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US Patent 6948183 - Dynamic security for digital television receivers

US Patent Issued on September 20, 2005
Estimated Patent Expiration Date: Icon_subject November 20, 2020Estimated Expiration Date is calculated based on simple USPTO term provisions. It does not account for terminal disclaimers, term adjustments, failure to pay maintenance fees, or other factors which might affect the term of a patent.
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Abstract

A system that allows service providers, consumer electronic (CE) manufacturers or standards bodies to define flexible security policies (110) for the execution of downloaded applications (120) on digital television (DTV) receivers (160). The current receiver environment in which a software application is to be run is evaluated. For example, environmental factors such as time of day, date, channel currently tuned in, parental lockout status, grouping of major and minor virtual channels, and so forth, may be considered. An access controller (168) determines if the receiver's environmental factors satisfy the conditions for granting a permission to a downloadable application to allow access to the receiver functions (161), receiver resources and user private data. The security policy can be modified by installing or downloading a new security policy (110), or modified by a user with the provision of an appropriate interface. A Java code-implemented embodiment is disclosed.

Other References

  • Evain, J.P., “The Multimedia Home Platform,” EBU Technical Review, No. 275, Mar. 21, 1998, pp. 4-10.
  • Thrift, P. et al., “JTV—Java-enabled Television,” Proceedings of the SPIE, vol. 3228, Nov. 4, 1997, pp. 117-122.
  • Cutts, D., “DVB Conditional Access,” Electronics & Communication Engineering Journal, vol. 9, No. 1, Feb. 1, 1997, pp. 21-27.
  • EBU Project Group, “Functional Model of a Conditional Access System,” EBU Technical Review, No. 266, Dec. 21, 1995, pp. 64-77.
  • Gong, Li et al., “Going Beyond the Sandbox: An Overview of the New Security Architecture in the Java™ Development Kit 1.2,” In Proceedings of the USENIX Symposium on Internet Technologies and Systems, Monterey, California, Dec., 1997.

Inventor

Assignee

Application

No. 09716682 filed on 11/20/2000

US Classes:

725/25, ACCESS CONTROL OR BLOCKING725/140, Programmable or upgradeable370/432, Messages addressed to multiple destinations348/731, Tuning380/232, Including authentication725/39, Electronic program guide709/229Network resources access controlling

Field of Search

713/182, SYSTEM ACCESS CONTROL BASED ON USER IDENTIFICATION BY CRYPTOGRAPHY713/183, Solely password entry (no record or token)725/25, ACCESS CONTROL OR BLOCKING725/132, Programmable or upgradeable725/136, Interactive data transmitted in video signal band (e.g., VBI or HBI data)725/140, Programmable or upgradeable725/23, SYSTEM FOR AWARDING COUPON, TOKEN, OR CREDIT725/20By data encoded in video signal (e.g., VBI data)

Examiners

Primary: Miller, John
Assistant: Beliveau, Scott

Attorney, Agent or Firm

US Patent References

5757417, Method and apparatus for screening audio-visual materials presented to a subscriber
Issued on: 05/26/1998
Inventor: Aras, et al.
5915085, Multiple resource or security contexts in a multithreaded application
Issued on: 06/22/1999
Inventor: Koved
5925127, Method and system for monitoring the use of rented software
Issued on: 07/20/1999
Inventor: Ahmad
5978381, Transmitting high bandwidth network content on a low bandwidth communications channel during off peak hours
Issued on: 11/02/1999
Inventor: Perlman, et al.
6044466, Flexible and dynamic derivation of permissions
Issued on: 03/28/2000
Inventor: Anand, et al.
6047377, Typed, parameterized, and extensible access control permissions
Issued on: 04/04/2000
Inventor: Gong
6115079, Programmable video channel controller
Issued on: 09/05/2000
Inventor: McRae
6163316, Electronic programming system and method
Issued on: 12/19/2000
Inventor: Killian
6256393, Authorization and access control of software object residing in set-top terminals
Issued on: 07/03/2001
Inventor: Safadi, et al.
6484261, Graphical network security policy management
Issued on: 11/19/2002
Inventor: Wiegel
6665869, Program guide application interface system
Issued on: 12/16/2003
Inventor: Ellis ,   et al.
6745245Managing access to set-top box objects using television conditional access system
Issued on: 06/01/2004
Inventor: Carpenter

Foreign Patent References

  • 0 732 850 EP 09/01/1996
  • 0 752 786 EP 01/01/1997
  • 0 909 094 EP 04/01/1999

International Class

H04N007/16

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