SE513146C2 - System with subscribed service for processing video information - Google Patents

Abstract

System with service which can be subscribed to, for processing of video information, at which it includes a home terminal which can be connected to just any video camera, a showing equipment for said video information, preferably TV, computer, connected to said home terminal and one with said home terminal co-operating centrally arranged server, preferably at telecommunications office, at which said home terminal is arranged to load said video information from said just any video camera to said centrally arranged server for storing of said video information, and that said video information is stored on one, by subscriber to said service, in advance coded and addressable way so that said subscriber in a simple way can convert between storing formats, edit, make index, show and trade in said video information from his/her own home terminal, or from just any subscriber's home terminal.

Description

20 b) Out 40 513 146 2 Presentation independent of location and terminal TV Another disadvantage of both the older analog video cameras and the new digital cameras has to do with playback. Because the storage is on physical media, spontaneous viewing cannot take place if the person does not have the physical media accessible and access to the necessary playback equipment.

Possibility to trade privately recorded films Digital technology creates very good opportunities to quickly, efficiently and cheaply record and edit privately recorded films. This creates the opportunity for people with Special Interests to create quality films that they can then sell to other people with similar interests. This trade within Communities of Interest (COIs) is predicted to have a very large scope because private individuals with Special Interests often develop their skills significantly further than many professionals/women do in the industries. On the Internet there are many examples of this in the forestry sector, for example.

The purpose of the present invention is thus to eliminate the above-mentioned problems and disadvantages.

Summary of the invention The above-mentioned object is achieved with a system with a subscribable service for processing video information, whereby it comprises a home terminal connectable to an arbitrary video camera, a presentation equipment for said video information, preferably TV, computer, connected to said home terminal and a centrally arranged server that can be used with said home terminal, preferably at a telecommunications station, whereby said home terminal is arranged to download video information from said camera to said server for central storage of said video information, so that said video information is stored in a manner that is pre-coded and addressable by the subscriber of said service, so that said subscriber can easily convert between storage formats, edit, index, present and trade with said video information from his own home terminal or from any other subscriber's home terminal.

A first component of the invention/service thus satisfies customers' need for security regarding archiving and the possibility of playing private film material regardless of how encoding standards etc. will develop in the future.

This is done by storing the film material on Telia's servers, where Telia is given responsibility for any necessary conversions.

A second component of the invention/service provides efficient network-based tools for editing the film material that customers store on Telia's servers. The third component of the invention service handles efficient searching in the digital multimedia stream in Telia's servers. 10 15 20 25 30 b: UI 513 146 3 Because the invention/service handles the material on Telia's server environment, spontaneous viewing can take place from any network-connected terminal. Because Telia supports different types of network connections (interactive Cable TV network and Internet/Extranet with a good QOS level through e.g. high-speed copper access, radio access or satellite access) and terminal types (Interactive TV and different types of multimedia computers including network computers and mobile terminals) through the service, the customer is given great flexibility. Because the terminals can be equipped with readers for electronic ID cards, security against unauthorized access to the private film archive is also ensured.

International future studies regarding the development of entrepreneurship show that sole proprietorships/few-person businesses will account for a significant portion of employment in the future through, among other things, the type of business that the Telia PrivatBio service enables, linked to trading opportunities.

By connecting Telia PrivatBio with services for Electronic Payment and Electronic Software Distribution/Copyright Protection, the foundation is therefore laid for an expansive and multifaceted business that will be an important complement to the services Telia operates today.

Brief description of the drawings In the following, a detailed description of an embodiment of the invention is given with reference to the accompanying drawings, of which: Figure 1 shows the welcome screen that customers are greeted with in the Telia PrivatBio service according to the present invention; Figure 2 shows the system architecture for Telia PrivatBio according to the invention; Figures 3 to 15 show editing and presentation of a specific Telia PrivatBio film according to the invention.

Detailed description of an embodiment of the invention Figure 1 shows, as mentioned above, the welcome screen that customers are greeted with in the case where the selected customer terminal is an Interactive TV or a home computer connected to the Internet.

Figure 2 is a general picture of information transfer during storage and playback of multimedia film material in the Telia PrivatBio service. If the customer uses the service via his Internet/Extranet-connected computer, the TV equipment is of course replaced with the corresponding computer equipment in the picture.

Storage of analog/digital video In cases where the customer wishes to store analog recorded video (figure 2) via the Telia PrivatBio service, conversion services can be offered via Telia's Telestores and/or Radio/TV retailers. This is done through automatic encoding with equipment for the current MPEG standard. This provides approximately 4-6 GB of data for a 90-minute video film with PAL Broadcasting quality. By handling the encoding on a large scale (Telestores and/or Radio/TV retailers send the films on to the encoding center), the cost of encoding should be kept down to a reasonable cost level.

If the customer has recorded the film on a digital video camera that supports the MPEG standard, the customer should be able to connect the camera to the home terminal and download the film material directly to Telia's server.

The customer should pay a fixed fee for different levels of memory utilization on Telia's servers (at least as long as data storage constitutes a significant part of the total cost of the service for Telia). This way, the customer is encouraged to edit down the film material, which makes the films more enjoyable to watch while keeping the data storage volume within manageable levels.

To reduce Telia's operating costs, film material that is not used frequently can be stored on automatic tape drive archives. When the customer requests playback of a sequence, the material is transferred to Telia's faster memory environments (initially RAID-based hard drives). Since the customer can see the material immediately as it begins to be transferred to disk through streaming technology, access is perceived as fast. By having pointers to all addressable segments in the image material (segments = the film sequences that the customer has associated with names in order to be able to perform searches), speed is achieved even if the customer begins his session with frequent searches. Transfer to disk can then be stopped for the current film segment as soon as a new segment is ordered for viewing by the customer.

Digital Content Format Conversion In cases where it becomes necessary to convert the digitally stored multimedia bitstreams in Telia's Servers, this will be done at Telia's encoding center. Special system configuration/parameterization is required for conversion between different sets of image encoding formats. Equipment for this will be commercially available on the market.

Editing of digitally stored video Since all information handled in the Telia PrivatBio service is stored in digital bitstreams on Telia's servers (which may be geographically distributed), all editing takes place in digital form.

In order to launch the service early, it is required that editing can be done based on early MPEG formats such as MPEG-1 and 2. Subsequent versions such as e.g.

MPEG-7 will support significantly more refined search and editing capabilities.

The editing of early MPEG versions is handled as follows. The digital multimedia bitstream is represented graphically on the user's terminal (Interactive TV (primary TV connected to a remote control which in the best case consists of a wireless keyboard with joystick) or multimedia-based computer) according to Figure 2.

UI 10 20 25 30 b.) UI 40 513 146 5 The digital multimedia stream from Telia's server is represented on the customer's terminal as a deck of cards seen obliquely from the side, where the film image currently being addressed is displayed at the front (Figure 3).

Due to the fact that a continuous film sequence has largely the same color tone throughout the entire film sequence, it is sufficient to present the top row and the left column for the images that have not yet been shown. The customer then gets a good idea of the mutual relationship and temporal length of the different image sequences, as shown in Figure 3.

Since the MPEG standard works so that a complete skein of complete information storage occurs when there is a major change in the information content of a "frame", it is easy to address and display the first "frame" in each new film sequence.

Figures 4 to 13 show different steps/mechanisms in digital film editing. In Figure 4, the customer has chosen to address the last film sequence in the stored film.

After the customer has pointed out the last film sequence in figure 4, it starts to play (figure 5). Since the customer thinks that this sequence should come after the introductory sequence with Malin's 1st birthday, the customer marks this place to move the film sequence to. Only a few seconds have passed since the beach sequence from Playa Ingles has started to play and until the film sequence has been moved to a new location. This is made possible by only updating the pointers to the film sequences while the film block data remains unchanged on disk/tape in Telia's server. As can be seen from figure 6, the customer now sees that the film sequence from Playa Ingles has been moved on the screen.

When the customer sees the updated overview of his film in Figure 6, it is visible that the final film sequence from the wilderness holiday in Värmland is disproportionately long. The customer therefore begins to study the last film sequence. The final film sequence regarding the wilderness holiday is displayed on the customer terminal as shown in Figure 7. The customer jumps between the different film blocks in the last film segment. This is made possible by the jump function between the complete "MPEG frames" that are created when the MPEG standard orders a "data dump" when change frames from the immediately preceding "data dump" have changed too much or the number of film frames from the previous dump has exceeded the threshold value. If the number of data dumps is too close, the customer can choose to jump between frames that are, for example, approximately 15 seconds apart.

As shown in Figure 8, the customer quickly finds a sub-sequence that can be removed to give the film a better sound and tempo. In accordance with Figure 9, the customer informs the editing service that the remaining part of the last film sequence should be added after the Play lngles segment. 10 15 20 25 30 u.) UI 513 146 6 Finally, the fully edited film is obtained, beautifully assembled as shown in Figure 10. To simplify the search for film sequences, the customer is given the opportunity to give the different film segments their own names as shown in Figures 11 to 13. The names that the customer gives the different film segments are stored in the database that keeps track of the edits the customer has made to his films (order between the segments, etc.) and thus contains pointers to the position on disks/tapes where the customer's data is stored. In figures 12 and 13 it is thus clear that the pointer position has the name "Playa Ingles June 14, 1997" and "wilderness adventure in Värmland July 97" respectively.

Indentification/searching of image information As can be seen in Figure 14, the customer can mark the film segment(s) they wish to display in a very user-friendly way. The customer can click through to the film segment they are looking for when they are presented on the screen.

There is also the option to allow the customer to perform free text searches if the number of film segments is too large for different types of listings in alphabetical order, chronological order, etc.

Customers are also given the opportunity to put together customized displays with different film segments linked together. This is done by the customer naming the "new" film and specifying the film segments that it should consist of. It is important to point out that all of this is done through pointers to the film segments. This means that the customer can have a large number of "films" where individual film segments occur in several of the films without the film segment being physically stored in several locations in Telia's Server. Similar handling as for film segments is then offered for search/presentation at the "film level", i.e. different types of listing functions where the films are listed in alphabetical order, chronological order when they were created, etc. The customer can then see a short "trailer" in a small window when a film has been marked to refresh their memory that it is the right film to show before requesting playback of the film.

In addition to Interactive TV, the customer can manage and view the private films via other customer terminals where the multimedia quality depends on the quality of the customer terminal (car color resolution, etc.) and the quality level of the network connection (bandwidth), as shown in Figure 15.

Another great advantage is that the customer can use the Telia PrivatBio service from any physical location. If the customer wants to show a film/film sequence when visiting friends, they simply identify themselves via the electronic ID reader connected to the terminal at the friend's home. The customer is then given access to their multimedia film archive.

Possibility to trade privately recorded films By offering the additional services of electronic payment and electronic software distribution (ESD) with copyright protection, Telia l0 15 20 30 b) Un 40 513 146 7 PrivatBio customers are given the opportunity to sell viewings of multimedia material for payment. This is done as follows: A. Customer A (the owner of the multimedia film material) identifies himself via electronic ID for the system and indicates that the specified film material is for sale.

As an option, customer A can specify that only specified users are eligible to purchase. Otherwise, anyone has the right to purchase offered film material. To avoid Telia participating in the trade in unethical film material, it should be clearly stated that Telia, as the provider of the service, has the right and opportunity to review all film material offered for sale, whether this is to targeted customer groups or to the entire market. Telia should also clearly state the ethical requirements for the type of film material that the service supports. Any customer who violates the rules will be suspended from the service with immediate effect.

The marketing of the film material can of course take place alongside the PrivatBio service (e.g. through other Community-Of-Interest forums on the Internet, advertising on the WWW or via more conventional media, etc.).

However, Telia should offer a separate service for the trade of film material between consumers. It could, for example, be called Telia KöpBio. It is integrated with the management described here for Telia PrivatBio but also includes the harmonization and display of 30-second trailers that the users themselves have produced to interest customers in their film material.

B. Customer A (customer of the Telia PrivatBio service, but seller of own film material) informs the Telia PrivatBio service that Customer B (the buyer of the multimedia material) shall have the right to purchase specified film sequences for a specified amount. The default, however, is that anyone shall have the right to purchase the material.

C. Customer B registers his interest in the Telia PrivatBio service to purchase specified multimedia material from A. In connection with the registration, Customer B identifies himself to the system via electronic ID. To handle this trade, Telia conveniently offers a commercial advertising market for multimedia material for sale. Only the material that a customer has the right to purchase is visible on the advertising space for the customer in question. Customers there have the opportunity to present their offers via advertisements and trailers that provide a taste of the range.

D. The Telia PrivatBio service requests payment for ordered material from buyer B.

E. After buyer B has made payment via an accepted payment method, the buyer is given access to the material. Acceptable payment methods can be, for example, via SET-based credit cards. Cash cards such as Proton. Chipper and Nlondex, picopayments such as Cybercaslt-'Netbill, etc.

F. If the purchase only includes viewing rights, the Telia PrivatBio service only allows the buyer the opportunity to view the film material once. or a specified number of times. during a specified period of time (e.g. during a day) etc. Through encrypted UI 10 15 20 513 146 8 transfer, the buyer is prevented from storing the information in a usable format. Since the key only works once per transfer, repeated viewings are made impossible.

G. If the purchase instead includes a copy of the source material, the Telia PrivatBio service copies the ordered material to the buyer's partition on Telia's server. If the buyer does not have a partition on Telia's server, the distribution can alternatively be carried out in such a way that the buyer receives the encryption key for the transferred material so that the buyer can store the material in the data environment at the buyer's disposal. In this way, international trade in image information is enabled between buyers and sellers connected to different service operators while maintaining secure handling of oversharing of payment and program content so that no party needs to hand over their part of the trade (money or multimedia material) before the other party has fulfilled their part of the agreement.

The invention/service Telia PrivatBio can be launched via Telia Infomedia Television, for example in connection with the introduction of Interactive TV services to households.

Initial testing can be conducted in conjunction with field testing of Switched Video Broad- east.

The service can also be launched initially via trials with high-speed copper to households. This can be done by households accessing the service via Interactive TV or via broadband Internet access (extranet), i.e. Telia providing high-speed connections between the server environment and the customer's computer.

As the QoS level on the public Internet increases, the service can be offered via, for example, Telia Infomedia Interactiv's Passagen service.

The above is only to be considered as an advantageous embodiment of the invention, and the scope of protection of the invention is limited only by what is stated in the following patent claims.

Claims (17)

10 15 20 25 30 35 5 1 3 1 4 6 q PATENT CLAIMS A system with a subscriber service for processing video information, comprising a home terminal connectable to an arbitrary video camera, a presentation equipment for said video information, preferably an PV device or computer, connected to said home terminal and a centrally arranged server cooperating with said home terminal. , preferably at a telecommunication station, said home terminal being arranged to download video information from said arbitrary video camera to said centrally arranged server for storing said video information, and that said video information is stored in a coded and addressable manner, preselected by the subscriber of said service, so that the subscriber can edit, index and present the video information, characterized in that the server is arranged to cooperate with an encoding device, so that said subscriber can convert between storage formats, and that the server is arranged to handle sales of video information, so that said subscriber ka n trade with the said video information from its own home terminal or fi rob arbitrary other subscriber's home terminal. System according to claim 1, characterized in that said home terminal is equipped with readers for electronic identity cards, so that each subscriber assigned to an identity card can identify himself by said reader to access his video information arranged on said server. System according to claim 2, characterized in that said subscriber can access his own video information from his own home terminal or from another subscriber's home terminal by identification by said reader. System according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that said video information is stored digitally on said server, preferably Telia-Server. System according to claim 4, characterized in that if a film is recorded on a digital video camera, for example which handles MPEG standard, the camcorder is connected directly to the home terminal which downloads the video information corresponding to said film on said server. System according to claim 4, characterized in that if the subscriber provides analog stored film, eg VHS, a conversion service is offered in a central coding system, eg coding system in Telebutik etc., wherein said coding system encodes and digitizes said analog stored film, wherein said coding system is arranged to download video information corresponding to said digitized film to said server, preferably Telia-Server, whereby said video information becomes available to said subscriber at any home terminal subscribing to the service. 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 513 146? get System according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that said subscriber can address arbitrary video information segments in said video information stored on the server, and edit said video information segments on said presentation equipment. System according to claim 7, characterized in that said subscriber, on the presentation equipment, can place pointers to all addressable video information segments, which pointers corresponding to predetermined video information segments are used by subscriber for editing the video information. 9. A system according to claim 8, characterized in that said subscriber names a specific pointer corresponding to the specific video information segment, for example Playa Ingles 14 June 1997. A system according to claim 9, characterized in that said subscriber can play arbitrary video information segments in any order on said presentation equipment by calling pointers or naming the corresponding said video information segments in the same arbitrary order. System according to claim 10, characterized in that said subscriber can create a completely new movie by addressing, i.e. names, pointers, and combining arbitrary saved video information segments on said server. A system according to claim 1 1, characterized in that said subscriber can create an arbitrary number of movies by combining an arbitrary number of addresses corresponding to video information segments in an arbitrary determined order, wherein when playing an elm with a specific order, video information segments are retrieved, corresponding to said address in specific order, from the server for presentation on said presentation equipment. System according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the server is arranged to hold information that specified stored video information is for sale from a selling subscriber, who is entitled to buy the video information and the buyer's authorization to use the video information, so that a additional service is provided with which said subscriber can offer his stored video information for sale to another arbitrary subscriber of the service. System according to claim 13, characterized in that said other arbitrary subscriber who wishes to purchase video information from said subscriber contacts said additional service / said subscriber. which ensures that said video information stored on the server is downloaded to the home terminal belonging to said other arbitrary subscriber, whereby said other arbitrary subscriber can play said video information on his presentation equipment. 15. A system according to claim 14, characterized in that said other good, arbitrary subscriber only buys viewing rights of said vicle information for a limited period of time, said subscriber / additional service downloading said video information in encrypted form to said other arbitrary user, as well as a key for decrypting said video information, which key ceases to decrypt said video information after said limited period of time. A system according to claim 15, characterized in that said arbitrary subscriber buys said video information, said subscriber / additional service ensuring that said other arbitrary subscriber constantly has said key. System according to any one of claims 13 - 16, characterized in that said other arbitrary subscriber has said video information only when he has made payment to said additional service / said subscriber via accepted means of payment such as SET-based credit card, Cash card, Cyber - cash / Netbill etc.