Classifications

• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
  • H04N—PICTORIAL COMMUNICATION, e.g. TELEVISION
  • H04N21/00—Selective content distribution, e.g. interactive television or video on demand [VOD]
  • H04N21/80—Generation or processing of content or additional data by content creator independently of the distribution process; Content per se
  • H04N21/83—Generation or processing of protective or descriptive data associated with content; Content structuring
  • H04N21/84—Generation or processing of descriptive data, e.g. content descriptors
  • H04N21/8405—Generation or processing of descriptive data, e.g. content descriptors represented by keywords
• • G—PHYSICS
  • G06—COMPUTING; CALCULATING OR COUNTING
  • G06F—ELECTRIC DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING
  • G06F16/00—Information retrieval; Database structures therefor; File system structures therefor
  • G06F16/70—Information retrieval; Database structures therefor; File system structures therefor of video data
  • G06F16/71—Indexing; Data structures therefor; Storage structures
• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
  • H04N—PICTORIAL COMMUNICATION, e.g. TELEVISION
  • H04N21/00—Selective content distribution, e.g. interactive television or video on demand [VOD]
  • H04N21/20—Servers specifically adapted for the distribution of content, e.g. VOD servers; Operations thereof
  • H04N21/23—Processing of content or additional data; Elementary server operations; Server middleware
  • H04N21/235—Processing of additional data, e.g. scrambling of additional data or processing content descriptors
• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
  • H04N—PICTORIAL COMMUNICATION, e.g. TELEVISION
  • H04N21/00—Selective content distribution, e.g. interactive television or video on demand [VOD]
  • H04N21/40—Client devices specifically adapted for the reception of or interaction with content, e.g. set-top-box [STB]; Operations thereof
  • H04N21/43—Processing of content or additional data, e.g. demultiplexing additional data from a digital video stream; Elementary client operations, e.g. monitoring of home network or synchronising decoder's clock; Client middleware
  • H04N21/435—Processing of additional data, e.g. decrypting of additional data, reconstructing software from modules extracted from the transport stream

Definitions

• the invention relates to a method for storing search features of an image sequence and access to the image sequence on the basis of the search features.
• a wide range of audiovisual information (image sequences) is now stored in digitized form at various locations. In order to use this audiovisual information, it is first necessary to find the data of interest.
• the MPEG standards for image compression are well known to the person skilled in the art.
• An image sequence identifies a series of related images.
• a picture scene is a real one
• Subset of an image sequence and is introduced by an intra image defined in MPEG or ITU standards.
• the object of the invention is to provide a method for storing search features of an image sequence / image scene and to enable access to this image sequence / image scene via these search features.
• the method enables search features of an image sequence to be stored and access to the image sequence based on the search features, the search features being determined from the image sequence.
• the search features are saved together with the image sequence. On the The image sequence is accessed if the search features contain predetermined information.
• search features are audio data and / or video data of the image sequence.
• search features which in turn contain a reference (pointer), make it possible to access an image within the image sequence.
• the access can take place in that the reference contains a temporal offset within the image sequence and thereby references the image. This ensures access to the image.
• the reference thus addresses the picture and thus a beginning within the picture sequence.
• Another further development consists in storing each individual image scene in a database and thus ensuring access to the image scene.
• An additional development consists in storing individual search features in the image sequence for individual objects defined according to the MPEG or ITU standards within the image sequence. This makes it possible to also offer entry points related to such objects and linked to the search features. It is also a further development to uniquely identify the search features by a predetermined start code (header).
• search features are stored together with the image sequence, an extensive image database can be put together from individual such image sequences.
• a global, preferably external, reference list on the other hand, which contains search features and corresponding references to the image sequence, complicates a modular structure of the
• Image sequence (especially if it consists of several image sequences, which in turn are to be exported individually to other databases).
• FIG. 1 shows a block diagram which represents a method for storing search features of an image sequence and access to the image sequence on the basis of the search features
• FIG. 3 a sketch showing the search features and associated references that dereference image data.
• search features are determined from the image sequence.
• images are searched which correspond to a given sample image in whole or in part. This is achieved by first analyzing the sample image for predetermined features, in particular the predominant color or typical shapes that occur. These characteristics are stored in a database and with a pointer to the image material to be referenced, i.e. the sample image found within the image sequence.
• the search features are stored together with the image sequence in a step 1b.
• access to the image sequence on the basis of the search features is made possible in a step 1c by comparing a predefinable feature with the search features and, if a match has been found, jumping to the image sequence within the image sequence that is referenced by the search feature.
• Fig.2a is an image sequence GOP (Group of Pictures, as defined in MPEG standards), which has a header H and
• FIGS. 2a to 2b Contains image information BE.
• a time axis t which runs vertically from top to bottom applies to all of FIGS. 2a to 2b. This indicates that it is the temporal course of an image sequence that is stored as an image sequence.
• search features M precede the image sequence GOP.
• the search features M are preferably stored in an easily readable form as a list in plain text (ASCII code). Long lists with search features can also be saved in compressed form.
• a pointer PTR to an image within the image sequence is connected to each individual search feature, this image indicating the start of an image sequence which is linked to the search feature within the image sequence. Such references (pointers) are shown as arrows PTR in FIGS. 2a to 2d.
• the search features M can, as shown in FIG. 2c, be stored within an image sequence GOP.
• references PTR linked to the search features M must refer to image information before (in FIG. 2c above the search features M) or to image information temporally after the search features M (in FIG. 2c below the search features M).
• An audiovisual scene can contain several search feature sets Ml, M2, M31 and M32.
• the search feature sets Ml and M2 relate to image data BD in general, while the search feature sets M31 and M32 each contain search features, the entries (references) of which, within the image sequences separated by objects 01 and 02, refer to corresponding locations to be referenced.
• FIG. 3 An organization of a list of search features and their relationship to the image data BD is shown in FIG. 3.
• the search features M are prefixed in the form of a list of the image sequence GOP, which contains the header H and the image data BD.
• the list contains several search features SM1 and SM2.
• Each search characteristic comprises a descriptive component INF01 and INF02 and each a reference (pointer) PTR1 and PTR2 to an image within the image data BD.
• each second search characteristic SM2J_ is preferably a first object and the other search characteristic SM ( 2i + ⁇ ) is a second

Landscapes

• Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
• Multimedia (AREA)
• Signal Processing (AREA)
• Theoretical Computer Science (AREA)
• Software Systems (AREA)
• Databases & Information Systems (AREA)
• Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
• General Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
• General Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
• Data Mining & Analysis (AREA)
• Compression Or Coding Systems Of Tv Signals (AREA)
• Television Signal Processing For Recording (AREA)
• Information Retrieval, Db Structures And Fs Structures Therefor (AREA)

Priority Applications (3)

Applications Claiming Priority (2)

Publications (1)

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Family Applications (1)

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Citations (2)

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• 1998
  • 1998-05-05 EP EP98933456A patent/EP0996901A1/de not_active Ceased
  • 1998-05-05 KR KR1020007000621A patent/KR20010022052A/ko not_active Application Discontinuation
  • 1998-05-05 CN CN98809428A patent/CN1271443A/zh active Pending
  • 1998-05-05 JP JP2000504519A patent/JP2001511560A/ja active Pending
  • 1998-05-05 WO PCT/DE1998/001254 patent/WO1999005611A1/de not_active Application Discontinuation

Patent Citations (2)

Non-Patent Citations (1)

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