JP2007304175A - On-vehicle audio device and audio system - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an on-vehicle audio device and audio system capable of properly switching audio sources. <P>SOLUTION: The on-vehicle audio device having a storage means for storing music is provide with; a communication means for communicating with a portable music reproducing device; and a determination means for determining whether the same music as scheduled reproducing music due to reproduce with the portable music reproducing device is stored in the storage means based on information fetched by the communication means. When the determination means determines that the same music as the scheduled reproducing music is stored in the storage means, the scheduled reproducing music is output regarding the music which is the same as the scheduled reproducing music stored in the storage means as the audio source if a prescribed condition is established, and the information concerning the scheduled reproducing music in the portable music reproducing device becomes the audio source so as to output the scheduled reproducing music if the prescribed condition is not established. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2008,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a vehicle acoustic device that reproduces music in cooperation with a portable music playback device, and an acoustic system realized by the vehicle acoustic device and the portable music playback device.

  In recent years, with the widespread use of portable music playback devices incorporating a flash memory or a hard disk, research on technologies for linking such portable music playback devices and vehicle acoustic devices is underway.

As an example of a vehicle acoustic device (and an acoustic system including a portable music playback device) using such a technique, one described in Patent Document 1 is known. In this apparatus (system), a portable music playback device when a driver gets on the vehicle on the assumption that the same music as the music played by the portable music playback device is stored in the vehicle acoustic device. The sound source is switched from the vehicle acoustic device to the vehicle acoustic device, and when the vehicle gets off from the vehicle, the sound source is switched from the vehicle acoustic device to the portable music player.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2003-7040

  However, since the sound source is automatically switched when getting on or off the vehicle as in the conventional device, the control may be inappropriate. For example, if the music held by the portable music playback device has a lower compression rate and better sound quality than the same song stored by the vehicle acoustic device, the music is output using the portable music playback device as a sound source. Is preferred. Further, the present invention is not limited to this, and various conditions can be set as to which of the portable music playback device and the vehicle acoustic device is used as the sound source.

  The present invention has been made to solve such problems, and a main object thereof is to provide a vehicle acoustic device and an acoustic system that can appropriately switch sound sources.

  In order to achieve the above object, a first aspect of the present invention is a vehicular acoustic device comprising a storage means for storing a song, the communication means for communicating with a portable music player, and the communication means Determining means for determining whether or not the same song as the scheduled reproduction song to be played by the portable music playback device is stored in the storage means, based on information obtained by communication with the portable music playback device; , And when the determination means determines that the same song as the scheduled reproduction is stored in the storage means, if the predetermined condition is satisfied, the same as the scheduled reproduction music stored in the storage means A song to be played is output using the song as a sound source, and if the predetermined condition is not satisfied, the song to be played is output using the song to be played held by the portable music player as a sound source.

  According to the first aspect of the present invention, the sound source is switched based on whether or not various predetermined conditions are satisfied. Therefore, the sound source can be switched appropriately.

  In the first aspect of the present invention, the predetermined condition is, for example, that the compression rate of the portable music playback device for the scheduled playback song is higher than the compression rate of the same song as the scheduled playback song in the storage means. .

  In the first aspect of the present invention, the predetermined condition is, for example, that the remaining battery level of the portable music player is less than a predetermined value.

  In the first aspect of the present invention, the predetermined condition is, for example, that the compression rate in the portable music playback device of the scheduled playback song is higher than the compression rate of the same song as the scheduled playback song in the storage means, and Either the remaining battery level of the music playback device for use is less than a predetermined value is established.

  Further, in the first aspect of the present invention, the scheduled playback song to be played by the portable music playback device may be replaced with the currently played song being played by the portable music playback device. Absent.

  The second aspect of the present invention is the sound realized by the vehicle acoustic device according to the first aspect of the present invention and the portable music playback device that transmits the scheduled reproduction music in real time according to the communication with the vehicle acoustic device. System.

  ADVANTAGE OF THE INVENTION According to this invention, the audio equipment for vehicles which can switch a sound source appropriately, and an audio system can be provided.

  Hereinafter, the best mode for carrying out the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

  Hereinafter, an embodiment of an acoustic device for a vehicle and an acoustic system according to the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating an example of the overall configuration of an acoustic system 1 according to an embodiment of the present invention. The acoustic system 1 is realized by the portable music playback device 10 and the vehicle acoustic device 50.

  The portable music playback device 10 includes a memory 12, a battery 14, a control device 16, and a communication device 18 as main components. In addition to these, the portable music playback device 10 includes an input operation unit, headphones, and the like, and provides music to the user.

  As the memory 12, for example, a readable / writable storage medium such as a hard disk or a flash memory is used. The memory 12 stores music that is appropriately compressed using a compression method such as MP3 (MPEG Audio Layer-3), a bit rate that indicates the compression rate (the higher the bit rate, the lower the compression rate), the song name, and other songs. Information about is stored. Information related to such music is typically created by using dedicated software (including an encoder that performs compression) in the user PC, and is used for a portable music playback device via a USB (Universal Serial Bus) connection or the like. 10 and stored in the memory 12.

  For example, when a music CD is set in the CD-ROM drive of the user PC, music is compressed at an arbitrary bit rate by the dedicated software, and the compressed music and bit rate are output. At the same time, TOC (Table Of Contents) data attached to the CD is read, and a database such as a CDDB existing on the Internet is searched using this TOC data, so that information such as song name and album name (song attribute) Etc. may also be included).

  In addition, it may be assumed that a song or album is downloaded and purchased on the user PC, and stored in the memory 12 by another method. In such a case, information such as a song name is not always automatically given. However, a system that searches for information on a song based on music waveform data that has been studied in recent years, a text input by a user, etc. May be supplemented.

  The structure of the battery 14 is well known to those skilled in the art and will not be described in detail. Note that the remaining battery level of the battery 14 is input to the control device 16.

  The control device 16 is a computer including a CPU, for example, and controls the portable music playback device 10 as a whole. The control device 16 reproduces the music stored in the storage unit based on the input operation performed on the input operation unit, while reproducing the music based on the control signal transmitted from the vehicle acoustic device 50 as described later. Stop, pause, etc. The control device 16 includes a decoder for reproducing the compressed music.

  The communication device 18 is, for example, a device that can be attached to and detached from the main body of the portable music playback device 10, and communicates with the vehicle acoustic device 50 using a short-range wireless transmission protocol such as Bluetooth according to an instruction signal from the control device 16. Communicate. While this communication system has various advantages such as compatibility between manufacturers and operability, there are some restrictions on the communication load. For this reason, in order to transmit and reproduce a song in real time, a so-called streaming method is inevitably used in which a compressed song is gradually transmitted and the receiving side reproduces it immediately by a decoder. Note that when batch transmission is performed, the time required for transmission / reception becomes long, so a blank time during which no music is output is generated, which is not preferable.

  The vehicular audio device 50 includes, as main components, a vehicular communication device 60, a vehicular memory 70, a speaker unit 80, and an audio device electronic control unit (hereinafter referred to as an audio device ECU) 90. Prepare. In addition to these, the vehicle acoustic device 50 includes an input operation unit, a CD / MD changer, a radio antenna, a tuner, and the like.

  As described above, the vehicle communication device 60 communicates with the communication device 18 using a short-range wireless transmission protocol such as Bluetooth.

  The vehicle memory 70 uses, for example, a storage medium such as a hard disk or a DVD, and stores information on songs, bit rates, song titles, and other songs, similar to the memory 12 of the portable music player 10. Information about such songs is typically created by the following method.

  For example, when a music CD is set in a CD / MD changer, music is compressed using compression software provided in the acoustic device ECU 90, and the compressed music and bit rate are output. At the same time, the TOC data attached to the music CD is read, and a database such as the CDDB is searched through the in-vehicle internet facility, and information such as a song name and an album name is given. In addition, the present invention is not limited to this method, and a song transmitted in real time from the portable music playback device 10 may be recorded at the same time as described later, or may be recorded from a radio broadcast or the like. The points that can be complemented by other means when the song title is not automatically given are the same as when information is stored in the memory 12 of the portable music player 10.

  The vehicle memory 70 may share a map database storage medium provided in the navigation device. As for the input operation unit of the vehicle acoustic device 50, an input operation device such as a touch panel, a steering switch, and a rear controller provided on the center armrest may be shared.

  The speaker unit 80 includes, for example, a power amplifier, a center speaker disposed on the instrument panel, a woofer disposed on the rear side of the vehicle, left and right tweeters, a front speaker, a rear speaker, and the like. The speaker unit 80 forms a three-dimensional sound field by using the speakers arranged around the passenger seat in this way, and plays music with better sound quality than the headphones of the portable music player 10. It is possible to output. Therefore, in a situation where the driver gets into the vehicle while listening to the music reproduced by the portable music player 10, it is natural that the user wants to output the currently listened music from the speaker unit 80 instead of the headphones. It is. In the case of the present embodiment, this request is to start streaming transmission (transmission by streaming method; the same applies hereinafter) for the music being played by the portable music player 10 at a predetermined timing. Can be satisfied by playing immediately. In addition, S100 of the flowchart mentioned later corresponds to this.

  The acoustic device ECU 90 is a computer unit in which, for example, a CPU, a ROM, a RAM, and the like are connected to each other via a bus (not shown), and further includes a communication port, a timer, a counter, and the like. In addition, the acoustic device ECU 90 includes a decoder for reproducing a compressed music piece as one of functions realized by using such hardware. The decoder immediately reproduces the music streamed from the portable music player 10 and outputs it from the speaker unit 80, and reproduces the music stored in the vehicle memory 70 and outputs it from the speaker unit 80. Used separately (a different decoder may be used). Therefore, in the acoustic system 1 of the present embodiment, if the same song is stored in both the memory 12 and the vehicle memory 70, which of these is used as a sound source to reproduce the song, Can be switched.

  Hereinafter, the operation when the acoustic device ECU 90 switches the sound source and reproduces the music as described above will be described. FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing a flow of characteristic processing executed by the acoustic device ECU 90. This flow may be automatically started at a predetermined timing (for example, when the ignition is turned on or when the engine is started), or may be applied to the input operation unit of the portable music playback device 10 or the vehicle acoustic device 50. It may be started at any time when the input operation is performed.

  First, the acoustic device ECU 90 requests the portable music playback device 10 to perform streaming transmission of the currently played song, plays the song for which transmission has started, and outputs it from the speaker unit 80 (S100). . At this time, an instruction signal may be output to the portable music playback device 10 so that output from the portable music playback device 10 to the headphones or the like is stopped.

  Then, the portable music playback device 10 is transmitted with a song name list of the song to be played, a compression rate of the song to be played (actually bit rate; the same applies hereinafter), and the remaining battery level of the portable music player 10. And request these (S110). In the present embodiment, the song to be played means that the song currently being played is stored from the music CD, and refers to the song from the next song to the last song on the music CD. Shall. In other cases, the next song after the currently playing song is used.

  When the above data is input, it is determined whether or not the same music as the music to be reproduced (the same music group when stored from the music CD) exists in the vehicle memory 70 (S120). If the same song as the scheduled song to be reproduced does not exist in the vehicle memory 70, the song is reproduced by the streaming method using the song stored in the memory 12 as a sound source (S130).

  If the same song as the scheduled song is present in the vehicle memory 70, the compression rate of the scheduled song is compared with the compression rate of the same song stored in the vehicle memory 70 (S140). When the compression rate of the same song stored in the memory 70 is lower (the bit rate is higher), the reproduction schedule stored in the vehicle memory 70 is waited for the currently played song to end. A song is reproduced using the same song as the song as a sound source, and an instruction signal is transmitted to the portable music player 10 to stop streaming transmission (S160). In consideration of the procedure at the time of storage, the compression rate of the songs stored from the same music CD is usually the same, so that the determination result of this determination can be uniquely obtained.

  As a result of such processing, when the same song is stored in both the memory 12 and the vehicle memory 70, music playback is performed with the sound source having the lower compression rate as a sound source, and the speaker unit 80 plays music with better sound quality. Will be output. The compression method such as MP3 may employ an irreversible compression method that obtains a high compression rate by thinning out data that is difficult for humans to perceive. If the compression rate is too high, the sound quality will be degraded during reproduction. Because there is a possibility.

  On the other hand, if the compression rate of the same song stored in the vehicle memory 70 is higher (bit rate is lower), it is determined whether or not the remaining battery level of the portable music player 10 is less than a predetermined amount. If it is determined (S150), and the remaining battery level of the portable music player 10 is less than the predetermined amount, the process of S160 is performed.

  By such processing, even if the sound quality is better when the music stored in the memory 12 is used as a sound source, if the remaining battery level of the portable music player 10 is not sufficient, it is stored in the vehicle memory 70. Since the selected music is switched to be a sound source, the portable music player 10 can be prevented from running out of battery. Thereby, when driving | running | working is complete | finished and the music reproduction of the portable music reproduction apparatus 10 is utilized again, the inconvenience that the portable music reproduction apparatus 10 will be in the state of a battery exhaustion can be suppressed.

  When the reproduction of the scheduled reproduction music is completed, the processing from S110 onward may be similarly performed on the next reproduction scheduled music.

  According to the acoustic system 1 of the present embodiment described above, the sound source is switched based on the compression rate of the music stored in the memory 12 and the vehicle memory 70 and the remaining battery level of the portable music playback device 10. It is possible to perform music playback with good sound quality and to suppress the portable music playback device 10 from running out of battery. That is, the sound source can be switched appropriately.

  As mentioned above, although the best mode for carrying out the present invention has been described using one embodiment, the present invention is not limited to such one embodiment, and within the scope not departing from the gist of the present invention, Various modifications and substitutions can be made to the above-described embodiment.

  For example, a portable CD player or a portable MD player may be used as the portable music player 10. However, when a device that reproduces music using an uncompressed sound source such as a portable CD player is used, an encoder must be provided in the device if transmission / reception is performed by the streaming method.

  On the other hand, the communication method between the portable music playback device 10 and the vehicle acoustic device 50 is not limited to the one using a short-range wireless transmission protocol such as Bluetooth. For example, the music may be transmitted in real time using FM radio waves using an FM transmitter, or the portable music playback device 10 may be cable-connected to an AUX terminal or the like on the vehicle side. When these communication methods are used, it is not necessary to provide an encoder in the apparatus even if the apparatus performs music reproduction using an uncompressed sound source such as a portable CD player. However, it is generally known that when an FM transmitter is used, the sound quality tends to be lower than when the streaming method of the embodiment is used. In addition, the extension of the cable in the passenger compartment is generally complicated.

  Further, the sound source is switched based on the compression rate and the remaining battery level, but the sound source may be switched based on the compression rate as shown in FIG. 3, or simply based on the remaining battery level as shown in FIG. The sound source may be switched.

  In S160, it is assumed that the sound source is switched after waiting for the currently played song to end, but it may be switched immediately. However, in this case, there is a problem that the music is interrupted due to a technical problem, and the user may feel uncomfortable.

  INDUSTRIAL APPLICABILITY The present invention can be used for a vehicle acoustic device that reproduces music in cooperation with at least a portable music player. The appearance, weight, size, running performance, etc. of the vehicle to be mounted are not limited.

It is a figure showing an example of the whole composition of acoustic system 1 concerning one example of the present invention. It is a flowchart which shows the flow of the characteristic process which ECU90 for acoustic apparatuses performs. It is another example of the flowchart which shows the flow of the characteristic process which ECU90 for acoustic apparatuses performs. It is another example of the flowchart which shows the flow of the characteristic process which ECU90 for acoustic apparatuses performs.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Acoustic system 10 Portable music reproduction apparatus 12 Memory 14 Battery 16 Control apparatus 18 Communication apparatus 50 Acoustic apparatus for vehicles 60 Communication apparatus for vehicles 70 Memory for vehicles 80 Speaker unit 90 Electronic control unit for acoustic devices

Claims (6)

A vehicular acoustic device comprising storage means for storing a song,
A communication means for communicating with the portable music player;
Whether or not the same song as the scheduled song to be played back by the portable music playback device is stored in the storage unit based on information obtained by communication with the portable music playback device by the communication means Determination means for determining whether or not
When it is determined by the determination means that the same song as the scheduled reproduction is stored in the storage means, the same as the scheduled reproduction stored in the storage means if a predetermined condition is satisfied The music to be played is output as a sound source, and when the predetermined condition is not satisfied, the music to be played is held as a sound source and the music to be played is output as the sound source. A vehicle acoustic device. The vehicle acoustic device according to claim 1,
The vehicle acoustic apparatus, wherein the predetermined condition is that a compression rate of the music to be played in the portable music playback device is higher than a compression rate of the same music as the music to be played back in the storage unit. The vehicle acoustic device according to claim 1,
The vehicle acoustic apparatus, wherein the predetermined condition is that a remaining battery level of the portable music player is less than a predetermined value. The vehicle acoustic device according to claim 1,
The predetermined condition is that the compression rate of the music to be played in the portable music playback device is higher than the compression rate of the same song as the music to be played back in the storage means, and the remaining battery of the portable music playback device One of the following is established:
Vehicle acoustic device.   The vehicle according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein the scheduled reproduction music to be reproduced by the portable music reproduction device is replaced with a reproduction song being reproduced by the portable music reproduction device. Acoustic device.   An acoustic system realized by the vehicle acoustic device according to any one of claims 1 to 5 and a portable music playback device that transmits the reproduction-scheduled music in real time according to communication with the vehicle acoustic device.

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