Content providing server, information processing device and method, and computer program

• US 8,135,844 B2
• Filed: 04/05/2004
• Issued: 03/13/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 04/08/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Kikkawa, Norifumi, Igarashi, Tatsuya, Mitsubori, Hiroyuki
• Primary Examiner(s): Chea, Philip
• Assistant Examiner(s): CHAO, MICHAEL W
• Application Number:
  US10/552,442
• Publication Number:
  US 20060212531A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,899 Days
• Field of Search: 709/227
• US Class Current: 709/227
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1101 Session protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/611 for multicast or broadcast systems for broadcast or conference H04L12/18; arrangements for broadcast or distribution combined with broadcast H04H20/00; arrangements for broadcast applications with a direct linkage to broadcast information or to broadcast space-time H04H60/00; selective distribution of broadcast services, e.g. multimedia broadcast multicast service [MBMS], H04W4/06
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/612 for unicast
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/613 for the control of the source by the destination control signals issued by the client directed to the server or network components specially adapted for selective content distribution H04N21/637
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/80 Responding to QoS
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8586 by using a URL processing chained hypermedia data for information retrieval G06F16/94; information retrieval from the Internet by using URLs G06F16/955; URL in broadcast information H04H20/93; Web-based protocols H04L67/02

Abstract

A device and method is provided to enable improved control of streaming live delivery and recording processing as to a client from a server of tuner-received content. This is configured such that a tuner control instance which executes streaming delivery of the tuner-received content under the control of the tuner, and a storage unit control instance which executes recording of the tuner-received content under the control of the content storage unit such as a hard disk, are independently set, and to each a channel list URL and video capsule URL are set as the content URL capable of specifying the processing control object, and requests can be received from the client individually by setting a control instance ID which is a control instance (AVT instance) identifier. By this configuration, independent processing according to the client request is enabled.

Claims

1. A content-providing server for executing content transmission to a client and content recording processing, the server comprising:

a tuner;

a data transmitter/receiver executing communication processing between the server and a client, wherein the communication processing includes communication of control information and content received by the tuner, the received content including a first content received by the tuner over a first channel and a second content received by the tuner over a second channel, the first channel being associated with a first Uniform Resource Locator (URL) and the first content being received by accessing the first URL, the second channel being associated with a second Uniform Resource Locator (URL) and the second content being received by accessing the second URL;

a memory device including;

a metadata storage storing attribute information corresponding to the received content, wherein the attribute information is stored as content information; and

a content storage storing the received content in an hierarchical content management directory, wherein the metadata storage unit includes information describing the hierarchical management directory;

a content manager processing the content information to be provided to the client; and

a content deliverer processing the received content, the content deliverer comprising;

a tuner control instance for arranging the first content and the second content as a unit of content by aggregating the first URL and the second URL to generate a combined URL that provides access to the unit of content, wherein a recording source content identifier is set corresponding to the unit of content, and the recording source content identifier is the combined URL; and

a storage control instance for storing the unit of content, wherein a recording target content identifier is set corresponding to the unit of content,

wherein the data transmitter/receiver uses the combined URL to provide access to the first content and the second content to the client by establishing a connection between the server and the client, and

wherein the combined URL is used to switch between the first content and the second content by maintaining the connection and without setting a new URL to switch from the first content that is received over the first channel to the second content that is received over the second channel.

2. The content-providing server according to claim 1, wherein the recording source content identifier is included in the storage control instance, and the storage control instance processes the first content and the second content based on the recording source content identifier.

3. The content-providing server according to claim 1, wherein the content manager processes the content information based on the content management directory, and wherein the tuner control instance and the storage control instance set the recording source content identifier and the recording target content identifier based on a request from the client.

4. The content-providing server according to claim 1, wherein the combined URL identifies a channel list including the first channel and the second channel, and wherein the first content and the second content is provided to the client based on a control request received from the client, the control request including the combined URL.

5. The content-providing server according to claim 1, wherein the recording source content identifier identifies a content storage object included in the content storage.

6. The content-providing server according to claim 1, wherein the content manager is configured to store setting information corresponding to the received content, the setting information including time information and recording quality information, and wherein the recording target content identifier is set based on the setting information.

7. The content-providing server according to claim 1, wherein the content manager is configured to set a content storage object URL as the metadata.

8. The content-providing server according to claim 1, wherein the first content is live content, and providing the first content includes live streaming of the first content to the client.

9. The content-providing server according to claim 1, wherein the recording target content identifier includes a content storage object URL.

10. The content-providing server according to claim 1, wherein the content information includes protocol information including a function ID to identify the tuner, the function ID being used to determine the tuner control instance and the storage control instance.

11. The content-providing server according to claim 1, wherein the content deliverer is configured to set a control instance that is configured to manage a connection between the server and the client based on a connection management table corresponding to an instance ID, the instance ID identifying the tuner control instance and the storage control instance.

12. The content-providing server according to claim 1, wherein the content deliverer receives a Simple Object Access (SOAP) protocol content request from the client.

13. An information processing device requesting content received by a tuner in a server, the information processing device comprising:

a memory device storing instructions; and

a processor executing the instructions for;

receiving, by the tuner, content over a plurality of channels, the received content including a first content received by the tuner over a first channel and a second content received by the tuner over a second channel, the first channel being associated with a first Uniform Resource Locator (URL) and the first content being received by accessing the first URL, the second channel being associated with a second Uniform Resource Locator (URL) and the second content being received by accessing the second URL;

storing the received content in a hierarchical content management directory;

storing metadata including attribute information associated with the received content, the metadata including information describing the hierarchical content management directory;

arranging the first content and the second content as a unit of content by aggregating the first URL and the second URL to generate a combined URL that provides access to the unit of content;

setting a recording source content identifier associated with the unit of content and used by a tuner control instance, wherein the tuner control instance is used to send the received content to a client, and the record source content identifier is the combined URL;

setting a recording target content identifier to be used by a storage control instance to control the storing of the received content;

receiving, from the client, a control request identifying the tuner control instance or the storage unit control instance; and

providing access to the first content and the second content to the client by using the combined URL over a connection established between the server and the client, wherein the combined URL is used to switch between the first content and the second content by maintaining the connection and without setting a new URL to switch from the first content that is received over the first channel to the second content that is received over the second channel.

14. The information processing device according to claim 13, wherein the processor sends a request to set the recording source content identifier, the recording source content identifier being used by a control instance of the tuner to execute content control.

15. The information processing device according to claim 13, wherein the processor sends a request to set a recording target content identifier.

16. An information processing method for executing processing of content received from a tuner in a server, the method comprising:

receiving, by the tuner, content over a plurality of channels, the received content including a first content received by the tuner over a first channel and a second content received by the tuner over a second channel, the first channel being associated with a first Uniform Resource Locator (URL) and the first content being received by accessing the first URL, the second channel being associated with a second Uniform Resource Locator (URL) and the second content being received by accessing the second URL;

storing the received content in a hierarchical content management directory;

storing metadata including attribute information associated with the received content, the metadata including information describing the hierarchical content management directory;

arranging the first content and the second content as a unit of content by aggregating the first URL and the second URL to generate a combined URL that provides access to the unit of content;

setting a recording source content identifier associated with the unit of content and used by a tuner control instance, wherein the tuner control instance is used to send the received content to a client, and the record source content identifier is the combined URL;

setting a recording target content identifier to be used by a storage unit control instance to control the storing of the received content;

receiving, from the client, a control request identifying the tuner control instance or the storage unit control instance; and

providing access to the first content and the second content to the client by using the combined URL over a connection established between the server and the client, wherein the combined URL is used to switch between the first content and the second content by maintaining the connection and without setting a new URL to switch from the first content that is received over the first channel to the second content that is received over the second channel.

17. The information processing method according to claim 16, further comprising:

setting the recording source content identifier used by a recording unit control instance.

18. The information processing method according to claim 16, further comprising:

storing the recording target content identifier as the metadata; and

processing the metadata based on a request from the client.

19. The information processing method according to claim 16, wherein the combined URL identifies the first channel and the second channel.

20. The information processing method according to claim 16, wherein the recording target content identifier identifies a content storage object included in a content storage region in the server.

21. The information processing method according to claim 16, further comprising:

processing setting information associated with the received content, the setting information including time information and recording quality information, wherein the recording target content identifier is set based on the setting information.

22. The information processing method according to claim 16, further comprising:

setting a content storage object URL as the metadata.

23. The information processing method according to claim 16, wherein the first content is live content and providing the first content includes live streaming of the first content to the client.

24. The information processing method according to claim 23, wherein the recording target content identifier includes a content storage object URL.

25. The information processing method according to claim 16, further comprising:

setting protocol information associated with the received content, the protocol information including a function ID to identify the tuner control instance and the storage unit control instance.

26. The information processing method according to claim 16, further comprising:

setting a control instance configured to manage a connection between the server and the client based on a management table corresponding to an instance ID, the instance ID identifying the tuner control instance and the storage unit control instance.

27. The information processing method according to claim 16, wherein the control request, received from the client, is based on a SOAP protocol.

28. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing a program that, when executed on a processor of a server, causes the processor to perform a method for executing processing of content received by a tuner in the server, the method comprising:

receiving, by the tuner, content over a plurality of channels, the received content including a first content received by the tuner over a first channel and a second content received by the tuner over a second channel, the first channel being associated with a first Uniform Resource Locator (URL) and the first content being received by accessing the first URL, the second channel being associated with a second Uniform Resource Locator (URL) and the second content being received by accessing the second URL;

storing the received content in a hierarchical content management directory;

storing metadata including attribute information corresponding to the received content, the metadata including information describing the hierarchical content management directory;

arranging the first content and the second content as a unit of content by aggregating the first URL and the second URL to generate a combined URL that provides access to the unit of content;

setting a recording source content identifier corresponding to the unit of content and being used by a tuner control instance, wherein the tuner control instance is used to send the received content to a client, and the record source content identifier is the combined URL;

setting a recording target content identifier used by a storage unit control instance to control the storing of the received content;

receiving, from the client, a control request identifying the tuner control instance or the storage unit control instance; and

providing access to the first content and the second content to the client by using the combined URL over a connection established between the server and the client, wherein the combined URL is used to switch between the first content and the second content by maintaining the connection and without setting a new URL to switch from the first content that is received over the first channel to the second content that is received over the second channel.