MULTIMEDIA DATA TRANSMITTING APPARATUS AND MULTIMEDIA DATA MANAGEMENT METHOD

• US 20090193101A1
• Filed: 01/22/2009
• Published: 07/30/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 01/24/2008
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Panasonic Corporation (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Panasonic Corporation (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: MUNETSUGU, Toshihiko, HORII, Yuki
• Application Number:
  US12/357,678
• Publication Number:
  US 20090193101A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/219
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/034 on discs G11B27/036, G11B27/038 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/11 by using information not detectable on the record carrier
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/613 for the control of the source by the destination control signals issued by the client directed to the server or network components specially adapted for selective content distribution H04N21/637
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4147 PVR [Personal Video Recorder] H04N5/76 takes precedence ; arrangements for broadcast with accumulation-type receivers H04H20/40
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4333 Processing operations in response to a pause request
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4335 Housekeeping operations, e.g. prioritizing content for deletion because of storage space restrictions storage management, e.g. defragmentation G06F3/0604; unloading stored programs G06F9/445; storage management in file systems G06F16/10; buffering arrangements in a network node or in an end terminal in packet networks H04L49/90
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4345 Extraction or processing of SI, e.g. extracting service information from an MPEG stream
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/43615 Interfacing a Home Network, e.g. for connecting the client to a plurality of peripherals home Audio Video Interoperability [HAVI] data switching networks H04L12/2805
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44204 Monitoring of content usage, e.g. the number of times a movie has been viewed, copied or the amount which has been watched monitoring of user activities for profile generation for accessing a video database G06F16/739; protecting generic digital content where the protection is independent of the precise nature of the content G06F21/10; arrangements for monitoring the use made of the broadcast services in broadcast systems H04H60/31
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4437 Implementing a Virtual Machine [VM] virtual machines in general G06F9/45533
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47 End-user applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4821 using a grid, e.g. sorted out by channel and broadcast time
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6433 Digital Storage Media - Command and Control Protocol [DSM-CC]
• 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 21/8456 by decomposing the content in the time domain, e.g. in time segments
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8586 by using a URL processing chained hypermedia data for information retrieval G06F16/94; information retrieval from the Internet by using URLs G06F16/955; URL in broadcast information H04H20/93; Web-based protocols H04L67/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/781 on disks or drums

Abstract

To provide, in a multi-user environment, a multimedia data transmitting apparatus which prevents a content for which playing is paused by a user from being deleted by another user, and allows playing to be resumed. The multimedia data transmitting apparatus includes: a content managing unit which holds a content and an attribute thereof; and a judging unit which judges, when deletion of the content is requested, whether or not deletion is possible for the content, based on the attribute. The judging unit judges that deletion is possible when the attribute does not indicate either “currently played” or “playing paused”, and to judge that the deletion is not possible when the attribute indicates “currently played” or “playing paused”, and the content managing unit deletes the content when said judging unit judges that deletion is possible.

Claims

1. A multimedia data transmitting apparatus which transmits multimedia data representing at least one of video and audio to a client device via a network, in response to a request from the client device, said multimedia data transmitting apparatus comprising:

a content managing unit configured to hold a content to be transmitted to the client device, as the multimedia data, and an attribute indicating a state of playing of a content; and

a judging unit configured to judge, when deletion of the held content is requested, whether or not the deletion is possible for at least a part of the content, based on the attribute,

wherein said judging unit is configured to judge that the deletion is possible when the attribute does not indicate either a state in which the content is being played or a state in which the playing of the content is paused, and to judge that the deletion is not possible when the attribute indicates the state in which the content is being played or the state in which the playing of the content is paused, and

said content managing unit is configured to delete the at least a part of the content when said judging unit judges that the deletion is possible.

2. The multimedia data transmitting apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein the content is chronologically divided into plural segments,

said content managing unit is configured to perform deletion on a per segment basis when the content is composed of the plural segments, and

said judging unit is configured to judge that the deletion is not possible for a segment which includes a position of current playing or a position at which playing is paused, among the plural segments.

3. The multimedia data transmitting apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein said content managing unit is further configured to hold a collection of contents that are associated as a series, and

said judging unit is configured to judge that deletion is not possible for the content for which the deletion is requested, when the attribute of at least one of the contents included in a same series as the content for which the deletion is requested indicates the state in which the content is being played or the state in which the playing of the content is paused.

4. The multimedia data transmitting apparatus according to claim 1,

wherein said judging unit further has a judgment condition other than the attribute and is configured to judge, according to the judgment condition, whether or not the deletion is possible for the content for which the deletion is requested, when the content for which the deletion is requested has the attribute.

5. The multimedia data transmitting apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising

a deleting condition managing unit configured to accept a deleting condition for allowing the deletion of a content,

wherein, when said judging unit judges that the deletion is not possible, said judging unit is configured to provide the deleting condition to said deleting condition managing unit, and

said deleting condition managing unit is configured to instruct the deletion of the content to said content managing unit when the deleting condition is satisfied.

6. The multimedia data transmitting apparatus according to claim 5,

wherein the attribute of the content indicates either a currently played state in which the content is being played or a playing paused state in which the playing of the content is paused, and

the deleting condition is that the attribute of the content is updated by said content managing unit so as not to indicate either of the currently played state or the playing paused state.

7. The multimedia data transmitting apparatus according to claim 5,

wherein said content managing unit is configured to hold plural attributes for the content,

the plural attributes of the content each indicate either a currently played state in which the content is being played or a playing paused state in which the playing of the content is paused, and

the deleting condition is that at least one of the plural attributes of the content is updated by said content managing unit so as not to indicate either of the currently played state or the playing paused state.

8. The multimedia data transmitting apparatus according to claim 5,

wherein said content managing unit is configured to hold plural attributes for the content,

the plural attributes of the content each indicate either a currently played state in which the content is being played or a playing paused state in which the playing of the content is paused, and

the deleting condition is that the plural attributes of the content are each updated by said content managing unit so as not to indicate either of the currently played state or the playing paused state.

9. The multimedia data transmitting apparatus according to claim 5,

wherein the deleting condition is the passing of a specified time.

10. The multimedia data transmitting apparatus according to claim 5,

wherein the deleting condition is that a remaining capacity of a recording media included in said multimedia transmitting apparatus, for recording the content has fallen below a specified value.

11. The multimedia data transmitting apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising

a Java executing unit configured to execute a Java application program,

wherein, when the attribute indicates the state in which the content is being played or the state in which the playing of the content is paused, said judging unit is configured to judge whether or not the deletion is possible for the at least a part of the content for which the deletion is requested by inquiring with the Java application program executed by said Java executing unit.

12. The multimedia data transmitting apparatus according to claim 11,

wherein the content is chronologically divided into plural segments,

said content managing unit is configured to perform deletion on a per segment basis when the content is composed of the plural segments, and

when receiving the inquiry from said judging unit, the Java application program selects one of the content and a segment which includes a position of current playing or a position at which playing is paused, and judges whether or not deletion is possible for the selected one of the content and the segment.

13. The multimedia data transmitting apparatus according to claim 11,

wherein said content managing unit is configured to hold a collection of contents that are associated as a series, and

when the attribute of at least one of the contents included in a same series as the content for which the deletion is requested indicates the state in which the content is being played or the state in which the playing of the content is paused, said judging unit is configured to judge whether or not the deletion is possible for the content by inquiring with the Java application program.

14. A multimedia data management method used in a multimedia data transmitting apparatus which transmits multimedia data representing at least one of video and audio to a client device via a network, in response to a request from the client device, said multimedia data management method comprising:

holding a content to be transmitted to the client device, as the multimedia data, and an attribute indicating a state of playing of a content;

judging, when deletion of the held content is requested, whether or not the deletion is possible for at least a part of the content, based on the attribute; and

deleting the at least a part of the content when it is judged in said judging that the deletion is possible,

wherein in said judging, it is judged that the deletion is possible when the attribute does not indicate either a state in which the content is being played or a state in which the playing of the content is paused, and judged that the deletion is not possible when the attribute indicates the state in which the content is being played or the state in which the playing of the content is paused.

15. The multimedia data management method according to claim 14,

wherein the content is chronologically divided into plural segments,

in said content managing step, deletion is performed on a per segment basis when the content is composed of the plural segments, and

in said judging step, it is judged that the deletion is not possible for a segment which includes a position of current playing or a position at which playing is paused, among the plural segments.

16. The multimedia data management method according to claim 14,

wherein in said holding, a collection of contents that are associated as a series is held, and

in said judging step, it is judged that deletion is not possible for the content for which the deletion is requested, when the attribute of at least one of the contents included in a same series as the content for which the deletion is requested indicates the state in which the content is being played or the state in which the playing of the content is paused.

17. The multimedia data management method according to claim 14, further comprising

executing a Java application program,

wherein, in said judging, when the attribute indicates the state in which the content is being played or the state in which the playing of the content is paused, judging whether or not the deletion is possible for at least a part of the content for which the deletion is requested is performed by inquiring with the Java application program executed in said executing.

18. The multimedia data management method according to claim 17,

wherein the content is chronologically divided into plural segments,

in said deleting, the deletion is performed on a per segment basis when the content is composed of the plural segments, and

when receiving the inquiry in said judging, the Java application program selects one of the content and a segment which includes a position of current playing or a position at which playing is paused, and judges whether or not deletion is possible for the selected one of the content and the segment.

19. The multimedia data transmitting apparatus according to claim 17,

wherein in said holding a collection of contents that are associated as a series is held, and

in said judging, when the attribute of at least one of the contents included in a same series as the content for which the deletion is requested indicates the state in which the content is being played or the state in which the playing of the content is paused, judging whether or not the deletion is possible for the content is performed by inquiring with the Java application program.

20. A computer program recorded on a computer-readable recording medium, for use in a multimedia data transmitting apparatus which transmits multimedia data representing at least one of video and audio to a client device via a network, in response to a request from the client device, said program causing a computer of the multimedia data transmitting apparatus to execute:

holding a content to be transmitted to the client device, as the multimedia data, and an attribute indicating a state of playing of a content;

judging, when deletion of the held content is requested, whether or not the deletion is possible for at least a part of the content, based on the attribute; and

deleting the at least a part of the content when it is judged in said judging that the deletion is possible,

wherein in said judging, it is judged that the deletion is possible when the attribute does not indicate either a state in which the content is being played or a state in which the playing of the content is paused, and judged that the deletion is not possible when the attribute indicates the state in which the content is being played or the state in which the playing of the content is paused.