Netflix Patent Grants

Configuring DNS clients

Granted: February 6, 2018
Patent Number: 9887958
Techniques are provided for increasing the efficiency and efficacy of DNS clients. In one technique, DNS clients log information about performance of one or more DNS servers that the DNS clients use to resolve DNS resolution requests. The DNS clients send, to a control server, performance data regarding the DNS resolution requests and/or subsequent connections to servers associated with resolved domain names. Based on the performance data, the control server sends, to one or more DNS…

Systems and methods for digital certificate and encryption key management

Granted: January 16, 2018
Patent Number: 9871662
A certificate orchestration system for digital certificate and encryption key management is provided herein along with associated methods. The system includes a certificate orchestration server having a processing device in communication with a coupled storage system that is coupled to the certificate orchestration server. The system further includes an interface provided by the certificate orchestration server to a client device; and a database to store digital certificates and keys.…

Method and system for evaluating the resiliency of a distributed computing service by inducing latency

Granted: January 9, 2018
Patent Number: 9864666
Techniques are disclosed for validating the resiliency of a networked application made available using a distributed computing infrastructure. In one embodiment, a latency monitoring application observes each active application component and at specified or unspecified intervals, selects one and introduces latency or error messages in one or more messages emanating from the selected active application component. The latency monitoring application then measures the effect of the latency…

Techniques for assessing the resiliency of a distribution computing service provided by a collection of interacting servers

Granted: January 2, 2018
Patent Number: 9858133
Techniques are disclosed for validating the resiliency of a networked application made available using a collection of interacting servers. In one embodiment, a network monitoring application observes each running server (or application) and at unspecified intervals, picks one and terminates it. In the case of a cloud based deployment, this may include terminating a virtual machine instance or terminating a process running on the server. By observing the effects of the failed server on…

Securely connecting control device to target device

Granted: December 26, 2017
Patent Number: 9853966
In an approach, a target computing device receives a pairing request from a controller computing device, the pairing request including controller credentials that were previously received by the controller computing device from an authentication server computer and encrypted under a service key. The target computing device forwards the pairing request to the authentication server, the authentication server computer being configured to return a pairing response based at least in part on…

Systems and methods for access permission revocation and reinstatement

Granted: November 21, 2017
Patent Number: 9825956
Provided herein are systems and methods of managing permissions for applications deployed in a distributed computing infrastructure. An exemplary system includes an access management server having a processing device, a distributed computing infrastructure in communication with the management server having a plurality of resource instances and a request log, an administration system having a security application executing thereon. The security application has access policies associated…

Determining native resolutions of video sequences

Granted: November 21, 2017
Patent Number: 9824278
In one embodiment of the present invention, a native resolution analyzer generates a log-magnitude spectrum that elucidates sampling operations that have been performed on a scene. In operation, the native resolution analyzer performs a transform operation of a color component associated with a frame included in the scene to generate a frame spectrum. The native resolution analyzer then normalizes the magnitudes associated with the frame spectrum and logarithmically scales the normalized…

Relationship-based search and recommendations

Granted: November 14, 2017
Patent Number: 9817827
Techniques are described for determining relationships between user activities and determining search results and content recommendations based on the relationships. A plays-related-to-searches application may determine a relationship score between plays of a media title and searches of a query by determining a distance between a projection of the search onto the space of the users and a projection of plays of the media title onto the space of the users. A plays-after-searches…

Recommending media items based on take rate signals

Granted: October 24, 2017
Patent Number: 9800910
In an approach, a method comprises using a server computer in a media content delivery system that is configured to selectively deliver a particular media title from among a library of titles, for a source title, generating title data that specifies an order of a plurality of titles that are related to the source title based on a plurality of stored probability values; wherein each probability value in the plurality of probability values represents, for each particular title of the…

System and method for detecting active streams using a heartbeat and secure stop mechanism

Granted: October 17, 2017
Patent Number: 9794151
One embodiment of the present invention sets forth a technique for identifying active streaming connections associated with a particular user account. Each active streaming connection transmits heartbeat packets periodically to a server that tracks the receipt of the heartbeat packets. If, for a particular streaming connection, the server stops receiving heartbeat packets, then the server is able to infer that the streaming connection has been terminated.

Perspective correction for curved display screens

Granted: October 17, 2017
Patent Number: 9792674
One embodiment of the present invention sets forth a technique for performing perspective correction on one or more test images. The technique includes analyzing a first test image to detect a set of outer points and calculating a geometric plane equation based on the set of outer points. The technique further includes projecting a first set of points associated with a first curved screen model based on the geometric plane equation to generate a second set of points. The technique…

Accelerated playback of streaming media

Granted: October 3, 2017
Patent Number: 9781183
One embodiment provides a technique for dynamically adjusting streaming media bit rates in response to user requests for accelerated playback. A user request to increase a playback speed at which the units of digital content are played back on a content player is received. Upon receiving the user request to increase the playback speed, while previously downloaded units of the digital content having a first bit rate are being output for display, and prior to downloading a next unit of…

Adaptive streaming for digital content distribution

Granted: September 19, 2017
Patent Number: 9769505
One embodiment of the present invention sets forth a technique for adapting playback bit rate to available delivery bandwidth in a content delivery system comprising a content server and a content player. A content player periodically estimates whether a given playback bit rate can feasibly provide complete playback for a given title assuming currently available bandwidth. If playback becomes unfeasible at a current bit rate assuming currently available bandwidth, then the content player…

Systems and methods for security and risk assessment and testing of applications

Granted: September 19, 2017
Patent Number: 9767291
Provided herein are systems and methods for monitoring and assessing the security and risk presented by applications deployed in a complex computing environment. An exemplary application security system includes a server having a processing device in communication with storage systems, computing devices executing application instances configured to receive and transmit information over a network, and a security testing system including a first test module that is associated with a first…

User interface for a remote control device

Granted: September 19, 2017
Patent Number: 9766772
One embodiment of the present invention sets forth a technique for controlling the operations of a consumer electronic (CE) device. A system includes a display device, CE device, and a remote controller with a touchpad. The CE device is configured to output a context-specific user interface for display by the display device. The particular user interface varies based on the operational context of the CE device. The remote controller sends signals that are detected by the CE device and…

Audio and video data streaming for media effects

Granted: September 12, 2017
Patent Number: 9762936
One embodiment of the present invention sets forth a technique for streaming digital media content with transition effects. Audio data may be modulated and received by the streaming device for an audio fade-in effect. Similarly, video data may be modulated to perform various visual effects. Such a technique allows for fading-in of audio and/or video, fading-out of audio and/or video, and effects that blend audio from different content and video from different content during a transition…

Parallel streaming

Granted: August 15, 2017
Patent Number: 9736202
Embodiments of the present invention set forth techniques for a content player to stream a media file using multiple network connections. To stream the media file, the content player downloads metadata associated with a requested media file, establishes a network connection with multiple content servers (or multiple network connections with a single content server or both) and begins requesting portions of the media file. In response, the requested portions are transmitted to the content…

Determining native resolutions of video sequences

Granted: August 15, 2017
Patent Number: 9734409
In one embodiment of the present invention, a native resolution analyzer generates a log-magnitude spectrum that elucidates sampling operations that have been performed on a scene. In operation, the native resolution analyzer performs a transform operation of a color component associated with a frame included in the scene to generate a frame spectrum. The native resolution analyzer then normalizes the magnitudes associated with the frame spectrum and logarithmically scales the normalized…

System and method for managing playback of streaming digital content

Granted: August 8, 2017
Patent Number: 9727321
One embodiment of the present invention sets forth a technique for managing playback of digital content on two or more different playback devices. A playback device designated as a controller is associated with a playback device designated as a playback target. Association is implemented via a local network discovery protocol. The controller issues commands to the target, which then streams digital content directly from a content server. The controller is able to separately stream…