Showing papers on "Digital media published in 2001"

The language of new media

Abstract: "In this book Lev Manovich offers the first systematic and rigorous theory of new media. He places new media within the histories of visual and media cultures of the last few centuries. He discusses new media's reliance on conventions of old media, such as the rectangular frame and mobile camera, and shows how new media works create the illusion of reality, address the viewer, and represent space. He also analyzes categories and forms unique to new media, such as interface and database. Manovich uses concepts from film theory, art history, literary theory, and computer science and also develops new theoretical constructs, such as cultural interface, spatial montage, and cinegratography. The theory and history of cinema play a particularly important role in the book. Among other topics, Manovich discusses parallels between the histories of cinema and of new media, digital cinema, screen and montage in cinema and in new media, and historical ties between avant-garde film and new media." -- Publisher's website.

Digital Rights Management: Business and Technology

Abstract: From the Publisher: Digital rights management, or DRM, is a set of business models and technologies that enables you to protect - and profit from - your text, image, music, or video content in today's digital world. In this unique guide, three digital media experts show you step-by-step how to find the right DRM solution for your organization, whether you're an IT decision-maker or an executive on the content side. After explaining DRM antecedents, paradigms, and legal foundations, the authors walk you through today's DRM technologies and standards - and offer sound, practical advice on how to match your needs with the right DRM products, services and vendors. Author Biography: Bill Rosenblatt is president of GiantSteps/Media Technology Strategies, a consulting firm (www.giantstepsmts.com) whose clients include content providers, digital media technology companies, and investment firms. Bill bridges the gaps between business and technology in the digital media world. He brings content providers expertise in areas such as content management, rights management, streaming media, and cross-media publishing, and he provides technology vendors with market strategy, business development, and product management services. Before founding GiantSteps, Bill was chief technology officer of Fathom, an online content and education company backed by Columbia University and other scholarly institutions. He has been a technology and new media executive at McGraw-Hill and Times Mirror Company, and he served as manager of strategic marketing for media and publishing at Sun Microsystems. He was also one of the architects of the Digital Object Identifier (DOI), a digital rights management related standard. Bill is a frequent speaker and writer on media technology topics. He is the author of several technical books and has written articles for EContent magazine, Salon, CNN Interactive, Journal of Electronic Publishing, and other periodicals. He is president of Princeton Broadcasting Service, Inc., a member of the Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA) Digital Rights Management Working Group, and a member of the advisory boards of Seybold Seminars and several startup companies. Bill holds degrees from Princeton University and the University of Massachusetts. He lives in New York City. Bill Trippe is president of New Millennium Publishing (www.nmpub.com), a Boston-based consulting practice formed in 1997. Bill has more than twenty years of technical and management experience in electronic publishing, content management, and SGML/XML and related technologies. He brings a unique blend of strategic and hands-on knowledge of the products and trends that are shaping the publishing and content technology marketplace. In addition to his role at New Millennium, Bill is associate editor of The Gilbane Report, the XML columnist for Transform, and a regular contributor to the magazine EContent. Stephen Mooney is founder of Stephen Mooney & Associates, a consulting company advising technology providers, rightsholders, aggregators, and others on new approaches to intellectual property licensing. Steve has more than fifteen years of consulting, negotiating, sales and licensing experience in the publishing and information industries. He concluded numerous license agreements with Fortune 500 corporations while with Copyright Clearance Center, and was vice president of business development at Yankee Rights Management. He chairs several standards committees, including DOI-EB (Digital Object Identifier for E-Books), the Identifier Working Group of the Open E-Book Forum (OEBF), and the SIIA DRM Working Group. He is a regular speaker at conferences on rights management issues. Steve is admitted to the bar in New York and Massachusetts.

Interactive Advertising and Presence

Abstract: New communication technologies are creating new challenges for the advertising industry. While digital and high definition television, e-mail, the World Wide Web, and other new technologies represent new possibilities for advertisers, there is little information available regarding how to take advantage of them. There are indications that applying traditional models, designed for media that provide users with a passive, impersonal experience, will be unsuccessful for the new interactive digital media. A growing body of research and theory on the concept of presence may provide a valuable framework for advertisers as they try to adapt to the changing media environment. This paper considers some of the ways advertising is evolving to incorporate interactive media and how work on presence can guide that evolution.

System, method and apparatus for converting and integrating media files

Abstract: The present invention teaches a digital media file conversion and integration system including a server coupled to the Internet to allow users to download media files to a server the Internet. The system contains devices to screen, compress, and update the media files, devices to break down the media files into low level components, devices to convert one or media files to an intermediate format and then combine the intermediate formats to create an output format, devices to convert output formats to a presentation file, electronic storage to allow third party access to the presentation file through the Internet or email. Presentation files can be created for electronic devices such as portable digital assistants or cellular phones. Users can choose from several output formats. Users can subscribe to the presentation service or pay per use. In an alternate embodiment, users can author digital media files on a personal computer and download the authored file to the presentation conversion system.

Beyond Myth and Metaphor* -The Case of Narrative in Digital Media

Abstract: Marie-Laure Ryan is an independent scholar based in Colorado. She was born in Geneva, Switzerland, in 1946 and studied literature at the University of Geneva at at Georg August Universität, Göttingen, before moving to the U.S. in 1968. She holds a PhD in French (Utah, 1974), MAs in German and Linguistics (Utah 1972), and has also worked as a software consultant (1983-91), after studying computer science at the University of California, La Jolla. In 1999 she was a Fellow of the Society for the Humanities at Cornell University.

Radiant Textuality: Literature after the World Wide Web

Abstract: From the Publisher: Jerome McGann has been at the forefront of the digital revolution in the humanities. His pioneering critical projects on the World Wide Web have redefined traditional notions about interpreting literature. In this trailblazing book, McGann explores the profound implications digital media have for the core critical tasks of the humanities. Drawing on his work as editor of the acclaimed hypertext project The Rossetti Archive, he sets the foundation for a new critical practice for the digital age. Digital media, he demonstrates, can do much more than organize access to great works of literature and art. Beyond their acknowledged editorial and archival capabilities, digital media are also critical tools of unprecedented power. In McGann's practical vision, digital tools give scholars a flexible, dynamic means for interpreting expressive works -- especially those that combine text and image. Radiant Textuality demonstrates eloquently how new technologies can deepen our understanding of complex, multi-layered works of the human imagination in ways never before thought possible.

Authoring system for combining temporal and nontemporal digital media

Abstract: An authoring tool has a graphical user interface enabling interactive authoring of a multimedia presentation including temporal and nontemporal media. The graphical user interface enables specification of the temporal and spatial relationships among the media and playback of the presentation with the specified temporal and spatial relationships. The spatial and temporal relationships among the media may be changed independently of each other. The presentation may be viewed interactively under the control of the author during the authoring process without encoding the audio and video data into a streaming media data file for combination with the other media, simulating behavior of a browser that would receive a streaming media data file. The multimedia presentation may include elements that initiate playback of the presentation from a specified point in time. After authoring of the presentation is completed, the authoring tool assists in encoding and transferring the presentation for distribution. Information about the distribution format and location may be stored as user-defined profiles. Communication with the distribution location may be tested and presentation and the distribution information may be audited prior to encoding and transfer to reduce errors. A presentation is encoded according to the defined temporal and spatial relationships and the distribution format and location information to produce and encoded presentation. The encoded presentation and any supporting media data are transferred to the distribution location, such as a server. A streaming media server may be used for streaming media, whereas other data may be stored on a conventional data server. Accounts may be provided for a streaming media server for authors to publish their presentations. The authoring tool may be associated with a service that uses the streaming media server. Such streaming media servers also may be a source of stock footage for use by authors.

Digital entertainment service platform

Abstract: The present invention is directed to an open business platform that provides an end-to-end solution for managing, distributing, and/or retailing digital media assets from various content suppliers. In one or more embodiments, the present invention provides an integrated system that permits media content suppliers to deposit their media assets with the system where they are prepared by a content management system for distribution to consumers via a secure distribution system. The media content suppliers may then track and control the use of their media assets through a subscriber management system for managing consumer accounts, a licensing server for issuing licenses restricting the use of media content, and a royalty reporter for determining and reporting royalties to the various content suppliers.

The battle to define the future of the book in the digital world

Abstract: This paper examines competing visions for the future of the book in the digital environment, with particular attention to questions about the social implications of controls over intellectual property, such as continuity of cultural memory.

Biometric rights management system

Abstract: An apparatus and method for using biometric information to control access to digital media that is obtained over a network such as the Internet. Encryption, techniques are used in combination with biometric verification technology to control and monitor access to online or locally held media. Biometrics such as keystroke dynamics are measured at a user's computer to confirm the identity of a user for the purpose of allowing the user to audit music files to which the user has authorized access.

Method and system for managing and distributing digital media

Abstract: A system and method that integrates a plurality of media service systems offering different multimedia services such as media storage, syndication, delivery, and billing services. The system and method also provides automated file transcoding. In embodiment, a method of the present invention includes receiving a plurality of physical media files, organizing the plurality of physical media files so that different bit-rates and formats of a single source material are organized into a media database entity, receiving user specified delivery settings for the distribution of the physical media file, generating a release database entity storing the delivery settings of the physical media file, generating an address indicating the storage location of the release, and transmitting the address to a remote computing device.

Data hiding in binary text documents

Abstract: With the proliferation of digital media such as digital images, digital audio, and digital video, robust digital watermarking and data hiding techniques are needed for copyright protection, copy control, annotation, and authentication. While many techniques have been proposed for digital color and grayscale images, not all of them can be directly applied to binary text images. The difficulty lies in the fact that changing pixel values in a binary document could introduce irregularities that are very visually noticeable. We propose a new method for data hiding in binary text documents by embedding data in the 8-connected boundary of a character. We have identified a fixed set of pairs of five-pixel long boundary patterns for embedding data. One of the patterns in a pair requires deletion of the center foreground pixel, whereas the other requires the addition of a foreground pixel. A unique property of the proposed method is that the two patterns in each pair are dual of each other -- changing the pixel value of one pattern at the center position would result in the other. This property allows easy detection of the embedded data without referring to the original document, and without using any special enforcing techniques for detecting embedded data.

Fact or Fiction: Content Classification for Digital Libraries.

Abstract: The World-Wide Web (WWW) is a vast repository of information, much of which is valuable but very often hidden to the user. The anarchic nature of the WWW presents unique challenges when it comes to information extraction and categorization. We view the WWW as a valuable resource for the gathering of information for Digital Libraries. In this paper we will describe the process of extracting and classifying information from the WWW for the purpose of integrating it into digital libraries. Our e orts focus on ways to automatically classify news articles according to whether they present opinions or reported facts. We describe and evaluate a system in development that automatically classi es and recommends Web news articles from sports and politics domains.

Interactive tutorial method, system, and computer program product for real time media production

Abstract: A tutorial system and method is provided to send online media production lessons and other data to one or more students over a computer network, such as the global Internet or an organization's intranet. A tutorial management server communicates with a plurality of student workstations, instructor workstations and integrated, fully automated media production systems. The tutorial management server includes a matriculation manager that registers and maintains system security. A curriculum manager controls the routing of lesson contents to each student. Tutorial management server also includes devices that evaluates each student's proficiency and performance and creates a study guide to assist the student in improving overall performance. A messaging manager is provided to support real time communications among the students and their instructors. In an embodiment, the tutorial management server guides the student in generating a script or broadcast instructions to pre-produce a live or live-to-tape media production.

Digital media resource messaging

Abstract: A digital media resource messaging system provides a convenient digital media resource viewing, managing, organizing, and editing platform that facilitates enhanced resource exchange by storing and forwarding digital media resources via a server between multiple resource-sharing partners designated by the user. In one embodiment, the digital media resource messaging system includes services to view, manage, organize, edit, and exchange digital images and video sequences.

Dynamic quality adjustment based on changing streaming constraints

Abstract: A method and apparatus for dynamic quality adjustment of digital media based on changing streaming constraints is provided. A digital media server sends a digital media stream according to a set of streaming constraints to a requesting client. A client sends a request (400) over a control network to the digital media server indicating information of a particular type is no longer desired. In response to receiving the signal, the video server ceases transmission of that particular type of information (430) to the signaling client, thus relaxing streaming constraints (440). when a viewer signals that a particular type of information is not desired, that particular type of information is not transmitted to the client, which thereby reduces the streaming constraints on a video streaming service, and improved quality digital media information (450) may be sent to any client using the freed-up portion of the bandwidth previously allocated to the signaling client.

Method and system for sharing images using a digital media frame

Abstract: In one embodiment, a method for sharing an object in a network is disclosed. From a digital media frame (DMF) coupled with a network, the object is selected. A recipient is selected to receive the object. One or more signals are sent to a network server coupled with the network, the one or more signals requesting the network server to share the object with the recipient. From the network server, in response to receiving the one or more signals, the object is identified. The object is then sent to the recipient.

A real-time interactive virtual classroom multimedia distance learning system

Abstract: In this paper, we present the design and development of a real-time interactive virtual classroom multimedia distance learning system at the University of Washington. There has been rapid progress in digital media compression research, and the delivery of media data on the public Internet is becoming widespread. A real-time interactive virtual classroom allows a remote participant to not only receive a live class feed, but also to interact in a live class by asking questions with audio, video in real-time using an Internet connection. Many instructors use electronically prepared slides during their class. The traditional video coding algorithms are not able to compress this slide data very well at low bit-rates. We propose a Web-based real-time presentation system for the electronic slides. Instructors also write text on a white board or a piece of paper during the class. At low bit-rates, conventional video encoding algorithms cannot encode this handwritten text video with enough fidelity, resulting in an illegible decoded video. We propose an extension of the well known bilevel image encoding algorithms to handle the handwritten text video. Our method results in decoded video frames which can be read very clearly when encoded at low bit-rates. We have developed a set of tools which allows recording the live classroom session and automatic creation of a synchronized multimedia integration language (SMIL) presentation, which can be used for a later viewing.

Content authentication and recovery using digital watermarks

Abstract: The disclosure describes methods for using digital watermarking to authenticate digital media signals, such as images, audio and video signals. It also describes techniques for using embedded watermarks to repair altered parts of a media signal when alteration is detected. Alteration is detected using hashes, digital watermarks, and a combination of hashes and digital watermarks.

Method and system for presenting digital media

Abstract: A user interface method and system is described for presenting digital media to a user in familiar environments, and allowing user manipulation of the media and environments. The digital media includes collections of photographs, which are arranged and presented to the user as photo albums. Each of the photo albums has properties determined by the user, including how a selected photo album will be displayed. Examples include display as photographs in an open photo album, as a collection of framed pictures hanging on a gallery wall, as a storybook with each picture having associated text, and as a filmstrip. Each of the photo albums can also be displayed as a slide show. The user interface also includes menus from which various operations can be selected by the user. User selection of photo albums, individual pictures, and menu options, as well as the entry of text, can be accomplished solely by use of cursor control and selection keys, making the interface particularly well suited to users of set-top box equipped televisions.

Apparatus and method for locating of an internet user

Abstract: A system for locating an online digital content user's geographical and/or virtual location is presented. In one embodiment of the present invention, Geolocation is performed by extracting the user's ISP's DNS IP address. The extracted information may thereafter be correlated with existing data so as to determine and authenticate the user's identity, and/or other properties. The system may also be used to enable electronic commerce bodies such as digital media distributors operating on the Internet to better manage network resources and/or to prevent possible implications of erroneous or fraudulent transaction of digital goods and/or to comply with business rules.

Digital media distribution method and system

Abstract: The invention presents a method and system for secure distribution of digital media files including text, video, audio and combinations of these. The preferred embodiment describes the distribution of audio files (particularly music) which are presently being widely distributed over the Internet without compensating the various rights holders. The invention encrypts the audio content (except for an optional preview section) in a single executable file, allowing it to be freely distributed. When Consumers want to access the encrypted portion of the file, a decryption key is obtained from a remote server, but because the file includes an integral decryption engine, a decrypted copy of the file never appears on the Client side. Thus, there is no unprotected copy that the Consumer can illegally distribute. The invention also describes other advantageous techniques, such as bonding the decryption key to the consumer's computer, so it cannot be used by others.

Secure digital content delivery system and method over a broadcast network

Abstract: A system and a method for secure distribution of digital media content through a packet-based network such as the Internet. The security of the present invention does not require one-to-one key exchange, but rather enables keys, and/or information required in order to build the key, to be broadcast through the packet-based network. The digital media content is then also preferably broadcast, but cannot be accessed without the proper key. However, preferably only authorized end-user devices are able to access the digital media content, by receiving and/or being able to access the proper key. Thus, the present invention is useful for other types of networks in which digital media content is more easily broadcast rather than unicast, in addition to packet-based networks.

Secure music delivery

Abstract: Methods, apparatus and system, including computer program products, implementing and using techniques for delivery of media content. A communication channel is established between a particular digital media playback device and a content server on which media content is stored. Device-identifying information relating to the particular digital media playback device is received through the communication channel. A request for media content to be delivered to the digital media playback device is received. It is determined, based on the device-identifying information, whether the requested media content is playable on the digital media playback device. If the requested media content is playable on the digital media playback device, the requested media content and metadata associated with the media content are obtained and formatted, based on the device-identifying information, for playback on the digital media playback device. The formatted media content is distributed through the communication channel to the digital media playback device.

Closed-loop delivery system

Abstract: Methods, apparatus and system, including computer program products, implementing and using techniques for delivering media files to a particular digital media playback device. The system includes a content server and a download manager. The content server receives device-identifying information obtained from a particular digital media playback device and distributes media files in response to the received device-identifying information. The download manager obtains device-identifying information from a particular digital media playback device that is in communication with the download manager, forwards the obtained device-identifying information to the content server over a public communication network, receives media files over the public communication network from the content server, and distributes the received media files to the particular digital media playback device for playback on the particular digital media playback device. Methods, apparatus and system for providing media content to digital media playback devices are also described.

Universal digital media communications and control system and method

Abstract: A digital media communications and control system includes a plurality of audio devices each of which includes a device interface module for communication of digital media data and control data from at least one of the devices to at least one other of the devices. A universal data link is operatively connected to each of the device interface modules. The device interface modules and universal data links are operative in combination to connect the devices together in the system and provide full duplex communication of the digital media data and control data between the devices.

Combination scanner and image data reader system including image management software and internet based image management method

Abstract: Apparatus (Figs. 1A and 1B) and methods for automatic, computer-based image management, include reading, transfer, and storage, and related software for acquisition, transfer, editing, processing, copying, and archiving of images by the apparatus in accordance with the methods. The invention comprises image input devices of which spedific examples include digital scanner, digital media readers, and a combination of the two, and software that makes possible the complete processing and archiving of digital images with the press of a single button (160) or the act of inserting the media in the device (156, 152). The inventive processing and archiving image management hardware and software system includes non-camera digital image acquisition, data transfer, display, manipulation, storage, thumbnailing, printing, and electronic transmittal of processed digital image data. In addition to replicating the traditional photographic film development process for digitally acquired images in a software enablement, the inventive image management software adds substantial functional features in the context of user-friendly ease and speed of use.

Only Connect: A Cultural History of Broadcasting in the United States

Abstract: ONLY CONNECT is a comprehensive history of American broadcasting from its earliest days in radio, through the rise of television, to the current era of digital media and the Internet. It presents broadcasting as a vital component of American cultural identity, placing the development of U.S. radio, television, and new media in the context of social and cultural change. Each chapter opens with a discussion of the historical period, thoroughly traces the development of media policy, the growth of media industries, and the history of U.S. broadcast programming, and closes with a look at the major ways that radio and television have been understood and discussed throughout American history.

Digital media

Abstract: On-going and rapid advances in technology dictate that you store your electronic records on media that enable you to meet your long-term operational and legal requirements. Legally, your records must be trustworthy, complete, accessible, legally admissible in court, and durable for as long as you need them. Because every digital storage option will eventually become obsolete, consider digital storage options that will enable you to maintain records by migrating and/or converting them during their required retention period.