System and method for providing fault-tolerant remote controlled computing devices

• US 7,308,487 B1
• Filed: 12/12/2001
• Issued: 12/11/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 12/12/2000
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: CDN Innovations, LLC (IP Investments Group LLC)
• Original Assignee: Igate Corporation
• Inventors: Dansie, Christopher, Dressler, Chad Martin, Larsen, Jordan Seth, Struhs, Patrick Kelly
• Primary Examiner(s): Etienne, Ario
• Assistant Examiner(s): Nano, Sargon N
• Application Number:
  US10/015,322
• Time in Patent Office: 2,190 Days
• Field of Search: 714/4, 714/23, 714/25, 714/31, 714/48, 709/202, 709/203, 709/212, 709/216, 709/219, 709/227, 709/231, 709220-222, 709/217, 709/224
• US Class Current: 709/219
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/10 specially adapted for electronic funds transfer [EFT] systems; specially adapted for home banking systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/102 Bill distribution or payments
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/108 Remote banking, e.g. home banking
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0843 based on generic templates
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0856 by backing up or archiving configuration information
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1059 End-user terminal functionalities specially adapted for real-time communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/612 for unicast
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/303 Terminal profiles
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/34 involving the movement of software or configuration parameters network booting or remote initial program loading [RIPL] G06F9/4416
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/40 for recovering from a failure of a protocol instance or entity, e.g. service redundancy protocols, protocol state redundancy or protocol service redirection management of faults, events, alarms or notifications in data switching networks H04L41/06
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/235 Processing of additional data, e.g. scrambling of additional data or processing content descriptors
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/435 Processing of additional data, e.g. decrypting of additional data, reconstructing software from modules extracted from the transport stream
• 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 21/4425 Monitoring of client processing errors or hardware failure
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4586 Content update operation triggered locally, e.g. by comparing the version of software modules in a DVB carousel to the version stored locally deployment, distribution, installation, update of software G06F8/65; error detection or correction of the data by redundancy during software upgrading G06F11/1433; arrangements for updating broadcast information or broadcast-related information H04H60/25
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/654 Transmission by server directed to the client
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8166 involving executable data, e.g. software arrangements for executing specific programs G06F9/44; broadcasting computer programmes in broadcast systems H04H20/91; involving the movement of software or configuration parameters H04L67/34

Abstract

A system and method for providing a fault-tolerant remote controlled computing device. A multi-tasking operating system and at least one primary process are executed on the computing device. A first monitor process determines whether any primary process is in a fault state. In response to any primary process being in a fault state, the first monitor process resolves the fault state of each such primary process. In certain embodiments, a local copy of a common configuration file and multimedia content are stored on the computing device. The computing device polls a server at pre-determined time intervals via a public Internet connection for updates to one or more processes, the local copy of the common configuration file, and the multimedia content. In response to updates being available from the server, the computing device downloads one or more updates via a fault-tolerant network connection and plays the multimedia content based on instructions contained within the local copy of the central configuration file. In one configuration, a user-defined notification system is provided which allows users to define threshold values. Once the threshold values are satisfied, one or more users may be notified.

Claims

1. A method for providing an autonomous multimedia computing device, the method comprising:

storing a local copy of a configuration file and multimedia content on the autonomous multimedia computing device, wherein the configuration file comprises parameters and settings which determine how the autonomous multimedia computing device operates;

polling a server at pre-determined time intervals via a public Internet connection for updates to one or more processes, the local copy of the configuration file, and the multimedia content;

in response to updates being available from the server, downloading one or more updates from the server, wherein the downloading occurs without user input; and

playing the multimedia content based on instructions contained within the local copy of the configuration file, wherein the configuration file defines a program that comprises one or more media files and priority and timing information for the one or more media files, and wherein playing the multimedia content comprises playing the one or more media files according to the priority and timing information.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein storing comprises saving the local copy of the configuration file and the multimedia content to a storage device integrated with the computing device.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein polling comprises:

connecting to a server from within a firewall.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein polling comprises:

connecting to a server via a fault-prone network connection.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein polling further comprises:

reporting display statistics associated with the multimedia content.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein downloading comprises:

streaming at least one update to the computing device prior to allowing access to the updates.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the local copy of the configuration file is in eXtensible Markup Language (XML) format.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the updates are downloaded via a fault-tolerant network connection which allows downloading of a file to resume once a broken network connection is re-established.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the multimedia content comprises interactive content allowing a user to interact with the computing device.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the multimedia computing device is a multimedia display device, and wherein the multimedia content does not allow input from a user of the multimedia display device.