JPS63157592A - Unidirectional addressable broadcast system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To prevent the duplicated write of an incoming monetary data by converting an incoming monetary code automatically and storing it as a duplicate write preventing incoming monetary code when the incoming monetary data of one as the same content is sent for several number of times. CONSTITUTION:A broadcast television signal sent via a cable 11 is led to a tuner 14 via distributed 12, 13. The tuner 14 selects a broadcast channel corresponding to a channel selection signal P1 from a CPU 100, frequency-converts the channel signal into an intermediate frequency signal and applies it to a video detector 15. In viewing a charged program, an input data is sent to each terminal equipment and extracted by a data extraction circuit 21. In this case, the incoming data corresponding to the transferred amount is extracted by an incoming monetary data extraction circuit 33. Then it is compared with a duplicated write prevention incoming moneary code by an incoming monetary code processing section 500, and when they are coincident, it is informed to a command processing circuit 300.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Object of the Invention] (Industrial Application Field) The present invention relates to a unidirectional addressable broadcasting system that allows pay programs to be viewed only by specific users when they are broadcast.

(Prior art) For example, in the case of a broadcasting system that broadcasts programs via satellite relay and has difficulty in two-way communication between the broadcasting center and user terminals,
Although it is possible to transmit and store downlink data in the storage means of the user terminal, conversely, it is not possible to transmit uplink data from the user terminal. When broadcasting paid programs in such broadcasting systems, a major challenge is to manage the fees paid in advance by users in relation to the fees spent by the users for viewing the paid programs. becomes.

As a charge management method for the above-mentioned unidirectional addressable broadcasting system, there are methods described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Nos. 81-108273 and 1982-129989. This disclosed technology is a method in which the broadcasting center specifies the address of the terminal of the user who has transferred the fee, and stores deposit data corresponding to the transferred amount in the balance storage circuit of this terminal. When the user views a pay program, data corresponding to the program fee is subtracted from the balance storage circuit. Furthermore, the balance data value of the balance storage circuit is located.

If the value falls below a certain value, the user will receive a warning or display to that effect. This allows the user to transfer the fee in advance to a predetermined transfer destination, and the broadcasting center confirms the transfer fee and transmits the payment data to the corresponding user terminal.

(Problems to be Solved by the Invention) In the above-mentioned broadcasting system, when transmitting deposit data to a specific user terminal, the deposit data is transmitted together with the user's identification code (ID code) for addressability. . When the user terminal matches the ID code with its own unique code, the user terminal stores the deposit data transmitted at the same time in the balance storage circuit.

By the way, in the broadcasting system that transmits downlink data as described above, it is assumed that the user terminal may not be able to receive the downlink data due to the influence of noise on the transmission route, so the same downlink data is transmitted several times. Transmission is performed. However, if such a method is adopted and the above deposit data is transmitted, the deposit data will be added to the balance storage circuit of the user terminal by the number of times it is sent, on the terminal that normally receives the downlink data. , and deposit data corresponding to an amount greater than the transfer amount will be stored.

Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a unidirectional addressable broadcasting system that can prevent double writing of deposit data as described above.

[Structure of the Invention] (Means for solving the problem of m points) This invention allows a broadcasting center to specify an address for a user's terminal through a broadcasting medium when the user transfers a fee to a predetermined recipient. At the same time, in a unidirectional addressable broadcasting system that transmits payment data corresponding to the contract amount to be stored in the balance storage means of the terminal, a system that transmits payment data corresponding to the deposit data and controls reception of the deposit data. Extract the deposit code, compare this deposit code with the stored double write prevention deposit code, and only if a matching pulse is obtained, add or subtract a certain value to the previous deposit code and create a new double write code. A payment code storage means is provided to create a write-protected payment code and store this new double-write prevention payment code. On the other hand, the balance storage means extracts the deposit data and stores balance data obtained by adding the deposit data and data corresponding to the balance only when the matching pulse is obtained. This prevents the deposit data from being re-added and stored in the balance storage means when the deposit code and deposit data having the same content are transmitted successively.

(Function) By the above means, the deposit code is effectively used, and the deposit code storage means is able to detect whether the deposit code and deposit data have been successfully received at least once when the same deposit code and deposit data are transmitted several times. For example, since the deposit code is automatically converted and stored as a deposit code to prevent double writing, the system will not respond to subsequent deposit codes with the same content, and double writing of deposit data is prevented.

(Example) Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 shows an embodiment of the present invention, which is applied to, for example, a unidirectional addressable cable television system.

First, we will explain the normal television reception function. Broadcast television signals transmitted via cable 11 are guided to tuner 14 via distributors 12,13. The tuner 14 receives a tuning signal P1 from the CPU 100.
A broadcast channel corresponding to the channel signal is selected, the frequency of this channel signal is converted into an intermediate frequency signal, and the signal is supplied to the video detector 15. If the output video signal of the video detector 15 has been scrambled, it is restored to the original signal by a descrambler 16 and supplied to a remodulator 17. The remodulator 17 converts the baseband video signal into a high frequency signal of a vacant channel of the television receiver 18, for example, the second or fifth channel, and supplies this to the antenna terminal of the television receiver 18.

If the program on the reception channel is paid, the descrambler 16 can restore the scrambled signal to the original signal using the descrambling key signal Ki from the video controller 200. The channel selection is determined by the user operating the input device 400, and at this time the CPU 100 uses the channel selection data in the channel selection data memory 19. Tuning data memory 19
The program code of the selected channel and paid/free data indicating whether or not this program is paid are also stored. Therefore, when the CPU 100 determines that the program on the selected channel is paid, the video controller 2
00, the descramble command signal (control signal P2
) give a signal.

If the program on the receiving channel is free, the descrambler 16 does not perform a descrambling operation and passes the video signal as is.

When viewing a paid program, the user must pay a viewing fee, and this system employs a method in which the fee is paid in advance to a predetermined recipient. In other words, the user transfers the fee to, for example, a predetermined bank account, and in exchange, the deposit data corresponding to the transferred amount is stored in the balance storage means on the terminal side. When the user views a pay program, the balance data in the balance storage means is configured to automatically decrease.

The charge management function will be explained below. When a user transfers the viewing fee to a predetermined account, the broadcasting center uses the downlink data transmission function to transmit deposit data corresponding to the transfer amount to the corresponding user's terminal.

Now, it is assumed that the payment is transferred to the terminal shown in FIG. 1 using the downlink data transmission function.

Downlink data is extracted by a data extraction circuit 21.

The configuration of the downstream data at this time is as shown in FIG. Furthermore, it includes a deposit code a4, a synchronization signal, etc. for preventing double writing of deposit data.

Address data a2 is extracted by the address extraction circuit 22 and supplied to the address comparison circuit 23.

The address comparison circuit 23 compares the extracted address data with unique address data (held in the address setting circuit 20) indicating an address unique to this terminal, and if the two match, gives a matching pulse to the video controller 200. . As a result, the video controller 200 recognizes that this terminal has been accessed and places the CPU 100 in a standby state.

Command a1 is extracted by command extraction circuit 31 and input to command processing circuit 300. Here, the command processing circuit 300 commands the CP to process deposit data.
A command is given to U100.

The deposit code a3 is extracted by the deposit code extraction circuit 32, and the deposit data a4 is extracted by the deposit data extraction circuit 32.

When entering the deposit data processing state, the CPU 100 first selects the comparator 53 of the deposit code processing section 500.
The double writing prevention payment code in the payment code memory 52 is compared with the currently transmitted payment code. As a result, when a match pulse is obtained, this is recognized via the video controller 200, and the command processing circuit 300 is then notified that a match has been obtained between the double write prevention deposit code and the deposit code. . If a match between the double writing prevention deposit code and the deposit code is not obtained within a predetermined time, all extracted data is cleared.

When the double write prevention deposit code and the deposit code match, the command processing circuit 300 switches the switch SWI of the deposit code processing section 500 and the balance data processing section 600,
SW2 is turned on, and the addition/subtraction command signal AS to the balance data processing section 600 is set to low level.

The operation at this time will be explained starting from the deposit code processing section 500. When the switch SW1 is turned on, the double write prevention deposit code that has been stored in the deposit code memory 52 is incremented by, for example, +1 in the adder 54 and becomes a new 2'm write prevention deposit code via the selector 51. It is stored in the deposit code memory 52 as . Therefore, next,
Even if a payment code with the exact same content is transmitted, comparator 5
No coincidence pulse is obtained in 3. Next, in order to obtain a matching pulse, it is necessary for the broadcasting center to send a deposit code with +1 added to it. The broadcasting center will confirm the next transfer by this user before +
1 payment code will be sent.

On the other hand, in the balance data processing section 600, the switch SW
2 is turned on and the addition/subtraction command signal AS is at a low level, the AND circuit 63 is in an off state, and the AND circuit 62 is in an enabled state because the output of the inverter 64 is at a high level. Therefore, the balance data in the balance memory 66 and the newly sent deposit data are added by the adder 61, and the total amount is sent to the balance memory 66 via the OR circuit 65.
is memorized.

Further, in the balance data processing section 600, when the user views a fee program, viewing fee data corresponding to the viewing fee is subtracted from the balance data in the balance memory 66. That is, when the user starts watching a pay program, the video controller 200 starts the presettable timer 41. The presettable timer 41 outputs a pulse for each basic unit time of a pay program, reads out data from the unit price latch circuit 42, and supplies it to the subtracter 67 of the balance data processing section 600. Also, at this time, the command processing circuit 300
The addition/subtraction command signal AS is set to high level. Therefore, in the subtracter 67, the fee data per unit time of the pay program is subtracted from the balance data in the balance memory 66, and the resulting balance data is converted to new balance data via the AND circuit 63 and the OR circuit 65. It is stored in the balance memory 66 as . In this way, data corresponding to the unit price is subtracted from the balance data each time a unit of time passes while the user is viewing a pay program. The presettable timer 41 can have its preset value varied, and can shorten or shorten the unit time interval for generating output pulses.
On the contrary, it can be made longer, and this can be set through commands depending on the price of the program. Furthermore, the data value to be latched into the unit price latch circuit 42 can be increased or decreased depending on the price of the program. Furthermore, by combining the preset value of the presettable timer 41 and the data value of the unit price latch circuit 42, it is possible to increase the variable range of the fee structure deducted per unit time. For example, if the unit price latch circuit 42 is at the maximum price of a full count (all 1s) and you want to raise the price further, you can set a preset value to increase the number of pulses generated by the presettable timer 41.

Furthermore, if the unit price latch circuit 42 is at the lowest price of 1 and the price is to be further reduced, the preset value may be set so as to reduce the number of pulse generation times of the presettable timer 41. As set data for the presettable timer 41 and unit price latch circuit 42, viewing fee information read by the CPU 100 via the command processing circuit 300 and stored in the channel selection data memory 19 is used.

The operations of the deposit code processing section 500 and the balance data processing section 600 explained above are briefly shown in a flowchart as follows.
The result will be as shown in the figure. That is, steps 81 to S4 indicate the operation of the deposit code processing unit 500, and when the transmitted deposit code and the double write prevention deposit code in the deposit code memory 52 match, +1 is added to the deposit code. and stored as a new double write prevention payment code.

Steps 85 to S9 show operations related to the balance data processing unit 600. In particular, in step S9, each time the unit price data is subtracted from the balance data, it is also checked whether the remaining balance is insufficient. There is. If there is a shortage, the CPU 100 can notify the user through display means, for example.

Additionally, a history memory 700 is utilized in this system. As shown in FIG. 2(B), this history memory 700 stores the channel number, program code, and
Data such as viewing date and time and viewing fee are stored. This history memory 700 can function as a type of receipt.

For example, a user watches a paid program and saves balance data.
If you are mistakenly thinking that you still have a balance even though you have already done so, you can check this by displaying the data in the history memory 700. FIG. 2(C) shows the format of data transmitted to be stored in the channel selection data memory 19 and the format of data stored inside the channel selection data memory 19.

FIG. 2(D) shows a signal format that is transmitted when it is desired to rewrite the double write prevention deposit code stored in the deposit code memory 52. Such rewriting may be required, for example, if the broadcasting center accidentally transmits payment data to a user who has not made the payment. This is also the case when it becomes necessary to initialize or change the deposit code. At this time, the selection circuit 51 is controlled by a command to store the transmitted payment code as is, or the digit to be changed is designated and only that digit is rewritten.

FIG. 4 shows an example of a display using a display function added to this system. The figure (A) shows the display when the deposit processing is performed, the figure (B) shows an example of displaying the balance, the figure (
C) is an example of displaying the contents of the history memory, and (D) of the same figure is an example of display when a deposit error occurs.

Furthermore, FIG. 5 shows an example of the configuration on the broadcasting center side. The broadcast program is output from a video processing circuit 81 and supplied to a transmitter 83 via an output circuit 82. When there is a fee transfer from a user and this is confirmed, a deposit code and deposit data can be transmitted to the corresponding user by operating the input device 80. The identification code of the corresponding user is stored in the user data memory 94. Further, the deposit code is stored in a deposit code memory 91, and the deposit data is stored in a deposit data memory 93. When the corresponding user and deposit amount are specified, the corresponding user's identification code, deposit code, deposit data, command, etc. are assembled by the CPU 90 and supplied to the output circuit 82.

[Effects of the Invention] As explained above, the present invention has the advantage that even if deposit data with the same content is transmitted several times in succession to ensure that the deposit data is stored in the user's terminal, A unidirectional addressable broadcast system that can prevent double writing can be provided.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing one embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram for explaining an example of a data format and an example of a storage format of a storage circuit used in this invention, and FIG. FIG. 4 is a flowchart shown to explain an example of the operation of the circuit shown in FIG. 1, FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a display example of a terminal according to the present invention, and FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an example of the configuration of a broadcasting center. 21...Data extraction circuit, 31...Command extraction circuit, 32...Deposit code extraction circuit, 33...Deposit data extraction circuit, 100...CPU, 200...Video controller, 300...・Command processing circuit, 50
0: Deposit code processing unit, 600: Balance data processing circuit.

Claims (1)

[Claims] (1) In a unidirectional addressable broadcasting system in which a broadcasting center specifies a terminal of a predetermined user through a broadcasting medium and transmits payment data corresponding to the contract amount to be stored in the balance storage means of the terminal, A deposit code that is transmitted in response to the deposit data and used to control the reception of the deposit data is extracted, and this deposit code is compared with the stored double writing prevention deposit code, and a matching pulse is obtained. a deposit code storage means for adding or subtracting a certain value to the deposit code to create a new double write prevention deposit code, and storing the new double write prevention deposit code, and extracting the deposit data; A balance storage means is provided for storing balance data obtained by adding the deposit data and data corresponding to the balance only when the matching pulse is obtained, and the deposit code and deposit data having the same content are continuously transmitted. 1. A unidirectional addressable broadcasting system, characterized in that said deposit data is prevented from being re-added and stored in said balance storage means when said balance storage means is re-added and stored.