Index structure for TV-anytime forum metadata having location information for defining a multi-key

• US 8,307,009 B2
• Filed: 10/30/2007
• Issued: 11/06/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 07/23/2002
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Inventors: Shin, Hyoseop
• Primary Examiner(s): Lu, Charles
• Application Number:
  US11/928,723
• Publication Number:
  US 20080133464A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,834 Days
• Field of Search: 707/101, 707/791, 707/796, 707/803
• US Class Current: 707/796
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/81 Indexing, e.g. XML tags; Data structures therefor; Storage structures
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99933 Query processing, i.e. searching
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99945 Object-oriented database structure processing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99948 Application of database or data structure, e.g. distributed, multimedia, or image

Abstract

An index structure of metadata provided for searching for information on contents and a method for providing indices of the metadata, and a method and an apparatus for searching for the metadata using the index structure of the metadata are provided, in which the index structure of the metadata includes values of multi-keys and identification information of the metadata corresponding to the values of the multi-keys, wherein the multi-keys are structured by a combination of predetermined fields of the metadata.

Claims

1. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having embodied thereon an index structure of metadata for performing a compound condition search for information on contents using a first key and a second key simultaneously, the index structure comprising:

a key index list that identifies a multi-key that is a compound key of the first key and the second key, the key index list comprising location information of a target metadata fragment to which the first key and the second key belong that indexes into the index structure and location information of the first key and the second key within the target metadata fragment;

a key index section that identifies a representative key value of the multi-key, the representative key value indicating a first range of values of the first key and a second range of values of the second key; and

a sub key index section comprising a list of values of the multi-key, the list including the representative key value and identification information on metadata fragments corresponding to the values of the multi-key.

2. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the first key and the second key are used simultaneously to locate and extract a metadata fragment.

3. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the identification information is expressed in a language for addressing parts of a markup language document.

4. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 3, wherein the identification information is expressed in XPath.

5. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the metadata is metadata as defined in the TV-Anytime (“

TVA”

) Forum.

6. A method of providing an index structure for metadata divided into fragments for performing a compound condition search for information on contents using a first key and a second simultaneously, the method comprising:

providing, by a processor, a key index list that identifies a multi-key that is a compound key of the first key and the second key, the key index list comprising location information of a target metadata fragment to which the first key and the second key belong that indexes into the index structure and location information of the first key and the second key within the target metadata fragment, a key index section that identifies a representative key value of the multi-key, the representative key value indicating a first range of values of the first key and a second range of values of the second key, and a sub key index section comprising a list of values of the multi-key, the list including the representative key value and identification information on metadata fragments corresponding to the values of the multi-key.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the first key and the second key are used simultaneously to locate and extract a metadata fragment.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein the location information is expressed in a language for addressing parts of a markup language document.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein the location information is expressed in XPath.

10. The method of claim 6, wherein the metadata is metadata as defined in the TV-Anytime (“

TVA”

) Forum.

11. A method of providing an index structure for metadata divided into fragments for performing a compound condition search for information on contents using a first key and a second key simultaneously, the method comprising:

providing, by a processor, a key index list that identifies a list of multi-keys, each multi-key being a compound key of the first key and the second key, the kev index list comprising location information of a target metadata fragment to which the first key and the second key belong that indexes into the index structure and location information of the first key and the second key within the target metadata fragment, a key index section that identifies a representative key value of each of the multi-key, the representative key value indicating a first range of values of the first key and a second range of values of the second key, and a sub key index section comprising a list of values of the multi-key, the list including the representative key value and identification information on metadata fragments corresponding to the values of the multi-key.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the first key and the second key are used simultaneously to locate and extract a metadata fragment.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein the identification information is expressed in a language for addressing parts of a markup language document.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the identification information is expressed in XPath.

15. The method of claim 11, wherein the metadata is metadata as defined in the TV-Anytime (“

TVA”

) Forum.

16. A method of searching for metadata divided into fragments, using an index having a list of multi-keys and location information for defining the multi-keys, the method comprising:

searching, from the index of the metadata, for a multi-key corresponding to search conditions of the metadata; and

extracting a fragment of the metadata using the searched multi-key, wherein the index comprises;

a key index list that identifies a multi-key that is a compound key of a first key and a second key, the key index list comprising location information of a target metadata fragment to which the first key and the second key belong that indexes into the index structure and location information of the first key and the second key within the target metadata fragment;

a key index section that identifies a representative key value of the multi-key, the representative key value indicating a first range of values of the first key and a second range of values of the second key; and

a sub key index section comprising a list of values of the multi-key, the list including the representative key value and identification information on metadata fragments corresponding to the values of the multi-key.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the first key and the second key are used simultaneously to locate and extract the fragment of metadata.

18. The method of claim 16, wherein the location information is expressed in a language for addressing parts of a markup language document.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the location information is expressed in XPath.

20. The method of claim 16, wherein the metadata is metadata as defined in the TV-Anytime (“

TVA”

) Forum.

21. An apparatus for searching for metadata divided into fragments, using an index having a list of multi-keys and location information defining the multi-keys, comprising:

an input unit receiving search conditions; and

a processor searching, from the index of the metadata, for a multi-key corresponding to the search conditions of the metadata, and extracting a fragment of the metadata using the searched multi-key,

wherein the index comprises;

a key index list that identifies a multi-key that is a compound key of a first key and a second key, the key index list comprising location information of a target metadata fragment to which the first key and the second key belong that indexes into the index structure and location information of the first key and the second key within the target metadata fragment;

a key index section that identifies a representative key value of the multi-key, the representative key value indicating a first range of values of the first key and a second range of values of the second key; and

a sub key index section comprising a list of values of the multi-key, the list including the representative key value and identification information on metadata fragments corresponding to the values of the multi-key.

22. The apparatus of claim 21, wherein the first key and the second key are used simultaneously to locate and extract the fragment of metadata.

23. The apparatus of claim 21, wherein the location information is expressed in a language for addressing parts of a markup language document.

24. The apparatus of claim 23, wherein the location information is expressed in XPath.

25. The apparatus of claim 21, wherein the metadata is metadata as defined in the TV-Anytime (“

TVA”

) Forum.