JP2000293181A - Karaoke device with feature of lyrics image drawing function - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] [PROBLEMS] To provide a karaoke apparatus provided with a lyrics rendering function capable of instructing the timing of singing with free and flexible expressions. Kind Code: A1 A karaoke apparatus that sequentially generates lyrics images in which the display form of a singing character corresponding to a singing occasion is appropriately changed during a transformation period by processing lyrics rendering data in synchronization with music generation data. A graphic processing system for generating start-point image data according to a predetermined initial form and end-point image data according to a final form; and processing the image data of the start and end points to generate the start-point image data. Morphing image generation means for sequentially generating a transition process from an image to the end point image as interpolated image data for the number of screens determined based on the transformation period, the graphic processing system includes: At the beginning and end of the transformation period, the start image data and the end image data are output as video, respectively, and during the transformation period, the interpolation image data is sequentially displayed. The image is output.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a karaoke apparatus, and more particularly to a karaoke apparatus having a lyric rendering function for adding an expression indicating a singing timing to a lyric image.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A karaoke apparatus displays a lyric image on a display in accordance with the progress of accompaniment music, and changes the character color at the timing when a singer should start to pronounce a character corresponding to a singing occasion. A lyric rendering function is provided for instructing the singer when to sing the character. As a method of expressing the color change in the lyrics rendering function, there is a method of changing the color of the corresponding character when it is time for the singer to start pronunciation, but in order to make it easier for the singer to sing along with the accompaniment music, When the displayed character reaches the moment of singing, there is a widespread method in which one character is vertically divided in synchronization with the length of the accompaniment sound corresponding to the character, and the color of the character is gradually wiped from the left end and painted. Has been adopted.

A karaoke apparatus performs a lyrics rendering function by processing lyrics rendering data including various information such as a lyric character string of a song, a display layout, a display sequence, and a singing timing instruction in synchronism with a karaoke accompaniment music output process. Has been realized. The lyric character is processed for each character string of one horizontal line divided for each appropriate phrase. The graphic processing system that generates the lyric image displays and deletes the character strings in a one-row unit or a two-row unit according to the progress of the music in accordance with the display sequence. Then, the lyrics image is sequentially updated so that the character corresponding to the singing timing included in the displayed character string is gradually changed in color based on the information of the singing timing instruction attached to each character.

[0004] More specifically, the timing of starting the utterance of the character and the timing of ending the utterance of each character are described by the elapsed time from the start of the accompaniment music as information on the singing timing. In addition, the graphic processing system uses the character width (dot number) on the screen and the color change period calculated from both timings of the singing timing instruction attached to the singing character, and updates the lyrics image at each time interval according to the screen. The vertical dividing line is moved to the right by an appropriate number of dots. In the displayed character string, lyrics images in which the color of the character portion is changed on the left and right sides of the boundary line are sequentially generated. As a result, the color of each character in the character string gradually changes from left to right.

[0005]

The singing timing instruction in the lyric rendering function of the karaoke apparatus has always been expressed by a wipe-type color change. Not only in the karaoke apparatus described above, but also in a conventional karaoke apparatus using an optical video disk containing accompaniment music and lyrics images, the expression of the singing timing instruction has not changed. Certainly, this "color change"
The scheme can assist the singer in checking the lyrics and following the tempo of the song well. Therefore, it can be said that it is an effective function for a beginner or a person who sings an unfamiliar song to learn the song. However, it is difficult to express information about the song other than the lyrics and tempo in the lyric image by the singing timing instruction by the wipe-type color change control, and it is desired to be able to sing a familiar song using more advanced singing techniques. It can be said that it is an auxiliary or unnecessary function for the user who thinks.

As described above, since there are a wide range of users of karaoke from beginners to advanced users, it is necessary that the karaoke apparatus also has a lyrics rendering function capable of improving singing ability for all users. It is. of course,
If the lyrics rendering data is prepared as moving image data, any singing occasion can be expressed. However, this is not practical given the huge amount of data. Also, it takes enormous time and cost to create the moving image data.

Accordingly, the present invention provides a karaoke apparatus having a lyric rendering function capable of instructing a singing timing with more free and flexible expression without changing the lyric rendering data and the system for creating the lyric rendering data accumulated up to now. It is an object.

[0008]

Means for Solving the Problems The first invention is specified by the following items (1) to (4). (1) A karaoke apparatus having a feature of a lyrics image drawing function. (2) By processing the lyrics rendering data including each information such as the lyric character string, display layout, display sequence, and singing timing instruction of the music, synchronously with the music generation data which is the origin of the accompaniment music of the karaoke music. In addition, an appropriate lyric character string is sequentially displayed / erased at a predetermined display position, and the display form such as the color of the singing character corresponding to the singing timing is appropriately changed in the transformation period according to the singing timing instruction. (3) An initial form and a final form are set as default display forms of the singing characters. A graphic processing system for generating the lyrics image, an end point image generating means for generating start point image data including singing characters according to the initial form and end point image data including singing characters according to the final form, The image data generated by the image generating means is processed according to a predetermined algorithm, and the process of shifting from the start image to the end image is performed on the number of screens determined based on the transformation period of the singing character. And a morphing image generating means for sequentially generating as. (4) The graphic processing system outputs the start image data and the end image data at both ends of the transformation period of the singing character, and sequentially outputs the interpolated image data during the transformation period.

[0009] The end point image generating means obtains a sound attribute such as a pitch and a volume of a sound corresponding to the singing character from the music generation data, and sets the predetermined display mode based on the sound attribute. The karaoke apparatus to be determined is defined as a second invention.

[0010] In the karaoke apparatus according to a third aspect of the present invention, an intermediate form is predefined in addition to the initial form and the final form, and the end point image generating means complies with the start point image data, the end point image data, and the intermediate form. Intermediate image data including the singing character is generated, and the morphing image generating unit generates a transition process from the start image to the intermediate image and a transition process from the intermediate image to the end image as the interpolation image data. You are going to.

[0011]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS === Basic Configuration and Operation of Karaoke Apparatus === FIG. 1 shows a configuration diagram of an embodiment of a karaoke apparatus according to the present invention. The central control unit 11 has a CPU, a RAM,
A microcomputer including a ROM, which performs data communication with peripheral components via a data bus 100 and a control bus 110,
The karaoke apparatus 1 is supervised. The hard disk drive 12 stores MIDI data for a number of karaoke songs
Music generation data that is the origin of the karaoke accompaniment music described in the format, lyrics character data to be rendered in synchronization with the music performance, and lyrics rendering data that describes the attributes of the characters (display position, display / erase timing) Is stored.

When the central control unit 11 receives the music number of the requested music input by the user through the remote control transmitter 17 and the operation panel 18 via the operation control unit 19, the input order is associated with the music number. By storing the music in the RAM, a performance reservation process for the music is performed. Then, when the performance order of the music comes, the corresponding music generation data and lyrics rendering data are extracted from the hard disk device 12 and processed. The music generation data is sequentially transferred to the synthesizer 13, the audio signal of the accompaniment music generated here and the audio signal input from the microphone 16 are input to the mixing amplifier 14, and the mixed audio signal is output to the speaker 15. You.

On the other hand, the lyrics rendering data is processed in synchronization with the above-described audio signal processing, and a lyrics image synchronized with the accompaniment music is generated and bitmap-developed in the video RAM 20 sequentially. The process of generating the lyrics image is at the heart of the present invention. The central control unit 11 performs a process of instructing a singing timing by a conventional wipe-type color change expression.
The display processing of the singing timing instruction can be performed in a completely different expression while using the existing lyrics rendering data.

The lyrics image that has been bit-mapped in the video RAM 20 is superimposed by the video controller 21 on a video signal of an appropriate mood video reproduced by the video CD changer 22, thereby producing a mood containing the lyrics image. The video is displayed on the display 23.

=== Outline of Singing Timing Instruction === The karaoke apparatus of the present invention can indicate a singing timing with a free and flexible expression instead of the conventional wipe-type color changing method. For this purpose, the karaoke apparatus 1 has a function of generating computer graphics (CG) by morphing processing. As is well known, morphing is a technique for smoothly changing the shape of an object drawn as a digital image.

When generating a lyric image including a singing character corresponding to the singing timing, the central control unit 11 displays the singing character at two end points, that is, when the singing character reaches the singing timing and when the singing timing of the character ends. A lyric image to be generated is generated based on the lyric rendering data, and the image data is automatically generated by a morphing process using the transition process between the end point images as an interpolation image. Therefore, it is not necessary to separately prepare the interpolated image data, and the lyrics rendering data used in the conventional karaoke apparatus can be used as it is.

=== Generation of Lyrics Drawing Data Default Image Data === FIG. 2 shows a schematic configuration of the lyrics drawing data. This configuration is the same as the data processed by the conventional karaoke device, and is associated with the ID of the karaoke song in a searchable manner.
The lyrics characters of the music are divided into appropriate character strings according to phrases and the like. Then, the character strings are arranged in the order displayed on the display, and the display time and the erasing time are described. Also, coordinates on the display screen are described as display layout information of the lyrics characters. In this embodiment, the coordinates at the upper left of the screen are (x, y) = (0, 0), and the coordinates at the lower right are (x, y) = (64).
0,480), the lower left point of the first character of each character string is associated with appropriate coordinates.

Further, each character is accompanied by singing timing data. In this data, the start point and the end point of the transformation period are associated with the timing when the utterance of the character is to be started and the time when the utterance is to be ended.
In the present embodiment, during the metamorphosis period, when the display form of the character to be uttered on the display screen is changed to instruct the singer to sing, the time (start point) at which the change of the display form starts and the change are determined. The ending time (end point) and the elapsed time from the start of the performance of the accompaniment music are described by the number of beats.

=== Generation of Default Image Data === As described above, the central control unit generates the image data of the end point using the lyrics rendering data. In this embodiment, two display modes are set in advance in the ROM of the central control unit corresponding to the two end points of the start point and the end point. FIG.
(A)-(D) show the outline of the display form,
The display state of the end point images at both ends when the display form of the characters “ro”, “ha”,... Changes in order from the character “i” in the lyric character string “iroha niho” Is shown.

The display mode of the character "I" is the same as the state where the character string "Iroha Niho" is displayed at the starting point. The central control unit generates a starting image according to the display mode (A). In addition, at the end point of the "i", the display form is such that the outline of the character is bordered (B). The start image of the next “ro” matches the end image of the “i” (C). Of course, by changing the color and size of the corresponding singing character in the start image to other characters in the character string, the end image of the previous character in the same column and the start image of the corresponding character are displayed differently. It may be. The character string bordered by "ro" is set as the end point image in "ro" (D).

=== Morphing Process === The central control unit performs the morphing process using the end point image data at both ends, which is generated as described above. First, the time between the start and end points attached to each character in the lyrics rendering data is acquired as a transformation period. This transformation period is multiplied by the number of screens per unit time (30 frames / second in this embodiment) to determine the number of screens of the interpolated image generated as a transition process from the start image to the end image. And
The interpolation image data corresponding to the transition process from the start image to the end image is calculated based on the predetermined number of screens based on a predetermined algorithm which defines the correspondence of coordinates between the image data at the start and end and the morphing method (how to express the transformation). Generate.

FIGS. 4A to 4K schematically show an interpolated image generated from the end point image shown in FIG. An interpolated image (B) in which the border of the character gradually grows from left to right from the start image (A) to the end image (F) corresponding to the transformation period of “i” in the character string ) To (E) are generated. Similarly, corresponding to the transformation period of “R”, interpolation images (G) to (G) are applied from the start image (F) to the end image (K).
(J) is generated.

=== Display Control of Singing Timing Instruction === The above-described generation of the default image data and the interpolated image data is completed before the time when the character targeted for the singing timing instruction is displayed on the display. I do. That is, the generated image data is stored in a RAM or the like in the central control unit until the time when the image data is to be displayed. Then, when the start time of the character targeted for the singing timing is reached, the corresponding start-point image data is bit-mapped to the video RAM, and the generated interpolated image data is sequentially bit-mapped for each predetermined rewriting time. Go. When the end point image data corresponding to the character is bit-mapped at the end point, display control of the start point image data corresponding to the next character is performed. Note that the image data generation processing is performed in parallel with a task separate from the performance processing and the processing for display control.

=== Others === According to the karaoke apparatus of the present invention, it is possible to reflect the attribute of the sound (volume, pitch, etc.) corresponding to the singing character on the lyrics image by simply changing the software. Becomes Specifically, the sound attribute is associated with the display mode. For example, the scale may be associated with the vertical display position of the screen, the volume may be associated with the size of the character, and the association may be set as a default display mode. Then, the attribute of each sound obtained from the music generation data may be reflected on the lyrics image including the character corresponding to the sound. After that, the lyrics image is automatically transformed by a predetermined morphing process.

FIGS. 5A to 5E are examples in which the sound attributes are reflected in the lyrics image, and the volume of each sound is made to correspond to the display mode. In this example, an end-point image reflecting a relative volume difference between the character “I” immediately before the singing character and the singing character “R” from the starting image (A) bordering the sung character “I”. (E) are generated, and the interpolated images (B) to (D) are generated such that the border and the width of the character gradually increase between the images.

In the above embodiment, the setting of the display form is predetermined on the karaoke apparatus main body side. However, the setting is made to be included in the lyrics rendering data or the music generation data, or a separate comparison table is prepared, and the correspondence is set for each music. You may keep it. Further, the setting may be described for each character in the lyrics rendering data. Further, the user may be allowed to select a display mode (color, font, character size, etc.) before and after the transformation of the singing character. Of course, the expression of the morphing is not limited to the above-described “growth type”, and may be selectable, such as a conventional wipe type color change.

In addition to the start point image and the end point image, intermediate image data corresponding to an image in the transformation process may be generated based on the lyrics rendering data. FIG. 6 illustrates an outline of the case where the intermediate image data is generated. First, an intermediate image (C) is generated in addition to the start image (A) and the end image (E). Then, between images (A) to (C) and (C)
To (E) are generated as an interpolated image. In this example, the display form of the singing character in the intermediate image (C) is obtained by dividing the display form (frame) of the character in the end point image (E) by half. Thereby, it is possible to clearly grasp the trajectory in which the display form changes. It should be noted that the intermediate image need not always be inserted at an intermediate point in the transformation period. Of course, a plurality of intermediate images may be generated.

[0028]

The karaoke apparatus of the present invention generates lyric image data to be displayed at both ends of a metamorphosis period of a character corresponding to a singing occasion based on existing lyric rendering data and a predetermined display form. An interpolated image corresponding to the transition process between the images is automatically generated by the morphing process. Therefore, by adopting an arbitrary display form, it is possible to achieve a lyric rendering function capable of instructing the singing timing with a free and flexible expression instead of the conventional color change expression. In addition, since the lyrics rendering data accumulated for the conventional karaoke apparatus can be used as it is, there is no cost for separately creating the lyrics rendering data.

If the intermediate image data corresponding to the middle of the metamorphosis period as well as both ends of the metamorphosis period is also generated based on the lyrics rendering data, the metamorphosis intermediate state by morphing can be defined. Therefore, it becomes easy for the singer to grasp the transition state of the lyrics image.

Further, by setting the display mode based on the sound attributes such as the loudness and pitch of each sound obtained from the music generation data, the inflection of the music can be expressed by a lyric image. As a result, it is possible to assist the improvement of singing skills for a wide range of karaoke users from beginners to advanced users

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of a karaoke apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic configuration diagram of lyrics rendering data processed in the embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of lyric image data corresponding to both ends of a transformation period generated in the embodiment.

FIG. 4 shows an outline of a morphing process in the embodiment as a transition state of a lyrics image.

FIG. 5 schematically illustrates a morphing process of a lyric image in which morphing processing in which a sound attribute is reflected in the embodiment.

FIG. 6 schematically shows a morphing process in the case where intermediate image data is generated in the above embodiment, as a transition state of a lyrics image.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Karaoke apparatus 11 Central control unit 20 Video RAM 21 Video control unit

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. The invention specified by the following items (1) to (4). (1) A karaoke apparatus having a lyrics image drawing function. (2) By processing the lyrics rendering data including each information such as the lyric character string, display layout, display sequence, and singing timing instruction of the music, synchronously with the music generation data which is the origin of the accompaniment music of the karaoke music In addition, an appropriate lyric character string is sequentially displayed / erased at a predetermined display position, and the display form such as the color of the singing character corresponding to the singing timing is appropriately changed in the transformation period according to the singing timing instruction. (3) An initial form and a final form are set as default display forms of the singing characters. A graphic processing system for generating the lyrics image, an end point image generating means for generating start point image data including singing characters according to the initial form and end point image data including singing characters according to the final form, The image data generated by the image generating means is processed according to a predetermined algorithm, and the process of shifting from the start image to the end image is performed on the number of screens determined based on the transformation period of the singing character. And a morphing image generating means for sequentially generating as. (4) The graphic processing system outputs the start image data and the end image data at both ends of the transformation period of the singing character, and sequentially outputs the interpolated image data during the transformation period. 2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the end point image generation unit acquires a sound attribute such as a pitch or a volume of a sound corresponding to the singing character from the music generation data, and changes the predetermined display mode. A karaoke apparatus characterized in that the karaoke apparatus is determined based on sound attributes. 3. The method according to claim 1, wherein
The intermediate form is defined in addition to the initial form and the final form, and the end point image generating means generates intermediate image data including the singing character according to the start point image data, the end point image data, and the intermediate form. A karaoke apparatus, wherein the morphing image generation means generates a transition process from the start image to the intermediate image and a transition process from the intermediate image to the end image as the interpolation image data.