Media adaptation determination for wireless terminals

Abstract

A method (and corresponding equipment) by which a multimedia message is sent from a sending terminal ( 21 ) via a messaging server ( 22 )—such as a MMS Proxy-Relay in MMS or a SIP proxy server in SIP IM—to a receiving terminal ( 25 ) having limited multimedia capabilities, with the sending terminal ( 21 ) adapted to include a user agent ( 21 a ) for inserting, into the message, media characteristics of the message sufficient in detail to enable the messaging server ( 22 ) to determine whether the message should be transcoded based on actual or assumed multimedia capabilities of the receiving terminal ( 25 ), and with the messaging server ( 22 ) configured to read the media characteristics and decide whether the message should be transcoded based only on the inserted media characteristics and on actual or assumed multimedia capabilities of the receiving terminal ( 25 ). The media characteristics are advantageously inserted into the header of the message.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A messaging server, comprising a processor configured to:
 obtain media characteristics of a multimedia message inserted into the multimedia message intended for a receiving terminal;   decide whether the multimedia message should be transcoded based only on comparing the media characteristics of the multimedia message with at least one of actual multimedia capabilities and assumed multimedia capabilities of the receiving terminal; and   remove the media characteristics that are inserted into the multimedia message before sending the multimedia message to the receiving terminal when transcoding is not needed.   
     
     
         2 . The messaging server of  claim 1 , wherein the multimedia message includes a header portion and a body portion. 
     
     
         3 . The messaging server of  claim 2 , wherein the media characteristics of the multimedia message are inserted into a field in the header portion of the multimedia message. 
     
     
         4 . The messaging server of  claim 1 , the processor further configured to:
 determine, from the inserted media characteristics, which at least one part of the message needs transcoding; and   send only the at least one part requiring transcoding to a transcoding server.   
     
     
         5 . The messaging server of  claim 1 , the processor further configured to send the multimedia message to a transcoding server. 
     
     
         6 . The messaging server of  claim 5 , wherein the transcoding server is configured to use the inserted media characteristics to decide if transcoding is needed. 
     
     
         7 . The messaging server of  claim 1 , the processor further configured to:
 determine, based on the inserted media characteristics, parts of the multimedia message needing transcoding;   send the multimedia message to a transcoding server if transcoding is needed for any message part; and   include, in the multimedia message, an indication of which parts of the multimedia message need transcoding.   
     
     
         8 . A method comprising:
 obtaining media characteristics of a multimedia message inserted into the multimedia message intended for a receiving terminal;   deciding whether the multimedia message should be transcoded based only on comparing the media characteristics of the multimedia message with actual or assumed multimedia capabilities of the receiving terminal; and   removing the media characteristics that are inserted into the multimedia message before sending the multimedia message to the receiving terminal when transcoding is not needed.   
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 8 , wherein the multimedia message includes a header portion and a body portion. 
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 9 , wherein the media characteristics of the multimedia message are inserted into a field in the header portion of the multimedia message. 
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 8  further comprising sending the multimedia message to a transcoding server. 
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 8 , further comprising:
 determining, from the inserted media characteristics, which at least one part of the message needs transcoding; and   sending only the at least one part requiring transcoding to a transcoding server.   
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 8  further comprising transcoding the multimedia message based on the media characteristics and multimedia capabilities of the receiving terminal. 
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 13 , wherein the transcoding is done without performing an analysis of the multimedia message to determine media characteristics of the multimedia message relevant to deciding whether transcoding is needed. 
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 13  further comprising removing the media characteristics from the multimedia media message after transcoding when transcoding is needed and before sending the multimedia message to the receiving terminal. 
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 8 , wherein the media characteristics of the multimedia message are inserted into a header portion of the multimedia message. 
     
     
         17 . A computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having computer-readable program code stored therein, which in response to execution by at least one processor, causes an apparatus to:
 obtain media characteristics of a multimedia message inserted into the multimedia message intended for a receiving terminal;   decide whether the multimedia message should be transcoded based only on comparing the media characteristics of the multimedia message with at least one of actual multimedia capabilities and assumed multimedia capabilities of the receiving terminal; and   remove the media characteristics that are inserted into the multimedia message before sending the multimedia message to the receiving terminal when transcoding is not needed.   
     
     
         18 . The computer program product of  claim 17 , wherein execution by the processor causes the apparatus to send the multimedia message to the transcoding server. 
     
     
         19 . The computer program product of  claim 18 , wherein the transcoding is done without performing an analysis of the multimedia message to determine media characteristics of the multimedia message relevant to deciding whether transcoding is needed. 
     
     
         20 . The computer program product of  claim 17 , wherein execution by the processor causes the system to:
 determine, from the inserted media characteristics, which at least one part of the message needs transcoding; and   send only the at least one part requiring transcoding to a transcoding server.   
     
     
         21 . The computer program product of  claim 17 , wherein the apparatus includes a user agent and execution by the processor causes, at the user agent, inserting the media characteristics into the multimedia message to enable determining whether the multimedia message should be transcoded to accommodate multimedia capabilities of the receiving terminal.