SET TOP BOX RESOURCE ALLOCATION FOR EXECUTING A WIDGET

• US 20130104178A1
• Filed: 10/19/2011
• Published: 04/25/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 10/19/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Verizon Patent and Licensing Incorporated (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Verizon Patent and Licensing Incorporated (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Inventors: APTE, Chinmay R., RAMAN, Sampath X., BABU, Narendra B.
• Granted Patent: US 8,745,681 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 725/107
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44204 Monitoring of content usage, e.g. the number of times a movie has been viewed, copied or the amount which has been watched monitoring of user activities for profile generation for accessing a video database G06F16/739; protecting generic digital content where the protection is independent of the precise nature of the content G06F21/10; arrangements for monitoring the use made of the broadcast services in broadcast systems H04H60/31
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4424 Monitoring of the internal components or processes of the client device, e.g. CPU or memory load, processing speed, timer, counter or percentage of the hard disk space used error monitoring in general G06F11/30; arrangements for monitoring conditions of receiving stations in broadcast systems H04H60/32; diagnosis, testing or measuring for television receivers H04N17/04
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4516 involving client characteristics, e.g. Set-Top-Box type, software version or amount of memory available
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6582 Data stored in the client, e.g. viewing habits, hardware capabilities, credit card number arrangements where receivers interact with the broadcast H04H20/38

Abstract

A system is configured to receive a request to establish a session with a set top box device executing an application; obtaining a profile that identifies usage patterns of resources associated with the device; obtain another profile that identifies a first quantity of the resources to be used by the application; identify a second quantity of the resources to be allocated for executing the application based on the profile and other profile; receive information that identifies a third quantity of the resources used, by the application, during the session; transmit a notification indicating that a condition is associated with the application when the third quantity of the resources is greater than the second quantity of the resources; and transmit another notification indicating that a condition is not associated with the application when the third quantity of the resources is not greater than the second quantity of the resources.

Claims

1. A user device, comprising:

a memory to store a first profile that identifies a manner in which one or more resources, associated with a set top box, are to be used when operating; and

one or more processors to;

receive a request to establish a session with the set top box to perform a test on an application to be executed by the set top box,

retrieve, from the set top box, a second profile, associated with the application, that identifies a minimum quantity of the one or more resources, to be used by the application, while executing on the set top box,

create a resource configuration based on the first profile and the second profile, where the resource configuration identifies a maximum amount of resources, associated with the one or more resources, to be allocated for executing the application,

transmit, to the set top box, the resource configuration,

obtain, from the set top box, usage information that identifies an actual amount of resources, associated with the one or more resources, used for executing the application,

generate a first report that indicates that a condition is associated with the application when any of the actual amount of resources are greater than a respective one of the maximum amount of resources, and

generate a second report that indicates that a condition is not associated with the application when each of the actual amount of resources is not greater than the respective one of the maximum amount of resources, and

output the first report or the second report based on whether a condition is associated with the application.

2. The user device of claim 1, where, when generating the second report, the one or more processors are further to:

identify the application as conforming to the resource configuration to permit the application to be offered to a plurality of other set top boxes.

3. The user device of claim 1, where the one or more processors are further to:

communicate, via a network and in response to the request, with one or more set top boxes to identify which of the one or more set top boxes are connected to the network,

provide a user interface that identifies which of the one or more set top boxes are connected to the network based on the communication and which allows a user, of the user device, to select any of the one or more set top boxes,

receive, via the user interface, selection of the set top box, of the one or more set top boxes that are connected to the network, and

establish a connection, with the selected set top box, to begin the session.

4. The user device of claim 3, where the one or more processors are further to:

receive an instruction to generate a report associated with a plurality of prior sessions that occurred prior to establishing the session,

retrieve, from the memory, respective usage information associated with each of the plurality of prior sessions and a respective resource configuration associated with each of one or more set top boxes that were involved in the plurality of prior sessions, and

generate the report that identifies at least one of;

one or more first sessions, of the plurality of prior sessions, where a condition was determined to be associated with one or more first applications that were executed by a first portion of the one or more set top boxes,

one or more second sessions, of the plurality of prior sessions, where a condition was determined not to be associated with one or more second applications that were executed by a second portion of the one or more set top boxes, or

one or more third sessions, of the plurality of prior sessions, that are active.

5. The user device of claim 1, where the set top box corresponds to a server device that emulates the set top box, and that allows a programmer, associated with the server device, to develop a particular application in a manner that conforms to the resource configuration.

6. The user device of claim 1, where the one or more resources correspond to at least one of:

memory resources, associated with the set top box, to be used for executing one or more applications,

network resources relating to network activity associated with executing the one or more applications,

graphics resources associated with the set top box,

bitmap resources associated with the set top box,

processing resources associated with the set top box, or

timer resources relating to processing time of the set top box.

7. The user device of claim 6, where the first report or the second report includes at least one of:

information that identifies whether an actual amount of memory resources, of the actual amount of resources, is greater than a maximum amount of memory resources, of the maximum amount of resources,

information that identifies whether an actual amount of network resources, of the actual amount of resources, is greater than a maximum amount of network resources, of the maximum amount of resources,

information that identifies whether an actual amount of graphics resources, of the actual amount of resources, is greater than a maximum amount of graphics resources, of the maximum amount of resources,

information that identifies whether an actual amount of bitmap resources, of the actual amount of resources, is greater than a maximum amount of bitmap resources, of the maximum amount of resources,

information that identifies whether an actual amount of processing resources, of the actual amount of resources, is greater than a maximum amount of processing resources, of the maximum amount of resources, or

information that identifies whether an actual amount of timer resources, of the actual amount of resources, is greater than a maximum amount of timer resources, of the maximum amount of resources.

8. A method, comprising:

receiving, by a user device, a request to establish a session with a set top box that is executing an application;

obtaining, by the user device and in response to the request, a resource profile, associated with the set top box, that identifies usage patterns of resources associated with the set top box;

obtaining, from the set top box, a usage profile, associated with the application, that identifies a first quantity of the resources expected to be used, by the application, during the session;

creating, by the user device, a resource configuration, associated with the set top box, that identifies a second quantity of the resources to be allocated for executing the application based on the resource profile and the usage profile;

receiving, from the set top box, usage information that identifies a third quantity of the resources that have been used by the application during the session;

transmitting, by the user device, a first notification that a condition is associated with the application when the third quantity of the resources is greater than the second quantity of the resources; and

transmitting, by the user device, a second notification that a condition is not associated with the application when the third quantity of the resources is not greater than the second quantity of the resources.

9. The method of claim 8, where the available resources correspond to at least one of:

memory resources that identify a quantity of available memory associated with the set top box,

graphics resources that identify a quantity of graphics windows that are permitted by the set top box,

network resources that identify a quantity of network activity that is permitted by the set top box,

bitmap resources that identify a quantity of bitmaps that are permitted to be downloaded to the set top box,

processing resources that identify a quantity of available processing capacity associated with the set top box, or

timer resources that identify a quantity of available processing time associated with the set top box.

10. The method of claim 9, where creating the resource configuration, associated with the set top box, further includes:

identifying a first threshold, associated with the memory resources, that identifies a portion of the memory resources that are to be allocated, to the application, when the set top box executes the application;

identifying a second threshold, associated with the graphics resources, that identifies a portion of the graphics resources that is to be allocated, to the application, when the set top box executes the application;

identifying a third threshold, associated with the network resources, that identifies a portion of the network resources that is to be allocated, to the application, when the set top box executes the application;

or

identifying a fourth threshold, associated with the memory resources, that identifies a portion of the bitmap resources that is to be allocated, to the application, when the set top box executes the application.

11. The method of claim 10, where identifying the first threshold further includes:

obtaining, from the usage profile, a first quantity of memory to be used by the application;

obtaining, from the resource profile, a second quantity of memory, associated with the set top box, that can be used, by the set top box, to execute one or more applications; and

identify the first threshold based on a lesser of the first quantity of memory or the second quantity of memory.

12. The method of claim 10, further comprising:

obtaining, from the usage profile, a first quantity or amount of memory to be used by the application;

obtaining, from the resource profile, a second quantity or amount of memory, associated with the set top box, that can be used, by the set top box, to execute one or more applications; and

determining that a condition is associated with the application when the first quantity or amount of memory is greater than the second quantity or amount of memory.

13. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

receiving a request to set up the resource profile;

providing a user interface that allows a user, of the user device, to enter information associated with the resource profile,

where the information associated with the resource profile identifies the resources that the set top box is permitted to use to execute one or more applications;

receiving, via the user interface, the information associated with the resource profile; and

creating the resource profile based on the information associated with the resource profile.

14. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

communicating, with the set top box, to establish a connection with the set top box as a result of receiving the request to establish the session.

15. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

receiving a request to establish another session with another set top box that is emulated on a server device;

establishing a connection with the server device that allows the other session to be established with the other set top box,

where establishing the other session allows the server device to emulate the other set top box executing another application.

16. The method of claim 15, where emulating the other application, being executed by the other set top box, allows a developer, of the other application, to cause the other application to use a quantity of resources that is less than available resources identified by a resource configuration associated with the other set top box.

17. One or more computer-readable media, comprising:

one or more instructions, which when executed by at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to receive a request to perform a test on an application executing on a set top box;

one or more instructions, which when executed by the at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to obtain, in response to the request, a resource configuration, associated with the set top box, that identifies a maximum quantity of resources, of one or more resources associated with the set top box, that are permitted to be used for executing the application;

one or more instructions, which when executed by the at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to transmit the resource configuration to the set top box;

one or more instructions, which when executed by the at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to receive, from the set top box, information that identifies an actual quantity of resources, of the one or more resources associated with the set top box, used for executing the application;

one or more instructions, which when executed by the at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to determine whether the actual quantity of resources is greater than the maximum quantity of resources; and

one or more instructions, which when executed by the at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to output a notification that indicates whether a condition is associated with the application based on whether the actual quantity of resources is greater than the maximum quantity of resources.

18. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 17, further comprising:

one or more instructions to output a first notification that the application cannot be certified to execute on the set top box based on a determination that a condition is associated with the application,

where the first notification allows a programmer, of the application, to modify the application in a manner that causes the application to conform to the resource configuration.

19. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 17, further comprising:

one or more instructions to output a first notification that the application is certified to execute on the set top box based on a determination that a condition is not associated with the application,

where the first notification allows the application to be offered to other set top boxes for execution.

20. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 17, further comprising:

one or more instructions to obtain a first profile that identifies a manner in which the one or more resources have been used, prior to receiving the request to perform the test, when executing one or more other applications or processing video content received from a network;

one or more instructions to obtain, from the set top box, a second profile that identifies a minimum quantity of resources, associated with the one or more resources, to be used by the application, when executing on the set top box; and

one or more instructions to create the resource configuration based on the first profile and the second profile.

21. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 20, where the one or more instructions to create the resource configuration further include:

one or more instructions to identify a maximum quantity or amount of memory resources, associated with the maximum quantity of resources, to be used for executing the application based on first memory resources obtained from the first profile and second memory resources obtained from the second profile,

where the memory resources identify a quantity of available memory associated with the set top box.

22. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 20, where the one or more instructions to create the resource configuration further include:

one or more instructions to identify a maximum quantity or amount of network resources, associated with the maximum quantity of resources, to be used for executing the application based on first network resources obtained from the first profile and second network resources obtained from the second profile,

where the network resources identify a quantity of network activity that is permitted by the set top box.

23. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 20, where the one or more instructions to create the resource configuration further include:

one or more instructions to identify a maximum quantity or amount of graphics resources, associated with the maximum quantity of resources, to be used for executing the application based on first graphics resources obtained from the first profile and second graphics resources obtained from the second profile

where the graphics resources graphics resources identify a quantity of graphics windows that are permitted by the set top box.

24. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 20, where the one or more instructions to create the resource configuration further include:

one or more instructions to identify a maximum quantity or amount of bitmap resources, associated with the maximum quantity of resources, to be used for executing the application based on first bitmap resources obtained from the first profile and second bitmap resources obtained from the second profile,

where the bitmap resources identify a quantity or size of bitmaps that are permitted to be downloaded to the set top box