Program reception/execution apparatus which can start execution of program even when only part of program is received, and program transmitter for it

• US 6,157,948 A
• Filed: 05/04/1998
• Issued: 12/05/2000
• Est. Priority Date: 09/11/1996
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: ARRIS Enterprises LLC (CommScope Holding Company, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Matsushita Electric Industrial Company Limited (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Inoue, Shinji, Takao, Naoya, Shimoji, Tatsuya, Kozuka, Masayuki, Oashi, Masahiro, Kakiuchi, Takashi, Okamura, Kazuo, Kusumi, Yuki, Miyabe, Yoshiyuki, Hirai, Junichi, Mori, Toshiya, Mimura, Yoshihiro, Minakata, Ikuo
• Primary Examiner(s): Rinehart, Mark H.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Le, Hieu C.
• Application Number:
  US09/068,321
• Time in Patent Office: 946 Days
• Field of Search: 709/201, 709/202, 709/203, 709/219, 709/218, 709/1, 709/103, 709/104, 709/106, 382/232, 382/235, 707/104, 707/103
• US Class Current: 709/219
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/61 Installation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/44521 Dynamic linking or loading; Link editing at or after load time, e.g. Java class loading
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/234318 by decomposing into objects, e.g. MPEG-4 objects
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/235 Processing of additional data, e.g. scrambling of additional data or processing content descriptors
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/23614 Multiplexing of additional data and video streams arrangements for simultaneous broadcast of plural pieces of information H04H20/28
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4331 Caching operations, e.g. of an advertisement for later insertion during playback
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4334 Recording operations recording of a television signal H04N5/76; arrangements for recording or accumulating broadcast information or broadcast-related information H04H60/27
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4348 Demultiplexing of additional data and video streams
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/435 Processing of additional data, e.g. decrypting of additional data, reconstructing software from modules extracted from the transport stream
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47815 Electronic shopping payment schemes, payment architectures or payment protocols for electronic shopping systems G06Q20/12
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99945 Object-oriented database structure processing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99948 Application of database or data structure, e.g. distributed, multimedia, or image

Abstract

When a program transmission apparatus divides a program into a plurality of partial programs before transmission, a program reception execution apparatus executes a partial program when the partial program has already been received, and, when the execution needs to proceed to from a present partial program to a next partial program, executes the other partial program when the next partial program has been received.

Claims

1. A program reception execution apparatus that receives and executes a program, the program having been transmitted by a program transmission apparatus after being divided into a plurality of partial programs that each include a set of next partial program information which shows what partial program should be executed following a present partial program,

the program reception execution apparatus comprising:

storage means including a program storage area;

reception means for receiving the plurality of partial programs and storing the plurality of partial programs in the storage means; and

execution control means for executing the plurality of partial programs that are stored in the storage means,

wherein each set of next partial program information includes an identifier for identifying a partial program that is to be executed following a partial program that includes the set of next partial program information,

wherein the reception means includes a separation extraction unit for separating and extracting an indicated partial program from a received signal using the identifier in a set of next partial program information,

and wherein the execution control means includes;

a program presence judgement unit for judging whether an indicated partial program is stored in the storage means;

a program preparation unit

(1) for referring to a set of next partial program information, for indicating, when a first partial program is being executed and a second partial program is to be executed next, the second partial program based on the set of next partial program information, and for having the program presence judgement unit judge whether the second partial program is stored in the storage means,

(2) for preparing for an execution of the second partial program when the program presence judgement unit has judged that the second partial program is present,

(3) for waiting and not allowing an execution of the program to advance when the program presence judgement unit has judged that the second partial program is not present, and for preparing for an execution of the second partial program when the program presence judgement unit judges that the second partial program is present;

a program extraction indicating unit for instructing the separation extraction unit to separate and extract a partial program and to store the partial program in the storage means when the program presence judgement unit has judged that the partial program is not present in the storage means; and

a program execution unit for executing at least one instruction in a partial program whose execution has been prepared by the program preparation unit and for activating the program preparation unit.

2. The program reception execution apparatus of claim 1,

wherein each set of next partial program information includes a link instruction that is an instruction indicating an execution of another partial program after a present partial program,

and wherein the program execution unit includes:

a link instruction judgement unit for judging whether an instruction to be executed in a present partial program is a link instruction; and

a link instruction processing unit for activating the program preparation unit when the link instruction judgement unit has judged that the instruction to be executed is a link instruction.

3. The program reception execution apparatus of claim 2,

wherein at least one set of next partial program information includes (a) a selective link instruction that is an instruction indicating that one out of a plurality of next partial programs is to be executed in accordance with a function level of the program reception execution apparatus, and (b) a base identifier that is information which provides a base for combining an identifier of one out of the plurality of next partial programs,

wherein the program reception execution apparatus further includes a function level storage means for storing a function level of the program reception execution apparatus,

and wherein the program execution unit further includes:

a selective link instruction judgement unit for judging whether an instruction to be executed in a present partial program is a selective link instruction; and

a selective link instruction processing unit which, when the link instruction judgement unit has judged that the instruction is a link instruction, refers to the base identifier and the function level stored in the function level storage means and combines the base identifier and the function level to produce an identifier for the partial program to be executed, before activating the program preparation unit.

4. The program reception execution apparatus of claim 3,

wherein each partial program is composed of bytecodes that are intermediate code which is independent of an execution environment,

and wherein the program execution unit successively interprets and executes one bytecode at a time in a partial program.

5. The program reception execution apparatus of claim 4, further comprising:

event information management means for storing a correspondence table which associates a plurality of user operations with an identifier of an initial partial program that should be executed corresponding to each respective user operation; and

event processing means for obtaining the identifier of an initial partial program that should be executed corresponding to a user operation from the event information management means, and for instructing the separation extraction means to separate and extract the initial partial program and to store the initial partial program in the storage means, before having the execution control means execute the initial partial program when the program presence judgement means has judged that the initial partial program has been stored in the storage means.

6. The program reception execution apparatus of claim 5, further comprising:

error processing information management means for storing a correspondence table that associates each error which occurs during program execution with error codes that show what error processing should be executed for each respective error; and

error processing means for obtaining from the error processing information management means the error code showing the error processing that should be executed corresponding to an occurrence of an error, and, when the error code indicates an activation of a partial program, for instructing the separation extraction means to separate and extract the partial program and to store the partial program in the storage means, before having the execution control means execute the partial program when the program presence judgement means has judged that the partial program has been stored in the storage means.

7. The program reception execution apparatus of claim 6,

wherein the program reception execution apparatus receives and executes a plurality of partial programs that have been sent by a digital broadcast transmission apparatus.

8. The program reception execution apparatus of claim 7,

wherein the program reception execution apparatus receives and executes a plurality of partial programs that have been repeatedly sent by a digital broadcast transmission apparatus.

9. The program reception execution apparatus of claim 8,

wherein the plurality of partial programs are transmitted by being multiplexed with at least one of image data and audio data.

10. The program reception execution apparatus of claim 9,

wherein the program reception execution apparatus conforms to ISO/IEC 13818 Standard, and wherein the plurality of partial programs are transmitted by being arranged into at least one part of a private section in an MPEG2 transport stream that conforms to ISO/IEC 13818 Standard.

11. The program reception execution apparatus of claim 6,

wherein the execution control means further includes a transmission request transmitting unit which, when the program presence judgement unit has judged that a partial program is not stored in the storage means, transmits a request for a transmission of the partial program to a program transmission apparatus.

12. The program reception execution apparatus of claim 2,

wherein each partial program is composed of bytecodes that are intermediate code which is independent of an execution environment,

and wherein the program execution unit successively interprets and executes one bytecode at a time in a partial program.

13. The program reception execution apparatus of claim 12, further comprising:

event information management means for storing a correspondence table which associates a plurality of user operations with an identifier of an initial partial program that should be executed corresponding to each respective user operation; and

event processing means for obtaining the identifier of an initial partial program that should be executed corresponding to a user operation from the event information management means, and for instructing the separation extraction means to separate and extract the initial partial program and to store the initial partial program in the storage means, before having the execution control means execute the initial partial program when the program presence judgement means has judged that the initial partial program has been stored in the storage means.

14. The program reception execution apparatus of claim 13, further comprising:

error processing information management means for storing a correspondence table that associates each error which occurs during program execution with error codes that show what error processing should be executed for each respective error; and

error processing means for obtaining from the error processing information management means the error code showing the error processing that should be executed corresponding to an occurrence of an error, and, when the error code indicates an activation of a partial program, for instructing the separation extraction means to separate and extract the partial program and to store the partial program in the storage means, before having the execution control means execute the partial program when the program presence judgement means has judged that the partial program has been stored in the storage means.

15. The program reception execution apparatus of claim 14,

wherein the program reception execution apparatus receives and executes a plurality of partial programs that have been sent by a digital broadcast transmission apparatus.

16. The program reception execution apparatus of claim 15,

wherein the program reception execution apparatus receives and executes a plurality of partial programs that have been repeatedly sent by a digital broadcast transmission apparatus.

17. The program reception execution apparatus of claim 16,

wherein the plurality of partial programs are transmitted by being multiplexed with at least one of image data and audio data.

18. The program reception execution apparatus of claim 17,

wherein the program reception execution apparatus conforms to ISO/IEC 13818 Standard, and wherein the plurality of partial programs are transmitted by being arranged into at least one part of a private section in an MPEG2 transport stream that conforms to ISO/IEC 13818 Standard.

19. The program reception execution apparatus of claim 14,

wherein the execution control means further includes a transmission request transmitting unit which, when the program presence judgement unit has judged that a partial program is not stored in the storage means, transmits a request for a transmission of the partial program to a program transmission apparatus.

20. The program reception execution apparatus of claim 2,

wherein the storage means further includes a memory management unit which, when there is insufficient free space in the program storage area for storing a new partial program, performs control to delete at least one partial program that is already present in the program storage area to generate free space into which the new partial program is written,

wherein the program execution unit further includes:

a lock instruction judgement unit for judging whether an instruction to be executed in a present partial program is a lock instruction which indicates that the present partial program should not be deleted; and

a lock instruction notification unit which, when the lock instruction judgement unit judges that the instruction is a lock instruction, sends common partial program identification information to the memory management unit to show that the present partial program includes a lock instruction,

and wherein the memory management unit performs control so that partial programs that have been indicated by the common partial program identification information sent from the lock instruction notification unit are not deleted.

21. A recording medium storing a control program, the control program having a program reception execution apparatus execute a program that the program reception execution apparatus receives from a program transmission apparatus as a plurality of partial programs and stores in a storage area, each partial program including next partial program information showing which partial program should be executed following a present partial program,

the next partial program information in each partial program including an identifier for identifying a partial program that is to be executed next,

the program reception execution apparatus including a separation extraction unit for separating and extracting an indicated partial program from a received signal using the identifier in a set of next partial program information

and the control program comprising the following steps:

a program presence judgement step for judging whether an indicated partial program is already stored in the storage area;

a program preparation step

(1) for referring to the next partial program information, for indicating, when a first partial program is being executed and a second partial program is to be executed next, the second partial program, and for executing the program presence judgement step to judge whether the second partial program is stored in the storage means,

(2) for preparing for an execution of the second partial program when the program presence judgement step has judged that the second partial program is present,

(3) for waiting and not allowing an execution of the program to advance when the program presence judgement step has judged that the second partial program is not present, and for having preparation for an execution of the second partial program performed when the program presence judgement step judges that the second partial program is present; and

a program execution step for executing a plurality of instructions in a partial program whose execution has been prepared by the program preparation step and for executing the program preparation step.