Rich Metadata Description for Interactivity and Dynamic User-Generated Information

Typical multimedia container formats offer practical and efficient methods of encapsulating standard multimedia data types such as audio, video and subtitles. The same efficiency, however, does not typically extend to metadata, especially in most consumer targeted multimedia container formats. Often the descriptive and interactive metadata associated with content is collectively placed in a distinct section of the same file, or stored in secondary files using proprietary formats. To date, practical implementations of metadata have been limited to simple descriptions of the video title, rarely extending to any direct associations with the actual scenes in the video. Moreover, in systems where secondary metadata files are employed, many challenges come to light when delivery occurs over the Internet due to factors such as the re-naming and re-grouping of files by caches between the publisher and the consumer. In this paper, we introduce a rich metadata format aimed at increasing the scope of metadata tags and fundamentally enhancing the capabilities of media-managers and players on both personal computer and consumer electronic (CE) platforms.

Published

2008-10

Content type

Original Research

DOI

10.5594/M001033

ISBN

978-1-61482-939-3