WO2018150412A1 - Serveur de contenu multimédia, dispositif utilisateur et procédé de diffusion en continu de contenu multimédia structuré - Google Patents

Serveur de contenu multimédia, dispositif utilisateur et procédé de diffusion en continu de contenu multimédia structuré Download PDF

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Publication number
WO2018150412A1
WO2018150412A1 PCT/IL2017/050204 IL2017050204W WO2018150412A1 WO 2018150412 A1 WO2018150412 A1 WO 2018150412A1 IL 2017050204 W IL2017050204 W IL 2017050204W WO 2018150412 A1 WO2018150412 A1 WO 2018150412A1
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WO
WIPO (PCT)
Prior art keywords
user
user device
media
media content
item
Prior art date
Application number
PCT/IL2017/050204
Other languages
English (en)
Inventor
Ronen SHOVAL
David Braginsky
Yair Shapira
Original Assignee
Blink Ap Ltd.
Priority date (The priority date is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the date listed.)
Filing date
Publication date
Application filed by Blink Ap Ltd. filed Critical Blink Ap Ltd.
Priority to PCT/IL2017/050204 priority Critical patent/WO2018150412A1/fr
Publication of WO2018150412A1 publication Critical patent/WO2018150412A1/fr

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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
    • H04N21/85—Assembly of content; Generation of multimedia applications
    • H04N21/854—Content authoring
    • H04N21/8549—Creating video summaries, e.g. movie trailer
    • 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
    • H04N21/238—Interfacing the downstream path of the transmission network, e.g. adapting the transmission rate of a video stream to network bandwidth; Processing of multiplex streams
    • H04N21/2387—Stream processing in response to a playback request from an end-user, e.g. for trick-play
    • 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
    • H04N21/25—Management operations performed by the server for facilitating the content distribution or administrating data related to end-users or client devices, e.g. end-user or client device authentication, learning user preferences for recommending movies
    • H04N21/258—Client or end-user data management, e.g. managing client capabilities, user preferences or demographics, processing of multiple end-users preferences to derive collaborative data
    • H04N21/25866—Management of end-user data
    • H04N21/25891—Management of end-user data being end-user preferences
    • 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
    • H04N21/47—End-user applications
    • H04N21/472—End-user interface for requesting content, additional data or services; End-user interface for interacting with content, e.g. for content reservation or setting reminders, for requesting event notification, for manipulating displayed content
    • H04N21/47217—End-user interface for requesting content, additional data or services; End-user interface for interacting with content, e.g. for content reservation or setting reminders, for requesting event notification, for manipulating displayed content for controlling playback functions for recorded or on-demand content, e.g. using progress bars, mode or play-point indicators or bookmarks
    • 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]
    • H04N21/60—Network structure or processes for video distribution between server and client or between remote clients; Control signalling between clients, server and network components; Transmission of management data between server and client, e.g. sending from server to client commands for recording incoming content stream; Communication details between server and client 
    • H04N21/65—Transmission of management data between client and server
    • H04N21/658—Transmission by the client directed to the server
    • H04N21/6587—Control parameters, e.g. trick play commands, viewpoint selection

Definitions

  • This invention relates to streaming of media content by a server to one or more user devices.
  • the Internet is fast becoming the main medium of choice for downloading news and other video content.
  • News providers such as online news broadcasting companies such as CNN, BBC and so on stream news over the Internet as do newspapers and other providers.
  • the present invention is primarily concerned with video on demand (VOD) streaming of video content and will be described by way of example with regard to streaming of news items.
  • VOD video on demand
  • Video streaming allows a host to send to a requesting user device an instance of a video in small manageable chunks without the need for the web browser to download the complete video.
  • small chunks of the video are buffered and played after which they are replaced by new content so that at any given time only a small fraction of the complete video need be present at the user device.
  • Video players display a timeline correlated to the duration of the complete movie and as the movie is played, a pointer moves along the timeline to show the temporal position in the complete video movie of the currently displayed segment.
  • the timeline also serves to allow the user interactively to stream sections of the movie that are not currently buffered.
  • a user For example, if during one viewing session a user only manages to see the first 30 minutes of a long movie, he can connect to the host website in a subsequent session and move the pointer along the timeline to the 30 minute point. The user device conveys this to the host, which then knows that the user device wants to receive video starting at the selected point on the timeline and streams video from this point onward to the user device.
  • the timeline does not provide an exactly calibrated scale of where the currently buffered portion of the movie is located relative to the complete movie. At best, the timeline allows estimation where the user knows the complete duration of the video and so can guess more-or-less where a specific item of interest is located along the scale.
  • video streaming is also used extensively to convey media where the relative temporal location of specific items is, in any case, unknown a priori.
  • DVDs which may contain multiple episodes each divided into multiple scenes.
  • a menu allows the user to select which episode to display and, depending on user selection, may play the complete movie or only a selected scene.
  • the starts of the episodes and of the constituent scenes are bookmarked by the manufacturer, allowing the user to skip to a selected bookmark.
  • US 20140282681 discloses a system for chapterized streaming of video content.
  • a user device may pre-cache remaining chapters to allow the user an ability to skip past undesired chapters to reach the chapters they wish to currently view without wasting their time, congesting network backbone infrastructure, or placing load on the host servers. In instances in which the user wants to re-watch a scene, the user may skip backward to see the chapter again rather than consuming bandwidth and increasing server load for this activity.
  • a chapter filter module may decide whether or not to cache, display, or provide content based on rating, tags or other associated data. Alternatively, a user may configure the device to show all chapters with a given set of criteria. Content is presented in the form of short clips or "trailers" of individual movies for selection or review of those individual movies. The trailers relate to fixed content that is stored discretely by the host, each movie being a separate file, which is only conveyed to the user upon demand.
  • US 20140156681 discloses a personalized content delivery computer system, principally within the field of streaming data such as articles and news briefs in a social network.
  • Fig. 10 representing a user interface for managing stream content.
  • a stream of matched content may be presented initially in a collapsed state, but can be expanded to show other items by clicking on an expand button. This appears to be analogous to using thumbnail images to point to file folders in a computer operating system. If the folder contains images, then the first image could be used as a representative image.
  • broadcast networks bookmark content and respond to user interaction to determine what to send. It is known to use playlists to accomplish this whereby different video segments are streamed, allowing different content to be watched by different users. It is also known to change the playlist in real time according to user interaction.
  • 3a is a graph showing video content that is streamed according to a hierarchy that has a root node N 0 connected by edges to nodes Nj and N 2 . Each node is likewise connected to another node by one or more edges that represent alternative content that is selected by the user according to a menu that is displayed in conjunction with the user's media player.
  • This scheme is representative of the type of structure employed in US 20160323608, which discloses systems and methods for nonlinear media playback using a linear media player.
  • a video tree representing a branching video presentation is provided, and a dynamic playlist is provided to a linear video player.
  • a controller component interacts with the linear video player through a standard interface of the linear video player.
  • an indication of a user interaction with the playing video content segment is received by the controller component and from the linear video player via the standard interface, and the dynamic playlist is modified based on video content segments in a branch of the video tree.
  • the video tree can be formed by nodes that are connected in a branching, hierarchical, or other linked form. Upon reaching a point during playback of the video where multiple video segments branch off from a segment, the user can interactively select the branch or path to traverse and, thus, the next video segment to watch.
  • the user can watch a video that begins from a starting node in the tree and proceeds along connected nodes in a branch or path.
  • the user can interactively select the branch or path to traverse and, thus, the next video segment to watch.
  • linear content implies that during both editing and playback the content is sequential i.e. the order of video frames is not changed and the video is played from some start time to some end time sequentially.
  • Fig. 3b showing a graph where each node represented by an arrow is connected to the next node in sequence by a single edge. In advancing from one node to another the content is therefore linear and follows the structure established by the host.
  • a circle in dashed outline that may be traversed in whole or in part by the user. This represents a specific type of linearity that is characteristic of the invention and will therefore be discussed in greater detail below.
  • the video items may be stored in a single file that is accessed via a single URL but content items may be distributed across the web, in which case a controller will use metadata to determine where each video segment is located and will access the segments and stream them in proper temporal disposition.
  • This is conceptually not unlike how a computer operating system uses a file allocation table (FAT) to access different sectors of a file and presents them to the user as a continuous whole.
  • FAT file allocation table
  • US 20110200116 discloses systems and methods for seamless assembly of video/audio segments wherein during streaming/online progressive download of media, a second segment is downloaded to a client during the presentation of a first segment. The first segment is then attached to the beginning of the second segment where no jitter or gap results with the transition point either in the video or audio portion of the segments.
  • Fig. 1 depicts a typical prior art streaming arrangement and shows at the top of the figure part of a video file having four distinct episodes starting at times to, tj, 3 ⁇ 4 and 3 ⁇ 4, respectively, underneath which are four different timelines showing user interaction.
  • the mid-section of each episode is denoted by a blank film, which denotes that this is only a small representative part of the complete video.
  • the timelines correspond to the seek bar of a media player, whereby the user can move a pointer along the timeline to stream different parts of the video.
  • the user is denoted by emoticons, which indicate the user's level of contentment.
  • the user initially at time 3 ⁇ 4 the user really streams the whole of Episode 1 , which is followed at time tj by Episode 2.
  • the Internet user could decide in real time "on the fly” whether to delve deeper into a news headline and display the expanded content or, alternatively, to skip to another headline, but to do so in a structured manner than prevents missed content. He would then be able to obtain news over the Internet in a more personalized format.
  • the invention relates to video on demand and does not require that any changes be made a priori to the video content itself. All that is required by the broadcaster is to prepare a table of metadata relating to the start and end times of selectable content, which can either be streamed or omitted as required. Each user is first streamed a copy of the metadata file, which is stored and used by the device' s media player to stream the appropriate content from the host. If the user elects to view the whole content, full continuity of the broadcast data is preserved. Alternatively, the user can skip items, in which case the video is streamed gaplessly to a different part of the video.
  • Fig. 2 depicts the same video file as described above with reference to Fig. 1 having four distinct episodes starting at times to, tj, 3 ⁇ 4 and 3 ⁇ 4, respectively, underneath which three different timelines show user interaction according to the invention.
  • a lead item constituting a brief introduction of each episode is streamed, followed by expanded content only if the user specifically requests.
  • a lead item hj of Episode 1 is streamed during the display of which the user does not interact with the user interface.
  • a lead item of Episode 2 from which the user immediately determines that this is of no interest.
  • the user right- swipes the user interface with the result that streaming of 1 ⁇ 2 ends at time 3 ⁇ 4 and is followed by 3 ⁇ 4, which starts at time 3 ⁇ 4 and provides a lead item of Episode 3. It is seen that the time line of the video is blank between 3 ⁇ 4 and 3 ⁇ 4, since the video content between these times is omitted. This time the user is interested and so at time t 5 during the display of h 3 the user down-swipes the user interface, whereupon at time t 3 when the lead item /3 ⁇ 4 has been completely streamed, the expanded content is streamed and displayed continuing on from 3 ⁇ 4.
  • the user right-swipes at time 3 ⁇ 4 so as to end 3 ⁇ 4 at time t 2 and commence display of 3 ⁇ 4 whereupon the user right-swipes again so as to skip directly to 3 ⁇ 4 showing the lead item of Episode 4.
  • Swiping right jumps immediately to the next lead item as obtained from the metadata file. If the user swipes left, then the currently displayed item is aborted and is immediately followed by the previous lead item. In all cases, the current item, which may be either a lead item or an expanded item, is aborted mid-stream, and is followed by the next or the previous lead item depending on the swipe direction.
  • Fig. 3b Multiple swipes will skip multiple items, either forward or backward but always along a linear graph as shown in Fig. 3b.
  • the current lead item completes and is then immediately followed by the expanded content.
  • This is represented in Fig. 3b by the circles in dashed outline where at the end of a lead item, the associated expanded content is streamed either until its completion or until it is aborted mid-stream when it is either followed by the next lead item whether by default or if the user swipes right, or alternatively is followed by the preceding lead item if the user swipes left.
  • Fig. 3b is schematic and is intend to show the linearity of the lead items.
  • the invention is also applicable to dynamic content that is subject to constant changes and updates, for example, news bulletins.
  • news bulletins are frequently presented in the form of lead items that relate the news in brief followed by expanded broadcasts that relate the news in detail.
  • a news broadcast contains stories. Each story forms a continuous whole that follows a previous story and precedes a subsequent story without there being any discernible gap between consecutive stories.
  • video item to denote a story but the term "story” depicts more clearly that the video content behind this item is a self-contained whole and that the broadcast containing multiple stories back-to-back is likewise a self- contained whole.
  • a user may lack the interest or the time to watch the complete broadcast.
  • the server is passive and takes no part in the decision as to which media content to stream.
  • Media items are streamed from the server according to seek times that are determined by the user device from the metadata and conveyed to the server with the seek message.
  • the cycle then continues.
  • the lead items are conceptually similar to newspaper headlines, each of which is designed to present the gist of an article allowing the reader to determine substantially instantaneously whether the article is of interest and, if so, to read the article in full, or to skip to a different headline if not.
  • a newspaper headline is quite separate from the body of the story: it is not itself part of the story but is placed afterward to attract attention.
  • the Internet reader has no choice but to display and read or listen to the entire news content, regardless of whether or not it is of interest; or to blind skip to a different story.
  • the headlines and the expanded items form a unitary item.
  • multiple user devices are coupled to a passive server that simply holds and streams content.
  • the server does not actively dictate what content is streamed but responds to timing information received from the user devices for streaming the associated media content.
  • the server is realized by multiple servers that are operated by cloud computing services in known manner and which are distributed. Data pertaining to a media file whose content is to be streamed to a linear media player need not even be stored in the same server.
  • a user obtains an on-line news experience that more closely resembles the reading of a newspaper where the reader likewise can determine in real time whether a headline warrants further investigation or whether to skip to another article.
  • real time relates solely to the user's perspective.
  • the media content is pre-processed by the media host. The pre-processing does not need to make any changes to the media content: indeed this may even be forbidden by the content provider or publisher. Rather, the pre-processing encompasses creating metadata that minimally defines the start and end times of the different stories.
  • such pre-processing may take into account user preferences and ensure that media content already viewed by a user is not streamed again in a subsequent session.
  • the start and/or end times of different parts of the video may be determined automatically, but for the purpose of the present disclosure it will be assumed that the times are entered manually into the metadata file.
  • IP host will send different content to a 30-year old interested in politics and sports than to a 50-year old interested in science and technology.
  • News hosts can likewise stream different media content based on user profiles as disclosed, for example, in US 20150020106. But this in effect means that the host predetermines the user's experience and removes the essential element of control and indeed of spontaneity that is characteristic of news and lends the term its name.
  • the second reason why the present invention finds particular application to the presentation of news is that news items are subject to constant updates while nevertheless retaining some measure of overlap over limited periods of time.
  • a subscriber downloading the news at 06:00 and then again at 09:00 may expect many of the news items to remain unchanged.
  • current approaches to video content delivery constrain the subscriber to watching all items in the order that the content provider presents them.
  • a user wishes to receive video content of a type that may have been prior determined by the video host not to be of interest;
  • a server system for streaming media content comprising:
  • the memory coupled to the at least one processor, said memory storing a media file and a metadata file, the media file being playable on a media player to present a plurality of media content items in the media file as a continuous whole, at least some of the media content items being subdivided into a respective initial portion and a respective continuation portion, the metadata file comprising data that allows determination of respective start and end times of the initial portions according to a predetermined sequence, and
  • a respective communication module coupled to each processor for communicating with a user device and being configured to convey the metadata file to the user device and to stream sequentially initial portions in said sequence to the user device.
  • the server system includes at least two servers, one for storing the media file and the other for storing the metadata file.
  • both files may be stored on the same server and likewise portions of the media file may be distributed between different servers.
  • the media content server is connected to multiple user devices and streams successive items of video content in known manner.
  • successive lead items are conveyed one after another.
  • the lead items may be news headlines, but they can be any media content that introduces a discrete video segment and together with the remainder of the video segment forms a continuous whole, while allowing a user viewing the lead item to make a spontaneous determination as to whether or not the whole video segment is of interest.
  • the invention is not so much concerned with the application as with the concept and the detailed description will therefore relate to a news channel.
  • An application/browser in the user device allows the user to request the complete item if the currently played lead item is of interest.
  • successive lead items are conveyed and buffered during the time interval that an earlier lead item is being played.
  • This allows continuous, gapless streaming of lead items.
  • streaming relates to the user experience and is the result of displaying video content as it is conveyed in real time by the server.
  • the next story can be partially conveyed and buffered, so that it is available for immediate display if the user requests it.
  • Such partial buffering will ensure that at the very least the lead item is immediately buffered and typically so, too, will the subsequent content since it follows directly from the lead item and forms a continuous whole therewith.
  • these enhancements are not essential to the present invention.
  • the server logs all items of video content streamed to each user device. If the server streams a news bulletin to a user device more than once and the later news bulletin includes items that were already streamed in an earlier bulletin, then those items that were streamed earlier will be omitted from the later news bulletin. This provides the user with a very simple and effective tool to obtain updates without the overhead of downloading the complete bulletin and sparing the viewer from presenting him the content already consumed.
  • the user device displays media content received from the server but allows the user to signify interest or lack of interest in the currently displayed item, so as to control the streaming of subsequent media content. This may be done by displaying a visual marker for predetermined time period during which a media item is displayed and responsive to a user gesture at the user device and conveyed to the server during the predetermined time period that the visual marker is displayed, determining whether or not the user is interested in the displayed item.
  • the user device has a touchscreen, which the user can touch with a finger or stylus so as to relay to the host that the user wishes to see the expanded media item.
  • the system can be configured to behave in the reverse manner whereby touching the marker indicates that streaming of the expanded item is not required, in which case the next lead item will be displayed.
  • successive headlines constitute the lead items and are conveyed by the server and played on the user device.
  • the user interacts with the user device in defined ways to display either successive headlines or to continue streaming and displaying the current item so as to display the expanded content associated that follows with the currently displayed headline.
  • the user interaction can be any conventional gesture such as touching a visual marker or swiping the display screen in a predefined direction.
  • swiping right can acts as a next item request and moves immediately to the next headline, while swiping left acts as a preceding item request that moves to the preceding headline. Swiping down or touching the marker can display the expanded item. At any time during the play of the expanded item, a user gesture may abort further display in favor of a subsequent lead item, which will otherwise be displayed upon completion of the expanded item.
  • the metadata file stores the start and end times of the lead items as well as of the expanded content.
  • the metadata file may omit items from the source video file provided by the publisher if the host so desires without the need to tamper in any way with the source file.
  • initial portions of successive lead items are preferably conveyed ahead of their being displayed and are buffered in the user device so as to be ready for immediate display if and when required.
  • multiple instances of media player may be instantiated at the user device and each may be initial- ized for rendering a successive or previous lead item of the currently displayed item.
  • Each instance of the media player corresponds to exactly one option of jumping from the current position.
  • the appropriate instance of media player may then be activated to cause immediate display of the media content associated with a selected option. Multiple instances of media player may not be necessary where there are sufficient resources to allow for the gapless switching between various parts of video content.
  • Fig. 1 shows pictorially a typical prior art arrangement for streaming content to a user
  • Fig. 2 shows pictorially an arrangement according to an embodiment of the invention for streaming content to a user
  • Figs. 3a and 3b are graphs showing respectively non-linear and linear streaming approaches
  • Fig. 4 shows schematically a client-server system according to the invention for streaming media content
  • Fig. 5 shows schematically details of the server
  • Fig. 6 shows schematically details of the user device
  • Fig. 7 shows schematically a media content set
  • Fig. 8 is a flowchart showing the principal operations carried out by the system.
  • Fig. 4 shows schematically a system 10 comprising a media content server 11 that stores a database 12 or has access thereto either by a direct connection or via a communications network such as the Internet 13.
  • the media content server 11 may be a single server that stores the database 12 or may include more than one distributed server.
  • the media content server 11 is connected over a communications network such as the Internet 13 to multiple user devices 14, each associated with one or more users 17 who may be registered with the media content server 11.
  • Fig. 5 shows schematically a detail of the media content host server 11, which comprises a transceiver 20 constituting a communication module that communicates with the user devices 14, typically over the Internet although other forms of communication may be employed. For the sake of illustration two different types of user device 14 are shown.
  • the media content server 11 includes a processor 21 coupled to a memory 22, which is shown connected to the database 12.
  • the database 12 may be distributed between one or more servers and for the purpose of the invention it is only necessary that the server 11 has read/write access to the database 12.
  • the memory 22 stores at least one media content set containing media content items described in detail below with reference to Fig. 5.
  • the database 12 contains for each user device 14 or user 17 a respective record of media content items previously conveyed to the user device.
  • the processor 21 is responsive to a stored program set for conveying to each user device, via the transceiver 20, a respective subset of media content items of the plurality of stored items from which some of the media content items are omitted. These include items already conveyed to and watched on the respective user device and optionally items that the server 11 has established are of no interest to the user. This may be established by monitoring which media content items streamed to the user device are skipped as will be explained shortly.
  • Fig. 6 shows schematically a detail of the user device 14, comprising a transceiver 30 constituting a communication module that communicates with the server 11, typically over the Internet although other forms of communication may be employed.
  • the user device 14 includes a processor 31 coupled to a memory 32, a user interface 33 and a media player 35.
  • the user interface 33 may include the touchscreen 15 or the keyboard 16 shown in Fig. 1 and is used to control the manner in which media content is streamed to the user device and displayed thereby and to send feedback to the server 11 , which may be employed to provide customized streaming to the user device.
  • the memory is partitioned into a number of discrete buffers #1, #2, #3 and #4 as well as a transition buffer shown respectively as 32a, 32b, 32c, 32d and 3e whose significance will become apparent in the following description of an application.
  • the media player 35 is shown functionally but is typically implemented in software stored in the memory 32 and executed by the processor 31 and displays visual media content on a display 36, which may be the touchscreen of a smartphone although the invention is not restricted for use with touchscreens, although this is probably the preferred method of use.
  • Fig. 7 shows schematically a media content set 40 relating to a news bulletin comprising a plurality of media content items arranged as six news stories comprising six headlines 41a-41f and six expanded news content 42a-42f each relating to the respective headlines.
  • Each expanded item follows continuously from the associated lead item, so that if the media content set is streamed and displayed in its entirety, the six news stories follow gaplessly one after the other.
  • the items are labelled so as to depict how they might be presented in a typical news bulletin.
  • the bulletin might start with an item of important local interest followed by an item of important global interest. After each headline 41a-41f is streamed to the user device there may follow a corresponding expanded item 42a-42f.
  • the manner in which the news items are organized is not important since the start times of each item are stored in a metadata file that is separate from the media content.
  • the start times of successive items define a sequence, which need not be arranged in the same order in which the items appear in the media content set 40.
  • the news items follow in logical order, whereby the start times of the lead items and associated expanded content are in increasing order.
  • the server does not stream both headlines and full expanded news content unless specifically requested to do so by the user. Thus, by default only the headlines are streamed to the user device.
  • the media file is a unitary file each of whose constituent media content items is accessed from a single URL, while in other embodiments, at least two segments of the media file are accessed from different URLs.
  • the user may decide that this item warrants a more detailed presentation.
  • the user may use the user interface 33 in order to send information to the server identifying that he or she wants to receive the expanded item.
  • the user device includes a touchscreen and determines from the metadata file whether a headline has expanded content. If so, the user device displays an icon, which when touched by the user causes the user device to stream the expanded item from the server after completing streaming the headline.
  • the processor 31 in the user device 14 is responsive to a stored program for displaying the icon and for allowing the user to indicate that the current headline is to be followed by the respective expanded item. The program also allows the user to skip media items using the user interface 33.
  • a user skips an item this may be communicated to the server 11 and stored in the respective record of the database 12.
  • the server 11 may thereby infer that this item is of no particular interest to the user. For example, if the user skips the fifth item relating to open golf, the server might infer that the user is not interested in golf.
  • the server 11 may be programmed to analyze the data statistically in order to determine whether a skipped item is statistically significant or just a random occurrence, possibly due to lack of time or even unintended action of the user interface.
  • the server will conclude that the user is not interested in golf; but this does not necessarily imply that he is not interested in sport since he may evince an interest in baseball or tennis.
  • the manner in which a determination is made by the server 11 to omit certain types of media content from subsequent transmissions to a given user device is not itself important other than to note that it is always based on user feedback via the user interface 33.
  • the server is adapted to analyze information relating to activity received from the user device when watching and terminating media content, the information permitting the server to determine an identity of the media content and durations of watching thereof, and to update the respective database record accordingly.
  • first headline 41a is being streamed from the media content server 11 to the user device where it is buffered in the first buffer 32a and played by the user 17, in parallel with the first headline 41a at least one and preferably more of the subsequent headlines 41b, 41c etc. are also downloaded and buffered.
  • skipping a media item is not restricted to a wholesale rejection thereof.
  • a user may start watching a media item, such as a headline or even an expanded item and decide to abort the item prior to its proper termination.
  • the present invention is not concerned with how the server determines whether intermediate termination is to be construed as a lack of interest in the displayed item or media content type or is merely the result of the user having seen sufficient of the displayed item to serve his or her immediate needs.
  • One simple way of achieving this is to base user interest or the lack thereof on the fraction or duration of content actually viewed.
  • this may signal that the reason for termination is lack of time rather than lack of interest; while if the media content is terminated after watching less than 25% or 30 seconds this may be used to signal a lack of interest.
  • a lack of interest in a specific media item is determined, this does not necessarily imply that the user is not interested in the underlying media content type.
  • such information may be established by the server by subjecting repeated user interactions to statistical analysis.
  • the distinction is in any case moot.
  • the invention allows for multiple users to be registered with the same device and for a number of devices to be registered in the name of the same user.
  • the user may be identified to the server, which will then create and maintain in the database a record pertaining to the user.
  • the content subsequently streamed to the user device will then depend on the identity of the user, which may be established either manually via the user interface 33 or using a camera (not shown) built-in to the user device or via whatever other means.
  • the database creates user-specific records, these will typically be used to supersede device-specific records so that users who are registered with the server will receive customized media regardless of which device they use to connect to the server.
  • the description so far has related to user-preferences which result in the server omitting media content of specified type from subsequent sessions.
  • the media content types associated with Fig. 4 may be "local”, “finance”, “foreign”, “celebrities”, “sport” and “weather”.
  • media content may be tagged with multiple types in order to provide finer resolution of which content is of interest and which may be suppressed in order to avoid streaming redundant data to the user device.
  • the database 12 maintains a current record for each user or user device of which media content items have been streamed and omits the same items from subsequent sessions.
  • new media content becomes available it does not necessarily replace the previous item relating to the same subject. It may instead be used to create an updated item that both announces the award to Bob Dylan and informs of his reaction.
  • a user who has already streamed the first announcement will then be streamed only the new item relating to Bob Dylan's reaction. But a different user who has not yet streamed the first announcement will receive the updated item that includes both the announcement and the reaction.
  • news bulletins because news content is constantly updated and successive bulletins therefore contain many identical segments, with later bulletins containing relatively sparse new content. Furthermore, news content is targeted at a broad audience and therefore includes many types of video content, not all of which may be of interest to any one specific user. But it is to be understood that the invention is not limited to news media and will find broader application whenever repetitious streaming of media content containing multiple items or segments that are subject to incremental updates over time is to be avoided. It will also find application where redundant streaming of media content containing multiple items or segments some of which are known to be of no interest to the user is to be avoided.
  • the user device may be a suitably programmed computer.
  • "computer” designates any device having a processor, communications interface and memory.
  • the invention contemplates a computer program being readable by a computer for executing the method of the invention.
  • the invention further contemplates a machine -readable memory tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable by the machine for executing the method of the invention.

Landscapes

  • Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
  • Databases & Information Systems (AREA)
  • Multimedia (AREA)
  • Signal Processing (AREA)
  • Computer Security & Cryptography (AREA)
  • Human Computer Interaction (AREA)
  • Computer Graphics (AREA)
  • Information Transfer Between Computers (AREA)

Abstract

L'invention concerne un système de serveur de diffusion en continu de contenu multimédia comprenant au moins un processeur, un dispositif de stockage couplé audit processeur, ledit stockage stockant un fichier multimédia et un fichier de métadonnées, le fichier multimédia pouvant être lu sur un lecteur multimédia pour présenter une pluralité d'éléments de contenu multimédia, le fichier de métadonnées comprenant des données de synchronisation qui permettent la détermination de moments de début et de fin respectifs des éléments de contenu multimédia selon une séquence prédéterminée, et un module de communication respectif couplé à chaque processeur pour communiquer avec un dispositif utilisateur et étant conçu pour transporter le fichier de métadonnées vers le dispositif d'utilisateur, pour recevoir à partir des données de synchronisation de dispositif utilisateur des éléments de contenu multimédia demandés extraits du fichier de métadonnées et pour diffuser les éléments de contenu multimédia demandés au dispositif utilisateur.
PCT/IL2017/050204 2017-02-16 2017-02-16 Serveur de contenu multimédia, dispositif utilisateur et procédé de diffusion en continu de contenu multimédia structuré WO2018150412A1 (fr)

Priority Applications (1)

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PCT/IL2017/050204 WO2018150412A1 (fr) 2017-02-16 2017-02-16 Serveur de contenu multimédia, dispositif utilisateur et procédé de diffusion en continu de contenu multimédia structuré

Applications Claiming Priority (1)

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PCT/IL2017/050204 WO2018150412A1 (fr) 2017-02-16 2017-02-16 Serveur de contenu multimédia, dispositif utilisateur et procédé de diffusion en continu de contenu multimédia structuré

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