Sony Corporation

Saturn Licensing LLC

Hideki Asazu

Yasushi Tsuruta

Kazuhito Sumiyoshi

Tomoyuki Yamamoto

Takehisa Souraku

Junya Ohde

Koji Matsuura

Tatsuya Narahara

Nobuyuki Fujiwara

Kensuke Ohnuma

Katsuro Matsuzaki

Takefumi Kitayama

Hiroyuki Ozawa

Hidetoshi Ichioka

Toshiyuki Katsumoto

Masaki Ishida

Wei Sun

Yuji Murakami

Masatoshi Ohta

Kohei Endo

Toyohiko Shibata

Log information includes items of information that identify one or more of program titles and performers that are selected by a user as being preferred. Identifiers are displayed, where each of the identifiers identifies an item of information included in the log information. An input to select one of the identifiers is received, and broadcast information for the program title or performer corresponding to the selected identifier is acquired. The broadcast information includes one or more broadcast times of contents that have the program title or that include the performer. The broadcast information is displayed to include the one or more broadcast times and an input is received to select a broadcast time of a content. Detailed information for the content and the broadcast time are displayed when the input to select the broadcast time of the content is received.

Information providing device, information providing method, and computer program

An information processing apparatus includes an acquiring unit adapted to acquire preference information representing a user's preference based on an operation given by the user regarding content; a selecting unit adapted to select content and to designate the selected content as an object for copying; and a copying unit adapted to copy the selected content to another information processing apparatus. Further, if the object for copying is copied by the copying unit, the acquiring unit updates the preference information associated with the content of the copied object for copying.

Information processing apparatus, information processing method and program

A recording control apparatus for controlling the recording of content of broadcast programs includes the following elements. An acquisition unit acquires electronic program guide data concerning the broadcast programs. A detector detects the title of a broadcast program from reserve-recording data indicating a recording reservation of the broadcast program. A calculator calculates the similarity between the title of the broadcast program detected by the detector and the title of the broadcast program indicated in the electronic program guide data acquired by the acquisition unit. A changing unit changes the reserve-recording data by using the electronic program guide data on the basis of the similarity calculated by the calculator.

Recording control apparatus and method, and program

A broadcast program reservation apparatus is disclosed. The broadcast program reservation apparatus may include a reception unit, a reservation unit, and a determination unit. The reception unit may receive a broadcast program and electronic program information. The reservation unit may execute a reserve-recording process of recording the program based on the electronic program information which has been received. The determination unit may determine whether or not a reservation candidate program as a candidate of the program is caused to be reserve-recorded by the reservation unit corresponding to a plurality of broadcast patterns of the program in a predetermined time period.

Broadcast program reservation apparatus, broadcast program reservation method, and program thereof

A schedule-table presenting apparatus including: a schedule acquisition section configured to acquire a schedule including the broadcasting start time and a descriptive text describing each of the events; a schedule-table generation section configured to assign a specific one of the events to a first program frame and assign a plurality of events other than the specific event to a second program frame in order to generate a schedule table including the first program frame allocated to the specific event as a frame showing the broadcasting start time of the specific event as well as the descriptive text describing the specific event and the second program frame allocated to the other events as a frame showing the broadcasting start time of each of the other events; and a display control section configured to display the schedule table generated by the schedule-table generation section on a display section determined in advance.

Schedule-table presenting apparatus and schedule-table presenting method

In the present invention, there is provided an information processing apparatus for recommending contents. The information processing apparatus may include recommended content extracting means for, when a predetermined condition is satisfied, during a period within a predetermined time from a point in time at which the predetermined condition is satisfied, with one or more contents that are being distributed or whose distribution is to be started from one or more distribution sources, respectively, as processing objects, extracting a recommended content to be recommended to a user from the processing objects on a basis of content information on each of the processing objects and preference information.

Information processing apparatus and method, and program

A recording apparatus is disclosed which records at least either a video or an audio signal of a broadcast program in accordance with reservation information. The recording apparatus includes: an acquisition block configured to acquire program information about the broadcast program; a calculation block configured to calculate a degree of similarity between a program name included in the reservation information and the program name described in the program information acquired by the acquisition block; a changing block configured to change the reservation information using the program information about the broadcast program determined by the degree of similarity, the changing block further changing the reservation information based on the program information about the broadcast program corresponding to program identification information included in the reservation information; and a recording control block configured to record at least either the video or the audio signal of the broadcast program in accordance with the reservation information.

Recording apparatus, recording method, and program

In the present invention, there is provided an information processing apparatus for recommending contents. The information processing apparatus may include recommendation information generating means for generating recommendation information for presenting a recommended content to be recommended to a user to the user, and when presenting the recommendation information to the user, changing a form of presentation of at least a part of the recommendation information.

Information about each of broadcast programs is subdivided into multiple items including program attributes and the other program association schemes for management. To each item, a relevance ratio with respect to a program is assigned. For example, the next broadcast schedule has the highest relevance ratio with respect to the program, the relevance ratio with respect to the program is high in order of cast, titles, and genre, and so on. Then, a database search is done for programs related to the base program for each item, the search results are arranged in order of decreasing relevance ratio with respect to the base program, and a base program related information page is created. Without deadening a user's interest inspired by watching a program, information related to the program being watched is given, and a user can be guided smoothly to the next preselected recording operation.

Information processing apparatus and information processing method, and computer program

This invention relates to an information providing system which is designed to be able to realize secondary utilization of broadcasting contents, along with copyright of the broadcasting contents being protected. A broadcasting receiving and picture recording device-records broadcasting contents that a broadcasting devicebroadcasted, and a terminal-edits the broadcasting contents which were recorded, and generates corresponding metadata. The metadata is transmitted from the terminal-to a metadata delivery serverthrough Internet, and registered. The metadata delivery server, on the basis of utilization availability information of broadcasting contents which is held in advance, in case that the broadcasting content that the metadata targets can be utilized, registers the metadata. The registered metadata is delivered through the Interneton the basis of a request of a terminal-. This invention is applied to an information providing system which delivers the metadata.

Information providing system, and information processing apparatus and method

Each bulletin board is set for the purpose of an argument and information exchange concerning a specific television program. In writing a remark in the bulletin board, a user registers information for specifying a program/scene referred to by the remark together with remark contents. The reference information consists of a broadcasting station at the time when a program is broadcasted and time when a reference part is broadcasted. The reference information is shaped into a predetermined format and transmitted to a terminal apparatus of the user. In the terminal apparatus, it becomes possible to start reproduction of a pertinent program/scene from recorded contents on the based on the received reference information. The terminal apparatus can support creation of information such as a comment concerning each scene in program contents and transmission and reception work of this type of information.

Content-related information providing apparatus, content related information providing method, electronic bulletin board system, and computer program

Each program content has a plurality of program states, such as 'already recorded', 'not recorded', &#x201c;preset for recording&#x201d;, &#x201c;not preset for recording&#x201d;, and &#x201c;not received&#x201d; states. In response to the selection of a related program on a starting-program-related information page, a detailed operation screen for the related program is presented. When the program state of the related program is &#x201c;already recorded&#x201d;, reproduction or erasure of the recording is presented on the detailed operation screen as a method of operation. When the program is not preset for recording yet, presetting for recording is presented on the detailed operation screen as a method of operation. Information related to a program that is being watched and listened to can be supplied without making the user less interested in something which the user was attracted to while watching the program, and the user can be smoothly guided to a subsequent preset recording operation.

Information processing apparatus, information processing method, and computer program

There is provided a system for recording and/or reproduction of broadcasting programs permits the facilitation of selection and management of recorded videos in the manner of following the operations of general AV equipment such as televisions and video decks, in which virtual channels are assigned according to categories defined by a user, and programs corresponding to the categories are recorded into the virtual channels, and since the recorded programs are set in array on a time base for simultaneous reproduction on each virtual channel, the user may happen to watch various recorded programs only by switching over the channels from one to another or continuing to reproduce recorded programs in a single channel after application of power at any time, which results in quite passive style only sufficient for the user to watch the recorded programs.

System and method for recording and reproducing broadcasting programs

Middleware operating under control of a media data audiovisual apparatus having functions of storing media data for replaying includes a media data management section for providing the media data management functions including replaying, readout, recording, deletion and synthesis of media data and also recording of an access history to the media data, a meta-data management section providing the meta-data management functions including readout, recording and dynamic creation of meta-data and also transaction processing attendant upon an access to the meta-data, and a query section having the functions of providing more highly abstractive access interface for an application program through vicarious execution of the processing for an access to the media data management section and the meta-data management section, wherein the middleware is configured to provide the functions as a database of the media data for the application program as a whole.

Growing community of inventors

Tokyo, Japan

Hideki Asazu