Method for viewing videos on distributed networks

• US 7,921,150 B1
• Filed: 10/23/2009
• Issued: 04/05/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 10/23/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Intellectual Ventures Fund 83 LLC (Intellectual Ventures LLC)
• Original Assignee: Eastman Kodak Company
• Inventors: Schwartz, Michael S.
• Primary Examiner(s): Patel; Haresh N
• Application Number:
  US12/604,641
• Publication Number:
  US 20110099218A1
• Time in Patent Office: 529 Days
• Field of Search: 709/206, 709217-228, 709/231, 715716-726, 725/37
• US Class Current: 709/201
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4402 involving reformatting operations of video signals for household redistribution, storage or real-time display details of conversion of video standards at pixel level H04N7/01; video transcoding H04N19/40; adapting incoming signals to the display format of the display terminal G09G5/005; media handling at the source in data packet switching networks H04L65/764
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/632 using a connection between clients on a wide area network, e.g. setting up a peer-to-peer communication via Internet for retrieving video segments from the hard-disk of other client devices broadcast-related systems characterised by transmission among terminal devices H04H60/80; distributed application using peer-to-peer [P2P] networks H04L67/104
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/24 Systems for the transmission of television signals using pulse code modulation H04N21/00 takes precedence

Abstract

A method for viewing digital video assets using a distributed network comprising a user on a first node requesting to view a digital video asset stored on a second node; relaying the request from the first node to the second node; establishing a peer-to-peer link between the first and second nodes; creating a video stream from the requested digital video asset on the second node using a standard video stream server; receiving the video stream using a stream relay client on the second node and converting it into a form that is compatible with the peer-to-peer link; sending the converted video stream to the first node over the peer-to-peer link; receiving the converted video stream using a stream relay server and converting it into a standard video stream form; and viewing the video stream on the first node of the distributed network using a standard video stream client.

Claims

1. A method for viewing digital video assets using a distributed network having a plurality of interconnected nodes, comprising:

receiving a request from a user on a first node of the distributed network to view a digital video asset stored on a second node of the distributed network;

relaying the request from the first node of the distributed network to the second node of the distributed network;

establishing a peer-to-peer link between the first node of the distributed network and the second node of the distributed network;

creating a video stream in a standard video stream format from the requested digital video asset on the second node of the distributed network using a standard video stream server that has not been specially adapted for use in a distributed network;

receiving the video stream using a stream relay client on the second node of the distributed network;

converting the video stream on the stream relay client into a form that is compatible with the peer-to-peer link;

sending the converted video stream from the second node of the distributed network to the first node of the distributed network over the peer-to-peer link;

receiving the converted video stream using a stream relay server on the first node of the distributed network;

converting the converted video stream on the stream relay server into a standard video stream form, forming a standard video stream; and

viewing the standard video stream on the first node of the distributed network using a standard video stream client that has not been specially adapted for use in a distributed network.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the peer-to-peer link is a bi-directional link, and further including the step of sending video control information from the first node of the distributed network to the second node of the distributed network.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the peer-to-peer link is a bi-directional link, and further including the step of sending quality of service information from the first node of the distributed network to the second node of the distributed network.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of creating the video stream includes:

determining a node of the distributed network for applying one or more processing steps to video data for the requested digital video asset based on node processing capabilities; and

applying the one or more processing steps to the video data for the requested digital video asset at the determined node.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein the one or more processing steps include a video enhancement step to enhance the quality of the video data, a resizing step to resize the video data according to video viewing capabilities of the first node of the distributed network, or a transcoding step to transcode the video data according to video viewing capabilities of the first node of the distributed network.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the distributed network includes a third node and wherein the step of sending the converted video stream from the second node of the distributed network to the first node of the distributed network includes relaying the converted video stream through the third node of the distributed network.

7. The method of claim 6 further including applying one or more processing steps to video data for the requested digital video asset on the third node of the distributed network.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein the processing steps that are applied are responsive to access permissions granted to the user by an owner of the digital video assets.

9. The method of claim 7 wherein the processing steps that are applied are responsive to a payment made by the user.

10. The method of claim 7 wherein the processing steps that are applied are responsive to a service level subscribed to by the user.

11. The method of claim 7 wherein the one or more processing steps include a video enhancement step to enhance the quality of the video data.

12. The method of claim 7 wherein the one or more processing steps include a resizing step.

13. The method of claim 12 wherein the video data is resized to a viewing resolution according to video viewing capabilities of the first node of the distributed network.

14. The method of claim 7 wherein the one or more processing steps include a transcoding step to transcode the video data according to video viewing capabilities of the first node of the distributed network.