HOSTED APPLICATION PLATFORM WITH EXTENSIBLE MEDIA FORMAT

• US 20100235820A1
• Filed: 03/16/2009
• Published: 09/16/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 03/16/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Harsh, Michael R., Olson, Lawrence W., George, Sam J., Ewanchuk, Brian J., Khouzam, Gilles
• Granted Patent: US 8,640,097 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 717/148
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4143 embedded in a Personal Computer [PC]
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4431 characterized by the use of Application Program Interface [API] libraries
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/818 OS software
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8193 dedicated tools, e.g. video decoder software or IPMP tool
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/835 Generation of protective data, e.g. certificates protecting software against unauthorised usage in a vending or licensing environment G06F21/10

Abstract

A media interaction system is described herein that allows hosted applications to consume and/or produce rich media content independent of the format of the media content, while still maintaining the security of the host. The media interaction system accepts raw, uncompressed media data from a hosted application, and allows the hosted application to provide its own codec through a sandboxed API that restricts the actions the codec can perform to a set of trusted actions. Then, the application provides the uncompressed data to the system for playback. Thus, the media interaction system provides rich media content in any format that the application developer supports, and maintains the security of the user'"'"'s computer system.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for handling extensible media formats in a hosted application platform, the method comprising:

receiving a hosted application, wherein the application interacts with the hosted application platform to playback media;

invoking the received application;

requesting media from the application;

receiving uncompressed media from the application, wherein the application is configured to perform decompression of the media from a format in which the application receives the media to the uncompressed media and wherein the platform allows applications to support new media formats without updating the platform; and

sending the uncompressed media through a media playback pipeline for playback using available hardware,

wherein the preceding steps are performed by at least one processor.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein requesting media from the application comprises periodically calling an agreed upon media retrieving interface implemented by the application.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein requesting media from the application comprises providing a platform function that the application calls to provide media to the platform.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein receiving uncompressed media comprises receiving media in a decoded format that the platform can playback without further processing of the media format.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the application receives media in a format not understood by the platform and decompresses the media using an application-provided codec to convert the media to a format that the platform can playback.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the media pipeline invokes an operating system API to playback audio samples using speakers and render video frames to a display.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein receiving uncompressed media comprises receiving media in a format selected from the group consisting of YV12, RGBA, and PCM.

8. A computer system for communicating between an application and hosting platform to playback or capture media in one or more compressed formats, the system comprising:

a processor and memory configured to execute software instructions;

an invoke application component configured to load and invoke application code within the platform;

an execution sandbox component configured to provide an execution environment for application code that limits the actions that the application can perform to a secure set of actions that are not harmful to the computer system;

a raw media interface component configured to provide an Application Programming Interface (API) through which applications can provide the hosting platform with raw, uncompressed media content for the platform to playback;

a media playback component configured to render media based on the received uncompressed media content; and

a hardware interface component configured to interact with computer hardware and receive data from the media playback component to playback on the computer hardware, wherein applications access the computer hardware indirectly through the hosting platform.

9. The system of claim 8 wherein the invoke application component is further configured to receive a reference to an application from a web page and launch the application based on the reference.

10. The system of claim 8 wherein the invoke application component downloads the application from a network server along with dependencies of the application including at least one application-referenced codec for handling media data in a custom format.

11. The system of claim 8 wherein the execution sandbox component is further configured to receive uncompiled application code and Just In Time (JIT) compile the application code for execution within the sandbox.

12. The system of claim 8 wherein the execution sandbox is further configured to provide one or more registered codecs that an application can invoke to decompress media data, wherein the registered codecs can be updated without updating the platform to add support for media types.

13. The system of claim 8 wherein the raw media interface component receives uncompressed media content from an application that receives compressed media content and decompresses the compressed media content within the application.

14. The system of claim 8 wherein the raw media interface component receives uncompressed media content from an application that synthesizes media content.

15. The system of claim 8 wherein the raw media interface component receives uncompressed media content from an application that post-processes media content to modify the media content and provides the modified media content as uncompressed media content to the hosting platform.

16. A computer-readable storage medium comprising instructions for controlling a computer system to provide decoded media from an application to an application platform, wherein the instructions, when executed, cause a processor to perform actions comprising:

receiving 310 in an application a media request from the application platform;

downloading 320 compressed media from a network server to the application;

decompressing 330 the compressed media within the application within an execution sandbox provided by the application platform; and

providing 350 the decompressed media from the application to the application platform for playback, wherein the application platform provides a media pipeline for playing back media and accessing media playback hardware.

17. The medium of claim 16 wherein receiving the media request comprises receiving a call to a predefined interface that the application implements for providing media data to the application platform.

18. The medium of claim 16 wherein decompressing the compressed media comprises invoking an application provided codec that decompresses media data for a particular format of the compressed media, and wherein the codec executes within the execution sandbox.

19. The medium of claim 16 wherein the application adds support for a media format not natively supported by the application platform without updating the application platform.

20. The medium of claim 16 further comprising, before providing the decompressed media to the application platform, applying post-processing effects to the decompressed media to modify the media.