Abstract: Disclosed is a switching valve having a small contact resistance when a valve body moves along a seating surface of a housing. In a switching valve which includes a valve body, coming into contact with a seating surface of a housing having a plurality of ports and selectively communicating at least two ports of the plurality of ports, and applies a fluid pressure to a back surface of the valve body, the switching valve includes a biasing member configured for biasing the valve body in a direction in which the valve body is moved away from the seating surface of the housing.

Abstract: Multimedia content containing moving pictures and audio is divided into multiple scenes and metadata is generated for each of the scenes obtained as a result of the division. It is possible to generate metadata containing scene structure information metadata that describes the hierarchical structure of the content in addition to scene section information and titles. Also, a name or an identifier of each descriptor contained in the metadata is described as hint information for manipulation of metadata composed of at least one descriptor describing semantic content, a structure, and characteristics of content.

Abstract: A system includes a content server device for performing content distribution in a network; a reception terminal device capable of reproducing a content having a specific format; a plurality of transcoder devices provided in the network, for applying format conversion to a content distributed in the network; and a transcoder management device for searching, in response to a search request sent from the reception terminal device, information on the plurality of transcoder devices, and sending to the reception terminal device, as a search result, a transmission path which runs from the content server device to the reception terminal device via at least one of the plurality of transcoder devices, through which format conversion to a desired content can be performed.

Abstract: Multimedia content containing moving pictures and audio is divided into multiple scenes and metadata is generated for each of the scenes obtained as a result of the division. It is possible to generate metadata containing scene structure information metadata that describes the hierarchical structure of the content in addition to scene section information and titles. Also, a name or an identifier of each descriptor contained in the metadata is described as hint information for manipulation of metadata composed of at least one descriptor describing semantic content, a structure, and characteristics of content.

Abstract: Multimedia content containing moving pictures and audio is divided into multiple scenes and metadata is generated for each of the scenes obtained as a result of the division. It is possible to generate metadata containing scene structure information metadata that describes the hierarchical structure of the content in addition to scene section information and titles. Also, a name or an identifier of each descriptor contained in the metadata is described as hint information for manipulation of metadata composed of at least one descriptor describing semantic content, a structure, and characteristics of content.

Abstract: A moving image coded string is mapped with a set of information areas as one packet, and each packet is added with an error code and control information in a multiplexing part so that it is decided at the receiving side, from the result of error detection by decoding the error detection code, whether an error has occurred in each information area of the packet.

Abstract: A media delivering apparatus and method for delivering media data via a network to a media receiving apparatus is disclosed. The delivering apparatus includes a parameter acquiring unit which acquires both a communication capability of the network, and the receiving capability of the media receiving apparatus. A media selecting unit selects media data to be delivered based on both the degree of media importance assigned to each media data and at least the one of the communication capability of the network and the receiving capability of the media receiving apparatus. A transmission-data generating unit generates metadata in which both address information about each selected media data and presentation layout information are described. A data transmitting unit delivers the metadata to the media receiving apparatus by way of the network, and a media communication unit delivers the media data in response to a request from the media receiving apparatus.

Abstract: In an MPEG-2 decoder (2), a variable length decoder (2A) carries out syntax analysis of input compression data (1) according to the MPEG-2 standard, and generates coding mode information (3), motion vector information (4) and prediction residual signal (2B). The prediction residual signal (2B) is transformed to a decoded picture (5) through a dequantizer (2C) and the like, and is supplied to an MPEG-4 encoder (10) via a resolution converter (6). In the MPEG-4 encoder (10), a coding parameter deciding section (10B) decides a motion vector according to a prediction error estimation value for evaluating a prediction efficiency when using a motion vector candidate generated by a motion vector mapping section (7), and according to a value for evaluating a motion vector rate when using the motion vector candidate.

Abstract: Provided is a stream distribution system, including: a content server device for performing content distribution in a network; a reception terminal device capable of reproducing a content having a specific format; a plurality of transcoder devices provided in the network, for applying format conversion to a content distributed in the network; and a transcoder management device for searching, in response to a search request sent from the reception terminal device, information on the plurality of transcoder devices, and sending to the reception terminal device, as a search result, a transmission path which runs from the content server device to the reception terminal device via at least one of the plurality of transcoder devices, through which format conversion to a desired content can be performed.

Abstract: An image coding apparatus includes a rate control information extraction means for determining which up to a coding pass in which code block should be coded from the sum of the code amounts of the code blocks, the slope of an RD curve calculated from the distortion difference between a coding distortion at a time of coding each coding pass and a coding distortion at a time of coding a preceding coding pass, and the number of output bytes of the code amount of each coding pass, and the inverse of one of given rate control parameters which are listed in order of decreasing monotonously, and for outputting an end-of-coding pass, and a coded data extraction means for reading coded data including up to coded data corresponding to the end-of-coding pass, for adding the number of coding passes to the coded data, and for outputting them as a code stream.

Abstract: Multimedia content containing moving pictures and audio is divided into multiple scenes and metadata is generated for each of the scenes obtained as a result of the division. It is possible to generate metadata containing scene structure information metadata that describes the hierarchical structure of the content in addition to scene section information and titles. Also, a name or an identifier of each descriptor contained in the metadata is described as hint information for manipulation of metadata composed of at least one descriptor describing semantic content, a structure, and characteristics of content.

Abstract: Multimedia content containing moving pictures and audio is divided into multiple scenes and metadata is generated for each of the scenes obtained as a result of the division. It is possible to generate metadata containing scene structure information metadata that describes the hierarchical structure of the content in addition to scene section information and titles. Also, a name or an identifier of each descriptor contained in the metadata is described as hint information for manipulation of metadata composed of at least one descriptor describing semantic content, a structure, and characteristics of content.

Abstract: Multimedia content containing moving pictures and audio is divided into multiple scenes and metadata is generated for each of the scenes obtained as a result of the division. It is possible to generate metadata containing scene structure information metadata that describes the hierarchical structure of the content in addition to scene section information and titles. Also, a name or an identifier of each descriptor contained in the metadata is described as hint information for manipulation of metadata composed of at least one descriptor describing semantic content, a structure, and characteristics of content.

Abstract: Multimedia content containing moving pictures and audio is divided into multiple scenes and metadata is generated for each of the scenes obtained as a result of the division. It is possible to generate metadata containing scene structure information metadata that describes the hierarchical structure of the content in addition to scene section information and titles. Also, a name or an identifier of each descriptor contained in the metadata is described as hint information for manipulation of metadata composed of at least one descriptor describing semantic content, a structure, and characteristics of content.

Abstract: Multimedia content containing moving pictures and audio is divided into multiple scenes and metadata is generated for each of the scenes obtained as a result of the division. It is possible to generate metadata containing scene structure information metadata that describes the hierarchical structure of the content in addition to scene section information and titles. Also, a name or an identifier of each descriptor contained in the metadata is described as hint information for manipulation of metadata composed of at least one descriptor describing semantic content, a structure, and characteristics of content.

Abstract: A moving image coded string is mapped with a set of information areas as one packet, and each packet is added with an error code and control information in a multiplexing part so that it is decided at the receiving side, from the result of error detection by decoding the error detection code, whether an error has occurred in each information area of the packet.

Abstract: A program content managing/providing system, a program content analyzing/retrieving system, and a user terminal are connected to each other via a network. When broadcasting a program content that is not stored, the program content managing/providing system stores the program content. In response to a distribution request of a desired program content from the user terminal, the program content managing/providing system distributes, to the user terminal, a stored program content corresponding to program information included in the distribution request. The program content analyzing/retrieving system receives and analyzes a broadcast program content and then extracts and saves the program information for each of the program contents. In response to a retrieval request of the program information of a desired program content from the user terminal, the program content analyzing/retrieving system provides, to the user terminal, stored program information of a program content that meets the retrieval request.

Abstract: A media delivering apparatus includes a parameter acquiring unit 3007 for acquiring at least one of the communication capability of a network 203, and the receiving capability of a media receiving apparatus 202, a media selecting unit 3006 for selecting media data to be delivered based on both the degree of media importance 204 assigned to each media data 205 and at least the one of the communication capability of the network and the receiving capability of the media receiving apparatus, a transmission-data generating unit 3008 for generating metadata in which both address information about each selected media data and presentation layout information are described, a data transmitting unit 2708 for delivering the metadata to the media receiving apparatus 202 by way of the network 202, and a media communication unit 2712 for delivering the media data 205 in response to a request from the media receiving apparatus 202.

Abstract: A coded stream analyzer (102) variable-length decodes an incoming coded stream and extracts encoding parameters for each macroblock, such as an encoding mode, DCT coefficient values, the amount of codes of DCT coefficients, the amount of codes of each macroblock, and a motion vector, from the coded stream. An effective macroblock identification unit (103) then identifies macroblocks each of which can be contained in a moving object as an effective macroblock by using one or more encoding parameters extracted by the coded stream analyzer (102).

Abstract: An apparatus for re-coding an image signal, which conducts re-coding processing using a decoded image signal subjected to coding processing as an input image signal, includes: a DCT unit for subjecting the input image signal to a discrete cosine transform (DCT); a DCT coefficient counter for counting a feature amount on a picture basis using a DCT coefficient output from the DCT unit; a picture type detector for detecting a picture type in coding processing in a previous stage, using the feature amount output from the DCT coefficient counter; a coding control portion for determining coding parameters in re-coding in accordance with detection results of the picture type detector; and a coding portion for conducting re-coding processing, using the coding parameters determined by the coding control portion.