New Vizio Patent Application Describes Encrypting Content ‘on the Fly’ for ‘Second Screens’

Techniques for giving users of “stream casting devices” the ability to encrypt content before it can be viewed on “second screens” are contained in a Vizio patent application (US 2016/0072774) published Thursday at the Patent and Trademark Office. “Casting” video or audio content is a relatively “new initiative where content can be discovered” on laptops, tablets, smartphones or other devices “capable of finding content residing on networks or local storage,” says the application, which lists Vizio Chief Technology Officer Matthew Blake McRae as the sole inventor. When content is located, it can be played on the device that found it or “redirected” or “cast” to a second screen, “typically” a TV, monitor or virtual-reality device, it says. “Currently few if any casting agents can provide content encryption notifications to stream receivers for the stream or content to be casted,” it says. “This is often not a large concern for home environments but can present a significant issue with business environments. In the business environment, data cast to a display device can contain sensitive business information that would be relatively easy to compromise between the content server and the stream receiver.” The inventor recognized “it would be useful” to devise an encryption technique that would occur “on the fly,” such that the stream “would be encrypted prior to being transmitted and decrypted just after being received and just prior to being displayed,” the application says. Vizio representatives didn’t comment on ways the company might commercialize the invention.