REMOTE VIEWING OF MULTIMEDIA CONTENT

• US 20110083193A1
• Filed: 10/06/2009
• Published: 04/07/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 10/06/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Raftelis, Michael, Howcroft, Jerald Robert
• Granted Patent: US 8,555,406 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 726/27
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/10 Protecting distributed programs or content, e.g. vending or licensing of copyrighted material protection in video systems or pay television H04N7/16 ; Digital rights management [DRM]
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4126 The peripheral being portable, e.g. PDAs or mobile phones
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/41407 embedded in a portable device, e.g. video client on a mobile phone, PDA, laptop constructional details of equipment or arrangements specially adapted for portable computer application G06F1/1626; arrangements specially adapted for mobile receivers in broadcast systems H04H20/57
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/43615 Interfacing a Home Network, e.g. for connecting the client to a plurality of peripherals home Audio Video Interoperability [HAVI] data switching networks H04L12/2805
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/440236 by media transcoding, e.g. video is transformed into a slideshow of still pictures, audio is converted into text
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4627 Rights management associated to the content security in data switching network management H04L41/28; security management or policies for network security H04L63/20; access security in wireless networks H04W12/08
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/64707 for transferring content from a first network to a second network, e.g. between IP and wireless

Abstract

A method and system for remote viewing of multimedia content using a multimedia content distribution network (MCDN) is configured to duplicate multimedia content displayed on a first MCDN terminal device and route the duplicate multimedia content to a second MCDN terminal device. The MCDN terminal devices may be coupled to a local network at an MCDN client premises. The MCDN terminal devices may also include wireless telephony devices for mobile remote viewing functionality. The method may include transcoding of the multimedia content into a format suitable for the second MCDN terminal device.

Claims

1. A method for enabling a user to remotely view multimedia content received over a multimedia content distribution network (MCDN), comprising:

transmitting first multimedia content from an MCDN service provider to a first MCDN terminal device configured to display the first multimedia content; and

in response to a user request for remote viewing of the first MCDN terminal device display, duplicating the first multimedia content displayed on the first MCDN terminal device, the duplicate multimedia content including the first multimedia content, for transmission to a second MCDN terminal device.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein said duplicating further comprises:

transcoding the duplicate multimedia content into a format suitable for the second MCDN terminal device.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein said duplicating further comprises:

obtaining digital-rights management authorization to perform said duplicating.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

transmitting the duplicate multimedia content to the second MCDN terminal device.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the duplicate multimedia content is transmitted to a terminal service executing on the second MCDN terminal device.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the first MCDN terminal device and the second MCDN terminal device are selected from the following device types:

a television, a personal computer, a gaming console, and a mobile multimedia device.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the first MCDN terminal device and the second MCDN terminal are of different device types.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein the mobile multimedia device is configured for wireless telephony communication, and wherein said duplicating further comprises:

transmitting the duplicate multimedia content to a mobile content management server that is coupled to a wireless transmission network providing wireless network service to the mobile multimedia device.

9. A customer premises equipment (CPE) for use within a client configuration of a multimedia content distribution network (MCDN), comprising:

a processor;

a network adapter; and

memory media accessible to the processor, including instructions executable by the processor to;

receive first multimedia content from an MCDN server via the network adapter;

send the first multimedia content to a first MCDN terminal device coupled to the CPE and configured to display the first multimedia content;

duplicate the first multimedia content displayed on the first MCDN terminal device, the duplicate multimedia content including the first multimedia content; and

send the duplicate multimedia content to a second MCDN terminal device coupled to the CPE.

10. The CPE of claim 9, wherein the first MCDN terminal device and the second MCDN terminal device are selected from the following device types:

a television, a personal computer, a gaming console, and a mobile multimedia device.

11. The CPE of claim 9, wherein the first MCDN terminal device and the second MCDN terminal device are coupled to the CPE via a fixed network.

12. The CPE of claim 9, further comprising:

a local wireless network adapter configured to provide wireless access to at least one of the first MCDN terminal device and the second MCDN terminal device.

13. The CPE of claim 9, wherein at least one of the first MCDN terminal device and the second MCDN terminal device is a mobile wireless telephony device configured to display multimedia content.

14. The CPE of claim 13, wherein said processor executable instructions to send the duplicate multimedia content further comprise processor executable instructions to:

send the duplicate multimedia content to a mobile content management server coupled to a wireless transmission network providing wireless network service to the mobile wireless telephony device.

15. Computer-readable memory media, including instructions for remote viewing of multimedia content over a multimedia content distribution network (MCDN), said instructions executable to:

receive first multimedia content from an MCDN server;

send the first multimedia content to a first MCDN terminal device configured to display the first multimedia content;

duplicate the first multimedia content; and

send the duplicate multimedia content to a second MCDN terminal device.

16. The memory media of claim 15, further comprising instructions executable to:

transcode the duplicate multimedia content into a format suitable for the second MCDN terminal device, wherein the first MCDN terminal device and the second MCDN terminal device are different types of devices.

17. The memory media of claim 15, further comprising instructions executable to:

obtain digital-rights management authorization to duplicate the first multimedia content.

18. The memory media of claim 15, further comprising instructions executable to:

send the duplicate multimedia content to a terminal service executing on the second MCDN terminal device.

19. The memory media of claim 15, further comprising instructions executable to:

receive user input for selecting a terminal service on the first MCDN terminal device or the second MCDN terminal device.

20. The memory media of claim 15, further comprising instructions executable to:

receive user input for displaying an indication of transcoding between the first MCDN terminal device and the second MCDN terminal device.

21. The memory media of claim 15, further comprising instructions executable to:

receive user input for displaying an indication of digital-rights management for the duplicate multimedia content.