Information processing device, information processing method, and information processing program

• US 8,135,332 B2
• Filed: 05/18/2004
• Issued: 03/13/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 07/14/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Kikkoji, Hiroyuki, Okuzawa, Nozomu, Yamashita, Shinsuke, Moriya, Jun, Murase, Yasuhiro
• Primary Examiner(s): Sharma, Sujatha
• Application Number:
  US10/557,040
• Publication Number:
  US 20070056003A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,856 Days
• Field of Search: 455/3.06, 455/66.1, 455/412.1, 455/3.01, 455/3.02, 455/3.04, 455/2.01, 725/87, 725/101, 725109-115, 725/89, 725/22, 725/62, 725/63, 725/74, 725/86, 725/136, 725/142, 725/141
• US Class Current: 455/3.01
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 40/18 Arrangements characterised by circuits or components specially adapted for receiving
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/73 using meta-information
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/90 Wireless transmission systems

Abstract

Set information including information identifying one or more areas of operation of a broadcast terminal apparatus and a user ID, and broadcast-station information including a name and an identification data item of a broadcast station are stored. The broadcast-station information is stored in association with an area in which a broadcast signal output by the broadcast station can be received. An information-processing apparatus includes a detecting unit that retrieves the name or the identification data item of the broadcast station upon a reception of information identifying one of the one or more areas of operation and the user ID. The information-processing apparatus also includes a transmitting/receiving unit that receives the reception, transmits a transmission of the name or the identification data item of the broadcast station upon the reception, and receives an indicator of the broadcast station and an indicator of the user ID in response to the transmission.

Claims

1. An information-processing apparatus to be connected via a network to a broadcast terminal apparatus, the information-processing apparatus comprising:

user-set information storing means for storing set information including information identifying an area of operation of the broadcast terminal apparatus and a user ID;

broadcast-station information storing means for storing broadcast-station information in association with an area in which broadcast signals output by a plurality of broadcast stations can be received, said broadcast-station information including names or identification data items of the plurality of broadcast stations;

means for extracting the area of operation of the broadcast terminal apparatus in response to a reception of the user ID and a password, and for retrieving the names or the identification data items of the plurality of broadcast stations, based on the area of operation of the broadcast terminal apparatus and the area in which the broadcast signals can be received; and

transmitting/receiving means for receiving the reception of the user ID and the password, and for transmitting at least one of the names or at least one of the identification data items of the plurality of broadcast stations to the broadcast terminal apparatus.

2. The information-processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the set information is set when the information-processing apparatus starts a providing service of the at least one of the names or the at least one of the identification data items to the broadcast terminal apparatus.

3. The information-processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the means for retrieving correlates the area of operation with the area in which the broadcast signals can be received.

4. The information-processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the transmitting/receiving means transmits information request data to the broadcast terminal apparatus and acquires information about the area of operation from the broadcast terminal apparatus.

9. The information-processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the set information is received from the broadcast terminal apparatus.

5. An information-processing method for use in an information-processing apparatus to be connected via a network to a broadcast terminal apparatus, the information-processing method comprising:

storing set information including information identifying an area of operation of the broadcast terminal apparatus and a user ID, and broadcast-station information for a plurality of broadcast stations in association with an area in which broadcast signals output by the plurality of broadcast stations can be received, said broadcast-station information including names or identification data items of the plurality of broadcast stations;

receiving the user ID and a password;

extracting the area of operation of the broadcast terminal apparatus in response to the receiving;

retrieving, based on the area of operation of the broadcast terminal apparatus and the area in which the broadcast signals can be received, the names or the identification data items of the plurality of broadcast stations; and

transmitting at least one of the names or at least one of the identification data items to the broadcast terminal apparatus.

6. The information-processing method according to claim 5, wherein

the broadcast terminal apparatus is configured to communicate with a related-information server and an authentication server, said related-information server providing related information based on the identification data items;

the related-information server receives a request for the related information and service-session ID data from the broadcast terminal apparatus, said service-session ID data identifying a session between the broadcast terminal apparatus and the related-information server;

the related-information server performs an authentication process based on the service-session ID data, and, when the authentication process fails, the related-information server transmits data indicating an authentication error and a shop code identifying the related-information server to the broadcast terminal apparatus;

the authentication server receives, from the broadcast terminal apparatus, a request for an authentication ticket to access the related-information server and the shop code, and authentication-session ID data;

the authentication server performs an authentication process based on the authentication-session ID data, and, when an authentication is successful, issues and transmits an authentication ticket to the broadcast terminal apparatus;

the related-information server receives the authentication ticket from the broadcast terminal apparatus and transmits the authentication ticket to the authentication server;

the authentication server transmits confirmation success data to the related-information server when a confirmation of the authentication ticket is successful;

upon receiving the confirmation success data, the related-information server issues updated service-session ID data identifying the session between the broadcast terminal apparatus and the related-information server and transmits the updated service-session ID data to the broadcast terminal apparatus; and

the related-information server transmits the related information to the broadcast terminal apparatus in response to the request for the related information when the broadcast terminal apparatus is authenticated.

7. The information-processing method according to claim 6, wherein

the authentication server performs an authentication process, and, when the authentication process of the authentication server fails, the authentication server transmits data indicating a failure to the broadcast terminal apparatus;

the authentication server performs the authentication process of the authentication server based on the user ID and the password which are transmitted from the broadcast terminal apparatus, and issues authentication-session ID data that identifies a session between the broadcast terminal apparatus and the authentication server; and

the authentication server receives, from the broadcast terminal apparatus, the request for the authentication ticket and the authentication-session ID data identifying the session between the broadcast terminal apparatus and the authentication server after transmitting the authentication-session ID data identifying the session between the broadcast terminal apparatus and the authentication server to the broadcast terminal apparatus.

8. A non-transitory, computer readable medium encoded with an information-processing program that, when executed in an information-processing apparatus to be connected via a network to a broadcast terminal apparatus, causes the information-processing apparatus to perform a method comprising:

storing set information including information identifying an area of operation of the broadcast terminal apparatus and a user ID, and broadcast-station information in association with an area in which broadcast signals output by a plurality of broadcast stations can be received, said broadcast-station information containing names or identification data items of the plurality of broadcast stations;

receiving the user ID and a password;

extracting the area of operation of the broadcast terminal apparatus in response to the receiving;

retrieving, based on the area of operation of the broadcast terminal apparatus and the area in which the broadcast signals can be received, the names or the identification data items of the plurality of broadcast stations; and

transmitting at least one of the names or at least one of the identification data items to the broadcast terminal apparatus.

10. An information-processing apparatus to be connected via a network to a broadcast terminal apparatus, the information-processing apparatus comprising:

a user-set information storing unit configured to store set information including information identifying one or more areas of operation of the broadcast terminal apparatus and a user ID;

a broadcast-station information storing unit configured to store broadcast-station information in association with an area in which broadcast signals output by a plurality of broadcast stations can be received, said broadcast-station information including names or identification data items of the plurality of broadcast stations;

a detecting unit configured to extract the one or more areas of operation of the broadcast terminal apparatus in response to a reception of the user ID and a password, and to retrieve the names or the identification data items of the plurality of broadcast stations, based on the one of the one or more areas of operation of the broadcast terminal apparatus and the area in which the broadcast signals can be received; and

a transmitting/receiving unit configured to receive the reception of the user ID and the password, and to transmit a transmission of at least one of the names or at least one of the identification data items of the plurality of broadcast stations to the broadcast terminal apparatus.