SCRUBBING NOISE REMOVER AND METHODS FOR USE THEREWITH

• US 20140215540A1
• Filed: 01/28/2013
• Published: 07/31/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 01/28/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Morega Systems, Inc.
• Inventors: Podolsky, Michael
• Granted Patent: US 9,294,821 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 725/98
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/612 for unicast
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/70 Media network packetisation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/765 intermediate
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/80 Responding to QoS
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/26258 for generating a list of items to be played back in a given order, e.g. playlist, or scheduling item distribution according to such list retrieval of multimedia data based on playlists G06F16/40
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47217 for controlling playback functions for recorded or on-demand content, e.g. using progress bars, mode or play-point indicators or bookmarks specific graphical features in visual interfaces H04N21/4312
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4825 using a list of items to be played back in a given order, e.g. playlists
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/61 Network physical structure; Signal processing H04B takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/147 Communication arrangements, e.g. identifying the communication as a video-communication, intermediate storage of the signals selecting H04Q

Abstract

A scrubbing noise remover includes a proxy device that is operable to intercept a request from a video player to a streaming video server for at least one scrubbing segment of a selected one of a plurality of video programs, and in response, sending at least one corresponding fixed segment to the video player, and pass a request from the video player to the streaming video server for a plurality of non-scrubbing segments of the selected one of the plurality of video programs.

Claims

1. A scrubbing noise remover for use in conjunction with a video player and a streaming video server, the scrubbing noise remover comprising:

a proxy device that is operable to;

intercept a request from the video player to the streaming video server for at least one scrubbing segment of a selected one of a plurality of video programs, and in response, sending at least one corresponding fixed segment to the video player; and

pass a request from the video player to the streaming video server for a plurality of non-scrubbing segments of the selected one of the plurality of video programs.

2. The scrubbing noise remover of claim 1 wherein the proxy device identifies the at least one scrubbing segment of the selected one of the plurality of video programs based on a comparison of a position of the at least one scrubbing segment and to a position of at least one immediately preceding requested segment of the selected one of the plurality of video programs.

3. The scrubbing noise remover of claim 2 wherein the proxy device identifies the at least one scrubbing segment of the selected one of the plurality of video programs when the position of the at least one scrubbing segment and compares unfavorably to the position of at least one immediately preceding requested segment of the selected one of the plurality of video programs.

4. The scrubbing noise remover of claim 1 wherein the proxy device identifies the plurality of non-scrubbing segments of the selected one of the plurality of video programs based on a comparison of positions of the plurality of non-scrubbing segment and to positions of corresponding immediately preceding requested segments of the selected one of the plurality of video programs.

5. The scrubbing noise remover of claim 4 wherein the proxy device identifies the plurality of non-scrubbing segments of the selected one of the plurality of video programs when the positions of the plurality of non-scrubbing segment compare favorably to the positions of the corresponding immediately preceding requested segments of the selected one of the plurality of video programs.

6. The scrubbing noise remover of claim 1 wherein the proxy device identifies the plurality of non-scrubbing segments of the selected one of the plurality of video programs by further evaluating a candidate non-scrubbing sequence based on when a new segment request has been received.

7. The scrubbing noise remover of claim 1 wherein the at least one corresponding fixed segment includes an empty segment.

8. The scrubbing noise remover of claim 1 wherein the proxy is a client-side proxy associated with the video player.

9. The scrubbing noise remover of claim 1 wherein the proxy is a server-side proxy associated with the streaming video server.

10. A method for use in conjunction with a video player and a streaming video server, the method comprising:

intercepting a request from the video player to the streaming video server for at least one scrubbing segment of a selected one of a plurality of video programs, and in response, sending at least one corresponding fixed segment to the video player; and

passing a request from the video player to the streaming video server for a plurality of non-scrubbing segments of the selected one of the plurality of video programs.

11. The method of claim 10 wherein the at least one scrubbing segment of the selected one of the plurality of video programs is identified based on a comparison of a position of the at least one scrubbing segment and to a position of at least one immediately preceding requested segment of the selected one of the plurality of video programs.

12. The method of claim 11 wherein the at least one scrubbing segment of the selected one of the plurality of video programs is identified when the position of the at least one scrubbing segment and compares unfavorably to the position of at least one immediately preceding requested segment of the selected one of the plurality of video programs.

13. The method of claim 10 wherein the plurality of non-scrubbing segments of the selected one of the plurality of video programs are identified based on a comparison of positions of the plurality of non-scrubbing segment and to positions of corresponding immediately preceding requested segments of the selected one of the plurality of video programs.

14. The method of claim 13 wherein the plurality of non-scrubbing segments of the selected one of the plurality of video programs are identified when the positions of the plurality of non-scrubbing segment compare favorably to the positions of the corresponding immediately preceding requested segments of the selected one of the plurality of video programs.

15. The method of claim 10 wherein the proxy device identifies the plurality of non-scrubbing segments of the selected one of the plurality of video programs by further evaluating a candidate non-scrubbing sequence based on when a new segment request has been received.

16. The method of claim 10 wherein the at least one corresponding fixed segment includes an empty segment.