JP3144520B2 - Multimedia information provision system - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to data communication, and more particularly to an information center having a storage device in which multimedia information is stored, a communication network, and multimedia information transmitted from the information center via the communication network. And a terminal device for reading the information.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in a multimedia information providing system of this kind, a time lapse management of reproducing data which is a component of the multimedia information after a lapse of time after starting reproduction of the multimedia information is performed by a terminal. The information center performs only data that is a component of the multimedia information requested by the terminal device.
The data was transferred to the terminal device regardless of the data transfer speed.

[0003]

In multimedia information, there is data such as moving image data and audio data that requires real-time reproduction with a retransmission time constraint.

In the above-described conventional multimedia information providing system, since all data which are components of multimedia information are transferred using an error-free data transfer protocol using a retransmission procedure, audio / video or the like is used. In order to receive the information in real time, despite the need to transfer the data within a certain time, if the data transfer speed is slower than the playback speed of the data, the data transfer does not meet the time constraints of the playback, There is a disadvantage that the reproduction delay increases as the data transfer continues. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to provide a multimedia information providing system capable of continuing data transfer without increasing the reproduction delay even when the data transfer speed is lower than the data reproduction speed.

[0005]

According to the multimedia information providing system of the present invention, to what extent the terminal device receives data which is a component of the information while receiving the multimedia information transferred from the information center. Means for sending a data reception confirmation command notifying the information center to the information center, and the information center determines, for the stored multimedia information, how much elapsed time has elapsed since the start of reproduction of the information. A time-based playback scenario in which which data to be played back is described as a component, a means for receiving a data reception confirmation command from the terminal device, and an elapsed time after the start of the transfer of the multimedia information, Playback is performed immediately after the elapsed time obtained by subtracting the transfer time of the data reception confirmation command received from the terminal device. The chromatography data was determined with reference to the reproduction scenario, and a means for transferring to the terminal device reads the data from the storage device.

[0006]

The data to be reproduced is determined by referring to the reproduction scenario immediately after the elapsed time obtained by subtracting the transfer time of the data reception confirmation command from the elapsed time after the start of the transfer of the multimedia information. Since the data whose predetermined time has elapsed is not transferred, the delay of the reproduction time in the terminal device with respect to the reproduction scenario does not increase, and the data transfer can be continued.

[0007]

Next, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an embodiment of a multimedia information providing system according to the present invention, FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a data structure of multimedia information # 1 of the storage device 11 of FIG. 1, and FIG. FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a time-based playback scenario of each data which is a component of the multimedia information # 1. FIG. 4 shows the information center 6 of FIG. 1 using the playback scenario of FIG. FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a data transfer sequence and a data reproduction sequence in the terminal device 1 when the data transfer is performed. This multimedia information providing system includes a terminal device 1, an information center 6, and a communication network 12. The terminal device 1 is connected to an information center 6 via a communication network 12, and includes a communication control device 2, a reproduction control device 3, a monitor 4, and a speaker 5. The communication control device 2 sends a command for reading multimedia information stored in the information center 6 to the communication network 12. The information center 6 has a CPU 7 and a memory 8
, A timer 9, a communication control device 10, and a storage device 11. The storage device 11 stores multimedia information to be continuously reproduced. The multimedia information is, for example, multimedia information # 1 as shown in FIG.
Are data # 1, data # 2,..., Data 13,.
・ It has as a component. A time-based playback scenario is stored in the memory 8, and as shown in FIG. 3, the playback scenario of the multimedia information # 1 in FIG. , Its constituent data # 1, # 2,
.. Are reproduced. Here, data # 1, # 2,... Are reproduced at equal time intervals t. The communication control device 10 receives multimedia information from the terminal device 1 (here, multimedia information # 1).
When the CPU receives the read request command of
Notify 7. In response to the multimedia information # 1 read request command, the CPU 7 refers to the reproduction scenario for multimedia information # 1 (FIG. 3) stored in the memory 8 and determines whether data to be transmitted to the terminal device 1 first is data. #
It determines that it is 1, and reads data # 1 from the storage device 11 and sends it to the communication control device 10, and at the same time, starts the timer 9. When receiving the data # 1, the communication control device 10 transfers the data # 1 to the terminal device 1 via the communication network 12.

In the terminal device 1, when the communication control device 2 receives the data # 1 transferred from the information center 6, the communication control device 2 sends the data # 1 to the reproduction control device 3, and confirms that the data # 1 has been received. The command is sent to the information center 6 via the communication network 12. The reproduction control device 3 has data # 1
When the media type is received, the media type is determined. If the media type is video, the video is reproduced by the monitor 4. If the media type is audio, the audio is reproduced by the speaker 5.

The communication control device 10 of the information center 6 receives the data reception confirmation command of the data # 1 from the terminal device 1 and communicates with the CPU 7. The CPU 7 stores the received data name indicated by the data reception confirmation command and the value obtained by subtracting the transfer time between the terminal device 1 and the information center 6 of the data reception confirmation command from the value of the tire 9 at that time in the multimedia of the memory 8. The data to be transmitted next to the terminal device 1 is determined by applying to the reproduction scenario of the information # 1.

Here, the data transfer rate between the information center 6 and the terminal devices 1 is a fixed speed, and each data which is a component of the multimedia information # 1 is 3 t / t for transferring between the information center 6 and the terminal devices 1. It takes 2 hours. In this case, the data transfer sequence of the data between the information center 6 and the terminal device 1 and the data reception confirmation command is as shown in FIG.

If the transfer speed of the multimedia information is lower than the command transfer speed, the information center 6 sends the data # 4 to the terminal device 1 and then sends a data reception confirmation command of the data # 3 as shown in FIG. Receive. At this time, the value obtained by subtracting the transfer time T between the terminal device 1 and the information center 9 of the data reception confirmation command from the value of the timer 9 started earlier is 9t / 2, and the multimedia information #
With reference to the reproduction scenario 1, it is determined that the data to be reproduced immediately after the elapsed time is the data # 6 having the reproduction start time of 5t, and the data # 5 is not transferred next. Then, the data # 6 is transferred to the terminal device 1.

In the multimedia information providing system according to the present embodiment, data to be transferred to the terminal device next is determined according to a reproduction scenario in accordance with an elapsed time from the start of transmission of the multimedia information designated by the terminal device, Since untransferred data for which the time already described in the playback scenario has elapsed has not been transferred, the playback time in the terminal device does not increase the delay with respect to the playback scenario.

[0014]

As described above, according to the present invention, the data of the information to be reproduced immediately after the elapsed time obtained by subtracting the transfer time of the data reception confirmation command from the elapsed time after the start of the transfer is referred to by referring to the reproduction scenario. By making the determination, the untransferred data for which the time described in the playback scenario has elapsed has not been transferred, so even if the information is multimedia information such as audio / video, the playback time on the terminal device is played back. There is an effect that data transfer can be continued without increasing delay for a scenario.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an embodiment of a multimedia information providing system according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a data configuration of multimedia information # 1 included in a storage device 11 of FIG.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a time-based playback scenario of data that is a component of the multimedia information # 1 of FIG. 2;

4 shows a data transfer sequence when the information center 6 of FIG. 1 transfers data of multimedia information # 1 to the terminal device 1 using the reproduction scenario of FIG.
FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a data reproduction sequence in FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Terminal device 7 CPU 2,10 Communication control device 3 Reproduction control device 4 Monitor 5 Speaker 6 Information 8 Memory 9 Timer 11 Storage device 12 Communication network

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] 1. A multimedia information providing system comprising: an information center including a storage device storing multimedia information; a communication network; and a terminal device for reading the multimedia information from the information center via the communication network. In the system, while receiving the multimedia information transferred from the information center, the terminal device sends to the information center a data reception confirmation command for notifying how much data, which is a component of the information, has been received. The information center has a description that describes, with respect to the stored multimedia information, how much time has elapsed since the start of the reproduction of the information and which data that is a component of the multimedia information is reproduced. Means for receiving a time-based playback scenario and a data reception confirmation command from the terminal device , From the elapsed time of the multi-media information transfer after the start,
The data to be reproduced immediately after the elapsed time obtained by subtracting the transfer time of the data reception confirmation command received from the terminal device is determined with reference to the reproduction scenario, and the data is read from the storage device and transferred to the terminal device. Means for providing multimedia information.