprises the step of creating a plurality of levels of detail; and

the step of periodically transmitting further comprises the step of periodically transmitting each level of detail.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the step of creating further comprises the step of creating a plurality of levels of importance; and

the step of periodically transmitting further comprises the step of periodically transmitting each level of importance.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of creating further comprises the step of creating a plurality of levels wherein no level contains information from the media content that is in another level.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein each level comprises an amount of data that is less than an amount of data in the media content.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein combining data from all of the levels provides an exact representation of the media content.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein combining data from all of the levels does not provide an exact representation of the media content.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the media content comprises one or more of stroke data, video, audio, text, images, a slide sequence, a three-dimensional sequence, and an animation.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein one of the levels has less data than another level, and wherein the method further comprises the step of assigning a higher bandwidth to the one level than is assigned to the other level.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein one of the levels is more important than another level, and wherein the method further comprises the step of assigning a higher bandwidth to the one level than is assigned to the other level.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of:

assigning a minimum latency for each of the levels; and

determining a bandwidth for each level of detail by using a corresponding one of the minimum latencies.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of periodically transmitting each level further comprises the step of interleaving the levels.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of periodically transmitting each level further comprises the steps of:

determining a predetermined latency for each level; and

transmitting each level within a corresponding predetermined latency.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the media content comprises a plurality of indivisible units;

the step of creating further comprises selecting some of the indivisible units for each level; and

the step of periodically transmitting further comprises the step of interleaving each of the levels into an output stream.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the media content comprises a plurality of divisible units;

the step of creating further comprises processing each divisible unit into a plurality of levels; and

the step of periodically transmitting further comprises the step of interleaving levels from each divisible unit into an output stream.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein each of the divisible units comprises stroke data determined from a whiteboard at a certain time.

18. The method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of:

receiving each of the levels; and

displaying some of the levels through the following steps;

selecting some of the plurality of levels to display; and

reconstructing part or all of the media content by combining the selected levels.

19. A system for periodically broadcasting media content, comprising:

a memory that stores computer-readable code; and

a processor operatively coupled to the memory, the processor configured to implement the computer-readable code, the computer-readable code configured to;

create a plurality of levels for the media content; and

periodically transmit each level.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein:

the computer-readable code is further configured, when creating, to create a plurality of levels of detail; and

the computer-readable code is further configured, when periodically transmitting, to periodically transmit each level of detail.

21. The system of claim 19, wherein:

the computer-readable code is further configured, when creating, to create a plurality of levels of importance; and

the computer-readable code is further configured, when periodically transmitting, to periodically transmit each level of importance.

22. The system of claim 19, wherein the media content comprises one or more of stroke data, video, audio, text, images, a slide sequence, a three-dimensional sequence, and an animation.

23. The system of claim 19, wherein one of the levels has less data than another level, and wherein the computer-readable code is further configured to assign a higher bandwidth to the one level than is assigned to the other level.

24. The system of claim 19, wherein one of the levels is more important than another level, and wherein the computer-readable code is further configured to assign a higher bandwidth to the one level than is assigned to the other level.

25. An article of manufacture comprising:

a computer-readable medium having computer-readable code means embodied thereon, the computer-readable program code means comprising;

a step to create a plurality of levels for the media content; and

a step to periodically transmit each level.