Patent Application
20110264912
Aspects of the disclosure relate to providing a portable device that allows authorized consumption of content outside a managed environment. More specifically, aspects of the disclosure relate to methods and systems for transmitting and receiving authorized content to other authorized users outside the managed environment on a personalized network.
Modern network environments generally have a network device at an end user's location to allow proper reception and transmission of information. For example, in cable communications network environments, end users generally utilize a set top box or modem to receive and transmit information from cable providers. Typically, the data transmitted from the cable provider's network to an end user comprises audio, video, and audio visual content. Such content may be delivered using various security mechanisms such as legacy conditional access systems (CAS) and digital rights media (DRM). These security mechanisms attempt to ensure that only authorized users utilize the delivered content.
However, the content delivered to these end users is limited to use in and around the end user's location. For instance, media received by a set top box in a user's home may be displayed on a television set in direct communication with a set top box. Alternatively, the media may be stored on a personal computer which has been commutatively connected to the set top box for later viewing.
Current networked devices do not enable a user to share authorized media with other users easily away from the end user's location. This is a substantial drawback as users wish to share particular media content and files with other friends and family members. Media content and files which a user may wish to share include pictures, web pages, videos, audio files, and other audio visual content.
Thus, systems and methods that provide for a portable device which enables authorized transmission and reception of media content outside of a managed network to share with other different computing devices would be beneficial to the art.
The following presents a simplified summary of the disclosure in order to provide a basic understanding of some aspects. It is not intended to identify key or critical elements or to delineate the scope of the invention. The following summary merely presents some concepts of the disclosure in a simplified form as a prelude to the more detailed description provided below.
In an illustrative aspect of the disclosure, a portable network device enables authorized consumption of content outside a managed environment. The portable network device may have an internal rechargeable battery and support wireless protocols such as Wi-Fi. The portable network device may act as a Wi-Fi base station allowing access to authorized Wi-Fi clients.
In another illustrative embodiment, the portable network device may maintain several SSID channels that may be managed independently. In another embodiment, the portable network device may support a number of wireless transceiver profiles to extend battery life by using only the power necessary to transmit data realizably.
In another aspect of the disclosure, authorized content may be extended to other devices outside the managed environment. A meshed network may be created outside the managed environment where any number of devices may be part of the temporary network community. While meshed the portable network device may manage battery life through execution of data transmission and reception.
Other embodiments can be partially or wholly implemented on a computer-readable medium, for example, by storing computer-executable instructions or modules, or by utilizing computer-readable data structures.
Of course, the methods and systems of the above-referenced embodiments may also include other additional elements, steps, computer-executable instructions, or computer-readable data structures. In this regard, other illustrative embodiments are disclosed and claimed herein as well.
The details of these and other embodiments are set forth in the accompanying drawings and the description below. Other features and advantages will be apparent from the description and drawings, and from the claims.
The present disclosure is illustrated by way of example and not limited in the accompanying figures in which like reference numerals indicate similar elements and in which:
In
Furthermore, in an aspect of the disclosure, customer premises 100 may also include a Host device 110 which may be in the form of a set top box or set top device. The host device 110 may communicate to a service provider network 102. The service provider network 102 may include an authentication proxy 112, a personalization server 114, a head-end 116, a back office 118, a provisioning system 122, and a local key server 124. In an illustrative embodiment of the disclosure, download servers 120 may interlink the head-end 116 with the back office 118.
In another illustrative embodiment of the disclosure, the primary point for communication for Host device 110 may be authentication proxy 112. In an additional illustrative embodiment, head-end 116 may also directly communicate with Host device 110 to provide content material. Host device 110 may communicate with home networked devices 108 and portable network device 101 through a wireless or wired network interface. Host device 110 may enable and authorize portable network device 101 to share received and stored authorized media content outside managed environment 103.
In an aspect of the disclosure, portable network device 101 may also include a transmitter/receiver 206. The transmitter/receiver 206 may for example act as an 802.11 and/or a WiMax transmitter/receiver. In another aspect of the disclosure, portable network device 101 may also include card readers 208 to read content stored on physical devices, such as smart cards, flash cards, USB drives and/or other memory devices. Portable network device 101 may also include a network interface card 214 and a security client 216.
In an aspect of the disclosure, portable network device 101 may include a rechargeable battery 210. The rechargeable battery 210 may be recharged using an inductive charging coaster 212. In an embodiment, portable network device 101 may be placed in a charging stand. In another aspect of the disclosure, the charging stand may be connected to the managed network through, for example, BPL 229, broadband over power lines, or a coaxial, Ethernet or wireless connection. In addition, charging coaster or stand 212 may be include an “F connector” 225 for connection to host device 110. A receiving “F connector” 227 may also be utilized for intermediate connection to host device 110.
In an embodiment, portable network device 101 may be used when placed in the charging stand. In other embodiments, the rechargeable battery 210 may also be charged with a universal charger or have solar panels installed on the outside of portable network device 101 for constant trickle charging of the rechargeable battery 210 in the presence of a light source.
In an aspect of the disclosure, portable network device 101 may have a similar form factor to that of a soda can. In an embodiment, such a form factor may allow portable network device 101 to be easily transportable in objects having a cup holder such as automobile. Also, such a form factor is easily transportable in a backpack or other type carrying case or even clipped to a belt. The skin of the portable network device 101 may be customizable to a user's preference or may be used to advertise products of a manufacturer. Those skilled in the art will realize that the form factor of the portable network device 101 may take numerous different shapes and that the soda can embodiment discussed below and used in the drawings is merely exemplary and not limiting. In an embodiment of the disclosure, the portable network device 101 may comprise a media device such as a portable media player or a cellular telephone and include an inductively rechargeable battery.
In an aspect of the disclosure, portable network device 101 may allow a group of media devices to share information such as contact information for the connected users. For example, users may receive information regarding other users currently connected to the portable network. Such information may include personal photos, live video, clips with commentary, and/or social website information. In an embodiment, portable network device 101 may only share information enabled to be shared by each connected and authorized media device.
In an aspect of the disclosure, portable network device 101 and devices 302-310 may provide different portals to linked devices. The portals may be public or personal web pages and may contain information relating to device configuration choices, device status information, or personal information authorized to be shared.
In another aspect of the disclosure, other wireless links in addition to Wi-Fi may be used for connectivity to other networks such as the Internet. These links could be wireless data links such as 3G/4G/WiMax, or future wireless standards. In an embodiment of the disclosure, use of a modular transceiver component may allow software enhancements or may be upgraded by replacement when support of other future standards is desired.
In yet another aspect of the disclosure, numerous wireless transceiver profiles may be supported so that battery life may be extended by using profiles that reduce overall power consumption.
In an aspect of the disclosure, portable network device 101 may utilize two SSIDs (Service Set Identifiers), one a public facing portal and one a secure/private identifier. Portable network device 101 may support multiple connection profiles, such as offering limited bandwidth connections to devices using the public SSID, and larger bandwidth connections to devices that connect using the private SSID.
In an aspect of the disclosure, other devices may be able to connect to portable network device 101 and share content. Such content may include contact information, GPS data, advertisements, personal web page content that is associated with the owner of the portable network device, pictures, videos, etc. . . . Those skilled in the art will realize that numerous forms of information may be shared between connected devices as the portable networked device 101 acts as a portable hot spot to interconnect devices.
In an aspect of the disclosure, portable network device 101 may control the range of its transmission in order to prolong battery life. For instance, in an embodiment of the disclosure, portable network device 101 may set its wireless network transmitter to cover a standard room size so that just devices with that area (or bubble) of coverage may be able to detect and connect with portable network device 101 and share authorized information. In another embodiment of the disclosure, portable network device 101 may set its wireless transmitter to only provide a bubble large enough to connect other personal devices that a user may also have in their immediate possession such as cellular phone or digital music player.
In another aspect of the disclosure, a WiMax transmitter may be managed so that battery life may be prolonged. In an embodiment, the output of the WiMax transmitter may be adjusted based on proximity of other meshed devices. In another embodiment, each of the meshed devices may be used as links to the WiMax transmitter so that the overall output of the WiMax transmitter may be reduced. In yet another embodiment, a meshed device may drop out of the WiMax network and utilize another device's WiMax connection by becoming a client to that device.
In an embodiment of the disclosure, some of the content stored and available for sharing on portable network device 101 may have been received from host device 110 (
In an aspect of the disclosure, content received from host device 110 by portable network device 101 may be in the form of a security package which includes various viewing rights or entitlements associated with the content delivered. For example, a security package may include DVR viewing rights for a movie. In an aspect of the disclosure, content of the security package may be digitally signed by a trusted entity to ensure that usage rights for the content cannot be altered. In another illustrative embodiment, a security package may include secret keys and or control words associated with the content being transported for use by portable network device 101.
In another aspect of the disclosure, the security package may also include content that has been encoded into a different format based on a review of the usage rights included with the content. In an illustrative embodiment, usage rights may indicate the content structure required by an end user device for accessing of the content. In addition, in another illustrative embodiment, the security package may also include a number of copies allowed to be shared, created, and/or a viewing expiration time for the included content.
In an embodiment of the disclosure, the security package may be generated with a unique content key or keys. In an illustrative embodiment, the security package may be cryptographically bound to the content by hashing a globally unique Content ID to some additional unique data. Those skilled in the art will realize that different hashing methods may be used to secure the content. In addition, the information used for hashing the content may be transported in the created security package. In an illustrative embodiment the generated security package may be transmitted to portable network device 101 or other destination for viewing or accessing of the received content. In another embodiment, an encryption key may be used such that the content contains the encryption key. In an alternative embodiment, the encryption key may be received through other delivery methods which may only decrypt or validate the signature for a single contents rights usage file that is associated to one piece of content.
In an aspect of the disclosure, a security client 216 (
In an embodiment, video camera 406 may share stored video or pictures with portable networked device 101. In addition, portable networked device 101 may also share any received video or pictures from video camera 406 which other authorized and connected portable networked devices such as devices 302-306 and cellular phone 404. Furthermore, computer 405 may also share data with portable network device 101. In an embodiment, the data may also be shared with other authorized and connected portable networked devices such as devices 302-306 and cellular phone 404.
In another aspect of the disclosure, portable network device 302 may be at a distance far from the center of mesh network 402 core and also hosting a digital TV 408 located at a distant location. In this embodiment of the disclosure, portable network device 302 may increase its range of transmission to a maximum in order to improve signal reception.
In an embodiment, digital TV 408 may receive content to be viewed and/or stored from portable network device 302. In addition, portable network device 302 may also receive additional content from other portable networked devices such as portable network devices 101 and 304-306 to be displayed and/or stored by digital TV 408.
In another aspect of the disclosure, portable network devices 304 and 306 may be connected to other networks through backhaul 410. Such networks may include other ISP networks 412, Internet 414, managed network 416, and or a 3G/4G wireless data network 418. In an embodiment of the disclosure, connections to these networks may be made through access points 420-424. In an embodiment, portable network devices 304 and 306 may also communicate to other networks or to each other through wired connections such as MoCA, USB, or Ethernet.
In an aspect of the disclosure, portable network device 304 may include a preferred/primary connection to backhaul 410. In an embodiment, portable network device 304 may hot swap the preferred/primary connection via portable network device 304 to backhaul 410 to portable network device 306 if a low battery condition or other shutdown condition develops so that data is not lost or corrupted.
Next, in step 504, the encrypted content may be decrypted by the portable network device. In step 506, content rights for the decrypted content may be determined. Next, in step 508, a connection outside the managed network environment may be established to from a portable network environment. The portable network environment may comprise a meshed network located outside the managed network environment. In step 510, the decrypted content may be transmitted and shared with other media devices based on the determined content rights.
In all cases, any content decrypted by the portable media device may be re-encrypted (possibly with a second key or crypto method) for secure transmission to other devices. This may include some security specific to a mesh network, unique to the receiving devices or even session specific.
While the illustrative embodiments have been discussed in broad terms of a cable or fiber optic communications networking environment, the invention, however, may be configured for other networking environments including various existing and future telecommunications environments.
This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 61/327,489, filed Apr. 23, 2010, the disclosure of which is herein incorporated by reference in its entirety.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 61327489 | Apr 2010 | US |
