FR2773902A1 - Public-access booth for creation of recorded sound and image on compact disc which can also have information printed on front for use as post card or visiting card - Google Patents

Abstract

The automatic card creation booth has a cabin (60) housing a computer holding a database (46) of images and sounds, and audio and video input facilities. The customer uses a keyboard (34) to control selection of image and sound data and mixing and sequencing of data. The keyboard is also used to allow entry of textual data for the recording or to be printed on the face of the compact disc.

Description

 The present invention relates to a paying automatic media distributor carrying first information readable with the naked eye and a second recorded visual and / or audio information readable by means of a conventional optical disc player. The invention can be installed in public places or on the street and allows users to create, using the combination of the sound and / or visual databases of the distributor, information which they record using the keyboard of a processor. distributor, information recorded by the distributor recording means, camera, microphone, original and personalized media. This support can then be used as a postcard or business card.

 We already know many paid vending machines that distribute standardized objects. These distributors do not reproduce information selected by the user or information characterizing the user.

 There are also known business card distributors where the user preselects information which is then printed.

These distributors do not reproduce the photograph or the voice of the user.

 EP-0756251 discloses a coin operated videophotography system. According to this invention, the user thus obtains a photograph on which he can adjust the size of his face with a decoration which he selects. This invention does not offer the reproduction of sound and / or visual recording readable by a traditional optical disc player. Furthermore, this invention only delivers a very limited series of images.

 The present invention is part of this context and proposes a paid automatic support distributor carrying a first item of information selected by the user readable by the eye and a second piece of information selected by the user readable by means of a traditional reader. optical discs. According to this invention, and thanks to the optical reading the user obtains by storage a large number of selected and personalized information.

 According to the invention, the user pays the payment, he then follows on the screen of a monitor the options for selecting information offered by the distributor. He activates a keyboard to select his choices. He mixes the information that is either stored in the distributor's database, or that he enters with the keyboard, or that is the reproduction of his voice or of his image taken by a video camera or a microphone of the distributor.

The user validates his choices. The invention stimulates creativity. The image and the voice of the user are part of a virtual sound and visual world in which the image of the user is an actress, we can therefore say that filmed by the camera the user becomes an actor. In addition, by selecting the combination of image and sound, the user becomes the same director.

 The information is then printed and / or engraved on the card.

 The first information is visual. It is printed on the front and / or veso of the support. It is printed by a printer controlled by the processor and housed in the dispenser. It results from the selection and combination of the information chosen by the user between text, image bank, photography.

 The second information is visual and / or audible. It is stored by etching the laminar substrate on a substantially circular ring of the support. It is engraved by an engraver controlled by the processor and housed in the dispenser. It results from the mixing of information chosen by the user between the recording of his voice, of the film of his body, information actuated by the keyboard, information stored in the database such as films or musical pieces.

The invention will be better understood, and other objects, advantages and characteristics thereof will appear more clearly on reading the following description of a preferred embodiment given without limitation and in which two drawing boards are annexed on which:
Figure 1 schematically shows a top view of a card distributed by the present invention
Figure 2 shows schematically in section the map of Figure 1.

Figure 3 shows the flow of information through the distributor.

Figure 4 shows the distributor in section equipped with its Vital elements.

Referring now to the Figures, there is shown a card 10 according to that distributed by the present invention. This card 10 is, in FIG. 1, seen from above and in the format of a conventional payment card, but its thickness has been amplified on the
Figure 2 showing the map in section for obvious reasons of clarity.

 The card therefore has a substantially rectangular shape of approximately 86 × 54 millimeters, and at least partially comprises a planar laminar substrate 16 capable of being etched, made, for example, of a fine metallic material, and, in general, at least one coating 18 protective of the etched face of the substrate, the coating being of a plastic material of sufficient rigidity to prevent the card from being able to be folded or curved. Another coating 20 can also be provided on the front, that is to say on the unetched face of the substrate.

 On the front of the card, the coating 20 or the unetched face of the substrate 16 constitutes an obvious support for information that can be read directly to the eye, for example printed or painted on the coating 20. The coating 18 on the back of the card can also constitute a printed support, except opposite the etched part 14 of the laminar substrate 16.

 As can be understood, the laminar substrate 16 has, on a face directed towards the back of the card, an engraved crown 14 surrounding a circular orifice 12 formed in the center of the crown and concentric with it.

 The orifice 12, with a diameter of approximately 15 mm, constitutes a means of centering on an axis of rotation 22 of the card when it is placed in a laser reader for rotary optical disks, such as fitted to computers and music channels. This hole complies with current standards for optical discs.

 In the illustrated embodiment of a card in the format of a payment card, the crown 16 has an internal radius d4 of approximately 22.5 mm and an external radius dl slightly greater and of the order of 24 to 28 mm approx. Obviously, for a card of larger format, the crown may have a much larger outside radius dl.

 As shown in the Figures, the distances d2 and d3 between the axis of rotation 22 and the edges closest to the map are greater than the distance dl, that is to say the outside radius of the crown 14 .

 This clearly means that the axis of rotation 22 is not necessarily arranged on a median or on a diagonal of the card, that is to say that the orifice 12 can be off-center relative to the card.

 However for reasons of easy centering on the loading plate generally in translation of the reader, it is desirable that the orifice 12 is such that the axis of rotation 22 is disposed on the longitudinal median of the card at a distance of 6 cm. approximately from two adjacent angles of a side portion of the map. This distance is, in practice, equal to the standardized radius of the largest of conventional optical discs. Thus, by placing the card on the plate with the two adjacent angles mentioned above in contact with the external relief, the orifice 12 is perfectly centered, and there is no risk of damaging the card or the reader.

The user enters a cabin 60. He acquits a payment using the payment device 32. He actuates the keyboard 34 to select from the sound and / or image bank 46 the sounds and / or images he chooses to print on the front and / or back of the card 10. He coordinates this selection thanks to a processor 48 and checks by looking at a monitor 42 which can be a television set the maneuvers he performs. The monitor 42 can also broadcast the images and / or the sounds filmed and / or recorded by the image and / or sound recording device 40. This device 40 can be a video camera. Obviously all the devices using electricity are connected to a source of electricity supply 70. When the user has made his choice in the sound and / or image database 46, he has mixed that -this with the information recorded by 40 thanks to an image and sound processing device 45 which notably includes a data bank 46 and a processor 48, it gives the order by the keyboard 34 to have its selection by the media printing device 50.

This printing device 50 comprises at least one graphic printer 52 and an optical disc burner 54. The graphic printer 52 can, according to a particular mode of the invention, also print a postage according to the directives given by the user according to the keyboard 34. Finally, the support 10 is delivered by a mechanical distribution device for distribution of support.

 Those skilled in the art will have understood that this gives a paid automatic distributor for the support of information selected and combined between information recorded in the distributor's cabin, in the distributor's database and recorded by the user. using the distributor's processor keyboard, some of which can be read with the naked eye and others by means of an optical disc player. The printed information is therefore accessible to the man on the street who does not need to have a special reader to access the recorded information.

 The invention finds numerous applications. The invention can distribute supports which will become postcards or tourist souvenirs. The user records information relating to the country or to the place he is visiting by recording his voice joined to local sounds or local music, he can also attach his photograph in local clothing. By the keyboard he can write a message or draw a picture.

 In another application, the user records the image of his body using the video camera. This film is then superimposed on a film selected by the user. In an elaborate version of the invention, the monitor can scroll through the text to be said by the user. Furthermore, the monitor can indicate to the user the movements which he must perform by symbolizing the image to be followed on the monitor. The user follows the instructions and the video film which is recorded is superimposed on that of a film selected by the user. The user thus finds his image in a virtual world which can be a cinema film, a music clip or a fantasy scene. Through these images and these sounds the user becomes an actor in this virtual world, by selecting and combining information which leads to these images and these sounds the user also becomes stage director.

 In an elaborate version of the invention, other monitors and other keyboards can be located outside the cabin in order to allow the waiting public to preselect their choices.

 Although we have represented and described what are currently considered to be the preferred embodiments of the present invention, it is obvious that a person skilled in the art can make various changes and modifications without departing from the scope of the present invention.

Claims (4)

RVEND I CATIONS  1 - Automatic media dispenser (10) carrying a first item of information readable to the naked eye and a second item of information readable by means of a conventional optical disc player, said dispenser comprising a cabin (60) enclosing a recording device of images and / or sounds (45), a monitor (42) controlled by a processing circuit including a processor (48), and a keyboard (34), said distributor including, in addition, a printing device (50) comprising a graphic printer (52) and an optical disc burner (54),  characterized in that it further comprises a sound and / or image data bank (46) and a means for mixing the information chosen from said bank (46) and recorded by means of said recording device (45).  2 - Distributor according to claim 1, characterized in that said support (10) is a card having at least one side on which said first information is printed and one side on which said second information is engraved.  3 - Distributor according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that said support takes the form of a postcard, a payment card or a business card.  4 - Distributor according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that it further comprises a payment device (32).