JPH08185192A - 'karaoke' system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To realize 'KARAOKE' (orchestration without rylics) system capable of simultaneously executing 'KARAOKE' between terminal equipments each other in the 'KARAOKE' of communication type using a communication line. CONSTITUTION: This system is provided with a center 400 in which the character data for displaying a caption and the performance sequence data are stored as a data file at every piece of music, and sending one requested to be sent through the communication line, and plural terminal equipments 100, 200 requesting sending to the center 400, separating the data file sent from the center 400 to the character data and the performance data, generating an image signal for displaying the caption according to the character data, performing the performance according to performance information incorporated in the performance sequence data, generating a sound signal for performance and synthesizing the sound signal for performance with the sound signal from a microphone, and plural terminal equipments 100, 200 are constituted so as to execute the 'KARAOKE' while transferring the sound and the image each other in addition to the data from the center 400.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention sends performance sequence data stored in a center to a plurality of terminals via a communication line to generate image data and performance sequence data at the terminals. The present invention relates to a karaoke system capable of performing karaoke and displaying lyrics, and performing karaoke while transmitting and receiving images and sounds between a plurality of terminals.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In existing karaoke using an optical disk as a recording medium, audio waveforms and video information are recorded using a 5.25 inch diameter compact disk (CD) or a 12 inch diameter laser disk (LD) as a medium. ing. In this case, the audio waveform (audio signal) is quantized with 16 bits, sampled at 44.1 kHz, and recorded as digital data. CD, CD-G
About 73 minutes (about 17 songs), LD about 28 songs, C
The D-I can record about 50 songs.

In addition to this audio signal, in many cases, various information and signals are recorded as subcodes. In some cases, a computer graphic image called a graphics signal (still image) or a caption display (a graphic character image for displaying the song title, lyrics, etc.) is recorded as bitmap data or the like as the subcode. .

By the way, in a general karaoke apparatus, about 5
Since it is necessary to record 000 to 6000 songs,
In D, it is necessary to prepare about 300 disks.

Therefore, a space for accommodating the large number of discs is required, which causes a problem that the karaoke system device becomes large in size. In addition, a changer mechanism for automatically exchanging disks according to the selection of music has to be prepared in the apparatus, and there is a problem that the mechanism of the apparatus becomes complicated and large. Further, there is a problem that it takes a certain amount of time to replace the disc with the changer mechanism.

Recently, there is also a karaoke system called "communications karaoke" in which data is transferred from a host computer (center) to a karaoke device (terminal) using a communication line to perform a performance. In this type of online karaoke, it is not necessary to prepare hundreds of CDs. Therefore, it has advantages such as a compact terminal.

[0007]

In such online karaoke, there are a plurality of terminals connectable to the center. Then, only the exchange of data between the center and the terminals has been considered, and the terminals have not been considered at all.

That is, each terminal has a modem and a line controller, and it is technically possible to communicate with each other. However, no consideration was given to the procedure for communication between terminals and the contents to be transmitted / received. Therefore, it has been impossible to simultaneously perform karaoke between terminals.

The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and an object thereof is to realize a karaoke system in which terminals can simultaneously perform karaoke in communication karaoke using a communication line. .

[0010]

The inventor of the present application has conducted earnest research to improve the drawbacks of the conventional communication type karaoke system, and as a result, a procedure and a configuration for simultaneously performing karaoke between terminals. That is, the present invention has been completed.

Therefore, the present invention, which is means for solving the problem, is configured as described below.

That is, according to the present invention for solving the above-mentioned problems, character data for caption display indicating a title screen, lyrics, etc. and performance sequence data including performance information are accumulated as a data file for each song and accumulated. Out of the data files, the data file requested to be sent is sent to the center via the communication line, and a request is sent to the center via the communication line to send the data file sent from the center to the character data and the performance sequence. Separated from the data, the caption display image signal is generated according to the character data, the performance is performed according to the performance information included in the performance sequence data, and the performance audio signal is generated. A plurality of terminals capable of synthesizing a voice signal from the center are provided. In addition to the image data, the image signal provided from one specific terminal through the communication line and the image signal for displaying the caption so that the karaoke can be executed while transmitting and receiving the voice and the image to and from each other. And a voice signal given from the other specific terminal via a communication line and the performance voice signal, and
The input voice is transmitted as a voice signal to the other specific terminal via the communication line, and the input image is transmitted as an image signal to the other specific terminal via the communication line. It is a karaoke system characterized by being performed.

[0013]

According to the karaoke system of the present invention, which is a means for solving the problem, the data transmitted from the center in response to the transmission request from the terminal is transmitted to the plurality of terminals via the communication lines. In each of the plurality of terminals, character data and performance sequence data are separated, and an image signal for caption display and a performance audio signal are generated.

Further, by exchanging voices and images of each other between a plurality of terminals via a communication line and synthesizing voices and images from other terminals and voices and images from the center with each other, Perform karaoke simultaneously among multiple terminals.

[0015]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a terminal which is a main part of a karaoke system according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a system configuration diagram showing an overall configuration of the karaoke system. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing a file organization of a data file used in an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram showing a data flow state in an embodiment of the present invention.

First, the configuration of the karaoke system will be described with reference to FIGS. 1 and 2, and the basic operation of the karaoke system will be described with reference to FIGS. 3, 4 and 5.

In the following embodiments, as the performance sequence data, digital data necessary for causing the tone generator module to execute the performance will be used. For example,
Performance sequence data is MIDI (Musical Instrument)
Digital interface) The MIDI data necessary for the performance section to perform the performance is used, and this MIDI data is sent from the center to the terminal. Therefore, the performance sequence data includes channel number as MIDI data, pitch information (pitch information), volume information (sound volume information), sound generation start timing, sound generation stop timing, and the like. To do. Further, in order to display captions such as lyrics, a character code (called character data in this embodiment) is transmitted from the center.

First, the overall structure of a karaoke system assumed in one embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG.

In FIG. 2, a terminal 100 arranged near a user and performing karaoke is connected to a switching center 300 via a communication line 301a described later. In addition, the terminal device 200 that executes karaoke similarly is connected to the exchange 300 through the communication line 301b. Here, the terminal 100 and the terminal 200 are communication type karaoke terminals, and not only normal communication karaoke but also a plurality of terminals can execute karaoke simultaneously as described later. In reality, a larger number of terminals are connected to the switching center 300 via communication lines, but here, only the terminals 100 and 200 will be described.

The switching center 300 is a switching process (circuit switching) for connecting centers and terminals to each other via the communication line 301.
Is what you do. Exchange 300 in this embodiment
Is required to be capable of exchanging data at three (or more) points at the same time. still,
The exchange 300 sets up a communication line occupied by individual calls (Call) between the terminals and between the terminals and the center between the terminals. In addition, this exchange 30
The switching mode in 0 may be either circuit switching or packet switching.

The communication lines 301a, 301b, 301c are lines for transmitting various data and signals, and the switching center 300
The occupancy state is controlled by. For example, in the case of a wired line, it may be a public communication line, a specific communication line or a private line.

The center 400 stores data of a plurality of karaoke songs as a data file, and is configured to send the data file in response to a request from the terminal. This center 400 has a communication line 301
It is connected to the exchange 300 via c.

In the following embodiment, the exchange 300 will be described.
The communication lines 301a, 301b, and 301c are described as being digital communication line networks, but analog communication line networks may be used if possible. Further, the communication lines 301a, 301b, 301c will be described by taking the case of a wired line as an example, but wireless or optical communication may be used if possible.

Next, the internal structure of the terminal 100 will be described in detail with reference to FIG. The terminal 200 and other terminals not shown have the same configuration.

In FIG. 1, the line control unit 101 performs line control on the communication line 301a and performs data modulation / demodulation, and has a modem unit and an NCU unit.
The control unit 102 is a control unit that controls the entire terminal 100 as a whole, and executes various controls according to instructions from the operation unit 102, which will be described later, timing data from the center 400, and the like.

The operation unit 103 is an input unit having an instruction input unit and a simple display unit for performing various operations (music selection, calling of other terminals, etc.) for executing karaoke, and the operation result is displayed. It is transmitted to the control unit 102. The decoding unit 104 decodes the data sent from the center 400 to separate the performance sequence data, the character data, and the timing data, and supplies the timing data to the control unit 102 so that the performance sequence data MID.
It is supplied to the I performance section 105, and the character data is supplied to the character generation section 109.

The MIDI performance unit 105 is a sequencer that receives performance sequence data (MIDI data) and executes a performance, and generates a performance voice signal. The audio codec 106 decodes the audio data from the other terminal 200 to convert the audio data into an analog audio signal, and the microphone 10
The karaoke voice input from 7 is encoded and transmitted to another terminal 200. The audio codec 106 preferably has a hybrid circuit or the like to prevent howling. The amplifier 108 is an amplification means for amplifying the performance voice signal from the MIDI performance unit 105, the karaoke voice from the other terminal 200 decoded by the voice codec 106, and the user's karaoke voice from the microphone 107. The amplified signal is supplied to the speaker 109.

The character generator 110 is the decoder 104.
It is a circuit for generating a character as a bit image by referring to the character data decoded in (1), and has a bit image table corresponding to a character code in advance. The image codec 111 receives an image from another terminal 200 and performs a decoding process on the image.
In addition to generating the image signal photographed in (1), the image input from the camera unit 114, which will be described later, is encoded and transmitted to another terminal device 200.

The imposing unit 112 is the character generating unit 1.
Character code generated in 10 and image codec 11
The processing circuit generates an image signal by synthesizing (superimposing) the image signal generated in 1 and supplies the synthesized image signal to the CRT display 113.

The camera unit 114 is an image pickup means such as a CCD image pickup device configured to take an image of the user of the terminal 100, and supplies an image signal to the image codec 111 for encoding processing. The other terminals 200 have the same configuration as the terminal 100.

The karaoke data used in the karaoke system having the above-described structure has a file organization consisting of performance sequence data + character data + timing data, as shown in FIG. Here, the performance sequence data is MIDI data for MIDI performance, the character data is a character code for displaying captions, and the timing data is a time code (time code) for allowing a plurality of terminals to start playing simultaneously. For example, the performance start time or the current time + relative start time).

The basic operation of the karaoke system configured as described above is as follows. In this embodiment,
A description will be given with reference to the explanatory view of FIG. 4 and the flowchart of FIG. 5, focusing on the case where simultaneous karaoke is executed with another terminal 200 by an operation from the terminal 100.

First, the operation unit 103 of the terminal 100 receives a request from the user. As the request, in addition to the song number, when performing simultaneous karaoke with another terminal 200, the telephone number of the other terminal 200 or the like is accepted.

The control unit 102 processes this request,
Notify the line control unit 101. The line control unit 101
Is a reception buffer with a capacity of about one tune, a control processor for line control (referred to as line CPU), a CRC discrimination unit for checking CRC (cyclic redundancy check), a modem (NCU) for modulation / demodulation and line connection / disconnection. ). Therefore, the notification of the request from the control unit 102 is accepted by the line CPU in the line control unit 101 and notified to the modem unit and the NCU unit.

Then, the simultaneous karaoke request from the user is transmitted from the modem of the line control unit 101 to the center 400 as a transmission request via the communication line 301a. At the same time, the line controller 101 calls another terminal 200 via the exchange 300 (see FIGS. 4 and 5S).
1).

For example, if the line control unit 101 is the switching center 300
To another terminal 200 calling number (telephone number,
Dial-in number, sub-address number, etc.) is notified, and the switching center 300 receiving the notification calls the other terminal 200.

The other terminal 200 waits in the simultaneous karaoke executable state in response to a call from the terminal 100 via the exchange 300.

The line control unit on the side of the center 400 receives the transmission request, the line CPU in the line control unit processes it, and transmits the transmission request to the control unit. Therefore, the center 40
At 0, music data (performance sequence data + character data) corresponding to a transmission request (user's request) is read from the data storage unit. Then, the timing data is added to the read music data and the data is encoded to perform communication line 301c.
It is sent to the terminal device 100 and the terminal device 200 via the.
The data capacity is also compressed by this encoding process, and the terminal device 10 is compressed in a state in which the performance sequence data and the character data, which were about several hundred kilobytes, are compressed to about one hundred kilobytes.
0, 200 (FIG. 4, FIG. 5S2).

Here, the line control unit 101 of the terminal 100
Receives data from the center 400 via the communication line 301a and stores it in a buffer (hereinafter also referred to as a reception buffer) in the line control unit 101 (S3 in FIG. 5). This receiving buffer has a data capacity of about one song or more. The reception buffer having such a capacity is configured so that the reading can be performed during the performance as needed (the performance can be started even during the reception).

Similarly, the terminal 200 also receives data from the center 400 via the communication line 301b and stores it in a buffer (hereinafter also referred to as a receive buffer) in the line control unit 101 (S3 'in FIG. 5). .

The data in the reception buffer of the line control unit 101 is supplied to the decoding unit 104 and is subjected to the decoding process to separate the performance sequence data, the character data and the timing data. Then, the timing data is supplied to the control unit 102, the performance sequence data is supplied to the MIDI performance unit 105, and the character data is supplied to the character generation unit 109. Here, the control unit 102 decodes the timing data and gives an instruction to the MIDI performance unit 105 and the character generation unit 109 at the instructed timing to execute the karaoke performance. Therefore, the karaoke performance starts at the timing instructed by the center 400 (FIG. 5).
S4).

In the same manner, the timing (terminal 10
Karaoke performance starts at the same time as 0 (FIG. 5S).
4 ').

At this time, the voice (singing voice of the user of the terminal device 100) input from the microphone 107 of the terminal device 100 is amplified by the amplifier 108 and reproduced from the speaker 109 as in the case of normal karaoke, and at the same time, the voice codec 106. Then, it is encoded and transmitted to another terminal 200 through the communication line 301a (S5 in FIG. 5). Similarly, the voice (the terminal device 200) input from the microphone of the other terminal device 200 is input.
User's singing voice) is transmitted to the terminal 1 via the communication line 301b.
00 side (FIG. 5S5 ′), and the voice codec 10
The data is decrypted at 6, amplified by the amplifier 108, and reproduced from the speaker 109. Accordingly, the MIDI performance as the accompaniment of karaoke, the singing voice of the user, and the singing voice sung by the other terminal 200 are simultaneously output from the speaker 109 of the terminal 100.

Further, the image input by the camera unit 114 of the terminal 100 (scenery sung by the user of the terminal 100)
Is coded by the image codec 111 and the communication line 3
01a is transmitted to another terminal 200 (FIG. 5S).
5). Similarly, the image (scenery sung by the user of the terminal 200) input from the camera unit of the other terminal 200 is transmitted to the terminal 100 side through the communication line 301b (FIG. 5S5 ′). The image is coded by the image codec 111 and supplied to the imposing unit 112.

Therefore, the CRT display unit 113 of the terminal 100 simultaneously displays the characters of the characters as the caption display of karaoke and the scenery sung by the other terminal 200 (S6 in FIG. 5).

Further, in the same manner, the microphone 10 on the side of the terminal device 100 side in addition to the normal karaoke performance on the side of the other terminal device 200.
The singing voice from No. 7 and the image from the camera unit 114 are output (S6 'in FIG. 5).

With the above operation, it becomes possible to simultaneously perform karaoke on the terminal device 100 and the other terminal device 200, so that the singing voice and the image of each other can be sent to the other party for duet. Become.

When there is a disconnection request from the center 400 or the terminal 100 as necessary, the switching center 300 cancels the communication path setting of the communication line.

In the above description, it is also possible to start the MIDI performance and the caption display when the data starts to be stored in the reception buffer in the line control unit 101, if necessary. That is, it is possible to read the compressed data while receiving the compressed data in the receive buffer so that the MIDI performance and the caption display can be performed in parallel. Of course, it is also possible to start the performance after one song has been completely stored in the reception buffer.

As described above, by receiving data from the center 400 at a plurality of terminals at the same time and exchanging images and sounds between the terminals, a plurality of terminals which are not possible in the conventional communication type karaoke system. It is possible to realize a karaoke system that enables simultaneous performance between terminals.

Since the terminal of this embodiment is equipped with a voice codec and an image codec, it can be used as a videophone in addition to the use as a communication type karaoke.

[0053]

As described in detail above, according to the present invention,
Data from the center is decoded to generate the image signal for caption display and the performance audio signal, and the voices and images of other terminals are exchanged with each other, and the audio from other terminals is exchanged. By synthesizing the image and the sound and image from the center, it is possible to realize a karaoke system capable of simultaneously performing karaoke between a plurality of terminals.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a terminal which is a main part of a karaoke system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a configuration diagram showing an overall configuration of a karaoke system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing a file organization of data used in the karaoke system according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram conceptually showing the flow of data in the karaoke system of one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing an operation in the karaoke system of the embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 100 terminal 101 line control unit 102 control unit 103 operation unit 104 decoding unit 105 MIDI playing unit 106 voice codec 107 microphone 108 amplifier 109 speaker 110 character generation unit 111 image codec 112 impose unit 113 CRT display unit 114 camera unit 200 and others Terminals 300 Switching stations 301a, 301b, 301c Communication lines 400 Center

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. Character data for caption display showing a title screen, lyrics, etc., and performance sequence data containing performance information are accumulated as data files for each song, and data requested to be transmitted among the accumulated data files. Sends a file via a communication line to the center and sends a request to the above center via a communication line to separate the data file sent from the center into character data and performance sequence data. To generate a caption display image signal, perform a performance according to the performance information included in the performance sequence data to generate a performance voice signal, and synthesize the performance voice signal and the voice signal from the microphone. The above-mentioned multiple terminals send and receive voice and images to and from each other in addition to the data from the center. In order to perform one karaoke, one terminal synthesizes an image signal given from another specific terminal via a communication line with the image signal for caption display, and the other specific terminal. A voice signal given from a communication line to the above-mentioned performance voice signal is synthesized, and the input voice is sent as a voice signal to the other specific terminal via the communication line and input. A karaoke system, which is configured to send an image as an image signal to the other specific terminal via a communication line.