INFORMATION PROCESSING APPARATUS AND METHOD AND INFORMATION PROCESSING SYSTEM

• US 20090043783A1
• Filed: 07/31/2008
• Published: 02/12/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 08/08/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Nakayama, Hiroshi, Wakasa, Shigeki, Soma, Isao, Ishikawa, Yasuharu
• Granted Patent: US 8,095,555 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/40 of multimedia data, e.g. slideshows comprising image and additional audio data retrieval of still image data G06F16/50; retrieval of audio data G06F16/60; retrieval of video data G06F16/70
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/68 Retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manually
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/683 using metadata automatically derived from the content
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/686 using information manually generated, e.g. tags, keywords, comments, title or artist information, time, location or usage information, user ratings

Abstract

Disclosed herein is an information processing apparatus as a terminal apparatus with respect to a server which provides content data, including: a management data acquisition section; a display control section; a selection operation acceptance section; a requesting section; and a content data acquisition section.

Claims

1. An information processing apparatus as a terminal apparatus with respect to a server which provides content data, comprising:

management data acquisition means for controlling a first communication section, which carries out proximity radio communication by which said information processing apparatus transmits and receives information to and from a different terminal apparatus positioned in the proximity of said information processing apparatus, to acquire management data to be utilized for management of the content data from the different terminal apparatus by the proximity radio communication, the management data including at least identification information of the content data;

display control means for controlling a display section to display the management data acquired by said management data acquisition means as image information;

selection operation acceptance means for accepting a selection operation for selecting the content data by selecting the management data displayed on the display section under the control of said display control means;

requesting means for controlling a second communication section, which communicates with the server through a public telephone network, to issue a request for the content data selected by the selection operation accepted by said selection operation acceptance means to the server; and

content data acquisition means for controlling the second communication section to acquire the content data supplied in response to the request by said requesting means.

2. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the management data include information indicative of a connection destination of the server which provides the content data, and said requesting means accesses the connection destination based on the management data to issue the request for the content data.

3. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

storage means for storing the management data in advance; and

management data supplying means for reading out the management data stored in said storage means and controlling the first communication section to supply the read out management data by the proximity radio communication to the different terminal apparatus positioned in the proximity of said information processing apparatus.

4. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the content data are music data which are sound data of a musical composition, and the management data include musical composition information which is information relating to the musical composition.

5. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

notification means for issuing a notification that content data corresponding to the management data acquired by said management data acquisition means are acquired from the server by said content data acquisition means to the different terminal apparatus which is a providing source of the management data.

6. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the management data include information of the different terminal apparatus which is a providing source of the management data, and said requesting means issues the request for the content data and provides information of the different terminal apparatus which is a providing source of the management data to the server.

7. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

a third communication section configured to carry out proximity radio communication by a communication method different from that of the proximity radio communication;

requesting means for controlling said third communication section to issue a request for content data selected by the selection operation accepted by said selection operation acceptance means to the different apparatus;

content data acquisition means for controlling said third communication section to acquire the content data supplied in response to the request by said requesting means; and

decision means for deciding whether or not the different apparatus exists in a communication range of the proximity radio communication by said third communication section;

said requesting means issuing, when it is decided by said decision means that the different apparatus does not exists in the communication range and the selection operation of content data is accepted by said selection operation acceptance means, a request for the selected content data to the server.

8. An information processing method for an information processing apparatus as a terminal apparatus with respect to a server which provides content data, comprising the steps of:

controlling a first communication section, which carries out proximity radio communication by which the information processing apparatus transmits and receives information to and from a different terminal apparatus positioned in the proximity of the information processing apparatus, to acquire management data to be utilized for management of the content data from the different terminal apparatus by the proximity radio communication, the management data including at least identification information of the content data;

controlling a display section to display the acquired management data as image information;

accepting a selection operation for selecting the content data by selecting the management data displayed on the display section;

controlling a second communication section, which communicates with the server through a public telephone network, to issue a request for the content data selected by the selection operation to the server; and

controlling the second communication section to acquire the content data supplied in response to the request.

9. An information processing system, comprising:

a server; and

first and second terminal apparatus to which content data are provided from said server;

said first terminal apparatus including

management data acquisition means for controlling a first communication section, which carries out proximity radio communication by which said first information processing apparatus transmits and receives information to and from said second terminal apparatus which is a different terminal apparatus positioned in the proximity of said first terminal apparatus, to acquire management data to be utilized for management of the content data from the second terminal apparatus by the proximity radio communication, the management data including at least identification information of the content data,

display control means for controlling a display section to display the management data acquired by said management data acquisition means as image information,

selection operation acceptance means for accepting a selection operation for selecting the content data by selecting the management data displayed on said display section under the control of said display control means,

requesting means for controlling a second communication section, which communicates with the server through a public telephone network, to issue a request for the content data selected by the selection operation accepted by said selection operation acceptance means to the server, and

content data acquisition means for controlling the second communication section to acquire the content data supplied in response to the request by said requesting means;

said second terminal apparatus including

management data storage means for storing the management data, and

management data supplying means for reading out the management data stored in said management data storage means and controlling a third communication section, which carries out proximity radio communication by which said second terminal apparatus transmits and receives information to and from said first terminal apparatus which is positioned in the proximity of said second terminal apparatus, to supply the read out management data by the proximity radio communication to said first terminal apparatus positioned; and

said server including

content data storage means for storing the content data,

request acceptance means for controlling a fourth communication section, which communicates with said first terminal apparatus through the public telephone network, to accept a request for content data from said first terminal apparatus, and

content data supplying means for reading out the requested content data from said storage means based on the request accepted by said request acceptance means and controlling said fourth communication section to supply the read out content data to said first terminal apparatus which is a requesting source of the request.

10. An information processing apparatus as a terminal apparatus with respect to a server which provides content data, comprising:

a management data acquisition section configured to control a first communication section, which carries out proximity radio communication by which said information processing apparatus transmits and receives information to and from a different terminal apparatus positioned in the proximity of said information processing apparatus, to acquire management data to be utilized for management of the content data from the different terminal apparatus by the proximity radio communication, the management data including at least identification information of the content data;

a display control section configured to control a display section to display the management data acquired by said management data acquisition section as image information;

a selection operation acceptance section configured to accept a selection operation for selecting the content data by selecting the management data displayed on said display section under the control of said display control section;

a requesting section configured to control a second communication section, which communicates with the server through a public telephone network, to issue a request for the content data selected by the selection operation accepted by said selection operation acceptance section to the server; and

a content data acquisition section configured to control the second communication section to acquire the content data supplied in response to the request by said requesting section.