Sun Microsystems, Inc.

Oracle America, Inc.

Other

U.S. Philips Corporation

Gerard M Fernando

Viswanathan Swaminathan

Keith Deutsch

Pallavi Shah

Michael F Speer

Atul Puri

Robert Lewis Schmidt

Kelly Kishore

William J Keenan

Thomas W Jacobs

Stefanos Bitzakidis

Raghuveer Pallikonda

Pragyan Debadarshini

One embodiment of the present invention provides a system that facilitates issuing rights in a digital rights management system. The system operates by sending a request to perform an operation on an item of content from a client to a rights-management server, wherein the request includes a usage parameter which specifies constraints involved in performing the operation. Next, the system receives a response from the rights-management server, wherein the response indicates whether or not the client has rights to perform the operation in accordance with the constraints specified by the usage parameter. Note that the response may also include a hint that facilitates generating subsequent requests to perform the operation. Finally, if the client has rights to perform the operation, the system performs the operation on the item of content.

Method and apparatus for issuing rights in a digital rights management system

A method for delivering a data stream to a plurality of clients in a network. The method involves receiving the data stream from a media server, where the data stream includes a plurality of data packets and a data stream identifier associated with at least one of the plurality of data packets, securing the data stream received from the media server by applying a filter to the data stream to obtain a filtered data packet from the plurality of data packets based on the data stream identifier, encrypting the filtered data packet using an encryption scheme to obtain a encrypted media content, and distributing the encrypted media content to at least one of the plurality of clients in the network.

Method and apparatus of encrypting content delivery

A method and apparatus for timely delivery of classes and objects is provided. A header comprising timing information is attached to said classes and/or objects. A 'start loading' time and a 'load by' time are specified in the header. Other classes and/or objects to be loaded are also specified in the header. Optional compression, security, and/or error resilience schemes are also specified in the header. A process for creating the header and attaching it to a class or object is provided. A process for receiving and processing a class or object with an attached header is provided. Embodiments of the invention allow timely delivery of classes and/or objects over a wide variety of transport mechanisms, including unreliable transport mechanisms and those lacking any guarantees of timely delivery.

Distributing data via a network including timing information

A method and apparatus for controlling access to information over a network. Information and video/audio streams are transmitted across a network by a head end to a member space manager or set-top box where the information may be utilized or viewed. The frequency that a given stream of information is transmitted on is rotated or switched based on a switching algorithm. For example, a given stream (e.g., a motion picture on a pay-per-view station) may be transmitted on one frequency for a specified time interval, then switched to another frequency for a specified time interval, etc. To enable the member space manager to determine which frequency a given stream of information is transmitted on at a particular point in time, switching software may be provided by the head end server to the member space manager. Switching software may be encrypted prior to transmission to the member space manager. According to one or more embodiments of the invention, the stream-to-frequency mapping is determined, the mapping is transmitted to the member space manager where it is installed and executed, the stream of information is transmitted on varying frequencies to the member space manager, and the member space manager tunes into the appropriate frequency to receive and utilize a continuous stream of information. By transmitting information in this manner, all encryption, frequency/channel switching, configuration issues, etc. are transparent to the end user who merely has to select a virtual channel to view.

Controlling access to information over a multiband network

Method for handling byte code in a configurable manner

In a system where client and server components (or actors) of an application are organized as complementary hierarchical graphs, a method and apparatus for creating server applications and dynamically deploying server applications on a client system are described. The server graph comprises, as a minimum, server nodes corresponding to the union of all possible client nodes, whereas each client graph corresponds to a subset of the related server nodes. The server graph is a compound tree from which all possible combinations of client trees can be dynamically created. At a desired time, for example, when the client requests for a client tree representation, the server creates the client tree representation using a peeling process to determine which nodes in the server actor tree should be included in the client tree representation. The peeling process involves determining the server actor nodes that meet a set of criteria for the particular client. The generated client tree structure contains objects that are shipped via a secured communication interface to the client in a tree structure.

Method and apparatus for creating and deploying applications from a server application

A server obtains a build object comprising a data structure and one or more methods configured to build a scenegraph from scenegraph information stored in the data structure. A spawning process on the server initializes the build object by writing scenegraph information of a desired scenegraph into the data structure of the build object. The initialized build object is then transmitted to the client and loaded. One or more methods of the build object are invoked at the client to generate the desired scenegraph from the information contained in the build object's data structure. The scenegraph building mechanisms are transparent to the client. Thus, the format by which the scenegraph is represented in the data structure of the build object and/or the build methods of the build object may vary among servers, or may vary for the same server over time, without requiring the client to be reprogrammed.

Method and apparatus for transport of scenegraph information across a network

MPEG-J is a collection of Java application programming interfaces (APIS) with which applications can be developed to interact with the platform and the content. In the context of MPEG-J, the platform is a device like a set-top box or a PC with Java packages conforming to a well-defined Java platform. The Java-based application consists of Java byte code, which may be available from a local source, like a hard disk, or it may be loaded from a remote site over a network. The MPEG-J Java byte code will be available as a separate elementary stream. The MPEG-4 system is the &ldquo;Presentation engine&rdquo; of MPEG-J. MPEG-J provides programmatic control through an &ldquo;Application engine&rdquo; which enhances the MPEG-4 browser by providing added interactive capability.

Architecture and application programming interfaces for Java-enabled MPEG-4 (MPEG-J) systems

A method and apparatus for embedding of bytecode data in a transport stream is described. Embodiments of the invention serve to make Java&trade; bytecode (in a class file) concurrently available to a user that is receiving media information through a transport stream. To ensure the concurrent delivery of bytecode, the information is embedded within spaces allocated in the transport stream, or in packets that carry the media data. In one embodiment of the invention, media data is grouped in structured packets referred to as Packetized Elementary Stream (PES) packets. Predefined spaces are available in each PES packet where bytecode data is embedded. In one embodiment of the invention the pre-defined space is allocated within the header segment of a PES packet. In another embodiment bytecode instruction are embedded within a private stream segment of a PES packet. One transport stream used with the invention is an MPEG-2 transport stream that includes structured packets that transport the PES packets. These transport stream packets, in turn, have within them pre-defined spaces. Bytecode data can also be embedded within spaces available in the transport stream. In an embodiment of this invention bytecode can be embedded in a transport stream header or a transport stream payload segment. In other embodiments, bytecode data is transmitted in the private stream segment and retransmission of bytecode data is accomplished in other regions of the PES packet. In another embodiment, bytecode data is transmitted in an adaptation field and retransmitted data is sent as PES header private data.

Method and apparatus for delivery of a bytecode embedded within a transport stream

Method and apparatus for timely delivery of a byte code and serialized

A matrix display system, comprising a display panel (10) having a row and column array of light modulating picture elements (12), for example liquid crystal picture elements, and panel illuminating means (19), is operated by driving the rows of picture elements such that the display information of successive fields of an applied video signal is written into the panel in respective panel display information address periods that are substantially less than the applied video signal field period and separated by a time interval, and such that successive periods in which display fields are presented to a viewer are separated by intervals in which substantially no display output is produced. The resulting dark intervals lead to an improvement in perceived resolution of moving images. The illumination means can be controlled so as to produce a display output during at least a part of the interval and substantially no display output during at least a part of the address period. Alternatively, the picture elements can be driven to their substantially non-transmissive display states during the interval between successive display information address periods and the illumination means may be turned off for a part of that interval.

Growing community of inventors

Mountain View, CA, United States of America

Gerard M Fernando