Patent Application
20060245343
The present invention relates to a rewritable storage medium comprising predefined content which is adapted for being integrated with additional user-defined content. The invention further relates to an apparatus for handling a rewriteable storage medium.
Storage mediums can be used for a wide variety of applications and today a number of different types of storage mediums exist on the market: DVD, CD, memory cards, etc.
SFFO (Small Form Factor Optical Disc) also called Portable Blue Disc is characterized as a portable, high storage capacity and low cost format. One of the applications for which SFFO is used is as a disc ticket e.g. for entering a theme park or a museum.
In general the increasing use of various types of storage mediums has created a need for it to be able to integrate pre-generated pre-stored storage medium read-only content with user-defined content.
U.S. 2002/0140988 describes a PC environment, where specific parts of the photo on a display can be linked to specific content. Thereby, when the specific content is selected, the related content is presented to the user. Here the links are generated by linking display areas with user-defined content; it is not described how one can integrate user-defined software to read-only content. Further the content can include only images.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a solution to the above-mentioned problems.
This is achieved by providing a rewritable storage medium comprising predefined content which is adapted for being integrated with additional user-defined content, the storage medium comprising:
Thereby the user can customise the predefined content on the storage medium by adding personal content that is an integrated part of the predefined content. Further the user can make dedicated annotations and comments on each category he visits, such as each landscape he visits in the theme park, each stand he visits in the museum, etc, and the connection is built up by the dummy links. The user can also store photos taken in various locations and link them to the corresponding predefined content category. Further the user can download extra information about the park or the museum and link them to the corresponding content categories. For other people who are interested in the predefined content only and not the user's personal content, they can just ignore the links and go through the predefined content very quickly. It is easier to protect the user's personal content if the content is stored in this way. According to the invention the user's own content is seamlessly integrated with the published part of the disc, giving an easily personalised guide book. In more general terms the user buys (downloads) disc content with some pre-predefined content, which can later be enhanced by the user's own content in a seamless way.
In a specific embodiment said second portion comprises replaceable predefined dummy content, wherein said predefined content in said first portion comprises links to the predefined dummy content. Thereby the dummy content can be used to promote content that the user can download at the theme park/museum etc.
In a specific embodiment the rewriteable storage medium is a user specific ticket for a tourist attraction and wherein the predefined content comprised in said first portion comprises tourist-attraction specific information. This is a very smart way of adding value to the visit of the tourist attraction and makes it possible to incorporate a presentation of the attraction with user specific content, such as own pictures, sound, notes etc.
In a specific embodiment the storage medium is a SFFO (Small Form Factor Optical Disk). The disk is also referred to as a Portable Blue Disk being a disk having room for large amounts of content and therefore ideal for adding high-level multimedia content, such as video.
In a specific embodiment the storage medium is a hybrid disk comprising a ROM portion and a RW portion, respectively, wherein the first portion comprising said predefined content is the ROM portion and wherein the second portion for adding said user-defined content is the RW portion. Thereby it is the user-defined content only that can be deleted and it is not possible to accidentally delete the predefined content.
In a specific embodiment the second portion of the storage medium further comprises a redirection table and wherein the link between the predefined content to said second portion comprises a first link from the predefined content in said first portion to the redirection table and a second link from the redirection table to said second portion. By having this re-direction table for providing the link between the predefined content and the user-defined content, it is not necessary that the predefined knowledge knows the positions of the user-defined content. Instead it should only comprise a link to the re-direction table. This redirection table is then updated when user-defined content is added and thereby the re-direction table can be used to locate the user-defined content, when the content is requested via the predefined content.
In an embodiment the predefined content in said first portion is XML files and wherein the links between said predefined content in said first portion to said second portion are URLs embedded in the XML files. This is an easy and fast way of generating the content.
The invention further relates to an apparatus for handling a rewriteable storage medium according to the invention, wherein the apparatus comprises:
The apparatus could e.g. be a PDA, a mobile phone, a dedicated device positioned in connection with e.g. a museum or an attraction in an amusement park.
In the following preferred embodiments of the invention will be described referring to the figures, where
In
In a specific example it could be storage mediums such as a SFFO disc, being used as a disc ticket. Visitors to a theme park or museum use such a disc ticket as pass. On the ticket, the visitors can find park- or museum-related predefined content, e.g. in the form of an interactive guide. The predefined content can be in the form of video, audio or text. Usually the predefined content is authored beforehand and can be stored either on the disc 101 or be downloaded to the disc via the park/museum website. The predefined content, which the user does not change, should be either logically or physically read-only.
As mentioned above the visitor can obtain the predefined content in two ways:
The disc could be either a hybrid disc or a RW disc. A hybrid disc is a disc that comprises read only as well as read/write data storage areas. The predefined content in the first portion 105 of the disc potentially occupies only a small part of the disc space.
The second portion 109 of the disc space can be used to store the visitor's own user-defined content. For example, the visitor stores his photos taken in a particular area in the park and integrates them with the predefined content. The visitor can add his notes or annotations to a particular exhibit in the museum. The common feature of these added contents is that they will be linked to the predefined content. To enable this, dummy links have been added to the predefined content during the content authoring pointing to the redirection table 107. This enables the visitor to extend these links to the corresponding user-defined content. Once the visitor finishes his trip and starts to read the predefined content, he can click on those built-in dummy links to direct him to his own user-defined content. E.g. the description of a roller coaster could have a link set-up with the title “Your picture in the middle of the looping”. Before the ride is taken and the picture is filled in, this link does not lead anywhere, but after the picture (or any other picture at the visitor's discretion) is stored on the disc, the link can be completed. The links are set up during the content authoring stage. The links are embedded in the predefined content of a disc, but through one step of indirection they can be made to point anywhere a URL can point to. All links points to the redirection table 107 in the RW space of the disc 101. The redirection table 107 enables links to point to any arbitrary destination that can be described by a URL. It also enables several links in the pre-recorded part to eventually point to the same object. It is further possible that the links point to proxy objects. This allows the user to replace generic pictures of people on a ride in the park by their own pictures.
The predefined content on the disc can be described by XML files and the dummy links are expressed by URLs embedded in the XML files. These URLs all point to the re-direction table 107. The re-direction table 107 is updateable and it enables links to point to any arbitrary destination URLs. It also enables several links in the predefined part to eventually point to the same object. The redirection table can be implemented by an XML or HTML document that provides the redirection functionality.
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The device could e.g. be either a dedicated device or combined with other portable devices that can support above functions, such as a PDA, mobile phone, etc.
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It should be noted that the above-mentioned embodiments illustrate rather than limit the invention, and that those skilled in the art will be able to design many alternative embodiments without departing from the scope of the appended claims. In the claims, any reference signs placed between parentheses shall not be construed as limiting the claim. The word ‘comprising’ does not exclude the presence of other elements or steps than those listed in a claim. The invention can be implemented by means of hardware comprising several distinct elements, and by means of a suitably programmed computer. In a device claim enumerating several means, several of these means can be embodied by one and the same item of hardware. The mere fact that certain measures are recited in mutually different dependent claims does not indicate that a combination of these measures cannot be used to advantage.
In summary, the invention relates to a rewritable storage medium comprising predefined content which is adapted for being integrated with additional user-defined content, the storage medium comprises: a first portion comprising said predefined content; a second portion for adding said user-defined content; wherein said predefined content in said first portion comprises links to said second portion.
Thereby the user can customise the predefined content on the storage medium by adding personal content being an integrated part of the predefined content. Further the user can make dedicated annotations and comments on each category he visits, the connection is built up by the dummy links. It is easier to protect the user's personal content if the content is stored in this way. According to the invention the user's own content is integrated with the published part of the disc giving an easily personalised guide book. In more general terms the user buys disc content with some pre-predefined content, which can be enhanced by user's own content in a seamless way.
| Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind | 371c Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PCT/IB04/51492 | 8/19/2004 | WO | 2/28/2006 |
