Digital media kiosk

摘要

A kiosk for sale or rental of secure USB flash drives employing digital rights management to implement secure digital media storage such as that provided by encrypted storage utilizing content protection for recordable media (CPRM) or the like. Preferably, the form factor of the secure USB flash drives is that of a standard USB flash drive, and a standard USB connector is employed therein making the devices and their use familiar and comfortable to the average consumer. Further, the kiosk may employ an array of USB ports and support writing of content from one drive to another to advantageously adjust inventory to respond to demand. Light, simple kiosks may be designed.

主权项

1. A kiosk employing a secure universal serial bus (USB) flash drive comprising:
a selection mechanism for selecting a title of digital media stored on a secure USB flash drive for utilization with a standard USB port; a payment mechanism for making payment for the selected title; storage for storing secure USB flash drives for utilization with standard USB ports and storing prerecorded digital media; a retrieval mechanism adapted for retrieving the selected title and dispensing the selected title; an array of USB ports adjacent the storage and enclosed within the kiosk, wherein a control processor can read from one secure USB flash drive inserted into a first USB port of the array of ports and record to another secure USB flash drive inserted into a second USB port of the array of ports; and a compartment for holding a stack of blank secure USB flash drives, and wherein the retrieval mechanism can retrieve a blank secure USB flash drive from the compartment, transport the blank secure USB flash drive to said array and insert the blank secure USB flash drive into an empty USB port in said array, and wherein the retrieval mechanism comprises a vacuum picker for picking a top secure USB flash drive from a stack.