Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.

Other

Panasonic Corporation

Takenosuke Harada

Kazuhiro Machida

Mitsuteru Kataoka

Ryota Tsukidate

Kenichi Fujita

Isao Masuda

Shigeki Kaneko

Yoshiyasu Takeuchi

Yoshimasa Goto

In a pay broadcasting system, data of a broadcast program is scrambled with a scramble key updated in a short period. The scramble key is encrypted with a first key assigned to the subscriber terminal. The first key is encrypted with a first master key set in the subscriber terminal. The security of a broadcast program stored for subsequent use in the subscriber terminal is enhanced as follows. A central station generates a second key-encrypted scramble key by encrypting the scramble key with a second key different from the first key and changeable in an interval shorter than a update interval of the first key; generates an encrypted second key by encrypting the second key with a second master key which has been commonly issued to subscriber terminals of the system; and broadcast the second key-encrypted scramble key and the encrypted second key together with the scrambled data of the program, the first key-encrypted scramble key and the encrypted first key in a multiplexed manner. When a broadcast program is to be stored, the subscriber terminal stores the scrambled data of the broadcast program and the second key-encrypted scramble key; decrypt the encrypted second key with the second master key into the second key, which is added to a stored program second key list. If the stored program is to be executed, the second key-encrypted scramble key is decrypted with a corresponding one of the second keys in the stored program second key list into a decrypted scramble key; and the scrambled data of the broadcast program is unscrambled with the decrypted scramble key.

Pay broadcasting system with enhanced security against illegal access to a down loaded program in a subscriber terminal

A tagged scene of a video stream transmitted from a first to second stations in television broadcasting system is collected while preventing the tags from being used for commercial cutting (i.e., indiscriminate tagged scene cutting). The first station generates for each scene a tag includes a category, a location for use in locating a beginning of the scene and a length. A second station obtains a desired category from the user. Detecting a tag in the video stream, if the category coincides with the desired category, the second station clips from the video stream a part of the length defined in the tag from a position located by using the location. Five solutions are disclosed: removing the length information from tag; inserting counterfeit tags: the first station encoding a part of tag and the second station decoding the encoded part; the first station encoding the category and sending a category-encoded category table the second station; and a syndrome of a combination of said category and a parameter is used as an encoded category. The parameter may be used as subcategory and/or super-category.

Video clip identification system unusable for commercial cutting

A system of clipping a specified segment from a continuous medium with a raised precision in a terminal served be a digital broadcasting system. A plurality of continuous media is broadcast as a multiplexed stream, preferably as a transport stream of MPEG-2 standard. In the receiving terminal, a reference time (t) is generated. The start and end times Ts and Te of a specified segment of a specified medium are expressed in the reference time. The specified medium is downloaded during a period including the start time Ts and the end time Te to obtain a first portion of the continuous medium. Then, a second portion is clipped from the first portion such that the second portion starts with a data unit that has been received after the start time Ts and has a first header including a first minimum index and ends just before a data unit that has been received after the end time Te and has a second header including a second minimum index. In MPEG system, PTS (Presentation Time Stamp) or DTS (Decoding Time Stamp) is preferably used for the index. In this case, the start and end times are used in the same unit as PTS.

Method of and system capable of precisely clipping a continuous medium obtained from a multiplexed bit stream

Viewer individual attribute information indicating an attribute of a particular viewer such as an age, male or female, a resident district, a taste, an occupation and a life style is stored in a receiving terminal apparatus of the particular viewer. When a broadcasting program is transmitted from a service supply apparatus to the receiving terminal apparatus, service addition information indicating an attribute of the broadcasting program or an attribute condition required of viewers is transmitted to the receiving terminal apparatus with contents of the broadcasting program. In the receiving terminal apparatus, the service addition information is collated with the viewer individual attribute information of the particular viewer, and it is judged whether or not the broadcasting program is suitable for the particular viewer. In cases where the broadcasting program is suitable for the particular viewer, the broadcasting program is received by the receiving terminal apparatus and is reproduced and displayed. Therefore, the broadcasting program can be received by only a group of particular viewers desired on a side of the service supply apparatus even though the group of particular viewers is not specified.

Service supply apparatus for supplying a service of a broadcasting program with attribute information of the program

The present invention provides an information transmission apparatus and method for an information transmission system where encrypted information comprised of a plurality of information units each hierarchically encrypted and multiplexed to each other is communicated between at least two parties, wherein the information is being encrypted for transmission. The information transmission system is constructed by a transmitting unit and a receiving unit.

Information transmission method and apparatus

A system capable of storing the application packages and thereafter reproducing a desired one of the stored application packages at any time. The application package comprises a plurality of applications. Each of the applications comprises application data which comprises forms a main body of the application and service adding information (SAI) comprising various data including an application ID of the application. The SAIs are distributed independently from and prior to the application data. Each of the SAIs can include method IDs of methods for processing object data specified by a method processing program and a plurality of link data comprising application IDs of other applications. This permits the SAIs to form a tree structure of the applications. The methods are activated in a event driven manner.

System for storing and playing a multimedia application adding variety

An interactive television system which can provide services such as entertainment programs to users or conduct electronic polls of users, formed of a central computer installation, a plurality of terminal apparatuses each bidirectionally communicating with the central computer installation via a CATV network and each providing video/audio inputs to a display apparatus, with each of the terminal apparatuses being linked to one or more remote control apparatuses whereby users can request services or participate in polling, and in which any message data such as a service request which is issued by a remote control apparatus is automatically accompanied by identifier information, read out from a memory of the remote control apparatus, for identifying that remote control apparatus, and may also be accompanied by personal information concerning a registered user of the remote control apparatus. User recognition can be implemented by an arrangement such as a plug-in IC card interface section or fingerprint recognition section, for enabling restriction of each remote control apparatus to use by only a specific registered user, or to enable only a specific registered user to access certain services.

Growing community of inventors

Yokohama, Japan

Takenosuke Harada