Peer to peer streaming of DVR buffered program data

• US 9,237,383 B2
• Filed: 08/25/2011
• Issued: 01/12/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 08/27/2010
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Original Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Inventors: Negroponte, Dimitri
• Primary Examiner(s): DUFFIELD, JEREMY S
• Application Number:
  US13/819,265
• Publication Number:
  US 20130152148A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,601 Days
• Field of Search: 725/58, 725/86, 725/98, 725/109, 725/110
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 5/20 Position of source determined by a plurality of spaced direction-finders
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/04804 Transparency, e.g. transparent or translucent windows
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/017 Gesture based interaction, e.g. based on a set of recognized hand gestures interaction based on gestures traced on a digitiser G06F3/04883
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0346 with detection of the device orientation or free movement in a 3D space, e.g. 3D mice, 6-DOF [six degrees of freedom] pointers using gyroscopes, accelerometers or tilt-sensors
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0383 Signal control means within the pointing device
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/041 Digitisers, e.g. for touch screens or touch pads, characterised by the transducing means
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0414 using force sensing means to determine a position
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/048 Interaction techniques based on graphical user interfaces [GUI]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0481 based on specific properties of the displayed interaction object or a metaphor-based environment, e.g. interaction with desktop elements like windows or icons, or assisted by a cursor's changing behaviour or appearance
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0482 Interaction with lists of selectable items, e.g. menus
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0484 for the control of specific functions or operations, e.g. selecting or manipulating an object, an image or a displayed text element, setting a parameter value or selecting a range
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0485 Scrolling or panning
• CPC Class Codes: G06N 5/02 Knowledge representation; Symbolic representation
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0201 Market modelling; Market analysis; Collecting market data
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/635 Overlay text, e.g. embedded captions in a TV program
• CPC Class Codes: G08C 17/00 Arrangements for transmitting signals characterised by the use of a wireless electrical link
• CPC Class Codes: G08C 17/02 using a radio link
• CPC Class Codes: G08C 19/00 Electric signal transmission systems G08C17/00 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G08C 2201/32 Remote control based on movements, attitude of remote control device
• CPC Class Codes: G08C 2201/40 Remote control systems using repeaters, converters, gateways
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/403 : Arrangements for multi-party communication, e.g. for conferences data switching systems for conference H04L12/18; arrangements for connecting several subscribers to a common circuit, i.e. affording conference facilities H04M3/56; television conferencing systems H04N7/15
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4147 : PVR [Personal Video Recorder] H04N5/76 takes precedence ; arrangements for broadcast with accumulation-type receivers H04H20/40
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/42204 : User interfaces specially adapted for controlling a client device through a remote control device; Remote control devices therefor constructive details of casings for the remote control device H01H9/0235; user interfaces for controlling a tuning device of a television receiver through a remote control H03J9/00; remote control of peripheral devices connected to a television receiver through the remote control device of the television receiver H04B1/205
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/42222 : Additional components integrated in the remote control device, e.g. timer, speaker, sensors for detecting position, direction or movement of the remote control, microphone or battery charging device
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4312 : involving specific graphical features, e.g. screen layout, special fonts or colors, blinking icons, highlights or animations
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4333 : Processing operations in response to a pause request
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/43615 : Interfacing a Home Network, e.g. for connecting the client to a plurality of peripherals home Audio Video Interoperability [HAVI] data switching networks H04L12/2805
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/437 : Interfacing the upstream path of the transmission network, e.g. for transmitting client requests to a VOD server flow control in data networks H04L47/10; streaming protocols, e.g. RTP or RTCP, H04L65/65; scheduling or organising the servicing of application requests in data packet switching networks H04L67/60
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4432 : Powering on the client, e.g. bootstrap loading using setup parameters being stored locally or received from the server resetting in general G06F1/14; program loading or initiating in general G06F9/445; bootstrapping in general G06F9/4401; secure boots of computer platforms G06F21/57
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4436 : Power management, e.g. shutting down unused components of the receiver power management in computer systems G06F1/3203; hibernate or awake process in computer systems G06F9/4418
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4508 : Management of client data or end-user data
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4516 : involving client characteristics, e.g. Set-Top-Box type, software version or amount of memory available
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4532 : involving end-user characteristics, e.g. viewer profile, preferences monitoring of user activities for profile generation for accessing a video database G06F16/739; user profiles in network data switching protocols H04L67/306; processing of user preferences or user profiles in wireless networks H04W8/18
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4755 : for defining user preferences, e.g. favourite actors or genre retrieval personalisation and generation of user profiles for the retrieval of video data G06F16/739; user profiles in network data switching protocols H04L67/306
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/482 : End-user interface for program selection broadcast systems using EPGs H04H60/72
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4882 : for displaying messages, e.g. warnings, reminders arrangements for providing short real-time information to substation in data switching networks H04L12/1895
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/63 : Control signaling related to video distribution between client, server and network components; Network processes for video distribution between server and clients or between remote clients, e.g. transmitting basic layer and enhancement layers over different transmission paths, setting up a peer-to-peer communication via Internet between remote STB's; Communication protocols; Addressing real-time session protocols H04L65/1101; distributed application using peer-to-peer [P2P] networks H04L67/104
• 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 21/654 : Transmission by server directed to the client
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8133 : specifically related to the content, e.g. biography of the actors in a movie, detailed information about an article seen in a video program
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/44504 : Circuit details of the additional information generator, e.g. details of the character or graphics signal generator, overlay mixing circuits
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/91 : Television signal processing therefor

Abstract

Various embodiments are directed to streaming DVR devices that can communicate over an Internet Protocol (IP) network with other streaming enabled DVR devices. Implementing a peer-to-peer type connection, one streaming enabled DVR device may be able to stream buffered video data to another streaming enable DVR device. Other embodiments are described and claimed.

Claims

1. An apparatus, comprising:

a memory buffer;

a main memory;

a network connectivity interface; and

a processing component communicatively coupled to the memory buffer, main memory, and the network connectivity interface, the processing component comprising a streaming control module to;

send a first program request for multimedia content for a program to a central location device, the first program request comprising a title for the multimedia content, a channel for the multimedia content and a time stamp to indicate an end point of the multimedia content;

receive a network address of a source streaming enabled digital video recorder (DVR) device from which to request the multimedia content up to the end point indicated by the time stamp;

send a second program request for the multimedia content to the source streaming enabled DVR device at the network address, the second program request comprising the title for the multimedia content, the channel for the multimedia content and the time stamp;

receive an acknowledgement indicating that the multimedia content identified in the second program request is available for streaming from the source streaming enabled DVR device;

establish a peer-to-peer connection over a network with the source streaming enabled DVR device using the network connectivity interface;

receive the multimedia content streamed over the network from source streaming enabled DVR device using the network connectivity interface;

determine when the multimedia content streamed over the network reaches a point for the program when the apparatus began buffering multimedia content in the memory buffer; and

terminate the peer-to-peer connection over the network with the source streaming enabled DVR device based on the determination that the received multimedia content reaches the point for the program when the apparatus began buffering multimedia content in the memory buffer.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, the streaming control module to store the received streamed multimedia content in the memory buffer.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, the streaming control module to store the received streamed multimedia content in the main memory.

4. The apparatus of claim 2, the streaming control module to:

link the received streaming multimedia content stored in the memory buffer with multimedia content for the same program also stored in the memory buffer, wherein the streaming control module to store the multimedia content for the same program beginning at the time stamp point such that, when the multimedia content is played back, the multimedia content switches from received streaming data for the requested program to the locally stored multimedia content at the point of the time stamp.

5. The apparatus of claim 1, comprising a digital display to present control information for the apparatus.

15. The apparatus of claim 1, the streaming control module to detect a termination of the peer-to-peer connection over the network initiated by the source streaming enabled DVR device based on the time stamp to indicate an end point of the multimedia content in the program request.

16. The apparatus of claim 1, comprising the processing circuit to automatically clear the memory buffer upon tuning to a different channel.

6. A method, comprising:

sending a first program request for multimedia content for a program to a central location device, the first program request comprising a title for the multimedia content, a channel for the multimedia content and a time stamp to indicate an end point of the multimedia content;

receiving a network address of a source streaming enabled digital video recorder (DVR) device from which to request the multimedia content up to the end point indicated by the time stamp;

sending a second program request for the multimedia content to the source streaming enabled DVR device at the network address, the second program request comprising the title for the multimedia content, the channel for the multimedia content and the time stamp;

receiving an acknowledgement indicating that the multimedia content identified in the second program request is available for streaming from the source streaming enabled DVR device;

establishing a peer-to-peer connection over an internet protocol (IP) network with the source streaming enabled DVR device;

receiving the multimedia content streamed over the IP network from the source streaming enabled DVR device;

determining when the multimedia content streaming over the IP network reaches a point for the program when a requesting streaming enabled DVR device began buffering multimedia content in a memory buffer; and

terminating the peer-to-peer connection over the IP network with the source streaming enabled DVR device based on the determining that the received multimedia content reaches the point for the program when the requesting streaming enabled DVR device began buffering multimedia content in the memory buffer.

7. The method of claim 6, comprising storing the received streamed multimedia content in the memory buffer.

8. The method of claim 6, comprising storing the received streamed multimedia content in a main memory.

9. The method of claim 7, comprising linking the received streaming multimedia content stored in the memory buffer with multimedia content for the same program also stored in the memory buffer that has been stored since the time stamp point such that, when the multimedia content is played back, the multimedia content switches from received streaming data for the requested program to the locally stored multimedia content at the point of the time stamp.

10. An article of manufacture comprising a computer-readable storage medium containing instructions that when executed enable a system to:

send a first program request for multimedia content for a program to a central location device, the first program request comprising a title for the multimedia content, a channel for the multimedia content and a time stamp to indicate an end point of the multimedia content;

receive a network address of a source streaming enabled digital video recorder (DVR) device from which to request the multimedia content up to the end point indicated by the time stamp;

send a second program request for the multimedia content to the source streaming enabled DVR device at the network address, the second program request comprising the title for the multimedia content, the channel for the multimedia content and the time stamp;

receive an acknowledgement indicating that the multimedia content identified in the second program request is available for streaming from the source streaming enabled DVR device;

establish a peer-to-peer connection over an internet protocol (IP) network with the source streaming enabled DVR device;

receive the multimedia content streamed over the IP network from the source streaming enabled DVR device;

determine when the multimedia content streamed over the IP network reaches a point for the program when a requesting streaming enabled DVR device began buffering multimedia content in a memory buffer and

terminate the peer-to-peer connection over the IP network with the source streaming enabled DVR device based on the determination that the received multimedia content reached the point for the program when the requesting streaming enabled DVR device began buffering multimedia content in the memory buffer.

11. The article of claim 10, comprising instructions that when executed enable the system to store the received streamed multimedia content in a main memory.

12. The article of claim 10, comprising instructions that when executed enable the system to store the received streamed multimedia content in the memory buffer.

13. The article of claim 12, comprising instructions that when executed enable the system to link the received streaming multimedia content stored in the memory buffer with multimedia content for the same program also stored in the memory buffer, wherein the system is configured to store the multimedia content for the same program beginning at the time stamp point such that, when the multimedia content is played back, the multimedia content switches from received streaming data for the requested program to the locally stored multimedia content at the point of the time stamp.

14. A media processing device comprising:

a communications component communicatively coupled with a digital video recorder (DVR) device, the DVR device configured to store multimedia content for one or more programs;

an Internet Protocol (IP) network connectivity interface; and

a processing component communicatively coupled to the communications component and the IP network connectivity interface, the processing component comprising a streaming control module to;

send a first program request for multimedia content for a program to a central location device, the first program request comprising a title for the multimedia content, a channel for the multimedia content and a time stamp to indicate an end point of the multimedia content;

receive a network address of a source streaming enabled digital video recorder (DVR) device from which to request the multimedia content up to the end point indicated by the time stamp;

send a second program request for the multimedia content to the source streaming enabled DVR device at the network address, the second program request comprising the title for the multimedia content, the channel for the multimedia content and the time stamp;

receive an acknowledgement indicating that the multimedia content identified in the second program request is available for streaming from the source streaming enabled DVR device;

establish a peer-to-peer connection over an IP network with the source streaming enabled DVR device;

receive the multimedia content streamed over the IP network from the source streaming enabled DVR device;

determine when the multimedia content streamed over the IP network reaches a point for the program buffered in a memory buffer;

terminate the peer-to-peer connection over the IP network with the source streaming enabled DVR device based on the determination that the received multimedia content reaches the point for the program buffered in the memory buffer; and

forward the received multimedia content to the DVR device.