Information processing device

• US 9,055,128 B2
• Filed: 12/11/2012
• Issued: 06/09/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 06/14/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sony Interactive Entertainment Inc. (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Computer Entertainment Incorporated (Sony Group Corp.), Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Iwaya, Akiko, Higuchi, Masaki, Tanaka, Shinichi, Asakura, You
• Primary Examiner(s): Dao, Thuy
• Assistant Examiner(s): Smith, Cheneca
• Application Number:
  US13/711,126
• Publication Number:
  US 20130104121A1
• Time in Patent Office: 910 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3055 Monitoring arrangements for monitoring the status of the computing system or of the computing system component, e.g. monitoring if the computing system is on, off, available, not available error or fault processing without redundancy G06F11/0703; error detection or correction by redundancy in data representation G06F11/08; error detection or correction by redundancy in operation G06F11/14; error detection or correction by redundancy in hardware G06F11/16
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/61 Installation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/62 Uninstallation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/65 Updates security arrangements therefor G06F21/57
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/60 Network streaming of media packets

Abstract

An information processing device is configured to start a download module at a predefined date and time. A transmitter unit is configured to transmit authentication information to an authentication server. A determination unit is configured to determine a file to be downloaded after an authentication process by the authentication server. A download execution unit is configured to download the determined file from a file provider server.

Claims

1. An information processing device configured to start a download module at a predefined date and time, comprising:

one or more microprocessors and at least one computer memory, where the one or more microprocessors are operating under control of a computer software program stored in the at least one computer memory;

a transmitter unit configured to transmit authentication information to an authentication server;

a determination unit configured to determine one or more files to be downloaded after an authentication process by the authentication server, the authentication process being based on the transmitted authentication information,

a download execution unit configured to download one or more files from a file provider server,

wherein the determination unit comprises;

an acquisition unit configured to acquire version information of latest available system software and latest required system software from the file provider server,

a comparison unit configured to compare the acquired version information with version information of system software already downloaded and/or installed on the information processing device, wherein, if the comparison unit determines that the acquired version information contains information about available or required system software that is a newer version than the version information of system software already downloaded and/or installed, the download execution unit downloads the latest available or required system software from the file provider server even when said authentication process fails,

wherein the determination unit further comprises;

a list generation unit configured to generate a list of application related files requested to be downloaded, wherein the list generation unit generates the list after said authentication process completes successfully, and after the comparison unit determines that the latest required system software is installed;

wherein the download execution unit downloads an application related file included in the list, unless the comparison unit determines that the latest required system software is not installed.

2. The information processing device according to claim 1, further comprising:

an install processing unit configured to install a downloaded application related file; and

a display processing unit configured to display an image identifying said installed downloaded application related file,

wherein the display processing unit displays, in a mode different from a standard display mode, said image identifying said application related file installed as a result of the download module being executed.

3. The information processing device according to claim 2, wherein the install processing unit installs downloaded files after the download execution unit has downloaded all of the application related files included in the list.

4. The information processing device according to claim 2 further comprising an arbitration control unit configured to determine whether another module is already being executed and halt the installation of the downloaded application related file by the install processing unit.

5. The information processing device according to claim 2 wherein the display processing unit discontinues displaying, in a mode different from a standard display mode, said image identifying said application related file installed as a result of the download module being executed, after said application related file has been activated one or more times.

6. The information processing device according to claim 1, further comprising:

a processing history storage unit configured to maintain past processing information of installed application related files, wherein said processing information comprises;

a flag value indicating whether installed application related files were downloaded by automatic download processing,

the date and time application related files were installed, and

the number of times the application related files have been executed; and

an uninstall processing unit configured to uninstall an installed application related file by referring to the past processing information to determine an installed application related file which was downloaded by automatic download processing, for which a predetermined amount of time has elapsed since the installation date and time, and which has been executed less than or equal to a predetermined number of times.

7. The information processing device according to claim 6, wherein the uninstall processing unit performs an uninstall process before the execution of a download process by the download execution unit.

8. The information processing device according to claim 1, further comprising:

an authentication information registration unit configured to register authentication information for automatic sign-in to the authentication server,

wherein the transmitter unit transmits the authentication information registered in the authentication information registration unit to the authentication server when the information processing device is started,

wherein the information processing device further comprises a communicating unit configured to notify a user if the authentication information is not registered in the authentication information registration unit, or if automatic sign-in is not set up.

9. The information processing device according to claim 1, further comprising:

a started module list which maintains a list of one or more modules to start and a date and time to start,

a system controller which monitors a power supply of the information processing device, refers to the started module list, and turns on the power supply of the information processing device when the started module list indicates that a module should be run at the current date and time, and

a start control unit configured to start the download module at a predefined date and time,

wherein the download module executes a download process if the power supply of the information processing device is in an off state before the download module has started.

10. The information processing device according to claim 9, wherein the download process is not executed if the power supply of the information processing device is in an on state before the download module has started.

11. The information processing device according to claim 1, wherein the list generation unit generates a list of application related files requested to be downloaded, said list comprising:

patch software, and

content files;

wherein patch software to be included in the list is determined by;

an activation history of the most recently activated applications, said activation history comprising the latest starting date and time for one or more previously activated applications, and downloaded patch version information for said one or more previously activated applications, and

patch software available from the file provider server, said patch software having a more recent version than the patch version information in said activation history; and

wherein content files are determined by a content list provided by the file provider server and said content list is filtered by a filtering unit, wherein said filtering unit excludes any content files which were downloaded, installed, or executed in the past.

12. The information processing device according to claim 11, wherein patch software can be a difference patch or a cumulative patch and the list generation unit:

adds a later version of a difference patch to the list in which an earlier version of the same difference patch was previously added,

adds a later version of a cumulative patch to the list in which an earlier version of the same cumulative patch was previously added, and removes said earlier version of the same cumulative patch from the list.

13. The information processing device according to claim 1, wherein said download execution unit stops downloading upon completion of a current download process after the expiration of a predetermined time limit;

and

the list generation unit leaves application related files for which downloading and/or installing has not completed in the list; and

a setting unit sets a subsequent date and time for said information processing device to download and/or install one or more application related files remaining in the list.

14. A non-transitory computer readable recording medium containing a computer program, the computer program comprising:

a transmitter module configured to transmit authentication information, stored in a memory, to an authentication server;

a determination module configured to determine one or more application related files to be downloaded after an authentication process by the authentication server, the authentication process being based on the transmitted authentication information,

a download module configured to download the determined application related file from a file provider server,

wherein the determination module comprises;

an acquisition module configured to acquire version information of latest available system software and latest required system software from the file provider server,

a comparison module configured to compare the acquired version information with version information of system software already downloaded and/or installed, wherein if the comparison module determines that the acquired version information contains information about available or required system software that is newer than the version information of system software already installed, the download execution module downloads the latest available or required system software from the file provider server even when said authentication process fails,

a list generation module configured to generate a list of application related files requested to be downloaded, wherein the list generation module generates the list unless the comparison module determines that the latest required system software is not installed;

wherein the download execution module downloads an application related file included in the list unless the comparison module determines that the latest required system software is not installed.