WO2008081491A1

WO2008081491A1 - Method and system for managing reception and use of distributed files through internet feeds

Info

Publication number: WO2008081491A1
Application number: PCT/IT2007/000769
Authority: WO
Inventors: Giorgio Bernardi
Original assignee: Inrete S.R.L.
Priority date: 2006-12-28
Filing date: 2007-11-02
Publication date: 2008-07-10
Also published as: ITTO20060927A1

Abstract

The present invention relates to the field of receiving and using distributed files on Internet through the use of feeds, in order to optimise receiving and using times and methods through the personal use and processing systems.

Description

METHCB AND SYSTEM FOR MANAGING BECEETION AND USE OF DISTRIBUTED FILES THROUGH INTERNET FMWHS

The present invention refers to the field of reception and use of files, distributed on Internet in a "Podcasting" mode.

Radio and television broadcasting stations, newspapers, news web sites and other contents servers provide a continuous flow of information, updates, audio and video files and other multimedia material to their own readers and customers. The transmission of this multimedia material can be performed according to various techniques.

In addition to traditional television and radio broadcasting, in which the broadcasts can be listened at a certain time decided by the broadcasting station (that is therefore synchronous and on-line) and streaming, namely video/audio "on demand", in which a video/audio resource can be used at any time through an Internet connection to the broadcasting station site (that is asynchronous and on-line) , the "podcasting" technique is gaining an increasing acceptance.

Podcasting is a method for distributing multimedia files, such as audio or video files, through Internet by using a program called "aggregator" or "feeder". Podcasting therefore allows automatically downloading audio and video resources, called podcast. Podcasting designates an audio/video resource or other that can be used at any time, automatically downloaded in MP3 or other formats from the broadcasting station site, that is therefore different from the traditional broadcasting and from the streaming since it is asynchronous and can be used off-line.

In order to use podcasting, a user first of all must have an apparatus available that is capable of supporting the network protocols on which podcasting is based and must allow displaying or listening the files obtained in podcast.

Such apparatus can currently be composed of a normal personal computer equipped with a suitable software (for example iTunes, Internet Explorer 7, Juice) , or a specific apparatus that is capable of supporting the podcast reception (videogame console, multimedia reader with WI-FI connection, or smart-phone) .

In its normal use, the "podcast client" software (independently if operating on a PC or another type of apparatus) , following the subscription to the site of interest, periodically connects itself (through Internet-TCP/IP) and checks which files have not been published by the sites to which the user is enrolled, and if it finds new sites, the software downloads them. Notification of the publication of new editions by the contents server occurs through a RSS "feed" (flow of information) exchanged between the server site and the user program. RSS is the name of one of the most popular formats for distributing web contents based on XML; another more evolved format is called ATOM. With respect to normal information made available on the web pages of the contents server in which the user must find the files that interest him, the podcasting technique has the advantage that the user automatically receives all news and updates published by the contents server.

Managing of podcasting occurs by means of a server where all multimedia files are stored. In addition to multimedia files, the server also provides a RSS file that contains a list of all multimedia files being present on the server.

Podcasting can therefore be defined as an asynchronous and offline technique for using multimedia contents, where the time when receiving data on one' s own device does not correspond with the time of using these data. This allows delivering, through podcasting, contents with bigger sizes with respect to those that can be provided for use in streaming, where the bit rate (rate in bits/second) required for displaying must not exceed the available transmission band.

In general, the present invention relates to a method and a system, as claimed in the independent claims, for managing the receiving and relaying of podcast channels in order to allow them to be more easily used by personal apparatuses, that sometimes it is not convenient to keep active and connected to Internet for long periods of time for receiving big-sized files through connections where their rate is not enough. In particular, object of the present invention for receiving multimedia files between at least one contents server towards one or more users, is composed of an intermediate system (herein below called "Podcast Gateway") , that is built in order to be able to be connected to Internet constantly (or for all necessary time) , periodically performs availability checks of new contents from servers, and performs the reception according to the rates allowed by its own configuration, the connection and the remote server.

It is not required that such intermediate system, Podcast Gateway, of the invention be able to display the files or allow their direct use, but instead it is able to provide the files downloaded therefrom, with the same podcast protocol, to user apparatuses, that can thereby receive these contents as inexpensively and immediately as allowed by a high-speed connection between user multimedia reader and Podcast Gateway, which can be reached on a local company network or a wireless home network.

Such method comprises the fact that at least one of the users carries out the enrolment on the Podcast Gateway to channels on remote servers, and configures the personal devices to use the Podcast Gateway, instead of the remote server for the channels of interest.

Further objects, advantages and features of the present invention are defined in the dependent claims and will appear evident after examining the following detailed description, with reference to the figures, in which identical or corresponding parts are identified by the same reference numbers. In particular: figure 1 schematically shows the method for receiving multimedia files among contents server, Podcast Gateway and user apparatuses, where the first part of the communication typically occurs through internet while the second part is generally performed on a high-speed local network; figure 2 shows the web interface related to displaying the status of different channels/feeds defined on the gateway; figure 3 shows the detail of information related to the status of a channel configured on the gateway and the statistics related to its contents and its latest action; figure 4 shows the web interface related to a feed definition on the gateway by the user; and figure 5 shows the web interface for determining the profile of interests for a user that makes only some items published on the channel actually downloaded.

While the present invention is described with reference to the embodiments described herein below and shown in the figures, it must be noted that the present invention is not limited to the particular embodiment described in the following detailed description and shown in the figures, but rather that the described embodiments are simply an example of the various aspects of the present invention, whose scope is defined by the claims. With reference to the Figures, and in particular to Fig. 1, a system of the invention is shown for receiving multimedia files comprising: at least one multimedia contents server 1; one or more apparatuses owned by users 5; and an intermediate server 3 adapted to be connected to the at least one multimedia contents server 1 through a network 2, for example Internet, and to be connected to apparatuses of users 5 through una local network 4.

Purpose of the present invention is de-associating the reception through Internet 2 from the podcast contents, that can be particularly slow, or require particular protocols, from the reception of the podcast contents on one's own personal use system, that can be inconvenient to always keep active and connected or that does not suitably support the contents download protocols proposed by the RSS feed.

The user 5 interacts with the intermediate server 3 (herein below called ^λΛPodcast Gateway") according to the present invention by configuring the channels that he wishes to receive and his preferences.

The main form of interaction of the user 5 with the Podcast Gateway 3 according to the present invention is based on a specific web interface.

The user 5 accesses such interface through a normal web browser, and the managing interface can require an authentication step before allowing the user 5 to operate. The typical operation of the user 5 is providing the URL of every podcast channel that the Podcast Gateway 3 of the present invention must automatically receive.

Following the insertion of such URL, the Podcast Gateway 3 of the present invention verifies that this latter one can be reached, and that it contains a feed that can be interpreted as podcast channel, and then provides the user 5 with a screen with some features of such channel, such as its title and number of currently present items; the user 5 has the chance of keeping the title proposed by the feed or of customising it, and it can also set as many of the items initially proposed by the feed as he wishes to initially receive.

Following the confirmation of these data by the user 5, the feed is configured on the Podcast Gateway 3 of the present invention, that, in addition to receiving the number of most recent items according to what is established by the user 5, from now on takes care of automatically receiving every item referred by the feed.

The check of the presence of new contents on the configured podcast channels is performed periodically, according to typical criteria of the RSS feed, with the support ot optional ttl, skipHours, skipDays tags and, if these latter ones are not present in the feed, through periodicity criteria assumed in a standard way by the Podcast Gateway 3 of the present invention, or defined by the user 5 for every channel. The present invention in fact provides for a high level of configurability by the user 5 depending on any action to be performed on every defined channel: such configurations guide the receiving process and the actions that must be performed on the files following their complete reception.

Such criteria will now be listed, and can be set by the user 5 if this latter one wants to define them in place of the basic ones proposed by the Podcast Gateway 3 of the present invention or by the RSS channel.

Receiving times: it can be convenient to set the reception of all or some channels at very accurate times: for example, in an office environment,, it can be suitable to set the reception of teaching contents delivered with high-definition video, during the night, in order not to slow down the operating rate on the network during the normal working hours.

Transmitting band limitation: in addition to limiting the operation or non-operation in some time ranges, it can instead be convenient to set that the Podcast Gateway 3 of the present invention operates on all or only on certain channels, not exceeding certain download rates, in order to always leave network capacities free for other systems and applications, or to give priority, by defining different rates, to the contents download of some channels with respect to others.

Selection of contents to be downloaded according to specific rules: for every channel, pattern matching criteria can be specified with RSS item tags, in order to instruct the Podcast Gateway 3 of the present invention to download some items only and not other ones. It is convenient to use this function when the podcast channels propose items in different formats, and only some of these formats can then be used by the user 5 on its personal system. It is thereby avoided to download unusable files. Such function is also convenient when a podcast channel contains items of a different nature, that can be identified depending on title, description or other RSS tag: also in this case, the user 5 is able to specify correspondence criteria that avoid downloading non-relevant items for his interests.

Format conversion: if the item provided by the podcast channel is interesting, but unfortunately its format cannot directly be used by the personal system of the user 5, the Podcast Gateway 3 of the present invention can be configured for performing a format conversion. An example is when the podcast contents are of the video type, while the user 5 reader solely supports audio; when the audio part is anyway interesting also without video, the user 5 can configure the Podcast Gateway 3 of the present invention to extract the audio contents.

The same operation can be configured depending on the passage between different video formats, in order to have items that can be better used by the personal system personale of the user 5.

When the multimedia format so allows, the Podcast Gateway 3 of the present invention aligns internal metadata to the multimedia file with information being present inside the podcast feed related to the item, so that the multimedia file provided to the user 5 apparatus can be identified and used also outside a mere podcasting environment.

The items downloaded according to the above defined criteria are stored inside the Podcast Gateway 3 of the present invention. The user 5 then configures his own personal device to point not to the original podcast channel, but to the channel delivered by the Podcast Gateway 3 of the present invention, and is therefore able to access to its contents through a high-speed company or home connection 4.

The Podcast Gateway 3 of the present invention is obviously based on a hardware system 1 capable of supporting both the connection to Internet 2, and local high-speed connections 4 of the wired Ethernet type or wireless TCP/IP type, and an adequate storage capability on a mass memory.

Files are downloaded on the local disk of the Podcast Gateway 3 of the present invention for a time configured by the user 5, while the history of performed downloads is kept for a much longer time (as standard, one year) , in order to avoid the repeated reception of already used contents.

The communication protocol between personal system 5 and Podcast Gateway 3 of the present invention is the same Podcast protocol based on XML/RSS/ATOM standards used for communicating with remote servers. The personal use system 5 therefore sees the Podcast Gateway 3 of the present invention as a normal podcast server that contains his interesting channels, which can be normally subscribed to like any other.

The present invention has as advantages first of all that it allows de-associating the receiving system from the use system, so that the two activities can be performed in different ways without having to engage the same device.

This is particularly advantageous when it is inconvenient to keep the use device connected for long periods or at specific hours.

The case in which the received contents must be used locally by many people is advantageous as well: it is thereby avoided to perform the reception many times for the same contents, saturating the geographic transmitting lines or those towards Internet.

Due to the chance of converting the format, the contents can be made usable also towards a series of personal use systems that otherwise would have been excluded therefrom.

Last but not least, a complete control is obtained for the transmitting band occupation, and this latter one is optimised in its use by receiving only those files that correspond to the defined interesting criteria.

Claims

CTAIMS

1. Method for receiving multimedia files between at least one multimedia contents server (1) and one or more apparatuses owned by users (5) through an intermediate server (3) , said method comprising the following steps:

- executing a configuration of the intermediate server (3) by at least one of said users (5) ;

- supplying, by said user (5) too said intermediate server (3) , criteria for necessary downloading and format conversions;

- receiving multimedia files, at a first time, between the contents server (1) and the intermediate server (3) ;

- transmitting files, at a second time, between the intermediate server (3) and the one or more apparatuses of said users (5) .

2. Method for receiving multimedia files according to claim 1, characterised in that the multimedia files are received and then automatically transformed into a format required by the user (5) .

3. Method for receiving multimedia files according to claim 1, characterised in that the receiving step occurs in time periods established by the user (5) .

4. Method for receiving multimedia files according to claim 1, characterised in that the receiving step occurs at a transmitting rate established by the user (5) for every channel and globally.

5. Method for receiving multimedia files according to claim 1, characterised in that internal tags to the multimedia file are modified in order to correspond with same information being present inside a feed podcast.

6. Method for receiving multimedia files according to claim 1, characterised in that multimedia files corresponding to criteria defined by the user (5) are only received.

7. Method for receiving multimedia files according to claim 1, characterised in that said method is a podcasting method, with a use of RSS/ATOM feeds in XML format.

8. Method for receiving multimedia files according to claim 1, characterised in that settings and information about criteria defined by the user (5) and login are performed through a web interface.

9. Method for receiving multimedia files according to claim 1, characterised in that the user (5) communicates with the contents intermediate server (3) through an aggregator/viewer podcast (4) .

10. Method for receiving multimedia files according to claim 1, characterised in that the contents intermediate server (3) communicates with the contents server (1) through a podcast (2) protocol.

11. Method for receiving multimedia files according to claim 1, characterised in that the users (5) and their profiles and settings are stored on a database on the intermediate server (3) .

12. Method for receiving multimedia files according to claim 1, characterised in that the multimedia files are kept on a mass storage support being present on the intermediate server (3) .

13. Method for receiving multimedia files according to claim 1, characterised in that an history of received files is kept for a long time that is longer than the one for keeping the files on the intermediate server (3) , in order not to repeat their reception.

14 . Method for receiving multimedia files according to claim I ₁ characterised in that the intermediate server ( 3 ) checks , at dynamic intervals , the presence of new items on the contents server ( 1 ) .

15 . System for receiving multimedia files comprising : at least one multimedia contents server ( 1 ) ; one or more apparatuses owned by users ( 5 ) ; and an intermediate server ( 3 ) adapted to connect said at least one multimedia contents server ( 1 ) and said one or more apparatuses of users ( 5 ) , said system being characterised in that it further comprises :

- means for performing a configuration of the intermediate server (3) by at least one of said users (5) ;

- means for supplying, by said user (5) to said intermediate server (3) , criteria for necessary downloading and format conversions;

- means for receiving multimedia files between the contents server (1) and the intermediate server (3) ; and means for transmitting said multimedia files between the intermediate server (3) and the one or more apparatuses of said users (5) .