Abstract:
Generation of live streaming indices is disclosed that stores a media stream recording from a live event. Seek points are added to a fixed-length index memory corresponding to each point of the media stream separated at a first interval. In response to the fixed length being reached, alternate ones of the seek points are deleted up to a predefined percentage of the fixed length. Location indicators are added where the deletions caused the previous interval to be altered and at the end of the previous seek points remaining in the index memory. A new interval is then calculated, which corresponds to the altered interval, after which new seek points are added beginning at the second location indicator to the index memory corresponding to the points in the media stream separated by the new interval.

Description:
TECHNICAL FIELD 
     The present disclosure relates, in general, to streaming media, and, more particularly, to managing indexing of live multimedia streaming. 
     BACKGROUND 
     As networking technology and bandwidth capabilities have increased, the delivery of richer multimedia resources has also increased and improved in quality and accessibility. Instead of completely downloading an audio or video file to a user&#39;s computer to view or listen to the entire file on the user&#39;s computer, streaming media allows users to request delivery of the media stream from the remote location in which the user may begin viewing or listening to the file before the entire file has been downloaded to the user&#39;s computer. In fact, some streaming multimedia only stores what is immediately playing to the user, including any buffered amount in order to maintain quality of service, and then deletes the data as it plays. Thus, the flexibility of viewing or listening to this rich information has been increased. 
     For smaller length files, it is reasonable to allow users to view or listen to the file from beginning to end in order to find the information within the file. However, there may be some accessible audio or video which is hours in length or even days in length. Expecting a user to wait for hours or days in order to reach a particular portion of this file is unreasonable. Therefore, in order to provide a more efficient means for accessing various points of time in these multimedia files, seek points are generated for the multimedia file and placed into an index of the file. As the file is played for the user, the media player rendering the audio or video of the file generally uses this index to provide visible seek point that the user can select in order to jump to various points in time within the file or may use in a “stepped” fast forward operation that can skip through the file at steps equal to the time interval between the seek points. This ability to seek to a particular point or skip through the file at a defined interval allows the user to get to the desired information in the file without the necessity of waiting for the file to play out to that point. 
     Depending on the total size of the multimedia file, the seek points will be placed at regular intervals designed to provide the appropriate granularity across the entire file. Having an appropriate granularity assists the user to efficiently seek for various points within the total file. For example, stepping through a 10-hour long multimedia file at 3 second intervals would do little more than merely waiting for the file to run at its normal play time. Instead, placing seek points at 10, 15, or even 30 second intervals would allow the user to more efficiently seek through the file. 
     Typically, in order to create indices of streaming multimedia files, the entire length of the file is known. Therefore, an efficient seek point interval may be determined and saved into the index for the multimedia file. However, there are certain situations in which it is desired to create the index at the time of recording the media stream itself. In these situations, the total length of the file is unknown, thus, determining, at the beginning of the recording, an efficient seek point interval would be nearly impossible and very impractical. To accommodate this uncertainty, a seek point entry is made in the index at some fixed, predetermined interval. 
     Another difficulty in generating an index at the time of recording arises because of the operational elements of indices. In order to enable random access points, i.e., seek points, those seek points need to be available to the file reader/player when the file reader/player begins playing the media file. This implies that the seek points/indices are stored at a single location in the multimedia file. Therefore, when creating the index during the recording of a live event, the seek points are typically stored in memory until the recording is finished after which the seek points/index are written to disk. This process creates a very large memory overhead for every recording session as the seek points/indices are stored in memory until the recording stops. Products now exist, such as Adobe Systems Incorporated&#39;s FLASH® MEDIA SERVER and FLASH® MEDIA LIVE ENCODER, that support recording video that might run for days or even weeks at a time. Thus, the memory overhead for such products would be prohibitive. 
     Moreover, the longer the recording continues, the granularity of the seek points becomes too fine to be of any use to the ultimate user. For example, if the fixed interval that is set for the seek points when the recording begins is 3 seconds, this interval remains efficient until the recording begins to reach around 3 hours. If the resulting file length ends up at 24 hours, this preset interval time offers little in improved efficiency to the ultimate user. 
     BRIEF SUMMARY 
     The embodiments presented in this disclosure are directed to building an index of seek points while storing the multimedia file recorded from a live event. Instead of setting a static seek point interval with an unlimited index file in memory, the present teachings disclose a static, fixed-length index file with a dynamic interval level and a dynamic seek point count. An initial interval is set which causes seek points to be added to the index file. If the recording lasts long enough for the index file to fill all of its capacity, alternate ones of the seek points are deleted beginning at the first address of the index memory, a new interval is calculated to account for the larger expected time frame of the multimedia file, and the identified location in the media file or of the live event is stored. New seek points are then added to the index memory using the new interval beginning from the index entry associated with the identified location. 
     Representative embodiments of the present teaching are directed methods that include creating an index memory having a predetermined capacity, wherein the index memory is configured to store an index under construction for a live event of unknown length. The methods further include inserting a plurality of seek points into the index memory, wherein the plurality of seek points are inserted at a first interval. Each of the seek points corresponds to a point in time of a media stream representative of the live event. The methods further include, responsive to the predetermined capacity of the index memory being reached, deleting ones of the seek points at a predefined period beginning at a first memory slot in the index memory, wherein these seek points are deleted up to a predefined percentage of the predetermined capacity, storing a first location point identifying a first position in the index memory corresponding to a final seek point of the plurality of seek points having a modified interval modified by the deleting, and storing a second location point identifying a second position in the index memory corresponding to a final seek point entry of the plurality of seek points still having the first interval. The methods also include calculating a new interval based at least in part on the first interval, wherein, responsive to the calculating, the plurality of seek points will start being inserted at the new interval beginning at the second location point. 
     Additional representative embodiments of the present teaching are directed to systems that include memory coupled to a processor and an indexing application stored in the memory. When executed by the processor, the indexing application includes an indexing component configured to add a plurality of seek points at a first interval to a predefined length index memory wherein each of the plurality of seek points corresponds to a time point of a live media stream of unknown length. The indexing application further includes a memory management component configured to monitor a current capacity of the predefined length index memory and further configured to delete, when the predefined length index memory is full, a portion of the plurality of seek points from a beginning of the predefined length index memory up to a fixed percentage of a total capacity of the predefined length index memory, to store a first location identifying an ending point of the plurality of seek points that have a modified interval length modified by the deleted portion, and to store a second location identifying a last entry in the predefined length index memory still having the first interval. The indexing application also includes an interval component configured to calculate anew interval based at least in part on the first interval, wherein the indexing component is further configured to continue adding the plurality of seek points to the predefined length index memory at the new interval. 
     Still further representative embodiments of the present teachings are directed to computer program products having computer readable media with computer program logic stored thereon. The computer program products include code for creating an index memory having a predetermined capacity, wherein the index memory is configured to store an index under construction for a live event of unknown length, code for inserting a plurality of seek points into the index memory, each of the seek points corresponding to a point in time of a media stream representative of the live event, wherein those seek points are inserted at a first interval. The computer program products also execute, in response to the predetermined capacity of the index memory being reached, code for deleting ones of the plurality of seek points at a predefined period beginning at a first memory slot in the index memory, wherein the seek points are deleted up to a predefined percentage of the predetermined capacity, code for storing a first location point identifying a first position in the index memory corresponding to a final seek point of the plurality seek points having a modified interval modified by results of execution of the code for deleting, and code for storing a second location point identifying a second position in the index memory corresponding to a final seek point entry of the plurality of seek points still having the first interval. The computer program products also include code for calculating anew interval based at least in part on the first interval, wherein, responsive to execution of the code for calculating, the code for inserting the seek points will start inserting seek points again at the new interval beginning at the second location point. 
     The foregoing has outlined rather broadly the features and technical advantages of the present teachings in order that the detailed description that follows may be better understood. Additional features and advantages will be described hereinafter which form the subject of the claims. It should be appreciated by those skilled in the art that the conception and specific embodiment disclosed may be readily utilized as a basis for modifying or designing other structures for carrying out the same purposes of the present teaching. It should also be realized by those skilled in the art that such equivalent constructions do not depart from the spirit and scope of the disclosure as set forth in the appended claims. The novel features which are believed to be characteristic of the teaching herein, both as to its organization and method of operation, together with further objects and advantages will be better understood from the following description when considered in connection with the accompanying figures. It is to be expressly understood, however, that each of the figures is provided for the purpose of illustration and description only and is not intended as a definition of the limits of the present teaching. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
       For a more complete understanding of the present teaching, reference is now made to the following descriptions taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawing, in which: 
         FIG. 1  is a diagram illustrating a computer operating a media player; 
         FIGS. 2A-2J  are block diagrams illustrating an indexing system configured according to one embodiment of the present teachings; 
         FIG. 3  is a flowchart illustrating example steps executed to implement one embodiment of the teachings herein; and 
         FIG. 4  illustrates an exemplary computer system  400  which may be employed to implement index generation for recording live streaming according to certain embodiments of the teachings disclosed herein. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
     In the following detailed description, numerous specific details are set forth to provide a thorough understanding of claimed subject matter. However, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that claimed subject matter may be practiced without these specific details. In other instances, methods, apparatuses or systems that would be known by one of ordinary skill have not been described in detail so as not to obscure claimed subject matter. Some portions of the detailed description which follow are presented in terms of algorithms or symbolic representations of operations on data bits or binary digital signals stored within a computing system memory, such as a computer memory. These algorithmic descriptions or representations are examples of techniques used by those of ordinary skill in the data processing arts to convey the substance of their work to others skilled in the art. 
     An algorithm is here, and generally, considered to be a self-consistent sequence of operations or similar processing leading to a desired result. In this context, operations or processing involve physical manipulation of physical quantities. Typically, although not necessarily, such quantities may take the form of electrical or magnetic signals capable of being stored, transferred, combined, compared or otherwise manipulated. It has proven convenient at times, principally for reasons of common usage, to refer to such signals as bits, data, values, elements, symbols, characters, terms, numbers, numerals or the like. It should be understood, however, that all of these and similar terms are to be associated with appropriate physical quantities and are merely convenient labels. Unless specifically stated otherwise, as apparent from the following discussion, it is appreciated that throughout this specification discussions utilizing terms such as “processing,” “computing,” “calculating,” “determining” or the like, refer to actions or processes of a computing platform, such as a computer or a similar electronic computing device, that manipulates or transforms data represented as physical electronic or magnetic quantities within memories, registers, or other information storage devices, transmission devices, or display devices of the computing platform. 
       FIG. 1  is a diagram illustrating computer  100  operating media player  102 . Media player  102  is displayed on monitor  101 . The user at computer  100  starts and views video data through media player  102  and views the progression of the video data through timeline  103 . Timeline  103  includes seek points  104  that divides the video data over a number of intervals. The user may randomly select one of seek points  104  to jump in the video data to that location represented by the selected seek point. Also, the user may step through the video data by sequentially moving from one of seek points  104  to the next one. Seek points  104  allow the user to efficiently move through the video data. 
       FIGS. 2A-2J  are block diagrams illustrating indexing system  20  configured according to one embodiment of the present teachings. Indexing system  20  operates on computer  202  which includes processor  203  and storage memory  204 . Multimedia data is generated by recorder  201  recording live event  200 . Live event  200  has an unknown length. The multimedia data is transmitted to computer  202 , as shown in  FIG. 2A , through some kind of media interface for processor  203  to control the process of storing the multimedia data onto storage memory  204  and generating the index for the resulting multimedia file. Processor  203  executes indexing component  206 , memory management component  207 , and interval component  208  as a part of executing the indexing application stored within computer  202 . The index under construction is maintained in memory while the multimedia data is being recorded to storage memory  204 . Index memory  205  is predetermined by indexing system  20  to be a fixed capacity, 0-N. The predetermined capacity of index memory  205  would be selected to produce an estimated number of seek points constituting a certain percentage of the size of any given multimedia file. 
     Indexing system  20  begins with indexing component  206  storing seek points (SP) in the memory locations of index memory  205  at a predefined initial interval. As illustrated in  FIG. 2B , at a certain point in the duration of live event  200 , index memory  205  reaches its predetermined capacity of stored seek points. When this predefined capacity is reached, indexing system  20  triggers memory management component  207  to go back to the first memory slot of index memory  205  and begins deleting seek point entries at a predefined period, such as alternate seek points as illustrated in  FIG. 2C , until a predetermined percentage of seek point entries have been deleted from index memory  205 . For purposes of this described example, indexing system  20  predetermines that alternate seek point entries will be deleted up to 25% of the total capacity of index memory  205 . Interval component  208  calculates a new interval according to the formula:
 
New Interval=(2×(Previous Interval+1))  (1)
 
     It should be noted that formula (I) is configured to arrive at seek point intervals that attempt to keep at least a minimum percentage of granularity. Percentage of granularity is the percentage of the interval length to the total time of the multimedia file. For example, a seek point interval of 3 seconds in a multimedia file that is 3 hours long results in a percentage of granularity of 0.0278%. Using formula (1), the new interval for a previous interval of 3 seconds would be 7 seconds. In order to maintain at least the percentage of granularity of 0.0278%, the total multimedia file time would need to be no more than 7 hours. Thus, the percentage of total deleted seek points is predetermined such that, after deleting the 25% capacity of seek points in index memory  205 , index memory  205  will be re-filled when the multimedia file time is no longer than 7 hours. 
     It should further be noted that formula (1) is merely one possible formula for calculating a new interval period. Other formulas, such as New Interval=(2×Previous Interval), or the like, may be used in alternative and/or additional embodiments of the teachings herein, which maintain the desired percentage of granularity for any particular multimedia file. 
     When the appropriate number of seek points have been deleted, as shown in  FIG. 2D , the first two seek points are now spaced apart at the new interval, SP 2 . A location point or indicator, LOC 1 , is placed at the first position in index memory  205  to indicate the final seek point in the first portion of index memory  205  in which the seek points are spaced out at the original interval which has been modified now by the deleting. A second location point or indicator, LOC 2 , is placed at a second position corresponding to the final seek point entry of the seek points that are separated at the original first interval. For each new seek point recorded by indexing component  206  after LOC 2 , the new interval is used, as illustrated in  FIG. 2E .  FIG. 2E  shows that index memory  205  has again been filled to capacity with SP 2  points after LOC 2 . When this predefined capacity has again been reached, indexing system  20  prompts memory management component  207  to go back to the position of LOC 2  and deletes alternate seek points from index memory  205 , as illustrated in  FIG. 2F . Again, the alternate seek points are deleted until 25% of the capacity of index memory  205  have been deleted. 
     As illustrated in  FIG. 2G , all of the originally recorded seek points, which were originally recorded at the first interval, now are separated at the second interval, because of the alternating deletions. Thus, LOC 1 , which marked the point within the originally recorded seek point where the second interval was present, and LOC 2 , which marked the end of the originally recorded seek points at the first interval, now coincide at the same point and can be dropped by indexing system  20 . 
       FIG. 2H  illustrates index memory  205  again being filled to capacity with seek points at the second interval. Because index memory  205  is completely filled with seek points at the same interval, memory management component  207  starts the procedure again by returning to the beginning of index memory  205  to delete alternate seek points up to 25% of the total capacity of index memory  205 , as illustrated in  FIG. 2I . Indexing system  20  also prompts interval component  208  to calculate a new interval using formula (I). After these deletions, the first two seek point entries in index memory  205  are now separated at this new, third interval. Location indicator, LOC 1 , is again added at the point in index memory  205  representing the point of the previously recorded seek points that are now at the third interval, while LOC 2  is again added at the end of those previously recorded seek points. This dynamic process of resizing the seek point interval to accommodate both the current length of the multimedia data being recorded and the predetermined capacity of index memory  205  continues until live even 200 eventually ends. When live event  200  eventually ends, the number of seek points entered into index memory  205  will be less than or equal to the maximum size of index memory  205 . 
     It should be noted once again that the size limit of index memory  205  is selected to provide an acceptable number of seek points for any given multimedia file length. In this manner indexing system  20  maintains a predetermined capacity for index memory  205  while varying the seek point interval, which creates a more predictable memory overhead. 
       FIG. 3  is a flowchart illustrating example steps executed to implement one embodiment of the teachings herein. In step  300 , an index memory is created having a predetermined capacity, wherein the index memory is configured to store an index under construction for a live event of unknown length. A plurality of seek points is inserted at a first interval into the index memory in step  301 , where each of the seek points correspond to a point in time of a media stream representative of the live event. In step  302 , a determination is made whether the predetermined capacity of the index memory been reached. If not, seek points will continue to be inserted in step  301 . If the predetermined capacity has been reached, some of the seek points are deleted at a predefined period, in step  303 , beginning at a first memory slot in the index memory, wherein the seek points are deleted up to a predefined percentage of the predetermined capacity. In step  304 , a first location point is stored identifying a first position in the index memory corresponding to a final one of the seek points having a modified interval modified by the deleting. A second location point is stored, in step  305 , identifying a second position in the index memory corresponding to the final entry of the seek points that are still separated at the first interval. In step  306 , anew interval is calculated based at least in part on the first interval, wherein, responsive to the calculating, seek points will start being inserted at the new interval beginning at the second location point. 
     Embodiments, or portions thereof, may be embodied in program or code segments operable upon a processor-based system (e.g., computer system) for performing functions and operations as described herein. The program or code segments making up the various embodiments may be stored in a computer-readable medium, which may comprise any suitable medium for temporarily or permanently storing such code. Examples of the computer-readable medium include such tangible computer-readable media as an electronic memory circuit, a semiconductor memory device, random access memory (RAM), read only memory (ROM), erasable ROM (EROM), flash memory, a magnetic storage device (e.g., floppy diskette), optical storage device (e.g., compact disk (CD), digital versatile disk (DVD), etc.), a hard disk, and the like. 
     Embodiments, or portions thereof, may be embodied in a computer data signal, which may be in any suitable form for communication over a transmission medium such that it is readable for execution by a functional device (e.g., processor) for performing the operations described herein. The computer data signal may include any binary digital electronic signal that can propagate over a transmission medium such as electronic network channels, optical fibers, air, electromagnetic media, radio frequency (RF) links, and the like, and thus the data signal may be in the form of an electrical signal, optical signal, radio frequency or other wireless communication signal, etc. The code segments may, in certain embodiments, be downloaded via computer networks such as the Internet, an intranet, a local area network (LAN), a metropolitan area network (MAN), a wide area network (WAN), the public switched telephone network (PSTN), a satellite communication system, a cable transmission system, and/or the like. 
       FIG. 4  illustrates an exemplary computer system  400  which may be employed to implement index generation for recording live streaming according to certain embodiments of the teachings disclosed herein. Central processing unit (CPU)  401  is coupled to system bus  402 . CPU  401  may be any general-purpose CPU. The present disclosure is not restricted by the architecture of CPU  401  (or other components of exemplary system  400 ) as long as CPU  401  (and other components of system  400 ) supports the inventive operations as described herein. CPU  401  may execute the various binary digital electronic signals representing logical instructions described herein. For example, CPU  401  may execute machine-level instructions according to the exemplary operational flow described above in conjunction with  FIG. 3 . When executing instructions representative of the operational steps illustrated in  FIG. 3 , CPU  501  becomes a special-purpose processor of a special purpose computing platform configured specifically to operate according to the various embodiments of the teachings described herein. 
     Computer system  400  also includes random access memory (RAM)  403 , which may be SRAM, DRAM, SDRAM, or the like. Computer system  400  includes read-only memory (ROM)  404  which may be PROM, EPROM, EEPROM, or the like. RAM  403  and ROM  404  hold user and system data and programs, as is well known in the art. 
     Computer system  400  also includes input/output (I/O) adapter  405 , communications adapter  411 , user interface adapter  408 , and display adapter  409 . I/O adapter  405 , user interface adapter  408 , and/or communications adapter  411  may, in certain embodiments, enable a user to interact with computer system  400  in order to input information. 
     I/O adapter  405  connects to storage device(s)  406 , such as one or more of hard drive, compact disc (CD) drive, floppy disk drive, tape drive, etc., to computer system  400 . Communications adapter  411  is adapted to couple computer system  400  to network  412 , which may enable information to be input to and/or output from system  400  via such network  412  (e.g., the Internet or other wide-area network, a local-area network, a public or private switched telephony network, a wireless network, any combination of the foregoing). User interface adapter  408  couples user input devices, such as keyboard  413 , pointing device  407 , and microphone  414  and/or output devices, such as speaker(s)  415  to computer system  400 . Display adapter  409  is driven by CPU  401  to control the display on display device  410 . Display adapter  409  transmits instructions for transforming or manipulating the state of the various numbers of pixels used by display device  410  to visually present the desired information to a user. Such instructions include instructions for changing state from on to off, setting a particular color, intensity, duration, or the like. Each such instruction makes up the rendering instructions that control how and what is displayed on display device  410 . 
     It shall be appreciated that the present disclosure is not limited to the architecture of system  400 . For example, any suitable processor-based device may be utilized for implementing the index generating disclosed herein, including without limitation personal computers, laptop computers, computer workstations, multi-processor servers, and even mobile telephones. Moreover, certain embodiments may be implemented on application specific integrated circuits (ASICs) or very large scale integrated (VLSI) circuits. In fact, persons of ordinary skill in the art may utilize any number of suitable structures capable of executing logical operations according to the embodiments. 
     Although the present teaching and its advantages have been described in detail, it should be understood that various changes, substitutions and alterations can be made herein without departing from the spirit and scope of the disclosure as defined by the appended claims. Moreover, the scope of the present application is not intended to be limited to the particular embodiments of the process, machine, manufacture, composition of matter, means, methods and steps described in the specification. As one of ordinary skill in the art will readily appreciate from the disclosure, processes, machines, manufacture, compositions of matter, means, methods, or steps, presently existing or later to be developed that perform substantially the same function or achieve substantially the same result as the corresponding embodiments described herein may be utilized according to the present teachings. Accordingly, the appended claims are intended to include within their scope such processes, machines, manufacture, compositions of matter, means, methods, or steps.