PROGRAM EXECUTION METHOD AND PROGRAM EXECUTION APPARATUS

• US 20130191853A1
• Filed: 07/25/2012
• Published: 07/25/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 01/20/2012
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Panasonic Corporation (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Kimitaka Nanbu, Makoto Harada, Yasuhiro Yoshida
• Inventors: HARADA, Makoto, Nanbu, Kimitaka, Yoshida, Yasuhiro
• Application Number:
  US13/558,144
• Publication Number:
  US 20130191853A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 719/320
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/10 Protecting distributed programs or content, e.g. vending or licensing of copyrighted material protection in video systems or pay television H04N7/16 ; Digital rights management [DRM]
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4437 Implementing a Virtual Machine [VM] virtual machines in general G06F9/45533
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47211 for requesting pay-per-view content payment schemes payment architectures or payment protocols G06Q20/00, G07F
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6118 involving cable transmission, e.g. using a cable modem

Abstract

In a terminal apparatus including a first application that runs on first middleware and a second application that runs on second middleware and performs management of billing, and so on, the second application receives an instruction to execute the first application, obtains billing information of the first application and judges whether or not the first application can be executed, and activates the first application through the second middleware and the first middleware when judging that the execution is possible.

Claims

1. A program execution method performed by an apparatus including an operating system, first middleware and second middleware that run on the operating system, a first application program that runs on the first middleware, and a second application program that runs on the second middleware and manages billing or a parental lock, said program executing method comprising:

receiving, by the second application program, an instruction to execute the first application program;

obtaining, by the second application program, billing information or parental lock information, the billing information indicating whether or not the first application program is already purchased, and the parental lock information indicating whether or not there is a parental lock for the first application program;

judging, by the second application program, whether or not the first application program is executable, based on the obtained billing information or the obtained parental lock information; and

activating, by the second application program, the first application program through the second middleware and the first middleware, when it is judged in said judging that the first application program is executable.

2. The program execution method according to claim 1, further comprising

purchasing, by the second application program, the first application program, when it is judged in said judging that the first application program is not executable because the first application program is not yet purchased.

3. The program execution method according to claim 1,

wherein, in said obtaining, the billing information or the parental lock information is obtained from a database in which attributes of application programs that run on the first middleware and the second middleware are held in advance, the application programs including the first application program and the second application program.

4. The program execution method according to claim 1,

wherein, in said obtaining, the billing information or the parental lock information is obtained by way of the second application program making an inquiry to the first application program and obtaining a reply from the first application program.

5. The program execution method according to claim 1,

wherein, in said activating:

the second application program notifies the second middleware of information for identifying the first application program that is judged as being executable; and

the second middleware identifies the first middleware as middleware on which the first application program runs, based on the information notified from the second application program, and requests the activation of the first application program to the identified first middleware.

6. A program execution apparatus comprising:

a processor; and

programs executed by said processor, said programs including;

an operating system;

first middleware that runs on said operating system;

second middleware that runs on said operating system;

a first application program that runs on said first middleware; and

a second application program that runs on said second middleware and manages billing and parental lock,

wherein said second application program includes;

an application list display unit configured to display application programs that run on at least said first middleware, and to receive an instruction to execute said first application program;

an application activation judgment unit configured to obtain billing information indicating whether or not said first application program is already purchased or parental lock information indicating whether or not there is a parental lock for said second application program, and to judge whether or not said first application program is executable, based on the obtained billing information or the obtained parental lock information; and

an application activation unit configured to activate said first application program through said second middleware and said first middleware, when said application activation judgment unit judges that said application program is executable.

7. The program execution apparatus according to claim 6, further comprising

a purchasing unit configured to purchase said first application program when said application activation judgment unit judges that said first application program is not executable because said first application program is not yet purchased.

8. An application program recorded on a non-transitory computer-readable recording medium, said application being the second application program included in the program execution apparatus according to claim 6.