Applications executing on phones, tablets and other client devices can be designed to authenticate with network services, but reliably identifying a client device that is not previously known to the service can be difficult. A television receiver or other trusted device that is previously known to the service, however, can act as an intermediary for initially delivering the clients identifying data to the authentication service. After the authentication service has received reliable identifying information about the client from another trusted device, the service is able to directly authenticate the client device in subsequent transactions by requesting and verifying receipt of the same secret identifier.
H04L 9/32 - Arrangements for secret or secure communications; Network security protocols including means for verifying the identity or authority of a user of the system
H04L 29/06 - Communication control; Communication processing characterised by a protocol
H04W 12/00 - Security arrangements; Authentication; Protecting privacy or anonymity
2.
NORMATIVE PROCESS OF INTERACTION WITH A REGISTRY OF VIRTUAL SPACES
Described are systems, methods, and computer program products for facilitating user access to virtual reality (VR) containers. A VR container registry may identify any type of container and optionally list requirements for accessing the container, constraints relating to when access is permitted, characteristics describing container features, lists of other containers accessible from within the container, container output formats, accepted input formats, etc. The registry may be organized in a hierarchical structure, make use of or be comparable to a domain name system, and include one or more top-level items each having one or more second-level items organized beneath. A service provider may host a VR container to facilitate user access to other VR containers, allow users to transfer between unconnected remote VR containers while staying within a VR session or without having to exit all VR sessions, and provide transformation services to ensure container and VR system compatibility.
A63F 13/35 - Interconnection arrangements between game servers and game devices; Interconnection arrangements between game devices; Interconnection arrangements between game servers - Details of game servers
A63F 13/213 - Input arrangements for video game devices characterised by their sensors, purposes or types comprising photodetecting means, e.g. cameras, photodiodes or infrared cells
A63F 13/215 - Input arrangements for video game devices characterised by their sensors, purposes or types comprising means for detecting acoustic signals, e.g. using a microphone
Before receiving an instruction from a media player to encode a media program, a placeshifting device or other video encoder pre-encodes at least a portion of the media program to a low-bandwidth format that can be readily transmitted to the media player upon request. When the media player does instruct the placeshifting device to encode the media program, the placeshifting device initially provides the pre-encoded portion of the media program to thereby allow the media player to begin immediate playback of the pre-encoded portion. After providing the preencoded portion of the media program, the placeshifting device live encodes the remaining portions of the media program according to then-current network conditions to thereby provide the placeshifted video stream to the media player.
H04N 21/231 - Content storage operation, e.g. caching movies for short term storage, replicating data over plural servers or prioritizing data for deletion
H04N 21/234 - Processing of video elementary streams, e.g. splicing of video streams or manipulating MPEG-4 scene graphs
H04N 21/235 - Processing of additional data, e.g. scrambling of additional data or processing content descriptors
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
H04N 21/433 - Content storage operation, e.g. storage operation in response to a pause request or caching operations
H04N 21/44 - Processing of video elementary streams, e.g. splicing a video clip retrieved from local storage with an incoming video stream or rendering scenes according to MPEG-4 scene graphs
H04N 21/4402 - Processing of video elementary streams, e.g. splicing a video clip retrieved from local storage with an incoming video stream or rendering scenes according to MPEG-4 scene graphs involving reformatting operations of video signals for household redistribution, storage or real-time display
H04N 21/462 - Content or additional data management e.g. creating a master electronic program guide from data received from the Internet and a Head-end or controlling the complexity of a video stream by scaling the resolution or bit-rate based on the client capabi
H04N 21/472 - End-user interface for requesting content, additional data or services; End-user interface for interacting with content, e.g. for content reservation or setting reminders, for requesting event notification or for manipulating displayed content
H04N 21/845 - Structuring of content, e.g. decomposing content into time segments
A device for transferring heat from a device component to an environment includes a heat plate connected to a spring. A first fastener attaches the spring to the heat plate at a first location. A second fastener, such as a rivet, attaches the spring to the heat plate at each of a second and a third location. The second fastener includes a tab on and extending above the heat plate and corresponding tab slot on the spring. The spring is riveted to the heat plate at the first location and a second spring member accepts the tab at each of the second location and the third location. Ribs on a top surface of spring facilitate thermal coupling of the spring to the component when the device is assembled. One or more spring curvatures facilitate vertical deflection and horizontal extension of the spring during device assembly.
Systems and methods for enhanced video encoding identify patterns in sequences of raw digital video frames to extract features and identify the type of content represented by the extracted features. The system simulates many outcomes of encoding the sequence of digital video frames by using various different encoding strategies to find the relative best encoding strategy for each sequence of frames. As the encoder processes video, it passes digital video frames to a modeling system which determines whether the video, or video having that same type of content, has been previously observed by the system. The system then selectively applies a saved encoding strategy that had been determined by the system to be particularly suitable for encoding the same sequence of video frames or that same type of content.
H04N 19/196 - Methods or arrangements for coding, decoding, compressing or decompressing digital video signals using adaptive coding characterised by the adaptation method, adaptation tool or adaptation type used for the adaptive coding being specially adapted for the computation of encoding parameters, e.g. by averaging previously computed encoding parameters
H04N 19/132 - Sampling, masking or truncation of coding units, e.g. adaptive resampling, frame skipping, frame interpolation or high-frequency transform coefficient masking
H04N 19/136 - Incoming video signal characteristics or properties
H04N 19/184 - Methods or arrangements for coding, decoding, compressing or decompressing digital video signals using adaptive coding characterised by the coding unit, i.e. the structural portion or semantic portion of the video signal being the object or the subject of the adaptive coding the unit being bits, e.g. of the compressed video stream
H04N 19/40 - Methods or arrangements for coding, decoding, compressing or decompressing digital video signals using video transcoding, i.e. partial or full decoding of a coded input stream followed by re-encoding of the decoded output stream
G06K 9/00 - Methods or arrangements for reading or recognising printed or written characters or for recognising patterns, e.g. fingerprints
G06F 17/30 - Information retrieval; Database structures therefor
6.
SCANNING OBSTACLE SENSOR FOR THE VISUALLY IMPAIRED
Systems, methods, and processor-readable media are provided for content distribution for a multi-channel content distribution system. A content item may be received by a video handling system. The content item may include video data, the content item corresponding to media for delivery to a television receivers via channel components. A metric of the content item may be detected as a function of time. Viewership data received from data sources may be processed, the viewership data indicative of one or more characteristics of viewers. The viewership data may be mapped to the content item. The content item may be qualified based on the viewership data to yield a qualification result for the content item. An encoding parameter to encode the content item may be determined based on the metric and the qualification result. Encoding of the content item may be specified in accordance with the encoding parameter.
H04N 21/442 - Monitoring of processes or resources, e.g. detecting the failure of a recording device, monitoring the downstream bandwidth, the number of times a movie has been viewed or the storage space available from the internal hard disk
G06Q 30/02 - Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
H04H 60/33 - Arrangements for monitoring the users' behaviour or opinions
H04N 21/658 - Transmission by the client directed to the server
H04N 21/2365 - Multiplexing of several video streams
8.
RADIO FREQUENCY ANTENNA FOR SHORT RANGE COMMUNICATIONS
An antenna assembly includes a substrate, a first antenna having a first, second, third, fourth sections, which have different configuration respectively, and a first transmission cable, a second antenna having a fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth sections, which have different configuration respectively, and a second transmission cable. The first and fifth sections extend vertically from a surface of the substrate respectively. The second, third and fourth sections extend in parallel with the first section and extend from its next section. The sixth, seventh, eighth sections extend in parallel with the fifth section and extend from its next section. The first and second transmission cables physically and electrically are connected to the first and second antenna respectively. The second antenna is spaced away from the first antenna a selected distance. The first antenna is arranged having each of its sections extending perpendicular to each of its sections of the second antenna.
H01Q 1/42 - Housings not intimately mechanically associated with radiating elements, e.g. radome
H01Q 9/40 - Element having extended radiating surface
H01Q 9/42 - Resonant antennas with feed to end of elongated active element, e.g. unipole with folded element, the folded parts being spaced apart a small fraction of the operating wavelength
H01Q 21/24 - Combinations of antenna units polarised in different directions for transmitting or receiving circularly and elliptically polarised waves or waves linearly polarised in any direction
9.
SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR AN ADAPTIVE ELECTRONIC PROGRAM GUIDE
A set-top box or other receiving device may detect such channels that the EPG cursor visits frequently, visits for relatively long periods of time or that are frequently displayed on the screen in the electronic program guide (EPG), or otherwise frequently visited or viewed. The system determines that such channels are those that the user is likely to return to when browsing the EPG in the future and then adapts the EPG to present such channels on top of the EPG together with each other separately from the other full list of channels presented in the. This may be performed each time the EPG is opened. A customized EPG having the particular group of channels presented according a specific identified user's previous channel browsing activity may also be generated.
H04N 21/431 - Generation of visual interfaces; Content or additional data rendering
H04N 21/45 - Management operations performed by the client for facilitating the reception of or the interaction with the content or administrating data related to the end-user or to the client device itself, e.g. learning user preferences for recommending movies
H04N 21/482 - End-user interface for program selection
10.
INTEGRATED CIRCUIT CARD READER WITH IMPROVED HEAT DISSIPATION
Various embodiments provide a card reader that provides heat dissipation for high data transfer ICCs. The card reader includes a body having a press bar that physically contacts an upper surface of the ICC when fully inserted into the card reader. The press bar includes an aperture directly overlying and aligned with the card contacts of the card reader and the contact pads of the ICC when fully inserted. The aperture allows any heat generated by the ICC to radiate to a surrounding cooling medium, such as air.
A distributed indoor antenna system for over the air television reception includes technological improvements that increase signal quality on a display device. The system includes a plurality of active distributed antenna nodes and a reception gateway. The distributed antenna nodes are placed and oriented at various spaced-apart locations around a user's residence or other location of interest. Each of the plurality of active distributed antenna nodes includes an antenna, a demodulator, and a Wi Fi converter. The plurality of active distributed antenna nodes receives the broadcast signals, decodes the broadcast signals, and transcodes the decoded broadcast signals into a Wi Fi signal format. The reception gateway receives the transcoded broadcast signals and determines which signal or which signal combination to retransmit to the display device.
H04H 20/63 - Arrangements specially adapted for specific applications, e.g. for traffic information or for mobile receivers for local area broadcast, e.g. instore broadcast to plural spots in a confined site, e.g. MATV [Master Antenna Television]
H04N 21/4363 - Adapting the video stream to a specific local network, e.g. a IEEE 1394 or Bluetooth® network
12.
RF ANTENNA ARRANGEMENT CONFIGURED TO BE A PART OF A LID TO AN APPARATUS
An RF antenna arrangement has the same or slightly larger footprint as the RF shield for radio chips on a printed circuit board. The apparatus includes a printed circuit board, a digital processor, a radio chip(s), a radio frequency shield, a lid, and an RF antenna arrangement(s). The lid has the same or slightly larger footprint as the RF shield, which enables the lid to fit on the RF shield. The RF antenna is formed as an integral part of the lid. The apparatus also includes an RF transmission coaxial cable(s) having a first end physically and electrically connected to the RF antenna arrangement(s) and the surface of the lid, and a second end electrically coupled to an RF connector. By forming the antenna arrangement(s) from the lid, this invention solves the space constraint problems of antenna placements for wireless device applications. Additionally, this invention is cost-effective and simple to manufacture.
H01Q 1/22 - Supports; Mounting means by structural association with other equipment or articles
H01Q 1/44 - ANTENNAS, i.e. RADIO AERIALS - Details of, or arrangements associated with, antennas using equipment having another main function to serve additionally as an antenna
H01Q 1/52 - Means for reducing coupling between antennas; Means for reducing coupling between an antenna and another structure
Various embodiments of systems, apparatus, and methods are described for A user input device, such as a remote control device. In one implementation, the remote control device includes at least one pair of electrical contacts, at least one button configured to electrically connect the at least one pair of electrical contacts, and a degradation measurement module in electrical communication with at least one of the electrical contacts. The degradation measurement module is configured to determine a degradation level of the at least one button based on at least one electrical property of a circuit associated with the at least one button when the at least button electrically connects the at least one pair of electrical contacts.
G01R 31/327 - Testing of circuit interrupters, switches or circuit-breakers
G01R 31/00 - Arrangements for testing electric properties; Arrangements for locating electric faults; Arrangements for electrical testing characterised by what is being tested not provided for elsewhere
Described are systems and methods for providing improved indoor reception of OTA (Over-the-Air) broadcast signals. The systems described include antenna systems with one or more network interfaces for providing a transport stream received by an antenna to a network.
H01Q 1/44 - ANTENNAS, i.e. RADIO AERIALS - Details of, or arrangements associated with, antennas using equipment having another main function to serve additionally as an antenna
F21V 33/00 - Structural combinations of lighting devices with other articles, not otherwise provided for
Embodiments described herein provide various techniques for programming and authorizing television receivers and other subscriber equipment via Internet Protocol (IP) networks. In some embodiments, a television receiver device (e.g., a satellite television receiver, cable television receiver, etc.) may detect and establish a connection to an IP network. After connecting to an IP network, the receiver may transmit identification data to a backend computer server of a cable or satellite television provider. The backend server may use the receiver identification data to determine television subscription(s) associated with the receiver and/or customer, and may determine and transmit one or more authorization codes back to the television receiver over the IP network. The television receiver may use the authorization codes to program the receiver device to decode and output the television channels and programs corresponding to the subscription.
H04N 21/258 - Client or end-user data management, e.g. managing client capabilities, user preferences or demographics or processing of multiple end-users preferences to derive collaborative data
H04N 21/45 - Management operations performed by the client for facilitating the reception of or the interaction with the content or administrating data related to the end-user or to the client device itself, e.g. learning user preferences for recommending movies
H04N 21/462 - Content or additional data management e.g. creating a master electronic program guide from data received from the Internet and a Head-end or controlling the complexity of a video stream by scaling the resolution or bit-rate based on the client capabi
H04N 21/61 - Network physical structure; Signal processing
16.
DETECTION AND MARKING OF LOW QUALITY VIDEO CONTENT
A mobile electronic device and a related method of processing video information are presented herein. In accordance with an exemplary embodiment, the method of processing video information captures video data with a source device, and determines that a segment of video content conveyed by the video data does not satisfy predetermined video quality criteria. In response to the determination, the method initiates corrective action to disregard the segment of video content.
Systems, electronic devices, and methods are directed to a self-adjustable heat spreader. A spring system may include one or more spring members and a contact surface adapted to contact a circuit board component. Each spring member may include a thermally conductive material. A thermal spreader plate may be coupled to the one or more spring members. The spring system and the thermal spreader plate may be configured to allow movement, with respect to the thermal spreader plate along multiple axes, of one or more portions of the one or more spring members proximate to the thermal spreader plate when the contact surface is pressed against the circuit board component and the spring system transitions from a first state to a compressed state. The contact surface and the spring system may be configured to transfer heat between the circuit board component and the thermal spreader plate.
Multimedia systems and related methods and devices are provided for recommending media programs to a user. Viewing characteristics of the user are determined based on usage information detailing preceding viewing sessions for the user. In one or more embodiments, the user's current interest in one or more currently available media programs that originated after the user's preceding viewing session is predicted based on the user' s viewing characteristics and the current viewing context, and media programs having the highest predicted current interest are indicated to the user as being recommended.
H04N 21/25 - Management operations performed by the server for facilitating the content distribution or administrating data related to end-users or client devices, e.g. end-user or client device authentication or learning user preferences for recommending movies
H04N 21/258 - Client or end-user data management, e.g. managing client capabilities, user preferences or demographics or processing of multiple end-users preferences to derive collaborative data
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 or generating play-lists
H04N 21/658 - Transmission by the client directed to the server
Systems, devices, and methods for streaming media content over a network are provided. One exemplary method of streaming media content over a network involves a media player at a client device selecting a particular content delivery source of a plurality of content delivery sources using a prioritized list and requesting the media content from the selected content delivery source via the network. In one embodiment, content is requested from an origin server and subsequently requested from another content delivery source. In one embodiment, content is requested from and transmitted by an RS-DVR system. In one embodiment, the delivery route between a content delivery source and a network is dynamically adjusted based on performance.
H04N 21/231 - Content storage operation, e.g. caching movies for short term storage, replicating data over plural servers or prioritizing data for deletion
H04L 29/06 - Communication control; Communication processing characterised by a protocol
H04N 21/2343 - Processing of video elementary streams, e.g. splicing of video streams or manipulating MPEG-4 scene graphs involving reformatting operations of video signals for distribution or compliance with end-user requests or end-user device requirements
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 or generating play-lists
H04N 21/2747 - Remote storage of video programs received via the downstream path, e.g. from the server
H04N 21/442 - Monitoring of processes or resources, e.g. detecting the failure of a recording device, monitoring the downstream bandwidth, the number of times a movie has been viewed or the storage space available from the internal hard disk
H04N 21/845 - Structuring of content, e.g. decomposing content into time segments
H04N 21/482 - End-user interface for program selection
H04N 21/433 - Content storage operation, e.g. storage operation in response to a pause request or caching operations
H04N 21/462 - Content or additional data management e.g. creating a master electronic program guide from data received from the Internet and a Head-end or controlling the complexity of a video stream by scaling the resolution or bit-rate based on the client capabi
Systems, devices, and methods for streaming media content over a network are provided. One exemplary method of assisted streaming of media content over a network involves detecting, by a media player at a client device coupled to the network, a first condition with respect to streaming the media content, and in response to the first condition, requesting, by the media player, a first portion of the media content from a first content delivery source on the network. After requesting the first portion of the media content, the method further comprises detecting, by the media player, a second condition with respect to streaming the media content, and in response to detecting the second condition, requesting, by the media player, a subsequent portion of the media content from a second content delivery source on the network. The first content delivery source transmits the media content using a modified transport layer protocol.
H04N 21/231 - Content storage operation, e.g. caching movies for short term storage, replicating data over plural servers or prioritizing data for deletion
H04L 29/06 - Communication control; Communication processing characterised by a protocol
H04N 21/2343 - Processing of video elementary streams, e.g. splicing of video streams or manipulating MPEG-4 scene graphs involving reformatting operations of video signals for distribution or compliance with end-user requests or end-user device requirements
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 or generating play-lists
H04N 21/2747 - Remote storage of video programs received via the downstream path, e.g. from the server
H04N 21/442 - Monitoring of processes or resources, e.g. detecting the failure of a recording device, monitoring the downstream bandwidth, the number of times a movie has been viewed or the storage space available from the internal hard disk
H04N 21/845 - Structuring of content, e.g. decomposing content into time segments
H04N 21/482 - End-user interface for program selection
H04N 21/433 - Content storage operation, e.g. storage operation in response to a pause request or caching operations
H04N 21/462 - Content or additional data management e.g. creating a master electronic program guide from data received from the Internet and a Head-end or controlling the complexity of a video stream by scaling the resolution or bit-rate based on the client capabi
Systems, devices, and methods for streaming media content over a network are provided. One exemplary method of streaming media content over a network using a RS-DVR system involves receiving, at the RS-DVR system, a request for a portion of the media content from a media player on a client device via the network, receiving, at the RS-DVR system, the portion of the media content from an origin server on the network, buffering the portion of the media content at the RS-DVR system, and transmitting the portion of the media content to the media player on the client device. The portion of media content may be transmitted using a modified transport layer protocol, and in some embodiments, marked as non-cacheable.
H04N 21/231 - Content storage operation, e.g. caching movies for short term storage, replicating data over plural servers or prioritizing data for deletion
H04L 29/06 - Communication control; Communication processing characterised by a protocol
H04N 21/2343 - Processing of video elementary streams, e.g. splicing of video streams or manipulating MPEG-4 scene graphs involving reformatting operations of video signals for distribution or compliance with end-user requests or end-user device requirements
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 or generating play-lists
H04N 21/2747 - Remote storage of video programs received via the downstream path, e.g. from the server
H04N 21/442 - Monitoring of processes or resources, e.g. detecting the failure of a recording device, monitoring the downstream bandwidth, the number of times a movie has been viewed or the storage space available from the internal hard disk
H04N 21/845 - Structuring of content, e.g. decomposing content into time segments
H04N 21/482 - End-user interface for program selection
H04N 21/433 - Content storage operation, e.g. storage operation in response to a pause request or caching operations
H04N 21/462 - Content or additional data management e.g. creating a master electronic program guide from data received from the Internet and a Head-end or controlling the complexity of a video stream by scaling the resolution or bit-rate based on the client capabi
Systems, devices, and methods for streaming media content over a network are provided. One exemplary method of streaming media content over a network involves transmitting one or more portions of the media content to a client device via a delivery route between a content delivery source and the network, determining a performance metric associated with the transmitting of the one or more portions via the delivery route, and dynamically adjusting the delivery route between the content delivery source and the network based at least in part on the performance metric.
H04L 29/06 - Communication control; Communication processing characterised by a protocol
H04N 21/647 - Control signaling between network components and server or clients; Network processes for video distribution between server and clients, e.g. controlling the quality of the video stream, by dropping packets, protecting content from unauthorised alteration within the network, monitoring of network load or bridging bet
H04L 29/08 - Transmission control procedure, e.g. data link level control procedure
23.
SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR BANDWIDTH ESTIMATION IN OSCILLATING NETWORKS
A method for estimating bandwidth associated with an oscillating network includes determining a set of first average bandwidths within a corresponding set of first sliding windows, wherein each of the first sliding windows has a first duration. A second sliding window is defined such that it includes the set of first sliding windows, the second sliding window having a second duration that is larger than the first duration. The system then determines whether a bandwidth oscillation (as illustrated) is occurring based on the first set of first average bandwidths within the second sliding window.