Development of a Seamless Data Streaming System Based on User Preference and Device Information

With the further increasing popularity of multimedia devices, such as laptop computers, personal digital assistants (PDAs), and smart phones, there is a rapidly growing demand for efficient real-time playback and transmission of large amounts of multimedia data, but most users´ connections are not fast enough to download large chunks of multimedia data. Moreover, when switching to another device while in the middle of downloading content, users have to download the same multimedia content all over again. A streaming service technology is therefore needed in which users can seamlessly download on the network large multimedia data based on the user´s history of preferred content. This study suggests a server-client streaming system that enables seamless multimedia content download that allows the user accessing the data to switch conveniently to another device or client without having to repeat the download to the beginning. The proposed system is also designed to be compatible with many users and different device environments through the home network by storing/managing information in the home server factors such as user preferences, device character information, the indication on the exact point the download was interrupted, and other related information