Source: http://www.google.com/patents/US7149770?ie=ISO-8859-1&dq=%22robert+sheehan%22
Timestamp: 2014-09-16 03:35:18
Document Index: 344718121

Matched Legal Cases: ['arts 1', 'art 1', 'art 1', 'art 1', 'art 1', 'art 1', 'art 1', 'art1']

Patent US7149770 - Method and system for client-server interaction in interactive ... - Google PatentsSearch Images Maps Play YouTube News Gmail Drive More »Sign in<nobr>Advanced Patent Search</nobr>PatentsIn an interactive communication system based on MPEG-4, Command descriptors along with Command Route nodes or Server Routes in the scene description can be used to support application-specific interactivity. Content selection can be supported by specifying the presentation in command parameters, with...http://www.google.com/patents/US7149770?utm_source=gb-gplus-sharePatent US7149770 - Method and system for client-server interaction in interactive communications using server routesAdvanced Patent SearchPublication numberUS7149770 B1Publication typeGrantApplication numberUS 09/240,509Publication dateDec 12, 2006Filing dateJan 29, 1999Priority dateJan 29, 1999Fee statusPaidPublication number09240509, 240509, US 7149770 B1, US 7149770B1, US-B1-7149770, US7149770 B1, US7149770B1InventorsHari Kalva, Alexandros EleftheriadisOriginal AssigneeThe Trustees Of Columbia University In The City Of New YorkExport CitationBiBTeX, EndNote, RefManNon-Patent Citations (8), Referenced by (10), Classifications (7), Legal Events (5) External Links: USPTO, USPTO Assignment, EspacenetMethod and system for client-server interaction in interactive communications using server routesUS 7149770 B1Abstract In an interactive communication system based on MPEG-4, Command descriptors along with Command Route nodes or Server Routes in the scene description can be used to support application-specific interactivity. Content selection can be supported by specifying the presentation in command parameters, with the command ID indicating that the command is a content selection command. An initial scene can be created with several images and with text that describes a presentation associated with an image. Associated with each image and the corresponding text is a content selection descriptor. When a user clicks on an image, the client transmits the command containing the selected presentation and the server starts a new presentation. The technique can be used in any application context, as generally as HTTP and CGI can be used to implement any server-based application functionality.
TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to techniques for performing client-server interaction in communication systems and, more particularly, in communication systems based on the MPEG-4 standard.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Interactivity is a prominent concern in the development of the MPEG-4 international standard (ISO/IEC 14496 Parts 1�6, Committee Draft, Oct. 31, 1997, Fribourg, Switzerland). A back channel is specified for interactive message support. However, the syntax and semantics of the messages to be carried through that channel remain unspecified, and so does the mechanism that triggers the transmission of such messages. Existing standards such as DSM-CC (ISO/IEC International Standard 13818-6) and RTSP (RFC 2326) support traditional VCR-type interactivity to reposition a media stream during playback, but this is inadequate for MPEG-4 applications which require more complex interactive control.
MPEG-4 essentially uses two modes of interactivity: local and remote. Local interactivity can be fully implemented using the native event architecture of MPEG-4 BIFS (Binary Format for Scenes), which is based on the VRML 2.0 ROUTEs design (see www.vrml.org and �The VRML Handbook�, J. Hartman and J. Wernecke, Addison-Wesley, 1996) and documented in Part 1 of the MPEG-4 specification (Systems). If the MPEG-4 receiver is hosted in another application, events that need to be communicated to the MPEG-4 receiver by the application can be translated to BIFS update commands, as defined in Part 1 of MPEG-4.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An objective of the present invention is to provide a technique for communicating messages between two entities such as �client� and �server�, utilizing the MPEG-4 international standard.
Still a further objective is to provide a technique for encoding such messages in a way that allows a server to easily modify them before sending them for use by the client. This is important for interactive applications. An example is �cookie� management where a server must be able to quickly update the content of the command with a codeword that stores state information about the user's activities on the particular site.
The data to be carried by the generated command back to the server are contained in the command descriptor. Since command descriptors are part of the overall descriptor framework of MPEG-4, they can be dynamically updated, using time stamped object descriptor updates. This provides considerable flexibility in customizing commands, for example to perform �cookie� management.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating the overall structure of an MPEG-4 client or terminal.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION Reference will now be made in detail to the preferred embodiment of the invention as illustrated in the figures.
The coded data for each audiovisual object as well as the scene description information proper are transmitted in their own �channels� or elementary streams. Additional control information is also transmitted, as further discussed below, in order to allow the receiver to correctly associate audio visual objects referenced in the scene with the elementary streams that contain their encoded data.
MPEG-4 Scene Description The scene description information in MPEG-4 is an extension of VRML 2.0 (Virtual Reality Modeling Language) specification. VRML uses a tree structured approach to define scenes. Each node in the scene performs a composition and/or grouping operation, with the leaves containing the actual visual or audio information. Furthermore, nodes contain fields that affect their behavior. For example, a Transform node contains a Rotation field to define the angle of rotation.
An important distinction between VRML and MPEG-4 is that in the latter, scene descriptions can be updated dynamically using time-stamped commands. In Contrast, VRML operates on static �worlds�. After a world is loaded, there is no mechanism to modify it. In MPEG-4, objects can be added or deleted, and parts of the scene (or the entire scene) can be replaced.
Object Descriptors In order to have a very flexible structure (facilitating editing, etc.), the actual content of audiovisual objects is not contained within the scene description itself. In other words, BIFS only provides the information for the scene structure, as well as objects that are purely synthetic, e.g. a red rectangle that is constructed using BIFS/VRML nodes. Audio visual objects that require coded information are represented in the scene by leaf nodes which either point to a URL or an object descriptor.
MPEG-4 Client/Server Interaction From the preceding description, and considering the MPEG-4/VRML scene description framework, it is evident that while a rich local interaction framework is provided, there is no facility to effect server-based interaction. In particular, there is no mechanism with which to either describe messages that are to be sent back to a server, or trigger the generation of such messages.
Command Descriptors The Command Descriptor framework provides a means for associating commands with event sources within the nodes of a scene graph. When a user interacts with the scene, the associated event is triggered and the commands are subsequently processed and transmitted back to the server.
A second approach consists of adding a new Command Route node type to the list of nodes supported by MPEG-4. This node has an �execute� event sink field, as well as a field containing the command descriptor ID. Whenever the �execute� field receives an event, using regular MPEG-4/VRML routes, the command descriptor associated with that ID is used to issue a command back to the server. This structure is depicted in FIG. 5( b). As compared with FIG. 5( a), the Server Routes are substituted with Command Route nodes. The operation in the two cases is essentially the same.
The Command Descriptor syntax is shown in FIG. 6. We use the Flavor media representation language to describe the bit stream syntax, which is also used in Part 1 of the MPEG-4 specification (see www.ee.columbia.edu/flavor or Part 1 of MPEG-4). The command descriptor begins with a special tag that identifies it as a descriptor of this particular type. We then have the descriptor ID, followed by a command ID. The latter is used to signal predefined server commands, such as �start�, �pause�, or �stop�. Following that, we have the length indication of the remaining data in the descriptor, counted in bytes. Then, a count of the number of ES-IDs that will be provided to transmit the message back to the server(s). More than one is given in case we want to effect one-to-many communication, i.e. a single command to be communicated to multiple servers. This is followed by the series of the desired ES-IDs. Finally, a set of application-specific parameters are included. These will be passed back to the server when the command is triggered. Depending on the value of the command ID, the semantics of these parameters may be predefined.
The byte-oriented structure of the Command Descriptor allows it to be very easily generated on-the-fly by the server. This is an important feature for applications that involve �cookie� management, among others, where the command parameters need to be continuously updated by the server after processing each user event.
Using the Command Route node approach, a new node type needs to be defined. The node definition is provided in FIG. 9, using the standard node definition table used in Part 1 of the MPEG-4 specification. The node contains only two fields, namely an �execute� field that serves as an event sink, and a �command Descriptor� field which contains either a URL pointing to a Command Descriptor or the ID of the Command Descriptor to be associated with this Command Route node. As with all SFUrl fields, selection between ID and URL is performed using a one-bit flag (SFUrl field encoding is defined in Part 1 of MPEG-4).
Processing Events For Dispatching Server Commands We now discuss in detail the process of generating commands based on user or system events, starting with the use of Server ROUTEs.
In the case of Command Route nodes, referring to FIG. 14, upon the generation of a user or system event, the receiver propagates the event through the network of ROUTEs. If an event reached the �execute� field of a Command Route node, the system check if that event corresponds to a condition associated with the logical True value. If no, server command processing terminates; if yes, the dispatch process is executed.
Non-Patent CitationsReference1 *An object-Oriented Approach to VRML Development, Beeson, C., Silicon Graphics, Inc. ACM 0-8971-886-x/97/02, pp. 17-24.2 *D7.2, Review of VRML and WWW Techniques, Coven-Collaborative virtual environments, Apr. 1997, pp. 1-33.3 *International Organization for Standardisation ISO/IEC JTC 29/WG 11 Coding of moving pictured and audio, N1835, Oct. 1997, pp. 1-86.4 *Populating the Internet: Supporting Multiple Users and Shared Applications with the VRML, Broll, W., ACM 0-89791-886, VRML Feb. 1997, pp. 33-40.5 *The Virtual Reality Modeling Language Annex D, ISO/IEC 14772-1: 1997, printed for the following site http://www/vrml.org/Specification/VRML97/part1/examples.html on Jun. 21, 2003.6 *Using Java to intract with geo-referenced VRML within a Virtual Field Course, Moore, K.; Dykes, J.; Wood, J., Virtual Field Course, Department of Geography, Jun. 1997, pp. 1-12.7 *VRML gets real the MPEG-4 way, Mulroy, P., BT Labs, Ipswich, UK, Teleconferencing Futures, IEEE Colloquium Jun. 1997, pp. 4/1-4/4.8 *Wired for Speed: Efficient Routes on VRML 2.0, Virtual Reality Modeling Language Symposium, Woods, D. Norton, A., Bell, G., Feb. 24-26, 1997, Monterey, CA, pp. 133-138.* Cited by examinerReferenced byCiting PatentFiling datePublication dateApplicantTitleUS7509263 *Jan 20, 2000Mar 24, 2009Epocrates, Inc.Method and system for providing current industry specific data to physiciansUS7561745 *Dec 2, 2004Jul 14, 2009Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.Method and system for generating input file using meta representation on compression of graphics data, and animation framework extension (AFX) coding method and apparatusUS7856365Dec 11, 2008Dec 21, 2010Epocrates, Inc.Method and system for providing current industry specific data to physiciansUS8115873Jun 10, 2009Feb 14, 2012The Trustees Of Columbia University In The City Of New YorkObject-based audio-visual terminal and bitstream structureUS8164591 *Apr 30, 2002Apr 24, 2012Thomson LicensingDevice, server, system and method to generate mutual photometric effectsUS8296805 *May 24, 2001Oct 23, 2012Sony CorporationCommand description scheme providing for dynamic update of instance documents and their associated schemaUS8421923Mar 20, 2007Apr 16, 2013The Trustees Of Columbia University In The City Of New YorkObject-based audio-visual terminal and bitstream structureUS8565317 *Mar 14, 2005Oct 22, 2013Sony CorporationUser interface system, scene description generating device and method, scene description converting device and method, recording medium, and sending mediumUS20020085028 *May 24, 2001Jul 4, 2002Ali TabatabaiCommand description scheme providing for dynamic update of instance documents and their associated schemaWO2009045480A1 *Oct 2, 2008Apr 9, 2009Jay FengSystem, method, and computer program product for sending interactive requests for information* Cited by examinerClassifications U.S. Classification709/203International ClassificationG06F15/16Cooperative ClassificationH04L67/38, H04L67/125, H04N21/234318European ClassificationH04N21/2343J, H04L29/08N11MLegal EventsDateCodeEventDescriptionJun 12, 2014FPAYFee paymentYear of fee payment: 8Jun 14, 2010FPAYFee paymentYear of fee payment: 4Jun 17, 2008CCCertificate of correctionFeb 28, 2008ASAssignmentOwner name: MORNINGSIDE, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY OF NY, NEW YORKFree format text: EXECUTIVE ORDER 9424, CONFIRMATORY LICENSE;ASSIGNOR:NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION;REEL/FRAME:020573/0230Effective date: 20080206Dec 2, 1999ASAssignmentOwner name: TRUSTEES OF COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY IN THE CITY OF NEWFree format text: ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNORS INTEREST;ASSIGNORS:KALVA, HARI;ELEFTHERIADIS, ALEXANDROS;REEL/FRAME:010424/0333;SIGNING DATES FROM 19990915 TO 19990927RotateOriginal ImageGoogle Home - Sitemap - USPTO Bulk Downloads - Privacy Policy - Terms of Service - About Google Patents - Send FeedbackData provided by IFI CLAIMS Patent Services©2012 Google