Data processing: database and file management or data structures – Database design – Data structure types
Reexamination Certificate
1998-12-03
2001-10-30
Amsbury, Wayne (Department: 2672)
Data processing: database and file management or data structures
Database design
Data structure types
C707S793000, C709S217000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06311189
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates generally to the field of multimedia and, more particularly, to a technique for matching a query to a portion of media.
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 matching a query to a slice of media.
The above-stated primary object, as well as other objects, features, and advantages, of the present invention.
According to the present invention, a query, for example received over a network such as the Internet, is matched to a portion of media by searching an index of annotations. Each of the annotations corresponds to a respective item, such as a film or tape clip, of an available audio or video media, and includes multiple annotation values, e.g. words or other text. Each of the annotation values corresponds to a portion of the applicable item, such as a segment of the film or tape clip. By matching the query to an annotation value within the index, an annotation value and its associated start time are identified. The associated start time is the start time of a media stream forming the portion of the item of available media corresponding to the identified annotation value. A signal representing the identified media stream start time can be generated and transmitted, for example over the Internet or other network, in response to the query.
Beneficially, a meta database having a plurality of start times is also searched. Each of the plurality of start times has an associated end time, which could be in the form of a delta value. By matching the identified media stream start time with a start time within the plurality of start times the associated end time can be identified. The associated end time is the end time of the media stream. A signal representing the identified media stream end time can be generated and transmitted, for example over the Internet or other network, in response to the query.
Each of the plurality of start times in the meta database may also or alternatively include an associated address, such as a URL, of the item of available media corresponding to the identified annotation value. Hence, the meta database may additionally or alternatively be searched to identify the item address associated with the identified matching start time. The associated address is the address of the item of available media corresponding to the identified annotation value. A signal representing the identified address can be generated and transmitted, for example over the Internet or other network, in response to the query. The identified media stream start and/or end times may advantageously be provided as an extension of the URL or other address.
In accordance with other aspects of the invention, each of the plurality of annotation values may correspond to more than one portion of the item of available media. If the identified annotation value corresponds to multiple portions of the item of available media, media stream start times of respective media streams forming the multiple portions of the item are identified, and transmitted in response to the query.
The searching may be performed by one or more computer processors. For example, the annotation index may be stored on a memory and searched at one location on the network by one processor and the meta database could be stored on another memory and searched by another processor at a different location on the network. Preferably, the processor associated with the index receives the information gathered in the search of the meta database and transmits the response to the query via the network to the applicable user. The invention is typically implemented using computer programming stored on electronic, magnetic, optical or other media. The stored computer programming is configured to be readable from the media by one or more computers to thereby cause the computer(s) to operate in the manner described above.
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Media Stream: An Iconic Vis
deVries Arjen P.
Eberman Brian
Kontothanassis Leondias
Kovalcin David E.
Sokolov Michael
AltaVista Company
Amsbury Wayne
Havan Thu-Thao
Hunton & Williams
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