Reception apparatus, reception method, and program

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9264772-B2
Application number	US-201213718397-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 18, 2012
Priority date	Jan 18, 2012
Publication date	Feb 16, 2016
Grant date	Feb 16, 2016

Abstract

Disclosed herein is a reception apparatus including: a reception block configured to receive AV content; a definition information acquisition block configured to acquire definition information defining the life cycle of an application program to be executed in linkage with the AV content; an application acquisition block configured to acquire the application program distributed over a network in accordance with the acquired definition information; and a control block configured to control the performance of the acquired application program.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A reception apparatus comprising:
circuitry configured to:
receive audio-video content that is broadcasted as digital TV broadcast signals over a broadcast network;
acquire definition information, including a first and a second definition information, defining life cycles of first and second application programs, respectively, to be executed in linkage with the audio-video content, the definition information being acquired over a network different from the broadcast network;
acquire the first and second application programs, distributed over the network different from the broadcast network, in accordance with information designating one or more acquisition destinations on the network of the first and second application programs, the information being included in the acquired definition information;
analyze the acquired second definition information defining the life cycle of the acquired second application program; and
control and maintain a performance of the acquired first application program based on the analysis of the acquired second definition information.

2. The reception apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein
when the acquired first definition information designates a start of the first application program, the circuitry starts the acquired first application program, and
when the acquired first definition information designates an end of the first application program, the circuitry terminates the first application program, currently being executed by the reception apparatus.

3. The reception apparatus according to claim 2 , wherein the definition information defines life cycles of a plurality of application programs, and the circuitry controls performance of each of the plurality of application programs in accordance with the acquired definition information.

4. The reception apparatus according to claim 1 ,
wherein, in accordance with the information designating the one or more acquisition destinations included in the definition information, the circuitry acquires the first definition information which defines the life cycle of the first application program over the network, and
when the acquired definition information designates a start of the first application program, the circuitry starts the first application program.

5. The reception apparatus according to claim 4 ,
wherein, when an instruction is given along with the audio-video content to change the first application program in accordance with progress of the audio-video content, the circuitry acquires other definition information defining a life cycle of another application program to be executed after the first application program currently being executed, the other application program being distributed over the network different from the broadcast network,
in accordance with the acquired other definition information, the circuitry acquires the other application program distributed over the network different from the broadcast network, and
the circuitry starts the acquired other application program and terminates the currently executing first application program.

6. The reception apparatus according to claim 4 , wherein
the circuitry is configured to set a timing for changing from the first application program currently being executed to another application program to be executed next in accordance with progress of said audio-video content,
at the timing of changing from the currently executing first application program to the other application program, the circuitry acquires other definition information defining a life cycle of the another application program,
in accordance with the acquired other definition information, the circuitry acquires the other application program distributed over the network different from the broadcast network, and
the circuitry starts the acquired other application program and terminates the currently executing first application program.

7. The reception apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein, when a user designates a start of performance of the first application program, the circuitry acquires the first definition information.

8. The reception apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the circuitry is configured to control a performance of a data broadcast application program transmitted along with the audio-video content.

9. A reception method for use with a reception apparatus, the reception method comprising:
causing the reception apparatus to receive audio-video content that is broadcasted as digital TV broadcast signals over a broadcast network;
causing the reception apparatus to acquire definition information, including a first and a second definition information, defining life cycles of first and second application programs, respectively, to be executed in linkage with the audio-video content, the definition information being acquired over a network different from the broadcast network;
causing the reception apparatus to acquire the first and second application programs, distributed over the network different from the broadcast network, in accordance with information designating one or more acquisition destinations on the network of the first and second application programs, the information being included in the acquired definition information;
causing the reception apparatus to analyze the acquired second definition information defining the life cycle of the acquired second application program; and
causing the reception apparatus to control and maintain a performance of the acquired first application program based on the analysis of the acquired second definition information.

10. A non-transitory computer-readable medium, including a set of computer-executable instructions, which when executed by a computer cause the computer to execute a reception method for use with a reception apparatus, the reception method comprising:
causing the reception apparatus to receive audio-video content that is broadcasted as digital TV broadcast signals over a broadcast network;
causing the reception apparatus to acquire definition information, including a first and a second definition information, defining life cycles of first and second application programs, respectively, to be executed in linkage with the audio-video content, the definition information being acquired over a network different from the broadcast network;
causing the reception apparatus to acquire the first and second application programs distributed over the network different from the broadcast network, in accordance with information designating one or more acquisition destinations on the network of the first and second application programs, the information being included in the acquired definition information;
causing the reception apparatus to analyze the acquired second definition information defining the life cycle of the acquired second application program; and
causing the reception apparatus to control and maintain a performance of the acquired first application program based on the analysis of the acquired second definition information.

11. The reception apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the network different from the broadcast network is the Internet.

12. The reception method according to claim 9 , wherein the network different from the broadcast network is the Internet.

13. The non-transitory computer-readable medium according to claim 10 , wherein the network different from the broadcast network is the Internet.

14. The reception apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the circuitry is further configured to detect an event message transmitted along with the audio-video content over the broadcast network.

Assignees

• Sony Corp

Inventors

• Kitazato Naohisa
• Dewa Yoshiharu

Classifications

• H04N21/2362

  Generation or processing of Service Information [SI] · CPC title

• H04N21/8586

  by using a URL (processing chained hypermedia data for information retrieval G06F16/94; information retrieval from the Internet by using URLs G06F16/955; URL in broadcast information H04H20/93; Web-based protocols H04L67/02) · CPC title

• H04N21/23614

  Multiplexing of additional data and video streams (arrangements for simultaneous broadcast of plural pieces of information H04H20/28) · CPC title

• H04N21/45 Primary

  Management operations performed by the client for facilitating the reception of or the interaction with the content or administrating data related to the end-user or to the client device itself, e.g. learning user preferences for recommending movies, resolving scheduling conflicts · CPC title

• H04N21/4307

  Synchronising the rendering of multiple content streams or additional data on devices, e.g. synchronisation of audio on a mobile phone with the video output on the TV screen · CPC title