Video Distribution System

• US 20070186272A1
• Filed: 08/31/2006
• Published: 08/09/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 08/27/1999
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Zarbana Digital Fund LLC (Intellectual Ventures LLC)
• Original Assignee: Ochoa Optics LLC (Intellectual Ventures LLC)
• Inventors: Ballou, Bernard, Hebrank, John, Hunter, Charles, Sparks, Kelly
• Granted Patent: US 8,719,878 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 725/143
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2005/91335 the copy protection signal being a watermark
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2543 Billing , e.g. for subscription services payment schemes, architectures or protocols G06Q20/00; e-commerce G06Q30/00; arrangements for billing for the use of broadcast information or broadcast-related information H04H60/21
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4331 Caching operations, e.g. of an advertisement for later insertion during playback
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4335 Housekeeping operations, e.g. prioritizing content for deletion because of storage space restrictions storage management, e.g. defragmentation G06F3/0604; unloading stored programs G06F9/445; storage management in file systems G06F16/10; buffering arrangements in a network node or in an end terminal in packet networks H04L49/90
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4532 involving end-user characteristics, e.g. viewer profile, preferences monitoring of user activities for profile generation for accessing a video database G06F16/739; user profiles in network data switching protocols H04L67/306; processing of user preferences or user profiles in wireless networks H04W8/18
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47202 for requesting content on demand, e.g. video on demand
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8358 involving watermark protecting executable software by watermarking G06F21/16; image watermarking in general G06T1/0021; watermarks inserted in still images for transmission purposes H04N1/32144; inserting watermarks during video coding H04N19/467
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/913 for scrambling ; for copy protection
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/1675 Providing digital key or authorisation information for generation or regeneration of the scrambling sequence pseudo-random number generators in general G06F7/58
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17309 Transmission or handling of upstream communications

Abstract

The invention relates to video distribution systems and, more particularly, to a system that blanket transmits video/audio content such as movies (for example, via satellite downlink transmission) to each customer'"'"'s computer-based recording, storage and playback system. Customers preselect from a list of available movies or other content in advance using an interactive screen selector, and pay for only the video/audio content that is actually viewed.

Claims

1. A method of distributing movies to customer households comprising the steps of:

blanket transmitting a plurality of movies to customer households in a digital, highly compressed, low resolution form that cannot be played back with acceptable resolution after conventional decoding;

permitting each customer household to preselect and record desired movies in the highly compressed form in which they are transmitted;

decoding those movies that the customer household wishes to view with conventional decoding, followed by image enhancement to increase the resolution of the movie to acceptable resolution;

permitting each customer household to play back for viewing any recorded movies that the customer household wishes to view;

communicating movie playback information from each customer household to a central controller system; and

billing customer households for those recorded movies that are actually played back for viewing.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of blanket transmitting is carried out by direct broadcast satellite transmission.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein image enhancement is achieved by upconverting to increase the pixelization rate.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein the upconversion is performed by three-dimensional spatial/temporal interpolation that performs real time de-interlacing and frame rate upconversion.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein image enhancement is achieved by artificial neural processing incorporating pattern learning.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein the artificial neural processing is facilitated by zero instruction set computing.

7. The method of claim 5 including the step of employing a digital neural archive pattern library for each movie and blanket transmitting the pattern library along with the movie.

8. The method of claim 5 including the step of employing a universal digital neural archive pattern library that is stored at the user stations.

9. The method of claim 5 including the step of adding noise to the video portion of the transmitted movies as copy protection encryption and removing the noise at the user station utilizing the artificial neural processing image enhancement step.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein the noise is added as uniform patterns of noise to all or selected frames of the movies.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein image enhancement is achieved by artificial neural processing incorporating pattern learning followed by upconversion to increase the pixelization rate.

12. A system for distributing movies to customer households, comprising:

a digital data transmission system blanket transmitting a plurality of movies to customer households in a digital, highly compressed, low resolution that cannot be played back with acceptable resolution after conventional decoding;

a user station at each customer household, the user station including means permitting the customer household to preselect desired transmitted movies for recording;

a receiver and associated digital recording device at each customer household for recording movies in the highly compressed, low resolution form in which they are transmitted;

a decoder for conventionally decoding those movies that the customer household wishes to view;

an image enhancer for increasing the resolution of the conventionally decoded movie to acceptable resolution;

a playback device at each customer household for playing back those recorded movies that the customer household desires to view;

a central controller system having a database for storing therein an address corresponding to each customer household;

a communications link between each customer household and the central controller system to verify to the controller system that a recorded movie has been played back for viewing; and

a billing system associated with the central controller system to bill customer households for only those recorded movies that are played back for viewing.

13. The system of claim 12 wherein said image enhancer comprises an upconverter that utilizes three-dimensional spatial/temporal interpolation to perform real time de-interlacing and frame rate upconversion.

14. The system of claim 12 wherein said image enhancer comprises a hardware implementation of artificial neural networks.

15. The system of claim 14 including a zero instruction set computer.