VIDEO COPY PREVENTION SYSTEMS WITH INTERACTION AND COMPRESSION

• US 20100061553A1
• Filed: 04/25/2008
• Published: 03/11/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 04/25/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Digital Community LLC
• Original Assignee: David Chaum
• Inventors: Chaum, David
• Granted Patent: US 10,536,670 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 380/200
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/1015 to users
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/013 Eye tracking input arrangements G06F3/015 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2005/91357 by modifying the video signal
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/234363 by altering the spatial resolution, e.g. for clients with a lower screen resolution
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/23439 for generating different versions
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/23476 by partially encrypting, e.g. encrypting the ending portion of a movie
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4223 Cameras H04N23/00 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44213 Monitoring of end-user related data arrangements for monitoring the users' behaviour or opinions in broadcast systems H04H60/33
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44218 Detecting physical presence or behaviour of the user, e.g. using sensors to detect if the user is leaving the room or changes his face expression during a TV program methods or arrangements for recognising human body or animal bodies or body parts G06V40/10; methods or arrangements for acquiring or recognising human faces, facial parts, facial sketches, facial expressions G06V40/16; methods or arrangements for recognising movements or behaviour G06V40/20; arrangements for identifying users in broadcast systems H04H60/45
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4622 Retrieving content or additional data from different sources, e.g. from a broadcast channel and the Internet web site content organization and management for information retrieval from the Internet G06F16/958; transmission by internet of broadcast information H04H60/82; stock exchange data over packet-switching network H04L12/1804; push services including data channel over packet-switching network H04L12/1859
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4623 Processing of entitlement messages, e.g. ECM [Entitlement Control Message] or EMM [Entitlement Management Message] arrangements for conditional access to broadcast information or to broadcast-related services H04H60/14
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4728 for selecting a Region Of Interest [ROI], e.g. for requesting a higher resolution version of a selected region
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/64792 Controlling the complexity of the content stream, e.g. by dropping packets intermediate media network packet handling H04L65/765; proxy provisioning conversion or adaptation for reducing the amount or size of exchanged application data H04L67/5651; negotiation of resources in wireless networks H04W28/16
• 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
• 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 7/17318 Direct or substantially direct transmission and handling of requests

Abstract

Disclosed are systems and methods for providing video content while inhibiting the copying of that content for later viewing. Video images may be made difficult to copy for presentation at later times by the omission or addition of content developed in relation to the particular initial viewing. For instance, video information may be customized by omitting information that is not likely to be substantially perceived by the initial viewer but that is substantially likely to be perceived as missing by at least some other viewers. As another example, video information may be customized for a particular viewing instance so that it contains modified, selected or injected information that is likely to be perceived as non-disruptive or unnoticeable by the original viewer but that would be perceived as substantially noticeable and/or disruptive by some other viewers, including when parts of more than one such video information are combined in an effort to remove customization related to their respective original viewings. Various means and methods for accomplishing the forgoing in a variety of settings are disclosed including also for providing privacy related to what is viewed. In some examples higher-resolution images are provided for the region near the viewer'"'"'s point-of-regard and lower resolution images are provided elsewhere, which also has the effect of reducing the bandwidth required. For interactive content rendered from digital models, a model for a central foveal region may be provide greater detail and have greater computational requirements than a model for a peripheral view, providing both economy/performance in rendering and protection against copying.

Claims

1. A method for displaying video content comprised of a series of images comprising:

supplying for render of at least

an inset first portion of at least a one of the images in at least a substantially higher resolution than a second peripheral portion of the image; and

limiting access to the inset first portion information so as to substantially impede efforts that would seek to make acceptable copies of the video content.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein limiting access includes supplying video information from a protected remote location.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein limiting access includes supplying video information from a protected local device.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein limiting access includes by supplying video information from a plurality of at least temporally local devices.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein limiting access includes supplying encrypted content to at least one local protected device and later selectively supplying corresponding keys for decrypting the content to the at least one protected local device and the at least one protected local device using the keys to decrypt the content earlier supplied.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein limiting includes not supplying to at least some entities in case of detection of some patterns of usage.

7. A method for supplying video content images for multiple viewing instances, comprising supplying at least some of

the images responsive to an indication of parameters captured from at least one eye of a human viewer by viewer equipment, and

diversifying images supplied to different viewing instances so as to impede efforts at combining instances into substantially acceptable copies of the video content.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein diversifying at least some images including by cropping.

9. The method of claim 7, diversifying at least some images including by point of view.

10. The method of claim 7, diversifying at least some images including by projection.

11. The method of claim 7, diversifying at least some images including by depth of field.

12. The method of claim 7, diversifying at least some images including by focus.

13. The method of claim 7, diversifying at least some images including by illumination.

14. The method of claim 7, diversifying at least some images including by coloration.

15. The method of claim 7, diversifying the content including by modifying at least one area in the peripheral part of a scene that has not been in the point of regard.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the diversifying step includes decoy material during temporary blindness intervals.

17. The method of claim 15, wherein diversifying uses different content sequences in different instances.

18. The method of claim 7, where an indication of a blink event is provided by the viewer and a supplier provides at least a reduced amount of information during that blink interval.

19. The method of claim 18, where the supplier is to be provided indication by the viewer of blink intervals and where the supplier detects a lack of such intervals and recognizes such as a substantially false viewer.

20. A method for providing video content comprised of a series of images comprising:

supplying at least a one of the images with at least inaccurate information in at least some portion of the image according to information about the eye received from at least one viewer; and

limiting access to such images so as to substantially impede efforts that would seek to make acceptable copies of the video content.

21. The method of claim 20, where the portion corresponds to where the optic nerve would be.

22. The method of claim 20, where the portion corresponds to particular low-resolution areas of the viewer retina.

23. The method of claim 20, where the portion corresponds to at least one temporary blindness interval.

24. The method of claim 20, where the inaccurate information is substantially difficult to distinguish automatically.

25. The method of claim 20, where the inaccurate information conveys the notion of improper copying.

26. The method of claim 20, where different sequences of images are used for different instances of the video content outside of at least one temporary blindness interval.

27. The method of claim 20, where video content is diversified outside of a temporary blindness interval.

28. The method of claim 20, where access is limited by limiting the number of instances available to certain entities.

29. A system for viewing video by at least a human viewer comprising:

at least some equipment local to the viewer;

at least one key server substantially remote from the viewer;

equipment substantially local to at least one viewer for developing parameters related to at least one eye of the least one viewer; and

whereby at least some such eye-related information is supplied from the local equipment to the remote key server and the remote key server provides decryption key information responsive to the eye-related information and the local equipment using the supplied key information at least in part for decrypting a part of a video.

30. The system of claim 29, wherein the local equipment renders peripheral and inset images for viewing by the viewer and at least some inset images being decrypted based on keys supplied responsive to eye positions.

31. The system of claim 30, wherein the local equipment stores at least some encrypted inset data in an encrypted form and uses the later received keys for the decrypting of the inset data.

32. The system of claim 29, the viewer providing control inputs through interface means communicating with the local equipment and interacting with video content.

33. The system of claim 29, wherein the key server holds back from the local equipment at least some of all data it supplies to all viewing instances of the particular content.

34. The system of claim 29, wherein the data held back by the key server includes inset data related to a larger saccade distance and latency than can substantially be supplied in time by the supplier to the local equipment device.

35. The system of claim 29, where the data held back by the key server includes interaction latency sufficient for the content supplier to supply it in time.

36. The system of claim 29, where more than one intermediary device is used in a particular viewing and the intermediary devices are viewer devices of other viewers.

37. The system of claim 29, including the server distributing rich media in encrypted form and then supplying online keys to enable at least one path through the rich media.

38. In a method of supplying content including video images to equipment of a human viewer of data by a supplier, the improvement comprising supplying the content responsive to the point of regard of the viewer.

39. The method of claim 38, wherein data in at least some peripheral portions of the video image are less informative about the peripheral region than the data related substantially to a portion of the video image near the point of regard so as to substantially deny as good a viewing experience to other persons having different points of regard attempting to view a copy of the video image.

40. The method of claim 38, where at least two different diversifications of the video image are supplied to different viewing instances related to substantially the same video scene and so that inset data obtained from one such instance is substantially difficult to substitute for insets of the other instance in a combined video without being substantially noticeable to a viewer of the combined video.

41. The method of claim 38, where at least two different inset images are supplied for substantially the same inset region and the same images are supplied to the same viewer but different images supplied to at least some purportedly different viewers so that a video containing the two different insets would be substantially noticeable to at least some viewers as inconsistent.

42. The method of claim 38, where a decoy image is inserted for a period insufficient to be substantially recognized in a foveal region by a viewer but that the decoy image substantially attracts a saccade with at least some probability to influence the distribution of points of regard towards some points of regard being next for at least some viewers.

43. The method of claim 42, where the decoy images is inserted so as to allow certain insets a higher probability of being used.

44. The method of claim 42, where the decoy image is inserted so as to detect requests for viewing that are not substantially likely to be responsive to a human viewer.

45. The method of claim 38, where an indication of a saccade is provided by the viewer to the provider and the provider substantially reduces the information sent during the interval the provider anticipates will correspond to the saccade.

46. The method of claim 38, where inset data is provided substantially in advance to the viewer system in encrypted form and keys sufficient to allow decryption of the inset data are provided when the particular inset data is needed by the viewer.

47. The method of claim 38, where the provider maintains information related to timing of points of regard and detects attempts to recover substantially complete coverage.

48. The method of claim 47, where the detecting step is performed across multiple views by the same purported viewer.

49. The method of claim 47, where the detecting step is performed for sets of purported viewers.

50. The method of claim 47, where the detecting step includes more than one item of video content and developing information related to sets of purported viewers.

51. The method of claim 38, where more than one viewer is supplied substantially simultaneously with the same peripheral image and at least two of the viewers are supplied with different inset data related to different respective points of regard.

52. The method of claim 38, where a peripheral image includes plural options for a particular region and different options are included in different viewing streams.

53. The method of claim 52, where once the viewer has fixated on the said particular region, the option for that region remains substantially unchanged for that viewer at least for a period of time.

54. The method of claim 38, wherein the content including video images is interactive video content.

55. The method of claim 54, further comprising supplying model information by the supplier related to a peripheral portion of the video image, whereby viewer equipment simulates the model information responsively and renders views to the viewer at least in part responsive to the model information.

56. The method of claim 54, wherein the model of information includes textures.

57. The method of claim 54, wherein the model of information includes geometry.

58. The method of claim 54, wherein the model of information of includes lighting.

59. The method of claim 54, wherein the model of information includes interaction rules.

60. In a method of distributing video content for viewing, the improvement comprising differentiating instances of a single video responsive to input received from the viewer in multiple instances so as to inhibit copying of the video content distributed.

61. The method of claim 60, wherein the differentiating comprises customization by modifying at least aspects of original video content.

62. The method of claim 60, wherein the differentiating comprises customization by selecting between substantially different instances of initial video content.

63. The method of claim 60, wherein the differentiating comprises customization by injecting content into a combination with original video content.

64. The method of claim 60, wherein the differentiating comprises customizing a viewing instance so that it omits information that is not likely to be substantially perceived by a viewer but that is substantially likely to be perceived as missing by at least some other viewers.