Method for remotely controlling a video playing within a first web page at a first device from a second device using a document object model

• US 9,639,623 B2
• Filed: 12/20/2012
• Issued: 05/02/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 12/20/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cable Television Laboratories Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Cable Television Laboratories Incorporated
• Inventors: Lund, Robert
• Primary Examiner(s): Paula, Cesar
• Assistant Examiner(s): Blackwell, James H
• Application Number:
  US13/721,356
• Publication Number:
  US 20140181631A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,594 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/954 Navigation, e.g. using categorised browsing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/958 Organisation or management of web site content, e.g. publishing, maintaining pages or automatic linking
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2216/15 Synchronised browsing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/452 Remote windowing, e.g. X-Window System, desktop virtualisation protocols for virtual reality H04L67/131
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/41265 having a remote control device for bidirectional communication between the remote control device and client device unidirectional remote control device H04N21/42204

Abstract

Administration of a Web page is contemplated. The contemplated administration may be used to facilitate identifying state of a Web page at a first device from a remotely located second device, optionally independently of a Web server that downloads the Web page to the device. The contemplated administration may be used to facilitate changing state of Web page as provided through the first device from the remotely located second device, optionally independent of the Web server that downloads the Web page to the device.

Claims

1. A method for remotely controlling a video playing within a first Web page of a first Web browser operating on a first device from a second device operating independently of the first device, the method comprising:

determining one or more of a plurality of DOM objects for a document object model (DOM) generated at the first device to enable display of the first Web page, the plurality of DOM objects being used with the first Web browser to facilitate playing the video within the first Web page, the plurality of DOM objects including a video object associated with streaming or downloading the video from a Web server to the first device and a video control object associated with controlling playback of the video within the first Web page through corresponding manipulation of the video object, the video control object including a video function sufficient to instigate playing of the video when set to a first attribute and to pause playing of the video when set to a second attribute;

determining the video function to be set to the first attribute at the first instance as a function of instructions included in a menu message wirelessly transmitted directly from the first device to the second device at a fifth instance occurring prior to the second instance such that the menu messages travels from the first device to the second device without being received at and independently of the Web server,

presenting a control menu on the second device having one or more selectable buttons with a first button of the one or more selectable buttons indicating the video function to be set to the first attribute at a first instance in time;

determining a user actuation of the first button at the second device at a second instance in time occurring after the first instance, the user actuation indicating via the second device a desire to control the video function from the first attribute to the second attribute;

transmitting a control message from the second device to the first device at a third instance in time occurring after the second instance to cause the first Web browser to change the video function from the first attribute to the second attribute, thereby pausing play of the video within the Web page at a fourth instance in time occurring after the third instance; and

presenting the control menu and determining the user actuation without contemporaneously displaying the video on the second device during any one of the first, second, third and fourth instances.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the first device is a television and the second device is a tablet and the television and the tablet communicate over a local area network (LAN), and wherein the method further comprises transmitting the control message through an application bridge constructed over the LAN between the first device and the second device such that the control message travels from the tablet over the LAN through the application bridge for receipt at the television and without traveling further than the LAN.

3. The method of claim 2 further comprising:

transmitting the control message through the application bridge without the control message being transmitted to the Web server; and

pausing play of the video within the webpage at the fourth instance in response to receipt of the control message and without re-loading the first Web page such that the video function changes from the first attribute to the second attribute without the Web server correspondingly specifying the first or second attributes and without the Web server otherwise making adjustments to the plurality of DOM objects.

4. The method of claim 2 further comprising:

transmitting the control message to the first Web browser from a second Web browser on the second device presenting the control menu;

presenting a transfer button within the control menu on the second device as one of the one or more selectable buttons;

determining a transfer actuation of the transfer button after the second instance in response to the user engaging the transfer button, the transfer actuation indicating the user desiring to subsequently playback the video via the second device;

transmitting a transfer message from the tablet to the television at a fifth instance in time occurring after the fourth instance in response to the transfer actuation, the transfer message causing the television to thereafter transfer the video through the application bridge to the second Web browser for playback through the tablet such that play of the video appears on the tablet to be paused at a sixth instance in time occurring after the fifth instance; and

determining a user actuation at the tablet sufficient to begin playback of the video at a seventh instance in time occurring after the sixth instance, and thereafter, instructing the television to continue transferring the video over the application bridge for subsequent playback at the tablet while the video is being contemporaneously streamed or downloaded to the television from the Web server, thereby playing the video through the tablet without the tablet contemporaneously streaming or downloading the video from the Web server.

5. The method of claim 1 further comprising presenting the control menu without displaying the video object at the second device during any one of the first, second, third and fourth instances.

6. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

presenting the control menu with the first button having a play icon to convey the video function as being set to the second value at a sixth instance in time occurring prior to the first and fifth instances;

visually varying the first button from the play icon to a pause icon at a seventh instance in response to receipt of the menu message, the seventh instance occurring after the sixth instance and prior to the second instance; and

determining the user actuation to correspond with user selection of the pause icon presented during the seventh instance.

7. The method claim 6 further comprising visually varying the first button from the pause icon to the play icon at an eighth instance occurring after the seventh instance to indicate the first Web browser having changed the video function from the first attribute to the second attribute.

8. The method claim 7 further comprising varying the first button from the pause icon to the play icon at the eighth instance in response to the second device receiving an updated menu message transmitted from the first device confirming change of the video function from the first attribute to the second attribute.

9. The method claim 7 further comprising varying the first button from the pause icon to the play icon at the eighth instance automatically upon transmission of the control message to the first device such that the first button is changed from the pause icon to the play icon without requiring confirmation from the first device of the video function being change from the first attribute to the second attribute.

10. The method of claim 1 further comprising changing the video function from the first attributed to the second attribute in response to the control message using an administration agent operating on the first device, including the administration agent changing from the first attribute to the second attribute:

i) without causing the first Web browser to correspondingly download or re-download the first Web page from the Web server;

ii) without causing the first Web browser to correspondingly download or re-download the video function from the Web server; and

iii) without causing the first Web browser to correspondingly re-populate the video function according to instructions or other information provided from the Web server.

11. A non-transitory computer-readable medium having non-transitory instructions stored thereon which when executed with a processor are sufficient to facilitate manipulating a first Web browser operating on a first device, the non-transitory computer-readable medium having non-transitory instructions for:

determining a document object model (DOM) associated with a first Web page being displayed with the first Web browser, the DOM including a plurality of DOM objects used by the first Web browser to create a first visual representation of the first Web page;

determining at least a subset of the plurality of DOM objects to be controllable DOM objects associated with a video object and a video control object, the video object being associated with a video sourced from a Web server and the video control object being associated with controlling playback of the video through the first Web page;

generating a menu message for transmission from the first device to a second device sufficient for specifying the controllable DOM objects to include the video control object;

transmitting the menu message and not the video object through a bridge constructed between the first device and the second device, the bridge facilitating signaling between the first and second device over a communication medium independent of the Web server from which the first device accesses the video; and

altering at least one of the controllable DOM objects according to a control message received at the first device following transmission from the second device, the altering of the at least one of the DOM objects causing the first Web browser to create a second visual representation of the first Web page, the second visual representation differing from the first visual representation in accordance with the altering of the at least one of the controllable DOM objects.

12. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 11 further comprising non-transitory instructions for:

determining at least a portion of the plurality of DOM objects to be non-controllable;

specifying the controllable and not the non-controllable DOM objects in the menu message;

transmitting the menu message from the first device to the second device over a local area network (LAN) established therebetween such that the menu message passes directly from the first device to the second device independently of the Web server and without processor or receipt at the Web server; and

receiving the control message directly from the second device through communication executed over the LAN such that the control message pass directly from the first device to the second device independently of the Web server and without processing or receipt at the Web server.

13. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 11 further comprising non-transitory instructions for specifying the controllable DOM objects within the menu message in a manner sufficient for use with an administration agent associated with a second Web browser operating on the second device to create a third visual representation of the controllable DOM objects, the second device generating the control message in response to a user of the second Web browser interacting with one or more of the controllable DOM objects visually represented within the third visual representation, the third visual representation differing from the first and second visual representations.

14. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 11 further comprising non-transitory instructions for altering one of the controllable DOM objects without re-loading the DOM and without re-downloading the first Web page from the Web server, the Web page being previously downloaded from the Web server to create the DOM associated with the first visual representation, thereby altering one of the controllable DOM objects without requesting the Web server to correspondingly re-populate the controllable DOM objects and without receiving instructions or other information from the Web server to facilitate correspondingly altering one of the controllable DOM objects.

15. A Web browsing system comprising:

a gateway configured to demarcate and interface signaling between an inside network and an outside network;

a television connected to the inside network and configured to enable download of a first Web page from a Web server connected to the outside network, the first Web page being sufficient to facilitate playback of a video from the Web server, the television including;

i) a first Web browser configured to process the first Web page for playing of the video;

ii) a first document object model (DOM) having a plurality of first DOM objects associated with rendering the first Web page, at least some of the first DOM objects having controllable attributes and at least some of the first DOM objects having non-controllable attributes, the first DOM operable for varying the video playing within the first Web page according to changes in the controllable attributes;

iii) a first human computer interface (HCI) for changing one or more of the controllable attributes as a function of user interaction with the first device;

iv) a first administration agent configured to differentiate the controllable and non-controllable attributes and specify one or more of the controllable attributes within a menu message, including specifying a first value for a first controllable attribute of the one or more controllable attributes; and

v) a first bridge computer interface (BCI) operable for;

(1) transmitting the menu message through a first bridge created over the inside network; and

(2) changing one or more of the controllable attributes as a function of a control message received through the first bridge;

a portable computer connected to the inside network and configured to enable download of a second Web page to facilitate controlling playback of the video at the first device, the portable computer including;

i) a second Web browser configured to process the second Web page for visual presentation of a control menu without visually presenting the video;

ii) a second document object model (DOM) having a plurality of second DOM objects associated with rendering the control menu, at least some of the second DOM objects having controllable menu attributes, the second DOM operable for varying the control menu according to changes in the corresponding controllable menu attributes;

iii) a second HCI operable to facilitate changing one or more of the controllable menu attributes rendered in the control menu as a function of user interaction with the control menu;

iv) a second administration agent configured to;

(1) set one or more of the controllable menu attributes rendered in the control menu to match the controllable attributes specified within the menu message without visually presenting the video with the control menu, including setting a first controllable menu attribute of the controllable menu attributes to the first value specified in the menu message;

(2) determining user interaction with the control menu sufficient to change the first controllable menu attribute from the first value specified in the menu message to a second value; and

(3) generate the control message with instructions sufficient for instructing the television to change the first controllable attribute from the first value to the second value;

v) a second BCI operable to facilitate receiving the menu message and transmitting the control message through the first bridge to the television, the control message causing the television to change the first controllable attribute from the first value to the second value and correspondingly vary the video playing in the first Web page, thereby enabling the portable computer to vary the video playing in the first Web page without visually presenting or otherwise displaying the video.

16. The system of claim 15 wherein the first administration agent is changes the first controllable attribute from the first value to the second value without requiring the television to contemporaneously download the Web page or the control message from the Web server and without the television requesting the Web server to correspondingly re-populate the first DOM objects.

17. The system of claim 15 wherein the first bridge is a Web socket configured to facilitate signaling between the television and the portable computer over the inside network independently of the outside network and the Web server such that the first BCI receives the control message without contemporaneously communicating with the Web server.

18. The system of claim 17 wherein:

the second HCI displays a transfer button within the second Web page;

the second administration agent transmits a transfer message through the first bridge upon determining user selection of the transfer button; and

the first administration agent transfers the video presented in the first video through the first bridge for presentation through the second Web page in response to the transfer message, wherein the first administration agent transfers the video through the bridge independently of the Web server such that the video is presented in the second Web pace without being transmitted thereto from the Web server.

19. The system of claim 15 wherein the first administration agent is configured to specify the one or more controllable attributes within the menu message and not the non-controllable attributes.