Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.

Tokyo Kogaku Kikai Kabushiki Kaisha

Panasonic Corporation

Masafumi Tamura

Hideo Ando

Makoto Tatebayashi

Shunji Harada

Toru Kamibayashi

Shinichi Kikuchi

Kazuhiko Taira

Yasuhiro Ishibashi

Mitsuyuki Nozaki

Masayuki Kozuka

Taku Kato

Hisashi Yamada

Teruto Hirota

Hideki Mimura

Yuji Ito

Hiroshi Iwasaki

Shuichi Hisatomi

Tooru Kamibayashi

Satoshi Kageyama

Takashi Kondo

Hideyuki Toma

Takeo Horiguchi

Koji Kanazawa

Shunichi Kawabata

Tomotaka Miyazaki

Noboru Katsuta

Arisa Uchiyama

Ken-ichi Ichikawa

A video recording/reproducing apparatus comprises a receiver which receives a broadcast program, an acquiring unit which acquires program information of the broadcast program, a recording unit which records the broadcast program received by the receiver together with the program information acquired by the acquiring unit, a selector which selects a type of the program, and a searching unit which searches a latest program of the type selected by the selector based on the program information acquired by the acquiring unit and the program information recorded by the recording unit.

Video recording/reproducing apparatus and method based on program information

In a system for recording/playing back video data together with control information, a thumbnail, or thumbnail control information, extracted from a moving picture of a video is used as the control information. The thumbnail control information includes information for generating a thumbnail image which is generated based on the contents of the video data, and information for using the generated thumbnail picture in a menu corresponding to the contents of the video data. The user can create a menu corresponding to the video recorded contents.

Digital information recording/playback system and digital information recording medium

At least one set of revocation information for identifying electronic appliances that should be revoked for content protection and master revocation information for identifying electronic appliances that have special permission to update the revocation information are recorded in advance into a special storage region on a storage medium. When the storage medium is loaded into an electronic appliance indicated by the master revocation information, the revocation information can be updated. However, when the storage medium is loaded into an electronic appliance indicated by the revocation information, the electronic appliance is revoked and so the protection of contents is improved.

Revocation information updating method, revocation information updating apparatus and storage medium

Music number #&#x3b3; and one or more still images (e.g., IMG_01.IOB and IMG_04.IOB) related to music number #&#x3b3; are recorded in an audio card. In addition, information (e.g., IPI#5) for setting the still image (e.g., IMG_01.IOB) representing the contents of music number #&#x3b3; is also recorded in the audio card. In this way, the representative image corresponding to the recorded audio information (music number) can be set.

System for handling audio information with representative image

A mobile information apparatus has a communication unit configured to collect usage states of a plurality of devices on a network, an estimation unit configured to estimate a position of a user on the basis of the usage states of the plurality of devices collected by the communication unit, and a moving unit configured to move a housing of the mobile information apparatus in accordance with the position of the user estimated by the estimation unit.

Mobile information apparatus and moving method therefor, and information system and position estimation method

In a memory card having editable audio information and image information recorded therein, a music unit for audio reproduction and a cell as the reproduction unit of less than the music unit are defined. In the memory card, cell information CI having a reproduction relationship between a music number and image information is recorded. In a case where audio information is reproduced in unit of music number #&#x3b2; including cell information CI#to CI#, cell information CI#contains pointer information IPI#for specifying image information IMG.IOB to IMG.IOB to be displayed. In this manner, there is provided guideline information as to how the still image corresponding to the edited music is displayed after edit processing has been performed for recorded audio information (music).

Medium for storing audio/image information and management system thereof

An information storage medium has a first playback unit (music number or tune) for playing back the audio information and a second playback unit (AOB) being more fine than the first playback unit (music number), and one or more pieces of management information (AOBI) each pertaining to the second playback unit (AOB) are recorded in a line (arrangement sequence of AOBI# in music #). Display mode information indicating the display method (display order/display sequence, display timing) of image information (IMG_xx.IOB) is described in management information (AOBI# in music #) recorded at the head position in the first playback unit (music number) of this management information (AOBI).

System for recording audio information with image

A revocation list is registered a public ROM area. The revocation list designates at least one electronic device in which use of the storage medium by the designated electronic device is to be revoked. A controller receives from the electronic device which attempts to access, identification information indicative of the electronic device, and checks whether identification information corresponding to the received identification information is contained in the revocation list, thereby determining whether or not use of the storage medium by the electronic device which attempts to access should be revoked.

Storage medium and contents protection method using the storage medium

An electronic apparatus includes a communication device that communicates with a mobile device and a plurality of devices via a network. The mobile device is wirelessly connectable to the network. The electronic apparatus further includes a control unit configured to determine whether the mobile device is disconnected from the network, and a message sending unit configured to send an alarm message to one of the devices by communication between the one of the devices and the communication device when the mobile device is disconnected from the network, the one of the devices being currently powered on.

Electronic apparatus and service providing method used in the electronic apparatus

In a mutual authentication method for use between a recording apparatus which records copied contents on a recording medium having an arithmetic processing function, and the recording medium, the method includes a step of storing in the recording medium at least first information which depends on the recording medium, and second information which is to be shared by the recording apparatus in executing mutual authentication with the recording apparatus and depends on the recording medium, and a step of generating by the recording apparatus authentication information used in mutual authentication with the recording medium on the basis of the first information obtained from the recording medium, and executing mutual authentication between the recording apparatus and the recording medium using the generated authentication information and the second information.

Mutual authentication method, recording apparatus, reproducing apparatus, and recording medium

Revocation information updating method, revocation informaton updating apparatus and storage medium

A contents managing method of regulating a number of copied contents storable on a storage medium includes giving a predetermined number of copyable contents for each content, recording the copied contents on the storage medium upon reception of an instruction for copy recording on the storage medium when there is a remainder in the number of copyable contents, decrementing the number of copyable contents by '1' every time one copied content is recorded on the storage medium at a time of recording, and incrementing the number of copyable contents by '1' every time one copied content is erased from the storage medium upon reception of an instruction to erase the copied contents from the storage medium.

Contents managing method and contents managing apparatus

If a recording medium having a medium ID is used, a secure manager manages enciphering/decoding of a content with use of the medium ID for each recording medium. If a HDD having no medium ID is used, the secure manager obtains a device ID specific to a computer system through a BIOS and manages enciphering/decoding of a content to be recorded into the HDD, with use of the device ID. The device ID is stored in a safe area in the computer system. As a result, even if a content is recorded into an open recording medium such as a hard disk drive, the content can be protected from improper use so that utility and protection of digital contents can be improved.

System capable of recording a content onto a recording medium which does not have a medium ID

A storage medium (PM) includes a controller and two types of storage regions, the concealed region and the open region . The open region includes an open RW storing a digital content, an open ROM-W region storing, as revocation information, identification information of an electronic appliance that is prohibited from accessing the digital content, and an open ROM region storing, as master revocation information, identification information of an electronic appliance that is prohibited from updating the revocation information. When the storage medium is loaded into an electronic appliance that has identification information which is registered in the open ROM region , the controller prohibits the electronic appliance from updating the revocation information.

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Chofu, Japan

Masafumi Tamura