JP7160762B2 - Information processing device and content information display method - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to technology used in an information processing apparatus that processes content, and more particularly to technology used in an information processing apparatus that processes rental content.

With the development of the Internet, a system has been proposed in which video content can be purchased, downloaded from a content distribution server on a network to an information processing device, and viewed. As a form of purchase, there is a form in which the video contents are purchased, and a form in which the contents are rented so that the contents can be viewed for a predetermined period. In the case of rental, since it is assumed that the viewing period is limited, the information processing apparatus needs to disable viewing of the video content after the rental period has passed.

U.S. Pat. No. 6,563,999

When an information processing device holds not only video content but also various other program files and data files, the rental content may be buried in many files, and the user may forget the existence of the rental content or store it. A situation can arise in which the location is lost. In such a case, the rental expiration date passes without the user using the rental content. Therefore, in order to avoid such a situation, the information processing device preferably provides a user interface that allows the user to easily recognize the rental content. Further, if the information processing device can effectively present the rental period to the user, the convenience of the rental service will be improved.

Also, when an information processing apparatus is shared by a plurality of users, different users may download the same rental content. In such a case, it is extremely important in providing a rental service how to allow each shared user to use the rental content.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a technique for improving the convenience of handling rental content.

In order to solve the above problems, an information processing apparatus according to one aspect of the present invention includes a menu screen generation unit that generates a menu screen for selecting content, and a detailed information screen that generates a detailed information screen showing information about content. and a screen generator. The menu screen generator has a function of displaying a plurality of folders in a predetermined direction on the menu screen and a function of arranging and displaying icons of contents included in a folder selected from among the plurality of folders. When the rental content icon is selected on the menu screen, the detailed information screen generator displays information indicating that the content is rental content and information on the rental period on the detailed information screen.

Another aspect of the present invention is a content information display method. This method includes the steps of: displaying a plurality of folders in a predetermined direction on a menu screen; displaying icons of contents included in a folder selected from among the plurality of folders side by side on the menu screen; a step of displaying information indicating that the content is rental content and information about the rental period on the detailed information screen when the rental content icon is selected in .

Any combination of the above constituent elements, and any conversion of expressions of the present invention into methods, devices, systems, recording media, computer programs, etc. are also effective as embodiments of the present invention.

ADVANTAGE OF THE INVENTION According to this invention, the technique which improves the convenience of handling rental content can be provided.

It is a figure which shows the content purchase system concerning the Example of this invention. It is a figure which shows the functional block diagram of an information processing apparatus. (a) is a diagram showing an example of a folder structure for storing video content formed on a hard disk, and (b) is a diagram showing another example of a folder structure for storing video content formed on a hard disk. be. 3 is a diagram showing an example of a folder structure for storing license files formed on a hard disk; FIG. Mainly shows the internal configuration of the main controller. It is a figure which shows an example of the menu screen displayed on an output device. 4 is a time chart for explaining a valid period derivation process; FIG. 10 is a diagram showing another example of the menu screen displayed on the output device; It is a figure which shows an example of the detailed information screen displayed on an output device. It is a figure which shows an example of a confirmation screen. FIG. 10 is a diagram showing a flowchart of menu screen display processing; FIG. 10 is a diagram showing a flowchart of time information derivation processing; FIG. 10 is a diagram showing a flowchart of use license identification processing;

FIG. 1 shows a content purchasing system according to an embodiment of the invention. The content purchase system 1 includes a remote controller 40 , an information processing device 10 that processes content, and an output device 12 that outputs the processing result of the information processing device 10 . The remote controller 40 is an input interface device that allows a user to input operations to the information processing device 10 . The remote controller 40 transmits operation inputs wirelessly, but an input interface device connected to the information processing apparatus 10 with a cable may be used. The output device 12 may be a television having a display for outputting images and speakers for outputting audio. The output device 12 may be connected to the information processing device 10 via a wired cable, or may be wirelessly connected via a wireless LAN (Local Area Network) or the like. The information processing apparatus 10 is communicably connected to a content distribution server 18 connected to a network 16 via a router 15, and can download desired content.

The content distribution server 18 is operated by a video distribution company or the like, and provides the information processing apparatus 10 with an encrypted video content file, a license file for permitting content viewing, and a key file for decoding the content file. offer. Note that the content distribution server 18 may provide the information processing apparatus 10 with not only video content files but also music content files, game software files, and the like as content files. An example in which the content distribution server 18 provides files related to video content will be described below.

In the content purchase system 1 , the information processing apparatus 10 purchases desired video content according to a user's instruction transmitted from the remote controller 40 and downloads it from the content distribution server 18 . As a form of purchase, there are a form in which video contents are purchased and a form in which video contents are rented. In the user-buy-out mode, the user can watch the video content at any time. On the other hand, in the rental form, the user has to view the video content before the expiration date, and after the expiration date, the user cannot view the video content. Management of the rented video content is performed by the information processing device 10 .

The information processing apparatus 10 may have a music content playback function in addition to the video content playback processing function. Further, the information processing apparatus 10 may have a processing function for game software, and may be configured to have a processing function for other content. Therefore, rental content in this embodiment includes not only video content but also various types of content such as music content and game content.

FIG. 2 shows a functional block diagram of the information processing device 10. As shown in FIG. The information processing apparatus 10 has a power button 20, an LED 22, a system controller 24, a device controller 30, a media drive 32, a hard disk drive 34, a switch 36, a wireless interface 38, a main controller 100, a main memory 102, and an output processing section 104. consists of

The power button 20 is an input unit through which an operation input is performed by the user, and is operated to turn on or off the power supply to the information processing apparatus 10 . The LED 22 lights to indicate whether the power is on or off. The system controller 24 detects whether the power button 20 is pressed or not pressed, and upon detecting a state transition from the power-off state to the pressed state, activates the main controller 100 to initiate the boot sequence of the operating system. At the same time, it controls lighting of the LED 22 . When the power cable is plugged into the information processing apparatus 10, the system controller 24 maintains the standby mode even when the power is off, and monitors whether the power button 20 is pressed.

The device controller 30 is configured as an LSI (Large-Scale Integrated Circuit) that exchanges information between devices like a south bridge. As shown, the device controller 30 is connected to devices such as the system controller 24 , media drive 32 , hard disk drive 34 , switch 36 and main controller 100 . The device controller 30 absorbs differences in electrical characteristics and data transfer speeds of the respective devices, and controls the timing of data transfer. A hard disk drive 34 drives an internal hard disk to write/read data. The internal hard disk functions as a storage device that stores data. The media drive 32 is a drive device that, when a read-only recording medium 50 is loaded, drives and recognizes the recording medium 50 and reads necessary data from the recording medium 50 . The recording medium 50 may be a medium such as an optical disk or a magneto-optical disk.

The switch 36 is an Ethernet switch (Ethernet is a registered trademark), and is a device that connects to an external device by wire or wirelessly to transmit and receive data. Switch 36 receives content files, license files and key files from content distribution server 18 via network 16 . Also, the switch 36 is connected to a wireless interface 38, and the wireless interface 38 is connected to the remote controller 40 using a wireless communication protocol such as the Bluetooth (registered trademark) protocol or the IEEE802.11 protocol. User operation information input to the remote controller 40 is supplied to the main controller 100 through the wireless interface 38 , the switch 36 and the device controller 30 .

The main controller 100 has a multi-core CPU, and has one general-purpose processor core and a plurality of simple processor cores in one CPU. A general-purpose processor core is called a PPU (Power Processing Unit), and the remaining processor cores are called SPUs (Synergistic-Processing Units). The main controller 100 executes an operating system (hereinafter simply referred to as "OS (Operating System)") that provides functions and environments for efficient use of the information processing apparatus 10 and controls the entire apparatus. be. The OS layer of the information processing apparatus 10 in this embodiment has three layers, from the top, the user layer, the kernel layer, and the hypervisor layer. and functions as the “OS” of the information processing apparatus 10 .

When the power is turned on by the power button 20 , the system controller 24 supplies power to the main controller 100 and the output processing section 104 via the device controller 30 . When power is supplied to the main controller 100, the PPU first executes the OS boot loader to activate the hypervisor layer. Subsequently, the PPU activates the kernel layer of the OS and further activates the user layer to prepare for receiving data supplied from the hard disk drive 34 or the recording medium 50 .

Main controller 100 includes a memory controller that connects to main memory 102 . The PPU has registers, has a main processor as an arithmetic execution entity, and efficiently assigns tasks, which are basic processing units in the application to be executed, to each SPU. Note that the PPU itself may execute the task. The SPU has registers, a sub-processor as an arithmetic execution entity, and a local memory as a local storage area. The main memory 102 and local memory are configured as RAM (random access memory). The SPU has a dedicated DMA (Direct Memory Access) controller as a control unit, and by transferring data between the main memory 102 and local memory, the SPU can stream data at high speed, and is built into the output processing unit 104. High-speed data transfer can be realized between the frame memory and the local memory.

The output processing unit 104 is connected to the output device 12 and outputs a video signal and an audio signal which are processing results of the application. The output processing unit 104 includes a GPU (Graphics Processing Unit) that implements an image processing function. The GPU may adopt HDMI (High Definition Multimedia Interface).

In the information processing apparatus 10 of this embodiment, the hard disk drive 34 stores various contents such as video contents, music contents, and game contents. These contents may be downloaded from the content distribution server 18 or may be installed from the recording medium 50 . These content files are sorted by folders on the hard disk drive 34 .

FIG. 3(a) shows an example of a folder structure for storing video content formed on a hard disk. Video content files (XYZ.VDO) are stored in the VIDEO folder.
FIG. 3(b) shows another example of a folder structure for storing video content formed on a hard disk. This folder structure has a hierarchical structure. A video content file (XYZ.VDO) is stored in an AA folder created within the VIDEO folder.

As described above, the rental content has an expiration date for use. Therefore, the information processing apparatus 10 of the present embodiment provides a GUI (graphical user interface) capable of effectively presenting the existence of rental content to the user and also effectively presenting the validity period of the content. This allows the user to view the rental content without forgetting that it has been acquired.

FIG. 4 shows an example of a folder structure for storing license files formed on a hard disk. The license file (ABC.LCN) is stored in the (USER_ID) folder created within the LICENSE folder. Note that (USER_ID) is the identification number of the registered user of the information processing apparatus 10, so the license file is stored in the folder for each user. Note that (USER_ID) may be the user's identification number itself, or may be a character string derived from the user identification number. The license file includes license information such as content purchase form information, valid period start time and end time. By acquiring and holding the license file, the information processing apparatus 10 recognizes that it has received a license for reproducing the rental content. Whether or not the license is valid is determined based on the license information and other conditions. Specifically, if the current time is before the expiration date, the license is valid, and if the expiration date has passed, the license is invalid. becomes.

In the content purchase system 1, the reproduction validity period of content is set to a predetermined number of days, for example, 14 days. Note that the validity period may be set for each content. The start time of the validity period may be set to the date and time of downloading, or may be set to a predetermined date and time after downloading. Note that once the content is reproduced, the information processing apparatus 10 resets the end time of the effective period to 24 hours after the initial reproduction time.

Although the information processing apparatus 10 of this embodiment can be shared by a plurality of users, in principle, each user's data is held in a different folder in the hard disk drive 34 . A folder name is formed in association with a user ID (identification information) for each user, and the OS of the information processing apparatus 10 prohibits access to folders of other users based on the user ID input at the time of login. do. This prevents users from arbitrarily using data belonging to different users, thus maintaining the security of personal data.

On the other hand, since video content is not personal data, it is preferable to allow users other than the user who downloaded it to view it. For example, if the information processing apparatus 10 is shared by a family, the downloaded video content may be viewed by all members of the family. Conventionally, even when videocassettes and DVDs are rented from a video shop, the whole family can look around. users.

FIG. 5 mainly shows the internal configuration of the main controller 100 . The main controller 100 includes an instruction generation section 200, a validity period processing section 220, a license information processing section 240, a rental mark processing section 260, a reproduction control section 280, a decoding section 310, a reproduction time writing section 320, and a display processing section 340. . The storage device 300 is the hard disk drive 34 and stores a plurality of content files 302a-302b, a plurality of license files 304a-304d, and a plurality of key files 306a-306d. Key file 306 contains key information for decoding encrypted content file 302 . In order to prevent the downloaded content file 302 from being played back by another information processing device, the key information is acquired via the content distribution server 18, encrypted using the device ID of the information processing device 10, and stored. there is

License file 304 and key file 306 are provided by content distribution server 18 to the user who downloaded content file 302 . When the same content file 302 is downloaded multiple times by different users, the content file is overwritten and stored in the storage device 300 . On the other hand, license file 304 and key file 306 are given to the user who downloaded content file 302 . In this case, multiple users' license files 304 and key files 306 are stored in the storage device 300 for one content file 302 .

The instruction generation unit 200 has a menu screen generation instruction unit 202 , a detailed information screen generation instruction unit 204 and a reproduction instruction unit 206 . Upon receiving an operation input from the remote controller 40 by the user or power-on information, the instruction generation unit 200 performs a validity period processing unit 220, a license information processing unit 240, a rental mark processing unit 260, a reproduction control unit 280, a decoding unit 310, A predetermined instruction is issued to a necessary functional block of the display processing unit 340 .

The menu screen generation instruction unit 202 issues instruction information for generating a menu screen for selecting content to necessary functional blocks. This instruction information is generated, for example, when the power button 20 is pressed, when the detailed information screen returns to the menu screen, or when the menu screen is operated. The detailed information screen generation instructing unit 204 issues instruction information for shifting from the menu screen to the detailed information screen of the content from the remote controller 40 to the necessary functional blocks. This instruction information is generated, for example, when an operation input for shifting from the menu screen to the content detailed information screen is received from the remote controller 40 . The reproduction instruction unit 206 issues instruction information for reproducing content to necessary functional blocks. This instruction information is generated when an instruction to reproduce the content is given on the menu screen.

Validity period processing section 220 has reproduction time information acquisition section 222 , start time derivation section 224 , end time derivation section 226 and remaining time derivation section 228 . Validity period processing unit 220 performs a process of obtaining a valid period during which content can be used for each piece of license information.

The reproduction time information acquisition unit 222 acquires from the storage device 300 the time information when the content was first reproduced using the license. This initial reproduction time information is written in the key file 306 associated with the license file 304 , and the reproduction time information acquisition unit 222 acquires the initial reproduction time information from the key file 306 . Note that the key file 306 does not contain the initial playback time information if the content has not been played back using the license. The start time derivation unit 224 derives the start time of the validity period of the content. The end time derivation unit 226 derives the end time of the validity period of the content. The end time of the validity period is also referred to herein as the expiration date. The remaining time derivation unit 228 derives the remaining time until the expiration date.

The license information processing section 240 has a license information acquisition section 242 , a purchase type determination section 244 and a validity period extraction section 246 . The license information processing unit 240 processes license information.

The license information acquisition unit 242 acquires license information from the license file 304 stored in the storage device 300 . The license information acquisition unit 242 recognizes that the license for the associated content has been received from the existence of the license file 304 . The purchase type determination unit 244 determines the content purchase type from the purchase type information included in the license information. As described above, there are two types of content purchase modes: purchase and rental. Valid period extraction unit 246 extracts the start time and end time of the valid period included in the license information when the purchase form of the content is rental.

The rental mark processing unit 260 processes a rental mark to be placed in the vicinity of the icon image of the rental content or superimposed on the icon image on the menu screen. The rental mark is a mark for presenting to the user that the content is rental content.

The expiration date determination unit 262 determines whether or not the expiration date has already passed. The rental mark determination unit 264 determines a rental mark to be placed near the icon image of the content or overlaid on the icon image from among a plurality of types of rental marks.

The reproduction control unit 280 receives a reproduction instruction and performs processing for controlling reproduction of the content. The usage license specifying unit 282 specifies a license to be used for reproducing content. The decoding instruction unit 284 instructs the decoding unit 310 to decode the content using the specified license.

The decoding unit 310 uses the specified license to decode the content. The reproduction time writing unit 320 writes the initial reproduction time information to the corresponding key file 306 when the decoding process using the license is performed for the first time.

Display processing unit 340 has menu screen generation unit 350 , confirmation screen generation unit 360 , detailed information screen generation unit 370 and purchase screen generation unit 380 . The display processing unit 340 performs processing for generating a display screen on the output device 12 .

Menu screen generation unit 350 has icon image processing unit 352 , folder image processing unit 354 , rental mark placement unit 356 and time information placement unit 358 . Menu screen generation unit 350 receives a menu screen generation instruction from menu screen generation instruction unit 202 and generates a menu screen for selecting content.

The icon image processing unit 352 arranges the icon image of the content in the menu screen. Note that when the user issues a playback instruction for the icon image, the playback instruction unit 206 generates a playback instruction for the content associated with the icon image. The folder image processing unit 354 arranges folder images in the menu screen. The rental mark placement unit 356 places the rental mark near the icon image of the rental content or superimposed on the icon image. The rental mark placement unit 356 also places the rental mark in the vicinity of the folder image including the rental content and the folder image placed above the folder including the rental content in the folder hierarchical structure or superimposed on the folder image. The time information arrangement unit 358 arranges information on the end time (validity period) of the validity period in association with the icon image of the rental content.

Confirmation screen generation unit 360 generates a confirmation screen for confirming whether or not the user may start reproducing the content.

The detailed information screen generation section 370 has a thumbnail image display section 372 , an owner information arrangement section 374 , a content information arrangement section 376 and a time information arrangement section 378 . The detailed information screen generation unit 370 generates a detailed information screen showing information about the content, validity period, and the like.

The thumbnail image display section 372 arranges a thumbnail image specifying content at a predetermined position in the detailed information screen. The owner information placement unit 374 places license owner information in the detailed information screen. The content information placement unit 376 places information about content in the detailed information screen. The time information arrangement unit 378 arranges the time information regarding the validity period in the detailed information screen.

In FIG. 5, each element described as a functional block that performs various processes can be configured with a CPU (Central Processing Unit), memory, and other LSIs in terms of hardware, and memory implemented by a program loaded in the As described above, the main controller 100 is provided with one PPU and a plurality of SPUs, and the PPUs and SPUs can configure each functional block independently or in cooperation. Therefore, those skilled in the art will understand that these functional blocks can be realized in various forms by hardware only, software only, or a combination thereof, and are not limited to either one.

FIG. 6 shows an example of a menu screen 400a displayed on the output device 12. As shown in FIG. In this menu screen 400a, a plurality of folder images 402a to 402e are horizontally arranged. Of these, the folder image 402b indicates a music content folder, the folder image 402c indicates a video content folder, and the folder image 402d indicates a game content folder. Icon images 404a to 404d are arranged in the vertical direction. The user can operate the remote controller 40 to scroll and move a desired icon to the position of the focus area, thereby executing a process associated with the icon. In the illustrated example, the video content icon image 404a is placed in the focus area, and when the user presses a predetermined button on the remote controller 40, a playback instruction is issued and the video content titled "AirplaneAAA" is played back. The process of generating the menu screen 400a will be described below with reference to FIG.

When the menu screen generation instruction unit 202 issues a menu screen generation instruction, the menu screen generation unit 350 generates a menu screen for selecting content. Specifically, the folder image processing unit 354 determines the display positions of the top folder images 402a to 402e and arranges them in the menu screen. Also, the icon image processing unit 352 searches for the video content by referring to the VIDEO folder of the hard disk drive 34, and specifies the icon image 404 to be displayed. The icon image processing unit 352 determines the display position of the icon image 404 of the identified video content and arranges it in the menu screen. The icon image 404 is included in the content file 302, for example, and the icon image processing unit 352 acquires the icon image from the content file shown in FIG. 3(a) or 3(b). In the menu screen 400a, if the folder image 402b, which is the music content folder, exists at the position of the folder image 402c, the icon image processing unit 352 searches the music content by referring to the MUSIC folder of the hard disk drive 34, and displays the music content. Then, the icon image to be set is specified.

At this time, in the license information processing section 240 , the license information acquisition section 242 acquires the license information of the logged-in user from the license file 304 . As shown in FIG. 4, license information is held in a folder specified by a user ID, and the license information acquisition unit 242 acquires license information possessed by the user based on the user ID. . By generating the file name of the license file 304 using the content ID, it becomes easy to read out the license file 304 associated with the content. The purchase type determination unit 244 determines whether or not the content is rental content with an expiration date for use, based on the purchase type information included in the license information. The purchase type information is information representing either purchase or rental, and may be set as a flag value of 0 or 1, for example. In the content purchasing system 1 of the present embodiment, the license information acquisition unit 242 confirms the presence or absence of the license file 304 of the icon image 404 of the video content to be displayed on the menu screen 400a based on the user ID. If the file 304 exists, it is verified whether the video content is rental content. When it is determined that the content is rental content, the validity period extraction unit 246 acquires validity period information indicating the start time and end time of the validity period from the license information, and extracts the validity period information. It is supplied to the validity period processing section 220 .

On the menu screen 400a shown in FIG. 6, expiration date information 406 is displayed in association with the icon image 404. FIG. Therefore, in the process of generating the menu screen 400a, it is only necessary to derive the end time (validity period) of the validity period and, in some cases, the remaining time of the validity period. On the other hand, on the detailed information screen 420, which will be described later with reference to FIG. 9, the start time of the valid period and the remaining time of the valid period are displayed in addition to the end time of the valid period. Since the process of deriving this time information is executed in the effective period processing unit 220, in order to omit redundant description in this specification, the effective period processing unit 220 derives the start time, the end time, and the remaining time. The processing to be performed will be described.

In the effective period processing unit 220, when the content is not reproduced, the start time derivation unit 224 derives the start time of the effective period of the content from the supplied effective period information. Also, the end time derivation unit 226 derives the end time of the effective period of the content from the supplied effective period information. The start time and end time derived here match the start time and end time included in the validity period information. The remaining time deriving unit 228 calculates, in principle, the remaining time from the current time to the end time.

In the content purchase system 1, as described above, once the content is reproduced, the end time of the effective period of the content is reset to 24 hours after the reproduction time. That is, after the content is reproduced, the first reproduction time becomes the starting time of the valid period, and 24 hours later becomes the ending time of the valid period. The effective period derivation process will be described below with reference to FIG.

FIG. 7 is a time chart for explaining the effective period derivation process. In FIGS. 7(a) to 7(e), NOW indicates the point in time when the validity period is derived (hereinafter referred to as the current time). The effective period derivation process is performed each time the display screen displaying the time information is switched. Assume that the start time included in the effective period information is 1:30 PM on June 3rd and the end time is 1:30 PM on June 17th.

FIG. 7(a) shows a state in which the current time is earlier than the start time included in the validity period information. At this time, the user cannot view the content. The start time derivation section 224 sets the start time included in the validity period information as the start time of the validity period, and the end time derivation section 226 sets the end time included in the validity period information as the end time of the validity period. The remaining time derivation unit 228 sets the time from the end time to the start time as the remaining time.
Start Time June 3rd 1:30PM
End Time June 17th 1:30PM
14 days left

FIG. 7(b) shows a state in which the current time is later than the start time included in the validity period information and the content has not yet been reproduced. Since the content has not been played back, the start time derivation unit 224 sets the start time included in the validity period information as the start time of the validity period, and the end time derivation unit 226 sets the end time included in the validity period information as the valid period. Set as the end time of the period. The remaining time deriving unit 228 sets the time from the end time to the current time as the remaining time.
Start Time June 3rd 1:30PM
End Time June 17th 1:30PM
11 days left

FIG. 7(c) shows a state in which the first playback is performed and the current time is within 24 hours after the first playback. Referring to FIG. 5 , when decoding unit 310 decodes and reproduces the content using the license, reproduction time writing unit 320 writes initial reproduction time information to key file 306 . When the validity period processing unit 220 is started at the current time, the reproduction time information acquisition unit 222 acquires the first reproduction time information from the key file 306 corresponding to the license, and outputs it to the start time derivation unit 224 and the end time derivation unit 226 supply. When the start time derivation unit 224 receives the initial reproduction time information, it sets the time as the start time of the validity period. When the end time derivation unit 226 receives the first reproduction time information, it sets the time after a predetermined time, here 24 hours after the time, as the end time of the validity period. If the time 24 hours after the first playback time exceeds the end time included in the validity period information, the end time is set to the end time included in the license information. The remaining time deriving unit 228 sets the time from the end time to the current time as the remaining time.
Start Time June 9th 3:00 PM
End Time June 10, 3:00 PM
Remaining time 17 hours 30 minutes

FIG. 7(d) shows a state in which the first playback is performed and the current time is later than the end time. The start time derivation unit 224 sets the first reproduction time as the start time of the validity period, and the end time derivation unit 226 sets 24 hours after the first reproduction time as the end time of the validity period. The remaining time deriving unit 228 determines that the current time is later than the end time, so that it is "expired".
Start Time June 9th 3:00 PM
End Time June 10, 3:00 PM
Remaining time expired

FIG. 7(e) shows a state in which the end time has passed without any reproduction. The remaining time deriving unit 228 determines that the current time is later than the end time, so that it is "expired".
Start Time June 3rd 1:30PM
End Time June 17th 1:30PM
Remaining time expired

Returning to FIG. 5, the effective period processing unit 220 performs processing related to the effective period as described above. As described above, the start time derivation unit 224 does not need to function in the generation process of the menu screen 400a because the start time of the valid period is not required. The end time derived by the end time deriving section 226 and the remaining time derived by the remaining time deriving section 228 are supplied to the rental mark processing section 260 , and the end time is also supplied to the display processing section 340 .

In the rental mark processing unit 260, an expiration date determination unit 262 receives the end time and determines whether or not the end time (expiration date) has already passed at the current time. This determination may be made from the remaining time.

Upon receiving the determination result by the expiration date determination unit 262, the rental mark determination unit 264 determines a rental mark to be assigned to the rental content. Specifically, the rental mark determination unit 264 assigns a first rental mark to rental content whose expiration date has not yet arrived, and assigns a second rental mark to rental content whose expiration date has passed. On the menu screen 400a shown in FIG. 6, a rental mark 410a is assigned to rental content with the title "AirplaneAAA" whose expiration date has not yet expired, and a rental mark 410a is assigned to rental content with the title "BirthdayDDD" whose expiration date has passed. Mark 410b is assigned. The assigned rental marks are supplied to the rental mark placement unit 356, which places the rental marks 410 adjacent to or superimposed on the icon images 404, respectively. On the menu screen 400 a , the rental mark placement unit 356 places the rental mark 410 along the left edge of the icon image 404 .

The rental mark placement unit 356 adds the rental mark 410a to the icon image 404a of the rental content whose expiration date has not yet arrived, so that the user can easily confirm the existence of the rental content that can be viewed. , you can get incentives for watching content.

In addition, the rental mark placing unit 356 adds the rental mark 410b to the icon image 404b of the rental content whose expiration date has passed, so that the user can easily confirm the presence of unviewable rental content. As a result, it is possible to provide an opportunity to increase the free space of the storage device 300, such as by deleting the content file.

Note that the rental mark determination unit 264 may assign different rental marks to rental content that remains before the expiration date for a predetermined time or more and rental content that is less than the predetermined time until the expiration date. For example, it is preferable to immediately notify the user of the existence of rental content whose expiration date is less than 24 hours. Therefore, rental content that has 24 hours or more left before the expiration date may be assigned a still image rental mark, while rental content that is less than 24 hours may be assigned a moving image rental mark. For example, the user's attention can be called by assigning a blinking rental mark. Also, it is possible to call the user's attention by allocating a conspicuous rental mark such as a luminescent color.

Upon receiving the end time from the end time derivation unit 226, the time information placement unit 358 places the end time (expiration date) information 406 on the menu screen 400a in association with the icon image 404. FIG. For example, by arranging the expiration date information 406 at the same height as the icon image 404 , it becomes clear that the information is related to the icon image 404 . On the menu screen 400, expiration date information 406b that has already passed and expiration date information 406a that has not yet arrived are arranged in association with icon images 404b and 404a, respectively.

FIG. 8 shows another example of the menu screen 400b displayed on the output device 12. As shown in FIG. In this example, the folder structure has a hierarchical structure. In the menu screen 400b, the rental content is included in the folders below the top folder. Specifically, the rental content is stored in the folder corresponding to the folder image 408a. The rental mark determination unit 264 assigns a rental mark to the folder containing the rental content, and the rental mark placement unit 356 places the rental mark 410c near or superimposed on the folder image 408a. The rental mark determination unit 264 also assigns a rental mark to a folder positioned at the highest level of folders containing rental content in the hierarchical structure. The rental mark placement unit 356 places the assigned rental mark 410d near the folder image 402c or superimposed on the folder image 402c.

When rental content is included in the lower layers of folders having a hierarchical structure, the user cannot check the rental content unless the folders in the hierarchical structure are opened in order. Therefore, by adding the rental mark 410 to the folder images in each stage of the hierarchical structure, the user can easily confirm the existence of the rental content.

FIG. 9 shows an example of a detailed information screen 420 displayed on the output device 12. As shown in FIG. When the user performs a predetermined operation on the remote controller 40 on the menu screen 400a, the detailed information screen generation instruction unit 204 issues a detailed information screen generation instruction, and the detailed information screen generation unit 370 generates content information and valid A detailed information screen 420 including period information is generated. Upon receiving the detailed information screen generation instruction, the effective period processing unit 220 performs effective period processing, derives the start time, the end time, and the remaining time, and supplies them to the detailed information screen generation unit 370 .

The thumbnail image display unit 372 generates a thumbnail image 412 of content and arranges it at a predetermined position on the detailed information screen 420 . For example, thumbnail image display unit 372 may acquire icon image 404a and rental mark 410a from menu screen 400a and generate thumbnail image 412 . Also, the thumbnail image display unit 372 may acquire a predetermined image from the content file 302 and generate the thumbnail image 412 . The acquired image may be a still image or a moving image. Further, the thumbnail image display unit 372 may refer to the VIDEO folder of the hard disk drive 34 to search for video content and extract icon images to be displayed as thumbnail images in the same manner as the icon image processing unit 352 . At this time, the rental mark placement unit 356 adds a rental mark to the thumbnail image 412 .

The owner information placement unit 374 places the owner information 414 in the detailed information screen 420 in association with the thumbnail image 412 . Owner information placement unit 374 acquires the user ID as owner information 414 . The content information placement unit 376 places the content information 418 in the detailed information screen 420 in association with the thumbnail image 412 . Content information placement unit 376 acquires content information 418 from content file 302 . The time information arrangement unit 378 associates the start time, end time, and remaining time supplied from the validity period processing unit 220 with the thumbnail image 412 and arranges them in the detailed information screen 420 . Note that the time information placement unit 378 may place the number of times played in the detailed information screen 420 . Note that the thumbnail image 412 is arranged in the upper center, and the owner information 414, the time information 416, and the content information 418 are arranged below the thumbnail image 412. FIG.

When the remaining time is less than a predetermined time, for example, less than 48 hours, the time information placement unit 378 may switch the display format of the remaining time from day to hour. When the remaining time is short, by displaying the content in units of time, it is possible to increase the incentive to view the content. In addition, when the remaining time is less than the predetermined time, the time information placement unit 378 may display the remaining time in a different color from other displays to make it stand out, or use a different font for the display. You may make it stand out by making it different from the display of .

By viewing the detailed information screen 420, the user can confirm the start time of the validity period and the remaining time of the validity period. Menu screens 400a and 400b show the expiration date, but do not show the start time and remaining time. By looking at the start time, the user can confirm whether the content has already been played. In particular, when the rental mark for unreproduced content and the rental mark for reproduced content are the same, by presenting the start time, it is possible to know that a user other than himself/herself has viewed the content. In addition, the user can confirm that the content should be viewed as soon as possible by checking the remaining time. In particular, if the rental mark is not changed according to the remaining time, presenting the remaining time can increase incentives for content viewing.

When license information of multiple users exists for the same content, the time information placement unit 378 places the time information 416 of each license owner on the detailed information screen 420 . As described above, since the file name of the license file 304 is created using the content ID, the time information placement unit 378 refers to the folder identified by each user ID included in the LICENSE folder shown in FIG. to search for the license file 304 for the same content. As a result, the time information placement unit 378 can acquire the license file 304 of the same content held by a user other than the logged-in user.

At this time, the start time derivation unit 224 derives the start time of the valid period for each license owner according to the valid period information included in the license information of each license owner or the initial processing time at which the content was first reproduced. The end time derivation unit 226 derives the end time of the validity period for each license owner according to the validity period information included in the license information or the initial processing time at which the content was first reproduced. As a result, time information 416 of a plurality of license holders is arranged on the detailed information screen 420 . The owner information placement unit 374 also identifies the license owner name based on the USER_ID folder name in which the license file 304 is stored, and places it above the time information 416 as the owner information 414 . As a result, in the set of owner information 414 and time information 416, information on the logged-in user is placed at the top, and sets of information on a plurality of other license owners are arranged below it. As a result, the logged-in user can recognize that a plurality of pieces of license information exist for one content, and can confirm whether the content can be viewed.

When the user issues a playback instruction for the icon image 404 on the menu screen 400a or 400b, the playback instruction unit 206 issues a playback instruction for the content corresponding to the icon image 404a. The reproduction control unit 280 controls reproduction processing of the content when receiving a reproduction instruction.

The use license specifying unit 282 determines whether the license of the user who instructed the icon image 404 to reproduce is valid, and if not valid, specifies the valid license of another user as the license to be used. Whether or not the license is valid is determined by whether or not the expiration date has already passed. For example, when the icon image 404b is moved to the focus area and playback is instructed, it is determined that the license for the video content with the title "BirthdayDDD" is not valid because the expiration date of the content corresponding to the icon image 404b has already passed. be done. If there is no other user's license information corresponding to the same content, that is, if there is no other user who has downloaded this content, the usage license specifying unit 282 determines that reproduction is impossible.

Upon receiving the reproduction instruction, the end time derivation unit 226 derives the expiration date and supplies it to the usage license identification unit 282 . The usage license identification unit 282 compares the derived expiration date with the current time to determine whether the license is valid. In the content purchase system 1, since it is possible to reproduce the content downloaded by other users, even if the user's own license is not valid, if the other user's license is valid, the user can view the content. is possible. The decoding instruction unit 284 uses the license specified by the usage license specifying unit 282 to instruct the decoding unit 310 to decode the content. The decoding unit 310 reads the content file 302, acquires key information from the key file 306, and decodes the content file.

Note that the license to be used specifying unit 282 may specify, as the license to be used, the license whose expiration date comes earliest among other valid licenses. As a result, it is possible to realize a highly convenient rental service for users who share the information processing device 10 without hastening the expiry date of the device as a whole.

Note that when the use license specifying unit 282 specifies another user's license as the license to be used, the confirmation screen generation unit 360 displays a confirmation screen for asking the user whether it is okay to start processing the content. may be generated.

FIG. 10 shows an example of the confirmation screen 430. As shown in FIG. When the user issues a playback instruction to the icon image 404b, the video content titled "BirthdayDDD" can be played back using another user's license. It is also conceivable that they are not. Therefore, by presenting the confirmation screen 430, the user can avoid a situation in which another person's license is used by mistake.

Note that the license to be used identifying unit 282 may identify, as the license to be used, the license with the earliest expiration date, regardless of whether it is the license of the logged-in user or the license of another user. . As a result, it is possible to realize a highly convenient rental service for users who share the information processing device 10 without hastening the expiry date of the device as a whole.

Note that when the icon image 404b of the expired rental content is instructed to be reproduced, if there is no valid license of another user, the purchase screen generation unit 380 generates the purchase screen of the content. You may As a result, the user who wants to view the content can easily repurchase the content. When the usage license identification unit 282 determines that there is no license available for the content instructed to be reproduced, the purchase instruction unit (not shown) sends the content distribution server 18 a video of "BirthdayDDD". A request to acquire the content license file 304 is transmitted. This acquisition request includes information for identifying "BirthdayDDD". Upon receiving the request to acquire the license file 304 of the content “BirthdayDDD”, the content distribution server 18 generates configuration data of the content purchase screen and transmits the data to the information processing apparatus 10 . The purchase screen generator 380 receives this configuration data and generates a content purchase screen. The user can download the license file 304 by pressing a predetermined button (for example, purchase button) on this purchase screen. At this time, the content file 302 may also be downloaded together. As described above, the user can repurchase the content in a simple procedure by instructing the reproduction of the expired rental content. At this time, the user may be allowed to select whether the purchase form is purchase or rental.

FIG. 11 shows a flowchart of the menu screen display process. Processing for displaying the menu screen 400a shown in FIG. 6 will be described below. When the menu screen generation instruction unit 202 issues a menu screen generation instruction, the icon image processing unit 352 searches for video content by referring to the VIDEO folder of the hard disk drive 34, and specifies the icon image 404 to be displayed (S10). ). At this time, in the license information processing unit 240, the license information acquisition unit 242 checks whether or not the license file 304 of the icon image 404 of the video content to be displayed on the menu screen 400a exists (S12). If the license file 304 exists, the purchase type determination unit 244 determines whether the content is rental content with an expiration date for use based on the purchase type information included in the license information (S14). If it is not rental content (N of S14), icon image processing unit 352 determines icon image 404 indicating the presence of content (S20). On the other hand, if it is rental content (Y of S14), the valid period processing unit 220 derives the valid period of the rental content (S16). The rental mark determination unit 264 determines the rental mark 410 to be displayed from the relationship between the expiration date and the current time (S18). Subsequently, the icon image processing unit 352 determines the icon image of the rental content (S20). The order of the rental mark determination process and the icon image determination process may be changed, or may be performed in parallel. The processing of S16 to S20 is executed for all display targets (N of S22), and when executed for all display targets (Y of S22), the icon image processing section 352 displays the menu screen (S24). At this time, the rental mark placement unit 356 places the rental mark 410 in the vicinity of the icon image 404 of the rental content or superimposed on the icon image 404 .

FIG. 12 shows a flowchart of time information derivation processing. When license information processing section 240 determines that the content is rental content, valid period extracting section 246 acquires valid period information indicating the start time and end time of the valid period from the license information. Then, the valid period information is supplied to the valid period processing unit 220 . The valid period processing unit 220 acquires valid period information (S30). The reproduction time information acquisition unit 222 checks whether the first reproduction time information exists from the key file 306 corresponding to the license (S32), and if there is the first reproduction time information (Y in S32), acquires it (S34), It is supplied to the start time derivation unit 224 and the end time derivation unit 226 . The start time derivation unit 224 and the end time derivation unit 226 derive the start time and end time of the effective period of the content based on the effective period information if there is no initial reproduction time information (N of S32) (S36 ). On the other hand, when the first reproduction time information is acquired, the start time derivation unit 224 and the end time derivation unit 226 calculate the start time and end time of the validity period of the content based on the first reproduction time information and the validity period information. are respectively derived (S36). At this time, the remaining time derivation unit 228 may derive the remaining time of the valid period.

FIG. 13 shows a flow chart of the usage license specifying process. When the user issues a playback instruction for the icon image 404 on the menu screen 400, the playback instruction unit 206 issues a playback instruction for the content corresponding to the icon image 404 (S50). In response to this, the usage license specifying unit 282 determines whether the license of the user who instructed the reproduction of the icon image 404 is valid (S52). license exists (S54). If the license of the user who instructed the reproduction is valid (Y of S52), the user's license is specified as the license to be used for reproduction (S56).

If no other user has a valid license (N of S54), it is determined that there is no valid license for the content instructed to be reproduced. At this time, a content purchase screen may be displayed. On the other hand, if another user has a valid license (Y of S54), the usage license specifying unit 282 specifies that license as a license to be used for reproduction (S56). Note that the license to be used specifying unit 282 may specify, as the license to be used, the license whose expiration date comes earliest among the licenses of other valid license owners.

The present invention has been described above based on the examples. It should be understood by those skilled in the art that this embodiment is merely an example, and that various modifications can be made to combinations of each component and each treatment process, and such modifications are within the scope of the present invention. .

When the icon image 404 in the focus area is instructed to be reproduced, the confirmation screen generation unit 360 may generate a confirmation screen asking whether the reproduction is allowed before the reproduction control unit 280 starts reproduction processing. . In the content purchase system 1, the expiration date is set to 24 hours after playback is started. Therefore, if the content is immediately reproduced in accordance with the reproduction instruction for the icon image 404, it is not preferable if it is an erroneous operation by the user. Therefore, after presenting a confirmation screen and obtaining the user's consent, the decoding unit 310 may be caused to start the decoding process.

If there are multiple pieces of license information for the same content, the end time derivation unit 226 may derive the latest end time. Note that the end time derivation unit 226 may derive the latest end time when valid periods specified by a plurality of pieces of license information overlap each other. In content purchase system 1, content can be viewed regardless of whether the content is owned by the owner or not. By including the derived end time in the menu screen in association, the user can determine that there is still time to spare without forcibly viewing the content when there is no time. In addition, the time information arrangement unit 378 includes the derived time information related to the valid period in the detailed information screen in association with the thumbnail image, so that the user can instantly grasp the license status of the license holder including himself/herself. It becomes possible. For example, on the detailed information screen 420, by displaying time information summarizing the effective periods of multiple licenses immediately below the thumbnail image 412, the user can easily grasp the effective periods derived from the multiple licenses. become.

For example, assume that user A's license validity period is from 6/1 to 6/14, user B's license validity period is from 6/7 to 6/21, and user C's license validity period is from 7/1 to 7/14. . Of these valid periods, the valid periods of user A and user B overlap each other, and the valid periods of user C do not overlap. At this time, the validity period processing unit 220 may derive two validity periods.

That is, as the first effective period, the start time derivation unit 224 derives 6/1 as the start time of the effective period, and the end time derivation unit 226 derives 6/21 as the end time of the effective period. For the second valid period, the start time derivation unit 224 derives 7/1 as the start time of the valid period, and the end time derivation unit 226 derives 7/14 as the end time of the valid period. The time information regarding these two valid periods may be displayed in the area immediately below the thumbnail image 412 on the detailed information screen 420, with the first valid period displayed on the top and the second valid period displayed on the bottom. It is preferable to arrange the time information such that the time information with the earliest expiry date is placed in the upper stage. The time information may be displayed on the menu screen.

The end time derivation unit 226 may also derive the apparent expiration date by taking into consideration the time required to reproduce the content. Similarly, the remaining time deriving unit 228 may derive the apparent remaining time by taking into consideration the time required to reproduce the content. Specifically, the end time derivation unit 226 derives the time obtained by subtracting the content reproduction time from the end time explained in the embodiment as the end time. Similarly, the remaining time derivation unit 228 derives the time obtained by subtracting the content playback time from the remaining time explained in the embodiment as the remaining time. As a result, the user can be presented with the time at which the content can be completely reproduced, and the user can start viewing the content using that time as a guideline.

REFERENCE SIGNS LIST 1 content purchase system 10 information processing device 12 output device 18 content delivery server 34 hard disk drive 40 remote controller 100 main Controller 200 Instruction generation unit 202 Menu screen generation instruction unit 204 Detailed information screen generation instruction unit 206 Reproduction instruction unit 220 Effective period processing unit 222. Reproduction time information acquisition unit 224 Start time derivation unit 226 End time derivation unit 228 Remaining time derivation unit 240 License information processing unit 242 License information Acquisition unit 244 Purchase form determination unit 246 Validity period extraction unit 260 Rental mark processing unit 262 Validity period determination unit 264 Rental mark determination unit 280. Playback control unit 282 Usage license identification unit 284 Decoding instruction unit 300 Storage device 302 Content file 304 License file 306 Key file , 310 decoding section 320 reproduction time writing section 340 display processing section 350 menu screen generation section 352 icon image processing section 354 folder image Processing unit 356 Rental mark placement unit 358 Time information placement unit 360 Confirmation screen generation unit 370 Detailed information screen generation unit 372 Thumbnail image display unit 374 ... owner information arrangement unit, 376 ... content information arrangement unit, 378 ... time information arrangement unit, 380 ... purchase screen generation unit.

Claims (5)

a menu screen generation unit that generates a menu screen for selecting content;
A detailed information screen generation unit that generates a detailed information screen showing information about content, wherein
The menu screen generation part is
In the menu screen, it has a function of displaying a plurality of folders in a predetermined direction and a function of arranging and displaying the icons of the contents contained in the folder selected from among the plurality of folders,
If the rental content icon is selected on the menu screen,
The detailed information screen generation unit
On the detailed information screen, display the rental period of the content and the time that can be played within a predetermined time from the start of the first playback .
An information processing device characterized by: The menu screen generation unit arranges a plurality of folders in a predetermined direction for selecting music content and video content.
The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, characterized by: The detailed information screen generation unit displays a thumbnail image of the content on the detailed information screen.
3. The information processing apparatus according to claim 2 , characterized by: A method of displaying information about content, comprising:
displaying a plurality of folders in a predetermined direction on a menu screen;
displaying, on a menu screen, icons of contents included in a folder selected from among a plurality of folders side by side;
a step of displaying, on a detailed information screen, the rental period of the content and that the content can be played back within a predetermined time from the start of playback for the first time when the rental content icon is selected on the menu screen;
A content information display method characterized by comprising: to the computer,
A function to display multiple folders in a predetermined direction on the menu screen;
On the menu screen, a function to display the icons of the contents contained in the folder selected from among multiple folders side by side;
a function of displaying, on a detailed information screen, the rental period of the content and that the content can be played back within a predetermined time from the start of the first playback when the icon of the rental content is selected on the menu screen;
program to make it happen.

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