JP2006005617A - Multimedia system - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a system that enables a user to view or listen to multimedia information (radio, television, music, an Internet broadcast, etc.) and also answer a telephone call or visitor anywhere in a home. <P>SOLUTION: A fixed unit (e.g. a master unit) is provided with a radio, television, Internet, and door-phone function, a mobile unit (e.g. a slave unit) is in a shape which is rich in portability, and a digital wireless communication system is employed between the master unit and slave unit. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2006,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to a digital home appliance system, and more particularly to a multimedia system in which a mobile phone or a wristwatch-shaped electronic device can play music and video as well as operate as a slave unit of a home phone.

  The idea of combining radio reception and telephone functions is described in Patent Document 1, but there is a problem that it is difficult to listen to where radio waves are weak. In Patent Document 2, even if radio waves are received directly, the radio waves are weak and can be heard. When it is difficult, we switch to radio broadcasting serviced by mobile phone companies so that they can listen to the radio. This uses the fact that mobile phone radio waves are easier to receive than radio radio waves, but using mobile phone company services incurs usage fees and listens to free radio broadcasts for free There is a sense of incongruity. There is also a menu that allows you to watch TV on a mobile phone in terrestrial digital broadcasting, and mobile phones tend to incorporate radio and TV functions. However, wherever you are in the home (where radio waves are difficult to reach) A technology that allows easy viewing is not disclosed. There is no idea of incorporating radio and television functions into a general telephone, and no products or technologies that allow a radio to be watched on a television set in a cordless telephone are widely used.

JP-A-5-26815 JP 2003-169380 A

  By the way, portable radio can only be heard where broadcast waves reach, and it can be received at the window or near the outside in the home, but there is a lot of noise in the interior of the home such as the kitchen and washroom, making it difficult to hear .

  On the other hand, since the communication between the cordless phone's handset and the base phone uses an analog wireless system, the speed dial information set in the base phone cannot be used on the handset, which is inconvenient. .

  In addition, multimedia information reproducing apparatuses such as CD players, DVD players, and televisions are designed on the assumption that they are viewed at a place installed in the home, and any place in the home (toilet, garden, kitchen) To watch in a bath, etc., it is necessary to increase the volume considerably, and it is annoying to live together and neighbors if living alone.

  When a phone call is received while listening to music or watching TV, it is necessary to reduce the volume. Also, when you are in the garden, you often do not even realize that there is an incoming call. The same applies when there is a customer at the front door and a call is made with a door phone. Even if a courier is delivered during the toilet or bathing, it may not be possible to respond even if the door phone rings.

There is no such product as a mobile phone or wristwatch that is small and light, can listen to music and radio, watch TV, and can make phone calls anywhere in the home.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and provides a multimedia system in which music and video can be viewed with a small electronic device such as a mobile phone or a wristwatch, and which also has telephone call and interphone functions. For the purpose.

  In order to achieve the above object, in order to communicate with the apparatus B, multimedia information such as a wireless communication circuit, voice, music video, and control information related to the information, together with a microphone, a speaker, a display, and operation buttons A device A having a communication control circuit, an outgoing / incoming call control circuit for controlling outgoing / incoming calls of a telephone, a communication control circuit for communicating multimedia information and control information related to the information with the device A, wireless A multimedia system was configured with the device B having a communication circuit and a storage device.

  Furthermore, a multimedia information compression encoding / decoding circuit may be provided in one or both of the device A and the device B of the multimedia system according to claim 1.

  Digital wireless system is adopted as the wireless communication system between the slave unit and the master unit, not only multimedia information such as music and video, but also channel registration / selection of information to be listened, registration / transfer / search of address book of speed dial, etc. Enable. Multi-media information playback and call functions are digitally combined.

  By carrying small and light electronic devices such as mobile phones and watches at home, you can listen to music, watch TV and watch TV everywhere in the home (garden, toilet, bath, washroom, bedroom, etc.) It is also possible to talk with visitors who came in front of the entrance.

  The best mode for carrying out the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

  As shown in FIG. 1, the multimedia system according to the present invention comprises a mobile device (device A) 1 that can be carried by a user and a fixed device (device B) 2 installed at a predetermined location. The fixed machine 2 communicates via the antennas 100 and 200 to exchange information and control equipment.

  FIG. 2 shows the configuration of the device A as the mobile device 1, which includes an operation unit 12 using push buttons. The operation unit 12 is a numeric keypad for dialing or inputting characters as in a general mobile phone. A scroll button for scrolling up / down / left / right for selecting an operation menu, a determination button for determining a menu selected by scrolling, and several auxiliary operation buttons. The contents operated by the button are displayed on the display unit 11 via the user interface circuit 3.

  The user interface circuit 13 has a memory area for registering frequently used dials and menus. The display unit 11 uses color liquid crystal as in today's mobile phones, and the screen size may be about 2 inches.

  The wireless communication circuit 18 is a circuit that executes the IEEE802.11b system, the PHS digital wireless system, or the UWB system for a wireless LAN, and a high-frequency analog wireless circuit, a modem, a signal multiplexing function using a CDMA system, or a TDMA system. The radio wave transmitting / receiving antenna 100 is mounted, and operates as a radio transmitter when transmitting from the device A to the device B, which will be described later, and when the device A receives the radio wave from the device B, the radio receiver. Operates as The transmission speed of the wireless communication circuit 18 needs to be 64 KBSP or more, and 384 KBPS is sufficient, but it is better if it is 1 MBSP or more. When the transmission rate is 1 MBPS or more, the data compression function of multimedia information that is exchanged between the device A and the device B is not necessarily required, and it is possible to further contribute to the cost reduction and size reduction of the device A. In the case of handling only voice / music as multimedia information, data compression is not necessarily required if there is a wireless communication speed of 384 KBPS.

  Interface information with the communication control device 17 (hereinafter referred to as CCU) side of the wireless communication circuit 18 is digital data, and includes audio and video multimedia information, address book information, and control information related to these information. Is. The multimedia information is preferably data-compressed using a well-known MPEG4, or an encoding method such as H.264 or MP3. In the present embodiment, it is assumed that the data is compressed. In consideration of the reduction in transmission and the transmission speed of the wireless communication circuit, it does not have to be compressed. In that case, the encoding / decoding circuit 16 (hereinafter referred to as CODEC) is unnecessary.

  When the CCU 17 receives a signal from the device B based on a communication protocol method separately determined between the device A and the device B, the CCU 17 decomposes the received signal into multimedia information, control information, and address book information. When transmitting from the device A to the device B, the three types of information are assembled. The CODEC 16 compresses and encodes information obtained from the microphone 15 at the time of transmission, decodes audio and video signals at the time of reception, the decoded audio signals are guided to the speaker 14, and the video signals are displayed on the display unit. 11 leads to. Although device A is not shown, when it is not in use, device A is placed on a power supply pedestal that supplies power to or charges device A, such as a slave unit of a home telephone or a cradle of a mobile phone. Yes.

  Next, the configuration of apparatus B, which is a fixed machine, will be described with reference to FIG.

  In addition to the wireless communication circuit 20, CCU 21, and CODEC 22 similar to the device A, the device B accesses the telephone network control circuit 23 (hereinafter referred to as NCU) that performs telephone call setting control and the WWW (World Wide Web). A browsing circuit 27 for executing a browsing function for listening to radio and music over the Internet and downloading music and video from the Internet (this circuit may be included in the CCU as software), television radio waves TV radio signal receiving circuit 25 for decomposing and outputting video signals and audio signals, radio radio wave receiving circuit 26 for receiving radio waves and outputting audio signals, address book data, downloaded music, A hard disk for storing video information and for storing operation screens according to the operation menu of device A A memory card adapter 29 into which a storage device 28 such as a disk (hereinafter referred to as HD) and a portable storage medium connected to the storage device 28 (generally called an SD card or a memory stick) are inserted. A door phone signal receiving circuit 24 that receives an audio / video signal (sometimes only audio) from the door phone and decomposes it into video and audio signals in the same manner as a TV signal is incorporated. An antenna 200 for communicating with the mobile device 1 is connected to the wireless communication circuit 20.

  Further, the device B includes, as external connection terminals, a telephone connector a, a LAN connector e, an audio connector f for receiving music information from an audio device such as a CD player, a TV antenna terminal c, a radio antenna terminal d, and a front door. The door phone connector b which receives the signal of the door phone installed in is provided.

  If the door phone has a wireless communication function, the door phone connector b is not necessary, and the door phone signal receiving circuit 24 is a receiving circuit having a wireless communication function. When the doorphone wireless communication method is the same as the wireless communication method and communication control method between the device A and the device B, the doorphone audio / video signal is sent to the CODEC 22 via the CCU 21, and the doorphone signal receiving circuit 24 is also used. It becomes unnecessary.

  When the telephone function is used only for the Internet telephone, the NCU 23 is not necessary. Since all operations of the fixed machine 2 (apparatus B) are performed from the mobile apparatus 1 (apparatus A), the apparatus B does not have an operation unit, and the installation place of the fixed machine 2 is an invisible place in the home. The degree of freedom of installation location is high.

  Next, in the multimedia according to the present invention having the above-described configuration, a signal flow when a telephone operation is performed from the mobile device 1 (device A) will be described.

  The initial screen of the display unit 11 of the apparatus A is a menu selection screen. As shown in FIG. 4, “telephone”, “radio”, “TV”, “CD” (for listening to music such as MD as well as CD) Menu), “Internet”, and “Maintenance” buttons are displayed. When making a call, first, select "phone" and decide. Then, a telephone address book screen (not shown) appears on the display unit 11, and the address book data stored in the HD 28 of the device B is transmitted from the device B to the device A and displayed on the display unit 11 of the device A. Is done. When the cursor is placed on the name of the other party to be called from the displayed address and a decision button (not shown) is pressed, the operation is transmitted to the CCU 21 of the device B, and the other party's telephone number is displayed from the HD 28. The information is transmitted to the NCU 23 via the CCU 21, and the NCU 23 makes a call.

  Thereafter, voice information (dial information sound and conversation sound) exchanged between the device B and the telephone office is encoded by the CODEC 22 of the device B, decoded by the CODEC 16 of the device A, and listened to by the speaker 14. The voice uttered from the microphone 15 is encoded by the CODEC 16 of the device A, decoded by the CODEC 22 of the device B, and sent as analog voice information from the device B to the telephone office via the NCU 23, and a normal telephone call is performed. At this time, by connecting the call contents from the CODEC 22 of the device B to the HD 28 at the same time as the call, it is possible to keep a call record.

  The call is ended by selecting a call end icon (not shown) displayed on the display unit 11 of the device A. When the call termination is determined, the operation information is transmitted to the NCU 23 of the device B in the same manner as when the call is made, and the set call is released. At the same time, the display unit 11 of the device A returns to the initial screen shown in FIG.

  Next, an example of listening to a radio broadcast will be described.

  On the initial screen of the display unit 11 of the apparatus A, there is a “radio” menu as shown in FIG. 4, and the cursor is placed on the menu to select “radio” (the cursor is “radio” with the scroll button of the operation unit 12). Press the OK button. After that, the names of radio stations such as NHK and TBS are displayed (not shown). When the cursor is moved to the radio station to be listened to and the decision button is pressed, the information is transmitted to the CCU 21 of the device B, and from the CCU 21. The radio wave receiving circuit 26 receives a tuning instruction to receive the radio wave of the broadcasting station, and the radio wave receiving circuit 26 receives the broadcast of the selected broadcasting station. The received radio broadcast is encoded and compressed by the CODEC 22, reaches the device A from the antenna 200 via the antenna 100, is decoded by the CODEC 16 by the device A, and can listen to the radio broadcast from the speaker 14. At that time, since the name of the broadcasting station other than the broadcasting station that is currently being listened to is displayed on the display unit 11 (not shown), if the user wants to listen to the broadcasting of another broadcasting station, the same operation as described above can be performed. Good.

When viewing the television, the same operation is performed, so that the information of the selected channel reaches the television radio wave reception circuit 25 of the device B, and the output video / audio information is compression-coded by the CODEC 22. In digital television broadcasting,
Since the video / audio information output from the television radio wave receiving circuit 25 has already been compression-encoded, it is transferred from the device B to the device A without going through the CODEC 22. Both the video signal and the audio signal are decoded by the CODEC 16 of the apparatus A, and each is sent to the display unit 11 and the speaker 14 so that the television broadcast can be enjoyed.

  Next, the case of enjoying a CD performance will be described.

  When a favorite music CD is set in the CD player and a play operation is performed, the CD player starts playing, and the music information reaches the audio connector f of the device B. When “CD” displayed on the display unit 11 of the device A is selected, the CODEC 22 of the device B encodes the signal appearing at the audio connector f and transmits it to the device A. The signal flow is merely that the output of the radio wave receiving circuit 26 is changed to an audio signal. If the CD player has a control terminal for selecting a song, the device B is provided with a CD song selection terminal (not shown) that can be connected to the terminal, and the desired song can be selected from the display unit 11 of the device A. Further, if the CD player has a function of notifying the name information of all songs on the CD to the outside, the device B receives the information via another terminal not shown, and a communication protocol between the devices A and B determined separately. According to the method, the song name information of all songs is assembled by the CCU 21 and transferred to the device A. The display unit 11 displays information on all songs, and the user can select a desired song while viewing the display.

  Next, the case of listening to Internet broadcasting will be described.

  By selecting “Internet” on the initial screen of the display unit 11 shown in FIG. 4 and then selecting a desired channel by looking at a broadcast station menu (not shown) that appears, it is possible to listen to Internet broadcasting in the same way as radio. it can. The Internet broadcast station menu is easy to use if the URL of the broadcast station is registered in advance using the numeric keypad of the operation button unit 2 of the apparatus A and the station name to be displayed on the menu is input by itself. Of course, the URL may be input each time.

  When downloading music or video from the Internet, the download destination menu appears (not shown) by pressing the download button (not shown) that appears after selecting "Internet" on the initial screen shown in FIG. Download the desired one. At this time, the browsing circuit 27 of the device B stores the downloaded music information in the HD 28 together with the song name information.

  When playing music downloaded over the Internet, the song title is selected on the display unit 11 of the device A, the music information is output from the HD 28 of the device B, and the information is already compression-coded and stored. Are sent to the CCU 21 without going through the CODEC 22. The subsequent signal flow is the same as when listening to the radio. In addition, when downloading music with another device, for example, another personal computer regardless of this device, and listening to the music using this device, use a portable storage device, The device may be stored in the HD 28 after being inserted into the memory card adapter 29 of the device B, or may be transferred to the HD 18 of the device B via the LAN connector e of the device B. These operations can be performed by using a “maintenance” button that appears on the initial screen of the display unit 11 of the apparatus A.

  Next, the flow of signals when there is an incoming call while watching music, radio, or television will be described.

  The NCU 23 of the apparatus B always observes incoming calls. When an incoming call is detected, the flow of information related to sound such as music or radio is temporarily stopped, and from whomever the caller's phone number information is sent from the central office to the CCU 17 of the device A from the CCU 21 of the device B Communicate that information along with information about whether you received a call. The CCU 17 of the device A sends a ring tone (may be a ringing melody) stored in the memory area of the CCU 17 (which may be the CCU 21 of the device B) or the user interface circuit 13 to the speaker 14 in order to ring the ring tone. At the same time, the message “There is an incoming call from Mr. XXX” is displayed on the display unit 11 of the device A (not shown). When receiving an incoming call, by pressing a “YES” button (not shown) displayed under “Mr. In this case as well, it is possible to record the contents of the call on the HD 28 of the device B. If you do not want to answer the phone, press the “NO” button (not shown) displayed below the “YES” button to place the device B in the answering machine state. A message indicating that the message is in the middle reaches the other party via the CCU 21, CODEC 22, and NCU 23, and the other party's message is stored in the HD 28 via the NCU 23, CODEC 22, and CCU 21.

  When the call ends, it automatically returns to its original state. The original state is a broadcast from the broadcast station (when receiving a TV) if a radio broadcast is being received, or a playback immediately after being interrupted when enjoying the information stored in the HD 28.

  The volume of the speaker during a telephone call can be set lower than that during normal music reproduction by the “maintenance” button. When the telephone function is not an ordinary telephone line but an Internet telephone is used, the calling circuit and the incoming call are controlled by the browsing circuit 27.

  As a next application example, when a customer is enjoying music, radio, and television and the door phone is operated, a conversation with the customer can be performed in the same process as when the incoming call is received. In the door phone with the camera, the video of the visitor is displayed on the display unit 11. The content of conversations with visitors can also be saved on the HD28. This would be an effective preparation for suspicious visitors.

  Next, the “maintenance” function of FIG. 4 will be described.

  The maintenance function is to perform initial setting, setting change, address registration, and change of registered contents of a general mobile phone, and the operation procedure is performed in the same manner as the mobile phone. The numeric keypad of the operation unit 12 is used as a character input key for inputting alphanumeric characters, katakana and hiragana. Date and time setting, phone address book, address book creation from incoming phone number, input and registration of URL information for accessing the Internet WWW, speaker volume setting, display brightness, etc. . Setting the use of two scroll buttons of the device A, for example, the right and left buttons, as the volume volume during music playback is also performed using the maintenance function, or setting the device A as an alarm clock ( Register the recipients (phone numbers) that are allowed to receive calls during the midnight hours). Various settings can be registered in the HD 28 using the operation button unit 12 of the device A, such as a setting for improving usability, such as receiving only notifications in the event of an emergency in the family or relatives. . In addition, the telephone conversation and the conversation record with the visitor are set so as to remain in the HD 28 by default, the recorded content is reproduced or erased, and the multimedia information input to the HD 28 from the card adapter 29 or the browsing circuit 27 is added to the personal preference. Or delete the information.

  Furthermore, when the wireless communication circuits 18 and 20 and the COPDECs 16 and 22 are implemented with a plurality of systems (for example, IEEE802.11b and UWB as wireless communication systems and MPEG4 and H.264 as video CODEC systems) General settings of the internal functions of the device B having no operation unit, such as which method is set as default, are performed.

  In the above embodiment, the device B is described as a case having no operation unit, and such a product form may exist, but the function of the device B is incorporated in the television receiver, Alternatively, it may be incorporated into a so-called multimedia information device such as a DVD recording / playback device, a video tape recorder, a CD player, a home server, or a next-generation digital home appliance called home gateware. The function of the device B can also exist as a peripheral device of a personal computer. In that case, some of the functions of the device B may be used in duplicate with the functional blocks inherent in the multimedia information device. For example, this is the case with a CODEC or television signal receiving circuit in a DVD recording / reproducing apparatus.

  There may be a plurality of devices A such as a handset of a telephone, for example, each family member owns one, and by assigning a user number to each, a telephone address book according to each person If you register your favorite music or register your favorite music (your favorite menu), you can improve your convenience.

  1 and 2, the embodiments are described with functional blocks. In practice, however, computers, ROMs, RAMs, or many electronic devices equipped with dedicated LSIs as required are generally used. It is realized with a typical configuration.

1 shows an overall configuration of a multimedia system according to the present invention. 1 shows a circuit configuration of an apparatus A as a mobile device constituting a multimedia according to the present invention. The circuit structure of the apparatus B as a fixed machine which comprises the multimedia by this invention is shown. A part of the operation screen appearing on the display unit of apparatus A is shown.

Explanation of symbols

1 Mobile device 11 Display unit 12 Operation unit 13 User interface circuit 14 Speaker 15 Microphone 16 Coding / decoding circuit (CODEC)
17 Communication control unit (CCU)
18 Wireless communication circuit 2 Fixed machine 20 Wireless communication circuit 21 Communication control unit (CCU)
22 Coding / decoding circuit (CODEC)
23 Telephone network control circuit (NCU)
24 door phone signal receiving circuit 25 television radio wave receiving circuit 26 radio wave receiving circuit 27 browsing circuit 28 hard disk (HD)
29 Memory card adapter 100, 200 Antenna

Claims (12)

A device A having a communication control circuit for communicating multimedia information such as a wireless communication circuit, voice, music video, and control information related to the information together with a device B, together with a microphone, a speaker, a display, and operation buttons ,
Device having outgoing / incoming call control circuit for controlling outgoing / incoming call of telephone, communication control circuit for communicating multimedia information and control information related to the information with device A, wireless communication circuit, and storage device A multimedia system comprising B.   2. The multimedia system according to claim 1, wherein the device B has a compression encoding / decoding circuit for multimedia information.   The multimedia system according to claim 1, wherein the device A has a compression encoding / decoding circuit for multimedia information.   The multimedia system according to claim 1, wherein the device B has a connection function with a portable storage medium.   The multimedia system according to claim 1, wherein the device B has a function of receiving television radio waves.   The multimedia system according to claim 1, wherein the device B has a function of receiving radio waves.   2. The multimedia system according to claim 1, wherein the device B has a connection function with a multimedia information reproducing device.   The multimedia system according to claim 1, wherein the device B has a conversation function with a visitor via a door phone.   The multimedia system according to claim 1, wherein the device B has a WWW access function.   A television apparatus comprising the function of the apparatus B according to claim 1.   A multimedia information device comprising the device B function according to claim 1.   A telephone having the function of the device B according to claim 1.

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