Rich Content Media Stream Segmentation for Legacy Compatibility
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Solution Overview
Problem
The interactivity of traditional broadcast media is limited by the inability of most media players to process rich media content streams, which combine media and descriptive content, leading to compatibility issues with both legacy and new devices, discouraging consumers from adopting new media playing devices.
Innovation Solution
Separating media and descriptive content streams, allowing them to be received and synchronized independently at a media player, enabling the activation of descriptive content only when needed, and storing descriptive content for later use, thus ensuring compatibility and enhancing user interaction.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If media and descriptive content are mixed into a single rich content stream, then the interactivity and information richness are improved, but the compatibility with legacy media players deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the rich content stream into separate media stream and descriptive content stream, allowing legacy players to process only the media stream while new players can process both streams independently. This segmentation resolves the contradiction by maintaining interactivity through descriptive content for capable devices while ensuring broad compatibility through independent stream processing.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent creates a universal rich content delivery system where the same segmented stream structure serves both legacy media players (processing only media) and new interactive players (processing both media and descriptive content). This multi-functionality approach allows the system to accommodate diverse device capabilities without sacrificing interactivity or compatibility.
2Device complexity
If separate media and descriptive streams are processed independently, then the compatibility with legacy devices is improved, but the user interaction capability deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements dynamic stream processing where the media player adaptively handles separate streams based on device capabilities. Legacy devices automatically process only the media stream, while new devices dynamically activate descriptive content processing to enable enhanced user interaction. This dynamic approach ensures compatibility while preserving interactivity where supported.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces an intermediary rich content file that carries descriptive content separately from the media stream. This intermediary structure acts as a mediator between legacy players (which ignore it) and new players (which process it for enhanced interaction), thereby maintaining compatibility while enabling advanced user interaction capabilities.
3Adaptability or versatility
If rich content streams are created for new media playing devices, then the future-proofing and interactivity are improved, but the loss of compatibility with existing devices increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments rich content into independent media and descriptive streams with clear separation, allowing new media playing devices to process both streams for future-proof interactivity while legacy devices reliably process only the essential media stream. This segmentation ensures future-proofing without sacrificing reliable backward compatibility.
Data Source
AI summary
A method of playing a rich content stream that includes a media stream and a descriptive stream. The method may include the steps of receiving the rich content stream at a media player, where the descriptive stream is generated from a rich content file executed separately from a source for the media stream, and where the media stream and the descriptive stream are received as separate streams at the media player. The method may also include synchronizing the media stream and the descriptive stream at the media player so that information in the descriptive stream is temporally synchronized with media content playing from the media stream. In addition the method may include activating the playing of the descriptive stream while the media stream is playing on the media player, where descriptive content from the descriptive stream is not played on the media player until being activated by a user.