Data recording/reproducing device, data recording/reproducing program and data reproducing device that protect private data from reproduction by unauthorized persons

• US 8,654,211 B2
• Filed: 12/14/2011
• Issued: 02/18/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 07/20/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nikon Corporation
• Original Assignee: Nikon Corporation
• Inventors: Takahashi, Isao
• Primary Examiner(s): VU, NGOC YEN T
• Application Number:
  US13/325,534
• Publication Number:
  US 20120081575A1
• Time in Patent Office: 797 Days
• Field of Search: 348/231.2
• US Class Current: 348/231.2
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/034 on discs G11B27/036, G11B27/038 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/105 of operating discs
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/322 used signal is digitally coded
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/42202 environmental sensors, e.g. for detecting temperature, luminosity, pressure, earthquakes
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4325 by playing back content from the storage medium reproduction of recorded television signals H04N5/76; reproduction of recorded television signals H04N9/79
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4524 involving the geographical location of the client retrieval from the Internet by querying based on geographical locations G06F16/9537; systems specially adapted for using geographical information in broadcast systems H04H60/70; protocols in which the network application is adapted for the location of the user terminal in communication control or processing H04L67/52; services making use of the location of users or terminals in wireless networks H04W4/02; locating users or terminals in wireless networks H04W64/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8153 comprising still images, e.g. texture, background image
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/84 Generation or processing of descriptive data, e.g. content descriptors systems specially adapted for using meta-information in broadcast systems H04H60/73
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/772 the recording apparatus and the television camera being placed in the same enclosure
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/775 between a recording apparatus and a television receiver
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/907 using static stores, e.g. storage tubes or semiconductor memories H04N5/91 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/913 for scrambling ; for copy protection
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 9/8047 using transform coding
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 9/8205 involving the multiplexing of an additional signal and the colour video signal

Abstract

A data recording/reproducing device includes: a position detection unit that detects information (hereafter referred to as position information) indicating a position at which data are acquired and reproduced; a determining unit that determines which specific set of geographical information, among a plurality of sets of geographical information defined in advance, the position information detected by the position detection unit at the time of data acquisition and data reproduction corresponds to; a recording control unit that records the acquired data into a recording medium based upon determining results provided by the determining unit; a selection unit that selects reproduction-permitted data from the recording medium based upon the geographical information determined by the determining unit at the time of data reproduction; and a reproducing unit that outputs and reproduces at least one set of data among the reproduction-permitted data having been selected.

Claims

1. A data recording/reproducing device, comprising:

a position detection unit that detects position information indicating a first position at which data are acquired, and detects position information indicating a second position at which data are reproduced;

a determining unit that determines which specific set of geographical information, among a plurality of sets of geographical information defined in advance, the position information indicating the first position detected by the position detection unit corresponds to, and that determines which specific set of geographical information defined in advance, the position information indicating the second position detected by the position detection unit corresponds to;

a recording control unit that records the acquired data into a recording medium based upon the specific set of geographical information regarding to the position information indicating the first position determined by the determining unit;

a selection unit that selects reproduction-permitted data from the recording medium based upon the specific set of geographical information regarding to the position information indicating the second position determined by the determining unit; and

a reproducing unit that outputs and reproduces at least one set of data among the reproduction-permitted data having been selected, wherein;

the geographical information is constituted with information related to spatial areas (hereafter referred to as spatial area information) each indicating a specific range containing at least one of the first position and the second position; and

the spatial area information includes a plurality of sets of information corresponding to at least a first spatial area and a second spatial area, access by unspecified third parties being prohibited in the first spatial area and access by unspecified third parties being not prohibited in the second spatial area.

4. A data recording/reproducing device according to claim 1, wherein:

the recording control unit classifies the acquired data and records the acquired data into folders created in advance in the recording medium, each folder being in correspondence to a specific set of geographical information; and

the selection unit selects data in a folder corresponding to the geographical information regarding to the position information indicating the second position as the reproduction-permitted data.

5. A data recording/reproducing device according to claim 4, further comprising:

a folder creation unit that creates in advance folders each in correspondence to a specific set of geographical information correlated to the position information.

6. A data recording/reproducing device according to claim 1, wherein:

the first spatial area is a private area and the second spatial area is a public area.

7. A data recording/reproducing device according to claim 1, wherein:

when the spatial area information regarding to the first position corresponds to both the first spatial area and the second spatial area, the determining unit designates the spatial area information as information corresponding to the first spatial area.

8. A data recording/reproducing device according to claim 1, further comprising:

a recognition unit that recognizes characteristics of the data, wherein;

the determining unit determines spatial area information corresponding to the acquired data by taking into consideration recognition results provided by the recognition unit.

9. A data recording/reproducing device according to claim 1, wherein:

if the spatial area information regarding to the second position corresponds to the first spatial area, the selection unit selects data designated with the spatial area information corresponding to both the first spatial area and the second spatial area regarding to the first position as the reproduction-permitted data, and if the spatial area information regarding to the second position corresponds to the second spatial area, the selection unit selects only data designated with the spatial area information corresponding to the second spatial area regarding to the first position as the reproduction-permitted data.

10. A data recording/reproducing device according to claim 9, wherein:

if the spatial area information regarding to the second position corresponds to both the first spatial area and the second spatial area, the spatial area information corresponding to the first spatial area is designated as the spatial area information for data reproduction.

11. A data recording/reproducing device according to claim 1, wherein:

the position detection unit pinpoints a position assumed by the data recording/reproducing device on a map by converting position information output from a GPS to coordinate values on the map.

12. A data recording/reproducing device according to claim 1, wherein:

the data include at least one of;

still image data, video data and audio data.

2. A data recording/reproducing device according to claim l, wherein:

the recording control unit records the geographical information regarding to the position information indicating the first position into the recording medium together with the acquired data; and

the selection unit searches the recording medium for data assigned with geographical information matching the geographical information regarding to the position information indicating the second position determined by the determining unit at the time of data reproduction and selects the searched data as the reproduction-permitted data.

3. A data recording/reproducing device according to claim 2, further comprising:

a table creation unit that creates in advance a table containing the geographical information and the position information correlated with each other, wherein;

the determining unit determines the geographical information by referencing the table based upon the detected position information indicating the first position, and determines the geographical information by the table based upon the detected position information indicating the second position.

13. A data recording/reproducing device comprising:

a position detection unit that detects position information indicating a first position at which data are acquired, and detects position information indicating a second position at which data are reproduced;

a determining unit that determines which specific set of geographical information, among a plurality of sets of geographical information defined in advance, the position information indicating the first position detected by the position detection unit corresponds to, and that determines which specific set of geographical information defined in advance, the position information indicating the second position detected by the position detection unit corresponds to;

a recording control unit that records the acquired data into a recording medium based upon the specific set of geographical information regarding to the position information indicating the first position determined by the determining unit;

a selection unit that selects reproduction-permitted data from the recording medium based upon the specific set of geographical information regarding to the position information indicating the second position determined by the determining unit; and

a reproducing unit that outputs and reproduces at least one set of data among the reproduction-permitted data having been selected, wherein;

the geographical information is constituted with information related to spatial areas (hereafter referred to as spatial area information) each indicating a specific range containing at least one of the first position and the second position; and

the spatial areas are each made up with an area taking up a specific range on the map, as defined by a central position indicating a specific point on the map and a specific radius centered on the central position.

14. A data recording/reproducing program recorded in a non-transitory computer readable medium enabling a computer to execute:

a position detection procedure through which position information indicating a first position at which data are acquired, is detected, and through which position information indicating a second position at which data are reproduced is detected;

a determining procedure through which the position information indicating the first position detected through the position detection procedure is determined to correspond to one of a plurality of sets of geographical information defined in advance, and through which the position information indicating the second position detected through the position detection procedure is determined to correspond to one of the plurality of sets of geographical information;

a recording control procedure through which the acquired data are recorded into a recording medium based upon the geographical information regarding to the position information indicating the first position;

a selection procedure through which reproduction-permitted data are selected from the recording medium based upon the geographical information regarding to the position information indicating the second position; and

a reproduction procedure through which at least one set of reproduction-permitted data among the selected reproduction-permitted data is output and reproduced, wherein;

the geographical information is constituted with information related to spatial areas (hereafter referred to as spatial area information) each indicating a specific range containing at least one of the first position and the second position; and

the spatial area information includes a plurality of sets of information corresponding to at least a first spatial area and a second spatial area, access by unspecified third parties being prohibited in the first spatial area and access by unspecified third parties being not prohibited in the second spatial area.

15. A data reproducing device that reads data files each assigned with a specific set of geographical information among a plurality of sets of geographical information defined in advance and reproduces data contained in the files, comprising:

a position detection unit that detects position information indicating a position at which the data files having been read are reproduced;

a determining unit that determines which specific set of geographical information, among the plurality of sets of geographical information defined in advance, the position information detected by the position detection unit at a time of data reproduction corresponds to;

a selection unit that selects reproduction-permitted data from the recording medium based upon the geographical information determined by the determining unit at the time of data reproduction; and

a reproduction unit that outputs and reproduces at least one set of reproduction-permitted data among the selected reproduction-permitted data, wherein;

the geographical information is constituted with information related to spatial areas (hereafter referred to as spatial area information) each indicating a specific range containing at least one of the first position and the second position; and

the spatial area information includes a plurality of sets of information corresponding to at least a first spatial area and a second spatial area, access by unspecified third parties being prohibited in the first spatial area and access by unspecified third parties being not prohibited in the second spatial area.

16. A data reproducing device according to claim 15, wherein:

the data files each contain data constituted with the geographical information together with the data to be reproduced; and

the selection unit searches through the data files having been read based upon the geographical information determined at the time of data reproduction and selects data assigned with geographical information matching the geographical information at a time of data acquisition as the reproduction-permitted data.

17. A data reproducing device according to claim 15, wherein:

the data files each contain data classified and recorded into a specific folder among folders each corresponding to a set of geographical information; and

the selection unit selects data contained in a folder corresponding to the geographical information determined at the time of data reproduction as the reproduction-permitted data.

18. A data reproducing method adopted when reading data files each assigned with a specific set of geographical information among a plurality of sets of geographical information defined in advance and reproducing data in the files, comprising:

detecting position information indicating a position at which the data files are to be read and reproduced;

determining a specific set of geographical information among the plurality of sets of geographical information defined in advance, to which the detected position information at a time of data reproduction, corresponds; and

selecting reproduction-permitted data from the recording medium based upon the determined geographical information at the time of data reproduction and reproducing the selected reproduction-permitted data, wherein;

the geographical information is constituted with information related to spatial areas (hereafter referred to as spatial area information) each indicating a specific range containing at least one of the first position and the second position; and

the spatial area information includes a plurality of sets of information corresponding to at least a first spatial area and a second spatial area, access by unspecified third parties being prohibited in the first spatial area and access by unspecified third parties being not prohibited in the second spatial area.

19. A data recording/reproducing device that records data into a recording medium and reproduces the data from the recording medium, comprising:

a position detection unit that detects position information indicating a first position at which data are acquired, and detects position information indicating a second position at which data are reproduced;

a determining unit that determines a first privacy protection level based upon which specific set of geographical information, among a plurality of sets of geographical information defined in advance, the position information indicating the first position detected by the position detection unit corresponds to, and that determines a second privacy protection level based upon which specific set of geographical information defined in advance, the position information indicating the second position detected by the position detection unit corresponds to;

a comparison unit that compares the first privacy protection level and the second privacy protection level;

a selection unit that selects data from the recording medium which have the first privacy protection level equal to or lower than the second privacy protection level, as reproduction-permitted data, based upon a result of the comparison unit; and

a reproducing unit that outputs and reproduces at least one set of data among the reproduction-permitted data having been selected by the selection unit.