Control method, control apparatus, data receiving and recording method, data receiver and receiving method

• US 6,668,158 B1
• Filed: 07/15/1999
• Issued: 12/23/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 07/16/1998
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Katayama, Yasushi, Tsutsui, Shintaro, Nagano, Susumu
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen, Lee
• Assistant Examiner(s): Milord, Marceau
• Application Number:
  US09/354,612
• Time in Patent Office: 1,622 Days
• Field of Search: 455/12.1, 455/3.02, 455/3.06, 455/4.1, 455/4.2, 455/517, 455/68, 455/186.1, 455/69, 455/45, 455/13.1, 455/6.1, 455/3.1, 455/46, 348/7, 348/725, 348/12, 348/6, 348/113, 345/749, 345/727, 345/728, 345/762
• US Class Current: 455/12.1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/04 Billing or invoicing
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 7/18523 Satellite systems for providing broadcast service to terrestrial stations, i.e. broadcast satellite service arrangements specially adapted for satellite broadcast receiving H04H40/90; picture transmission via satellite H04N1/00103; television transmission via satellite H04N7/20
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/17 on recording information
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/23 using cryptography, e.g. encryption, authentication, key distribution

Abstract

The present invention is to make it possible to easily download a program obtained from outside to a connected equipment. A first storage unit (58a) storing a first program inputted from an outside, a second storage unit (58b) storing a second program prepared in advance and actuated by the first program and a processing unit (58) executing programs stored in the respective storage units, acquiring information on the connected equipment based on the execution of the second program stored in the second storage unit and controlling the connected equipment based on the information thus acquired are provided.

Claims

1. A method for controlling one or more recording/reproducing apparatuses that are coupled to a receiver, the receiver being operable to receive signals from a communications path, the method comprising:

extracting graphical user interface (GUI) data from the signals received by the receiver;

generating a GUI screen using the extracted GUI data;

executing a script program obtained from the extracted GUI data in response to a user command; and

starting a resident program of the receiver based on the script program such that a request for information is transferred from the receiver to the one or more recording/reproducing apparatuses.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising transferring the requested information from the one or more recording/reproducing apparatuses to the receiver in response to the request for information.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising downloading data from the signals to one of the recording/reproducing apparatuses in a manner consistent with the received information corresponding to that recording/reproducing apparatus.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the data downloaded from the signals to the recording/reproducing apparatus are audio data compressed in accordance with the Adaptive Transform Acoustic Coding (ATRAC) method.

5. The method of claim 2, further comprising creating a list containing at least some of the requested information, the list being displayable on a display device connected to the receiver.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the requested information includes at least one of an equipment manufacturer code, an equipment type code, and an equipment serial number code for each of the one or more recording/reproducing apparatuses.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the equipment type code includes an indication of whether an associated one of the recording/reproducing apparatuses is at least one of a magneto-optical medium recorder/player, a magnetic medium player/recorder, and an optical medium recorder/player.

8. The method of claim 5, further comprising receiving a recording/reproducing apparatus selection command in the receiver and downloading data from the signals to the selected one of the recording/reproducing apparatuses in a manner consistent with the received information of the selected one of the recording/reproducing apparatuses.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising establishing a default one of the recording/reproducing apparatuses to receive future downloading the data.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the default one of the recording/reproducing apparatuses is established to be the selected one of the recording/reproducing apparatuses.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising receiving a confirmation command in the receiver indicating that the default one of the recording/reproducing apparatuses is acceptable to receive the future download data.

12. The method of claim 8, wherein the data downloaded from the signals to the selected one of the recording/reproducing apparatuses are audio data compressed in accordance with the Adaptive Transform Acoustic Coding (ATRAC) method.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the script program is obtained from data of the signals adhering to the Multimedia and Hypermedia Information Coding Experts Group (MHEG) format.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the communications path is taken from at least one of a wireless communications path and a wired communications path.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the wireless communications path is a satellite communications path.

16. A receiver operable to receive signals from a communications path and to control one or more recording/reproducing apparatuses coupled to the receiver, the receiver including a processing device capable of executing a control program that causes the processing device to execute steps comprising:

extracting graphical user interface (GUI) data from the signals received by the receiver;

generating a GUI screen using the extracted GUI data;

executing a script program obtained from extracted GUI data in response to a user command; and

starting a resident program of the receiver based on the script program such that a request for information is transferred from the receiver to the one or more recording/reproducing apparatuses.

17. The receiver of claim 16, wherein the steps further comprise receiving the requested information from the one or more recording/reproducing apparatuses in response to the request for information.

18. The receiver of claim 17, wherein the steps further comprise downloading data from the signals to one of the recording/reproducing apparatuses in a manner consistent with the received information corresponding to that recording/reproducing apparatus.

19. The receiver of claim 18, wherein the data downloaded from the signals to the recording/reproducing apparatus are audio data compressed in accordance with the Adaptive Transform Acoustic Coding (ATRAC) method.

20. The receiver of claim 17, wherein the steps further comprise creating a list containing at least some of the requested information, the list being displayable on a display device connected to the receiver.

21. The receiver of claim 20, wherein the requested information includes at least one of an equipment manufacturer code, an equipment type code, and an equipment serial number code for each of the one or more recording/reproducing apparatuses.

22. The receiver of claim 21, wherein the equipment type code includes an indication of whether an associated one of the recording/reproducing apparatuses is at least one of a magneto-optical medium recorder/player, a magnetic medium player/recorder, and an optical medium recorder/player.

23. The receiver of claim 20, wherein the steps further comprise receiving a recording/reproducing apparatus selection command in the receiver and downloading data from the signals to the selected one of the recording/reproducing apparatuses in a manner consistent with the received information of the selected one of the recording/reproducing apparatuses.

24. The receiver of claim 23, wherein the steps further comprise establishing a default one of the recording/reproducing apparatuses to receive future downloading the data.

25. The receiver of claim 24, wherein the default one of the recording/reproducing apparatuses is established to be the selected one of the recording/reproducing apparatuses.

26. The receiver of claim 25, wherein the steps further comprise receiving a confirmation command in the receiver indicating that the default one of the recording/reproducing apparatuses is acceptable to receive the future download data.

27. The receiver of claim 23, wherein the data downloaded from the signals to the selected one of the recording/reproducing apparatuses are audio data compressed in accordance with the Adaptive Transform Acoustic Coding (ATRAC) method.

28. The receiver of claim 16, wherein the script program is obtained from data of the signals adhering to the Multimedia and Hypermedia Information Coding Experts Group (MHEG) format.

29. The receiver of claim 16, wherein the communications path is taken from at least one of a wireless communications path and a wired communications path.

30. The receiver of claim 29, wherein the wireless communications path is a satellite communications path.

31. A method for controlling one or more external apparatuses that are coupled to a receiver, the receiver being operable to receive signals from a communications path, the method comprising:

extracting graphical user interface (GUI) data from the signals received by the receiver;

generating a GUI screen using the extracted GUI data;

executing a script program obtained from the signals received by the receiver extracted GUI data in response to a user command; and

starting a resident program of the receiver based on the script program such that a request for information is transferred from the receiver to the one or more external apparatuses.

32. The method of claim 31, further comprising transferring the requested information from the one or more external apparatuses to the receiver in response to the request for information.

33. The method of claim 32, further comprising downloading data from the signals to one of the external apparatuses in a manner consistent with the received information corresponding to that external apparatus.

34. The method of claim 33, wherein the data downloaded from the signals to the external apparatus are audio data compressed in accordance with the Adaptive Transform Acoustic Coding (ATRAC) method.

35. The method of claim 32, further comprising creating a list containing at least some of the requested information, the list being displayable on a display device connected to the receiver.

36. The method of claim 35, wherein the requested information includes at least one of an equipment manufacturer code, an equipment type code, and an equipment serial number code for each of the one or more external apparatuses.

37. The method of claim 35, further comprising receiving an external apparatus selection command in the receiver and downloading data from the signals to the selected one of the external apparatuses in a manner consistent with the received information of the selected one of the external apparatuses.

38. The method of claim 37, further comprising establishing a default one of the external apparatuses to receive future downloading the data.

39. The method of claim 38, wherein the default one of the external apparatuses is established to be the selected one of the external apparatuses.

40. The method of claim 39, further comprising receiving a confirmation command in the receiver indicating that the default one of the external apparatuses is acceptable to receive the future download data.

41. The method of claim 37, wherein the data downloaded from the signals to the selected one of the external apparatuses are audio data compressed in accordance with the Adaptive Transform Acoustic Coding (ATRAC) method.

42. The method of claim 31, wherein the script program is obtained from data of the signals adhering to the Multimedia and Hypermedia Information Coding Experts Group (MHEG) format.

43. The method of claim 31, wherein the communications path is taken from at least one of a wireless communications path and a wired communications path.

44. The method of claim 31, wherein the wireless communications path is a satellite communications path.

45. A receiver operable to receive signals from a communications path and to control one or more external apparatuses coupled to the receiver, the receiver including a processing device capable of executing a control program that causes the processing device to execute steps comprising:

extracting graphical user interface (GUI) data from the signals received by the receiver;

generating a GUI screen using the extracted GUI data;

executing a script program obtained from the signals received by the receiver extracted GUI data in response to a user command; and

starting a resident program of the receiver based on the script program such that a request for information is transferred from the receiver to the one or more external apparatuses.

46. The receiver of claim 45, wherein the steps further comprise receiving the requested information from the one or more external apparatuses in response to the request for information.

47. The receiver of claim 46, wherein the steps further comprise downloading data from the signals to one of the external apparatuses in a manner consistent with the received information corresponding to that external apparatus.

48. The receiver of claim 47, wherein the data downloaded from the signals to the external apparatus are audio data compressed in accordance with the Adaptive Transform Acoustic Coding (ATRAC) method.

49. The receiver of claim 46, wherein the steps further comprise creating a list containing at least some of the requested information, the list being displayable on a display device connected to the receiver.

50. The receiver of claim 49, wherein the requested information includes at least one of an equipment manufacturer code, an equipment type code, and an equipment serial number code for each of the one or more external apparatuses.

51. The receiver of claim 49, wherein the steps further comprise receiving an external apparatus selection command in the receiver and downloading data from the signals to the selected one of the external apparatuses in a manner consistent with the received information of the selected one of the external apparatuses.

52. The receiver of claim 51, wherein the steps further comprise establishing a default one of the external apparatuses to receive future downloading the data.

53. The receiver of claim 52, wherein the default one of the external apparatuses is established to be the selected one of the external apparatuses.

54. The receiver of claim 53, wherein the steps further comprise receiving a confirmation command in the receiver indicating that the default one of the external apparatuses is acceptable to receive the future download data.

55. The receiver of claim 51, wherein the data downloaded from the signals to the selected one of the external apparatuses are audio data compressed in accordance with the Adaptive Transform Acoustic Coding (ATRAC) method.

56. The receiver of claim 45, wherein the script program is obtained from data of the signals adhering to the Multimedia and Hypermedia Information Coding Experts Group (MHEG) format.

57. The receiver of claim 45, wherein the communications path is taken from at least one of a wireless communications path and a wired communications path.

58. The receiver of claim 45, wherein the wireless communications path is a satellite communications path.