TRANSMISSION APPARATUS AND METHOD, RECEPTION APPARATUS AND METHOD, AND TRANSMISSION AND RECEPTION SYSTEM

• US 20120054268A1
• Filed: 03/25/2011
• Published: 03/01/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 08/30/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Saturn Licensing LLC (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Yamagishi, Yasuaki
• Granted Patent: US 8,892,636 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/203
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/33 Arrangements for monitoring the users' behaviour or opinions
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/65 for using the result on users' side
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/72 using electronic programme guides [EPG] focusing on identifying broadcast space time H04H60/39 ; menu type display of EPG in television receivers H04N21/47
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/56 Provisioning of proxy services store-and-forward switching systems in data switching networks H04L12/54
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/25883 being end-user demographical data, e.g. age, family status or address arrangements for identifying locations of users in broadcast systems H04H60/52
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/25891 being end-user preferences retrieval of video data in a video database based on user preferences G06F16/739; arrangements for recognizing users' preferences H04H60/46; user profiles in network data switching protocols H04L67/306; processing of user preferences or user profiles in wireless networks H04W8/18
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4758 for providing answers, e.g. voting
• 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 21/8543 using a description language, e.g. Multimedia and Hypermedia information coding Expert Group [MHEG], eXtensible Markup Language [XML] information retrieval of semistructured data, the underlying structure being taken into account, e.g. mark-up language structure data G06F16/80
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8545 for generating interactive applications

Abstract

Disclosed herein is a transmission apparatus for distributing a content to a client, including a question generation section configured to generate question information representative of a question regarding liking of a user of the client, and a transmission section configured to transmit the question information and provider side answer information representative of an answer set by a provider which provides the content to the question regarding the liking of the user to the client.

Claims

1. A transmission apparatus for distributing a content to a client, comprising:

question generation means for generating question information representative of a question regarding liking of a user of the client; and

transmission means for transmitting the question information and provider side answer information representative of an answer set by a provider which provides the content to the question regarding the liking of the user to the client.

2. The transmission apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising metadata generation means for generating metadata including the provider side answer information as metadata of the content corresponding to the answer set by the provider;

said transmission means transmitting the metadata to the client.

3. The transmission apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising query generation means for generating a query representative of a combination of answers set by the provider,

said transmission means transmitting the query to the client.

4. The transmission apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the provider side answer information is distinguished into common answer information representative of an answer to a question which does not depend upon the provider and unique answer information representative of an answer to a question which is unique to the provider.

5. A transmission method for a transmission apparatus for distributing a content to a client, comprising the steps of:

generating question information representative of a question regarding liking of a user of the client; and

transmitting the question information and provider side answer information representative of an answer set by a provider which provides the content to the question regarding the liking of the user to the client.

6. A reception apparatus for acquiring a content distributed from a server, comprising:

answer generation means for generating, in response to question information representative of a question regarding liking of a user and transmitted from the server to said reception apparatus, user side answer information representative of an answer of the user to the question; and

matching means for carrying out matching between the user side answer information and provider side answer information in the form of a bit string representative of an answer set by a provider which provides the content to the question and transmitted from the server to said reception apparatus to determine acquisition of the content distributed from the server.

7. The reception apparatus according to claim 6, wherein said matching means carries out the matching to determine acquisition of the content corresponding to metadata including the provider side answer information.

8. The reception apparatus according to claim 6, wherein said matching means carries out the matching based on the user side answer information and a query transmitted from the server and representative of a combination of answers set by the provider to determine acquisition of the content distributed from the server.

9. The reception apparatus according to claim 6, wherein said answer generation means generates a query representative of a combination of answers of the user to the question regarding the liking of the user, and

said matching means carries out the matching based on the query and the provide side answer information transmitted from the server to determine acquisition of the content distributed from the server.

10. The reception apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the user side answer information and the provider side information are distinguished into common answer information representative of an answer to a question which does not depend upon the provider and unique answer information representative of an answer to a question which is unique to the provider.

11. A reception method for a reception apparatus for acquiring a content distributed from a server, comprising the steps of:

generating, in response to question information representative of a question regarding liking of a user and transmitted from the server to the reception apparatus, user side answer information representative of an answer of the user to the question; and

carrying out matching between the user side answer information and provider side answer information representative of an answer set by a provider which provides the content to the question and transmitted from the server to the reception apparatus to determine acquisition of the content distributed from the server.

12. A transmission and reception system, comprising:

a transmission apparatus adapted to distribute a content; and

a reception apparatus adapted to acquire the content distributed from the transmission apparatus;

said transmission apparatus including

question generation means for generating question information representative of a question regarding liking of a user of said reception apparatus, and

transmission means for transmitting the question information and provider side answer information representative of an answer set by a provider which provides the content to the question regarding the liking of the user to the reception apparatus;

said reception apparatus including

answer generation means for generating user side answer information representative of an answer of the user to the question in response to the question information transmitted from the transmission apparatus, and

matching means for carrying out matching between the user side answer information and the provider side answer information transmitted from the transmission apparatus to determine acquisition of the content distributed from the transmission apparatus.

13. A transmission apparatus for distributing a content to a client, comprising:

a question generation section configured to generate question information representative of a question regarding liking of a user of the client; and

a transmission section configured to transmit the question information and provider side answer information in the form of a bit string representative of an answer set by a provider which provides the content to the question regarding the liking of the user to the client.

14. A reception apparatus for acquiring a content distributed from a server, comprising:

an answer generation section configured to generate, in response to question information representative of a question regarding liking of a user and transmitted from the server to said reception apparatus, user side answer information in the form of a bit string representative of an answer of the user to the question; and

a matching section configured to carry out matching between the answer information and provider side answer information in the form of a bit string representative of an answer set by a provider which provides the content to the question and transmitted from the server to said reception apparatus to determine acquisition of the content distributed from the server.

15. A transmission apparatus for distributing a content to a client, comprising:

a question generation section configured to generate question information representative of a question regarding liking of a user of the client; and

a transmission section configured to transmit the question information and provider side answer information representative of an answer set by a provider which provides the content to the question regarding the liking of the user to the client.

16. A reception apparatus for acquiring a content distributed from a server, comprising:

an answer generation section configured to generate, in response to question information representative of a question regarding liking of a user and transmitted from the server to said reception apparatus, user side answer information representative of an answer of the user to the question; and

a matching section configured to carry out matching between the user side answer information and provider side answer information in the form of a bit string representative of an answer set by a provider which provides the content to the question and transmitted from the server to said reception apparatus to determine acquisition of the content distributed from the server.