JPH07289732A - Secondary machines for tv game devices with call function - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To offer secondary machines for TV game devices which can cause message information to be represented on display units of TV game devices. CONSTITUTION:The secondary machine 5 for a TV game device is equipped with a transmitter 3 structured to be attached to a telephone, interphone, etc., and a receiver 4 to be connected to a TV game device 1. The transmitter 3 dispatches the specified electric waves in response to a calling sound of telephone, etc., and the receiver 4, upon catching such electric waves, picks up and supplies to a display unit of the TV game device with the message information corresponding to the transmitter and thereupon the message, e.g. to the effect that there is a telephone call, is represented on the screen of the display unit 2.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a video game device, and more particularly to a slave device for a video game device capable of displaying transmission information on a video game device using a home-use display device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a video game device using a home-use display device, for example, a video game device, a television is used as a display device for a game screen, and a game is played by using an input pad or a mouse while watching the screen. Has been done. For example, the input pad is provided with a direction button and an input button, and the game can be enjoyed very easily by using the direction button and the input button according to the display on the screen.

[0003]

In a home video game device, an arithmetic processing unit is used for various controls of the video game device. In recent years, the available capacity of the arithmetic processing unit (CPU) has been increased. Has dramatically increased, and the game contents have become complicated and diversified. In addition, the screen of the display device used tends to be large in size, and there is an increasing tendency to enjoy a realistic screen and a powerful screen and sound effects.

By the way, a video game device is generally
Although the player enjoys the game while controlling the characters and the like appearing on the screen of the display device, depending on the type of the game, the game is played while enjoying the sound. Due to the nature of the game, once the player starts playing, he / she is absorbed in the game. If you do, you may not even notice the surrounding sounds.

For example, when the room where the video game device is installed is far from the installation position of the telephone, even if the ringing tone of the telephone is heard, it is not noticed or there is a visitor at the front door, Even if you hear a ringing sound, it may not be heard. In addition, there are cases in which the rooms are separated from each other on the upper floor and the lower floor, and the voice cannot be heard even if another person calls the player who is enjoying the game than the other rooms.

The present invention has been made in consideration of these points, and when a home video game device is used, the video game is answered in response to a call from another person or a ringing sound of a telephone or the like. Another object of the present invention is to provide a child device for a video game device, which can cause a display device of the device to display an indication that a call has been made.

[0007]

FIG. 1 shows the principle of the present invention.

As shown in FIG. 1, the invention according to claim 1 is a slave unit 5 for a video game device for displaying transmission information on a display device 2 of the video game device 1, a transmitter 3 and a receiver. A transmitter 4, the transmitter 3 outputs a predetermined signal in response to a calling signal, and the receiver 4 transmits the signal in response to the signal transmitted by the transmitter 3. 3 is a slave device for a video game device, which transmits transmission information corresponding to No. 3 to the video game device 1 and displays it on the display device 2 of the video game device 1.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the television game device slave unit according to the first aspect, the transmitter is
A sensor for detecting sound and a means for outputting a predetermined signal in response to the sensor output are provided.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the video game device slave unit according to the first aspect, the transmitter is
It has an operation button and means for outputting a predetermined signal in response to the operation of the operation button.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the video game slave unit according to the first aspect, the signal is transmitted from the transmitter to the receiver by a wireless system.

According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, in the television game slave unit according to the first aspect, the signal is transmitted from the transmitter to the receiver by a wired system.

According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, in the television game device slave unit according to the first aspect, the receiver is
A receiving unit that receives a signal from the transmitter, a determining unit that identifies the transmitter that has transmitted the received signal based on the received signal, and a storage unit that stores the transmission information corresponding to each transmitter,
It is characterized by having an output unit for outputting the transmission information corresponding to the transmitter specified by the discrimination unit to the main body of the video game device.

[0014]

According to the invention as set forth in claim 1, when the transmitter constituting the slave unit is attached to the telephone or the intercom, the transmitter constituting the slave unit is activated when a ringing sound is made from the telephone or the intercom. First, the ringing tones are detected and a predetermined signal is automatically transmitted. It is possible to transmit a predetermined call signal corresponding to the slave unit by operating the operation button regardless of the ring tone of the telephone set or the intercom.

When the signal from the transmitter is transmitted, the receiver constituting the slave receives the signal and specifies the transmission information corresponding to the received signal. Next, the specified transmission information is sent to the game apparatus main body, and the transmission information to be notified to the player is displayed on the display device of the video game apparatus. As a result, even if the player is enthusiastic about the game, when there is a ringing sound of the telephone or when another person is calling, a display to that effect appears on the screen of the display device of the video game device, and the player can know. it can.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, the transmitter constituting the slave unit is provided with a sensor for detecting a sound, and the ringing tone can be obtained by simply installing and mounting the transmitter on a device such as a telephone or an intercom. A predetermined signal can be emitted when is sounded.

According to the third aspect of the invention, the transmitter includes:
A predetermined signal can be transmitted by operating the operation button.

According to the invention described in claim 4, the transmission of the signal from the transmitter, which constitutes the slave unit of the video game apparatus, to the receiver is performed by radio waves by a wireless system.

According to the invention of claim 5, the transmission of the signal from the transmitter to the receiver is performed by a wired system,
The signal is transmitted through the wiring.

According to the sixth aspect of the present invention, the receiver forming the slave unit is based on the signal received from which transmitter, when the signal from the transmitter is received. Specify. Then, the transmission information corresponding to the signal received from the storage unit storing the transmission information associated with each transmitter can be sent to the video game device and displayed on the display screen of the video game device.

[0021]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS FIG. 2 is a diagram showing the configurations of a game apparatus 10 and a handset 20 according to an embodiment of the present invention.

The video game apparatus 10 of this embodiment comprises a video game apparatus main body 11 and an input pad 1 as an input means.
2. It is composed of a television receiver 16 as display means. The video game device body 11 is a CD-RO in which a game control unit 13 that controls the entire video game device and rules, programs, data, etc. relating to the game are stored.
The M device 14 and the control data storage unit 15 that is a unit for storing control data.

The game control unit 13 controls various data stored in the control data storage unit 15 according to a certain rule.
In addition, it includes an arithmetic processing unit (CPU) for performing arithmetic processing based on a control signal input from the input pad 12 by the player, and a video signal generating circuit and an audio signal generating circuit for supplying to the display device 16.

The television receiver 16 is the video game device 1
The video game apparatus main body 11 supplies an audio / video signal to the input terminal 16a to display an image on the screen 17, and a speaker 18 outputs audio.

When a normal game is played using the video game device 10, first, a CD-ROM (not shown) in which game software is recorded is mounted on the CD-ROM device 14. The game control unit 13 causes the control data storage unit 15 to store various data regarding the game read from the CD-ROM device. Then, the player presses the game start button with the input pad 12 to start the game.

The player is the screen 17 of the television receiver 16.
For example, a character or the like displayed on the input pad 1
You can enjoy the game by controlling the movement by operating the 2 direction buttons and so on.

Next, an embodiment of a child device for a video game device used in the above-mentioned video game device will be described.

As shown in FIG. 2, the television game device slave 20 comprises a transmitter 30 and a receiver 40.
The transmitter 30 transmits a specific signal by inputting a predetermined signal, and it is not necessary to be one in particular, and a plurality of transmitters 30a, 30b ... Can be installed as required. When a plurality of transmitters 30 are installed, the signals transmitted by the transmitters 30 are adjusted so that they can be distinguished from each other.

The receiver 40 receives the signal from the transmitter 30, selects the transmission information corresponding to the child device that transmitted the signal from the transmission information stored in the storage unit in advance, and selects the transmission information from the video game apparatus main body 11. It has a function of supplying to.

FIG. 3 shows the basic configuration of the transmitter 30 according to this embodiment. The transmitter 30 includes an oscillator 35 housed in a box 31, and a signal generated by the transmitter 35 is modulated by a modulator 36 and then transmitted as an electric wave by an antenna 37.

An acoustic sensor 32 is attached to the box body 31. The acoustic sensor 32 outputs a signal when a sound of a certain level or higher is detected. Specifically, the acoustic sensor 32 is attached to a telephone or an intercom. It is possible to set to output a signal by detecting those ringing tones. The box 31 is a suction plate 3 for attaching the transmitter 30 to a telephone or an intercom.
8 is provided so that the acoustic sensor 32 can be closely attached to the telephone or the like so that only the ringing tone of the telephone can be effectively detected.

When the acoustic sensor 32 detects a ringing sound of a telephone or the like, its output signal is supplied to the switch circuit 34, and the switch circuit 34 receives the signal and the oscillator 35 is received.
And a predetermined signal is transmitted. The oscillator 3
The high frequency signal generated in 5 is modulated into a signal peculiar to the transmitter by the modulator 36, converted into a radio wave by the antenna 37, and transmitted. The transmitted radio wave is set to be extremely weak as long as it can be received at any place in the same home, but it is necessary to consider so as not to affect other electric devices.

The transmitter 30 also has an operation button 33, which is separate from the detection signal of the acoustic sensor 32.
The oscillator 35 can also be operated by the switch circuit by the operation of 3.

The transmitter 30 having the above-described structure is attached to a device that generates a ringing sound such as a telephone set or an intercom, or is placed in a room separate from the room in which the video game device is installed for use. To be done.

Next, the receiver 40 which is the other device constituting the slave unit will be described with reference to FIG.

The receiver 40 includes a receiver 42 having an antenna 41 for receiving the radio waves transmitted from the transmitter 30,
It has a discriminator 43 that discriminates the transmitter that transmitted the signal based on the received signal. The receiver 40 also includes a storage unit 44 that stores data of transmission information to be transmitted to the display device 16 of the video game device 10. The storage unit 44 includes a plurality of types of transmission corresponding to the transmitter to be used. Information is stored. As soon as the radio wave is received by the reception unit 42, the discrimination unit 43 discriminates from which receiver the radio wave is transmitted based on the received signal. Then, when the transmitter that has transmitted is specified, the transmission information corresponding to the transmitter is retrieved from the storage unit 44 and supplied to the video game device from the output unit 46. The control unit 45 executes a series of operations such as the determination of the received signal in the determination unit 43, the extraction of the transmission information from the storage unit 44, and the transmission of the transmission information to the video game apparatus body 11.

Next, a method of using the slave unit for the video game apparatus according to this embodiment and its operation will be described with reference to FIGS.

5A to 5C show the transmitter 30 described above.
In this example, three units are installed and 30a, 30b, and 30c are installed at different positions. The transmitter 30a is attached to the telephone 50, and is attached to the main body of the telephone 50 using the suction plate 38 of the transmitter 30. The transmitter 30b is attached to the intercom 51. Transmitter 30c
Shows an example in which the TV game apparatus 10 is mounted on a wall or the like of a room separate from the room in which the video game apparatus 10 is used, such as a kitchen or a dining room.

The transmitters 30a and 30b are telephones,
When a call is made to the intercom, the calling sound is detected and a predetermined radio wave is automatically sent from the antennas 37a and 37b. A predetermined radio wave is transmitted from the antenna 37c to the transmitter 30c when the operator operates the operation button 33.
Here, the radio waves transmitted from the transmitters 30a, 30b, 30c are pulse-modulated so as to be pulse signals having a pulse interval peculiar to the transmitters and transmitted.

On the other hand, the transmission information stored in the storage section 44 of the receiver 40 is prepared so as to correspond to the transmitters 30a, 30b and 30c, respectively. That is, as the information corresponding to the transmitter 30a attached to the telephone 50, the fact that there is a telephone call, for example, the transmission information "it is a telephone" is stored. Further, as the transmission information corresponding to the transmitter 30b attached to the intercom 51, the fact that there is a visitor, for example, the transmission information "I am a customer" is stored. Furthermore, as information corresponding to the transmitter 30c scheduled to be operated by the operation button, transmission information such as "it is meal time" is prepared.

Next, as shown in FIG. 2, the receiver 40 is displayed on the display screen 17 of the video game apparatus 10 when the video game apparatus 10 is used in a state where it is connected to the game control section 13 of the main body 11. The processing flow of the processed image will be described with reference to FIG.

First, a game CD-ROM in which game software is recorded is mounted on the CD-ROM device 14, and the start button of the input pad 12 is pressed.
At 1, the game starts.

At step 202, the game controller 13
Various game processes including a game image process displayed on the television receiver 16 are executed according to an input from the input pad 12 by the player. Then, in step 203, the image obtained by the game process is displayed on the screen 1 of the television receiver 16.
The game screen is displayed on 7.

In step 204, the receiver 4 of the slave unit 20
The presence or absence of a signal from 0 is checked, and when there is no signal input, the screen 17 is displayed only for the game according to the normal game processing.

Now, assume that there is an incoming call at the telephone 50 to which the transmitter 30a of FIG. 5a is attached and the calling bell rings. Then, the acoustic sensor 32 of the transmitter 30a detects the sound, operates the oscillator 35, and sends a predetermined radio wave from the antenna 37a.

When the receiver 40 receives the radio wave transmitted from the transmitter 30a, the discrimination unit 43 discriminates that the signal is transmitted from the transmitter 30a attached to the telephone 50. Then, the message information indicating that there is a telephone call stored as transmission information corresponding to the transmitter 30a attached to the telephone 50 is retrieved from the storage unit 44 of the receiver 40, and the video game apparatus main body 11 is output from the output unit 46. Is supplied to the game control unit 13.

When there is a signal from the receiver 40 in step 204, the process proceeds to step 205, in which the transmission information sent by the receiver is converted into a video signal to be displayed on the screen 17 and displayed on the game screen.

FIG. 7 shows a transmitter 30a attached to a telephone.
2 shows a state in which the transmission information is displayed on the screen 17 of the television receiver 16 of the video game apparatus 10 when the signal is transmitted from the. Even if the player who is enjoying the game is enthusiastic about the game and cannot hear the ringing tone of the phone, a message indicating that the phone is ringing is displayed on the screen and the player can know the fact. it can.

In the above embodiment, the transmitter 30 of the slave unit 20 is provided with an acoustic sensor for detecting a ringing tone of a telephone or the like, but the transmitter 30 is not limited to the acoustic sensor. A vibration sensor capable of detecting a ringing tone can also be used.

The radio wave transmitted from the transmitter needs to be modulated so that it can be identified for each transmitter, but not limited to pulse modulation, an appropriate modulation means such as frequency modulation or amplitude modulation may be used. Can be adopted.

In the above embodiment, the wireless system is used for transmitting the signal from the transmitter to the receiver, but it goes without saying that a wired system can also be adopted. Further, in the receiver 40 of the above-described embodiment, the control unit 45 executes the extraction and transmission of the transmission information, but causes the game control unit 13 of the video game apparatus main body 11 to execute some of these functions. It is also possible to do so.

Further, in the above embodiment, the transmission information is displayed on the screen of the television receiver, but it is possible to output it as an audio output regardless of the screen display. It is also possible to output to both.

[0053]

As described above, according to the invention of claim 1,
When a transmitter of a child device for a video game device is attached to a telephone, an intercom, etc., and a receiver is connected to the main body of the video game device, and there is a call of a telephone or a visitor while using the video game device. However, this can be surely known through the display screen of the video game device.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, the transmitter constituting the slave unit detects the ringing sound of the telephone or the like by means of a sensor for detecting the sound. It is possible to detect a ringing tone of a telephone or the like.

According to the invention described in claim 3, the transmitter includes:
Not only can the signal be transmitted by the output of the sensor that detects sound, but also the signal can be transmitted by operating the operation button, and the range of use as a slave can be expanded.

According to the invention described in claim 4, since the transmission of the signal from the transmitter to the receiver is transmitted by the radio wave by the radio system, the degree of freedom of the installation position of the video game device equipped with the receiver is increased. .

According to the fifth aspect of the invention, since the transmission of the signal from the transmitter to the receiver is performed by a wire system,
The reliability of signal transmission is improved, and it is not necessary to consider the influence of the use of radio waves on other electric devices.

According to the sixth aspect of the present invention, the receiver stores the transmission information to be displayed on the display screen of the video game apparatus for each transmitter in advance corresponding to the plurality of transmitters. Since the transmission information to be displayed on the display device is transmitted according to the received signal, it is possible to display the required transmission information on the video game device without giving the video game device a special function. Become.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a principle diagram of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a configuration diagram of the device of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a basic configuration diagram of a transmitter of a slave according to the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a basic configuration diagram of a receiver of a child device according to the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a mounting state of a transmitter.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing a processing flow of an image displayed on the display device.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing an example in which transmission information is displayed on a screen of a display device.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1, 10 Video game device 2 Display device 3, 30 Transmitter 4, 40 Receiver 5, 20 Handset

Claims (6)

[Claims] 1. A slave unit for a video game device for displaying transmission information on a display device of the video game device,
A transmitter and a receiver, wherein the transmitter outputs a predetermined signal in response to a calling signal, and the receiver transmits the signal in response to the signal transmitted by the transmitter. A transmission device for a video game device, which transmits transmission information corresponding to the above to the video game device and displays it on the display device of the video game device. 2. The transmitter includes a sensor for detecting sound,
The slave unit for a video game device according to claim 1, further comprising means for outputting a predetermined signal in response to the sensor output. 3. The slave unit for a video game device according to claim 1, wherein the transmitter has an operation button and means for outputting a predetermined signal in response to an operation of the operation button. 4. The video game slave unit according to claim 1, wherein a signal is transmitted from the transmitter to the receiver by a wireless system. 5. The video game slave unit according to claim 1, wherein the transmission of the signal from the transmitter to the receiver is performed by a wired system. 6. The receiver includes a receiver that receives a signal from the transmitter, a determiner that identifies the transmitter that has transmitted the received signal based on the received signal, and a communication that corresponds to each transmitter. 2. A storage unit for storing information, and an output unit for transmitting the transmission information corresponding to the transmitter specified by the determination unit to the main body of the video game device.
A child device for the described video game device.