SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR WIRELESS LOCAL AREA NETWORK BASED CONTROL OF A SET-TOP BOX DEVICE

• US 20110085526A1
• Filed: 10/14/2009
• Published: 04/14/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 10/14/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Verizon Patent and Licensing Incorporated (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Verizon Patent and Licensing Incorporated (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Inventors: Joseph, Peter, Phutela, Ashish, Rodrigues, Ruchir, Kassam, Shafiq, Maddali, Balamuralidhar, Raman, Sampath, Ramakrishnan, Raju
• Granted Patent: US 8,634,390 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/338
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72415 for remote control of appliances
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72469 for operating the device by selecting functions from two or more displayed items, e.g. menus or icons
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2250/06 including a wireless LAN interface

Abstract

An exemplary method includes establishing, by a mobile phone device, a wireless local area network communication channel between the mobile phone device and a set-top box device, providing, by the mobile phone device, a graphical user interface for display on a display screen of the mobile phone device, the graphical user interface configured to facilitate inputting of one or more control commands by a user of the mobile phone device, and controlling, by the mobile phone device, at least one operation of the set-top box device via the wireless local area network communication channel in accordance with the one or more control commands. Corresponding methods and systems are also described.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

establishing, by a mobile phone device, a wireless local area network communication channel between the mobile phone device and a set-top box device;

providing, by the mobile phone device, a graphical user interface for display on a display screen of the mobile phone device, the graphical user interface configured to facilitate inputting of one or more control commands by a user of the mobile phone device; and

controlling, by the mobile phone device, at least one operation of the set-top box device via the wireless local area network communication channel in accordance with the one or more control commands.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the establishing of the wireless local area network communication channel by the mobile phone device comprises:

broadcasting a communication signal;

recognizing an initiation of the wireless local area network communication channel by the set-top box device after the set-top box device detects the communication signal;

transmitting a handshaking request to the set-top box device to authenticate the wireless local area network communication channel;

validating credentials of the set-top box device based on a handshaking response received from the set-top box device; and

transmitting an acknowledgement of the validation to the set-top box device.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the handshaking response includes a key generated by the set-top box device and a nonce value, and wherein the validating of the credentials of the set-top box device comprises determining that the key included within the handshaking response was generated by the set-top box device using a valid user id and password.

4. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

generating a key based on the nonce value included within the handshaking response; and

including the another key within the acknowledgement that is transmitted to the set-top box device.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the controlling comprises transmitting data representative of the one or more control commands to the set-top box device via the wireless local area network communication channel.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the graphical user interface comprises a program guide graphical user interface that includes one or more media content listings representative of media content accessible via the set-top box device.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising detecting, by the mobile phone device, one or more touch gestures performed by the user of the mobile phone device, the one or more touch gestures representative of the inputting of the one or more control commands.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein at least one of the one or more touch gestures is configured to direct the mobile phone device to cause a media content instance stored within the mobile phone device to be displayed on a display device associated with the set-top box device.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising transmitting, by the mobile phone device, data representative of the media content instance to the set-top box device via the wireless local area network communication channel.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising displaying, by the mobile phone device, an animation of one or more touch gestures in response to a selection of a help option by the user, the animation visually showing how to perform an action associated with the mobile phone device.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the controlling is performed in accordance with a user profile associated with the user of the mobile phone device.

12. The method of claim 1, tangibly embodied as computer-executable instructions on at least one computer-readable medium.

13. A method comprising:

detecting, by a set-top box device, a communication signal broadcast by a mobile phone device;

establishing, by the set-top box device, a wireless local area network communication channel between the set-top box device and the mobile phone device in response to the detected communication signal;

receiving, by the set-top box device, data representative of one or more control commands from the mobile phone device via the wireless local area network communication channel; and

performing, by the set-top box device, at least one operation in accordance with the one or more control commands.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the establishing of the wireless local area network communication channel comprises:

validating the communication signal;

initiating the wireless local area network communication channel between the set-top box device and the mobile phone device after the communication signal is validated;

receiving a handshaking request comprising a nonce value from the mobile phone device after the wireless local area network communication channel is initiated;

generating a key based on the nonce value;

transmitting a handshaking response comprising the key and another nonce value to the mobile phone device;

receiving an acknowledgement signal from the mobile phone device; and

validating credentials of the mobile phone device based on the acknowledgement signal.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the acknowledgement signal comprises another key based on the another nonce value and generated by the mobile phone device and wherein the validating of the credentials of the mobile phone device comprises determining that another key was generated by the mobile phone device using a valid user id and password.

16. The method of claim 13, wherein the performing comprises directing a display device associated with the set-top box device to display a media content instance in accordance with the one or more control commands.

17. The method of claim 13, tangibly embodied as computer-executable instructions on at least one computer-readable medium.

18. A system comprising:

a user interface facility that provides a graphical user interface for display on a display screen of a mobile phone device, the graphical user interface configured to facilitate inputting of one or more control commands by a user of the mobile phone device;

a communication facility communicatively coupled to the display facility and that establishes a wireless local area network communication channel between the mobile phone device and a set-top box device; and

a control facility communicatively coupled to the communication facility and that controls at least one operation of the set-top box device via the wireless local area network communication channel and in accordance with the one or more control commands.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the graphical user interface comprises a program guide graphical user interface that includes one or more media content listings representative of media content accessible via the set-top box device.

20. The system of claim 18, wherein the user interface facility is further configured to detect one or more touch gestures representative of the one or more control commands.

21. A system comprising:

a monitoring facility residing within a set-top box device and that detects a communication signal broadcast by a mobile phone device;

a communication facility communicatively coupled to the monitoring facility and that

establishes a wireless local area network communication channel between the set-top box device and the mobile phone device in response to the detection of the communication signal by the monitoring facility, and

receives data representative of one or more control commands from the mobile phone device via the wireless local area network communication channel; and

an operation facility residing within the set-top box that performs at least one operation in accordance with the one or more control commands.

22. A system comprising:

a mobile phone device; and

a set-top box device selectively and communicatively coupled to the mobile phone device;

wherein the mobile phone device is configured to

display a graphical user interface that is configured to facilitate inputting of one or more control commands by a user of the mobile phone device,

establish a wireless local area network communication channel with the set-top box device, and

control at least one operation of the set-top box device via the wireless local area network communication channel and in accordance with the one or more control commands.

23. The system of claim 22, wherein the set-top box device is configured to:

detect a communication signal broadcast by the mobile phone device;

initiate the establishment of the wireless local area network communication channel;

receive data representative of the one or more control commands via the wireless local area network communication channel; and

perform the at least one operation in accordance with the one or more control commands.

24. The system of claim 22, further comprising a router device selectively and communicatively coupled to the mobile phone device and to the set-top box device, wherein the router device is configured to facilitate the establishment of the wireless local area network communication channel.

25. The system of claim 22, wherein the set-top box device is configured to operate in accordance with a user profile associated with a user of the mobile phone device.