JPH07231441A - Information compression transmission device - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] [Object] An object of the present invention is to compress information requested by a subscriber terminal, divide it into compressed data and its attribute information, add a common ID number to each, and separately An object of the present invention is to provide a two-way communication broadcasting system in which the copyright of information is protected by transmission and the usage fee can be charged from the subscriber. [Structure] The information 503 requested by the subscriber terminal 400 is compressed 140, divided into compressed data 504 and its attribute information 506, a common ID number for each is added, and compressed data is transmitted in response to the first request 503. 504 to the second request 50
By transmitting 170 the attribute information 506 according to 5, the usage fee is charged 300 to the subscriber. [Effect] It is possible to provide a two-way communication broadcasting system capable of protecting the copyright of information requested by a subscriber and charging the usage fee from the subscriber.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a device for transmitting information in which video / audio, character information, data, and application programs are compressed, and particularly for transmitting information for a fee in response to a request from a terminal connected by a line. The present invention relates to a suitable information compression transmission device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A technique relating to a two-way cable television that compresses video, audio, character information, and data in response to a request from a terminal connected by a line and transmits the compressed data to a terminal connected by a line is, for example, a television. Academic Journal (Vol.47, N
No. 8, pp1082-1087).

[0003]

The above-mentioned paper describes a system of a two-way cable television that transmits video, audio, character information, and data to a terminal connected by a line in response to a request from a terminal connected by a line. And the technology related to the service. However, there is no disclosure about a method and technology for charging a viewing fee from a subscriber who installed each terminal in order to realize a two-way cable television, and a method and technology for protecting copyright of information.

An object of the present invention is to compress information such as video, audio, character information, data, and application program in response to a request from a terminal connected by a line, and to compress at least a plurality of compressed information and its attribute information. The information is divided into multiple pieces of information, and each piece of information is transmitted in response to at least a plurality of requests from each terminal connected by a line, thereby protecting the copyright of the transmitted information and subscribing. The purpose is to supply an information compression transmission device that enables a subscriber who has installed a personal terminal to charge the usage fee.

[0005]

In order to achieve the above object, the following means are provided. Video, audio, text information,
A compression unit that compresses data and application programs, a first storage unit that stores compressed data, and a second storage unit that stores attribute information and other management information necessary to decompress the compressed data, respectively. Means for adding common identification information to the divided information and requests from at least a plurality of terminals connected by a line, and the first and second storage means according to a plurality of requests from the terminals. A transmission / reception means and a transmission / reception control means for respectively transmitting the data stored in the storage device are provided.

[0006]

According to the request from the terminal connected by the line, the information compressing and transmitting apparatus compresses arbitrary video and audio, character information, data and application program. As a result, compressed data and attribute information necessary for decompressing the compressed data are obtained. The compressed data is stored in the first memory. The attribute information is also stored in the second memory together with other subscriber management information.

First and second from terminals connected by a line
In response to the information transmission request, the data stored in the first and second memories are transmitted.

Generally, the data stored in the first memory has a large amount of information, and it takes some time to be transmitted using the connected line. On the other hand, the amount of data stored in the second memory is small, and the data can be transmitted in an instant that the subscriber of the terminal does not need to be aware of.

According to the present invention, the information compression transmission apparatus compresses the information requested by the subscriber and divides it into at least a plurality of pieces,
By adding common identification information to each and transmitting it, the copyright of the information can be protected, and the subscriber of the terminal can receive the first data of the information requested to be transmitted in advance. Then, if you store it, the second
It is possible to receive only the above data and reproduce the requested data. In addition, a system can be provided that charges the subscriber the number of times the second data is requested.

[0010]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT An embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. In the embodiment shown in FIG. 1, a case where the present invention is applied to an information compression transmission device in a two-way communication broadcasting system will be described. FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram showing an entire interactive communication broadcasting system including an information compression transmission device to which the present invention is applied. In FIG. 1, 100 is an information transmitting station having an information compression transmitting apparatus, 200 is a digital communication line connecting the information transmitting station and the terminal, 300 is a terminal of a financial institution connected to the information transmitting station by the digital communication line, and 400 is It is a subscriber's terminal that is directly connected to the information transmitting station via a digital communication line.

First, a bidirectional communication broadcasting system including an information compression transmission device to which the present invention is applied will be described. Information transmitting station 100, financial institution terminal 300, and subscriber terminal 400
Are connected by a digital communication line 200, and bidirectional communication is possible between them. In this embodiment, the digital communication line 200 is, for example, an integrated service digital network (Integrated).
Service Digital Network,
Hereinafter, this is abbreviated as ISDN. ) Etc., a telephone, a facsimile, a public communication line shared with other communication such as a computer, or a dedicated communication line such as a cable television (CAble TV, hereinafter abbreviated as CATV).

[0012] One or a plurality of information transmitting stations 100 are connected to the digital communication line 200, and one or a plurality of subscriber terminals 400 also connected by the digital communication line 200 are charged or free. We provide information transmission services. In addition, one or a plurality of terminals 300 of financial institutions are connected to the digital communication line 200, and as described below, when the information transmitting station 100 provides an information transmitting service for a fee, the subscriber terminal 400 Since the subscriber is charged, the usage fee can be charged to the financial institution with which the subscriber has a contract.

The information transmitting station 100 can provide video, audio, character information, various data, and application programs for a fee or free of charge.

Next, FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the information transmitting station 100 of the interactive communication broadcasting system to which the present invention is applied. In FIG. 2, 110 is a host computer that manages the information transmitting station 100, 120 is a subscriber database that collectively manages information about subscribers who have terminals installed, and 130 is video and audio that the subscribers can request, An information library 140 for accumulating and managing character information, data, information such as application programs
Is an information compression processing device that compresses information such as video, audio, character information, data, and application programs requested by the subscriber; 150 is a storage medium that stores the first data output by the information compression processing device 140; Is a storage medium that stores the second data output by the information compression processing device 140, 170 is a communication control device that performs bidirectional communication, 20
Reference numeral 0 is a digital communication line connected to the subscriber's terminal.

FIG. 3 shows an information transmitting station 100 and a subscriber terminal 4.
This is a data format for communication between 00s. In FIG. 3, 501 is an information list request signal from the subscriber terminal 400 to the information transmitting station 100, 502 is information list data transmitted from the information transmitting station 100 to the subscriber terminal 400, and 503 is information transmitting from the subscriber terminal 400. Station 1
00 is a first request for requesting information, 504 is first data which is compressed data transmitted from the information transmitting station 100 to the subscriber terminal 400, and 505 is attribute information from the subscriber terminal 400 to the information transmitting station 100. Request second request, 506
Is the second data which is the attribute information transmitted from the information transmitting station 100 to the subscriber terminal 400, and 507 is the information transmitting station 10.
This is data for charging from 0 to the financial institution terminal.

In the data format shown in FIG. 3, the control code ST indicating the beginning of the data is
Control code EOD, which is an abbreviation for start of data and indicates the end of data
Is the End of Data
, Which are added by the communication control device 170 and transmitted. Similarly, the time management data TC shown in FIG.
Is an abbreviation for time code.

In the information transmitting station 100, the subscriber terminal 400
The information list request signal 501 from the digital communication line 2
When the communication control device 170 receives the information via 00, the communication control device 170 extracts the subscriber number of the subscriber terminal 400 from the received data, and there is an information list request 501 from a certain subscriber terminal 400. This is notified to the host computer 110. Host computer 11
0 refers to the subscriber database 120 based on the subscriber number received from the communication control device 170, checks the usage status, the delinquency status to the financial institution, etc., and determines whether or not information can be provided.

Next, when the subscriber terminal 400 requests the information list, the information selection condition can be designated, and the communication control device 170 selects the information selection condition from the received data including the information list request. To the host computer 110. The host computer 110 searches the information library 130 based on the information selection conditions, creates a list of currently available information, the usage status of the subscriber terminal 400 described above, the delinquency status at the financial institution, and the like. And the information is transmitted to the information compression processing device 140. The compressed data of the information list, which is compressed by the information compression processing device 140, is accumulated in the first memory 150. Further, the second memory 160 stores attribute information necessary for decompressing information in the subscriber terminal 400. First memory 150 and second
The data stored in the memory 160 is transmitted to the subscriber terminal 400 via the communication control device 170 and the digital communication line 200, with the transmission permission of the host computer 110. The subscriber terminal 400 receiving this information list data 502 decompresses the compressed data and selects the information. Then, it requests the information transmitting station 100 to transmit the selected information.

The information list request 501 of the subscriber terminal 400 to the information transmitting station 100 is not necessarily required every time the information transmission is requested. For example, other than the time of retrieving information, regular transmission once a month or the like. Is also possible.

Upon receiving the first request 503 for information transmission from the subscriber terminal 400 via the digital communication line 200, the communication control device 170 requests the subscriber number of the subscriber terminal 400 and transmission from the received data. Conditions such as the management number of the information being processed and the expiration date of the information are extracted and notified to the host computer 110. Host computer 110
Is based on the subscriber number received from the communication control device 170,
With reference to the subscriber database 120, the usage status, the status of delinquency with the financial institution, and the like are checked to determine whether or not information can be provided. If it can be provided, the information library 130 is searched based on the management number of the information requested by the subscriber terminal 400 for transmission, and whether the information requested by the subscriber terminal 400 for transmission can be provided or not. Find out. If the information can be provided, the requested information is transferred from the information library 130 to the information compression processing device 140.

The information compression processor 140 compresses the information transferred from the information library 130 as needed, and stores the compressed data in the first memory 150. If the host computer 110 gives permission to send,
The data stored in the first memory 150 is transferred to the communication control device 170, and the communication control device 170 transmits the first data 504, which is compressed data, to the subscriber terminal 400 via the digital communication line 200. . Generally, the data amount of the first data 504 transmitted by the first request 503 is enormous, and the information transmission amount per unit time that can be transmitted by the digital communication line 200 has an upper limit.
The transmission of the first data 504 transmitted by the first request 503 requires some time.

The second memory 160 stores the attribute information necessary for decompressing the information at the subscriber terminal 400. The data amount of the second data 506, which is the attribute information, is smaller than that of the first data 504, which is the compressed data, and the transmission is possible in a short time that the subscriber is hardly aware of. is there.

At the subscriber terminal 400, the first data 504 transmitted by the first request 503 for information transmission.
Is recorded in, for example, a magneto-optical disk device. This first
When the user terminal 400 tries to expand and reproduce the data 504 of the digital communication line 2 to the information transmitting station 100,
A second request 505 requesting transmission of attribute information necessary for decompressing information is transmitted via 00.

Upon receiving the second request 505 for information transmission from the subscriber terminal 400 via the digital communication line 200, the communication control device 170 requests the subscriber number of the subscriber terminal 400 and the transmission from the received data. The management number of the current information is extracted and notified to the host computer 110. The host computer 110 refers to the subscriber database 120 based on the subscriber number received from the communication control device 170, checks the usage status, the status of delinquency with the financial institution, and the like, and determines whether or not information can be provided. . If it can be provided, the host computer 110 issues a transmission permission to the second memory 160, transfers the second data 506 stored in the second memory 160 to the communication control device 170, and 170 transmits the attribute information to the subscriber terminal 400 via the digital communication line 200.

In the subscriber terminal 400, the second data 506 transmitted by the second request 505 for information transmission.
Is stored in the memory on the subscriber terminal 400. Using the attribute information that is the second data 506, the first request 503
The compressed data which is the first data 504 received by is decompressed and reproduced.

In the information transmitting station 100, the subscriber terminal 400
When transmission of the second data 506 is completed by the second request 505 from the host computer 110, the host computer 110 updates the management information of the subscriber database 120. Then, the billing information 507 is transmitted to the terminal 300 of the financial institution through the digital communication line 200, and the subscriber is charged a usage fee.

Next, the information compression processing device 14 will be described with reference to FIG.
The operation of 0 will be described. FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing the internal configuration of the information compression processing device 140. Information compression processing device 1
The information that can be handled by the 40 includes various types of information such as video, audio, character information, various data, application programs, etc. In order to compress the information most efficiently, the information is matched to the characteristics of the data to be compressed. It is necessary to select each compression method. Therefore, although not shown in FIG. 4, a circuit for determining the type of information at the time of inputting a signal to the information compression processing device 140, a selection circuit for switching the compression circuit according to the information, and a compression processing according to the input information. A circuit is provided.

Here, a video signal will be described as an example of the information to be compressed.

In FIG. 4, 110 is a host computer, 130 is an information library, 140 is an information compression processor, 141 is a discrete cosine transform (DCT) circuit, and 142 is.
Is a quantization circuit, 143 is a quantization table setting circuit, 14
4 is a scale factor setting circuit, 145 is an entropy coding circuit, 146 is a time code separation circuit, 147 is a first multiplexing circuit, 148 is a second multiplexing circuit, and 150.
Is a first memory and 160 is a second memory.

The host computer 110 that has received the first request 503 for information transmission from the subscriber terminal 400 is
The information requested by the subscriber terminal 400 is specified in the information library 130. In response to this, the information library 13
0 starts the data transfer of the designated information to the information compression processing device 140. The video signal input to the information compression processing device 140 is divided into blocks of 8 * 8 pixels, and the frequency is converted by the DCT circuit 141 for each block. DCT
The video signal input to the circuit 141 is a digital signal, and if the video signal input to the information compression processing device 140 is an analog signal, it is not shown in FIG.
It is necessary to perform A / D conversion before the circuit 141.

The input video signal generally records time code and user's bit information for editing during the vertical synchronizing period, but the time code separation circuit 146 inputs the input video signal. The time code and user bits are separated from the signal and the time code and user bits are sent to the host computer 110. The host computer 110 changes the scale factor and the quantization table at regular time intervals or at irregular time intervals generated by generating random numbers while referring to the time code and the user's bit.

The host computer 110, at regular time intervals,
Alternatively, in order to change the scale factor and the quantization table at irregular time intervals, the quantization table is sequentially set in the quantization table setting circuit 143 and the scale factor is set in the scale factor setting circuit 144. The quantization circuit 142 quantizes the DCT coefficient according to these settings. Then, the entropy coding circuit 145 performs variable length coding to compress the video signal. This compressed data is
The ID number issued by the host computer 110 is added in the multiplexing circuit 147 and stored in the first memory 150. This data becomes the first data 504. Further, the scale factor and the quantization table necessary for decompressing the compressed data and the attribute information of the time code in which these are changed are added with the same ID number as the ID number added to the first data 504 by the multiplexing circuit 148, It is stored in the second memory. This data becomes the second data 506.

Here, it is necessary to match the correspondence between the compressed data which is the first data 504 and the attribute information which is the second data 506 transferred at different times. Therefore, the host computer 110 assigns a common ID number to the first data 504 and the second data 506. In the second request 505 issued when the subscriber terminal 400 decompresses and reproduces information, the ID number extracted from the first data 504 is added to the second request 505. In response to this, the second data 506 stored in the second memory 160 is transmitted.

In the subscriber terminal 400, by matching the common ID number, the correspondence between the compressed data and the attribute information can be matched and decompressed and reproduced. In addition, the subscriber terminal 40
The decompression reproduction of the compressed data received by 0 requires the scale factor synchronized with the time code and the attribute information about the quantization table, and the transferred compressed data is in a state equivalent to being scrambled.

Therefore, the information transmitting station 100 compresses the information requested by the subscriber terminal 400, divides it into compressed data and its attribute information, adds a common ID number to each, and transmits each separately. Therefore, the subscriber terminal 400 cannot decompress and reproduce only the received and recorded compressed data, and the attribute information is always required to decompress and reproduce the compressed data. Further, as will be described below, the subscriber terminal 400 is configured such that the received attribute information cannot be recorded in a nonvolatile recording medium such as a magneto-optical disk,
It is possible to protect the copyright of the information and charge the subscriber according to the number of times the subscriber requests the attribute information.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing the internal structure of the subscriber terminal 400. In FIG. 5, 200 is ISDN
A communication line, a microcomputer 401, a control panel 402, a communication control circuit 403, a magneto-optical disk 404, a memory 405, a decompression processing circuit 406, a format conversion circuit 407, a monitor 408, and an entropy decoding circuit 411. Reference numeral 412 is a scale factor setting circuit, 413 is a quantization table setting circuit, 414 is an inverse quantization circuit, and 415 is an inverse DCT circuit.

The control panel 402 is a part for controlling everything related to the human interface of the subscriber terminal 400, and requests 501 of information list, information retrieval and selection, first request 503, second request 505, and decompression. Operations such as playback and display can be performed.

The microcomputer 401 is a controller that controls the subscriber terminal 400 as a whole. ISDN communication line 20
The first data 504 and the second data 506 received via 0 are identified by the communication control circuit 403 in response to an instruction from the microcomputer. First data 504 received
Are recorded and stored in the magneto-optical disk 404. The magneto-optical disk 404 can be either a built-in subscriber terminal 400 type or a detachable type. On the other hand, the second data 506 is stored in the memory 405 built in the subscriber terminal 400. The contents cannot be taken out of the device.

The microcomputer 401, which has received the reproduction / expansion command from the control panel 402, instructs to read data from the magneto-optical disk 404 and the memory 405, and the expansion processing circuit 406 starts the expansion processing.
First data 50 reproduced from the magneto-optical disk 404
The compressed data of 4 is decoded by the entropy decoding circuit 411. In the inverse quantization circuit 414, the successive scale factor setting circuit and 413 are inversely quantized according to the setting value of the quantization table setting circuit, and the inverse DCT circuit performs inverse DC.
T is extended. The microcomputer 401 confirms that the IDs of the second data 506 stored in the memory 405 match, controls the output of the memory 405 while referring to the contents of both, and sets the sequential scale factor setting. The circuit and 413 set the quantization table setting circuit, and the scale factor and 413 set the quantization table, respectively.

The decompressed video signal is added with a synchronizing signal by the format conversion circuit and then D / A converted by the D / A converter.
It is converted and displayed on the monitor 408.

As described above, in the subscriber terminal 400, if the first data 504 is received and recorded in advance, the second data can be obtained in a short time that the subscriber is hardly aware of. Will be received and can be expanded and reproduced.

Here, description has been made by taking as an example a configuration in which dedicated hardware for decompressing compressed data is built in.
The processing of the compression processing circuit 406 may be configured such that the microcomputer 401 processes it by software.

In the above embodiments, ISDN and CATV are taken as examples of digital communication lines, but other communication lines, such as optical communication networks, modems using analog telephone lines, local areas, It is also possible to use a network (Local Area Network) or the like.

In the above embodiment, the magneto-optical disk device is taken as an example of the storage medium for recording the compressed data, but digital signal recording such as digital VTR, digital audio tape recorder, optical disk device, hard disk device, etc. It can also be used with a playback device.

[0045]

According to the present invention, the information requested by the subscriber terminal is compressed and divided into compressed data and its attribute information,
By adding each common ID number and transmitting each separately, the subscriber terminal cannot decompress and reproduce only the received and recorded compressed data, and attribute information is always required to decompress and reproduce the compressed data. Becomes In addition, the attribute information received by the subscriber terminal cannot be recorded on a non-volatile recording medium to protect the copyright of the information and to notify the subscriber according to the number of times the subscriber requests the attribute information. It becomes possible to charge.

On the other hand, if the subscriber terminal receives and records the compressed data in advance, the subscriber terminal can receive the attribute information and decompress and reproduce the attribute information in a short time that the subscriber is hardly aware of. It is possible to provide a two-way communication broadcasting system that can perform.

[0047]

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram showing an entire interactive communication broadcasting system including an information compression transmission device to which an embodiment of the present invention is applied.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a configuration of an information transmitting station which is an information compressing and transmitting apparatus of a two-way communication broadcasting system to which an embodiment of the present invention is applied.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a data format of communication between an information transmitting station and a subscriber terminal.

4 is a block diagram showing an internal configuration of an information compression processing device 140 shown in FIG.

5 is a block diagram showing an internal configuration of a subscriber terminal 400 shown in FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

 100 ... Information transmitting station 110 ... Host computer 120 ... Subscriber database 130 ... Information library 140 ... Compression processing circuit 141 ... DCT circuit 142 ... Quantization circuit 145 ... Entropy coding circuit 150 ... First memory 160 ... Second memory 170 ... Communication control circuit 200 ... ISDN communication line 300 ... Financial institution terminal 400 ... Subscriber terminal 401 ... Microcomputer 404 ... Magneto-optical disk 405 ... Memory 406 ... Decompression processing circuit 503 ... First information transmission request 504 ... First data 505 ... Second information transmission request 506 ... Second data

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Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. An information transmission apparatus for compressing and transmitting information, wherein a series of information requested to be transmitted from one or a plurality of terminals connected by a private line or a public line is compressed, and the compressed information and the information are compressed. An information compression transmission apparatus, characterized in that the attribute information is divided into n pieces of information, and the nth piece of information is transmitted in response to each transmission request from the terminal n times.
(However, n is an integer of 1 or more.) 2. The information compressing and transmitting apparatus according to claim 1, wherein compressed information and its attribute information are divided into n pieces of information, and common identification information is added to each piece of information, and the information is transmitted. An information compression transmission device characterized by.
(However, n is an integer of 1 or more.) 3. The information compression transmission apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the attribute information is compressed by changing the attribute information based on the time information included in the information to be compressed, and the compressed information and its attribute information are converted into n pieces. An information compression transmission device characterized in that common identification information is added to each piece of information divided into pieces and the pieces of information are transmitted. (However, n is an integer of 1 or more.)