Set-Top Box Web Browsing via Server-Side Content Processing
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional set-top-boxes (STBs) often lack the processing capabilities to support all content types in web pages, leading to latency issues and an inferior user experience when accessing the Internet, especially when trying to display complex web pages on televisions.
Innovation Solution
A method and system that utilizes a local or remote server to process and stream unsupported content from web pages to the STB, allowing the STB to composite the complete web page with reduced latency, using techniques like two-pass or single-pass approaches for rendering supported and unsupported content simultaneously.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If web browsing is performed directly on the STB, then the STB can access the Internet, but the STB cannot process certain content types and experiences high latency
Solution Approach 1:
A remote server acts as an intermediary to process unsupported content types (such as Flash, Java applets) that the STB cannot handle directly. The server receives rendering requests from the STB, processes the content, and returns rendered output, enabling the STB to access diverse web content without requiring local processing capability for all content types.
Solution Approach 2:
The web browsing function is segmented into two parts: supported content is processed locally by the STB browser, while unsupported content is offloaded to a remote server. This segmentation allows the STB to maintain basic browsing functionality while leveraging remote processing power for complex content types, thereby reducing local processing requirements and latency.
2Power
If the STB processes all web page content locally, then the STB has complete control, but the STB lacks sufficient processing power for complex content
Solution Approach 1:
The remote server serves as a processing intermediary that handles computationally intensive content rendering tasks. This allows the STB to maintain a simple architecture focused on basic browsing functions while the server provides the necessary processing power for complex content types, effectively distributing the processing burden without increasing STB complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
Instead of requiring the STB to process all content types fully, the system implements partial processing where the STB handles only supported content locally, while unsupported content is processed remotely. This partial action approach allows the STB to function with limited processing capabilities while still achieving complete web access through server assistance.
3Productivity
If the STB renders all web page content, then the STB displays complete web pages, but the rendering process is slow
Solution Approach 1:
The web page rendering process is segmented into supported content (rendered locally by the STB) and unsupported content (processed remotely by the server). This segmentation enables parallel processing where the STB can immediately display supported content while the server concurrently processes unsupported content, significantly reducing overall rendering time compared to sequential local processing of all content.
Solution Approach 2:
The remote server acts as an intermediary that accelerates the rendering of complex content types. By offloading unsupported content processing to the server, the STB avoids the time-consuming local rendering process for these content types, thereby improving overall web page rendering speed and reducing user-perceived latency.
Data Source
AI summary
Methods and systems are described for providing complete Internet anywhere with partial server processing in which a request is sent from a set-top-box (STB) to a server communicatively coupled with the STB to process a portion of a web page that is unsupported by a web browser running on the STB. In one such method, the STB sends to the server an unsupported content request associated with a portion of a web page that is unsupported by a web browser executing on the STB. The STB receives a data stream from the server in response to the unsupported content request. The data stream was generated at the server by processing the unsupported portion of the web page. The STB composites the received data stream with another portion of the web page, that is supported by the web browser, to produce the web page.