Apparatus and method for moving data among memories of networked devices

• US 6,766,426 B1
• Filed: 03/30/2000
• Issued: 07/20/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 03/31/1999
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Sugiyama, Shigetoshi
• Primary Examiner(s): Padmanabhan, Mano
• Assistant Examiner(s): BAKER, PAUL A
• Application Number:
  US09/539,284
• Time in Patent Office: 1,573 Days
• Field of Search: 711/154, 711/150, 711/165
• US Class Current: 711/154
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2003/0697 device management, e.g. handlers, drivers, I/O schedulers
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0601 Interfaces specially adapted for storage systems
• 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 21/436 Interfacing a local distribution network, e.g. communicating with another STB or one or more peripheral devices inside the home
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44231 Monitoring of peripheral device or external card, e.g. to detect processing problems in a handheld device or the failure of an external recording device configuring of peripheral devices in general G06F9/4411; reporting information sensed by appliance or service execution status of appliance services in a home automation network H04L12/2823; monitoring the status of connected device in data switched networks H04L43/0817
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4583 Automatically resolving scheduling conflicts, e.g. when a recording by reservation has been programmed for two programs in the same time slot
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47214 for content reservation or setting reminders; for requesting event notification, e.g. of sport results or stock market stock exchange data over packet-switching network H04L12/1804; push services over packet-switching network H04L12/1859; notification of incoming messages in packet switching networks H04L51/224
• CPC Class Codes: Y10T 74/1568 Automatic
• CPC Class Codes: Y10T 74/1592 Driven band and gripper

Abstract

An information processing apparatus and method and a program storage medium by which a recording medium of an apparatus connected to a network to which the information processing apparatus is connected can be utilized effectively wherein if reservation of recording of a predetermined program is performed for a video recorder, then a data amount necessary to record the reserved program is calculated. Then, those of apparatus connected to a network which include a recording medium which can record the calculated data amount are searched for. In response to a result of the search, a distribution of data amounts to be recorded into the recording media of those apparatus is determined. Then, areas are secured in the recordable areas of the recording media so that the determined data amount may be recorded.

Claims

1. An information processing apparatus, comprising:

discrimination means for discriminating whether an instruction is for reservation of recording of a program;

calculating means for calculating a data amount of said program reserved for recording based on a recording based on a recording time and a recording picture quality when said discrimination means discriminates that said instruction is for reservation of recording;

searching means for searching, in response to said data amount calculated by said calculating means, for a recordable area of a recording medium provided in another apparatus connected to a network to which said information processing apparatus is connected;

securing means for securing a recording area for recording said data in said recordable area found by said searching means; and

recording means for recording said data on the recording area secured by said securing means.

2. An information processing method for use in an information processing apparatus, comprising:

a discrimination step for discriminating whether an instruction is for reservation of recording of a program;

a calculating step for calculating a data amount of said program reserved for recording based on a recording time and a recording picture quality when said discrimination step discriminates that said instruction is for reservation of recording;

a searching step of searching, in response to said data amount calculated in said calculating step, for a recordable area of a recording medium provided in another apparatus connected to a network to which the information processing apparatus is connected;

a securing step of securing a recording area for recording said data in said recordable area found by the searching step; and

a recording step of recording said data on the recording area secured by the securing step.

3. A program storage medium on which a computer-readable program is stored, the computer-readable program including:

a discrimination step for discriminating whether an instruction is for reservation of recording of a program;

a calculating step for calculating a data amount of said program reserved for recording based on a recording time and a recording picture quality when said discrimination step discriminates that said instruction is for reservation of recording;

a searching step of searching, in response to said data amount calculated in said calculating step, for a recordable area of a recording medium provided in another apparatus connected to a network to which an information processing apparatus having loaded therein the program storage medium is connected;

a securing step of securing a recording area for recording step data in said recordable area found by the searching step; and

a recording step of recording said data on the recording area secured by the securing step.

4. An information processing apparatus, comprising:

recording means for recording data;

discrimination means for discriminating whether an amount of data recorded on said recording means is greater than a predetermined amount;

searching means for searching, when it is discriminated by said discrimination means that the amount of recorded data is greater than the predetermined amount, for a recordable area of a recording medium provided in each of a plurality of apparatuses connected to a network to which said information processing apparatus is connected;

calculating means for calculating a data distribution to move to the apparatuses based on said recordable area searched by said searching means; and

moving means for moving the data recorded on said recording means to the recordable area found by said searching means based on the data distribution calculated by said calculating means.

5. The information processing apparatus according to claim 4, wherein moving destinations of divisional data preceding or succeeding each divisional data are recorded as management information.

6. An information processing method for use in an information processing apparatus, comprising:

a recording control step of controlling recording of data;

a discrimination step of discriminating whether an amount of data recorded by the recording control step is greater than a predetermined amount;

a searching step of searching, when it is discriminated by the discrimination step that the amount of recorded data is greater than the predetermined amount, for a recordable area of a recording medium provided in each of a plurality of apparatuses connected to a network to which the information processing apparatus is connected;

a calculating step for calculating a data distribution move to the apparatuses based on said recordable area searched by said searching step; and

a moving step of moving the data recorded by the recording step to the recordable area searched out by the searching step based on the data distribution calculated by the calculating step.

7. A program storage medium on which a computer-readable program is stored, the computer-readable program including:

a recording control step of controlling recording of data;

a discrimination step of discriminating whether or not an amount of data recorded by the recording control step is greater than a predetermined amount;

a searching step of searching, when it is discriminated by the discrimination step the amount of recorded data is greater than the predetermined amount, for a recordable area of a recording medium provided in each of a plurality of apparatuses connected to a network to which an information processing apparatus having loaded therein the program storage medium is connected;

a calculating step for calculating a data distribution to move the apparatuses bases on said recordable area searched by said searching step; and

a moving step of moving the data recorded by the recording step to the recordable area searched out by the searching step based on the data distribution calculated by the calculating step.

8. An information processing apparatus, comprising:

first searching means for searching, when an instruction to record data is received, for a first recording area of a first recording medium provided in other apparatuses connected to a network to which said information processing apparatus is connected;

first recording means for recording the data into the first recording area searched by the first searching means;

discriminating means for discriminating when a remaining capacity of the first recording area becomes smaller than a predetermined level;

second searching means for searching for a second recordable area of a second recording medium provided in the other apparatuses when the discriminating means discriminates that the remaining capacity of the first recording area becomes smaller than the predetermined level;

second recording means for recording the data into the second recording area searched by the second searching means.

9. An information processing method for use in an information processing apparatus, comprising:

a first searching step for searching, when an instruction to record data is received, for a first recording area of a first recording medium provided in other apparatuses connected to a network to which said information processing apparatus is connected;

a first recording step for recording the data into the first recording area searched out by the first searching step;

a discriminating step for discriminating when a remaining capacity of the first recording area becomes smaller than a predetermined level;

a second searching step for searching for a second recordable area of a second recording medium provided in the other apparatuses when the discriminating step discriminates that the remaining capacity of the first recording area becomes smaller than the predetermined level;

a second recording step for recording the data into the second recording area searched by the second searching means.

10. A program storage medium on which a computer-readable program is stored, the computer-readable program including:

a first searching step for searching, when an instruction to record data is received, for a first recording area of a first recording medium provided in other apparatuses connected to a network to which said information processing apparatus is connected;

a first recording step for recording the data into the first recording area searched out by the first searching step;

a discriminating step for discriminating when a remaining capacity of the first recording area becomes smaller than a predetermined level;

a second searching step for searching for a second recordable area of a second recording medium provided in the other apparatuses when the discriminating step discriminates that the remaining capacity of the first recording area becomes smaller than the predetermined level;

a second recording step for recording the data into the second recording area searched by the second searching means.

11. An information processing apparatus, comprising:

first discriminating means for discriminating whether an instruction is an instruction for reservation of recording of a program;

first calculating means for calculating a data amount of the program reserved for recording based on a recording time and a recording picture quality when said first discrimination means discriminates that the instruction is for reservation of recording;

first searching means for searching for a recording medium provided in a plurality of other apparatuses connected to a network to which the information processing apparatus is connected based on the data amount calculated by the first calculating means;

second discrimination means for discriminating whether the data amount recorded on the recording medium searched by the first searching means is greater than a predetermined amount;

second searching means for searching for a recordable area of a recording medium provided in the plurality of other apparatuses connected to the network;

second calculating means for calculating a data distribution to be moved to the other apparatuses based on the recordable area searched out by the second searching means;

moving means for moving data to the recordable area based on the data distribution calculated by said second calculating means;

securing means for securing a recording area for recording the data in the recordable area of the recording medium searched by the first searching means; and

recording means for recording the data into the recording area secured by the securing means.

12. An information processing method for use in an information processing apparatus, comprising:

a first discriminating step for discriminating whether an instruction is an instruction for reservation of recording of a program;

a first calculating step for calculating a data amount of the program reserved for recording based on a recording time and a recording picture quality when said first discrimination step discrimiates that the instruction is for reservation of recording;

a first searching step for searching for a recording medium provided in a plurality of other apparatuses connected to a network to which the information processing apparatus is connected based on the data amount calculated by the first calculating step;

a second discrimination step for discriminating the data amount recorded on the recording medium searched by the first searching step is greater than a predetermined amount;

a second searching step for searching for a recordable area of a recording medium provided in the plurality of other apparatuses connected to the network;

a second calculating step for calculating a data distribution to be moved to the other apparatuses based on the recordable area searched out by the second searching step;

a moving step for moving data to the recordable area based on the data distribution calculated by said second calculating step;

a securing step for securing a recording area for recording the data in the recordable area of the recording medium searched by the first searching step; and

a recording step for recording the data into the recording area secured by the securing step.

13. A program storage medium on which a computer-readable program is stored, the computer-readable program including:

a first discriminating step for discriminating whether an instruction is an instruction for reservation of recording of a program;

a first calculating step for calculating a data amount of the program reserved for recording based on a recording time and a recording picture quality when said first discrimination step discrimiates that the instruction is for reservation of recording;

a first searching step for searching for a recording medium provided in a plurality of other apparatuses connected to a network to which the information processing apparatus is connected based on the data amount calculated by the first calculating step;

a second discrimination step for discriminating the data amount recorded on the recording medium searched by the first searching step is greater than a predetermined amount;

a second searching step for searching for a recordable area of a recording medium provided in the plurality of other apparatuses connected to the network;

a second calculating step for calculating a data distribution to be moved to the other apparatuses based on the recordable area searched out by the second searching step;

a moving step for moving data to the recordable area based on the data distribution calculated by said second calculating step;

a securing step for securing a recording area for recording the data in the recordable area of the recording medium searched by the first searching step; and

a recording step for recording the data into the recording area secured by the securing step.