Vizio Lands Patent for Encrypting Content for 'Casting' to Second Screens

Vizio landed a U.S. patent Tuesday for a method of encrypting content “on the fly” when “casting” programs from a smartphone to a “second screen” device like a TV. “Currently few if any casting agents can provide content encryption notifications to stream receivers for the stream or content to be casted,” says the patent (9,860.217), which is based on a September 2014 application and lists Vizio Chief Technology Officer Matthew McRae as the inventor. Casting unencrypted content to a second-screen device “is often not a large concern for home environments but can present a significant issue with business environments,” where data being 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,” says the patent. “The inventor recognized that it would be useful to provide a technique that would give a user of stream casting devices the ability to have content being streamed to second screens to be encrypted. Ideally, the encryption 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.” Vizio didn’t comment Tuesday.