A METHOD AND A SYSTEM FOR THE TRANSMISSION OF MULTIMEDIA FILES
Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of multimedia file transmission and in particular to podcasting techniques and techniques for the registration of digital video.
Description of the State of the Art
Radio and television senders, newspapers, informational websites and other servers of contents provide a continuous flow of information, updates, audio and video files and other multimedia materials to their readers and clients. The transmission of this multimedia material can be realized with different techniques. Besides the traditional television and radio transmissions, where it is possible to hear the transmission at a given time which is predetermined by the sender (which is therefore synchronic and online) and streaming, which is video/audio on demand and in which a video/audio resource is available at any time through an internet connection to the sender site (which is therefore asynchronic and online), the technique of podcasting is getting more and more popular.
Podcasting is a method for the distribution of multimedia files, such as audio or video files, through the internet using a program called an aggregator or feeder. Podcasting allows therefore automatic downloading of video and audio resources, which are called podcasts. Podcasting indicates a video/audio or other resource which is available at any time and which is automatically downloaded in an mp3 or other format from the site of the sender, differentiating it from traditional broadcasting and streaming in that it is asynchronic and can be used offline.
In order to use podcasting, first of all the user has to install a client server which is called an aggregator (for example ITunes, Juice or Doppler) and then he must register with the site of interest. The software connects to the internet with a frequency that is decided by the user and checks which files have been published by the sites that the user is registered to and if it finds new ones it downloads them. The notification of the publication of new editions from the server of contents is made by a feed RSS which is exchanged between the site of the server and the program of the user. RSS is the name of one of the most popular formats for the distribution of web content based on XML.
Compared to the normal information made available on the web pages of a server of contents where the user has to find the files of interest, the podcasting technique has the advantage that the user automatically receives all the novelties and updates published by the server of contents.
Podcasting allows the user to receive multimedia files directly on his PC, PDA, mobile phone or other form of media player.
Podcasting is managed by a server where all the multimedia files are memorized. Besides the multimedia files, the server also contains an RSS file which contains a list of all the multimedia files which are available on the server.
According to the present approaches used for podcasting, only users which are registered to a given site (also called podcast channel) receive the same multimedia files, therefore the transmission takes place using a unique logic channel that is the same for all the users. This method can cause some inconvenience to certain users which may not be interested in receiving all the updates of a certain server of contents, but which are interested in receiving only some of the available contents. There is therefore a need for a method more oriented to the interests and needs of the user.
Another approach that is becoming more popular for the registration of television and radio programs is the personal video recorder (PVR) also known as digital video recorder (DVR), which allows registration of episodes of transmissions so that they can be seen at a later time. PVR are in general independent set-top boxes, which register the broadcasted video on a memory unit with a hard disk drive without using videotapes. PVR are connected to normal television sets and then registered contents can be watched later on. PVR have therefore the inconvenience that they use a special form that cannot be easily transported to other devices.
Summary of the Present Invention
In general the present invention relates to a method and a system for the transmission of multimedia files between a server of content and users where the files are transmitted over an individual channel for each user.
In particular, the method according to the present invention for the transmission of multimedia files between at least one server of multimedia content and one or more
users, comprises that at least one of the users registers to said server, that this user provide the server with his profile, which comprises information about the interest of the user himself, and that the transmission of the media files takes place through a specific channel for each single user on the basis of the information in the profile.
Furthermore, the system according to the present invention to transmit media files comprises: one or more servers of contents, which contains the multimedia files; one or more users and it is characterized by the fact that at least one of the servers contains profiles of all the users and that the multimedia files are transmitted to each user on the basis of their profile.
Brief Description of the Figures
Further advantages, objectives and characteristics of the present invention are defined in the claims and they will become clearer through the present detailed description together with the Figures in which the identical or corresponding elements are identified by the same reference numbers. In particular:
Figure 1 schematically represents the transmission of multimedia files between the server of content and the users;
Figure 2 shows the web interface used to determine the interest profile of the user;
Figure 3 shows the web interface after the multimedia files have been received and it also shows a label of a multimedia file;
Figure 4 shows the web interface for the user registration;
Figure 5 shows an example of a television program schedule which is published on the web and which can be used to determine the criteria of interest of the user.
Detailed Description of the Invention
While the present invention is described with reference to the embodiments described in the following and represented in the Figures, it should be noted that the present invention is not limited to the particular embodiments described in the present detailed description and represented in the Figures, but that the described embodiments are
rather examples of different aspects of the present invention and that the scope of the invention is defined in the claims.
The present invention combines characteristics typical to both the way of transmitting files according to the method of podcasting and to the method of digital video registration of programs transmitted by radio, television, satellite, cable or digital television.
According to the present invention, users register to a server of contents and provide information or criteria regarding the interests of the users. These criteria define which radio or television programs or in general which multimedia files the user intends to receive from the server. On the basis of this information provided by the user in his own profile, the server will transmit to the user only the updates and novelties requested, without sending the complete set of information as is normally done by the podcasting programs.
The users and their respective profiles are memorized on a database that is connected to a server of contents. The server of contents controls the content of the memorized profiles at regular intervals to see if the requests are still valid.
The media files are also memorized on a database that is connected to a server of contents. Which files are transmitted to a given user are the result of a comparison between the criteria indicated in the profile and the files available in the multimedia database of the server.
Figure 1 shows how the program transmitted by the sender (1) is registered by the server of contents (2) which, after having controlled the requests of the different users as specified by the different profiles present in the database (3), sends through individual podcast channels the multimedia files to the users (4) which can be represented by PCs, PDAs, mobile phones or other media players. The term podcast channel is used to indicate the web address through which the list of the multimedia files is received which have to be sent to a certain user.
In this way, the transmitted multimedia files are different from user to user and it is therefore possible to say that the multimedia files are transmitted to the users through different logic channels. This is exactly the opposite of what happens during podcasting, where a single channel exists that is used by all users.
While in podcasting the channel is represented by a static file which is updated at given intervals of time and which can be accessed by?all users in the same manner, in the approach of the present invention, the users have a personal channel which is updated in a dynamic way and where the contents corresponds to the criteria specified in the user profile.
According to the present invention there is not a fixed file on the server containing a list of the elements in the channel but rather this information is generated, on the basis of the criteria defined in the profile, every time the client connects to the server. In a particular embodiment of the present invention the user performs a log-in procedure to be identified by the server of contents. To this end, the server asks the user to insert a user name and a password.
In a particular embodiment of the present invention the log-in procedure as well as the definition of the interest criteria in the user profile is made using a web interface. Figure 2 represents an embodiment of the web interface, which shows the user profile that lists the transmissions the user desires to receive from the server of contents. Figure 4 shows the web interface for the registration procedure.
In a further embodiment of the present invention the information and the user interest criteria can be provided to the server through a web interface where the complete program schedule of transmissions of a certain sender are represented and the user can choose the multimedia files that interest him with a simple click of the mouse as shown in Figure 5.
In a further embodiment of the present invention the information and the user interest criteria can be determined by a search of keywords which are associated to multimedia files.
In a further embodiment of the present invention the server of contents comprises a hardware system which receives the multimedia'files through an antenna connection or through an ethernet/IP network from radio, television, digital television, satellite or cable senders. The multimedia files received are registered on the database of the server. The hardware manages all the registrations and the user interface.
In a further embodiment of the present invention, in order to make effective a multi-user environment, the multimedia files received by the server of contents are registered in
short segments (for example 5 minutes each). At the end of each registration, the server of contents controls information in the database about the users in their respective profiles to find which users requested the actual segment of the multimedia file. The length of the segments is variable and is chosen so as to optimize the performance of the hardware system.
The different segments are concatenated so that they form the multimedia files requested by the single users.
The concatenation can take place in both a static way, forming a file containing all the necessary single segments, or a dynamic way, where a dynamic file makes reference to the single segments.
In a further embodiment according to the present invention, the files realized by static or dynamic concatenation are given labels which comprise additional information about the created file. In a particular embodiment of the present invention, the labels may contain the title, author, date or other comments relating to the generated multimedia file. These labels can be metadata that are inserted in the binary multimedia file in different ways: as podcast elements in the RSS feed, as ID3 metadata in an mp3 audio file or as metadata (atom/boxes) in an mp4 video file.
Figure 3 shows the file received by the user as shown on the web interface. The figure shows furthermore the label associated with a multimedia file where title, author and other information that relates to the corresponding multimedia file are shown.
These files are generated so that they can be interpreted by any type of media player. In a particular form according to the present invention, the labels are in XML RSS format.
The labels are inserted in the multimedia files in an automatic and dynamic way and they can contain additional information that is shown by the media player together with the multimedia file itself. This additional information may contain images or audio pieces or videos which characterize the multimedia files or they can also be advertising messages.
The labels can be physically added to the multimedia file formed by the different segments concatenated together or it can be added in a referential way when the file is requested.
The labels, as well as the other multimedia files transmitted, can be different from user to user, so that they can be adapted to the characteristic of the individual user.
In spite of the greater complexity with respect to the known method of podcasting, which is due to the fact that the server of contents sends multimedia files on the basis of the criteria and information present in the profile of the single user, the present invention offers the advantage of a more efficient service because it reflects the exigencies of the single users.
The present invention presents the following advantages: the multimedia files can be transmitted in different formats so that they can be used by different media players, such as Ipod, Creative Zen, o Scandisk Salsa, contrarily to what actually happens in digital video recording, which uses specific internal formats optimized to work only on the same device and not to be exported to other devices over the internet. In fact the dynamic transcoding function can be defined in the format of the player which makes the request for the podcast and these functions are activated on the server after the recognition of the client program or set user preference.
The registrations of the multimedia files are sent to the users through an individual channel that the user can access through a simple log-in procedure.
The approach of the present invention is native multi-user. In fact it allows contemporary registration on the same or on different channels. Furthermore, each user is recognized by the server of content and therefore there is no risk of conflicts with the requests of other users.
Through the concatenation of different segments it is possible to add images or other information to the multimedia file.