Media Streams from Containers Processed by Hosted Code

• US 20090282475A1
• Filed: 05/12/2008
• Published: 11/12/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 05/12/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Johar, Akshay, Zhan, Weibing, Schliemann, Federico, Olson, Lawrence Wayne, Virdi, Gurpratap, Schechter, Greg D., Gossman, John, Smirnov, Serge, Zhang, Wenbo, George, Sam J., Hillberg, Michael John, Harsh, Michael R., Musayev, Eldar A., Karlov, Donald D., Khouzam, Gilles
• Granted Patent: US 8,789,168 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 726/21
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/44 Browsing; Visualisation therefor
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/54 Interprogram communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/60 Network streaming of media packets

Abstract

Described is a technology by which code, such as an untrusted web application hosted in a browser, provides content through an interface for playback by an application environment, such as an application environment running in a browser plug-in. Content may be in the form of elementary video, audio and/or script streams. The content is in a container that is unpackaged by the application code, whereby the content may be packaged in any format that the application understands, and/or or come from any source from which the application can download the container. An application environment component such as a platform-level media element receives information from an application that informs the application environment that the application is to provide media stream data for playback. The application environment requests media stream data (e.g., samples) from the application, receives them as processed by the application, and provides the requested media stream data for playback.

Claims

1. In a computing environment, a method comprising:

receiving information from application-level code that informs an application environment that the application-level code is to provide media stream data for playback;

requesting at least some media stream data from the application-level code;

receiving media stream data in response to the request from the application-level code as processed by the application-level code from a container associated with the application-level code; and

providing the requested media stream data to a media pipeline for playback.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the application environment comprises a platform level component, wherein the application-level code comprises an application level component, and wherein receiving the information comprises receiving an API call from the application level to the platform level.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein receiving the information comprises receiving a communication from the application-level code that informs the application environment of media stream data availability.

4. The method of claim 1 further comprising, repeatedly requesting at least some other media stream data from the application until detecting an event.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein detecting the event comprises receiving information from the application-level code that informs the application environment that the media data is exhausted.

6. The method of claim 4 wherein detecting the event comprises receiving information from the application-level code that informs the application environment of a stop or pause operation.

7. The method of claim 4 wherein detecting the event comprises receiving information from the application-level code that informs the application environment of a seek operation.

9. The method of claim 1 further comprising, communicating information from the application environment to the application-level code that informs the application-level code of an error encountered by the application environment.

10. The method of claim 1 further comprising, communicating information between the application environment and the application-level code indicating that a license for playing protected media data is required.

11. The method of claim 10 further comprising, communicating information from the application-level code to the application environment that provides the license for playing the protected media data, including any needed decryption data.

8. The method of claim further comprising, communicating information from the application-level code to the application environment that informs the application environment of an error encountered by the application-level code.

12. In a computing environment, a system comprising:

an application environment including a platform component; and

an application programming interface set that couples application-level code to the platform component, the application-level code configured to process a content container, including unpacking content from the container to provide at least some of the content to the platform component via communication with the application environment through application programming interface calls.

13. The system of claim 12 wherein the content comprises media arranged as stream data, and wherein the application-level code instantiates a media stream source component from an instance of an abstract class.

14. The system of claim 12 wherein the content comprises media arranged as stream data, and wherein the platform component comprises a media element.

15. The system of claim 12 wherein the content comprises media arranged as stream data, and wherein the platform component requests samples of media from the application-level code.

16. The system of claim 12 wherein the application-level code downloads the container.

17. The system of claim 12 wherein the application environment includes means by which the application-level code makes at least one network request for video, audio or script stream data, or any combination of video, audio or script stream data.

20. The computer-readable medium of claim 16 having further computer-executable instructions comprising, requesting that the hosted code open media prior to requesting the samples, receiving information from the hosted code after receiving at least one sample that indicates that no further samples are available, and requesting that the hosted code close the media.

18. A computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions, which when executed perform steps, comprising:

hosting hosted code that downloads a container comprising media content in a format understood by the hosted code, and unpacks the container;

communicating through a set of application programming interfaces with the hosted code to request samples of the media content;

receiving the samples in response to the requests; and

providing the samples to a media pipeline for playback.

19. The computer-readable medium of claim 18 having further computer-executable instructions comprising, communicating with the hosted code including receiving a notification of a desired seek operation, stop operation, pause operation, resume operation or an error, and in response, requesting that the hosted code perform an action corresponding to the received notification.