Data processing: database and file management or data structures – Database design – Data structure types
Reexamination Certificate
1998-12-03
2001-08-14
Amsbury, Wayne (Department: 2672)
Data processing: database and file management or data structures
Database design
Data structure types
C707S793000, C707S793000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06275827
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates generally to the field of multimedia and, more particularly, to a technique for processing data.
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 processing data.
The above-stated primary object, as well as other objects, features, and advantages, of the present invention will become readily apparent from the following detailed description which is to be read in conjunction with the appended drawings.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
According to the present invention, a technique for processing data is provided. The technique can be realized by receiving a first representation of data at a processing device such as, for example, a data encoder or a data transcoder. The first representation of data can include analog data such as, for example, an analog representation of a video sequence, or digital data such as, for example, a digital representation of a video sequence.
The processing device processes the first representation of data so as to generate a second representation of data. The second representation of data includes a plurality of dependent data representations and a plurality of independent data representations. Preferably, the dependent data representations are arranged in a sequence, and each of the dependent data representations is determined based upon a difference from a previous one of the dependent data representations in the sequence. For example, each of the dependent data representations can represent a respective one of a plurality of difference frames of a video sequence, and each of the difference frames can be determined based upon a difference from a previous one of the difference frames of the video sequence. In contrast, each of the independent data representations is typically determined independently from all other of the independent data representations. For example, each of the independent data representations can represent a respective one of a plurality of complete frames of a video sequence, and each of the complete frames can be determined independently from all other of the complete frames of the video sequence.
Each of the dependent data representations is substantially aligned in time with a corresponding one of the independent data representations. That is, for every one of the dependent data representations there is a corresponding one of the independent data representations, and both are associated with a particular point in time. For example, if the dependent data representations represent difference frames of a video sequence and the independent data representations represent complete frames of the video sequence, then one of the difference frames will correspond in time to one of the complete frames.
Preferably, the first representation of data includes some or all of the dependent data representations included in the second representation of data. The processing device can then process the dependent data representations included in the first representation of data so as to generate the independent data representations included in the second representation of data. The first representation can also include one or more of the independent data representations. However, to avoid redundancy, the first representation of data must not include all of the independent data representations included in the second representation of data.
In one aspect of the present invention, each of the dependent data representations is dependent upon another of the dependent data representations, or upon one of the independent data representations. For example, if the dependent data representations represent difference frames of a video sequence and the independent data representations represent complete frames of the video sequence, then each of the difference frames is dependent upon a previous one of the difference frames of the video sequence or upon a corresponding one of the complete frames of the video sequence.
In another aspect of the present invention, the processing device processes the first representation of data by digitizing the first representation of data, and then encoding the digitized first representation of data so as to generate the plurality of dependent data representations. The processing device can also generate a prediction of the digitized first representation of data, and then encode the prediction of the digitized first representation of data so as to generate the plurality of independent data representations. The processing device can then combine the plurality of dependent data representations and the plurality of independent data representations so as to generate the second representation of data.
In a further aspect of the present invention, the processing device processes the first representati
deVries Arjen P.
Dufaux Frederic
Eberman Brian
Kontothanassis Leondias
Kovalcin David E.
AltaVista Company
Amsbury Wayne
Hawan Thu-Thao
Huton & Williams
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