None.
The present invention pertains to methods and apparatus for a Personal Content Player. One embodiment of the present invention is a miniature electronic device which functions as an automatic content receiver and storage device. Digital content is transmitted to the device using the excess capacity in an existing network, such as one or more conventional broadcast radio stations. The content is received by the device, and stored in a memory. The content is then played at a time chosen by the user. In one embodiment, the present invention may be held by a keyring, carried in a pocket or purse, clipped to a belt, or incorporated into a pair of eyeglasses.
In the past few decades, a vast array of new electronic devices designed for communicating and for playing digital content have become widely available. The total number of cellular telephones in use around the world in 2006 exceeded two billion. The total cumulative sales of personal computers worldwide will exceed two billion in the year 2008. In the past few years, millions of MP3 players have been sold.
Enormous quantities of content are available on the Internet, but this content must be located by searching and then downloaded to the user's personal computer, cellular telephone, MP3 or MP4 player. In many cases, this content is contained in large files which require long download times, even when a high speed connection is available.
No current device that is generally commercially available which may be used to continuously and automatically receive and store digital content without requiring the action or direction of the user, which would enable users to enjoy stored content at a time which they select.
The development of a device that would offer these capabilities would constitute a major technological advance, and would satisfy long felt needs and aspirations in the entertainment and telecommunications businesses.
uploading cost-free, uncopyrighted content from content creators to a content aggregator;
supplying personal content players from a manufacturer to a sponsor/distributor;
furnishing advertising from an advertising agency to the sponsor/distributor;
distributing personal content players to customers; and
conveying free content and advertising to customers wirelessly and automatically.
In one embodiment of the invention, the advertisement is not part of the broadcast. Various advertisements may be included in memory at manufacture and inserted automatically and periodically into content.
The present invention comprises methods and apparatus for delivering high quality digital signals to residential or other subscribers using the unused, excess capacity that is inherent in virtually all communication networks. These methods and apparatus are described in detail in Pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/579,324, filed on 25 May 2000 and entitled Method for Utilizing Excess Communications Capacity; and in corresponding PCT International Patent Application Number PCT/US01/14828, PCT Publication No. WO 01/93457, filed 23 May 2001. Both of these publications are hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety into the Present Patent Application.
In one embodiment, digital content is conveyed using the excess capacity in a network. This content may be delivered using AM or FM broadcast systems. The methods of delivery are described in further detail below. The content may be organized in packets, and the transfer of packets may be accomplished using asynchronous transfer methods, so that the packets are then routed to, and resequenced in order, at their final destination.
Several direct-to-home (DTH) data delivery methods are currently available. These methods use standard broadcast transmissions over existing communications channels and networks. Some of these are Very High Frequency (VHF) and Ultra High Frequency (UHF) Television Broadcast Channels, Amplitude Modulation (AM) Broadcast Station Channels, Frequency Modulation (FM) Broadcast Station Channels, Satellite Television Receive Only (TVRO), Satellite Direct Broadcast Systems (DBS, DSS, or DTH), and Cellular Digital Packet Data (CDPD). Data signals may be received directly by a subscriber on his/her wireless antenna, or through a cable system.
The amplitude modulation (AM) radio broadcast band in the United States ranges from 535 to 1705 kHz. It is divided into 117 channels of 10 kHz bandwidth each. Center frequencies in kHz are given by:
f
0=540+(n×10) KHz, for n=0 to n=117 Equation (1)
AM broadcasting stations transmit at various powers depending on their license, and, in some cases, the time of day. The nominal power authorized ranges from 250 watts to 50 kilowatts. See 47 CFR 73.14. The station's owner has considerable freedom in the signals he transmits, so long as he does not interfere with adjacent channels or other services. See 47 CFR 73.1690(e). In the US, 47 CFR 73.127 authorizes AM broadcast stations “to transmit signals not audible on ordinary consumer receivers, for both broadcast and non-broadcast purposes.”
One implementation of data delivery using AM broadcasting stations is a subcarrier at the channel center frequency modulated by a 256-Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM) waveform, with shape factor 1.25, at 8 kilobits per second (kbps). This provides a 64 kbps transmission rate of raw data. The symbols are trellis-coded at rate ⅞ to provide forward error correction, resulting in a data rate of 56 kbps. The data are partitioned into 512 byte (4,096 bit) packets. The first 16 bytes of each packet are used for synchronization, address and flag fields. The remaining 496 bytes contain data. The resulting data transmission rate is 54.25 kbps, or 585.9 MBytes per day for each AM radio station.
The invention may also employ AM subcarriers. In the U.S., 47 CFR 73.127 authorizes AM broadcast stations to transmit subcarriers.
The frequency modulation (FM) broadcast band in the United States ranges from 88 to 108 MHz. The band is divided into 100 channels of 200 kHz bandwidth each. The channel center frequencies are given by:
f
0=88.1+(n×0.2) MHz, where n=0 to n=99 Equation (2)
In the U.S., 47 CFR 73.293 authorizes FM broadcast stations to “transmit subcarrier communications services.” One implementation of data delivery using FM radio broadcasting stations is a subcarrier at the channel center frequency modulated by a shaped-offset, Quadrature Phase Shift Keying (QPSK) waveform, with shape factor of 1.25, at 80 kbps. This provides a 160 kbps transmission rate of raw data. The delivered data are partitioned into 512 byte (4,096 bit) packets. The first twelve bytes of each packet are used for synchronization, address and flag fields. The remaining 500 bytes contain payload data with rate ⅘ turbo code, FEC. The resulting data transmission rate is 125 kbps, or 1.35 gigabytes (GBytes) per day for one FM broadcasting station.
In the United States, Satellite TV operates in the C-band (3-7-4.2 GHz) and in the Ku-band (11.7-12.2 GHz), Fixed Satellite Service (FSS) allocations. These are so-called “big dish” systems. One implementation of data delivery using Satellite Television Receive Only (TVRO) transmissions uses the same scheme described above for the VHF and UHF television broadcast stations.
The Direct Broadcast Satellite Service band in the United States ranges from 12.2 to 12.7 GHz. The DIRECTV™ system provides up to 30 Mbps of FEC-protected data, depending on the code rate selected for each transponder. Each transponder typically provides three to eight video channels, depending on content. One entire transponder used for transmitting data in the present invention would provide 324 GBytes of data per day.
The Cellular Digital Packet Data (CDPD) network provides digital data over existing North American cellular networks by taking advantage of the idle time on analog AMPS channels to transmit packet data at 19.2 kbps. There are 666 AMPS channels between 870 and 890 MHz in the forward direction, and between 825 and 345 MHz in the reverse direction. The channels have 30 kHz bandwidths. There are 42 radio frequency (RF) control channels which cannot be used for CDPD. The CDPD standard specifies Gaussian Minimum Shift Keying (GMSK), and is modulated with a bandwidth time product (BT) of 0.5. CDPD supports two-way communication, so only minimal FEC is required. Allowing 1.2 kbps for packet overhead and FEC, there remain eighteen kbps for data transmission, or 194 MBytes of data per day, per cellular channel used.
Other local direct-to-home (DTH) data delivery methods are available, and may be based on non-standard uses of existing communications channels and networks. These are: Television Vertical Blanking Interval (VBI); Television Aural Band Subcarriers; AM Subcarriers; and FM Subcarriers. These signals may be received directly by a subscriber on his/her wireless antenna, or through a cable system.
47 CFR 73.293 authorizes FM broadcast stations to “transmit subcarrier communications services in the United States.” Broadcast FM stations have been using subcarriers since the 1950's for things like Muzak music delivered to individual and company subscribers. Data broadcasting is more recent, but already in use for things like differential Global Positioning System (GPS) corrections, traffic data, stock quotes, etc.
One implementation of data delivery by FM subcarrier is the Radio Broadcast Data System (RBDS). A 57 kHz subcarrier is used, which is amplitude modulated by shaped biphase, differentially-coded, encoded digital data at 1.1875 kbps. The baseband data is packetized into groups of 104 bits. Each group is divided into 4 blocks of 26 bits each, and each block is further divided into 18 data bits and 10 check bits. This results in a 0.615 code rate, and a 730.8 bps information rate. Data transmission of this type is 7.9 MBytes per day.
Another implementation is Data Radio Channel (DARC). A 76 kHz Level Minimum Shift Keying (LMSK) subcarrier, modulated at 16 kbps raw bit rate, is injected into the composite FM signal at 10% modulation (−20 dB). The 16 kbps raw bit rate is equivalent to 173 MBytes per day. Adding frame and address overhead at 20%, and rate-forward error correction, a data rate of 10 kbps, or 108 MBytes per day can be achieved. A more efficient modulation scheme can provide a 56 kbps raw bit rate, equivalent to a 35 kbps data transmission rate, or 378 MBytes of data delivery per day per FM station.
Satellites may be used to deliver data to national or regional destinations. Long-distance data delivery to local, “last-mile” data sources is implemented by leasing existing Low Earth Orbiting Satellite VSAT communications channels. For example, a 10 MHz subcarrier slice of the capacity of a single transponder covering the United States on a pre-emptible basis is both inexpensive and readily available. In the U.S., Satellite VSAT operates in the C-band (3.7-4.2 GHz) and Ku-band (11.7-12.2 GHz) Fixed Satellite Service (FSS) allocations.
Data transmission rates for transponders was described above in the section discussing the Direct Broadcast Satellite Service.
The present invention may be utilized to transport any kind of data during the non-peak hours or under-utilized periods of operation of a satellite network. The RainBarrelsSM Method, which enables the accumulation of data using excess capacity, may be implemented using a network of conventional copper land-lines, fibers, broadcast or microwave towers, cellular, PCS or any other suitable links or connections. The invention may be practiced using the Internet and TCP/IP or UDP/IP, over public switched telephone networks or over a private data network.
The invention may also employ Wi-Fi, WiMAX or other suitable wireless broadband services.
The present invention may be implemented using a variety of alternative methods, apparatus and systems. Some of these are described below:
U.S. Pat. No. 5,937,000 describes a Method and Apparatus for Embedding Auxiliary Data in a Primary Data Signal. According to Lee et al.:
Acoustic Communication with OFDM Signal Embedded in Audio (Audio Engineering Society, September, 2006) According to Matsuoka et al.:
Audio Data Hiding with Application to Surround Sound Acoustics, Speech, and Signal Processing, 2003. Proceedings. (ICAS SP apos; 03). Volume 2, Issue, 6-10 April 2003 Page(s): II-337-40. According to Chou et al.:
Wikipedia article: Radio and Broadcast: Independence from the Transmission-Medium.
In general, standard broadcast AM reception is poor where there are conducting materials around: under overpasses, under power lines, and in steel-framed buildings. The wavelength of a 1,000 KHz signal, in the middle of the broadcast band, is 300 meters. Radio signals will not generally propagate through a hole smaller than ¼ wavelength, so a 1,000 KHz broadcast signal is strongly attenuated after passing through an aperture smaller than 75 meters. The problem is more sever at the low-frequency end of the broadcast band. A station broadcasting on 540 KHz has a wavelength of 555 meters, and thus suffers severe attenuation in passing through an aperture of 139 meters or smaller.
FM broadcast signals, in the 88 to 108 MHz range, have much better penetration: their longest wavelength is 3.4 meters, thus FM broadcasts usually propagate well in a steel building, but not around corners.
To avoid dropouts in the content, several methods may be employed. In one embodiment, two identical streams of data are transmitted. A “backup signal” is also transmitted, and may be delayed by several minutes. In this embodiment, he Watchman™ is configured to reestablish connection later, and fill in data that is missing due to a signal drop-out.
Alternatively, and in the above case if the delay is long, the Watchman™ could simply delete the missing section. If the content is a short clip, the entire clip is deleted; if the content is a movie, then a message is inserted, and resumed when the signal is reaquired.
All communications to and/or from the invention may be protected with security systems which thwart or eliminate fraud or misuse. In one embodiment of the invention, security is provided by the UltraSecureSM System, which uses “Electronic DNA” embedded in the device and in remote servers and the user's biometric input to prevent fraud, ID theft, viruses, malware and spam. The UltraSecureSM System is described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/887,570, filed on 22 Jun. 2001, and in PCT International Patent Application No. PCT/GB02/05612, filed on 11 Dec. 2002. Both of these Published Patent Applications are hereby incorporated by reference.
In one embodiment of the invention, the UltraSecureSM System comprises Server-side software acting as encryptor for source content and a Client-side software acting as the decryption and re-assembler of the content. Two (Bilateral) or more (Multilateral) devices may be entwined with a dual asynchronous communication path wherein both the Client and Server side portions of the software are installed and registered for both devices (whether in a Ops Center or a Field/Consumer device). Such entwinement enables the use of the UltraSecure Transaction Protocol (USTP) to provide the highest level of communication, content and session security between the two devices, to fully protect data on the device, data in being transferred, data in the host, or data backups being transferred over non USTP protocol systems. Applications include secure two-way communication, remote computing and backups, network transactions (e-mail, web, fund transfers, etc), and access to secured resources (facilities, data information, etc).
In yet another embodiment of the invention,
In this embodiment, content may include advertisements; information about products or special discounts, sales or prices; entertainment; “how-to” or instructional videos; or any other program chosen by the operator of the transmitter. The Watchman™ may be distributed to customers in the retail stores as they check-out.
As an example, a restaurant chain may sell or give away a Two-Way Watchman™ to their customers. The customer may watch a combination of content and advertising that is provided over the channel from a transmitter to the Two-Way Watchman™. A sponsor, who selects and provides the content and/or advertising, may also insert promotions, offers or questions for the user. The user may then respond using the return channel. The return channel may also be implemented using a regional or nationwide paging or cellular telephone company. This embodiment may be implemented using a wireless link, or by using an RFID-like reader at the portal to the sponsor's business, or by any other suitable means.
In one embodiment of the invention, it may be necessary to alter or to add software to the information appliance to enable the user to receive the content and/or advertising. This may be accomplished by downloading software from the Internet, or by adding a new SIM or memory card to the information appliance.
Although the present invention has been described in detail with reference to one or more preferred embodiments, persons possessing ordinary skill in the art to which this invention pertains will appreciate that various modifications and enhancements may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the Claims that follow. The various alternatives for providing a highly secure data distribution system that have been disclosed above are intended to educate the reader about preferred embodiments of the invention, and are not intended to constrain the limits of the invention or the scope of Claims. The List of Reference Characters which follow is intended to provide the reader with a convenient means of identifying elements of the invention in the Specification and Drawings. This list is not intended to delineate or narrow the scope of the Claims.
This Non-Provisional Patent Application is related to a Pending U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 61/131,749, filed on 10 Jun. 2008. The Applicants claim the benefit of priority for any and all subject matter which is common to the Pending Provisional Patent Application and in the Present Patent Application under 35 USC Sections 119 and/or 120. The Applicants also claim the benefit of priority for any and all subject matter which is commonly disclosed in the Present Patent Application and in Pending U.S. Ser. No. 12/315,367, entitled Personal Digital Asset Manager, filed on 1 Dec. 2008.
Number | Date | Country | |
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61131749 | Jun 2008 | US |