JPH08101697A - Electronic book device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To provide an easy-to-use, convenient electronic book device which performs excellent reading-aloud operation by efficiently reproducing various speeches, attracts a user's attention, and compensates a decrease in his power of concentration during reading. CONSTITUTION: In the case where an actual song of a bush warbler is added to the part 'HO-HOKEKYO≈ of a text of 'Bush warbler sings 'HO- HOKEKYO'', the part, 'Bush warbler', and the next part, 'sings', are read in a mode of speech converted from the character data as shown in figure (A). For the part 'HO-HOKEKYO≈, however, the added sound is reproduced and no speech conversion from the character data is performed. In the case of figure (B), where music is added as BGM, the reading is performed in the mode of speech converted from the character data all over and the added sound of BGM is also reproduced superposedbly at the same time.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a CD-ROM, for example.
The electronic book device that displays the text information stored in the information recording medium such as on a display such as a liquid crystal,
More specifically, it relates to improvement of reproduction of the audio information.

[0002]

[Background Art and Problems to be Solved by the Invention] Contents of various books such as dictionaries and novels (hereinafter simply referred to as "text")
As an electronic book device for displaying the text on the display and reading the text, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 6-202686.
Is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. HEI 9-203 (1995). According to this, the existing text is displayed in the original type, and the reading sound can be heard. In addition, while allowing free handwriting from the electronic pen, it is possible to save it.

By the way, a recording medium such as a CD-ROM may record voice data in addition to data such as characters and images. For example, crying birds, pronunciation of foreign languages, BGM of sound of waves, etc. When these sounds are reproduced together with the reading sound of the text, it is necessary to devise so that both can be heard well.

Further, even when the text on the display is silently read without reading the text, there is a function to call the attention of the user or to supplement the decrease of concentration during reading. It is convenient.

The present invention focuses on the above points,
To provide an easy-to-use and convenient electronic book device that can efficiently reproduce various voices and perform good reading, as well as draw the user's attention and compensate for the decrease in concentration during reading. Is the purpose.

[0006]

In order to achieve the above object, according to the present invention, character data read from an information recording medium is displayed, and when voice data is added, it is treated as an additional voice. When the voice data is played back and the voice data is not added, the character data is played back as converted voice. The additional voice and the converted voice are selectively output in correspondence with the character display.

According to another aspect of the invention, the converted voice is also reproduced for the character data to which the voice data is added, and the converted voice is added and output. According to still another aspect of the present invention, when a certain period of time has elapsed without displaying pages after displaying character data, audio output is automatically performed. The above and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will be apparent from the following detailed description and the accompanying drawings.

[0008]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS While there may be many embodiments of the present invention, a suitable number of embodiments will now be shown and described in detail. <Structure of Embodiment> First, the structure of the main part of the embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. In FIG. 1, a CPU 10 includes an operation unit 12 for a user of the electronic book device to give an operation instruction, and an RO for driving a CD-ROM cartridge 13.
M driver 14, decompression unit 16 for decompressing compressed information, dictionary for accumulating data for character display and voice conversion,
A segment data section 18, a display processor 20 for performing display processing, a text analysis / synthesis parameter generation section 22 for obtaining text analysis and synthesis parameters for speech synthesis, a speech synthesis section 24 for performing speech synthesis, Are connected.

A D / A converter 26 is connected to the decompression unit 16, and the voice synthesis unit 24 and the D / A converter 26 are connected.
The output side of is connected to the input side of the adder 28. The output side of the adder 28 is connected to an audio output unit such as a speaker (not shown). On the other hand, a display 30 is connected to the display processor 20.

Next, the format of the data stored in the ROM cartridge 13 set in the ROM driver 14 will be described. The basic format conforms to the well-known CD-ROM standard, but if the main information contained in the frame is only character information, it is written in SYNC (synchronization signal) and header (address information). The subsequent subheader (coding information) is set to, for example, a logical value "0" (see FIG. 9A). For example, in the case of a novel or the like, the text is usually only characters, and the main information of each frame is only character information. In this case, since the main information is only code data, it has a fixed length of 2312 bytes.

When audio data is attached to the main information, the subheader is set to, for example, a logical value "1" (see FIG. 1B). For example, in the case of data such as a cry of a bird, voice data of the cry is attached. In this case, since the cry data is compressed, the main information has a variable length. In the illustrated example, it is 2292 bytes. The data structure of the entire ROM cartridge 13 is as shown in FIG.

As will be described later, when the subheader is "0", only the character data is included, so that the main information is converted into text and voice as described later. On the other hand, when the sub header is "1", the audio signal is extracted while decompressing the main information in the attached frame.

In this way, the compressed voice data is stored in the ROM cartridge 13 separately from the character data.
There is an advantage that the scale of the ROM cartridge 13, that is, the recording medium can be reduced.

Explaining other components, the operation unit 12 includes, for example, a plurality of input keys and the like, by which various inputs such as a page feed (page break) instruction and an operation mode instruction are performed. . The decompression unit 16 is for decompressing the compressed audio information read from the ROM cartridge 13 by the ROM driver 14. The decompressed voice data is converted into an analog voice signal by the D / A converter 26. The display processor 20 is
This is for performing a display process of performing a corresponding display on the display 30 based on the data read from the OM cartridge 13.

FIG. 3 shows an example of the display area of the display 30. This example is an example of a liquid crystal display device, which has 480 dots vertically and 600 dots horizontally. There are 24 dot border areas 30A and 30B on the upper and lower sides, respectively, and the central portion excluding these is a text area 30C. The text area 30C can display 18 vertical characters and 25 horizontal characters, depending on the size of the characters.

The dictionary / segment data unit 18 is referred to when the text analysis / synthesis parameter generation unit 22 performs text analysis and voice synthesis parameter generation, and stores data necessary for voice synthesis. The text analysis / synthesis parameter generation unit 22 refers to the dictionary / element data unit 18 to obtain parameters necessary for the speech synthesis unit 24 to perform speech synthesis. The dictionary / segment data unit 18, the text analysis / synthesis parameter generation unit 22, and the speech synthesis unit 24 constitute a text-to-speech conversion device.

The adder 28 converts the voice signal added to the ROM cartridge 13 supplied from the D / A converter 26 (hereinafter simply referred to as "additional voice signal") and the text conversion supplied from the voice synthesizer 24. It is for adding the converted audio signal (hereinafter simply referred to as “converted audio signal”).

Next, the CPU 10 is for controlling the operation of each section in accordance with the operation mode instructed by the operation section 12. FIG. 4 shows a flowchart of the basic operation of the CPU 10. First, when the apparatus is activated, the system is initialized (step S10) as shown in FIG. 7A, and then the process proceeds to the main routine (step S12). In this main routine, the CPU 10 monitors which mode of operation, that is, which task is instructed. When the user operates the operation unit 12 to instruct any task, the interrupt routine (step S2) shown in FIG.
0) is executed. After execution, again step S1
It returns to 2 (step S22).

<Operation of Embodiment> Next, the operation of the embodiment configured as described above will be described. Since there are three main operation modes, each mode will be described.

(1) Synthetic reproduction mode When the user selects this mode, the additional sound and the converted sound are combined and reproduced. For example, the text "Houhokekyo" says, "Yuu croaks.
It is assumed that the actual bird crying is added to the part. In this case, as shown in FIG. 5 (A),
Read aloud by converted voice from character data. However, the additional voice is played in the "Hokekekyo" part, and the voice conversion from the character data is not performed. In the next part, "Meru", the converted voice from the character data is read aloud.

Next, the operation of the interrupt routine in the composite reproduction mode will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. When the user designates this mode with the operation unit 12, the interrupt routine of this mode shown in FIG. 6 is executed. First, the ROM driver 14 reads data from the ROM cartridge 13 (step S
30). Then, by the display processor 20,
Text area 30C of display 30 (see FIG. 3)
The read data is displayed on the screen (step S3).
2). If page feed is instructed, the next page is displayed.

Next, the CPU 10 refers to the sub-header (see FIG. 2) of the frame of the display data. And
If the subheader is "0" (Y in step S34),
The data of the frame includes the dictionary / segment data section 18, the text analysis / synthesis parameter generation section 22, and the speech synthesis section 2.
The text-to-speech is converted by 4 and the converted voice signal is output (step S36).

On the other hand, when the subheader is "1" (N in step S34), the compressed audio data is added, so the expansion unit 16 expands the audio data and outputs the additional audio signal. (Step S38). If there is a next frame, the above operation is repeated (step S
40). Thus, in the composite reproduction mode, step S
The operations of 36 and S38 are selectively performed, and the additional voice and the converted voice are selectively read as shown in FIG.

(2) Addition reproduction mode When the user selects this mode, the additional voice and the converted voice are added and reproduced. For example, it is assumed that music (BGM) that represents an image of a forest is added to the text “Ugui sings“ Hohokekyo ”.”
In this case, as shown in FIG. 5 (B), the entire "" Uki croaking "" is read by the converted voice from the character data. On the other hand, along with them, the BGM additional voice is reproduced, and is reproduced together with the converted voice from the character data. So in this mode,
The sentences are read aloud on the BGM.

Next, the operation of the interrupt routine in this addition reproduction mode will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. When the user designates this mode with the operation unit 12, the interrupt routine of this mode shown in FIG. 7 is executed. Similar to the operation mode, first, ROM
The data is read from the ROM cartridge 13 by the driver 14 (step S30). Then, the display processor 20 displays the read data in the text area 30C (see FIG. 3) of the display 30 (step S32). If page feed is instructed, the next page is displayed.

Next, according to an instruction from the CPU 10, the dictionary / element data section 18, the text analysis / synthesis parameter generation section 22, and the speech synthesis section 24 perform text-to-speech conversion on the characters of the first frame of the display data. The converted audio signal is output (step S50). At the same time, the added compressed BGM audio data is expanded by the expansion unit 16 and the additional audio signal is output (step S5).
0). Each of these sounds is superimposed and reproduced at the same time.
The above operation is repeated for the subsequent frames (step S40). As described above, in the addition reproduction mode, as shown in FIG. 5B, the additional voice and the converted voice are superimposed and read and reproduced.

(3) Silent reading reproduction mode This operation mode is a suitable operation mode when the above-mentioned reading is not performed, that is, when the user silently reads the display on the display 30. When the user does not page forward within a certain period of time after the silent reading is started, the reading mode is switched to one of the above-described reading modes, and the reading is performed. Therefore, for example, if the user's concentration decreases during silent reading, reading will automatically start, so it is possible to call attention to the user and compensate for the decrease in concentration during reading. Become.

The operation of the interrupt routine in this operation mode will be described with reference to FIG. When the user designates this mode with the operation unit 12, the interrupt routine of this mode shown in FIG. 8 is executed. First, the ROM driver 14 reads data from the ROM cartridge 13 (step S30). Then, the display processor 20 displays the read data in the text area 30C (see FIG. 3) of the display 30 (step S32). If page feed is instructed,
The next page is displayed. These operations are similar to the above-mentioned modes.

Next, the CPU 10 resets the internal counter and starts counting time (step S60). This counting is stopped when the page is advanced, and is then reset to start counting again (step S64). However, if the page is not advanced, it is counted up to a certain value (step S6).
6, S62). Then, the task is changed by the instruction of the CPU 10 and the task is executed (step S6).
8). For example, the task is changed to the composite reproduction mode described above, and the reading operation in that mode is executed.

As described above, when a certain count is performed without displaying the page after the page is displayed, that is, when a predetermined time elapses without displaying the page after the page with the text is displayed. , Text reading is done automatically.

<Other Embodiments> The present invention can be variously modified based on the above disclosure, and includes, for example, the following. (1) In the above embodiment, the CD-ROM was used as the recording medium, but various types such as FD may be used. The same applies to the display device, and the display device is not limited to the liquid crystal display. (2) It is not always necessary to provide all the operation modes for audio reproduction described above, and only one of them may be provided. (3) The above-described embodiment is mainly applied to the case where the display content is only characters, but it is applicable to the case where other information, for example, an image such as a picture or a photograph is included.

[0032]

As described above, the present invention has the following effects. (1) Since the character data is converted into voice, it is not necessary to add voice data to all the character data stored in the recording medium, and it is possible to efficiently use the recording medium and read well. Become. In addition, it is possible to select either male or female as the voice of the text conversion, or to convert it to the voice of a favorite actor, singer, etc., and it is possible to read with a sense of taste. (2) You can enjoy reading in various modes such as synthetic playback of additional voice and converted voice, addition playback of both voices. (3) If there is no page feed even after a certain period of time has passed since the message was displayed, it was decided to automatically switch to reading mode, so the user's attention should be alerted and a decrease in concentration during reading should be compensated. You can

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a main part of a configuration of an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an outline of a data format of an example.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a display area of the display according to the embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing a basic operation of the CPU of the embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a state of reading aloud in the example.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing the operation of the embodiment.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing the operation of the embodiment.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing the operation of the embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

 10 ... CPU 12 ... Operation part 13 ... ROM cartridge 14 ... ROM driver 16 ... Decompression part 18 ... Dictionary / element data part 20 ... Display processor 22 ... Text analysis / synthesis parameter generation part 24 ... Voice synthesis part 26 ... D / A Converter 28 ... Adder 30 ... Display

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A drive means for reading information from an information recording medium containing character data and voice data added to a part of the character data; for displaying the character data read from the information recording medium. Display means; voice reproducing means for reproducing voice data read from the information recording medium to obtain additional voice; voice converting means for voice converting character data read from the information recording medium to obtain converted voice Means for driving the voice reproducing means and the voice converting means in response to the characters displayed by the display means, stopping the output of the converted voice when the additional voice is output, and selectively outputting the additional voice and the converted voice. An electronic book device provided with a control means for outputting to. 2. A drive means for reading information from an information recording medium containing character data and voice data added to a part of the character data; for displaying the character data read from the information recording medium. Display means; voice reproducing means for reproducing voice data read from the information recording medium to obtain additional voice; voice converting means for voice converting character data read from the information recording medium to obtain converted voice An electronic book apparatus comprising: a means; a control means for driving the voice reproducing means and the voice converting means in response to the characters displayed by the display means, and simultaneously adding and outputting the additional voice and the converted voice. 3. The control means, when a certain period of time has passed without displaying pages after displaying the character data,
The electronic book device according to claim 1, wherein the audio output is automatically controlled.