WO1997021167A1

WO1997021167A1 - Method of transmitting video and audio data over the internet

Info

Publication number: WO1997021167A1
Application number: PCT/US1996/019383
Authority: WO
Inventors: Caesar M. Collazo
Original assignee: Hyperlock Technologies, Inc.
Priority date: 1995-12-07
Filing date: 1996-12-04
Publication date: 1997-06-12
Also published as: AU1280397A

Abstract

A method (figures 2 and 3) of transmitting video image (12, 14) and/or audio data (12, 14) over the Internet (Internet figure 1) in a faster manner and with greater quality than hithertofore possible, and without the use of the E-mail system on the Internet (Internet figure 1). The method of the invention includes transmitting video (12, 14) and/or audio (12, 14) over the Internet (Internet figure 1) by encoding (16) the binary data (10) representing the video (12, 14) and/or audio (12, 14) to be transmitted in text format, such as seven-digit ASCII code, which encoded data is then sent to the local server (18) of the local web of the Internet (Internet figure 1). The local server (18) then establishes a point-to-point socket-connection between the transmitting host computer (10, 12, 14, 16) and the receiving or end-user computer, (20, 22, 24) thereby avoiding any E-mail associated logjams.

Description

METHOD OF TRANSMITTING VIDEO AND AUDIO

DATA OVER THE INTERNET

A portion of the disclosure of this patent document contains material which is subject to copyright protection. The copyright owner has no objection to facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent document or the patent disclosure, as it appears in the Patent' & Trademark Office patent file or records, but otherwise reserves all copyright rights whatsoever.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The present invention is directed to a method of transmitting video and/or audio information over the "Internet".

The Internet is a conglomeration of computer networks that are linked together. Each network of the Internet may have one or more servers, and an operating system that may be different from that of others in. the Internet. To link one network to another, and in order to overcome these operating differences between computer networks, the Internet system utilizes hardware and software devices called: Bridges, routers, and gateways, all of which adapt the information being sent on one network to the operating and protocol requirements of the receiving network. For example, a gateway will connect, or "splice" a network operating on the Novell protocol to a network that operates on a DECnet or SNA protocol. There are currently more than 10,000 computer networks that are linked together, worldwide, which together constitute the "Internet". Because they do not all operate on the same operating system, and because of different protocols, the data sent from one host computer of one network to a receiving computer of another network, which may be many thousands of miles away from the host computer, may take a relatively long time, since the gateways, bridges and routers must conform or adapt the protocol of the sending host computer to the receiving computer's protocol.

In addition to the time-delays associated with protocol variances, the Internet has a maximum data-transmission capacity of 1.8 bytes per second, which is not enough for sending video images in real time.

The Internet system utilizes two types of file-transfer protocols (FTP) for copying a file from a host computer to the receiving computer: ASCII and binary. An ASCII file is a text file, while every other kind of file is binary. ASCII files are transmitted in seven-digit ASCII codes, while the binary files are transmitted in binary code. Because all data stored in computer memory is stored in binary format, when one sends a file in the Internet, it is sent in binary format. However, as discussed above, owing to the data-transmission constraints imposed by the Internet system because of the differing operating systems, and multitude of gateways, routers, and bridges, the file data must be sent out in packets of a size no greater than 1536 bytes. Since the size of just a thirty-second video may be as great as 2.5 megabytes, it may take up to one-half hour or more to send a thirty-second video over the Internet from a host computer to a receiving computer. Presently, there are compression techniques that compress the files in order to reduce this playback-time, which data is decompressed at the receiving computer. An example of such a system is VDOLive, manufactured by VDOnet Corp. of Santa Clara, California. However, these compression-systems still send the data in binary format, requiring packet-data sizes of no greater than 1536 bytes. Thus, even with these compression-systems, the length of time to receive a thirty-second video over the Internet after being buffered in the user's computer is near real time, but is unstable, choppy and drops as much as 96% of the video data over a conventional phone line.

In the Internet, there is an electronic-mail delivery system called E-mail. The E-mail system utilizes addresses to direct a message to the recipient, with each address having a mailbox code and a daemon, with the mail box and daemomn being separated by the symbol @. In the E-mail delivery system, all of the messages or "mail" are routed through selected routers and gateways, until it reaches what may be called a "post office" that services the recipient to whom the electronic mail is to be delivered. The "post office" is a local server. The need for these local "post offices" is because there is every reason to assume that the recipient-computer, to which the mail is being sent, is either not powered up, or is performing a different task. Since most computers in the Internet are not multi-tasking machines, such as, for example, computers running on the DOS operating system, if such a computer is engaged with performing a task, it is not possible for it to receive the E-mail data at that time. Thus, the local "post office" or server stores the message until such a time as it may be delivered to the end-user to whom it is intended.

In the E-mail system, there has really been only one format standard for Internet messages. A variation has been the MIME version, which stands for Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions, which defines a new header-field, which is intended for use to send non-text messages, such as multimedia messages that might include audio or images, by encoding the binary into seven-digit ASCII code. Before MIME, the limitation of E-mail systems was the fact that they limit the contents of electronic mail messages to relatively . short lines of seven-bit ASCII. This forced users to convert any non-textual data that they may wish to send into seven-bit bytes representable as printable ASCII characters before invoking a local mail UA (User Agent, a program with which human users send and receive mail). Examples of such encodings currently used in the Internet include pure hexadecimal, uuencoded, the 3-in-4 base 64 scheme specified in RFC 1421, the Andrew Toolkit Representation [ATK], and many others. Even though a user's UA may not have the capability of dealing with the non-textual body part, the user might have some mechanism external to the UA that can extract useful information from the body part. Moreover, it does not allow for the fact that the message may eventually be gatewayed back into an X.400 message handling system (i.e., the X.400 message is "tunneled" through Internet mail), where the non-textual information would definitely become useful again. With MIME, video and/or audio data may be sent using the E-mail system. MIME uses a number of header-fields, such as "Content-Type" header field, which can be used to specify the type and subtype of data in the body of a message and to fully specify the native representation (encoding) of such data; "text" Content-Type value header field, which can be used to represent textual information in a number of character sets and formatted text description languages in a standardized manner; "multipart" Content-Type value, which can be used to combine several body parts, possibly of differing types of data, into a single message; "application" Content-Type value, which can be used to transmit application data or binary data, and hence, among other users, to implement an electronic mail file transfer service; "message" Content-Type value, for encapsulating another mail message; "image" Content-Type value, for transmitting still image (picture) data; "audio" Content-Type value, for transmitting audio or voice data; "video" Content-Type value, for trans- mitting video or moving image data, possibly with audio as part of the composite video data format; "Content-Transfer-Encoding" header field, which can be used to specify an auxiliary encoding that was applied to the data in order to allow it to pass through mail transport mechanisms which may have data or character set limitations. Two additional header fields may be used to further describe the data in a message body: The "Content-ID" and "Content-Description" header fields.

However, there are considerable drawbacks and deficiencies in transmitting video images and/or audio data over the Internet using E-mail's MIME. Firstly, there is ofttimes considerable time delays, such that it may take up to ten or more minutes to send a thirty-second video clip over the E-mail system. In times of high-traffic usage, the delay may even be more than ten minutes. Secondly, the video image. or audio data cannot be viewed or listened to by the end-user, or recipient, until all of the data of the entire video or audio file has been received by the receiving computer, which, also, adds a considerable time lag to the actual viewing or listening. Thirdly, the end-user or recipient computer must have the necessary E-mail and MIME software for decoding the data. Fourthly, since MIME is an E-mail protocol system, the data is transmitted via the E-mail system, meaning that it is routed through one or more post offices and servers, which delay the transmission of the data, and which require that no other task be performed by the receiving computer if it is a single-tasking machine, like DOS-operating system machines. Fifthly, like all E-mail deliveries, the requisite E-mail software at the recipient computer must decode the encoded data received, and then cut-and-paste the data into a new file, such as NOTEPAD, which is time-consuming, before the new file is played back by a viewer or player.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

It is the primary objective of the present invention to provide video imaging and/or audio data over the Internet WAN/LAN system in a faster manner, and with greater quality then hithertofore possible.

It is another objective of the present invention to provide such video imaging, with or without audio, such that the use of the E-mail system on the Internet is entirely obviated.

It is another objective of the present invention to provide such video imaging, with or without audio, such that the data representing the video and/or audio is streamed and transmitted as bursts of ASCII data.

Toward these and other ends, the method of the invention for transmitting video and/audio over the Internet consists of encoding the binary data representing the video and/or audio to be transmitted into text format, such as seven-digit ASCII code, which encoded data is then sent to the local server of the local web of the Internet. The local server then establishes a point-to-point socket-connection between the transmitting, host computer, and the receiving or end-user computer, thereby avoiding any E-mail associated logjams. In addition, since the data is sent out as text data, such as seven digit ASCII, the data may be sent out as bursts, rather than using packet streams, which means that the data need not be packetized, thus saving a considerable amount of transmission time, and utilizing the entire bandwidth of that socket connection and avoiding checksum (data integrity checks) imposed by transmission systems on the transmission of packetized data.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING

The invention will be more readily understood with reference to the accompanying drawing, wherein:

Figure 1 is a block diagram showing the socket-to-socket connection for transmitting video images and audio data over the Internet from a host computer to a recipient or end-user computer;

Figure 2 is a block diagram showing the encoding of the video and audio data at the host computer; and

Figure 3 is a a block diagram showing the decoding of the video and audio data at the receiving computer. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Referring now to the drawings in greater detail, and to Fig. 1 for now, video images and/or audio are converted from analogue to digital and stored in computer memory in digitized format (block 10). Such digitized format may be existing computer memory files (block 12) that are already in binary format, or may be original files originated by recording the video and/or audio, as by a camcorder or tape, etc., and converting the analogue signals into digital, or binary, code (block 14). In the case of originating files, the analogue data may be converted to digital data using an INTEL "Smart Video Recorder Pro", for example. The raw binary data that is stored in computer memory (block 10) is then converted and encoded into text format, such as seven-digit ASCII code (block 16), and then sent to the local server (block 18) of the web of which the host-computer, at which the video and audio files stored. From the local server, the data is sent out directly over the Internet to the end-user, and in particular to the cache directory of the end-user computer (block 20). There, the encoded, text formatted data is decoded (block 22), and the data used and played back (block 24) . Since the data is being sent as encoded text-formatted data, the hithertofore band-width constraints imposed by the Internet system to the transmission of video and audio data by packets of binary data is obviated, and, moreover, since the text data is being sent as a direct socket-to-socket connection between the host, sending computer and the receiving, end-user computer, and not through the dedicated E-mail route with its associated daemons, dedicated servers and post offices, the text-formatted encoded data is transmitted directly to the end-user computer. However, as will be explained hereinbelow, since the text-formatted data is not being sent via the E-mail path, the end-user computer must be equipped with what may be termed a "catcher", which will ensure that the received encoded data is placed safely in a cache directory, and not allowed to be otherwise scattered among many directories, and, thereby, be irretrievably lost, such a "catcher" not being necessary if the text data had been delivered via an E-mail delivery system, such as MIME.

Referring to Fig. 2, at the host-computer end, the raw analogue data is digitized (block 30), as explained above. The data is then "split" into one-second AVI's (audio-video interleafs) (block 32), as by an Adobe Premier 4.0, and, then, the binary code is encoded from binary to text format such ASCII (block 34). Preferably, the encoding from binary to text is achieved utilizing an encoding program called UUEncode by Snappy Inc. created by George Silva (block 34). This encoding will create a header of about 50K comprising all of the necessary information necessary to the video and/or audio data, as is well- known in the art. Then, the encoded data is sent to the local web server (block 36) in order to be sent out over the Internet, and then to the end-user computer.

Figure 3 shows the steps involved when the data is received by the receiving or end-user computer (block 40) . As soon as the socket-to-socket connection is made between the host, or sending, computer and the receiving, or end-user, computer, the local server of the sending computer ' s web of the Internet sends the data to the receiving data over the Internet, which means that any number of local servers and gateways and routers will have been involved in transmitting the data, until it finally arrives at the local server serving the web associated with the receiving, or end user, computer (block 42) . As soon as this socket-tosocket connection is made, the encoded text-formatted data is sent, at a rate of about 1.9 bytes a second. The receiving computer has a program that may be called a "catcher" for "catching" or seizing the transmitted data as it being received (block 44) . The catcher is a software program that will direct the incoming data to a specific location in the cache directory of the computer (block 46), so that the data will not be lost. The catcher is necessary, since, if it were not present, it is the "nature" of personal computers to randomly dump data which has not had a specific destination assigned to it. Thus, without the catcher, the incoming data would be strewn into a different directory and/or sub-directories, to thus be irretrievably lost, for the player. As soon as the encoded header arrives and stored in the cache directory, the program entitled "player" in the receiving computer begins to decode the text-formatted data, in order to re-generate the original binary code (block 48), from which the data passes to a conventional digital-to-analogue converter, in order to play the video or audio (block 50). It is noted, and emphasized, that as soon as the header has been decoded, the video and/or audio data is immediately "played" back by the digital-to-analogue converter. That is, it is not necessary to wait until the entire video or audio file has been received and stored in memory at the receiving computer until it can be started to be played, but rather the video and/or audio is started as soon as the header has been decoded and the initial raw data decoded, even though there may be only a fraction of the entire data file received by the receiving computer. This is in contrast to the MIME-generated video or audio sent out over the E-mail system, which, among other drawbacks and deficiencies, requires that the entire data file be received and processed before playing back.

The following is the software code listing for the server for the host-computer's web for bursting the encoded data through the Internet.

The following is the software code listing at the host-computer for encoding the binary data into seven-digit ASCII text format, and. is also the software code listing for the "player", or decoder, at each receiving, or end-user, computer, for decoding the encoded text format back into binary:

LE

The following is the software code listing at each receiving, or end-user, computer, for the catcher:

P

'

While a specific embodiment of the invention has been shown and described, it is to be understood that numerous changes and modifications may be made therein without departing from the scope, spirit and intent of the invention as set forth in the appended claims. While it has been stated that it is necessary to first store the digital data in computer memory for later conversion into encoded text format, such as seven-digit ASCII code, it is within the purview of the present invention to send live video and/or audio through the Internet. In addition, it is to be understood that instead of the receiving computer being a personal computer, the receiving end may also be a cable-TV box that has been adapted for operation with the Internet, and for accessing files on the Internet. In addition, the receiving end may also be any display device terminal which may access the Internet.

Claims

WHAT I CLAIM IS :

CLAIM 1. A method of transmitting video and/or audio over the

Internet, comprising:

(a) converting analogue video and/or audio data into digital data;

(b) storing the digital data representing the video and/or audio in binary format in computer memory of a host computer;

(c) converting the stored binary format data of said step

(b) into encoded text format data;

(d) transmitting said encoded text format data of said step

(c) to at least a first server forming part of the Internet;

(e) sending the encoded text format data through the Internet to an end-user computer or terminal device for processing thereat, said step of sending comprising establishing a socket-to-socket connection between the host computer and the end-user computer or terminal device;

(f) receiving the encoded text format data at the end-user computer or terminal device;

(g) said step (f) comprising catching the encoded text format data and directing the encoded text format data to a specific directory-location in memory of the end-user computer or terminal device;

(h) decoding the encoded text format data into binary data; and

(i) playing the video and/or audio.

CLAIM 2.. The method of transmitting video and/or audio over the

Internet according to claim 1, wherein said step (g) comprises directing the incoming encoded text format data to a cache directory.

CLAIM 3. The method of transmitting video and/or audio over the Internet according to claim 1, wherein said step (c) comprises converting the binary data into seven-digit ASCII code.

CLAIM 4. The method of transmitting video and/or audio over the Internet according to claim 1, wherein said step (d) comprises routing the encoded text format data through a plurality of servers forming . part of the Internet.

CLAIM 5. The method of transmitting video and/or audio over the Internet according to claim 1, wherein said step (i) comprises converting the digital binary data back into analogue.

CLAIM 6. A method of transmitting data over the Internet, comprising:

(a) storing digital data in binary format in computer memory of a host computer;

(b) converting the stored binary format data of said step (b) into encoded text format data; (c) transmitting said encoded text format data of said step (b) to at least a first server forming part of the Internet;

(d) sending the encoded text format data through the Internet to an end-user computer or terminal device for processing thereat, said step of sending comprising establishing a socket-to-socket connection between the host computer and the end-user computer or terminal device;

(e) receiving the encoded text format data at the end-user computer or terminal device;

(f) said step (e) comprising catching the encoded text format data and directing the encoded text format data to a specific directory-location in memory of the end-user computer or terminal device;

(g) decoding the encoded text format data into binary data; and

(h) playing the video and/or audio.

CLAIM 7. The method of transmitting data over the Internet according to claim 6, wherein said step (f) comprises directing the incoming encoded text format data to a cache directory.

CLAIM 8. The method of transmitting data over the Internet according to claim 6, wherein said step (b) comprises converting the binary data into seven-digit ASCII code.

CLAIM 9. The method of transmitting data over the Internet according to claim 6, wherein said step (c) comprises routing the encoded text format data through a plurality of servers forming part of the Internet.

CLAIM 10. The method of transmitting data over the Internet according to claim 6, wherein said step (h) comprises converting the digital binary data back into analogue.

CLAIM 11. A method of transmitting video and/or audio over the Internet, comprising:

(a) converting analogue video and/or audio data into digital data at a host-computer;

(b) transmitting the digital data of said step (a) to at least a first server forming part of the Internet in encoded text format data;

(c) sending the encoded text format data through the Internet to an end-user computer or terminal device for processing thereat, said step of sending comprising establishing a socket-to-socket connection between the host computer and the end-user computer or terminal device;

(d) receiving the encoded text format data at the end-user computer or terminal device; (f) said step (e) comprising catching the encoded text format data and directing the encoded text format data to a specific directory-location in memory of the end-user computer or terminal device;

(g) decoding the encoded text format data; and

(h) playing the video and/or audio.

CLAIM 12. The method of transmitting video and/or audio over the Internet according to claim 11, wherein said step (f) comprises directing the incoming encoded text format data to a cache directory.

CLAIM 13. The method of transmitting video and/or audio over the Internet according to claim 11, wherein said step (b) comprises transmitting the digital data as seven-digit ASCII code.

CLAIM 14. The method of transmitting video and/or audio over the Internet according to claim 11, wherein said step (d) comprises routing the encoded text format data through a plurality of servers forming part of the Internet.

CLAIM 15. A method of receiving video and/or audio over the Internet at a receiving computer or terminal, comprising:

(a) establishing a socket-to-socket connection between a host computer, from which the video and/or audio is being transmitted on the Internet, and a receiving computer or terminal;

(b) receiving encoded text format data over the Internet at the receiving computer or terminal, said encoded text format data being representative of the audio and/or audio;

(c) catching the encoded text format data at the receiving computer or terminal, and directing the encoded text format data to a specific directory-location in computer memory of the receiving computer or terminal;

(d) decoding the encoded text format data into binary format, and, thereafter;

(e) playing the video and/or audio at the receiving computer or terminal.

CLAIM 16. The method of receiving video and/or audio over the

Internet at a receiving computer or terminal, according to claim

15, wherein said step (c) comprises directing the incoming encoded text format data to a cache directory.

CLAIM 17. The method of receiving video and/or audio over the Internet at a receiving computer or terminal, according to claim 15, wherein said step (b) comprises receiving the data as seven-digit ASCII code.

CLAIM 18. The method of receiving video and/or audio over the Internet at a receiving computer or terminal, according to claim 15, wherein said step (a) comprises using a plurality of servers forming part of the Internet.

CLAIM 19. A method of transmitting video and/or audio over the Internet, comprising:

(a) converting analogue video and/or audio data into digital data;

(c) converting the stored binary format data of said step

(b) into encoded text format data;

(d) transmitting said encoded text format data of said step

(c) to at least a first server forming part of the Internet;

(e) sending the encoded text format data through the Internet to an end-user computer or terminal device for processing thereat, said step of sending comprising establishing a point-to-point socket connection between the host computer and the end-user computer or terminal device;

(f) receiving the encoded text format data at the end-user computer or terminal device; (g) said step (f) comprising directing the encoded text format data to a specific location of the end-user computer or terminal ;

(h) decoding the encoded text format data into binary data; and

(i) playing the video and/or audio on the end-user computer or terminal.

CLAIM 20. An apparatus for receiving video and/or audio over the Internet at a receiving computer or terminal, comprising:

a computer means comprising memory means for storing information;

means for establishing a point-to-point connection between the computer means and a host computer from which the video and/or audio is being transmitted on the Internet, and for receiving encoded text format data over the Internet, said encoded text format data being representative of the audio and/or audio;

said memory means comprising a first portion for catching the encoded text format data, and directing the encoded text format data to a specific directory-location in said computer memory means;

said memory means comprising a second portion for decoding the encoded text format data into binary format; and said computer means further comprising player means for playing the video and/or audio.

CLAIM 21. A system for transmitting video and/or audio over the Internet, comprising:

means for converting analogue video and/or audio data into digital data;

a computer means having first memory means for storing the digital data representing the video and/or audio in binary format;

said computer means comprising a second memory means for converting the stored binary format data into encoded text format data;.

means for transmitting said encoded text format data to at least a first server forming part of the Internet;

means for sending the encoded text format data through the Internet to an end-user computer or terminal device for processing thereat, said means for sending comprising means for establishing a socket-to-socket connection between said computer means and the end-user computer or terminal device;

a receiving means having third memory means for receiving the encoded text format data;

said third memory means comprising catching means for catching the Internet-transmitted encoded text format data and directing the encoded text format data to a specific directory-location of the receiving means;

third memory means further comprising decoding means for decoding the encoded text format data into binary data; and

said receiving means having playing means for playing back the video and/or audio.