JP2006180383A - Data transfer device and transfer method - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To transfer information accumulated in AV equipment to an information storage device in a remote place through a communication network for a shorter period than using PC without using a computing machine such as PC or the like. <P>SOLUTION: The data transfer device is comprised of: a means for transmitting and receiving packets between communication networks; a means for receiving information from the AV equipment; a means for converting the information into digital information if the information from the AV equipment received by the receiving means is not digital information; a means for assembling the digital information into packets; and a packet transfer means for transferring the assembled packets by the assembling means to the information storage device. Further, the data transfer device can be comprised of a means for actually measuring data transfer capability between the information storage device and the data transfer device, and a means for calculating an estimate value of the data transfer capability based on an actual measurement result of the measuring means. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2006,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention is used for an apparatus connected between an AV device as a home appliance and a communication network. In particular, the present invention relates to a technique for transferring information stored in an AV device to a storage device at a remote location.

  The present invention is an invention premised on application to AV equipment, but is not limited to AV equipment, and can be widely used for home appliances that generate or store information. Therefore, although the term AV equipment is used here for explanation, this term is used as a representative term for general household appliances that generate or store audio information, visual information, text information, or any other information. In particular, it is assumed that the AV device does not have a communication network interface.

  An information home appliance having a communication network interface has a communication network function as a function of directly connecting the information home appliance to a communication network, but is expensive due to the complexity of setting the communication network function and the communication network function. Since it becomes, it has not reached general use. In many cases, in order to store information stored in an AV home appliance such as a digital video camera in a device at a remote location via a communication network, the personal computer (hereinafter referred to as PC) having a storage device from the AV device. ) Is temporarily stored, and then the PC is connected to a communication network, and this information is transferred to an information storage device at a remote location to store the information.

  As shown in FIG. 11, information stored in an AV device 201 such as a digital video camera is stored in a server on a communication network via a PC so that it can be used between friends. However, the use of AV equipment 201 such as a digital video camera and a PC is indispensable, but the operation of the PC is more complicated than the operation of the digital video camera. Further, in the case of information such as a moving image, a large storage capacity and copying time are required to temporarily store the information in the PC.

  As described above, the AV device 202 as an information home appliance having a communication network interface has a function of directly transferring information from the AV device 202 to the information storage device 401 via the communication network. Due to the complexity of the function settings and the high price due to the communication network function, it has not been used in general.

  The present invention has been carried out against such a background. Information stored in an AV device can be transmitted via a communication network without using a computer such as a PC or in a shorter time than when a PC is used. It is an object of the present invention to provide a data transfer device and a transfer method that can be transferred to an information storage device at a remote location.

  A first aspect of the present invention is a unit connected between an AV device and a communication network, and means for transferring information stored in the AV device to an information storage device connected to the communication network via the communication network. Is a data transfer device.

  Here, a feature of the present invention is that the transferring means includes means for transmitting / receiving packets to / from the communication network, means for receiving information from the AV device, and means for receiving the information. When the information received from the AV device is not digital information, means for converting the information into digital information, means for assembling the digital information into a packet, and transferring the packet assembled by the assembling means to the information storage device And a packet transfer means (claim 1).

  As a result, even if the AV device does not have an interface for connecting to the communication network, the information stored in the AV device can be transferred to the information storage device at a remote location. At this time, the information received from the AV device is not temporarily stored in the data transfer device, but is sequentially transferred to the information storage device, so there is no need to provide a large-capacity memory like a PC. Also, the time required for data copying is not required.

  Further, it is desirable to include means for actually measuring the data transfer capability between the information storage device and the own data transfer device, and means for calculating an estimated value of the data transfer capability based on the actual measurement result of the actual measurement unit. (Claim 2).

  As a result, it is possible to perform data transfer with a capacity suitable for the data transfer capability, so there is too much information, information is discarded along the way, or there is too little information to transfer more than necessary. It can avoid things like taking time.

  The means for converting to digital information comprises means for converting information received from the AV device into digital information using an encoding parameter having a data transfer capability corresponding to the estimated value based on the estimated value. (Claim 3).

  Thereby, when converting into digital information, the amount of information to be transferred can be adjusted.

  In addition, when there is no information received from the AV device, the actual measurement unit measures the data transfer capability by transmitting / receiving test data to / from the information storage device, and is received from the AV device. When there is information, it is possible to provide means for actually measuring the data transfer capability by observing the state of transfer of the information.

  Thus, when there is no transfer information, the data transfer capability is actually measured using the test data, so that when information from the AV device is received, data transfer with an appropriate amount of information can be performed promptly. . Furthermore, each time data transfer is performed, the data transfer capability at that time is actually measured, so that the accurate data transfer capability can be estimated based on the latest measurement result.

  According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a video providing system comprising means for constructing an archive (library) in the information storage device using the data transfer device of the present invention.

  For example, if a group of peers belonging to the same group specify one information storage device, an archive (library) based on the video data that they photographed will be automatically built here, and they can be viewed at any time. Can do.

  A third aspect of the present invention provides data that is connected between an AV device and a communication network, and that transfers information stored in the AV device to an information storage device connected to the communication network via the communication network. This is a data transfer method executed by the transfer device.

  Here, the present invention is characterized in that the information received from the AV device is received, and if the information received from the AV device is not digital information by the receiving step, the information is converted into digital information. And a step of assembling the digital information into a packet and a step of transferring the packet assembled by the assembling step to the information storage device.

  Further, the step of actually measuring the data transfer capability between the information storage device and the own data transfer device and the step of calculating the estimated value of the data transfer capability based on the actual measurement result of the actual measurement step may be executed. (Claim 7).

  The step of converting into the digital information is a step of converting information received from the AV device into digital information using an encoding parameter having a data transfer capability corresponding to the estimated value based on the estimated value. (Claim 8).

  In the actual measurement step, when there is no information received from the AV device, the data transfer capability is actually measured by transmitting / receiving test data to / from the information storage device and received from the AV device. When there is information, the step of actually measuring the data transfer capability can be executed by observing the state of transfer of the information (claim 9).

  According to the present invention, information stored in an AV device can be stored in an information storage device at a remote location via a communication network without using a computer such as a PC or in a shorter time than when a PC is used. can do.

  A data transfer apparatus and transfer method according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a block configuration of a data transfer apparatus of this embodiment and a connection configuration with a communication network and AV equipment. FIG. 2 is a diagram for explaining the data transfer apparatus and transfer method of this embodiment. FIG. 3 is a diagram showing own device information and information storage device information used in the data transfer device of this embodiment. FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing the data transfer method of this embodiment.

  In this embodiment, as shown in FIG. 1, the information is stored between the AV device 201 and the communication network 301, and the information stored in the AV device 201 is transferred to the information storage device 401 connected to the communication network 301. The data transfer apparatus 101 includes means for transferring via the 301.

  Here, the present embodiment is characterized in that the transfer means includes a network communication unit 104 that transmits and receives packets to and from the communication network 301, and an input processing unit 103 that receives information from the AV device 201. The input processing unit 103 includes means for converting the information received from the AV device 201 into digital information when the information received from the AV device 201 is not digital information, and means for assembling the digital information into a packet. Reference numeral 104 is provided with a packet transfer means for transferring the packet assembled by the assembling means to the information storage device 401 (Claim 1).

  In addition, the network communication unit 104 calculates a data transfer capability between the information storage device 401 and the own data transfer device 101, and calculates an estimated value of the data transfer capability based on an actual measurement result of the actual measurement unit. Means (claim 2).

  In addition, the means for converting the input processing unit 103 into the digital information converts the information received from the AV device 201 into digital information using an encoding parameter having a data transfer capability corresponding to the estimated value based on the estimated value. Means for converting is provided (claim 3).

  The means for measuring the network communication unit 104 measures the data transfer capability by transmitting / receiving test data to / from the information storage device 401 when there is no information received from the AV device 201, and When there is information received from 201, a means for measuring the data transfer capability by observing the state of transfer of the information is provided (claim 4).

  As shown in FIG. 2, when information from the AV device 201 is transferred to the information storage device 401 by the data transfer device 101 of this embodiment, a process of receiving information from the AV device 201 ((1) in FIG. 2). ) And the process of transferring information to the information storage device 401 ((2) in FIG. 2) proceed simultaneously. Therefore, it is only necessary to hold the data for the difference in processing time between the process (1) and the process (2) in FIG. 2, and it is not necessary to hold all the data once like the PC. For this reason, even if the total amount of data to be transferred is enormous, the amount of data held by the input processing unit 103 or the network communication unit 104 may be small. Further, unlike the PC, it is not necessary to copy and take in all the data once, and accordingly, the time required for data transfer can be shortened as compared with the case where the PC is used.

  Further, in the present embodiment, as shown in FIG. 4, information stored in the AV device 201 is connected to the information storage device 401 connected to the communication network 301 and connected between the AV device 201 and the communication network 301. This is a data transfer method executed by the data transfer apparatus 101 for transferring via the communication network 301.

  Here, the feature of the present embodiment is that steps S3 and S4 for receiving information from the AV device 201 and the information received from the AV device 201 in the received steps S3 and S4 are not digital information ( S5) performing step S8 for converting the information into digital information, step S6 for assembling the digital information into a packet, and step S7 for transferring the packet assembled by the assembling step S6 to the information storage device 401. (Claim 6).

  In addition, steps S1 and S2 for actually measuring the data transfer capability between the information storage device 401 and the own data transfer device 101 are executed. In steps S1 and S2 for actual measurement, the data transfer capability is further estimated based on the actual measurement results. The value is calculated (claim 7).

  The step S8 of converting into digital information executes the step of converting the information received from the AV device 201 into digital information using an encoding parameter having a data transfer capability corresponding to the estimated value based on the estimated value. (Claim 8).

  In steps S1 and S2 for actual measurement, when there is no information received from the AV device 201, the data transfer capability is actually measured by transmitting / receiving test data to / from the information storage device 401 and received from the AV device 201. When there is information to be transmitted, the data transfer capability is actually measured by observing the transfer status of the information (claim 9).

  FIG. 10 is a diagram showing a video providing system provided with means for constructing an archive (library) in the information storage device 401 using the data transfer device 101 of this embodiment (claim 5). This construction means is realized by the input processing unit 103, the network communication unit 104, and the setting information holding unit 105 in each data transfer apparatus 101.

  Hereinafter, this embodiment will be described in more detail.

  As shown in FIG. 1, the data transfer apparatus 101 is connected to an AV device 201 that holds information such as video, and transfers the input information to the information storage apparatus 401 via the communication network 301. The data transfer apparatus 101 includes an operation button 102, an input processing unit 103, a network communication unit 104, and a setting information holding unit 105.

  When the data transfer apparatus 101 is connected to the communication network 301, the data transfer apparatus 101 performs communication settings to the information storage apparatus 401 via the communication network based on the contents of the setting information holding unit 105. The network communication unit 104 automatically performs a communication test with the information storage device 401, measures the available bandwidth and delay time, and records the available digital encoding method in the setting information holding unit 105. The start and end of information transfer are performed by the operation buttons 102.

  One or more input processing units 103 may be mounted in accordance with the output format of the AV device 201. When the output format of the AV device 201 is an analog system, the input processing unit 103 reads the encoded information from the setting information holding unit 105 and digitally encodes it. The digitized data is sent to the network communication unit 104 where it is packetized and transmitted to the information storage device 401 via the communication network 301. When the output format of the AV device 201 is digitized data, it is sent to the network communication unit 104 where it is packetized and sent to the information storage device 401 via the communication network 301.

  The setting information holding unit 105 stores information shown in FIGS. 3 and 9 in advance. Further, a data storage area shown in FIGS. 5 and 6 is also secured. The communication network setting information includes own device information and information storage device information. As own device information, own address, default router, subnet mask, DNS server address, and proxy server address are stored. When the communication network provides a function for automatically acquiring setting information such as DHCP, the setting for the provision items is not necessary. Information storage device information includes an address, a port, a user account, and authentication information.

  The operation procedure of the data transfer apparatus 101 is shown in FIG. When the power is turned on, the data transfer apparatus 101 reads the communication network setting information of the setting information holding unit 105, performs a communication network connection test (S1), and confirms whether the connection with the information storage apparatus 401 is possible. If the test result is good, test data is transmitted and received between the data transfer apparatus 101 and the information storage apparatus 401, and the data transfer capability is measured (S2). As shown in FIG. 5, the measurement value is written into the setting information holding unit 105 for each day of the week and time period. As shown in FIG. 6, the measured value and the estimated value are calculated, and finally the transfer capability used for encoding is calculated. FIG. 7 shows a method for updating the estimated value.

  As shown in FIG. 7, the estimated value is updated by updating the latest measured value Rij (S11) and updating the estimated value Xij based on this (S12). When determining the transfer capability T used for encoding, the latest measured value Rij and the estimated value Xij are compared, and the smaller one (min (Xij, Rij)) is adopted (S13).

  In this state, the apparatus waits for data input from the AV device 201 (S3). In this state, when data input to the input processing unit 103 is detected (S4), the data is written to the transmission buffer of the network communication unit 104. The processing of the input processing unit 104 differs depending on whether the input data is digital data or analog data. In the case of digital data (S5), a communication network communication header is added, converted into packet data (S6), and transmitted (S7).

  In the case of analog data (S5), based on the data transfer capability determined by the method of FIG. 7, the encoding parameters at the time of digitization are determined using FIG. 9, and this is used to digitize the data. (S8), after being converted into packet data (S6), it is transmitted (S7).

  After all the input data has been transmitted (S9), the values shown in FIGS. 7 and 8 are calculated using the data transfer values based on the data transmitted at this time, and the tables shown in FIGS. 5 and 6 are updated. . These tables are retained even after the data transfer device is powered off (S10).

Here, an update algorithm of the estimated value Xij shown in FIG. 8 will be described. As shown in FIG. 8, the presence / absence of the current estimated value (Xij = 0?) Is determined (S14). If there is no current estimated value (= 0), the presence / absence of estimated values in the preceding and following time zones ( Xi (j + 1) ≠ 0 and Xi (j−1) ≠ 0) are determined (S15). If there is an estimated value for the preceding and following time zones (not 0), the current estimated value is calculated for the preceding and following time zones. The average value of the estimated values is substituted (S16). Subsequently, the current estimated value is updated with the latest measured value (S17).
Xij = αXij + (1-α) Rij
Α is 0 <α <1, and the closer α is to 0, the more the current estimated value can be updated with the latest measured value, and the closer α is to 1, the more the first measurement is updated. Can be used without The optimum value for α is set in consideration of the communication network environment and other factors.

  If any of the estimated values in the preceding and following time zones is not present (= 0), the latest measured value Rij is set as the estimated value Xij (S18).

  According to the present invention, information stored in an AV device can be transferred to a remote information storage device via a communication network without using a computer such as a PC or in a shorter time than when using a PC. Therefore, it is not necessary to add complicated functions to the AV device, and the convenience for the user can be improved.

The figure which shows the block structure of the data transfer apparatus of a present Example, and a connection structure with a communication network and AV apparatus. The figure for demonstrating the data transfer apparatus and transfer method of a present Example. The figure which shows the communication network setting information which the data transfer apparatus of a present Example hold | maintains. The flowchart which shows the data transfer method of a present Example. The figure which shows the throughput estimation table which the data transfer apparatus of a present Example hold | maintains. The figure which shows the throughput measurement result table | surface which the data transfer apparatus of a present Example hold | maintains. The flowchart which shows the transfer capability determination procedure used for the encoding of a present Example. The flowchart which shows the estimated value update algorithm of a present Example. The figure which shows the encoding system list | wrist of a present Example. The figure which shows the structural example of the image | video provision system of a present Example. The figure for demonstrating the conventional data transfer method.

Explanation of symbols

101 Data Transfer Device 102 Operation Button 103 Input Processing Unit 104 Network Communication Unit 105 Setting Information Holding Unit 106 Display Units 201 and 202 AV Device 301 Communication Network 401 Information Storage Device

Claims (9)

Connected between the AV device and the communication network,
A data transfer device comprising means for transferring information stored in the AV device to an information storage device connected to the communication network via the communication network,
The means for transferring is
Means for transmitting and receiving packets to and from the communication network;
Means for receiving information from the AV device;
Means for converting the information received from the AV device by the receiving means into digital information when the information is not digital information;
Means for assembling this digital information into packets;
A data transfer apparatus comprising: packet transfer means for transferring a packet assembled by the assembling means to the information storage apparatus. Means for actually measuring the data transfer capability between the information storage device and the own data transfer device;
The data transfer device according to claim 1, further comprising means for calculating an estimated value of the data transfer capability based on an actual measurement result of the actual measurement means.   The means for converting to digital information comprises means for converting information received from the AV device into digital information using an encoding parameter having a data transfer capability corresponding to the estimated value based on the estimated value. Item 4. The data transfer device according to Item 1.   When there is no information received from the AV device, the means for actual measurement measures the data transfer capability by transmitting / receiving test data to / from the information storage device, and information received from the AV device is obtained. 3. A data transfer apparatus according to claim 2, further comprising means for actually measuring the data transfer capability by observing the transfer status of the information.   5. A video providing system comprising means for constructing an archive (library) in the information storage device using the data transfer device according to claim 1. Connected between the AV device and the communication network,
A data transfer method executed by a data transfer device that transfers information stored in the AV device to an information storage device connected to the communication network via the communication network,
Receiving information from the AV device;
When the information received from the AV device is not digital information by the receiving step, converting the information into digital information;
Assembling this digital information into packets;
And a step of transferring the packet assembled in the assembling step to the information storage device. Actually measuring the data transfer capability between the information storage device and the data transfer device;
The data transfer method according to claim 6, further comprising: calculating an estimated value of the data transfer capability based on an actual measurement result of the actual measurement step.   The step of converting into the digital information executes a step of converting information received from the AV device into digital information using an encoding parameter having a data transfer capability corresponding to the estimated value based on the estimated value. Item 7. The data transfer method according to Item 6.   In the actual measurement step, when there is no information received from the AV device, the data transfer capability is measured by transmitting / receiving test data to / from the information storage device, and information received from the AV device is obtained. The data transfer method according to claim 7, wherein if there is, the step of actually measuring the data transfer capability is performed by observing the transfer status of the information.

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