Digital media kiosk
View Patent ↗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.
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.
2. The kiosk of claim 1 further comprising a plurality of compartments for holding prerecorded titles of digital media recorded on secure USB flash drives in stacks open at the top.
3. The kiosk of claim 1 wherein the storage further stores standard USB flash drives storing promotional material not requiring digital rights management.
4. The kiosk of claim 1 wherein the prerecorded digital media comprises movies, music, books or computer games.
5. The kiosk of claim 4 wherein the kiosk sells or rents multiple different types of digital media recorded on secure USB flash drives.
6. The kiosk of claim 1 further operable to sell or rent digital media stored on a digital video disk.
7. The kiosk of claim 1 wherein said storage stores a supply of blank secure USB flash drives stacked one on top of another.
8. 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 wherein said retrieval mechanism transports multiple of the blank secure USB flash drives and inserts them into empty USB ports.
9. The kiosk of claim 8 wherein said multiple blank secure USB flash drives are written with digital content.
10. 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; and
a retrieval mechanism adapted for retrieving the selected title and dispensing the selected title; and
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,_wherein said retrieval mechanism transports multiple of said secure USB flash drives storing prerecorded digital media to empty USB ports where the multiple secure USB flash drives are erased and written with new content in order to reconfigure inventory.