Sony Corporation

Kensuke Ohnuma

Hitoshi Kimura

Hidetoshi Ichioka

Hiroshi Okuda

Hideki Asazu

Shinichi Wakai

Tatsuya Narahara

Keiichi Yoshioka

Shingo Utsuki

Tomoyuki Yamamoto

Koichi Chotoku

Akihiro Watanabe

Toshiyuki Katsumoto

Katsuro Matsuzaki

Yuji Murakami

Takehisa Souraku

Shinichiro Sugai

Ayako Nakayama

An information processing apparatus, an information processing method and a program may provide that information to be processed by an application program recorded on a recording medium can be taken over and used by an application program recorded on a different recording medium. The application program serving as a content, a first root certificate issued to the application program, and a second root certificate issued before the first root certificate is issued to the application program may be recorded on the recording medium. The information processing apparatus, which executes the application program, creates, in the memory, a first folder for storing data to be processed by the application program, the first folder associated with the first root certificate; and copies data stored in a second folder, the second folder associated with the second root certificate, to the first folder in a case where the second folder exists in the memory.

Information processing apparatus, information processing method, program, and recording medium

Information processing methods to make it possible to reserve recording of a program without imposing a large burden on a user. A server transmits program attribute information to a video recording and reproducing apparatus via a network. The program attribute information includes program attribute names and program attribute retrieval conditions. The video recording and reproducing apparatus causes a display apparatus to display a list of the program attribute names. The user selects from the list a program attribute name to which a program that the user wishes to reserve for recording seems to be most closely related. The video recording and reproducing apparatus compares the retrieval conditions corresponding to the selected program attribute name and EPG (electronic program guide) information and, when the retrieval conditions are satisfied, records a program represented by the EPG in a recording reservation list. The methods can be applied to a hard disk video recorder.

Information processing apparatus and method, recording medium, and program

An apparatus automatically recommends content. A preference operation history managing unit generates history information of an operation relating to a preference for a content according to a plurality of operations relating to a preference for the content and explanation information relating to the content and using preference value parameters for each kind of these operations. A preference information managing unit generates and renews preference information including preference values in which a given preference value is based on a combination of a given keyword and a preference value for that keyword. A content recommending unit calculates a preference degree for the content according to the preference information and the explanation information with respect to the content and recommends at least a portion of the content according to the preference degree.

Apparatus and method for automatically recording content, and recording medium and program thereof

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

Disclosed herein is a data processing apparatus that sets identification information for identifying each of a plurality of contents based on metadata added to each of the contents. The apparatus includes: title information acquisition means for acquiring title information of each of the contents, the title information concerning a title of the content and being included in the metadata; information extraction means for comparing the title information of each of the contents to extract a part of the title information that is common to all of the contents; and identification information setting means for setting the identification information of each of the contents based on the other part of the title information than the part of the title information that is common to all of the contents.

Data processing apparatus, method, program, and storage medium for setting identification information based on metadata, and advantageously displaying print data

An information processing system and method are adapted to swiftly record a program matched to preference information. A user apparatus registers generated preference information, together with information representative of destinations for its preference information, to a server through a network. The server, when registered with the preference information, notifies another user apparatus as a destination of the preference information. The video recording/reproducing unit of the another user apparatus accesses the server through the network and designates preference information desired for scheduling of recording. The server sends the designated preference information to the video recording/reproducing unit through the network. The video recording/reproducing unit receives the preference information and carries out scheduling for recording on the basis of the preference information. The invention is applicable to a hard-disk video recorder.

Information processing system, information processing apparatus and method, recording medium and program

Program viewing is provided so that a user can easily search for a program which the user desires to view. An information processing apparatus includes an EPG information recording unit which stores EPG information of programs; a program selection unit which selects programs corresponding to a plurality of different selection conditions based on the EPG information; and a display control unit which controls the display on a display screen of a plurality of selection buttons associated with the plurality of selection conditions in a manner that features of the selected programs are represented, wherein, when any one of the selection buttons is selected, the display control unit controls the display on the display screen of information corresponding to the program associated with the selected selection buttons.

Information processing apparatus, information processing method, and computer program

The present invention is intended to provide an apparatus and a method for realizing the presentation of a content list and the reproduction of content in accordance with proper user preference on the basis of date and time at which content is viewed. Content preference values that change with time are computed. On the basis of the computed content preference values, a content list is generated for presentation to the user. For example, preference values are computed on the basis of daily time zone, holiday, weekday, and day-of-the-week and a content list in accordance with the computed preference values is generated for presentation to the user. The novel configuration allows the presentation of an optimum content list on the basis of date and time at which content is viewed, thereby realizing the selection and viewing of content that properly reflects user preference.

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

An apparatus and method enable easy extraction of popular programs from program information. A keyword extracting section extracts keywords from program information received by a program information receiving section. A keyword counting section counts a number of keywords for one week among the extracted keywords to obtain a keyword count for that week. A difference value computing section computes a difference value between the keyword count for the current week and the keyword count for the past week. A popular keywords extracting section extracts a predetermined number of keywords in a descending order of difference values each indicating a difference between the keyword count for the current week keywords and the keyword count for the past week keywords, and sets the keywords as those for the current week.

Information processing apparatus, information processing method, and program for the same

The present invention relates to an information processing system, information processing apparatus and method, recording medium and program, adapted to exchange picture-recording schedule information between the terminals. A user apparatus-registers generated picture-recording schedule information to a server-through a network, together with the information representative of a providing destination. The server-, when registering the picture-recording schedule information, makes a notification to a user apparatus-as a providing destination thereof. The video recording/reproducing apparatusof the user apparatus-accesses the server-through the network, and designates a picture-recording schedule program desired for scheduling of picture-recording of among the programs registered in the picture-recording schedule information. The server-sends the schedule information on a designated program to the video recording/reproducing apparatusthrough the network. The video recording/reproducing apparatusreceives this and makes a scheduling of picture-recording on the basis of the picture-recording schedule information. The invention is applicable to the hard-disk video recorder.

Information processing system, information processing device and method, recording medium, and program

An automatic recording apparatus for content includes a preference operation history managing unit operable to generate history information of an operation relating to a preference for a content according to a plurality of operations relating to a preference for the content and explanation information relating to the content and by using a preference value parameter for each kind of these operations; a preference information managing unit operable to generate and renew preference information including a preference value with respect to a plurality of elements relating to a preference for the content according to the history information; and a content recommending unit operable to calculate a preference degree for the content according to the preference information and the explanation information with respect to the content and to make a content record reservation according to the preference degree; wherein the content is recorded according to the content record reservation. In this way, contents are recorded automatically in conformity with a user's complicated and diversified preferences based on various operations by the user relating to the content preferences.

An automatic keyword extraction apparatus includes a first extraction unit operable to extract a first keyword from title character string information of contents using a first keyword dictionary in which a character string designating a sub-genre is registered; and a second extraction unit operable to extract a second keyword from detailed character string information of the contents using a second keyword dictionary in which names of persons are registered, the extraction of the second keyword being performed utilizing a character type separation method. In this manner, it is possible for a user to extract a keyword for searching contents automatically, efficiently and accurately from the title character string information and detailed character string information of the contents such as EPG information even in home electric appliances in which the throughput capacity or the memory capacity of the CPU is not so large.

Extracting keywords from multilingual alphabetic and glyph scripts in an electronic programming guide

A data providing system is capable of providing metadata or supplementary data generated in a predetermined area to a different area. Metadata related to broadcast programs are transmitted from a first broadcast receiver/recorder to a server via a network. The server registers the metadata transmitted from the first broadcast receiver/recorder in its program database, specifies a broadcast program on the basis of data for specifying the broadcast program transmitted from a second broadcast receiver/recorder, retrieves the metadata related to the specified broadcast program, and transmits the retrieved metadata to the second broadcast receiver/recorder, whereby the metadata are distributed from the server to the second broadcast receiver/recorder via the network.

Information providing system, information processing apparatus, and method

In an information processing apparatus, while broadcast content is secondarily used, an advertising video can be certainly viewed. Broadcast reception recorders receive broadcast content broadcast by a broadcasting apparatus and record it in built-in hard disk drives. A user of the broadcast reception recorders edits the received broadcast content, and registers meta-data corresponding to the edits in a video database of a server through a network. A user of the broadcast reception recorders receives the meta-data registered by the other user from the server through the network, and reproduces the broadcast content on the basis of the meta-data. An advertising video is added to the meta-data transmitted from the video database.

Growing community of inventors

Tokyo, Japan

Kensuke Ohnuma