GPS TV set top box with regional restrictions

• US 6,009,116 A
• Filed: 04/15/1997
• Issued: 12/28/1999
• Est. Priority Date: 05/05/1995
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Philip A Rubin and Associates Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Philip A Rubin and Associates Incorporated
• Inventors: Rubin, Philip A., Bednarek, Robert A.
• Primary Examiner(s): Vo, Don N.
• Application Number:
  US08/842,573
• Time in Patent Office: 987 Days
• Field of Search: 375/200, 380/10, 380/20, 380/21, 348/10, 348/8, 348/9, 455/4.2, 455/6.3, 340/825.31, 340/825.34
• US Class Current: 375/130
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/14 specially adapted for specific applications
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/36 relating to the receiver frond end
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 19/42 Determining position
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/42202 environmental sensors, e.g. for detecting temperature, luminosity, pressure, earthquakes
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4405 involving video stream decryption
• 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 21/4524 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: H04N 21/4627 Rights management associated to the content security in data switching network management H04L41/28; security management or policies for network security H04L63/20; access security in wireless networks H04W12/08
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/163 by receiver means only
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/1675 Providing digital key or authorisation information for generation or regeneration of the scrambling sequence pseudo-random number generators in general G06F7/58

Abstract

An integrated receiver decoder (IRD), commonly called a set-top box, has a global positioning system (GPS) receiver. The GPS receiver checks to see if the IRD is at an authorized location and allows descrambling of video signals only if the location is authorized. A central access control system, remote from the customers/viewers, has a high quality GPS receiver and sends some GPS data in the transmission medium used to send video signals to the customers. The set-top box, referred to as a customer access control, establishes different geographic restrictions on different of various video signals. Location-specific signals require that the set-top box be at a single fixed location for descrambling. Region-specific signals are accessible only if the set-top box is in a geographic region authorized for reception, there being several such regions. Large area signals are accessible anywhere within a large area including the regions. Region-exclusion signals are accessible only if the set-top box is outside of one or more regions where reception is no allowed.

Claims

1. A video signal access control system comprising a customer access control operable at a customer location and having:

a signal input to receive at least one video signal from a remote source;

a video signal processor operably connected to receive video signals from the signal input;

a conditional accesser operably connected to the video signal processor;

a signal output operably connected to the video signal processor and providing a useable video output signal only upon the conditional accesser authorizing access to one or more video signals from the remote source;

a GPS signal receiver operable at the customer location to receive position information from remote sources and operably connected to the conditional accesser, the conditional accesser authorizing access only if the GPS signal receiver receives signals consistent with the customer access control being at an authorized location; and

a region comparer to compare a region code received with the at least one video signal from the remote source with a region index stored at the customer location and operable to output a region comparer output, the region code being representative of a geographic region authorized to receive a signal and the region index being representative of a geographic region in which the customer access control is located, there being different region codes for different geographic regions, at least some of the region codes excluding access outside of their corresponding geographic region that is authorized to receive a signal; and

wherein the conditional accesser receives the region comparer output and conditions access to a given one(s) of the video signals from the remote source upon the region comparer output indicating that those given one(s) of the video signals are authorized for an access region in which the customer access control is located, and wherein the region comparer and conditional accesser are together operable to prevent customers at the customer location from accessing video signals having region codes that exclude access in the access region in which the customer access control is located.

2. The video signal access control system of claim 1 wherein the conditional accesser authorizes access to at least some signals only if the GPS signal receiver receives signals consistent with the customer access control being at a single fixed location authorized for service.

3. The video signal access control system of claim 2 wherein the conditional accesser authorizes access to signals known as location-specific signals only if the GPS signal receiver receives signals consistent with the customer access control being at a single fixed location authorized for service;

and wherein the conditional accesser authorizes access to signals known as regional signals, even if the GPS signal receiver receives signals inconsistent with the customer access control being at a single fixed location authorized for service, provided that the region comparer output indicates that the video signals are authorized for the access region of the customer access control.

4. The video signal access control system of claim 3 wherein the access region of the customer access control is an access region in which the customer access control is actually located as sensed by use of the GPS signal receiver and the region index represents the region in which the customer access control is actually located.

5. The video signal access control system of claim 3 wherein the access region of the customer access control is an access region in which the customer access control is authorized for placement and the region index represents the region in which the customer access control is authorized for placement.

6. The video signal access control system of claim 1 wherein the conditional accesser authorizes access to signals known as location-specific signals only if the GPS signal receiver receives signals consistent with the customer access control being at a single fixed location authorized for service;

and wherein the conditional accesser authorizes access to signals known as regional signals, even if the GPS signal receiver receives signals inconsistent with the customer access control being at a single fixed location authorized for service, provided that the region comparer output indicates that the video signals are authorized for the access region of the customer access control.

7. The video signal access control system of claim 6 wherein the access region of the customer access control is an access region in which the customer access control is actually located as sensed by use of the GPS signal receiver and the region index represents the region in which the customer access control is actually located.

8. The video signal access control system of claim 6 wherein the access region of the customer access control is an access region in which the customer access control is authorized for placement and the region index represents the region in which the customer access control is authorized for placement.

9. The video signal access control system of claim 1 the region index represents the region in which the customer access control is authorized for placement and the region index is set in the customer access control prior to providing it to the customer.

10. The video signal access control system of claim 1 further comprising a central access control remote from customers and operable to transmit the region index for each customer such that the region index for that customer is stored in the customer access control;

and wherein the region index represents the region in which the customer access control is authorized for placement.

11. The video signal access control system of claim 1 wherein the large area includes the plurality of regions;

and wherein the conditional accesser authorizes access to signals known as region-exclusion signals provided that the customer access control is within the large area and outside of one or more of regions where the particular signal is excluded.

12. The video signal access control system of claim 1 wherein a large area includes at least the plurality of regions;

and wherein the conditional accesser authorizes access to signals known as large area signals provided that the customer access control is within the large area.

13. The video signal access control system of claim 1 wherein the customer access control is a non-transmitting unit.

14. The video signal access control system of claim 1 wherein the customer access control is operable in different ones of a plurality of access regions, the customer access control granting access to signals corresponding to each access region when the customer access control is in that region.

15. A video signal access control system comprising a customer access control operable at a customer location and having:

a signal input to recieve at least one video signal from a remote source;

a video signal processor operably connected to receive video signals from the signal input;

a conditional accesser operably connected to the video signal processor;

a signal output operably connected to the video signal processor and providing a useable video output signal only upon the conditional accesser authorzing access to one or more video signals from the remote source;

a GPS signal receiver operable at the customer location to receive position information from remote sources and operably connected to the conditional accesser, the conditional accesser authorizing access only if the GPS signal receiver receives signals consistent with the customer access control being at an authorized location; and

a region comparer to compare a region code received with the at least one video signal from the remote source with a region index stored at the customer location and operable to output a region comparer output, the region code being representative of a geographic region authorized to receive a signal and the region index being representative of a geographic region of the customer access control, there being different region codes for different geographic regions, at least some of the region codes excluding access outside of their corresponding geographic region that is authorized to receive a signal; and

wherein the conditional accesser receives the region comparer output and conditions access to a given one(s) of the video signals from the remote source upon the region comparer output indicating that those given one(s) of the video signals are authorized for an access region of the customer access control; and

wherein the access region of the customer access control is an access region in which the customer access control is actually located as sensed by use of the GPS signal receiver and the region index represents the region in which the customer access control is actually located.

16. The video signal access control system of claim 15 wherein the customer access control includes a region determiner that is supplied GPS data from the GPS signal receiver and is supplied boundary data corresponding to boundaries of one or more of several access regions, the region determiner outputting the region index based on the access region in which the customer access control is actually located as sensed by use of the GPS signal receiver and the region index represents the region in which the customer access control is actually located.

17. The video signal access control system of claim 16 wherein the customer access control is operable in different ones of a plurality of access regions, the customer access control granting access to signals corresponding to each access region when the customer access control is in that region.

18. A video signal access control system comprising a customer access control operable at a customer location at which one or more customers may be located and having:

a signal input to receive at least one video signal from a remote source;

a video signal processor operably connected to receive video signals from the signal input;

a conditional accesser operably connected to the video signal processor;

a signal output operably connected to the video signal processor and providing a useable video output signal only upon the conditional accesser authorizing access to one or more video signals from the remote source;

a GPS signal receiver operable at the customer location to receive position information from remote sources and operably connected to the conditional accesser, the conditional accesser authorizing access only if the GPS signal receiver receives signals consistent with the customer access control being at an authorized location; and

a region comparer to compare a region code received with the at least one video signal from the remote source with a region index stored at the customer location and operable to out put a region comparer output, the region code being representative of a geographic region authorized to receive a signal and the region index being representative of a geographic region of the customer access control, there being different region codes for different geographic regions, at least some of the region codes excluding access outside of their corresponding geographic region that is authorized to receive a signal; and

wherein the conditional accesser receives the region comparer output and conditions access to a given one(s) of the video signals from the remote source upon the region comparer output indicating that those given one(s) of the video signals are authorized for an access region of the customer access control;

wherein the conditional accesser authorizes access to signals known as regional signals provided that the region comparer output indicates that the video signals are authorized for the access region of the customer access control; and

wherein the conditional accessor is operable to prevent customers at the customer location from accessing video signals having region codes that exclude access in the access region in which the customer access control is located.

19. The video signal access control system of claim 18 wherein a large area includes the plurality of regions;

and wherein the conditional accesser authorizes access to signals known as large area signals provided that the customer access control is within a large area including a plurality of the regions.

20. The video signal access control system of claim 19 wherein the large area includes, in addition to the plurality of regions, an open zone;

and wherein the conditional accesser authorizes access to signals known as region-exclusion signals provided that the customer access control is within the large area and outside of one or more of regions where the particular signal is excluded.