SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR DATA OBSTRUCTION SYSTEM IDENTIFICATION AND CIRCUMVENTION

• US 20080170505A1
• Filed: 01/09/2008
• Published: 07/17/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 01/15/2007
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: WiLife, Inc. (Logitech International SA)
• Original Assignee: WiLife, Inc. (Logitech International SA)
• Inventors: Zhao, Fei, Rohlfing, Thomas R.
• Application Number:
  US11/971,529
• Publication Number:
  US 20080170505A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/241
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 13/19656 Network used to communicate with a camera, e.g. WAN, LAN, Internet
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 13/19684 Portable terminal, e.g. mobile phone, used for viewing video remotely
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/181 for receiving images from a plurality of remote sources

Abstract

The present invention relates to detecting, identifying, and circumventing data obstruction systems on a computer device including firewalls, filters, etc. One embodiment of the present invention relates to a video monitoring system control module method for identifying and circumventing active data obstruction systems to enable video monitoring data transmissions. The method includes transmitting a plurality of test data packets over communication ports corresponding to video monitoring system related communication protocols, so as to generate a receive thread key of blocked and transmitted test data packets. The receive thread key is correlated with data corresponding to known data obstruction systems in order to identify at least one data obstruction system. Video monitoring data is routed around the identified at least one known data obstruction system, thereby circumventing the known data obstruction systems. Circumvention of data may be accomplished by automatically disabling, automatically reconfiguring, and/or instructing a user to manually disable or reconfigure the corresponding data obstruction system.

Claims

1. A video monitoring system control module software method for identifying and circumventing active data obstruction systems to enable video monitoring data transmissions comprising the acts of:

transmitting a plurality of test data packets over a network interface and a plurality of communication ports, wherein the plurality of communication ports correspond to video monitoring system related communication protocols, and wherein the network interface is selected so as to facilitate a data feedback loop;

generating a receive thread key of blocked and transmitted test data packets;

providing a set of keys corresponding to known data obstruction systems;

correlating the receive thread key with the set of keys corresponding to known data obstruction systems;

identifying at least one active data obstruction system; and

circumventing data on the plurality of communication ports around the identified at least one data obstruction system.

2. The method of claim 1 further includes selecting a plurality of communication ports and an active network interface for transmission and receipt of the test data packets.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the act of selecting a plurality of communication ports and a network interface for transmission and receipt of the test data packets further comprising the acts of:

determining if a video monitoring system specific network interface is active;

if the video monitoring system specific network interface is active, identifying the corresponding IP address of the video monitoring specific network interface;

if the video monitoring system specific network interface is blocked, determining if there are other active network interfaces;

if there are no other active network interfaces, selecting the local host IP address;

if there are other active network interfaces, randomly selecting an active network interface and identifying the corresponding IP address; and

selecting the communication ports corresponding to the video monitoring system related protocols.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the act of transmitting a plurality of test data packets over a network interface and a plurality of communication ports includes generating a send thread comprising a plurality of test data packets on corresponding video monitoring system related communication protocols and positioned on an active network interface.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the video monitoring system related communication protocols include at least one of TCP, UDP point-to-point, UDP Broadcast, UPnP, and DHCP.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the act of generating a receive thread key of blocked and transmitted test data packets includes receiving a receive thread including a set of received test data packets, identifying the communication ports on which test packets are blocked and transmitted, generating a receive thread key corresponding to the communication ports indicating whether the test data packet is blocked or transmitted for each of the plurality of communication ports.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the act of providing a set of keys corresponding to known data obstruction systems includes providing a key for each known data obstruction system including an indication as to whether a test packet is blocked or transmitted for each of the plurality of communication ports.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the act of correlating the receive thread key with the set of keys corresponding to known data obstruction systems includes applying comparative mathematical relational analysis between the receive thread key and the keys corresponding to known data obstruction systems.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the act of identifying at least one active data obstruction system includes if the receive thread key is identical to the key of a particular key corresponding to a known data obstruction system, identifying the particular known data obstruction system.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the act of circumventing data on the plurality of communication ports around the identified at least one data obstruction system includes at least one of disabling the identified at least one data obstruction system, reconfiguring the identified at least one data obstruction system, displaying instructions to reconfigure the identified at least one data obstruction system, and displaying instructions to disable the identified at least one data obstruction system.

11. The method of claim 1 further includes identifying the presence of an operating system based firewall on a control module of the network video monitoring system and reconfiguring the operating system based firewall to enable video monitoring system data transmission.

12. The method of claim 1 further including detecting the presence of a content filter on a control module of the network video monitoring system and performing at least one of reconfiguring the detected content filter to enable the operation of the video monitoring system, and displaying instructions for a user to reconfigure the detected content filter.

13. A method for identifying and circumventing active data obstruction systems to enable data transmissions comprising the acts of:

transmitting a plurality of test data packets over a network interface and a plurality of communication ports, wherein the plurality of communication ports correspond to communication protocols, and wherein the network interface is selected so as to facilitate a data feedback loop;

generating a receive thread key of blocked and transmitted test data packets;

providing a set of keys corresponding to known data obstruction systems;

correlating the receive thread key with the set of keys corresponding to known data obstruction systems;

identifying at least one active data obstruction system; and

circumventing data on the plurality of communication ports around the identified at least one data obstruction system.

14. A computer controlled video monitoring system disposed within a multi-use computing and communication system, comprising:

a local data transmission system;

a video input source, wherein the video input source includes a video capture device configured to create a video data signal, and wherein the video input source is coupled to the local data transmission system;

a control module data coupled to the video input source via the local data transmission system so as to receive the video data signal, wherein the video data signal is received and transmitted over a plurality of communication ports utilizing video monitoring communication protocols, and wherein the control module is disposed within a multi-use computing environment;

at least one data obstruction system disposed within the multi-use computing environment and configured to block the transmission of video monitoring data over at least one communication port;

wherein the control module further includes a data obstruction circumvention module, wherein the data obstruction circumvention module includes a data feedback loop configured to transmit and receive at least one test thread including a plurality of test data packets disposed on communication ports corresponding to the video monitoring communication protocols, and wherein the data obstruction resolution module further includes;

a correlation module configured to correlate the received test thread with data corresponding to the blocking characteristics of known data obstruction systems; and

an identification module configured to identify data active obstruction systems present in the multi-use computing environment.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the data feedback loop includes an active network interface systematically selected based on availability and applicability to video monitoring.

16. The system of claim 14, wherein the at least one data obstruction system includes firewalls, spam filters, content filters, and operating system firewalls.

17. The system of claim 14, wherein the video monitoring communication protocols include at least one of TCP, UDP, UDP broadcast, UDP point-to-point, UPnP, and DHCP.

18. The system of claim 14, wherein the control module further includes a resolution module configured to circumvent video monitoring data around the at least one data obstruction system including at least one of disabling the at least one data obstruction system, reconfiguring the at least one data obstruction system, displaying instructions to reconfigure the at least one data obstruction system, and displaying instructions to disable the at least one data obstruction system.

19. The system of claim 14, wherein the at least one data obstruction system is configured to block the video data signal received via the local data transmission system.

20. The system of claim 14, wherein the computer controlled video monitoring system further includes at least one client module data coupled to the control module to display video monitoring data, and wherein the at least one data obstruction system is configured to block the data coupling between the control module and the at least one client module.