MPEG 21

1
MPEG 21 An Overview

• MUMT 611
• Elliot Sinyor
• January 2005

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Contents

• Background/Motivation
• Key Concepts
• MPEG 21 Overview
• Digital Item Declaration
• Digital Item Identification
• Intellectual Property Management and Protection
• Rights Expression Language and Rights Data
  Dictionary
• Digital Item Adaptation
• File Format

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Background/Motivation

• Work began in June of 2000 by MPEG (aka ISO/IEC
  JTC1 SC29 WG11)
• From the ISO Standard Document
• The MPEG-21 vision can thus be summarized as
  follows to define a multimedia framework to
  enable transparent and augmented use of
  multimedia resources across a wide range of
  networks and devices used by different
  communities.

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Key Concepts

• A way to encapsulate almost any type of digital
  content.
• Audio, video, text, software and any combination
  of them.
• Packages data, meta-data, and meta-meta-data.
• How is this data viewed on a specific device?
• Control the use of the data (DRM)
• ie. who can view it? What can they do with it?

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Part 1 Vision, Technologies and Strategy

• Refers to the document itself
• In other words
• Define a 'vision' for a multimedia framework to
  enable transparent and augmented use of
  multimedia resources across a wide range of
  networks and devices to meet the needs of all
  users

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Part 1 Vision, Technologies and Strategy

• Achieve the integration of components and
  standards to facilitate harmonisation of
  'technologies' for the creation, modification,
  management, transport, manipulation,
  distribution, and consumption of Digital

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Part 1 Vision, Technologies and Strategy

• Define a 'strategy' for achieving a multimedia
  framework by the development of specifications
  and standards based on well-defined functional
  requirements through collaboration with other
  bodies.

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Part 2 Digital Item Declaration

• At the heart of it all the Digital Item
• Examples
• Music album
• E-book
• Software including setup and configuration
  information
• Resources, Metadata, Structure
• DID defines abstractions related to the
  construction of the digital item.

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Part 2 Digital Item Declaration

• Non-exhaustive list of abstractions
• Container
• Groups items and or containers
• Item
• Component
• Descriptor
• Statement
• Choice/Selection/Condition
• to view this content, the condition is that you
  made a choice of a certain selection

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Part 2 Digital Item Declaration

• Non-exhaustive list of abstractions
• Container
• Descriptor
• Statement
• Item
• Component
• Statement
• Choice/Selection/Condition
• to view this content, the condition is that you
  made a choice of a certain selection

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Part 2 Digital Item Declaration
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(No Transcript)
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Part 3 Digital Item Identification

• Unique, persistent ID for digital item
• Done by using a URI (compact string used to
  identify a resource)
• Link digital item (or part of it) to another
  description scheme, eg ISRC

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Part 3 Digital Item Identification
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Part 3 Digital Item Identification
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Part 4 Intellectual Property Management and
Protection

• Does not specify a particular DRM scheme
• Framework for retrieving and using IPMP tools
  from various locations

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Part 5 Rights Expression Language

• Machine-readable language to declare rights and
  permissions
• Four basic entities
• Principal
• Must be authenticated
• Right
• what can the principal do?
• eg view once, copy, alter etc.
• Resource
• Digital item, a service, information owned by a
  principal (eg name or email address)
• Condition
• eg you must pay 2 to watch this movie once

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Part 5 Rights Expression Language
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Part 6 Rights Data Dictionary

• Provides description for basic RLE terms
• Allows for extension
• Allows for mapping/transformation of metadata
  from other authorities/namespaces

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Part 7 Digital Item Adaptation

• Purpose to shield users from network and
  terminal installation, management and
  implementation issues.
• Conceptually, consists of resource adaptation
  engine and descriptor adaptation engine

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Part 7 Digital Item Adaptation
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Part 7 Digital Item Adaptation

• Areas of Concern
• User Characteristics
• Preferences
• Terminal Capabilities
• Available codecs, hardware-related specs
• Network Characteristics
• Bandwidth, delay and error
• Natural Environment Characteristics
• Eg illumination, auditory noise-levels

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Part 7 Digital Item Adaptation

• Areas of Concern
• Resource Adaptability
• Session Mobility

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Part 8 Reference Software

• Most recent specification need
• Systems-related specifications in MPEG-21
• www.enikos.com DI browser
• Released Jan 21, 2005

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Part 8 Reference Software
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Part 9 File Format

• Can include still/dynamic data
• Will borrow from MP4
• Work has begun

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Bibliography