Hosted application platform with extensible media format

• US 8,640,097 B2
• Filed: 03/16/2009
• Issued: 01/28/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 03/16/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Ewanchuk, Brian J., Olson, Lawrence W., Harsh, Michael R., Khouzam, Gilles, George, Sam J.
• Primary Examiner(s): DAO, THUY CHAN
• Application Number:
  US12/405,208
• Publication Number:
  US 20100235820A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,779 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 717/121
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4143 embedded in a Personal Computer [PC]
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4431 characterized by the use of Application Program Interface [API] libraries
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/818 OS software
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8193 dedicated tools, e.g. video decoder software or IPMP tool
• 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

Abstract

A media interaction system is described herein that allows hosted applications to consume and/or produce rich media content independent of the format of the media content, while still maintaining the security of the host. The media interaction system accepts raw, uncompressed media data from a hosted application, and allows the hosted application to provide its own codec through a sandboxed API that restricts the actions the codec can perform to a set of trusted actions. Then, the application provides the uncompressed data to the system for playback. Thus, the media interaction system provides rich media content in any format that the application developer supports, and maintains the security of the user'"'"'s computer system.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for handling extensible media formats in a hosted application platform, the method comprising:

receiving a hosted application for execution by the hosted application platform, wherein the hosted application interacts with the hosted application platform to playback media, wherein the hosted application platform limits access of the hosted application to a computer system to increase security;

invoking the received hosted application;

requesting media from the hosted application, wherein requesting media from the hosted application comprises calling a media retrieving interface implemented by the hosted application;

receiving uncompressed media from the hosted application, wherein the hosted application is configured to perform decompression of the media from a format in which the hosted application receives the media to the uncompressed media and wherein the hosted application platform provides the hosted application with sufficient access to the computer system to decompress the media to allow the hosted application to support new media formats without updating the hosted application platform but does not provide the hosted application with direct access to the computer system, wherein the hosted application receives the media in a format not understood by the hosted application platform and decompresses the media using a codec provided by the hosted application to convert the media to a format that the hosted application platform can playback; and

sending the uncompressed media through a media playback pipeline for playback using available hardware within the control of the hosted application platform,

wherein the preceding steps are performed by at least one processor.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein requesting media from the hosted application comprises periodically calling a media retrieving interface implemented by the hosted application.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein requesting media from the hosted application comprises providing a platform function that the hosted application calls to provide media to the hosted application platform.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein receiving uncompressed media comprises receiving media in a decoded format that the hosted application platform can playback without further decoding of the media format.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the media pipeline invokes an operating system API (application programming interface) to playback audio samples using speakers and render video frames to a display.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the received uncompressed media comprises a format of either YV12, RGBA (red green blue alpha), and PCM (pulse code modulation).

7. A computer system for communicating between an application and hosting platform that executes the application to playback or capture media in one or more compressed formats, the system comprising:

a processor and memory configured to execute software instructions;

an invoke application component that when executing loads and invokes application code within the hosting platform;

an execution sandbox component that when executing provides an execution environment for application code that limits the actions that the application can perform to a secure set of actions that are not harmful to the computer system, wherein the actions include decompressing a new media format without accessing the computer system outside of the execution environment;

a raw media interface component that when executing provides an Application Programming Interface (API) through which the application can provide the hosting platform with raw, uncompressed media content for the platform to playback without providing the application with direct access to the computer system;

a media playback component that when executing renders media based on the received uncompressed media content under control of the hosting platform; and

a hardware interface component that when operating interacts with computer hardware and receives data from the media playback component to playback on the computer hardware, wherein the application accesses the computer hardware indirectly through the hosting platform, wherein the invoke application component downloads the application from a network server along with at least one application-referenced codec for handling media data in a given format.

8. The system of claim 7 wherein the invoke application component is further configured to receive a reference to the application from a web page and launch the application based on the reference.

9. The system of claim 7 wherein the execution sandbox component is further configured to receive uncompiled application code of the application and to Just In Time (JIT) compile the application code for execution within the execution environment.

10. The system of claim 7 wherein the execution sandbox component is further configured to provide one or more registered codecs that the application can invoke to decompress media data, wherein the registered codecs can be updated without updating the hosting platform to add support for media types.

11. The system of claim 7 wherein the application receives compressed media content, decompresses the compressed media content within the application, and then provides the raw media interface component with uncompressed media content for playback.

12. The system of claim 7 wherein the raw media interface component receives uncompressed media content from the application and wherein the application synthesizes media content internally.

13. The system of claim 7 wherein the raw media interface component receives uncompressed media content from the application and wherein the application post-processes media content to modify the media content and provides the modified media content as uncompressed media content to the hosting platform.