SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR PRODUCING IMPORTANCE RATE-BASED RICH MEDIA, AND SERVER APPLIED TO THE SAME

• US 20100199151A1
• Filed: 08/18/2008
• Published: 08/05/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 11/15/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: SK Planet Co., Ltd. (SK Telecom Co., Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: SK Telecom Co., Ltd.
• Inventors: Lee, Joong Yun
• Granted Patent: US 8,407,565 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 714/774
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/612 for unicast
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/70 Media network packetisation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/306 User profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/61 taking into account QoS or priority requirements

Abstract

Disclosed are a rich media sever, a rich media transmission system, and a rich media transmission method, which are adaptive to network environments. The rich media server includes an interfacing unit for communicating with a terminal, which requests rich media; a media processing unit for processing at least one piece of media corresponding to the request; a rich-media encoding unit for encoding at least one piece of media, which is output from the media processing unit, to produce rich media, and outputting the rich media to the interfacing unit in order to provide the rich media to the terminal; and a controller for determining importance rates of pieces of media constituting the rich media, based on reproduction information of the rich media, and controlling at least one of the media processing unit and the rich-media encoding unit to convert a transmission processing for the at least one piece of media based on the determined importance rates.

Claims

1. A rich media server for transmitting rich media through a network, the rich media server comprising:

an interfacing unit for communicating with a terminal, which requests rich media;

a media processing unit for processing at least one piece of media corresponding to the request;

a rich-media encoding unit for encoding at least one piece of media, which is output from the media processing unit, to produce rich media, and outputting the rich media to the interfacing unit in order to provide the rich media to the terminal; and

a controller for determining importance rates of pieces of media constituting the rich media, based on reproduction information of the rich media, and controlling at least one of the media processing unit and the rich-media encoding unit to convert a transmission processing for the at least one piece of media based on the determined importance rates.

2. The rich media server as claimed in claim 1, wherein the controller determines an importance rate of each piece of media included in the rich media, based on at least one among whether or not the piece of media is a necessary element for configuration of the rich media, a duration time during which the piece of media is displayed in rich media, whether or not a retransmission request for the piece of media is available, the number of pieces of reference media which utilize or refer to the piece of media, and a producer-specified importance rate specified for the piece of media by a producer upon production.

3. The rich media server as claimed in claim 2, wherein the controller calculates a priority index of each piece of media included in the rich media, based on a priority index calculation equation,

Priority Index={W1 (Duration Time)+W2 (The Number of pieces of reference media)+W3 (Producer-Specified Importance Rate)}*f1 (Necessity or Non-necessity)*f2 (retransmittability or non-retransmittability),

and determines a piece of media having a high priority index to have a high importance rate, in which W1 to Wn and f1 to fn represent functions for calculating an importance rate for each variable.

4. The rich media server as claimed in claim 1, wherein the controller stores a transmission control table, which includes transmission capacity information for controlling an amount of transmission of the rich media according to each bandwidth of the network, in advance, and controls an amount of transmission of the media based on the transmission control table and bandwidth information of the network.

5. The rich media server as claimed in claim 4, wherein the transmission control table includes transmission bit rate information for controlling a transmission bit rate of the media according to each bandwidth of the network, and the controller controls the media processing unit to control the bit rate of the media based on the transmission control table and the bandwidth information of the network.

6. The rich media server as claimed in claim 5, wherein the controller controls the media processing unit to increase or decrease the bit rate of the media in accordance with the transmission bit rate information corresponding to the bandwidth of the network, based on the transmission control table and the bandwidth information of the network.

7. The rich media server as claimed in claim 4, wherein the transmission control table includes transmission selection information for selecting whether or not the media is to be transmitted according to each bandwidth of the network, and the controller controls the rich-media encoding unit to remove at least one piece of media having a low importance rate from among at least one piece of media output from the media processing unit, based on the transmission selection information of the transmission control table and the bandwidth information of the network, and to encode remaining media so as to produce the rich media.

8. The rich media server as claimed in claim 4, wherein the transmission control table includes limit delay time information for a transmission delay time of the rich media transmitted through the network, and the controller controls the rich-media encoding unit to encode and sequentially output at least one piece of media received from the media processing unit in a sequence from a piece of media having a higher importance rate to a piece of media having a lower importance rate when a transmission delay time of the network is equal to or greater than the limit delay time information of the transmission control table.

9. The rich media server as claimed in claim 4, wherein the controller controls an amount of error correction code for the at least one piece of media according to determined importance rates.

10. The rich media server as claimed in claim 9, wherein when the at least one piece of media corresponds to media of an importance level, the controller increases the amount of error correction code for the at least one piece of media based on a communication bandwidth.

11. The rich media server as claimed in claim 9, wherein when the at least one piece of media does not correspond to media of an importance level, the controller decreases the amount of error correction code for the at least one piece of media based on a communication bandwidth.

12. The rich media server as claimed in claim 9, wherein the controller monitors a transmission rate of at least one piece of media including the error correction code, and again controls the amount of error correction code for the at least one piece of media, based on a transmission bit rate control signal generated as a result of the monitoring.

13. A system for transmitting rich media, the system comprising:

a terminal for requesting rich media through a network; and

a rich media server which includes an interfacing unit for communicating with the terminal, a media processing unit for processing at least one piece of media corresponding to the request, a rich-media encoding unit for encoding at least one piece of media, output from the media processing unit, to produce rich media, and outputting the rich media to the interfacing unit in order to provide the rich media to the terminal, and a controller for determining importance rates of pieces of media constituting the rich media based on reproduction information of the rich media, and controlling at least one of the media processing unit and the rich-media encoding unit to convert a transmission processing for the at least one piece of media based on the determined importance rates.

14. The system as claimed in claim 13, wherein the controller determines an importance rate of each piece of media included in the rich media, based on at least one among whether or not the piece of media is a necessary element for configuration of the rich media, a duration time during which the piece of media is displayed in rich media, whether or not a retransmission request for the piece of media is available, the number of pieces of reference media which utilize or refer to the piece of media, and a producer-specified importance rate specified for the piece of media by a producer upon production.

15. The system as claimed in claim 14, wherein the controller calculates a priority index of each piece of media included in the rich media, based on a priority index calculation equation,

Priority Index={W1 (Duration Time)+W2 (The Number of pieces of reference media)+W3 (Producer-Specified Importance Rate)}*f1 (Necessity or Non-necessity)*f2 (retransmittability or non-retransmittability),

and determines a piece of media having a high priority index to have a high importance rate, in which W1 to Wn and f1 to fn represent functions for calculating an importance rate for each variable.

16. The system as claimed in claim 13, wherein the controller stores a transmission control table, which includes transmission capacity information for controlling an amount of transmission of the rich media according to each bandwidth of the network, in advance, and controls an amount of transmission of the media based on the transmission control table and bandwidth information of the network.

17. The system as claimed in claim 16, wherein the transmission control table includes transmission bit rate information for controlling a transmission bit rate of the media according to each bandwidth of the network, and the controller controls the media processing unit to control the bit rate of the media based on the transmission control table and the bandwidth information of the network.

18. The system as claimed in claim 17, wherein the controller controls the media processing unit to increase or decrease the bit rate of the media in accordance with the transmission bit rate information corresponding to the bandwidth of the network, based on the transmission control table and the bandwidth information of the network.

19. The system as claimed in claim 16, wherein the transmission control table includes transmission selection information for selecting whether or not the media is to be transmitted according to each bandwidth of the network, and the controller controls the rich-media encoding unit to remove at least one piece of media having a low importance rate from among at least one piece of media output from the media processing unit, based on the transmission selection information of the transmission control table and the bandwidth information of the network, and to encode remaining media so as to produce the rich media.

20. The system as claimed in claim 16, wherein the transmission control table includes limit delay time information for a transmission delay time of the rich media transmitted through the network, and the controller controls the rich-media encoding unit to encode and sequentially output at least one piece of media received from the media processing unit in a sequence from a piece of media having a higher importance rate to a piece of media having a lower importance rate when a transmission delay time of the network is equal to or greater than the limit delay time information of the transmission control table.

21. The system as claimed in claim 16, wherein the controller controls an amount of error correction code for the at least one piece of media according to determined importance rates.

22. The system as claimed in claim 21, wherein when the at least one piece of media corresponds to media of an importance level, the controller increases the amount of error correction code for the at least one piece of media based on a communication bandwidth.

23. The system as claimed in claim 21, wherein when the at least one piece of media does not correspond to media of an importance level, the controller decreases the amount of error correction code for the at least one piece of media based on a communication bandwidth.

24. The system as claimed in claim 21, wherein the controller monitors a transmission rate of at least one piece of media including the error correction code, and again controls the amount of error correction code for the at least one piece of media, based on a transmission bit rate control signal generated as a result of the monitoring.

25. The system as claimed in claim 13, wherein the rich media server further comprises a media database, which stores at least one piece of media for providing the rich media in response to the request of the terminal, and minimum specifications of a terminal capable of reproducing the media, in advance.

26. The system as claimed in claim 25, wherein the terminal provides the rich media server with information on the type of the terminal, and information on a reproducer for reproducing the rich media when requesting the rich media to the rich media server.

27. The system as claimed in claim 26, wherein the controller compares the type information and the information on the rich-media reproducer, provided from the terminal, with the minimum specifications of media corresponding to the requested rich media, determines if the terminal can reproduce the rich media, and controls the media processing unit to generate the rich media with media which can be reproduced.

28. A method for providing media based on importance rates, the method comprising the steps of:

(a) transmitting a response to a user terminal which requests a rich media service;

(b) extracting media reproduction information corresponding to the request, extracting at least one piece of media corresponding to a service provided based on media according to the media reproduction information, and encoding the at least one piece of media to produce rich media;

(c) determining an importance rate of each piece of media constituting the rich media; and

(d) converting a transmission processing for the at least one piece of media based on a result of the determination for the importance rate, and transmitting the at least one piece of media.

29. The method as claimed in claim 28, wherein, in step (c), the importance rate of the at least one piece of media, based on at least one among whether or not the piece of media is a necessary element for the service provided based on media, a duration time during which the piece of media is reproduced through the user terminal, the number of pieces of related reference media, an importance level index specified at a media production stage, and whether or not a retransmission request for the piece of media is available, and whether or not the user terminal can make a retransmission request when the at least one piece of media has been lost due to a media transmission environment.

30. The method as claimed in claim 28, wherein, in step (d), according to a result of the determination for the importance rate, the amount of error correction code for the at least one piece of media is controlled, or a transmission protocol for the at least one piece of media is established.