Data processing: financial – business practice – management – or co – Automated electrical financial or business practice or...
Reexamination Certificate
1997-09-16
2001-09-11
Cosimano, Edward R. (Department: 2161)
Data processing: financial, business practice, management, or co
Automated electrical financial or business practice or...
C348S086000, C348S086000, C348S086000, C348S086000, C348S014160, C455S001000, C455S002010, C705S050000, C705S051000, C705S052000, C705S400000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06289314
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to pay information providing systems, and more specifically, relates to a system for providing pay information such as picture data, audio data, computer data, etc., from a transmitting station (a broadcast satellite, a communication satellite, a center station of CATV, a ground broadcast station, etc.) managed by an information provider to a receiving station which makes a receive contract with the information provider.
2. Description of the Background Art
As an example of accounting methods in the conventional pay information providing system, an accounting method in a pay broadcasting system using a broadcast satellite will be described.
FIG. 16
is a block diagram showing the whole structure of the pay broadcasting system using a broadcast satellite. In
FIG. 16
, in the above pay broadcasting system, a transmitting device
100
transmitting pay information such as digitized picture and audio and a receiving device
107
receiving the pay information are connected through a transmission path
106
. The receiving device
107
can receive the transmitted pay information and the like with an IC card
108
being set thereto.
The transmitting device
100
comprises a scramble key generating portion
101
generating a scramble key, a scrambler
102
scrambling pay information, a related information encrypting portion
103
encrypting related information (information concerning a contract with a user) and the scramble key, a charge managing portion
104
managing a charge to be made to the user, and a multiplex/transmitting portion
105
multiplexing and transmitting the scrambled pay information and the encrypted related information and the like.
The receiving device
107
comprises a receiving/demultiplex portion
109
receiving and demultiplexing the multiplexed pay information and the related information and the like, a descrambler
110
descrambling the pay information using the scramble key, and a picture/audio decoder
111
decoding the descrambled pay information to output picture data, audio data and like. The IC card
108
comprises a related information decrypting portion
112
decrypting the encrypted related information and the encrypted scramble key and a qualification judging portion
113
judging whether the receiving device
107
has qualification for receiving the pay information or not by examining the decrypted related information and giving the scramble key attached to the related information to the descrambler
110
only when the receiving device
107
has the qualification.
In the pay broadcasting system having the above structure, an information provider makes a charge for providing and using the pay information in such a manner as described below. First, the user purchases and installs equipment for receiving the pay information (the receiving device
107
and the IC card
108
). At the same time, the user makes a contract in regard to providing the pay information with the information provider using communication means such as a telephone. Registered thereby in the transmitting device
100
managed by the information provider is the above mentioned contract information. This contact information is also registered in the qualification judging portion
113
.
After finishing the above mentioned registration, when the transmitting device
100
receives a request from the user, the scramble key generating portion
101
generates a scramble key, sets the generated scramble key to the scrambler
102
, and outputs the key to the related information encrypting portion
103
. The related information encrypting portion
103
encrypts related information including the contract information of the user who sends the request and the like and the scramble key and outputs the result to the multiplex/transmitting portion
105
. On the other hand, the scrambler
102
scrambles the requested pay information by using the set scramble key and then outputs the results to the multiplex/transmitting portion
105
. The multiplex/transmitting portion
105
multiplexes the encrypted related information and scramble key and the scrambled pay information and transmits the result through the transmission path
106
to the receiving/demultiplex portion
109
in the receiving device
107
. At this time, inputted in the charge managing portion
104
is the related information including the contract information of the user who sends the request and the like. In response, the charge managing portion
104
calculates a charge for using the pay information to the user and stores information about the charge for use.
The receiving/demultiplex portion
109
demultiplexes the information received through the transmission path
106
into the encrypted related information and scramble key and the scrambled pay information and outputs the former to the related information decrypting portion
112
and the latter to the descrambler
110
, respectively. The related information decrypting portion
112
decrypts the encrypted related information and scramble key, and then outputs these to the qualification judging portion
113
. The qualification judging portion
113
judges whether the user who holds the receiving device
107
makes the contract with the information provider or not based on the contract information included in the related information and the contract information registered therein, and outputs the inputted scramble key to the descrambler
110
only when judging positively. The descrambler
110
descrambles the inputted pay information and outputs the result to the picture/audio decoder
111
. The pay information decoded by the picture/audio decoder
111
is outputted as picture data or audio data. The user thereby acquires the pay information from the information provider. The information provider managing the transmitting device
100
charges the user for use of the pay information at the time defined by the contract (at the end of the month, for example), based on information about charges stored in the charge managing portion
104
.
By the way, recent technological innovation has upgraded infrastructure as to broadcasting and information communications, and various information (picture information, audio information, character information, figure information, etc.) can be obtained even at home from information providers. These kinds of information are transmitted to homes, for example, from a ground broadcast station, satellite broadcasting, or a communication satellite by radio, or, transmitted from a center station of CATV (Cable Television) through wire such as optical fiber cables.
Further, conventionally, it is a general style at home that only one television is installed in a living room or the like and all family members watch a television program. However, in recent years, televisions have been installed in a plurality of rooms and each individual watches his/her favorite television program. This personal-oriented trend will be more apparent in the future.
As described above, in order to allow acquisition of various information at each home and adapt the situation where the personal-oriented trend progresses, it can be suggested to construct two pay information providing systems as will described below. That is, in a first pay information providing system, the above mentioned receiving equipment (the receiving device
107
and the IC card
108
) is installed in each room as required at home. On the other hand, in a second pay information providing system, one piece of the receiving equipment is installed per household and the pay information is branched to be inputted to a television in each room. Each individual at home watches the pay information using the individual television.
However, when the above first pay information providing system is adapted, it is required to install the receiving equipment (the receiving device
107
and the IC card
108
) in each room as required at home, thereby increasing initial expenses for the equipment at the user's side. Further, in the first pay
Matsuzaki Natsume
Ohmori Motoji
Tatebayashi Makoto
Cosimano Edward R.
Matsushita Electric - Industrial Co., Ltd.
Wenderoth , Lind & Ponack, L.L.P.
LandOfFree
Pay information providing system for descrambling... does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.
If you have personal experience with Pay information providing system for descrambling..., we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Pay information providing system for descrambling... will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-2539655