WO2003027897A2

WO2003027897A2 - Listing selected and updated multimedia documents from a terminal

Info

Publication number: WO2003027897A2
Application number: PCT/FR2002/003141
Authority: WO
Inventors: Ghislain Moncomble
Original assignee: France Telecom
Priority date: 2001-09-21
Filing date: 2002-09-16
Publication date: 2003-04-03
Also published as: WO2003027897A3; AU2002362618A1; FR2830098A1; FR2830098B1

Abstract

After one or several users of one or several terminals (TE) have provided lists of multimedia documents selected in servers (SW1- SWI), a central server (SC) optionally assisted by a proxy server (PR) periodically updates each document selected by at least one terminal and stores it. In response to a call from a terminal, updated characteristics of each document from the respective list which have only been updated since the last downloading of the document in the terminal are downloaded by the central server into the terminal so as to consult the updated documents in the terminal.

Description

Creation of a list of multimedia documents selected and updated from a terminal

The present invention relates generally to television broadcasting and the electronic management of multimedia documents.

Currently, a user interested in updates of multimedia documents accessible in predetermined server sites, must consult these sites from time to time to take note of the latest news in the sections of these sites which interests him. This consultation of. One-to-one sites are sporadic and increase the load on the packet network, such as the Internet, through which multimedia documents pass, especially since the number of users wishing to consult these sites is high.

Some website managers offer their subscribers to periodically send updates to pages or sections predetermined by users to their email addresses. This service requires a subscription for each of these sites and does not monitor the update of any site.

Furthermore, it is known that a browser in the user interface of a terminal makes it possible to establish a list of websites and / or multimedia documents, some of which have already been consulted, by identifying them by their own. URLs (Uniform Resource Locator). Selecting one of these addresses allows the user to quickly access the site or the corresponding document in order to consult the latest changes to it. In that case, the user must call each of the sites and documents in the list one by one to consult their modifications.

It is also known to use search engines in portals to search for information in various sites linked to the internet network. In particular, certain search engines include a software robot which searches for documents designated by URL addresses contained in an initially established list. In each document stored locally in the search engine, the latter extracts information in particular according to keywords constituting hyperlinks in order to facilitate documentary searches for users consulting this search engine. The lists of documents established in these search robots are independent of a selection of documents by any user.

The prior art both in user terminals and in the Internet or in sites does not offer a user a document holdings service, the updating of which is controlled.

US patent 6,055,570 discloses an update monitoring server which monitors content sites on behalf of users. Each user selects from his terminal URLs of sites whose content he wishes to monitor so that the update server associates the address of the user and the addresses of sites to be monitored in a table. Previously, the update server manager subscribed to an update service for each site at monitor so that each monitored site itself reports content changes to the update server by evaluating a degree of change between a version and a new version of the site. The update server then stores the current date of the change.

Each time a user's terminal connects to the server, the latter transmits a monitoring table to be displayed in the terminal. The table indicates for each site (URL address) monitored a summary of the changes that have occurred in the site since the last visit by the user, not of the site monitored, but of the update server. The user then decides to consult the changes that have occurred in the monitored sites, by connecting the terminal successively to the corresponding sites.

According to US Patent 6,055,570, changes in the content of all sites are reported based on the result of the comparison of the date of the last visit to the update server by the user and the dates of site changes. If these are later than the date of the last visit, site changes are reported. On the other hand, if a monitored site has undergone a change only before the date of last visit, and no change after the date of last visit, while the user has not consulted the site after the last visit, the changes to this site will no longer be reported to the user.

The present invention aims to facilitate the creation and updating of a personalized collection of selected multimedia documents in site servers from a terminal in order to automatically present to the terminal user, not information on changes in monitored documents, but the documents themselves which have been selected from the monitored documents and which have each been updated since the document was last downloaded in the terminal , which allows the user to read only modified documents among the documents monitored.

To this end, a method for constituting in terminals respective lists of multimedia documents read in servers through a packet network, is characterized in that it comprises steps:

supplying from the terminals respective lists of addresses of documents selected in the servers to an updating means connected to the packet network so that the updating means stores the addresses of the terminals in correspondence with the respective lists,

update and memorize periodically in the updating means at least the characteristics of each document selected by at least one terminal by transferring the characteristics of the document from the server designated by the address of the document in response to a call from the server designated by the means of updating, and

- in response to a call to the updating means by the terminal to consult documents from the respective list, download to the terminal the characteristics of each document from the respective list which have been updated only since the document was last downloaded in the terminal so that the documents in the respective list including the characteristics have been updated, be updated in the terminal simultaneously with a consultation of these.

The step of updating and memorizing is carried out in the updating means itself, such as a server, the manager of which manages himself the changes which have occurred in the documents to be monitored in the sites according to his own criteria, in periodically polling sites, regardless of any subscription to monitored sites.

The download step is not reduced to information about recent changes in the documents to be monitored for the terminal user, but extends to the downloading of the monitored documents themselves which have been modified since their last downloads in the user's terminal, respectively, independently of any date of last visit to the updating means by one of the users of the terminal.

For example if two documents DM1 and DM2 were modified at a time T12 and a third document DM3 was modified at a later time T3> T12, a first call of the updating means with a list of documents DM2 and DM3 by the terminal intervening between instants T12 and T3 causes the download only of the updated document DM2, the document DM3 having not changed. Then a second call of the updating means with a list of documents DM1, DM2, DM3 intervening after time T3 causes the documents to be downloaded from the list according to a priority order pre-established by the user of the terminal: the downloading of the DM1 document in the terminal, although the DM1 document has not modified since the last visit of the updating means between times T12 and T3, then the downloading of the document DM3; the DM2 document is not downloaded since its updated version has already been downloaded to the terminal.

The invention provides two variants depending on whether the updated documents are downloaded automatically from the corresponding site servers, or from the updating means itself. The downloads are transparent to the terminal user.

According to a first variant, the documents in the respective list, the characteristics of which have been updated, are updated in the terminal by downloading them from the corresponding servers in the terminal.

According to a second variant, not only the document characteristics but also all the documents themselves selected, the addresses of which are provided by the terminals, are updated in the updating means. The documents in the respective list which have been updated since their last respective downloads in the terminal, are also downloaded into the terminal in response to the call to the updating means by the terminal. This second variant prevents the terminal from subsequently interrogating the site servers by various connections in order to read there the selected documents which have just been updated.

According to a distributed embodiment, the invention uses the known functionalities of a proxy server to update and memorize the characteristics of the documents selected by at minus a terminal and the documents selected in order to transmit them to the terminal after each start-up of the latter. In this embodiment, the updating means comprises, in addition to the proxy server, also a central means connected to the packet network for memorizing the addresses of the documents selected in correspondence with the identifier of one of the users of the terminal, in order to satisfy user mobility.

The method of the invention further comprises steps of assigning in the updating means reading indicators to the selected documents, each reading indicator having first and second states respectively when updated characteristics of the respective document have not have been downloaded and have been downloaded to the terminal by the updating means, to put in the first state the reading indicator of each document, at least the characteristics of which have just been updated and transferred from the site server designated by the address of the document in order to download into the terminal characteristics only updated documents belonging to the respective list provided and corresponding to reading indicators in the first state in response to a call from the updating means by the terminal, and to put in the second state the reading indicator corresponding to each document whose characteristics teristics updated just been downloaded into the terminal.

The updating means can transcribe phonetically and memorize any document or text document characteristic before downloading it into a terminal, and the terminal can restore vocally the document feature or the downloaded document in phonetically transcribed form.

The invention also relates to an updating means implementing the method of the invention for updating the characteristics of selected multimedia documents and the selected documents themselves. It is characterized in that it comprises a first memory means for matching the address of each document selected in one of the servers from user terminals with a list of user identifiers of a terminal having selected the document so that the updating means updates and stores at least any characteristic of a selected document whose address is contained in the first memory means, and a second memory means for matching the identifier of each user from terminal to at least the list of documents selected by the user in order to download in the terminal only the characteristics of each document in the list which have been updated since the last download of the document in the terminal in response to a call from the means of updating by the terminal, the user of which has an identifier contained in the second memory means and so that the documents in the list do nt the characteristics were updated, are updated in the terminal simultaneously with a consultation of these.

A terminal user identifier may be associated with at least one terminal address, or identifiers of more than one user may be associated with a terminal address. Other characteristics and advantages of the present invention will appear more clearly on reading the following description of several preferred embodiments of the invention with reference to the corresponding appended drawings in which:

- Figure 1 is a schematic block diagram of a telecommunications system comprising the main means for constituting and updating selected multimedia documents from a user terminal, according to a preferred embodiment of one invention;

- Figure 2 is an algorithm for updating multimedia documents implemented in a central document management server included in the telecommunications system;

- Figure 3 is an algorithm for constituting documentary holdings from a terminal with the assistance of the central server; FIG. 4 is an algorithm for updating and consulting multimedia documents monitored in the terminal and optionally for modifying a list of documents; and

- Figure 5 is a schematic block diagram similar to Figure 1 of a preferred telecommunications system when the user terminal is a mobile radiotelephone terminal.

A telecommunications system for implementing the creation of multimedia documentary funds according to the invention is based on an architecture of the client-server type and mainly comprises, with reference to FIG. 1, several interactive user terminals TE and at at least one central document management server SC. According to the embodiment illustrated in FIG. 1, a user terminal TE is for example of the intelligent television receiver type RT. The RT television receiver cooperates with a remote control with display and alphanumeric keyboard TC also serving as a mouse via an infrared IR link, and with a basic module MB via a proximity radio link LP of Bluetooth type or according to the 802.11b standard. . As a variant, the remote control is supplemented by a more complete wireless keyboard linked by proximity radio link to the MB module. The basic module MB mainly contains applications specific to the invention and preferably a browser. A buffer memory MT is included in the module MB and acts as a cache for storing multimedia documents selected by one of the US users of the terminal TE as well as a summary SOM presenting this documentary collection thus constituted. Optionally a voice synthesizer SV is provided in the MB module for sound reproduction or voice transcription of document via loudspeakers of the RT receiver. The basic MB module can serve other domestic terminals such as microcomputer, telephone, radio, alarm center, etc. The MB module is served by an LT telecommunications link and an access network RA, such as a telephone line and the switched telephone network PSTN, to be connected to a high speed packet transmission network RP of the internet type to which the central server SC is connected.

The user terminal and the access network are not limited to the types illustrated in FIG. 1 and can be constituted by other known terminals and access networks. For example, the terminal TE preferably with at least one speaker can be a personal computer PC connected directly by modem to the link LT or by means of a basic module MB. According to other variants, the user terminal TE comprises a personal telecommunications device for the user which can be a personal digital assistant PDA, or else includes an intelligent radio set in place of the television receiver RT, both types of receptor that can coexist. The telecommunications link LT can be an xDSL line (Digital Subscriber Line) or an ISDN line (Digital Network with Service Integration) connected to the corresponding access network. According to yet another variant, the TE terminal can be a mobile cellular radiotelephone terminal, the telecommunications link can be a radiotelephone channel, and the access network can be the fixed network of a radiotelephone network, as will be detailed in the end of the description.

The central server SC manages the storage and updating of the multimedia documents selected by users who have subscribed to the service of building and updating multimedia documentary holdings.

In the description below, a multimedia document DM is generally a page or a set of pages constituting a section or else all of the pages which can be consulted and downloaded in one of several illustrated website servers S i to SWj schematically in Figure 1. A multimedia document may contain text and / or graphics and / or still images, such as photographs, and / or moving images, such as video sequences or films, and / or sound, such as musical pieces.

The central server SC essentially contains two correspondence tables T1 and T2. The first table T1 corresponds to the IPDM (Internet Protocol) address and other characteristics of each multimedia document DM selected by at least one of the users a list of user identifiers USID relating to users wishing to follow the multimedia document updates. The IPDM address of a DM document is associated with the CDM characteristics of this document. Optionally, when a user US wishes to consult the document from several terminals, the user identifier USID is coupled to a list of IPTE internet addresses of the terminals of the "nomadic" user. These can be a home terminal at the user's home, a mobile radio and a professional terminal at the user's office.

Conversely, identifiers of several users can be associated with the address of a common terminal, possibly temporarily, for example at a friend's house or in a hotel. The second table T2 corresponds to each user identifier USID at least one list of IPDM internet addresses and other CDM characteristics of multimedia documents that the user US wishes to consult. For example, the IPDM document addresses in the list are classified according to a priority order of the documents selected depending on the interest which the user has for them. This order of priority will be the order of the documents to be downloaded in the terminal which together constitute a program corresponding to the list of documents for the user. However, the user can select one or more documents from this list, which he wishes to download and consult individually.

Each IPDM multimedia document identifier from the list in table T2 is associated with a binary read indicator LEC. A first state "1" of the LEC indicator indicates that the corresponding multimedia document DM is to be read by the user US, that is to say the latest version of this document stored in the server SC and resulting from a or several successive updates since the last download of the document in a terminal TE of the user US has not been downloaded in the terminal TE of the user US. A second state "0" of the LEC indicator indicates that the latest version of the multimedia document DM stored in the server SC has already been read by the user US.

As a variant, several identifiers of document lists established by a user US are associated with the identifier USID of the user.

Updating the documents selected by the users in the server SC mainly comprises steps 10 to 18 shown in FIG. 2. It is assumed that the users who have subscribed to the service for building up and updating multimedia documentary funds have selected I documents. multimedia DMi to DMj _. in various website servers SWι_ to SWj_, knowing that several documents can be selected in the same SW server, with 1 <i <I.

After step 10 initializing the index i to 1, the central server SC checks whether a new multimedia document designated by an IPDM address has just been requested by a user, in step 11. If it is not if so, the process is continued by steps 12 to 18.

In step 12, the server SC calls the server SWi to read there the multimedia document DMi designated by the IPDM address. Optionally, if several multimedia documents are to be read in the site server S i, all these documents are retransmitted and stored in the server SC in order to shorten the connection between the servers SC and SW. In step 13, the central server SC consults the characteristics CDMi of the document DM in the server SWi. These CD characteristics can be the date (version) of its last update, the free or cost of the document, the start and end dates of subscription if the document is chargeable, parental authorization advised, the length of the document , etc. The characteristics taken from the server SWi are compared with those already recorded in the central server SC. If they are identical, the server SC goes to updating the next document SWi ₊ ] _ in step 17.

If at least one of the characteristics CDMi of the document DMi has been modified, the server SWi transmits the characteristics CDMi ^and I ^th multimedia document DMi according to its latest version to the central server SC in step 14. After having stored the characteristics CDMi ^and I ^th document DMi ^m ^ - ^s updated in step 15, the central server SC in step 16 puts in the first state "1" the read indicators LEC relating to the document DMi in the table T2 which correspond to the indicators d user USID belonging to the list corresponding to the IPDMi address of the multimedia document DMi in the table T1. Then in step 17, the index i is incremented by one. The next step 18 is followed by other cycles of steps 11 to 17 to update, that is to say refresh the characteristics CDMi ₊ ι to CDMj and the following multimedia documents DMi ₊ i to DMj _. selected by users. If the index i becomes greater than I, another updating of the selected multimedia documents takes place at another time predetermined in step 19. The updating of the characteristics of the multimedia documents and of these in the server SC by consulting the various sites SWι_ to SWj is carried out periodically, for example once or twice a day, preferably during off-peak hours when telecommunications traffic in the RP packet network is reduced.

Returning to step 11, the central server SC immediately stores a new multimedia document DM requested by one of the users. Step 11 is thus introduced in interruption in the algorithm for cyclic interrogation of the web site servers shown in FIG. 2. Step 11 is followed by steps 111 to 115. In step 111 the whole number of documents I is increased by one and the index I is assigned to the new multimedia document requested, designated below by DMj_. Then in steps 112 to 115, in a manner analogous to steps 12 to 16, the central server SC calls the website server SWj designated by the address of the added document 0M, reads the characteristics CDMj and the document DM in the server SWj_, loads the characteristics CDMj and the OMT document _. and sets the read indicator LEC to "1" in correspondence with the IPDMj address for the user of identifier USID having requested the multimedia document DMj, or possibly for the users having requested the DMj document almost simultaneously. Then step 115 is followed by step 12.

Depending on the capacities of the central server SC and of its links to the internet network RP, several site servers SWi can be interrogated simultaneously, i.e. several series of steps 12 to 15 can be executed in parallel, including with steps 112 to 115.

Initially one of the US users of the TE terminal constitutes at least one multimedia document collection DM according to steps 20 to 34 shown in FIG. 3, so as to constitute at least one consultation program according to which documents from the collection will be unrolled automatically according to an order of priority or in which documents will be selected individually. These steps are carried out by calling a specific application for the document creation and updating service, installed in the terminal TE, in this case in the basic module MB.

If in step 20 the user US wishes to establish a first connection from the terminal TE with the central server SC, the latter can surf by means of the browser in the next step 21 to various sites SW to select multimedia documents there. DM. The buffer memory MT of the terminal TE stores, as the user selects, the name of each multimedia document DM, the IPDM URL address of the latter as well as later of the characteristics of the document, such as the VDM version. of this constituted by a date or, failing this, by the date of storage of the document in the terminal TE. The number of multimedia documents to be selected depends in particular on the size of the MT memory and can be for example limited to about 10. For example, they relate to meteorology, the stock market, recent films, rugby, etc. The documents can be listed in order of user priority, or alternatively in chronological order according to their dates, in order to to build up in the memory MT an SOM summary personalized by the user and displayed subsequently each time the user invokes the application in order to consult the multimedia documents in the list in order of priority, or successively some of them , or one of them individually. If several documents are selected in a site server, a section in the summary can give access to these documents according to a tree structure. According to a variant already stated, a user US of the terminal can establish several different lists of documents, each having a respective identifier associated with the user identifier in the table T2. These lists of documents constitute various programs that the user can consult at pre-programmed times respectively. Optionally, the lists can be prioritized, and some of them can be linked in the same way as for documents.

When the user US has finished constituting the personalized list of multimedia documents, or when he wishes to select multimedia documents from a predetermined list which will be transmitted by the server SC, the user validates the call to the server SC by the - TE terminal in step 22. Before accessing the service provided by the central server SC, the server SC authenticates the user US according to a predetermined authentication algorithm and verifies that the user identifier USID transmitted by the TE terminal belongs to the list of users who have subscribed to the services offered in step 23 and associates it with the received source address constituted by the IPTE address of the TE terminal. If the user is not authenticated, the server SC breaks the communication with the terminal TE in step 24.

Then in step 25, if the user has not selected any multimedia document in the previous step 21, or if he wishes to complete the list established in step 21, he requests the server SC to send him a list predefined addresses of SW website servers. The user then selects certain names and therefore addresses of multimedia documents managed by the servers in the list and displayed on the terminal screen so that the buffer memory MT stores the summary SOM, possibly prepared and completed, of names DM, of IPDM addresses and CDM characteristics of the multimedia documents selected, in step 26.

The list of IPDM internet addresses relating to the multimedia documents DM selected in step 21 and / or drawn up at least partially with the document addresses transmitted by the server SC in step 26 is transmitted by the terminal TE to the server SC at l 'step 27. In steps 28 and 29, the server SC completes the tables T1 and T2. The list of user identifiers for each selected multimedia document of IPDM address transmitted in step 27 is completed by the identifier USID of the user US, with at least the address of the terminal IPTE, in the table T1 The list transmitted of the IPDM addresses of the documents selected according to their order of priority is associated with the user identifier USID in the table T2, and all the reading indicators LEC. associated with the multimedia documents which have just been selected are set to "1".

If desired, the user US immediately requests in step 30 the transmission of all the selected multimedia documents DM which are already available in the server SC to store them in the terminal TE. According to an ALE (Automatic Link Exchange) control mechanism for the load of the packet network RP, the documents DM are downloaded continuously or discontinuously by the central server SC at the terminal TE. For example, the selected documents. the highest priorities according to the order of priority established by the user are first transmitted. The other documents still unavailable in the server SC will be called and stored according to steps 111 to 115 (FIG. 2).

In step 31, the buffer memory MT in the terminal TE stores the selected multimedia documents available DM in association with their internet addresses IPDM and their characteristics CDM and establishes the summary SOM presenting them. The receiver RT of the terminal TE displays the summary SOM in step 32 for consulting the documents.

Then the user US decides to disconnect the terminal TE from the server SC in step 33 so as to consult locally the documents selected DM in the terminal TE in step 34, for example automatically according to the order of priority. If necessary, in step 33, the user can decide to modify the list of multimedia documents selected in step 44, as will be seen below.

The algorithm of FIG. 2 can be executed again to associate another list of documents with the user US, that is to say another program. containing a succession of documents, or else a set of chained programs each consisting of several documents.

Some of the multimedia documents selected previously and stated in the summary of a list are updated, that is to say refreshed and consulted, in the terminal according to the algorithm shown in FIG. 4, comprising steps 40 to 52. After invocation of the update application by one of the users US in the terminal TE, selection of a list pre-established by the user and call to the central server SC in step 40, the central server SC authenticates the the user US in step 41, as in step 23, and breaks the communication if the user US is not authenticated in correspondence with his identifier USID, in step 42. The list selection step and server call 40 can be automatic, without user intervention. The user has previously programmed in the TE terminal the time of consultation of the documents which are each to be updated since the last download of the document in the terminal. Then optionally the server SC invites the user US to modify or not the list of multimedia documents stated in the SOM summary in step 43. As indicated in steps 44 and 45, the modification of the list of multimedia documents can consist in adding the addresses of new multimedia documents in the list or to delete the address of one of the multimedia documents in the list which is designated by its name DM and whose IPDM address, after validation of the document to be deleted is transmitted by the terminal TE to the server central SC. The IPDM address of a DM document selected from the terminal to be added is added to the SOM summary and to the list associated with the user identifier USID; in the table T2 the reading indicator LEC corresponding to the added document is set to "1" in the table T2 in step 45; optionally, the IPDM address of the added multimedia document is added in association with the user identifier USID and the IPTE address in the table T1 if the added document is unknown to the server SC and is a new document which must be stored according to steps 111 to 115 (Figure 2). If the document DM is a document to be deleted in the SOM summary, the identifier USID and the associated terminal addresses IPTE are deleted in the table T1, and the IPDM address of the deleted document is deleted in the list associated with the identifier user ID in table T2.

After step 45, or optionally after step 43 when there is no modification in the document list, the central server SC checks whether there is at least one LEC read indicator in the " 1 "corresponding to at least one multimedia document DM from the personalized list of the user US which has been updated since the last update invocation relating to this document by the user US, in step 46. The server SC does not then downloads the recently updated multimedia documents DM from the selected list and the CDM characteristics thereof whose IPM addresses are associated with the identifier USID and for which the LEC reading indicators are in the state "1", in the terminal TE in step 47. The read indicator LEC in the state "1" for a determined document signals that the last updates of the determined document have not yet been downloaded to the terminal, even if the terminal has already received other documents downloaded since the updates of the determined document. Then the server SC switches the reading indicators of the downloaded documents to state "0", at step 48.

In the terminal TE, the old versions of the CDM characteristics and multimedia documents DM corresponding to the new versions downloaded in step 47 are erased from the buffer memory MT in order to write there the updated versions of the CDM characteristics and multimedia documents DM, received at step 49.

After step 49, or after step 46 if no multimedia document has been updated, the terminal TE corrects and briefly displays the updated SOM summary, in step 50. The user can then choose to disconnect the terminal TE of the server SC in step 51 so as to consult locally the multimedia documents now updated in the terminal TE in step 52. However, in step 51, it can decide not to disconnect the terminal TE from the server SC in order to modify the list of multimedia documents once again via step 43. Consultation of the updated documents in a list according to the order of priority established for it, described above with reference to FIG. 4, is also applicable for consulting one or more documents selected by the user in step 40, from among the documents in one or more pre-established lists. Although the documents which have just been updated and which correspond to a reading indicator LEC = "1" are only downloaded and consulted according to FIG. 4, the user still has the possibility of reading any document internally in the MT memory, whether it has been updated or not. In fact, the documents to be monitored which are contained in the memory MT are not all updated, but only at most those of the list selected during the call to step 40;

The above steps 47 to 52 are carried out with user intervention, in particular in steps 50 and 52. However, according to an automatic variant of consultation of documents at a pre-programmed time, the terminal TE reads the latest versions of the documents not yet consulted by the user in the list selected in the memory ME in order automatically to present them successively in order of priority to the user who consults them as a ^' program of radio or television programs preselected.

The automatic downloading and unfolding of the updated documents, for example in order of priority, is carried out by combining steps 47 to 52 so that the terminal begins to present the first updated and downloaded document from the selected list, and simultaneously continues with the task. basically, in a manner transparent to the user US, the loading of the first updated document and of the following updated documents from the list selected in the memory MT until the last updated document from the list transmitted by the server SC. This multitasking operation limits the duration of connection between the terminal TE and the server SC which is shorter than the duration of consultation of the documents updated in the terminal. For example, each screen page in a document is held displayed in the RT receiver for one to two minutes.

Alternatively, instead of the central server SC receiving and storing in steps 14 and 15 (FIG. 2) the multimedia documents DM and their CDM characteristics updated and selected by the users, the central server SC receives and stores only the updated characteristics of the selected multimedia documents, which less clutter the RP packet network.

In Figure 2, the server SC receives from the server SWi ^e ^ stores ^only the updated characteristics CDMi in steps 14 and 15. At steps 30- 31 (Figure 3) and 47-49 (Figure 4), the SC server retransmits as the CDM characteristics of the multimedia documents DM which have been recently updated in order to store them in the terminal TE. For this variant, the documents selected in particular having undergone modifications indicated by the stored characteristics are consulted by the user US in steps 34 and 52 by calling each document DM according to its IPDM address and by downloading it into the terminal TE. The memory capacity required for the central server SC is then significantly lower for this variant.

For the automatic variant of steps 47 to 52, the terminal TE automatically and successively calls the site servers containing the updated documents DM according to the IPDM addresses stated in the list selected preferably in order of priority in order to download them in task of background, while ensuring the presentation of the updated documents to the user. According to yet another variant, the updating of the characteristics CDMi of the documents DMi selected by the users and of the documents DMi themselves according to FIG. 2 is no longer assigned to the central server SC, but is managed by a proxy server PR, when 'It is provided as interconnection equipment between the user terminal TE and the internet network RP, as shown in dotted lines in Figure 1.

In steps 30 (FIG. 3) and 47 (FIG. 4), in response to a request from the terminal comprising the list of all the IPDM addresses of the selected documents, the proxy server PR, and not the central server, globally transmits all of the CDM characteristics and selected documents DM at the TE terminal, independently of any LEC reading indicator which is deleted in steps 29 and 46-47. These documents and characteristics already stored in the proxy server are immediately sent to the terminal, and the other documents and characteristics according to the IPDM address list communicated to the proxy server are taken from the corresponding servers SW by the proxy server PR which transmits them to the terminal. , in the background.

The transmission of this set of documents and characteristics is preferably initiated automatically after each start-up of the TE terminal, which then allows the user to consult the documents locally in the terminal.

In this variant, the terminal manages the updating and the modifications of the SOM summary, independently of the central server SC, and stores all the characteristics of the documents stated in the summary and the documents themselves. The central server SC manages only the mobility of users, by memorizing the IPDM addresses of the documents selected by each user in the single T2 table so that the user can consult the list of documents from any terminal, after being identified based on their user ID USID.

According to a more complete embodiment, the characteristics of the multimedia documents CDM and the documents DM comprising pages of text are synthesized in the terminal TE by means of a voice synthesizer SV, for example included in the basic module MB according to FIG. 1. The synthesizer can be backed up by a text translator. When the processing and memory capacities of the TE terminal are sufficient, for example when the TE terminal has a basic module MB and / or a personal computer PC, the characteristics of the document and the text document reproduced by voice are associated with the animation facial of a virtual predetermined animator by means of a facial animation engine implemented in the TE terminal. The animator's face is displayed on the entire terminal screen or appears in a window at a corner of the screen.

As a variant, in order to lighten the processing due to the text-to-speech synthesis in the TE terminal, particularly when the terminal has low processing and memory capacities, part of the speech synthesis of the text pages is performed in the server. central SC.

The speech synthesis of the text is then divided into two parts. In a first part implemented in the central server SC, or alternatively in the proxy server PR, each text, such as characteristics of a document and / or textual document, is transcribed phonetically when it is memorized in step 15 or 114 (FIG. 2), the text thus transcribed occupies substantially the same place in the memory of the server SC or PR when it is not transcribed. In step 29 (FIG. 3) or in step 47 (FIG. 4), any document or any document characteristic transmitted in phonetic form by the server SC or PR is definitively synthesized by voice in the terminal TE which renders it by voice.

As already stated, the user terminal TM may be a mobile cellular radiotelephone RT for example GSM or UMTS, or any other type of mobile device and personal telecommunications ^private. In known manner, the radiotelephone RT comprises a user interface provided with a keyboard and / or a voice dialogue device, a screen, a microphone, a loudspeaker and, where appropriate, a '' a biometric fingerprint sensor.

In FIG. 5 are shown schematically the main fixed means of the radiotelephony network RR connecting at a given time the mobile radiotelephone terminal TM to the central server SC. The main fixed means are a current base station BTS radio-electrically covering the current cell in which the mobile terminal TM is momentarily located, a base station controller BSC and a mobile service switch MSC. The MSC switch can be connected directly to the RP packet network. Associated with the switch MSC is a visitor location register VLR which manages the location area of a few cells of the RR network and which temporarily stores identities and profiles of mobile terminals located in this area. The RR radio network also includes at least one nominal location register HLR connected to switches in the mobile service MSC through the signaling network of the RR radio network. The HLR recorder mainly contains a database recording for each of the predetermined mobile terminals, in this case the terminal TM, the international identity of the user US, owner of the mobile identity card SIM included in the terminal, the user number MSISDN and the subscription profile of the user which, according to the invention, contains an indicator of subscription of the user to the service for building up and updating documentary holdings. This indicator is used to validate a call from the SC server by the TM terminal via the MSC-VLR pair. Although the access network RA as a radiotelephony network RR can be used according to the network architecture with proxy PR according to FIG. 1 for a mobile terminal TM, a preferred embodiment of the invention provides for a buffer server ST which is added in conjunction with the MSC-VLR pair in order to temporarily relay the central server SC, as shown in FIG. 5. The buffer server ST acts as temporary cache for the personalized sets of characteristics of multimedia documents and possibly of these relative documents mobile users temporarily in the location area associated with the MSC switch. In particular, the buffer server ST temporarily and at least partially stores the list of IPDM addresses and other characteristics CDM of multimedia documents selected by users and listed in table T2. The buffer server ST thus plays an equivalent role to the buffer memory MT of the terminal TE. So that the user's terminal TM does not remain permanently connected to consult multimedia documents, especially to modify the list of selected multimedia documents, and thus to avoid congestion in the RR radiotelephony network, the user US of the terminal TM retains the initiative of calling the central server SC for a change or an update of the list of multimedia documents. However, the link between the terminal TM and the server SC via the buffer server ST is broken in step 32 (FIG. 3) or step 51 (FIG. 4) without offering the possibility of modification in step 44.

The ^{'transmission} characteristics of multimedia and possibly them in step 29

(Figure 3) or in step 47 (Figure 4) is performed immediately between. the central server SC and the buffer server ST, but can be deferred between the buffer server ST and the terminal TM as a function of the traffic in the switch MSC and the overall size of the characteristics of the multimedia documents and possibly of these to be transmitted. For example, the buffer server ST has the initiative of taking up the link with the terminal TM when the size of the accumulated data, such as characteristics and documents, to be transmitted to the terminal exceeds a predetermined threshold so as to download these data in installments. to the terminal from the ST buffer server.

When the characteristics of multimedia documents and these must be synthesized by voice, the ST server ensures their transcription phonetics so that the TM terminal finishes the speech synthesis of the characteristics of multimedia documents and these.

Multimedia documents can have a relatively large size compared to the size of the non-volatile memory in the mobile radiotelephone RT, preferably the radiotelephone RT is connected to an auxiliary device DA in order to use the additional memory in this device to store document characteristics and selected documents transmitted by the central server SC via the buffer server ST to the radiotelephone RT.

For example, when the user is in a vehicle, the auxiliary device DA is a car radio which is connected to the radiotelephone RT and which supplements the capacity of the non-volatile memory in the radiotelephone.

Claims

1 - Method for constituting in terminals respective lists of multimedia documents read in servers through a packet network, characterized in that it comprises the steps of:

- supply (21-28) from the terminals (TE) respective lists of addresses (IPDM) of documents (DM) selected in the servers (SW] _- SWι) to an updating means (SC, PR) connected the packet network (RP) so that the updating means stores the addresses of the terminals (USID, IPTE) in correspondence with the respective lists,

- update and store (12-15) periodically in the updating means (SC, PR) at least the characteristics (CDM) of each document (DM) selected by at least one terminal (TE) by transferring the characteristics of the document from the server (SWi) designated by the address of the document in response to a call (12) from the designated server (SWi) ^by the updating means, and

- in response to a call (40, 41) from the updating means (SC) by the terminal to consult documents from the respective list, do not download (46-49) in the terminal (TE) the characteristics (CDM) of each document (DM) of the respective list which has been updated only since the last download of the document in the terminal so that the documents of the respective list whose characteristics have been updated, are updated in the terminal simultaneously with a consultation of those this.

2 - Process according to claim 1, according to which the documents of the respective list including the characteristics have been updated, are updated in the terminal by downloading them from the corresponding servers (SWι_-SWχ) in the terminal.

3 - Method according to claim 1, according to which all the documents (DM) whose addresses (IPDM) are provided by the terminals are updated in the updating means (SC, PR), and the documents (DM) of the respective list which have been updated since their last respective downloads in the terminal (TE), are also downloaded into the terminal in response to the call of the updating means (SC) by the terminal.

4 Method according to any one of claims 1 to 3, according to which the updating means comprises a proxy server (PR) for updating and memorizing the characteristics (CDM) of the documents (DM) selected by at least one terminal (TE ) and the documents selected in order to transmit them to the terminal after each start-up thereof, and a central means (SC) connected to the packet network (RP) for memorizing the addresses

(IPDM) of the selected documents (DM) corresponding to the identifier (USID) of one of the users (US) of the terminal (TE).

5 - Method according to any one of claims 1 to 4, further comprising steps of:

- assign (29) in the updating means

(SC) reading indicators (LEC) to the selected documents, each reading indicator having first and second states respectively when updated characteristics (CDM) of the document have not been downloaded and have been downloaded to the terminal (TE) by the updating means (SC),

- set (16) to the first state the read indicator (LEC) of each document, at least the characteristics of which (CDM) have just been updated and transferred from the server designated by the address of the document so as not to download (46 -47) in the terminal (TE) characteristics that updated documents (DM) belonging to the respective list and corresponding to reading indicators in the first state in response to a call (40, 41) from the updating means (SC ) through the terminal, and

- Put (48) in the second state the reading indicator (LEC) corresponding to each document (DM) whose updated characteristics have just been downloaded in the terminal (TE).

6 - Method according to claim 5, comprising after the call (40, 41) of the updating means (SC) by a terminal (TE), steps of adding (44) the address (IPDMj) of a document (DMj) selected from the terminal in the respective list and set (45) to the first state a read indicator (LEC) corresponding to the added document.

7 - Process according to claim 6, according to which, in response to the added address (IPDMj) of a document added by a terminal (TE) in the set of document addresses in the updating means (SC) , the central means preferably immediately calls (12) the server (SWj) designated by the added document address in order to load (114) at least the characteristics (CDMi) of the document designated by the added address and from it associate (115) a read indicator (LEC) set to the first state.

8 - Method according to any one of claims 5 to 7, comprising after the call (40,

41) of the updating means (SC, PR) by a terminal (TE), a step of deleting (44) the address (IPDM) of a document (DM) selected by the terminal in the respective list stored in the update means (SC).

9 - Method according to any one of claims 1 to 8, according to which the address list (IPDM) of selected documents (DM) is developed (25, 26), at least partially, with document addresses transmitted by the updating means (SC) at the terminal (TE).

10 - Process according to any one of claims 1 to 9, characterized by the establishment

(31, 32) of a summary (SOM) presenting the list of selected documents (DM) with the addresses (IPDM) and characteristics (CDM) of the documents in the terminal (TE).

11 - Method according to any one of claims 1 to 10, characterized by a disconnection (33, 51) of a terminal (TE) and the updating means (SC) after each transmission of updated document characteristics (CDM) ) at the terminal.

12 - Method according to any one of claims 1 to 11, according to which one (TM) of the terminals comprises a radiotelephone (RT) in a cellular radio network (RR), characterized in that a fixed network switch (MSC) of the radio network is connected to a buffer means (ST) for temporarily and at least partially storing document characteristics (CDM) and updated documents (DM) downloaded by the updating means (SC) to the radiotelephone (RT).

13 - Method according to claim 12, according to which the radiotelephone (RT) is connected to an auxiliary device (DA) comprising a memory for storing document characteristics (CDM) and documents (DM) downloaded by the updating means (SC) on the radiotelephone.

14 - Method according to any one of claims 1 to 13, according to which the updating means (SC, PR) transcribes phonetically and stores any document characteristic (CDM) or text document (DM) before downloading it to a terminal (TE), and the terminal vocally renders the document characteristic or the downloaded document in phonetically transcribed form.

15 - Updating means (SC) for updating at least characteristics of selected multimedia documents, for constituting in terminals respective lists of multimedia documents read in servers through a packet network, characterized in that it comprises a first memory means (Tl) for matching the address (IPDM) of each document selected in one of the servers from user terminals to a list of terminal user identifiers (USID) having selected the document so that the updating means periodically updates and stores (12-14) at least any characteristic (CDM) of a selected document whose address is contained in the first memory means, and a second means of memory (T2) to match the identifier (USID) of each user of a terminal (TE) to at least the list of documents selected by the user so as not to download (46-49) in the terminal the characteristics of each document in the list which has been updated only since the last download of the document in the terminal in response to a call (40, 41) from the updating means by the terminal, the user of which has an identifier contained in the second means of memory and so that the documents in the list whose characteristics have been updated, are updated in the terminal simultaneously with their consultation.

16 - Update means according to claim 15, in which a terminal user identifier (USID) is associated with at least one terminal address (IPTE).

17 - Update means according to claim 15 or 16, in which identifiers (USID) of several users are associated with a terminal address (IPTE).