MOBILE SOURCE DEVICE MEDIA PLAYBACK OVER RENDERING DEVICES AT LIFESTYLE-DETERMINED LOCATIONS

• US 20120284757A1
• Filed: 02/14/2012
• Published: 11/08/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 02/14/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Roku, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Blackfire Research Corporation
• Inventors: Rajapakse, Ravi
• Granted Patent: US 9,414,105 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 725/81
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/51 Discovery or management thereof, e.g. service location protocol [SLP] or web services
• 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 21/4331 Caching operations, e.g. of an advertisement for later insertion during playback
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4524 involving the geographical location of the client retrieval from the Internet by querying based on geographical locations G06F16/9537; systems specially adapted for using geographical information in broadcast systems H04H60/70; protocols in which the network application is adapted for the location of the user terminal in communication control or processing H04L67/52; services making use of the location of users or terminals in wireless networks H04W4/02; locating users or terminals in wireless networks H04W64/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/023 using mutual or relative location information between multiple location based services [LBS] targets or of distance thresholds

Abstract

A system for transmission and rendering of media data over an Internet Protocol network from portable data storage source devices to spatially-separated destination devices located at lifestyle-determined locations. Destination devices are brought online by a discovery process as they come in the vicinity of a source device. In the interest of speed, discovery messages utilize low-overhead, asynchronous messaging. The discovery process begins with multicasting from a source device to local destination devices of discovery messages which include a unique session key and zone, priority and ID specifications, followed by unicasting of a discovery acknowledgement message from destination devices to the source device, and unicasting of a configuration message from the source device to destination devices. In one preferred embodiment, the latest source device to come into the vicinity of a destination device becomes the source of the media rendered by the destination device.

Claims

1. A system for mobile source device playback of media over spatially-separated destination devices, comprising:

a communication network;

a first media rendering destination device at a first lifestyle-determined location having first means for communication with said communication network;

a second media rendering destination device at a second lifestyle-determined location having second means for communication with said communication network, said first lifestyle-determined location being spatially separated from said second lifestyle-determined location; and

a mobile source device having media storage, means for multicasting and unicasting over said communication network, and destination transition means, said destination transition means implementing a discovery process for detection of proximity of destination devices, sending said media in said media storage from said mobile source device to a proximate destination device, movement of said mobile source device from near said first location to near said second location resulting in a transition from rendering of said media over said first destination device to rendering of said media over said second destination device.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein said first media rendering destination device renders media over a first real-world environment, and said second media rendering destination device renders media over a second real-world environment substantially separate from said first real-world environment.

3. The system of claim 2 further including a third media rendering destination device at a third lifestyle-determined location and having third means for communication with said communication network, said third lifestyle-determined location being spatially separated from said first and said second lifestyle-determined locations, and said third media rendering destination device rendering media over said first real-world environment.

4. The system of claim 3 wherein said first media rendering destination device renders a first stereo channel of a stereo pair and said third media rendering destination device renders a second stereo channel of said stereo pair.

5. The system of claim 1 wherein said communication network is a wireless Internet Protocol network.

6. The system of claim 1 wherein said first destination device is assigned a higher priority level and said second destination device is assigned a lower priority level and said mobile source device includes a means for choosing a higher priority level for rendering so said media is rendered by said first destination device rather than said second destination device.

7. The system of claim 1 wherein said discovery process involves asynchronous multicasting to a global address.

8. The system of claim 7 wherein said multicasting utilizes a low-overhead communication protocol.

9. The system of claim 8 wherein said low-overhead communication protocol is User Datagram Protocol.

10. A method for media transmission and rendering between a source device and a destination device, comprising the steps of:

said source device multicasting to a global address over a data transmission network asynchronously relative to said destination device a first plurality of consecutive discovery messages;

said destination device receiving at least one of said discovery messages via said data transmission network and unicasting to said source device over said data transmission network a second plurality of consecutive discovery acknowledgement messages asynchronously, relative to said source device, said first plurality being greater than said second plurality;

said source device receiving at least one of said discovery acknowledgement messages from said destination device and unicasting to said destination device over said data transmission network a third plurality of consecutive discovery configuration messages asynchronously relative to said destination device, said first plurality being greater than said third plurality, said discovery configuration messages having information enabling media transfer from said source device to said destination device;

said source device sending media data to said destination device; and

said destination device rendering said media data.

11. The method of claim 10 wherein said second plurality is equal to said third plurality.

12. The method of claim 10 wherein a multicast failure probability of one of said consecutive discovery messages not being received by said destination device is Pm, and Pm to the power of said first plurality is less than 1%.

13. The method of claim 12 wherein a first unicast failure probability of one of said consecutive discovery acknowledgement messages not being received by said source device is Pu1, and Pu1 to the power of said second plurality is less than 1%.

14. The method of claim 12 wherein a second unicast failure probability of one of said consecutive discovery configuration messages not being received by said destination device is Pu2, and Pu2 to the power of said third plurality is less than 1%.

15. The method of claim 14 wherein said multicasting and said unicasting are performed using User Datagram Protocol.

16. The method of claim 15 wherein said first plurality is between 5 and 12, and said second and third pluralities are between 3 and 8.

17. A method for media transmission and rendering between a first source device, a second source device and a destination device, comprising the steps of:

said first source device multicasting asynchronously relative to said destination device to a global address over a data transmission network a first number of consecutive first discovery messages, each of said first discovery messages containing a first unique session key incorporating a first clock value at said first source device and a first device identifier of said first source device;

said destination device receiving at least one of said first discovery messages via said data transmission network, setting a current session key to said first unique session key, and unicasting asynchronously relative to said first source device to said first source device over said data transmission network a second number of consecutive first discovery acknowledgement messages, said first number being greater than said second number, each of said first discovery acknowledgement messages containing said current session key;

said second source device multicasting asynchronously relative to said destination device to said global address over said data transmission network said first number of second consecutive discovery messages, each of said second discovery messages containing a second unique session key incorporating a second clock value at said second source device and a second device identifier of said second source device;

said destination device receiving at least one of said second discovery messages via said data transmission network and resetting said current session key from said first unique session key to said second unique session key, and unicasting asynchronously relative to said second source device to said second source device over said data transmission network said second number of second consecutive discovery acknowledgement messages, each of said second discovery acknowledgement messages containing said current session key;

said second source device receiving at least one of said second discovery acknowledgement messages from said destination device and unicasting asynchronously relative to said destination device to said destination device over said data transmission network a third number of consecutive first discovery configuration messages, said first discovery configuration messages containing said current session key, which is said second unique session key, and having information enabling media transfer from said second source device to said destination device; and

said second source device sending media data to said destination device and said destination device rendering said media data utilizing information in said first discovery configuration messages.

18. The method of claim 17 wherein said first source device receives at least one of said first discovery acknowledgement messages from said destination device and unicasts asynchronously relative to said destination device to said destination device over said data transmission network said third number of consecutive first discovery configuration messages, said first discovery configuration messages containing said first unique session key while said current session key at said destination is said second unique session key, said destination device not utilizing information in said first discovery messages.

19. A system for media transmission and rendering, comprising:

a data network;

a portable source device having media storage and transmission means for transmission of media on said data network;

a first destination device having a first local clock, first means for reception of said media on said data network, and first means for rendering of said media;

a second destination device spatially separated from said first destination device and having a second local clock, second means for reception of said media on said data network, and second means for rendering of said media; and

a synchronization channel between said first destination device and said second destination device for media rendering synchronization, said first destination device sending a plurality of periodic first beacon messages at a first period over said synchronization channel, the said first period having a first plurality of slots, the said first beacon message being sent in the first of said first plurality of slots, the said plurality of periodic first beacon messages having a first clock value from said first clock corresponding to a beginning time of said first of said first plurality of slots, and said second destination device receiving said first periodic beacon messages and utilizing said first clock values for synchronization of said second local clock with said first local clock.

20. The system of claim 19 wherein said second destination device sends a plurality of periodic second beacon messages at the said first period of the said first destination device, the said second beacon messages being sent in the second of said first plurality of slots, over said synchronization channel, said second beacon messages having a second clock value from said second clock corresponding to a beginning time of said second of said first plurality of slots.

21. The system of claim 20 further including a third destination device spatially separated from said first destination device, said third destination device having a third local clock, third means for reception of said media on said data network, and third means for rendering of said media, wherein said third destination device does not receive beacon messages from the first destination device and said third destination device sends a plurality of periodic third beacon messages, the said third beacon messages being sent in the first of said first plurality of slots

22. The system of claim 19 wherein said media is audio data.

23. The system of claim 19 wherein said media is video data.

24. The system of claim 19 wherein said data network is an Internet Protocol wireless data network and said synchronization channel is a radio channel.

25. A system for media playback comprising:

a communication network;

a source device having media storage, a first local clock, and first means for communication on said communication network, said source device outputting media from said media storage at a first rate according to said first local clock;

a destination device having a second local clock, second means for communication on said communication network, a media converter for converting media from media at a first rate to media at a third rate, a means for giving said media converter media received via said communication network from said source device at said first rate determined by said first local clock, a media data buffer that receives media from the said media converter converted to the said third rate, a means for removing and rendering the media in the said media data buffer at a second rate determined by said second local clock, a means for monitoring the amount of data in said media data buffer, a means for establishing a reference amount of data in said buffer and adjusting the said media converter to raise or lower the said third media rate, based on the deviations of the amount of data in said media data buffer from the said reference amount