Abstract:
Disclosed herein is a receiving and display system including, a receiving apparatus, and a display terminal, wherein, the receiving apparatus receiving data from outside and the display terminal displaying information by receiving data from the receiving apparatus, wherein, upon receipt of an upgraded program from outside, the receiving apparatus checks to determine whether the upgraded program is destined for the receiving apparatus or for the display terminal, the receiving apparatus further writing the upgraded program to a storage device of the receiving apparatus if the upgraded program is found to be destined for the receiving apparatus, the receiving apparatus further transferring the upgraded program to the display terminal if the upgraded program is found to be destined for the display terminal, and wherein the display terminal writes the upgraded program transferred from the receiving apparatus to a storage device of the display terminal.

Description:
CROSS REFERENCES TO RELATED APPLICATIONS 
       [0001]    The present invention contains subject matter related to Japanese Patent Application JP 2006-001248 filed with the Japanese Patent Office on Jan. 6, 2006, the entire contents of which being incorporated herein by reference. 
       BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
       [0002]    1. Field of the Invention 
         [0003]    The present invention relates to a receiving and display system such as a wireless TV (television) system made up of a receiving apparatus and a display terminal, as well as to a receiving apparatus and a display terminal constituting that receiving and display system. 
         [0004]    2. Description of the Related Art 
         [0005]    TV broadcasts have gone digital, including CS (communication satellite), BS (broadcasting satellite) and terrestrial digital broadcasts. This trend has entailed implementation of a new scheme. Under this scheme, the broadcasting side broadcasts not only video and audio data but also programs, and the receiving side receives the broadcast programs and records the received programs to a storage device of a receiver for use by components of the receiving side. 
         [0006]    Illustratively, one patent document (Japanese Patent Laid-open NO. Hei 8-195952) discloses a scheme under which the broadcasting side transmits an upgraded program diverging from the basic program held in digital TV sets (decoders). The transmitted program is received by and stored into the receiver for upgrades. 
         [0007]    There also exists a type of receiving and display system which is made up of a base station (receiving apparatus) and a display terminal. The base station incorporates a TV tuner for receiving TV broadcasts. The display terminal establishes a wireless LAN (local area network) with the base station illustratively pursuant to the IEEE 802.11a standard, receives data from the base apparatus over the LAN, and displays video and other information on a display device. 
         [0008]    Another patent document (Japanese Patent Laid-open No. 2002-163112) discloses one such receiving and displays system constituted by a base station and a plurality of display terminals designed for upgrades. With this system, an upgraded program for the base station and one for the display terminals are placed onto a detachable storage medium such as a memory card. The upgrades-carrying medium is loaded into one of the display terminals. In turn, the medium-loaded display terminal replaces its existing program with the upgraded program, and forwards the upgraded program bound for the base station and that for the display terminal to the base station. Upon receipt of the forwarded programs, the base station replaces its current program with the upgraded program and sends the display terminal-destined upgraded program to the other display terminals. The other display terminals in turn replace their current programs with the terminal-bound upgraded program. 
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
       [0009]    When updating its component base station (receiving apparatus) and display terminals, the receiving and display system disclosed by the second patent document above needs to have the upgraded programs recorded on a storage medium and getting the medium loaded into one of its display terminals. From the medium-loaded display terminal, the upgraded programs are forwarded to the other system components for upgrades. With this system, each user needs to obtain the storage medium carrying the upgraded programs, apart from reception of TV broadcasts through the base station. The provider of programs needs to distribute the storage media containing the upgraded programs to the users involved. The procedure for upgrading is thus inconvenient and tiresome for both the users and the program provider. 
         [0010]    Hence the need for a receiving and display system made up of a base station and a display terminal of which the programs may be upgraded using broadcast programs, as described by the first patent document above. 
         [0011]    To implement such a broadcast-upgradeable system had to solve the following problem: the system as a whole would become inordinately complex and costly if the display terminal were to be supplemented with a TV tuner in addition to the one for the base station for receiving TV broadcasts. 
         [0012]    The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances and provides a receiving and display system made up of a receiving apparatus and a display terminal with no ability to directly receive data from outside of the system, the receiving apparatus being capable of receiving upgraded program sent from outside of the system so that existing programs in the receiving apparatus and in the display terminal may be replaced by the upgraded programs received. 
         [0013]    In carrying out the invention and according to one embodiment thereof, there is provided a receiving and display system including a receiving apparatus and a display terminal, the receiving apparatus receiving data from outside, the display terminal displaying information by receiving data from the receiving apparatus; wherein, upon receipt of an upgraded program from outside, the receiving apparatus checks to determine whether the upgraded program is destined for the receiving apparatus or for the display terminal, the receiving apparatus further writing the upgraded program to a storage device of the receiving apparatus if the upgraded program is found to be destined for the receiving apparatus, the receiving apparatus further transferring the upgraded program to the display terminal if the upgraded program is found to be destined for the display terminal; and wherein the display terminal writes the upgraded program transferred from the receiving apparatus to a storage device of the display terminal. 
         [0014]    In the above-outlined receiving and display system, the display terminal has no ability to directly receive data from outside the system. Still, the receiving apparatus upon receiving an upgraded program from outside replaces its existing program with the received program if the program is destined for the apparatus, and transfers the program to the display terminal if the program is destined for the terminal so that the terminal may replace its existing program with the upgraded program transferred. 
         [0015]    With the inventive receiving and display system implemented as outlined above, the component receiving apparatus and display terminal may replace their existing programs with the upgraded program sent from outside. In this setup, there is no need to furnish the display terminal with capabilities to directly receive data from outside the system. 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         [0016]      FIG. 1  is a block diagram outlining a receiving and display system including a receiving apparatus and a display terminal according to the present invention; 
           [0017]      FIGS. 2A and 2B  are schematic views explanatory of ROMs used by the receiving apparatus and display terminal; 
           [0018]      FIG. 3  is a flowchart of steps constituting a data broadcast reception process performed by the CPU of the receiving apparatus; and 
           [0019]      FIG. 4  is a flowchart of steps constituting a reception process performed by the CPU of the display terminal. 
       
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 
     1. System Configuration (FIG. 1) 
       [0020]      FIG. 1  shows a typical receiving and display system that embodies the present invention. This receiving and display system is structured as a wireless TV system made up of a receiving apparatus  10  and a display terminal  30  with a wireless LAN established therebetween. 
         [0021]    The broadcasting side, not shown, has a server that encodes an upgraded program illustratively as conditional access data forming part of the data broadcast in CS or BS digital broadcasts. The upgraded program thus encoded is broadcast in a plurality of packets including a decoder ID. The upgraded program is destined either for the receiving apparatus or for the display terminal. The program destination is determined by information added to a header part of the data making up the program. 
         [0022]    With this embodiment, the receiving apparatus  10  is structured as a digital TV receiver that receives CS and BS digital broadcasts. More specifically, the receiving apparatus  10  has a CPU  11  and a bus  12  connected to it. The bus  12  is connected to a ROM  13 , a RAM  14 , a front end  15 , a transport device  16 , and a wireless communication interface  17 . The front end  15  is connected to an antenna  22  equipped with a converter  21 . The wireless communication interface  17  is connected to another antenna  24 . An IC card  18  is connected to the bus  12  through an IC card interface  19 . 
         [0023]    The radio waves of CS or BS digital broadcasts are received by the antenna  22 . The received radio waves are down-converted by the converter  21  before being output as a signal to the front end  15 . 
         [0024]    The signal coming from the converter  21  is demodulated by the front end  15 . The demodulated signal is further subjected to error correction by the front end  15  before being output to the transport device  16  as data in packets. 
         [0025]    The transport device  16  separates the data packets coming from the front end  15  into two categories: video and audio data packets, and conditional access data packets. As mentioned above, the upgraded program is included in the conditional access data. 
         [0026]    The conditional access data is sent to the IC card  18  through the IC card interface  19 . The CPU in the IC card  18  checks to determine whether this receiving apparatus  10  has the right to access the conditional access data in question. 
         [0027]    More specifically, the CPU in the IC card  18  requests the CPU  11  to furnish the decoder ID assigned to this receiving apparatus  10 . In response, the CPU  11  reads the decoder ID from the ROM  13  and forwards the retrieved ID to the IC card  18 . The CPU in the IC card  18  checks to determine whether the decoder ID grants the right to access the conditional access data in question. 
         [0028]    If the receiving apparatus  10  is found to have the right to access the conditional access data, then the IC card  18  outputs a decryption key (i.e., control word) to the transport device  16  through the IC card interface  19 . In turn, the transport device  16  decrypts the conditional access data using the key (control word). 
         [0029]    The data in video and audio packets separated by the transport device  16  is transmitted from the antenna  24  to the display terminal  30  as a wireless frequency signal through the wireless communication interface  17 . As will be discussed later, the upgraded program destined for the display terminal  30  in the form of conditional access data is also transmitted from the antenna  24  to the display terminal  30  as a wireless frequency signal through the wireless communication interface  17 . 
         [0030]    The ROM  13  is a nonvolatile rewritable memory. As shown in  FIG. 2A , the ROM  13  has its storage space divided into program areas  13   a  and  13   b  and a flag area  13   c.    
         [0031]    A different program is written to each of the program areas  13   a  and  13   b . The CPU  11  carries out the program held in one of the program areas  13   a  and  13   b . The other area is reserved as an area to which to write an upgraded program. The flag area  13   c  is set with an identification flag indicating which of the programs in the program areas  13   a  and  13   b  is to be executed. 
         [0032]    Illustratively, suppose that the program area  13   a  is currently used (i.e., that the program written in the program area  13   a  is being carried out). In this case, an upgraded program destined for the receiving apparatus  10  is written to the program area  13   b  by the CPU  11 . When the upgraded program write is completed, the identification flag in the flag area  13   c  is rewritten in such a manner that the program area  13   b  will be used next time the receiving apparatus  10  is started (i.e., the program written in the program area  13   b  will be carried out next time). 
         [0033]    As shown in  FIG. 1 , the display terminal  30  has a CPU  31  and a bus  32  connected to it. The bus  32  is connected to a ROM  33 , a RAM  34 , and a wireless communication interface  35 . An antenna  36  is connected to the wireless communication interface  35 . 
         [0034]    A display device  39  such as a liquid crystal display is connected to the bus  32  through a video decoder  37  and a video output circuit  38 . Speakers  43  are also connected to the bus  32  via an audio decoder  41  and an audio output circuit  42 . 
         [0035]    A key operation device  45  is connected to the bus  32  through a key interface  46 . A touch-sensitive panel  47  furnished on the display screen of the display device  39  is connected to the bus  32  via a coordinate detection device  48 . 
         [0036]    Data in video and audio packets and an upgraded program destined for the display terminal  30  are transmitted from the antenna  24  of the receiving apparatus  10 . The transmitted data and program are received by the antenna  36  of the display terminal  30  and output onto the bus  32  through the wireless communication interface  35 . 
         [0037]    The video data and audio data placed onto the bus  32  are decoded by the video decoder  37  and audio decoder  41  respectively. The upgraded program destined for the display terminal  30  is written to the ROM  33  by the CPU  31 . 
         [0038]    As with the ROM  13  of the receiving apparatus  10 , the ROM  33  is a nonvolatile rewritable memory. As shown in  FIG. 2B , the ROM  33  has its storage space divided into program areas  33   a  and  33   b  and a flag area  33   c.    
         [0039]    A different program is written to each of the program areas  33   a  and  33   b . The CPU  31  carries out the program held in one of the program areas  33   a  and  33   b . The other area is reserved as an area to which to write an upgraded program. The flag area  33   c  is set with an identification flag indicating which of the programs in the program areas  33   a  and  33   b  is to be executed. 
         [0040]    Illustratively, suppose now that the program area  33   a  is currently used (i.e., that the program written in the program area  33   a  is being carried out). In this case, an upgraded program destined for the display terminal  30  is written to the program area  33   b  by the CPU  31 . When the upgraded program write is completed, the identification flag in the flag area  33   c  is rewritten in such a manner that the program area  33   b  will be used next time the display terminal  30  is started (i.e., the program written in the program area  33   b  will be carried out next time). 
       2. How to Upgrade (FIGS. 3 and 4) 
       [0041]    The CPU  11  of the receiving apparatus  10  checks the above-mentioned header information in an upgraded program constituted by conditional access data, to determine whether the upgraded program is destined for the receiving apparatus  10  (this equipment) or for the display terminal  30 . If the upgraded program is found to be destined for the receiving apparatus  10 , the program is decrypted according to the AES (Advanced Encryption Standard) before being written to the ROM  13  and subjected to data checks using illustratively MD5 (Message Digest Algorithm 5). 
         [0042]    If the upgraded program is found to be destined for the display terminal  30 , the CPU  11  of the receiving apparatus  10  connects to the display terminal  30  illustratively according to the FTP (File Transfer Protocol). With the connection established, the CPU  11  transfers the upgraded program to the display terminal  30 . 
         [0043]    The CPU  31  of the display terminal  30  receives the upgraded program destined for this equipment (i.e., display terminal  30 ) transferred from the receiving apparatus  10 , and decrypts the received program illustratively according to the AES. The decrypted program is written to the ROM  33  and subjected to data checks using illustratively MD5. 
         [0044]      FIG. 3  is a flowchart of steps constituting the data broadcast reception process typically performed as outlined above by the CPU  11  of the receiving apparatus  10 . In step  51 , the reception of a data broadcast is started. In step  52 , a check is made to determine whether the data reception has ended. More specifically, the CPU  11  checks to see if a data reception end packet is received. If the data reception is not found to have ended yet, control is passed from step  52  to step  53 . In step  53 , the CPU  11  checks to determine whether there is incoming data. If no incoming data is found, control is returned from step  53  to step  52 . If any incoming data is detected, control is passed from step  53  to step  54 . In step  54 , the incoming data is received and placed temporarily into the RAM  14 . 
         [0045]    In step  55 , the CPU  11  of the receiving apparatus  10  checks the header information in the received data to determine whether the received data constitutes an upgraded program destined for the receiving apparatus  10  (i.e., this equipment) or for the display terminal  30 . 
         [0046]    If the received data is found to be the upgraded program destined for the receiving apparatus  10  (this equipment), control is passed from step  55  to step  56 . In step  56 , the apparatus-destined upgraded program is decrypted and written to the currently unused program area in the ROM  13  (e.g., to the program area  13   b ). Control is then returned from step  56  to step  53 . 
         [0047]    If the received data is found to be the upgraded program destined for the display terminal  30 , then control is passed from step  55  to step  57 . In step  57 , the CPU  11  connects to the display terminal  30  illustratively according to the FTP. With the connection established, the terminal-destined upgraded program is transferred to the display terminal  30 . Following the program transfer and the disconnection from the display terminal  30 , control is returned from step  57  to step  53 . 
         [0048]    If in step  52  the data reception is found to have ended, step  58  is reached. In step  58 , the CPU  11  connects to the display terminal  30  illustratively as per the FTP and restarts the terminal using typically an extended FTP command. Thereafter, step  59  is reached and the CPU  11  restarts the receiving apparatus  10  (i.e., this equipment). 
         [0049]    When rebooted, the receiving apparatus  10  and the display terminal  30  restart using their upgraded programs as described above. 
         [0050]      FIG. 4  is a flowchart of steps constituting the data reception process typically performed as outlined above by the CPU  31  of the display terminal  30 . When the display terminal  30  is switched on, the CPU  31  goes to step  71  and checks to determine whether there is a connection request from the receiving apparatus  10 . If the connection request from the receiving apparatus  10  is detected, step  72  is reached. In step  72 , the CPU  31  connects with the receiving apparatus  10  illustratively according to the FTP. In step  73 , the CPU  31  receives a command from the receiving apparatus  10 . In step  74 , the CPU  31  checks to determine whether the received command is a data reception request command. 
         [0051]    If the received command is found to be the data reception request command, control is passed from step  74  to step  75 . In step  75 , the CPU  31  receives the data constituting the upgraded data destined for the display terminal  30  (i.e., this equipment), decrypts the received program, and writes the decrypted program illustratively to the program area  33   b . In step  76 , the CPU  31  disconnects from the receiving apparatus  10  and returns to step  71 . 
         [0052]    If in step  74  the received command is found to be something other than the data reception request command, control is passed from step  74  to step  77 . In step  77 , the CPU  31  checks to determine whether the received command is a restart request command. If the received command is found to be the restart request command, then control is passed from step  77  to step  78 . Since the upgraded program has already been received, the CPU  31  restarts the display terminal  30  (this equipment) in step  78  and executes the newly upgraded program. 
         [0053]    If in step  77  the received command is found to be something other than the restart request command, control is passed from step  77  to step  79 . In step  79 , the CPU  31  carries out the process relevant to the received command. 
       3. Other Embodiments or Examples 
       [0054]    With the above-described embodiment, an upgraded program is transmitted as a data broadcast constituting part of CS or BS digital broadcasts. The transmitted program is received by the receiving apparatus  10  for subsequent upgrades. Alternatively, a similar and equally effective scheme can be implemented with terrestrial digital broadcasting arrangements. An upgraded program may be transmitted as a data broadcast constituting part of terrestrial digital broadcasts and may be received by the receiving apparatus for subsequent upgrades. 
         [0055]    The present invention can be applied not only to TV broadcasts but also to cable TV setups and communication networks such as the Internet whereby data is received by the receiving apparatus and information is displayed by the display terminal. 
         [0056]    The receiving apparatus and display terminal as components making up the receiving and display system may be interconnected not only wirelessly as discussed above, but also in wired fashion. 
         [0057]    It should be understood by those skilled in the art that various modifications, combinations, sub-combinations and alterations may occur depending on design requirements and other factor in so far as they are within the scope of the appended claims or the equivalents thereof.