Granted Patent B2

US 7,792,294 · App. 11/708,418 · Granted Sep 7, 2010

Assignees: Sony Corporation; Sony Corporation, Inc.

Abstract

Claims (62)

1. A selective encryption encoder, comprising:

a packet identifier that identifies packets of a specified packet type, the specified packet type comprising packets carrying data representing a video slice wherein the video slice contains a larger amount of data than a threshold amount of data;

wherein the packet identifier determines if the slice contains a greater amount of data than the threshold amount of data comprises counting a number of packets carrying the slice and determining if the number of packets is greater than a threshold number of packets;

a packet duplicator that duplicates the identified packets to produce first and second sets of the identified packets;

means for sending and receiving packets to and from a primary encryption encoder to encrypt the first set of identified packets under a first encryption method; and

a secondary encrypter for encrypting the second set of identified packets under a second encryption method.

2. A selective encryption encoder, comprising:

a packet identifier that identifies packets of a specified packet type, the specified packet type comprising packets carrying data representing a video slice wherein the video slice contains a larger amount of data than a threshold amount of data;

wherein the packet identifier determines if the slice contains a greater amount of data than the threshold amount of data comprises counting a number of intra-coded macroblocks in the slice and determining if the number of intra-coded macroblocks is greater than a threshold number of intra-coded macroblocks;

a packet duplicator that duplicates the identified packets to produce first and second sets of the identified packets;

means for sending and receiving packets to and from a primary encryption encoder to encrypt the first set of identified packets under a first encryption method; and

a secondary encrypter for encrypting the second set of identified packets under a second encryption method.

3. A selective encryption encoder, comprising:

a packet identifier that identifies packets of a specified packet type, the specified packet type comprising packets carrying data representing a video slice wherein a preceding video slice contains a larger amount of data than a threshold amount of data;

wherein the packet identifier determines if the preceding slice contains a greater amount of data than the threshold amount of data comprises counting a number of packets carrying the slice and determining if the number of packets is greater than a threshold number of packets;

a packet duplicator that duplicates the identified packets to produce first and second sets of the identified packets;

means for sending and receiving packets to and from a primary encryption encoder to encrypt the first set of identified packets under a first encryption method; and

a secondary encrypter for encrypting the second set of identified packets under a second encryption method.

4. A selective encryption encoder, comprising:

a packet identifier that identifies packets of a specified packet type, the specified packet type comprising packets carrying data representing a video slice wherein a preceding video slice contains a larger amount of data than a threshold amount of data;

wherein the packet identifier determines if the preceding slice contains a greater amount of data than the threshold amount of data comprises counting a number of intra-coded macroblocks in the slice and determining if the number of intra-coded macroblocks is greater than a threshold number of intra-coded macroblocks;

a packet duplicator that duplicates the identified packets to produce first and second sets of the identified packets;

means for sending and receiving packets to and from a primary encryption encoder to encrypt the first set of identified packets under a first encryption method; and

a secondary encrypter for encrypting the second set of identified packets under a second encryption method.

5. A selective encryption encoder, comprising:

a packet identifier that identifies packets of a specified packet type, the specified packet type comprising packets carrying data representing a video slice header for a video slice that contains a larger amount of data than a threshold amount of data;

wherein the packet identifier determines if the slice contains a greater amount of data than the threshold amount of data comprises counting a number of packets carrying the slice and determining if the number of packets is greater than a threshold number of packets;

a packet duplicator that duplicates the identified packets to produce first and second sets of the identified packets;

means for sending and receiving packets to and from a primary encryption encoder to encrypt the first set of identified packets under a first encryption method; and

a secondary encrypter for encrypting the second set of identified packets under a second encryption method.

6. A selective encryption encoder, comprising:

a packet identifier that identifies packets of a specified packet type, the specified packet type comprising packets carrying data representing a video slice header for a video slice that contains a larger amount of data than a threshold amount of data;

wherein the packet identifier determines if the slice contains a greater amount of data than the threshold amount of data comprises counting a number of intra-coded macroblocks in the slice and determining if the number of intra-coded macroblocks is greater than a threshold number of intra-coded macroblocks;

a packet duplicator that duplicates the identified packets to produce first and second sets of the identified packets;

means for sending and receiving packets to and from a primary encryption encoder to encrypt the first set of identified packets under a first encryption method; and

a secondary encrypter for encrypting the second set of identified packets under a second encryption method.

7. A selective encryption encoder, comprising:

a packet identifier that identifies packets of a specified packet type, the specified packet type comprising packets carrying data representing a video slice header for a slice following a preceding video slice that contains a larger amount of data than a threshold amount of data;

wherein the packet identifier determines if the preceding slice contains a greater amount of data than the threshold amount of data comprises counting a number of packets carrying the slice and determining if the number of packets is greater than a threshold number of packets;

a packet duplicator that duplicates the identified packets to produce first and second sets of the identified packets;

means for sending and receiving packets to and from a primary encryption encoder to encrypt the first set of identified packets under a first encryption method; and

a secondary encrypter for encrypting the second set of identified packets under a second encryption method.

8. A selective encryption encoder, comprising:

a packet identifier that identifies packets of a specified packet type, the specified packet type comprising packets carrying data representing a video slice header for a slice following a preceding video slice that contains a larger amount of data than a threshold amount of data;

wherein the packet identifier determines if the preceding slice contains a greater amount of data than the threshold amount of data comprises counting a number of intra-coded macroblocks in the slice and determining if the number of intra-coded macroblocks is greater than a threshold number of intra-coded macroblocks;

a packet duplicator that duplicates the identified packets to produce first and second sets of the identified packets;

means for sending and receiving packets to and from a primary encryption encoder to encrypt the first set of identified packets under a first encryption method; and

a secondary encrypter for encrypting the second set of identified packets under a second encryption method.

9. A method of decrypting and decoding a selectively encrypted digital video signal, comprising:

receiving packets of digital video, certain of the packets being unencrypted and certain of the packets being encrypted, wherein certain of the encrypted packets carry data representing a first image associated with the scene change;

the unencrypted packets having a first packet identifier (PID) and the encrypted packets having a second packet identifier (PID);

decrypting the encrypted packets having the second PID to produce decrypted packets;

remapping at least one of the first and second PIDs so that the unencrypted packets and the decrypted packets have the same PID; and

decoding the unencrypted and decrypted packets to produce a decoded video signal.

10. A tangible non-transitory computer readable storage medium carrying instructions which, when executed on a programmed processor, carry out the method of decrypting and decoding a digital television signal according to claim 9 .

11. The tangible non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 10 , wherein the medium comprises an electronic storage medium.

12. A tangible non-transitory computer readable storage medium that carries instructions that when executes on a programmed processor to facilitate operation of a video receiver device to decrypt and decode a selectively encoded digital video signal wherein the instructions comprise:

a code segment that controls a demultiplexer that receives packets of digital video, certain of the packets being unencrypted and certain of the packets being encrypted, wherein certain of the encrypted packets carry data representing a first image associated with the scene change, the unencrypted packets having a first packet identifier (PID) and the encrypted packets having a second packet identifier (PID);

a code segment that controls decryption of the encrypted packets to produce decrypted packets;

a code segment that controls remapping at least one of the first and second PIDs so that the unencrypted packets and the decrypted packets have the same PID; and

a code segment that controls decoding the unencrypted and decrypted packets to produce a decoded video signal.

13. The tangible non-transitory computer storage readable medium of claim 12 , wherein the medium comprises an electronic storage medium.

Continuity (8)