WO2008050052A2 - Method of communication of multi-localized data sets - Google Patents

Abstract

The invention relates to a method of transmitting at least one data set to a first terminal. According to the invention, such a method comprises: - a step of selecting, from a plurality of terminals to which an intermediate device is connected, a second terminal hosting said data set, in the course of which selection at least one accessibility criterion representative of an ability of the first terminal to access said data set is analysed; - a step of recovering by said intermediate device the data set hosted by the second selected terminal, and - a step of transmitting said data set to the first terminal by the intermediate device.

Description

 Method of communicating multi-localized data sets

1. Field of the invention

The field of the invention is that of the search for data sets hosted by content server terminals, for example multimedia content of the video, text, audio, etc. type, and of access to such content. , by users equipped with terminals connected to a wired or mobile communication network.

The invention fits more particularly into a problem of access and manipulation of remote data sets when, on the one hand, the user wishing to access it does not know their location and when, on the other hand, these Datasets are likely to be hosted simultaneously in multiple content servers and thus benefit from multiple locations.

2. State of the art It is known in the prior art systems based on sharing documents or multimedia content between different client terminals and / or servers geographically distant.

A major disadvantage of such systems is mainly related to the fact that a user wishing to access a specific content at best gets a list of links theoretically pointing to the desired content that he wants to download for use on his client terminal.

By using a multimedia content, it is specified here that we hear as well a restitution of the recovered content (for example in continuous download mode, or "streaming" in the English terminology) by means of a media player equipping the terminal client of a user, that the sending of multimedia content newly created or modified by a first user, for example, via its client terminal and to a storage terminal of the terminal type content server accessible by other users. However, the user is never sure of the validity of the list and the links it contains, or even that such a desired content is always available or accessible on a selected terminal or content server.

Another disadvantage of systems known from the prior art concerns an impossibility of being able to control the evolution of the location and / or the availability of a plurality of multi-localized multimedia content hosted by a plurality of communication terminals, for Ensure accessibility and validity to users who want to access them to use them. Such a disadvantage also constitutes an obstacle to a relevant and efficient search for multimedia content hosted on a plurality of storage terminals, also called content servers.

A further disadvantage of such known systems of the prior art relates to an inability to allow search, access and therefore optimized use of multimedia content from a user terminal, depending on the hardware and / or software constraints of the latter, or still according to the constraints of connection to the communication network. 3. Presentation of the invention

The invention offers a solution that does not have these various disadvantages of the state of the art, by proposing a method for transmitting at least one set of data to a user, which method largely guarantees the audit user availability of access, or even use, of the data set, while facilitating and optimizing the search of the latter.

For this purpose, a method of transmitting a set of data to a first terminal, comprises, according to the invention: a selection step, among a plurality of terminals to which an intermediate device is connected, of a second terminal hosting said set of data, wherein at least one accessibility criterion representative of an ability of the first terminal to access said set of data is analyzed, without modifying said set of data; a step of recovery by said intermediate device of the set of data hosted by the second selected terminal, and

a step of transmitting said set of data to the first terminal by the intermediate device. The method according to the invention thus enables a user to benefit from unified access via an intermediate device, for example from the service platform type, to multimedia contents to which he would like to access or that he would like to be able to retrieve for use ( consultation, downloading, modifications, etc.), without prior knowledge of their location at the various terminals connected to the intermediate device.

The originality of the proposed solution resides in particular in the selection from the terminal of a user (first terminal) and via the intermediate device, the terminal (second terminal) hosting the multimedia content to which a user wishes to access, without prior knowledge by the latter of the availability of this content from the selected terminal.

During this selection step, the intermediate device, transparent to the user, verifies at least one accessibility criterion validating the availability of this content for the user who requires it. Consequently, the transmission method according to the invention makes it possible to avoid having to interrogate all the terminals capable of hosting a set of data searched from the terminal of a user.

Thus, the transmission method according to the invention promotes the control and management of the evolution in terms of location and availability for a user, of a plurality of data sets hosted on a plurality of terminals of the server type content, so as to further optimize the search and use of one or more multimedia content required by a user.

In particular, the step of recovering the data set comprises a step of interpretation by said first terminal of at least one description file containing a plurality of descriptive data meta data descriptive of said data set, The meta data may for example belong to the group comprising at least:

a location information of said content on said second communication terminal; a type of said data set;

a size of said data set;

a date of creation and last modification of said data set;

a history of previous accesses to said data set. Such an interpretation step will make it possible to adapt and / or optimize the restitution of said set of data on said first terminal taking into account said interpreted meta data and the software and / or hardware capacity of said first communication terminal. Such an implementation of meta data firstly favors the aggregation of data sets forming multimedia contents, which aggregation of contents allowing a user to search by type of content (video, photo, date, description etc.), or again, depending on the location of content on different remote terminals and connected to the intermediate device (eg a service platform). In addition, such a content aggregation approach facilitates faster access to the information for the user, since the user no longer needs, as in the systems of the prior art, to interrogate all the terminals hosting a user. data set to find out the availability of the latter in terms of access and usage. Such a technical approach furthermore makes it possible to adapt the content of the data set to the software and / or hardware capabilities of the user's terminal, before it is restored to the latter, by a simple interpretation of the plurality of meta data contained therein. in the required description file.

In a possible variant of the invention, a method according to the foregoing description further comprises: a step of producing said plurality of meta data contained in the description file of the data set;

a step of selecting at least one storage terminal to host said newly created or modified multimedia content; a step of sending to said selected storage terminal of said set of data accompanied by its description file. Thus, when sending modified or updated content, from the user's terminal and to a storage terminal, the description file associated with said content must be pre-fed, either automatically, for example software, either by user input.

The user then selects on his terminal the content he wishes to send, before selecting the terminal on which he wishes to host it.

Then, either the user sends its content to the intermediate device to which it explicitly indicates to which storage terminal the latter must transmit the multimedia content. Either the user sends the content to the intermediate device by delegating the burden of determining itself to which storage terminal to send the multimedia content transmitted by the first terminal of the user.

Another aspect of the invention relates to a method of handling at least one multimedia content according to the transmission method described above, comprising a preliminary step of authentication and / or identification of said user of said first communication terminal, said step being performed in a centralized manner by said intermediate device.

Such a preliminary verification makes it possible to perfectly control, in a centralized manner, the security of access and use of the multimedia content hosted on the content server terminals connected to the intermediate device (of the service platform type, for example).

The invention also relates, as a material means useful for its implementation, to a computer program including at least one series of program code instructions for the execution of at least one step included in a program. method of transmission or manipulation as described above when said program is executed on a computer.

The invention also relates, in another material aspect, to a system for transmitting at least one set of data to a first terminal, comprising:

selection means, among a plurality of terminals to which an intermediate device is connected, of a second terminal hosting said set of data, which means being able to analyze at least one accessibility criterion representative of an aptitude of the first terminal; accessing said data set;

means for recovery by said intermediate device of the set of data hosted by the second selected terminal, and means for transmitting said set of data to the first terminal by the intermediate device. Yet another advantage of the invention is its simplicity and reasonable cost, both in terms of implementation and in terms of use.

Another aspect of the invention relates to an intermediate device connected to a plurality of terminals, including at least a second terminal hosting sets of data accessible by at least a first terminal.

According to the invention, such an intermediate device comprises:

means for analyzing at least one accessibility criterion representative of a capability of one of said first terminals to access one of said sets of data; means for recovering said set of data hosted by one of said second terminals, and

means for transmitting said set of data to said first terminal. Furthermore, another aspect of the invention relates to a request signal from at least one set of data accessible by at least one first terminal, said set of data being hosted in at least one second terminal.

According to the invention, such a signal comprises a predetermined central address of destination, designating an intermediate device distinct from said second terminal, said intermediate device being connected to a plurality of terminals, including said second terminal.

Thus, a first terminal seeking to access a set of data does not have to interrogate all the terminals likely to host the searched data, but only to connect to an intermediate device, determined from its centralized address. destination, directly included in the request signal.

4. Figures

Other features and advantages of the invention will appear more clearly on reading the following description of a particular embodiment of the invention, given by way of illustrative and nonlimiting example, with reference to the appended drawings. which :

FIG. 1 is a flowchart showing schematically a method according to the invention; FIG. 2 is a flow diagram illustrating exchanges of command and data flows between client and server terminals in a distributed architecture implementing the invention;

FIG. 3 is a functional diagram that partially represents such a distributed architecture. 5. Description of a preferred embodiment of the invention

Figure 1 shows schematically a transmission method according to a particular embodiment of the invention, whereby at least one set of data is transmitted to a first terminal. This method comprises: a selection step (10), among a plurality of terminals to which a intermediate device is connected, a second terminal hosting said set of data, selection during which is analyzed (11) at least one accessibility criterion representative of an aptitude of the first terminal to access said set of data, without modification said data set;

a step of recovery (12) by said intermediate device of the set of data hosted by the second selected terminal, and

a step of transmitting said set of data to the first terminal by the intermediate device. The method according to the invention thus enables a user to benefit from unified access via an intermediate device, for example from the service platform type, to multimedia contents to which he would like to access or that he would like to be able to retrieve for use ( consultation, downloading, modifications, etc.), without prior knowledge of their location at the various terminals connected to the intermediate device.

Accessibility criterion for a set of data means, for example:

at least one piece of information representative of the "on / off" state of said second communication terminal; and

if said second communication terminal is in the "off" state, at least one piece of information representative of the ability of the user of said first terminal to be able to transmit therefrom a "start-up" command remotely from said second terminal communicating with said set of data.

Thus, the intermediate device that can manage, in addition to access to the content server terminals, an internal database referencing the respective location of the various multimedia content hosted respectively on the latter, will first verify that the terminal selected for the purpose of recovery of the searched content is well running. If not, it checks that the selected terminal can be set remote operation following the transmission of a remote start command, from the first user terminal, or from the intermediate device.

Such a command may be encapsulated, for example and in a manner that is transparent to the user, in the request command for downloading said content, or may be subject to a specific command.

In particular, said intermediate device being able to manage and control the accesses of said first terminal to data sets hosted by said plurality of terminals, said at least one accessibility criterion may furthermore take into account:

a set of predetermined access rights to the set of data sought and hosted by said second terminal, this set of rights being representative of a user profile controlled by said intermediate device; and a set of usage rules associated with said at least one multimedia content hosted by said second terminal, said rules taking account of said user profile.

Indeed, a multimedia content may be accessible for a given user according to predetermined access rules representative of a user profile, for example of the DRM type (for "Digital Rights Management" in English, or "management of digital rights" In French) or the type of sharing rules.

Such rules may relate to access to content, or the type of access to content from the user's terminal: a user may for example have the right to download in continuous loading mode ("streaming"). ") Video content, but not having the right to download it in order to store it in a memory of its terminal; a user may also have the right to access photo content, but only in a degraded mode, with no access to photo content in its original resolution.

An accessibility criterion may also take into account at least one parameter belonging to the group comprising: a parameter representative of a hardware and / or software capacity of said first terminal to be able to restore said set of data;

a parameter representing a quality of connection between said first terminal and said intermediate device or between said intermediate device and said second communication terminal.

Indeed, a user with a variable or poor connection quality, for example a bad bandwidth, will be unable to recover or send large multimedia content.

Similarly, if the user's terminal does not have any media player adapted to the reproduction of multimedia content, a prior verification of this fact will allow a preventive transmission to the user of information to alert him of such incompatibility.

Preferably, said parameter representative of the quality of connection belongs to the group comprising: the bandwidth of said network;

the jitter of said network;

the maximum rate of said network;

the average error rate of a communication through said communication network. In particular, the method described above includes a step of interpretation 13 by said first terminal of at least one description file containing a plurality of descriptive data meta data descriptive of said data set,

The meta data may for example belong to the group comprising at least:

a location information of said content on said second communication terminal;

a type of said data set;

a size of said data set; - a date of creation and last modification of the said set of data;

a history of previous accesses to said data set.

Such an interpretation step will make it possible to adapt and / or optimize the restitution of said set of data on said first terminal taking into account said interpreted meta data and the software and / or hardware capacity of said first communication terminal. Such implementation of meta data first promotes the aggregation of data sets forming multimedia content. Indeed, a description file of all the sets of data accessible by a user is stored at the intermediate device or on a terminal hosting such a data set, so as to allow a unified access of the user to the data sets to which he wants to access and wants to use, or make available to other users, regardless of the location of the latter.

Such an aggregation of contents thus enables a user to search by type of content (video, photo, date, description, etc.), or again, depending on the location of content on different remote terminals and connected to the device. intermediary (eg a service platform).

In addition, such a content aggregation approach facilitates faster access to the information for the user, since the user no longer needs, as in the systems of the prior art, to interrogate all the terminals hosting a user. data set to find out the availability of the latter in terms of access and usage.

Such a technical approach according to the invention furthermore makes it possible to adapt the content of the data set to the software and / or hardware capabilities of the user's terminal, before it is restored to the latter, by a simple interpretation of the plurality. meta data contained in the required description file.

In a possible variant of the invention, a method according to the preceding description further comprises: a production step 16 of said plurality of meta data contained in the description file of the dataset;

a step of selecting 17 at least one storage terminal to host said newly created or modified multimedia content;

a step of sending to said selected storage terminal said set of data accompanied by its description file.

Thus, when sending modified or updated content from the user's terminal and to a storage terminal, the description file associated with said content must be previously entered, either automatically, for example software, either by user input. The user then selects on his terminal the content he wishes to send, before selecting the terminal on which he wishes to host it.

Then, either the user sends its content to the intermediate device to which it explicitly indicates to which storage terminal the latter must transmit the multimedia content, or the user sends the content to the intermediate device by delegating the burden to determine itself from which storage terminal to send the multimedia content transmitted by the first terminal of the user.

Preferably, said step of sending said multimedia content and / or its description file to said storage terminal comprises: a substep 100 of temporary storage of said multimedia content and of its description file on said intermediate device;

a substep 101 of verification by said intermediate device of the availability of said storage terminal, such that: if said storage terminal is available, said intermediate device executes a step of sending said multimedia content and said description file associated with said storage terminal, for hosting; if said storage terminal is not available, storage of said multimedia content and said associated description file on said intermediate device is continued until such time as this storage terminal is available; last detects the new availability of said selected storage terminal before automatically executing said step of sending said multimedia content and said sound description file. Optionally, following said sending step, said intermediate device executes a step 102 of updating an internal database of location of all the multimedia contents and / or said associated description files, hosted by said plurality of communication terminals connected thereto.

Such an approach makes it possible to further improve the control and management of the content location by the intermediate device for optimized access to the latter from a user's terminal, without any need for prior knowledge of their locations and / or their respective availabilities.

The method according to the invention also comprises, optionally, a step of adapting the format of said sent multimedia content, said adaptation step taking into account a result of a dynamic measurement of at least one representative parameter of a quality level of connection between said first terminal and said intermediate device and / or between said intermediate device and said storage terminal. Such a technical solution makes it possible to optimize the rendering of a required content on the user's terminal, or even and, more generally, to improve access to and use of remote multimedia content. from the terminal of a user by means of a supervision of the evolution of at least some parameters representative of the quality of the network connection between the terminal of a user and an intermediate device, and / or between an intermediate device and a content server terminal.

Thus, said adaptation step thus proves to be a step of selecting a format of inferior quality in terms of rendering and / or conversion in this format of said multimedia content, since the quality level of the network connection falls below a predetermined first threshold, or a step of selecting a higher quality format in terms of rendering and / or conversion in this format of said multimedia content, as soon as the quality level of the network connection exceeds a second predetermined threshold.

As an illustrative and non-limiting example, a multimedia content, before being sent, may be adapted according to the access network of the user. For example in GPRS, content may be sent in an MMS format intentionally inducing a loss of quality of the content in favor of better network transmission, while in UMTS or ADSL the same multimedia content may be sent in its original format , without any loss of quality of service in terms of transmission delay on the network.

Also optionally, the transmission method according to the invention comprises a preliminary step 1000 of authentication and / or identification of said user of said first communication terminal, said step being executed in a centralized manner by said intermediate device. Such a preliminary verification makes it possible to perfectly control, in a centralized manner, the security of access and use of the multimedia content hosted on the content server terminals connected to the intermediate device (of the service platform type, for example).

FIG. 2 illustrates the fact that the method and system according to the invention make it possible, by implementing an end-to-end solution, to have mobile access to multi-localized multimedia content, whatever the location of these (at home or in the network).

In this FIG. 2, data streams circulating through a communication network 21 of the Internet type are distinguished, a stream corresponding to the multimedia content that a first client terminal has requested through a content server 23, or well with a server 24 personal content. Depending on the type of client terminal used, different types of suitable network connections are used. For example, mobile radio terminals 22 and 25 will use to connect to the main network used (in the present example, network 21). Internet) rather a connection to a mobile network 28 type 2G & 3G, while a client terminal 27 will instead use a connection via a node of a network 29 of the WLAN type (for "wireless lan "in English, or wireless local area network in French). The chosen solution also makes it possible to restore multimedia content retrieved by downloading from a platform 26 of services, or transmitted for storage on the latter, in a manner adapted to the type of terminal (22, 25, 27) and / or its hardware and / or software capacity, and / or the quality of service level offered by the communication network used by the end user. To manipulate multimedia content, a command 200, 201 is sent by the terminal 22, 25, respectively, through the communication network 21.

This transmitted command is interpreted by the platform 26 of services which will offer back to the user of the client terminal at the origin of the command (or request), a possibility of access and manipulation of the multimedia content required depending on the type of service. user profile.

As an illustrative and nonlimiting example, if the user of the mobile radio terminal 22 has a known profile of the service platform 26 opening the access rights corresponding to those of a profile "main user", then it will be able to manipulate (download, in streaming mode - "streaming", or delayed, etc.) without restriction the required multimedia content.

On the other hand, if the user of the radiocommunication terminal 25 is seen by the service platform 26 as benefiting only from a profile of the "guest user" type, it will only be able to handle it in a limited way (consultation at distance without possibility of downloading, for example) the required multimedia content.

The following three main main aspects are therefore useful for the technical solution described above:

the description of the multimedia contents to be manipulated, that is to say to recover for rendering on the client terminal of a user, or for provision of such content by the latter to other users;

- the location, availability and accessibility (or "reachability") of multimedia content and / or storage platforms hosting them; - the centralized aggregation of information concerning any multi-localized multimedia content, either at the level of the storage platforms or at the level of the service platform.

The solution therefore makes it possible to respond to at least two types of scenarios given here as mere illustrative and non-limiting examples of the invention: - access to the content for downloading, playing and / or viewing;

- sending content to a storage platform for making it available to other users.

With regard to the description of the contents and as illustrated in FIG. 3, each time content is added to a service platform 26, or to a content server 31, a description 32 of the content is sent to the service platform 26 comprising means for aggregating information describing the multimedia content or contents to be added.

The description of the content contains a set of meta data concerning in particular and not exclusively, the location of the content and a set of data to describe it: its type, size, date of creation, last access, title, etc.

Regarding the accessibility or availability of content, which can be grouped under the concept of "reachability" content, according to a significant terminology of ability to access multimedia content according to a set of rules or predetermined access profiles, but also depending on the state of the content server terminal (or the storage platform of such content) or the service platform hosting a required content, they are defined as follows:

- the platform is accessible to a user, the user has an account on the platform or a user with an account has given him a right of access to his platform (notion of sharing and guest). Access to content may be limited in time, depending on a predetermined configuration of rights associated with a user profile, for example; a terminal, for example of PC type (abbreviation of the English term "Personal Computer" well known to those skilled in the art), can be turned on or off, some users can ask to switch on a PC remotely;

- the content is accessible for a given user: there are rules associated with a content (DRM - for "Digital Rights Management" in English, or "management of digital rights in French, or rules of sharing").

These rules can relate to the access to a file (corresponding to a multimedia content to be returned or to make available) or on the type of access to this file (a user may have the right to download in continuous loading mode or "streaming" in English, a video, but not having the right to download it to store it in the memory of its terminal (on the hard disk of its personal digital assistant, or PDA for example), a user can still have the right to access a photo, but only in a degraded state of the latter, without authorization to access the original and quality version of this photo);

- the type of access and the type of terminal can influence whether or not a user can access (or update content). For example, a user with a poor network connection in terms of speed or bandwidth (temporarily or consistently) will be unable to send large files. Similarly, a client terminal that does not have the media player adapted to the format of certain types of content, can not restore the latter without adaptation format.

Concerning the aggregation of contents, the description of all the contents accessible by a user is stored in the platform 26 of services. This allows a user to access a unified way to its contents, regardless of the location of these.

A first interest of the implementation of aggregation means at the level of the service platform 26 is to enable a user to search by type of content (video, photo, date, description, etc.), by platform. etc.

A second advantage of the platform 26 of services is to allow faster access to information for the user, the latter having no longer need, as in the systems of the prior art, to go and interrogate all storage or service platforms for accessing (respectively updating) to a given multimedia content.

Finally, another advantage of using the platform 26 of services is to allow the unification of the access rules (respectively update) to the content. Content will be accessible if it has a description and if it is available and accessible (notion of reachability) for a given user, possibly depending on the user profile defined for the latter at said platform.

Such unification of the rules can allow a better scheduling of the accessible contents. Thus a setting of the preferences of the user at the level of the service platform can also improve the service rendered to the user.

As an illustrative and non-limiting example, for a user accessing the platform 26 of services from a mobile radio terminal and having set his terminal or the service associated with it, in a way that it accepts to receive a degraded content, a possible scenario of calculation or evaluation of reachability can take the following form, preferentially:

- application of the rules of access to the content;

- calculation of the type of access and the type of terminal;

- user parameter verification; - location of the content (whatever its state, degraded or not);

- adaptation of the format of the content taking into account any access information and / or parameterization determined above;

- Transfer of multimedia content in a format adapted by the service platform or directly by the storage platform. Thus, for example, in a telemedicine application, often the content can not be degraded, the platform will contain a preference of the type: access to non-degraded content regardless of the terminal and the type of connection and the assessment of "reachability" By the service platform can be done in the following way: - application of the rules of access to the content;

- user parameter verification;

- location of content;

- transfer of the content in a non-degraded format.

It is understood that when the format of the file corresponding to the multimedia content considered does not require any prior adaptation for the return of the latter to the client terminal of the user having requested it, a variant of the invention may consist of relieve the service platform, to temporarily create a direct network connection 301 between the terminal 31 content server (or the storage platform) and the client terminal 33, by dispensing with a passage of the control messages and contents via the service platform.

In summary and as illustrated in FIG. 3, when a user 34 sends a search request for a specific multimedia content to a service platform 26, via a communication network 300, the platform 26 locates the required content on the various servers 31 of contents connected to it, by querying a database 37 of content description files that can normally be accessed through it.

The platform 26 also interrogates its means 38 for evaluating at least one accessibility criterion allowing / prohibiting access to said at least one localized multimedia content, taking into account, if necessary, all the user preferences previously stored in a network. User Preferences database (client terminal configuration, level of quality required in terms of rendering of multimedia contents, level of network service quality required at a given time, etc.). In view of the information calculated or obtained by the platform 26 of services, the latter is able to allow optimized access to the required multimedia content, which can be repatriated 32 (downloaded in streaming mode for example) via the platform 26 services, at the client terminal 33, to be rendered in a format adapted to the latter, or directly from the storage platform (or the content server terminal), after creation and opening a 301 direct network connection between the terminal client and said storage platform 31.

Concerning the transfer of contents, the prerequisite of the scenarios is as follows: the user is authenticated and identified before accessing the service platform.

The sending and receiving of content may be secured by technical means, that is, the error recovery during the sending of information packets through the communication network shall be supported by the service: notion of resilience. With regard to sending content from a storage platform to a client terminal, when a user wishes to access a particular content, the latter connects to the service platform.

All content is then displayed via the latter on the client terminal. According to their reachability (availability and accessibility), the contents are then displayed as available or unavailable to the user.

Specific display rules can also be implemented to hide non-accessible content: a user benefiting from the "guest" status service platform must only be able to view and access restricted content of certain multimedia content. the list displayed on his terminal.

Once the content has been selected by the user, the system must locate the content and then send an order to the server terminal storing said content for it to be transferred to the user's terminal. The sending of this content is restricted to the availability rules (streaming or download for a video, for example), as well as the constraints related to the access (type of terminal and bandwidth, for example).

The adaptation of the content can be performed either on the storage platform (or content server terminal), or directly with the service platform, when necessary.

By extension, an alternative embodiment of the invention may consist in transmitting to a specific content adaptation platform a multimedia content stored on a terminal, for example of PC type, so as to adapt the latter and thus make it compatible with the quality level of the network connection (for example the average level of the bandwidth) and / or the hardware and / or software capabilities of the terminal, and thus alleviate the processing that the client terminal will have to perform in order to render the multimedia content on the terminal; at least one of its man-machine interfaces.

Finally, when it comes to sending newly created or modified multimedia content from a client terminal to a storage or service platform, it is subject to the same rules as sending content from a service platform to a client terminal, by adding an additional step described below.

When sending multimedia content to a service or storage platform, a description file of that content must also be sent. This description file can be built either automatically from the multimedia content itself, or developed by the user / creator of the multimedia content.

The user selects on his terminal the content he wants to send. Either the user wishes to send it to a platform of services or specific storage, in which case it must select the latter and if necessary transmit an ignition command of the latter when it is in an "off" state, either it sends it directly to the service platform which will automatically take care of its referencing and storage with a content server, always taking into account the preliminary result of a step of evaluation of the reachability of the server terminal of contents envisaged for storage.

For example a rule to be considered may be the following: if the content server terminal envisaged for the storage of newly created or modified content is in an "off" state, without the possibility of being able to remotely move it into the "in" state. on ", for example by executing a remote start command at the client terminal, then the content will be transmitted and stored to an accessible and available content server.

In a variant of the last scenario, the format of the newly created or modified content may be adapted before sending to the content server, taking into account at least one criterion defining the quality of service level of the communication network used.

For example in GPRS the content can be sent in MMS format, with a loss of quality, while in UMTS or ADSL, the content will be preferentially sent in its original high quality format, the acronyms GPRS, MMS, UMTS and ADSL being respectively abbreviations of English expressions well known to those skilled in the art "General Packet Radio Service", "Multimedia Messaging Service", "Universal Mobile Telecommunication System" and "Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line").

Claims

A method of transmitting at least one data set to a first terminal, the method comprising: a selection step, among a plurality of terminals to which an intermediate device is connected, of a second terminal hosting said set of data, selection during which at least one accessibility criterion representative of an aptitude of the first is analyzed; terminal to access said data set, without modification of said set of data; a step of recovery by said intermediate device of the set of data hosted by the second selected terminal, and a step of transmitting said set of data to the first terminal by the intermediate device. 2. Transmission method according to claim 1, characterized in that said at least one accessibility criterion takes into account: at least one piece of information representative of an "on / off" state of said second communication terminal; and if said second communication terminal is in the "off" state, at least one piece of information representative of the ability of the user of said first terminal to be able to transmit therefrom an "on" remote control command of said first terminal; second communication terminal hosting said set of data. 3. Transmission method according to one of claims 1 or 2, characterized in that said intermediate device being able to manage and control accesses of said first terminal to the data sets hosted by said plurality of terminals, said at least one criterion accessibility also takes into account: a set of predetermined access rights to said set of data hosted by said second terminal, representative of a user profile controlled by said intermediate device; and a set of usage rules associated with said set of data hosted by said second terminal, said rules taking account of said user profile. 4. Transmission method according to any one of claims 1 to 3, characterized in that it further includes a step of interpretation by said first terminal of at least one description file containing a plurality of meta data characteristics d descriptive information of said set of data. 5. Transmission method according to claim 4, characterized in that it further includes: - a step (16) for producing said plurality of meta data contained in the description file; a step (17) of selecting at least one storage terminal to host said newly created or modified data set, and; a step (18) of sending, to said storage terminal, said set of data accompanied by its description file. 6. Transmission method according to any one of claims 1 to 5, characterized in that it comprises a preliminary step (1000) of authentication and / or identification of the user of said first communication terminal, said step being performed in a centralized manner by said intermediate device. A computer program including at least one set of program code instructions for performing at least one step included in a method according to one of claims 1 to 6 when said program is executed on a computer . 8. System for transmitting at least one set of data to a first terminal, comprising: selection means, from among a plurality of terminals to which an intermediate device is connected, of a second terminal hosting said data set, which means being able to analyze at the same time least one accessibility criterion representative of an aptitude of the first terminal to access said set of data; means for recovery by said intermediate device of the set of data hosted by the second selected terminal, and means for transmitting said set of data to the first terminal by the intermediate device. An intermediate device connected to a plurality of terminals, including at least a second terminal hosting sets of data accessible by at least a first terminal, characterized in that it comprises: means for analyzing at least one accessibility criterion representative of a capability of one of said first terminals to access one of said sets of data; means for recovering said set of data hosted by one of said second terminals, and means for transmitting said set of data to said first terminal. A request signal from at least one set of data accessible by at least one first terminal, said data set being hosted in at least one second terminal, characterized in that said signal comprises a predetermined centralized destination address, designating a intermediate device separate from said second terminal, said intermediate device being connected to a plurality of terminals, including said second terminal.