Display of encrypted content items

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11630925-B2
Application number	US-201816765511-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 12, 2018
Priority date	Nov 20, 2017
Publication date	Apr 18, 2023
Grant date	Apr 18, 2023

Abstract

A method of displaying content items, for example message items in a messaging application or service, is disclosed. The method comprises receiving encrypted content items in a chronological sequence; decrypting the content items; causing display of a display sequence, in order of the chronological sequence, of a respective place holder in place of each of the decrypted content items, and, in response to a user input, causing display of the respective content item in place of one or more of the place holders. Each place holder has an appearance of a scrambled version of the respective content item. The display sequence may be contiguous in received items or sent content items may be interleaved with received content items in the display sequence, in which case sent content items may be displayed with place holders in the same way as received items. A corresponding system and corresponding computer readable medium or media are also disclosed.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method of displaying content items on a display, the method comprising
receiving encrypted content items in a chronological sequence;
decrypting the encrypted content items to obtain decrypted content items;
for each of the decrypted content items, generating a place holder, wherein each place holder is generated as a sequence of symbols so that the place holder has an appearance of a scrambled version of the respective decrypted content item upon displaying;
displaying of a display sequence, in order of the chronological sequence, of the respective place holder in place of each of the decrypted content items; and,
in response to a user input, displaying of the respective decrypted content item in place of one or more of the place holders, wherein the decrypted content items are displayed at different times, such that only the most recent decrypted content item is displayed in place of one or more of the place holders.

2. The method according to claim 1 , wherein displaying the respective content item in place of one or more of the place holders comprises displaying an animation of the place holder turning into the content item.

3. The method according to claim 2 , wherein at least one of the content items and the respective at least one place holder comprise text and displaying an animation comprises progressively changing symbols of the place holder text into symbols of the content item text over a period of time.

4. The method according to claim 3 , wherein the at least one respective place holder comprises a random sequence of symbols replacing at least a portion of the content item.

5. The method according to claim 2 , wherein at least one of the content items and the respective at least one place holder comprise an image and displaying an animation comprises displaying a sequence of images combining the place holder and content item images and fading from the place holder image to the content item image.

6. The method according to claim 5 , wherein the respective at least one place holder comprises a noise pattern replacing the image of the at least one content item.

7. The method according to claim 5 , wherein the image of the at least one content item is a preview of a larger image or a frame of a video.

8. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the user input comprises a scroll command to scroll the display sequence.

9. The method according to claim 8 , wherein causing display of a respective content item in place of one or more place holders comprises causing display of the respective content item in place of the one or more place holders for one or more most recent content items in the display sequence.

10. The method according to claim 1 , the method comprising receiving a new content item, decrypting the new content item and causing display of the new content item as a new item in the display sequence.

11. The method according to claim 10 , the method comprising, in response to receiving the new content item, displaying a place holder in place of the previously most recent content item, wherein the place holder has an appearance of a scrambled version of the previously most recent content item.

12. The method according to claim 1 , wherein each content item is a message item in a messaging application or service.

13. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the user input is one of:
a request to scroll the display;
a swipe gesture on a touch screen of the display to scroll the display;
a tap on a touch screen area taken up by the display or a specific button to scroll the display;
a key press on a key board to scroll the display;
a mouse click to scroll the display;
a voice command to scroll the display;
a user interaction starting or opening an application or service; or
an input switching to an application or service already running.

14. A system for displaying content items received in encrypted form, the system comprising:
a receiver configured to receive encrypted content items in a chronological sequence;
a memory configured to store received encrypted content items;
a display configured to display place holders and decrypted content items; and
a processor configured to:
decrypt the encrypted content items to obtain decrypted content items;
for each of the decrypted content items, generating a place holder, wherein each place holder is generated as a sequence of symbols so that the place holder has an appearance of a scrambled version of the respective decrypted content item upon displaying;
cause display of a display sequence, in order of the chronological sequence, of the respective place holder in place of each of the decrypted content items; and,
in response to a user input, cause display of the respective decrypted content item in place of one or more of the place holders, wherein the decrypted content items are displayed at different times, such that only the most recent decrypted content item is displayed in place of one or more of the place holders.

15. The system according to claim 14 , wherein the user input is one of:
a request to scroll the display;
a swipe gesture on a touch screen of the display to scroll the display;
a tap on a touch screen area taken up by the display or a specific button to scroll the display;
a key press on a key board to scroll the display;
a mouse click to scroll the display;
a voice command to scroll the display;
a user interaction starting or opening an application or service; or
an input switching to an application or service already running.

16. Tangible computer readable medium or media encoding computer code instructions which, when executed on a computing device, implement a method according to claim 1 .

Assignees

• Nagravision Sa
• Nagravision Sarl

Inventors

• Quevedo-Fernandez Javier
• Guesdon Michael
• Henriette Alain
• Benoit Bernard

Classifications

• H04L51/046

  Interoperability with other network applications or services · CPC title

• H04N21/4542 Primary

  Blocking scenes or portions of the received content, e.g. censoring scenes · CPC title

• G09C5/00

  Ciphering apparatus or methods not provided for in the preceding groups, e.g. involving the concealment or deformation of graphic data such as designs, written or printed messages · CPC title

• G06F21/84 Primary

  output devices, e.g. displays or monitors · CPC title

• G06F3/0485

  Scrolling or panning · CPC title