JPH06202968A - Automatic software distribution and reproduction system and device used for the same - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To select software data on, for example, desired KARAOKE music in music units and to easily structure an on-vehicle KARAOKE device by storing a large amount of software data by a server computer and transferring data to respective software copying machines at need. CONSTITUTION:The host computer 101 of a software distributing device 1 supplies new KARAOKE software data to the server computer 103 periodically. The server computer 103 stores a large amount of the KARAOKE software data, sent from the host computer 101, on the hard disk and transfers them to the respective KARAOKE software automatic rental machines 105 at need. A system contractor loads a magnetic disk 4 in a KARAOKE software automatic rental machine 105 and copies KARAOKE software data on desired music. The magnetic disk 4 is loaded in the software reproducing device in a cabin and the KARAOKE software data begin to be reproduced.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a software automatic distribution / reproduction system and an apparatus used therefor, and more particularly to a software automatic distribution / reproduction system suitable for automatic distribution and reproduction of karaoke software for an on-vehicle karaoke device. It relates to a reproduction system.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a conventional vehicle-mounted karaoke apparatus, a CD (compact disk) or a cassette tape is generally used as karaoke reproducing software. For this reason, if you want a new song or a song that you do not have, a karaoke CD that contains the song you want.
I was buying tapes and cassette tapes in units of one or one.

[0003]

However, CDs and cassette tapes are media that can be recorded for a long time.
In addition to the desired song, other unrelated songs are usually recorded at the same time. Therefore, in the past, there was a problem in that in order to obtain a desired song, other unnecessary songs must be purchased at the same time.

At present, a car stereo device, which is a combination of a tuner, a cassette deck, a CD player, etc., is installed as a standard equipment at the time of vehicle purchase, but a car-mounted karaoke device is treated as an optional equipment. It is currently installed according to the individual wishes of the user.

For this reason, when a karaoke device is to be attached to a car, a car stereo device having a karaoke function is replaced by a new one in place of the car stereo device up to that time, or a car stereo device currently installed is replaced. Separately, there was no choice but to additionally equip a car-mounted karaoke device as a separate device. Therefore, the car stereo device that has been conventionally equipped is wasted, or the newly installed in-car karaoke device occupies a space, which further narrows the cabin with a small space. was there.

The present invention has been made based on the above-mentioned circumstances. For example, it is possible to freely select and purchase software data such as a desired karaoke piece for each piece of music, and to use the existing car stereo device as it is. Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a new software automatic distribution / reproduction system that can easily construct a car-mounted karaoke device and the like and a device used for the system.

[0007]

A software automatic distribution / reproduction system of the present invention comprises a software distribution device and a software reproduction device, wherein the software distribution device is a desired software such as voice data, character data, image data. A host computer that integrally manages data distribution processing, a server computer that stores software data distributed from the host computer, and software data that is transferred from the server computer are stored, and designated software data is portable recorded. A soft copy device for copying onto a medium, wherein the soft reproducing device reads data of soft data of a portable recording medium recorded by the soft copy device, and a voice in the read soft data. Audio demodulation means for demodulating data into an analog audio signal, and the demodulated audio signal From wireless transmission means for transmitting on radio waves, character / video data demodulation means for demodulating characters or video data in the read soft data, and display means for displaying the demodulated characters or video data It is composed.

[0008]

In the case of the present invention, the host computer of the software distribution device is arranged in a central processing center or the like, and one server computer is installed in each fixed area. The soft copy machine as the final terminal connected to the server computer is installed in, for example, a gas station. The host computer periodically supplies new soft data to the server computer, and the server computer stores a large amount of soft data sent from the host computer in a hard disk, etc. Transfer to.

On the other hand, the soft reproducing device, which is paired with the soft distributing device, is configured as a portable small portable device, and is lent or borrowed in advance to a contractor of the system of the present invention, such as a car owner. Will be sold. Then, the rented or sold soft reproduction device is brought into the vehicle when the vehicle is used, and is placed, for example, on the dashboard of the driver's seat or the seat of the passenger's seat.

A contractor of the system of the present invention has a predetermined portable recording medium (for example, a magnetic disk, a magneto-optical disk, etc.), and the portable recording medium is installed in a gas station or the like. The desired soft data (for example, karaoke piece) is copied to a portable recording medium by inserting it into a soft copy machine and performing a predetermined operation.

As mentioned above, the user carries the portable recording medium on which desired software data is copied and gets in a vehicle,
When the portable recording medium is loaded into the soft reproducing device placed at an appropriate position in the vehicle and a predetermined key operation is performed, the soft reproducing device starts reproducing the soft data recorded in the portable recording medium.

For example, in the case where music data and its lyrics data are copied as soft data of a karaoke piece on a portable recording medium, the karaoke music data is demodulated by an audio demodulation means into an analog music signal and is wirelessly transmitted. For example, it is transmitted to the radio of the car stereo device on the FM radio wave from the transmitting means. This transmitted radio wave is received by the radio of the car stereo device and emitted from the speaker toward the inside of the vehicle.

On the other hand, the lyrics data is demodulated by the character / video data demodulation means, and the lyrics are sequentially displayed on the display means as the karaoke performance progresses. Therefore, sing along with the karaoke performance song played from the speaker,
If the singing voice is picked up by a microphone and mixed, the currently installed car stereo device can be used as it is as a vehicle-mounted karaoke device.

Further, in the case of the system of the present invention, soft data such as karaoke songs sold in a soft copy machine can be specified for each song and copied, and software is purchased in the unit of CD or cassette tape as in the conventional case. There is no need.

[0015]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. 1 and 2 show an embodiment in which the present invention is applied as a software automatic distribution / reproduction system for an on-vehicle karaoke apparatus. FIG. 1 is a block diagram of the entire system, and FIG. It is a perspective view of the inside soft reproducing device.

In FIG. 1, 1 is a software distribution device, 2 is a software playback device, 3 is an in-vehicle FM car radio, and 4 is a magnetic disk which constitutes a portable magnetic recording medium. The software distribution apparatus 1 is composed of a host computer 101, a server computer 103, and a karaoke software automatic rental machine 105 as a soft copy machine, and these apparatuses are connected by communication lines 107 and 109, respectively.

As described above, the host computer 10
1 is arranged in a central processing center or the like, and one server computer 103 is installed in each fixed area. Also, a karaoke software automatic rental machine as a soft copy machine 10
5 is installed in a gas station or the like. The host computer 101 periodically supplies new karaoke software data to the server computer 103, and the server computer 103 receives the new karaoke software data.
A large amount of karaoke software data sent from is stored in a hard disk and transferred to each karaoke software automatic rental machine 105 as needed.

The soft reproducing device 2 has an external structure as shown in FIG. 2, and as described above, it is lent or sold in advance to the contractor who uses the system of the present invention, and is located at an appropriate position in the vehicle, for example, driving. It is placed on the dashboard of the seat or on the passenger seat.

The soft reproducing device 2 in the embodiment has a disk drive device 201 for reading data from a magnetic disk 4 which is a portable recording medium, a CPU 203, and a RAM.
205, ROM 207, a sound source board (synthesizer) 209 for generating a music signal based on the music data in the karaoke software, a mixer 211 for mixing the generated music signal and the vocal signal from the microphone 5, and an FM radio wave for this mixing signal. FM transmitting section 213 for transmitting from the transmitting antenna 215 on the screen, a character synthesizer 217 for converting the lyrics data in the karaoke software into a character signal, a liquid crystal display 219 for displaying an image of the converted lyrics, and a key input means 221. It consists of The magnetic disk 4 is loaded in the magnetic disk insertion slot 225 of the soft reproducing device 2 (FIG. 2), and the microphone 5 is connected to the microphone jack 223.

The FM car radio 3 is a radio receiver of a car stereo device which is standardly installed in the car. In the system of the present invention, since this FM car radio 3 can be used as a car-mounted karaoke device, it is not necessary to install a dedicated karaoke device as in the conventional case. Reference numeral 6 is a receiving antenna of the FM car radio 3, and 7 is a speaker of the car stereo device. The radio is not limited to the car radio 3 and may be a radio such as a radio cassette.

Next, the operation of the above embodiment will be described. If the system contractor needs karaoke software for new songs or songs that he does not have, when he stops at a gas station to refuel, he or she inserts the magnetic disk 4 into the karaoke software automatic rental machine 105, and the karaoke software for the desired song. The data is copied to the magnetic disk 4. This karaoke software data is, for example, MID for music data.
It is composed of an I (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) code and JIS code for lyrics data.

If the specified karaoke piece is not stored in the karaoke software automatic rental machine 105,
Upper-level server computer 10 via communication line 109
3, the data of the karaoke piece requested by the server computer 103 is transferred to the karaoke software automatic rental machine 105. Also, the server computer 10
If it does not exist in No. 3, the host computer 101 of a higher level is accessed through the communication line 107, the corresponding software data is read and transferred to the karaoke software automatic rental machine 105. Therefore, it is possible to surely and promptly respond to a request for any karaoke piece.

The magnetic disk 4 on which the desired karaoke soft data has been copied as described above is loaded into the car and loaded into the magnetic disk insertion slot 225 of the soft reproducing device 2 placed at an appropriate position in the car. Then, by operating a predetermined key of the key input means 221 of the soft reproducing device 2, the reproduction of the karaoke soft data recorded on the magnetic disk 4 is started.

The karaoke software data of the designated song read out by the disc drive unit 201 is sent to the CPU 203, and after being subjected to a predetermined process, the music data is sent to the tone generator board 209 and the lyrics data is synthesized to a character synthesizer. 217 respectively.

The music data sent to the tone generator board 209 is decoded by the tone generator board 209, converted into the original analog music signal, and then sent to the FM transmitter 213 via the mixer 211. FM transmitter 213 This music signal is placed on an FM radio wave and transmitted from a transmitting antenna 215 to FM.
Transmit to car radio 3. The car radio 3 receives this transmitted radio wave and sounds it from the speaker 7.

On the other hand, the lyrics data sent to the character synthesizer 217 is decoded into a character signal, and the lyrics image is sequentially displayed on the liquid crystal display 219 as the karaoke performance progresses. Therefore, if the user sings into the microphone 5 while watching the lyrics in accordance with the karaoke performance played from the speaker 7, the vocal signal is mixed into the karaoke performance by the mixer 221 and is played from the speaker 7.
In this way, a vehicle-mounted karaoke device can be easily constructed using the existing car stereo device.

In the above embodiment, the case of a karaoke device is taken as an example, but the present invention is not limited to this. For example, road map data and accompanying voice information or text / image information of famous historical sites. , Applicable to any software that can be recorded as digital data.

Although the karaoke software automatic rental machine 105 constituting the soft copy machine is installed at a gas station, it may be installed at another place such as a convenience store or a supermarket. There is no limit. Although the magnetic disk is used as the portable recording medium, other recording media such as a magneto-optical disk and a RAM card can be used instead of or together with the magnetic disk.

[0029]

As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to freely select and purchase soft data such as a desired karaoke piece in a soft copy machine in units of a piece of music. The inconvenience of having to purchase unnecessary songs other than the desired song at the same time is eliminated, and the handling of the software becomes extremely efficient and economical.

Further, since the soft data handled by the soft copy machine can be transferred at a high speed from the host server computer or the host computer through the communication line, it is easy to add or change the soft data.
Management of soft data becomes extremely easy.

Further, since the reproduced audio signal is transmitted as a radio wave by the radio transmission type soft reproduction device and the radio wave is received by the radio such as the car stereo device, the existing car stereo device is used as it is. This makes it easy to build in-car karaoke equipment and eliminates the need to use existing car stereo equipment or add a new dedicated karaoke equipment as in the past. It is possible to effectively use the narrow vehicle compartment.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of the soft reproducing device in the embodiment.

[Explanation of Codes] 1 software distribution device 2 software reproduction device 3 FM car radio 4 magnetic disk 5 microphone 6 receiving antenna 7 speaker 101 host computer 103 server computer 105 karaoke software automatic rental machine 201 disk drive device 203 CPU 209 sound source board 211 mixer 213 FM transmitter 215 Transmit antenna 217 Character synthesizer 219 Liquid crystal display 221 Key input means 223 Microphone jack 225 Magnetic disk insertion slot

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A soft distribution device and a soft reproduction device, wherein the soft distribution device integrally manages a distribution process of desired soft data such as voice data, character data, and image data, and the host computer. And a soft copy machine for storing the soft data transferred from the server computer and copying the designated soft data to a portable recording medium. The apparatus comprises a data reading means for reading soft data of a portable recording medium recorded by the soft copy machine, a voice demodulating means for demodulating voice data in the read soft data into an analog voice signal, and the demodulating means. Wireless transmission means for transmitting the reproduced audio signal on radio waves, Character and video data demodulation means for demodulating the character or image data in the soft data, a soft automatic distribution and playback system characterized in that it is composed of a display means for displaying characters or video data the demodulated. 2. A host computer for centrally managing distribution processing of desired software data such as voice data, character data, image data, a server computer for storing software data distributed by the host computer, and a server computer for storing the software data. 2. A software distribution device for a software automatic distribution / reproduction system according to claim 1, further comprising a soft copy machine for storing the transferred soft data and copying the designated soft data to a portable recording medium. . 3. A data reading means for reading soft data of a portable recording medium recorded by a soft copy machine of the soft distribution device according to claim 2, and audio data in the read soft data as an analog audio signal. An audio demodulation means for demodulating the received audio signal, a wireless transmission means for transmitting the demodulated audio signal on an electric wave, and a character / video data demodulation means for demodulating the characters or video data in the read soft data, 2. A software reproducing apparatus for a software automatic distribution / reproducing system according to claim 1, further comprising a display means for displaying the demodulated character or video data.