JP3824434B2 - Karaoke equipment - Google Patents

Description

[0001]
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a karaoke apparatus.
[0002]
[Prior art]
In recent years, karaoke apparatuses are required not only to perform karaoke performance but also various additional functions. For example, a scoring function is one of the functions added to meet such a demand.
[0003]
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
By the way, what is worrisome for those who enjoy karaoke and those who are waiting for their turn is the remaining time of the song currently being played. If you know the remaining time or the current time position in the entire song you are singing, for example, the singer stops singing at an appropriate place and gives the microphone to another user who is waiting for his turn. You can also do things. Conventionally, there has been a request for such a function, but a karaoke apparatus that satisfies such a request has not yet been provided.
[0004]
The present invention has been made in view of the circumstances as described above, and an object of the present invention is to provide a karaoke apparatus capable of displaying the remaining time of the currently played music or the current temporal position of the entire music. It is said.
[0005]
[Means for Solving the Problems]
The present invention relates to a song data storage means for storing song data having song time data indicating the song time of the song, event data for instructing performance control, and time data for designating a time interval for reading the event data, By repeatedly executing a timer interrupt routine for controlling the reading of event data in music data at regular time intervals, the event data is sequentially read out from the music data storage means at time intervals specified by the time data, Performance control means to be supplied to the generation device, song time detection means for detecting the song time of the song from song time data stored in the song data storage means, and after performance control by the performance control means is started Count the number of executions of the timer interrupt routine, and based on the count value, play the music Provided timing means for determining the elapsed time from said track time and the elapsed time, and display means for displaying seeking remaining time of the singing in point or the music representing the current temporal position in the music from the beginning To do.
[0006]
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
Embodiments will be described below for easier understanding of the present invention.
Such an embodiment shows one aspect of the present invention, and is not intended to limit the present invention, and can be arbitrarily changed within the scope of the present invention.
[0007]
A. Configuration of Embodiment FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a hardware configuration of a karaoke apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.
[0008]
In FIG. 1, a CPU 1 is a control center of the karaoke device, and is provided with a ROM 2, a RAM 3, a receiving unit 5, an operation unit 6, an HDD (hard disk device) 7, an auxiliary storage unit 8, and a lyrics display processing unit 9 via a bus 17. Various information is exchanged between the image synthesizing apparatus 10 and the musical tone signal generating unit 12, and the entire karaoke apparatus is controlled. The ROM 2 is a storage unit that stores a control program such as a loader executed by the CPU 1. The RAM 3 is used as a main memory by the CPU 1 and also as a means for storing song data used for karaoke performance.
[0009]
The remote controller 4, the receiving unit 5, and the operation unit 6 are means provided as a man-machine interface. That is, the remote controller 5 outputs an infrared signal corresponding to a command or song number given by the user, and the receiving unit 5 demodulates the original command or song number from this infrared signal and transmits it to the CPU 1. . In addition, the user can give a command, a song number, or the like to the CPU 1 by operating the operation unit 6.
[0010]
Both the HDD 7 and the auxiliary storage device 8 are means for storing song data. The song data is transmitted to the karaoke apparatus via communication means (not shown), and this song data is stored in a song data storage area set in the HDD 7. The auxiliary storage device 8 is constituted by a CD-ROM, a DVD, or the like, and stores a part of song data in place of the HDD 7 when the free space of the song data storage area of the HDD 7 is insufficient. I'm in charge. The CPU 1 reads out song data corresponding to the song number designated by the user from the HDD 7 or the auxiliary storage device 8 and stores it in the RAM 3, and controls the karaoke performance according to the song data in the RAM 3.
[0011]
The song data for one song is composed of performance data for controlling musical instrument performance, lyrics data for controlling lyrics display, and the like. Here, for example, the performance data is sequence data composed of MIDI events for instructing the formation control of musical tone signals and the like, and duration data for designating time intervals for reading out each MIDI event. The same applies to other data (lyric data, etc.) constituting the song data, and each is composed of event data and duration data. When the karaoke performance is performed, the CPU 1 sequentially reads each event data in the performance data and the lyrics data according to a sequencer module described later. For example, the MIDI event is displayed to the musical sound signal generation unit 12, and the lyrics display event in the lyrics data is displayed as the lyrics. The data is transmitted to the processing unit 9 to a destination corresponding to each event data type. In addition to the above information, the song data in the present embodiment includes song time data representing the time from the start to the end of the song.
[0012]
The HDD 7 stores a system program and an application program in addition to the music data described above. When the karaoke apparatus is powered on, the CPU 1 transfers these programs to the RAM 3 according to the loader in the ROM 2 described above, and executes the programs in the RAM 3 to control the karaoke apparatus as a whole.
[0013]
In addition to the sequencer module described above, the application program includes a point display module during singing. Here, the sequencer module loads the song data corresponding to the song number designated by the user into the RAM 3, sequentially reads the event data in the song data, and sends it to the musical tone signal generator 12 or the like. It is a control program for performing control. The singing point display module is a program for generating singing point display data indicating which position of the current song the singer is singing. The song time data in the song data described above is used to generate this singing point display data. The singing point display module is executed by the CPU 1 only when a command to the effect that the point display during singing should be performed by the remote controller 4 or the like.
[0014]
The lyric display processing unit 9 is means for generating lyric image data according to the lyric display event in the lyric data read out by the CPU 1. The image synthesizing device 10 is a means for synthesizing image data obtained by pasting lyrics image data to image data of a background image. Image data of a composite image obtained from the image composition device 10 is displayed on the CRT 11. Moreover, when the instruction | indication of the point display during a singing is given from the user, the image synthetic | combination part 10 receives the point display data during a song mentioned later from CPU1, and further overwrites it on the said synthesized image.
[0015]
The tone signal generator 12 is a means for generating a tone signal in accordance with a MIDI event read from the RAM 3 by the CPU 1. The mixer 13 is means for mixing and outputting the musical sound signal and the singing voice signal obtained by the microphone 14. The output signal of the mixer 13 is amplified by the amplifier 15 and output from the speaker 16.
[0016]
FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a functional configuration of the karaoke apparatus according to the present embodiment described above. In FIG. 2, a VRAM 101 and a video signal generation unit 102 are provided in the image composition apparatus 10 in FIG. Here, the VRAM 101 is storage means for storing image data for one screen to be displayed on the CRT 11. The image composition apparatus 10 generates image data of a composite image by writing each image data of a background image and lyrics in the VRAM 101. The video signal generation unit 102 is means for sequentially reading out the image data in the VRAM 101 line by line and supplying the image data to the CRT 11 in synchronization with a certain scanning cycle. Further, the application program 200, the sequencer module 201, and the singing point module 202 are programs executed by the CPU 1, as already described with reference to FIG.
[0017]
Here, the sequencer module 201 is a routine for fetching song time data from song data in the RAM 3 prior to the start of the music performance, and is activated at predetermined time intervals after the start of performance, and event data in the song data. Includes a timer interrupt routine for reading and supplying to each unit. The timer interrupt routine includes a time measuring routine that counts the number of activations and obtains an elapsed time after the performance starts from the count result. Further, the singing point display module 202 generates image data (single singing point display data) representing the point during singing based on the song time data obtained by the execution of the sequencer module 201 and the elapsed time, and the image composition apparatus 10 It is a module to deliver. This singing point display module 202 is also executed at regular time intervals by the CPU 1 as in the timer interruption routine. The singing point display data obtained by the singing point display module 202 is overwritten on the image data in the VRAM 101 by the image composition device 10.
[0018]
B. Operation of Embodiment Next, the operation of this embodiment will be described.
In FIG. 1, when a song number and a karaoke performance start command are given by the remote controller 4, the CPU 1 sends song data corresponding to the song number from the HDD 7 or the auxiliary storage device 8 in accordance with the sequencer module 201 (FIG. 2). Load into RAM3. Then, the CPU 1 reads the music time data from the music data in the RAM 3 in accordance with the sequencer module 201. Thereafter, the CPU 1 executes a timer interrupt routine in the sequencer module 201 at regular time intervals, thereby reading out the event data in the song data in the RAM 3 and supplying it to each unit. As a result, the musical tone signal generation unit 12 performs karaoke performance, and the lyrics display processing unit 9 generates lyrics image data and displays them on the CRT 11.
[0019]
On the other hand, each time the timer interrupt routine is executed, the number of executions is counted, and the elapsed time after the start of performance is obtained from the count value, which is delivered to the singing point display module 202. The CPU 1 generates singing point display data from the song time data and the elapsed time in accordance with the singing point display module 202. Specifically, the elapsed time is divided by the song time data, image data representing the result of the division in analog form is generated, and this is delivered to the image composition device 10 as point display data during singing. As a result, singing points are displayed on the CRT 11. Generation of the point display data during singing and display on the CRT 11 are repeatedly performed at regular time intervals. Therefore, the user can see how the points during singing are sequentially shifted from the start timing to the end timing of the music by the CRT 11.
[0020]
FIGS. 3A to 3C show display examples of the singing points. First, in the example shown in FIG. 3A, the point during singing is displayed by displaying the relative length of the elapsed time with respect to the entire music time by a bar graph. In the figure, START represents the music start timing, END represents the music end timing, and bar 101 represents the elapsed time. In the example shown in FIG. 3B, the current singing point in the entire music is displayed by the cursor 102. Further, in the example shown in FIG. 3C, the entire song time is made into one circle, and the singing is performed by displaying a pie chart divided into a portion 103 corresponding to the elapsed time and a portion 104 corresponding to the remaining time. The middle point is displayed. According to the present embodiment, since the point during singing is displayed in this manner, the karaoke user can easily grasp how much time is left for the music.
[0021]
C. Although one embodiment of the present invention has been described above, the above embodiment is merely an example, and various modifications can be made to the above embodiment without departing from the spirit of the present invention. As modifications, for example, the following can be considered.
[0022]
<Modification 1>
In this modification, information indicating a temporal position of a portion corresponding to a so-called rust is included in the music data, and the position of the rust portion is displayed together with the point during singing. FIG. 4 shows an example of display in this case. In the figure, a triangular mark display 105 beside the bar display corresponding to the song time is a display of the point being sung, and 106 is a display of the chorus part. It is. According to this modification, since the singer knows in advance that he will proceed to the chorus part, he can sing the chorus part well.
[0023]
<Modification 2>
In this modification, the bar display corresponding to the song time is performed, and the display color of the portion corresponding to the singing section during the bar display is changed to another color. And the point during singing is displayed by a triangle mark etc. beside this bar display like the said modification 1. FIG. According to this modification, the singer can confirm entering the singing section. In the bar display, the rust portion may be displayed in a different color.
[0024]
<Modification 3>
In this modification, the first, second, and... Segment of music is displayed along with the singing points. In this case, for example, the remaining time until the end of No. 1, the end time until the end of No. 2, and the remaining time until the end of the music may be displayed.
[0025]
<Modification 4>
In this modified example, with the horizontal axis as time, the temporal change in the pitch or volume of the singing part is displayed as a line graph on the CRT, and the point during singing is displayed on the same time axis. FIG. 5 shows an example of display in this case, 107 is a line graph of the temporal change of the loudness, 108 is a line graph of the temporal change of the pitch, and 109 is the point during singing. According to this modification, the singer can make preparations such as adjusting his / her breath before the section where singing continuously with a loud voice starts.
[0026]
<Modification 5>
Many karaoke rooms have two CRTs, which are a CRT for a singer to view lyrics and a CRT behind the singer for a person other than the singer to view. In the case of such a karaoke room, for example, a button switch for instructing a point display during singing is provided on both the microphone used by the singer and the remote control for reserving a performance song, and the point indication during singing is displayed by the switch of the microphone. When an instruction is given, the singing point is displayed on the CRT viewed by the singer, and when the singing point indication is given by the remote control switch, the singing point is displayed on the CRT behind the singer. Display may be performed. According to this modification, a singer and a person other than the singer can check the remaining time of the music without being noticed by each other.
[0027]
<Modification 6>
Karaoke room users want to know how many more songs they can sing when the scheduled exit time approaches. The present modification meets such a user request. In this modification, when the scheduled exit time is set at the time of admission to the karaoke room, the scheduled exit time is notified from the reception to the karaoke device in the karaoke room and stored in the HDD 7 (see FIG. 1). In the karaoke apparatus according to this modification, the CPU 1 uses the current time obtained from the built-in clock circuit, the remaining time of the currently played music, and the current song time of each reserved music. End scheduled time and the scheduled end time of each song being reserved. Then, the CPU 1 displays the scheduled end time and the song name of each song on the CRT 11 in the order of reservation. Here, for a song whose scheduled end time is earlier than the scheduled leaving time stored in the HDD 7, the song name and scheduled end time are displayed in blue, for example, and the scheduled end time is after the scheduled leaving time For example, it is displayed in red. If the scheduled end time of the last reserved song is before the scheduled exit time, the time between the two times is obtained and this time is also displayed on the CRT 11.
[0028]
According to this modification, the user can easily know how many songs can be sung before leaving the room. In addition, when the end time of the last reserved song is earlier than the scheduled exit time, it is possible to know the time between both times, in which case it is easy to determine how many more songs can be reserved. Can do.
[0029]
<Modification 7>
In the above modification 6, the CPU 1 obtains the scheduled end time of the music being reserved and displays it on the CRT 11, but in this modification, the performance start time of each music being reserved by the CPU 1 and the waiting time until each performance start time. Is displayed on the CRT 11.
When a large number of karaoke rooms are used, the user wants to know when the performance of the music he / she has reserved starts or how much waiting time until that time. According to this modification, it is possible to meet such a user request.
[0030]
<Modification 8>
In the above embodiment, the point during singing indicating the temporal position during the current singing with respect to the entire song time is displayed, but in this modification, the remaining time of the currently playing song is displayed. In this case, the remaining time can be easily obtained by subtracting the elapsed time after the start of performance from the song time. The remaining time can be displayed in various modes such as displaying the remaining time as a number or displaying a bar having a length proportional to the remaining time. In order to increase the game sensation, the remaining time may be expressed by an hourglass image.
[0031]
【The invention's effect】
As described above, according to the karaoke apparatus according to the present invention, the song time detecting means for detecting the song time of the song from the song data of the song to be played, and the time measuring the elapsed time from the performance start of the song. And a display means for obtaining and displaying the point during singing representing the current temporal position in the music or the remaining time of the music from the elapsed time and the music time. There is an effect that it is possible to easily know how much of the song will end.
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a karaoke apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a functional configuration of the embodiment.
FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a display example of singing points in the same embodiment;
FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a display example of singing points in a modification of the embodiment.
FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a display example of singing points in a modification of the embodiment.
[Explanation of symbols]
1 ... CPU, 2 ... ROM, 3 ... RAM, 4 ... remote control, 5 ... receiving unit, 6 ... operation unit, 7 ... HDD, 8 ... auxiliary storage device, 9 ... 10 ... ... Image synthesizing device, 11... CRT, 12... Music signal generator, 13... Mixer, 14.

Claims (12)

Song data storage means for storing song data having song time data indicating the song time of the song, event data for instructing performance control, and time data for designating a time interval for reading the event data;
By repeatedly executing a timer interrupt routine for controlling the reading of event data in the music data at regular time intervals, the event data is sequentially read from the music data storage means at time intervals specified by the time data, Performance control means for supplying to the signal generator;
Song time detection means for detecting the song time of the song from the song time data stored in the song data storage means;
Counting the number of executions of the timer interrupt routine after performance control by the performance control means is started, and based on the count value, time measuring means for obtaining an elapsed time from the start of music performance;
A karaoke apparatus comprising: display means for obtaining and displaying a point during singing representing a current temporal position in the music or the remaining time of the music from the elapsed time and the music time. The karaoke apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the display unit displays a graph representing a ratio of the elapsed time to the song time. The karaoke apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the display unit displays an image corresponding to the song time and an image corresponding to the singing point in the song. The karaoke apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the display unit displays an image corresponding to the song time and an image corresponding to the elapsed time. The music data includes information indicating a specific temporal position or section in the music, and the display means displays an image representing the specific temporal position or section in an image corresponding to the music time. The karaoke apparatus according to claim 3 or 4, characterized by the above. The said display means produces | generates the image showing the time change of the pitch of a song part, or a sound volume, and includes and displays the image in the image corresponding to the said music time. The karaoke apparatus according to 3 or 4. The karaoke apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 6, wherein the display means displays the point during singing or the remaining time when a predetermined display command is given. The display means includes a plurality of display devices and a plurality of operation units corresponding to the respective display devices. When the display command is given by a certain operation unit, the display unit corresponds to the operation unit. The karaoke apparatus according to claim 7, wherein the singing point or the remaining time is displayed. The karaoke apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 8, wherein the display unit displays a scheduled end time of a currently played song and a reserved song. 10. The karaoke apparatus according to claim 9, wherein the display means displays the scheduled end time of each piece of music separately for those before and after the scheduled exit time of the karaoke room. The said display means displays the scheduled start time of the reserved music, The karaoke apparatus of any one of Claims 1-10 characterized by the above-mentioned. The karaoke apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the display unit displays the remaining time by a number.

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