Patent ID: 7895294
Filing Date: 2011-02-22
Classification: G06F,H04L

Abstract:
1. A multimedia system including a plurality of unit terminals, comprising: a master unit terminal defined as one of said plurality of unit terminals in said multimedia system and functioning as an interface for performing communications with a server located outside said multimedia system and with each of said plurality of unit terminals; a slave unit terminal defined as a unit terminal other than said master unit terminal in said plurality of unit terminals and connected on a communication-enabled basis to said master unit terminal; a slave information acquiring unit acquiring, when said master unit terminal and said slave unit terminal are connected on the communication-enabled basis, property information on said slave unit terminal for said master unit terminal; an update program acquiring unit acquiring an update program for said slave unit terminal from said server via said master unit terminal on the basis of the property information acquired by said slave information acquiring unit; an updating unit updating a program in said slave unit terminal into the update program acquired by said update program acquiring unit; and an update checking unit causing, via said master unit terminal, said server to check based on the property information acquired by said slave information acquiring unit whether or not the program held by said slave unit terminal at which the property information is targeted is a program required to be updated, wherein said multimedia system updates the program held on said slave unit terminal by performing the communications with said server and with said master unit terminal, said update program acquiring unit acquires, when said update checking unit determines that the program is required to be updated, the update program for the slave unit terminal from said server via said master unit terminal, and said update checking unit (1) segments the update target program in said slave unit terminal into predetermined areas, (2) checks a necessity for updating the program by making a partial comparison about the update target program between said server and said slave unit terminal for each predetermined area via said master unit terminal, then narrows stepwise, when confirming the necessity for updating the program as a result of the comparison, a capacity of each predetermined area becoming a further comparison target down to a predetermined minimum capacity, and (3) checks the necessity for updating the program for each predetermined area of which the capacity has been narrowed down stepwise.