JP2004279462A - Karaoke machine - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To indicate the level of singing skill of a male singer among a group of male singers who sung similarly a song of a female vocal. <P>SOLUTION: A database on a center server stores frequency distributions of scoring results by karaoke songs and by the genders. A karaoke machine 20 samples and compares a singing signal inputted from a microphone 220 with scoring reference data of a song to be played as a musical sound, and scores the singing of the singer to send its score information, gender information on the singer, and the song code to the center server. The center server accesses the database to calculate the population parameter and order of the gender from items indicated with the song code, gender information, and score information, and sends them back to the karaoke machine 20. The return results are displayed on a monitor 246. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2005,JPO&NCIPI

Description

[0001]
TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a karaoke apparatus having a scoring function.
[0002]
[Prior art]
2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, there is known a karaoke apparatus having a function of scoring the skill of karaoke singing as well as the performance of karaoke music. This scoring function converts the singing into an electric signal by a microphone and calculates the score by judging how much the frequency and amplitude of this electric signal deviate from a prepared reference. Things. In addition, since the skill of singing is also affected by the song, there is also known a technique for evaluating the singing skill according to the difficulty of the song (for example, see Patent Document 1).
[0003]
[Patent Document 1]
Japanese Patent No. 3264857
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
By the way, there are many different ways to enjoy karaoke. For example, there are cases where men sing songs of female vocals. In such a case, the man can know the scoring result for his singing according to the difficulty of the song, but for example, to what level in a group of men who sang the song in the same way In this respect, the conventional karaoke apparatus has been unsatisfactory because it is impossible to know whether there is any.
The present invention has been made in view of such circumstances, and an object of the present invention is to provide a karaoke apparatus capable of improving the karaoke scoring method and improving the satisfaction level. It is in.
[0005]
[Means for Solving the Problems]
In order to achieve the above object, a karaoke apparatus according to the present invention has a storage means for storing music data for playing a karaoke tune and scoring reference data of the tune, and a karaoke apparatus based on the music data stored in the storage means. Playing means for performing a musical performance, input means for inputting a singing signal of a singer, sampling the singing signal input by the input means, and comparing the singing signal with the grading reference data of the tune to be played. Scoring means for scoring a singer's singing, and access to a database for accumulating the scoring results for each of a plurality of groups and for each music piece, so that the scoring result of the scoring means is one of the plurality of groups. Acquiring means for acquiring information on the number of the music played, and outputting a ranking based on the information acquired by the acquiring means. Characterized by comprising an output unit. According to the present invention, the singing scoring result is output as a ranking in the group.
[0006]
BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION
Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a karaoke system including the karaoke apparatus according to the present embodiment. The center server 10 distributes karaoke data and the like to a plurality of karaoke devices 20 having a scoring function via the network 30. The center server 10 is provided with a database 11, and stores information on the scoring results collected from each karaoke device 20.
[0007]
Next, information stored in the database 11 will be described. FIG. 2 is a diagram showing the contents of information stored in the database 11. As shown in this figure, a distribution table of the karaoke song scoring results for each gender is stored in the database 11 for each song code of the karaoke data distributed by the center server 10. Note that the accumulated contents of the database 11 are updated each time a grading result is collected from the karaoke apparatus 20 as described later.
[0008]
Next, the configuration of the karaoke apparatus 20 will be described with reference to FIG. In this figure, a CPU 210 controls each unit of the device connected via a bus 211. The ROM 212 stores a control program executed by the CPU 210 and the like, and the RAM 214 is used as a work area of the CPU 210. An HDD (hard disk drive) 216 as storage means stores a plurality of pieces of karaoke data for karaoke performance and a plurality of video data, respectively.
Here, the karaoke data is distributed from the center server 10 via the network 30, and the karaoke data for one song is further composed of song data, lyrics data, and scoring reference data. Among them, the music data defines the musical tones to be generated in accordance with the progress of the performance and the control contents thereof in chronological order, and the lyrics data includes the character patterns (lyrics) to be displayed in accordance with the progress of the performance and the character patterns of the character patterns. The color change and the like are defined in a time series, and the scoring reference data defines the main melody of the song, that is, the frequency and volume of the melody to be sung in a time series, so as to be used as a reference when singing.
The video data is compressed in, for example, the MPEG format and is shared by a plurality of karaoke songs, or one-to-one corresponds to each karaoke song.
The operation unit 218 has a plurality of operation keys such as character keys and numeric keys, and outputs a signal indicating the content operated by the user to the CPU 210. The content of the operation is, for example, a song code of a karaoke song to be played specified by the user.
[0009]
On the other hand, the microphone 220 inputs the voice of the singer and supplies the voice signal to the mixer 222 and the A / D converter 224, respectively. The sound source 226 generates a tone signal based on the music data supplied by the CPU 210 and supplies the tone signal to the mixer 222. The mixer 222 combines the audio signal input by the microphone 220 and the tone signal generated by the sound source 226. The synthesized signal is output from the speaker 228 after being amplified by an amplifier or the like (not shown) or given an appropriate effect.
[0010]
The A / D converter 224 converts an analog audio signal input by the microphone 220 into a digital signal. The voice processing unit 230 firstly determines the gender of the singer from the voice signal converted into the digital signal, and secondly, performs the frequency and volume (amplitude) of the voice signal converted into the digital signal Thirdly, the amount of deviation is calculated by comparing the frequency and volume of the scoring reference data corresponding to the music, and thirdly, information on the determined gender and the calculated amount of deviation are supplied to the CPU 210.
The gender of the singer is determined, for example, by determining that the voice frequency at the predetermined performance point is relatively high (or above a threshold value) and that the voice is female, and if the voice frequency is relatively low. It is determined that it is male (or if it is smaller than the threshold). Further, in this embodiment, since the scoring target is a pitch and a sound volume, the frequency and the sound volume of the audio signal are compared with the scoring reference data. good.
[0011]
The character reproducing unit 240 generates a character pattern according to the lyrics data supplied in accordance with the progress of the performance, changes the color of the character pattern, and supplies the character pattern to the display control unit 242.
The video reproduction unit 244 decodes the video data supplied from the CPU 210 and supplies the decoded signal to the display control unit 242.
The display control unit 242 combines the character pattern supplied from the character reproduction unit 240 with the video based on the decoded signal from the video reproduction unit 244, and also displays the screen created by the CPU 210 in a format that can be displayed by the monitor 246 (for example, (NTSC) image signal, and supplies the image signal to the monitor 246. The monitor 246 displays an image based on the image signal from the display control unit 242. The network I / F 250 is for connecting to the network 30.
[0012]
Next, the operation of the karaoke apparatus 20 having the above configuration will be described. First, when the user selects a song to be sung and inputs the song code using the operation unit 218, a signal indicating the input song code is transferred to the CPU 210. Then, the CPU 210 reads the karaoke data corresponding to the music code from the HDD 216, and temporarily loads the karaoke data into the RAM 214.
Thereafter, the CPU 210 instructs the start of the karaoke performance. Specifically, the CPU 210 transfers the song data of the loaded karaoke data to the sound source 226, the lyrics data to the character reproducing unit 240, and the scoring reference data to the audio processing unit 230 in accordance with the progress of the karaoke. . As a result, the sound source 226 generates and controls musical tones in accordance with the music data, while the character reproducing unit 240 generates and changes the color of the character pattern in synchronization with the progress of performance due to the generation of musical tones.
In parallel with the transfer of the karaoke data, the CPU 210 reads out video data corresponding to the music code input by the user from the HDD 216 and supplies the read video data to the video playback unit 244. Perform decoding processing. Therefore, the lyrics are displayed and changed in color on the monitor 246 in synchronization with the progress of the performance, and the video corresponding to the music is displayed in the background.
[0013]
On the other hand, the voice signal of the singer by the microphone 220 is converted into a digital signal by the A / D converter 224 and supplied to the voice processing unit 230. The voice processing unit 230 determines the gender of the singer from the voice signal converted into the digital signal, supplies the gender information to the CPU 210, and the CPU 210 stores the gender information in the RAM 214. The audio processing unit 230 also extracts the frequency and volume from the audio signal converted into the digital signal and compares the frequency and volume with the frequency and volume included in the scoring reference data supplied in synchronization with the progress of the performance from the CPU 210. Then, the deviation amount is calculated and returned to the CPU 210. The calculation of the amount of deviation is repeatedly performed by the sound processing unit 230 at regular intervals (for example, every 150 milliseconds) from the start to the end of the performance.
The CPU 210 accumulates the returned deviation amounts and stores the accumulated deviation amounts in the RAM 214. Then, when the whole of the music data is transferred to the final part, that is, when the karaoke performance is completed, the CPU 210 calculates a score such that the smaller the accumulated value is, the higher the score is, and stores the score information in the RAM 214. When the karaoke performance ends, the display of the lyrics and the background image on the monitor 246 also ends.
Further, the CPU 210 transmits the score information, the singer's gender information, the music code indicating the performance music, and the ID information for specifying the karaoke apparatus 20 of the user to the center server via the network I / F 250 and the network 30. Send to 10.
[0014]
When the center server 10 receives the score information, the gender information, the song code, and the ID information, the center server 10 accesses the database 11 and, in the frequency distribution table corresponding to the song code, the gender indicated by the gender information, The frequency corresponding to the score information is incremented by “1”. For example, if the received music code is “1000-01”, the gender indicated by the gender information is “male”, and the score indicated by the score information is “8” out of 10 points, In step 2, “53” indicating the frequency is updated to “54”.
As described above, in the database 11, when the performance of a certain song is completed in one of the karaoke devices 20 among the devices connected to the network 30, the score based on the score is selected from the frequency distribution indicating the totaling of the score of the song. And the items corresponding to the gender of the singer are updated sequentially.
[0015]
Next, the center server 10 calculates a parameter of the frequency distribution after the update, and calculates a rank of the score information in the same sex. For example, after updating the content shown in FIG. 2, the parameter is calculated as “1050” and the rank is calculated as “58”.
Then, the center server 10 returns the calculated parameter information and ranking information to the karaoke apparatus 20 specified by the received ID information.
[0016]
When the karaoke apparatus 20 specified by the ID information receives the parameter information and the ranking information from the center server 10 via the network I / F 250, the CPU 210 reads out the score information and the gender information stored in the RAM 214. For example, based on the received parameter information and the sequential information in addition to the above information, screen information as shown in FIG. 4 is created and supplied to the display control unit 242.
Since the display control unit 242 converts the screen information into an image signal and supplies the image signal to the monitor 246, a screen as shown in FIG. 4 is displayed on the monitor 246.
Therefore, according to the karaoke apparatus 20 of the present embodiment, for example, even when a male sings a song of a female vocal, the degree of skill of the singing is, to what extent, among male groups who have sung the song in the past. You can know what the level was.
[0017]
In the above-described embodiment, the frequency distribution scored for each music piece is classified according to male / female. However, in the present invention, various groupings are possible in addition to such gender.
For example, the karaoke apparatus 20 may be classified according to the area where the karaoke apparatus 20 is installed. When transmitting the score information, the karaoke apparatus 20 also transmits ID information for identifying itself, so that the center server 10 creates a table indicating the correspondence between pre-sorted areas and ID information. On the other hand, if the ID information is received and the installation area of the karaoke apparatus is determined with reference to the table, the score information can be classified for each area.
If the karaoke store has a plurality of karaoke devices 20, a similar configuration can be used to subdivide the karaoke stores into karaoke stores, karaoke store floors, themes, and the like.
Also, groups can be classified by genre, such as pops, enka, animation, etc., and various things such as by age (age) and by students, working adults, and housewives are possible.
[0018]
Furthermore, the singer may use the operation unit 218 to select one or more groups that have been classified in advance, and display the ranking of the scores in the selected groups.
Also, the ranks in a plurality of groups may be displayed in order or in a list.
[0019]
【The invention's effect】
As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to satisfy the user in response to the user's request.
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a system configuration including a karaoke apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 2 is a diagram showing contents of a database in the system.
FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a configuration of the karaoke apparatus.
FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a display example of the karaoke apparatus.
[Explanation of symbols]
DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 ... Center server, 11 ... Database, 20 ... Karaoke apparatus, 30 ... Network, 210 ... CPU (scoring means, acquisition means), 216 ... HDD (storage means), 220 ... Microphone (input means), 226 ... Sound source, 230 ... Sound processing unit, 250 ... Network I / F

Claims (1)

Storage means for storing song data for playing a karaoke song and scoring reference data for the song;
Performance means for performing a musical performance based on the music data stored in the storage means,
Input means for inputting a singer's singing signal,
Sampling the singing signal input by the input means, and comparing it with the grading reference data of the music to be played, the scoring means to score the singer's singing,
By accessing a database that accumulates scoring results for each of a plurality of groups and for each music piece, the scoring result obtained by the scoring means is determined to be one of the plurality of groups. Acquisition means for acquiring information on whether the
Output means for outputting a ranking based on the information obtained by the obtaining means.

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