This new patented technology is offered to providers of video devices of all kinds, to offer valuable new features to users.
 

Other important aspects of this portfolio include management of digital assets, as addressed in US patent 8,422,733.

Progressive Deletion (PD) applies a new spin to video compression to enable a "full" device to find room for more video.  Now users can "squeeze more in" when their camera or player is full!

• Many video cameras (including iPhones and other smartphones), video players (including iPods, iPhones, iPads, and similar), and DVRs have non-removable storage, with fixed capacity. 

• So once they are full, more video cannot be stored without first deleting old video. 

• Such forced deletions can be difficult, undesirable, and slow.

• As a result, fleeting opportunities to capture new video may be lost.

Progressive Deletion is a new way to organize compressed video files that allows them to be "squeezed down" on the fly, instantly freeing up space for added recording. This is done by increasing their compression level with minimal loss of quality.  All while maintaining compatibility with standard compression techniques formats.

Some usage examples:

• You are shooting video on your iPhone (or Android phone) and it suddenly tells you it is full.  A message pops up saying there is no more room at current quality levels, but you can reduce the quality of videos shot already to make room to keep shooting.  You say yes, and start shooting again in seconds.

• Better yet, you set the default to do that automatically.  It just notifies you when that is about to happen, and then that it did happen, so you are able to keep shooting with no interruption at all.

• You have a video camera like the Flip or many others that have no removable storage.  They operate just like the iPhone.

• Instead of shooting video, you are downloading video to a player when you get full, and may not be able to download it another time.  You have the same option to squeeze more in.

• You have a DVR that has gotten full.  Your favorite series is now recording, and you don't want to delete any programs.  Progressive deletion lets you squeeze it in by reducing the quality of some of your older recordings.  Again, this might be set to happen automatically.

In any of these uses, there may be advanced controls you can use if you want.  They let you select whether to reduce only the video just being shot/recorded, or to select specific stored videos, or to preset some videos as progressively deletable and some not (a more advanced form of a do not delete status).  The controls may also let you select between automatic activation of progressive deletion, or require your approval when the time comes.

What is Progressive Deletion and how does it work?

The basic trick to Progressive Deletion is to store video by quality layer, not by time, so a whole layer can be deleted without touching the layers that are retained. 

• Conventional compression formats store video data in time sequence. 

• The basic idea of "progressive" levels of compression is widely used -- it separates digital video into multiple layers of detail, each of which adds a layer of "progressive" quality enhancement. 

• Progressive levels exploit the fact that image data can be separated into high and low "significance" data.  The low significance data adds fine details that may be largely or completely imperceptible, so discarding it causes little or no degradation.

• Layered transmission schemes exploit separation of layers to enable streams of video to be sent at different levels of quality to exploit different levels of transmission bandwidth. 

• Conventional layered compression methods focus on separating layers at a transmission site, so they can be added successively by the receiver, as desired to receive video at best quality that the available bandwidth can carry. 

• In contrast, Progressive Deletion methods are oriented toward successively subtracting layers of quality as desired where the video is stored locally to the user.

From the user's viewpoint, all that is needed is a simple control that lets the user indicate that stored video files are to be reduced in quality to free up space. This might also let the user select either some or all stored video items for such reduction.  More advanced controls could enable selections of how many layers (or what level of quality) is to be removed.  Automatic options could also be provided to enable some or all stored items to be progressively deleted whenever needed to make room for new recordings (possibly with some indication of how "squeezed" things are at the moment).  This could give the effect of limitless storage, but with the provision that quality will increasingly degrade as more video is squeezed in.  (A simple example of how this works is provided below.)

For Progressive Deletion to work effectively, the progressive layers must be stored separately, so that the higher level (more detailed) layers can be quickly deleted, without having to recompress or reformat or even rewrite the remaining base layers.  The problem with conventional formats has been that all the layers are intermixed and stored in time sequence in the user device, and all low significance data for an entire video program or segment cannot be separated without time consuming reformatting and rewriting.  With Progressive Deletion, the layers are segregated so that entire blocks of storage can simply be marked as deleted and available for reuse, without rewriting any data (other than the list of free blocks).  A side benefit is that such data might be recoverable (undeleted), if desired, if new data has not yet overwritten it.

This method works with standard compression formats, and does not require change to the compression process.  It merely alters the storage sequence of the compressed data in the device file structure.  This can be done and undone on the fly, as files are compressed, moved, or exported to other devices, using minimal computing resources (processor or storage).  Thus standard formats can be easily interchanged, with minimal added overhead.

Additional details on these methods are available in US patent 7,751,628.

Inquiries from potential manufacturers or other strategic partners are invited

Consumers interested in Progressive Deletion should ask their favorite vendors to add this feature.

An example of how Progressive Deletion works:

A simplified example -- for ease of illustration and not necessarily realistic):

This assume 50% of the video data is in the base layer (the "high significance" data that is most essential, and 25% in each of two enhancement layers (the "lower significance" data, that can be discarded with limited loss of visual qualtiy).

• Device is full, with 20 video programs of 30 minutes each, and is at capacity at High Quality (600 min at HQ = 600 storage units).

• PD step 1 is requested, and immediately reduces all programs to Medium Quality, reducing each file by 25%, freeing up 150 storage units to be reused as needed.  Assuming new video is stored at MQ, that leaves room for 6.667 new programs (22.5 unit each).

• If the device gets full again, PD step 2 can be activated to immediately reduce all programs to Low Quality, reducing each by 7.5 units.  That frees up 26.667 x 7.5 units = 200, space for 13.333 more programs at LQ, for a total capacity of 40 programs.

• Should not all of the space be used at any point in this process, those programs with higher level data that was not yet overwritten could still be available at the higher quality level.

11/29/11  - Reisman patent relating to retrieving and storing content from wireless networks issues

10/11/11  - Second Reisman patent relating to collection of product usage data issues

9/20/11    - Second Reisman progressive deletion storage management patent issues

9/20/11    - Reisman patent relating to downloading application-specific software components issues

7/26/11    - Second CoTV patent issues

4/26/11    - Intellectual Ventures interviews Reisman for Inventor Profile

3/1/11     - Reisman CoTV patent issues

7/6/10     - Reisman progressive deletion storage management patent issues

1/26/10   - Reisman patent relating to disc/online hybrids (the original Teleshuttle business) issues

7/6/09     - Reisman search patent portfolio is sold

12/2/08   - Fourth Reisman search-related patent issues

7/29/08   - Reisman patent relating to collection of product usage data issues

6/13/06   - Two Reisman search-related patents issue

3/31/06   - BTG Sells Teleshuttle Patent Rights To Twintech E.U. for $35MM+

10/11/05 - US Patent Office issues first patent in Richard Reisman's search-related patent portfolio

7/20/04   - BTG and Teleshuttle Sue Microsoft and Apple for Infringement of Patent for Online Software Updates

7/20/04   - BTG and Teleshuttle Sue Microsoft for Infringement of Patents for Active Desktop and Offline Browsing Technologies

9/1/98     - BTG Expands Its Internet Technology Portfolio With the Acquisition Of a Fundamental Internet Push Distribution Technology

Inventor Background / Mission

Richard Reisman's mission relates to creating new and more effective services for people across the broad field of connectivity--powerful interactive tools and media for human communication, collaboration, knowledge work, commerce, and entertainment. 

This includes various combinations of man-machine symbiosis and machine-augmented human communications -- as well as the new media and business opportunities they enable.  Pervasive themes are user empowerment and collaboration, and the effective application of globally networked communities and machine intelligence to support that.

This work draws on a decades of thinking about new media combined with diversified practical information technology and business experience – and on a visionary mind-set tempered by a sense for effectiveness honed by training in analytical methods for optimization (see bio).  Reisman also has a broad interest in the creative process and the business of  innovation – and organized and moderated a symposium on "Patents for Dot-coms" for the MIT Enterprise Forum of NYC in April 2000.

To put a personal arc on this history, Reisman became a believer in new media and e-business in the '60's, but realized that he had to wait and pursue a day job in IT through the '70s and '80s.  He moved full-time into new media at the start of the '90s, as the stars (and infrastructure) aligned for the rest of the world to awaken. 

All of this is with homage to the visions of Bush (Vannevar), Licklider, Engelbart, Nelson, and Turoff that drove this continuing arc of development.