My Stuff Everywhere Your Content On Any Screen

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1 Technical Brief Bob Lund, Distinguished Technologist, CableLabs September, 2014 My Stuff Everywhere Your Content On Any Screen The My Stuff Everywhere Concept The My Stuff Everywhere (MSE) concept is simple people should be able to enjoy any of their content on any discoverable screen or other type of device around them. The MSE concept is an integrated response to several market trends. Personal devices can provide a subscriber s identity and serve as a gateway for all of a subscriber s services. In the US, 67% of mobile phone users have smartphones and smartphone penetration has been growing 12% annually. A smartphone can serve as a user s identify, locate and communicate with shared devices, and serve as the user interface to those shared devices. An increasing number of media products provide smartphone control apps. People consume content from a wide variety of sources: their pay TV provider, video sites such as Amazon, Hulu, YouTube and Netflix, cloud storage sites such as Dropbox and Google Drive, cloud applications like Flickr and home network storage. Open authentication protocols are becoming prevalent on the Web, potentially addressing the complexity users face in managing and accessing a myriad of Web services. Discoverable screens and casting content from a personal device to a discovered screen is becoming commonplace and expected using technologies such as DLNA, Apple Airplay, DIAL (Discovery and Launch) and Google Cast. Apple Airplay and DLNA are used today for casting content to non- screen devices such as audio players. As the Internet of Things develops there could be other types of information casting that become useful. The term device is used instead of screen in this report to capture this broader use of casting. Using MSE, a user enables access to their content sources or personalized services through a single, convenient portal. Once enabled, they can use their personal device to securely access these enabled content sources on discovered devices, anywhere, no matter what personal device, discovery or display device technology is used. Cable Television Laboratories, Inc.,

2 MSE improves the user experience by providing: Single sign on to all content sources with a corresponding increase in security for both the user and content source provider. Integrated access to all content and information sources. Unified device discovery that hides the details of the particular discovery protocol. The MSE provider, a cable company for example, can provide its user interface (UI) that integrates access to a set of content sources. MSE Architecture Users of My Stuff Everywhere first enable their content and then use MSE to access that content (Figure 1) OTT Video Authenticate Dropbox MSO Web Video MSE Portal Setup Home Network MSE Server Load MSE page Access Content Start MSE app Personal Device Enable Discover & Launch Discovered Device Remote Control Use Figure 1 My Stuff Everywhere Architecture Enable A User configures their content sources for later use through the MSE Web Portal. The user first authenticates to the MSE service. The authentication could be username and password or some other mechanism. They are then presented with a list of content sources. When the user enables a content source for later access, the MSE portal initiates an authentication process with that content source. Successful completion of authentication results in an access token that is saved for the user at the portal. This access token is used for later access to that user s content. Figure 1 shows an example set of content sources: MSO Web Video, Home Network, Dropbox and OTT Video. Any cloud service that provides an authentication API can be an MSE content source. It is not Cable Television Laboratories, Inc.,

3 necessary that the content itself be in the cloud. For example, the Home Network content source might be a cloud proxy for a user s DLNA home network content. Content sources fall into two classes those that provide a Web service to retrieve content and content metadata enable access to individual content items and those that provide a Web application to access the content. Dropbox, Google Drive and the Home Network proxy are examples of the former and a cable company s Web channels or an over- the- top provider might be examples of the latter. MSE can be used with both types of content sources, but with different implementation implications, as discussed in the next section. Use A user accesses enabled content sources using an app on their personal device (PD), their smartphone for example, to discover devices on which to display that content. The PD app supports device discovery and launch, and Web applications; aside from discovery and launch, all MSE user interface and logic is written in HTML5, JavaScript and cascading style sheets (CSS) so they can run on different types of devices. 1 The PD can be any device but truly personal devices, such as smartphones and tablets are particularly suitable by virtue of degree of personalization, touch/gesture input and portability. After launching the app, the user authenticates with the MSE provider. This could be user name/password, pre- provisioned credentials or some other mechanism. The user is then presented with a list of discovered devices. After selecting a device, the user is presented with a list of enabled content sources suitable for that device type. When an enabled content source is selected, the PD sends a launch command (browser- name URL), generated by the MSE Server, to the selected device. The access token generated in the Enable step is sent over a secure connection from the PD to the device. The discovered device Web page uses the access token to retrieve the user s content from the content source. Navigation of the Web page on the discovered device is done from the PD. This is accomplished by linking the PD and discovered device Web pages using a CableLabs developed technology called SharedDOM. With SharedDOM, user interface elements such as buttons and sliders on the PD can control operation of the discovered device Web page. Figure 1 shows the case where the URL launched on the discovered device comes from the MSE Server. MSE Server pages can be used to access content sources that provide access to a user s individual content items, such as Dropbox. In this case, the MSE provider can offer its own UI and, potentially, integrate access to multiple content sources. Adding PD control of the discovered device via SharedDOM is straightforward since the MSE provider authors the pages to both devices. The URL may identify a 3 rd party UI page that controls access to the user s content. In this case, PD control, beyond starting and stopping, of the page requires co- development with that 3 rd party. 1 Current apps are CableLabs developed ios and Android apps, and Chrome + Chromecast extension on the Windows and OSX. Cable Television Laboratories, Inc.,

4 Proof-of-Concept CableLabs has developed a proof- of- concept (POC) to examine the feasibility of the MSE concept. The MSE POC implements the MSE portal, applications for ios and Android (in development), a Chromecast receiver and a simple Web app that allows a user to view image and video files in their Dropbox account. The following figures show screenshots of the POC that illustrate MSE with Dropbox as a content source. A user is presented with a login screen (Figure 2) when they first access the portal. Figure 2 Portal Authentication The Portal then presents the list of possible content sources that can be enabled for MSE access. Selecting My Dropbox brings up information about the authentication used by that content source (Figure 3). Figure 3 Content Source Selection Selecting Enable results in the user being redirected to the content source, in this case Dropbox, for authentication. Dropbox uses OAuth authentication so the user is prompted for their Dropbox user name and password (Figure 4). If SAML authentication were used, the user would be redirected to the appropriate Identity Provider. Cable Television Laboratories, Inc.,

5 Figure 4 Content Source Authentication Once authenticated by Dropbox, the Portal stores the access token for that user s Dropbox account and indicates that the Dropbox content source is now enabled for MSE access (Figure 5). Figure 5 Content Source Enabled MSE enabled content sources are selected using an ios application. The user logs in with the same credentials used to set up their service on the Portal (Figure 6a) and is presented with a list of discovered devices (Figure 6b). The MSE PD application supports DIAL [DIAL] and Cast [CAST] device discovery and launch protocols. After selecting a device, the user is presented with the same list of content sources they enabled through the Portal (Figure 6c). Cable Television Laboratories, Inc.,

6 a b c Figure 6 Content Discovery and Launch When a content source is selected, the personal device launches a browser application on the discovered device with the URL of the MSE Web page for navigating Dropbox content and the PD application loads a new page for user navigation input (Figure 7). Figure 7 Dropbox Navigation Page The PD provides the navigation page on the discovered device with the access token that is used to fetch the contents of the user s Dropbox. Folders, and image and video files are displayed in a simple grid format. Touch input on the PD is used to select a grid item. Once an item has focus, as indicated by a green background, arrow keys can be used to move the focus. The item with focus is selected by tapping the square button in the middle of the arrows. The up/down arrows at the bottom of the input screen control scrolling on the discovered device. Tapping Back returns the user to the previous page. Cable Television Laboratories, Inc.,

7 Selecting a video file for viewing results in Figure 8. Figure 8 Video Element Remote The familiar HTML5 video element interface is shown on the discovered device screen and the PD Web page changes to an appropriate remote that controls the video element using the SharedDOM protocol. The MSE service provider can author any style of navigation, display and remote control pages it chooses. Try It Yourself Anyone with an ios device, Chromecast and Dropbox account can use the MSE proof- of- concept. First, install the My Stuff Everywhere ios app from the Apple store. Then, put some image and video content into your Dropbox. You can organize your Dropbox in any manner you choose. Connect your Chromecast to an HDMI input on your TV or other display device. Finally, make sure your Chromecast and ios device are using the same WIFI SSID. When you launch the My Stuff Everywhere app, you will automatically be put into a guest mode. In guest mode, your personal device acts as the Portal to configure access to your Dropbox. No access token is stored in the network it is on your device. Figure 9a shows the welcome screen when you start the app. Cable Television Laboratories, Inc.,

8 a b Figure 9 Video Element Remote Tapping continue gets you to the Dropbox enable screen (Figure 9b), similar to the one on the Portal. From there, you can access your Dropbox content as described in the Proof- of- Concept section. Applications of MSE My Stuff Everywhere offers several novel features: 1. An integrated and convenient way for users to access all of their content, wherever they are. 2. One time authorization of access to content sources and management of resulting access tokens for later use. 3. Support for multiple, standard authorization protocols. 4. TLS security for all user and content access credentials. 5. Support for multiple discovery and launch protocols. 6. SharedDOM for multi- screen user interfaces between the personal and shared devices % use of HTML5, JavaScript and CSS for all personal and shared device application user interface and functions for write once, run anywhere development efficiency. 2 The MSE features apply to a variety of product concepts. The following offer some examples. Expanded Set of User Content Sources Many cloud user content sources offer an authentication API and are candidates for MSE services, e.g. Instagram, Flickr, Google Drive, Google Play, Tumblr and Twitter. An MSE app can make all of these available and offers the ability to integrate content access across sources in novel ways that appeal to users. Add Pay TV Web Services A pay TV service provider can use MSE both to deliver its services to discovered screens and to integrate user content sources. The service providers has fine- grain control over the exact set of discovered screens eligible for reception of its paid service, for example only in the subscriber s home, only in certain geographic areas, limited to a certain number of uses per time period, 2 Discovery and launch protocols require native App implementation on ios and Android personal devices and DIAL and CAST discoverable devices. Cable Television Laboratories, Inc.,

9 etc. With the low cost of Chromecast and other HDMI dongles, this might be an attractive way to bring IP services to screens not economically served by current pay TV client devices. Home Network Proxy ISP s could offer a Web app that serves as a proxy for selected home network content and use MSE so their users could access that content wherever the user goes, independent of home network technology. MSE and Seatback Displays MSE can bring Web content to any display, potentially the one on the back of an airline seat. MSE would help drive in- flight Wi- Fi usage, provide users with more content choices and enable a much better user interface. CableLabs is making the MSE and SharedDOM software available under the Creative Commons License to parties interested in investigating the potential of My Stuff Everywhere. Acknowledgements Thanks to Steve Johnson who helped develop the MSE concept and did all of the proof- of- concept implementation. - Bob Lund is a Distinguished Technologist in the Advanced Technologies Group at CableLabs. He can be reached at b.lund@cablelabs.com. [CAST] [DIAL] Google Cast, Discovery and Launch, multiscreen.org/ Cable Television Laboratories, Inc.,