Merchandise purchasing system, recording/reproducing apparatus, and computer program

A digital recording/reproducing apparatus capable of recording an image stream consisting of program images and commercial (CM) images and capable of being connected to a television capable of reproducing and outputting a recorded image stream, the digital recording/reproducing apparatus comprising:

• an index table receiving means for receiving an index table from an index server in which an index table containing starting time and ending time of a program image or a CM image of an image stream or containing character information is stored;
• a merchandise data receiving means for receiving merchandise data from a merchandise data server in which merchandise data relative to a program image or a CM image is stored;
• a control means capable of reproducing an image on a television by use of a received index table and capable of outputting merchandise data received by the merchandise data receiving means to the television;
• and
• a purchase-wish-data transmitting means for transmitting purchase wish data relative to the merchandise data output to the television to the merchandise data server.

A computer program product comprising program code for a digital recording/reproducing apparatus capable of recording an image stream consisting of program images and commercial (CM) images, for reproducing and outputting a recorded image stream, and for allowing a control computer of the digital recording/reproducing apparatus to execute the following steps:

• an index table receiving step of receiving an index table from an index server in which an index table containing starting time and ending time of a program image or a CM image of an image stream or containing character information is stored;
• a merchandise data receiving step of receiving merchandise data from a merchandise data server in which merchandise data relative to a program image or a CM image is stored;
• a control step of reproducing an image stream on a television by use of a received index table and outputting merchandise data received by the merchandise data receiving means to the television;
• and
• a purchase-wish-data transmitting step of transmitting purchase wish data relative to the merchandise data output to the television to the merchandise data server.

A computer program product comprising program code for a digital recording/reproducing apparatus capable of recording an image stream consisting of program images and CM images and capable of being connected to a television capable of reproducing and outputting a recorded image stream, and the program allows a control computer of the digital recording/reproducing apparatus to execute:

• an index table receiving step of receiving an index table from an index server in which an index table containing starting time and ending time of a program image or a CM image of an image stream or containing character information is stored;
• a control step of reproducing an image on a television by use of a received index table;
• a merchandise-data request signal detecting step of detecting a merchandise-data request signal to request detailed merchandise data relative to a reproduced image;
• a merchandise-data request signal transmitting step of transmitting the fact that the merchandise-data request signal has been detected to a merchandise data server;
• a merchandise-data receiving step of receiving merchandise data relative to a merchandise-data request signal from the merchandise data server;
• a merchandise-data outputting step of outputting received merchandise data to the television;
• and
• a purchase-wish-data transmitting step of transmitting purchase wish data relative to the merchandise data output to the television to the merchandise data server.