Pulse or digital communications – Cable systems and components
Patent
1996-11-08
1998-06-30
Vo, Don N.
Pulse or digital communications
Cable systems and components
375377, 348 7, 455 42, H04N 710
Patent
active
057744980
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
TECHNICAL FIELD
The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for transmitting data for use in a service such as video-on-demand (hereinafter also referred to as "VOD"), and more particularly relates to a data transmitting method and apparatus for transmitting audio, video, computer program, and other information in a special format such as fast forward, rewind, and pause and to a data receiving method and apparatus for receiving such audio, video, computer program and other information.
BACKGROUND ART
Along with the arrival of the age of multi-media, services have started which provide a variety of data through telecommunication networks. In such services, a large amount of data existing at a distant location is instantaneously transmitted via a telecommunications network upon receipt of a request for transmission. Here, the data includes all information which can be transmitted such as audio, video, computer program, and other information.
A variety of services are expected to be offered as a result of this. Here, as one example, VOD will be considered. This is a service for storing a large amount of video data such as movies or television programs in a server including a recording medium such as a large capacity hard disk and instantaneously transmitting the same via a telecommunications network upon receipt of a request for transmission from a viewer. The viewer can issue a request for special reproduction at any time in addition to designating normal reproduction. Here, "special reproduction" means an operation such as a pause, fast forward, or rewind operation.
A plurality of systems may be considered for the system for providing a VOD service. At this time, consideration will be given to the technique of transmitting the same series of data staggered by predetermined times t. This technique will be explained in brief below.
FIG. 1 shows time series data 5. This is considered divided into blocks 6 of a predetermined time t. FIG. 2 shows the state of transmission where transmission requests for the same time series data 5 generated at any time are quantized by the predetermined times t. A flow (hereinafter also referred to as a "stream") 30 of the output data is the time series data transmitted with respect to a transmission request generated at a time t30, while the streams 31 to 37 are time series data transmitted with respect to transmission requests generated at the times t31 to t37, respectively.
When viewing the different streams at the time t37 of FIG. 2, it is seen that the head of a block G in the stream 31, the head of a block F in the stream 32, the head of a block E in the stream 33, the head of a block D in the stream 34, the head of a block C in the stream 35, the head of a block B in the stream 36, and the head of a block A in the stream 37 are simultaneously transmitted. The arrows in FIG. 3 indicate the positions in the time series data which are simultaneously transmitted at that time.
In this technique, a plurality of transmission requests are assigned to a single stream so that the number of the streams does not become enormous in a case where there are a flood of transmission requests for the same time series data. While this cannot be referred to as VOD in the strict sense of the term, a pseudo VOD becomes possible by setting the time t in an allowable range.
Where the streams are not generated in a pseudo manner, but instead independently correspond to each request, special reproduction is possible by changing the reading position from the recording apparatus.
In the conventional method of transmitting data, however, if there are a flood of transmission requests for the same data, it becomes difficult to handle them all independently, so the technique of pseudo VDO as mentioned before for handling a plurality of requests by a single transmission all at once is adopted.
Accordingly, since data is simply transmitted by this technique, it has not been possible to respond to requests for special reproduction. When the reading position of the recording apparatus ends up
REFERENCES:
patent: 5461415 (1995-10-01), Wolf et al.
patent: 5546118 (1996-08-01), Ido
patent: 5568180 (1996-10-01), Okamoto
patent: 5612790 (1997-03-01), Sakamoto et al.
Kato Yasunobu
Oya Noboru
Shioya Hiroyuki
Totsuka Takashi
Le Amanda T.
Sony Corporation
Vo Don N.
LandOfFree
Data transmitting apparatus and method of same does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.
If you have personal experience with Data transmitting apparatus and method of same, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Data transmitting apparatus and method of same will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-1868147