JPH11187380A - Message distribution system, information center, terminal device and message distribution method - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To avoid defective reproduction, etc., in real-time reproduction at the time of receiving data. SOLUTION: A data transmission and reception system 1 is provided with a data transmitter 10 and a data receiver 20. Here, the transmitter 10 is provided with a data retrieving processing means 13 retrieving data designated by data designating information from among plural data stored in a data storing means 12 and outputting it, a data separating means 14 separating data outputted from the means 13 into a summary part and an supplement part, and a data transmission and reception means 11 receiving data designating information for designating data and transferring in the order of the summary part and the supplement part concerning data separated from the means 14. On the other hand, the receiver 20 is provided with a data transmission and reception means 21 transmitting data designating information designating desired data to the transmitter 10 and successively receiving the summary part and the supplement part concerning separated data transferred from the transmitter 10, and a reproducing means 24 reproducing concerning at least the summary part of received and separated data.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a distribution system, an information center, a terminal device, and a distribution method, and is suitably used, for example, in a data service system for distributing digital data.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art With the development of data compression technology for video data and audio data and the development of digital signal processing technology in the broadcasting / communication field, a data transmission / reception system constructed between a user and a server. Has been proposed. The data transmission / reception system uses a so-called VOD (Vid
EO On Demand) and MOD (Music On Demand)
Demand), which is a service for distributing digital data. As an example of the data transmission / reception system, a MOD system that transmits / receives data using, for example, the Internet and a packet transmission method has been proposed.

[0003]

However, in such a MOD system, it has often been difficult to transmit digital data without delay due to limitations on the transmission rate and generation of interrupt data. For example, in a conventional MOD system, when music data is transferred from a data transmission side to a data reception side, for example, a case where a transfer rate of a communication line and a data transfer rate necessary for real-time reproduction of music data are close to each other. Occurred often. In such a case, if the data receiving side attempts to simultaneously play back the music data while downloading the music data to a hard disk or the like (hereinafter, referred to as real-time playback), the audio data is transmitted because the transfer rates are adjacent to each other. Unable to achieve continuous playback of data,
Actually, there is a problem that music data cannot be reproduced until after the download is completed.

Further, in the conventional MOD system, when music data is transferred from a data transmitting side to a data receiving side, for example, the maximum transfer rate of a communication line is 28.
In some cases, the average transfer rate was 8 kbps, the average transfer rate was 22 kbps, and the data transfer rate required for real-time reproduction of music data was 32 kbps. In such a case, the data transfer rate required for real-time reproduction is higher than the transfer rate of the communication line, so that there has been a problem that the received data cannot be reproduced in real-time on the receiving side.

The present invention has been proposed in view of the above circumstances, and provides a distribution system, an information center, a terminal device, and a distribution method capable of avoiding a reproduction failure or the like in real-time reproduction during data reception. The purpose is to do.

[0006]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a distribution system for distributing a program between an information center and a terminal device which are arranged apart from each other, wherein the information center stores a plurality of programs. A data search means for selecting a desired program selected by the terminal device from a plurality of programs stored in the storage means; and a program for the desired program selected by the data search means. Summary data that gives you an overview of
A separating unit that separates the outline data into complementary data that can be restored to the original program by combining with the outline data, and a transmitting unit that transmits the outline data and the complementary data separated by the separating unit in a time-division manner. , Each of the above terminal devices,
Receiving means for receiving the summary data and the complementary data distributed from the information center; combining means for combining the summary data and the complementary data received by the receiving means; And reproduction means for performing monitor reproduction.

The present invention is also an information center for distributing programs to a terminal device, wherein the storage means stores a plurality of programs, and the desired program selected by the terminal device is stored in the storage means. Data retrieval means for selecting from a plurality of programs selected, and summary data capable of comprehending the outline of the entire program with respect to the desired program selected by the data search means, It is characterized by comprising separating means for separating into complementary data that can be restored into a program, and transmitting means for transmitting the outline data and the complementary data separated by the separating means in a time-division manner.

The present invention is also a terminal device for receiving a program distributed from an information center, wherein the receiving device receives summary data and supplementary data distributed from the information center, A synthesizing unit for synthesizing the received outline data and the complementary data, and a reproducing unit for performing monitor reproduction based on the outline data.

Further, the present invention relates to a distribution method for distributing a program between an information center and a terminal device which are arranged apart from each other, and wherein the program is distributed in accordance with selection of a desired program in the terminal device. For the desired program
The outline data that can grasp the outline of the entire program and the supplementary data that can be restored to the original program by combining with the outline data are separated, and the separated outline data and the complement data are time-divided into the terminal. To the device,
The summary data and the complementary data distributed from the information center are received, the received summary data and the complementary data are combined, and monitor reproduction is performed based on the summary data.

[0010]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. A data transmission / reception system 1 shown in FIG. 1 to which the present invention is applied is a system for so-called music-on-demand, and a data transmission device 10 which is a terminal device on a server side and a data reception device which is a terminal device on a user side. The apparatus 20 is configured to be connected via a communication line 30 such as a telephone line. Here, the data transmission device 10 is provided in, for example, a data management center on the server side. On the other hand, the data receiving device 20 is installed in, for example, a home of each user for consumer use. Although only one data receiving device 20 is shown in FIG. 1 for convenience, a plurality of data receiving devices 20 are actually connected to the server-side data transmitting device 10 via the communication line 30.

The server-side data transmission device 10 receives the request information supplied from the user-side data reception device 20 via the communication line 30 and searches for the corresponding data based on the received request information. The separated data is separated into summary data and supplementary data by a predetermined method,
This device transfers the separated data to the data receiving device 20 via the communication line 30 in the order of the outline data and the complementary data.

As shown in FIG. 1, the data transmitting apparatus 10 is connected to a data receiving apparatus 20 on the user side via a communication line 30 to transmit and receive data. A large-capacity hard disk array 12 stored therein, a data search processing unit 13 for searching the hard disk array 12 for the relevant data,
The data search processing unit 13 includes a data separation unit 14 that separates the data searched by the data search processing unit 13 into summary data and complementary data in a predetermined manner, and a control unit 15 that controls the entire apparatus.

The modem 11 is connected to the data receiving device 20 via the communication line 30, receives the request information transmitted by the data receiving device 20, and supplies the request information to the control unit 15. Further, the modem 11 sequentially transmits the summary data and the supplementary data output from the data separation unit 14 described later in detail, to the data receiving device 20.
Send to the side. Each operation of the modem 11 is executed based on a control signal from the control unit 15.

The hard disk array 12 stores music data of various genres for realizing music on demand (MOD), music guide data for searching for desired music data, and other audio data. Is done.

The data search processing unit 13 receives request information from the data receiving device 20 received by the modem 11 via the control unit 15 and, based on the request information, a large number of music stored in the hard disk array 12. A search process for searching for the corresponding data from the data such as. Then, the data search processing unit 13 reads out the corresponding data from the hard disk array 12 and outputs the data to the data separation unit 14. Each operation of the data search processing unit 13 is performed based on a control signal from the control unit 15.

The data separation unit 14 performs a separation process for separating the data supplied from the data search processing unit 13 into summary data and complementary data by a predetermined method. The data separation unit 14 includes a memory for temporarily storing data. The data separated by the above-described separation processing is first converted into summary data by the modem 1.
1 and temporarily store the complementary data in the memory. Then, when the output of the summary data is completed, the data separation unit 14 reads the complementary data stored in the memory and outputs the data to the modem 11. The above-described operations of the data separation unit are executed based on a control signal from the control unit 15.

Here, as specific examples of the method of separating the data into the outline data and the supplementary data by the data separating unit 14, there are the following various methods.

That is, for example, in the first embodiment of the system for separating music data, the outline data is L (left) channel audio data + R (right) channel audio data, and the complementary data is L channel audio data. -A method of using audio data of the R channel.

As a second embodiment of the music data separation system, in the case of modulation in the frequency domain, there is a system in which summary data is an even-numbered spectrum and complementary data is an odd-numbered spectrum. In this case, a method of changing the weight of each spectrum may be used.

Further, as a third embodiment of the music data separation method, a method in which the outline data is data in the middle frequency region and the complementary data is data in the low and high frequency regions, or the outline data is There is a method in which data is set in a low frequency range and complementary data is set in a high frequency range.

Furthermore, the fourth method of the music data separation method
As an example, there is a method in which summary data is vocal data and complementary data is so-called karaoke data.

As described above, as a data separation method,
Various methods as described above are conceivable, and a preferable method can be appropriately selected according to the case. As a data separation method, the ratio between the summary data and the supplementary data is always 1: 1, that is, the data capacity after separation is 50%.
It does not need to be 50%.

Here, as for the ratio between the outline data and the supplementary data, the higher the ratio of the outline data, the higher the quality of the data can be reproduced during reproduction on the data receiving device 20 side. In some cases, real-time reproduction of the summary data may not be possible due to the situation of 30 or the relationship with the modem 21 of the data receiving device 20 or the like. On the other hand, as the ratio of the summary data is reduced, the above-described real-time reproduction on the data receiving device 20 side is performed more smoothly, but the quality of the sound reproduced at the time of the real-time reproduction is reduced. Therefore, in the data transmitting apparatus 10, it is sufficient to separate the summary data and the supplementary data at an appropriate ratio in consideration of such a trade-off.

In one embodiment of the present invention, compressed audio data is transferred from a data transmitting device 10 as a terminal device on the server side to a data receiving device 20 as a terminal device on the user side. The compression method used is AT
RAC (Adapted transform acoustic coding) method and Twin-V
Q (Transform domain Weighted Interleave Vector Quan
tization), Real Audio, MPEG (Moving Picture)
Experts Group) Layer 2 system and the like are conceivable, but in the embodiment of the present invention, the ATRAC system is adopted.

Hereinafter, the ATRAC system will be described with reference to FIG.

An audio compression circuit based on the ATRAC system realizes high-efficiency encoding using sub-band coding (SBS), adaptive transform coding (ATC), and adaptive bit allocation techniques. doing.

In the specific high-efficiency coding apparatus shown in FIG. 2, an input digital signal is divided into a plurality of frequency bands, and for each frequency band, a signal is orthogonally transformed to obtain a plurality of two-dimensional signals relating to time and frequency. A new synthesized component for encoding and analysis in the block is obtained, and the obtained spectrum data on the frequency axis is converted into a so-called critical bandwidth (critical band) in consideration of human auditory characteristics described later in the low band.
Each time, in the middle and high frequency bands, bits are adaptively allocated and coded for each band obtained by subdividing the critical bandwidth in consideration of the block floating efficiency. Usually, this block is a quantization noise generating block. Further, in this specific example, the block size (block length) is adaptively changed according to the input signal before the orthogonal transform.

That is, in FIG.
Has an audio signal of 0 to 22 kHz at 44.1 kHz.
An audio PCM signal obtained by sampling at z and converting it to a digital signal and subjecting the digital audio signal to pulse code modulation is supplied as an input signal. This input signal is, for example, a so-called QMF (Quadratur
e Mirror Filter).
The signal is divided into a signal in a band of 11 kHz and a signal in a band of 11 kHz to 22 kHz. A signal in the band of 0 to 11 kHz is also applied to a band division filter 102 such as a QMF.
And a signal in the band of 0 to 5.5 kHz and 5.5 kHz to
The signal is divided into 11 kHz band signals. A signal in a band of 11 kHz to 22 kHz from the band division filter 101 is an MDCT (Modified Disc) which is an example of an orthogonal transformation circuit.
rete Cosine Transform) circuit 103. The signal in the band of 5.5 kHz to 11 kHz from the band division filter 102 is sent to the MDCT circuit 104, and the signal in the band of 0 to 5.5 kHz from the band division filter 102 is sent to the MDCT circuit 105. M
DCT processing is performed. Note that each of the MDCT circuits 103 and 10
4 and 105, the block determination circuit 1 provided for each band
MDCT processing is performed based on the block size (information compression parameter) determined by 09, 110, 111.

Here, each of the MDCT circuits 103, 104,
(A), (B), and (C) show an example of a standard input signal for a block for each band supplied to 105. In the example shown in FIG. 3, each of the three filter output signals has a plurality of orthogonal transform block sizes (information compression parameters) independently for each band, and the time resolution can be switched according to the time characteristics and frequency distribution of the signal. Like that. When the signal is temporally quasi-stationary, the orthogonal transform block size is increased to 11.6 ms, that is, as in the long mode in FIG. In some cases, the orthogonal transform block size is further divided into two and four. As in the case of the short mode in FIG. 3 (B), the length is set to 40%, 2.9 ms, the middle mode A in FIG. 3 (C), the middle mode A in FIG.
(D), a part is divided into two, 5.8 ms, a part is divided into four, and a middle mode B (Middle Mode B) in (D).
With a time resolution of 9 ms, it is adapted to an actual complex input signal. It is clear that the division of the orthogonal transform block size is more effective if more complicated division is performed if the scale of the processing device allows.

The block size (information compression parameter) is determined by the block determination circuit 109 in FIG.
The information is transmitted to the MDCT circuits 103, 104, 105 and the bit allocation calculation circuit 118 as block size information of the block, and output from the output terminals 113, 115, 117.

Referring again to FIG. 2, each MDCT circuit 10
Spectrum data or MDCT coefficient data (signal components in a two-dimensional block relating to time and frequency) on the frequency axis obtained by performing MDCT processing in 3, 104, and 105
, The low band is grouped for each so-called critical band (critical band), and the middle and high bands are subdivided into critical bands in consideration of the effectiveness of block floating, and adaptive bit allocation coding circuits 106, 107, 108 and bits are divided. It is sent to the assignment calculation circuit 118. This critical band is a frequency band divided in consideration of human auditory characteristics, and the band of noise when the pure tone is masked by the narrow band noise of the same strength near the frequency of a certain pure tone. That is. This critical band (critical band) has a wider bandwidth as the frequency becomes higher, and the entire frequency band of 0 to 22 kHz is divided into, for example, 25 critical bands.

The bit assignment calculation circuit 11 in FIG.
8 is based on the block size information and the spectrum data or the MDCT coefficient data, and takes into account the so-called masking effect and the like, and sets the masking amount,
Then, the energy or peak value for each of the divided bands is calculated, and the number of allocated bits (bit allocation amount) is calculated for each band based on the calculation result.
06, 107, and 108.

These adaptive bit allocation coding circuits 10
6, 107 and 108, the block size information described above,
In addition, each spectrum data or MDCT coefficient data is requantized (normalized and quantized) according to the number of bits allocated to each divided band in consideration of the critical band and the block floating. The data encoded in this manner is output to the output terminals 112 and 112 in FIG.
It is taken out via 114,116. For the sake of convenience in the following description, each of the divided bands, which is a unit of bit allocation and takes into account the above-described critical band and block floating, will be referred to as a unit block.

The high-efficiency compression-encoding encoder described with reference to FIG. 2 is provided inside the data separation unit 14 in FIG. 1 and performs compression processing on a digital audio signal transmitted from the data search processing unit 13. The compressed data in the middle band output from the adaptive bit allocation encoding circuit 107 in FIG. 2 is output as the outline data as the band-divided output, and the adaptive bit allocation encoding circuit 106 and the adaptive bit allocation encoding circuit 108 in FIG. Compressed data of the low band and the high band output from is output as complementary data.

The control section 15 transmits the data such as music to the data receiving apparatus 20 by a predetermined separation method based on the request information sent from the data receiving apparatus 20 via the communication line 30. For controlling the modem 11, the data retrieval processing unit 13, and the data separation unit 14 based on the transmission control program.

Specifically, the control unit 15 controls the communication line 30
Request information transmitted from the data receiving device 20 via the
The modem 11 is controlled to supply the data to the modem 11. Control unit 15
Temporarily stores the request information supplied from the modem 11 and supplies the request information to the data search processing unit 13. At this time, the control unit 15 may extract only the data designation information described later from the request information and supply it to the data search processing unit 13.

The control unit 15 performs the above-described search processing based on the data designation information in the request information, reads out the searched data from the hard disk array 12 and outputs the data to the data separation unit 14. The processing unit 13 is controlled.

Further, the control unit 15 performs the above-described separation processing on the data supplied from the data search processing unit 13 according to a predetermined method, and outputs the separated outline data to the modem 11. The data separation unit 14 is controlled so that the complementary data after separation is stored in the memory. Then, the control unit 15 refers to the later-described user ID information of the request information, and
Receiving the separated outline data supplied from the data receiving device 2
The modem 11 is controlled to transmit to the 0 side. further,
When the transmission of the summary data is completed, the control unit 15 reads the complementary data from the memory of the data separation unit 14 and controls the data separation unit 14 and the modem 11 to transmit the complementary data to the data receiving device 20 side. . As a result, in the data transmission / reception system 1, the data transmission device 10 sends the summary data,
The data is transferred in the order of the complementary data.

On the other hand, the data receiving device 20 on the user side
The request information is transmitted to the server-side data transmission device 10 based on the user's request, and the above-described summary data and the complementary data transferred from the data transmission device 10 are sequentially received based on the request information. This is an apparatus for performing recording and / or reproduction, further synthesizing the outline data and the complementary data to generate synthesized data, and performing recording and / or reproduction of the synthesized data.

As shown in FIG. 1, the data receiving device 20 is connected to the data transmitting device 10 via a communication line 30 and transmits and receives data. Hard disk drive (HDD) 22 for storing data and a data synthesizing unit 23 for synthesizing the outline data and the complementary data
A reproduction processing unit 24 for performing predetermined reproduction processing on the data output from the data synthesizing unit 23;
An output unit 25 including a monitor, a headphone jack, and the like;
The control unit 26 includes a control unit 26 that controls the entire apparatus, and an operation input unit 27 that includes a keyboard and a mouse (not shown) for giving instructions to the control unit 26.

The modem 21 is connected to the data transmitting apparatus 10 via the communication line 30 and transmits request information, which will be described in detail later, supplied from the control unit 26 to the data transmitting apparatus 10 side. Further, the modem 21 sequentially receives the summary data and the complementary data transferred from the data transmitting device 10 based on the request information, and supplies the received data to the HDD 22 and the data synthesizing unit 23.
The above operations of the modem 21 are performed based on a control signal from the control unit 26.

The HDD 22 stores summary data, complementary data,
Alternatively, a hard disk (not shown) for storing the synthesized data is provided, and the outline data and the complementary data supplied from the modem 21 can be recorded on the hard disk. The HDD 22 is connected to the data synthesizing unit 23, and records synthesized data supplied from the data synthesizing unit 23, which will be described in detail later, and reads out the recorded synthesized data or the recorded summary data or supplementary data. The data is supplied to the data synthesizing unit 23. The above operations of the HDD 22 are executed based on a control signal from the control unit 26.

The data synthesizing section 23 corresponds to the data separating section 14 of the data transmitting apparatus 10 described above, and has a memory for temporarily storing data, like the data separating section 14. The data synthesizing unit 23 performs the following processing on the summary data and the complementary data transferred from the data transmitting device 10 via the modem 21 based on the control signal from the control unit 26.

The data synthesizing unit 23 stores the outline data supplied from the modem 21 in the memory,
The summary data is supplied to the reproduction processing unit 24. Further, when the complementary data is supplied from the modem 21, the data synthesizing unit 23 reads out the outline data stored in the memory and performs a process of synthesizing it with the complementary data, thereby generating synthesized data. Is output to the reproduction processing unit 24. When reproducing the summary data, the complementary data, or the composite data recorded on the hard disk of the HDD 22, the data synthesizing unit 23 outputs any one of the data supplied from the HDD 22 to the reproduction processing unit 24 as it is. It is supposed to.

FIG. 4 shows a specific configuration of the data synthesizing section 23 shown in FIG. FIG. 4 shows a decoding circuit (decoder) for decoding again a signal which has been highly efficiently coded by the system shown in FIG. 2 described above. The quantized MDCT coefficients of each band, that is, data equivalent to the output signals of the output terminals 112, 114, and 116 in FIG. 2 are given to the input terminal 207 in FIG. 4, and the used block size information, that is, the output in FIG. Terminal 1
Data equivalent to the output signals of 13, 115 and 117 are given to the input terminal 208 in FIG.

The adaptive bit allocation decoding circuit 2 in FIG.
In 06, the bit allocation is canceled using the adaptive bit allocation information. Next, the inverse orthogonal transform (IDC) in FIG.
T) In the circuits 203, 204 and 205, signals on the frequency axis are converted into signals on the time axis. The signals on the time axis of these partial bands are output from the band synthesis filter (IQ
MF) circuits 202 and 201 decode the signals into full-band signals. The signals synthesized by the band synthesis filter circuits 202 and 201 are output from an output terminal 200. The signal output from the output terminal 200 corresponds to the synthesized data output from the data synthesis unit 23 in FIG.

Further, the decoding result of the compressed data in the middle band obtained by the inverse orthogonal transform circuit 204 is output as the outline data via the output terminal 209. That is, the signal output from the output terminal 209 corresponds to the outline data output from the data synthesis unit 23 in FIG.

In the first embodiment, the outline data is L (left) channel + R (right) channel, and the complementary data is L (left) channel−R (right) channel. (Data + complementary data) ÷ 2 = L (left) channel (summary data−complementary data) ÷ 2 = R (right) channel, the L (left) channel and the R (right) channel can be restored.

In the processing of the data synthesizing unit 23 in the second embodiment, the even data spectrum as the outline data and the odd data spectrum as the complementary data are alternately arranged to be restored as the synthesized data. Further, reproduction of the summary data is performed by interpolation using the even-numbered spectrum.
By performing n), an odd spectrum is generated and output as summary data.

The third embodiment is as described above.

Further, in the fourth embodiment, the synthesized data can be restored by synthesizing and reproducing the vocal part as the outline data and the karaoke part as the complementary data.

The reproduction processing unit 24 expands the outline data, the complementary data, or the synthesized data supplied from the data synthesizing unit 23 based on the control signal from the control unit 26.
An analog reproduction signal is generated by performing predetermined processing such as / A conversion processing and amplification processing, and this reproduction signal is supplied to the speaker and headphone jack of the output unit 25. Thus, in the data receiving device 20, an audio signal is output from the speaker of the output unit 25.

The control section 26 is composed of, for example, a personal computer or the like. The control unit 26 includes a control program for acquiring the data such as the music from the data transmission device 10 via the communication line 30. By executing the control program, the modem 21 and the HD are controlled.
D22, the data synthesizing unit 23, the reproduction processing unit 24, and the output unit 25 are controlled by the above monitors. The control unit 26
Is connected to the operation input unit 27, and performs each control in the control program based on operation input signals input by operating the keyboard and mouse of the operation input unit 27.

More specifically, the control unit 26 transmits to the data transmitting apparatus 10 information on data names such as a genre name, a performer name, and a title name regarding data such as music desired by the user as data designation information. Like modem 21
Control.

The control unit 26 controls the modem 21 to transmit information on a user ID for identifying a user (hereinafter, referred to as user ID information) to the data transmitting apparatus 10. Specifically, the control unit 26 registers the user ID in advance in the initial setting of the control program, and collectively transmits the data designation information and the user ID information as request information to the data transmission device 10 at one time. The modem 21 is controlled to perform the operation.

After the control program is started,
For example, by operating the keyboard or mouse of the operation input unit 27 by a so-called GUI (Graphical User Interface) method, the control unit 2 is controlled via the monitor of the output unit 25.
6, the registration of the user ID and the input of the data name may be performed. Then, the control unit 26
The modem 2 generates user ID information and data designation information from these user IDs and data names, and transmits them as request information to the data transmission device 10 at one time.
Control 1

Further, the control unit 26 performs the above-described reproduction processing, recording processing on the hard disk, and processing of the outline data and the supplementary data sequentially transmitted from the data transmitting apparatus 10 after the transmission of the request information. The modem 21 and the HD
D22, the data synthesis unit 23, and the reproduction processing unit 24 are controlled. Thus, in the data receiving device 20, the outline data of the received audio data is output in real time from the speaker of the output unit 25, and the audio data can be continuously played back. Although the sound quality is not satisfactory, the data can be downloaded. You can monitor the songs you have.

In the data transmitting / receiving system 1, when music data is transferred from the data transmitting apparatus 10 to the data receiving apparatus 20, for example, the maximum transfer rate of the communication line 30 is 28.8 kbps, the average transfer rate is 22 kbps,
Even if the data transfer rate required for real-time reproduction of music data (hereinafter, simply referred to as a reproduction rate) is 32 kbps and real-time reproduction cannot be conventionally performed, for example, the data transmission device 10 may lower the music data. By transferring the outline data in the band frequency region and the complementary data in the high band frequency region to the data receiving device 20, the reproduction rate of the outline data of the music data can be set to 16 kbps. Thereby, in the data transmission / reception system 1,
Since the transfer rate of the communication line 30 is higher than the reproduction rate of the outline data, the data reception apparatus 20 reproduces the outline data, thereby enabling continuous reproduction of audio data at the time of real-time reproduction and sufficient sound quality. Not, but you can monitor the songs you are downloading.

Next, the flow of processing related to data transmission / reception performed between the data receiving device 20 and the data transmitting device 10 in the data transmitting / receiving system 1 will be described with reference to a flowchart shown in FIG. 5 and a time chart shown in FIG. Will be explained.

In step S1 after the control program is started, the data receiving device 20 on the user side controls the control unit 26 to perform a predetermined display on the monitor of the output unit 25, thereby obtaining the data designation information and the user ID information. This is an input mode for generating request information consisting of. Here, the user determines the genre, the performer, the title, and the like of the requested data by performing an input operation on the data name described above with respect to the data such as music desired by the user. Thereby, in the data receiving device 20, the data designation information is generated by the control unit 26, and the user ID is registered based on the user ID registered in advance.
D information is generated, and these pieces of information are temporarily stored in a memory (not shown) of the control unit 26 as request information. When the storage is completed, the process proceeds to step S2.

In step S 2, the control unit 26 reads out the generated request information from the memory and controls the modem 21 to transmit the request information to the data transmission device 10 via the communication line 30.

The data transmitting apparatus 10 on the server side that has received the request information controls the data search processing section 13 so that the corresponding data is searched from the hard disk array 12 based on the data designation information. To perform a data search process (step S
3) The retrieved data is read from the hard disk array 12.

In the following step S4, the control unit 15 of the data transmitting apparatus 10 separates the data retrieved and read in step S3 into summary data and complementary data by the method of the above-described first to fourth embodiments. By controlling the data separation unit 14 as described above, data separation processing is performed.

Further, the control unit 15 of the data transmitting apparatus 10
In the subsequent step S5, by referring to the user ID information, the data separation unit is configured to transfer the summary data to the data reception device 20 on the user side via the communication line 30 with respect to the data subjected to the separation processing. 14
And the modem 11 and control for storing the supplementary data in the memory of the data separation unit 14.

The control unit 26 of the data receiving device 20
Controls the modem 21 so as to receive the summary data transmitted from the data transmission device 10 via the communication line 30, stores the received summary data in the memory of the data synthesizing unit 23, and Playback processing unit 2
4 and controls the reproduction processing unit 24 to perform the above-described predetermined processing on the outline data supplied from the data synthesis unit 23 (step S6). Thereby, in the data receiving device 20, as shown in FIGS. 6A and 6B, the time t _0.
, The respective processes of reception, reproduction, and storage of the outline data described above are started. Here, in FIG. 6, (A) shows the processing contents of the data receiving device 20 when the actual reproduction time of the outline data is shorter than the reception time of both the outline data and the complementary data, and (B) shows the outline data. Of the data receiving apparatus 20 when the actual reproduction time is longer than the total reception time of both the summary data and the complementary data
Respectively.

Then, in the data receiving device 20,
This summary data is output as an analog reproduction signal to the output unit 25.
, And in the case of the third embodiment, a middle-range audio output is output from the speaker of the output unit 25.

When saving the summary data, the control unit 26 controls the modem 21 and the H so that the summary data received by the modem 21 is recorded on the hard disk.
What is necessary is just to control DD22.

When the transmission of the outline data in step S5 is completed, the control section 15 of the data transmitting apparatus 10 reads out the complementary data stored in the memory of the data separating section 14 and transmits it to the data receiving apparatus 20 so as to transmit the data. By controlling the section 14 and the modem 11, a process of transmitting complementary data is performed (step S7).

Then, the control unit 26 of the data receiving device 20 which has received the supplementary data reads out the summary data from the memory of the data synthesizing unit 23, and reads out the outline data from the time t ₁ shown in FIGS. 6A and 6B. Then, a process of combining the received complementary data and the read summary data to generate combined data is performed (step S8). Further, the control unit 2
6 supplies the generated combined data to the HDD 22 and
The data synthesizing unit 23 and the HDD 22 are controlled so as to be recorded on the hard disk in D22 (step S9), and when the process of storing the synthesized data in the hard disk is completed, the process proceeds to step S10.

In the subsequent step S10, the control section 26 determines whether or not the reproduction processing of the outline data has been completed. Here, if YES, that is, if it is determined that the reproduction processing of the outline data has been completed, it is specifically the case as shown in FIG. 3A, and the storage processing of the combined data to the hard disk has been completed. Time t ₃ Since the reproduction processing of the outline data has already been completed in step, the processing is terminated. On the other hand, if NO, that is, if it is determined that the reproduction process of the summary data has not been completed, specifically, FIG.
A case as shown in the (B), a case where actual playback time still summary data at time t ₂ when the storage process to the hard disk of the synthesized data is completed is not finished.
In such a case, the control unit 26 proceeds to step S11 to perform higher quality data reproduction.

In step S11, the control unit 26
Between the time t ₂ shown in FIG. 6 (B) until the actual playback time is completed the time t ₃ of the summary data, by reproducing by synthesizing the outline data and the supplemental data, the so-called high-quality reproduction process Do. As a method of the high quality reproduction processing, there are a method of controlling the HDD 22 to reproduce the composite data stored in the hard disk, and a method of controlling the HDD 22 in advance.
A method in which the complementary data is stored in the memory of, the data combining unit is controlled to combine the outline data and the complementary data to generate combined data, and the generated combined data is output to the reproduction processing unit 24, and the like. Is mentioned.

Thus, in the data receiving device 20, the synthesized data is supplied to the output unit 25 as an analog reproduction signal, and the loudspeaker of the output unit 25 converts the synthesized data into, for example, an original sound in which the low range and the high range of popular music are combined. The output of the restored audio signal is performed. Then, the control unit 26 at time t ₃ when shown in (B) of FIG. 6 this high quality reproduction is completed, and ends the series of processes described above.

As described above, in the data transmission / reception system 1, the data specified by the user is separated into the summary data and the supplementary data, and the data is transferred in the order of the summary data and the supplementary data. Can reduce the transfer rate from to the receiving side, and can avoid interruption or poor reproduction of audio and the like reproduced on the receiving side,
The reliability of real-time reproduction can be significantly improved.

The data transmission / reception system 1 separates the data specified by the user into summary data and complementary data as described above, and transfers the data in the order of summary data and complementary data. It is also easy to construct a service in which data transfer is free as so-called sample data, and transfer of complementary data is free. In this case, for example, regarding the transfer of the complementary data, the data transmitting apparatus 10 adds the predetermined lock data for prohibiting the reproduction to the complementary data and transfers the data to the data receiving apparatus 20. A configuration may be adopted in which key data corresponding to the lock data is obtained by performing a procedure for charging processing, and the lock data is collated with the key data so that the complementary data can be reproduced. .

According to the data transmission / reception system 1,
Since the data receiving device 20 can download the data to the hard disk while checking the content of the requested data while receiving the summary data, even if the wrong data is requested, it can be easily canceled in the middle of the download. No problem occurs even if the supplementary data is charged as described above.

In the above embodiment, M
Although an example of the configuration of the OD system has been described, the present invention is not limited to this, and a system that distributes any digital data related to so-called multimedia information such as VOD, still image data, text data, program data, etc. Of course, it is also applicable.

For example, when the present invention is applied to a system for distributing image data, the data separation unit 14 separates the image data into outline data and complementary data. And a method in which the complementary data is used as data for odd-numbered rasters. As a method for separating image data, a method is used in which outline data is data of even frames and complementary data is data of odd frames. Further, as a method of separating image data, there is a method in which summary data is data in a low frequency region and complementary data is data in a high frequency region. Further, as a method of separating image data, a method of setting outline data to monochrome image data and complementing data to color image data is used.

Further, in the above-described embodiment,
Although the supplementary data is sent all at once, the present invention is not limited to this. The supplementary data may be sent several times. That is, for example, when the present invention is applied to the system for distributing the image data described above, the image data is allocated as the outline data, and the caption of the image data is allocated as the complementary data, or the allocation is reversed. Accordingly, it is also possible to transfer complementary data a plurality of times for one transfer of the outline data. Further, a low-frequency portion of music data played by an artist is assigned as summary data, a high-frequency portion of the music data is assigned as first complementary data, and image data of a jacket photograph of the artist is assigned as second complementary data. It is possible to construct various forms of services such as allocation and data regarding the artist profile information and concert information as third complementary data.

In the first embodiment, the audio data of the L + R channel is used as the outline data, and the audio data of the LR channel is used as the supplementary data. However, the audio data of the LR channel is used as the outline data. Then, audio data of the L + R channel may be used as complementary data. It goes without saying that the present invention is applied to audio data of not less than two channels but two or more channels.

Further, in the second embodiment, the audio data of the even-numbered spectrum is used as the outline data, and the audio data of the odd-numbered spectrum is used as the supplementary data. The data may be audio data of an even spectrum.

In the fourth embodiment, vocal audio data is used as summary data, and karaoke audio data is used as supplementary data. However, karaoke audio data is used as summary data, and supplementary data is used as karaoke audio data. It may be vocal audio data.

[0082]

As described in detail above, according to the present invention, in a distribution system for distributing a program between an information center and a terminal device which are arranged apart from each other, a distribution system is provided from the information center to the terminal device. According to the selection of the desired program, for the selected desired program,
The program is separated into overview data from which the overview of the entire program can be grasped, and supplementary data that can be restored to the original program by synthesizing the overview data, and transmits the separated overview data and the complementary data in a time-division manner. Therefore, the terminal device receives the summary data and the complementary data distributed from the information center, synthesizes the received summary data and the complementary data, and performs monitor reproduction based on the summary data. Even if the receivable transfer rate on the terminal device side is low, the digest data can be continuously digested by receiving the summary data first.

According to the information center of the present invention, in accordance with the selection of a desired program in the terminal device, the outline data for grasping the outline of the whole program for the selected desired program and the outline data And the complementary data that can be restored to the original program, and the separated summary data and the complementary data can be transmitted in a time-division manner.

Further, the terminal device according to the present invention receives the summary data and the supplementary data distributed from the information center,
The received summary data and the complementary data can be combined, and monitor reproduction can be performed based on the summary data.

Further, in the distribution method according to the present invention, in accordance with the selection of a desired program in the terminal device, for the selected desired program, outline data from which an outline of the entire program can be grasped; By synthesizing with the outline data, it is separated into complementary data that can be restored to the original program, and the separated outline data and the complementary data are transmitted to the terminal device in a time-division manner and distributed from the information center. Since the summary data and the complementary data are received, the received summary data and the complementary data are combined, and monitor playback is performed based on the summary data, even when the receivable transfer rate on the terminal device side is low. Receiving the summary data first enables continuous digest reproduction of the program being downloaded.

A feature of the present invention is that the summary data and the supplementary data are separated from the information center, and the summary data is transmitted before the supplementary data, so that the summary data can be monitored and reproduced on the receiving terminal device. is there. Furthermore, the summary data is excellent in that it can reproduce the entire music, although the sound quality is poor, instead of partial reproduction of only the prelude, interlude, and subsequent performance of the transmitted music.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration example of a data transmission / reception system to which the present invention has been applied.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a specific configuration example of an encoding unit for high-efficiency encoding employed in the data transmission / reception system.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating frequency-time characteristics of an orthogonal transform block in the high-efficiency encoding device.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing a specific configuration example of a high-efficiency coding decoding unit employed in the data transmission / reception system.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing a processing procedure of data distribution in the data transmission / reception system.

FIG. 6 is a time chart showing the operation of the data receiving apparatus side in the data transmission / reception system, wherein (A) shows the data when the actual reproduction time of the summary data is shorter than the reception time of both the summary data and the complementary data. (B) shows the processing contents of the data receiving apparatus when the actual reproduction time of the summary data is longer than the total reception time of both the summary data and the complementary data.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 data transmission / reception system, 10 data transmission device, 2
0 data receiving device, 30 communication line, 11, 21 modem, 12 hard disk array, 13 data search processing unit, 14 data separation unit, 15 control unit, 22H
DD, 23 data synthesis unit, 24 reproduction processing unit, 25
Output unit, 26 control unit, 27 operation input unit

Claims (24)

[Claims] 1. A distribution system for distributing a program between an information center and a terminal device which are arranged apart from each other, wherein the information center includes a storage unit for storing a plurality of programs, and a selection unit selected by the terminal device. Data search means for selecting the selected desired program from a plurality of programs stored in the storage means, and summary data capable of grasping an overview of the entire program with respect to the desired program selected by the data search means A separating unit that separates the outline data into complementary data that can be restored to the original program by combining with the outline data, and a transmitting unit that transmits the outline data and the complementary data separated by the separating unit in a time-division manner. Each terminal device comprises: a receiving means for receiving the summary data and the complementary data distributed from the information center; and Delivery system comprising synthesizing means for synthesizing the received the summary data and the supplemental data, that comprising a reproducing means for performing monitor playback based on the summary data. 2. The program comprises audio data; the separating means divides the audio data into a plurality of bands and decomposes the audio data into frequency components for each band;
Encoding means for allocating and encoding quantization bits so as to mask quantization noise on the frequency components converted for each band by the conversion means, and encoding one of the plurality of divided bands. 2. The distribution system according to claim 1, wherein an output of the encoding unit corresponding to the band is output as summary data, and an output of the encoding unit corresponding to another band is output as supplementary data. 3. The program comprises audio data, wherein the separating means generates an addition output of a plurality of channels of the audio data and a subtraction output of a plurality of channels of the audio data, and outputs the addition output and the subtraction output. 2. The distribution system according to claim 1, wherein one of the data is output as summary data and the other is output as complementary data. 4. The program comprises audio data, and the separating means comprises converting means for converting the audio data into a spectrum in a frequency domain and alternately outputting an even spectrum and an odd spectrum. 2. The distribution system according to claim 1, wherein one of the spectra is output as summary data, and the other is output as supplementary data. 5. The program comprises audio data. The separating means separates the audio data into vocal data and accompaniment data, outputs one of the vocal data and accompaniment data as summary data, and outputs the other as complementary data. The distribution system according to claim 1, wherein the output is performed as a message. 6. The distribution system according to claim 1, wherein even when downloading of the supplemental data from the information center to the terminal device is started, monitor reproduction of the summary data is continued. 7. The distribution system according to claim 1, wherein monitor reproduction of the summary data on the terminal device is free of charge. 8. The information center obtains key data corresponding to the lock data by adding lock data to the complementary data and transmitting the supplement data to the terminal device, and performing a predetermined accounting process on the terminal device side. 2. The distribution system according to claim 1, wherein reproduction of the complementary data is permitted. 9. An information center for distributing a program to a terminal device, comprising: storage means for storing a plurality of programs; and a plurality of storage means for storing a desired program selected by the terminal device in the storage means. Data retrieval means selected from the program, and the desired program selected by the data retrieval means can be restored to the original program by synthesizing the outline data with which the outline of the whole program can be grasped and the outline data described above. An information center comprising: a separating unit that separates the supplementary data into a plurality of complementary data; and a transmitting unit that transmits the outline data and the complementary data separated by the separating unit in a time-division manner. 10. The program comprises audio data, the separating means converts the audio data into a plurality of bands, and decomposes the audio data into frequency components for each band.
Encoding means for allocating and encoding quantization bits so as to mask quantization noise on the frequency components converted for each band by the conversion means, and encoding one of the plurality of divided bands. 10. The information center according to claim 9, wherein an output of the encoding means corresponding to the band is output as summary data, and an output of the encoding means corresponding to another band is output as supplementary data. 11. The program comprises audio data, wherein the separating means generates an addition output of a plurality of channels of the audio data and a subtraction output of a plurality of channels of the audio data, and generates the addition output and the subtraction output. 10. The information center according to claim 9, wherein one of the information centers is output as summary data, and the other is output as complementary data. 12. The program comprises audio data, and the separation means comprises conversion means for converting the audio data into a spectrum in a frequency domain and alternately outputting an even spectrum and an odd spectrum. 10. The information center according to claim 9, wherein one of the spectra is output as summary data and the other is output as supplementary data. 13. The program comprises audio data. The separating means separates the audio data into vocal data and accompaniment data, outputs one of the vocal data and accompaniment data as summary data, and outputs the other as complementary data. The information center according to claim 9, wherein the information is output as: 14. The information center according to claim 9, wherein the information center adds lock data to the complementary data and transmits the result to the terminal device. 15. A terminal device for receiving a program distributed from an information center, comprising: receiving means for receiving summary data and complementary data distributed from the information center; and the summary received by the receiving means. A terminal device comprising: synthesizing means for synthesizing data and the complementary data; and reproducing means for performing monitor reproduction based on the summary data. 16. A program distributed from the information center comprises audio data, the audio data is divided into a plurality of bands, decomposed into frequency components for each band, and frequency components converted for each band. , And assigns quantization bits so as to mask the quantization noise, and outputs a coded code corresponding to one of the plurality of divided bands as summary data, The terminal device according to claim 15, wherein an encoded code corresponding to the band is output as complementary data. 17. A conversion means for converting a signal on a frequency axis into a signal on a time axis for the summary data and the complementary data distributed from the information center, and synthesizing the signals converted by the conversion means. 16. The terminal device according to claim 15, further comprising a decoding unit including a band synthesizing unit. 18. The summary data and the supplementary data distributed from the information center include an addition output of a plurality of channels and a subtraction output of a plurality of channels. 16. The terminal device according to claim 15, wherein the terminal device is returned to the original signal by performing addition / subtraction processing. 19. The program comprises audio data, wherein the summary data and the supplementary data distributed from the information center comprise a spectrum-divided even spectrum and an odd spectrum. 16. The terminal device according to claim 15, wherein a spectrum and an odd-numbered spectrum are alternately output to return to an original signal. 20. The program comprises audio data, wherein the summary data and the supplementary data distributed from the information center comprise a vocal section and a karaoke section, and wherein the synthesizing means comprises the vocal section and the karaoke section. The terminal device according to claim 15, wherein the terminal device is synthesized. 21. The terminal device according to claim 15, wherein the monitor reproduction of the summary data is continued even when the download of the supplementary data from the information center is started. 22. The terminal device according to claim 15, wherein monitor reproduction of the summary data is free. 23. Receiving the supplementary data transmitted with the lock data added thereto from the information center, performing a predetermined accounting process to obtain key data corresponding to the received lock data, The terminal device according to claim 15, wherein reproduction of data is permitted. 24. A distribution method for distributing a program between an information center and a terminal device which are arranged apart from each other, wherein the selected desired program is selected according to selection of a desired program in the terminal device. In contrast, the overview data that allows the overview of the entire program to be grasped and the supplementary data that can be restored to the original program by combining with the summary data are separated, and the separated summary data and the complement data are separated The terminal transmits the divided data to the terminal device, receives the summary data and the supplementary data distributed from the information center, combines the received summary data and the supplementary data, and monitors based on the summary data. A distribution method characterized by performing reproduction.