Sony Corporation

Sony Electronics Inc

Sony Computer Entertainment Inc.

Other

David Gaxiola

Klaus Hofrichter

Joseph Alexander Dara-Abrams

Hirotoshi Maegawa

Shin Iima

Vivek Chopra

James E Marr

Stephen Cain Detwiler

Ravi Gauba

Nicholas Szeto

Jun Ouyang

Systems and methods for mediation of online trading services are provided. Supplemental content related to a content title may be listed in a market or store for content. A client device sends a mediated communication to a trading server; the mediated communication may include mediation data and a request concerning the transfer of supplemental content. A user account associated with the client device is identified and the supplemental content may then be assigned to the user account. A report regarding activity associated with the assignment of the supplemental content may be generated in accordance with mediation data.

Management of online trading services using mediated communications

Systems and methods for mediation of content-related services are provided. A client device playing content may send a request for a service related to the content. Configuration information is generated for the client device, reflecting a set of permissions that are determined based on a market segment of the client device. Once the client device is configured according to the set of permissions, the client device can communicate with a service provider of the requested service. Such communication and any further activity regarding the service is governed by the set of permissions, as is reporting regarding such communication and activity

Mediation of content-related services

A system and method is provided for identifying, accessing, and managing service applications for use with associated consumer electronic devices in a home network system. A client side process, executed by a client computing system in the home network system, operates in conjunction with a server side process executed by a server computing system that is coupled with the client computing system via the Internet. The client computing system is implemented by a gateway device coupled with each of the devices via the home network. The client side process includes the steps of: determining device ID information associated with at least one selected one of the consumer electronic devices in the home network system; determining a home network system configuration profile based at least on the device ID information; providing the home network system configuration profile to a selected server computing system via the Internet; downloading an application from the selected server computing system, the application being operative to provide a process associated with the selected electronic devices; and executing the downloaded application at the gateway device to provide a remote interactive process associated with the selected electronic devices.

Content and application download based on a home network system configuration profile

A process is provided for identifying and managing support service applications associated with consumer electronic devices. The process is executed by a gateway device communicatively coupled with each of the electronic devices via a home network, the gateway device being operative to access the Internet and being communicatively coupled with a display unit. The process includes the steps of: determining device ID information associated with a selected one of the electronic devices for which a support service application is required; providing the device ID information to a selected server computing system via the Internet; downloading a support service application associated with the selected device from the selected server computing system; and executing the downloaded support service application at the gateway device to provide a remote interactive support service process for the selected device. The support service may include a remote interactive manual service providing educational instructions to a user of the home network system regarding operation of a selected device, a remote interactive maintenance/diagnostic service for instructing a home network system user in solving maintenance problems associated with a selected device, or a combination remote interactive manual/maintenance/diagnostic service.

Remote manual, maintenance, and diagnostic services for networked electronic devices

In one embodiment, when a problem with a consumer electronic device owned by a user is identified, a diagnostic procedure is provided to control the diagnosis of the potentially faulty consumer electronic device by a testing consumer electronic device. The testing consumer electronic device is a local device owned by the user that is operable to diagnose problems associated with the potentially faulty consumer electronic device. In one embodiment, the testing consumer electronic device and the potentially faulty consumer electronic device are part of a home network enabling their communication during the diagnosis. In another embodiment, the testing consumer electronic device and the potentially faulty consumer electronic device can communicate only during the diagnosis using a special purpose connectivity means. In yet another embodiment, the testing consumer device and the potentially faulty consumer electronic device can communicate using their user interfaces.

Using local devices as diagnostic tools for consumer electronic devices

Growing community of inventors

San Jose, CA, United States of America

David Gaxiola