|Publication number||US7991801 B2|
|Application number||US 12/136,594|
|Publication date||Aug 2, 2011|
|Filing date||Jun 10, 2008|
|Priority date||Jun 10, 2008|
|Also published as||US20090307267|
|Publication number||12136594, 136594, US 7991801 B2, US 7991801B2, US-B2-7991801, US7991801 B2, US7991801B2|
|Inventors||Danny Yen-Fu Chen, Troy Frank Burkman, Jesse Tijnagel, David Charles Howard-Jones, Brian R. Heasman|
|Original Assignee||International Business Machines Corporation|
|Export Citation||BiBTeX, EndNote, RefMan|
|Patent Citations (13), Non-Patent Citations (6), Referenced by (10), Classifications (5), Legal Events (2)|
|External Links: USPTO, USPTO Assignment, Espacenet|
Embodiments are generally related to data-processing systems and methods. Embodiments also relate in general to the field of computers and similar technologies, and in particular to software utilized in this field. Embodiments are additionally related to real-time captioning systems and streaming audio/video media.
With the advent of the Internet large bandwidth availability, streaming media has become a very common technique for the delivery of media. The delivery of streaming media includes for example, webcasting, the display of video data, and various on-line television and sports broadcasting. Such audio/video (AV) streaming is much more convenient than traditional media delivery methods and also offers flexibility to end-users, which assists providers and multimedia companies in significantly reducing overall delivery costs.
Real time streaming protocol (RTSP) can be utilized to control the streaming of media data. RTSP technology utilizes a packet of information for the delivery of media streams to the end-user. RTSP also facilitates remote control access and allows time-based file access to a streaming server by buffering the packaged data to media players. Streamed media can be additionally configured with real-time captioning (RTC), which converts spoken language (e.g., English, Spanish, etc) from the streaming media to a readable format (e.g., somewhat similar to a court stenography process).
Real-time captioning is a method of captioning in which captions are simultaneously prepared and transmitted at the time of origination by specially trained real-time captioners utilizing a stenotype machine. The stenotype machine can be connected to a computer associated with software that translates stenographic shorthand into words in caption formats and standard spellings. RTC also facilitates communication for a person who prefers reading rather than listening by capturing the audio portion into a text log and maintains the history, and makes the media accessible to aid people with hearing disabilities.
Similarly, RTC can be widely utilized on television and classrooms environments, and has gained tremendous popularity with respect to streaming media. RTC also has the capability of providing real-time captions over web-based multimedia; however it is very difficult to deliver real-time multimedia with proper synchronization. Caption delivery systems can also be utilized to provide captions for non-web-based technologies such as radio, television, video conferencing, etc, which ensures accessibility to all forms of live, real-time multimedia.
The majority of existing captioning systems utilize some form of a writer's transcript for displaying text on a screen for a user. Currently, the text from the writer's transcript is not capable of being properly synchronized with the AV data, so current captioning systems have been explored, which utilize simple makeup language (SML) files or standard text files to display captions on a line-by-line basis. Such approaches are known as “back-end” replays, which do not combine text captioning in the media streaming process. Hence, current captioning systems do not possess capabilities to support real-time AV and text streaming over web-based multimedia networks. Although, many popular text-streaming techniques can be implemented in pure HTML, however, they do not deliver the textual data with the media streaming data. Moreover, alternative methods are also available for streaming the AV data and the textual data, but these techniques utilize two different time intervals for performing video/audio and text streaming.
Based on the foregoing it is believed that a need exists for an improved software application or service, which allows AV data streaming to be synchronized with text streaming to thereby provide live captioning, as disclosed in greater detail herein.
The following summary is provided to facilitate an understanding of some of the innovative features unique to the present invention and is not intended to be a full description. A full appreciation of the various aspects of the embodiments disclosed herein can be gained by taking the entire specification, claims, drawings, and abstract as a whole.
It is, therefore, one aspect of the present invention to provide for an improved data-processing method, system and computer-usable medium.
It is another aspect of the present invention to provide for an improved dynamic and synchronized captioning system and method for the streaming of audio/video media in the context of a computer network.
The aforementioned aspects and other objectives and advantages can now be achieved as described herein. An improved dynamic and synchronized real-time captioning system and method for streaming media is disclosed. A streaming encoder module can provide a code injection to marry textual data and audio/video (AV) data in order to form a text and/or audio stream. Additionally, a streaming control module can be utilized to allow an end-user to specify font formats that can be embedded into an AV stream. A delay enhancement tool can also be utilized to adjust the speed of the text and/or audio stream, which allows the end-user to receive the text and/or audio stream at a proper speed. A customized graphical user interface (CGUI) can be adapted to assist with streaming by providing an administrator and/or other user with various administrative and control options, such as, for example, an encoding option, a caption source location, a delay control option and a slide control option. Such an approach permits the synchronization and delivery of textual data and AV data for live media streaming via an end-user system.
The disclosed captioning approach can also include the use of a captioning service text analyzer that allows an administrator to configure a pattern or delimiter to separate words for display. The captioning service text analyzer can “intelligently” determine, for example, ending words to be included in the display of the captioned text. The captioning system further can utilize a text streaming service by entering a uniform resource locator (URL) with the assistance of a customized GUI in order to transcribe the AV data into a textual data to deliver the text and/or audio stream in the context of a resulting multimedia data stream. The captioning approach described herein can facilitate profile building for each provider and customer to allow a customized live captioned multimedia streaming solution.
The accompanying figures, in which like reference numerals refer to identical or functionally-similar elements throughout the separate views and which are incorporated in and form a part of the specification, further illustrate the present invention and, together with the detailed description of the invention, serve to explain the principles of the present invention.
The particular values and configurations discussed in these non-limiting examples can be varied and are cited merely to illustrate at least one embodiment and are not intended to limit the scope of such embodiments.
As depicted in
Note that as utilized herein, the term “AV data” or “audio/visual data” can be utilized interchangeably with the term “multimedia data” which generally includes data such as audio data, video data, and so forth. Additionally note that as utilized herein the term “module” generally refers to a software module or a group of such software modules. A module in this regard can be thought of as a collection of routines and data structures that performs a particular task or implements a particular abstract data type. Such modules may be composed of two basic parts: an interface, which lists the constants, data types, variables, and routines that can be accessed by other modules or routines, and an implementation, which may be private (i.e., accessible only to the module) and which contains the source code that actually implements the routines in the module. Thus, for example, the media streaming software module 108 may include a variety of other types of modules, such as, for example, a streaming encode module, a delay enforcement module, and/or a delay enhancement tool, all of which are discussed in greater detail herein.
The interface 153, may be provided as a customized graphical user interface (CGUI) 510, as illustrated in
In the depicted example, server 304 and server 306 connect to network 302 along with storage unit 308. In addition, clients 310, 312, and 314 connect to network 302. These clients 310, 312, and 314 may be, for example, personal computers or network computers. Data-processing apparatus 100 depicted in
In the depicted example, server 304 provides data, such as boot files, operating system images, and applications to clients 310, 312, and 314. Clients 310, 312, and 314 are clients to server 304 in this example. Network data processing system 300 may include additional servers, clients, and other devices not shown. Specifically, clients may connect to any member of a network of servers, which provide equivalent content.
In the depicted example, network data processing system 300 is the Internet with network 302 representing a worldwide collection of networks and gateways that use the Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) suite of protocols to communicate with one another. At the heart of the Internet is a backbone of high-speed data communication lines between major nodes or host computers, consisting of thousands of commercial, government, educational and other computer systems that route data and messages. Of course, network data processing system 300 also may be implemented as a number of different types of networks, such as for example, an intranet, a local area network (LAN), or a wide area network (WAN).
The following description is presented with respect to embodiments of the present invention, which can be embodied in the context of a data-processing system such as data-processing apparatus 100, computer software system 150 and data processing system 300 and network 302 depicted respectively
A caption writer 412 refers to a person, such as a stenographer, who transcribes data from a source presentation or an event. The data can be a “live” event, such as a sporting event, an academic presentation, or a financial news report. The data can be AV data 420 that is transcribed into a transcribed data 414 and then to the textual data 430. The caption writer 412 can also transcribe the data remotely, i.e. without physical presence of the caption writer 412 to perform the transcription. At the same time, the writer 412 can remotely listen to and/or watch the event using a telephone and/or a monitor or television set. A serial input device (not shown) can be connected to a computer encoder 416 that utilizes a direct socket connection to the hosting site 418, which turns around and spits the textual data 430 out onto the webpage. The captioning system 400 can provide the capability to merge the textual data 430 instantaneously with both audio and video data 420 utilizing a buffer 440, and inject the obtained code into an encoder 450. Then, the encoder 450 can stream the AV data 420, and synchronize the textual data 430 and the AV data 420 for achieving live captioning 470. The live captioning 470 can be served from windows media servers 460 by creating an advanced stream redirector (ASX) file that includes captions and audio/video nested in it.
In addition, the SCM 524 also allows admin to customize text format such as for example, font, text, color or type, to be delivered in streaming with the help of customized graphical user interface (GUI) 510. The SCM 524 can configure time interval and preset time setting to trigger SEM 522 in order to perform caption service binding and encoding. The SCM 524 can calculate preparation time and apply contingency so that the captioning system 400 can be kicked off via the event schedule and ensure prompt delivery of live streaming. The SCM 524 can also embed control data in streaming, and externally produce control data output.
Note that the term “GUI” as utilized herein generally refers to a type of environment that represents programs, files, options and so forth by means of graphically displayed icons, menus, and dialog boxes on a computer monitor screen. A user can interact with the customized GUI (CGUI) 510 to select and activate such options by pointing and clicking with a user input device such as, for example, a pointing device such as mouse, and/or a keyboard. The captioning system 400 can be setup to run as a service where admin of the streaming event specifies the desired control settings and schedule of the event by registering to utilize the CGUI 510 in online. The CGUI 510 can facilitate profile building for each provider and customer to allow customized live streaming solution independent of how provider method and technique of display text. The CGUI 510 controls administration and streaming management by offering encoding option, caption source location, delay control, slide control, and other visibility and text format injection options. The modules 522, 524, 526, 528 can be implemented with respect to the textual and/or AV data 530 to establish live captioning 470 based on the control settings and the encoding parameters assigned in the CGUI 510.
Programs defining functions on the present invention can be delivered to a data storage system or a computer system via a variety of signal-bearing media, which include, without limitation, non-writable storage media (e.g., CD-ROM), writable storage media (e.g., hard disk drive, read/write CD ROM, optical media), system memory such as but not limited to Random Access Memory (RAM), and communication media, such as computer and telephone networks including Ethernet, the Internet, wireless networks, and like network systems. It should be understood, therefore, that such signal-bearing media when carrying or encoding computer readable instructions that direct method functions in the present invention, represent alternative embodiments of the present invention. Further, it is understood that the present invention may be implemented by a system having means in the form of hardware, software, or a combination of software and hardware as described herein or their equivalent. Thus, the method 700 described herein can be deployed as process software in the context of a computer system or data-processing system as that depicted in
Note that, as illustrated in
The audio and/or video can be a signal from a telephone via a phone-to-audio conversion tool, such as, for example, polycom, or a typical getner device. The video can be configured from, for example, either an IEEE 1394 Firewire or S-video components, or from a composite-type video cable. Thereafter, as depicted at block 750, slide controls can be added if pushing slides to the audience. The slides can exist as, for example, JPEG files on a server and be cached to the local user's system when the webcast begins, which may exhibit a slight delay. Finally, the live media streaming can be initiated and served from the windows media servers 460, as depicted at block 760. The process of live media streaming comprises an ASX file and a slides change script, where the ASX file can include the captions and the audio/video nested in it.
It is believed that by utilizing the system and approach described herein, video/audio and text streaming can be performed simultaneously at the same time interval. The system described herein also can be adapted for facilitating profile building for each provider and customer to allow customized live streaming solution independent of provider methods and techniques for displaying text.
While the present invention has been particularly shown and described with reference to a preferred embodiment, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that various changes in form and detail may be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. Furthermore, as used in the specification and the appended claims, the term “computer” or “system” or “computer system” or “computing device” includes any data processing system including, but not limited to, personal computers, servers, workstations, network computers, main frame computers, routers, switches, Personal Digital Assistants (PDA's), telephones, and any other system capable of processing, transmitting, receiving, capturing and/or storing data.
It will be appreciated that variations of the above-disclosed and other features and functions, or alternatives thereof, may be desirably combined into many other different systems or applications. Also that various presently unforeseen or unanticipated alternatives, modifications, variations or improvements therein may be subsequently made by those skilled in the art which are also intended to be encompassed by the following claims.
|Cited Patent||Filing date||Publication date||Applicant||Title|
|US5539920||Apr 28, 1994||Jul 23, 1996||Thomson Consumer Electronics, Inc.||Method and apparatus for processing an audio video interactive signal|
|US5563648||Apr 28, 1994||Oct 8, 1996||Thomson Consumer Electronics, Inc.||Method for controlling execution of an audio video interactive program|
|US6792615||May 19, 1999||Sep 14, 2004||New Horizons Telecasting, Inc.||Encapsulated, streaming media automation and distribution system|
|US6816468||Dec 16, 1999||Nov 9, 2004||Nortel Networks Limited||Captioning for tele-conferences|
|US7548565 *||Feb 19, 2003||Jun 16, 2009||Vmark, Inc.||Method and apparatus for fast metadata generation, delivery and access for live broadcast program|
|US7617272 *||Nov 10, 2009||Loudeye Corp.||Systems and methods for enhancing streaming media|
|US7765574 *||Jul 27, 2010||The Mitre Corporation||Automated segmentation and information extraction of broadcast news via finite state presentation model|
|US7793205 *||Jul 8, 2005||Sep 7, 2010||Sharp Laboratories Of America, Inc.||Synchronization of video and data|
|US7844684 *||Aug 13, 2008||Nov 30, 2010||Media Captioning Services, Inc.||Live media captioning subscription framework for mobile devices|
|US20050210511||Mar 21, 2005||Sep 22, 2005||Pettinato Richard F||Real-time media captioning subscription framework for mobile devices|
|US20050271269 *||Jul 8, 2005||Dec 8, 2005||Sharp Laboratories Of America, Inc.||Synchronization of video and data|
|US20050283752 *||May 17, 2005||Dec 22, 2005||Renate Fruchter||DiVAS-a cross-media system for ubiquitous gesture-discourse-sketch knowledge capture and reuse|
|US20080284910 *||Jan 31, 2008||Nov 20, 2008||John Erskine||Text data for streaming video|
|1||Caption First; http://www.captionfirst.com, printed Mar. 19, 2008.|
|2||HiSoftware Captionaing Services-Web based (pre-recorded) Programs and Streaming Media Services; http://www.hisoftware.com/services/cc-services.htm, printed Mar. 19, 2008.|
|3||HiSoftware Captionaing Services—Web based (pre-recorded) Programs and Streaming Media Services; http://www.hisoftware.com/services/cc—services.htm, printed Mar. 19, 2008.|
|4||StrearnText.Net; http://streamtext.net/default.aspx, printed date Mar. 19, 2008.|
|5||TextStreaming.com; http://www.textstreaming.com/, printed Mar. 19, 2008.|
|6||Videoconference Captioning; http://www.ncicap.org/vidcaps.asp, printed Mar. 19, 2008.|
|Citing Patent||Filing date||Publication date||Applicant||Title|
|US8144612 *||Apr 15, 2009||Mar 27, 2012||Ibiquity Digital Corporation||Systems and methods for transmitting media content via digital radio broadcast transmission for synchronized rendering by a receiver|
|US8451868||May 28, 2013||Ibiquity Digital Corporation||Systems and methods for transmitting media content via digital radio broadcast transmission for synchronized rendering by a receiver|
|US8553855 *||Sep 14, 2011||Oct 8, 2013||Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba||Conference support apparatus and conference support method|
|US8564721 *||Aug 28, 2012||Oct 22, 2013||Matthew Berry||Timeline alignment and coordination for closed-caption text using speech recognition transcripts|
|US8660128||Feb 6, 2012||Feb 25, 2014||Ibiquity Digital Corporation||Systems and methods for a multiport synchronous-asynchronous client for scheduling and delivering content for digital radio broadcast transmission|
|US8683007||May 26, 2011||Mar 25, 2014||Smsc Holdings S.A.R.L.||Seamless transfer of media streams|
|US8804037||Feb 21, 2012||Aug 12, 2014||Ibiquity Digital Corporation||Systems and methods for transmitting media content via digital radio broadcast transmission for synchronized rendering by a receiver|
|US9288534||May 12, 2011||Mar 15, 2016||Smsc Holdings S.A.R.L.||Systems and methods for operating media devices|
|US20100265398 *||Apr 15, 2009||Oct 21, 2010||Ibiquity Digital Corporation|
|US20120154514 *||Sep 14, 2011||Jun 21, 2012||Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba||Conference support apparatus and conference support method|
|U.S. Classification||707/803, 348/468|
|Jun 10, 2008||AS||Assignment|
Owner name: INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION, NEW Y
Free format text: ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNORS INTEREST;ASSIGNORS:CHEN, DANNY YEN-FU;BURKMAN, TROY FRANK;TIJNAGEL, JESSE;AND OTHERS;REEL/FRAME:021074/0759;SIGNING DATES FROM 20080510 TO 20080605
Owner name: INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION, NEW Y
Free format text: ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNORS INTEREST;ASSIGNORS:CHEN, DANNY YEN-FU;BURKMAN, TROY FRANK;TIJNAGEL, JESSE;AND OTHERS;SIGNING DATES FROM 20080510 TO 20080605;REEL/FRAME:021074/0759
|Jan 21, 2015||FPAY||Fee payment|
Year of fee payment: 4