Shared scalable server to control confidential sensory event traffic among recordation terminals, analysis engines, and a storage farm coupled via a non-proprietary communication channel

• US 20110055895A1
• Filed: 10/13/2009
• Published: 03/03/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 08/31/2009
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Third Iron LLC
• Original Assignee: Third Iron LLC
• Inventors: ROSKOWSKI, STEVEN GODDARD, FORRESTER, PAUL H.
• Application Number:
  US12/578,008
• Publication Number:
  US 20110055895A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 726/3
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/12 specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/52 specially adapted for the location of the user terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/568 Storing data temporarily at an intermediate stage, e.g. caching
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/02 Services making use of location information
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/029 Location-based management or tracking services

Abstract

A highly secure sensory stream event server receiving and storing encrypted assets and references to those assets over a non-proprietary communications channel. A system for selectively decrypting and transmitting references to analysis clients such as authenticated mutually unconscious users, and retrieving, decrypting and transmitting certain assets from high-volume storage, distributed storage, or in transit. A method for controlling a plurality of sensory stream event recordation clients and a plurality of analysis clients transmitting policies and commands requesting upload of assets and obtaining status solely by receiving client initiated sessions.

Claims

1. An apparatus comprising

at least one sensory stream server coupled to both a command server and to a storage server, a sensory stream server comprising:

a switchboard circuit, and

an asset storer circuit,

wherein the asset storer circuit is a processor adapted by software instructions to receive assets and references over a communication channel as determined by a point of recordation terminal (PORT) and

wherein the switchboard circuit couples all PORTs and all servers enabling a transfer of commands or status between any PORT—

server pair.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein assets and references comprise representations of chunks of data which represent meaningful partition of a data stream.

3. The apparatus of claim 2 wherein the asset storer circuit is adapted to process data as chunks are received to improve performance and latency in handling large data streams.

4. The apparatus of claim 3 wherein chunks comprise meaningful sensory groupings.

5. The apparatus of claim 4 wherein a meaningful sensory grouping is at least one frame of video.

6. The apparatus of claim 4 wherein a meaningful sensory grouping is at least one sample of audio.

7. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein a communication channel comprises a circuit adapted to perform instructions specified by Internet Protocol standard.

8. The apparatus of claim 7 wherein a communication channel comprises a circuit adapted to perform by TCP/IP specified instructions.

9. The apparatus of claim 8 wherein a communication channel comprises a circuit adapted to perform instructions specified by hypertext transfer protocol standard.

10. The apparatus of claim 9 wherein a communication channel comprises a circuit adapted to perform instructions specified by hypertext transfer protocol standard POST method.

11. The apparatus of claim 10 wherein a communication channel comprises a circuit adapted to perform instructions tangibly embodied on computer readable media and specified by hypertext transfer protocol standard POST method chunk based transfer encoding.

12. The apparatus of claim 1 further comprising

at least one sensory stream server coupled to both a command server and to a storage server, a sensory stream server comprising:

a switchboard circuit, and

an asset storer circuit,

wherein the asset storer circuit is a processor adapted by software to receive assets and references over an http protocol POST method initiated by a PORT and transfer encoded as chunks as determined by the PORT and

wherein the switchboard circuit couples all PORTs and all servers enabling a transfer of at least one command and status between any PORT and any server.

13. The apparatus of claim 1 further comprising

a location server comprising

a PORT authentication circuit and

a PORT routing circuit,

wherein a location server resides at a fixed address known by the PORT whereby any PORT can establish a connection to a location server without depending on a name resolution service or a network service which requires local network knowledge.

14. The apparatus of claim 1 further comprising

a location server comprising

a PORT authentication circuit and

a PORT routing circuit,

wherein a location server comprises a fixed Internet protocol address whereby any PORT can establish a connection to a PORT server without depending on the domain name system, and

whereby location information is provided to servers which need to find a certain PORT.

15. The apparatus of claim 1 further comprising an analysis server coupled to at least one of an analysis client and an analysis process for evaluation of a reference to determine if it is not of further interest or if the event should be elaborated and the referenced asset should be retrieved for additional analysis;

the analysis server comprising means for performing regression analysis on event meta data

means for summarizing event meta data

means for correlating meta data among related capture clients,

means for performing specific analysis upon recognition of a trigger event,

means for categorizing events by meta data, and

means for alerting a user to a certain pattern of events.

16. The apparatus of claim one wherein a sensory stream comprises orientation.

17. The apparatus of claim one wherein a sensory stream comprises temperature.

18. The apparatus of claim one wherein a sensory stream comprises pressure.

19. The apparatus of claim one wherein a sensory stream comprises acceleration.

20. The apparatus of claim one wherein a sensory stream comprises electro-magnetic field.

21. The apparatus of claim one wherein a sensory stream comprises audio.

22. The apparatus of claim one wherein a sensory stream comprises video.

23. A secure video stream event server comprising:

a capture server circuit

to receive a reference from a capture client,

to receive status from and transmit commands to each capture client,

to receive encrypted video stream assets from a capture client

according to an bandwidth shaping policy for incremental fulfillment or

according to a demand for immediate fulfillment,

a location manager circuit and

a storage manager circuit,

to maintain location of video assets for every captured event, and

to retrieve video assets from capture client,

to retrieve video assets from storage server, and

an analysis server.

24. The secure video stream event server of claim 23 wherein a video stream asset is an encrypted video stream asset whereby confidentiality is protected over a public communication channel.

25. The secure video stream event server of claim 23 wherein capture server circuit further comprises a circuit:

to enable an authenticated authorized user to access a capture client,

to transmit bandwidth policies to each capture client, and

to transmit a new event capture policy.

26. The secure video stream event server of claim 25 wherein capture server circuit further comprises a circuit:

to transmit a new meta data capture policy.

27. The secure video stream event server of claim 26 wherein capture server circuit further comprises a circuit:

to establish connectivity and status of every capture client.

28. The secure video stream event server of claim 23 wherein the analysis server comprises

one or more display server circuits

to decrypt video assets for authenticated authorized users,

to display references comprising meta data and thumbnails

to show a video stream for a selected event,

to show a plurality of scaled, still images for a plurality of events.

to show a timeline of event occurrences, and

to provide navigation between displays, and selection of events comprising

means for performing regression analysis on event meta data

means for summarizing event meta data

means for correlating meta data among related capture clients,

means for performing specific analysis upon recognition of a trigger event,

means for categorizing events by meta data, and

means for alerting a user to a certain pattern of events.

29. The secure video stream event server of claim 23 wherein the capture server circuit further comprises a circuit:

to enable access to a capture client by an authenticated authorized user,

to transmit bandwidth policies to each capture client, and

to transmit updates to event capture policy.

30. The secure video stream event server of claim 29 wherein the capture server circuit further comprises a circuit:

to transmit updates to meta data capture policy, and

31. The secure video stream event server of claim 30 wherein the capture server circuit further comprises a circuit:

to accept connectivity requests from authenticated capture clients.

32. A method for operating a system,

the system comprising,

a plurality of analysis clients coupled to an analysis server,

the analysis server coupled to a storage server, and

the storage server,

the method comprising the following processes:

providing seamless access to assets which may be in any one of a plurality of states,

determining a location for an asset currently stored, and

directing a request to retrieve an asset from a storage location.

33. The method of claim 32 further comprising:

controlling access from a user to the system and to at least one PORT in the assets emanating therefrom.

34. The method of claim 33 further comprising:

authenticating a user and providing a decryption key for a user to access an asset.

35. The method of claim 34 further comprising:

fetching assets and storing them in high volume reliable storage,

36. The method of claim 35 further comprising:

directing reference fetches to a command server for demand upload.

37. The method of claim 36 further comprising:

processing assets and references into a compact axis display.

38. The method of claim 32 for operating a system wherein a system is a secure system, and the method comprises

authenticating authorized users and

encrypting and decrypting references and assets for said users.

39. The method of claim 38 for operating a system wherein assets are encrypted assets and the method further comprises receiving and storing encrypted assets.

40. The method of claim 39 for operating a system wherein the method further comprises

storing a decryption key for an assets,

authenticating an authorized user before providing a decryption key and one of transmitting the decryption key to a user or

decrypting an asset for an authenticated authorized user.

41. The method of claim 38 further comprising the following processes:

receiving references and assets from PORTs over one or more connections,

publishing the existence of assets and references as they are being uploaded

converting required actions into a sequence of command transactions to PORTs,

42. The method of claim 41 further comprising the following processes:

authenticating a PORT and directing its traffic to a certain server.

43. The method of claim 42 further comprising the following processes:

adapting a bandwidth policy and updating each PORT'"'"'s bandwidth policy to accommodate requests for asset uploads.

44. The method of claim 43 further comprising the steps following:

associating authorized PORTs and public keys with authenticated users, and

managing distribution of keys to authorized servers or displays.

45. The method of claim 44 further comprising the steps following:

displaying meta data and decrypted references to authorized users, and

receiving requests for transmission of assets.

46. The method of claim 45 further comprising the steps following:

translating user selections in a display into configuration values and commands, and

converting action requests from other servers into a sequence of command transactions.

47. The method of claim 46 further comprising the steps following:

tracking the status of issued commands, and

receiving a user request and initiating an asset upload, wherein an asset is an encrypted video stream.

48. The method of claim 47 further comprising the steps following:

fetching assets and references from a camera server and storing into high-volume storage,

retrieving an asset or reference from high-volume storage, and

handling a request for an asset whose location is unknown.

49. The method of claim 48 further comprising the steps following:

instigating a demand upload command for an asset known to be on a camera.

50. The method of claim 49 further comprising the steps following:

formatting charts and graphs to profile the existence of references and of assets,

processing assets and references to provide a compact visual representation, and

detecting trends and discontinuities among the metadata of stored references and assets.

51. An apparatus coupled to a low-bandwidth communication channel, the channel coupled to a plurality of at least one of a microphone and a camera, the apparatus adapted to receive a compact audio sample or a low resolution still image representative of a larger digital stream stored at the microphone or camera.

52. The apparatus of claim 51 further comprising a circuit to respond to at least one of a microphone and a camera with an instruction to upload a stream of data.