Sony Corporation

Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation

Thomson Licensing

Mobilemedia Ideas LLC

Toshiro Terauchi

Yoichiro Sako

Motoyuki Takai

Yasushi Miyajima

Toru Sasaki

Mitsuru Takehara

Takatoshi Nakamura

Masamichi Asukai

Makoto Inoue

Katsuya Shirai

Kosei Yamashita

Kenichi Makino

Yuichi Sakai

Masafumi Matsuda

Yuichi Abe

Akiko Inoue

Kentaro Odaka

Susumu Takatsuka

Akihiro Komori

Akane Sano

Takushi Kunihiro

Tetsuo Kobayashi

Hirofumi Tamori

Fukuharu Sudo

Atsushi Ajiro

Tatsuji Ushino

Masayoshi Miura

Susumu Yabe

Takeshi Fukami

Norihiro Nagai

Ryo Takaoka

Masakatsu Toyoshima

Akira Sakamoto

Nobuyuki Idei

Shigeharu Kondo

Taro Nakagami

Kentaro Hatanaka

Kosuke Suzuki

Takayuki Miyama

Yumiko Homma

Hisayoshi Sugiyama

Kohichi Suto

Yoichiro; Sako

Akikoc Inoue

An information processing system, an information processing apparatus, an information processing method, and an information record medium that are controlled to generate an operation effect sound that differs for each user of a card upon an operation for electronic money are provided. A cardrecords user information, balance information, and audio data. The cardmakes a settlement of electronic money with a vending machineto buy a commodity. When the cardis presented to the vending machine, it reads the user information, the balance information, and the audio datafrom the cardthrough wireless communications. The vending machinemakes a settlement on the basis of both information of the commodity that a user has selected and the balance information. As a result, the vending machineprovides the selected commodity to the user. On the other hand, with audio data, at a predetermined timing of the settlement, a predetermined sound is output. Audio data may be stored only in the vending machineor both in the cardand in the vending machine. A sound that differs for each user and for each event is output.

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

By allowing the movement of a user to affect the playback of content, the entertainment characteristic or uplifting spirits derived from content playback itself can be enhanced. The timing at which the user places his/her foot on the ground while walking or the timing at which the user shakes or changes from swinging in one direction to swinging to another direction is detected. Then, content, such as a music piece or moving pictures, is played back by allowing the timing of beats or bars of the music piece or the timing of scene changes or cut changes of the moving pictures to be synchronized with the timing of the movement of the user.

Content playback method and content playback apparatus

A communication method includes the steps of transmitting, by means of a first communication apparatus, personal information to a second communication apparatus; receiving, by means of the second communication apparatus, the personal information and searching, by means of the second communication apparatus, whether or not personal information having the same content as the received personal information exists in the second communication apparatus; and notifying, by means of the second communication apparatus, the first communication apparatus of a search result.

Communication method and apparatus

A time-shift image distribution system includes an image server and a time-shift image requesting apparatus. The image server includes a first communication unit configured to carry out communications with the time-shift image requesting apparatus, an image database configured to store image data of captured images in association with meta information for image data of a captured image matching search-condition information, and an image providing unit configured to provide the image data of the captured image detected by the searching unit to the time-shift image requesting apparatus. The time-shift image requesting apparatus includes a second communication unit configured to carry out communications with the image server, and a unit configured to send a search request including information representing an imaging time and information for identifying a subject image as search-condition information to the image server via the second communication unit.

Time-shift image distribution system, time-shift image distribution method, time-shift image requesting apparatus, and image server

A method of using contents includes the steps of setting public time information and private time information, the public time information being associated with each content and defined universally for use by a large number of unspecified users, the private time being associated with the content and defined for use by a small number of particular persons, and searching for a content according to the public time information and/or the private time information and using the content detected in the searching.

Content using method, content using apparatus, content recording method, content recording apparatus, content providing system, content receiving method, content receiving apparatus, and content data format

A movement supporting method includes the following steps: detecting a movement tempo of a user; determining whether a movement tempo detection value is within a target range; and outputting a warning when the movement tempo detection value is out of the target range.

Movement supporting method and apparatus

Changes of a user's emotion that occurs when content is reproduced and a user's surrounding environment that occurs when the content is reproduced are recorded as sensing meta data and content is reproduced in a reproducing mode corresponding to the recorded sensing meta data. Content supplied from a content providing sectionis normally reproduced. A human body sensormeasures biological information of a user of content. An environmental sensormeasures a user's surrounding environment. A sensing meta data generating sectiongenerates sensing meta data using information detected by at least one of the human body sensorand the environmental sensor. A recording processing sectionrecords the generated sensing meta data to a record medium. A reproducing processing sectionreproduces sensing meta data. A reproducing control sectionreproduces content in a reproducing mode that changes corresponding to the reproduced sensing meta data.

Recording apparatus, reproducing apparatus, recording and reproducing apparatus, recording method, reproducing method, recording and reproducing method, and record medium

A content list display method includes the step of displaying a list of private content owned by a user and public content not owned by the user on a screen by using a predetermined common attribute as a search key attribute for search and display such that a difference between the private content and the public content can be visually recognized.

Content list display method, content list display apparatus, content selecting and processing method, and content selecting and processing apparatus

A player device uses playlists having names of contents. Users can update the playlists via network. The player device includes a storage device for storing digital data of the contents, a reception/reception circuit for downloading playlists, a display for displaying the titles of contents included in the playlists, a pointing device for specifying displayed titles, a circuit for retrieving digital data from the storage device in the event that digital data of a content specified by the pointing device is stored within the storage device, and an output circuit for outputting the retrieved digital data.

Playlist sharing methods and apparatus

Growing community of inventors

Tokyo, Japan

Toshiro Terauchi