Method and apparatus for transmitting video signals

• US 8,068,546 B2
• Filed: 09/19/2003
• Issued: 11/29/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 08/29/2002
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: RIIP, Inc.
• Original Assignee: RIIP, Inc.
• Inventors: Burgess, John, Liaw, Yee
• Primary Examiner(s): RAO, ANAND SHASHIKANT
• Application Number:
  US10/666,940
• Publication Number:
  US 20040131115A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,993 Days
• Field of Search: 37524001-24029, 348143-160, 709200-230
• US Class Current: 375/240.26
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/137 Motion inside a coding unit, e.g. average field, frame or block difference
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/184 the unit being bits, e.g. of the compressed video stream
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/423 characterised by memory arrangements H04N19/433 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/507 using conditional replenishment
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/85 using pre-processing or post-processing specially adapted for video compression
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4143 embedded in a Personal Computer [PC]
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/147 Communication arrangements, e.g. identifying the communication as a video-communication, intermediate storage of the signals selecting H04Q
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/15 Conference systems

Abstract

Disclosed is a method and apparatus for transmitting, multicasting, or broadcasting video signals from a video source to one or more remotely located computers and/or video clients. Specifically, the disclosed method and apparatus effectively digitizes and compresses received video signals such that they may be transmitted with other digitized signals directly or via a network, such as the Internet, to a multitude of computers and/or independent video display devices. The video transmission system is also capable of receiving video signals from a non-networked computer that does not require any hardware or software modifications to be compatible with the video transmission system. The disclosed video transmission system operates independently (i.e., does not require a service provider) and is capable of recording video transmissions.

Claims

1. A video conferencing system comprising:

a video server having a specific internet address and a video input port for receiving a source video signal appearing on a video output port of an initiating computer, the video server transforming the source video signal into a video server output signal having a format suitable for communication over the Internet;

a plurality of remote computers, each of the remote computers executing a respective browser application to access the video server via the specific Internet address associated with the video server; and

the video server downloading the video server output signal to each of the remote computers upon its respective access to the video server, wherein access by the remote computer is verified by a first encryption technique that requires confirmation by the video server of authentication and security authorization information entered at the remote computer and wherein the video server output signals themselves are encrypted by a second encryption technique,

wherein each of the remote computers decrypts via the second encryption technique and transforms the downloaded video server output signal into a display signal suitable for viewing on a display device associated with that remote computer, and

wherein a representation of the source video signal at the initiating computer is viewable on each of the plurality of remote computers.

2. The video conferencing system of claim 1 wherein the source video signal is received from the initiating computer via a communications path that does not provide signal processing to the source video signal.

3. The video conferencing system of claim 1 wherein one of the plurality of remote computers has at least one associated input device selected from the group consisting of a keyboard and a mouse for entering input signals.

4. The video conferencing system of claim 3 wherein the input signals from the at least one input device are supplied in response to prompts displayed on the display device associated with that one remote computer.

5. The video conferencing system of claim 1 wherein downloading of the video server output signal by the video server is a type from the group consisting of multicasting and broadcasting.

6. The video conferencing system of claim 1 wherein the video server utilizes a compression algorithm in transforming the source video signal into the video server output signal.

7. The video conferencing system of claim 6 wherein the video server output signal is associated with an image and each of the remote computers execute a decompression algorithm that identifies changes to portions of the video image associated with the video server output signal received at different times.

8. The video conferencing system of claim 1 wherein the video server output signal is encrypted by the video server prior to downloading to each of the plurality of remote computers.

9. The video conferencing system of claim 1 wherein the video server downloads a software application to those of the plurality of remote computers that do not have this software application already resident thereon.

10. The video conferencing system of claim 1 wherein the video output port is one selected from the group consisting of VGA, SVGA, S-video, and composite video and the source video signal has a signal format corresponding to the selected video output port.

11. A method of video signal transmission comprising the steps of:

providing a source video signal at a video output port of an initiating computer to a video input port of a video server having a specific Internet address;

transforming the source video signal into a video server output signal having a form suitable for communication over the Internet;

authenticating a remote computers security authorization information entered at the remote computer via a first encryption technique;

encrypting the downloaded video server output signals via a second encryption technique,

downloading the video server output signal to each of the plurality of remote computers that access the video server directly via the specific Internet address and provide authenticated security authorization via the first encryption technique using respective browser applications executing on that remote computer,

decrypting the downloaded video server output signals via the second encryption technique

transforming the downloaded video server output signal into a display signal at each of the plurality of remote computers that is suitable for viewing a representative image of that on a display device associated with that remote computer wherein a representation of the source video signal at the initiating computer is viewable on each of the plurality of remote computers.

12. The method of claim 11 wherein the providing of source video signal to the video input port of the video server is done without any signal processing.

13. The method of claim 11 wherein the authentication of whether each remote computer is authorized to receive the video server output signal is done based on input signals from at least one input device associated with that remote computer.

14. The method of claim 13 wherein the input signals coupled from the at least one input device are supplied in response to prompts displayed on the display device associated with that remote computer.

15. The method of claim 11 wherein downloading of the video server output signal by the video server is a type from the group consisting of multicasting and broadcasting.

16. The method of claim 11 wherein the video server utilizes a compression algorithm in transforming the source video signal into the video server output signal.

17. The method of claim 12 wherein the downloaded video server output signal is encrypted.

18. A video signal transmission method comprising the steps of

receiving a source video signal on a video input terminal of a video server with its own specific Internet address, the source video signal being coupled to the video input terminal from a video output terminal of an initiating computer via a communications path;

transforming the source video signal into a video server output signal having a format suitable for communication over the Internet; and

downloading the video server output signal to each of a plurality of remote computers accessing the video server wherein access by the remote computer is verified by a first encryption technique that requires confirmation by the video server of authentication and security authorization information entered at the remote computer and wherein the video server output signals themselves are encrypted by a second encryption technique, and

wherein the plurality of remote computers executes a respective browser application for accessing the video server directly via use of the specific Internet address associated with the video server.