Patent Application
20100115025
The present invention relates to a content reproduction apparatus, a content delivery apparatus, a content delivery system, and a method for generating metadata.
Nowadays, various types of contents are delivered through various communication networks such as the Internet, and a user can select a desired content from an enormous number of contents provided on the communication networks and enjoy the content. In order for the user to efficiently find out a desired content from an enormous number of contents, it is important that various types of metadata for each content be prepared in advance. For example, for a content having a photograph image, not only bibliographic items such as a photographer and a shooting date but also analysis data indicating whether the photograph image includes a person's face and what hue the photograph image has are prepared in advance as metadata, so that it is possible to efficiently guide the user to select a content based on the metadata. In other words, it is possible to provide a user who is looking for a photograph image including a person's face or a user who is looking for a photograph image of blue sea, with such photograph images base on the metadata.
The metadata can be generated through computer processing by applying predetermined analysis processing such as face detection or hue analysis to a content.
However, a content delivery device which manages an enormous number of contents, delivers a content requested by each of many users, and manages the content delivery records does not have enough calculation resources to perform computer processing to generate such metadata. If another computer is used to perform this computer processing, the enormous number of contents need to be sent to the another computer, which increases the network traffic.
In view of the above-mentioned circumstances, the present invention has been made, and therefore, it is an object of the present invention to provide a content reproduction apparatus, a content delivery apparatus, a content delivery system and a method for generating metadata capable of generating metadata for a content delivered from a content delivery apparatus while suppressing an increase in the network traffic.
In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the present invention provides a content reproduction apparatus communicatively connected to a content delivery apparatus, including: content reception means for receiving a content from the content delivery apparatus; content reproduction means for reproducing the received content; metadata generation means for applying predetermined analysis processing to the received content to generate metadata that indicates a result of the analysis processing; and metadata transmission means for sending the generated metadata.
The present invention also provides a content delivery apparatus communicatively connected to a content reproduction apparatus, including content transmission means for sending a content to the content reproduction apparatus, in which the content transmission means also sends, when sending the content to the content reproduction apparatus, a generation request for metadata for the content to the content reproduction apparatus, and restricts, when the metadata for the content is sent from the content reproduction apparatus, transmission of the generation request.
The present invention also provides a content delivery system, including: a content delivery apparatus; and a content reproduction apparatus communicatively connected to the content delivery apparatus, in which: the content delivery apparatus includes content transmission means for sending a content to the content reproduction apparatus; and the content reproduction apparatus includes: content reception means for receiving the content from the content delivery apparatus; content reproduction means for reproducing the received content; metadata generation means for applying predetermined analysis processing to the received content to generate metadata that indicates a result of the analysis processing; and metadata transmission means for sending the generated metadata.
The present invention also provides a method for generating metadata, including: a content transmission step of sending, in a content delivery apparatus, a content to a content reproduction apparatus communicatively connected to the content delivery apparatus; a content reception step of receiving, in the content reproduction apparatus, the content from the content delivery apparatus; a content reproduction step of reproducing, in the content reproduction apparatus, the received content; a metadata generation step of applying, in the content reproduction apparatus, predetermined analysis processing to the received content to generate metadata indicating a result of the analysis processing; and a metadata transmission step of sending, in the content reproduction apparatus, the generated metadata.
Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.
As shown in
The content server 14 is connected to a content database 14a which stores a lot of contents that include still image data of photographs, music data, and moving image data of movies or the like. When a user sends a content request which specifies a content, from his or her client 12 to the content server 14, the content server 14 sends the content (data) corresponding to the request, to the client 12. Further, the content server 14 holds metadata for a part of or all of the contents stored in the content database 14a, the metadata being obtained through various kinds of analysis processing. According to the metadata, the content server 14 provides and searches for contents that meet user's preferences.
Regardless of whether a content is still image data, music data, or moving image data, the metadata for the content includes bibliographic information such as a copyright holder. Further, when the content is still image data, a space frequency and a hue are analyzed in advance and the analysis results are included in the metadata. It is also analyzed whether the still image includes a face, a particular object, or a character, and the analysis result is also included in the metadata. When the content is music data, acoustical analyses such as beat detection, a tempo analysis, and a chord progression analysis are made in advance, and the analysis results are included in the metadata. When the content is moving image data, analyses for detecting the timing when the scene changes, a climax, and a part where a person or a particular object is seen are made in advance, and the analysis results are included in the metadata. Although those analyses can be easily realized by using known analysis programs, a large amount of processing is required in general.
In the content delivery system 10 of the embodiment of the present invention, the analysis processing of a content for generating the metadata is performed in the client 12 of the user who views or listens to the content. Specifically, a program to reproduce a content is installed in the client 12. When the user wants to reproduce a content stored in the content database 14a, the user downloads the content from the content server 14 and executes the program to reproduce the content. At this time, the downloaded content (data) is used for the reproduction and is also used for the analysis processing, and the analysis result is sent to the metadata generation management server 16 as metadata. More specifically, a program to apply predetermined analysis processing to the content received from the content server 14 and to generate metadata indicating the analysis result is installed in the client 12.
In general, the data amount of each content stored in the content database 14a is large. On the other hand, the data amount of an analysis result of the content is generally small. According to this embodiment, the client 12 applies the analysis processing to a content (having a large data amount) downloaded to be reproduced in the client 12, generates metadata (having a small data amount), and sends the metadata through the data communication network 18. Therefore, traffic is prevented from being drastically increased even when the content server 14 distributes the analysis processing to other computers.
As shown in
The metadata database 16b stores metadata sent from the client 12. The metadata stored in the metadata database 16b is transferred from the metadata generation management server 16 to the content server 14 at appropriate timing, for example, when traffic in the data communication network 18 is low.
When the metadata for the content that is being reproduced is generated by the metadata generation program, the client 12 sends the metadata to the metadata generation management server 16 (S106). The metadata generation management server 16 stores the metadata in the metadata database 16b (S107) and notifies that the metadata has been generated to the content server 14 (S108). This notification includes the identification information of the content and the identification number of the newly generated metadata. When the notification is received, the content server 14 updates the header part of the content according to the notification (S109).
Specifically, among metadata generation request flags recorded in the header part of the content that is identified by the identification information included in the notification, the content server 14 changes the metadata generation request flag corresponding to the identification number included in the notification such that the metadata generation request flag indicates that metadata does not need to be generated (“0”).
Thereafter, the content that includes the changed metadata generation request flag in its header part is sent to any client 12, so the metadata can be prevented from being generated again in the client 12.
As described above, according to this embodiment, when a content is sent from the content server 14 to the client 12 for the purpose of reproduction, the data of the content is used to generate metadata. Therefore, the metadata for the content delivered from the content server 14 can be generated while suppressing an increase in the network traffic.
Note that the present invention is not limited to the above-mentioned embodiment, and various modifications can be made. For example, although the metadata generation request data is included in the header part of the content delivered from the content server 14 in the above-mentioned embodiment, a metadata generation request may be sent to the client 12 separately from the content. Alternatively, the content server 14 or the metadata generation management server 16 may deliver, to the client 12, data indicating whether or not metadata needs to be generated, for example, a list of contents for which metadata needs to be generated or a list of contents for which metadata does not need to be generated, and the client 12 may check whether metadata needs to be generated, according to this data, and generate metadata only for a content whose metadata needs to be generated.
Although, in the above-mentioned embodiment, the metadata is sent to the metadata generation management server 16 and is then sent from the metadata generation management server 16 to the content server 14, the metadata may be directly sent from the client 12 to the content server 14.
| Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind | 371c Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PCT/JP2007/057662 | 4/5/2007 | WO | 00 | 1/8/2010 |
