JPH1152964A - Karaoke device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To make it possible to display a mood video conforming to contents of a music changing during performance by successively changing them over while processing video material signal with video effect according to pertinent scenario information. SOLUTION: A mood video is stored in a video database 30 and successively taken out of a video data reproducing part 40 as a video material of a necessary time length. In the scenario information, music numbers, video change-over points, video effects, and video material storage position are described. When KARAOKE music is requested, the corresponding scenario information is read out of a hard disk device 24, and the performance is started. The video data are decoded according to a video material storage position of the first video change-over position, and outputted to a display 2 via a video control part 21, etc. At the next video change-over point in time, the next video material data are decoded. Hereafter, video is similarly reproduced and successively changed over at specified time points.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a karaoke apparatus, and more particularly, to a karaoke apparatus that displays a mood image on a display when performing accompaniment music of a karaoke song.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in a karaoke apparatus, a mood image displayed on a display at the time of playing karaoke accompaniment music has been created exclusively for each karaoke song, such as karaoke package software. The 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 song style of the karaoke song and has a coherent storyline contained in the lyrics. However, since a special mood video 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 above-mentioned method, 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 the material video is sequentially switched during a performance period and played back while being connected, thereby forming a series of mood videos. With the spread of a communication karaoke system that can quickly respond to the release of a new song and can accommodate a huge 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 mood video production time, production cost, storage capacity, and the location of recording media. However, if a large number of material videos are randomly used in each karaoke music, the karaoke music style and mood video will not match at all. Then, patent 2555042
In the technique disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No. 3 (conventional example), it is attempted to match the tune style of the music with the mood video while employing a shared video database system. The details of this technique are as follows.

[0004] 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 piece”. 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.

[0005] 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 by using the genre as an intermediary.

Further, parameters are 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. The video effect is 1 for each song.
Are specified one by one.

[0007] 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.

[0008] 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 manner, the material video is sequentially switched during the performance period of the musical composition, thereby obtaining a mood video.

[0009]

Even now, there should be quite a lot of karaoke enthusiasts who feel the great attraction of singing along with the mood video produced 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 select a method of using mood videos, which are far fewer than the number of karaoke songs, in each song. It would not be possible at present.

Certainly, in the technology disclosed in the above-mentioned conventional example, the music style of each karaoke music is matched with the mood video by allocating the material video for each karaoke music 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. And the mood video is a “specific order” where the “video that matches the image” recalled at each time during the performance matches the storyline
It is developed in. Nevertheless, in the conventional example, an enormous number of karaoke songs of 10,000 or more and long-time videos of several tens of hours or more are classified according to a very small number of 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.

[0011] Despite each of a large number of material images having completely different contents, all material images classified only by superficial relevance are treated equally, and an appropriate one is selected from among them. They are stitched together. That is, a mood image is obtained by editing a plurality of material images having no relation at all in an order ignoring the context before and after. Therefore, it can be concluded that the technique according to the conventional example is completely impossible to follow a mood image according 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.

[0012] Classifying material videos by genre also means that the number of material videos that can be used for each music piece is limited by itself. In other words, when a song of a certain genre is selected, all material videos belonging to another genre are wasted. In addition, even if a new video is added, the probability that this video is 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 until 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 is the same as the recording time of each material video, the performance time differs for each song, so the material video played last will end in an incomplete way . If the mood video suddenly breaks without immersing in the “finish” of the end of the song, the singer will be greatly dissatisfied.

In addition, there is another problem 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 producing an effect that makes the story contained in the lyrics of the song start and finish more conspicuous. for example,
Even if the video effect is changed at each video switching point, it must be said that the "video without any context" is falsified with easy video effects.

After all, this prior art is a technique aimed at allocating material images easily in response to an increase in music such as the addition of a new music. The only effect that can be obtained is to make sure that it is not far from the image.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention 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.

[0017]

In order to achieve the above object, a 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 systems of video database access means, a plurality of systems of video reproducing means, and a video effect processing means are provided. The video database access means,
Video data corresponding to a material video having an arbitrary length of time is read from a desired storage position in the video database. The video reproduction 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 designating a plurality of video switching points during a performance period of one karaoke song, storage positions of material videos used between the video switching points, and video switching. Each video effect used at the point is described.

(4) When reproducing the accompaniment music of a karaoke music piece, the video database access means of the plurality of systems are used between respective points according to the corresponding script information while appropriately changing the processing system. The material video data is sequentially taken out, and the plurality of systems of video reproduction means sequentially reproduce the video signals of the material video while sequentially taking care of the processing of the material video data, and the video effect processing means corresponds to the material video signal. While sequentially performing the video effect processing according to the script information.

Further, by storing a long-time video as compression-encoded digital moving image data on an optical disk, the database access means can store an arbitrary moving image data storage position in time units of 1 second or less according to the time code of the optical disk. To retrieve video data for an arbitrary reproduction time.

[0023]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION

=== Configuration and Basic Operation of Karaoke Apparatus === FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of a karaoke apparatus according to an embodiment 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. And
When the 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
9 is output. 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 reproducing unit 40 sequentially retrieves and reproduces material videos of an appropriate time length from the video database 30 at the time of reproduction, switches the material videos together to edit them, and edits 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,
The mood video reproduction system which is a requirement of the present invention will be described.

=== Mood Video Reproduction System === Video Database In this embodiment, the mood video is recorded on a CD-ROM as video data digitized by the MPEG1 format. A large number of CD-ROMs are prepared in order to handle a long-time video. Each CD-ROM records video data corresponding to a video of 74 minutes in reproduction time, similarly to a normal video CD. Video data at a desired storage location can be specified by a sector address assigned to each data sector of the CD-ROM. The desired sector address contains a CD-R
Time code (minute / second / frame <1) corresponding to the elapsed time when the video recorded in the OM is reproduced from the beginning
By specifying “second = 75 frames>”, access can be made in a time unit of 1 second or less (a detailed description is omitted because the standard around this is based on a video CD).

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

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 that record video for a long time are stored in the three systems of CD-ROs.
It is distributed to M changers 31 to 33. 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 section 40 has two MPEG decoders 41 and 42, and these two MPEG decoders.
It includes a video effect processing unit 43 connected to the output paths of the decoders 41 and 42. Two MPEG decoders 4
Reference numerals 1 and 42 are connected to output paths of three CD-ROM changers 31 to 33, respectively. And 3
MPEG-1 format video data output from the CD-ROM changers 31 to 33 of the system is input.
The video data from the two paths are selected and decoded, and the mood video is reproduced. Further, the two MPEG decoders 41 and 42 can also operate in parallel, and alternately handle processing of 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 the one video signal. Various video effect processing (overlap synthesis, fade-in / fade-out, video switching by wipe, etc.) is added to the two systems of video signals, and the video signal after the video effect processing is output. The central control unit controls these hardware in accordance with script information to be described later, and connects the reproduced material images as appropriate to edit a series of mood images. Next, the script information and the mood video editing processing of the central control unit based on the script information will be described.

Script information The script information described above is stored in the hard disk device in association with the music number. Therefore, each karaoke song is associated with the script information in a one-to-one relationship. In addition,
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 includes a song number,
A video switching point, a video effect, and a material video storage position are described. A plurality of video switching points set during a 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 the video effect when the material 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 disc is designated by the ID of the CD-ROM changer and the disc number in the changer, and the time position is designated by the minute / second / frame described above. Also, the storage position of the material video is designed so that the same CD-ROM changer is not designated between consecutive video switching points, and the occurrence of the above-described time lag is also avoided. The storage location of the disc is
By preparing a comparison table or the like in which the disk ID attached to the ROM is associated with the storage location in the video database, the disk ID may be directly specified by the disk ID.

By preparing the above-described script information, the material video used between each video switching point is directly and uniquely designated without the media-related information relating to the music such as the genre. ing. And one
The playback start position can be specified in units of 1/75 second, which is the frame time. Therefore, let alone one scene, even a part of the image in one cut can be freely designated as a material image.

The mood video editing process The central control unit edits the source video used between the video switching points as appropriate according to the script information and edits it into a series of mood videos. FIG. 4 shows a flowchart of the editing process. When a karaoke song is requested,
The 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 performance elapsed 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 image 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 type of MPEG decoder performs decoding processing of the video data in real time, and outputs the video signal. The output video signal is output to the display via the video effect processing unit and the video control unit. (101-103) When the next video switching point time comes, an MPEG decoder of a system different from the system that has decoded the previous material video performs 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, 1).
06). Thereafter, the video from the specified time position on the specified CD-ROM is reproduced at the specified point time in the same manner, and sequentially switched (107 → 10).
3).

=== 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. Also,
The script information is not stored on the hard disk.
A D-ROM may be prepared. In this case, prior to the performance of the music, the corresponding script information is read from the CD-ROM and temporarily stored in a RAM or the like in the central control unit so that the mood video can be edited. 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 multiple CD-ROM changers, multiple CD-Rs
One disk tray for storing OM and multiple CD-
It is composed of a ROM drive device, and by the transport device,
A method of taking out an arbitrary CD-ROM from the disk tray and setting it in a predetermined CD-ROM drive may be adopted. FIG. 5 shows an example. Under the control of the central control unit, the transport device 45 moves the CD-RO
M is taken out, and three systems of CD-ROM drive devices 31b-
33b. Then, the transport device 45
Is a CD-ROM from which data is read next
By setting in advance in the D-ROM drive device, a time lag that occurs when the source video is switched is eliminated.

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.

[0035]

According to the script information corresponding to each karaoke music piece, the material video extracted from the video data recorded in the video database is directly designated at an arbitrary reproduction start position without passing through information related to the music piece such as genre. At the same time, playback is performed in the specified playback time length and in 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 image having contents that sufficiently follow 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.

Further, 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 when switching the reproduction of the 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.

Further, 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. Moving image data for an arbitrary reproduction time can be extracted. Therefore, a material video that closely follows a delicate story development can be reproduced at a more accurate timing.

[Brief description of the drawings]

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

FIG. 2 is a configuration diagram of a main part in the mood video reproduction system in the embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a schematic structural diagram of script information processed in the embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing a mood video editing process performed by a central control unit in the embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a configuration diagram of another embodiment of the mood video reproduction system.

[Explanation of symbols]

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

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. 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) It comprises a plurality of systems of video database access means operable in parallel, a plurality of systems of video reproduction means operable in parallel, and a video effect processing means. The video database access means randomly accesses a desired storage position in the video database and reads video data corresponding to a material video having an arbitrary length from the long video. The video reproduction 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. This script information,
Point time data for designating a plurality of video switching points during the performance period of one karaoke song, storage locations of material videos to be used between the video switching points, and each of the video switching points used at the video switching points The video effects and are 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 the points according to the corresponding script information. Are sequentially taken out, and the video reproduction means of the plurality of systems sequentially reproduces the video signal of the material video while sequentially taking care of the processing of the material video data. Switching is performed sequentially while performing video effect processing according to the information. 2. The optical disk according to claim 1, wherein the video for a long time is stored as compression-encoded digital moving image data on an appropriate optical disk recording medium, and the database access unit stores the time code recorded on the optical disk. A karaoke apparatus for accessing an arbitrary storage position of the moving image data in a time unit of 1 second or less and extracting the moving image data for an arbitrary reproduction time.