Rich text medium displaying method and picture information...

Details Rich text medium displaying method and picture information... Rich text medium displaying method and picture information...

1998-12-10

2002-04-30

Teska, Kevin J. (Department: 2122)

Data processing: database and file management or data structures

Database design

Data structure types

C709S231000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06381620

ABSTRACT:

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a rich text medium displaying method for displaying an image of each rich text medium of a multimedia title at a display time of the rich text medium specified in a scenario of the multimedia title to reproduce the multimedia title, and relates to a picture information providing system, in which a server provides a title reproducing terminal each rich text medium of the multimedia title as picture information to display an image of the rich text medium at a display time of the rich text medium.
2. Description of the Related Art
A multimedia title is formed of various media (or materials) such as one or more moving pictures, one or more still pictures, one or more rich texts, one or more sounds and the like, and a displaying time of each medium of the multimedia title is specified in a scenario.
The rich text denotes a document in which characters, figures and ruled lines expressed by various colors and various fonts are drawn, and the rich text means a text having a rich expression power. For example, when a text in which characters of many sizes are included is made by using a word processor, the writing is classified into the rich text. In contrast, a text in which characters of a single font are included is called a plain text.
2.1. Previously Proposed Art
A device for outputting multimedia data (or a multimedia title) to a reproducing device at a specified time is disclosed in Published Unexamined Japanese Patent Application No. 6-214689 (1994), and an explanatory view showing an output of multimedia data in the device is shown in
FIG. 1
as a first conventional example of a picture information providing system and a composing medium displaying method.
As shown in
FIG. 1
, an application program
1
of a computer system and a data outputting device
2
for outputting multimedia data to a reproducing device are provided, and the data outputting device
2
is composed of a data buffer
3
for temporarily storing multimedia data, an internal clock
4
, a register
6
for setting an output time, a comparator
5
for comparing the output time of the register
6
and a time of the internal clock
4
, and a valve
7
for outputting the multimedia data of the data buffer
3
to the reproducing device according to a detecting result of the comparator
5
.
In the above configuration, after a reproducing time of the multimedia data is set in the register
6
, the multimedia data is transmitted from the application program
1
to the data buffer
3
. The multimedia data stored in the data buffer
3
is not output to the reproducing device during a closing time period of the valve
7
. In the comparator
5
, the output time of the register
6
is always compared with a current time of the internal clock
4
. When current time of the internal clock
4
reaches the output time of the register
6
, the valve
7
is opened, and the multimedia data stored in the data buffer
3
is output to the reproducing device to display the multimedia data.
Therefore, the multimedia data can be output from the data outputting device to the reproducing device at a time specified in a scenario.
Next, a second conventional example of a picture information providing system and a composing medium displaying method is described.
The inventors of this specification have developed a picture information providing system in which a multimedia title stored in a server is provided for a reproducing terminal. This system is shown in FIG.
2
.
When a user desires to watch a multimedia title at a particular output format, a request of the multimedia title is sent with the particular output format from a reproducing terminal
9
to a server
8
, a scenario of the multimedia title is sent from the server
8
to the reproducing terminal
9
, so that a reproducing operation of the multimedia title is started in the reproducing terminal
9
. Thereafter, to display composing media of the multimedia title at the particular output format at a display time specified in the scenario, the reproducing terminal
9
requests of the server
8
that the server
8
sends each composing medium of the multimedia title to the reproducing terminal
9
at a specific time determined according to the display time of the composing medium. Thereafter, in the server
8
, each composing medium included in the multimedia title is converted into a display image according to the particular output format, and data of the display image is sent from the server
8
to the reproducing terminal
9
. Therefore, the display image of each composing medium converted at the particular output format is displayed in the reproducing terminal
9
at the display time of the composing medium. The particular output format specifies a resolution degree, a display color, a display size and the like for the display image.
In general, assuming that the conversion of each composing medium into a display image at an output format is performed in a reproducing terminal, a data processing time-length (or a data expanding time-length) required to convert each composing medium into the display image depends on the performance of terminal resources (a central processing unit, a memory, an data expanding accelerator and the like) in which the data conversion is performed. To reduce the processing performed in the reproducing terminal
9
and to shorten the data expanding time-length in the picture information providing system shown in
FIG. 2
, it is required that the conversion of each composing medium into the display image is performed in the server
8
having a high processing performance.
Also, assuming that all composing media of the multimedia title are expanded in advance to a plurality of display images in the server
8
according to an output format specified in each reproducing terminal and assuming that the display images are stored in the server
8
, a large capacity of memory is required of the server
8
, so that the data expanding operation cannot be efficiently performed in the server
8
. To efficiently perform the data expanding operation in the server
8
, when the reproducing terminal
9
requests of the server
8
that the server
8
sends each composing medium of the multimedia title to the reproducing terminal
9
at the specific time, the composing medium is expanded to a display image according to the particular output format in the server
8
, and data of the display image is sent from the server
8
to the reproducing terminal
9
. Therefore, any large capacity of memory is not required of the server
8
.
2.2. Problems to be Solved by the Invention
However, because an expanding time-length is required to convert each composing medium of the multimedia title into a display image, unless the reproducing terminal
9
requests the composing medium of the server
8
while considering the expanding time-length of the composing medium, the display image of the composing medium cannot be correctly displayed in the reproducing terminal
9
at the display time specified in the scenario. Therefore, it is important that each composing medium expanded according to a particular output format is correctly displayed in the reproducing terminal
9
at the display time specified in the scenario. Also, it is important that the expanding time-length for each composing medium is shortened.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
A first object of the present invention is to provide, with due consideration to the drawbacks of such a conventional picture information providing system and a conventional composing medium displaying method, a picture information providing system and a rich text medium displaying method in which each rich text medium (corresponding to each composing medium in the prior art) of a multimedia title is expanded to a display image at a particular output format and is correctly displayed at its display time as picture information.
A second object of the present invention is to provide a picture information providing system and a rich text medium displaying method in which an e

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