Reproducer and method for controlling reproduction

• US 20060188109A1
• Filed: 07/14/2004
• Published: 08/24/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 07/18/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Makino, Kenichi, Inoue, Akiko, Miyajima, Yasushi, Takai, Motoyuki, Inoue, Makoto, Sako, Yoichiro, Terauchi, Toshiro, Shirai, Katsuya
• Granted Patent: US 7,864,640 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 381/86
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/105 of operating discs
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/11 by using information not detectable on the record carrier
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/36 Monitoring, i.e. supervising the progress of recording or reproducing for digital recording G11B20/00 and s.gr.; for monitoring, testing or measuring of TV recorders of the type covered by H04N5/76 and subgroups, see H04N17/06

Abstract

Location information obtained from a positioning system 4 and environmental information such as time, temperature, air pressure and the like measured by an environmental information sensor 6 are associated with the reproduction history of music and are recorded in a history storage RAM 14, and music reproduced in the past at the same location as the present location is automatically selected and the music suitable for the location is automatically selected and reproduced based on the location information.

Claims

1. A reproducing apparatus comprising:

a contents data recording medium in which a plurality of contents data are recorded;

environmental variable acquisition means for acquiring environmental variables;

reproduction history storage means for preserving identification information of the reproduced contents data combined with the environmental variables at the time of reproduction; and

reproduction control means for selecting and reproducing contents data from said contents data recording medium based on similarity between environmental variables at present and environmental variables stored in said reproduction history storage means.

2. The reproducing apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein said environmental variables include at least one of location information, time information and environmental information,

positioning means to specify the location is provided when said environmental variables include location information;

timer means to measure the time is provided when said environmental variables include time information; and

an environmental information sensor to measure the environmental information is provided when said environmental variables include environmental information.

3. The reproducing apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein said environmental variables include at least two of location information, time information and environmental information, and

said reproduction control means obtains said similarity with respect to any one of location information, time information and environmental information of said environmental variables;

obtains said similarity with respect to the other information than said one of information when a plurality of similar environmental variables based on this similarity exist; and

selects and reproduces the contents data from said contents data recording medium based on this similarity.

4. The reproducing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

attribute information storage means to preserve attribute information of said contents data associated with identification information of said contents data,

wherein when it is judged based on said similarity obtained that no environmental variables of the past similar to environmental variables at present exist, said reproduction control means obtains closeness as suitability between environmental variables at present and the attribute information of said contents data, and selects and reproduces the contents data from said contents data recording medium based on the suitability.

5. The reproducing apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein when it is judged based on said similarity obtained that no environmental variables of the past similar to environmental variables at present exist, said reproduction control means sends environmental variables at present to a service center, and selects and reproduces the contents data from said contents data recording medium based on identification information sent from the service center, and

said service center includes:

storage means to record said attribute information of the contents data associated with the identification information of the contents data and

selection control means to select the identification information of the contents data judged to be close to the environmental variables based on the suitability between the environmental variables supplied and said attribute information, and to send the identification information to said reproduction control means.

6. A reproduction control method, comprising the steps of:

storing identification information of contents data to be reproduced associated with environmental variables at the time of reproduction;

obtaining the similarity between environmental variables at present and said stored environmental variables; and

selecting and reproducing contents data based on said similarity.

7. The reproduction control method according to claim 6, further comprising the step of:

selecting contents data based on the closeness between environmental variables at present and attribute information of the contents data, when it is judged based on said similarity that no environmental variables of the past similar to environmental variables at present exist.

8. The reproduction control method according to claim 7,

wherein said similarity obtaining step and/or said selection step is performed at a service center and after the result is received, the contents data is reproduced based on the result.