I actually had a chance to meet with Walt Ordway, the head of DCI's technology branch, at my school a few years ago (he's a Northeastern University Alumnus). He gave a really nice presentation about what they're doing to secure the distribution masters and minimize piracy. Basically, they have a Digital Source Master (DCM) which is a final cut of the movie in a high definition format taken directly from post-processing. From this, they make various distribution masters in different formats for DVD, TV, Airline showings, and also conversion to film masters. One of the masters they make is a Digital Cinema Distribution Master. After processing, this is what is actually sent to the cinemas.
After all the video, audio, subtitle, and auxiliary data channels (things like cues for curtains, theater lighting, etc.) are compressed and packaged, it's encrypted via AES with a 128-bit key. Along with the compression and encryption process, a watermark is embedded into the video source. The Digital Cinema Package (DCP), as it is now called, is delivered to the theater via satellite uplink, hard drive delivery, internet, etc. However, the encryption key is delivered separately, via secure courier, and each theater will get a different key. The DCP is uploaded into a central server in the theater, where it will then be scheduled by the manager to be loaded into a specific screen on a set schedule. Each screen will have a digital projector along with its own server to store a local copy of the DCP.
Key entry and decryption only actually happens when the movie is played, and as everything is decrypted, the forensic watermark is added to the video as well as the audio. This watermark is unique not only to the theater, but to the specific projector and even the time that it was played. This ensures that if anyone is sitting in a theater with a camcorder, they can trace it back to the exact showing using the embedded watermarks.
Nothing can move faster than light said einstein, except, says I, gravity, because gravity is actually geometry and hence everywhere instantly. No waves.
Actually, that's not true. The speed of which gravitational disturbances propogate is thought to be the speed of light. For example, suppose the Sun were to suddenly blink out of existance. We on Earth would still see it and feel the effects of it's light for 8 more minutes, until the last light from the Sun reached us. Similarly, we would not just instantly begin careening off into deep space either. It would take the same amount of time for the ripples in spacetime to reach us.
And right after that, you realize that the Master Chief wasn't a marine. He was a NCO, a petty officer. Master chief is the highest rank an enlisted man can reach in the Navy, and it's an important position of leadership. Next time, you might want to do your research, which you can here.
The Trilobite by Electrolux is a much smarter machine. The Roomba works by guesswork. It uses probability to make sure that it'll cover most of the floor at least once during its random turns. The Trilobite uses Sonar and mapping software, so it *knows* where it is. If it doesn't finish the whole floor, it'll return back to the base station, charge, and then finish the remainder of the floor, saving time and power. Here's a link to the product page
http://www.electroluxusa.com/node142.asp
and here's a nice article explaining how the Trilobite is so much more advanced
http://www.i4u.com/article1634.html
Entitled "Method and apparatus for identifying features of multidimensional image data in hypermedia systems", it only seems to be a patent describing ways to view or manipulate 3 dimensional images in a web brower, the method of which being execution of a "Program action"
The program action can include, for example, browser redirection, encapsulated HTML, dynamic HTML and downloading and running full-frame applets in the user's Web page.
Slashdot Mirror
I actually had a chance to meet with Walt Ordway, the head of DCI's technology branch, at my school a few years ago (he's a Northeastern University Alumnus). He gave a really nice presentation about what they're doing to secure the distribution masters and minimize piracy. Basically, they have a Digital Source Master (DCM) which is a final cut of the movie in a high definition format taken directly from post-processing. From this, they make various distribution masters in different formats for DVD, TV, Airline showings, and also conversion to film masters. One of the masters they make is a Digital Cinema Distribution Master. After processing, this is what is actually sent to the cinemas.
m _Spec_v1.pdf
After all the video, audio, subtitle, and auxiliary data channels (things like cues for curtains, theater lighting, etc.) are compressed and packaged, it's encrypted via AES with a 128-bit key. Along with the compression and encryption process, a watermark is embedded into the video source. The Digital Cinema Package (DCP), as it is now called, is delivered to the theater via satellite uplink, hard drive delivery, internet, etc. However, the encryption key is delivered separately, via secure courier, and each theater will get a different key. The DCP is uploaded into a central server in the theater, where it will then be scheduled by the manager to be loaded into a specific screen on a set schedule. Each screen will have a digital projector along with its own server to store a local copy of the DCP.
Key entry and decryption only actually happens when the movie is played, and as everything is decrypted, the forensic watermark is added to the video as well as the audio. This watermark is unique not only to the theater, but to the specific projector and even the time that it was played. This ensures that if anyone is sitting in a theater with a camcorder, they can trace it back to the exact showing using the embedded watermarks.
If anyone is interested in checking out the Digital Cinema System Specifications, they were awarded final approval on July 20, 2005 and can be found at http://www.dcimovies.com/DCI_Digital_Cinema_Syste
Actually, that's not true. The speed of which gravitational disturbances propogate is thought to be the speed of light. For example, suppose the Sun were to suddenly blink out of existance. We on Earth would still see it and feel the effects of it's light for 8 more minutes, until the last light from the Sun reached us. Similarly, we would not just instantly begin careening off into deep space either. It would take the same amount of time for the ripples in spacetime to reach us.
And right after that, you realize that the Master Chief wasn't a marine. He was a NCO, a petty officer. Master chief is the highest rank an enlisted man can reach in the Navy, and it's an important position of leadership. Next time, you might want to do your research, which you can here.
Does this mean no more Esuvee's? We can only hope...
The Trilobite by Electrolux is a much smarter machine. The Roomba works by guesswork. It uses probability to make sure that it'll cover most of the floor at least once during its random turns. The Trilobite uses Sonar and mapping software, so it *knows* where it is. If it doesn't finish the whole floor, it'll return back to the base station, charge, and then finish the remainder of the floor, saving time and power. Here's a link to the product page http://www.electroluxusa.com/node142.asp and here's a nice article explaining how the Trilobite is so much more advanced http://www.i4u.com/article1634.html
I just noticed, each google search image you click on has a little subcaption saying "This image may be subject to copyright."
I was curious and did a search on patents held by Eolas and invented by Michael Doyle, and I found this patent6 16701&F=0
http://v3.espacenet.com/textdoc?DB=EPODOC&IDX=US6
Entitled "Method and apparatus for identifying features of multidimensional image data in hypermedia systems", it only seems to be a patent describing ways to view or manipulate 3 dimensional images in a web brower, the method of which being execution of a "Program action"
The program action can include, for example, browser redirection, encapsulated HTML, dynamic HTML and downloading and running full-frame applets in the user's Web page.