Browser based peer to peer distribution system

Abstract

A method of operation of a media distribution system includes: streaming a media object from an external system via a first browser; receiving a media request from a viewer device; determining a confirmation of whether the media request is for the media object; and serving a portion of the media object from a sandboxed memory of the first browser for presenting on a second browser of the viewer device in response to the confirmation.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A method of operating a peer to peer media distribution system comprising:
 streaming a media object from a target system via a first browser, the first browser being an application for retrieving, presenting, and traversing information resources on the World Wide Web (WWW);   receiving a media request from a viewer device;   determining a confirmation of whether the media request is for the media object; and   serving a portion of the media object from a sandboxed memory of the first browser for presenting on a second browser of the viewer device in response to the confirmation.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising verifying the viewer device is registered at a distribution server. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising downloading an in-browser distribution application for execution on the first browser, the in-browser distribution application for streaming the media object and serving the portion of the media object. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 determining an attribute of the viewer device; and   determining whether to respond to the viewer device based on the attribute.   
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 4 , wherein the attribute includes available bandwidth, available processing power, available memory, functional capability, geographical location, Internet service provider identity, or any combination thereof. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the media object is a stream-enabled media that has a sequential property, wherein the media object has a set duration of time and where portions of the media object correspond to pieces within a sequence in the set duration. 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein streaming the media object includes downloading different time chunks of the media object in parallel from different sources. 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the media request is a digital package that specifies the media object and a portion of the media object that the viewer device is requesting. 
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising selecting the target system as a source of said streaming, wherein said selecting is based on an attribute of target system. 
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 9 , further comprising receiving the attribute from a distribution server. 
     
     
         11 . The method of  claim 9 , further comprising traversing a peer to peer network to identify the attribute of the target system. 
     
     
         12 . A computing device comprising:
 a non-transitory memory including a browser application and a sandboxed memory of the browser application, the browser application being an application for retrieving, presenting, and traversing information resources on the World Wide Web (WWW);   a processor for executing the browser application;   an in-browser distribution application for execution in the browser application comprising:
 a stream module configured to stream, via the browser application, a media object from an external system; 
 a communication module configured to receive a media request from a viewer device; 
 a confirmation module, coupled to the stream module and the communication module, configured to determine a confirmation of whether the media request is for the media object; and 
 a service module, coupled to the confirmation module, the communication module, and the stream module, configured to serve, in response to the confirmation, a portion of the media object from the sandboxed memory of the browser application for presenting on another browser application running on the viewer device. 
   
     
     
         13 . The computing device of  claim 12 , wherein the communication module is configured to verify with a server system that the viewer device is registered with the server system. 
     
     
         14 . The computing device of  claim 12 , wherein the browser application is configured to download and execute the in-browser distribution application. 
     
     
         15 . The computing device of  claim 12 , wherein the confirmation module is configured to determine a functional capability, an available memory space, processing power, available bandwidth, an operating system type, or any combination thereof, of the viewer device. 
     
     
         16 . The computing device of  claim 12 , wherein the in-browser distribution application is restricted from scanning, reading, or writing to the non-transitory memory aside from the sandboxed memory. 
     
     
         17 . The computing device of  claim 12 , wherein the in-browser distribution application is a run-time instance of a browser-based application that is terminated when a run-time instance of the browser application is terminated or halted by the processor. 
     
     
         18 . The computing device of  claim 17 , wherein the in-browser distribution application is implemented as an application based on Flash, JavaScript, Java applet, HTML 5, or any combination thereof. 
     
     
         19 . The computing device of  claim 12 , wherein the in-browser distribution application further comprises a topology management module configured to determine which viewer device to connect with for the stream module to stream the media object. 
     
     
         20 . The computing device of  claim 19 , wherein the topology management module is configured to determine whether to reject the media request. 
     
     
         21 . The computing device of  claim 19 , wherein the topology management module is configured to receive a list of target device candidates from a media server. 
     
     
         22 . The computing device of  claim 19 , wherein the topology management module is coupled to a request module; and wherein the request module is configured to discover neighboring device candidates from a peer to peer network as a potential source for the stream module to stream the media object. 
     
     
         23 . The computing device of  claim 12 , wherein the media request includes a request for the in-browser distribution application to report an available bandwidth, processing power, available memory, a functional capability, an operating system type, or any combination thereof, of the computing device. 
     
     
         24 . The computing device of  claim 12 , further comprising a play module configured to play the media object on the computing device via the browser application. 
     
     
         25 . A computer readable data memory storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed by a computer system, cause the computer system to perform a computer-implemented method, the instructions comprising:
 instructions for streaming a media object from an external system via a first browser, the first browser being an application for retrieving, presenting, and traversing information resources on the World Wide Web (WWW);   instructions for receiving a media request from a viewer device;   instructions for determining a confirmation of whether the media request is for the media object; and   instructions for serving a portion of the media object from a sandboxed memory of the first browser for presenting on a second browser of the viewer device in response to the confirmation.   
     
     
         26 . A distribution node system comprising:
 processing means for streaming a media object from an external system via a first browser;   communication means for receiving a media request from a viewer device;   control means, coupled to the processing means and the communication means, for determining a confirmation of whether the media request is for the media object; and   data output means, coupled to the control means, for serving a portion of the media object from a sandboxed memory of the first browser for presenting on a second browser of the viewer device in response to the confirmation.