Systems and methods for projecting images from a computer system

• US 8,667,163 B2
• Filed: 03/20/2009
• Issued: 03/04/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 09/08/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sling Media LLC (Dish Network Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Sling Media Incorporated (Dish Network Corporation)
• Inventors: Krikorian, Blake Gary, Einaudi, Andrew E., Gurzhi, Alexander, Feinstein, Matthew
• Primary Examiner(s): WINDER, PATRICE L
• Application Number:
  US12/408,460
• Publication Number:
  US 20100064055A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,810 Days
• Field of Search: 709/246, 709/231
• US Class Current: 709/231
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1454 involving copying of the display data of a local workstation or window to a remote workstation or window so that an actual copy of the data is displayed simultaneously on two or more displays, e.g. teledisplay
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4143 embedded in a Personal Computer [PC]
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4227 Providing Remote input by a user located remotely from the client device, e.g. at work
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44004 involving video buffer management, e.g. video decoder buffer or video display buffer
• 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 21/4424 Monitoring of the internal components or processes of the client device, e.g. CPU or memory load, processing speed, timer, counter or percentage of the hard disk space used error monitoring in general G06F11/30; arrangements for monitoring conditions of receiving stations in broadcast systems H04H60/32; diagnosis, testing or measuring for television receivers H04N17/04
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4728 for selecting a Region Of Interest [ROI], e.g. for requesting a higher resolution version of a selected region
• 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

Abstract

Methods, systems and devices are described for place shifting media content from a computer system to a remotely-located display over a network. The media content to be place shifted is captured at the computer system, wherein the media content includes a portion of imagery presented on a local display associated with the computer system. The captured media content is transcoded or otherwise converted to a media stream in a format that is transmittable on the network. The media stream is then transmitted on the network for presentation on the remotely-located display.

Claims

1. A method of place shifting moving video content presented on a computer system display to a remotely-located display over a network, the method comprising:

receiving user inputs defining a user-selected portion of imagery presented on the computer system display, wherein the user-selected portion of the imagery comprises moving video content;

capturing only the user-selected portion of the imagery presented on the computer system display for placeshifting to the remotely-located display, wherein the capturing comprises capturing frames of raw video data describing the user-selected portion of the imagery to thereby represent the moving video content at a frame rate;

converting the captured frames of the raw video data from the raw video data describing the user-selected portion of the imagery into a media stream that represents the moving video content in a compressed moving video format that is transmittable on the network; and

transmitting the converted media stream on the network for presentation of the moving video content on the remotely-located display as the moving video content is also presented in the user-selected portion of the imagery on the computer system display.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the raw video data comprises bitmap data describing the user-selected portion of the imagery presented on the computer system display that is obtained from a video memory of the computer system.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the user-selected portion of the video memory corresponds to a window presented on a display of the computer system.

4. The method of claim 1 further comprising receiving an input from a user that indicates a size and a position of the window, wherein both the size and the position of the window are determined by the user.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein the converting comprises encoding the captured moving video content into the format routable on the network using a configurable parameter.

6. The method of claim 5 further comprising adjusting a configurable parameter of the encoding in response to a condition of the network.

7. The method of claim 5 further comprising adjusting a configurable parameter of the encoding in response to a utilization of a transmit buffer in the computer system.

8. The method of claim 5 further comprising adjusting a configurable parameter of the encoding in response to performance of the computer system.

9. The method of claim 6 wherein the configurable parameter is a bit rate of the media stream.

10. The method of claim 1 further comprising establishing a connection with a media catcher associated with the remotely-located display for transmitting the media stream over the network at a frame rate specified by the media catcher that remains substantially constant for a duration of the connection.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein the converting comprises incorporating an audio signal associated with the moving video content into the media stream.

12. The method of claim 1 further comprising receiving an instruction from a media catcher associated with the remotely-located display over the network and adjusting the moving video content in response to the instruction.

13. A computer program product comprising instructions stored on a non-transitory digital storage medium and executable by a digital processor associated with a computer system having a local display and an interface to a network, the computer program product comprising:

first logic configured to receive user inputs defining a user-selected portion of imagery presented on the computer system display, wherein the user-selected portion of the imagery comprises moving video content;

second logic configured to capture only the user-selected portion of the imagery presented on the computer system display for placeshifting to a remotely-located display by capturing frames of raw video data describing the user-selected portion of the imagery to thereby represent the moving video content in the user-selected portion of the imagery at a frame rate;

third logic configured to convert the captured frames of the raw video data from the raw video data describing the moving video content in the user-selected portion of the imagery into a media stream that represents the moving video content in a compressed moving video format that is transmittable on the network; and

fourth logic configured to transmit the converted media stream on the network for presentation of the moving video content on the remotely-located display as the moving video content is also presented in the user-selected portion of the imagery on the computer system display.

14. The computer program product of claim 13 further comprising fifth logic configured to establish a connection with a media catcher associated with the remotely-located display for transmitting the media stream over the network, and wherein the frame rate is specified by the media catcher that remains substantially constant for a duration of the connection.

15. The computer program product of claim 13 wherein the raw video data is captured from a video memory of the computer system by obtaining bitmap data describing the user-selected portion of the imagery from the video memory at the frame rate.

16. The computer program product of claim 13 wherein the captured moving video content is encoded into the format routable on the network using a configurable parameter that is adjusted in response to a condition of the network.

17. A system for place shifting moving video content to a remotely-located display over a network, the system comprising:

a first interface to the network;

a second interface to a local display configured to display imagery to a user; and

a processor configured to receive inputs from the user that define a user-selected portion of the imagery presented on the local display that comprises the moving video content to be place shifted, to capture only the user-selected portion of the imagery defined by the inputs for placeshifting by capturing frames of raw video data to thereby represent the moving video at a frame rate, to convert the captured frames of raw video data to a media stream that represents the moving video content in a compressed format that is routable on the network, and to transmit the converted media stream via the first interface for presentation of the moving video content on the remotely-located display as the moving video content is also presented on the local display in the user-selected portion of the imagery.

18. The system of claim 17 wherein the processor is further configured to establish a connection with a media catcher associated with the remotely-located display for transmitting the media stream over the network at a frame rate specified by the media catcher that remains substantially constant for a duration of the connection.

19. The system of claim 18 wherein the system further comprises an input device separate from the first interface that receives the inputs from the user that define the user-selected portion of the imagery presented on the local display.

20. The system of claim 18 wherein the system comprises a video memory and wherein the processor is configured to capture raw video data by obtaining bitmap data describing the user-selected portion of the imagery from the video memory at the frame rate to thereby capture frames of the moving video content.