GB2298944A

GB2298944A - Multimedia box such as jukebox

Info

Publication number: GB2298944A
Application number: GB9605126A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Horst Niederlein; Thomas Kuehl
Original assignee: NSM AG
Current assignee: NSM AG
Priority date: 1995-03-13
Filing date: 1996-03-11
Publication date: 1996-09-18
Anticipated expiration: 2016-03-11
Also published as: GB2298944B; GB9605126D0

Abstract

In a multimedia box 1, preferably a jukebox to be operated by money, a digital mass storage device 3 stores audio and/or video and/or image and/or graphics data and an operating unit 4 selects digitally stored pieces of music and/or videos and/or images and/or graphics. Semiconductor memory chips provide the storage device 3, which may be plug-in memory cards 2, and the control unit 4 may be a microprocessor. An audio output is via a D/A converter and an amplifier 12 to a loudspeaker 7. A central unit (14, Figure 5) may be connected to the control unit 4 to enable new pieces of music to be loaded. Alternatively the memory chips can be located in the central unit and are connected via remote data lines (13, Figure 6) and modems (13a and 13b) to the multimedia box 1. A plug-in card adapter (15, Figure 7) can be provided so that plug-in memory cards can be accessed from outside.

Description

Multimedia Box The invention relates to a multimedia box, in particular to a jukebox to be operated with money, in accordance with the generic part of claim 1.

The performance and reproduction quality ofjukeboxes has been substantially increased thanks to the replacement of records by compact disks (CDs) on which the playable pieces of music are stored in digital form. Jukeboxes of the type given above are known which are equipped with CD changers which can store 100 CDs. However, these known jukeboxes require sophisticated mechanical parts as the corresponding CD on which the piece of music to be played is located has to be taken out of the store and placed on the CD turntable, if necessary after the CD previously located on the turntable has been moved back to its place in the store. If selected pieces of music are located on difference CDs, which will normally be the case, fairly long pauses caused by the changing of the CDs can occur between the playing of selected pieces of music.

Furthermore, thanks to the use of CDs as mass storage devices it has also become possible to store video and/or image information digitally and to reproduce it on a monitor. Here, too, sometimes the need arises to be able to access the image data stored on different CDs simultaneously or without a break after one another.

A further disadvantage of a jukebox equipped with a CD changer is that old CDs have to be exchanged for new ones in order to update the pieces of music. This causes a relatively high degree of servicing as the CDs can only be exchanged on site.

It is therefore the object of the invention to create a multimedia box of the type described above which can be operated at a favourable cost and at the same time with an increased range of performance.

This object is solved in accordance with the invention by the mass storage device being a semi-conductor memory chip. Semi-conductor memories in the megabyte range are available today at relatively low costs so that they can also be used to store digitally encoded pieces of music and/or videos and/or images and/or graphics.

Currently 32 megabyte memories are being developed and it can be expected that in the foreseeable future memories with 64 megabytes and with even higher capacity will be manufactured at economic prices.

Unlike conventional jukeboxes or CD players, the multimedia box in accordance with the invention possesses no mechanically moving parts such as record turntables or gripping and transport units to remove records from storage positions, to transport the records to the turntable and to return the records to the storage positions they are kept in. In addition, with the multimedia box in accordance with the invention, selected pieces of music and/or videos and/or images and/or graphics can be played without any pauses as a direct access to the selected pieces of music and/or videos and/or images and/or graphics is possible without any moving mechanical parts. In contrast to this, with conventional jukeboxes the playing of pieces of music without any pauses is only possible with a fairly large technical effort and by using at least two reproduction units.

A further advantage of the multimedia box in accordance with the invention is that new pieces of music can be updated without any large service effort. The costs for the operator can further be reduced by the fact that different pieces of music and/or videos and/or images and/or graphics can be played in multi-tasking operation from one central memory unit on several end units.

The multimedia box in accordance with the invention also possesses the advantage that the user can make use of an extended performance range. The number of pieces of music and/or videos and/or images and/or graphics which can be selected can be expanded as desired with the extension of the mass storage device being possible in a number of different ways.

The jukebox in accordance with the invention is characterised by robustness, low weight and small size as there is no need for mechanically moving parts. Despite the small size of the end unit, the mass storage device can be expanded almost infinitely if at least a part of the mass storage device is kept in a central memory unit connected to the end unit by remote data transmission. In addition, the multimedia box in accordance with the invention has relatively low energy requirements thanks to the use of electronic memory components.

A further advantage of the multimedia box in accordance with the invention consists of the fact that thanks to the use of semi-conductor memory chips a high data transmission rate and simultaneously secure protection against copying can be achieved for the transmission of data between different semi-conductor memory chips.

In accordance with its basic design, the multimedia box in accordance with the invention requires a control unit comprising a microprocessor, a program memory and a main memory and one or more memory chips where the audio and/or video and/or image and/or graphics data are stored, a DA converter with amplifier and loudspeakers and a monitor.

As jukeboxes are normally operated by inserting coins or banknotes, a coin and/or banknote unit is also provided which only permits a certain number of pieces of music to be selected in accordance with the existing credit.

The memory chips are conveniently positioned on plug-in memory cards which can be inserted into holders provided with contacts in the multimedia box. In this way, the memory chips loaded with the corresponding data can be replaced in a simple way.

For convenience, several contact holders for plug-in memory cards are provided. The multimedia box can be provided with a battery of contact holders so that a large number of memory chips can be plugged into these. The mass storage device in this case is preferably designed in such a way that a transfer of the data to other storage media is not required.

In accordance with a preferred embodiment a plug-in card adapter for the plug-in memory cards is provided outside the multimedia box so that the mass storage device can be temporarily expanded by means of plug-in memory cards. In this case the plugin card adapter can preferably only be activated after insertion of a certain amount of money. In this way, the user is given the opportunity of exchanging digital data between a plug-in memory card of his or her own and the mass storage device. It is thus possible, for example, that pieces of music and/or videos and/or images and/or graphics stored on the user's own plug-in memory card can be played by the multimedia box as soon as the user has inserted the plug-in memory card into the plugin card adapter. Vice versa, it is also feasible for the user to use the operating unit to select certain pieces of music and/or videos and/or images and/or graphics which can then be copied onto a plug-in memory card inserted into the plug-in card adapter. The plug-in card adapter can also consist of a holder provided with contacts, but preferably an automatic input and output mechanism (mail slot) is used. With such an input and output mechanism it is not only possible to insert and again remove self-supplied plugin memory cards, but after paying a certain amount of money it is also possible to purchase unused plug-in memory cards; in this case, however, a sufficient number of unused plug-in memory cards have to be provided in the multimedia box. Thanks to the use of a plug-in card adapter, the plug-in memory card can thus be used universally to store digital multimedia data.In addition to the preferred storage of digital pieces of music and/or videos and/or images and/or graphics, computer graphics or computer programs can, for example, also be exchanged via the plug-in card adapter.

In accordance with a preferred embodiment at least one memory chip is provided, preferably, however, all memory chips, with a table of contents which contains the memory address of each piece of music, video or image. The operating unit is coordinated with the table of contents in such a way that it can be used to select the address assigned to the selected piece of music, video or image. Each memory chip thus additionally contains a table of contents which contains as its input the corresponding selection button or the corresponding selection code and as its fixedallocation output the start address of the piece of music, video or image. The table of contents can contain further entries such as special information on the corresponding piece of music, video or image.

The memory chips in question may be memories with fixed programming (ROMs), However, the memory chips are preferably programmable (PROMs) or repeatedly programmable (EPROMs). Battery RAMs or even RAMs buffered from the power supply of the multimedia box can also be used as repeatedly programmable memories.

Preferably, the data of the table of contents loaded onto the memory chips can be presented on a monitor. The data collected in the tables of contents of the memory chips appear on the monitor in the form of texts and/or images and/or graphics and, if necessary, with additional information so that the user can read a selection code from the monitor and enter this via the operating unit. The presentation on the monitor can be continuous or it may be progressed using the operating unit. The operating unit in this case preferably consists of a keyboard and/or a touch-screen and can also include a remote control if required.

In accordance with a preferred embodiment provision is made for new audio and/or video and/or image and/or graphics data to be copied onto one or more memory chips from a central unit by means of remote data transmission. Here, the new data can be called up from remote central units which keep the required and in particular the especially popular and new pieces of music and/or videos and/or images and/or graphics available. Thus no exchange of plug-in memory cards in the multimedia box is necessary so that the plug-in memory cards can remain permanently in the multimedia box. The updating of the memory chips in this case can be made in accordance with the data stored in the multimedia box.It is furthermore possible that the memory chips themselves are also located in the remote central unit so that the data loaded on the memory chips can then be called up directly by the multimedia box by means of remote data transmission.

In accordance with a further preferred embodiment different central units remote from the multimedia box are conveniently linked to each other by means of remote data transmission. In this way an exchange of audio and/or video and/or image and/or graphics data is possible between several central units so that the necessary expansion of the mass storage device in a central unit and also in the end unit of the multimedia box can be minimised. Copy protection during the transmission of data can be ensured by fixing a suitable data transmission protocol by means of a corresponding software or also by means of a corresponding design of the data interface on the semi-conductor memory chip.

It is of particular advantage if the remote data transmission is performed from at least one central unit to the authorised multimedia box by means of satellite. In this way, it is possible for not only that multimedia box currently linked to the central unit via a certain line to obtain updated data, but also for whole groups of multimedia boxes to receive and store the data transferred by satellite. In this case, therefore, whole groups of multimedia boxes can be supplied with updated data at the same time in an advantageous manner and at regular intervals if required. This allows, for example, an operating chain which wants to have the current hit list available on its multimedia boxes every month to be supplied selectively with the current data.This type of remote data transmission is of particular advantage whenever the multimedia boxes are installed over large and widespread areas.

To allow a better utilisation of the available memory of the memory chips, a further advantageous embodiment provides for the digital data to be stored in compressed form on the memory chips. The digital data must then be decompressed to be played.

The compression and decompression of digital audio, video or image data, including the required encoder and decoder, is known in principle. The compressed data can, on the one hand, be transmitted directly from one plug-in memory card to another. And, on the other hand, it is possible to take digital data into an intermediate memory initially in uncompressed form and then to transmit the data onto a plug-in memory card after compression. In addition, interference data can be suppressed without any noticeable loss of quality in reproduction.

A special form of reproduction of pieces of music consists of so-called "video clips".

In accordance with a further preferred embodiment there is therefore provision for videos or images to be presented simultaneously on the monitor with the reproduction of the digitally stored audio data.

Embodiments of the invention are described below in detail by means of the drawing in which Fig. 1 shows a diagrammatic representation of the front view of a multimedia box, Fig. 2 a plug-in memory card with a memory chip, Fig. 3 a battery of plug-in memory cards in a top view and a side view, Fig. 4 a first embodiment of the invention Fig. 5 a second embodiment of the invention Fig. 6 a third embodiment of the invention Fig. 7 a fourth embodiment of the invention Fig. 1 shows the front view of a multimedia box 1 with the additional devices in accordance with the invention.

A screen 6 is fitted in an easily visible manner for the operator in the front panel; to the side of the screen is a keyboard 5 to enter letters and/or numeric combinations.

Above the operating elements there is a coin slot 8 followed inside the unit by a coin processor.

Two loudspeakers 7 are fitted in the lower periphery of the multimedia box for the output of the digitally stored pieces of music. In addition, display elements 9, 10 can be provided on the front panel to display certain states of operation of the unit.

Various circuit modules are located in the unit and of these a battery 3 of plug-in memory cards 2 and a control unit (SE) 4 are shown by broken lines.

Fig. 2 shows a plug-in memory card 2 which serves as a holder for a memory chip 2a and which is provided with a series of plug-in contacts 2b on one long side. Each plug-in contact here is connected to a pin of the memory chip. Fig. 3 shows how several plug-in memory cards are collected in one battery 3 of plug-in memory cards.

The plug-in memory cards here can be slotted into contact holders of the battery.

The basic design and the function of the multimedia box will now be described by means of Fig. 4. The control unit 4, which is a microcomputer, controls all unit functions. By inserting the required amount of money, the operator can active the unit.

The coin processor 8a checks here whether the required amount has actually been inserted. Then an overview of all pieces of music stored on the memory chips in digital form are displayed on the monitor 6. The information on the pieces of music such as the title, musical group, or similar, are stored on at least one memory chip, preferably on all memory chips, under a fixed memory address in a table of contents.

Thus, the microcomputer 4 can read this information from every memory chip under the said memory address and display it on the monitor 6 where the information can consist of text and/or images. With the aid of the keyboard 5 the operator can browse through several monitor pages as in a catalogue.

The selection of a certain piece of music is made, for example, by a letter/number combination which is shown at the side of every piece of music in the overview display. A letter/number combination entered on the keyboard 5 by the operator is converted by the microcomputer 4 into a start address of the corresponding memory chip. This conversion is performed on the basis of data information also stored in the tables of contents of the memory chips. The data stored under the start address computed in this way are then led to a DA converter 11 in real time and output on loudspeaker 7 via an amplifier 12. If several pieces of music are selected by the operator, these can be played one after the other without any pauses as a jump from a memory address of one piece of music to a memory address of another piece of music does not result in any time delay.With priorjukeboxes which had moving playing systems, there was also the disadvantage that pieces of music in serial order could only be reproduced with pauses if only one playing system was provided in the jukebox. If two playing systems were provided within a changer system, it would naturally also be possible to play pieces of music without any time delay or two fade in the second piece beforehand. However, this is very complex.With the multimedia box in accordance with the invention it is now possible thanks to the mass storage device to play the pieces of music either without any time delay one after the other or to begin a second piece of music before a piece of music has been finished so that here in addition to the possibility of playing pieces of music one after the other without any time delay, there is also a fade-over possibility such as is known, for example, from the form of radio programmes. Finally, a superimposition of at least two pieces of music or of music and the spoken word can take place. Thus, for example, a piece of music can be switched to run as background music and the voice announcement can be reproduced in amplified form as an advertising text.

Digital data of any form can naturally be stored on the memory chip. In addition to digitised pieces of music, it is thus possible, for example, to store also digitised video information in the form of still or moving pictures. In this way it is in particular possible to play a so-called video clip on the jukebox. In addition to the musical information output through loudspeaker 7, the corresponding image information can thus be displayed in parallel on monitor 6.

Fig. 5 shows a second embodiment of the multimedia box in accordance with the invention. The internal design of the multimedia box 1 is here largely identical to that of the multimedia box in Fig. 4. However, in addition the control unit 4 is connected to a central unit 14 where a large volume of pieces of music are stored in the form of digitised audio, video and/or image data on suitable mass storage devices, that is, for example, CD changers or further memory chips. The central unit 14 is connected to the multimedia box 1 by a remote data transmission line 13 and corresponding modems 13a and 13b. In this way it is possible to load the memory chips with new pieces of music as required. Preferably, here these new pieces of music can be requested against payment from the central unit by the person who installed the unit.

The transmitted new pieces of music contain in turn tables of contents at the predetermined memory positions with information on the contents of all data of a memory chip so that the actual functional routine to play the pieces of music is identical to the functional routine described under Fig. 4. The remote data transmission line 13 can, for example, be an ISDN line.

An alternative embodiment of the invention which can also be explained by means of Fig. 5 consists of the fact that data are forwarded from the central unit 14 via a corresponding transmitter 13a to a satellite. The data are then received by the multimedia box via a reception antenna 13b and stored in the mass storage device 2, 3.

Fig. 6 shows a third embodiment of the multimedia box in accordance with the invention. Here the multimedia box 1 differs from Fig. 4 in that the memory chips have been located out. The memory chips can be located in a central unit from where the data can be transferred to several end units via suitable remote data lines 13 with corresponding modems 13a and 13b. In this way, the number of required memory chips can be reduced.

Fig. 7 shows a fourth embodiment of the multimedia box in accordance with the invention. The multimedia box differs from Fig. 4 in that a plug-in card adapter 15 is provided for plug-in memory cards which can be accessed from the outside. The plugin card adapter 15 consists here of an automatic input and output mechanism (mail slot) into which the plug-in memory cards as shown in Fig. 2 can be inserted and then taken out again. By payment of a certain amount of money the plug-in card adapter can be activated to open up a number of different possibilities for the user.

On the one hand, the user can purchase blank plug-in memory cards him or herself, for which purpose a sufficient number of blank plug-in memory cards are stored in the multimedia box. By using an additional option it is also possible for the user to purchase a plug-in memory card already loaded with selected pieces of music and/or videos and/or images and/or graphics before being output to the user. For this purpose, an additional amount of money has to be paid by the user and the desired data have to be entered using keyboard 5. It is naturally also possible in this way for the user to overwrite plug-in memory cards already containing data with new data.

Furthermore, the user has the possibility of slotting plug-in memory cards into the plug-in card adapter after paying money and then having these played by the multimedia box. Here it is also possible for the user to copy the data stored on the plug-in memory card onto free memory areas of the mass storage device so that he or she can have permanent access to the corresponding data via the corresponding multimedia box without having always to use his or her own plug-in memory card for this purpose.

Finally, it is also feasible for an access authorisation which simplifies the payment of corresponding amounts of money to be provided on the user's own plug-in memory cards. For this purpose, an account will be managed on the plug-in memory card by the multimedia box and after entering a personal secret number monies can be debited or credited by paying in a certain amount.

Claims

Multimedia Box

Claims: 1. A multimedia box, preferably a jukebox to be operated by money, with a digital mass storage device to store audio and/or video and/or image and/or graphics data, with an operating unit to select digitally stored pieces of music and/or videos and/or images and/or graphics and with a control unit comprising a microprocessor where said control unit provides digital audio data converted to analogue signals by a DA converter to an amplifier/loudspeaker unit and video and/or image and/or graphics data to a monitor, characterised in that the mass storage device comprises one or more semi-conductor memory chips.
2. A multimedia box in accordance with claim 1 characterised in that the memory chips are positioned on plug-in memory cards which can be slotted into holders provided with contacts in the multimedia box.
3. A multimedia box in accordance with claim 2 characterised in that a battery of contact holders is provided for the plug-in memory cards.
4. A multimedia box in accordance with any of claims 1 to 3 characterised in that the memory chips are located in a central unit remote to the multimedia box where the data loaded on the memory chips can be called up by the multimedia box by means of remote data transmission.
5. A multimedia box in accordance with claim 4 characterised in that several central units are provided which are connected to each other by remote data transmission.
6. A multimedia box in accordance with claim 2 characterised in that a plug-in card adapter for plug-in memory cards is provided with access from outside the multimedia box so that the mass storage device can be temporarily expanded by plug-in memory cards.
7. A multimedia box in accordance with claim 6 characterised in that the plug-in card adapter consists of a holder provided with contacts into which plug-in memory cards can be slotted.
8. A multimedia box in accordance with claim 6 characterised in that the plug-in card adapter comprises an automatic input and output mechanism (mail slot) into which plug-in memory cards can be slotted and out of which the plug-in memory cards slotted in or requested from the operating unit can be removed.
9. A multimedia box in accordance with any of claims 6 to 8 characterised in that the plug-in card adapter can only be activated after payment of an amount of money.
10. A multimedia box in accordance with any of claims 6 to 9 characterised in that the data of the plug-in memory card slotted into the plug-in card adapter can be played by the multimedia box.
11. A multimedia box in accordance with any of claims 6 to 10 characterised in that data selected via the operating unit and stored on the digital mass storage device can be copied onto a plug-in memory card slotted into the plug-in card adapter.
12. A multimedia box in accordance with any of claims 6 to 11 characterised in that the digital data of a plug-in memory card slotted into the plug-in card adapter can be copied onto free memory positions of the digital mass storage device.
13. A multimedia box in accordance with any of claims 1 to 12 characterised in that the memory chips are programmable (PROMs) or repeatedly programmable (EPROMs, battery RAMs).
14. A multimedia box in accordance with any of claims 1 to 13 characterised in that the operating unit comprises a keyboard and/or a remote control and/or a touch screen.
15. A multimedia box in accordance with any of claims 1 to 14 characterised in that at least one memory chip is provided with a table of contents which contains the corresponding memory addresses of the pieces of music and/or videos and/or images and/or graphics to be called up as well as other items of information where the entries in the table of contents can be read via the microprocessor and/or called up via the operating unit.
16. A multimedia box in accordance with claim 15 characterised in that the information of the table of contents loaded on the memory chips can be presented in the form of text and/or images and/or graphics on a video monitor.
17. A multimedia box in accordance with any of claims 1 to 16 characterised in that the digital data are stored on the memory chip in compressed form.
18. A multimedia box in accordance with claim 17 characterised in that means are provided to encode and decode the compressed data.
19. A multimedia box in accordance with any of claims 1 to 18 characterised in that access to the data loaded on the memory chips is made in such a way that several pieces of music and/or videos and/or images and/or graphics can be played one after the other without any pauses and that these can be faded over each other or superimposed on each other.
20. A multimedia box in accordance with any of claims 1 to 19 characterised in that audio data can be played over the loudspeaker unit and simultaneously video and/or image and/or graphics data can be played on the monitor.
21. A multimedia box in accordance with any of claims 1 to 20 characterised in that new audio and/or video and/or image and/or graphics data can be copied onto one or more memory chips from a central unit by means of remote data transmission.
22. A multimedia box in accordance with claim 21 characterised in that the memory chip(s) can be read from a central unit by means of remote data transmission.
23. A multimedia box in accordance with claim 3 characterised in that several plug-in memory cards are collected together in one unit.
24. A multimedia box according to any of the prior claims characterised in that it can be connected by means of remote data transmission in such a way to a remotely located central unit that updated data can be called up from this as required and stored on its mass storage device.
25. A multimedia box in accordance with claim 24 characterised in that the remote data transmission is performed from at least one central unit to the authorised multimedia box via satellite.
26. A multimedia box in accordance with claim 25 characterised in that its mass storage device can be filled with new data via satellite remote data transmission at predetermined intervals or at individual request.
27. A multimedia box constructed and arranged substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to, and as illustrated in, the accompanying drawings.