Image domain compliance

• US 9,918,116 B2
• Filed: 11/18/2015
• Issued: 03/13/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 11/08/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Dish Technologies LLC (Echostar Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Echostar Technologies LLC (Echostar Corporation)
• Inventors: Robinson, David
• Primary Examiner(s): Bruckart, Benjamin R
• Assistant Examiner(s): Nguyen, Tien M
• Application Number:
  US14/944,758
• Publication Number:
  US 20160073144A1
• Time in Patent Office: 846 Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2662 Controlling the complexity of the video stream, e.g. by scaling the resolution or bitrate of the video stream based on the client capabilities
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/440263 by altering the spatial resolution, e.g. for displaying on a connected PDA
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4405 involving video stream decryption
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4621 Controlling the complexity of the content stream or additional data, e.g. lowering the resolution or bit-rate of the video stream for a mobile client with a small screen arrangements for using the results of monitoring on user's side in broadcast systems H04H60/65; flow control in packet networks H04L47/10
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4627 Rights management associated to the content security in data switching network management H04L41/28; security management or policies for network security H04L63/20; access security in wireless networks H04W12/08

Abstract

Systems and methods for generating domain-compliant image data. Domain-specific usage rights may be evaluated. The domain-specific usage rights may be associated with the transfer of particular encoded image data to a particular computing system other than the computing system. The domain-specific usage rights may specify maximum allowable spatial frequency content of the particular encoded image data. Domain-compliant image data may be generated by removing particular disallowable spatial frequency content from the encoded image data prior to transfer to the particular computing system.

Claims

1. A method of modifying encoded packetized content, comprising:

receiving, by a computing system, a data stream of encoded packetized content;

identifying, by the computing system, a particular encoded packet of the data stream as having image or video content;

determining, by the computing system, a threshold value defining allowable spatial frequencies for image or video content associated with a recipient computing system;

extracting, by the computing system, one or more discrete cosine transform (DCT) coefficients within the particular encoded packet without fully decoding the particular encoded packet;

identifying, by the computing system, one or more of the extracted DCT coefficients of the particular encoded packet having a value greater than the threshold value;

modifying, by the computing system, the identified DCT coefficients of the particular encoded packet, without fully decoding the particular encoded packet, wherein the modified DCT coefficients correspond to a spatial frequency content magnitude less than an original spatial frequency content magnitude within the particular encoded packet, wherein modifying the identified DCT coefficients comprises setting disallowable spatial frequency content of the particular encoded packet to random values lower in magnitude than the threshold value defining the allowable spatial frequencies for the image or video content; and

transmitting, by the computing system, the modified particular encoded packet to the recipient computing system.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

descrambling the encoded packetized content prior to modifying the identified DCT coefficients of the particular encoded packet.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein modifying the identified DCT coefficients of the particular encoded packet comprises quantizing disallowable spatial frequency content of the particular encoded packet to zero magnitude.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

identifying allowable spatial frequency content within the particular encoded packet, the allowable spatial frequency content having DCT coefficients with a value less than the threshold value; and

modifying at least a portion of the allowable spatial frequency content within the particular encoded packet to correspond to a spatial frequency content magnitude less than an original spatial frequency content magnitude of the allowable spatial frequency content.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining that the particular encoded packet is associated with video interlacing; and

applying a DCT filter operation to modify one or more DCT coefficients within the particular encoded packet that are associated with horizontal image resolution.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the DCT filter operation is applied to modify only the horizontal resolution of the particular encoded packet.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising implementing a de-blocking algorithm configured to:

process a plurality of DCT squares; and

analyze and modify edges one or more of the DCT squares based on the contents of adjacent DCT squares.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the modified particular encoded packet has a same pixel count as the particular encoded packet received in the data stream of encoded packetized content.

9. A computing device, comprising:

one or more processors; and

memory communicatively coupled with and readable by the one or more processors and having stored therein processor-readable instructions which, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the computing device to;

receive at least one data packet containing image or video content, each of the at least one data packets having a first pixel count;

determine a threshold value defining allowable spatial frequencies for image or video content associated with a recipient computing system;

identify one or more discrete cosine transform (DCT) coefficients within the at least one data packet having a value greater than the threshold value;

generate one or more modified data packets based on the at least one received data packets, wherein generating the modified data packets comprises modifying the identified DCT coefficients to correspond to a spatial frequency content magnitude less than an original spatial frequency content magnitude within the received data packets, wherein generating the modified data packets further comprises setting the identified DCT coefficients corresponding to disallowable spatial frequency to random values lower in magnitude than the threshold value defining the allowable spatial frequencies for the image or video content, and wherein each of the one or more modified data packets has the first pixel count; and

transmit the one or more modified data packets to the recipient computing system.

10. The computing device of claim 9, the memory having stored therein additional processor-readable instructions which, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the computing device to:

descramble the received data packets prior to generating the modified data packets.

11. The computing device of claim 9, wherein generating the modified data packets comprises quantizing the identified DCT coefficients corresponding to disallowable spatial frequency to zero magnitude.

12. The computing device of claim 11, the memory having stored therein additional processor-readable instructions which, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the computing device to:

identify allowable spatial frequency content within the received data packets, the allowable spatial frequency content having DCT coefficients with a value less than the threshold value; and

modify at least a portion of the allowable spatial frequency content within the received data packets to correspond to a spatial frequency content magnitude less than an original spatial frequency content magnitude of the allowable spatial frequency content.

13. The computing device of claim 9, the memory having stored therein additional processor-readable instructions which, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the computing device to:

determine that the received at least one data packet is associated with video interlacing; and

apply a DCT filter operation to modify one or more DCT coefficients within the received data packets that are associated with horizontal image resolution.

14. The computing device of claim 9, wherein generating the modified data packets comprises implementing a de-blocking algorithm configured to:

process a plurality of DCT squares; and

analyze and modify edges one or more of the DCT squares based on the contents of adjacent DCT squares.

15. A set-top-box, comprising:

a first module configured to receive at least one image or video packet, and extract direct cosine transform (DCT) coefficients within the at least one image or video packet, without fully decoding the at least one image or video packet;

a second module configured to modify particular DCT coefficients of the at least one image or video packet that exhibit a matrix column or row index value greater than a threshold value, wherein the threshold value defines allowable spatial frequencies of image or video content and is associated with the export of packetized content from the set-top-box to a different computing system, wherein the second module is further configured to;

preserve particular DCT coefficients that exhibit a matrix column or row index value less than the threshold value; and

modify particular DCT coefficients, that exhibit a matrix column or row index value less than the threshold value and greater than another threshold value, to exhibit a finite magnitude less than a corresponding original magnitude; and

a third module configured to generate a particular image or video packet, the particular image or video packet comprising a plurality of DCT coefficients, including one or more particular DCT coefficients associated with disallowable spatial frequency content that were modified by the second module, and one or more unmodified DCT coefficients associated with allowable spatial frequency content.

16. The set-top-box of claim 15, further comprising:

at least one communication interface configured to;

receive the particular video packet;

stream the particular video packet to the different computing system over a network connection; and

store the particular video packet to a particular memory location of a particular computing device.

17. The set-top-box of claim 15, the third module is configured to generate the particular image or video packet having a same pixel count as at least one image or video packet received by the first module.