Providing remote access to segments of a transmitted program

• US 10,097,873 B2
• Filed: 12/12/2016
• Issued: 10/09/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 02/04/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Dish Technologies LLC (Dish Network Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Dish Technologies LLC (Dish Network Corporation)
• Inventors: Beals, William Michael
• Primary Examiner(s): Shepperd, Eric W
• Application Number:
  US15/376,155
• Publication Number:
  US 20170094340A1
• Time in Patent Office: 666 Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/06 specially adapted for file transfer, e.g. file transfer protocol [FTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/56 Provisioning of proxy services store-and-forward switching systems in data switching networks H04L12/54
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/5681 Pre-fetching or pre-delivering data based on network characteristics
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/5682 Policies or rules for updating, deleting or replacing the stored data
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/60 Scheduling or organising the servicing of application requests, e.g. requests for application data transmissions using the analysis and optimisation of the required network resources admission control or resource allocation H04L47/70
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/23113 involving housekeeping operations for stored content, e.g. prioritizing content for deletion because of storage space restrictions storage management, e.g. defragmentation G06F3/0604; snloading stored programs G06F9/445; housekeeping operations in file systems, e.g. deletion policies G06F16/10; buffering arrangements in a network node or in an end terminal in packet networks H04L49/90
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/234 Processing of video elementary streams, e.g. splicing of video streams or manipulating encoded video stream scene graphs
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/25816 involving client authentication restricting access to computer systems by authenticating users using a predetermined code G06F21/33; cryptographic authentication protocols H04L9/32; networks authentication protocols H04L63/08; authentication in wireless network security H04W12/06
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2743 Video hosting of uploaded data from client
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2747 Remote storage of video programs received via the downstream path, e.g. from the server
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47217 for controlling playback functions for recorded or on-demand content, e.g. using progress bars, mode or play-point indicators or bookmarks specific graphical features in visual interfaces H04N21/4312
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/64322 IP
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/658 Transmission by the client directed to the server
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6587 Control parameters, e.g. trick play commands, viewpoint selection
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8456 by decomposing the content in the time domain, e.g. in time segments

Abstract

A method for providing remote access to segments of a transmitted program is presented. The program is recorded, and then stored at a communication server. Information specifying a segment of the stored program is transferred from a communication device to the communication server. Also, a request for access to the specified segment of the stored program is transferred from another communication device to the communication server. In response to the request, the specified segment of the program is transferred from the communication server to the requesting communication device.

Claims

1. A method executable by a communication server to provide remote access to user-defined segments of a television program, the method comprising:

maintaining a stored copy of the television program for access by the communication server;

receiving, by the communication server, first information from a first communication device defining a first user-defined segment of a television program, wherein the first information is defined by a user viewing a different copy of the same television program rather than the stored copy of the television program that is maintained by the communication server, the different copy being separately received by the first communication device from a source that does not include the communication server;

extracting, by the communication server, the first segment of the television program from the stored copy of the television program maintained by the communication server; and

transmitting the first user-defined segment of the television program extracted from the stored copy of the television program maintained by the communication server to a receiver device that is a different device than the first communication device to thereby provide the remote access to the user-defined segment.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the television program is received by the first communication device via a television broadcast.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

after the receiving, subsequently receiving, by the communications server, a first request from a second communication device for access to the first segment; and

performing the extracting in response to the first request; and

wherein the transmitting comprises transmitting the first segment of the television program that is extracted by the communications server in response to the first request to the second communication device.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the first request comprises an identification of the second communication device, and wherein the method further comprises the communication server considering the identification to thereby ensure that the first segment is only delivered to the identified second communication device.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving, by the communication server, second information from the first communication device defining a second segment of the television program, wherein the second segment is a different portion of the television program than the first segment of the television program.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the first and second segments of the television program are both defined by the user of the first communication device viewing the different copy of the television program that is separate from the stored copy of the television program that is maintained by the communication server.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the first information specifies a beginning and an end of the first segment of the television program indicated by the user of the first communication device.

8. A communication server comprising:

a data storage configured to store a copy of a television program;

a communication interface configured to receive information from a television receiver that describes a first segment of the television program that is defined by a user viewing another copy of the television program separate from the copy stored in the data storage that was separately received as a television broadcast by the television receiver from a source that does not include the communication server; and

a processor configured to extract a separate copy of the first segment of the television program from the copy of the television program stored in the data storage based upon the information received from the television receiver that describes the first segment of the television program and to transmit the separate copy of the segment of the television program that was extracted from the copy of the television program stored in the data storage to a second device other than the television receiver via the communication interface.

9. The communication server of claim 8 wherein the communication server is further configured to receive a request for access to the first segment of the stored program from the second device other than the television receiver via the communication interface.

10. The communication server of claim 9, wherein:

the communication interface is configured to receive second information from the television receiver identifying a second beginning and a second end of a second segment of the same television program that is different from the first segment of the television program, and to receive a second request from a third device for access to the second segment of the stored program; and

the processor is configured to process the second request to extract the second segment from the same copy of the television program stored in the data storage based upon the second information and, in response to the second request, to transfer the second segment of the stored program extracted from the copy stored in the data storage to the third device over the communication interface.

11. The communication server of claim 9, further comprising a video recorder configured to record the television program and to transfer the television program to the storage.

12. The communication server of claim 8, wherein the information received from the television receiver comprises an identification of the stored television program, a starting point of the segment, and an ending point of the segment.

13. The communication server of claim 8, wherein the processor is further configured:

to receive further information from the television receiver defining a second segment of the television program that is different from the first segment; and

to extract a second separate copy of the second segment of the television program from the copy of the television program stored in the data storage based upon the further information received from the television receiver that describes the second segment of the television program.

14. The communication server of claim 8 wherein the copy of the television program stored in the data storage of the communications server is a copy of the same television program that is broadcast to the television receiver, but that is separately received by the communication server.