JP2000207833A - Recording/reproducing device and automatic vending machine - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a recording/reproducing device arranged so as to increase the convenience of user along with to prevent the unauthorized copying of music. SOLUTION: An analog signal 1 is converted (2) into a digital signal, voice- compressed (3), and stored in a memory chip group 11 by scrambling (9) with a scramble key code intrinsic to the device, which is being stored in a key code ROM 10. At the reproducing time, the scramble of the signal read out from the memory chip group 11 is released (9) by the scramble key code and voice-extended (3), then it is subjected to analog conversion (4) and outputted (5) as analog signal. By means of making the key code intrinsic to the device, the reproduction is made unable to execute by other recording/reproducing devices even though the stored signal is copied, and the copyright is protected.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a vending machine for music and the like and a recording and reproducing apparatus for recording and reproducing music and the like purchased from the vending machine.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, various devices for recording, reproducing, and converting analog information such as music and movies into digital information have been developed. Also, there have been developed a number of devices for compressing and recording information and expanding and reproducing the information in order to effectively use the recording medium. In addition, since these devices can handle data as digital information, they can also download such information by wire or wirelessly, and vending machine systems have been proposed because information can be easily copied. For example, Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 5-89360 discloses a software vending system.

[0003] On the other hand, many information compression techniques have been proposed, and in many devices, a digital signal processor (DSP) incorporated in the device performs arithmetic processing. Recently, tape-based devices, disk media-based portable audio devices, and video devices using these compression techniques have been put to practical use. Also, a recording / reproducing apparatus in which these compression techniques are applied to a semiconductor memory has been developed. For example, Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 8-87300 discloses a card-type recording / reproducing apparatus.

[0004]

As described above, with the digitization of the recording information of many apparatuses, various problems have occurred as follows. One of the conveniences of digital information is that it does not degrade, but this poses the danger of illegally copying copyrighted information such as music information. Therefore, digital music information is currently flag-managed by serial copy management so that a child can be made by digital copy from a master, but a grandchild cannot. But it is possible to make digital copies to an infinite number of children.

In particular, recently, it has become possible to save and copy music information and the like as file data of a personal computer by reducing the data amount by using a high-quality audio compression technique. As a result, copying can be performed easily and in a short time, and since there is no further deterioration in data copying, there is a risk that copyrighted information such as music information may be copied illegally. In addition, some personal computer application programs are designed so that they can listen to music by playing back such compressed information, and the widespread use of listening to music on personal computers has also helped them. I have.

Further, data transfer between a personal computer and such a digital recording / reproducing apparatus can be performed simply and instantly, as represented by a memory card. Therefore, there is a risk that the information may be illegally copied to a third party. In recent years, a service for distributing digital information for a fee using means such as a wired, wireless, and vending machine has been started. Various means of charging have been proposed, but once the information is obtained for a fee, the information can be copied anywhere, so there is a risk of being illegally copied.

[0007] The music recording / reproducing apparatus has a usage method of collecting and enjoying his favorite music. In particular, recently, a number of devices having enhanced functions of editing music information have been developed, and there are also devices which can rearrange the order of songs and allow a user to record and display titles and messages arbitrarily. Suppose that Mr. A uses such a device, S1,
It is assumed that songs S2, S3, and Sn are digitally recorded, and titles and messages are input as T1, T2, T3, and Tn, respectively. Even if Mr. B who sees (hears) wants this copy, there is no other means than copying it in analog form. Of course, at this time, it takes a real time to perform the duplication, and furthermore, it is not possible to duplicate a title, a message, or the like. Further, there is a problem with copying to a third party, albeit an analog recording. As described above, it is inconvenient that it takes a great deal of effort for Mr. B to copy the song legally one by one and put the message by himself.

Further, there are the following problems in a wired vending machine. The vending machine described above is assumed to be a device to be installed on the street or in a store, but can be applied to Internet technology and digital broadcasting technology that have recently become widespread. Virtual shops have already been put to practical use on the Internet. The internal processing of the vending machine is a black box, and the user cannot read the internal processing. However, information downloaded by a personal computer using, for example, the Internet can be freely handled by the user as a file. This does not solve the problem of illegal duplication. To this end, an application of a digital watermark technique for recording copyright information and the like has been proposed, but this is one of the means, but is not perfect. The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and an object of the present invention is to provide a recording / reproducing apparatus and a vending machine which prevent unauthorized copying of music and the like and improve user's convenience. And

[0009]

The recording / reproducing apparatus of the present invention is for recording / reproducing digital information, and includes key code storage means for storing a scramble key code unique to the apparatus, and key code storage means for storing the key information. Recording means for scrambling the digital information with the scramble key code and recording the scrambled digital signal, and descrambling means for descrambling the scrambled digital signal with the scramble key code stored in the key code storage means. Things.

Further, the digital information has original main information and sub-information attached thereto, and the recording means scrambles the main information and does not scramble the sub-information. Since the amount of information to be scrambled is reduced by that amount, recording and reproduction can be performed at high speed while maintaining the confidentiality of the main information. Further, by providing an output unit for outputting the main information as it is while the scramble is applied and the sub-information as it is to the outside, the main information can be recorded on another recording / reproducing apparatus.

Further, the vending machine of the present invention is a fetching means for fetching sub-information of digital information having original main information and sub-information accompanying the main information from the first recording / reproducing apparatus. Data means for preparing main information corresponding to the fetched sub-information, and information supply means for supplying the main information prepared by the data means to the second recording / reproducing apparatus. Further, the information supply means supplies the sub-information also to the second recording / reproducing device, so that the sub-information created by one user can be copied to the recording / reproducing device of another user.

[0012]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. In FIG. 1, it is assumed that there are two recording / reproducing apparatuses (hereinafter, referred to as apparatus A and apparatus B), apparatus A adopts a compression method a, and apparatus B adopts a compression method b. The apparatus A is, for example, a mini-disc player (MD player) for recording and reproducing on the disk medium D, and the apparatus B is a recording / reproducing apparatus with a built-in semiconductor memory. It is assumed that the device B has a connection connector C of, for example, a PCMCIA interface for interfacing with the outside. Apparatus A, B
Both can be recorded and played back alone.

In the vending machine H, for example, music information is stored as digital information. In addition, the vending machine H includes a computer CP having another database DB and communication means in case there is a request other than the stocked music information. Vending machine H can transfer this information, device A via media, and device B, for example, via PCMCIA interface C. Hereinafter, an operation example of the above device will be described.

<Recording Alone by Device A> In this example, device A is a disk-based device. The operation of a typical MD player, for example, is publicly known and will not be described, but what is important here is the contents of the TOC information of the medium to be used, that is, the MD cartridge. This will be described in an example of use later.

<Recording by the device B alone> In this example, the device B is a recording / reproducing device incorporating a semiconductor memory. Here, the recording operation in the device B will be described with reference to FIG. When recording is instructed to the control circuit 7 by the key input means 6, the control circuit 7 controls the apparatus as follows. Audio information is input from the analog input circuit 1, and 16-bit digital information is output by the A / D conversion circuit 2 every 48 KHz. The control circuit 7 controls the audio compression / decompression circuit (DS
When P) 3 is set to the compression mode, the DSP 3 generally compresses the data amount by a factor of several to several tens according to a compression algorithm.

Next, the control circuit 7 scrambles the compressed data. This may be performed by software of the control circuit 7, or may be performed by a scramble circuit that automatically scrambles data output from the DSP 3 by hardware. DS has the same function
It may be incorporated in P3. When scrambling, a scramble key code unique to the apparatus is recorded in the key code ROM 10. The scramble circuit 9 performs scrambling based on this based on a certain rule. The scrambling method will be described later.

Next, the control circuit 7 sequentially writes the scrambled data in the memory chip group (M1 to Mn). In this example, 424 bytes (L channel = 212 bytes / R channel = 212 bytes) of the compressed information are written in one page. This page corresponds to a fixed recording unit represented by a sector in many disk recording media.
Of course, recording may be performed according to other rules depending on the characteristics of the semiconductor memory.

<Reproduction by Device B Alone> When reproduction is instructed to the control circuit 7 by the key input means 6 in FIG. 3, the control circuit 7 is written in the main area of the memory chip group 11 (see FIG. 4). The compressed information is read out to the control circuit 7.
The information read at this time may be descrambled by software of the control circuit 7 or may be descrambled through the scramble circuit 9. In this example, a scramble circuit 9 is used. The audio compression / decompression circuit 3 periodically controls the control circuit 7.
, The compression information is requested, and in the example of FIG. 3, when 212 bytes (L or R channel) have been received, decompression processing is performed. The expanded data is sent to the D / A conversion circuit 4 according to the sampling rate (48 KHz in the example of FIG. 3) at the time of recording, and is reproduced from the analog output circuit 5.

<Recording of sub-information by device B alone> The recording / reproducing operation by device B alone has been described above. Here, the sub information recording means will be described. At the time of writing, scramble compression information is recorded in the main area of FIG.
Further, sub-information is recorded using 84 bytes of the unused area in FIG. The page shown in FIG. 4 is an example in which a page write type flash memory is used as the semiconductor memory. This page corresponds to a fixed recording unit represented by a sector in many disk recording media. Of course, the main compression information and the sub information may be recorded in other areas according to other rules. If the main information does not require secrecy, a method without scrambling is of course possible.

The sub-information includes information that can be arbitrarily input by a user and TOC information according to a certain rule.
The OC information will be described later, and here, the sub-information that the user can arbitrarily input will be described. Hereinafter, in order to avoid confusion, the sub-information that the user can arbitrarily input is referred to as message information. An example of message information that is currently in practical use is an MD player, which is recorded on a disk using key input means of the apparatus. Of course, similarly in a device using a semiconductor memory, it is possible to record data in a specific area of the semiconductor memory with a certain rule by using the key input means of the device.

<Interface of Device B with External Device> The device B has an interface connector C as shown in FIG. This example conforms to the PCMCIA standard standardized for personal computers. Normally, the memory of the device B is accessed by the control circuit 7 as described above, but the difference is that the detection circuit 12 indicates that the interface connector C is prepared.
It is to have. Thus, when the interface connector C is prepared, the bus switching circuit 13 is set so that the control circuit 7 and the semiconductor memory are disconnected from each other. As a result, the device B becomes a PC
It will function as an MCIA card. Or,
As shown in FIG. 6, data may be transferred to each other while both the external device and the control circuit 7 of the device are activated via the dual port memory 20.

<Acquisition of Information from External Apparatus in Apparatus B> As described above, the apparatus B functions as an information card as viewed from the host apparatus (here, a vending machine for music information is taken as an example). Therefore, it becomes possible to charge the music vending machine H (see FIG. 1) appropriately and transfer the information to the device B. At this time, in addition to simply transferring information, the present invention has the following measures.

First, the compression information is transferred to the device B to shorten the copying time. The audio compression method supported by the device B is recorded in the attribute information ROM 15 (see FIGS. 5 and 6), and the music vending machine H stores the attribute information ROM 15 when a card is inserted.
Then, the attribute is read, the compression information is obtained from the attribute, and the compression information to be transferred is prepared. When the song to be transferred is prepared, the transfer is actually started. Here, since the information has already been compressed, it is input to the scramble circuit 9 without passing through the audio compression circuit. The scrambled information is sequentially recorded in the memory chip group 11.

This procedure is shown in the flowchart of FIG. 7 (control on the vending machine H side). (A) First, it is determined whether or not the insertion of the device B into the destination insertion slot of the vending machine H has been completed (step S1). The destination refers to the copy destination. (B) If it is NO and it has not been inserted yet, it waits until it is inserted. If it is YES and the insertion is completed, (c) the vending machine H reads the attribute information of the device B (step S2). .

(D) Next, the vending machine H acquires the compression method indicated by the attribute information of the device B (step S).
3) The self database is accessed from this compression method to prepare digital data of the corresponding compression method of the corresponding music (step S4). (E) Here, the remaining memory capacity and the write protection of the device B are checked (step S5), and if it is OK and there is no problem, the vending machine H writes the prepared digital data into the device B (step S6). If the status is NG and the remaining memory or the write protection is in a write-disabled state, an error message is displayed (step S7), and (f) the vending machine H performs an end process.

The sub information is recorded without being scrambled on the route L2 (see FIG. 5). Switching between applying and not applying scrambling may be performed by, for example, a memory mapping method. Alternatively, if the device has a digital audio interface or an analog audio input as in the related art, it can take more time than in the conventional method, but can also dub music by the same processing as recording.

<Description of TOC> Here, before describing the method of transferring the information of the disk D of the device A to the device B, the TOC information written on the disk will be described. TOC (Tabl
e Of Contents) is a table for centrally managing the information written on the disc, and records the title of the song, the address where the information is written, the attributes of the disc, and the like. That is, by reading the TOC, you can get an overview of the disc. Discs include read-only discs called premastered and writable discs. Here, in the present invention, means for specifying a song is required.

There are a means for utilizing a copyright number, a means for judging from a music title in the case of pre-mastered, and the like.
In any case, it is necessary to establish these rules when operating this system. The most appropriate one is an identification code individually corresponding to the copyright. It is most preferable to record the identification code of the recorded music in the TOC of all distribution discs, whether paid or not. Further, it is preferable to distribute those distributed by wire or wireless together with an identification code individually corresponding to copyright.

FIG. 8 shows the concept of the information recorded in the TOC.
Shown in In the illustrated example, INDEX, song title, start address, recording time, playback order, various flags, copyright management number,
Part of the main information consists of information on the user area. Note that at present, the above rules have not been established yet, so a part of the main information may be substituted for the song ID.

<Information Transfer from Apparatus A to Apparatus B> As described above, in FIG. 1, it is assumed that Apparatus A adopts the compression scheme a and Apparatus B adopts the compression scheme b. The apparatus A is, for example, a mini-disc player (MD player) for recording and reproducing on the disk D, and the apparatus B is a recording / reproducing apparatus with a built-in semiconductor memory. It is assumed that the device B has a connection connector C of, for example, a PCMCIA interface for interfacing with the outside. Of course, the apparatus A and the apparatus B can perform recording and reproduction independently.

The music vending machine H stores, for example, music information as digital information. Further, the vending machine H is provided with a communication means with another computer when there is a request other than the stocked music information. Vending machine H can transfer this information to device A via media and directly to device B.

Details of one example of this operation will be described in order. (A) The user of the device A inserts the MD disc D into the source insertion slot of the vending machine H. (B) The user of the device B sets the device B to function as a card. In the device exemplified in the embodiment of the interface with the external device in the device B, when the device is inserted into the slot, the device is automatically set to function as a card by the detecting means. (C) The user of the device B inserts the device B into the destination insertion slot of the vending machine H.

(D) When the MD disk D is completely inserted, the vending machine H first reads the TOC of the disk. (E) When the device B is completely inserted, the vending machine H first reads the attribute information of the device B. (F) The vending machine H makes an appropriate billing request to the user,
Prompt for confirmation of execution. (G) In response to the execution instruction, the vending machine H reads the selection code of the music described in <Description of TOC> from the TOC.

(H) The vending machine H acquires the identification code of the music and the compression method indicated by the attribute information of the device B, accesses the self database from the compression method, and obtains the digital information of the corresponding compression method of the corresponding music. prepare. (I) The remaining amount of memory and the write protection are checked, and the vending machine H writes the prepared digital information into the device B. At the same time, the identification code of the music is also written. (V) The vending machine H performs an end process. These steps are merely examples, and other appropriate processing procedures are possible.

Although an MD player and a recording / reproducing apparatus with a built-in semiconductor memory have been described as examples, there is no fundamental restriction on the combination of a device inserted on the source side and a device inserted on the destination side. It depends on the type of connector provided in the vending machine, the performance of its control software, and the rules for song identification. Although the MD disk is used as an example, the present invention can be applied to a CD disk and a floppy disk.

<Transfer of Sub Information from Apparatus A to Apparatus B>
The procedure is the same as that described above, but the difference is that the information such as the title of the music recorded by the user on the MD disk or, if pre-mastered, is also written by the above-mentioned operation (i). The timing of writing is merely an example, and there are other appropriate processing timings.

<Individual Device ID> In the above procedure (e), the control software of the vending machine H is
D can also be read. The vending machine H is a device I
Statistical information such as the number of accesses and downloaded songs can be compiled into a database for each D.

<Example of Wired Vending Machine> Next, an example of a service for distributing music on the Internet for a fee will be described. This requires authenticating the user by some means. Many methods have been proposed for this, but any method requires transmission and reception of a code for identification. As the code, a maker code of the device or a serial number of the device may be used. The present invention is characterized in that an element called an individual scramble code is added to the above code. Since simply transmitting and receiving a list of these codes has a problem with confidentiality, the codes may be encrypted again. The method does not matter. The server specifies the compression method from the received device code and the individual scramble code, and prepares the requested music information (compressed). Further, this information is scrambled from an individual scramble code and transmitted. As a result, music information that can be reproduced only by the device B has been downloaded to the receiving personal computer as a file. Of course, it can be used in combination with the above-described digital watermarking technology and serial copy management technology.

When a file is transferred from the personal computer to the device B, since the file has already been scrambled, it can be copied along the path L2 in FIG. Also, without copying to the device B, data is input from the personal computer to the scramble circuit 9 and the decrypted information is
Through the path to the SP, even if there is no data in the memory chip group of the device B, the data can be reproduced from the file of the personal computer.

When recording in analog on the device B, it is not possible to record the ID corresponding to the music. For example, even if recorded on an FM radio broadcast or TV song program, there is only audio information in it,
And message information does not exist. The user may input an ID or a message later by using the input means. However, in the present invention, in a recording device having a built-in FM multiplex broadcast receiver, digital information transmitted in conjunction with voice can be used. The song currently being recorded and its ID,
Messages can also be recorded as sub-information. Note that the present invention is not limited to the above embodiment.

The scrambling method is omitted here because there are many encryption techniques and they have been put to practical use. However, the purpose of the scrambling of the present invention is not scramble for avoiding a burst error of a memory medium. The purpose is to ensure confidentiality. Therefore, the scrambling may be of any type, such as when reproducing a meaningless signal, when not reproducing a finite signal, or when not performing a reproducing operation. The sub information includes a song title ID indicating a specific song, an individual device ID, a song title and an artist name, lyrics,
Alternatively, there is a message or the like that the user can arbitrarily input.
Examples of the information transfer unit include a memory card, a magnetic recording medium, a magneto-optical recording medium, and a wired or wireless transfer unit between the host device and the individual device.

[0042]

As described in detail above, according to the present invention, music recorded by a specific device is scrambled instead of copy-guarding the information itself by flag management. Otherwise you can not play,
Even if the information in the memory built into the device is read by any unauthorized means, it cannot be used on other devices, and therefore,
Effective for confidentiality of information.

Since the recording / reproducing apparatus of the present invention has means for inputting / outputting information to / from the outside, it is possible to exchange main information such as music information with the outside while keeping confidentiality and sub information as it is. it can. In particular, information is downloaded from the recording / playback device to the personal computer, and the data is saved as a file on the personal computer.
Copy, transfer to another company, transfer, etc. can be freely performed between personal computers, but in the present invention, since the file is scrambled and confidential, it does not make sense to transfer it to a third party Become something. However, a person who owns the recording / reproducing apparatus can accumulate and save information of the apparatus in a personal computer. In this way, unauthorized copying to a third party can be prevented, and music can be enjoyed without any inconvenience to the authorized user.

Recently, an application program has been developed which reproduces music through compressed sound information via a sound board (sound processing circuit) of a personal computer. This may also promote unauthorized use, but the files imported to the personal computer according to the present invention are scrambled,
They cannot be played with these applications. In order to directly reproduce the file information of the personal computer, the device may be connected to the personal computer via an interface connector. As described above, according to the present invention, the user can enjoy digitalized copyrighted information (for example, music) without losing the right. This is effective for a paid distribution service of music using the Internet which is becoming popular recently.

In a system for performing error correction, there is also an effect that a burst error can be avoided by scrambling. Also, by copying the compressed information, a copy can be instantaneously and legally made. When copying information accompanied by sub-information through a vending machine, new information is copied for the main information without changing the sub-information, so that the sound can be copied with the highest sound quality. It is also effective when dubbing a plurality of discs with special messages for sales promotion and events. Dubbing from a vending machine based on the air check recording of FM multiplex broadcasting enables dubbing of songs of all phrases with high sound quality.

The management of the purchase history and the like can be performed by using the ID of the device, and can be used for sales promotion. C
Even in a record store where only D is placed, if the vending machine of the present invention is used, music can be sold to an MD, a semiconductor memory card, or a recording / reproducing device with a built-in semiconductor memory. If a part of the 1 main information is used as an ID, the song can be specified even if the title of the song or the copyright management number is not standardized.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the overall concept of a music vending system of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a conceptual diagram of recording of a recording / reproducing apparatus used in the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a conceptual diagram of the reproduction of the recording / reproducing apparatus used in the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a conceptual diagram of a memory recording mode of a recording / reproducing apparatus used in the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing an example of a recording / reproducing apparatus used in the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram showing another example of the recording / reproducing device used in the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart of downloading from a music vending machine.

FIG. 8 is a conceptual diagram showing an example of TOC of a disk.

[Explanation of symbols]

 Reference Signs List 1 analog input circuit 5 analog output circuit 6 key 7 control circuit 9 scramble generation circuit 10 key code ROM A, B recording / reproducing device C interface connector D disk H vending machine

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. A recording / reproducing apparatus for recording / reproducing digital information, comprising: key code storage means for storing a scramble key code unique to the apparatus; and scrambling the digital information by the scramble key code stored in the key code storage means. A recording / reproducing apparatus, comprising: recording means for recording after being played; and descrambling means for descrambling a scrambled digital signal using a scramble key code stored in the key code storage means. 2. The digital information has original main information and sub information associated therewith, and the recording means scrambles the main information and does not scramble the sub information. 2. The recording / reproducing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the recording is performed by: 3. The recording / reproducing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising an output unit that outputs the main information as it is while scrambling the sub information and outputs the sub information as it is. 4. Sub-information of digital information having original main information and sub-information associated therewith is stored as first information.
Capturing means for capturing from the recording / reproducing apparatus, data means for preparing main information corresponding to the sub-information captured by the capturing means, and information supplying means for supplying the main information prepared by the data means to the second recording / reproducing apparatus A vending machine comprising: 5. The vending machine according to claim 4, wherein said information supply means supplies said sub-information also to a second recording / reproducing device.