JP3815010B2 - Rental time limit management device, playback device - Google Patents

Description

[0001]
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to management of reproduction information in a recording medium, and more specifically to a technique for managing a time limit when a recording medium is rented.
[0002]
[Background]
Currently, video software such as movies is rented using a video tape as a medium, and audio software such as music is rented using a disk such as a CD as a medium. The rental usually has a fixed deadline, and when the deadline has passed, the system is generally capable of extending the loan by paying the late fee. From the technical point of view, the current video tape is not limited in the playback time and the number of playbacks of the tape itself, and can be played back semipermanently any number of times regardless of the length of the rental period.
[0003]
By the way, the charge system in the current rental system is generally a charging method peculiar to a package system in which charging is performed for one recording medium rental. On the other hand, as another billing method, there is a concept of charging each time a program is viewed as in the recent paid digital satellite broadcasting. As an application of this to a package-based charging system, there is one disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 63-292458. According to this, some storage medium separate from the software to be reproduced is prepared, and when the user copies the software, the number of times of copying is recorded on the storage medium. A copy fee is charged according to the number of copies.
[0004]
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
As described above, it is possible to extend the rental period and reproduce the medium even if the time limit has expired, both technically and as a system. However, from the rental store side, the disadvantage due to the loss of the opportunity to lend the returned media again is greater than the profit of the arrears due to the expiration of the deadline. Therefore, it is better to have the media returned on time rather than to pay the arrears. From such a point, there is a desire to strongly notify the user that the time limit has expired by prohibiting playback when the rental time limit has passed.
[0005]
Furthermore, from the viewpoint of profit distribution of software, software provided for rental may be provided only for sale after a certain period (for example, yearly) (hereinafter referred to as “rental provision period”). ”And distinct from the user ’s“ rental period ”). In this case, software for which a certain rental provision period has elapsed needs to be prevented from being played back at that time. However, if the user rents the software immediately before the end of the rental provision period, and the rental provision period elapses during the rental use period, the user suffers a disadvantage. Therefore, as a special case, it is necessary to enable playback even after the rental provision period has elapsed until the user's rental use deadline.
[0006]
The present invention focuses on the above points, and its purpose is to restrict the information reproduction of the recording medium within the rental use period when reproducing information using a recording medium, particularly a disc. It is to prompt prompt return after the period of use. Another object is to allow the software to be played back and used during the rental period regardless of the software rental period.
[0007]
[Means for Solving the Problems]
In order to achieve the above object, a rental deadline management apparatus according to the present invention comprises: a first reading unit that reads management information from a recording medium; a storage unit that stores rental provision deadline information related to the recording medium; Means; second reading means for reading rental provision time limit information of the corresponding recording medium from the storage means based on the management information read by the first reading means; current date and time information obtained by the date and time measuring means And calculating means for calculating rental use time limit information of the user based on the rental provision time limit information read by the second reading means; a document for writing the management information and the rental use time limit information to the reproduction management medium write means; current date and time information obtained by said time measuring means, rental provides phase read by the second reading means Compare information, when you are passed the rental provided date, display means for displaying to that effect; Rutotomoni wherein the computing means, even if the rental expiration date is after rental provided deadline, the The rental use time limit is written in the reproduction management medium .
[0008]
A rental time limit management apparatus according to another aspect of the invention includes a first reading unit that reads management information from a recording medium; a storage unit that stores rental provision time limit information regarding the recording medium; a date and time measuring unit that obtains current date and time information; Second reading means for reading rental provision time limit information of the corresponding recording medium from the storage means based on the management information read by the reading means; current date and time information obtained by the date and time measuring means; and the second Computing means for computing rental usage time limit information of the user based on the rental provision time limit information read by the reading means; and writing means for writing the management information and the rental usage time limit information to the reproduction management medium. cage, the time measuring means may obtain the current date and time information by using the absolute time information, said computing means, rental expiration date Les Even for after barrel provided deadline, and writes the rental expiration date to the reproduction management medium.
[0009]
Still another rental time limit management apparatus includes: first reading means for reading management information from a recording medium; storage means for storing rental provision time limit information relating to the recording medium; date and time measuring means for obtaining current date and time information; Second reading means for reading rental provision time limit information of the corresponding recording medium from the storage means based on the management information read by the means; current date and time information obtained by the date and time measuring means, and the second reading Computing means for computing rental usage time limit information of the user based on the rental provision time limit information read by the means; writing means for writing the management information and the rental usage time limit information into a reproduction management medium; And the rental provision time limit information read by the second reading means, and Display means for displaying when the deadline has passed, the date and time measuring means obtains current date and time information using absolute time information, and the computing means has a rental use deadline. Even when the rental provision time limit has elapsed, the rental use time limit is written to the reproduction management medium .
[0010]
4. A reproducing apparatus according to the present invention comprises a reproducing means for reproducing main information from a recording medium; a first reading means for reading management information from the recording medium; and information is written by the rental term management apparatus according to claim 1. Second reading means for reading out rental expiration information of the recording medium from the reproduced management medium; date and time measuring means for obtaining current date and time information; information read by the first and second information reading means; and date and time measurement And a reproduction determining means for determining permission of reproduction in the reproducing means based on the current date and time information obtained by the means .
[0011]
The above and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description and the accompanying drawings.
[0012]
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail. FIG. 1 shows an outline of a system in one embodiment. This system assumes DVD disc rental in a rental store.
[0013]
As shown in FIG. 1, the user goes to a rental store 70. Then, a disk 74 storing software information to be viewed is selected from among a large number of disks 72. Management information unique to each disk is recorded on the disk 72. As a specific recording method, a radial bar code is recorded on the inner circumference side of the disk (refer to Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 6-203212), and a pit is formed with a high-power laser after manufacturing the disk (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 8-124219). For example). In both cases, different information can be recorded for each disc and can be read by a player. As the unique management information, for example, the catalog number and serial number of the disk can be used. The disc package is also affixed with paper on which these numbers are printed as barcodes.
[0014]
At the same time as the selected disk 74, the IC card 76 is handed to the user as a membership card as a user management medium. As the user management medium, any medium may be used. For example, an IC card can be used. If a membership card indicating membership of the rental store is issued as an IC card, the management information, characteristic information, and usage information of the disc can be rewritten and used repeatedly each time it is used. In a rental store, when lending to a user, the IC card writing device 78 records the management number of the disk to be rented to the IC card 76 owned by the user and the lending date.
[0015]
The disc itself has a time limit for rental, and the rental cannot be provided after a certain period of time has elapsed since the start of the rental. For this reason, the IC card writing device 78 searches the rental provision deadline date from the catalog number and compares it with the current date. And if the expiration date has passed, take measures not to rent the disc. In this case, the user cannot rent the disc.
[0016]
The rented user takes the disc 74 and the IC card 76 home, and uses a special player 80 to play back software such as a movie recorded on the disc 74. At this time, the player 80 checks whether the serial number recorded on the disk 74 matches the serial number recorded on the IC card 76. Further, the reproduction deadline date in the IC card 76 is read, the deadline date is compared with the current date obtained from the clock held by the player 80, and if it is within the deadline, the disc 74 is reproduced. On the other hand, when the time limit has passed, the disk 74 is not reproduced and a display prompting the return is performed.
[0017]
Next, the rental term management device in this embodiment will be described with reference to the block diagram of FIG. In the figure, an optical bar code reader 18, a keyboard input device 36, and a display device 34 are connected to a microcomputer 22 via respective interfaces 40, 38, and 32. The microcomputer 22 is further connected with a database memory 20, an IC card reading device 24, and a GPS clock device 26.
[0018]
The barcode reader 18 is a device for reading the barcode 12 printed on the package 10 </ b> A of the disk 10 and the barcode 16 printed on the IC card 14. As a result, the serial number or catalog number of the disk 10 or the membership number of the IC card 14 is read. In the database memory 20, characteristic information related to the disk 10, for example, a catalog number, a rental provision period of the disk 10, and the like are recorded.
[0019]
The GPS clock device 26 is for knowing the current date, and uses a GPS that is highly reliable and that can know the absolute time. That is, the radio wave emitted from the GPS satellite 30 is received by the GPS antenna 28, and the date / time information is obtained based on the received signal. By using such GPS, there is an advantage that it is difficult to tamper with the date.
The rental deadline management apparatus configured as described above accesses the database 20 using the catalog number of the disk 10 as a search key, and calculates the rental deadline of the disk 10 such as one year from the rental start date. The rental expiration date of the user is calculated such as one week from the rental start date.
[0020]
Next, a rental deadline management method will be described with reference to FIG. From the start date ta to the time limit tb of the rental provision period DT of the disk 10 itself is calculated on the management device side. Alternatively, it is preset for each disk 10. For example, the user rents the disk 10 during a period from tc to td. In this case, since the entire rental use period tc to td is included in the rental provision period DT of the disk 10, the disk 10 is rented.
[0021]
On the other hand, when the rental usage period desired by the user is from te to tf, that is, when the rental is made at te immediately before tb which is the rental provision time limit of the disk 10, it is originally until tb which is the provision time limit. Cannot rent. Therefore, the rental use period of the user is shorter than the case described above, which is unreasonable for the user. Therefore, in such a case, as a special case, the rental is made up to the rental deadline tf, and after the disk 10 is returned, it is prevented from being rented as the provision deadline. By performing such time limit management, the rental use period of te to tf is secured, and a significant change in the rental use period of the disk 10 is prevented.
[0022]
The rental time limit calculated as described above is recorded on the IC card 14 by the rental time limit management apparatus of FIG.
[0023]
Next, the operation of the rental time limit management device will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. First, the catalog number and serial number of the disk 10 are read from the barcode reader 18 (FIG. 4, step S10). Next, the current date is acquired from the GPS clock device 26 (step S12). Then, using the catalog number as a search key, the rental provision deadline date of the disk 10 is searched and read from the database memory 20 in the management apparatus (step S14).
[0024]
The microcomputer 22 compares the read current date with the rental provision deadline date (step S16). As a result, if the current date is within the rental provision period of the disk 10 (Y in step S16), the expiration date of the rental use period is written in the IC card 14 together with other information (steps S20 and S22). For example, when renting for one week, a date obtained by adding 7 days to the current day is written in the IC card 14. On the other hand, if the current date is after the rental provision period of the disk 10 (N in step S16), the disk provision has expired, so a warning is displayed on the display device 34 to that effect. Then, the disk 10 is not rented but is taken at a store (step S18).
[0025]
Next, the playback device on the user side will be described with reference to FIG. As shown in FIG. 5, the playback apparatus includes a disk signal playback system 52, an MPEG decoding system 62, a GPS receiver 54, an input device 55 such as a key for controlling playback / stop from the outside, an IC card interface 58, and a disk. A control microprocessor 60, a GPS antenna 69, and the like are included.
[0026]
In the disk signal reproduction system 52, the data read by the pickup 64 is deinterleaved, error corrected, and decoded. The disc signal reproduction system can also read the serial number recorded for each disc on the inner circumference of the disc. In the MPEG decoding system 62, the decoded main information is decoded in accordance with a standard such as MPEG, whereby an image signal and an audio signal are obtained.
[0027]
Among these, the GPS receiver 54 is for receiving the radio wave of the GPS satellite 68 and reading the current date. By using such GPS, even when the power supply on the playback device side is “off” for a long time, it is possible to obtain absolute date and time information together with the power “on” without backup. In addition, tampering such as time and date cannot be easily changed, and there is an advantage that safety is high.
[0028]
The current date read from the GPS receiver 54 is supplied to the microprocessor 60. The microprocessor 60 reads the rental expiration date recorded on the IC card 56 via the IC card interface 58.
[0029]
The microprocessor 60 performs disc control similar to that of a general disc player, and verifies whether the serial number or catalog number of the disc 50 read from the IC card 56 as the main CPU matches that of the disc 50. Check if the current date is within the rental period. If the current date is within the rental usage period, the main information on the disc 50 is reproduced, and if the current date has passed the rental usage time limit, the main information is not reproduced.
[0030]
Note that this playback device monitors only the user's rental usage time limit. Therefore, as shown in FIG. 3, even during the period tb to tf after the rental provision period DT of the disc itself, the main information is reproduced because it is within the rental use period of the user.
[0031]
Next, the operation of the reproducing apparatus as described above will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing mainly the operation of the microprocessor 60. First, both the disk 50 and the IC card 56 are set in the reproducing apparatus (steps S30 and S32). The current date is acquired from the GPS receiver 54 (step S34). The rental expiration date is read from the IC card 56 (step S36). Then, the acquired expiration date is compared with the current date (step S38).
[0032]
As a result of this comparison, when the current date has passed the expiration date (N in step S38), the rental usage by the user has expired (step S40), and the disk 50 is ejected (step S44). On the other hand, as a result of the comparison, if the current date is within the rental use time limit (Y in step S38), the main information is reproduced (step S42).
[0033]
Thus, according to this embodiment, the following effects are obtained.
(1) When information is reproduced using a medium, particularly a disk, the disk and the IC card are in one-to-one correspondence, so that unauthorized use of the disk can be prevented.
(2) Since the GPS is highly reliable and the absolute date and time can be known, the date can be accurately grasped and it is difficult to tamper with it.
(3) The rental period can be effectively managed, and after the rental period has expired, playback becomes impossible and the rental period is respected.
[0034]
There are many embodiments of the present invention, and various modifications can be made based on the above disclosure. For example, the following are included.
(1) In the above embodiment, a disk medium such as a DVD is a suitable application example. However, the present invention can be applied to any medium as long as the software serial number is machine-readable.
[0035]
(2) In the above embodiment, an IC card is used as a user management medium, but any medium can be used as long as management information and software usage information can be rewritten and recorded by an appropriate method such as magnetic or electrical. May be. In addition, if ROM and RAM are mixed in DVD, software is stored in ROM, and rental expiration date is recorded in RAM, the recording medium for main information and management information can be shared by one disk, which is more convenient.
[0036]
【The invention's effect】
As described above, the present invention has the following effects.
(1) Since the main information is not reproduced when the user's rental expiration date has passed, the rental expiration date is respected.
(2) A rental provision period can be set for each disk, and whether the provision period has elapsed can be checked at the time of rental.
(3) Even when the disc is rented before the rental provision period, the main information can be reproduced during the rental use period desired by the user regardless of whether the rental provision period has elapsed.
(4) Since GPS is used for management of the current day, high reliability of time limit management can be obtained.
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating an entire embodiment.
FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a rental time limit management apparatus.
FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a concept of a rental period.
FIG. 4 is an operation flowchart of the microcomputer of the rental term management device.
FIG. 5 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a playback device.
FIG. 6 is an operation flowchart of the microprocessor of the playback device.
[Explanation of symbols]
10, 50, 72, 74 ... disk 12 ... bar code 14, 56, 76 ... IC card 16 ... IC card bar code 18 ... bar code reader 20 ... database 22 ... microcomputer 24, 58 ... IC card interface 26, 54 ... GPS clock device 28, 69 ... GPS antenna 30,68 ... GPS satellite 32 ... Display interface 34 ... Display device 36 ... Keyboard input device 38 ... Keyboard interface 40 ... Bar code reader interface 42 ... BCA
52 ... Disc signal reproduction system 55 ... Key input device 60 ... Microprocessor 62 ... MPEG decoding system 64 ... Pick-up 70 ... Rental store 78 ... Rental term management device 80 ... Reproduction device

Claims (4)

First reading means for reading management information from the recording medium;
Storage means for storing rental provision time limit information relating to the recording medium;
Date and time measuring means to obtain current date and time information;
Second reading means for reading rental provision time limit information of the corresponding recording medium from the storage means based on the management information read by the first reading means;
A computing means for computing the rental usage deadline information of the user based on the current date and time information obtained by the date and time measuring means and the rental provision deadline information read by the second reading means;
Writing means for writing the management information and the rental use time limit information into a reproduction management medium;
Display means for comparing the current date and time information obtained by the date and time measuring means with the rental provision time limit information read by the second reading means and, when the rental provision time limit has passed, displaying that fact;
The equipped Rutotomoni,
The rental term management device , wherein the calculation means writes the rental usage term into the reproduction management medium even if the rental usage term is after the rental provision term has passed . First reading means for reading management information from the recording medium;
  Storage means for storing rental provision time limit information relating to the recording medium;
  Date and time measuring means to obtain current date and time information;
  Second reading means for reading rental provision time limit information of the corresponding recording medium from the storage means based on the management information read by the first reading means;
  A computing means for computing the rental usage deadline information of the user based on the current date and time information obtained by the date and time measuring means and the rental provision deadline information read by the second reading means;
  Writing means for writing the management information and the rental use time limit information into a reproduction management medium;
With
  The date and time measuring means obtains current date and time information using absolute time information,
  The rental term management device, wherein the calculation means writes the rental usage term into the reproduction management medium even if the rental usage term is after the rental provision term has passed. First reading means for reading management information from the recording medium;
  Storage means for storing rental provision time limit information relating to the recording medium;
  Date and time measuring means to obtain current date and time information;
  Second reading means for reading rental provision time limit information of the corresponding recording medium from the storage means based on the management information read by the first reading means;
  A computing means for computing the rental usage deadline information of the user based on the current date and time information obtained by the date and time measuring means and the rental provision deadline information read by the second reading means;
  Writing means for writing the management information and the rental use time limit information into a reproduction management medium;
  Display means for comparing the current date and time information obtained by the date and time measuring means with the rental provision time limit information read by the second reading means and, when the rental provision time limit has passed, displaying that fact;
With
  The date and time measuring means obtains current date and time information using absolute time information,
  The rental term management device, wherein the calculation means writes the rental usage term into the reproduction management medium even if the rental usage term is after the rental provision term has passed. Reproduction means for reproducing main information from a recording medium;
First reading means for reading management information from the recording medium;
A second reading unit that reads rental term information of a recording medium from a reproduction management medium in which information is written by the rental term management device according to any one of claims 1 to 3 ;
Date and time measuring means to obtain current date and time information;
Reproduction determination means for determining permission of reproduction in the reproduction means based on the information read by the first and second information reading means and the current date and time information obtained by the date and time measurement means;
A playback apparatus comprising:

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