Sony Computer Entertainment Inc.

Sony Corporation

Sony Interactive Entertainment Inc.

Yousuke Kimoto

Muneki Shimada

Kenjiro Komaki

Tomokazu Kake

Toyoshi Okada

Kazuhiro Kanee

Akio Ohba

Masakazu Suzuoki

Takahiro Fujii

Shuji Hiramatsu

Shigeru Enomoto

Hiromasa Horie

Keiso Shimakawa

Yuta Kimura

Hidehisa Onai

Tadashi Nakamura

Motoki Kobayashi

Keisuke Shimizu

Masaru Masuda

Keisuke Yamaguchi

Shingo Kannari

Kanee Kazuhiro

Yoshiaki Jitsukawa

To enable images of game screens concerning a plurality of game programs to be systematically stored in a storage unit and a desired image to be swiftly displayed on a display unit in a later time, a game device of the present invention includes: a program executing unit for executing each of a plurality of game programs; an identification information acquiring unit for acquiring identification information on the game program during execution of the game program; an image acquiring unit for acquiring at least one image of a game screen generated during the execution of the game program; an image storing unit for storing the at least one image into the storage unit in association with the identification information; and a display control unit for reading the image stored in association with any one of the identification information from the storage unit based on a specification made by a user, and displaying the image on the display unit.

Game device, image processing method, and information recording medium

A log collecting/analyzing system has a log collection terminal device as a client terminal device which collects logs and transmits the collected logs to a log server via a network. The log server receives the transmitted logs and stores the received logs for analysis. According to this configuration, it is possible to obtain useful information, such as information about what play modes are popular in the case of games and so forth, or information about what characters are popular in the case of selecting a character for a game. Therefore, it is possible to make use of the result of log analysis to develop the game.

Log collecting/analyzing system with separated functions of collecting log information and analyzing the same

Methods and apparatus in accordance with the present invention are operable to carry out certain functions including: receiving an encrypted program at a processing apparatus; transmitting a machine ID over a network to an administrator; receiving registration data over the network from the administrator in response to the machine ID; transmitting the registration data over the network to a distributor; receiving an encrypted decryption key and an encrypted virtual ID at the processing apparatus over the network from the distributor in response to the registration data; decrypting the encrypted decryption key using the virtual ID, and decrypting the encrypted program using the decryption key; re-encrypting the program using the virtual ID; and storing the encrypted virtual ID and the re-encrypted program in a first storage device.

Methods and apparatus for secure distribution of program content

In order to record a program provided by a program broadcasting device, a recorder () that receives program identifying information provided by a program information providing device to record the program includes: a program identifying information detector () for detecting the program identifying information at least at one timing of start, duration, and end of the broadcasted program; and a recording operation controller () for controlling recording operation based on a detection result of the program identifying information detector (). The recording operation controller () includes: a recording start/end determining section () for staring and/or ending the recording operation based on the detected program identifying information; and a recorded program determining section () for determining the program being recorded based on the program identifying information detected while the program is recorded.

Recorder

A client terminal reads a device ID fixedly assigned to itself, and sends the device ID to an authentication server to make a request for authentication. The authentication server authenticates the device ID accepted from the client terminal. When succeeding in the authentication, the authentication server issues and sends a ticket to the client terminal. The client terminal receives the ticket, and then sends the ticket to a locator server to make a request for registration of an IP address. The locator server verifies the correctness of the accepted ticket. When the correctness is confirmed, the locator server registers an ID and the IP address of the client terminal in a manner that they are associated with each other, and replies the completion of the registration.

System and method for controlling communication using device ID

Methods and apparatus in accordance with the present invention are operable to carry out certain functions including: receiving an encrypted program at a processing apparatus; transmitting at least some identification information related to the processing apparatus over a network to an administrator; receiving an encrypted decryption key at the processing apparatus over the network from the administrator in response to the at least some identification information; decrypting the encrypted decryption key; decrypting the encrypted program using the decryption key; re-encrypting the program using at least some of the identification information ; and storing the identification information and the re-encrypted program in a first storage device.

A display apparatus including a communication line connected to a network, an information acquisition device for acquiring in real time at least information relating to a predetermined site on the network via the communication line, the communication line being held by a communication line holding device. The display apparatus includes a display control device for displaying in real time information relating to a plurality of sites acquired by the information acquisition device, and forming symbols corresponding to the plurality of sites, displaying the symbols three-dimensionally in a contrastable state from each other. The information acquired by the information acquisition device is displayed will a symbol, which corresponds to the site, and the information acquisition device acquires at least one of or a plurality of pieces of information indicating congestion status, update status, response, type, popularity, cost, and links of each site, and congestion status of the network.

Display apparatus for accessing desired web site

An information perusal program arranges information within a virtual space, where the information is arranged in uniquely specified storage positions. The information perusal program detects a position specified arbitrarily by the user within the virtual space. The information perusal program then detects an arrangement position within the virtual space in an area having a virtual spread in relation to the specified position and acquires information from the storage position corresponding to the arrangement position. Accordingly, the user is able to easily peruse information whose storage position is uniquely specified, such as, for example, a site on the Internet, a local folder and/or file, and so forth without performing complex and complicated input operations in order to specify the storage position. In addition, it is possible to easily realize perusal information without a specific object.

Method for perusing information

Objects which are created in conformity with the data format of objects to be handled in a virtual world are offered to users on the terminal computers of the users independently of the virtual world. The users transmit the offered objects to a server computer which generates the virtual world, while the server computer stores these objects in association with the operators. Since these objects are recorded in a format which can be interpreted by the server computer for generating the virtual world, they can be handled in the virtual world in the same manner as the other objects which have been defined in the virtual world beforehand. Thus, the users are permitted to use in the virtual world objects which are different from the objects which were defined in the virtual world beforehand.

Growing community of inventors

Kanagawa, Japan

Yousuke Kimoto