Dispersed storage camera device and method of operation

• US 9,900,150 B2
• Filed: 06/13/2010
• Issued: 02/20/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 10/30/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Pure Storage, Inc.
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Dhuse, Greg, Baptist, Andrew, Volvovski, Ilya
• Primary Examiner(s): Mikeska, Neil
• Application Number:
  US12/814,474
• Publication Number:
  US 20110102546A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,809 Days
• Field of Search: 34823199, 34833301, 25033904, 280735, 455 306, 707 10, 725 87, 725 51, 713189, 700 19, 711154
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/1004 to protect a block of data words, e.g. CRC or checksum G06F11/1076 takes precedence; security arrangements for protecting computers or computer systems against unauthorized activity G06F21/00
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 12/1408 by using cryptography for digital transmission H04L9/00
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6218 to a system of files or objects, e.g. local or distributed file system or database
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2107 File encryption
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2221/2151 Time stamp
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2209/34 Encoding or coding, e.g. Huffman coding or error correction
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1097 for distributed storage of data in networks, e.g. transport arrangements for network file system [NFS], storage area networks [SAN] or network attached storage [NAS]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/04 Protocols for data compression, e.g. ROHC
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/0819 Key transport or distribution, i.e. key establishment techniques where one party creates or otherwise obtains a secret value, and securely transfers it to the other(s) network architectures or network communication protocols for key distribution in a packet data network H04L63/062
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/0863 involving passwords or one-time passwords network architectures or network communication protocols for using one-time keys in a packet data network H04L63/067
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/0894 Escrow, recovery or storing of secret information, e.g. secret key escrow or cryptographic key storage

Abstract

A distributed storage network contains a user device that has a computing core, a DSN interface and either an integrated or an externally-connected camera or sensor. The camera or sensor collects data from its surrounding environment and processes the data at least partially through error coding dispersal storage functions that include slicing the data into a plurality of error-coded data slices. The error-coded data slices are output by the user device for one or more of storage within a dispersed storage network (DSN) memory, playing on a destination player, or broadcast consumption over a network. A storage integrity unit manages the storage capacity, use, and/or throughput of the system to ensure that data is processing in a real time or near real time so that data can be accurately processed and perceived by targeted end users.

Claims

1. A dispersed storage device comprising:

a sensing device for sensing and capturing images of environmental data in its surroundings into a data object;

a computing core operable to;

segment the data object into a plurality of data segments;

for each data segment of the plurality of data segments;

manipulate, pre-encoding, the data segment by performing an integrity check on the data segment to produce a data segment integrity check value;

disperse storage error encode the pre-encoded manipulated data segment to produce a set of encoded data slices; and

for each encoded data slice of the set of encoded data slices;

perform an integrity check to produce an integrity check value; and

append the integrity check value to the encoded data slice to produce a set of integrity checked encoded data slices;

store the plurality of sets of integrity checked encoded data slices; and

a distributed data storage network interface circuit operable to output the plurality of sets of integrity checked encoded data slices.

2. The dispersed storage device of claim 1 wherein the sensing device is a camera.

3. The dispersed storage device of claim 1 wherein the sensing device is a non-visible spectrum detector that captures a sequence of non-visible spectrum data values as the images of the environmental data.

4. The dispersed storage device of claim 1 wherein acoustic information is collected as part of the images of the environmental data.

5. The dispersed storage device of claim 1 wherein the computing core provides control information to the sensing device, the control information being selected from a group consisting of information to:

select the video compression algorithm to utilize, select a camera position schedule, pan left, pan right, zoom in, zoom out, change from visible mode to infrared mode, match a pattern, and enable a new software load.

6. The dispersed storage device of claim 1 wherein the images of the environmental data is stored with metadata selected from a group of metadata consisting of:

a timestamp, location information, pattern recognition information, camera setting information, camera direction, camera type, camera software version, 3D rendering data, depth data, facial recognition flags/alerts or information, internet protocol address, and a camera ID.

7. A method for capturing and broadcasting visual information, the method comprises:

capturing images of environmental data in its surroundings into a data object;

segmenting the data object into a plurality of data segments;

for each data segment of the plurality of data segments;

manipulating, pre-encoding, the data segment by performing an integrity check on the data segment to produce a data segment integrity check value;

disperse storage error encoding the pre-encoded manipulated data segment to produce a set of encoded data slices; and

for each encoded data slice of the set of encoded data slices;

performing an integrity check to produce an integrity check value; and

appending the integrity check value to the encoded data slice to produce a set of integrity checked encoded data slices;

locally storing the plurality of sets of integrity checked encoded data slices; and

outputting the plurality of sets of integrity checked encoded data slices to a dispersed storage network for storage therein.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein the images of the environmental data comprises a sequence of non-visible spectrum data values.

9. The method of claim 7 wherein the images of the environmental data comprises acoustic information.

10. The method of claim 7 wherein the plurality of sets of integrity checked encoded data slices is stored with metadata selected from a group of metadata consisting of:

a timestamp, location information, pattern recognition information, camera setting information, camera direction, camera type, camera software version, 3D rendering data, depth data, facial recognition flags/alerts or information, internet protocol address, and a camera ID.