Transmitter and receiver

• US 20020137468A1
• Filed: 10/09/2001
• Published: 09/26/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 12/14/1999
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Matsushita Electric Industrial Company Limited (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Matsushita Electric Industrial Company Limited (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Endo, Yasuo, Nishi, Hiroyuki
• Granted Patent: US 7,039,396 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/73
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 20/40 Arrangements for broadcast specially adapted for accumulation-type receivers
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 2201/80 characterised in that motion picture association of America [MPAA] ratings are used
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/40 for identifying broadcast time
• CPC Class Codes: H04H 60/73 using meta-information
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/235 Processing of additional data, e.g. scrambling of additional data or processing content descriptors
• 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 21/4334 Recording operations recording of a television signal H04N5/76; arrangements for recording or accumulating broadcast information or broadcast-related information H04H60/27
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/435 Processing of additional data, e.g. decrypting of additional data, reconstructing software from modules extracted from the transport stream
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4532 involving end-user characteristics, e.g. viewer profile, preferences monitoring of user activities for profile generation for accessing a video database G06F16/739; user profiles in network data switching protocols H04L67/306; processing of user preferences or user profiles in wireless networks H04W8/18
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/454 Content or additional data filtering, e.g. blocking advertisements
• 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 5/44 Receiver circuitry for the reception of television signals according to analogue transmission standards H04N5/14 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/63 Generation or supply of power specially adapted for television receivers
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/08 Systems for the simultaneous or sequential transmission of more than one television signal, e.g. additional information signals, the signals occupying wholly or partially the same frequency band , e.g. by time division H04N7/007 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/163 by receiver means only

Abstract

The present invention provides a transmitter and a receiver capable of transmitting and receiving attribute information of a program while maintaining a high level of secrecy.

Specifically, a transmitter (100) in a transmission and reception system comprising the transmitter (100) for transmitting program contents (21) and attribution information (22) of the program and a receiver (200) f or receiving the program contents (21) and accumulating part or whole of the program contents (21) transmits meaning information (24) indicating the meaning and contents of the attribute information (22) in addition to the attribute information (22).

Claims

1. A transmitter in a transmission and reception system comprising a transmitter for transmitting a program and attribute information of the program and a receiver for receiving said program and accumulating part or whole of said program, said transmitter transmitting at least meaning information indicating the meaning and contents of said attribute information or a program for executing a function of accumulating part or whole of said program in addition to said program and said attribute information simultaneously or at different timing.

2. A transmitter according to claim 1 which further transmits the time of distribution of said program.

3. A receiver having a receiving section for receiving a program, attribute information, and meaning information, a user attribute storing section for storing user attributes that are the attributes of a viewer, and an accumulation control section for storing part or whole of said program according to said attribute information that is interpreted based on said meaning information and said user attributes.

4. A receiver according to claim 3 further having a separating section for separating said program, said attribute information, and said meaning information received by said receiving section.

5. A receiver according to claim 3, characterized in that it further has an accumulation control function receiving section for receiving a program for executing a function of accumulating part or whole of said program and in that said accumulation control section operates based on said program received by said accumulation control function receiving section.

6. A receiver according to claim 5, wherein the means of said accumulation control function receiving section for receiving said program is means for receiving a broadcast, the receiver further having a determining section for determining whether said accumulation control function receiving section has failed to receive said program from said broadcast or not and an accumulation control function acquiring section for acquiring said program through a network when said determining section determines that the reception has failed.

7. A receiver according to claim 5 or claim 6, further having a distribution time receiving section for receiving the time of distribution of said program, wherein said accumulation control function receiving section performs the receiving operation at a point in time associated with said distribution time.

8. A method of transmission in a transmission and reception system comprising a transmitter for transmitting a program and attribute information of the program and a receiver for receiving said program and accumulating part or whole of said program, said method including at least a step of transmitting said program, a step of transmitting said attribute information, and a step of transmitting meaning information indicating the meaning and contents of said attribute information or a program for executing a function of accumulating part or whole of said program simultaneously or at different timing.

9. A method of transmission according to claim 8 further including a step of transmitting the time of distribution of said program.

10. A method of reception including a step of receiving a program, attribute information, and meaning information, a step of acquiring user attributes that are the attributes of a viewer from a user attribute storing section for storing the same, and a step of storing part or whole of said program according to said attribute information that is interpreted based on said meaning information and said user attributes.

11. A method of reception according to claim 10 further including a step of separating said program, said attribute information, and said meaning information received by said receiving section.

12. A method of reception according to claim 10, characterized in that it further includes a step of receiving a program for executing a function of accumulating part or whole of said program and a step of executing the function of accumulating part or whole of said program based on said received program.

13. A method of reception according to claim 12, wherein the step of receiving said program further includes a step of receiving a broadcast, said method further including a step of determining whether the reception of said program from said broadcast has failed or not and a step of acquiring said program through a network when it is determined that the reception of said program has failed.

14. A method of reception according to claim 12 or claim 13, further including a step of receiving the time of distribution of said program and a step of performing the operation of receiving said program at a point in time associated with said distribution time.