Sun Microsystems, Inc.

Other

Oracle America, Inc.

Pallavi Shah

Gerard M Fernando

Keith Deutsch

Atul Puri

Viswanathan Swaminathan

Robert Lewis Schmidt

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

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.

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Mountain View, CA, United States of America

Pallavi Shah