Data processing: database and file management or data structures – Database design – Data structure types
Reexamination Certificate
1998-06-20
2001-05-08
Alam, Hosain T. (Department: 2172)
Data processing: database and file management or data structures
Database design
Data structure types
Reexamination Certificate
active
06230162
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to providing images on the internet and more particularly, to the display of moving images on the internet.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The providing on the internet of rich media presentations, containing still images, animated images, video images and audio, is handicapped by the need to transmit large blocks of code and data to the client. This is a serious impediment for presenting products to electronic commerce customers who are typically connected over low-bandwidth dial-up links. They cannot be expected to pre-load code and data or wait for very long before their shopping experiences commence. A second problem concerns providing the right amount of various rich media technologies to easily and effectively address the problem of just communicating sufficient information about the merchandise. Rich media technologies either convey too little or using complicated capture/authoring processes convey far too much. A final problem concerns providing the end-user sufficient control to examine the details of a product. Examples of desirable features would be to enable a user to zoom in to examine the texture of an object such as a handbag, or turning the handbag around to see all sides, or opening its zipper to examine the inside. This translates into a need to support seamless and efficient transitions within and across multiple media type representations of the merchandise.
Therefore it is an object of the present invention to provide an improved method and apparatus for providing data for rich media experiences.
It is another object of the invention to provide a new method to arrange and transmit data and code for presenting rich data experiences.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
In accordance with the present invention, network presentations to be rendered at the user's terminal are divided into phases for sequential transmission in the order of increasing detail of the phases. In each phase. the code con trolling the phase and the data presented in the phase are segmented In transmission, the code segment for any phase precedes the data segment of that phase. At the user's terminal the transmitted code monitors the present performance of one phase and the receipt of data for the next mere detailed phase. When sufficient incoming data has been received for uninterrupted. performance of the more detailed phase, the data of the more detailed phase is used in the presentation. In this way, transitions between phases are made orderly and seamless.
The loading of code and data of the phases into the user's storage and its presentation on the user's terminal, can be varied from being fully automatic to being under the full control of the user. In a fully automatic mode of operation, loading code and data for one phase of the presentation follows immediately on the heels of that for the preceding phase. The presentation also changes from one phase to the more detailed phase without user intervention. As opposed to the fully automatic mode of operation, a mode of operation under the full control of the user is possible where fetching and presentation of each phase occurs only by user initiation. Intermediate modes of operation involve anticipatory fetching where a selection for presentation of one phase causes the system to anticipate progress to the next phase, loading the code and data for the next phase into the computer so that when the user does select the next phase, the performance of the later phase seems immediate.
Presentations are delivered over a network from a server with a rendering engine which dynamically composes a delivery file out of portions extracted from a previously prepared presentation file. The portions chosen by the rendering engine for the delivery file are based on inputs received from a client terminal. These portions are sequenced in the delivery file in the order in which the user requested them. It responds dynamically to those inputs to change the contents of the delivery file on the fly.
Presentation files contain visual elements such as still images and animation, video, 3D geometric sequences and also include audible elements in the form of speech and music. The various elements are created by a process of capture, editing and data compression. In editing, software is used to automatically recognize and eliminate redundant images in a sequence, and distinguish background from objects and eliminate the background. Compression and encoding modules are used to generate multiple qualities for the various phases of the presentation.
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Kumar Keeranoor
Lipscomb James
Menon Jai
Alam Hosain T.
International Business Machines - Corporation
Meyers Steven J.
Shah Sanjiv
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