JPH09186980A - Slave receiver - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To relieve the load of a master controller acting supervisory and to set the selection of a desired audio signal in advance. SOLUTION: A table storage section 3 stores a table in which an executionable audio selection is cross-referenced with an audio mode and a table an audio signal to be selected in the case of execution disable state is cross-referenced with an audio mode and when the storage section 3 receives an audio selection instruction from a master controller 8, the section 3 returns a reply of 'enable' when execution is enable and executes the instruction. When the execution is disable, the section 3 returns a 'hold' reply and stores the instruction to an old selection state storage section 5 without executing anything at that point of time and tries the execution again when an audio mode change is detected.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a subordinate type receiver operated by a control signal from an externally provided main control unit, and more particularly to a specific voice from a plurality of types of voices in the received signal. The present invention relates to a subordinate type receiver having a function of selecting and outputting the.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a subordinate receiver of this type is combined with a main control unit for controlling the operation of the subordinate receiver to form one receiving system.
Such a receiving system has a wide range of uses and service contents to which the receiving system is applied, or when changes and additions are frequently made, differences in service, such as differences in billing, etc. This is adopted for the purpose of giving flexibility to the system by absorbing only by the main control unit and facilitating the correspondence to each application.

In this receiving system, when a signal to be transmitted including a plurality of types of voices therein is to be received, the receiver selects and outputs a specific voice from the plurality of voices. Such a function becomes indispensable.

This type of subordinate receiver has not been proposed yet, but if it is strongly cited as the first conventional example which is considered to be a little similar to this type of device, it is disclosed in JP-A-1-31.
No. 8368.

In the prior art disclosed in this publication (apparatus in a television receiver), the control selection displayed in a menu, such as the audio processing mode menu, is an input signal condition, for example, received. It is characterized in that it can be dynamically changed according to the presence or absence of the stereo and / or the second audio program component of the radio frequency (RF) television signal.

In this technique, displaying one or more control selections in a menu causes confusion with the input signal state, especially considering that the signal state changes from normal channel to channel. For example, a television signal received in a television receiver having multiple audio processing mode selections corresponding to monaural audio reproduction, stereo audio reproduction and reproduction of a second audio program (eg for a second language). If not modulated with stereo and / or second audio program information, displaying a menu with all three audio processing mode selections expected even if the stereo or second audio program processing mode was selected. The purpose is to avoid the confusion caused by not responding, and is different from the gist of the present invention described below.

As a second conventional example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 4-
In the technique disclosed in Japanese Patent No. 107727, a menu is displayed from an input device in a menu display device in an interactive information processing system that displays a menu on an output device and executes a function by selecting a command item displayed in the menu. Input means for receiving the display device request, a menu information storage table that stores the names of items to be displayed in the menu, command names that are activated when selecting menu items, display attributes, etc., and the menu that is actually displayed by referring to this table. It has a display menu creating means for extracting and converting to a display format, and an output means for displaying the menu on an output device, and displaying a menu consisting of only commands executable in the process that issued the menu display request. It is a characteristic menu display device.

The second conventional example is a technique of simply displaying a menu of only selectable items by referring to a table, which is significantly different from the gist of the present invention described below.

[0009]

However, when the reception target signal is not guaranteed to be transmitted in the state where all kinds of voices are always present in operation, for example, in a format in which four kinds of voices can be transmitted at the same time at the maximum. Even if there is, there may be a case where only one type of voice exists at a certain time. In this case, of course, even if one of the remaining three types of voices that does not exist at this time is specified, it is impossible to deal with it. At this time, in order not to cause inconsistency in the receiving system, it is necessary for the main control unit to grasp that the designation is invalid and notify the user of that fact. For that purpose, conventionally, there has been no method other than knowing whether or not the output corresponding to the request can be obtained by the main control unit constantly monitoring the reception state of the receiver.

However, it is very important for the main control unit to constantly monitor the reception state of the receiver to keep track of whether the selection is possible, that is, whether or not the output corresponding to the request is obtained. It is not realistic because the burden on the

If it is difficult to constantly monitor the reception status of the receiver, a voice such as "not being sent now but being sent after 10 minutes" is awaited and received. Is also difficult.

Therefore, the realization of these functions may be completely abandoned depending on the situation.

The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned conventional circumstances. Therefore, the object of the present invention is to solve the above-mentioned problems inherent in the conventional art and to reduce the load on the main control unit for monitoring. At the same time, another object of the present invention is to provide a novel subordinate receiving apparatus that enables preset selection of a desired voice selection.

[0014]

In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, the subordinate receiver according to the present invention is (1) based on the kind of voice currently being transmitted, "what kind of selection can be executed? A "table" (data table) for determining whether to execute a voice selection command is determined by this. If execution is possible, selection is executed and a response of "OK" is returned and execution is not possible. If so, the selection is not executed and a "pending" response is returned.

(2) At this time, a voice selection command that cannot be executed at that time is stored as a "hold selection state", and the selection is executed when the selection becomes possible.

(3) Further, when the main control unit can receive, means for notifying the main control unit of a change in the reception state is provided.

It has the above characteristics.

The subordinate receiving apparatus according to the present invention is, when structurally shown, a subordinate receiving of a receiving system including a subordinate receiver and a main controller for controlling the operation of the subordinate receiver. A first data table in which a first data table corresponding to a voice selection executable in a voice mode and a second data table corresponding to a voice to be selected when the voice mode is not executable are stored, A second memory for storing necessary data when the voice mode cannot be executed; and a tuning means for extracting a desired wave from an RF signal input from an RF input terminal according to an instruction from a receiver control means described later. , Demodulating means for demodulating the signal output from the channel selecting means and notifying the receiver control means of information about this signal, and selecting a specific voice according to an instruction from the receiver control means of the following. A voice selection means for outputting to a voice output terminal, a communication interface means connected to the main control unit via a command / response input / output terminal, an instruction from the main control unit, and a current reception output from the demodulation unit. Based on the configuration information of the signal inside, the data tables of the first and second memories are indexed to control the voice selection means and each other means, and enable / disable execution of the received voice selection command. And a receiver control means for judging.

Next, a preferred embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a minimum part necessary for explaining one embodiment of a receiving system constructed by using one embodiment of a subordinate receiver according to the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 1, a receiving system to which an embodiment of the present invention is applied is a subordinate receiver 1 according to the present invention.
And the command / response input / output terminal 16 of the subordinate receiver 1
And a main control unit 8 connected via the.

The dependent receiver 1 comprises a read-only memory 2, a read / write memory 4, a communication interface section 9,
Receiver control unit 10, RF input terminal 11, channel selection unit 12, demodulation unit 13, audio selection unit 14, audio output terminal 15, command /
A response input / output terminal 16 is provided.

The main controller 8 is composed of, for example, a personal computer.

The read-only memory 2 has a "table" in it.
The storage unit 3 is provided. This "table" stores data for knowing what the significant voice selection is in the voice configuration of the signal currently being received. 2 and 3,
A part of this "table" is shown.

The read / write memory 4 includes therein a reserved selection state storage section 5, a current selection state storage section 6, and an actual selection state storage section 7.

The receiver controller 10 controls the operation of the slave receiver 1 by program control.

In accordance with an instruction from the receiver control section 10, the channel selection section 12 extracts a target wave from the RF signal input from the RF input terminal 11 and passes it to the demodulation section 13.

The demodulation unit 13 demodulates the signal passed from the channel selection unit 12 and restores it to a signal before being modulated, and the voice selection unit 1
Hand over to 4. At this time, the demodulation unit 13 has a function of notifying the receiver control unit 10 of information regarding this signal.
Based on this information, the receiver control unit 10 uses the “table” storage unit 3
Index the "tables" in to see what are the valid voice selections.

A specific voice is selected and output to the voice output terminal 15 according to instructions from the voice selector 14 and the receiver controller 10. The instruction from the receiver control unit 10 is determined from the instruction from the main control unit 8 and the “voice structure of the signal currently being received” notified from the demodulation unit 13.

The communication interface section 9 is sent and received between the main control section 8 connected via the command / response input / output terminal 16 and the receiver control section 10. (1) Subordinate reception from the main control section 8 "Command" for requesting the execution of operation to the machine 1, (2)
"Inquiry" requesting return of information on the reception status, and (3) "command" from the subordinate receiver 1 to the main control unit 8, and execution / non-execution of operation execution (4) Intermediation for data exchange such as level conversion of transmitted / received data of “report”, which is a response to “inquiry”, and “response” for notifying.

Next, the operation of this embodiment will be described with reference to FIGS. 1, 2, 3, and 4. This subordinate receiver is
The operation starts from step S00 when the supply of power is started. After completing the initial setting in step S01, step S02 and step S03 are repeated until a command (or inquiry) is received from the main control unit 8 or the reception state is changed.

When it is confirmed in step S02 that the command (or inquiry) is received from the main control unit 8, the process proceeds from here to step S04 to check whether the received command (query) is correct.

If it is incorrect, a "NO" response is sent to the main control unit 8 in step S05 to notify that "the instruction (inquiry) was incorrect and therefore was not executed." The process returns to the repetition of S02 and step S03.

From this notification, the main control unit 8 can know that the command issued by itself has not been correctly received, and as a result, the desired operation has not been performed.

If it is correct, the procedure goes to step S06 to check whether the received command is a voice selection command.

If the received command is not the voice selection command, the procedure goes to step S07 to confirm whether or not the command is a hold cancel command.

If it is not the hold release command, what kind of command is sequentially examined. However, since the commands other than the voice selection command and the hold release command are not directly involved in the present invention, detailed description thereof will be omitted. Yes (step S08). Note that, in the future, finally, step S02 and step S03 will be performed again.
Return to repeat.

If the received command is the hold release command, the process goes to step S09 to empty the contents of the hold selection state storage unit 5, and then returns to the repetition of step S02 and step S03. With this procedure, if there is a voice selection command that has been suspended, this will be canceled by a request from the main control unit 8.

If it is confirmed in step S06 that the received command is the voice selection command, step S06.
By going to step 10 and subtracting the "table" in the "table" storage section 3 with the information from the demodulation section 13, whether this voice selection command is executable in the voice configuration of the signal currently being received, Is determined. For example, in FIG. 2, the current reception state is “A Mode, TV: Mono1, EXT: Mon.
o2 ”and the voice selection command is“ TV: Sub ”, the command cannot be executed, and“ A Mode, TV: Mo ”.
No2, EXT: Mono2 "and" EXT: Main "
Then it can be executed.

If execution is possible, step S1
After sending a "OK" response to the main control unit 8 to notify "execute the command.", The selection command is executed in step S12.

Here, as the selection command is executed,
The "selected instruction executed here" is stored in the current selected state storage unit 6 in step S13 as the last state of execution of the selected instruction, and the instruction and the actual output match, so step S14. Then, it is stored in the actual selection state storage unit 7.

Furthermore, "the selection command could be executed immediately"
Therefore, in step S15, the contents of the hold selection state storage unit 5 are emptied, and steps S02 and S0 are executed.
Return to repeat 3.

On the other hand, if it is determined in step S10 that the instruction cannot be executed, the instruction cannot be executed at this time, but this instruction is executed so that the instruction can be executed when the selection becomes possible. In S16, it is stored in the hold selection state storage unit 5. Then, in step S17, the main control unit 8 sends a "hold" response to the effect that "the specified selection could not be executed now, but the selection will be executed when the selection becomes possible thereafter". After the transmission, the process returns to the repetition of step S02 and step S03.

When a change in the reception state is detected in step S03, it is determined in step S18 whether the change is in the voice mode, that is, whether the voice configuration of the signal currently being received has changed. Confirm.

If it is not the change of the voice mode, the detailed description is omitted here since it is not directly involved in the present invention (step S19). It should be noted that, after that, finally, the process returns to the repetition of step S02 and step S03.

If the change in the reception state is the change in the voice mode, first, in step S20, a notification to that effect is sent to the main controller 8. If the main control unit 8 can respond to such an interrupt notification, it becomes possible to immediately grasp the change.

Next, in step S21, it is checked whether or not a selection command is stored in the reserved selection state storage section 5. If it is not stored, there is no selection command waiting for execution, so in step S22, it is determined whether the current selection state stored in the current selection state storage unit 6 can be executed. Find out.

If it can be executed, the current selection is (re) executed in step S23, and the instruction and the actual output match, so this is stored in the actual selection state storage unit 7 in step S24. To do.

If it cannot be executed, the "table" in the "table" storage section 3 is subtracted by the information from the demodulation section 13 so that some sound is output as much as possible, and the setting cannot be made in step S25. Time selection is executed, and step S26
The selected state is stored in the actual selection state storage section 7.

For example, in FIG. 3, the current reception state is "A.
Mode, TV: Monol, EXT: Mono2 "and the current voice selection state is" TV: Sub ", the TV cannot be Main / Sub selectable, and is" Main "when not possible. Therefore, the actual selection state is "T
V: Main ”. Also, "A Mode, TV:
Mono2, EXT: Mono2 ", and if the current voice selection state is" EXT: Main "," EXT: Mai "
n ”again.

If the current selection is feasible, the reason for re-execution is that, for example, a sub-sound (Sub) is selected as the audio while watching a program in bilingual language (Mono2). If a notification is received on the way and it is monaural (Mono1), the sub-audio (Sub) cannot be selected, so that the main audio (Main) is output at this time. If you do not remember the last voice selection here and return to the state where it can be selected, the sub-voice (S
However, the main voice (Main) remains being output. This is to avoid such a thing.

In step S21, the hold selection state storage unit 5
If the selection command is stored in step S10, step S10
Similarly to the above, in step S27, it is determined whether the hold selection can be executed. If it is impossible, at the next opportunity, the process goes to step S22. If it is possible, the selection command is executed at step S28.

In response to the execution of the hold selection instruction, the "selection instruction executed here" is set as the last state of execution of the selection instruction in step S29.
In addition, since the instruction and the actual output coincide with each other, they are stored in the actual selection state storage unit 7 in step S30.

Further, since the "holding selection command has been executed", the holding selection state storage unit 5 in step S31.
The content of is empty and the process returns to the repetition of step S02 and step S03.

[0054]

As described above, according to the subordinate receiver according to the present invention, the "table" provided inside the receiver is used,
Since the execution status and the response are returned by comparing the reception status with the command from the main control unit, it is possible to know whether the effective operation has been performed without knowing the status of the receiver in the main control unit. The effect is obtained.

According to the present invention, the voice selection command that cannot be executed at that time is stored as the "hold selection state", and the selection is executed when the selection becomes possible. By holding the selection of the desired voice, the effect that standby reception is possible is obtained.

Further, according to the present invention, when the main control unit is capable of receiving, the means for notifying the main control unit of the change of the reception state is provided. The effect of significantly reducing the burden of is obtained.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a minimum necessary portion for explaining this embodiment in a reception system configured by using an embodiment of a subordinate receiver according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a part of a “table” stored in a “table” storage unit 3 showing whether a select command can be executed or not in one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a part of a “table” stored in a “table” storage unit 3 showing whether or not switching can be performed and what to do when it is impossible in one embodiment of the present invention. .

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of a main controller 8 of FIG. 1 according to an embodiment of the present invention.
3 is a flowchart showing a processing operation relating to a voice selection process by the receiver control unit 10 in accordance with a command from the receiver and a reception state of a signal input from the RF input terminal 11 and sorted by the channel selection unit 12.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 ... Dependent receiver 2 ... Read-only memory 3 ... "Table" storage unit 4 ... Read / write memory 5 ... Pending selection state storage unit 6 ... Current selection state storage unit 7 ... Actual selection state storage unit 8 ... Main control unit 9 Communication interface unit 10 Receiver control unit 11 RF input terminal 12 Channel selection unit 13 Demodulation unit 14 Audio selection unit 15 Audio output terminal 16 Command / response input / output terminal

Claims (7)

[Claims] 1. A subordinate receiver that is operated by a control signal from an externally provided main control unit, and in particular, selects and outputs a specific voice from a plurality of types of voices in the received signal. In the subordinate receiver having the function to perform, there are provided a table in which the voice selection that can be performed corresponds to the voice configuration of the signal and a table in which the voice that should be selected when it cannot be performed correspond to these tables. A subordinate receiver characterized by performing a selection operation and a response in response to information on the structure of a voice being received and a selection command from the main control unit. 2. As a result of the search of the table, there is provided a place for temporarily storing a selection command that cannot be executed at that time, and means for re-execution when the voice structure changes. The dependent receiver of claim 1, further characterized. 3. The subordinate receiver according to claim 2, further comprising means for notifying the main control unit of the change of the audio configuration when the audio configuration is changed. 4. A subordinate receiver of a reception system comprising a subordinate receiver and a main control device for controlling the operation of the subordinate receiver, wherein a voice selection executable for a voice mode is supported. A first memory for storing a second data table in which the first data table made to correspond to the voice to be selected at the time of non-execution is stored, and the data necessary for the voice mode at the time of non-execution is stored. A second memory; channel selection means for extracting a desired wave from the RF signal input from the RF input terminal in accordance with instructions from the receiver control means described later; and demodulation of the signal output from the channel selection means. Demodulation means for notifying the receiver control means of information about the signal, voice selection means for selecting a specific voice according to an instruction from the receiver control means and outputting it to a voice output terminal, command / response A. Based on a communication interface unit connected to the main control unit via an input / output terminal, an instruction from the main control unit and configuration information of a signal currently being received output from the demodulation unit, A receiver control means for indexing the data table of the second memory to control the voice selection means and each of the other means to judge whether the received voice selection command can be executed or not. Featured subordinate receiver. 5. The second memory has a pending selection state storage section, a current selection state storage section, which temporarily stores a selection instruction that is unexecutable at that time as a result of the search of the first memory, The slave receiver according to claim 4, further comprising a real selection state storage unit. 6. The slave receiver according to claim 5, further comprising: executing a selection command stored in the holding selection state storage unit when a change in a voice mode is detected. 7. The receiver control means according to claim 4, further comprising the step of notifying the main controller of the change in the audio mode detected by the demodulation means via the communication interface means. Dependent receiver.