Data processing: database and file management or data structures – Database design – Data structure types
Reexamination Certificate
1998-12-03
2001-06-05
Amsbury, Wayne (Department: 2779)
Data processing: database and file management or data structures
Database design
Data structure types
C707S793000, C707S793000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06243708
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates generally to the field of multimedia and, more particularly, to a technique for ranking multimedia annotations of interest.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
There are a large number of organizations that presently have substantial amounts of audio, video, and image content in analog form. Many of these organizations are currently moving toward putting such multimedia content into digital form in order to save costs in the areas of data storage and retrieval. That is, similar to other types of data, multimedia content can be easily stored on and retrieved from relatively inexpensive digital storage devices.
The migration of multimedia content from analog form to digital form also provides an organization with the ability to store, search, browse, and retrieve digitized multimedia content from distributed sites. That is, an organization having a number of distributed offices can store, search, browse, and retrieve digitized multimedia content from a centralized storage facility over a proprietary intranet computer network such as, for example, a local area network (LAN), or a public internet computer network such as, for example, the world wide web.
Furthermore, the multimedia content itself may be distributed. That is, an organization that is global in nature may have a number of distributed permanent archival storage locations where digitized multimedia content is permanently stored, or a number of distributed temporary storage locations where digitized multimedia content that is associated with work in progress is temporarily stored. Similar to above, such an organization could also store, search, browse, and retrieve digitized multimedia content from the distributed storage locations over a proprietary intranet computer network or a public internet computer network.
Additionally, an organization may want other entities located outside of the organization to be able to search, browse, and retrieve digitized multimedia content stored and maintained within the organization. For example, an organization may want to sell multimedia content to an outside entity, which may then use the purchased multimedia content for some purpose such as, for example, a news broadcast. Similar to above, the outside entity could search, browse, and retrieve digitized multimedia content from a storage facility within the organization over a proprietary intranet computer network or a public internet computer network.
However, despite the above-described benefits associated with digitized multimedia content, organizations presently have little or no means of searching within multimedia content, organizing information about multimedia content, and delivering multimedia content in a ubiquitous manner. That is, there are presently little or no means for searching inside streams of multimedia content (e.g., audio/video streams), adding meta-information to multimedia content (i.e., annotating multimedia content) for purposes of indexing within multimedia content, and providing universal access to indexed multimedia content over a variety of connection speeds and on a variety of client platforms. Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide a technique for organizing distributed multimedia content and for searching, browsing, and retrieving such organized distributed multimedia content in an efficient and cost-effective manner so as to overcome the above-described shortcomings of the prior art.
OBJECTS OF THE INVENTION
The primary object of the present invention is to provide a technique for ranking multimedia annotations of interest.
In accordance with the invention, a particularly relevant position within a multimedia steam is located by identifying locations relevant to a query within the multimedia stream and ranking the relevance of each of the identified locations. A particularly relevant, e.g. the most relevant, one of the identified locations within the multimedia stream is determined based upon the ranking.
In an exemplary system embodiment, a memory stores an index. A processor searches the index to identify locations within a multimedia stream which are relevant to a query. The processor also ranks the identified locations within the multimedia stream, and determines the identified location within the multimedia stream which is particularly relevant, based upon the ranking.
The query typically includes a query word. The memory preferably stores an annotation index having a plurality of query words and one or more locations associated with each of the query words. Each location indicates an occurrence of the associated query word within an associated multimedia stream. The processor searches the index for the query word to identify the locations within the multimedia stream which are relevant to the query.
According to other aspects of the invention, the processor generates a score for each of the identified locations and ranks the relevance of each identified location in accordance with the generated score for that location. Advantageously, each of the plurality of query words is given an associated weight. This weight may be computed by the processor or otherwise provided. The processor computes a weighted sum for each of the identified locations based upon the weight associated with the applicable query word and computes the score of the applicable identified location using the weighted sum for that location. Preferably, the processor computes the weighted sum as a product of the weight associated with the applicable query word and a negative exponential weight corresponding to a distance between the applicable identified location and the identified location occurring next in time in the multimedia stream. For example, the processor may compute the negative exponential weight so as to equal the distance between the applicable identified location and the identified location occurring next in time in the multimedia stream divided by a value representing a distance weight. Beneficially, the distance weight may be set to, for example, at least 10 seconds and no more than 30 seconds.
In a networked configuration, multimedia may be stored on a plurality of network servers. Query words can be transmitted by user network stations via the network to a network index server which stores the previously described index. The network index server can be configured as described above to locate a position within a multimedia steam included in the stored multimedia available on the network which will be particularly relevant to the user making the query.
In accordance with other aspects of the invention, the invention is implemented as article of manufacture which includes a computer readable storage medium and computer programming stored on the storage medium. The stored computer programming is readable from the computer readable storage medium by a computer and thereby causes the computer to operate in the manner described above to locate a position within a multimedia steam.
REFERENCES:
patent: 4616336 (1986-10-01), Robertson et al.
patent: 4864501 (1989-09-01), Kucera et al.
patent: 5146552 (1992-09-01), Cassorla et al.
patent: 5502727 (1996-03-01), Catanzaro et al.
patent: 5581682 (1996-12-01), Anderson et al.
patent: 5600775 (1997-02-01), King et al.
patent: 5625833 (1997-04-01), Levine et al.
patent: 5721827 (1998-02-01), Logan et al.
patent: 5822539 (1998-10-01), Van Hoff
patent: 5826025 (1998-10-01), Gramlich
patent: 5920694 (1999-07-01), Carleton et al.
patent: 5938724 (1999-08-01), Pommier et al.
Vides and Audio: Organization and Retrieval on the WWW http://bspaa.com/vosaic/corp/papers/www5.html.
An Annotation Engine for Supporting Video Database Population http://hulk.bu.edu/pubs/paper/1996/carrer-vane96/TR-08-15-96.html.
Media Stream: An Iconic Visual Language for Video Representation http://web.interval.com/papers/mediastreams/.
deVries Arjen P.
Eberman Brian
Kovalcin David E.
Sokolov Michael
Amsbury Wayne
Digital Equipment Corporation
Havan Thu-Thao
Hunton & Williams
LandOfFree
Technique for accessing an item of interest within a stored... does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.
If you have personal experience with Technique for accessing an item of interest within a stored..., we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Technique for accessing an item of interest within a stored... will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-2447908