Patents by Inventor Toshihiro Morita

Toshihiro Morita has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Patent number: 8112592
    Abstract: The present invention relates to information processing apparatuses. A content to be checked out is stored in an automatic-checking-out-destination storage section 113 from musical-piece-file storage sections 108-1 and 108-2 for each external-unit/-medium ID which identifies a PD 5. A GUI section 101 determines through a transfer processing section 103 and a PD plug-in 111 whether the PD 5 has been connected. When it is determined that the PD 5 has been connected, a musical-piece file is checked out from the musical-piece-file storage sections 108 to the PD 5 through a musical-piece management section 104, a file search section 106, and a data base 107 according to the information of the content to be checked out stored in the automatic-checking-out-destination storage section 113. The present invention can be applied to music reproduction software.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 30, 2002
    Date of Patent: February 7, 2012
    Assignee: Sony Corporation
    Inventor: Toshihiro Morita
  • Patent number: 8078032
    Abstract: In an information processor having a function to check out a content to a portable device (6) such as a portable disc player, a content is recorded to a content data base (114) under the control of a content management program (111), and it is set under the control of a display/operation instruction program (112) whether the recorded content has to be checked out to the portable device (6). If a content is recorded in case it has been set that the content has to be checked out, the content having been recorded in the content data base (114) is checked out to the portable device (6).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 10, 2000
    Date of Patent: December 13, 2011
    Assignee: Sony Corporation
    Inventors: Mitsuyuki Hatanaka, Toshihiro Morita, Kiyonobu Kojima, Shin Shiroma
  • Patent number: 7953748
    Abstract: Apparatus and a method are provided, which efficiently and properly execute information update processing and content reproduction processing based on transmission processing of content information from a server to a client. The server owning content attribute information extracts metadata based on an information acquisition request from the client, to generate the content information based on property information which is a component of the metadata, and for each property, sets data editing information allowed by each piece of the property information to transmit to the client. Furthermore, the server generates the content information including data mode information by which processing capability in a device on the client side can be judged, such as record quality level information and codec information, as the data mode information of the contents.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 16, 2003
    Date of Patent: May 31, 2011
    Assignee: Sony Corporation
    Inventors: Yoshiki Tanaka, Yoichi Kobori, Norifumi Kikkawa, Toshihiro Morita, Takehiko Morita, Tatsuya Igarashi
  • Patent number: 7917531
    Abstract: The present invention pertains to an information processing apparatus which allows users to easily know content which others are allowed to check out. A management server 352 records data relevant to content which others are allowed to check out. A web server 351 receives a request for the data relevant to the content, and transmits the data relevant to the content when the data relevant to the content is requested. The present invention is applicable to an information processing apparatus for handling data relevant to copyright protected content.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 7, 2002
    Date of Patent: March 29, 2011
    Assignee: Sony Corporation
    Inventors: Mikiko Sakurai, Toshihiro Morita, Kiyonobu Kojima
  • Publication number: 20110072057
    Abstract: In an information processor which records many contents or has many contents already recorded therein, and can generate an arbitrary combination of the contents, a weight is computed for each of the contents based on either data stored in a history data file (184) or data stored in a display data file (182) and data stored in a filtering data file (181), and a content is selected from the contents stored in a content file (161) based on the weight. The selected content is related with a package corresponding to the data stored in the filtering data file (181).
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 29, 2010
    Publication date: March 24, 2011
    Applicant: Sony Corporation
    Inventors: Toshihiro MORITA, Mitsuyuki Hatanaka, Kiyonobu Kojima, Shin Shiroma
  • Patent number: 7890606
    Abstract: Disclosed herein is an information processing apparatus that transmits information to a server, the apparatus including: connection determination means for determining whether a portable terminal has been connected to the information processing apparatus; information acquisition means for, when the connection determination means determines that the terminal has been connected to the information processing apparatus, acquiring, from the terminal, identification information of the terminal and operation information concerning playing of a content played by the terminal; and transmission means for transmitting, to the server, play history information of the terminal together with the identification information of the terminal, the play history information of the terminal being composed of the operation information acquired by the information acquisition means.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 12, 2007
    Date of Patent: February 15, 2011
    Assignee: Sony Corporation
    Inventors: Toshihiro Morita, Shin Ogata, Susumu Morita
  • Patent number: 7877419
    Abstract: In an information processor which records many contents or has many contents already recorded therein, and can generate an arbitrary combination of the contents, a weight is computed for each of the contents based on either data stored in a history data file or data stored in a display data file and data stored in a filtering data file, and a content is selected from the contents stored in a content file based on the weight. The selected content is related with a package corresponding to the data stored in the filtering data file.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 9, 2005
    Date of Patent: January 25, 2011
    Assignee: Sony Corporation
    Inventors: Toshihiro Morita, Mitsuyuki Hatanaka, Kiyonobu Kojima, Shin Shiroma
  • Publication number: 20100272415
    Abstract: In an information processor having a function to check out a content to a portable device such as a portable disc player, a content is recorded to a content data base under the control of a content management program, and it is set under the control of a display/operation instruction program whether the recorded content has to be checked out to the portable device. If a content is recorded in case it has been set that the content has to be checked out, the content having been recorded in the content data base is checked out to the portable device.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 8, 2010
    Publication date: October 28, 2010
    Applicant: SONY CORPORATION
    Inventors: Mitsuyuki HATANAKA, Toshihiro Morita, Kiyonobu Kojima, Shin Shiroma
  • Publication number: 20100275127
    Abstract: An information processor such as a personal computer is provided. A terminal is operably linked to the information processor to check out or to check in content to/from the terminal. A device driver detects that a portable device is connected to the information processor and when the device driver detects that the portable device is connected to the information processor, a start-up program reads contents-related data from the portable device and starts up a display/operation instruction program to provide a display corresponding to the data accessed from the terminal.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 12, 2010
    Publication date: October 28, 2010
    Applicant: SONY CORPORATION
    Inventors: Toshihiro MORITA, Mitsuyuki HATANAKA, Kiyonobu KOJIMA, Ippei TAMBATA, Shin SHIROMA
  • Patent number: 7797456
    Abstract: An information processor or personal computer is provided having an operably linked terminal which checks out/in in a content to or from the terminal. A device driver detects that a portable device is connected to the personal computer, and when the device driver detects that the portable device is connected to the personal computer, a start-up program reads contents-related data from the portable device and starts up a display/operation instruction program to provide a display corresponding to the read data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 15, 2000
    Date of Patent: September 14, 2010
    Assignee: Sony Corporation
    Inventors: Toshihiro Morita, Mitsuyuki Hatanaka, Kiyonobu Kojima, Ippei Tambata, Shin Shiroma
  • Patent number: 7792865
    Abstract: An apparatus and a method are provided, which enable to perform an improved management processing based on an identifier information of a content on a server. The content providing server sets content-associated unique identifier information as property information that is a component of content-associated metadata, maintains the unique identifier information as content-associated metadata without changing the unique identifier information even if the logical/physical position of a content stored in the storage unit is changed, and maintains a setting value of unique identifier information, which is set associated with a received content, as metadata associated with the received content without changing the setting value of the unique identifier information. By this configuration, even if a content is moved between servers, a client can acquire the content based on the unique identifier.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 16, 2003
    Date of Patent: September 7, 2010
    Assignee: Sony Corporation
    Inventors: Masaaki Hamada, Norifumi Kikkawa, Yoichi Kobori, Takehiko Morita, Toshihiro Morita, Yoshiki Tanaka, Noriyuki Sakoh, Tatsuya Igarashi
  • Patent number: 7787751
    Abstract: In an information processor having a function to check out a content to a portable device such as a portable disc player, a content is recorded to a content data base under the control of a content management program, and it is set under the control of a display/operation instruction program whether the recorded content has to be checked out to the portable device. If a content is recorded in case it has been set that the content has to be checked out, the content having been recorded in the content data base is checked out to the portable device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 10, 2007
    Date of Patent: August 31, 2010
    Assignee: Sony Corporation
    Inventors: Mitsuyuki Hatanaka, Toshihiro Morita, Kiyonobu Kojima, Shin Shiroma
  • Patent number: 7756862
    Abstract: In an information processor which records many contents or has many contents already recorded therein, and can generate an arbitrary combination of the contents, a weight is computed for each of the contents based on either data stored in a history data file (184) or data stored in a display data file (182) and data stored in a filtering data file (181), and a content is selected from the contents stored in a content file (161) based on the weight. The selected content is related with a package corresponding to the data stored in the filtering data file (181).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 10, 2000
    Date of Patent: July 13, 2010
    Assignee: Sony Corporation
    Inventors: Toshihiro Morita, Mitsuyuki Hatanaka, Kiyonobu Kojima, Shin Shiroma
  • Patent number: 7752202
    Abstract: Content that is appropriate according to a specification of client equipment is distributed without having to prepare content of a plurality of formats. When a data list request is received from a client, a server sets a content URL and conversion identification information indicating that the content is original content for content that does not require data conversion. In the case of content for which data conversion is necessary, a virtual URL embedded with data conversion specifying information and conversion identification information indicating the necessity of conversion are set the URL and returned to the client. The server then receives the URL from the client for analysis. If there is no data conversion specifying information, the content is transmitted as it. If data conversion specifying information is embedded, the content is sent to the client after data conversion in accordance with the data conversion specifying information.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 9, 2003
    Date of Patent: July 6, 2010
    Assignee: Sony Corporation
    Inventors: Yoichi Kobori, Toshihiro Morita, Kazuhiro Honda
  • Publication number: 20100088275
    Abstract: An information processing apparatus acquires and transmits content identification information stored in the storage unit to the other apparatus, determines whether the information processing apparatus has received the content analysis results from the other apparatus and if it is determined that the content analysis result acquisition unit has received the content analysis results from the other apparatus, causes the storage unit to store the content analysis results and if it is determined that the information processing apparatus has not received the content analysis results from the other apparatus, perform processing to obtain content analysis results by analyzing the content data stored in the storage unit to cause the storage unit to store the content analysis results by associating with the content data stored in the storage unit and also perform processing to transmit the content analysis results to the other apparatus.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 2, 2009
    Publication date: April 8, 2010
    Applicant: Sony Corporation
    Inventor: Toshihiro Morita
  • Patent number: 7684883
    Abstract: An information processing method is disclosed for use with an information processing apparatus for acquiring data and executing signal processing on the data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 6, 2005
    Date of Patent: March 23, 2010
    Assignee: Sony Corporation
    Inventors: Hideyuki Ono, Osamu Shimoyoshi, Kiyoshi Aida, Yoshinori Utsumi, Toshio Ohkouchi, Toshihiro Morita, Rie Usukura
  • Publication number: 20090187578
    Abstract: An information processing device is provided that performs content transfer with a content storage device on which is stored content that has content identification information, the information processing device including: a storage portion that stores content that has content identification information and records at least one of a first attribute and a second attribute that correspond to the content identification information for each of the content; a content extractor that extracts, from among the content stored in the storage portion, the content for transfer to the content storage device; and a transmission portion that transmits the content extracted by the content extractor to the content storage device in an order that is based on the first attribute and the second attribute, while giving priority to the first attribute.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 8, 2009
    Publication date: July 23, 2009
    Applicant: Sony Corporation
    Inventor: Toshihiro MORITA
  • Publication number: 20090172579
    Abstract: An information processing device is provided that performs content transfer with a content recording device on which is stored content that has content identification information identifying the content. The information processing device includes: an identification information acquisition portion that acquires, from the content recording device, the content identification information for the content recorded in the content recording device; a display control portion that groups a list of the content identification information acquired by the identification information acquisition portion for each of a content type acquired from the content identification information and displays the list; and a sort control portion that sorts, for each of the content types, the list of the content identification information displayed by the display control portion, based on the content attribute information acquired from the content identification information.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 4, 2008
    Publication date: July 2, 2009
    Applicant: Sony Corporation
    Inventors: Ayumu Sugano, Kumiko Sasaki, Toshihiro Morita, Atsuo Ukigaya
  • Patent number: 7512549
    Abstract: In an information processor for checking in or out a content to an external device connected thereto, a number of possible checkouts for the content by a predetermined kind of symbol, a name corresponding to the content is displayed and a number of possible checkouts for the content is displayed. Thus, a desired content can be checked out or in simply and quickly.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 10, 2000
    Date of Patent: March 31, 2009
    Assignee: Sony Corporation
    Inventors: Toshihiro Morita, Mitsuyuki Hatanaka, Kiyonobu Kojima, Ippei Tambata, Shin Shiroma
  • Patent number: 7461175
    Abstract: An information processing apparatus is disclosed which includes: a signal processing executing device for executing signal processing on data that has been acquired; a recording device for temporarily recording the data and information so that either the data or the information may be transmitted and received by the signal processing executing device, the information being necessary for the signal processing executing device to execute the signal processing on the data; and a data controlling device for controlling a destination to which to output the data after acquiring the data and the information and determining whether to execute signal processing. When determining that the signal processing is to be executed, the data controlling device writes the data and the information to the recording device. The signal processing executing device acquires either the data or the information from the recording device in order to execute the signal processing on the data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 30, 2005
    Date of Patent: December 2, 2008
    Assignee: Sony Corporation
    Inventors: Hideyuki Ono, Osamu Shimoyoshi, Kiyoshi Aida, Yoshinori Utsumi, Toshio Ohkouchi, Toshihiro Morita, Rie Usukura