Content providing system
AssigneeSony Corporation
InventorsSatoshi Otsuka, Kazuyuki Marukawa
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
There is provided a content providing system in which many unspecified many people can arbitrarily use it to get (purchase) a recording medium in which desired content has been downloaded, and the recording medium itself can be effectively used. Some download data (content) are selected and set on the basis of exhibit information detected from a recording medium, and operation control is made so that the recording medium in which the download data are recorded is ejected. That is, the recording medium which records content desired by a user can be provided to the user in any one mode of returning, exchange, and selling.
Claims9
An information providing apparatus, comprising:
- a loading section in which a recording medium including use state identification information indicating one of a personal use and an unspecified user's use is removably loaded;
- recording means for recording content information in said recording medium loaded in said loading section;
- use state detecting means for detecting which of said personal use and said unspecified user's use said use state identification information of said recording medium loaded in said loading section indicates;
- ejecting means for ejecting said recording medium to an outside of said apparatus;
- content detecting means for detecting a kind of content information to be recorded in said recording medium ejected by said ejecting means;
- a housing section capable of housing a recording medium in which one of various kinds of content information is recorded in advance;
- and
- control means, wherein when said use state detecting means detects that said use state identification information of said recording medium indicates said personal use, said control means controls said recording means so that said content information of the kind detected by said content detecting means is recorded in said recording medium loaded in said loading section, and then, said control means controls said ejecting means so that said recording medium loaded in said loading section is ejected,
- and when said use state detecting means detects that said use state identification information of said recording medium indicates said unspecified user's use, said control means controls said ejecting means so that said recording medium in which said content information of the kind detected by said content detecting means is recorded is ejected among recording media housed in said housing section.
A method of providing a content, comprising the steps of:
- detecting which of a personal use and an unspecified user's use is indicated by use state identification information of a recording medium loaded in a loading section;
- detecting a kind of content information to be recorded in a recording medium which will be ejected by ejecting means;
- when it is detected in said step of detecting a use state that said use state identification information of said recording medium indicates said personal use, recording the content information of the kind detected in said step of detecting the kind of the content information in said recording medium loaded in said loading section, and then, controlling said ejecting means so that said recording medium loaded in said loading section is ejected,
- and when it is detected in said step of detecting the use state that said use state identification information of said recording medium indicates said unspecified user's use, controlling said ejecting means so that, among recording media housed in a housing section capable of housing recording media in which any one of various kinds of content information is recorded in advance, one of the recording media in which the content information of the same kind as the kind detected in said step of detecting the kind of the content information is recorded, is ejected.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.