JP3368202B2 - Recording and playback device - Google Patents

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a recording / reproducing apparatus for recording / reproducing analog signals such as voice and music.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, as recording media for recording and reproducing audio signals and video signals, magnetic tapes such as analog tapes, optical discs such as compact discs (CD) and digital video discs (DVD),
A magnetic disk such as a mini disk (MD) is practically used. Generally, an analog signal is recorded as it is on a magnetic tape as analog information and reproduced. There are also digital magnetic tapes. An analog signal such as voice, music, or video is converted into digital information and recorded on the CD. Digital information is further compressed and recorded in the MD. These tape-shaped or disk-shaped recording media are required to perform relative movement with respect to a head that writes and reads information, and has a mechanical driving portion.

On the other hand, a stationary type solid-state recording device having no mechanical driving part has been put into practical use as a low bit rate audio recording / reproducing device, for example, a so-called voice memo. In the voice memo, the voice information is compressed and recorded in a semiconductor memory or the like to save a necessary storage area. M
Since voice information is compressed and recorded in D, voice memos, etc., it is necessary to expand the compressed information back to the original information when reproducing the information.

As a prior art for realizing a recording / reproducing apparatus having no mechanical driving portion, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. Hei.
In -001997, an individual recording device using a CCD analog memory is proposed. In addition, JP-A-6-196647
Has proposed an analog memory using a ferroelectric substance. A solid-state recording device such as a voice memo uses a semiconductor memory. Although the storage capacity of the semiconductor memory is increasing year by year, it is still insufficient for recording voice information. Among the semiconductor memories, the dynamic RAM and the flash memory have an advantage that they have a particularly large capacity. However, the dynamic RAM is volatile, and the stored contents cannot be retained unless power is constantly supplied to perform a refresh operation. Static RA
Although M needs to continue supplying power, it does not perform a refresh operation, so that power consumption can be reduced. The flash memory is an electrically rewritable non-volatile memory (EEPROM), and can retain recorded contents without supplying power.

[0005]

A recording / reproducing apparatus for mechanically driving a tape-shaped or disk-shaped recording medium consumes a large amount of current and is not preferable in a portable device in terms of size and weight, but has a large capacity and is expensive. It is necessary to use a small rechargeable battery or to use a small and lightweight battery because the battery life is shortened.

When recording / reproducing using a general semiconductor memory, it is necessary to use a compression circuit or an expansion circuit to save the storage capacity by compressing the information to be recorded and to restore the compressed information by expanding it. Therefore, it is necessary to operate a compression circuit and a decompression circuit for that purpose, and power consumption increases.

As a solid-state memory which can record and reproduce analog information as it is without a mechanical driving part, C
The storage capacity of the CD analog memory and the ferroelectric analog memory is still smaller than that of the semiconductor memory, and the unit price is higher than the ratio of the storage capacity. Therefore, it is not realistic to record and reproduce the acoustic signal currently recorded and reproduced on the magnetic tape or the like in only those analog memories.

An object of the present invention is to provide a recording / reproducing apparatus capable of improving convenience and reducing power consumption by properly using a plurality of types of memories according to the use status.

[0009]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention is a recording / reproducing apparatus having an analog memory capable of recording and reproducing analog information and a digital memory capable of writing and reading digital information. Concerning convenience and power consumption, conversion means for converting between digital information and compression / expansion means for compressing and writing digital information in a digital memory and reading and expanding digital information written in the digital memory. Control means for controlling to record / reproduce an analog signal as analog information by using an analog memory and / or record / reproduce as digital information by using a converting means, a compression / expansion means and a digital memory according to a predetermined condition. And a recording / reproducing apparatus including.

According to the present invention, the control means controls the analog memory to record and reproduce the analog information, the digital memory converts the analog information into the digital information, and the decompressing means compresses the analog information. It is possible to control so that the information is processed and written, read from the digital memory, expanded by the expansion compression means, converted into analog information by the conversion means and reproduced. Recording / reproducing to / from the analog memory as analog information and recording / reproducing to / from the digital memory after being converted into digital information are performed according to predetermined conditions regarding convenience and power consumption. It is possible to switch between recording and reproduction, compression and recording as digital information, or expansion and reproduction. Especially when it is necessary to reduce the power consumption, by recording and reproducing as analog information in the analog memory, there is no need to perform compression and expansion processing that consumes a lot of power, and the battery life during operation with the built-in battery is reduced. It can be extended.

In the present invention, instead of the analog memory, a multi-value flash memory is used.

According to the present invention, since the multilevel flash memory is used instead of the analog memory, a large capacity recording can be achieved by converting the analog information into digital information even if it does not have a mechanical driving part. It can be performed. If the compression / decompression process is not performed, power consumption can be suppressed.

According to the present invention, the digital memory is a semiconductor memory. According to the present invention, since the digital memory is composed of a semiconductor memory, it is possible to construct an inexpensive and large-capacity digital memory by using a widely used general semiconductor memory.

According to the present invention, the control means has a switching input means for switching between recording and reproducing the analog information as analog information and recording and reproducing as digital information according to an input given from the outside.
When the switching input is not given to the switching input means,
The present invention is characterized by further comprising: a switching determination unit that determines whether to use an internal battery as a power source or an external power source supplied through a power adapter and performs the switching according to the determination result.

According to the present invention, when an externally applied input or no input is applied to the switching input means,
The switching determination means determines whether to use an internal battery as a power source or an external power source supplied via a power adapter. According to the determination result, the control means can switch between recording and reproducing in the analog memory as analog information or converting into digital information and then recording and reproducing in the digital memory.

Further, in the present invention, the control means reads the analog information recorded in the analog memory, converts the analog information into digital information by the conversion means, compresses it by the compression / expansion means, and writes it in the digital memory. It is characterized by controlling to save in.

According to the present invention, the analog information recorded in the analog memory can be read out, subjected to conversion and compression processing, and then written and stored in the digital memory.

Further, according to the present invention, the compression / decompression means is provided with a plurality of compression circuits for executing the compression processing of the digital information in parallel.

According to the present invention, when the analog information stored in the analog memory is read out, converted into digital data and then compressed, the compression processing is executed in parallel by a plurality of compression circuits, so that the compression processing can be performed in a short time. The compression process can be performed at high speed.

Further, in the present invention, the control means includes an information division means for dividing the analog information read from the analog memory according to a division condition satisfying a predetermined continuity, and the information division means divides the analog information into analog information. The digital information based thereon is controlled to be compressed in parallel by the plurality of compression circuits.

According to the present invention, the digital information to be compressed in parallel by the plurality of compression circuits is divided by the information dividing means when it is read out from the analog memory as analog information in accordance with a dividing condition satisfying a predetermined continuity. Therefore, high-speed compression processing can be performed without impairing continuity.

Further, according to the present invention, the plurality of compression circuits write the digital information compressed in parallel into the digital memory at the end of the processing.

According to the present invention, the digital information compressed in parallel by the plurality of compression circuits is written in the digital memory at the end of the processing. Therefore, the plurality of digital information processed in parallel are combined before the digital memory. It is possible to perform a rapid compression process without using a large-capacity buffer required when writing to.

Further, in the invention, it is preferable that the control means controls to record new analog information in a recording area of the analog memory in which the analog information to be stored is recorded.

According to the present invention, new analog information can be recorded in the analog memory while the analog information recorded in the analog memory is compressed and stored in the digital memory.

In the present invention, the control means reads the digital information written in the digital memory by the compression / expansion means, performs expansion processing, converts the digital information into analog information by the conversion means, and converts the analog information. It is characterized in that it is controlled so as to be transferred to a memory and recorded.

According to the present invention, the digital information recorded in the digital memory can be expanded, converted into analog information, transferred to the analog memory and recorded, so that the same analog signal is repeatedly reproduced. In such a case, it is possible to reduce the power consumption by eliminating the need to operate the conversion means and the compression / expansion means each time the data is transferred to an analog memory and recorded as analog information and repeatedly reproduced. .

In the present invention, the control means determines whether the analog information recorded in the analog memory and the digital information recorded in the digital memory are based on an analog signal representing the same source data. It is characterized in that the same source judging means for judging is provided, and the analog information and the digital information judged to be the same source data by the same source judging means are reproduced by reproducing the analog information from the analog memory.

According to the present invention, the same source determination means is
It is determined whether the analog information recorded in the analog memory and the digital information written in the digital memory are based on the same analog signal representing the same source data. According to the determination result, the control means having the same source determining means controls to reproduce the analog information from the analog memory when the same source data is recorded in both the analog memory and the digital memory. It is possible to reduce the power consumption by stopping the operation of the compression / expansion means.

Further, in the present invention, the source data is acoustic information, and the same source determining means includes the analog information recorded in the analog memory and the leading silent portion of the digital information written in the digital memory in advance. It is characterized in that a predetermined number of information units are identification information for the determination.

According to the present invention, since the identification information for determining whether or not the source data is the same is provided in a predetermined number of information units including the leading silent portion of the digital information, special identification information is provided. It is not necessary to create and manage, and it is possible to easily determine whether or not the same source data is used.

[0032]

FIG. 1 shows a schematic electrical configuration of a recording / reproducing apparatus which is a recording / reproducing apparatus for acoustic signals, as a first embodiment of the present invention. The control circuit 1 includes a microcomputer or the like to perform a program operation, and controls the analog memory 2 and the digital memory 3 to record and reproduce acoustic information such as voice and music. A battery 4 is built in as a power source for operation, and power can be supplied from the outside via a power adapter 5. Whether or not the power supply adapter 5 is used is detected by the power supply detection circuit 6 which is a switching determination means. In FIG. 1, as shown in the legend, two parallel solid lines indicate the flow of analog signals, a thick solid line indicates the flow of digital signals, a broken line indicates the flow of digital compressed signals, and a thin solid line indicates the control signals. Shows the flow of. As the analog memory 2, a CCD memory or a ferroelectric memory is used. A RAM or a flash memory is used as the digital memory 3.

When the power supply detection circuit 6 determines that the power supply adapter 5 is not used, the battery 4 is used as a power supply, and the control circuit 1 controls the analog memory 2 to record and reproduce acoustic information. Is the default state. The key input device 7, which is a switching input means, is used for inputting an operation by the user of the recording / reproducing apparatus, and when the user inputs an instruction to start recording, recording is performed in the analog memory 2. The audio signal to be recorded is input as an analog information to the input selection circuit 8
And is recorded in the analog memory 2. Further, the output selection circuit 9 is switched so as to read and output analog information from the analog memory 2 when the user instructs reproduction through the key input device 7. Display device 1
0 is constituted by, for example, a liquid crystal display device (LCD), and displays related information about acoustic information to be recorded or reproduced. Through the key input device 7, the user can give an instruction for recording or reproduction and specify a piece of music as a unit of the target audio signal.

The control circuit 1 includes a switching control circuit 11, a data / address control circuit 12 and an ID determination circuit 13. The switching control circuit 11 controls the input selection circuit 8 and the output selection circuit 9 to be in a state for recording and reproducing analog information with respect to the analog memory 2, and the digital memory 3.
Control for switching between recording and reproducing digital information is performed. The data / address control circuit 12 performs control for recording / reproducing with respect to the analog memory 2 and the digital memory 3. The ID determination circuit 13 manages the ID, which is the identification information of the analog information and the digital information recorded in the analog memory 2 and the digital memory 3, respectively, and the analog information and the digital information having the same acoustic signal as the source data exist. It is determined whether to do.

In the recording / reproducing apparatus of this embodiment, the analog information recorded in the analog memory 2 is compressed and stored in the digital memory as digital information, and the digital information recorded in the digital memory 3 is recorded as analog data. It can also be transferred so as to be converted into information and recorded in the analog memory 2. An analog output switching circuit 20 is provided for this storage and transfer. The analog output switching circuit 20 performs switching such that analog information is input as an analog signal from the analog memory 2 or the output selection circuit 9 and the analog information is output to the output selection circuit 9 or the input selection circuit 8 as an analog signal, respectively. The switching of the input selection circuit 8, the analog output switching circuit 20, and the output selection circuit 9 is performed according to the control signals Select1, Select2, Select3 from the switching control circuit 11 of the control circuit 1, respectively.

The analog information input to the input selection circuit 8 is converted into digital information by an analog / digital (hereinafter abbreviated as "A / D") conversion circuit 21, and is passed through a voice analysis circuit 22 to a compression circuit 23. The compression processing is performed according to a predetermined method. The digital compressed signal from the compression circuit 23 is written in the digital memory 3 from the control circuit 1. The address of the digital memory 3 for writing the compressed digital information is designated by the address signal Address generated from the data / address control circuit 12 in the control circuit 1. The operation of the A / D conversion circuit 21 and the voice analysis circuit 22 is controlled by the control signal En generated by the control circuit 1.
controlled by able1. The operations of the compression circuit 24 and the digital memory 3 are controlled by the control signal Enable2 generated from the control circuit 1. The analog memory 2 is
The addressing of the analog data to be recorded and reproduced, which is controlled by the Enable3 signal generated from the control circuit 1, is performed according to the address signal Address generated from the data address control circuit 12.

When reproducing the digital information which is compressed and recorded in the digital memory 3, the compressed digital information is read by the control circuit 1 and the decompression circuit 24.
Given to. The decompression circuit 24 decompresses the compressed digital information by performing decompression processing in the direction opposite to the compression processing in the compression circuit 23, and a digital / analog (hereinafter abbreviated as “D / A”) conversion circuit. It is converted into analog information at 25 and given to the output selection circuit 9. The expansion circuit 24 and the D / A conversion circuit 25 are controlled by the control signal Enable4 generated from the control circuit 1. Control signal
Power consumption is reduced when the circuits controlled by Enables 1 to 4 are in a sleep state.

In this embodiment, when recording is performed using the analog memory 2 by designating the start of recording a music signal from the key input device 7, the ID determination circuit 13 in the control circuit 1 is used.
However, it is determined whether the music recorded in the analog memory 2 is already compressed and stored in the digital memory. If it is compressed and stored in the digital memory 3,
The switching control circuit 11 in the control circuit 1 controls the digital memory 3, the compression circuit 23, the voice analysis circuit 22, the A / D conversion circuit 21, the expansion circuit 24, and the D / A conversion circuit 25 with control signals Enable1, Enable2, and Enable4. Is controlled so as to be in the hibernation state. In addition, using the control signal Select1
The input selection circuit 8 is switched so as to select an analog signal from the outside. By such switching, an analog signal from the outside is transferred from the input selection circuit 8 to the analog memory 2
Is recorded directly on the.

If the music recorded in the analog memory 2 is not compressed and recorded in the digital memory 3 according to the judgment of the ID judging circuit 13 described above, the user is informed of this fact by using the display device 10. It is also possible to let the user know, and to select whether or not to compress and save. Further, since the sampling rates of the information recorded in the analog memory 2 and the digital memory 3 should be the same, the past recording recorded in the analog memory 2 is read out first, and the input selection circuit 8 outputs the internal analog output. The analog signal from the switching circuit 20 is switched so as to be selected, the A / D conversion circuit 21, the voice analysis circuit 22 and the compression circuit 23 are operated and recorded in the digital memory 3. Recorded analog memory 2
It is also possible to record a new external analog signal at the address of. Recording at the same time as storage is impossible with a recording medium such as a tape or disk, and is a process that can be realized only when a solid-state memory is used. In this way, the recording of the analog signal in the default analog memory 2 is performed, for example, for one song of the music signal.

Next, as a second embodiment of the present invention, an operation when the battery 4 is used as a power source for reproduction will be described. In the present embodiment, when the reproduction of the music of the music information is specified when the battery 4 is operated, the reproduction of the music recorded in the analog memory 2 is selected by default. When the user specifies reproduction start via the key input device 7, the ID determination circuit 13 in the control circuit 1 indicates that the music number of the music to be reproduced is recorded in the analog memory 2. Or not. At this time, of course, the A / D conversion circuit 21,
The circuit parts of the compression system, such as the voice analysis circuit 22 and the compression circuit 23, are controlled to be in a rest state.

When the ID judgment circuit 13 judges that the music recorded in the analog memory 2 is the object to be reproduced, the switching control circuit 11 in the control circuit 1 further causes the digital memory 3 and the expansion circuit 24 to be reproduced. Also, the decompression system circuit portion of the D / A conversion circuit 25 is controlled to be in a rest state. The data / address control circuit 12 in the control circuit 1 generates an address signal Address and sequentially reads the analog information recorded in the analog memory 2 to reproduce the music.

If the music recorded in the analog memory 2 is different from the music specified by the user as judged by the ID judgment circuit 13, the circuit parts which are put in the idle state by the switching control circuit 11 are selected. It is also possible to operate and control the reproduction so that the designated music is read from the digital memory 3 and reproduced.

Since the sampling rates should be the same, the past recording recorded in the analog memory 2 is read out first, and the output selection circuit 9 outputs the analog output switching circuit 20.
After selecting the analog signal from the analog memory 3 via the and playing it back to the outside, the digital memory 3
It is also possible to read compressed digital information from the computer, decompress it, transfer it to the address of the reproduced analog memory 2 and record it. Such processing is impossible with a recording medium such as a tape or a disk, and can be realized only by a recording / reproducing apparatus using a solid-state memory.

FIG. 2 is a circuit for the ID judging circuit 13 of FIG. 1 to judge whether the music recorded in the analog memory 2 and the music compressed and recorded in the digital memory 3 are the same. The concept of an ID management table is shown. An ID, which is identification information for identifying the identity of a song, that is, music information as source data, is stored in the digital memory 3 when the song recorded in the analog memory 2 is compressed and recorded in the digital memory 3. It is set in a part of the area, and the ID table for digital memory 31 and the ID table 31 for digital memory are set.
And an analog memory ID table 32 are provided, and the same ID is recorded in each table. Assuming that n pieces of digital information can be recorded in the digital memory 3, some of them, for example, two pieces of music information are recorded in the analog memory 2.

If the recording / reproducing apparatus has a clock function, a time stamp can be generally used as an ID. A serial number or the like can also be used as an ID. Since the head portion of the music recorded in the analog memory 2 also has a characteristic for each source data, the frame data of several frames at the head of the compressed digital information recorded in the digital memory 3 may be used as an ID. It is valid. A frame is a unit of audio compression information, and in a general compression method, it is often a fixed length having a byte number of several bytes to several hundred bytes. For example, JP-A-6-7647
5 discloses a technique of effectively processing a memory by processing a silent frame.

FIG. 3 shows, for one audio compressed data 40, frames 41 up to frame numbers 1, 2, ..., N.
42, ..., 4n, the first frame 41 is a silent frame and the second frame 42
An example is shown in which several frames from the start of a valid voiced frame to the start of a voiced frame are recorded as IDs. Since there is a strong possibility that there will be no sound at the beginning of the song, it can be used as a highly reliable ID if several frames until the start of a valid voiced frame are taken as IDs. For example, the first silent frame 41 and the second and third voiced frames 4
Three frames 2, 43 may be used as the ID.

Next, as a third embodiment of the present invention, the past recordings recorded in the analog memory 2 are read out first, compressed, recorded in the digital memory and stored, while the analog memory 2 already stored is stored. The operation of recording a new external analog signal at the address will be described. First, the control signal Enable1 from the switching control circuit 11 of the control circuit 1
The A / D conversion circuit 21, the voice analysis circuit 22, and the compression circuit 23 are operated by the. The control signal Select2 for selecting the analog output switching circuit 20 is set so that the analog signal reproduced from the analog memory 2 is supplied to the A / D conversion circuit 21 side via the input selection circuit 8. Further, the input selection circuit 8 is set by the control signal Select1 from the switching control circuit 11 so that the analog signal from the outside is directly input to the analog memory 2. By setting in this way, if the sampling rate read from the analog memory 2 is set to be equal to or faster than the analog signal given from the outside, the past recording recorded in the analog memory 2 can be performed. A new external analog signal is recorded at the address of the processed analog memory 2 by reading it first and operating the A / D conversion circuit 21, the voice analysis circuit 22 and the compression circuit 23 to record it in the digital memory 3. be able to. Such processing is difficult to realize in a recording medium such as a tape or a disk that requires seek time. Further, even if the recording on the analog memory 2 and the compressed recording on the digital memory 3 do not proceed at the same time, the past recording recorded on the analog memory 2 is read first and compressed and recorded on the digital memory 3. Of course, it is possible to do just that.

Next, as a fourth embodiment of the present invention, while reproducing the past recording recorded in the analog memory 2,
The operation of operating the decompression circuit 24 and the D / A conversion circuit 25 to read the digital information compressed and recorded in the digital memory 3 and recording it as new analog information at the address of the reproduced analog memory 2 will be described. First, the switching control circuit 11 in the control circuit 1 includes the output selection circuit 9
The control signal Select3 is used to set the output from the analog output switching circuit 20 to the analog output switching circuit 20 side. The control signal Select2 is set so that the output from the analog output switching circuit 20 is given to the input selection circuit 8 side. The output of the input selection circuit 8 is set to be input to the analog memory 2, and the output of the analog memory 2 is set to be output to the outside via the output selection circuit 9.
If the sampling rate read from the digital memory 3 is set to be the same as the sampling rate of the analog output reproduced from the analog memory 2 by setting in this way, the voice or music recorded in the analog memory 2 While reproducing, the newly expanded analog signal can be recorded at the address of the reproduced analog memory 2.

Even if such reproduction and recording do not proceed at the same time, it is possible to collectively perform only the decompression processing after the reproduction of one music piece is completed. Further, a method of reading the next music piece from the digital memory 3 and expanding it all at once after the reproduction of the music piece recorded in the analog memory 2 is completed is considered.

Further, as a fifth embodiment of the present invention, a case where the compression circuit 23 of FIG. 1 is processed in parallel by a plurality of circuit groups will be described. The parallel operation of the compression circuit 23 is possible regardless of how the information to be compressed is divided. However, in the audio compression processing algorithm, the parameters of the audio compressed in the previous time or the previous time before are inherited as the information elements of the audio currently compressed. Therefore, if the audio information is divided at any position, the compressed information becomes discontinuous. There is a problem that it will end up. The voice analysis circuit 22, as an information dividing means, detects a portion where the same sound continues in a certain section in advance during voice recording and records the address thereof. This continuous portion may be voiced or silent.

When the music recorded once in the analog memory 2 is read and compressed, the control circuit 1 determines the optimum division position among the plurality of recorded addresses, and the plurality of circuits in the compression circuit 23 are determined. The compression processing is performed in parallel in groups.
For example, if there are two circuits capable of parallel processing, the address determined to be the closest to the center is set as a division position, and the address is divided into two and input to each circuit. If the outputs from the plurality of compression circuits are directly recorded in the digital memory 3, it is not necessary to combine them as digital information, and a buffer therefor is also unnecessary. As a result, the configuration can be simplified and the processing time can be shortened. If a plurality of decompression circuits 24 are provided, high-speed decompression processing can be performed even during reproduction.

When performing parallel processing in the compression circuit 23, since the compression information to be output is divided into a plurality of pieces,
It needs to be joined by some means. In this embodiment,
Linking is performed using the link information recorded for each frame. As shown in FIG. 4, the compression information is generally recorded in an information unit of n bytes. The link information indicates the address of the frame to be read next, and is a technique often applied to manage information records. That is,
One frame 4m is composed of a link flag 4ma and n bytes of compressed data 4mb. The link flag 4ma includes not only the link address 50 indicating the address of the frame to be read next, but also the total division number 51.
And the division number 52, and further includes another management flag group 53.

FIG. 5 shows the order of frames recorded in the analog memory 2 when the two divisions are performed. (A) shows the first half division part, (b) shows the second half division part. The analog memory 2 as a whole is in a recording state as shown in (c).

FIG. 6 shows a sixth embodiment of the present invention.
A schematic structure of a recording / reproducing apparatus using a multilevel flash memory 62 instead of the analog memory 2 of FIG. 1 is shown. In this embodiment, parts corresponding to those in the embodiment of FIG. 1 are designated by the same reference numerals, and duplicated description will be omitted. The digital information converted from the analog information by the A / D conversion circuit 21 is recorded in the multi-level flash memory 62 of the present embodiment without being compressed by the compression circuit 23. In addition, the recorded digital information does not pass through the decompression circuit 24, but the D / A
The conversion circuit 25 converts the analog information and reproduces it. In this embodiment, compared to the embodiment of FIG. 1, the A / D conversion circuit 21 or the D / A converter is used when recording and reproducing analog information.
Although it is necessary to operate the conversion circuit 25, the multilevel flash memory 62 can be used to perform recording with a larger capacity than the analog memory 2.

In each of the above-described embodiments, the audio signal is recorded and reproduced, but a video signal such as a still image or a moving image can be similarly recorded and reproduced.

[0056]

As described above, according to the present invention, analog information can be recorded / reproduced in / from the analog memory as it is,
Converting to digital information, decompressing and compressing it, and then recording and reproducing it as digital information in a digital memory can be switched to either one or both according to the predetermined conditions related to convenience and power consumption. Therefore, it is possible to improve the convenience according to the usage situation and reduce the power consumption.

Further, according to the present invention, since the analog information is recorded / reproduced in / from the multi-valued flash memory, a conversion means for converting the analog information into multi-valued digital information is required, but it has a larger capacity than the analog memory. Thus, analog information can be efficiently recorded and reproduced by using a relatively inexpensive multi-value flash memory.

Further, according to the present invention, since the semiconductor memory is used as the digital memory, it is not necessary to use a recording medium having a mechanical driving portion, and since there is no mechanical driving portion, the power consumption can be reduced. it can.

According to the present invention, analog information is recorded in an analog memory in order to reduce power consumption when an internal battery is used as a power source, and a large capacity is used when an external power source is used via a power adapter. Battery information is saved by compressing digital information in a recordable and reproducible digital memory to record digital information, and by properly using it according to the usage situation, taking advantage of the advantages of a relatively expensive analog memory and a relatively inexpensive digital memory. Can be extended.

Further, according to the present invention, when the analog information once recorded in the analog memory is converted into digital information, compressed and stored in the digital memory, the compression processing of the digital information is performed by a plurality of compression circuits. Since they can be performed in parallel, the time required for compression can be shortened.

Further, according to the present invention, the original analog information of the digital information which is compressed in parallel by the plurality of compression circuits by the information dividing means is divided by the dividing condition satisfying the predetermined continuity, so that it is combined after the compression processing. It is possible to reduce discomfort at the seam of information when performing.

Further, according to the present invention, when the recorded contents of the analog memory are stored as digital information, the compression process is divided by a plurality of compression circuits and then immediately written to the digital memory, so that the digital information is stored. A buffer for synthesizing is not required, and the structure can be simplified and a quick compression process can be performed.

Further, according to the present invention, when the analog information recorded from the analog memory is read and stored in the digital memory, new analog information can be recorded thereafter, so that the expensive analog memory can be used efficiently. can do.

Further, according to the present invention, since the digital information written in the digital memory can be read out, expanded, converted into analog information and transferred to the analog memory for recording, it can be reproduced repeatedly. Such digital information does not need to be expanded or converted into analog information for each reproduction, and power consumption can be reduced.

Further, according to the present invention, when the analog information and the digital information based on the same source data are recorded in the analog memory and the digital memory, respectively, the analog information is reproduced from the analog memory. It is not necessary to read out and perform decompression processing by the compression / decompression means, or to convert into analog information by the conversion means, and obtain power consumption reduction and convenience that playback can be started from an arbitrary position. You can

Furthermore, according to the present invention, since the identification is performed using the head portion of the digital information, it is not necessary to use special identification information, such as a time stamp, as the identification information, and the recording / reproducing apparatus having no time stamp function. The present invention can also be applied to. In addition, since the identification information can be universally managed among the recording / reproducing apparatuses that use the same audio compression method, the reliability can be significantly improved.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a schematic electrical configuration of a recording / reproducing apparatus as a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a concept of an ID management table 30 used by an ID determination circuit 13 of FIG.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a concept of using a silent portion of compressed audio data as an ID managed by an ID management table 30 of FIG.

4 is a diagram showing a concept of link address management in a case where a compression circuit 23 of FIG. 1 performs division processing using a plurality of circuit groups.

5 is a diagram showing a concept of a recording state of an analog memory 2 when performing a two-division process using the link address management system of FIG.

6 is a block diagram showing a schematic electrical configuration of an embodiment in which a multilevel flash memory 62 is used instead of the analog memory 2 of FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 control circuit 2 analog memory 3 digital memory 4 batteries 5 power adapter 6 Power supply detection circuit 7 key input device 8 input selection circuit 9 Output selection circuit 10 Display 11 Switching control circuit 12 Data address control circuit 13 ID determination circuit 20 Analog output switching circuit 21 A / D conversion circuit 22 Voice analysis circuit 23 Compression circuit 24 Expansion circuit 25 D / A conversion circuit 30 ID management table 40 audio compression data 41-4n, 4m frame 50 link address 62 Multilevel flash memory

─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (72) Kenji Miwa 22-22 Nagaike-cho, Abeno-ku, Osaka-shi, Osaka Prefecture Sharp Corporation (72) Inventor Yukio Kawamoto 22-22 Nagaike-cho, Abeno-ku, Osaka City, Osaka Sharp Corporation (72) Inventor Kazuhiro Kishimoto 22-22 Nagaike-cho, Abeno-ku, Osaka-shi, Osaka Inside Sharp Corporation (56) References JP-A-4-1997 (JP, A) JP-A-58-35790 (JP, A) JP-A-6-203555 (JP, A) JP-A-9-139095 (JP, A) JP-A-10-27486 (JP, A) JP-A-10-65836 (JP, A) JP-A-8-305394 (JP, A) JP-A-8-234797 (JP, A) JP-A-7-121200 (JP, A) (58) Fields investigated (Int.Cl. ⁷ , DB name) G10L 19/00 G11C 27 / 00

Claims (12)

(57) [Claims] 1. A recording / reproducing apparatus comprising an analog memory capable of recording and reproducing analog information and a digital memory capable of writing and reading digital information, wherein conversion between analog information and digital information is performed. Conversion means for performing, compression / expansion means for compressing and writing digital information in a digital memory, reading and expanding the digital information written in the digital memory, and an analog signal according to a predetermined condition regarding convenience and power consumption. And / or control means for controlling to record / reproduce as analog information using an analog memory and / or control means for controlling to record / reproduce as digital information using a converting means, a compression / expansion means and a digital memory. Recording / playback device. 2. The recording / reproducing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a multilevel flash memory is used instead of the analog memory. 3. The recording / reproducing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the digital memory is a semiconductor memory. 4. The switching input means for switching between recording and reproducing the analog information as analog information and recording and reproducing as digital information according to an input given from the outside, and the switching input means. When the switching input is not given to
4. A switching discriminating means for discriminating whether to use an internal battery as a power source or an external power source supplied through a power adapter and performing the switching according to the discrimination result. The recording / reproducing apparatus according to any one of 1. 5. The control means reads the analog information recorded in the analog memory, converts it into digital information by the conversion means, compresses it by the compression / expansion means, and writes it in the digital memory for storage. 5. The recording / reproducing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the recording / reproducing apparatus is controlled to 6. The recording / reproducing apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the compression / decompression means includes a plurality of compression circuits that execute compression processing of the digital information in parallel. 7. The control means includes information division means for dividing analog information read from the analog memory according to a division condition satisfying a predetermined continuity, and digital information based on the analog information divided by the information division means. 7. The recording / reproducing apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the information is controlled to be compressed in parallel by the plurality of compression circuits. 8. The recording / reproducing apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the plurality of compression circuits write the digital information compressed in parallel in the digital memory at the end of the processing. 9. The control unit controls to record new analog information in a recording area of the analog memory in which the analog information to be stored is recorded. The recording / reproducing apparatus according to any one of 1. 10. The control means reads the digital information written in the digital memory by the compression / expansion means, performs expansion processing, converts the digital information into analog information by the conversion means, and stores the analog information in the analog memory. The recording / reproducing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the recording / reproducing apparatus is controlled so as to be transferred and recorded. 11. The control means includes analog information recorded in the analog memory,
The same source determination means for determining whether or not the digital information recorded in the digital memory is based on an analog signal representing the same source data, and the analog information determined to be the same source data by the same source determination means 11. The recording / reproducing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the reproduction of the digital information is performed by reproducing the analog information from the analog memory. 12. The source data is acoustic information, and the same source determination means includes a predetermined number including a leading silent portion of analog information recorded in the analog memory and digital information written in the digital memory. 12. The recording / reproducing apparatus according to claim 11, wherein the information unit of is the identification information for the determination.