Source: http://www.google.com/patents/US6959221?ie=ISO-8859-1&dq=mezick
Timestamp: 2014-08-21 05:14:51
Document Index: 247091483

Matched Legal Cases: ['art 107', 'art 107', 'art 107', 'art 107', 'art 203', 'art 203', 'art 203', 'art 203', 'art 203', 'art 203', 'art 207', 'art 207', 'art 1', 'art 1', 'art 2', 'art 1', 'art 2', 'art 1', 'art 1', 'art 1']

Patent US6959221 - Portable viewing system - Google PatentsSearch Images Maps Play YouTube News Gmail Drive More »Sign in<nobr>Advanced Patent Search</nobr>PatentsA main device receives program data provided through broadcasting, internally stores the received program data, and transfers the stored program data to a portable device. Herein, one program data is constituted by a plurality of program components (video, audio, closed caption, and the like). The main...http://www.google.com/patents/US6959221?utm_source=gb-gplus-sharePatent US6959221 - Portable viewing systemAdvanced Patent SearchPublication numberUS6959221 B1Publication typeGrantApplication numberUS 09/423,389PCT numberPCT/JP1999/001715Publication dateOct 25, 2005Filing dateApr 1, 1999Priority dateApr 3, 1998Fee statusPaidAlso published asCN1128542C, CN1262841A, DE69938700D1, EP0987888A1, EP0987888A4, EP0987888B1, US7139626, US20050256596, WO1999052278A1Publication number09423389, 423389, PCT/1999/1715, PCT/JP/1999/001715, PCT/JP/1999/01715, PCT/JP/99/001715, PCT/JP/99/01715, PCT/JP1999/001715, PCT/JP1999/01715, PCT/JP1999001715, PCT/JP199901715, PCT/JP99/001715, PCT/JP99/01715, PCT/JP99001715, PCT/JP9901715, US 6959221 B1, US 6959221B1, US-B1-6959221, US6959221 B1, US6959221B1InventorsMitsuteru KataokaOriginal AssigneeMatsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.Export CitationBiBTeX, EndNote, RefManPatent Citations (9), Referenced by (12), Classifications (50), Legal Events (3) External Links: USPTO, USPTO Assignment, EspacenetPortable viewing systemUS 6959221 B1Abstract A main device receives program data provided through broadcasting, internally stores the received program data, and transfers the stored program data to a portable device. Herein, one program data is constituted by a plurality of program components (video, audio, closed caption, and the like). The main device assigns transfer priorities to each program component constituting one program data, and then discretely transfers the program components respectively in the direction of a time axis in the order of the assigned transfer priorities. By discretely transferring data, some of the program components may possibly be entirely transferred to the portable device even when data transfer is discontinued in a short time. Therefore, users can enjoy the entire program by playing-back the already-transferred program components.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION (Outline of the System)
First Embodiment FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the structure of a portable viewing/listening system according to a first embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 1, the portable viewing/listening system of the first Embodiment includes a main device 1 and a portable device 2. The portable device 2 is detachable/attachable from/to the main device 1.
FIG. 2 is a diagram exemplarily showing the structure of a storage list to be stored in the memory 112 of the main device 1. This storage list is data for managing the program data which is stored in the storage part 107 of the main device 1, and is tablestructured. Specifically, each line of the table represents a single program component for a particular program. The storage list of FIG. 2 exemplarily shows that the storage part 107 stores eight program components in total. Each line of the table includes four attributes of event�id, type, size, and transfer priority.
The attribute �event�id� is attribute information for identifying the programs. In this example, for the sake of simplicity, event�id for the Program 1, Program 2 and Program 3 are assumed to be 0x0001, 0x0002, 0x0003, respectively. Herein, �0x� indicates that a hexadecimal digital follows.
Among the attributes in FIG. 2, when the program is received, event�id, type and size can be obtained from the information that is transmitted as additional information for the program. The transfer priorities are established when the transfer processing of at least one program is executed.
First, the CPU 113 selects a first program from among the programs which are stored in the storage part 107 (step S101). The storage list (see FIG. 2) which is stored in the memory 112 is referred to so as to know what programs are stored in the storage part 107. Taking the storage list of FIG. 2 as an example, �Program 1 �is the program to be selected first from the stored data of the Program 1, Program 2, and Program 3. Thereafter, the CPU 113 judges whether or not any program was selected in step S101 (step 5102). In this example, since �Program 1� was selected in step 5101, the CPU 113 goes to step S103.
In step S104, the CPU 113 initially sets a count value N of a counter which indicates a transfer priority (hereinafter, refers to as transfer priority counter) to a value of� 1� indicating the top transfer priority (step S104). Then, the CPU 113 judges whether or not the count value N of the transfer priority counter is 5 (step S105). Herein, four values of 1, 2, 3 and 4 are available as transfer priorities in the transfer priority table in FIG. 5. Therefore, if N=5, it means that every transfer priority is completely assigned. Since N=1 at the beginning, the CPU 113 determines that N≠5, and then advances to step S106.
In step S106, the CPU 113 selects one program component whose transfer priority is N (at the beginning, N=1) from the storage list of FIG. 2. Thereafter, the CPU 113 judges whether or not any program component was selected in step S106 (step S107). If yes, the CPU 113 takes out the attribute information of �event�id�, �type�, and �size� from the line of the storage list corresponding to the program component which is selected in step S106, and then transfers the same to the portable device 2 (step S108). Then, the CPU 113 takes out main data of the program component which is selected in step S1106, and transmits the same to the portable device 2 (step S109). Thereafter, the CPU 113 returns to step S106, selects another program component whose transfer priority is N from the storage list of FIG. 2, and then executes the transfer processing for the selected program component.
FIG. 6 shows the structure of a receipt list which is to be stored in the memory 208 in the portable device 2. The receipt list is data that is used to manage how the data which is stored in the storage part 203 in the portable device 2 (that is, program data that is transmitted from the main device 1) is stored, and is table-structured. The lines of the table are in a one-to-one correspondence with the program components that are stored in the storage part 203. Also, each line of the table has six attributes including receipt order, off set, size, event�id, type, and length of play-back time.
The attribute �event�id� is attribute information that is used to identify to which program the program components being in the one-to-one correspondence with the lines of the receipt list respectively belong.
First of all, the CPU 209 initializes the receipt list of FIG. 6 (step S301). The easiest way of initializing the receipt list is done by deleting every line thereof and, at the same time, deleting the program data that is stored in the storage part 203 in the portable device 2. Thereafter, the CPU 209 assigns a value of 0 to a variable current�offset, and assigns a value of 1 to a variable send�count (step S302). Then, the CPU 209 receives the attribute information of �size�, �event�id�, and �type� to be transmitted from the main device 1 (step S303). Such attribute information is the one that is transmitted in step S108 in FIG. 3. The CPU 209 then judges whether or not there is any data to receive in step S303 (step S304). If not, the CPU 209 terminates the operation, but if yes, the CPU 209 then judges whether or not an available region of the storage part 203 is sufficiently large for the value of the �size� which is obtained in step S303 (step S305). If yes, the CPU 209 goes to step S306, but if not, the CPU 209 returns to step S303.
In step S306, the CPU 209 adds a line to the receipt list of FIG. 6, and then assigns values which are obtained in step S303 to each corresponding attribute �size�, �event�id�, or �type� in the added line. Thereafter, the CPU 209 assigns the value of the variable current�offset to the attribute �offset� in the added line (step S307). The CPU 209 adds the value of �size� which is obtained in step S303 to the variable current�offset (step S308), and then assigns the value of the variable send�count to the attribute �receipt order� in the added line (step S309). The CPU 209 then increments the value of the variable send�count by 1 (step 5310). After performing step S310, the CPU 209 receives the main data of the program components that are transmitted from the main device 1, and then stores the same in the storage part 203 (step S311). Then, the CPU 209 sets the attribute �length of play-back time� (step S312). Herein, it is assumed that the main data of the program components itself includes, as additional information, a bit rate value indicating the number of data bit per unit presentation time. In this case, to convert the value of the �size� which is obtained in step S303 to the length of play-back time, the value of the �size� is divided by the bit rate that is obtained in the aforementioned manner. Note that, the value of the length of program time can be notified directly from the main device 1 as data as in the case with the �size�, for example. Next, the CPU 209 judges whether or not a receipt of program data is discontinued halfway through for some reason (step S313). If yes, the CPU 209 advances to step S314, but if no, the CPU 209 returns to step S303. Such discontinuation may include a case, for example, where the users abruptly disconnect the portable device 2 from the main device 1, and vice versa.
By referring to FIG. 8, the CPU 209 first executes displaying and selecting operation of the programs (step S401). To be more specific, the CPU 209 generates a list of the programs stored in the storage part 203 by referring to the receipt list of FIG. 6, and then displays the generated list on the display 205. Thereafter, the CPU 209 let the users select any program which is desired to be played-back from the displayed list. The selection of the programs is done through the user input-output part 207. When it is desired for the list of the programs displayed on the display 205 to include titles of the programs as well, data indicating the title-to-�event�id� relationship may be sent along with the titles during transmission of the program data from the main device 1 to the portable device 2. For such data indicating the relationship, additional information to be transmitted through broadcasting for the EPG (Electric Program Guide) may be used. Next, the CPU 209 extracts, from the receipt list, each program component of the program which is selected in step S401 to be played-back (step S402). Thereafter, the CPU 209 generates a list of the program components constituting the selected program according to the extraction result in step S402, and then displays the generated list on the display 205 (step S403). In response thereto, the users select one or more program component (s) to be played-back from the displayed list. The selection of the program components is done through the user input-output part 207. Then the CPU 209 makes a preparation for concurrent play-back of all of the program components which are selected in step S403 (step S404). By concurrently playing-back the program components, lip synch can be attained, for example, which is synchronization between a speaker's lip movements in the video and audio.
In step S407, the CPU 209 selects any other program component in the same class as the program component whose play-back position has reached to the data tail but in different type in the order of presentation priorities that are defined in the class table of FIG. 9. To be more specific, the CPU 209 first extracts every program component constituting the program that is being played-back from the receipt list of FIG. 6, and then selects, from among the extracted program components, any program component belonging to the same class as the program component whose play-back position is judged to have reached to the data tail in step S406. Thereafter, the CPU 209 takes out any program component, from among the selected program components, whose presentation priority is lower than the one whose play-back position has reached to the data tail, and then selects the type of the program component whose presentation priority is the highest from among the taken-out program components. When the play-back position of the program component in type �V� presumably reaches to the data tail during play-back, the CPU 209 selects the type �D�, which is in the same class of �display� as the type �V�, and which has the presentation priority lower than the type �V� but the highest among the rest.
Lastly, the detailed video V1 of the Program 1 beings is to be transferred from Time t12. For the transfer that is started from Time t12, the program components having the transfer priority of 4 in the storage list of FIG. 12 are transferred. It is herein assumed that the detailed video V1 of the Program 1 was supposed to be completely transferred by Time t13 but was interrupted at Time tb exactly at the halfway between Time t12 and Time t13. If this is the case, as to the program components in the �display� class of the Program 1, the digest video is wholly transferred but the detailed video is only half-transferred, i.e., only the first-half of the detailed video is transferred. Even if data transfer is interrupted due to such eventuality, the users can enjoy the program with video to some extent because the video information is already provided to every program to some extent. Further, even if the data transfer is interrupted at an earlier stage, the users can enjoy the program with closed caption (additionally, audio).
Second Embodiment FIG. 14 is an outer perspective diagram showing the physical structure of a portable viewing/listening system according to a second embodiment of the present invention. Further, FIG. 15 is a block diagram showing the electrical structure of the portable viewing/listening system according to the second embodiment of the present invention. By referring to FIGS. 14 and 15, the main device 1 includes a processing part 1 a, a charging part 1 b, and a cradle-type box 1 c (hereinafter, refer to as cradle) onto which the portable device 2 can be placed. The portable device 2 includes a processing part 2 a, a battery 2 b, and a connection contact 2 c. The processing part 1 a is similar in structure to the main device 1 shown in FIG. 1, and the processing part 2 a is similar in structure to the portable device 2 shown in FIG. 1.
By placing the portable device 2 on the cradle 1 c, the portable device 2 is electrically connected to the main device 1 via the connection contact 2 c. Furthermore, in the meantime, the charging part 1 b which is provided in the main device 1 charges the battery 2 b in the portable device 2 through the connection contact 2 c. As the portable device 2 is relatively-high power, a rechargeable so-called secondary battery is popular for the battery 2 b provided therein. Consequently, the battery 2 b needs to be regularly charged every day, and this thus necessitates the portable device 2 to be physically connected to some types of charger. According to the second embodiment, when any physical connection for the to-be-required charging is made, information such as programs can be advantageously transferred at the same time. Therefore, rather conveniently, there is no need to make any new connection for transfer. Note that, the charging part 1 b may monitor charging current and detect the start of a connection, and then notifies the detection to the processing part 1 a so as to start the transfer processing of the program. In this manner, rather conveniently, program transfer is automatically started by only placing the portable device 2 on the cradle 1 c. Third Embodiment FIG. 16 is an outer perspective diagram showing the physical structure of a portable viewing/listening system according to a third embodiment of the present invention. By referring to FIG. 16, in the portable viewing/listening system of the third embodiment, data transfer from the main device 1 to the portable device 2 is done indirectly via a recording medium 3. To be more specific, the recording medium 3 is written with information such as a program when being attached to the main device 1, and is read out the internally-stored program information, for example, when being attached to the portable device 2. In such a manner, in the third embodiment, program transfer or information exchange can be done in a similar manner to the first embodiment via the recording medium 3. The recording medium 3 includes a hard disk card or a semiconductor recording card in PCMCIA Standards, for example.
In the third embodiment, the main device 1 is provided with a digital broadcasting receiver which is equipped with a slot of DVB-CI (Digital Video Broadcasting�Common Interface). The DVB-CI is a specification that is standardized by the standardization group in Europe called DVB, and specifies the receiver to be equipped with a slot of PCMCIA and the slot to be an insertable type for a descrambler of a PC card in PCMCIA Standards. Accordingly, with a plurality of slots provided and a plurality of descramblers inserted, the receiver can correspond to various cryptographic methods. For the DVB-CI, PCMCIA which is normally equipped with a note-type PC (Personal Computer) as a physical and electrical interface is used. For some receivers, it is structurally possible to function in a similar manner to the main device 1 in FIG. 1 only by updating a software in the existing digital broadcast receiver by way of a download through broadcasting.
Fourth Embodiment FIG. 17 is a block diagram showing the structure of a portable viewing/listening system according to a fourth embodiment of the present invention. In the fourth embodiment, it is assumed that an information source for the main device 1 is not broadcast but is broadcast-type service from a computer network 4 such as Internet.
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