WO2003098889A1

WO2003098889A1 - Transmission of messages containing image information

Info

Publication number: WO2003098889A1
Application number: PCT/FI2003/000384
Authority: WO
Inventors: Tero Jartti; Jari Hietanen
Original assignee: Tero Jartti; Jari Hietanen
Priority date: 2002-05-17
Filing date: 2003-05-19
Publication date: 2003-11-27
Also published as: EP1506648B1; ATE472878T1; FI20020932A0; DE60333186D1; AU2003233819A1; EP1506648A1

Abstract

Method and system for transmitting messages containing pictorial information to terminals, whereby a sender sends a message to a receiver by selecting the pictorial information (MOVIE1-MOVIE3) to be included in the message from the memory of an image server or corresponding memory unit provided in the system, wherein the pictorial information is in a motion picture type format, such as a short film or equivalent. The memory contains versions of the same pictorial information that are suited for terminals of different levels, and the service takes the technical properties of the receiver's terminal into account and choosen an implementation/version of implementation of the pictorial information that is compatible with the properties of the terminal.

Description

TRANSMISSION OF MESSAGES CONTAINING IMAGE INFORMATION

The present invention relates to a method and system for transmitting a message containing image information to different terminals.

Text messages can be transmitted e.g. in a GSM network by the agency of a short message service, which is capable of sending text messages of a certain length, containing e.g. a maximum of 160 characters, from one GSM telephone to another. The text message service is controlled by a Short Message Service Center (SMSC), which functions as a store-and-forward type center. The text message may contain simple images, but their information content is relatively limited.

The object of the present invention is to achieve a service based on pictorial messages that will make it possible to send messages containing text and image information (e.g. short movie or music video) with good quality to terminals of different levels. The terminal may be e.g. a mobile telephone, a palmtop microcomputer (PDA) or digital television. The service takes into account the technical properties of the terminal and selects an implementation / version of implementation of the image information message that is compatible with the properties of the terminal.

WHAT PROBLEMS OF PRIOR ART ARE SOLVED BY THE INVENTION?

PROBLEM 1 : TECHNICAL QUALITY IN THE RECEIVER'S TERMINAL

When material containing image information is sent to a receiver without knowing what kind of terminal the receiver is using, the sender can not be sure that the message will reach the destination. The receiver's terminal does not neces- sarily support the format in which the message is sent. Even if the message does reach the receiver, its technical quality may be so poor that the receiver will lose the essential content of the message. In the service according to the invention, this problem is eliminated as the image information to be transmitted has b een reproduced beforehand i n s everal d ifferent versions by considering the technical p roperties of d ifferent receiving terminals regarding reception of information transmitted. Thus, the receiver will receive a version that has been implemented expressly for the properties of his/her terminal. The service of the invention ensures that a receiver whose telephone supports at least MMS properties will be able to view a received message containing image information immediately as a good-quality message and to react to it.

PROBLEM 2: DIFFICULTY OF USE OF THE SERVICE

When the user wants to find or especially to forward a movie serving as a personal message, finding a movie among numerous alternatives that is appropriate for the purpose and previously unknown is a difficult and time-consuming task because, in order to understand the content of the film, it is necessary to view the entire film.

The invention makes the service user's selection process considerably easier and faster. Immediately upon choosing a desired genre, the service user is able to view electric posters describing different movies. The posters correspond to the respective movies in spirit and appearance, and if necessary they also contain a description (e.g. an on-liner) of the content of the movie. When a poster attracts the user's attention, he can quickly check the style, implementation, content and plot of the movie by seeing a cartoon-strip style version of the movie.

Using the service of the invention, it is also possible to attach to the image information a text portion that renders the combination a specific personal message. If the user has already conceived a text portion, he can type it himself, otherwise he can easily find a text to be attached to the image information that will be appropriate to the movie selected. The invention offers the user an easy and fast way of finding and combining suitable text to image information and sending the combination forward without having to search the Internet or any other source of information to find e.g. aphorisms of a philosopher.

PROBLEM 3: INCOMPATIBILITY OF PICTORIAL NARRATION AND AUDIO WORLD OF A MOVIE WITH THE DISPLAY AND SOUND REPRODUCTION OF DIFFERENT TERMINALS

When a movie is produced as a single version only and it is scaled to fit the receiver's terminal, there appears the problem that the pictorial narration or audio world of the movie does not function in the best possible way in all terminals. Pictorial narration designed for larger displays is seldom suitable for a small display, and much less would the audio world of a DVD-level film be functional in the modest speakers of a mobile telephone, PDA or portable computer and vice versa. A movie implemented for a small display and an audio world taking its more modest sound reproduction into account looks and sounds peculiar in a terminal that is capable of reproducing a DVD-level movie on a larger screen, with stereo or even surround sound. Even if the spectator uses earphones, the conflict between a massive sound world and a small image is disturbing. In order to be functional, the pictorial narration and audio world of a movie have to match each other.

The size of the display defines the pictorial narration of the movie to a considerable degree. Things or elements that the spectator can see without difficulty on a larger display, e.g. a 20" digital television screen or a 17" home computer dis- play, easily go unnoticed on the small display of a mobile telephone. In an implementation designed for a small display, the visibility of elements essential to the plot of the movie, such as e.g. props or actors' reactions, has to be ensured by pointing out these elements with denser images. This has an effect on the pictorial narration of the entire movie version and especially its rhythm. Fre- quent use of close shots on a larger display easily produces an awkward and aggressive effect and soon loses its cinematic effect, whereas it supports the pictorial narration esthetics and viewability required by a small display. In terminals of a larger capacity which also have a larger display, more elements supporting the atmosphere required by the content of the scene can be included in the same image. This can be accomplished via more abundant stage effects or e.g. via changing illumination a nd camera movement. An implementation designed for a smaller display and a lower terminal performance has to be composed of denser images, brisk camera movements should be avoided and pictorial narration should rely more on editing. Image cropping should be particu- larly clear and images should be more graphical.

An example (see Fig. 5a, 5b, 6 and 7a - 7e) visualizes the importance of display size for pictorial narration. In an imagined beginning of an episode in an implementation intended for a larger display, inexorable, slow dollying is used as a means of producing a cinematic effect to intensify suspense (Fig. 5a and 5b are the initial and final compositions of the same track shot). The future murder weapon, a prong-like letter holder, remains in a central position in the image between the actors and is additionally pointed out by the actor's look at the end of the track shot.

This manner of pictorial narration is justified in the case of a large display and terminals supporting a high communication speed. Such an implementation does not work in the desired manner when scaled directly for a small display. In addition, the possible lower bandwidth would be insufficient for a scene containing plenty of changing information (cf. camera movement) to be directly reproduced (streamed) into the terminal.

The letter spike, which is essential in respect of suspense in the movie (Fig. 6), is easily overlooked. For the scene to be functional both technically and in respect of pictorial narration in a handheld telephone having a small display and a narrow bandwidth, it has to be composed by editing from denser images without camera movement (Fig. 7a -7e), ensuring that both the letter spike and the actor's reaction will be visible. Images that function in both implementations may be used in common; for example, the episode may well continue in both cases with image 7e.

In respect of sound in a movie, the same problems are encountered as when considering the size of the display of the terminal. When the sound of a movie is adapted to different terminals, there appear problems regarding the dynamics of audio reproduction. Sounds that are distinguished in digital TV apparatus provided with surround sound remain partially inaudible in the loudspeaker of a mobile telephone. The stereo effect is also lost because only one speaker is available. The problems of audio dynamics have traditionally been approached by compressing the sound, in other words, by reducing the difference between the quietest and the loudest sounds. In practice, quiet sounds are amplified to a level closer to sounds of a higher volume. With this arrangement, even with modest devices it is possible to hear something like "the entire sound package". This solution impairs sound dramatics because a whisper and a scream are reproduced at almost the same volume.

In designing a sound version for a movie to be viewed on different terminals, it is necessary to go beyond conventional compression. Just as the image format of versions implemented for different terminals is dependent on the receiver (handheld telephone, computer, digital TV), the sound has to be more adaptable than what is achieved by merely narrowing the dynamics window. The solution is to prepare several audio versions for the same movie, depending on the terminal versions. In practice, it is advisable to start the audio design from a version that allows the richest audio world to be used, in other words, from a digital TV version. After this, the sound is developed to produce "lighter" styles to suit each format. In a portable telephone version with a more stripped-down pictorial narration, punchier and simpler sound is required than in a broader digital TV version to ensure that the device can reproduce it well.

For example, a scene where the protagonist is seen starting a drive on a car in a city. In a digital TV version, it is possible to include in the sound both the car's own noise, background sounds from the city, steps of people walking past, etc., but in a portable telephone version a more impressive result may be achieved by merely producing the sound of brisk acceleration of the car.

Thus, in the case of sound too, what is needed is some kind of compression of the idea and direction of attention to essential things. In the simplest case, we may speak of cartoon-like sound.

Moreover, when a portable telephone is used, the viewing situation may be susceptible to disturbances, so that finely tuned audio information will be lost in the noise of the world.

In the service of the invention, it is also possible to show old movies or scenes from them. From these, too, versions of a lighter degree of heaviness that are better suited for small displays can be produced as far as possible. Different scenes can be afterwards processed digitally, e.g. by zooming the image to a denser form or softening the background or compressing the sound.

The principle of the service is that all versions resemble each other as closely as possible. The resemblance may even be such that a spectator having seen two different versions will not necessarily even realize that the implementations were different. Naturally, a cartoon-strip style version made for terminals with lighter properties and a smaller display is implemented in a different style and differs considerably from cinematic expression. But even a cartoon-strip version is made in absolute accordance with the manuscript and corresponds to the cinematic versions in style and plot.

An essential point is that, in a service implemented according to the invention, the user sending a message consisting of text and imagery knows that the content of the message will remain the same independently of the receiver's terminal and the receiver will always receive a version that his terminal is able to reproduce as a good-quality presentation without jerky movements, tangles of pixels or other disturbances.

Description of the service of the invention

We have developed a new service for terminals utilizing digital technology, es- pecially for mobile telephones. The starting point in developing the service was to study the culture of how a short movie (in this case especially a micro-movie, which are implemented for smaller displays) will best find its users on a network. We ended up with an implementation where a micro-movie, in addition to serving as an independent work of art, also functions as a personal message or comment from sender to receiver. Thus, when receiving a micro-movie message, the receiver will know that it also contains something personal.

In simplified terms, the principle of the service is as follows: In the service, short movies provided with a message are sent from a service provider's server to terminals. The service is composed of a repository of short movies and a menu of texts. The idea is to attach a text to a movie as a fixed part of it (cf. introductory texts / postscripts in cinema films) instead of sending the text as a separate message.

The service functions in such manner that, after selecting a desired movie from the repository of short movies, the sender of the message chooses from the text menu a suitable text, which is attached to the end of the movie as a final comment or to the beginning as a title of the movie, and the whole combination is sent to the receiver.

Short movies are independent works of art. The movies may be fictional (even mere episodes from motion picture classics), documents, animations or music videos. The humor in the movies is largely based on the feelings experienced by the characters.

The text alternatives in the text menu are sayings (e.g. Persian proverb: "The bigger the head, the bigger the headache."), quotations, aphorisms, congratulations, wishes, requests, orders, admonitions, apologies and questions. If the sender so wishes, he may modify the message or alternatively write it himself.

By appending a textual portion to the end of a short movie, the sender creates a personal content in the short movie. The text at the end defines a character appearing in the movie that the receiver or sender is identified with. In this manner spiced with humor, the sender can tell the receiver things that may be otherwise difficult to express. In the best case, the same movie can be used several times, depending on the final texts. The receiver may send back the same movie but selects a different message to be attached to the end, thus completely changing the point of view... or he changes the movie but attaches the same message... or he changes both... (for example, the movie is accompanied by a message containing a response link that can be clicked to change the movie or the text. See example in Fig. 4.)

The service provides e.g. three different versions, three different degrees of heaviness of the same movie, taking into account the potential terminals (home computer, digital TV, mobile telephone) and transmission capacity. The server identifies the receiving terminal and sends to it a version of the movie consistent with its properties and communication speed. Thus, the movie can be sent e.g. as a streamed transmission or as a series of still pictures, depending on the properties supported by the receiving terminal.

The details of the features of the method and system of the invention are dis- closed in the claims presented below.

The target group of the service may consist especially of young people accustomed to mobile services. However, the range of users can easily be extended as the use of telephones capable of transmitting moving images is gaining ground. With the development of user-friendly processes, the service may reach new and new user groups, so it is possible to offer these user groups movies especially intended for them. By using the invention, teleoperators can create a new form of service, and some of the income from the service may be directed e.g. to charity organizations, which contributes towards creating additional content in the service and expanding the range of users.

In the following, the invention will be described in detail by the aid of an example with reference to the attached drawings, wherein

Fig. 1 presents a system according to the invention in simplified form. Fig. 2 illustrates the selection of a movie, Fig. 3 illustrates the operation of the service of the invention, Fig. 4 illustrates retransmission,

Fig. 5a, 5b, 6 and 7a - 7e visualize the importance of display size for pictorial narration.

Fig. 1 represents a mobile telephone system, comprising mobile stations MT1 and MT2 and a base station BS1 for the transmission of calls and messages. In the service, short movies MOVIE1+TEXT1 provided with a text are sent from an operator's server OPSERV1 to the mobile stations. The service is composed of a-repository of short movies and a text menu. The service works in such man- ner that, after selecting a desired movie MOVIE1 from the short movie repository, which may be located on an external server TPSERV1 and accessed over an Internet connection, the sender of the message selects from the text menu a text TEXT1 that he finds suitable and attaches it to the end of the movie and then sends the combination to the receiver.

The short movies MOVIE1 are independent works of art. The movies may be fictive, documentary or musical videos. The message of the movies is largely based on the feelings experienced by the characters.

The text alternatives in the text menu are proverbs, quotations, aphorisms, congratulations, wishes, requests, orders, admonitions, apologies and questions. If the sender so wishes, he may modify the message or alternatively write one himself. By appending a textual portion to the end of a short movie, the sender creates a personal content in the short movie. The text at the end defines a character appearing in the movie that the receiver or sender is identified with. In this manner spiced with humor, the sender can tell the receiver things that may be otherwise difficult to express. Example 1. HOW THE MOVIE AND THE TEXT TO BE APPENDED TO IT ARE SELECTED

1 ) The user establishes a connection to a micro-movie service, accessing the starting page of the service.

2) The user proceeds to select movies. The display of his terminal shows a menu where he can give closer definitions to indicate whether he wants to famil- iarize with all movies available or whether he wants to limit the number of movies.

The movies on the server may have been classified in various ways and the same movie may belong to several categories. The movies may have been classified e.g. by genre (e.g. comedy, scifi, horror, drama, animation, music videos...) or by production company, director, scriptwriter or by actor or other person appearing in the movie, e.g. writer or philosopher.

In the main menu, one can also find different series in the style of Tarzan, Bat- man o r F lintstones b y t heir o wn n ames. I n addition t o t hese, t he menu must contain novelties and maybe a submenu for the most popular movies.

In this example, four categories of movies are used.

3) Once the user has chosen the movies he wants to see, he is presented posters describing these movies. The posters are consistent with the spirit of the movie and tell as much as possible about its content. Besides the title of the movie, the poster may additionally bear a text descriptive of the content if necessary. The poster may also contain moving elements.

The user selects a desired movie from among the alternatives provided.

4) At this point, the user can choose the movie for transmission and proceed to the text menu to find a text suited to the movie or

5) proceed to see a cartoon-strip style collage of the movie. The collage has been produced by selecting scenes essential to the plot of the movie e.g. as still pictures, revealing the content, style and plot of the movie. If necessary, the collage may contain moving elements demonstrating the spirit of the movie. The cartoon-strip style collages allow the user to quickly browse the 5 movies to see which one is suited to his purposes.

If he so wishes, the user can proceed to see the entire movie, which will be sent to him with the capacity required by his terminal.

o From each stage, starting from the poster, the user can choose to view the movie, send the movie or enter the text menu. From each stage, the user may return backwards or go directly into the main menu.

Once the user has selected a movie, the server offers him the possibility of 15 sending the movie as such, proceeding to select a text to be appended to the movie or writing a message himself

The text menu offers him e.g. five texts appropriate to the selected movie and, in addition to these, the alternative of writing a text himself, as well as a possibil- >o ity to go on searching for more alternatives

If the user wishes to see more alternatives, he will enter a menu containing various titles according to the type of text alternatives. These may include e.g. aphorisms and proverbs, quotations, congratulations, wishes, requests, orders, ?5 admonitions, apologies and questions.

After having selected a heading, the user may read all texts provided under that heading or he may proceed to a still more precise searching stage. For example, after the headings "Proverbs and Aphorisms" has been selected, the op- 30 tions in the next menu could define the search more closely as different aspects of human life, such as: Optimism/pessimism, Happiness, Intelligence, Truth or, say, Friendship, Freedom, Child and Parents.

The selected movie determines the texts that will be primarily offered to the user 35 to read. This allows the user to pick up a choice more easily and quickly as he does not have to pay attention to texts that are not applicable to the movie selected. If the user wishes to read all the texts or use the service by first selecting a text and then finding a movie that suits it, then that is also possible.

When the user selects a text, the program tells him which combination he has selected and requests a receiver address. The address may be an Internet address (electronic mail address), a phone n umber ( MSISDN n umber) o r some other address.

The server is now sent information giving both the movie selected, the text to be appended to it and the receiver's address. The server establishes a connection with the receiver and learns what type of terminal the receiver has, whereupon it combines the text with an appropriate version of the movie and sends the combination to the receiver.

Example 2. Description of the service

The fundamental principle of the service is that of producing from the short movies available several versions of different levels already at the shooting stage. In this way it is possible to take into account the properties of terminals of different types, such as display size and video properties of the terminal, and to adapt the movie expressly for the terminal type in question. This guarantees the func- tionability of the movie both technically and artistically in limited terminal equipment environments.

For example, a movie may be made in three versions: heavy, medium heavy and light. In this example, the heavy version of the movie corresponds to a DVD-level movie having a 16:9 aspect ratio and making versatile use of different forms of visual expression (track shots, diversified sound world (DD5.1 , DTS) etc).

The medium heavy movie version is designed for mobile terminals supporting streamable movies. The movie uses lighter narration (the camera is not moving, scenes and backgrounds are static and as graphical as possible, the sound world is adapted to the properties of the terminal), so that the movie format itself supports low communication speeds, small displays and a low terminal performance. The light movie version consists of successive still pictures (cartoon-strip style narration) and takes into account even those terminals that do not support video at all.

In the example presented here, three different movie versions are used, but the number of movie versions is not limited. Instead, their number can be increased if necessary.

Example 3. Transmission of a movie to a receiver

Below is a simple description of the transmission of a movie to a receiver (see Fig. 3).

The transmission process involves the following parties: "Sender", who has chosen a desired movie and wants to send it to "receiver". The sender may attach a personal or pre-prepared text portion to the end of the movie. "Terminal" refers to the terminals MT1 and MT2 used by the sender and the receiver. "Server" OPSERV1 is the part of the movie service system that takes care of sending the movie to the receiver. "Movie server" TPSERV1 functions as a re- pository of movies.

A movie is transmitted to a receiver as follows: (see Fig. 3).

11. The receiver receives notice of a new movie having arrived. Based on this piece of information, the receiver will be able to see the movie using any terminal.

12. When the receiver wishes to see the movie, he sends a corresponding request to the server. The server identifies the receiver by the request sent to it.

13. The request is accompanied by information about the receiver's terminal *

14. The server chooses the right version of the movie (e.g. heavy, medium heavy or still version) according to the properties of the terminal. The movies may be located on a separate movie server

15. If the user has selected a text portion, the server adds it to the end of the movie (cf. postscripts in cinema films)

16. The server adapts the movie to the resolution of the display of the terminal 17. The finished movie is encoded in the server into a format supported by the terminal (e.g. realmedia, jpeg), whereupon the server sends the movie to the receiver's terminal by using a technique supported by it (e.g. streamed transmission, MMS message).

* The terminal sends the information about its properties in a separate message. The message may consist of e.g. variables that are assigned different values depending on the properties of the terminal. Table 1 presents an example of a possible implementation:

Table 1

If necessary, the number of variables can be increased if new properties are introduced or if required by the nature of the service.

Having received notice of a new movie, the receiver may see the movie at once or later. Information regarding movies received by the receiver and texts ap- pended to them remain stored in the memory of the service. Thus, the receiver can review the movie again and using different terminals, so he can see several versions of the same movie implemented in different ways.

The receiver may forward the message received or he can send it back to the receiver, provided with new pictorial or text information. In this way, the sender and the receiver can communicate with each other via pictorial information and texts appended to it. It is obvious to the person skilled in the art that the invention is not limited to the examples described above, but that it may be varied within the scope of the claims presented below.

Claims

1. Method for transmitting messages containing pictorial information to terminals, whereby a sender sends a message to a receiver by selecting the pictorial information (M0VIE1-M0VIE3) to be included in the message from the memory of an image server or a corresponding memory unit provided in the system, wherein the pictorial information is in a motion-picture type format, such as a short film or equivalent, c h a r a c t e r i z e d in that the memory contains versions of the same pictorial information that are suited to terminals of different levels, and that the service takes the technical properties of the receiver's terminal into account and chooses an implementation/version of implementation of the pictorial information that is compatible with the properties of the terminal.

2. Method according to claim 1 , characterized in that the sender selects the pictorial information by means of an image or combined image, such as a poster-like picture, still picture or cartoon version, representing the pictorial information in question on the display of the terminal.

3. Method according to claim 1 , characterized in that in connection with the transmission of pictorial messages (MOVIE1) it is possible to send together with it at least one text (TEXT1 ) as desired by the sender, said text being either written by the sender himself/herself and/or selected from the memory.

4. Method according to claim 1 , characterized in that the pictorial message is a movie, especially a short movie, cartoon, music video or equivalent.

5. Method according to claim 1 , characterized in that the service functions in such manner that, after selecting a desired movie (MOVIE1 ) from a repository of short movies or from a corresponding storage, the sender of the message selects from a text menu a desired text (TEXT1 ) for the pictorial information, this text is appended to the pictorial information, and the sender sends the combination.

6. Method according to claim 1 , characterized in that one of the pictorial information versions is a cartoon version made from a movie for slower communication, wherein the plot is told in the style of a cartoon strip.

7. Method according to claim 1 , characterized in that at least one of the pictorial information versions has been adapted according to the properties of the receiver's terminal, e.g. according to the limited display and/or sound properties of the receiver's terminal.

8. Method according to claim 1 , characterized in that the receiver can either forward a message received or send it back to the sender, provided with new text information and/or new pictorial information.

9. System for the transmission of messages containing pictorial information to terminals e.g. in a mobile communication system, said system comprising terminals (MT1), base stations (BS1) and servers (OPSERV1) connected to them, whereby a sender sends a message to a receiver by selecting the pictorial information (MOVIE1-MOVIE3) to be included in the message from the memory of an image server or a corresponding memory unit provided in the system, wherein the pictorial information is in a motion-picture type format, such as a short film or equivalent, c h a r a c t e r i z e d in that the memory unit contains stored versions (MOVIE1-MOVIE3) differing from each other in content, such as short film versions, of which the sender selects a version suited to the situation in question, and the sender selects the pictorial information by means of an image or combined image, such as a poster-like picture, still picture or cartoon, representing the pictorial information in question on the display of the terminal.

10. System according to claim 9, c h a r a c t e r i z e d in that the system comprises a text function whereby it is possible in connection with the transmission of a pictorial message (MOVIE1) to send together with it at least one text (TEXT1) as desired by the sender, said text being either written by the sender himself/herself and/or selected from the memory.

11. System according to claim 9, characterized in that one of the pictorial information versions in the image memory unit is a cartoon version made from a movie for slower communication, wherein the plot is told in the style of a cartoon strip.

12. System according to claim 9, characterized in that at least one of the pictorial information versions has been adapted according to the properties of the receiver's terminal, e.g. according to the limited display and/or sound properties of the receiver's terminal.