JP2004163975A - Karaoke equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

To provide a karaoke apparatus that can display a mood image that matches the content of each karaoke song that changes during a performance.
The system includes a video database storing videos for a long period of time, a plurality of video database access units, a plurality of video playback units, and a video effect processing unit. Point time data specifying the switching point, the storage position of the material video used between the points, and the script information describing the video effects used at the points are associated with each other, and when playing a karaoke song, The video database access means sequentially extracts material video data according to the corresponding script information while changing the processing system, and the video reproducing means sequentially reproduces the material video while sequentially handling the processing systems, The effect processing means is a color effect which sequentially switches the material video by the video effect processing according to the script information. It was with the device.
[Selection diagram] Fig. 1

Description

  The present invention relates to a karaoke apparatus, and more specifically, to a karaoke apparatus that displays a mood image on a display when performing accompaniment music of a karaoke song.

  Conventionally, in a karaoke apparatus, a mood image displayed on a display when performing karaoke accompaniment music has been created exclusively for each karaoke song, such as package software for karaoke. This package software is provided by integrally recording a mood image including accompaniment music and lyrics on a recording medium such as a CD. Therefore, it is possible to display a mood image that matches the style of the karaoke song and has a consistent storyline contained in the lyrics. However, since a special mood image is produced for each karaoke song, a huge production time and production cost are required. It is also difficult to quickly provide karaoke software (accompaniment music and mood video with lyrics) for new songs that are constantly released. Furthermore, in order to support a large number of karaoke songs, it is necessary to prepare a large number of karaoke package software, and the recording capacity such as the number of recording media and the space required for the installation location are enormous.

  In contrast to the method described above, a long-time video is stored in a video database, and a material video (a part of a long-time video) is appropriately selected and taken out from an arbitrary storage position in the database. There is a method in which a sequence of mood images is created by sequentially switching and playing back the music during a performance period. With the spread of a communication karaoke system that can quickly respond to the release of a new song and can accommodate a large number of songs with a small storage capacity, karaoke apparatuses adopting this method are becoming mainstream at present. The adoption of the shared video database system, which uses the shared material video for each karaoke song, has made it possible to significantly reduce the mood video production time and production cost, the recording capacity, and the location of the recording media. However, if a large number of material videos are randomly used in each karaoke song, the karaoke song style and mood video will not match at all. Therefore, in the technique disclosed in Japanese Patent No. 2550423 (conventional example), the music style of the music and the mood video are matched while adopting the shared video database system. The details of this technique are as follows.

  Each karaoke song is accompanied by index information for designating a material video used during the performance of the song. The index information is information “related to the musical composition”. The information related to the performance music is specifically a genre and is used for classifying a large number of karaoke music into a plurality.

  The long-time video stored in the video database is processed in units of material video. This material video is divided into appropriate video expressions such as one scene. These material videos are also classified into a plurality of groups according to genres. Therefore, each karaoke song and a predetermined material video group are associated with each other with the genre as an intermediary.

  A parameter is attached to the index information. The parameters describe point time data for setting a plurality of video switching points during the performance period of the karaoke song, and video effects at the time of video switching. Note that one video effect is designated for each song.

  When a certain karaoke song is requested, a number of material videos corresponding to the number of video switching points are randomly selected from a group of material videos corresponding to the genre attached to the song. Further, the order in which the plurality of material videos are reproduced is also set at random.

  When a karaoke song is played, a continuous video is continuously reproduced until the next video switching time, with the recording start position of the first material video as a reproduction start position. When the time of the first video switching point comes, the video is switched to the next material video according to the specified video effect. In this way, the material video is sequentially switched during the performance period of the music to make the mood video.

  Even now, there should be quite a lot of karaoke enthusiasts who feel the great appeal of singing along with the mood video created exclusively for each karaoke song. However, at present, when there are more than 10,000 karaoke songs, for the above-mentioned reason, there is no choice but to choose a method of using mood videos, which are far fewer in number than karaoke songs, in each song. It would not be possible at present.

  Certainly, in the technology disclosed in the above-mentioned conventional example, the karaoke music and the mood image are matched by allocating the material video to each karaoke music by genre. However, scenes that change from moment to moment along with the performance of the music, and the origination and relocation of the story contained in the lyrics are completely different for each music. In the mood video, the “video suitable for the image” recalled at each time during the performance is developed in the “specific order” that matches the story. Nevertheless, in the conventional example, an enormous number of karaoke songs of 10,000 or more and a long-time video of several tens of hours or more are classified according to extremely few genres. That is, for one of a huge number of music pieces belonging to each genre, material images of only a few scenes selected at random from a large number of material images belonging to each genre are appropriately allocated and used within the playing time. ing.

  Despite the fact that each of a large number of material videos has completely different contents, treat all the material videos classified only based on their superficial relevance equally, select them appropriately, and connect them appropriately. I have. That is, a mood video is obtained by editing a plurality of material videos that are completely unrelated in the order in which the contexts before and after are ignored. Therefore, it can be concluded that the technique according to the prior art is completely impossible to follow a mood image to a scene change or a story development during performance. In some cases, the image of the music being played may not match the mood video at all.

  Classifying material videos by genre also means that the number of material videos that can be used for each song is limited by itself. That is, when a song of a certain genre is selected, all material videos belonging to another genre are wasted. Further, even if a new video is added, the probability that this video will be used is low, and only the data amount is increased. In this case, it cannot be said that the original purpose of effectively using the recorded video by the shared video database is sufficiently achieved.

  Further, each selected material video is continuously reproduced up to the next video switching point with the recording start position as the reproduction start position. Even if the time interval between each video switching point and the recording time of each material video are the same, the playing time differs for each song, so the material video that is played last will inevitably end halfway . Suddenly, the singer will be dissatisfied if the mood video is suddenly interrupted without immersion in the "finish" of the end of the song.

  In addition, another problem is that the video effect is uniform for each music piece. The mood video is developed while the material video following the story is switched with the optimal video effect from time to time, thereby creating an effect that makes the story contained in the lyrics of the song more clear and conclude. Even if the video effect is changed at each video switching point, it must be said that the "video having no front and rear contexts" is cheated by the easy video effect.

  After all, this conventional example is a technique aimed at how to easily assign material images to the increase in music such as the addition of new songs. The only effect that can be obtained is to make sure they are not far apart.

  Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a karaoke apparatus that can display a mood image that matches the content of a song that changes during a performance while using a reusable material image.

In order to achieve the above object, the karaoke apparatus according to the present invention has the following requirements (1) to (4).
(1) A video for a long time for mood video is stored in a video database.
(2) A plurality of video database access units, a plurality of video playback units, and a video effect processing unit are provided. The video database access means reads video data corresponding to a material video having an arbitrary length of time from a desired storage position in the video database. The video reproducing means reproduces a video signal of a material video from the video data. The video effect processing means inputs a plurality of video signals, switches the video signal of one system to the video signal of another system while performing appropriate video effect processing on the video signal, and outputs the video signal.
(3) Script information is associated with each karaoke song. The script information includes point time data for specifying a plurality of video switching points during a performance period of one karaoke song, storage locations of material videos used between the video switching points, and video switching. Each video effect used at the point is described.
(4) When playing back the accompaniment music of a karaoke song, the video database access means of the plurality of systems may appropriately switch the processing system and use the material video data used between points according to the corresponding script information. Are sequentially taken out, and the video reproduction means of the plurality of systems reproduce the video signals of the material video sequentially while taking charge of the processing of the material video data in order, and the video effect processing means performs the script corresponding to the material video signal. Switching is performed sequentially while performing video effect processing according to the information.

  Further, by storing the video for a long time as digital video data compressed and encoded on the optical disk, the database access means accesses an arbitrary video data storage position in units of one second or less according to the time code of the optical disk. Alternatively, moving image data for an arbitrary reproduction time may be extracted.

  The material video extracted from the video recorded in the video database according to the script information corresponding to each karaoke music is directly specified at an arbitrary playback start position without passing through information related to the music such as genre, and is also specified. Playback is performed according to the playback time length and the specified order. Therefore, in all the karaoke songs, only a portion that matches the content that changes from time to time during the performance period can be reproduced as a material video with good timing. As a result, it is possible to display a mood video having a content that sufficiently follows the time-series change of the music. In addition, all recorded videos in the video database can be used without waste. In turn, even a small amount of video data can be edited into various mood videos. Therefore, the capacity of the video data stored in the shared video database can be further reduced as compared with the related art.

  Of course, the last material video in the performance period can be freely designated according to the performance time of the music or the atmosphere of the performance end. Therefore, the performance of the music does not end with the halfway video.

  In addition, by providing a plurality of systems of video database access means capable of operating in parallel and a plurality of systems of video reproducing means capable of operating in parallel, it is possible to avoid a time lag that occurs at the time of switching playback of material video. In addition, since video signal processing means for inputting video signals from a plurality of systems of video reproduction means in parallel and performing appropriate video effect processing is provided, the switching of the material video can be performed more smoothly and the music can be reproduced more naturally. The video can be transferred according to the content.

  Furthermore, by storing a long-time video as compression-encoded digital moving image data on the optical disk, an arbitrary storage position of the moving image data can be accessed in units of 1 second or less based on the time code of the optical disk, and arbitrary reproduction can be performed. Video data for time can be extracted. Therefore, a material video that closely follows a subtle story development can be reproduced at a more accurate timing.

=== Karaoke apparatus configuration and basic operation ===
FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of an embodiment of a karaoke apparatus of the present invention. The karaoke apparatus 1 has almost the same configuration as the performance terminal in the communication karaoke system, and its basic operation is almost the same. The central control unit 11 including a CPU, a RAM, and a ROM receives karaoke data distributed from the host device 60 through the telephone line 50 via the modem 23 and stores the karaoke data in the hard disk device 24. Then, when music selection information input from the remote control transmitter 12 or the operation panel 13 is received via the operation control unit 15, the corresponding karaoke data is extracted from the hard disk device 24. Accompaniment music generation data such as MIDI data in the karaoke data is sequentially transferred to a synthesizer 16, and the generated accompaniment music is mixed with a singer's voice signal from a microphone 17 by a mixing amplifier 18 and output to a speaker 19. . Further, the central control unit 11 processes the lyrics rendering data in the karaoke data, and sequentially develops the lyrics images synchronized with the accompaniment music into the video RAM 20 in the bitmap.

  On the other hand, the mood video is stored in the video database 30 in an appropriate data format. The video data reproduction unit 40 sequentially retrieves and reproduces material videos of an appropriate time length from the video database 30 as a time at the time of reproduction, and switches the material videos so as to be connected to edit them into a series of mood videos. . The video signal output from the video data reproducing unit 40 is combined with the lyrics image by the video control unit 21 and displayed on the display 22 as a mood video in which the lyrics are superimposed. Next, a reproduction system of the mood video which is a requirement of the present invention will be described.

=== Mood video playback system ===
(I) Video Database In this embodiment, the mood video is recorded on a CD-ROM as video data digitized in the MPEG1 format. A large number of CD-ROMs are prepared in order to handle a long-time video. In each CD-ROM, video data corresponding to a video of 74 minutes in reproduction time is recorded as in a normal video CD. The video data at the desired storage location can be specified by a sector address assigned to each data sector of the CD-ROM. By specifying a time code (minute / second / frame <1 second = 75 frames>) corresponding to the elapsed time when the video recorded on the CD-ROM is reproduced from the beginning, the desired sector address is set to 1 It can be accessed in units of seconds or less (a detailed description is omitted because the standard around this is based on a video CD).

  Therefore, the material video referred to in the present invention is not specified in units of video expression of one scene or the like, but an arbitrary sector address from a video for the recording time recorded on one CD-ROM and It is specified by an arbitrary reproduction time length as a reproduction start position. As a result, there are virtually countless source images.

(II) Hardware Configuration FIG. 2 shows the configuration of the video database 30 and the video data reproduction unit 40, which are the core of the hardware in the mood video reproduction system, in more detail. The video database 30 is composed of three systems of CD-ROM changers 31 to 33 operating in parallel, and a large number of CD-ROMs containing long-time images are distributed to the three systems of CD-ROM changers 31 to 33. ing. The central control unit controls an arbitrary system of CD-ROM changers 31 to 33, sets an arbitrary CD-ROM stored therein to the driving device, and sets an arbitrary CD-ROM recorded on the CD-ROM. Read and output material video data.
If the CD-ROM changer for reading the material video data is different from the CD-ROM changer for reading the material video data next, the central control unit stores the corresponding CD-ROM in the next CD-ROM changer. Set it in the drive device in advance. By doing so, the time lag until the CD-ROM is set in the drive device is absorbed.

On the other hand, the video data reproducing unit 40 includes two MPEG decoders 41 and 42 and a video effect processing unit 43 connected to the output paths of the two MPEG decoders 41 and 42.
The two MPEG decoders 41 and 42 are connected to output paths of three CD-ROM changers 31 to 33, respectively. Then, MPEG1 format video data output from the three systems of CD-ROM changers 31 to 33 is input, video data from one of the paths is selected and decoded, and mood video is reproduced. Further, the two MPEG decoders 41 and 42 can also operate in parallel, and alternately handle the processing of the material video data.

  The video effect processing unit 43 receives two video signals from the MPEG decoders 41 and 42 and performs a switching operation of outputting one video signal. The video signal of the system is also subjected to various video effect processing (overlap synthesis, video switching by fade-in / fade-out, wipe, etc.), and an operation of outputting the video signal after the video effect processing is performed. The central control unit controls these hardware according to script information described later, and connects the reproduced material images as appropriate to edit them into a series of mood images. Next, the script information and the mood video editing process of the central control unit based on the script information will be described.

(III) Script Information The script information described above is stored in the hard disk device in association with the music number. Therefore, each karaoke music piece and script information are associated in a one-to-one relationship. By preparing a karaoke song ID-script ID comparison table or the like, each song may be associated with script information. FIG. 3 shows an outline of the script information. The script information describes a music number, a video switching point, a video effect, and a material video storage position. A plurality of video switching points set during the performance period of one karaoke music piece are specified by point time data. The point time data describes the elapsed time from the performance start time of the music. The video effect specifies the type of video effect when the source video is switched at each video switching point, and the required time indicating how long the effect is to be performed. In the present embodiment, the above-described video switching point time is a time at which the video effect processing is started in consideration of the required time.

The material video storage position is specified by the storage location of the disc and the temporal position within the disc. The storage location of the disk is specified by the ID of the CD-ROM changer and the disk number in the changer, and the time position is specified by the minute / second / frame described above. Also, the storage location of the material video is designed so that the same CD-ROM changer is not designated between successive video switching points, and the occurrence of the above-described time lag is also avoided.
The storage location of the disc may be directly specified by the disc ID by preparing a comparison table or the like in which the disc ID attached to each CD-ROM is associated with the storage location in the video database.

  By preparing the above-described script information, the material video used between the video switching points is directly and uniquely specified without using intermediate information related to music such as genre. In addition, the reproduction start position can be specified in 1/75 seconds, which is one frame time. Therefore, let alone one scene, even a part of the image in one cut can be freely designated as a material image.

(IV) Mood Video Editing Process The central control unit appropriately edits the material video used between the video switching points according to the script information, and edits the material video into a series of mood videos. FIG. 4 shows a flowchart of the editing process. When a karaoke song is requested, script information corresponding to the karaoke song is read from the hard disk device. When the performance of the music starts, the measurement of the elapsed performance time also starts. Then, the time is compared with the time corresponding to the video switching point. Further, an appropriate CD-ROM changer is controlled in accordance with the material image storage position described at the first video switching point (start time of performance), and an appropriate CD-ROM is set in the driving device, and the described time position is set. The data is output starting with. Then, an appropriate system of MPEG decoder performs the decoding processing of the video data in real time, thereby outputting the video signal. The output video signal is output to the display via the video effect processing unit and the video control unit (101 to 103).

  When the next video switching point time comes, an MPEG decoder of a system different from the system that has decoded the material video up to that time is made to perform decoding processing of the next material video data. At this time, the video effect processing unit is controlled to perform video switching control while performing the specified video effect processing (105, 106). Thereafter, in the same manner, the video from the specified time position of the specified CD-ROM is reproduced at the specified point time and switched sequentially (107 → 103).

=== Other Embodiments ===
Although the script information is stored on the hard disk as data independent of the karaoke data, it can also be attached to the karaoke data of each karaoke song. Alternatively, a CD-ROM for script information may be prepared without storing the script information on the hard disk. In this case, the mood video editing process can be performed by reading the corresponding script information from the CD-ROM and temporarily storing the script information in a RAM or the like in the central control unit before playing the music.
When a new song is added or script information is updated, new script information may be distributed from the host device in a timely manner.

  Instead of a plurality of CD-ROM changers, a single disk tray for storing a large number of CD-ROMs and a plurality of CD-ROM drive units are provided. It is also possible to adopt a method of taking out and setting it in a predetermined CD-ROM drive. FIG. 5 shows an example. Under the control of the central controller, the transport device 45 takes out the CD-ROM from the disk tray 34 and sets it in one of the three systems of CD-ROM drive devices 31b to 33b. The transport device 45 sets a CD-ROM from which data is to be read next, in a CD-ROM drive device of another system in advance, thereby eliminating a time lag that occurs when material video is switched.

The video data is not limited to the MPEG1 format, but may be MPEG2 or other digital data, or an analog video signal such as an optical analog video disk. It is also possible to provide a video database of an appropriate recording medium for storing signals of the respective data formats, and a video reproducing means for processing the video data of the respective formats and reproducing the mood video. .
Of course, the karaoke apparatus itself does not need to be a performance terminal for the communication karaoke system, and it goes without saying that any karaoke apparatus of the type that edits mood videos by the shared video database system may be used.

1 is a configuration diagram of a karaoke apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. It is a block diagram of the main part in the mood video reproduction system in the said Example. It is a schematic structure figure of script information processed in the above-mentioned example. 5 is a flowchart illustrating a mood video editing process performed by a central control unit in the embodiment. It is a block diagram of other examples in the said mood video reproduction system.

Explanation of reference numerals

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Karaoke apparatus 11 Central control part 22 Display 30 Video database 40 Video data reproducing part

Claims (2)

A karaoke apparatus having the following requirements (1) to (4).
(1) A video for a long time prepared to be displayed on a display as a mood video when performing accompaniment music of karaoke music is stored in a video database.
(2) A plurality of systems of video database access means operable in parallel, a plurality of systems of video playback means operable in parallel, and a video effect processing means. The video database access means randomly accesses a desired storage location in the video database and reads video data corresponding to a material video having an arbitrary length from the long video. The video reproducing means reproduces a video signal of a material video from the video data. The video effect processing means inputs a plurality of video signals, switches the video signal of one system to the video signal of another system while performing appropriate video effect processing on the video signal, and outputs the video signal.
(3) Script information for mood video editing is created in advance and associated with each karaoke song. The script information includes point time data for specifying a plurality of video switching points during a performance period of one karaoke song, storage locations of material videos used between the video switching points, and video switching. Each video effect used at the point is described.
(4) When playing back the accompaniment music of a karaoke song, the plurality of systems of video database access means may appropriately switch the processing system and use the material video data used between points according to the corresponding script information. Are sequentially taken out, and the video reproduction means of the plurality of systems reproduce the video signals of the material video sequentially while taking charge of the processing of the material video data in order, and the video effect processing means performs the script corresponding to the material video signal. Switching is performed sequentially while performing video effect processing according to the information.   2. The digital camera according to claim 1, wherein the video for a long time is stored as compression-encoded digital video data on an appropriate optical disk recording medium, and the database access unit is configured to store the video based on a time code recorded on the optical disk. A karaoke apparatus wherein an arbitrary storage position of data is accessed in a time unit of 1 second or less and the moving image data for an arbitrary reproduction time is taken out.

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