Method and system for identifying a time specific event

• US 20020007354A1
• Filed: 07/13/2001
• Published: 01/17/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 07/14/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.), Sony Electronics Inc. (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Deguchi, Yuichiro
• Granted Patent: US 7,062,528 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/418
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0284 Time or distance, e.g. usage of parking meters or taximeters
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/41407 embedded in a portable device, e.g. video client on a mobile phone, PDA, laptop constructional details of equipment or arrangements specially adapted for portable computer application G06F1/1626; arrangements specially adapted for mobile receivers in broadcast systems H04H20/57
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/42684 Client identification by a unique number or address, e.g. serial number, MAC address, socket ID network arrangements, protocols or services for addressing or naming H04L61/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/433 Content storage operation, e.g. storage operation in response to a pause request, caching operations
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6582 Data stored in the client, e.g. viewing habits, hardware capabilities, credit card number arrangements where receivers interact with the broadcast H04H20/38
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8113 comprising music, e.g. song in MP3 format
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/84 Generation or processing of descriptive data, e.g. content descriptors systems specially adapted for using meta-information in broadcast systems H04H60/73
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8547 involving timestamps for synchronizing content
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17318 Direct or substantially direct transmission and handling of requests

Abstract

Method and system for providing a compact, portable electronic devices capable of storing data related to time specific events such as music broadcasts, television broadcasts and advertisements, and which are capable of recalling the stored time specific events to provide users with information corresponding to the stored time specific events such as the name of the music broadcast, artist and album information for the broadcast music, name of the television program broadcast, or the product or service information corresponding to the advertisements is provided.

Claims

1. A system for identifying a time specific event, comprising:

a data marker device configured to store one or more time stamps and a device identification code;

a server terminal configured to generate a reference time information; and

a user terminal configured to receive the one or more time stamps and the device identification code from the data marker device, and to receive the reference time information from the server terminal, the user terminal further configured to determine a time information corresponding to the each one or more time stamps.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein each of the one or more time stamps stored in the data marker device is generated responsive to a user input operation of the data marker device.

3. The system of claim 1 wherein the data marker device includes a clock, each of the one or more time stamps corresponds to a respective signal from the clock.

4. The system of claim 3 wherein the clock is configured to increment in a one-second interval.

5. The system of claim 1 wherein the device identification code includes one of a predetermined length numeric sequence, a predetermined length letter sequence, and a predetermined length combination of numeric and letter sequence.

6. The system of claim 1 wherein the data marker device includes an electronic music marker.

7. The system of claim 1 wherein the reference time information includes a GMT time information corresponding substantially to the initial connection between the data marker device and the user terminal.

8. The system of claim 1 wherein the user terminal is configured to transmit a request signal to the server terminal when the data marker device establishes connection to the user terminal.

9. The system of claim 8 wherein the server terminal is configured to generate and transmit the reference time information to the user terminal in response to the request signal received from the user terminal.

10. The system of claim 8 wherein the connection between the data marker device and the user terminal includes one of a USB connection, a parallel connection, a serial connection, an IrDA connection and a Bluetooth connection.

11. The system of claim 1 wherein the time information determined by the user terminal corresponding to the each one or more time stamps is based on the reference time information.

12. The system of claim 1 wherein the user terminal is further configured to transmit the one or more time stamps, the device identification code the reference time information and the time information corresponding to the each one or more time stamps to the server terminal.

13. The system of claim 12 wherein the user terminal is further configured to receive a receipt acknowledgement signal from the server terminal upon termination of transmission of the one or more time stamps, the device identification code, the reference time information and the time information corresponding to the each one or more time stamps to the server terminal.

14. The system of claim 13 wherein the user terminal is further configured to erase the time stamps stored in the data marker device after receiving the receipt acknowledgement signal.

15. The system of claim 14 wherein the user terminal is further configured to power off the data marker device.

16. The system of claim 1 wherein the user terminal includes one of a personal computer, an internet access enabled personal digital assistant, a Wireless Application Protocol enabled mobile telephone, and an i-mode enabled mobile telephone.

17. The system of claim 1 further including a data network, the server terminal and the user terminal coupled to the data network.

18. The system of claim 17 wherein the data network includes one of a Local Area Network (LAN), a Wide Area Network (WAN), and an internet connection.

19. The system of claim 17 wherein the server terminal and the user terminal are coupled to the data network using one of a TCP/IP protocol and a wireless application protocol.

20. The system of claim 1 wherein the user terminal includes an output unit, the user terminal further configured to launch an internet browser for display in the output unit.

21. A system for identifying a time specific event, comprising:

a data marker device configured to store one or more time stamps, each of the one or more time stamps generated responsive to a user input operation, and a device identification code;

a data network;

a server terminal coupled to the data network configured to generate a reference time information; and

a user terminal coupled to the data network configured to receive the one or more time stamps and the device identification code from the data marker device, and further, to receive the reference time information from the server terminal;

wherein the reference time information substantially corresponds to a time point when the data marker device establishes connection with the user terminal.

22. The system of claim 21 wherein the data marker device includes a clock, each of the one or more time stamps corresponds to a respective signal from the clock.

23. The system of claim 22 wherein the clock is configured to increment in a one-second interval.

24. The system of claim 21 wherein the device identification code includes one of a predetermined length numeric sequence, a predetermined length letter sequence, and a predetermined length combination of numeric and letter sequence.

25. The system of claim 21 wherein the data marker device includes an electronic music marker.

26. The system of claim 21 wherein the reference time information includes a GMT time information.

27. The system of claim 21 wherein the connection between the data marker device and the user terminal includes one of a USB connection, a parallel connection, a serial connection, an IrDA connection and a Bluetooth connection.

28. The system of claim 21 wherein the user terminal is further configured to transmit a request signal to the server terminal when the data marker device establishes the connection with the user terminal.

29. The system of claim 28 wherein the server terminal is configured to transmit the reference time information to the user terminal in response to the request signal received from the user terminal.

30. The system of claim 21 wherein the user terminal is further configured to generate a time information corresponding to the each one or more time stamps is based on the reference time information.

31. The system of claim 21 wherein the user terminal is further configured to transmit the one or more time stamps, the device identification code, the reference time information and the time information corresponding to the each one or more time stamps to the server terminal.

32. The system of claim 31 wherein the user terminal is further configured to receive a receipt acknowledgement signal from the server terminal upon termination of transmission of the one or more time stamps, the device identification code the reference time information and the time information corresponding to the each one or more time stamps to the server terminal.

35. The system of claim 21 wherein the server terminal is configured to transmit the reference time information in response to a request signal received from the user terminal, the request signal transmitted from the user terminal when the data marker device establishes the connection with the user terminal.

36. The system of claim 35 wherein the user terminal is further configured to transmit the one or more time stamps, the device identification code, and the reference time information to the server terminal.

37. The system of claim 36 wherein the user terminal is further configured to receive a receipt acknowledgement signal from the server terminal upon completing the transmission of the one or more time stamps, the device identification code, and the reference time information.

38. The system of claim 37 wherein the user terminal is further configured to erase the time stamps stored in the data marker device after receiving the receipt acknowledgement signal.

39. The system of claim 38 wherein the user terminal is further configured to power off the data marker device.

40. The system of claim 21 wherein the user terminal includes one of a personal computer, an internet access enabled personal digital assistant, a Wireless Application Protocol enabled mobile telephone, and an i-mode enabled mobile telephone.

41. The system of claim 21 wherein the data network includes one of a Local Area Network (LAN), a Wide Area Network (WAN), and an internet connection.

42. The system of claim 21 wherein the server terminal and the user terminal are coupled to the data network using one of a TCP/IP protocol and a wireless application protocol.

43. The system of claim 21 wherein the user terminal includes an output unit, the user terminal further configured to launch an internet browser for display in the output unit.

33. The system of claim 33 wherein the user terminal is further configured to erase the time stamps stored in the data marker device after receiving the receipt acknowledgement signal.

34. The system of claim 33 wherein the user terminal is further configured to power off the data marker device.

44. A method, comprising:

receiving one or more time stamps;

receiving a data marker device identification code;

transmitting a request for a reference time information;

receiving the reference time information based on the transmitting step;

determining a time information corresponding to each of the one or more time stamps; and

transmitting data including the one or more time stamps, the data marker device identification code, the reference time information, and the time information corresponding to each of the one or more time stamps.

45. The method of claim 44 further including establishing a data transfer protocol.

46. The method of claim 44 wherein the determining step includes comparing reference time information to each of the one or more time stamps, and generating the time information based on the comparing step.

47. The method of claim 44 further including receiving a receipt acknowledgement signal after the data transmitting step.

48. The method of claim 47 further including erasing the time stamps from the data marker device.

49. The method of claim 48 further including powering off the data marker device.

50. The method of claim 44 further including displaying an internet browser.

51. A system for identifying a time specific event, comprising:

means for storing one or more time stamps and a device identification code;

means for generating a reference time information;

means for receiving the one or more time stamps and the device identification code, and the reference time information; and

means for determining a time information corresponding to the each one or more time stamps.