EP0235209A1

EP0235209A1 - Apparatus for reproduction of sound and video

Info

Publication number: EP0235209A1
Application number: EP19860905177
Authority: EP
Inventors: Nelson Martins Costa Filho
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1985-08-30
Filing date: 1986-08-22
Publication date: 1987-09-09
Also published as: WO1987001492A1; JPS63500749A; BR8504209A

Abstract

L'appareil ci-décrit, mis au point spécialement pour les besoins de l'enseignement, permet, en raison de son faible coût de production et de maintenance, aux utilisateurs à faible pouvoir d'achat de mettre à profit les effets de la reproduction vidéo. L'appareil mis au point comprend essentiellement une unité centrale (1) chargée de l'interprétation des codes provenant des sources de production ''A'' et ''B'', et qui après les traitements appropriés, transmet lesdits codes au circuit chargé de la sortie séquentielle (2).The device described here, specially developed for educational purposes, allows, due to its low production and maintenance cost, users with low purchasing power to take advantage of the effects of reproduction. video. The apparatus developed essentially comprises a central unit (1) responsible for interpreting the codes from production sources "A" and "B" and which, after the appropriate processing, transmits said codes to the circuit responsible for the sequential output (2).

Description

"APPARATUS FOR REPRODUCTION OF SOUND AND VIDEO"

The present invention refers to an apparatus for reproduction of sound and video developed mainly to be utilized as an auxiliary instrument in education, which due to the fact that it presents a low cost, in production as well as in its maintenance, it renders possible the utilization of the effects provenient from the video reproduction by users of lower purchasing power. The developed apparatus is versatile, being also able to be utilized for leisure purposes.

At present, the apparatus which are commonly utilized in the reproduction of sound and video are video cassettes and computers. The video cassette is an efficient apparatus to tape and reproduce sounds and video in magnetic tapes, which utilizes the UMATIC or BETAMAX process, having as main characteristic rotative, heads that tape helicoidally and with this, they can reach a high relative speed head/tape, which, added to the small "gap", results in a good number of answers of high frequency up to 4.2 mHz, approximately. Technically, this apparatus attends all the demands requested by the user; however, it utilizes a system of high initial cost and maintenance, for the tapes are expensive. Using it in education would attend only a small part of the population, for it is unsti ulating for the majority of the population, who mostly need the aid of the generated and developed technology.

The computer, which is the other apparatus, tapes and reproduces programs in disk or in magnetic tapes, which, after being entered and processed, enables their vision in monitors or television sets. The produced sounds are of the digit type, produced artificially in intonations that are sometimes unintelligible.

Due to its high cost and a certain complexity in its operation, its utilization turns out to be improper for the objective end, that is, to assist in education.

There is still another apparatus that reproduces sound and image, used mainly for entertainment; it is the video game, apparatus that utilizes memory only for reading of the ROM, PROM and EPROM kind inserted in removable cartouches that do not permit a great storage of data. Besides this, it ia only possible to generate digital and artificial sounds, not being possible the reproduction of the teacher's voice, for example. Therefore, it is improper for education.

With the three options cited above, it can be concluded that there is a gap to fill, that is, currently, there is no equipment capable of being lower in cost and that could render possible the reproduction of video and sound.

With the aim to attend mainly the primary demand of low cost, the apparatus of the present invention was developed, which enables the maximum utilization of the apparatus that normally exist in the residencies of the users to be benefited, such as a television set, even in black and white, a tape recorder/reproductive sound cassette and also, the tape cassette, which has a quite inferior cost as compared to the cost of the video cassette tapes. The apparatus for reproduction of video and sound, object of the invention, presents today a cost of approximately 5% of the cost of the video cassette, providing a good resolution and attending easily all the other requirements necessary for its utilization. Basically, it is an apparatus that makes the interfacement between the recorder or reproducer of tape cassettes of common use in audio systems with television, or in another reproduction system of images, such as video monitors, big screens or congeners. Thus, due to the small number of components necessary for its industrial manufacturing, counting on electronic components, mostly integrated circuits of easy obtainment, for they are already commonly used in computers, it is possible to obtain simplicity in its operation, for any layman is capable of operating it; simplicity in its construction, and to make use of normal tapes already in normal use for taping sounds. Besides these advantages, the developed apparatus will further provide, as consequence, a lot of other advantages, the main ones being the following:

- Elementary schools and colleges will be able to increment the audio-visual resources in the assistance of the administered classes. - It may be recommended for students to use at home, like a spoken book, with images on TV and sounds of the teacher's voice.

- Language schools may adopt the developed apparatus making read good use of the audio and visual resources, for, besides the demonstrative figures on TV, the student may listen to the teacher's pronunciation perfectly and may also be enriched with music in the language which is being taught.

- All schools that teach by correspondence will find through this apparatus a more efficient form in the application of this teaching method.

- Professionalizing schools will also benefit a lot from these resources.

- Foundations for cultural ends, which already administer courses on television and through books, that presently are not being fully successful, due to the fact that the distant student is not able to repeat as many times as necessary, the classes which were not understood, and also in case the student for some reason or another is not able to watch television because of other things he has to do during the time in which the program is on the air, will be able, through the developed apparatus, to solve these problems, that is, the student may have in hands the tape cassette, which will be able to stop the scenes at any moment, remaining indefinitely still until the cassette is turned on again. The tape may be rewinded to watch the previous scene or scenes, etc.

By analogy, one may imagine innumerous possibilities of its use in the educational field, having as limit the educators' imagination.

For leisure purposes, entertainments may be provided such as cartoons, cross-word puzzles and others. If adapted to controls, keyboards or joysticks. due to the long memory that the tape cassette has, it becomes possible to increment games, that is, to change the positions of objects in the scenes, making them more realistic, and in this aspect, the apparatus becomes so powerful that no video game, no matter how. owerful it is, will be compared to it, specially due to the fact that the tape cassette is much cheaper than the cartouche of commercialized video games.

For a better comprehension of the functioning and composition of the apparatus of the present invention, the only schematic drawing in annex will be described in details, which represents the diagram in blocks of the developed apparatus.

According to the figure, it may be verified that the developed apparatus is formed by a CPU (Central

Processing Unit) (1) responsible for the interpretation of the codes coming from the main generating source "A" and optional source "B", which after the right processings pass to the responsible circuit by the serial output (2) . The generating sources "A" and "B" are composed of a tape recorder, tape deck, cassette-tape reproducer, micro-tape reproducer, cartridge tape reproducer, tape reproducer of the cartouche type, that is, endless tapes, record player for the case where programs are taped on common record instead of tape, etc.

If, in the future, someone manufactures reproducing sources of tapes with a plurality of tracks, the input may be of the kind of data in parallel and may optionally make use of the connecting blocks (3) and filters (4) .

Normally, making use of one of the sources widely in use today, as is the case of the cassette tapes of one or two tracks, the signs previously taped, using a digital code, such as ASCII or any other, are injected through input "A" and following that, through the first connecting block (5) , which is responsible for the connection to the several possible sources, and automatically controls the input level to compensate the volume variation between equipments. The filters (6) receive these signs and make the due filtering processes, and after that, separate the analogous sounds, which, due to their characteristics, do not get mixed. If the sign comes from parallel sources, making use of multiple tracks, the process will be the same; however, with input through optional connecting blocks (3) and filters (4) .

After the separation, the sound (7) goes to the amplifier block and impedance matching (8) where the right amplification and impedance matching are made in order to be posteriorly sent to the converter block of radio frequency

(9) or to the impedance matching, or still, to the monitor

(10) in case this output is preferred.

The radio-frequency converter (9) , after mixing the sound sign (7) with the video sign (11) , will pass the resultant sign to the terminals of the television antenna that must be used in an empty channel frequency.

The data received by the series/parallel converter (12) coming from filter (6) , are transformed in parallel data and passed to via of data (13) and in case of using input "B", these data will be passed by filter (4) . In this phase, the CPU (Central Processing Unit) (1) , makes the recognition of the information and after interpreting it, executes it, making use of the information in the program memories (only reading memory) (14) , video memory (18) , memory of characters (only reading memory) (15) , which can be numbers, graphs, etc. To increase even more the possibilities, one may optionally increase this memory as in (16) , being even able to be exchangeable, having with it tapes of pre-determined symbols as pattern for use in certain areas, such as in electronics, civil engineering, chemistry, mathematics, etc.

In this case, the system would be a little more expensive; however, it will be possible to make "X" models or "Y" models, or more, being that each model has its price according to its utility and material used in its manufacturing. It is evident that a user who is a college student, would generally need an apparatus with more technical resources, and that will consequently make it more expensive; however, this user normally has a higher purchasing power that allows him to have an apparatus with more resources than others.

Another alternative that may also be utilized in a "Y" or "Z" type model, for example, would be to use another optional memory of the written and reading type (17) instead of just that of the reading type (16) . In this case, these memories would be carried previously, when on the occasion of the beginning of the reading of the magnetic tape by the system, while music will be heard. Following that, after these few seconds or minutes, the classes or normal programs would continue. This version of the system would be more useful to those students who have more than one class and who need several patterns. The CPU (Central Processing Unit) (1) , after the reading of the information and the respective processings commanded by the data coming from the program memory (14) , complemented by those of the magnetic tape, takes them to the parallel/serial converter (2) that, after making the conversion, takes them to the converter block (10) or to the radio frequency converter (9) already described.

In relation still to block (17) , optional memory of writing and reading, when not utilized for educational patterns, may be utilized to mark scores or other functions such as players' names, etc., when used in entertainments. In synthesis, the diagram of blocks of the system is what has been described above, and it is evident that this one disposes of other essential elements, such as feeding source, CLOCK generators, etc.; however, for a perfect comprehension of the invention, their representations are not made necessary.

In the case of utilization of the developed apparatus in color television, the process will be the same, with the difference that all the memories will be a little larger than those for black and white televisions.

It is good to evidence that alterations cannot be introduced neither in the generating sources nor in the receptive sources and, obviously, this apparatus does not have the resolution of the video cassette; however, it fully satisfies the end to which_ it is destined. Moreover, it is possible to obtain -images with high resolution; however, it loses speed, that is, in the case of scenes in movement as in cartoons, they will have a slower movement.

In case of full pages, these will take a longer time to be completed.

There are two kinds of programs to be thrown in the program memory (14), namely one with fixed addresses, which allows the apparatus to wait for the second screen after the first one is completed; and^"the second, with variable address where each character or blocks of characters, can be placed by anticipation, which agilizes the system in case of scenes in movement.

Claims

CLAIMS 1 - APPARATUS FOR REPRODUCTION OF VIDEO AND SOUND, characterized for being composed of a CPU (Central Processing Unit (1) responsible for the interpretation of the codes provenient from the generating source "A" which after the adequate processings pass to the circuit responsible for the serial output (2) , being the sign provenient from input "A", after passing the connecting block (5) , filtered by the filter (6) , separating the sound (7) which goes to the amplifier block and matching impedance (8) and after that to the radio frequency converter (9) where, after mixing with the video sign (11) , passes the resultant sign to the terminals of the television antenna, and the data received by the series/parallel converter (12) transformed into parallel data and passed to the via of data (13) , which conducts to the said CPU (Central Processing Until) (1) , where the information is recognized and interpreted, making use of the information resident in the memories of program (14) , of video (18) , and characters (15). 2 - APPARATUS FOR REPRODUCTION OF VIDEO AND SOUND, according to claim 1, characterized for being connected to the converter block series/parallel (2) , the optional input "B" which capts the sign coming from parallel sources and passes it to the connecting block (3) and after that to the filters.

3 - APPARATUS FOR REPRODUCTION OF VIDEO AND SOUND, according to claim 1, characterized for being the sign of sound (7) after passing through the amplifier block and matching impedance (8) , introduced in monitor (10) , together with the video signal (11) coming from the converter block series/parallel (2) .

4 - APPARATUS FOR REPRODUCTION OF VIDEO AND SOUND, according to claim 1, characterized for being connected, in an interchangeable manner or not, to the optional memory (16) , which has tapes of pre-determined symbols as patterns and to the optional memory (17) of the written and reading kind.