Virtual set-top box that executes service provider middleware

• US 8,683,543 B2
• Filed: 09/11/2012
• Issued: 03/25/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 09/10/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Dish Technologies LLC (Dish Network Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Dish Digital LLC
• Inventors: Jenkin, Geraint, Liassides, Marcus C., Gilmour, Jayne L., Hooks, Christopher G., Evans, David F.
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen-Ba, Hoang-Vu A
• Application Number:
  US13/610,608
• Publication Number:
  US 20130007826A1
• Time in Patent Office: 560 Days
• Field of Search: 725/151, 725/152, 725/131, 725/132, 725/139, 725/140, 386/213, 386/214, 703/23, 703/24, 719/328
• US Class Current: 725/151
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1059 End-user terminal functionalities specially adapted for real-time communication
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/611 for multicast or broadcast systems for broadcast or conference H04L12/18; arrangements for broadcast or distribution combined with broadcast H04H20/00; arrangements for broadcast applications with a direct linkage to broadcast information or to broadcast space-time H04H60/00; selective distribution of broadcast services, e.g. multimedia broadcast multicast service [MBMS], H04W4/06
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2181 comprising remotely distributed storage units, e.g. when movies are replicated over a plurality of video servers distributed storage of data in networks, e.g. transport arrangements for network file system [NFS], storage area networks [SAN] or network attached storage [NAS], H04L67/1097
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/25833 involving client hardware characteristics, e.g. manufacturer, processing or storage capabilities allocation of resources considering hardware capabilities in multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/5044; allocation of resources considering software capabilities in multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/5055
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4113 PC
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4143 embedded in a Personal Computer [PC]
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4181 for conditional access
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/42607 for processing the incoming bitstream
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44209 Monitoring of downstream path of the transmission network originating from a server, e.g. bandwidth variations of a wireless network arrangements for maintenance or administration in data switching networks involving bandwidth and capacity management H04L41/0896
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/443 OS processes, e.g. booting an STB, implementing a Java virtual machine in an STB or power management in an STB
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4433 Implementing client middleware, e.g. Multimedia Home Platform [MHP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/454 Content or additional data filtering, e.g. blocking advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4622 Retrieving content or additional data from different sources, e.g. from a broadcast channel and the Internet web site content organization and management for information retrieval from the Internet G06F16/958; transmission by internet of broadcast information H04H60/82; stock exchange data over packet-switching network H04L12/1804; push services including data channel over packet-switching network H04L12/1859
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6112 involving terrestrial transmission, e.g. DVB-T
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6125 involving transmission via Internet transmission by internet of broadcast information H04H60/82
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/631 Multimode Transmission, e.g. transmitting basic layers and enhancement layers of the content over different transmission paths or transmitting with different error corrections, different keys or with different transmission protocols
• 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 21/64322 IP
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8166 involving executable data, e.g. software arrangements for executing specific programs G06F9/44; broadcasting computer programmes in broadcast systems H04H20/91; involving the movement of software or configuration parameters H04L67/34
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/76 Television signal recording
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/85 : on discs or drums
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17318 : Direct or substantially direct transmission and handling of requests

Abstract

A virtual set-top box (vSTB) for executing a middleware component, designed originally for use with the physical STB, including emulating hardware capabilities of the physical STB to process IPTV content received over a connection for presenting the IPTV content on a display of the electronic device.

Claims

1. A set-top box emulation system for presenting IPTV content to a user on a general purpose electronic device, said emulation system comprising:

a middleware component associated with a provider of the IPTV content, wherein the middleware component is designed for execution on a physical set top box;

a plurality of management components arranged and configured to emulate the capabilities of the physical set-top box to the middleware component, wherein the plurality of management components comprises at least one of a presentation manager, a codec manager and/or a conditional access manager; and

a plurality of interfaces to enable communication between said plurality of management components and said middleware component to thereby allow the middleware component to operate on the general purpose electronic device as if the general purpose electronic device was the physical set top box.

2. The set-top box emulation system of claim 1, wherein the plurality of interfaces comprises at least one of a graphics interface, a MUX interface, a Conditional Access interface, a Media interface, and Events Interface, a System Settings interface and/or a Persistent Storage interface.

3. The set-top box emulation system of claim 1, wherein the plurality of management components also includes a browser, said browser being configured for integration with said middleware component.

4. The set-top box emulation system of claim 3, wherein said middleware component is inserted into the Document Object Model (DOM) of said browser.

5. The set-top box emulation system of claim 4, wherein said middleware component integrates with said browser via a second plurality of interfaces.

6. The set-top box emulation system of claim 1, wherein a user interface is managed by said middleware component.

7. The set-top box emulation system of claim 1, wherein the plurality of management components also includes a dynamic video source selection (DVSS) component, said DVSS component comprising further subcomponents and being configured to integrate with said plurality of management components, said subcomponents comprising at least one of a PVR controller, an IGMP client, a RTSP client and a DVB-T client.

8. A method of emulating functions of a set-top box so as to present IPTV content to a viewer on a general purpose electronic device, the method comprising:

receiving IPTV content by said electronic device from a network;

using a plurality of set-top box emulation components to create an emulated set-top box environment within said electronic device;

executing a middleware component associated with a provider of the IPTV content that is designed for execution on a physical set top box within said emulated environment, said middleware component communicating with said emulated environment via a plurality of interfaces to thereby allow the middleware component to operate on the general purpose electronic device as if the general purpose electronic device was the physical set top box.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the plurality of set-top box emulation components comprises one or more of a presentation manager, a codec manager and/or a conditional access manager.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the plurality of interfaces comprises at least one of a graphics interface, a MUX interface, a Conditional Access interface, a Media interface, and Events Interface, a System Settings interface and/or a Persistent Storage interface.

11. A computer-implemented method of emulating a physical set-top box (STB) with a general purpose electronic device, comprising:

receiving Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) content from an IPTV service provider over a connection of an electronic device from an Internet Protocol (IP) closed network by the general purpose electronic device;

executing by the electronic device a middleware component associated with the IPTV service provider, wherein the middleware component is designed originally for use with the physical STB, and wherein the executing comprises emulating hardware capabilities of the physical STB to process the IPTV content, to thereby allow the middleware component to operate on the general purpose electronic device as if the general purpose electronic device was the physical STB; and

presenting the IPTV content on a display of the electronic device.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein said executing comprises:

providing a plurality of STB emulation components to create an emulated STB environment within said electronic device; and

executing the middleware component within the emulated STB environment via a plurality of interfaces of the emulated STB environment that enables communication between the plurality of STB emulation components and the middleware component.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the plurality of interfaces and the middleware component are embedded within a Document Object Model (DOM) of a browser operating on the electronic device, and wherein said executing further comprises:

receiving DOM requests at the browser; and

translating the DOM requests into application programming interface (API) requests for interaction with the middleware component.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein said receiving comprises receiving the IPTV content from a head-end of an IPTV system over the IP closed network, and wherein said executing comprises:

managing access by the electronic device to the IPTV content using a CA manager and a CA interface between the middleware component and the CA manager;

managing presentation of the IPTV content on the display using a presentation manager and a graphics interface, wherein the graphics interface enables the middleware component with mechanism to inform the underlying graphical subsystem to refresh the display; and

managing presentation of a user interface layout on the display using the presentation manager and a multiplexing (MUX) interface, wherein the MUX interface enables the middleware component to control user interface (UI) and video mixing of the IPTV content for said presenting.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the IPTV content is encoded by the head-end of the IPTV system, and wherein said executing further comprises:

managing requesting and decoding of the IPTV content by the electronic device using a codec manager, a media interface, and a network interface, wherein the media interface and network interface enable the middleware component to control requesting, decoding, and displaying of the IPTV content;

receiving one or more events over an event interface, wherein the event interface enables the middleware component to receive inputs or actions from an operating system (OS) based interface driver for one or more user input devices;

managing one or more settings of the emulated STB environment using a system setting interface, wherein the system interface enables an operator to configure the emulated STB environment without having to make changes to the plurality of STB emulation components themselves; and

managing storage of the IPTV content and content metadata on a local system using a persistent storage interface, wherein the persistent storage interface enables at least one of personal video recorder (PVR) features, off-line modes, or caching carousel delivered electronic programming guide (EPG) metadata.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein the IPTV content is encrypted and encoded by the head-end of the IPTV system, and wherein executing the middleware component comprises:

providing two-way communication between the head-end system and the electronic device over the IP closed network;

managing access by the electronic device to the IPTV content using a CA manager and a CA interface between the middleware component and the CA manager, wherein said managing the access comprises initiating registration of the middleware component with the CA system on the IPTV head-end system; and

decrypting the IPTV content received from the head-end of the IPTV system; and

decoding the IPTV content received from the head-end of the IPTV system.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein said providing two-way communication comprises communicating with the head-end of the IPTV system over the IP closed network as if it were a physical STB.

18. The method of claim 16, wherein said providing two-way communication comprises communicating with the head-end of the IPTV system over the IP closed network as if it were a router.

19. The method of claim 11, wherein the IPTV content is video content, and wherein the emulated hardware capabilities includes at least one of video processing of the video content, user interface (UI) layout generation, and remote-control key handling, and wherein the video processing comprises at least one of decoding the IPTV content, video scaling of the IPTV content, video positioning of the IPTV content, chroma keying of the IPTV content, and alpha blending of the IPTV content.

20. The method of claim 11, wherein the emulated hardware capabilities includes generating a user interface (UI) layout to be presented on the display of the electronic device.