MANAGING STREAMED COMMUNICATION

Methods, apparatus and systems are disclosed for managing streamed communication (such as video, audio, or audio-visual communication) between client devices and remote devices via a digital data communication network in situations where the data communication network comprises one or more routers operable to receive streamed data from one or more client devices and/or from one or more other routers, and to forward such streamed data to one or more remote devices and/or to one or more other routers such as to enable the client device and potentially-varying subsets of the one or more remote devices to participate in a communication session. 1. A method of managing streamed communication between a client device and one or more of a plurality of remote devices via a digital data communication network , the data communication network comprising a plurality of routers each operable to receive streamed data having an indication of an intended recipient from one or more of said devices and/or from one or more other routers , and to forward said streamed data to one or more of said devices and/or to one or more other routers , the method comprising , at a proxy module functionally associated with the client device:intercepting streamed data intended to be received from one or more of said remote devices by the client device along a path via at least one of the routers of the digital data communication network whereby to receive, at the proxy module, a first instance of said streamed data in one or more first router-side streams from at least one of said routers, and streaming said data in one or more client-side streams from the proxy module to the client device;receiving at the proxy module in one or more second router-side streams from at least one of said routers a second instance of streamed data corresponding to the first instance of streamed data while still receiving the first instance of streamed data in said one or more first router-side streams, the second ...

RECOMMENDER CONTROL SYSTEM, APPARATUS, METHOD AND RELATED ASPECTS

A recommender system () is described which is capable of being controlled using training data provided by an external controller (). The controller () is arranged to control the input of training data from client devices () to a recommender system () to drive the recommender system's performance towards a set level. 1. A recommender controller arranged to control the operation of a recommender system , the recommender controller comprising:a reference receiver for receiving a predetermined reference performance metric for said recommender system;a measurement receiver for receiving a measured performance metric for said recommender system derived from a combination of one or more recommendations previously provided by said recommender system to a user and usage data from a client device associated with a user to which the recommendations were provided; anda processor for iteratively comparing the received measured performance metric with the received predetermined reference performance metric to determine a difference value and being further operable to generate a value or values of a control parameter or parameters-for controlling the operation of the recommender system in such a way as to seek to cause the difference value in a subsequent iteration to tend towards zero such that the measured performance metric of the recommendation system tends towards the reference performance metric; and whereinthe control parameter or parameters specify an amount of training data to be provided to the recommender system, in a given iteration, and wherein the training data is derived from the usage data from a client device associated with a user to which the recommendations are provided.2. A recommender controller as claimed in wherein it is predicated upon an assumption that there is a positive correlation between the amount of training data provided to the recommender system in one iteration with the value of a measured performance metric received in a subsequent iteration.3. ...

METHODS AND APPARATUS FOR THE ENCODING OF AUDIO AND/OR VIDEO DATA

Methods and apparatus are disclosed for selecting encoding specifications for encoding audio and/or video data to be streamed from a sender to a receiver via a network. Methods and apparatus for encoding data using a selected encoding specification, and for streaming data which has been encoded using a selected encoding specification from a sender to a receiver via a network are also disclosed. The selecting method comprises selecting an encoding specification (s) in dependence on performance measures () previously obtained using a plurality of different encoding specifications in respect of a monitored network when in each of a plurality of different network conditions (), respective network conditions being characterised by different combinations of data-transmission characteristics. 1) A method of selecting an encoding specification for encoding audio and/or video data to be streamed from a sender to a receiver via a network , the method comprising:in respect of a monitored network in each of a plurality of monitored network conditions, respective monitored network conditions being characterised by different combinations of data-transmission characteristics of at least two different types, obtaining a performance measure in respect of each of a plurality of different encoding specifications, the performance measure in respect of the monitored network when in a particular monitored network condition and in respect of a particular encoding specification being obtained by applying a predetermined performance measuring process in respect of audio and/or video data encoded using said encoding specification and streamed via the monitored network when in said monitored network condition;in respect of a network over which audio and/or video data is subsequently to be streamed from a sender to a receiver, obtaining data-transmission characteristics of said at least two different types in respect of said network and selecting a corresponding one of said monitored network ...

MANAGING STREAMED COMMUNICATION

Methods, apparatus and systems are disclosed for managing streamed communication (such as video, audio, or audio-visual communication) between client devices and remote devices via a digital data communication network in situations where the data communication network comprises one or more routers operable to receive streamed data from one or more client devices and/or from one or more other routers, and to forward such streamed data to one or more remote devices and/or to one or more other routers such as to enable the client device and potentially-varying subsets of the one or more remote devices to participate in a communication session. 1. A method of managing streamed communication between a client device and one or more of a plurality of remote devices via a digital data communication network , the data communication network comprising a plurality of routers each operable to receive streamed data from one or more of said devices and/or from one or more other routers , and to forward said streamed data to one or more of said devices and/or to one or more other routers , the method comprising , at a proxy module associated with the client device:intercepting streamed data intended to be streamed between the client device and one or more of said remote devices via one of the routers of the digital data communication network, and streaming said data in one or more first router-side streams between the proxy module and a first one of said routers, and in one or more client-side streams between the proxy module and the client device;receiving an indication that data intended to be streamed between the client device and the one or more remote devices should be streamed via a different one of the routers, and in response thereto, establishing one or more second router-side streams between the proxy module and a second one of said routers; intercepting streamed data intended to be streamed between the client device and one or more of said remote devices via one of the ...

MANAGING STREAMED AUDIO COMMUNICATION SESSIONS

Methods and apparatus are disclosed for managing streamed audio communication sessions between user devices () configured to send streamed data indicative of received audio contributions from respective participants in a multiple-participant audio communication session via a communications network to one or more other user devices () for conversion to audio representations of said received audio contributions for other participants. The method comprises monitoring audio contributions from respective participants, and in response to detection therefrom that a first participant is beginning to make an audio contribution at a first one of said user devices () after a period of silence, providing a signal for at least one of said other user devices () indicating that the first participant is beginning to make an audio contribution; and in response to receipt at said at least one other user device () of such a signal, triggering a predetermined audible indication for a participant at said at least one other user device () that said first participant is beginning to make an audio contribution. 1. A method of managing a streamed audio communication session between a plurality of user devices , the user devices being configured to send streamed data indicative of received audio contributions from respective participants in a multiple-participant audio communication session via a communications network to one or more other user devices for conversion to audio representations of said received audio contributions for one or more respective other participants; the method comprising:monitoring audio contributions from respective participants, and in response to detection therefrom that a first participant is beginning to make an audio contribution at a first one of said user devices after a period of silence in the audio communication session, providing a signal for at least one of said other user devices indicating that the first participant is beginning to make an audio ...

Creating hypermedia content for a web site

Hypermedia content for a web site is created making use of a computer configuration such as a personal computer (PC1a) that has an operating syste m (14) in which files are configurable in a hierarchical structure and the operating system is provided with a viewer (17) that provides a visual displ ay of the hierarchical structure and an indication of the file content. The viewer (17) for the operating system is used (step S1) to establish a hierarchical structure of files (Fig. 5) corresponding to content for the we b site, and then a conversion program module (29) is run (step S2) to convert the file contents into hypermedia for the web site with hyperlinks therein corresponding to the file structure. After locally previewing the hypermedia with a browser (50) the content is uploaded (step S3) to a server to establi sh the web site.

Computer apparatus

A computer apparatus which uses a database ( 22 ) to offer persistent storage of metadata ( 36 ) describing the content of media files ( 32 ). Metadata is used to create a personalised media article ( 48 ) from those media files. That metadata also indicates relationships between those media files. In order to accelerate the creation of the personalised media article ( 48 ), media element metadata items are stored in a cache. The usefulness of this cache is improved further by reading related media elements data from retrieved metadata items ( 36 ), and then pre-fetching those items and placing them in the cache. Because the relatedness of the data items means that the related data item is more likely to be required in the near future, the caching method is more useful than known caching methods. Furthermore, the improved usefulness of the cache is achieved without placing constraints on where the data items are placed in the persistent storage.

Changing hypermedia content of a web site

Pages of a web site can be selectively altered or added by remote users, by e-mailing updates to a computer configuration that supports the site. The web site comprises hypermedia produced from data organised in a hierarchical file structure with hyperlinks corresponding to the hierarchy of the file structure. An electronic mail message is constructed, addressed to a computer configuration, by clicking on a hyperlink in the web site. The e-mail automatically is provided with the address of the computer configuration together with file location data for placing the web page data into a predetermined position in the hierarchical file structure. The user places web page data corresponding to an update to be included in the web site, into the e-mail. The e-mail is then mailed to the computer configuration where the web page data is included in said hierarchical file structure according to the file location data. A conversion program module then converts the data in the hierarchical file structure, including the newly added web page data, into hypermedia for the web site with hyperlinks corresponding to the hierarchy of the file structure, thereby updating the web site with the mailed web page data.

Delivery of media content

A computer-implemented method comprises steps of: providing a plurality of media objects (e.g. using object-based broadcasting, OBB), including a default object (e.g. default combination of media objects, or single media object e.g. “base video” or “clean feed”), for selection by, unicast communication 27 to, and rendering by consumer entities (clients) 30a, 30b, 30c; receiving metadata 26 for a plurality of the consumer entities indicating extent of use of at least a subset of the media objects by the consumer entities; applying a rule relating to the consumption of media objects by the consumer entities to the metadata; and, responsive to applying of the rule, generating a composite of the default object and at least one other object for multicast communication 25 to at least a subset of the consumer entities. The rule may identify a metric for each media object of the subset of media objects corresponding to an extent of network resource involved in communicating the media object to consumer entities selecting the media object; the rule may include: selection of media objects by consumer entities; frequency of selection of media objects by consumer entities; and/or extent of selection of media objects.

Delivery of media content

Methods and apparatus are disclosed for media content distribution. In one aspect, a computer-implemented method is disclosed comprising steps of: providing a plurality of media objects, including a default object, for selection by, unicast communication (27) to, and rendering by consumer entities (30a, 30b, 30c); receiving metadata (26) for a plurality of the consumer entities indicating an extent of use of at least a subset of the media objects by said consumer entities; applying a rule relating to the consumption of media objects by the consumer entities to the metadata; and responsive to the application of the rule, generating a composite of the default object and at least one other object for multicast communication (25) to at least a subset of the consumer entities.

Media article composition

A method and apparatus for the automatic composition of media articles is disclosed. Previous attempts to do this have involved the manual production of a detailed framework listing the types of media elements that might be inserted into the slots specified in that framework and the subsequent selection of media elements for those slots. The present invention improves upon this by associating metadata ( 51 ) with the media elements in a content store, which metadata includes relationship data indicating how what is portrayed by that media element relates to what is portrayed by one or more other media elements. Because relationship metadata is included media articles can be generated automatically with the need for the production of a detailed framework describing that media article.

CHANGING THE HYPERMAL CONTENT OF A WEBSITE

Metadata based prefetching

A computer apparatus which uses a database (22) to offer persistent storage of metadata (36) describing the content of media files (32). Metadata is used to create a personalised media article (48) from those media files. That metadata also indicates relationships between those media files. In order to accelerate the creation of the personalised media article (48), media element metadata items are stored in a cache. The usefulness of this cache is improved further by reading related media elements data from retrieved metadata items (36), and then pre-fetching those items and placing them in the cache. Because the relatedness of the data items means that the related data item is more likely to be required in the near future, the caching method is more useful than known caching methods. Furthermore, the improved usefulness of the cache is achieved without placing constraints on where the data items are placed in the persistent storage.

Changing hypermedia content of a web site

Pages of a web site can be selectively altered or added by remote users, by e-mailing updates to a computer configuration that supports the site. The web site comprises hypermedia produced from data organised in a hierarchical file structure with hyperlinks corresponding to the hierarchy of the file structure. An electronic mail message is constructed, addressed to a computer configuration, by clicking on a hyperlink in the web site. The e-mail automatically is provided with the address of the computer configuration together with file location data for placing the web page data into a predetermined position in the hierarchical file structure. The user places web page data corresponding to an update to be included in the web site, into the e-mail. The e-mail is then mailed to the computer configuration where the web page data is included in said hierarchical file structure according to the file location data. A conversion program module then converts the data in the hierarchical file structure, including the newly added web page data, into hypermedia for the web site with hyperlinks corresponding to the hierarchy of the file structure, thereby updating the web site with the mailed web page data.

Auto safe zone detection

Methods and systems for deciding whether, when, for how long, and/or where insertable image content will be displayed on top of a video presentation (i.e. existing image content) are disclosed. This can be for the imminent placement of insertable image content or a delayed placement of insertable image content. The decision making process depends upon the generation of a ‘cool map’. A cool map is a weighted map of the screen real estate that shows the areas that it would be practical to place insertable image content.

Methods and apparatus for processing media content

Methods and apparatus are disclosed for processing media content to be rendered as a presentation for a user at a set of one or more media devices (60, 600) in an arrangement at a point in time, the presentation being based on layout rules (66b) defining suitability and configuration of media objects (55) for rendering, the arrangement and one or more user-associated characteristics and/or attributes constituting a context for the presentation which is formed of selected media objects from a set, the context having one or more constraints (66c), each constraint defining a property of the context affecting the rendering of at least a subset of the selected media objects (55). The method comprises configuring, for each media object, a characteristic satisfying a utility condition based on a measure of utility of the media object (55) in the context at the point in time, the measure of utility being evaluated in respect of the constraints (66c) of the context; and identifying the selected media objects from the set based on the measures of utility and layout rules (66b).

Methods and apparatus for processing media content

Methods and apparatus are disclosed for processing media content to be rendered as a presentation for a user at a set of one or more media devices ( 60, 600 ) in an arrangement at a point in time, the presentation being based on layout rules ( 66 b ) defining suitability and configuration of media objects ( 55 ) for rendering, the arrangement and one or more user-associated characteristics and/or attributes constituting a context for the presentation which is formed of selected media objects from a set, the context having one or more constraints ( 66 c ), each constraint defining a property of the context affecting the rendering of at least a subset of the selected media objects ( 55 ). The method comprises configuring, for each media object, a characteristic satisfying a utility condition based on a measure of utility of the media object ( 55 ) in the context at the point in time, the measure of utility being evaluated in respect of the constraints ( 66 c ) of the context; and identifying the selected media objects from the set based on the measures of utility and layout rules ( 66 b ).

Multimedia generator

A method and apparatus for generating a non-linear narrative article. After generation of a non-linear narrative article from a set of narrative rules and accompanying media elements, the narrative is optimised and the media elements are also optimised into a dictionary. A narrative tree generator determines all possible paths through the narrative to generate a narrative tree and redundant parts are removed.

Auto safe zone detection

Method and system for deciding whether, when, for how long, and/or where insertable image content will be displayed on top of a video presentation (i.e. existing image content). This can be for the imminent placement of insertable image content or a delayed placement of insertable image content. The decision making process depends upon the generation of a 'cool map'. A cool map is a weighted map of the screen real estate that shows the areas that it would be practical to place insertable image content.

Methods and apparatus for processing media content

Methods and apparatus are disclosed for processing media content to be rendered as a presentation for a user at a set of one or more media devices (60, 600) in an arrangement at a point in time, the presentation being based on layout rules (66b) defining suitability and configuration of media objects (55) for rendering, the arrangement and one or more user-associated characteristics and/or attributes constituting a context for the presentation which is formed of selected media objects from a set, the context having one or more constraints (66c), each constraint defining a property of the context affecting the rendering of at least a subset of the selected media objects (55). The method comprises configuring, for each media object, a characteristic satisfying a utility condition based on a measure of utility of the media object (55) in the context at the point in time, the measure of utility being evaluated in respect of the constraints (66c) of the context; and identifying the selected media objects from the set based on the measures of utility and layout rules (66b).

Multimedia generator

A method and apparatus for generating a non-linear narrative article. After generation of a non-linear narrative article from a set of narrative rules and accompanying media elements, the narrative is optimised and the media elements are also optimised into a dictionary. A narrative tree generator determines all possible paths through the narrative to generate a narrative tree and redundant parts are removed.

Encoder

A method and apparatus for encoding media content. In the field of video compression, temporal compression generates I-frames and dependent P-frames and B-frames. The placement of I-frames is determined by the presence of scene switches in the video. In order to improve the ability of a user to seek to interesting parts of the video, a video encoder considers semantic data identifying narrative points of interest within the video. The encoding process generates encoded video data having I-frames present at scene transitions and also at narratively interesting parts of the video.

Recommender control system, apparatus, method and related aspects

Conversion of structured information

A method and apparatus (400) are provided for carrying out conversion of structured information data sets structured according to a first predefined structure (405) into data sets structured according to a second predefined structure (410) by way of an intermediate data structure (300). Conversion rules (420) are defined to convert from each of the first (405) and second (410) predefined structures into the intermediate data structure (300) and from the intermediate data structure (300) into each of the first (405) and second (410) predefined structures. A pre-processor (435) is provided to carry out initial processing tasks (425) on a received data set (405) to make it more susceptible to structural processing (440) according to the conversion rules (420), and a post-processor (445) is provided to carry out tasks (430) such as vocabulary and data type conversion.

Recommender control system,apparatus, method and related aspects

A recommender system (18) is described which is capable of being controlled using training data provided by an external controller (16). The controller (16) is arranged to control the input of training data from client devices (22) to a recommender system (18) to drive the recommender system's performance towards a set level.

Recommender control system, apparatus, method and related aspects

A recommender system (18) is described which is capable of being controlled using training data provided by an external controller (16). The controller (16) is arranged to control the input of training data from client devices (22) to a recommender system (18) to drive the recommender system's performance towards a set level.

Recommender control system, apparatus, method and related aspects

A recommender system ( 18 ) is described which is capable of being controlled using training data provided by an external controller ( 16 ). The controller ( 16 ) is arranged to control the input of training data from client devices ( 22 ) to a recommender system ( 18 ) to drive the recommender system's performance towards a set level.