Real time overlays on live streams

• US 9,456,230 B1
• Filed: 07/28/2014
• Issued: 09/27/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 04/03/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Milatinovici, Bianca, Bota, Silviu, Falk, Christian Ingemar
• Primary Examiner(s): Kumar, Pankaj
• Assistant Examiner(s): Baig, Sahar
• Application Number:
  US14/444,626
• Time in Patent Office: 792 Days
• Field of Search: 725/40, 725/43, 725/48, 725/51, 725/52
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/222 Secondary servers, e.g. proxy server, cable television Head-end provisioning of proxy services in data packet switching networks H04L67/56
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/23106 involving caching operations prefetching while addressing of a memory level in which the access to the desired data or data block requires associative addressing means within memory systems or architectures G06F12/0862; caching at an intermediate stage in a data network H04L67/568
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/235 Processing of additional data, e.g. scrambling of additional data or processing content descriptors
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2365 Multiplexing of several video streams
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/25841 involving the geographical location of the client retrieval from the Internet by querying based on geographical locations G06F16/9537; arrangements for identifying locations of receiving stations in broadcast systems H04H60/51; location of the user terminal in data switching networks H04L67/52; services making use of the location of users or terminals in wireless networks H04W4/02; locating users or terminals in wireless networks H04W64/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/25883 being end-user demographical data, e.g. age, family status or address arrangements for identifying locations of users in broadcast systems H04H60/52
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/262 Content or additional data distribution scheduling, e.g. sending additional data at off-peak times, updating software modules, calculating the carousel transmission frequency, delaying a video stream transmission, generating play-lists scheduling strategies for dispatcher in multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/4881; arrangements for scheduling broadcast services or broadcast-related services H04H60/06; flow control in packet networks H04L47/10; establishing a time schedule or organising the servicing of application requests H04L67/62
• 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 21/6408 Unicasting
• 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 21/84 Generation or processing of descriptive data, e.g. content descriptors systems specially adapted for using meta-information in broadcast systems H04H60/73

Abstract

A system and method for generating and distributing overlay streams in real time over an overlay stream distribution channel that overlays events of a video stream distributed in a separate video channel. Overlay streams are distributed to subscriber recipient components via a unicast channel in order to enhance user viewing. A publisher subscriber component and caching techniques a low latency, high availability unicasting based real time overlay distribution system for a large numbers of concurrent overlay recipients.

Claims

1. A system, comprising:

a processor; and

a non-transitory computer readable storage medium including computer-executable instructions which when executed by the processor cause the processor to perform operations comprising;

storing a policy specifying a maximum number of overlay messages that can be stored in a cache for a live video stream of events occurring in real time, the live video stream distributed to a plurality of recipients via a first channel;

receiving an overlay message that corresponds to the live video stream of events;

determining not to store the received overlay message in the cache based on the cache including, for the live video steam, the maximum number of overlay messages specified by the policy;

generating, by the computer system, an overlay stream in real time that includes a plurality of overlay messages that correspond to the events of the live video stream of events, one or more of the plurality of overlay messages stored in the cache; and

publishing the overlay stream to the plurality of recipients via a plurality of second channels.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more overlay messages are stored in the cache based on having a predetermined threshold probability of being requested by a recipient.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the first channel is a broadcast channel and each of the plurality of second channels is a unicast channel.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein at least one of the plurality of recipients receives the overlay stream based on a subscription.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the overlay stream is a unicast stream and each of the plurality of second channels is a unicast channel.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the maximum number is determined based upon a popularity measure of the live video stream of events.

7. A method, comprising:

storing a policy specifying a maximum number of overlay messages that can be stored in a cache for a live video stream of events occurring in real time, the live video stream distributed to a plurality of recipients via a first channel;

receiving, by the computer system, an overlay message that corresponds to the live video stream of events;

determining, by the computer system, not to store the received overlay message in the cache based on the cache including, for the live video steam, the maximum number of overlay messages specified by the policy;

generating, by the computer system, an overlay stream in real time that includes a plurality of overlay messages that correspond to the events of the live video stream of events, one or more of the plurality of overlay messages stored in the cache; and

publishing, by the computer system, the overlay stream to the plurality of recipients via a plurality of second channels.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the one or more overlay messages are stored in the cache based on having a predetermined threshold probability of being requested by a recipient.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein the first channel is a broadcast channel and each of the plurality of second channels is a unicast channel.

10. The method of claim 7, wherein at least one of the plurality of recipients receives the overlay stream based on a subscription.

11. The method of claim 7, wherein the overlay stream is a unicast stream and each of the plurality of second channels is a unicast channel.

12. The method of claim 7, further comprising determining the maximum number based upon a popularity measure of the live video stream of events.

13. A non-transitory computer-readable medium having instructions stored thereon that, in response to execution, cause a system including a processor to perform operations comprising:

storing a policy specifying a maximum number of overlay messages that can be stored in a cache for a live video stream of events occurring in real time, the live video stream distributed to a plurality of recipients via a first channel;

receiving an overlay message that corresponds to the live video stream of events;

determining not to store the received overlay message in the cache based on the cache including, for the live video steam, the maximum number of overlay messages specified by the policy;

generating an overlay stream in real time that includes a plurality of overlay messages that correspond to the events of the live video stream of events, one or more of the plurality of overlay messages stored in the cache; and

publishing the overlay stream to the plurality of recipients via a plurality of second channels.

14. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 13, wherein the one or more overlay messages are stored in the cache based on having a predetermined threshold probability of being requested by a recipient the recipients.

15. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 13, wherein the first channel is a broadcast channel and each of the plurality of second channels is a unicast channel.

16. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 13, wherein the overlay stream is a unicast stream and each of the plurality of second channels is a unicast channel.

17. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 13, the operations further comprising determining the maximum number based upon a popularity measure of the live video stream of events.