JP2001283524A - Method and device for reproducing contents - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a soundless part before and after the reproduction of sound contents and to increase the capacity of sound contents which is usable in a storage medium. SOLUTION: By a reproducing method for contents which optionally combines and reproduces plural contents stored in the storage medium 12, the identifiers of the plural contents are registered in a table 20a for reproduction in desired order together with numerals showing the time of a soundless period (S100 to S106) and when the contents are reproduced, sequential retrieval of the table 20a for reproduction is performed (S108); when the identifier of contents is retrieved, the contents corresponding to the identifier are read out of the storage medium 12 and reproduced (S114) and when a numeral indicating the time of the soundless period is retrieved, the retrieval of the table 20a for reproduction is stopped for the time that the numeral indicates.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for reproducing content such as music and audio.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A conventional example of a method for reproducing content such as music and audio will be described. First,
CD (compact disk), MD, IC card and IC
A function of picking up contents to be reproduced from music and audio contents stored in a randomly accessible storage medium (external storage medium) such as a recorder, rearranging the contents in a desired reproduction order (rearranging), and reproducing. It may be provided in a playback device.

As an example of a specific reproduction method, for example, in a case where five contents A to E are stored in a storage medium together with corresponding identifiers, three contents are B → A → D In this case, the identifiers of the contents to be reproduced (assuming that identifiers a to e are allocated to the contents A to E) are stored in the reproduction table in the reproduction order.
Register as b, a, d. When reproducing, the identifiers registered in the reproduction table are detected one by one while searching the reproduction table in the reproduction order. Then, the content corresponding to the detected identifier is read out one by one with reference to the storage medium and reproduced.

[0004]

By the way, in a specific content, there is a case where it is desired to provide a silent portion before and / or after the reproduction, that is, a so-called interval. This is because if the specific content and the content that is played before or after this specific content are played back in succession, it is difficult for the listener to understand the breaks of each content, and as a result it is difficult to understand the meaning of the content. It is. For example, when playing contents such as "rising chime", "business closing notice", and "falling chime", the contents are played without any silence period between the contents. Is reflected, and the contents overlap each other and the contents cannot be heard. In such a case,
By providing an appropriate period (ma) of about several seconds between the contents, it is possible to prevent the contents from interfering with each other and to make it easier to hear.

In the conventional example, when such a silent portion is to be provided before or after the reproduction of the content to be reproduced, before the reproduction of the sound portion of the content itself and / or after the reproduction, it is necessary to perform such a process. ) The method of storing the silence part of the time considering the length as a part of the contents, and the silence itself of various lengths as the contents together with the corresponding identifier in the form of a silence contents table in the storage medium If it is necessary to store the sound before and after the reproduction of the sound content, it is necessary to store the sound in the reproduction table so that the sound is silenced for a desired time (length).
There is a method of registering an identifier of a silent content before or after the content with sound.

[0006] However, in the above-described method of providing a silent portion in the content reproducing method, even in the former case,
Even in the latter case, in any case, it is necessary to record silence data of the actually required length in the storage medium as content, which consumes the capacity of the storage medium and is used for sound content. There is a problem that the available capacity is reduced. In addition, in the former case, in particular, if it is desired to change the length of the silent part, it is necessary to edit the content again and store it in the storage medium even if the sound part is not changed, which is troublesome. There is also.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to solve the above-mentioned problem, and an object of the present invention is to provide a silent part before and after reproduction of a sound content, and
It is an object of the present invention to provide a content reproducing method and a content reproducing apparatus capable of increasing the capacity of sound content that can be used in a storage medium.

[0008]

In order to achieve the above object, a method for reproducing content according to claim 1 of the present invention is directed to a method for reproducing content by arbitrarily combining a plurality of contents stored in a storage medium. In the reproducing method, the identifiers of the plurality of contents are registered in a reproducing table in a desired order together with a numerical value indicating a silence period, and when reproducing the content, the reproducing table is sequentially searched, If the identifier is an identifier, the content corresponding to the identifier is read out from the storage medium and reproduced, and if the identifier is a numerical value indicating the silence period, the search of the reproduction table is paused for the time indicated by the numerical value. It is characterized by doing.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided a content reproducing apparatus for reproducing a plurality of contents stored in a storage medium by arbitrarily combining the plurality of contents. A plurality of contents are stored together with the corresponding identifiers, and a reproduction table for registering the identifier of the content to be reproduced and a numerical value indicating the time of the silence period, and the identifier of the content and the time of the silence period to be registered in the reproduction table Means for inputting a numerical value indicating the number and the order of registration in the reproduction table; a reproducing means for reproducing the content as sound; and the reproduction of the identifier and the numerical value input by the input means in the input order. When the content is played back, the playback table is searched sequentially and the identifier Control means for reading out the content corresponding to the identifier from the storage medium and reproducing the sound as the sound via the reproduction means, and stopping the retrieval of the reproduction table for the time indicated by the numerical value if the value is a numerical value; It is characterized by having.

According to these, there is no need to store data relating to the silent period in the storage medium at all, and the content in the silent period is stored in the storage medium as compared with the conventional example.
The capacity of a storage medium that can be used for sound content can be increased. Further, the content is a voice and / or music file.

[0011]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Preferred embodiments of a content reproducing method and a reproducing apparatus according to the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. The content referred to here includes a sound file and a music file. (Method of Reproducing Content) First, a method of reproducing content will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. 1 and FIGS. Note that this playback method is a content playback method in which a plurality of contents stored in a storage medium are arbitrarily combined and played back. Here, as shown in FIG. 2, for example, seven contents A to G are stored in advance in the content table in the storage medium together with the corresponding identifiers a to g. The content may be a music file or an audio file. Further, the reproduction table has a configuration as shown in FIG. 3 as an example.

First, the type of registration data to be registered in the reproduction table is selected. That is, the user selects whether to register the content stored in the content table or the silent period (step S100). Then, when registering the content, a desired content is selected from the plurality of contents stored in the storage medium, and the identifier is registered as registration data in the reproduction table (step S102). On the other hand, when registering a silent period, a numerical value indicating the time of the silent period is directly registered in the reproduction table as registration data (step S104). More specifically, the registration operation will be described with reference to FIG. 3. First, registration of a silent period is selected, and a numerical value “3” indicating the time of the silent period is registered. Next, the process returns to step S100 again to select registration of the content, and registers the identifier e of the content E to be reproduced. Hereinafter, similarly, the operation of registering in the reproduction table (steps S100 to S104) is repeated until all contents to be reproduced have been registered. If it is determined that all the registrations have been completed, the process proceeds to step S10.
At step 6, the registration operation is ended. As a result, the contents to be reproduced are registered in the reproduction table in the order of reproduction, and the silence period is registered at a position where a pause is desired.

When the contents registered in the reproduction table are reproduced, the reproduction tables are sequentially searched in the reproduction order (step S108). Then, it is determined whether or not a numerical value indicating an identifier or a time, that is, registered data is registered in the reproduction table (step S11).
0), if registered, determine whether the registered data is an identifier or a numerical value (step S11)
2).

If it is an identifier, the content corresponding to the identifier is read from the storage medium and reproduced (step S114). Then, the process returns to step S108 to shift to the next search operation. On the other hand, step S112
If the registered data is a numerical value in step, the process returns to step S108 after waiting for the time indicated by the numerical value (step S116). That is, the next search operation for the reproduction table is suspended (waited) for the time indicated by the numerical value. More specifically, referring to FIG. 3, as a result of searching the reproduction table, a numerical value “3” is first detected. Therefore, the operation of searching for the data “e” registered next to the numerical value “3” for the time indicated by this numerical value, that is, for 3 seconds, is suspended. That is, the detection operation for the data “e” is temporarily stopped. Then, after the pause, the process proceeds to step S108 to search for the next registered data in the reproduction table. When the reproduction table is searched, the identifier e is detected, and the content E is immediately reproduced. As a result, a silence period is provided for a time (3 seconds) indicated by a numerical value of “3” from the start of reproduction to the time when the first content E is read out and reproduced as sound. become.

[0015] Further, since no numerical value is registered between the identifiers g, b, and c in FIG. 3, each content is continuously reproduced without a silent period. Although not shown, numerical values indicating silence periods may be continuously registered in the reproduction table. In this case, the silence period is continuous by the addition of the continuous numerical values. For example, when “1” and “1.5” continue, a silent period having a total length of 2.5 is obtained. This step S108
Steps S116 to S116 are repeated while determining whether there is registered data registered in the reproduction table in step S110 until there is no more registered data. Then, if it is determined in step S110 that there is no registration data, the reproduction operation ends. Further, in the content reproducing method described above, the numerical value indicating the time of the silence period is directly registered in the reproduction table. However, the numerical value indicating the time of the silence period (for example, 0.5 seconds, 1 second, 2 seconds, etc.). Is stored in advance in a storage means other than the storage medium together with the identifier in a format such as a time table, and an identifier indicating the time is registered in the reproduction table together with the identifier of the content. Then, when an identifier indicating a time is detected when the reproduction table is searched to reproduce the content, a method corresponding to the time corresponding to the identifier can be obtained by referring to the time table.

(Content Reproducing Apparatus) Next, the configuration of the content reproducing apparatus 10 for implementing the above-described content reproducing method will be described with reference to FIG. In the storage medium 12, a plurality of contents are stored in advance together with corresponding identifiers. As the storage medium 12, a CD
And external storage media such as CD-R (W), IC card, and memory card. The content and the identifier are stored in the storage medium 12 in a table format including an area X in which the content is stored and an area Y in which the identifier corresponding to the content is stored, as shown in FIG.

The input means 14 is composed of an operation panel, a keyboard, a pointing device and the like, and inputs an instruction to a control means to be described later, and inputs a type (content or silent period) of registration data to be registered in the reproduction table. , A content read out from the storage medium 12 to be reproduced and specified (specifically, an identifier of the content is input), a time (numerical value) indicating a silence period is input, and a content registration completion instruction is issued. It is used by the user of the playback device 10 to input various commands and data for operating the device, such as inputting, inputting support for starting playback, and the like.

The reading means 16 has a function of reading contents stored in the storage medium 12 from the storage medium 12. When the storage medium 12 is a CD or the like, the optical pickup is considered to be the reading means 16, and when the IC card or the memory card is the storage medium 12, the input interface circuit is considered to be the reading means 16. Control means 18
Is composed of a microcomputer. Storage means 20
Is composed of a semiconductor memory or the like. In the storage means 20,
A program that defines the operation of the control means 18 is stored,
A part of the area is assigned as a reproduction table 20a in which an identifier of a content for reproduction and a numerical value indicating a silence period are registered (stored). The playback means 22
It has the function of playing back content as sound. Specifically, it has a speaker 24, converts the content sent from the control unit 18 into an analog signal, amplifies and supplies the analog signal to the speaker 24, and drives the speaker 24 to reproduce the content of the content as sound. .

The control means 18 operates in accordance with a command input from the input means 14 or a program stored in the storage means 20 in advance, and performs overall control of other components. For example, it has a function of registering, in the input order, the identifier of the content input from the input unit 14 and the numerical value indicating the time of the silence period in the reproduction table 20a. When the content reproducing operation is instructed, the control means 18 accesses the storage means 20 to access the reproduction table 20a.
Are sequentially searched, and when the identifier is an identifier, the content corresponding to the identifier is read from the storage medium 12 via the reading means 16. Further, it has a function of reproducing the content of the content as sound from the speaker 24 via the reproducing means 22.

The control means 18 controls the reproduction table 2
It has a function of retrieving 0a and, if it is a numerical value, suspending the search of the reproduction table 20a for the time indicated by the numerical value. As a result, a time corresponding to a numerical value (a period during which no sound is generated, that is, a silent period) is inserted between the time when the next registration data registered in the reproduction table 20a is searched and reproduced, and as a result, the content is reproduced. A gap occurs during operation. As a result of the above components, the playback device 10 can execute the above-described content playback method. Also, as explained in the content playback method,
When using a time table in which an identifier opposed to the time of the silence period is registered, this time table (not shown) is allocated to a predetermined area in the storage means 20, and the input means 14 selects and inputs this identifier. Become like And
When the control means 18 detects the identifier indicating the time of the silence period by searching the reproduction table 20a, it obtains a numerical value indicating the time corresponding to the identifier by referring to the time table. Even with this configuration, there is no need to store data indicating the silent period in the storage medium 12. Therefore, a similar effect can be obtained.

As described above, various preferred embodiments of the present invention have been described. However, the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments, and many modifications can be made without departing from the spirit of the invention. Of course.

[0022]

According to the content reproducing method and the reproducing apparatus of the present invention, data relating to the silent period is directly registered in the reproduction table in the form of a numerical value indicating the time of the silent period. Therefore, there is no need to store data indicating a silent period in the storage medium at all, and the capacity of the storage medium that can be used for sound content is increased as compared with the conventional example in which the contents during the silent period are stored in the storage medium. It has the effect of being able to.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a flowchart for explaining an embodiment of a content reproducing method according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram showing an embodiment of a content table in a storage medium.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram illustrating an embodiment of a reproduction table.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a playback device that performs the content playback method of FIG. 1;

[Explanation of symbols]

 REFERENCE SIGNS LIST 10 playback device 12 storage medium 14 input means 16 reading means 18 control means 20 storage means 20a playback table 22 playback means 24 speaker

Continuation of the front page (72) Inventor Tetsushi Sugawara 4-3-1 Tsunashima Higashi, Kohoku-ku, Yokohama-shi, Kanagawa F-term in Matsushita Communication Industrial Co., Ltd. 5D044 AB05 BC03 CC04 DE17 DE24 DE42 DE49 DE53 GK12 5D077 AA21 BA14 CA01 DA10 DC03 DC12 DC24 9A001 BB03 FZ03

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A content reproducing method for reproducing a plurality of contents stored in a storage medium by arbitrarily combining the plurality of contents, wherein a plurality of content identifiers are displayed in a desired order together with a numerical value indicating a silent period time. When the content is reproduced, the reproduction table is sequentially searched, and when the content is an identifier, the content corresponding to the identifier is read out from the storage medium and reproduced, and the silent period is A search time of the reproduction table is paused for a time indicated by the numerical value. 2. The content according to claim 1, wherein the content is an audio file and / or a music file.
How to play the described content. 3. A content reproducing apparatus for reproducing a plurality of contents stored in a storage medium by arbitrarily combining the plurality of contents, wherein the plurality of contents are stored together with a corresponding identifier in the storage medium, and the reproduced content is reproduced. And an identifier of the content to be registered in the reproduction table and a numerical value indicating the time of the silence period to be registered in the reproduction table are input together with the order of registration in the reproduction table. An input unit, a reproducing unit that reproduces the content as a sound, and, when registering the identifier and the numerical value input by the input unit in the reproduction table in an input order, and reproducing the content, The reproduction table is sequentially searched, and if the identifier is an identifier, the content corresponding to the identifier is stored in the storage table. Reproduced as sound through reading the reproducing means from the body, the reproducing apparatus of the content, characterized by a control means for resting the search reproduction table for the time indicated by said numerical value when a numerical value. 4. The apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the content is a sound and / or music file.