Scrubbing noise remover and methods for use therewith

• US 9,294,821 B2
• Filed: 01/28/2013
• Issued: 03/22/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 01/28/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Morega Systems, Inc.
• Inventors: Podolsky, Michael
• Primary Examiner(s): Flynn, Nathan
• Assistant Examiner(s): Castro, Alfonso
• Application Number:
  US13/751,356
• Publication Number:
  US 20140215540A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,149 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/612 for unicast
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/70 Media network packetisation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/765 intermediate
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/80 Responding to QoS
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/26258 for generating a list of items to be played back in a given order, e.g. playlist, or scheduling item distribution according to such list retrieval of multimedia data based on playlists G06F16/40
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47217 for controlling playback functions for recorded or on-demand content, e.g. using progress bars, mode or play-point indicators or bookmarks specific graphical features in visual interfaces H04N21/4312
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4825 using a list of items to be played back in a given order, e.g. playlists
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/61 Network physical structure; Signal processing H04B takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/147 Communication arrangements, e.g. identifying the communication as a video-communication, intermediate storage of the signals selecting H04Q

Abstract

A scrubbing noise remover includes a proxy device that is operable to intercept a request from a video player to a streaming video server for at least one scrubbing segment of a selected one of a plurality of video programs, and in response, sending at least one corresponding fixed segment to the video player, and pass a request from the video player to the streaming video server for a plurality of non-scrubbing segments of the selected one of the plurality of video programs.

Claims

1. A scrubbing noise remover for use in conjunction with a video player and a streaming video server, the scrubbing noise remover comprising:

a proxy device that is operable to;

receive a segment request from the video player to the streaming video server to retrieve a corresponding segment of a selected one of a plurality of video programs for playback;

identify the corresponding segment as one of;

a non-scrubbing segment or a scrubbing segment;

when the segment request from the video player corresponds to a non-scrubbing segment, pass the segment request to the streaming video server for retrieval and playback of non-scrubbing segment by the video player; and

when the segment request from the video player corresponds to a scrubbing segment, discard the segment request to prevent retrieval of the non-scrubbing segment from the streaming video server, and instead send a fixed segment to the video player that does not contain the corresponding segment that was requested;

wherein the proxy device identifies the non-scrubbing segment of the selected one of the plurality of video programs based on a comparison of a position of the non-scrubbing segment to a position of an immediately preceding requested segment of the selected one of the plurality of video programs.

2. The scrubbing noise remover of claim 1 wherein the proxy device identifies the scrubbing segment of the selected one of the plurality of video programs based on a comparison of a position of the scrubbing segment and to a position of at least one immediately preceding requested segment of the selected one of the plurality of video programs.

3. The scrubbing noise remover of claim 2 wherein the proxy device identifies the scrubbing segment of the selected one of the plurality of video programs when the position of the scrubbing segment compares unfavorably to the position of at least one immediately preceding requested segment of the selected one of the plurality of video programs.

4. The scrubbing noise remover of claim 1 wherein the proxy device identifies the non-scrubbing segment of the selected one of the plurality of video programs when the position of the non-scrubbing segment compares favorably to the position of the immediately preceding requested segment of the selected one of the plurality of video programs.

5. The scrubbing noise remover of claim 1 wherein the proxy device identifies the non-scrubbing segment of the selected one of the plurality of video programs by further evaluating a candidate non-scrubbing sequence based on when a previously presented segment request has been received.

6. The scrubbing noise remover of claim 1 wherein the fixed segment includes an empty segment.

7. The scrubbing noise remover of claim 1 wherein the proxy device is a client-side proxy associated with the video player.

8. The scrubbing noise remover of claim 1 wherein the proxy device is a server-side proxy associated with the streaming video server.

9. A method for use in conjunction with a video player and a streaming video server, the method comprising:

receiving, at a proxy device, a segment request from the video player to the streaming video server to retrieve a corresponding segment of a selected one of a plurality of video programs for playback;

identifying, via the proxy device, the corresponding segment as one of;

a non-scrubbing segment or a scrubbing segment;

when the segment request from the video player corresponds to a non-scrubbing segment, passing, via the proxy device, the segment request to the streaming video server for retrieval and playback of non-scrubbing segment by the video player; and

when the segment request from the video player corresponds to a scrubbing segment, discarding, via the proxy device, the segment request to prevent retrieval of the non-scrubbing segment from the streaming video server, and instead, sending, via the proxy device, a fixed segment to the video player that does not contain the corresponding segment that was requested;

wherein the non-scrubbing segment is identified by evaluating a candidate non-scrubbing sequence based on when a previously presented segment request has been received.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein the scrubbing segment is identified based on a comparison of a position of the scrubbing segment and to a position of at least one immediately preceding requested segment of the selected one of the plurality of video programs.

11. The method of claim 10 wherein the scrubbing segment is identified when the position of the scrubbing segment compares unfavorably to the position of at least one immediately preceding requested segment of the selected one of the plurality of video programs.

12. The method of claim 9 wherein the non-scrubbing segment is identified based on a comparison of position of the non-scrubbing segment and to position of an immediately preceding requested segment of the selected one of the plurality of video programs.

13. The method of claim 12 wherein the non-scrubbing segment is identified when the position of the non-scrubbing segment compares favorably to the position of the immediately preceding requested segment of the selected one of the plurality of video programs.

14. The method of claim 9 wherein the fixed segment includes an empty segment.