Sony Corporation

Information Broadcasting Laboratories, Inc.

Other

Sony Chemicals Corporation

Yoshihisa Gonno

Yasuaki Yamagishi

Fumihiko Nishio

Kazuo Haraoka

Kazuhiko Takabayashi

Tomohiro Tsunoda

Hiroshi Imoto

Atsuo Omaru

Shinichiro Yamada

Masayuki Nagamine

Masafumi Ata

Akinori Kita

Hideto Azuma

Yoshio Nishi

Toru Kihira

Eishi Endo

Kenichi Kitamura

Hiroshi Nakano

Tsutomu Yamamoto

Takashi Tsurumoto

Keiji Yuzawa

Hiroyasu Furuse

Akifumi Mishima

By describing electrical program guide information in a language such as XML and then multiplexing the electrical program guide information to a broadcast signal for transmission, advertisements, images and sounds can be easily entered and various program guides can be realized. For manufacturers of receiving devices, it suffices to develop only the software for receiving, decoding and displaying received XML data. There is no need to develop the software for displaying the EPG for each type of receiving device. Thus, the number of development steps can be reduced.

Transmission method and receiving device of program guide information including a control signal

For generation of a subtitle in a digital movie screening system, it is essential to reduce the burden of processing the subtitle when screening a movie. There is provided a subtitle generating apparatus destined for use in a digital movie screening system, the subtitle generating apparatus, which includes a storage unit having a movie subtitle file stored therein, a controller to generate an internal file on the basis of the subtitle file, and a subtitle processor to decode the internal file for generating a subtitle and combine the subtitle and a movie picture with each other, the subtitle file consisting of a main file in which there are described information identifying a file of text data representing characters to be displayed as a subtitle of a movie and a file of image data representing the content of an image displayed as the movie subtitle along with control data for displaying the subtitle, one or more font files including font data on the text data, and one or more image files including the image data, the internal file being an integration of the main, font and image files, made by combining the described content of the main file with the substantive data of the font and image files, and the controller generating the internal file from the subtitle file prior to displaying the movie.

Subtitle generating apparatus and method

At a server, a subject for updating an object registered in a databaseand an event for obtaining the subject are generated, while a request for the subject from a receiving terminalis received and totaled so that a resource necessary for providing the subject is allocated on the basis of the result of totaling. Then, the event is transmitted and the subject is provided on the basis of the resource allocated thereto. At the receiving terminal, the event is received and the necessity of the subject to be obtained on the basis of the event is evaluated so that request data requesting the subject is transmitted to the serveron the basis of the result of evaluation. Then, the subject provided by the serverin response to the request data is obtained on the basis of the event.

Contents providing device, contents providing method, receiving device, receiving method, communication system, and communication method

A transmitting system for transmitting contents data, meta data, and meta data schema. A meta data schema that represents the structure of meta data of contents data is stored in a meta data schema storing portion. A contents segmenting portion generates segmentation data for selecting a particular segment from successive contents data supplied from a contents storing portion and supplies the generated segmentation data to a meta data combining portion. The meta data combining portion correlates meta data with corresponding segmentation data in a format corresponding to the structure of the meta data schema, combines the meta data with the segmentation data, and outputs the combined data. The meta data schema, meta data with segmentation data, and contents data are converted in a transmission format.

Transmitting apparatus and receiving apparatus

At step Sa URI of a desired content is input. At step Scorresponding to the input URI, a proper resolution executing portion is selected. A plurality of resolution executing portions perform processes in parallel. At step Swith reference to a correlation table that correlates identification names of contents and file names in a storing unit, a name resolving process is performed. At step Swith reference to name resolution table data transmitted as an MPEG2 section table in a satellite broadcast, a name resolving process is performed. At step Sby communicating with a name resolving service on a network such as DNS, a name resolving process is performed. After the name resolving processes in all methods have been completed, at step San acquired location list L is sent to a content acquiring portion. The content acquiring portion references the list L and acquires a content designated by the URI.

Receiving apparatus, receiving methods, and name resolving method

A transmitting apparatus for transmitting a hierarchical structure of a directory for hierarchically managing locations of contents data is disclosed, that includes a managing unit for managing a hierarchical structure of a directory composed of a container entry and a leaf entry, a container entry containing information in the immediately lower hierarchical level thereof, a leaf entry being disposed in the immediately lower hierarchical level of a container entry, a leaf entry not containing information in the immediately lower hierarchical level thereof, a detecting unit for detecting a change of the hierarchical structure of the directory managed by the managing unit and obtaining position information and identification information corresponding to the detected result, the position information representing the position of a container entry in the hierarchical structure of the directory, the identification information identifying a leaf entry corresponding to the hierarchical structure of the directory, and a transmitting unit for transmitting the position information and the identification information.

Apparatus and method for communicating hierarchical structures of directories

Transmitting apparatuses, transmitting methods, receiving apparatuses, receiving methods, and transmitting and receiving systems for transmitting and receiving a hierarchical structure of a directory for hierarchically managing locations of contents data is disclosed. The apparatuses, methods and systems manage a hierarchical structure of a directory composed of a container entry and a leaf entry. The container entry contains information of the lower hierarchical level thereof, a leaf entry being located directly below a container entry. The leaf entry does not contain information of the lower hierarchical level thereof.

Change detection in a hierarchical directory using messages having a filtering mask

A managing apparatus for managing data necessary for providing a content is disclosed, that includes a reserving element for reserving a delivery resource for each content, a storing element for storing reserved delivery resource assignment information, and a transmitter for transmitting the reserved delivery resource assignment information.

Apparatus and method for producing and managing data for optimizing the delivery of multimedia content

An information providing apparatus for registering the delivery of content data including a storing section for storing content that is provided and a delivery designating section for designating a delivery condition for delivering the content, wherein a delivering apparatus presents data necessary for determining the delivery condition that is designated by the delivery designating section.

Information providing apparatus, information providing method, delivering apparatus, and delivering method

Notification of lapse information of a public key certificate from a PKI directory server to a PKI directory client. Certificate authority information in a certificate authority structure is made to correspond to a container entry, end entity information is made to correspond to a leaf entry, and the certificate authority structure is assigned to a directory tree. If a certain certificate is lapsed and a certificate is newly issued, the newly issued certificate and its serial number are stored in the entry. After a predetermined time elapses, the certificate is put into a certain URL and the certificate stored in the entry is replaced with the URL information. At a receiver, a filtering mask is set on the basis of a certificate pass for obtaining the necessary certificate. A directory tree in which URL information and the serial number have been stored is repetitively transmitted from the transmission side. At the receiver, only the entries selected by the filtering mask are updated.

System and method for managing changes in a public key certificate directory

A transmitting apparatus is disclosed, that comprises a transmitting means for transmitting the same contents of update information a plurality number of times, the update information representing that data has been updated, wherein the transmission timing of the same contents of the update information transmitted by the transmitting means is designated corresponding to operating state information of receiving means that receives the update information from the transmitting means.

Transmitting apparatus, transmitting method, receiving apparatus, receiving method, transmitting and receiving system, and transmitting and receiving method

A transmitting apparatus for transmitting a hierarchical structure of a directory for hierarchically managing locations of contents data is disclosed, that comprises a managing means for managing a hierarchical structure of a directory composed of a container entry and a leaf entry, a container entry containing information in the immediately lower hierarchical level thereof, a leaf entry being disposed in the immediately lower hierarchical level of a container entry, a leaf entry not containing information in the immediately lower hierarchical level thereof, a detecting means for detecting a change of the hierarchical structure of the directory managed by the managing means and obtaining first difference information and second difference information, the first difference information being the difference of container entries corresponding to the detected result, the second difference information being the difference of leaf entries corresponding to the detected result, and a transmitting means for transmitting third difference information for reproducing the hierarchical structure of the directory at intervals of a predetermined time period along with the first difference information and the second difference information.

Apparatus and method for maintaining hierarchical directory structure and transmitting changes in same

In order to reduce the amount of data to be transmitted by a transmission apparatus, the transmission apparatus transmits control sub-information to a receiving apparatus separately from video data which is actually distributed, and eliminates redundant distribution of video data. The receiving apparatus stores the received video data and creates content in accordance with the control sub-information.

Transmission apparatus and method, receiving apparatus and method, and distribution medium

At a server , a subject for updating an object registered in a database and an event for obtaining the subject are generated, while a request for the subject from a receiving terminal is received and totaled so that a resource necessary for providing the subject is allocated on the basis of the result of totaling. Then, the event is transmitted and the subject is provided on the basis of the resource allocated thereto. At the receiving terminal , the event is received and the necessity of the subject to be obtained on the basis of the event is evaluated so that request data requesting the subject is transmitted to the server on the basis of the result of evaluation. Then, the subject provided by the server in response to the request data is obtained on the basis of the event.

Communication system

A transmitter transmits data via a broadcasting link consisting of a satellite link. Receivers receive the data, and verify whether they have successfully received the data. Only when having failed to successfully receive the data, some of the receivers, which can transmit information to the transmitter, transmit retransmission requests for requesting the retransmission of the data via a communication link consisting of the Internet. When retransmission requests are transmitted, the transmitter receives only the retransmission requests and totals them. In addition, the transmitter transmits the data requested to be retransmitted, based on the total via the broadcasting link. The receivers receive the retransmitted data.

Growing community of inventors

Kanagawa, Japan

Yoshihisa Gonno