BACKGROUND

The rapid development of technology has led to the rise of the Internet of Things, which allows users to connect, via the Internet, their devices with other devices in order to send commands, share content, access media, etc. However, the connection process between a user's device and another device may not be seamless, immediate, or satisfying.

SUMMARY

A user may connect a personal device, which may be readily available (e.g., a smartphone), to a secondary device (e.g., a smart speaker) in order to do a variety of things. In situations where the user is not the owner of the other device (e.g., a public device), the connection process can be cumbersome. For example, the user may not seamlessly be able to connect to the secondary device. While traditional computer processors may receive/transmit connection requests, these systems still fail to solve the aforementioned problem when implemented in computer systems as they fail to account for the issues created when a user is attempting to connect to a public device, namely: (i) the device the user is attempting to connect to is incompatible with the user's media device; (ii) the device may not be detectable to the user's media device; (iii) the connection process may require an amount of processing that the user's device/the secondary device cannot sustain/withstand; (iv) the device the user is attempting to connect to does not have the proper applications to access the media content because it is not previously configured by the user; (v) the devices have poor connectivity; and/or (vi) the connection poses security risks. Conventional solutions to these problems rely on the use of dongles inserted into the secondary device or require the secondary device to have particular hardware, or pre-installed software, compatible with hardware or software of a user's device. Thus, these conventional solutions require the user to have access to the secondary device (e.g., to insert a dongle) and/or are limited to secondary devices with a particular hardware and/or software configuration.

Accordingly, to overcome the problems in computer systems when connecting a private device to a public device, systems and methods are described herein for a media guidance application that identifies public devices, bridges the communication between the private device of the user and the public device, and connects the respective devices without requiring the user to have access to the secondary device (e.g., to insert a dongle) and/or requiring the secondary devices to have a particular hardware and/or software configuration. These solutions are provided for through the use of specialized authorization keys.

For example, a user may wish to connect his/her smartphone to a public display in a mall. A media guidance application, installed on the user's smartphone or on an external server, may communicate with the public display, requesting to connect the public display with the user's smartphone. In response to receiving the request to connect and authenticating the user's credentials (e.g., to retrieve information/content if necessary), the public display may generate an authorization key that enables communication between the user's smartphone and the public display and may transmit the authorization key to the user's smartphone. Specifically, the authorization key may consist of connection parameters (e.g., information about minimum data transfer rates, time limits, predetermined proximity requirements, etc.) to ensure a secure, stable, and easy-to-initiate connection. These connection parameters, selected based on the situation or the desire connection goal, provide the aforementioned solutions. For example, the user's smartphone may accordingly be able to send commands (e.g., generate for display content, browse the Internet, communicate with an external device, etc.) in conjunction with the authorization key, to the public display. The media guidance application may moderate the connection between the respective devices by validating the authorization key when a command is received at the public device. In response to determining that the authorization key is valid, the public device may execute the command (e.g., display a requested media asset).

In some aspects, a media guidance application may receive a communication from a private device, implementing a private interface application, indicating that a user wishes to use a public device. The private device may be any electronic device that the user has access to and/or owns, and that is capable of communicating with other devices. The public device may be any electronic device that is available for access by several users and is capable of communicating with other devices. Examples of private and public devices include, but are not limited to, displays, smartphones, smartwatches, smart speakers, computers, biometric devices, video game consoles, etc. The communication received from the private device may be in the form of a communication protocol data unit (e.g., a packet, a frame, a cell, etc.) in which the destination of the data unit is the communication address of the public device.

In some embodiments, the communication from the private device is transmitted to the public device in response to receiving, at the private device, a broadcast message inviting the private device to access the public device. In some embodiments, the broadcast message inviting the private device to access the public device is transmitted by the public device, in response to determining that the private device is within a predetermined displacement from the public device. For example, the public device may broadcast discovery messages in order to detect devices. In response, the public device may receive acknowledgment responses with received signal strength indicator (RSSI) values from the devices that received the discovery message. The media guidance application may determine, using a lookup table which returns distance as a function of RSSI, the distance between the public device and the acknowledging device. In response to determining that the distance is within a predetermined displacement from the public device, the media guidance application of the public device may transmit the message inviting the acknowledging device (e.g., the user's private device) to access the public device. In some embodiments, the distance between the public and private device may be determined using the difference of their respective GPS coordinates, using NFC technology.

For example, if the private device is the user's smartphone, on which the media guidance application is installed, the private interface application (e.g., the YouTube mobile app, the Spotify app, etc.) may be either stored or actively running on the private device. The user may specifically wish to transmit, from the private device to the public device, a command that is associated with the private interface application. In some embodiments, the media guidance application may display information about all public devices available for access in the vicinity of the private device. For example, the media guidance application may provide a map/list of the public devices nearby and may allow the user to select a public device in order to send a request to connect. It should be noted that the media guidance application may be installed on a remote server, instead of the user's device. Accordingly, the remote server may communicate with the private device in order to provide the list/map of accessible public devices in the user's vicinity. Furthermore, the media guidance application may be integrated with the private interface application. Thus, the user may be able to view the map/list from the private interface application directly. In another example, if the public device is a large touchscreen display located in a mall, the public display may receive the user's request to connect from the user's smartphone. The communication between the private device and the public device may be implemented over various communication infrastructures including, but not limited to, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, cellular networks, wired connections (e.g., Ethernet), etc. Various servers, routers, switches, hubs, etc., may serve as intermediate devices configured to pass data between the public device and the private device.

In some embodiments, the public device and the private device may not be compatible. For example, the public device may be a public display with a Windows™-based operating system and the private device may be a smartphone with an iOS™-based operating system. In some cases, the two respective devices may be unable to communicate due to their differences in programming. As a result, the media guidance application may determine that the private device is of a first operating system type and the public device is of a second operating system type. The media guidance application may determine that the first operating system type is incompatible with the second operating system type. In response to receiving a first message (e.g., command, request, data packet) that is encoded using the first operating system type by the private interface application and is to be sent to the public device, the media guidance application may translate the content of the first message and generate a second message encoded using the second operating system type that includes the content of the first message. The media guidance application may then record the first message in a log and may transmit the second message to the public device.

The media guidance application may request, from the private device, both user authorization information and an identifier for the private interface application. In response to the user making a selection of the public device, the media guidance application may create a temporary connection between the private device and the public device. The temporary connection may allow the private device and the public device to communicate without providing access to the functionality of either device (e.g., the ability to access and display the content). Accordingly, the private device may receive, from either the public device or a remote server with the media guidance application, a request for user authorization information and an identifier of the private interface application. The user authorization information may comprise data required to verify the user's identity with the content provider. For example, the user authorization information may list the subscriptions the user possesses and the respective login keys (e.g., username, password, security questions, PIN codes, etc.) to access the subscriptions. The identifier of the private interface application may be any descriptive attribute of the private interface application including, but not limited to, a name, a logo, a developer name, software details (e.g., build number, version, compatible operating system), a screenshot of the user interface, etc. It should be noted that the identifier may comprise a combination of descriptive attributes. For example, an identifier may include the name of a content provider (e.g., Netflix™) associated with the private interface application, the version of the private interface application (e.g., version 5.6), and the compatible operating systems (e.g., iOS™, Android™). Thus, in this example, the identifier that the private device may provide to the public device is “Netflix™, Android™ application version 5.6.” It should be noted that the content provider may be a third-party source (e.g., Google™ Play Store, App Store) as well.

In some embodiments, the user authorization information may be stored on a server. The public device may scan the user's face and/or fingerprint and run facial/fingerprint recognition analysis using a facial/fingerprint database that may be stored on the server. In response to identifying a match, the media guidance application may retrieve the user authorization information associated with the match.

The media guidance application may then generate, at the public device, an authorization key unique to the private device based on (i) the user authorization information, (ii) the identifier and (iii) connection parameters, wherein the authorization key is required to cause the public device to execute commands received from the private device during a session. Continuing from the previous example, suppose that the identifier for the private interface application is “Netflix™, Android™ application version 5.6.” The user authorization information may thus comprise a username and password to the user's Netflix™ account. The connection parameters represent conditions that must be met in order to maintain the connection between the public device and the private device. For example, the connection parameters may comprise a predetermined proximity to the public device, within which the private device must remain in order for the authorization key to remain valid. The connection parameters may comprise restrictions on certain commands that the user may request. For example, the user may request that the public device perform a task that demands heavy processing as it requires high-end graphics (e.g., the command may be to generate for display a video game). In this example, the public device cannot generate for display the video game because the requirements of the video game exceed the public device's technical capabilities. For example, the public device may have limitations in CPU processing power, memory, graphics (e.g., resolution), or connectivity (e.g., network bandwidth). In the absence of connection parameters, the public device may get damaged while trying to generate for display the video game (e.g., may cause corrupted files and/or overheating at the motherboard).

Accordingly, the media guidance application may take the public device's technical capabilities into consideration and limit the user to commands that the public device can implement, information about which may be included in the connection parameters.

Similarly, the connection parameters may include information such as the connection type (e.g., Wi-Fi, cellular data, etc.) established between the private device and public device, the location of the respective devices, time limits for accessing the public device (e.g., allow the connection between the public device and the private device for one hour only), etc. The authorization key may be encrypted by symmetric and/or public/private encryption method. This provides security and prevents other devices from sending commands on behalf of the private device. An example of an authorization key may be “AUTH:username-password_ID:identifier_PARA:parameters.” Therefore, if the username of a user is “user123,” the password is “pass123,” the identifier is “Netflix™, Android™ application version 5.6,” and the connection parameters include a predetermined proximity, the private device serial number, public device serial number, connection type, minimum data transfer rate, and time limit (e.g., 5m-private123-public321-bluetooth-100kbps-60min), the authorization key in its entirety may be “AUTH:user123-pass123_ID:Netflix™[Android™, v5.6]_PARA:5m-private123-pub1ic321-bluetooth-100kbps-60min.”

In some embodiments, the user may not need to provide user authorization information because the user may be interested in accessing a publicly accessible application on the public device. For example, if the user possesses a cellphone that does not have smartphone features, the user may wish to read the news, look up the weather, or browse the Internet. Accordingly, the user may not be able to perform those tasks on the private device and also does not need authorization information to pull up the user's profile (e.g., Netflix™ account with preferences). Thus, when the media guidance application requests user authorization information, the user may not provide user authorization information. In response, the media guidance application may not include user authorization information in the authorization key (e.g., leave the text after “AUTH” empty).

The media guidance application may then transmit, to the private device, the authorization key and in response to transmitting the authorization key, the media guidance application may initiate a session, at the public device, with the private device. The session may be a formal connection between the public device and the private device in which commands can be exchanged between the respective devices. The formal connection may be established over various communication infrastructures including, but not limited to, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, cellular networks, wired connections (e.g., Ethernet), etc. It should be noted that the authorization key is required to execute commands, at the public device, received from the private device during the session.

The media guidance application may then receive, at the public device, a first communication from the private interface application. The media guidance application may parse, at the public device, the first communication to identify the authorization key and a command to execute on the public device. The command is a task that the user assigns to the public device. Furthermore, the command may be associated specifically with the private interface application. For example, if the private interface application is a video streaming application such as the Netflix™ mobile app, the user may initiate a first communication with the public device by sending a command that requests that the public device download a public interface application (e.g., a corresponding Netflix™ application) that is compatible with the private interface application. The command may also be to change a setting of the public device (e.g., increase volume, decrease brightness, etc.). The commands may be transmitted as text from the private device to the public device, verbally from the user to the public device, via gestures or any visual indication of a command from the user/private device to the public device, or biometric changes (e.g., changes in heart rate, tightening of muscles, etc.). It should be noted that not all public devices may have displays (e.g., smart speakers, augmented reality devices, hologram generators, etc.). For those particular public devices, an appropriate user interface that is compatible with the public device and allows user interaction via the private interface application may be used. Based on the examples listed above, these substitute user interfaces may be an audio user interface (e.g., where a menu is read aloud to the user), augmented reality user interface (e.g., allows the user to see an augmented reality screen via the private device), or a holographic projection user interface (e.g., where the menu is projected). In some embodiments, the private interface application and/or the public interface application may be browser-based (e.g., implemented in HTMLS).

The media guidance application may then validate, at the public device, the authorization key. Validating the authorization key may involve two steps: (1) determining whether the authorization key received from the private device matches the authorization key transmitted by the public device to the private device and (2) determining whether the connection parameters are satisfied. For example, the media guidance application may store a copy of the authorization key for a threshold time (e.g., three minutes) when transmitting the authorization key to the private device. Thus, the private device must send a command within the threshold time before the media guidance application erases the authorization key from the memory of the public device. In response to receiving a command (e.g., as a first communication), the media guidance application may decrypt the authorization key at the public device and determine whether the received authorization key matches the authorization key in the memory of the public device. If the respective authorization keys match, the media guidance application may determine whether the connection parameters of the authorization key are satisfied (e.g., whether the connection type is the same, the data transfer rate is locked to a threshold speed, the private device is within the predetermined proximity, the time elapsed within the time limit, etc.). If the received authorization key matches and each connection parameter is satisfied, the media guidance application may validate the authorization key. In response to validating the authorization key, the media guidance application may execute, at the public device, the command. For example, the command may be to generate for display, on the public device, a media asset selected on the private interface application (e.g., a movie selected on the Netflix™ mobile application).

In some embodiments, the authorization key may be different for each communication exchanged between the public device and the private device (e.g., in order to improve security). For example, the authorization key may additionally comprise a timestamp in order to allow the media guidance application to determine the order at which communications were received and also to distinguish each private device that may be sending communications to the public device (e.g., when multiple private devices are connected to the public device). In response to the initiation of a session between the public device and the private device, the media guidance application of the private device may begin sending commands from the private interface application to the public device. The authorization key previously sent by the public device may accompany the command from the private device. In response to receiving the command and the authorization key, the media guidance application may parse the authorization key to determine whether it matches the authorization key generated at the public device. In response to determining a match, the media guidance application of the public device may execute the command sent by the private interface application. In response to determining that the authorization key does not match, the media guidance application of the public device may end the session. Furthermore, the media guidance application of the public device may generate a new authorization key and transmit the new authorization key to the private device, in response to receiving a command from the private interface application that is accompanied by an authorization key that matches the authorization previously transmitted by the public device.

In some embodiments, the connection parameters may comprise a predetermined proximity to the public device within which the private device must remain in order for the authorization key to remain valid (e.g., in order to prevent a user from connecting to a device to which he/she cannot view or use). The predetermined proximity may be a physical distance/displacement that represents the furthest point the private device can be from the public device in a particular direction. For simplicity, the predetermined proximity may be interpreted as a connection “sphere” of a certain radius (e.g., five meters). Accordingly, the private device may be up to five meters from the public device in any direction in order for the private interface application to communicate with the public interface application. Due to the presence of obstacles (e.g., walls, objects, etc.), the predetermined proximity may not be the same in all directions. For example, the predetermined proximity perpendicular to the display of the public device and parallel to the floor may be five meters. However, the predetermined proximity perpendicular to the floor and the display of the public device (e.g., pointing upwards) may be three meters due to the presence of a ceiling (e.g., the ceiling may significantly reduce the signal strength). The public device may further generate, for display/audio, the predetermined proximity for the user on the public device.

The media guidance application may generate, at the public device, the authorization key by retrieving a device identifier of the private device (e.g., in order to precisely identify the user and/or data associated with the user). The device identifier may be a descriptive attribute of the private device such as at least one of the device name, device type, model number, serial number, manufacturer name, battery life, etc. Multiple descriptive attributes may make up a device identifier. For example, if the private device's manufacturer is Google, the name of the device is Pixel XL, the model number is 2, and the serial number is 12345, the device identifier may be “Google Pixel XL 2, 12345.”

The media guidance application may then determine a connection strength between the private device and the public device (e.g., in order to ensure the quality of the connection). The connection strength may be a quantitative or qualitative value that represents the quality of the connection between two or more devices. The connection strength may be described using data transfer rates (e.g., download/upload speeds) or signal power. For example, if the connection strength is a quantitative value, the media guidance application may transmit a test message from the private device to the public device and measure, at the public device, the download transfer rate (e.g., megabytes per second). The media guidance application may then send a test message from the public device to the private device, and may measure, at the private device, the download transfer rate. It should be noted that the transfer rates at the public device and the private device are with respect to each other only. For example, the private device may have a general download transfer rate when connected to a different device, and the general download transfer rate may be different from the transfer rate with the public device. In response to determining the respective download transfer rates at each respective device, the media guidance application may determine the average download transfer rate between the respective devices. The average download transfer rate (e.g., 5 Mbps) may represent the connection strength. A similar procedure may be used by the media guidance application to determine the average upload transfer rate, which may also be used to represent the connection strength. In some embodiments, the media guidance application may determine the connection strength by determining that average transfer rate by averaging the average download transfer rate and the average upload transfer rate. In some embodiments, the connection strength may be represented by the lowest transfer rate between the respective devices. For example, if the upload transfer rates of the private device and the public device are 2 Mbps and 3 Mbps, respectively, and the download transfer rates are 10 Mbps and 15 Mbps, respectively, the connection strength may be represented as 2 Mbps.

When the connection strength is represented qualitatively, the media guidance application may determine the quantitative value of the signal strength/transfer rate and refer to data structure that converts the quantitative value to a qualitative value. For example, the data in the data structure may be predetermined by the media guidance application. Furthermore, each quantitative range may represent a qualitative value. In this example, there may be five qualitative classifications of the connection strength: poor, below average, average, above average, and strong. In terms of transfer rates, the respective transfer rate ranges for each classification may be 0-0.5 Mbps, 0.5-1 Mbps, 1 Mbps-3 Mbps, 3 Mbps-5 Mbps, and 5+ Mbps. In terms of signal power, the respective signal power ranges may be −113-−100 dBm, −100-−80 dBm, etc.

The media guidance application may then determine the predetermined proximity, based on the device identifier and the connection strength (e.g., to ensure that a connection is maintained between the respective devices). For example, the media guidance application may retrieve, using the device identifier, additional information about the private device. The additional information may include technical details about the private device such as compatible connection types (e.g., Bluetooth, cellular, Wi-Fi, etc.) and processing capabilities (e.g., from a processer chip specification). Using this information, alongside the connection strength, the media guidance application may determine a maximum distance that the private device can be from the public device without dropping the connection strength or causing the private device to exhaust processing.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may receive, at the public device, a received signal strength indicator (RSSI) from the private device. The media guidance application may set the RSSI value as the connection strength. An RSSI represents the power of a received signal. The media guidance application may then approximate a distance between the public device and the private device. For example, the media guidance application may determine that the RSSI of the original transmitted signal is 0 and the RSSI received at the private device is −20. The media guidance application may determine, using a lookup table that returns distance as a function of RSSI, the distance between the private device and the public device.

The user authorization information may comprise a user profile. Accordingly, the media guidance application may also determine an application usage history based on the user profile. For example, the application usage history may list all of the applications the user has accessed in a period of time. Alongside listing the application name, the application usage history may track the amount of time the user spent accessing an application, and the number of times the user has accessed the application. The media guidance application may then determine an anticipated processing ratio between the private device and the public device, based on the application usage history and the device identifier. The purpose of determining an anticipated processing ratio between the respective devices is to balance the processing requirements between the public device and the private device. For example, the private and public devices may be capable of load-sharing processing. Suppose that multiple private devices are connected to the public device. In order to ensure that a user's command is executed at the public device, the public device may reserve a certain amount of processing power for the user and assign additional processing to the private device.

In some embodiments, determining the anticipated processing ratio between the private device and the public device further comprises the media guidance application determining a first processing limit of the private device based on the device identifier and a second processing limit of the public device. For example, the device identifier of the private device may be “Google Pixel XL 2.” The media guidance application may retrieve additional information about the private device using the Internet. Specifically, the media guidance application may determine that the private device is a smartphone with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 processing chip and 4 gigabytes of RAM. Based on the additional information retrieved using the device identifier, the media guidance application may set the first processing limit to 4 GB RAM at 2.35 GHz. In this example, the technical capabilities of the public device are 8 GB RAM at 2.5 GHz (e.g., which may be set as the second processing limit). The media guidance application may determine an average processing requirement associated with at least one application in the application usage history. For example, the media guidance application may select the private interface application as the at least one application in the application usage history and retrieve metadata associated with the private interface application. The metadata may list the average processing requirement of the private interface application. For example, the average processing requirement of the Netflix™ mobile application may be 512 MB RAM at 1.8 GHz. In some embodiments, the media guidance application may determine the likelihood of the user accessing an application listed in the application usage history. For example, the media guidance application may use a probability model as a function of frequency of usage, total amount of times accessed, and the time length of each access, in order to determine the likelihood of the user accessing an application. The media guidance application may then select the application with the highest likelihood and determine its average processing requirement. In some embodiments, the media guidance application may determine the average processing requirement by averaging the processing requirements of all applications listed in the application usage history. In some embodiments, the media guidance application may identify the application with the highest processing requirement and set the respective processing requirement as the average processing requirement.

Furthermore, the media guidance application may identify power consumption information of the private device based on the device identifier. For example, the additional information retrieved by the media guidance application based on the device identifier, may include the maximum battery capacity of the private device. For example, the battery capacity of the private device may be 3,520 mAh. In this example, the device identifier lists the battery life of the private device as 80% battery remaining. The media guidance application may determine that the power consumption information indicates a remaining battery of 80% of 3,520 mAh (i.e., 2816 mAh). In addition, the power consumption information may indicate the amount of time the remaining battery can be used when the private device is functioning at a specific processing scheme. For example, the power consumption information may indicate the private device's battery will remain charged (e.g., above 0%) for 0.5 hours when utilizing 3 GB RAM and 1.5 GHz of processing.

The media guidance application may thus determine a first anticipated processing load for the private device, based on the power consumption information and the first processing limit (e.g., to balance the processing requirements for executing a command). Additionally, the media guidance application may determine a second anticipated processing load for the public device, wherein a sum of the first anticipated processing load and the second anticipated processing load is greater than or equal to the average processing requirement. For example, the private interface application is the Netflix™ mobile application and the user will send commands based on the Netflix™ mobile application (e.g., mirroring the application, downloading a public interface application associated with the private interface application, etc.). The average processing requirement for the private interface application and/or the public interface application of Netflix™ may have an average processing requirement of 512 MB RAM at 1.8 GHz. The media guidance application may allocate 256 MB RAM and 1.8 GHz of the second processing limit for the public device. Similarly, the media guidance application may allocate 256 MB RAM and 1.8 GHz of the first processing limit for the private device. This may ensure that anticipated commands from the user are executed. It should be noted that the sum of the respective anticipated processing loads equals the average processing requirement. In some embodiments, the media guidance application may allocate the entire average processing requirement as the second anticipated processing load. This minimizes the processing that must be performed at the private device and reduces the amount of communication that must be carried out between the public device and the private device. In conditions where the average processing requirement is less than the second processing limit, the media guidance application may treat the public device as a thick client for heavy processing duties and may treat the private device as a thin client for sending basic communications (e.g., exchanging commands and processing status information).

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may determine that a second private device is connected with the public device (e.g., in order to allow multiple private devices to share a public device). Accordingly, the second processing limit of the public device may be lower than the maximum processing capabilities of the public device because the media guidance application may previously have allocated a third anticipated processing load for the public device. Therefore, the media guidance application may determine the second anticipated processing load based on the remaining processing capabilities of the public device and allocate the rest to the first private device as the first anticipated processing load.

The media guidance application may then determine the anticipated processing ratio between the private device and the public device, based on the first anticipated processing load and the second anticipated processing load. For example, the media guidance application may determine a percentage of the average processing requirement that was allocated to the public device and a percentage that was allocated to the private device. In the previous example, both devices were allocated an equal anticipated processing load (e.g., 50% each). The anticipated processing ratio of the private device to the public device is therefore 50:50 (i.e., 1:1). In another example, the percentage for the public device is 70% and the percentage for the private device is 30%. The anticipated processing ratio would thus be 30:70 (i.e., 3:7). In some embodiments, the anticipated processing ratio may be of the public device to the private device (e.g., 70:30).

In terms of determining the predetermined proximity, the media guidance application may then determine a radial displacement between the private device and the public device, wherein when the private device is a distance, less than or equal to the radial displacement, from the public device, (i) the connection strength does not decrease by more than a degradation threshold and (ii) the anticipated processing ratio does not increase by more than a processing limit threshold. For example, the distance, between the private device and the public device at which the connection strength (e.g., “good”) is determined, may be three meters. The media guidance application may determine a radial displacement representing the farthest the private device can be from the public device without reducing the connection strength by a degradation threshold. The degradation threshold may be an amount (e.g., percentage, fraction, value) of the connection strength that represents a significant change in the quality of a connection. For example, the media guidance application may determine a radius of 6 meters. The radius may indicate that the private device can be up to 6 meters away from the public device, without reducing the connection strength (e.g., to “above average”). Furthermore, the media guidance application may determine that as the private device moves farther away from the public device, the public device and/or the private device may expend more processing in communicating with one another. For example, the user may have issued a command to the public device to retrieve a video game and generate for display. As the private device moves farther away from the public device, or behind obstacles, the media guidance application may attempt to reduce the processing load of the public device and allocate more processing on the private device (e.g., to ensure that the user has immediate access to the video game or to reduce the latency between the user issuing a command and the command's execution at the public device). The change in processing loads may thus change the processing ratio. For example, the processing ratio between the private device and the public device may be 50:50. However, due to the increase in distance between the private device and public device (e.g., beyond the radial displacement), the connection strength may decrease and the processing ratio may become 70:30 (e.g., increase processing at the private device to make up for the degradation in the connection strength). The processing limit threshold may be a maximum change in processing loads before the connection between the public device and the private device may become unstable. The processing limit may be the difference between the first processing limit and the processing load of the private device. For example, if an increase in the processing load of the private device is equal to the processing limit of the private device, the media guidance application may determine that the connection is unstable and may end the session. Similarly, if the increase in the processing load of the public device is equal to the processing limit of the public device, the media guidance application may determine that the connection is unstable and may end the session.

Thus, the media guidance application may determine the predetermined proximity based on the radial displacement. For example, if the radial displacement is 6 meters from the public device, the media guidance application may determine a buffer distance beyond the radial displacement in which the connection strength between the private device and the public device reduces beyond a connection strength threshold (e.g., 50% degradation from the originally determined connection strength). The predetermined proximity may represent a sum of the radial displacement, and the buffer distance. In some embodiments, the media guidance application may generate for display the connection strength, the radial displacement, and/or the predetermined proximity on the public device and/or private device, for the user. Similarly, the media guidance application may also generate for display the connection parameters of the connection on the public device and/or private device.

In some embodiments, wherein the connection parameters comprise a predetermined proximity to the public device within which the private device must remain in order for the authorization key to remain valid, the media guidance application may verify that the private device is within the predetermined proximity to the public device. For example, the media guidance application may request RSSI values (e.g., imbed an RSSI value to the authorization key) from the private device and convert the RSSI values to distances based on the lookup table previously discussed. The media guidance application may then determine whether the converted distance (e.g., 3 meters) is greater than the predetermined proximity (e.g., 5 meters). In response to validating the authorization key (e.g., determining a match as previously discussed) and verifying that the private device is within the predetermined proximity to the public device, the media guidance application may execute, at the public device, the command. In some embodiments, the media guidance application may invalidate, at the public device, the authorization key, by determining that the private device is outside the predetermined proximity to the public device. For example, if the distance between the private device and the public device is determined to be 7 meters and the predetermined proximity is 5 meters, the media guidance application may no longer accept the authorization key. Instead, the media guidance application may mark the authorization key as invalid to prevent further communication using the authorization key. In response to invalidating the authorization key, the media guidance application may also end the session between the public device and the private device.

In some embodiments, the user authorization information is a universally unique identifier (UUID) or globally unique identifier (GUID) generated by the private interface application in response to verifying a login name and password entered into the private interface application, and wherein the user authorization information is valid for a predetermined time after verifying the login name and password. For example, the user authorization may be an identifier that represents the user's login name and password. Accordingly, the actual values of the login name and password are not exposed to the public device. Instead, the media guidance application assigns a UUID or a GUID associated with the user in response to verifying the user's login name/username and password. For example, the predetermined time may be one hour. Thus, the UUID and GUID may become invalid after one hour. The media guidance application may then re-verify the user's login name and password.

In some embodiments, the public device may be configured to automatically remove the user authorization information from memory on the public device upon deactivation (e.g., ending the session) of the public interface application on the public device. Additionally, the private interface application may be configured to retain the user authorization information in memory on the private device upon deactivation of the private interface application on the private device. For example, the media guidance application may remove the user authorization information from the public device to prevent other users from accessing the user's content. As mentioned previously, the user authorization information may be in the form of a UUID or a GUID. Accordingly, the media guidance application may store the user authorization information on the public device. If the predetermined time in which the UUID/GUID is valid is five days, the media guidance application may seamlessly connect the public device and the private device without the need for verifying the user's login name and password for the content provider within the five days.

It should be noted that the systems, methods, apparatuses, and/or aspects described above may be applied to, or used in accordance with, other systems, methods, apparatuses, and/or aspects described in this disclosure.

