Patent Application
20080077967
Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.
A home receiving device 10 of this first embodiment is provided with a broadcast receiving unit 21 which receives broadcast program data delivered from a CATV station 14 and outputs video output data for a video output device 20 such as a television.
Moreover, the home receiving device 10 is provided with an authentication unit 22 which has an authentication function for permitting another home receiving device 10 connected via a home LAN 16 to receive the broadcast program data from the CATV station 14, and an authentication receiving function for receiving the permission to receive the broadcast program data from the CATV station 14, from another home receiving device 10. Moreover, the home receiving device 10 is provided with an authentication privilege management unit 24 which manages whether or not to enable the authentication function included in the authentication unit 22.
Moreover, the home receiving device 10 uses a network I/F unit 23 to perform terminal-to-terminal communication with another home receiving device 10 connected via the home LAN 16.
Moreover, the home receiving device 10 is provided with a power control unit 26 which senses on/off of a power SW 25 and controls a power state of the home receiving device 10, depending on on/off of the power SW 25. The power control unit 26 has a function for enabling power supplied to other parts such as the broadcast receiving unit 21 to be turned off, while turning on power supplied to at least component parts related to the authentication with respect to another home receiving device 10, that is, parts of the authentication unit 22, the authentication privilege management unit 24 and the network I/F unit 23. Of course, the power control unit 26 can control to turn off power of all units within the home receiving device 10.
The broadcast program data received from the CATV station 14 has been scrambled. Only if the home receiving device 10 has been authenticated to be able to receive the program data, the broadcast receiving unit 21 receives a notification of permission for receiving from the authentication unit 22 and descrambles the broadcast program data, and the program can be viewed at the video output device 20.
All of the primary subscriber home receiving device 11 and the secondary subscriber home receiving devices 12 and 13 shown in
The broadcast program data delivered from the CATV station 14 is distributed by a distributor 15, and the distributed broadcast program data is inputted to the primary subscriber home receiving device 11 and the secondary subscriber home receiving devices 12 and 13, respectively.
The primary subscriber home receiving device 11 and the secondary subscriber home receiving devices 12 and 13 are connected to one another via the home LAN 16, and this home LAN 16 is used to perform connection authentication with respect to another home receiving device.
It should be noted that all of the home receiving device 10, the primary subscriber home receiving device 11 and the secondary subscriber home receiving devices 12 and 13 correspond to an example of a video receiving device of the present invention. Moreover, the primary subscriber home receiving device 11 corresponds to an example of a master video receiving device of the present invention, and both of the secondary subscriber home receiving devices 12 and 13 correspond to an example of slave video receiving devices of the present invention.
Moreover, the broadcast program data delivered from the CATV station 14 corresponds to an example of external video data of the present invention, and the configuration of the CATV system shown in
Although all of the home receiving devices 11 to 13 are provided with the authentication unit 22 having the authentication function, the authentication privilege management unit 24 in each of the home receiving devices 11 to 13 manages the authentication function so that the authentication function of the authentication unit 22 in only one of multiple home receiving devices 11 to 13 for which one home has subscribed is enabled. In the authentication unit 22 in each of the home receiving devices other than the home receiving device having the enabled authentication function, only the authentication receiving function is enabled.
The home receiving device having the enabled authentication function is herein referred to as “having a representation right”. In other words, in this first embodiment, only one of the home receiving devices 11 to 13 is controlled to have the representation right at a certain point. Depending on a communication method, the representation right may include a master function for performing sending opportunity assignment of TDMA communication and the like.
In the CATV system of this first embodiment, if the power of the primary subscriber home receiving device 11 is on, the primary subscriber home receiving device 11 is controlled to have this representation right. Among the authentication units 22 in the respective home receiving devices 11 to 13 of
In the home receiving device which has no representation right and has not been authenticated, television viewing is limited and the television viewing cannot be performed. The secondary subscriber home receiving devices 12 and 13 typically have no representation right and the television viewing cannot be performed by itself. In the case of
Next, a method of controlling the authentication among the home receiving devices in the CATV system of this first embodiment will be described by using
If an operation of turning off the power SW 25 of the primary subscriber home receiving device 11 is performed, the power control unit 26 senses it, and the authentication privilege management unit 24 determines whether or not the link with other secondary subscriber home receiving devices 12 and 13 has been established (S301). At this point, if the link has been established, the representation right is delegated to any of the other secondary subscriber home receiving devices 12 and 13, and the main power of the primary subscriber home receiving device 11 is turned off (S302). Here, it is assumed that the representation right has been delegated to the secondary subscriber home receiving device 13. At this point, the primary subscriber home receiving device 11 may store which secondary subscriber home receiving device the representation right has been delegated to, as an operation history. In the case of this embodiment, it is assumed that the primary subscriber home receiving device 11 has stored the delegation of the representation right to the secondary subscriber home receiving device 13.
If there is no other home receiving device with which the link has been established at step S301, a user is asked whether or not to also turn off the power of the network I/F unit 23 connected to the home LAN 16 while having the representation right (S303). At this point, the user can select whether to turn off the main power including the power of the network I/F unit 23 (S304) or to turn off only the main power while the power of the network I/F unit 23 and the like which perform the authentication control is turned on (S305).
It should be noted that asking the user at step S303 corresponds to an example of a warning notification of the present invention.
Here, it is assumed that if the power of the authentication unit 22, the authentication privilege management unit 24 and the network I/F unit 23 which perform the authentication control is on, the link with other secondary subscriber home receiving devices 12 and 13 can be established and also the authentication can be performed. Therefore, in the case where even the main power of the primary subscriber home receiving device 11 is turned off while the power of the network I/F unit 23 and the like which perform the authentication control is on (S305), even if the power of the secondary subscriber home receiving device 12 or 13 is previously turned on when the power of all other home receiving devices 12 and 13 is off, the secondary subscriber home receiving device 12 or 13 can be connected to the primary subscriber home receiving device 11 via the home LAN 16, and the authentication and the television viewing can be performed.
It should be noted that whether or not to turn off the power of the network I/F unit 23 and the like which perform the authentication control may not be selected by the user, but may be set by default.
Next, if an operation of turning on the power SW 25 of the primary subscriber home receiving device 11 whose main power has been turned off is performed (S306), the power control unit 26 senses it, and the network I/F unit 23 starts the link establishment via the home LAN 16 (S307).
At this point, the authentication privilege management unit 24 determines whether or not the primary subscriber home receiving device 11 retains the representation right (S308). If the primary subscriber home receiving device 11 retains the representation right, the television viewing at the primary subscriber home receiving device 11 is started, and also the authentication of other secondary subscriber home receiving devices 12 and 13 is performed by the authentication unit 22 (S309).
If the primary subscriber home receiving device 11 retains no representation right at step S308, the authentication privilege management unit 24 determines whether or not the link with the secondary subscriber home receiving device 13 having the representation right has been established (S310). Then, if the link has been established, the representation right is controlled to be returned to the primary subscriber home receiving device 11 (S311). If the link with the secondary subscriber home receiving device 13 having the representation right is not established, the user is notified of “you need to turn on the main power of the secondary subscriber home receiving device having the representation right” on a screen, and the television viewing cannot be performed at the primary subscriber home receiving device 11 at this time (S312). At this point, in contents of the screen notification, the home receiving device having the representation right may have been identified as “the secondary subscriber home receiving device 13”, by using the operation history stored at S301 and S302.
First, if the power SW 25 of the secondary subscriber home receiving device 13 is turned on (S401), the power control unit 26 senses it, and the network I/F unit 23 starts the link establishment via the home LAN 16 (S402). Then the authentication privilege management unit 24 determines the link establishment with the primary subscriber home receiving device 11 (S403).
If the link with the primary subscriber home receiving device 11 has been established, the authentication is performed, and if the authentication unit 22 is authenticated by the authentication unit 22 in the primary subscriber home receiving device 11, the television viewing at the secondary subscriber home receiving device 13 can be started (S404). Here, if the link with the primary subscriber home receiving device 11 has not been established, the user is notified of “you need to turn on the main power of the primary subscriber home receiving device 11” on the screen, and the television viewing cannot be performed at the secondary subscriber home receiving device 13 at this time (S405).
Then, if the operation of turning off the power SW 25 of the primary subscriber home receiving device 11 is performed (S406), the power control unit 26 senses it, and the representation right delegation control is performed between the authentication privilege management units 24 in the primary subscriber home receiving device 11 and the secondary subscriber home receiving device 13. After the representation right has been delegated from the primary subscriber home receiving device 11 to the secondary subscriber home receiving device 13 (S407), the power of the primary subscriber home receiving device 11 is turned off.
Subsequently, since the secondary subscriber home receiving device 13 having the delegated representation right establishes the link with the secondary subscriber home receiving device 12 via the home LAN 16, and the authentication unit 22 in the secondary subscriber home receiving device 13 performs the authentication, both of the secondary subscriber home receiving device 12 and the secondary subscriber home receiving device 13 can perform the television viewing even if the main power of the primary subscriber home receiving device 11 is off.
Next, if an operation of turning off the power SW 25 of the secondary subscriber home receiving device 13 having the representation right is performed (S408), the power control unit 26 senses it, and the user is asked whether or not to turn off the main power including the power of the network I/F unit 23 connected to the home LAN 16 while the power control unit 26 has the representation right (S409).
Here, if the user selects “not turn off the power of the network I/F unit 23”, only the main power is turned off while the power of the network I/F unit 23 and the like which perform the authentication control is turned on (S410).
Here, if the user selects “also turn off the power of the network I/F unit 23”, the authentication privilege management unit 24 determines whether or not the link with another home receiving device has been established (S411). In the case of this example, it is determined whether or not the link with the secondary subscriber home receiving device 12 has been established. If the link with another home receiving device has been established, the secondary subscriber home receiving device 13 having the representation right cannot turn off the power of the network I/F unit 23 (S412). Therefore, in that case, the control is performed so that only the main power is turned off while the power of the network I/F unit 23 and the like which perform the authentication control is turned on, and the like, for example.
On the other hand, as a result of the determination, if the link with another home receiving device has not been established, the main power is turned off including the power of the network I/F unit 23 while retaining the representation right (S413). Here, whether or not to turn off the power of the network I/F unit 23 may not be selected by the user, but may be set by default.
However, if the main power is turned off including the power of the network I/F unit 23 and the like (S413), when the power of another home receiving device is turned on while the power of the secondary subscriber home receiving device 13 retaining the representation right is turned off, the television viewing cannot be performed. Therefore, if the power of the primary subscriber home receiving device 11 is turned on, the user is notified of “you need to turn on the main power of the secondary subscriber home receiving device having the representation right” on the screen, and if the power of the secondary subscriber home receiving device 12 is turned on, the user is notified of “you need to turn on the main power of the primary subscriber home receiving device 11” on the screen, since it is unknown which home receiving device retains the representation right.
In a state where the secondary subscriber home receiving device 13 retains the representation right, when the main power is off but the power of the network I/F unit 23 and the like which perform the authentication control is on (S410 and S412), if the operation of turning on the power SW 25 of the primary subscriber home receiving device 11 is performed (S414), the representation right is returned to the primary subscriber home receiving device 11 (S415) when the link with the secondary subscriber home receiving device 13 having the representation right has been established.
Since the representation right delegation control is performed as described above, even if the power of the primary subscriber home receiving device 11 is turned off, the secondary subscriber home receiving device 12 or 13, which is legitimate, can perform the television viewing by itself.
In this way, in the CATV system of this first embodiment, the primary subscriber home receiving device 11 normally has the representation right, and after the representation right has been delegated from the primary subscriber home receiving device 11 to the secondary subscriber home receiving device 13, when the power of the primary subscriber home receiving device 11 is turned on and connected to the secondary subscriber home receiving device 13 having the representation right via the home LAN 16, the representation right is returned to the primary subscriber home receiving device 11.
In the case of
Moreover, in the case of
Therefore, unlimited television viewing cannot be performed simultaneously at both of the subscriber home 17 and the nonsubscriber home 18 only with subscription fee of the subscriber home 17, which can prevent unauthorized use of performing the television viewing with unreasonably inexpensive fee.
Moreover, the same applies to the case where the primary subscriber home receiving device 11 has been brought into the nonsubscriber home 18. If the primary subscriber home receiving device 11 still retaining the representation right has been brought into the nonsubscriber home 18, the television viewing at the secondary subscriber home receiving devices 12 and 13 in the subscriber home 17 will be limited, and if the primary subscriber home receiving device 11 which has delegated the representation right has been brought into the nonsubscriber home 18, the television viewing at the nonsubscriber home 18 will be limited.
In this way, when the home receiving devices of the CATV system of this first embodiment are used, unreasonable use of performing the television viewing with the unreasonably inexpensive fee can be certainly prevented, and also, even if the power of the primary subscriber home receiving device 11 having the representation right is turned off, other secondary subscriber home receiving devices 12 and 13 can perform the television viewing by themselves.
Next, an authentication control method among the home receiving devices in the CATV system of a second embodiment of the present invention will be described.
The CATV system of this second embodiment has the authentication control method among the home receiving devices, which is different from the first embodiment, and has a system configuration similar to that of the first embodiment, as shown in
In the first embodiment, the delegation of the representation right has been performed only between the primary subscriber home receiving device and the secondary subscriber home receiving device. However, in this second embodiment, the delegation of the representation right is also performed from the secondary subscriber home receiving device to which the representation right has been delegated, to another secondary subscriber home receiving device.
Since the representation right delegation method between the primary subscriber home receiving device and the secondary subscriber home receiving device is similar to the first embodiment, only the representation right delegation method from the secondary subscriber home receiving device to which the representation right has been delegated, to another secondary subscriber home receiving device, which is different from the first embodiment, will be described below.
Here, this embodiment will be described by using
If the power SW 25 of the secondary subscriber home receiving device 12 is turned on (S501), the power control unit 26 senses it, and the network I/F unit 23 starts the link establishment via the home LAN 16 (S502). Then the authentication privilege management unit 24 determines the link establishment with the home receiving device having the representation right (S503).
If the link with the home receiving device having the representation right (the secondary subscriber home receiving device 13, in this example) has been established, the authentication is performed, and if the authentication unit 22 is authenticated by the authentication unit 22 in the secondary subscriber home receiving device 13, the television viewing at the secondary subscriber home receiving device 12 can be started (S504).
On the other hand, unless the link with the secondary subscriber home receiving device 13 having the representation right has been established, the television viewing at the secondary subscriber home receiving device 12 cannot be performed. Here, as a state where the link has not been established, for example, the case where the power of the secondary subscriber home receiving device 13 has been also turned off can be cited.
At this point, the secondary subscriber home receiving device 12 notifies the user of “you need to turn on the main power of the primary subscriber home receiving device 11” on the screen (S505). Here, the reason why the contents of the screen notification are directed to the primary subscriber home receiving device 11 is as follows. In other words, it is based on the fact that the secondary subscriber home receiving device 12 has not been notified of that the representation right has been delegated from the primary subscriber home receiving device 11 to the secondary subscriber home receiving device 13, and the fact that the primary subscriber home receiving device 11 has been previously defined as the device having the representation right in the respective secondary subscriber home receiving devices, that is, the secondary subscriber home receiving devices 12 and 13, at the time of implementing the device, the time of the subscription to a CATV company, or the like.
The user checks the above described screen notification, and according to the contents thereof, turns on the power of the primary subscriber home receiving device 11. Here, the primary subscriber home receiving device 11 has previously stored which home receiving device is the secondary subscriber home receiving device to which the representation right has been delegated, and the user is notified of “you need to turn on the main power of (the home receiving device to which the representation right has been delegated)” on the screen. It should be noted that a name, a device number or the like with which the home receiving device can be identified is displayed at a part of (the home receiving device to which the representation right has been delegated) notified on the screen. In this case, since the primary subscriber home receiving device 11 has delegated the representation right to the secondary subscriber home receiving device 13, the user is notified of “you need to turn on the main power of the secondary subscriber home receiving device 13” on the screen (S505a).
The user checks the above described screen notification, and according to the contents thereof, turns on the power of the secondary subscriber home receiving device 13 (S505b). The link establishment between the secondary subscriber home receiving device 12 and the secondary subscriber home receiving device 13 is started via the home LAN 16 by turning on the power of the secondary subscriber home receiving device 13 (S502). It should be noted that the power of the primary subscriber home receiving device 11 which is not currently used for the authentication has preferably been turned off again.
It should be noted that, although the link has been established by the secondary subscriber home receiving device 13 having the representation right in the above description, if other secondary subscriber home receiving devices have been connected onto the home LAN 16, and the home receiving device to which the representation right has been delegated, which has been notified on the screen (the secondary subscriber home receiving device 13, in this case), also currently retains no representation right because it has delegated the representation right to any one of the other home receiving devices, it has been set so that the user is notified of “you need to turn on the main power of (the home receiving device to which the representation right has been delegated)” on the screen also when the power of the above described home receiving device is turned on.
In other words, the home receiving device which has delegated the representation right to another home receiving device stores the operation of the above described delegation as the operation history, and information related to the home receiving device to which the representation right has been delegated has been set to be notified on the screen if the link is not established. According to the above described setting, if the power of the home receiving devices which have been notified on the screen is turned on in order, when the power of the home receiving device retaining the representation right is turned on, the link will be established and the authentication will be performed.
By processing as described above, without blindly turning on the power of all other home receiving devices, the authentication is performed at the time of turning on the power of the home receiving device retaining the representation right, and the television viewing is enabled. It should be noted that, in the above described series of operations, the screen notification of turning on the main power of the home receiving device is an example of the notification of information related to the video receiving device to which the above described authentication privilege has been delegated, of the present invention.
Then, after the television viewing has been started at the secondary subscriber home receiving device 12 (S504), when the operation of turning off the power SW 25 of the secondary subscriber home receiving device 13 having the representation right is performed (S506), the representation right delegation control is performed between the authentication privilege management units 24 in the secondary subscriber home receiving devices 12 and 13. After the representation right has been delegated from the secondary subscriber home receiving device 13 which has retained the representation right to the secondary subscriber home receiving device 12 (S507), the power of the secondary subscriber home receiving device 13 is turned off. At this point, similarly to the cases of S505, S505a and S505b, the secondary subscriber home receiving device 13 stores the representation right delegation to the secondary subscriber home receiving device 12, as the operation history.
Furthermore, if an operation of turning off the power of the secondary subscriber home receiving device 12 to which the representation right has been delegated is started (S508), the authentication privilege management unit 24 in the secondary subscriber home receiving device 12 determines whether or not the link with another home receiving device, except the primary subscriber home receiving device 11 and the secondary subscriber home receiving device 13 whose power is currently turned off, has been established (S509). At this point, if there is another secondary subscriber home receiving device with which the link has been further established, after the representation right has been delegated to the above described secondary subscriber home receiving device (S510), the power of the secondary subscriber home receiving device 12 is turned off. Also at this time, similarly to the operation of turning off the power of the secondary subscriber home receiving device 13, the secondary subscriber home receiving device 12 stores the representation right delegation to the above described another secondary subscriber home receiving device, as the operation history.
The home device to which the representation right has been delegated once and which has redelegated the representation right, notifies the user of “you need to turn on the main power of (the home receiving device to which the representation right has been delegated)” on the screen based on the operation history stored therein, when the power is turned on. Therefore, when the user turns on the power of the home receiving devices which have been notified on the screen in order, and turns on the power of the home receiving device retaining the representation right, the link is established and the authentication is performed.
Subsequently, in a state where any secondary subscriber home receiving device retains the representation right, if the operation of turning on the power SW 25 of the primary subscriber home receiving device 11 is performed (S514), the network I/F unit 23 starts the link establishment via the home LAN 16, and the representation right is returned to the primary subscriber home receiving device 11 (S515) when the link with the secondary subscriber home receiving device having the representation right is established.
On the other hand, at step S509, like this example, if the power of all home receiving devices other than the secondary subscriber home receiving device 12 has been turned off and the link has not been established, the user is asked whether or not to also turn off the power of the network I/F unit 23 connected to the home LAN 16 while having the representation right (S511). Here, the user can select whether to turn off the main power including the power of the network I/F unit 23 (S512) or to turn off only the main power while the power of the network I/F unit 23 and the like which perform the authentication control is turned on (S513). It should be noted that whether or not to turn off the power of the network I/F unit 23 and the like which perform the authentication control may not be selected by the user, but may be set by default.
In the secondary subscriber home receiving device 12 to which the representation right has been delegated, in the case where the power of the network I/F unit 23 and the like which perform the authentication control is turned on while other main power is turned off (S513), even if the power of the home receiving device not having the representation right is previously turned on when the power of all other home receiving devices is off, it can be connected with the secondary subscriber home receiving device 12 having the representation right via the home LAN 16, and the authentication and the television viewing can be performed.
On the other hand, in the case where the main power is turned off including the power of the network I/F unit 23 and the like (S512), even if the power of another home receiving device is turned on while the power of the secondary subscriber home receiving device 12 retaining the representation right is turned off, the television viewing cannot be performed. Similarly to the cases of S505, S505a and S505b, when the power of the secondary subscriber home receiving device 13 which has delegated the representation right is turned on again, the secondary subscriber home receiving device 13 notifies the user of “you need to turn on the main power of the secondary subscriber home receiving device 12 (to which the representation right has been delegated)” on the screen, with respect to the home receiving device 12 to which the representation right has been delegated.
Moreover, also on the side of the secondary subscriber home receiving device 12, before the main power is turned off (S512), the user is notified of “the power is turned off in a state where this device has the representation right” on the screen (S511a). In this case, the user can check which home receiving device (the secondary subscriber home receiving device 12, in this example) has to be used to perform the authentication, before launching another home receiving device. Here, it should be noted that the notification at S511a is an example of the warning notification of the present invention. Moreover, this notification may be performed prior to the operation at S304 of
It should be noted that, in the above described example, at steps S514 and S515, if the operation of turning on the power SW 25 of the primary subscriber home receiving device 11 has been performed, the representation right has been returned to the primary subscriber home receiving device 11, however, even if the operation of turning on the power SW 25 of the primary subscriber home receiving device 11 has been performed, the representation right may not be returned to the primary subscriber home receiving device 11 and the secondary subscriber home receiving device retaining the representation right at that point may continue retaining the representation right. In other words, the home receiving device retaining the representation right may retain the representation right until the power of that home receiving device itself is turned off.
In the case of the first embodiment, when there are multiple secondary subscriber home receiving devices, in order to enable the television viewing in a state where the power of only one secondary subscriber home receiving device is turned on, it has been necessary to have a function of previously turning on the power of only the network I/F unit 23 and the like which perform the authentication control. For example, in the case of the configuration shown in
In the case of this second embodiment, since the representation right delegation between the secondary subscriber home receiving devices has been permitted, even without having the function of previously turning on the power of only the network I/F unit 23 and the like which perform the authentication control, the television viewing can be performed at only one secondary subscriber home receiving device by itself even if the power of other home receiving devices is turned off.
It should be noted that the user may previously set whether or not to permit the representation right delegation between the secondary subscriber home receiving devices.
Moreover, although the respective embodiments have been described with the configuration having two secondary subscriber home receiving devices, the configuration may have three or more secondary subscriber home receiving devices, which can provide similar advantages.
Moreover, although the respective embodiments have been described assuming that the home receiving device to which the representation right is delegated from the primary subscriber home receiving device 11 is the secondary subscriber home receiving device 13, the representation right may be delegated to any other secondary subscriber home receiving device connected to home LAN 16. For example, the home receiving device to which the representation right is delegated may be randomly selected and the representation right may be delegated to the above described home receiving device. Alternatively, the user may select the home receiving device to which the representation right is delegated, in each case. Moreover, the home receiving device to which the representation right is delegated may be determined based on statistical information and the like.
For example, as an example of the statistical information, the home receiving device to which the representation right is delegated may be determined as a home receiving device having the longest accumulated power-on time. In this way, the representation right may be retained by a home receiving device having a long viewing time, that is, a frequently used home receiving device, with a high probability, and a probability of turning on the power of the home receiving device having the representation right when the power SW is newly turned on can be increased.
Moreover, in such a case where the home receiving device to which the representation right is delegated is determined based on the statistical information, the home receiving device to which the representation right is delegated may be determined regardless of the primary subscriber or the secondary subscriber. For example, even if the link with the primary subscriber home receiving device has been established when the power of the secondary subscriber receiving device having the representation right is turned off, in such a case where the link has been established also with a secondary subscriber receiving device having an accumulated power-on time longer than the primary subscriber home receiving device, the representation right may not be delegated to the primary subscriber receiving device, but may be delegated to that secondary subscriber receiving device having the longer accumulated power-on time.
Moreover, although the above described respective embodiments have been described, as illustrated in
Moreover, although the above described respective embodiments have been described assuming that all of the primary subscriber home receiving device 11 and the secondary subscriber home receiving devices 12 and 13, which are connected to the home LAN 16, are the home receiving device 10 shown in
In the CATV system including the home receiving device 100 as described above, since a similar authentication as the above described respective embodiments is required not only in the case of directly receiving from the CATV station 14, but also in the case of distributing the video data recorded in the broadcast recording unit 27 to another home receiving device, the authentication control method among the home receiving devices can be applied. Moreover, since importance of this device has been increased because it has the configuration capable of recording the program, the device has become more preferred as a primary subscriber target device to which the representation right should be constantly returned. It should be noted that the broadcast recording unit corresponds to an example of a recording unit of the present invention.
Moreover, a program of the present invention is a program which causes a computer to execute operations of the above described authentication step in which the above described authentication unit permits the above described other video receiving devices to receive the above described external video data, and/or the above described authentication privilege delegation step in which the above described authentication privilege management unit of the above described predetermined one of the video receiving devices delegates the above described authentication privilege to any of other video receiving devices which have been connected to the above described network and with which links have been established, of the above described authentication control method for the video data receiving system of the present invention, and is a program which operates in cooperation with the computer.
Moreover, a recording medium of the present invention is a recording medium having recorded a program which causes a computer to execute operations of the above described authentication step in which the above described authentication unit permits the above described other video receiving devices to receive the above described external video data, and/or the above described authentication privilege delegation step in which the above described authentication privilege management unit of the above described predetermined one of the video receiving devices delegates the above described authentication privilege to any of other video receiving devices which have been connected to the above described network and with which links have been established, of the above described authentication control method for the video data receiving system of the present invention, and is a recording medium readable by the computer in which the above described read program is used in cooperation with the above described computer.
Moreover, a form of usage of the program of the present invention may be an aspect of being recorded in a computer readable recording medium and of operating in cooperation with the computer.
Moreover, the recording medium includes a ROM and the like.
Moreover, the above described computer of the present invention is not limited to pure hardware such as a CPU, and may include firmware, an OS, and further a peripheral device.
As described above, it should be noted that the configuration of the present invention may be realized in software or may be realized in hardware.
As described above, by using the home receiving device of the present invention, it is possible to enable the television viewing only at the legitimate secondary subscriber home receiving device, while preventing the unauthorized television viewing at another home, turning off the power of the primary subscriber home receiving device in the subscriber home, and intending to save electric power of the device and to extend operating life of the device.
The video receiving device, the video data receiving system, the authentication control method thereof and the like of the present invention are useful as a technique of preventing unauthorized use of the multiple devices for which the subscription to the company has been performed.
The video receiving device, the video data receiving system, the authentication control method thereof and the like according to the present invention has an advantage in which the television viewing can be performed at the video receiving device which receives the authentication, even if the power of the video receiving device which performs the authentication is turned off. Therefore, they are useful as multiple video receiving devices for which the subscription to the company such as the CATV station has been performed, the video data receiving system, the authentication control method thereof and the like.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| JP 2006-263461 | Sep 2006 | JP | national |
