JPH07104941A - Information providing, reproducing and recording device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To attain reproduction by using a portable information reproducing device whose constitution is simple by storing large amounts of information in the information providing device, and extending and transferring the stored compressed information. CONSTITUTION:An information providing device 101 is provided with a recording medium 106 which records the compressed information, reading control means 107 which reads the compressed information from the storage medium 106, information extending means 108 which extends the read compressed information, and transfer control means 109 which transfers the extended information to a second storage medium(portable recording medium).

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

INDUSTRIAL APPLICABILITY The present invention is capable of, for example, compressing and recording a large amount of information such as news or music on a first recording medium, and selecting desired information from the large amount of information and carrying it. The present invention relates to an information providing apparatus, an information reproducing apparatus, and an information recording apparatus, which are suitable for use when the information of the second recording medium is reproduced by a portable information reproducing apparatus. .

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, for example, in an information providing apparatus used for selectively transferring information such as news or music recorded in a first recording medium to a second recording medium, information of transfer information is used. The amount is constant before and after transfer. That is, the above-mentioned information in the second recording medium directly reproduced by the information reproducing apparatus for the second recording medium has the same amount of information even in the first recording medium which is the transfer source of the information. It is occupied and recorded.

Here, the information to be recorded on the first recording medium, which is the transfer source, tends to increase, and when the information to be recorded increases, the first recording is the limit of the amount of information that can be actually recorded. The full capacity of the medium will be reached. Therefore, data compression is applied to the above information recorded on the first recording medium, whereby more information can be recorded.

A so-called personal computer can be cited as an example of an apparatus having a conventional information providing means and information compressing means. In this personal computer, in selective data transfer from a large-capacity hard disk to a relatively small-capacity floppy disk, the amount of data is always unchanged before and after the transfer.
Also, if the hard disk runs out of space,
By compressing and storing the record data, it becomes possible to record more data.

[0005]

By the way, by using the conventional information providing apparatus as described above, for example, information such as news or music is recorded in the first recording medium, and the second information is selectively selected. When transferring to a recording medium, it is desirable to record more types of information on the first recording medium.

Further, for example, in a case where the above information is obtained by inserting and removing the portable second recording medium in the information providing apparatus having the first recording medium built-in, the second It is desirable that the information reproducing apparatus for the recording medium of (1) be as simple as possible and be portable.

However, in order to record a large amount of information such as news or music in the first recording medium as described above, a large-capacity recording medium corresponding to the large amount of information must be prepared. I have to.

On the other hand, in order to record more information on the first recording medium, it is effective to apply information compression to the information, but the compressed information is transferred to the second recording medium. In this case, information decompression must be performed in the information reproducing device for the second recording medium.

It is also possible to decompress the selected information on the first recording medium, re-record it, and then transfer it. To this end, the decompressed information is stored in the first recording medium. A corresponding storage capacity is further required, and the first recording medium must be a rewritable recording medium.

As described above, in the conventional information providing apparatus, when the above information is selectively transferred to another recording medium, the storage capacity of the recording medium as the transfer source becomes a problem, and therefore the information compression means is applied. is doing. However, when the compressed information is transferred to another recording medium, complication of the information reproducing means for the transferred information becomes a problem in the information reproducing apparatus for the recording medium as the transfer destination.

Therefore, there is a trade-off relationship between the storage capacity of the recording medium of the transfer source or the compression ratio of the information recorded on the recording medium and the complexity of the configuration of the information reproducing apparatus for the recording medium of the transfer destination. In some cases, it may not be possible to sufficiently cope with various uses such as storing a large amount of information in the recording medium of the transfer source or simplifying the configuration of the information reproducing means after the transfer.

Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide an information providing apparatus, an information reproducing apparatus, and an information recording apparatus capable of recording various information in a large amount and reproducing information relatively easily. is there.

[0013]

The information providing apparatus of the present invention is proposed in order to achieve the above-mentioned object, and a first recording medium on which compressed information is recorded and a first recording medium for storing the compressed information. A read control means for reading from the first recording medium, an information decompressing means for decompressing the read compressed information, and a transfer control means for transferring the decompressed information to the second recording medium. Is. In addition, it has an information input means for inputting external information, an information compression means for performing a compression operation on the information, and a writing control means for writing the compressed information in the first recording medium. Here, the transfer control means can transfer the decompression information to the removable portable recording medium via the portable recording medium connecting means for connecting the portable recording medium. Further, it has a function selection means for selecting the information input means or the read control means, and recording or transfer control is performed based on the function selection information from the function selection means. The information compressing means can be a variable length coding system such as Huffman coding, and therefore,
The information decompression means can also be a variable length decoding system.

Further, the information reproducing apparatus of the present invention uses the information providing apparatus having the recording medium in which the compressed information which has been subjected to the first compression operation and the second compression operation is recorded, and the first information for the compressed information is obtained. And a reproduction control means for performing a second decompression operation on the information transferred to the portable recording medium after the decompression operation. Here, the first compression operation is an equal length coding method, the second compression operation is a variable length coding method, the first decompression operation is a variable length decoding method, and the first compression operation is a variable length decoding method. The decompression operation of 2 can be an isometric decoding scheme.

Further, the portable recording medium of the present invention has a second aspect.
Recording medium, an information providing / reproducing device connecting means connected to the information providing device or the information reproducing device, and a write / read controlling device for switching write control or read control according to a device identification signal from the connected device. It will be done.

The portable recording medium connecting means and the information providing / reproducing apparatus connecting means may be non-contact connection by light or magnetism, and the recording medium is a semiconductor such as a non-volatile memory. A memory, a magnetic disk, a magneto-optical disk, or the like can be used, and a non-rewritable recording medium can be used as the first recording medium. The information recorded on the information recording medium may be voice information, music information, character information, or image information.

That is, the information providing apparatus of the present invention, for example, records information on a recording medium which is a transfer source built in the information providing apparatus after the information is compressed,
A large amount of information can be stored in the information providing device.
Furthermore, in the case of selectively transferring information from the information to the portable recording medium, the information is expanded in advance in the information providing device for the information, and then transferred.
The information can be reproduced using a portable information reproducing device having a simple structure.

As a result, it becomes possible to sufficiently store information by using the device of the present invention and to easily realize the reproduction after the transfer of the information.

In other words, in the present invention, a large amount of information is stored in the information providing device by recording the information on the recording medium which is the transfer source built in the information providing device after the information is compressed. be able to. Furthermore, in the case of selectively transferring information from the information to the portable recording medium, the information can be transferred to the information providing apparatus after the information is expanded in advance in the information providing apparatus. It can be played back using a portable information playback device.

[0020]

According to the present invention, in the information providing device, a large amount of information is recorded on the recording medium as the transfer source by compressing the information by the information compressing means, and further the information is selectively read and expanded. Further, the expanded information is transferred and recorded on the recording medium of the information recording apparatus which is the transfer destination. Therefore, the information reproducing apparatus can easily reproduce the transfer information from the information recording apparatus.

[0021]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT A preferred embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

First, a detailed description will be given with reference to FIG. 1 showing a schematic configuration of the information providing apparatus of the present embodiment. In FIG. 1, the information providing apparatus 101 records information on the information recording medium 106 from outside the information providing apparatus 101 or transfers information from the recording medium 106 to a portable recording medium 201 shown in FIG. The following operations are performed based on the function selection information from the function selection means 102 for selecting, for example.

In the case of selecting the recording function, the information providing apparatus 101 first receives the input information supplied from the outside of the apparatus 101 via the terminal 91 in the information input means 103, and the reception is started by the function selecting means. This is done based on the reception start signal from 102, or even when a sudden information input occurs, it is dealt with by an interrupt signal. Of course, the information input from the outside of the device 101 may be either wired or wireless, and, for example, in the case of voice information input, the information input means 103 includes a microphone, an amplifier and an A / D converter. It can also be configured from a container.

Next, the information compressing means 104 performs a predetermined compression operation such as Huffman coding on the input information, so that more information is recorded on the recording medium 10.
6 to be able to accumulate. Huffman coding is a code with a short code length for information with a high probability of occurrence.
This is one of the variable-length coding schemes that reduces the information amount as a whole by coding a code having a long code for information having a low occurrence probability.

Then, in the write control means 105, the above-mentioned input information subjected to the compression operation is transferred to the information recording medium 1.
The operation of writing to 06 is performed. The writing procedure in this case is performed by a method suitable for the recording medium 106, and the recording medium is, for example, an SRAM (Static Ran).
When the "dom Access Memory" is applied, first, the write address is designated, and then the write data and the write signal are given to perform the write.

On the other hand, in the case of selecting the transfer function, for example, by providing the function selecting means 102 with a display function and a transfer information selecting function, desired information is selected from the information recorded in the recording medium 106. The function selecting means 1
02, the read control means 107 reads out the desired information from the recording medium 106 based on the selection result. The read procedure in this case also depends on the recording medium 106 like the write procedure. For example, when the SRAM is used, the read address is first designated, and then the read signal is given to perform the read. You can get the data.

Then, in the information decompression means 108,
The information read from the recording medium 106 is subjected to a decompression operation opposite to the compression operation performed by the information compression means 104, for example, a predetermined decompression operation such as Huffman decoding using the table.

Thereafter, the transfer control means 109 transfers the decompression information to the portable recording medium 201 connected to the apparatus 101 via the portable recording medium connecting means 110. Further, the transfer control means 109 sends a signal indicating that the amount of expansion information or the expansion information is being transmitted to the portable recording medium 201 described later, in addition to the above-described expansion information, or the portable recording described below. At the same time, a control signal including a device identification signal for identifying that the medium 201 is connected to the information providing device 101 is also transmitted.

The recording medium 106 is a non-rewritable recording medium such as a ROM (Read Only).
Memory), which can reduce the power consumption of the device 101.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of the portable recording medium of the embodiment of the present invention. The portable recording medium 201 is connected to the portable recording medium connecting unit 110 of the information providing apparatus 101 described above by the information providing / reproducing apparatus connecting unit 202, and exchanges data and control signals. That is, when the portable recording medium 201 is connected to the information providing apparatus 101 and the transfer function is selected in the apparatus 101, the information read from the recording medium 106 is decompressed as described above. After that, the portable recording medium connection means 1 together with the control signal and the like
10 and the information providing / reproducing apparatus connecting means 202 to the read / write control means 203.

The read / write control means 203 switches to write control based on the device identification signal from the information providing device 101, and writes the transmitted information on the recording medium 204.

Here, the read control and the write control are the write control when the device identification signal indicates the information providing device 101, and the information reproducing device 301 described later.
, The read control can be switched to each.

The writing procedure in this case is performed by a method depending on the recording medium 204, like the writing control means 105, and the recording medium is, for example, a so-called NA.
ND type flash EEPROM (Electrica
lily Erasable Program
ble Read Only Memory), first give a command for serial data input to the memory internal register, then input a write address, serially input the write data to the memory internal register, Finally, a write command is given to write the write data input to the memory internal register to the memory cell. However, the write operation is actually ended after a predetermined time has elapsed from the input of the write command. In the flash EEPROM, if data has already been written in the address to be written, an erasing operation is necessary.

On the other hand, when the portable recording medium 201 is connected to the information reproducing apparatus 301 shown in FIG. 3 which will be described later and the reproducing function is selected in the information reproducing apparatus 301, subsequently, the portable recording medium connecting means described later. Through the 303 and the information providing / playback device connecting means 202, reading /
A control signal is transmitted to the writing control means 203. The read / write control means 203 switches to read control based on the device identification signal, and the recording medium 2
The reading of information from 04 is started.

The read procedure in this case also depends on the recording medium 204 like the write procedure. For example, in the flash EEPROM, if a read command is first given and then a read address is input, a predetermined time elapses. Since the data of the read address is output to the memory internal register later, the data is read from the memory internal register.

Further, the read / write control means 2
03 is a transfer control unit 109 of the information providing apparatus 101.
The portable recording medium 201 can also be configured in this, and the configuration of the portable recording medium 201 can be simplified.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of the information reproducing apparatus of the embodiment of the present invention. This information reproducing device 30
1, the reproduction control means 304 is the reproduction selection means 30.
The portable recording medium 201 connected to the portable recording medium connecting means 303 based on the reproduction selection signal from
Then, the control is performed as follows.

Since the reproduction control means 304 reproduces the information of the recording medium 204 in the portable recording medium 201 in the information output means 305, first, as described above, the portable recording medium connecting means 303 and the information provision are provided. / Transmits a control signal to the read / write control means 203 via the reproduction device connection means 202.

Next, the read / write control means 2
In 03, the control is switched to the read control based on the device identification signal, and the information is read from the recording medium 204.

Subsequently, the read information is transmitted to the device 301 via the information providing / playback device connection means 202 and the portable recording medium connection means 303, and at the same time, the playback control means 304 sends the read information. Receiving is performed, and thereafter, reproduction is performed by transmitting the information to the information output unit 305.

Here, the information output means 305 can be composed of, for example, a D / A converter, an amplifier, and a speaker for outputting audio information.

Information recorded on the recording medium 106 in the information providing apparatus 101 is the information compressing means 1 described above.
In 04, as the first compression operation, for example, differential encoding,
Huffman coding is performed as the second compression operation, and the information from the recording medium 106 is subjected to only Huffman decoding as the first decompression operation in the information decompression means 108. When it is later transferred to the portable recording medium 201, the reproduction control unit 304 may only perform differential decoding, for example, as the second decompression operation. Thereby, the device 30
1 can be configured relatively simply.

The portable recording medium connecting means 11 is also provided.
0 or 303 and the information providing / playback device connecting means 2
The connection with 02 may be contact-type transmission using a connector or the like, or non-contact-type transmission such as optical transmission.

FIG. 4 is an external view of the information providing apparatus 230 according to the embodiment of the present invention using the above technique. Information providing device 2
A recording medium is installed in 30 and information is recorded therein.
Although not shown in FIG. 4, it is convenient for the information to be recorded to be transmitted by wired or wireless information transmission means. However, it goes without saying that a recording medium on which information has been recorded may be directly inserted into the device to be transferred to the recording medium built in the device.

That is, in the apparatus of the embodiment shown in FIG. 4, as the function selecting means 102, a display means 232 for displaying the content, price, capacity, etc. of the recorded information, and a record portable from the information providing apparatus 230. Equipped with transfer information selection means 231 for selecting information to be transferred to the medium, those who want to obtain information can select desired information. Information can be obtained by the information providing device 230.
This is realized by inserting the portable recording medium owned by the user into the insertion / ejection port 234 provided in the and receiving a copy.

FIG. 5 is an external view of an information providing device 240 according to another embodiment of the present invention using the above technique. In this embodiment, the insertion port 241 and the ejection port 242 are separated by a distance, and the portable recording medium 243 inserted in the insertion port 241 is moved by a moving means (not shown) in the device 240. Information is copied to the portable recording medium 243 while being moved in the direction indicated by the middle arrow a,
Then, it is discharged from the discharge port 242. As a result, the information acquisition applicant H can acquire information while walking in the direction indicated by arrow A in the figure. This embodiment is convenient for providing information to many people quickly.

Finally, FIG. 6 shows the appearance of the information reproducing apparatus and the portable recording medium of the embodiment of the present invention.
The portable recording medium 2 shown in FIG. 6 is equipped with an information providing / reproducing device connecting means 7, through which information can be transferred from the external information providing device into the portable recording medium 2. Furthermore, the information reproducing apparatus 1 of this embodiment
Is the information providing / playback device connecting means 7 and the device 1
By the portable recording medium connecting means provided inside, control such as reading of information from the portable recording medium 2 can be performed.

Although not shown in FIG. 3, the device 1 of this embodiment may be equipped with a display means 4 as shown in FIG. It is possible to display the contents of information recorded in the feasible recording medium 2 or a menu or the like. The user of the device 1 can selectively reproduce the necessary information by using the reproduction selection means 3 composed of buttons or the like based on the information displayed here.

The information content includes text information, audio information, video information, computer programs, etc., and is not particularly limited. Here, the reproduction of the program means executing the program, but in this case, the user of the apparatus 1 may input information as necessary at the time of execution. When the reproduction signal is a text or video signal, it can be displayed on the display means 4 such as a liquid crystal display device, and when it is an audio signal, it can be output to the speaker 6. Although not shown in the embodiment of FIG. 6, it is of course possible to equip an earphone instead of the speaker 6 or in addition to the speaker 6. In that case, the reproduction result of the audio information is output to the earphone. Good. The microphone 5 is used for voice input.

Further, although not shown in the embodiment of FIG. 6, the reproduction signal can be connected to an external display device, a speaker or the like using an external terminal. Also,
The information reproducing apparatus 1 and the portable recording medium 2 may be integrated, and in this case, the information reproducing apparatus 1 main body is equipped with an information providing apparatus connecting means, and the connecting means is connected. Information is provided from the information providing device via the.

The type of the portable recording medium 2 is not particularly limited, but it is convenient to use a semiconductor memory which can be copied at high speed, is easily random-accessed, and is excellent in portability.

[0052]

As is apparent from the above description, according to the present invention, by compressing information by the information compressing means and then recording it on the recording medium which is a transfer source built in the information providing apparatus, a large amount of information can be obtained. Can be stored in the information providing device. Further, in the case of selectively transferring information from the information to the portable recording medium, the compressed information is decompressed by being subjected to information decompression means in the information providing apparatus in advance. Information can be reproduced using a portable information reproducing device having a simple structure.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block circuit diagram showing a schematic configuration of an information providing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block circuit diagram showing a schematic configuration of a portable recording medium according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a block circuit diagram showing a schematic configuration of an information reproducing apparatus of an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is an external view of an information providing device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is another external view of the information providing apparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is an external view of a portable recording medium and an information reproducing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 101 ... Information providing device 102 ... Function selection means 103 ... Information input means 104 ... Information compression means 105 ... Writing control means 106, 204 ... Information recording medium 107 ... Read control means 108 ... Information decompression means 109 ... Transfer control means 110, 303 ... Portable recording medium connection means 201 , 2 ... Portable recording medium 202, 6 ... Information providing / playback device connection means 203 ... Read / write control means 301, 1 ... Information playback device 302, 3 ...・ ・ ・ Playback selection means 304 ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ Playback control means 305 ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ Information output means 4 ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ Display means 6 ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ Speaker

Claims (17)

[Claims] 1. A first recording medium for recording compressed information, a read control means for reading the compressed information from the first recording medium, and an information decompressing means for decompressing the read compressed information. And a transfer control unit for transferring the decompression information to the second recording medium. 2. A portable recording medium connection means for connecting a portable recording medium is provided, and the transfer control means can attach / detach decompression information from the information decompression means via the portable recording medium connection means. The information providing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the information providing apparatus transfers the information to another portable recording medium. 3. Information input means for inputting external information, information compression means for performing compression operation on external input information via the information input means, and write control for writing compressed information to the first recording medium. A means is further provided, Claim 1 or 2 characterized by the above-mentioned.
Information providing device described. 4. A function selection means for selecting the information input means or the read control means is provided, and recording or transfer is controlled based on the function selection information from the function selection means. Information providing device described. 5. The information providing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said information decompression means decompresses compressed information by a variable length decoding system. 6. The information providing apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the information compression means performs information compression by a variable length coding method. 7. The information providing apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the variable length coding system is a Huffman coding system. 8. An information providing apparatus having a recording medium on which compression information subjected to a first compression operation and a second compression operation is recorded, the compression information corresponding to the first compression operation. The information transferred to the portable recording medium after the decompression operation 1 is performed is read from the portable recording medium, and the second decompression operation corresponding to the second compression operation is performed on the read information. An information reproducing apparatus characterized by comprising a reproducing control means for performing the reproduction. 9. The first compression operation is an equal length coding method, and the second compression operation is a variable length coding method.
9. The information reproducing apparatus according to claim 8, wherein the first decompression operation is a variable length decoding method and the second decompression operation is an equal length decoding method. 10. A recording medium for recording information, an information providing / reproducing device connecting means connected to a predetermined information providing device or a predetermined information reproducing device, and the recording medium according to a device identification signal from the connected device. And a read / write control unit for switching write control or read control to and from the information recording apparatus, which is portable. 11. The information providing apparatus according to claim 2, or the information recording apparatus according to claim 10, wherein the connection is a non-contact connection by light or magnetism. 12. A semiconductor memory is used as the recording medium, according to claim 1, 2, 3, 4, 5,
The information providing device according to 6, 7, or 11, or claim 8.
Or the information reproducing apparatus according to claim 9, or claim 10 or 11.
Information recording device described. 13. The information providing device according to claim 12, wherein the semiconductor memory is a non-volatile memory, or the information reproducing device according to claim 12.
The information recording device according to claim 12. 14. A magneto-optical disk or a magnetic disk is used as the recording medium.
The information providing device according to 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, or 11, or the information reproducing device according to claim 8 or 9, or
The information recording device according to claim 10 or 11. 15. The information providing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a non-rewritable recording medium is used as the recording medium for recording the compressed information. Alternatively, the information reproducing apparatus according to claim 8 or 9. 16. The information recorded on the recording medium is voice information or music information.
The information providing device according to 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 11, 12, 13, 14, or 15, or claims 8, 9, and 1.
The information reproducing apparatus described in 2, 13, 14, or 15, or
The information recording device according to claim 10, 11, 12, 13, or 14. 17. The information recorded on the recording medium is character information or image information.
The information providing device according to 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 11, 12, 13, 14, or 15, or claims 8, 9, and 1.
The information reproducing apparatus described in 2, 13, 14, or 15, or
The information recording device according to claim 10, 11, 12, 13, or 14.