Partial Digital Content Encryption for Mobile Terminals

Resolve Bottlenecks,
Find Innovative Solutions
Generate Solutions

Solution Overview

Problem

On-demand digital content distribution systems face challenges with high bandwidth requirements for broadcasting to large user bases, especially for video content, and need to manage digital rights while minimizing computing power and energy consumption on mobile terminals with limited resources.

Innovation Solution

A method of partially encrypting digital content using a symmetric key, where only a portion of each image is encrypted, and a checksum is calculated and signed to ensure data integrity, reducing the computing power required for decryption and energy consumption.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Reliability

If full encryption is applied to digital content, then security against illegal use is improved, but computing power and energy consumption on mobile terminals increase

Engineering Contradiction:
ImprovesecurityVSAvoidenergy consumption
Core Design Contradiction:
ReliabilityVSUse of energy by moving object

Solution Approach 1:

The patent applies segmentation by dividing the digital content into distinct parts: headers and image data. Only the header portions are encrypted while the image data remains unencrypted. This selective encryption approach maintains security for critical metadata while significantly reducing the computational burden on mobile terminals, thus resolving the contradiction between security and energy consumption.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #1Segmentation

Solution Approach 2:

The patent implements local quality by applying different encryption treatments to different parts of the content structure. Headers receive full encryption to protect metadata and control information, while image data is left unencrypted to minimize processing requirements. This localized approach to encryption optimizes the balance between security needs and terminal resource constraints.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #3Local quality

2Reliability

If full encryption is applied to digital content, then security against illegal use is improved, but computing power required for decryption increases

Engineering Contradiction:
ImprovesecurityVSAvoidcomputing power
Core Design Contradiction:
ReliabilityVSPower

Solution Approach 1:

The patent segments the content into headers and image data, applying encryption only to headers. This reduces the volume of encrypted data that requires decryption processing on mobile terminals, thereby lowering computing power requirements while maintaining security for critical information.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #1Segmentation

Solution Approach 2:

By applying encryption locally only to header portions rather than entire content files, the patent minimizes the computational workload for decryption on resource-constrained mobile devices while still protecting essential metadata and control information.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #3Local quality

3Productivity

If bandwidth is increased to distribute content to large user bases, then content distribution efficiency is improved, but infrastructure requirements and costs increase

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvecontent distribution efficiencyVSAvoidbandwidth
Core Design Contradiction:
ProductivityVSQuantity of substance

Solution Approach 1:

The patent extracts and separates the header information from the main content data. By encrypting only the extracted header portions, the system reduces the overall amount of encrypted data that needs to be transmitted across the network, thereby reducing bandwidth requirements while maintaining security for critical metadata.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #2Taking out (Extraction)

Data Source

PatentEP2177025B1Method and device for the partial encryption of a digital content
Publication Date: 2021.11.10 NINTENDO EUROPEAN RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT
  • EP2177025B1 patent drawingFigure 1~2
  • EP2177025B1 patent drawingFigure 3~8
  • EP2177025B1 patent drawingFigure 4~5

AI summary

The present invention relates to a method of encrypting the digital content intended to be decrypted and restored on mobile terminals which makes it possible to limit the computational power required for decryption and hence the energy used to do so. The broadcast content is encrypted in a partial manner. A signature of the headers of the images ensures the integrity of the data.