Providing a representation for a device connected to a display device

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10593287-B2
Application number	US-201715829256-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 1, 2017
Priority date	Dec 23, 2014
Publication date	Mar 17, 2020
Grant date	Mar 17, 2020

Abstract

Disclosed herein are system, apparatus, article of manufacture, method, and/or computer program product embodiments for providing a representation to a connected device. An embodiment operates by recognizing a new device connected to a display device, collecting device fingerprint information from the new device, and requesting a device class representation information determined based on the device fingerprint information. Another embodiment operates by receiving device fingerprint information from a display device via a network connection, wherein the device fingerprint information is collected from a device connected to a display device, and providing device class representation information to the display device via the network connection, when the device class representation information corresponding to the device fingerprint information is available.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An apparatus, comprising:
a memory; and
at least one processor coupled to the memory and configured to:
receive a first device fingerprint information from a first display device, wherein the first device fingerprint information is collected from a device connected to the first display device;
compare the received first device fingerprint information with crowd sourced representation information stored in a device representation database;
determine that the device connected to the first display device is an unknown device based at least on a comparison of the received first device fingerprint information with the crowd source representation information;
transmit an indication to the first display device indicating that first device class representation information is not available in the device representation database;
receive a second device fingerprint information from a second display device, wherein the second device fingerprint information is collected from a device connected to the second display device;
receive a second device class representation information corresponding to the second device fingerprint information from the second display device, wherein the second device class representation information includes a second device class name that is selected by a second user, and
store the second device class representation information and the second device fingerprint information in the device representation database, wherein the second device fingerprint information is same as the first device fingerprint information.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 , the at least one processor further configured to:
receive the first device class representation information corresponding to the first device fingerprint information from the first display device, wherein the first device class representation information includes a first device class name that is selected by a first user; and
store the first device class representation information and the first device fingerprint information in the device representation database.

3. The apparatus of claim 2 , the at least one processor further configured to:
receive a third device fingerprint information from a third display device, wherein the third device fingerprint information is collected from a device connected to the third display device;
compare the third device fingerprint information with the crowd sourced representation information stored in the device representation database;
determine that the device connected to the third display device is a known device based at least on the comparison of the third device fingerprint information with the crowd sourced representation information; and
provide a third device class representation information that corresponds to the third device fingerprint information to the third display device based at least on the determination that the device connected to the third display device is a known device.

4. The apparatus of claim 3 , wherein
the device representation database is configured to store the crowd sourced representation information, and
the crowd sourced representation information includes an aggregate of device fingerprint information and corresponding device class representation information received from one or more display devices.

5. The apparatus of claim 2 , wherein the first device class representation information further includes a first device class image associated with the first device class name.

6. The apparatus of claim 5 , wherein
the first device class name is a generic description of the device connected to the first display device,
the first device class image is a generic image associated with the first device class name, and
the first device fingerprint information includes at least one of a vendor identifier, product identifier, and/or on screen display information.

7. A computer-implemented method, comprising:
receiving a first device fingerprint information from a first display device, wherein the first device fingerprint information is collected from a device connected to the first display device;
comparing the received first device fingerprint information with crowd sourced representation information stored in a device representation database;
determining that the device connected to the first display device is an unknown device based at least on the comparison of the received first device fingerprint information with the crowd sourced representation information;
transmitting an indication to the first display device indicating that first device class representation information is not available for the device connected to the first display device;
receiving a second device fingerprint information from a second display device, wherein the second device fingerprint information is collected from a device connected to the second display device;
receiving a second device class representation information corresponding to the second device fingerprint information from the second display device, wherein the second device class representation information includes a second device class name that is selected by a second user, and
storing the second device class representation information and the second device fingerprint information in the device representation database, wherein the second device fingerprint information is same as the first device fingerprint information.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 7 , further comprising:
receiving the first device class representation information corresponding to the first device fingerprint information from the first display device, wherein the first device class representation information includes a first device class name that is selected by a first user; and
storing the first device class representation information and the first device fingerprint information in the device representation database.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 8 , further comprising:
receiving a third device fingerprint information from a third display device, wherein the third device fingerprint information is collected from a device connected to the third display device;
comparing the third device fingerprint information with the crowd sourced representation information stored in the device representation database;
determining that the device connected to the third display device is a known device based at least on the comparison of the third device fingerprint information with the crowd sourced representation information; and
providing a third device class representation information that corresponds to the third device fingerprint information to the third display device based at least on the determination that the device connected to the third display device is a known device.

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 9 , wherein:
the device representation database is configured to store the crowd sourced representation information, and
the crowd sourced representation information includes an aggregate of device fingerprint information and corresponding device class representation information received from one or more display devices.

11. The computer-implemented method of claim 10 , wherein:
the first device class name is a generic description of the device connected to the first display device,
the first device class image is a generic image associated with the first device class name, and
the first device fingerprint information includes at least one of a vendor identifier, product identifier, and/or on screen display information.

12. The computer-implemented method of claim 8 , wherein the first device class representation information further includes a

Assignees

• Roku Inc

Inventors

• Sharp David
• Bush Jeff
• Funk Jim
• Michiels Wim
• Luck Dale

Classifications

• G09G5/006 Primary

  Details of the interface to the display terminal (specific for a display terminal using a CRT G09G1/167; using a flat panel G09G3/2096; circuits for interfacing with colour displays G09G5/04) · CPC title

• H04N21/25825

  involving client display capabilities, e.g. screen resolution of a mobile phone (optimising the visualisation of content during browsing in the Internet G06F16/9577; processing of terminal status or physical abilities in wireless networks H04W8/22; authentication in wireless network security H04W12/06) · CPC title

• H04N21/00

  Selective content distribution, e.g. interactive television or video on demand [VOD] (real-time bi-directional transmission of motion video data H04N7/14 {; broadcast or conference over packet switching networks H04L12/18}) · CPC title

• G09G2370/02

  Networking aspects · CPC title

• H04N21/4532

  involving end-user characteristics, e.g. viewer profile, preferences (monitoring of user activities for profile generation for accessing a video database G06F16/739; user profiles in network data switching protocols H04L67/306; processing of user preferences or user profiles in wireless networks H04W8/18) · CPC title