Computer graphics processing and selective visual display system – Display driving control circuitry – Controlling the condition of display elements
Reexamination Certificate
1996-04-22
2001-05-01
Grant, Chris (Department: 2711)
Computer graphics processing and selective visual display system
Display driving control circuitry
Controlling the condition of display elements
C709S219000, C348S086000, C348S014160
Reexamination Certificate
active
06225993
ABSTRACT:
CROSS REFERENCE TO MICROFICHE APPENDIX
Appendix A, which is a part of this disclosure, is a microfiche appendix consisting of one (1) sheet of microfiche having a total of ninety-eight (98) frames. Microfiche Appendix A is a list of computer programs and related data in one embodiment of the present invention, which is described more completely below.
SPECIFICATION
A portion of the disclosure of this patent document contains material which is subject to copyright protection. The copyright owner has no objection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent document or the patent disclosure, as it appears in the Patent and Trademark Office patent file or records, but otherwise reserves all copyright rights whatsoever.
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to computer graphical display of motion video and, in particular, to a method and apparatus for facilitating inclusion of motion video in multimedia computer displays.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Video servers, including networked video servers, transmit “bit streams” to a video client. Such bit streams, which are sometimes referred to as “streams,” generally represent video and/or audio signals which represent titles in a library of multimedia sources. Examples of titles of such a library typically include recordings of motion pictures. In general, a video server receives from a video client a request for a particular title and transmits a stream of the particular title to the video client. An example of a video client is a set top box which is generally known and which decodes the stream received from the video server and transmits the decoded signal to a connected television. The requesting of a particular title, receiving the stream of the particular title, and decoding the stream for display on a television are collectively and generally referred to as video on demand.
Examples of such video on demand servers are described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,862,450 by Kallol Mandal and Steven Kleiman and entitled “Method and Apparatus for Delivering Simultaneous Constant Bit Rate Compressed Video Streams at Arbitrary Bit Rates with Constrained Drift and Jitter” (hereinafter the '450 Patent) and in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/572,648, filed Dec. 14, 1995 by Kallol Mandal and Steven Kleiman and entitled “Method and Apparatus for Distributing Network Bandwidth on a Video Server for Transmission of Bit Streams Across Multiple Network Interfaces Connected to a Single Internet Protocol (IP) Network” (hereinafter the '648 Application). Both the '639 Patent and the '648 Application are incorporated herein in their entirety by reference.
The popularity of the Internet global network is growing extremely rapidly, and perhaps the most popular protocol of the Internet is the Hyper Text Transfer Protocol (HTTP) of the World Wide Web. According to the HTTP protocol of the World Wide Web, documents, which are generally referred to as “pages,” incorporate text, graphical images, sound, and motion video which, when viewed, form a multimedia presentation to user. Such pages are typically viewed using a World Wide Web browser, which is a computer process capable of retrieving HTTP pages and presenting the contents of such pages to a user of a computer system through output devices such as a computer video display device and a computer audio circuit coupled to one or more audio speakers. An example of a World Wide Web browser is the Netscape browser available from Netscape Communications Corporation of Mountain View, Calif.
To display motion video, conventional browsers typically (i) transfer to the computer system in which the browser executes an entire data file which includes data representing a title and (ii) subsequently initiate execution of a player computer process which displays the title to the user on a computer display device. The player computer process is separate from the browser and therefore displays the motion video of the title outside of the page displayed by the browser. In addition, transferring the entire data file prior to displaying the motion video of the title delays substantially the display of the motion video since such data files are typically quite large, e.g., typically 1.8 gigabytes of data to represent a two-hour, VHS-quality motion picture.
Currently, no browser is capable of seamlessly integrating motion video streams into a page of the World Wide Web.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In accordance with the present invention, a computer process which requests streams of motion video titles and decodes and displays the motion video signals of the stream for display in a computer display device is constructed in the form of an applet of a multimedia document viewer such as a World Wide Web browser. Accordingly, a designer of multimedia documents such as HTML pages can easily incorporate motion video titles into such HTML pages by specifying a few parameters of a desired title or a desired portion of a title to be requested from a video server. The specification of the parameters is in the general form of a well-known parameter specification format dictated by the particular interface of the computer instruction language in which the applet is written.
The applet builds bit stream control signals from the specification of the title or the portion of the title. The bit stream control signals request transmission of the title or the portion of the title from a bit stream server such as a video server and are in a form appropriate for processing by the bit stream server. The applet transmits the bit stream control signals to the bit stream server to thereby request that the bit stream server initiate transmission of a bit stream representing the requested title or the requested portion of the title.
The applet also builds decoder control signals from the specification of the title or the portion of the title. The decoder control signals direct a bit stream decoder to receive the requested bit stream from the bit stream server and to decode a motion video signal from the bit stream. The applet transmits the decoder control signals to the decoder to cause the decoder to receive the bit stream and to decode the motion video signal from the bit stream.
By using an applet of a multimedia document viewer to request and control receipt by a decoder of a motion video bit stream and to control decoding of the motion video bit stream by the decoder, a designer of a multimedia document can easily and conveniently include motion video images in multimedia documents. In addition, since the applet transmits bit stream control signals to a video server, the motion video signals which can be incorporated into a multimedia document are any such motion video signals stored in such a video server. Such video servers will likely include a large number and wide variety of motion video signals, thereby providing a wealth of motion video content for inclusion in multimedia documents.
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Wong et al., “Synchronization in Specification-based Multimedia Presentations,” Software—Practice and Experience, vol. 26, No. 1, Jan. 1996, pp. 71-81.
Chen et al., “Real Time Video and Audio in the World Wide Web,” 4th International World Wide Web Conference, Dec. 1995, pp. 1-14.
European Search Report, Application No. 97 30 2676, mailed Jul. 12, 1999.
Cachat Stephan E.
Lindblad Christopher
Conley Rose & Tayon
Grant Chris
Kivlin B. Noäl
Sun Microsystems Inc.
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