INFORMATION PROCESSING APPARATUS, IN-VEHICLE APPARATUS, INFORMATION SYSTEM, AND INFORMATION PROCESSING APPARATUS CONTROL PROGRAM

• US 20070167227A1
• Filed: 11/16/2006
• Published: 07/19/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 11/24/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Alpine Electronics Incorporated (Alps Alpine Co., Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Alpine Electronics Incorporated (Alps Alpine Co., Ltd.)
• Inventors: Watanabe, Hisayuki
• Granted Patent: US 7,730,158 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 463/29
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1095 Replication or mirroring of data, e.g. scheduling or transport for data synchronisation between network nodes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/12 specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 40/18 Network protocols supporting networked applications, e.g. including control of end-device applications over a network

Abstract

In an information system including an information processing apparatus and an in-vehicle apparatus, a synchronization process is performed in a highly efficient manner, which allows an improvement in usability in playing back playable data on the in-vehicle apparatus. The information processing apparatus acquires a list of playable data already existing in the in-vehicle apparatus and produces synchronization data by extracting, as the synchronization data, playable data from the playable data existing in the information processing apparatus in accordance with the acquired list such that the extracted playable data does not include any part of the playable data already existing in the in-vehicle apparatus.

Claims

1. An information processing apparatus capable of producing synchronization data to be used in a synchronization process by which data existing in an in-vehicle apparatus and playable by the in-vehicle apparatus is to be synchronized in terms of content with playable data existing in the information processing apparatus, and supplying the produced synchronization data to the in-vehicle apparatus,

wherein the synchronization data is produced by acquiring a list of playable data existing in the in-vehicle apparatus from the in-vehicle apparatus, and extracting playable data as the synchronization data from the playable data existing in the information processing apparatus according to the acquired list such that the extracted playable data does not include any part of the playable data already existing in the in-vehicle apparatus.

2. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the information processing apparatus acquires the list from the in-vehicle apparatus via wireless or wired communication.

3. An information processing apparatus capable of producing synchronization data to be used in a synchronization process by which data existing in an in-vehicle apparatus and playable by the in-vehicle apparatus is to be synchronized in terms of content with playable data existing in the information processing apparatus, and supplying the produced synchronization data to the in-vehicle apparatus,

wherein the synchronization data is produced such that when playable data selected by a user from the playable data existing in the information processing apparatus is supplied to a device capable of supplying this playable data to the in-vehicle apparatus, the synchronization data is produced by extracting playable data as the synchronization data from the playable data existing in the information processing apparatus such that the extracted playable data does not include any part of the playable data supplied to the device.

4. The information processing apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the device is a portable audio player.

5. The information processing apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the playable data is music data.

6. The information processing apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the information processing apparatus performs the synchronization process via wireless or wired communication.

7. An in-vehicle apparatus capable of performing a synchronization process in conjunction with an information processing apparatus so that data existing in the in-vehicle apparatus and playable by the in-vehicle apparatus is synchronized in terms of content with playable data existing in the information processing apparatus,

wherein the in-vehicle apparatus provides a list of playable data existing in the in-vehicle apparatus to the information processing apparatus, and the information processing apparatus produces the synchronization data, using the list, to be used in the synchronization process.

8. The in-vehicle apparatus according to claim 7, wherein the in-vehicle apparatus provides the list to the information processing apparatus via wireless or wired communication.

9. The in-vehicle apparatus according to claim 7, wherein the playable data is music data.

10. The in-vehicle apparatus according to claim 7, wherein the in-vehicle apparatus performs the synchronization process via wireless or wired communication.

11. An information system including an information processing apparatus and an in-vehicle apparatus, the information system being capable of performing a synchronization process including producing, by the information processing apparatus, synchronization data to be used in the synchronization process by which data existing in the in-vehicle apparatus and playable by the in-vehicle apparatus is to be synchronized in terms of content with playable data existing in the information processing apparatus, and supplying the produced synchronization data to the in-vehicle apparatus, the synchronization data being produced by performing a process including:

providing a list of playable data existing in the in-vehicle apparatus from the in-vehicle apparatus to the information processing apparatus;

analyzing, in the information processing apparatus, the list provided by the in-vehicle apparatus; and

extracting playable data as the synchronization data from the playable data existing in the information processing apparatus such that the extracted playable data does not include any part of the playable data existing in the in-vehicle apparatus.

12. The information system according to claim 11, wherein the list is provided from the in-vehicle apparatus to the information processing apparatus via wireless or wired communication.

13. An information system including an information processing apparatus and an in-vehicle apparatus, the information system being capable of performing a synchronization process including producing, by the information processing apparatus, synchronization data to be used in the synchronization process by which data existing in the in-vehicle apparatus and playable by the in-vehicle apparatus is to be synchronized in terms of content with playable data existing in the information processing apparatus, and supplying the produced synchronization data to the in-vehicle apparatus,

wherein when playable data selected by a user from playable data existing in the infoation processing apparatus is supplied from the information processing apparatus to a device capable of supplying this playable data to the in-vehicle apparatus, the information processing apparatus produces the synchronization data by extracting playable data as the synchronization data from the playable data existing in the information processing apparatus such that the extracted playable data does not include any part of the playable data already supplied to the device.

14. The information system according to claim 13, wherein the device is a portable audio player.

15. The information system according to claim 13, wherein the playable data is music data.

16. The information system according to claim 13, wherein the synchronization process is performed via wireless or wired communication.

17. An information processing apparatus control program executable by an information processing apparatus to produce synchronization data to be used in a synchronization process by which data existing in an in-vehicle apparatus and playable by the in-vehicle apparatus is to be synchronized in terms of content with playable data existing in the information processing apparatus, and supplying the produced synchronization data to the in-vehicle apparatus, the process of producing the synchronization data including:

acquiring a list of playable data existing in the in-vehicle apparatus from the in-vehicle apparatus, and producing the synchronization data by extracting playable data as the synchronization data from the playable data existing in the information processing apparatus according to the acquired list such that the extracted playable data does not include any part of the playable data already existing in the in-vehicle apparatus.