JPH08228331A - Video signal reception system and teminal equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To prevent a copyright from being violated owing to unauthorized copying by displaying identification information intermittently at an unfixed position on a screen. CONSTITUTION: A center device C, when going to prohibit recording on terminal equipment T1-Tn, sends a command signal to display the identification information of the terminal equipment on the screen of the terminal equipment corresponding to the kind of a video signal to be transmitted. The terminal equipment stores the identification information allocated proper to its own terminal equipment in a memory device, and displays the identification information of its own terminal equipment on the corner of the screen, etc., when receiving the command signal. Therefore, when a video tape on which the video signal is recorded is desired to be sold, the identification information of the terminal equipment is recorded on an image. A recorder is discriminated by such screen, which prevents the copyright from being violated.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a device for preventing illegal copying of video.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, movies are transmitted in a video signal receiving system such as a CATV system. Although this movie is received by each terminal device, the movie received by each terminal device may be recorded, and the recorded video tape may be illegally sold.

[0003]

Although this act is a copyright infringement, it is difficult to identify the manufacturer of this video tape. The present invention has been made to solve the above problems, and it is an object of the present invention to prevent copyright infringement and prevent unauthorized production and sale of videotapes.

[0004]

The structure of a first invention for solving the above-mentioned problems is a video signal receiving system comprising a center device for transmitting a video signal and a terminal device for receiving the video signal. In addition, a command means for transmitting a command signal for instructing whether or not to display the identification information of the terminal device on the screen of the terminal device is provided, and the identification information uniquely assigned to the terminal device is stored in the terminal device. A storage means and a display means for reading the identification information from the storage means when the instruction signal is received from the instruction means of the center device and displaying the identification information on the screen are provided.

The configuration of the second invention is that the display means displays the identification information at predetermined time intervals or indefinite time intervals. Further, the configuration of the third invention is such that the display means sequentially moves and displays the identification information to a predetermined plurality of positions or a plurality of indefinite positions on the screen. Further, a fourth invention is a terminal device used in the system of the first invention, and the fifth and sixth inventions are characterized by the display method of the identification information in the terminal device similarly to the second and third inventions. It has a.

[0006]

When the center device wants to prohibit recording on the terminal device according to the type of video signal to be transmitted, the center device issues a command to display the identification information of the terminal device on the screen of the terminal device. Send a signal. The terminal device stores the identification information uniquely assigned to its own terminal device in the storage device, and when the above-mentioned command signal is received, the identification information of its own terminal device is displayed in a corner of the screen or the like. .

Therefore, when this video signal is recorded on a video tape for sale, the received identification information of the terminal device is recorded in the image of the video tape. Therefore, by looking at the screen of the sold video tape, it is possible to easily discriminate who recorded where, and copyright infringement is prevented.

Further, if the identification information is displayed on the terminal device at predetermined time intervals or indefinite time intervals, or sequentially at a plurality of different positions or a plurality of indefinite positions on the screen,
It is extremely difficult for the person who illegally records the image to delete and correct the identification information. Further, the quality of the image is not deteriorated even for a person who is watching the image receiver of the terminal device.

[0009]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS First Embodiment An embodiment of the present invention is shown in FIG. FIG. 1 is a diagram showing the overall configuration of a video signal receiving system. The center device C is connected to the coaxial transmission line L, and the coaxial transmission line L is connected to a plurality of terminal devices T1 to Tn. The center device C includes an antenna 11 and an antenna 1 for receiving radio waves transmitted from a transmitting antenna of a television station, a broadcasting satellite, a communication satellite, etc.
It has an amplifier 12 for amplifying the output signal of No. 1, a retransmission device 13 for allocating the signal amplified by the amplifier 12 to a predetermined frequency band of the coaxial cable L, a mixer 14, and a transmitter 15. By these devices, the received spatial radio wave video signal is frequency-converted into a predetermined channel of the coaxial cable L and transmitted to each terminal.

Further, the center device C sends a command signal (hereinafter referred to as "ID display command") for instructing the terminal device to display the identification information (ID) such as the identification number, so that the CPU 16 and the operation panel can be operated. 17, a modulator 18 is connected. The operation panel 17 commands to display the channel number and the ID on the screen of the channel number. When the command is given from the operation panel 17, the CPU 1
In response to the command, 6 is a binary code ID display including a channel number for displaying the ID on the screen and a flag for instructing whether to display the ID, as shown in FIG. Generate a command. The ID display command is sent to the modulator 18, and the modulator 18 modulates the high frequency signal and frequency-converts it into the signal of the control channel, and then the high frequency command signal is coaxially transmitted through the mixer 14 and the transmitter 15. Send to cable L.

The terminal device is constructed as shown in FIG. The modulation signal of the control channel of the transmission line L is the modulator / demodulator 34.
And is converted into binary code data. The data is input to the microcomputer (MPU) 35 and decoded by the MPU 35. The MPU 35 is connected to an ID memory 36 that stores identification information (ID) composed of an identification number unique to the terminal station and a channel selection switch 37 for selecting a video signal.

On the other hand, a tuner 31 for receiving a video signal is connected to the transmission line L, and a predetermined channel designated by the MPU 35 is selected according to the output from the channel selection switch 37. , A video signal of that channel, and a two-channel audio signal (right-left audio signal) are output. The video signal is demodulated by the video demodulator 32 into a baseband video signal, and the video signal is sent to the on-screen IC 33.
Is output to

When the MPU 35 receives the ID display command from the control channel of the transmission line L, it reads the identification information (ID) from the ID memory 36, and the identification information (ID).
Is output to the on-screen IC 33. The on-screen IC 33 inputs the identification information (ID) from the MPU 35 and puts the identification information (ID) at a predetermined position (corner or the like) on the screen.
The video signals are combined so that is displayed as a video. The combined video signal is output from the video terminal V. The video signal output from the video terminal V is input to a television receiver or a video recording device (not shown). Therefore, the identification information (ID) is displayed in the corner of the screen or the like in the video recorded by the video recording device. As a result, even if the video tape recorded by this terminal device is sold, it is possible to immediately determine which terminal device the video tape was recorded on, so it is possible to prevent the sale of the recorded video tape which is a copyright infringement. To be done.

Next, the operation procedure of the MPU 35 for displaying the above identification information (ID) on the screen will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. When the channel UP signal or the channel DOWN signal is input from the channel tuning switch 37, these signals act as interrupt signals, and a program (not shown) for setting the receiving channel is activated with priority and the receiving channel is Can be switched.

The program shown in FIG. 3 operates as a background job of the above channel switching program. In step 100, control channel data is read from the modulator / demodulator 34. Next, in step 102, it is read whether or not the received data is an ID display command. If the command is not the ID display command, the process returns to step 100 and waits for the next data input. When it is determined that the received data is the ID display command, the process proceeds to step 104, and it is determined whether the current reception channel number of the terminal station is equal to the channel number specified by the ID display command. To be judged. If not equal, step 1
The process returns to 00 and waits for the next data input. or,
If the channel number specified by the ID display command is equal to the current reception channel number, steps 106 and thereafter are executed.

At step 106, it is judged if the parameter p is equal to the predetermined value A + 1. Here, the parameter p indicates the display position when the identification information (ID) is displayed on the screen. The value of the parameter p is repeatedly increased in the range of 0 to A in order to periodically and cyclically move the display position. If p ≠ A + 1, since the maximum p value A is not exceeded, the value of the parameter p is updated by 1 in step 108, and p = A +
If 1, p has exceeded the maximum value A and is set to 0 in step 110.

Next, in step 112, a timer t ₁ is set to a predetermined non-display time T ₁ to determine the non-display time.
Is set to Then, in step 114, the timer t ₁ is decreased by 1, the timer t ₁ at step 116
It is determined whether or not the value of has reached 0. That is, when the non-display time T _{1 has} elapsed, in step 118, the identification information (I
D) is read.

Next, at step 120, control data is output to the on-screen IC 33 so that the identification information (ID) is displayed at the position of the parameter p on the screen. The on-screen IC 33 inputs this control data, synthesizes identification information (ID) at a predetermined position p on the screen,
The combined video signal is output to the video terminal V.

Next, in step 122, the timer t ₂ is set to a predetermined display time T ₂ to determine the display time. Then, in step 124, the timer t ₂ is set to 1
Then, in step 126, it is determined whether or not the value of the timer t ₂ has reached 0. That is, when the display time T _{2 has} elapsed, in step 128, the control data is output to the on-screen IC 33 so as not to display the identification information (ID) on the screen. On-screen IC
33 inputs this control data and controls so as not to display the identification information (ID) which has been displayed for a predetermined time T ₂ at a predetermined value on the screen. Then, the process returns to step 100, and the above output is repeatedly executed.

As a result, for example, the identification information (ID) of the terminal device is set to "12345", the display time T _{2 is set} to 10 seconds,
When the non-display time is 5 minutes and A = 6, the display of the identification information (ID) on the screen is as shown in FIG. That is,
The identification information (ID) "12345" is displayed for a display time of 10 seconds at the position on the screen shown in (1) of FIG. Next, 5
After a pause for 5 minutes, the identification information (ID) "12345" is displayed at the position shown in (2) of FIG. Similarly, as shown in (3) to (6) of FIG. 5, a 10-second display and a 5-minute pause display are sequentially performed,
The identification information (ID) "12345" sequentially moves on the screen.
After all, as shown in (1) to (6) of FIG. 5, intermittent movement display of the identification information (ID) "12345" is performed.

As described above, in the terminal device, since the identification information (ID) "12345" is intermittently displayed on the screen at a position where it is not fixed, when the received image is recorded by the video recording device, The identification information (ID) "1234
Editing that intentionally deletes "5" becomes extremely difficult. Therefore, copyright infringement due to illegal copying is effectively prevented.

Note that the display order of the identification information (ID) "12345" shown in (1) to (6) of FIG. 5 is an example, and as shown in the figure, the upper left and right, the middle left and right, and the lower left and right are ordered. Without
Other orders may be used. Further, the display place may be an arbitrary number other than the six places.

Second Embodiment The configurations of the center device and the terminal device are similar to those of the first embodiment. In the second embodiment, the display time interval of the identification information (ID) is an indefinite time and the display position is an indefinite position, and the periodicity of the display time and the display position is eliminated.

Steps 200 to 204 in FIG. 6 are steps 100 to 104 in FIG. 3 and steps 208 to 22 in FIG.
4 is the same as steps 112 to 128 in FIG. In this embodiment, in step 206, the identification information (ID)
Position p on the screen, non-display time T ₁ , display time T ₂
Are respectively generated by different random number generators. As a result, the identification information (ID) “12
The display position of "345" is a random position, for example, as shown in FIG. Further, the length of display time and the length of non-display time also change.

As another modification, only the display time may be fixed in the above embodiment. Further, the display positions may be fixed at, for example, about 6 places, and only the display order may be changed irregularly. Furthermore, although it is preferable that the irregularity is perfect, there may be regularity in a long period.

As described above, if the display cycle or the display position is irregular, it becomes extremely difficult to erase the identification information (ID) when the video is recorded by the terminal device, and the illegal recording is performed. And it becomes possible to prevent illegal sales. In all the above examples, the identification information (I
Although D) is shown as a number as an example, it may be a symbol or a combination of a symbol and a number as long as each terminal device can be specified. Alternatively, each terminal device may be grouped and unique identification information (ID) may be assigned to each group. The random numbers can be generated by using a method using a random number table, a random number generator using chaos theory, a shift register using chaos theory, and other well-known methods.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a video signal receiving system according to a specific embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a terminal device of the system of the embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing a processing procedure of an MPU of the terminal device of the embodiment system.

FIG. 4 is a configuration diagram showing a configuration of an ID display command.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram showing a state of displaying identification information on the display screen of the terminal device.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing a processing procedure of an MPU of the terminal device of the second embodiment.

FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram showing how identification information is displayed on the display screen of the terminal device according to the second embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

 C ... Center device T1 to Tn ... Terminal device 31 ... Tuner 32 ... Video demodulator 33 ... On-screen IC 35 ... MPU 36 ... ID memory

Claims (6)

[Claims] 1. A video signal receiving system comprising a center device for transmitting a video signal and a terminal device for receiving the video signal, wherein the center device displays identification information of the terminal device on a screen of the terminal device. A command means for transmitting a command signal for instructing whether or not is provided, the terminal device stores the identification information uniquely assigned to the terminal device, and the command signal from the command device of the center device. A video signal receiving system, comprising: a display means for reading the identification information from the storage means when the information is received and displaying the identification information on a screen. 2. The video signal receiving system according to claim 1, wherein the display means displays the identification information at predetermined time intervals or indefinite time intervals. 3. The video signal receiving system according to claim 1, wherein the display unit sequentially moves the identification information to a predetermined plurality of positions or a plurality of indefinite positions on the screen and displays the identification information. 4. A center device for transmitting a command signal for instructing whether or not to display the identification information of the terminal device on the screen of the terminal device and a video signal, and a terminal device for receiving the video signal. In a terminal device used in a video signal receiving system, a storage means for storing identification information uniquely assigned to the terminal device, and the storage means for receiving the command signal from the command means of the center device. A terminal device, comprising: display means for reading identification information and displaying the identification information on a screen. 5. The terminal device according to claim 4, wherein the display unit displays the identification information at predetermined time intervals or indefinite time intervals. 6. The terminal device according to claim 4, wherein the display unit sequentially moves the identification information to a plurality of predetermined positions or a plurality of indefinite positions on the screen and displays the identification information.