US 11,128,574 B2Granted

Method and apparatus for facilitating accessing home surveillance data by remote devices

AssigneeipDataTel, LLC

InventorsByron L. Hoffman, Eric R. Lachney, Michael R. Miller, Russell S. Vail

Life of this patent

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Abstract

Method and apparatus for facilitating accessing home surveillance device data, preferably an IP camera video stream, by a remote user device at the remote user device's instigation, over the Internet through a home router, the facilitating including incorporating a smart gateway in local communication with the home router and in persistent or intermittent communication with a remote Internet server to facilitate communication of data over the Internet at the remote user device's request through direct communication between the remote user device and the smart gateway, the smart gateway in local communication with the home surveillance device such as an IP camera, the direct communication facilitated by a “hole punch” type of technique.

Claims12

Dependent claims

A method for operating a smart gateway located at a home under surveillance to stream video to an app hosted on a remote user device, wherein the smart gateway has associated Internet Protocol (IP) port information and is coupled to an IP camera and a home router at the home under surveillance, and the remote user device has associated IP port information, the method comprising:

establishing an Internet connection with a remote Internet server, wherein the Internet connection is established through the home router;
receiving a command to initiate a video session with the IP camera, wherein the command is received through the home router from the Internet server over the established Internet connection, and is in response to a request for a streaming video session issued by the app of the remote user device;
transmitting a Uniform Datagram Protocol (UDP) message, wherein the UDP message is transmitted through the home router to the Internet server over the established Internet connection and includes the smart gateway IP port information;
receiving the remote user device IP port information, wherein the remote user device IP port information is received through the home router from the Internet server over the established Internet connection;
receiving streamed video data from the IP camera and processing the received streamed video data into UDP video messages;
transmitting the UDP video messages to the remote user device using the received remote user device IP port information, wherein the UDP video messages are transmitted through the home router and over the Internet, and not through the remote Internet server;
receiving UDP keep alive messages while transmitting the UDP video messages, wherein the UDP keep alive messages are received through the home router and over the Internet from the remote user device using the smart gateway IP port information, and wherein the Internet server is not involved in communications of the UDP keep alive messages;
and
wherein the method is performed without performing port forwarding on or pre-configuration of the home router.

6 more elements

A method for operating an Internet server to initiate transmission of streamed video from a smart gateway to an app hosted on a remote user device, wherein the smart gateway is located at a home under surveillance, has associated Internet Protocol (IP) port information, and is coupled to an IP camera and a home router at the home under surveillance, and the remote user device has associated IP port information, the method comprising:

establishing an Internet connection with the smart gateway, wherein the Internet connection is established through the home router;
receiving a request to initiate a streaming video session with the home under surveillance, wherein the request is issued by the app of the remote user device;
transmitting a command to initiate a video session between the IP camera and the smart gateway to the smart gateway, wherein the command is transmitted over the established Internet connection and through the home router;
receiving a Uniform Datagram Protocol (UDP) message from the smart gateway, wherein the UDP message from the smart gateway is received over the established Internet connection and includes the smart gateway IP port information;
extracting the smart gateway IP port information from the UDP message received from the smart gateway;
transmitting the extracted smart gateway IP port information to the app of the remote user device, to enable the remote user device to transmit UDP keep alive messages to the smart gateway over the Internet using the smart gateway IP port information;
receiving a UDP message from the remote user device, wherein the UDP message from the remote user device includes the remote user device IP port information;
extracting the remote user device IP port information from the UDP message received from the remote user device;
transmitting the extracted remote user device IP port information to the smart gateway, to enable the smart gateway to transmit UDP video messages to the remote user device using the remote user device IP port information, wherein the extracted remote user device IP port information is transmitted over the established Internet connection;
wherein the Internet server is not involved in communications between the smart gateway and the remote user device after transmitting the extracted smart gateway IP port information and transmitting the extracted remote user device IP port information;
and
wherein the method is performed without performing port forwarding on or pre-configuration of the home router.

9 more elements

A method for operating a remote user device hosting an app to receive and display streamed video from a smart gateway, wherein the smart gateway is located at a home under surveillance, has associated Internet Protocol (IP) port information, and is coupled to an IP camera and a home router at the home under surveillance, and the remote user device has associated IP port information, the method comprising:

transmitting a request to initiate a streaming video session with the home under surveillance, wherein the request is transmitted to an Internet server over the Internet;
transmitting a Uniform Datagram Protocol (UDP) message, wherein the UDP message is transmitted to the Internet server over the Internet and includes the remote user device IP port information;
receiving the smart gateway IP port information, wherein the smart gateway IP port information is received over the Internet from the Internet server;
receiving UDP video messages using the remote user device IP port information, wherein the UDP video messages are received over the Internet, and not though the Internet server;
rendering a display of video using the received UDP video messages;
transmitting UDP keep alive messages using the received smart gateway IP port information, wherein the UDP keep alive messages are transmitted to the smart gateway over the Internet, and not through the Internet server;
and
wherein the method is performed without performing port forwarding on or pre-configuration of the home router.

5 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Facts

Application: 16/985,718Filed 5 Aug 2020 · continuation
Priority: 31 Mar 2014
Published: US 2021/0194823 A124 Jun 2021
Granted: 21 Sep 2021
Term ends: Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.

Classification10 codes

H04L 47/806
Actions related to the user profile or the type of traffic: broadcast or multicast traffic
H04L 61/103
Of different types: across network layers, e.g. resolution of network layer into physical layer addresses or address resolution protocol [ARP]
H04L 61/2567
NAT traversal: for reachability, e.g. inquiring the address of a correspondent behind a NAT server
H04L 65/1026
Media gateways: at the edge

Family

Application61/972,602Us provisional application · filed 31 Mar 2014
Application14/670,910Parent of this continuation · filed 27 Mar 2015
Application16/515,406Parent of this continuation · filed 18 Jul 2019
US 2021/0194823 A1Pre-grant publication · published 24 Jun 2021
US 2015/0281122 A1Published application
US 2020/0195574 A1Published application
US 11,128,574 B2This patent

From the US filing history. Foreign family members aren’t listed.