Process and device for securing the transmission, recording and viewing of digital, audiovisual packetized streams

• US 7,613,181 B2
• Filed: 11/02/2005
• Issued: 11/03/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 05/02/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: OL Security LLC (Intellectual Ventures LLC)
• Original Assignee: Querell Data LLC (Intellectual Ventures LLC)
• Inventors: Lamtouni, Mohammed, Lecomte, Daniel
• Primary Examiner(s): Cho; Hong
• Assistant Examiner(s): Scheibel; Robert C
• Application Number:
  US11/264,953
• Publication Number:
  US 20060072559A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,462 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 370/389
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/23476 by partially encrypting, e.g. encrypting the ending portion of a movie
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44055 by partially decrypting, e.g. decrypting a video stream that has been partially encrypted
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4532 involving end-user characteristics, e.g. viewer profile, preferences monitoring of user activities for profile generation for accessing a video database G06F16/739; user profiles in network data switching protocols H04L67/306; processing of user preferences or user profiles in wireless networks H04W8/18
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/454 Content or additional data filtering, e.g. blocking advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/835 Generation of protective data, e.g. certificates protecting software against unauthorised usage in a vending or licensing environment G06F21/10
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/163 by receiver means only

Abstract

A process for secure distribution of original digital audiovisual streams including audio, video components or other data, including packetizing the original stream into packets that can be manipulated and have a flexible size, wherein each packet includes a header containing information about the packet and a useful load including part of the data of the stream, analyzing the packetized stream prior to transmission to client equipment to generate a main stream in conformity with a packetized format of the original stream, modified in that all or part of the packets were substituted by packets of the same structure, but whose content was modified, and generating complementary information with any format suitable to permit reconstruction of the original stream, and separately transmitting the modified main stream and complementary information generated from the server to addressed equipment.

Claims

1. A process for secure distribution of original digital audiovisual streams including audio, video components or other data, comprising:

packetizing an original audiovisual stream into packets that can be manipulated and have a flexible size, wherein the packets include respective headers containing information about the respective packets and contain respective load information,

analyzing the packetized stream prior to transmission to client equipment to generate a main stream in conformity with a packetized format of the original audiovisual stream, modified in that all or part of the packets of the main stream correspond to substitute packets of the same structure as respective packets, but having modified content with respect to the respective packets, and

generating complementary information with any format suitable to permit reconstruction of the original stream, wherein the complementary information includes instructions describing actions to be performed on the packets of the main stream, and

separately transmitting the main stream and complementary information generated from the server to the client equipment to securely distribute the original audiovisual stream.

2. The process according to claim 1, wherein the packets for which substitute packets were provided contain information relative to one or several audio or visual streams included in the packetized stream.

3. The process according to claim 1, wherein analyzing the packetized stream comprises selecting the packets of the packetized stream for which substitute packets are to be substituted.

4. The process according to claim 1, wherein at least one of the packets incorporates all or part of one or more access units.

5. The process according to claim 1, wherein the complementary information contains packets stemming from the original audiovisual stream for which substitute packets were substituted.

6. The process according to claim 4, wherein the complementary information contains at least one packet representing the access units.

7. The process according to claim 1, wherein the complementary information further includes synchronization data containing temporal references and metadata associated with the packets for which substitute packets were substituted.

8. The process according to claim 1, wherein the instructions describe actions to be performed on the packets following a processed packet.

9. The process according to claim 1, wherein analyzing the packetized stream comprises selecting the packets for which substitute packets are to be substituted such that the main stream has the same size in bytes as the original audiovisual stream.

10. The process according to claim 1, wherein transmitting the main stream and complementary information enables the client equipment to synthesize a stream with a nominal format as a function of the main stream and the complementary information.

11. The process according to claim 1, wherein the original audiovisual stream is encoded according to a proprietary norm supporting a packetized format.

12. Apparatus configured to operate according to the process of claim 1, the apparatus comprising at least one multimedia server configured to contain original audiovisual sequences and a device configured to analyze an audiovisual stream from the at least one multimedia server and to generate the modified main stream and complementary information.

13. Apparatus configured to exploit the main stream and complementary information produced according to the process of claim 1, comprising a standard reader of packetized streams, at least one recording interface configured to store content of the main stream, at least one decoder element configured to process a packetized format, at least one interface configured to display and listen, and means for recomposition of the original audiovisual stream from the main stream and the complementary information.

15. The apparatus according to claim 12, wherein the instructions describe actions to be performed on the packets following a processed packet.

16. The apparatus according to claim 13, wherein the instructions describe actions to be performed on the packets following a processed packet.

18. The apparatus according to claim 12, wherein the audiovisual stream is encoded according to a proprietary norm supporting the packetized format.

19. The apparatus according to claim 13, wherein the original audiovisual stream is encoded according to a proprietary norm supporting the packetized format.

22. The process of claim 1, wherein at least one substitute packet includes a random value substituted for a value found in the packet for which the substitute packet is substituted.

14. A system for securely transmitting an audiovisual stream, comprising apparatus including:

at least one multimedia server configured to contain original audiovisual sequences and a device configured to analyze an audiovisual stream including one or more audiovisual sequences from the at least one multimedia server and to generate a main stream and complementary information, wherein the complementary information includes instructions describing actions to be performed on packets of the main stream, and

at least one piece of equipment configured to exploit the main stream and complementary information, the equipment including a standard reader of packetized streams, at least one recording interface configured to store the contents of the main stream, at least one decoder element configured to process a packetized format, at least one interface configured to present output, and means for recomposition of the audiovisual stream from the main stream and the complementary information, wherein the complementary information is received separately from the main stream to maintain secure distribution of the audiovisual stream to the at least one piece of equipment.

17. The apparatus according to claim 14, wherein the instructions describe actions to be performed on the packets following a processed packet.

20. The system according to claim 14, wherein the audiovisual stream is encoded according to a proprietary norm supporting the packetized format.

21. The system according to claim 14, wherein the device configured to analyze is further configured to separately transmit to the at least one piece of equipment the main stream and the complementary information, to enable secure distribution of the audiovisual stream to the at least one piece of equipment.

23. The system according to claim 14, wherein the device configured to analyze is configured to generate at least one packet of the main stream by substituting a modified packet for an original packet.

24. The system according to claim 14, wherein at least one modified packet is modified by substituting a random value for at least one value contained in the respective original packet.