Method and apparatus for connecting video sources and video sinks

A method of creating an interface between a video source and a video sink, the video source having a recycle framehandler for recycling a plurality of buffers, the buffers for storing a plurality of frames, the video sink having a process framehandler for processing the frames, the video sink further having a first plurality of member functions including a first framehandler and a second framehandler, the video source further having a second plurality of member functions including a third framehandler and a fourth framehandler, the method comprising the steps of:

• invoking the first framehandler to obtain a reference to the process framehandler;
• invoking the third framehandler to provide the reference to the process framehandler to the video source;
• invoking the fourth framehandler to obtain a reference to the recycle framehandler;
• and
• invoking the second framehandler to provide the reference to the recycle framehandler to the video sink.

A method of defining a connection between a video source and a plurality of video sinks, each of the video sinks supporting at least one of a plurality of possible frame types, the video sinks having a plurality of process framehandlers for processing frames, one process framehandler for each frame type supported by each video sink, the method including the steps of:

• allocating a plurality of buffers for control by the video source, the buffers for storing a plurality of frames to be deposited into the video sinks, the video source having a recycle framehandler for recycling the buffers;
• creating a plurality of framehandler objects, the plurality of framehandler objects including a first plurality of framehandler objects for use by the video source and a second plurality of framehandler objects for use by the video sinks, wherein there is one framehandler object in the first plurality of framehandler objects for each process framehandler;
• obtaining a first plurality of references from the video sinks, each of the first plurality of references pointing to one of the process framehandlers;
• providing each of the first plurality of references to the video source, such that each of the first plurality of framehandler objects includes one of the first plurality of references;
• obtaining a reference to the recycle framehandler from the video source;
• and
• providing the reference to the recycle framehandler to each of the video sinks such that each of the second plurality of framehandler objects includes the reference to the recycle framehandler, wherein the video source may directly invoke any of the process framehandlers by using one of the references stored in the first plurality of framehandler objects, and wherein each of the video sinks may directly invoke the recycle framehandler by using the reference to the recycle framehandler stored in each of the second plurality of framehandler objects.

An apparatus for creating an interface between a video source and a plurality of video sinks, the video source having a recycle framehandler for recycling a plurality of buffers, each of the video sinks having one of a plurality of process framehandlers for processing video frames, the apparatus comprising:

• means for providing the video sink with a first plurality of member functions including a first function and a second function;
• means for providing the video source with a second plurality of member functions including a third function and a fourth function;
• means for invoking the first function to obtain a reference to each of the process framehandlers;
• means for invoking the third function to provide the references to the process framehandlers to the video source;
• means for invoking the fourth function to obtain a reference to the recycle framehandler;
• and
• means for invoking the second function to provide the reference to the recycle framehandler to the video sinks, such that the video source may invoke the process framehandlers and the video sink may invoke the recycle framehandler, such that the video frames can be moved directly between the video source and one or more of the video sinks.

An apparatus for establishing an interface between a video source for depositing a plurality of video frames into a video sink, the video sink having a process framehandler function for processing the frames, the apparatus comprising:

• first logic coupled to the video source, the first logic providing a plurality of buffers for storing the frames, the buffers for control by the video source, wherein the video source has a recycle framehandler function for recycling the buffers;
• second logic coupled to the video sink, the second logic obtaining a reference to the process framehandler function;
• third logic coupled to the second logic, the third logic providing the reference to the process framehandler function to a first framehandler object for use by the video source;
• fourth logic coupled to the video source, the second logic obtaining a reference to the recycle framehandler function;
• and
• fifth logic coupled to the fourth logic, the fifth logic providing the reference to the recycle framehandler function to a second framehandler object for use by the video sink, such that the video source may directly invoke the process framehandler function and the video sink may directly invoke the recycle framehandler function.

A computer system having an interface between a video source and a plurality of video sinks, the video source having a recycle framehandler, each of the video sinks having one of a plurality of process framehandlers, the computer system including a processor, a memory, and an apparatus for creating the interface, the apparatus comprising:

• means for providing the video source with a first plurality of member functions and for providing the video sink with a second plurality of member functions, the first plurality of member functions including a set process framehandler function and a get recycle framehandler function, the second plurality of member functions including a get process framehandler function and a set recycle framehandler function;
• means for invoking the get process framehandler function to obtain a reference to each of the process framehandlers;
• means for invoking the set process framehandler to provide the references to the process framehandlers to the video source;
• means for invoking the get recycle framehandler to obtain a reference to the recycle framehandler;
• and
• means for invoking the set recycle framehandler to provide the reference to the recycle framehandler to the video sinks, such that the video source may invoke the process framehandlers and the video sink may invoke the recycle framehandler, such that the frames can be moved directly between the video source and one or more of the video sinks.