JP2000295374A - Information service method by means of combination of karaoke device and portable telephone set - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide service capable of easily downloading an incoming melody meeting the personality of a user of a portable telephone from a large group of music pieces held by a KARAOKE (orchestration without lyrics) system and further to improve KARAOKE utilization factor. SOLUTION: A piece of music ID together with a telephone set ID are transmitted to a KARAOKE device C from a portable telephone set K. The device C plays a piece of KARAOKE music corresponding to the music ID and also transmits a service menu prepared based on a performance history book Dr of each telephone set. The service menu includes one or more melody IDs related to pieces of KARAOKE music requested in the past from the set K. The set K accesses a WWW server S timely and downloads corresponding melody generation data Dm by transmitting the melody ID. When an incoming call is received, incoming call notifying sound is outputted based on the data Dm.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an information service method using a combination of a karaoke apparatus and a portable telephone.
In particular, the present invention relates to an information service for providing a personalized ringtone to a mobile phone user based on individual information of a customer managed by a karaoke system.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art PHS (Personal Handyphone System)
The number of users of mobile phones such as terminals and digital cellular phones continues to increase year by year. For this reason, many people who use the “electronic sound” prepared in advance for the mobile phone as an incoming call notification sound often get on the same train, and “misrecognize” another person's “electronic sound” as their own. It happens frequently. In order to solve this problem, a mobile phone having a function of freely registering an incoming notification sound other than the “electronic sound” prepared in advance has been devised. Specifically, a key (such as a numeric keypad) to which a predetermined DTMF signal is assigned is regarded as a key corresponding to a predetermined scale, and keys are sequentially pressed so that a rhythm and a melody intended by the user are sequentially pressed, and a ringtone melody is received. Register At the time of an incoming call, the registered incoming melody sounds.

[0003] By the way, it is difficult for a user to compose this ringing melody by himself without knowing how to compose music. For this reason, in many cases, a ready-made song such as a popular song is input and used as a ring tone. If you try to enter a pre-made song,
Music score is required. Recently, a book that describes the rhythm of a tune already made or an incoming call notification tone by a sequence of numbers or keys corresponding to a DTMF signal has been marketed for mobile phone users.
However, a key operation required for registering the incoming melody requires more than 100 times for a long melody. This is cumbersome and takes a lot of time to register. There is a great possibility that the user will press the wrong key.

[0004] Accordingly, a service has emerged that allows the user to easily register a unique incoming melody without relying on key input. One example is a download service called “Sky Melody” (registered trademark). In this service, a dedicated mobile phone connects to a predetermined host station by dial-up, performs a predetermined dial operation and performs search and selection operations via the LCD screen display, and downloads the desired incoming melody data. Has become. In recent years, the number of communication companies that provide services that allow easy access to the Internet directly from a mobile phone via a packet mobile communication network has increased, and these types of elaborate services have been increasing.

[0005]

However, in the conventional service, it is necessary to download a target music by performing some troublesome operations in accordance with a rule of a provider of a ring tone melody data download service. Also, due to the nature of this service, the number of songs that can be downloaded is limited, so that it is difficult to obtain a unique ringing melody, and eventually a ringing melody without individuality is adopted. This may cause the above-mentioned problem of “misrecognition” at the time of an incoming call.

By the way, when selecting songs to be sung in karaoke, the user selects some interesting songs from a huge number of songs described in a thick table of contents. Moreover, the user's skill level for the song, the genre of the song, the number of selections, and the like are various. In other words, karaoke can be said to be a treasure trove of personality. If the unique melody of a mobile phone can be provided by utilizing the characteristics of karaoke, the problem of the conventional download service described above can be solved. Also, today, when the hit songs are replaced in a short period of time, the number of times of rushing to karaoke increases in order to obtain a new ringtone. Therefore, it is effective in attracting karaoke customers.

The present invention provides a service for easily downloading a ringing melody suitable for the personality of a mobile phone user from a large number of music groups held by a karaoke system. It aims at improvement.

[0008]

The invention described in claim 1 of the present invention comprises the following items (1) to (6). (1) An information service method based on a combination of a karaoke apparatus and a mobile phone. (2) The mobile phone has a communication means for making a call with another telephone via a communication channel of the mobile phone network, and a data communication means for connecting to the Internet via a packet communication channel of the mobile phone network and functioning as a WWW browser. And a transceiver for transmitting and receiving data by being coupled to the karaoke apparatus via a wireless transmission path. (3) The music ID input from the keyboard of the mobile phone is transmitted from the transceiver to the karaoke apparatus as the information for designating the requested music together with the telephone ID unique to the mobile phone. Receiving this information, the karaoke apparatus plays the karaoke music corresponding to the music ID,
Using the telephone ID attached to the music ID as a key, a karaoke usage history log is created for each telephone that has issued a request. (4) The karaoke apparatus prepares a service menu based on a karaoke usage history record for each telephone, and transmits the corresponding service menu to the connected mobile telephone via the transceiver. The service menu passed to a certain mobile phone includes one or more melody IDs related to karaoke songs requested in the past from the mobile phone. (5) The mobile phone that has received and stored the service menu accesses a specific WWW server via the data communication unit based on the service menu at an appropriate time, and transmits the melody ID to the WWW server. Then, the corresponding melody generation data is downloaded. (6) The mobile phone has means for downloading melody generation data from the WWW server and storing the melody generation data, and outputting an incoming call notification sound based on the melody generation data when an incoming call is received.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a portable telephone used in the information service method according to the first aspect.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided a karaoke apparatus used for the information service method according to the first aspect.

[0011]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS === Overview of Karaoke Apparatus === FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a karaoke apparatus used in an embodiment of the present invention. The karaoke apparatus C includes a central processing unit 1 which is a computer main body, a hard disk apparatus 2 storing karaoke data Dk and the like, and a karaoke data D
k, a communication control unit 3 that communicates with the host device H that stores and manages the information via the public communication network Ns, a video processing unit 4 that generates and outputs lyrics video and background video, and a display 5 that is connected thereto, and plays music. Music processing unit 6 and a speaker 7 connected to the music processing unit 6
The transceiver 8 that transmits and receives the rDA signal is a main component. This karaoke apparatus is a terminal of a communication karaoke system, and the karaoke data Dk is updated by the host apparatus H as needed at the time of additionally registering new music data. The karaoke data Dk is data that is the basis of the karaoke performance, and is composed of accompaniment music data that is the origin of the karaoke performance and lyric character data that is the origin of the lyrics video. The karaoke data Dk is updated as appropriate to ensure consistency with the registration information of the host device H.

=== Outline of Mobile Phone === FIG. 2 shows an external front view of a mobile phone according to an embodiment of the present invention. This mobile phone K has no significant difference in appearance as compared with a normal mobile phone, and is configured as follows. On the surface of the case 10 in which the telescopic antenna 9 is implanted, in addition to the key panel 11, the liquid crystal display 12, the transmitter 13a, the receiver 13b, a speaker 14 for outputting a ring tone, a warning sound, and the like are provided. Arranged as appropriate. The key panel 11 includes ten keys, various registration operation buttons, and the like, and various types of operation inputs can be performed by a composite operation with a function key (F key). The mobile phone K includes a transceiver, and an IrDA signal transmitting / receiving unit 15 a of the transceiver is provided on an upper side surface of the case 10. In the present invention, this is used for communication with the transceiver 8 of the karaoke apparatus C.

Further, the portable telephone K has a function for using a character information service for portable telephones which has been provided by major telecommunication companies since 1999. Specifically, it has a simple WWW browser function and can be connected to the Internet or the like via a packet portable communication network. In packet communication, charging is performed according to the amount of data transmitted and received, not time, so that various services can be used without worrying about connection time. For this reason, it is expected that the number of users will increase rapidly in the future, and companies applying this will provide various services. Also in the present invention, a W for providing a ringtone melody download service to a mobile phone.
A WW server is prepared on the packet communication network.

FIG. 3 shows a block diagram of a portable telephone K having the functions described above. A microcomputer 16 which is a computer for controlling the entire apparatus, a call processing unit 1 which provides a call function and a data communication function through the mobile phone network Nm.
7. Connect to the packet mobile phone network Np and connect to the WWW server S
A packet communication control section 18 for performing packet communication with the PC, an operation control section 19 for controlling the key panel 11, a display control section 20 for controlling the liquid crystal display 12, and a music process for outputting a ring tone or the like to the speaker 14. Part 2
1. It includes a transceiver 15 connected to the IrDA signal transmitting / receiving section 15a. Further, the microcomputer 16 has a non-volatile memory constituted by a flash memory, in which a telephone ID, a telephone number and a karaoke application unique to the mobile telephone K are registered.

=== Using Mobile Phone as Remote Control of Karaoke Apparatus === The operation will now be described. When the user operates the key panel 11 and selects "music request" from the function selection menu, the mobile phone K enters a music ID input wait state.
When a song ID of a song to be sung is registered from the key panel 11, the mobile phone K records the song ID in a memory in the microcomputer 16. Further, when a predetermined transmission operation is performed, a request signal including a music ID registered in the memory is transmitted from the transceiver 15. At this time, the request signal includes the telephone I registered in the portable telephone K.
D is included. When the karaoke device C receives the request signal transmitted from the mobile phone K by the transceiver 8, the karaoke device C stores the music ID included in the signal in a reservation table prepared in a storage unit in the central processing unit 1. register. The karaoke apparatus C searches the karaoke data Dk for the corresponding karaoke music based on the music ID registered in the reservation table, and sequentially plays the karaoke music.

=== Preparation of Performance History Record === The performance history record Dr is stored in the hard disk device 2 of the karaoke apparatus C. The performance history book Dr includes a telephone ID, a music ID of a karaoke music piece, a performance date and time, and the like, and these are updated based on information included in the request signal before and after the performance of the requested music piece.
When a singing game is played, the total singing score and the singing score for each phrase are respectively included in the performance history record Dr. The singing score for each phrase is a result of dividing a musical piece for each phrase and scoring for each phrase. This phrase division is performed based on the phrase data Df stored in the hard disk device 2 of the karaoke device C. The phrase data Df is updated as appropriate to ensure consistency with the registration information of the host device H. FIG. 4 shows an outline of the performance history record Dr created by the procedure described above.

=== Service Menu === The karaoke apparatus C creates a service menu to be transmitted to the mobile phone K according to the following procedure. This service menu includes the liquid crystal display 1 of the mobile phone K.
2 necessary information to display the selection menu in HTM
Display data described in a markup language such as L (Hyper Text Markup Language), and a packet communication network Np
URL required to connect to WWW server S via
(Uniform Resource Locator). Here, the display data includes the tunes of the songs that are candidates for the ringing melody and the melody I that is a key when the ringing melody is downloaded from the WWW server S.
D and the like are included (these are collectively referred to as melody candidates in the following description).

The selection of the melody candidate is performed by the mobile phone K
This is performed in accordance with the melody selection condition included in the request signal received from. As a specific example, a case in which the selection condition is set to “top five songs with a high score in a singing game” will be described. Upon receiving the request signal including the selection conditions and the telephone ID, the karaoke apparatus C selects a history book corresponding to the telephone ID from the performance history books Dr stored in the hard disk device 2 and reads the history log into the memory. Next, paying attention to the scoring result of the selected history list, the top five songs with the highest score are extracted. The melody candidate may be determined by associating the extracted tune with the incoming melody one-to-one, but in the present embodiment, a melody candidate in which the user's personality appears more remarkably is selected according to the following procedure.

In this embodiment, a melody ID is prepared separately from the music ID, so that a plurality of melody IDs can be set for one music. That is, by dividing one song into a plurality of phrases according to the phrase data Df, a melody ID can be set for each phrase. Therefore, in the above selection conditions,
For example, a melody candidate can be selected by adding a new condition of “phrase with high score”. The continuation of the above-mentioned selection operation when this new condition is added is as follows. For each of the top five songs with the highest scores, search for the phrase that marks the highest score. Here, phrase numbers such as f1, f2... Are predetermined for the phrases of each music piece. Therefore, the melody ID is composed of the phrase number marking the highest score and the song I of the corresponding song.
D is determined in combination with D. For example, "A1-23
45-f6 "(=" A1-2345 (song ID) "+
"F6 (phrase number)"). FIG. 5 shows melody candidates selected according to the above procedure.

=== How to Use the Service Menu === When a request signal is transmitted from the mobile phone K to the karaoke apparatus C, or the user operates the key panel 11 and selects "update ringtone melody" from the function selection menu. At this time, the service menu is transmitted from the karaoke apparatus C to the mobile phone K. At an appropriate timing, the mobile phone K sequentially scrolls and displays the melody candidates in a list format on the liquid crystal display 12, and prompts the user to input a melody ID to be downloaded. At this time, when the user presses an up-down arrow key or the like prepared on the key panel 11, the display content is scrolled up and down according to the operation. When the user performs a predetermined registration operation by superimposing a highlighted cursor on a song to be downloaded, the mobile phone K temporarily registers a melody ID corresponding to the song in a memory in the microcomputer 16. As the user repeatedly performs the above operation, the melody ID of the incoming melody selected by the user is successively registered in the memory of the mobile phone K.

Here, when a predetermined operation for transmitting the melody ID to the WWW server S is performed by the user, the mobile phone K automatically switches to the WWW via the packet mobile phone network Np and the gateway server. The communication with the server S is started. The WWW server S has melody generation data Dm arranged for each melody ID.
Are stored and managed. The melody generation data Dm is created in a format for mobile phones, and is very compact. Therefore, the packet mobile phone network N
When transmitted to the mobile phone K via p, efficient data transmission is possible. Note that the melody generation data Dm is updated as appropriate to ensure consistency with the registration information of the host device H. The WWW server S searches for incoming melody data corresponding to the melody ID sent from the mobile phone K, and sends out the searched melody generation data Dm to the mobile phone K.

When the reception of the melody generation data Dm is completed, the portable telephone K displays the function selection menu again and shifts to a state of waiting for a user's operation input. The downloaded melody generation data is stored in a memory in the microcomputer 16 of the mobile phone K, and the melody generated by the music processing unit 21 based on the melody generation data Dm is output from the speaker 14 when receiving a call.

=== Others === By the way, the mobile phone K in the embodiment described above.
Are digital mobile phones, analog mobile phones, PH
It can be configured using all types of mobile communication devices such as S terminals.

In a karaoke shop where a plurality of karaoke apparatuses C are installed, each karaoke apparatus C is connected to a LAN.
In some cases, performance history data is centrally managed by a specific karaoke device C set as a representative.

As criteria for selecting a melody ID, in addition to the present embodiment, “songs recently sung”, “songs frequently used”,
"Songs of artists who sing well" can be considered. In addition, the number of times and the score serving as a selection criterion may be arbitrarily set for each selection condition. In this case, the setting may be performed by the karaoke company or may be set by the user.

Further, when the download of the melody generation data Dm to the mobile phone K is completed, the melody generation data Dm may be previewed. In this case, it is conceivable that the melody just downloaded, the melody sampled and listened to, and the melody registered as the ringing melody are separately charged.

[0027]

According to the present invention, the desired incoming melody data can be downloaded with a simple operation.
In addition, the number of songs that can be downloaded is increased as compared with the related art, and a ringtone melody for each phrase is listed, so that a unique ringtone melody can be obtained. Therefore, the problem of "misidentification" at the time of an incoming call is solved.

Also, today, when the hit songs are replaced in a short period of time, the number of times of rushing to karaoke increases in order to obtain a new ringtone. Therefore, it is effective in attracting karaoke customers.

[Brief description of the drawings]

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

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an external front view of a mobile phone K according to one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a block configuration of a mobile phone according to one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a data structure of a performance history book according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a data structure of a melody candidate according to an embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 C Karaoke device K Mobile phone H Host device S WWW server Dk Karaoke data Dr Performance history record Df Phrase data Dm Melody generation data Nm Mobile phone network Ns Public communication network Np Packet mobile phone network 8 Transceiver 11 Key panel 12 Liquid crystal display 15 Transceiver 18 Packet communication control unit 21 Music processing unit

 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page F term (reference) 5D108 BC01 BC11 BG06 5K027 AA11 FF03 FF25 5K048 BA02 DB04 HA05 HA07 5K067 AA34 BB04 DD13 EE02 EE10 EE16 FF02 FF13 FF25 FF31 FF40 HH23 HH24 KK15 5K101 KK18 NN15

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. The invention specified by the following items (1) to (6). (1) An information service method based on a combination of a karaoke apparatus and a mobile phone. (2) The mobile phone has a communication means for making a call with another telephone via a communication channel of the mobile phone network, and a data communication means for connecting to the Internet via a packet communication channel of the mobile phone network and functioning as a WWW browser. And a transceiver for transmitting and receiving data by being coupled to the karaoke apparatus via a wireless transmission path. (3) The music ID input from the keyboard of the mobile phone is transmitted from the transceiver to the karaoke apparatus as the information for designating the requested music together with the telephone ID unique to the mobile phone. Receiving this information, the karaoke apparatus plays the karaoke music corresponding to the music ID,
Using the telephone ID attached to the music ID as a key, a karaoke usage history log is created for each telephone that has issued a request. (4) The karaoke apparatus prepares a service menu based on a karaoke usage history record for each telephone, and transmits the corresponding service menu to the connected mobile telephone via the transceiver. The service menu passed to a certain mobile phone includes one or more melody IDs related to karaoke songs requested in the past from the mobile phone. (5) The mobile phone that has received and stored the service menu accesses a specific WWW server via the data communication unit based on the service menu at an appropriate time, and transmits the melody ID to the WWW server. Then, the corresponding melody generation data is downloaded. (6) The mobile phone has means for downloading melody generation data from the WWW server and storing the melody generation data, and outputting an incoming call notification sound based on the melody generation data when an incoming call is received. 2. A mobile phone used in the information service method according to claim 1. 3. A karaoke apparatus used in the information service method according to claim 1.