Systems and methods for wireless local area network based control of a set-top box device

• US 8,634,390 B2
• Filed: 10/14/2009
• Issued: 01/21/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 10/14/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Verizon Patent and Licensing Incorporated (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Verizon Patent and Licensing Incorporated (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Inventors: Ramakrishnan, Raju, Joseph, Peter, Raman, Sampath, Maddali, Balamuralidhar, Rodrigues, Ruchir, Phutela, Ashish, Kassam, Shafiq
• Primary Examiner(s): BEHARRY, NOEL R
• Application Number:
  US12/578,911
• Publication Number:
  US 20110085526A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,560 Days
• Field of Search: 370/338
• US Class Current: 370/338
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72415 for remote control of appliances
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72469 for operating the device by selecting functions from two or more displayed items, e.g. menus or icons
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2250/06 including a wireless LAN interface

Abstract

An exemplary method includes establishing, by a mobile phone device, a wireless local area network communication channel between the mobile phone device and a set-top box device, providing, by the mobile phone device, a graphical user interface for display on a display screen of the mobile phone device, the graphical user interface configured to facilitate inputting of one or more control commands by a user of the mobile phone device, and controlling, by the mobile phone device, at least one operation of the set-top box device via the wireless local area network communication channel in accordance with the one or more control commands. Corresponding methods and systems are also described.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

establishing, by a mobile phone device, a wireless local area network communication channel between the mobile phone device and a set-top box device by

broadcasting from the mobile phone device a communication signal configured to

direct the set-top box device to initiate the wireless local area network communication channel, the communication signal including a first key generated from a combination of a nonce value, a user ID assigned to the mobile phone device, and a password assigned to the mobile phone device, and

recognizing an initiation of the wireless local area network communication channel by way of a router by the set-top box device, the initiation being performed by the set-top box device in response to detecting the communication signal broadcast from the mobile phone device by comparing the first key to a second key that is based on the nonce value, a user ID assigned to the set-top box device, and a password assigned to the set-top box device,

transmitting, in response to the recognizing of the initiation of the wireless local area network communication channel, a handshaking request to the set-top box device to authenticate the wireless local area network communication channel,

receiving a handshaking response from the set-top box device in response to the handshaking request, the handshaking response including a third key generated by the set-top box device and a second nonce value, and

validating credentials of the set-top box device based on the handshaking response by determining that the third key was generated by the set-top box device using a valid user ID and password;

providing, by the mobile phone device, a graphical user interface for display on a display screen of the mobile phone device, the graphical user interface configured to facilitate inputting of one or more control commands by a user of the mobile phone device; and

controlling, by the mobile phone device, at least one operation of the set-top box device via the wireless local area network communication channel in accordance with the one or more control commands.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the establishing of the wireless local area network communication channel by the mobile phone device further comprises:

transmitting an acknowledgement of the validation to the set-top box device.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

generating, by the mobile phone device, a fourth key based on the second nonce value included within the handshaking response; and

including the fourth key in the acknowledgement.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the controlling comprises transmitting data representative of the one or more control commands to the set-top box device via the wireless local area network communication channel.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the graphical user interface comprises a program guide graphical user interface that includes one or more media content listings representative of media content accessible via the set-top box device.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising detecting, by the mobile phone device, one or more touch gestures performed by the user of the mobile phone device, the one or more touch gestures representative of the inputting of the one or more control commands.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein at least one of the one or more touch gestures is configured to direct the mobile phone device to cause a media content instance stored within the mobile phone device to be displayed on a display device associated with the set-top box device.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising transmitting, by the mobile phone device, data representative of the media content instance to the set-top box device via the wireless local area network communication channel.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising displaying, by the mobile phone device, an animation of one or more touch gestures in response to a selection of a help option by the user, the animation visually showing how to perform an action associated with the mobile phone device.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the controlling is performed in accordance with a user profile associated with the user of the mobile phone device.

11. The method of claim 1, tangibly embodied as computer-executable instructions on at least one non-transitory computer-readable medium.

12. A method comprising:

detecting, by a set-top box device, a communication signal broadcast from a mobile phone device, the communication signal configured to direct the set-top box device to initiate a wireless local area network communication channel, the communication signal including a first key generated from a combination of a nonce value, a user ID assigned to the mobile phone device, and a password assigned to the mobile phone device;

establishing, by the set-top box device, the wireless local area network communication channel between the set-top box device and the mobile phone device by way of a router and in response to the detected communication signal broadcast from the mobile phone device by;

generating, in response to detecting the communication signal, a second key based on the nonce value, a user ID assigned to the set-top box device, and a password assigned to the set-top box device,

validating the communication signal by comparing the first key and the second key,

initiating the wireless local area network communication channel after the communication signal is validated,

receiving a handshaking request comprising the second nonce value from the mobile phone device after the wireless local area network communication channel is initiated,

generating a third key based on the second nonce value,

transmitting a handshaking response comprising the third key and a third nonce value to the mobile phone device,

receiving an acknowledgement signal from the mobile phone device, and

validating credentials of the mobile phone device based on the acknowledgement signal;

receiving, by the set-top box device, data representative of one or more control commands from the mobile phone device via the wireless local area network communication channel; and

performing, by the set-top box device, at least one operation in accordance with the one or more control commands.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the acknowledgement signal comprises a fourth key based on the third nonce value and generated by the mobile phone device and wherein the validating of the credentials of the mobile phone device comprises determining that the fourth key was generated by the mobile phone device using a valid user id and password.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein the performing comprises directing a display device associated with the set-top box device to display a media content instance in accordance with the one or more control commands.

15. The method of claim 12, tangibly embodied as computer-executable instructions on at least one non-transitory computer-readable medium.

16. A system comprising:

a user interface facility that provides a graphical user interface for display on a display screen of a mobile phone device, the graphical user interface configured to facilitate inputting of one or more control commands by a user of the mobile phone device;

a communication facility communicatively coupled to the display facility and that establishes a wireless local area network communication channel between the mobile phone device and a set-top box device by

broadcasting a communication signal from the mobile phone device, the communication signal being configured to direct the set-top box device to initiate the wireless local area network communication channel, the communication signal including a first key generated from a combination of a nonce value, a user ID assigned to the mobile phone device, and a password assigned to the mobile phone device,

recognizing an initiation of the wireless local area network communication channel by way of a router by the set-top box device, the initiation being performed by the set-top box device in response to the set-top box device detecting the communication signal broadcast from the mobile phone device by comparing the first key to a second key that is based on the nonce value, a user ID assigned to the set-top box device, and a password assigned to the set-top box device,

transmitting, in response to the recognizing of the initiation of the wireless local area network communication channel, a handshaking request to the set-top box device to authenticate the wireless local area network communication channel,

receiving a handshaking response from the set-top box device in response to the handshaking request, the handshaking response including a third key generated by the set-top box device and a second nonce value, and

validating credentials of the set-top box device based on the handshaking response by determining that the third key was generated by the set-top box device using a valid user ID and password; and

a control facility communicatively coupled to the communication facility and that controls at least one operation of the set-top box device via the wireless local area network communication channel and in accordance with the one or more control commands.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the graphical user interface comprises a program guide graphical user interface that includes one or more media content listings representative of media content accessible via the set-top box device.

18. The system of claim 16, wherein the user interface facility is further configured to detect one or more touch gestures representative of the one or more control commands.

19. A system comprising:

a monitoring facility residing within a set-top box device and that detects a communication signal broadcast from a mobile phone device, the communication signal configured to direct the set-top box device to initiate a wireless local area network communication channel between the set-top box device and the mobile phone device, the communication signal including a first key generated from a combination of a nonce value, a user ID assigned to the mobile phone device, and a password assigned to the mobile phone device;

a communication facility communicatively coupled to the monitoring facility and that

establishes, by way of a router, a wireless local area network communication channel between the set-top box device and the mobile phone device in response to the detection of the communication signal broadcast from the mobile phone device by the monitoring facility by;

generating, in response to detecting the communication signal, a second key based on the nonce value, a user ID assigned to the set-top box device, and a password assigned to the set-top box device,

validating the communication signal by comparing the first key and the second key,

initiating the wireless local area network communication channel after the communication signal is validated,

receiving a handshaking request comprising the second nonce value from the mobile phone device after the wireless local area network communication channel is initiated,

generating a third key based on the second nonce value,

transmitting a handshaking response comprising the third key and a third nonce value to the mobile phone device,

receiving an acknowledgement signal from the mobile phone device, and

validating credentials of the mobile phone device based on the acknowledgement signal; and

receives data representative of one or more control commands from the mobile phone device via the wireless local area network communication channel; and

an operation facility residing within the set-top box that performs at least one operation in accordance with the one or more control commands.

20. A system comprising:

a mobile phone device; and

a set-top box device selectively and communicatively coupled to the mobile phone device;

wherein the mobile phone device is configured to

display a graphical user interface that is configured to facilitate inputting of one or more control commands by a user of the mobile phone device,

establish a wireless local area network communication channel with the set-top box device by

broadcasting from the mobile phone device a communication signal configured to direct the set-top box device to initiate the wireless local area network communication channel, the communication signal including a first key generated from a combination of a nonce value, a user ID assigned to the mobile phone device, and a password assigned to the mobile phone device,

recognizing an initiation of the wireless local area network communication channel by way of a router by the set-top box device, the initiation being performed by the set-top box device in response to the set-top box device detecting the communication signal broadcast from the mobile phone device by comparing the first key to a second key that is based on the nonce value, a user ID assigned to the set-top box device, and a password assigned to the set-top box device,

transmitting, in response to the recognizing of the initiation of the wireless local area network communication channel, a handshaking request to the set-top box device to authenticate the wireless local area network communication channel,

receiving a handshaking response from the set-top box device in response to the handshaking request, the handshaking response including a third key generated by the set-top box device and a second nonce value, and

validating credentials of the set-top box device based on the handshaking response by determining that the third key was generated by the set-top box device using a valid user ID and password; and

control at least one operation of the set-top box device via the wireless local area network communication channel and in accordance with the one or more control commands.

21. The system of claim 20, wherein the set-top box device is configured to:

receive, in response to the recognizing of the initiation of the wireless local area network communication channel, data representative of the one or more control commands via the wireless local area network communication channel; and

perform the at least one operation in accordance with the one or more control commands.

22. The system of claim 20, wherein the set-top box device is configured to operate in accordance with a user profile associated with a user of the mobile phone device.