SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR TWO WAY COMMUNICATION AND CONTROLLING CONTENT IN A WEB BROWSER

• US 20110219124A1
• Filed: 03/04/2011
• Published: 09/08/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 03/05/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Infrared5, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Brass Monkey, Inc.
• Inventors: Burton, Trevor, Allen, Christopher, Zupko, Andrew
• Granted Patent: US 8,019,878 B1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/227
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/54 Interprogram communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 61/2567 for reachability, e.g. inquiring the address of a correspondent behind a NAT server
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/00 Services specially adapted for wireless communication networks; Facilities therefor

Abstract

A system and method for connected devices over a network includes: receiving, by an address registration server, a communication from a host device and a communication from an endpoint device; determining whether the host device and the endpoint device are connected to a single local network and whether the host device and the endpoint device are each executing a compatible application; and facilitating a network connection between the endpoint device and the host device over the local network by providing a private network address of the endpoint device to the host device.

Claims

1. A method of connecting devices on a network comprising:

receiving, by an address registration server, a communication from a host device including a public network address of the host device, and a communication from an endpoint device including a public network address and a private network address of the endpoint device;

determining, by the address registration server, whether the host device and the endpoint device are connected to a single local area network based on the public network addresses of the host device and a public address of the endpoint device, and whether the host device and the endpoint device are each executing a compatible application; and

facilitating a network connection between the endpoint device and the host device over the local area network by providing the private network address of the endpoint device to the host device if it is determined that the endpoint device and the host device are connected to the local area network and each executing a compatible application.

2. A method as set forth in claim 1, wherein, in the step of receiving, the communication from the endpoint device and the host device includes an application ID configured to identify an application running on the endpoint device, the host device, or both.

3. A method as set forth in claim 2, wherein the step of determining includes comparing the application ID received from the host device to the application ID received from the endpoint device.

4. A method as set forth in claim 1, further comprising:

executing, by the host device, a browser application within a web browser; and

executing, by the endpoint device, an application configured to control content in the browser application.

5. A method as set forth in claim 4, wherein executing the browser application includes executing one of:

a flash application

a unity application;

a web script; and

an HTML5 application.

6. A method set forth in claim 4, wherein the step of determining includes determining whether the browser application and the application configured to control content in the browser application are compatible applications.

7. A method as set forth in claim 4, wherein:

executing the browser application includes executing a game application; and

executing the application includes executing a game controller application.

8. A method as set forth in claim 4, further comprising modifying a security policy of the web browser to allow communication between the browser application and the application configured to control content in the browser application.

9. A method as set forth in claim 8, wherein the step of modifying includes one of:

sending, to the host device, a policy file configured to allow the application executing on the endpoint device to access the browser application through security mechanisms of the web browser; and

executing, by the host device and the endpoint device, an HTML5 policy handshake.

10. A system for connecting devices on a network comprising:

an endpoint device having a private network address and a public network address;

a host device having a public network address; and

an address registration server configured to facilitate a network connection between the endpoint device and the host device over a single local area network by providing the private network address of the endpoint device to the host device if it is determined that the endpoint device and the host device are each connected to the single local area network and each executing a compatible application.

11. A system as set forth in claim 10, wherein the host device and the endpoint each communicate an application ID configured to identify an application running on the endpoint device, the host device, or both.

12. A system as set forth in claim 11, wherein the address registration server is further configured to determine whether the endpoint device and the host device are each executing the compatible application based upon a comparison of the application ID received from the host device and the application ID received from the endpoint device.

13. A system as set forth in claim 10, wherein the host device is further configured to execute a browser application within a web browser.

14. A system as set forth in claim 13, wherein the endpoint device is further configured to execute an application designed to control content in the browser application.

15. A system as set forth in claim 13 wherein the browser application includes one of:

a flash application

a unity application;

a web script; and

an HTML5 application.

16. A system as set forth in claim 13 wherein the host device is further configured to execute a game application within the web browser and the endpoint device is further configured to execute a game controller application for controlling content within the game application.

17. A system as set forth in claim 14 wherein the host device and the endpoint device are configured to modify a security policy of the web browser to allow communication between the browser application and the application configured to control content in the browser application.

18. A method as set forth in claim 17 wherein the host device and the endpoint device are further configure to modify the security policy by performing operations including one of:

sending a policy file from the endpoint device to the host device, the policy file configured to allow the application executing on the endpoint device to access the browser application through security mechanisms of the web browser; and

executing an HTML5 policy handshake.