JPH09204327A - Information providing terminal and communication information providing system - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To prevent the deterioration in service while effectively utilizing the storage means of a limited capacity by selecting a compressing method with respect to information for providing service based on a request result, etc., so as to execute the restoring processing and the re-compressing processing of compressed information. SOLUTION: KARAOKE (orchestration without lyrics) terminals 10 distributed and installed at each local area count the playing frequency of each music to transmit a host computer 30. The host computer 30 collates playing frequency information of each music sent from each KARAOKE terminal 10 to sort frequently requested popular music and not-popular music. In addition the host computer 30 transmits to the KARAOKE terminals 10 specifies a playing data compressing method attaching more importance to the acceleration of restoration than to a compressibility for frequently sung music and a compressing method of long restoring time and high compressibility so as to secure the dead capacity of a hard disk for music sung not frequently. Each KARAOKE terminal 10 receiving these specification re-edits playing data stored in HDD 13 based on a specified compressing method.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an information providing terminal and a communication type information providing system capable of executing a predetermined information providing service by using service providing information stored in an information storage means.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, there is a so-called karaoke device as an information providing terminal capable of executing a predetermined information providing service using service providing information. This is because karaoke performance data consisting of musical sound data and subtitle data is stored in a storage means, and based on the karaoke performance data read in response to a user's request, the musical performance and the subtitle display and subtitle color synchronized with it are changed. It is for displaying.

In order to deal with various requests from users, it is preferable that the karaoke performance data stored in the storage means be as large as possible. However, since the storage means has a limited capacity, the karaoke performance data that can be naturally stored is limited. Therefore, as a method of storing as much karaoke performance data as possible in a storage means having a limited capacity, it is conceivable to compress and store the data. As for the compression method, there are a high compression rate and a low compression rate.

[0004]

However, the compressed karaoke performance data must be restored during the karaoke performance. When a compression process is applied, generally, the higher the compression rate, the longer the time required for decompression, so if you use an unnecessarily high compression method, the time required for decompression will increase, and you will have to wait from the request until the performance starts. It takes a long time. In other words, in order to store as many karaoke performance data as possible in a storage device with a limited capacity, a higher compression rate is preferable, but the higher the compression rate, the longer the decompression time and the performance from the request. There is an inconvenience that the waiting time before starting becomes long.

And, of course, such a problem is not limited to the karaoke apparatus and the communication type karaoke system,
It is common to various information providing devices or communication type information providing systems in the future multimedia society. The present invention has been made in order to solve the above-mentioned problems, and makes a request while storing more service provision information by effectively utilizing a storage means with a limited capacity. The purpose of this is to prevent the time from when the service is started to start to decrease so much as a whole, and to prevent the deterioration of the service to the user.

[0006]

Means for Solving the Problems and Effects of the Invention The invention according to claim 1 made in order to achieve this object, is an information storing means for storing information for providing a service, and the information storing means. In an information providing terminal having an information providing executing means capable of executing a predetermined information providing service by using the service providing information stored in, the requested performance of individual service providing information or the service itself is executed. Based on the record storage means for storing the record and the record stored in the record storage means, one compression method for each service providing information is selected from a plurality of compression methods having different compression ratios. Compression method selecting means,
An information providing terminal comprising: an information processing unit for performing a restoring process of compressed service providing information and a recompressing process of the service providing information according to the compression method selected by the compression method selecting unit. Is.

The information providing terminal of the present invention can execute a predetermined information providing service by using the service providing information stored in the information storing means. There is a feature regarding memory. That is, the record storage unit stores the record record of the individual service providing information or record record of executing the service itself. Based on the record record, the compression method selecting unit is configured to A compression method for the service providing information is selected from a plurality of compression methods having different compression rates. Then, the information processing means performs the restoration processing of the compressed service providing information and the recompression processing of the service providing information by the compression method selected by the compression method selecting means.

Therefore, for example, about 90% of the service providing information is compressed by the high compression rate compression method, and the remaining about 10% of the service providing information is compressed by the low compression rate compression method. This makes it possible to reduce the storage capacity of the information storage means when storing the same amount of karaoke performance data, as compared with the case where all are compressed by a low compression rate compression method.

The service providing information compressed by the compression method with the low compression rate requires a shorter time to restore the service providing information than in the case of the high compression, so that the service is provided after the request is made. It is possible to prevent deterioration of service for users without increasing the time until. Further, since the compression method can be selected based on the actual results, the compression rate can be changed for the same service providing information depending on the actual results. For example, as described in claim 2, it is possible to judge the necessity degree for each service providing information based on the results of a predetermined aggregation period, and select a compression method with a lower compression rate as the necessity degree becomes higher. This is because, for example, service providing information that has a large number of records for a predetermined aggregation period can be judged to be highly necessary because it is likely that the number of times the service will be provided will increase in the future. A compression method with a low compression rate is selected for 10% of the total service providing information. In this way, even if about 90% of the information is compressed at a high compression rate as a whole, about 10% of the information that is considered to be in great demand for service provision is compressed at a low compression rate. As a result, it is possible to perform high-speed restoration, and when viewed as a whole service provision at the information provision terminal, the time from the request to the start of service provision does not decrease much overall, and as a result, the user It is possible to realize effective use of the above-mentioned storage means having a limited capacity while preventing the service from being deteriorated.

As a concrete example of a compression method having a different compression rate, there is a static Huffman method or the like as a compression method capable of high speed decompression at a low compression rate, and conversely, a low compression rate but a high compression rate. The dynamic Huffman method and the like are known as compression methods. In addition, relatively low compression ratio and high compression ratio 2
Depending on the type, it may be divided into a plurality of levels at a low compression rate, or may be divided into a plurality of levels at a high compression rate.
Further, as an example, for example, about 90% of the service providing information is compressed by the high compression rate compression method, and the remaining about 10% of the service providing information is compressed by the low compression rate compression method. However, this ratio may be changed appropriately. However, conversely, if 90% is compressed at a low compression rate and only the remaining 10% is compressed at a high compression rate, in terms of effective use of capacity as compared to the case where all are compressed at a low compression rate. The effect is small. Therefore, although it is related to how much the compression ratio difference between the high compression ratio and the low compression ratio is, the service providing information of a certain ratio reaches a substantially effective level unless the high compression ratio is set. It may not reach.

A karaoke device is considered as a device for providing such a service, and the service providing information is karaoke performance data. In the case of karaoke, currently, about 10,000 songs are generally arranged,
It is considered that about 1,000 of them are used frequently. Therefore, in this case, 1000 of 10,000 songs, that is, about 10% of the most frequently used songs may be compressed at a low compression rate. Of course, since the situation varies depending on the type of service provision information, the ratio and the like may be changed appropriately according to the situation.

Further, in claim 2, it is assumed that the necessity degree of each service providing information is judged based on the result of a predetermined counting period. Basically, the necessity degree is high for the information providing service having a large number of execution times. Said that. However, the criterion for determining the necessity is not only such a simple number of executions. As one of them, "the magnitude of the degree of performance improvement in the aggregation period unit" shown in claim 3 can be considered.

When the above-mentioned compression method is selected and the recompression process is performed, it affects the restoration time and the like in the subsequent information providing service process. In that case, for example, if it is determined that there is still a high need for the compression method to remain at the low compression rate, that is, there will be a lot of information providing service processing, and the compression rate is changed from the high compression rate to the low compression rate. It is considered that the change to the one that has been required has not been so high until now, but it is determined that the need will be increased in the future, that is, the processing of the information providing service will be increased.

Therefore, even when it is based on the actual results, it is important not only to simply select the upper predetermined number in the order in which the number of times the information providing service is executed, but also based on the degree of change. One example thereof is to determine that the necessity is high when the degree of performance improvement in the aggregation period unit is large as in claim 3.

A specific example of the case where it is determined that the necessity degree is high when the degree of achievement improvement is large will be described. For example, consider the case of the karaoke piece described above. When the karaoke performance data of the top 1000 songs viewed only by the number of performances is set to be highly necessary, the number of performances of the 1000th music is 200, and the number of performances of the 1001st music is 1
Suppose it was 99 times. However, the number of times the 1000th song was played was 300 times during the previous counting period, but decreased to 200, and the number of times the 1001st song was played was 15 times during the previous counting period. Assuming that the number of songs has reached 199, the number of performances of the 1000th song tends to decrease in the future.
It is considered that the second song tends to be played more often in the future. For example, a new karaoke song has a small number of performances immediately after it is released, but it is considered that the number of performances will rapidly increase as the popularity of the new karaoke song increases. Then, after a certain period of time has passed, there is an overall tendency that the number of performances will gradually decrease, so if it is based only on the number of performances for a certain aggregation period, such new songs will be compressed at a high compression ratio. It will be left as it is.

[0016] Therefore, the degree of performance improvement in the aggregation period unit, for example, that the performance is dramatically improved this time compared to the last time, that the performance is continuously improved from the time before the last time, or the performance in a plurality of aggregation periods. It can be said that it is preferable to make a comprehensive judgment based on this. The information providing terminal of the present invention may be one in which the service providing information stored in the information storage means is fixed and does not increase.
As shown in FIG. 5, the host device may deliver the service providing information, and the service providing information may be additionally stored in the information storage means. Then, in the case of additionally storing the information in the information storage means, regarding the service providing information distributed from the host device,
The information processing means performs compression by a compression method of a predetermined low compression rate, or has the host apparatus deliver in a state of being compressed by a compression method of a predetermined low compression rate,
It is conceivable to store it in the information storage means.

This is intended for the case where the karaoke performance data of the new song in the above-mentioned karaoke is distributed from the host device, and the number of performances of the new song generally increases after the user requests. Since there is a tendency to increase the number, it was decided to store it in a compressed state with a low compression rate even if there is no actual record. Of course, it is possible to set the compression rate at a high compression rate at first, and then set the compression rate at a low compression rate based on the actual results, but as mentioned above, select the compression method. Since re-compression processing is performed by improving the convenience in the subsequent information providing service processing, if there is a characteristic such as the above-mentioned karaoke based on the content of the service providing information, it is initially uniform. It can be said that it is preferable to store in a compressed state with a low compression rate.

According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, the host device accumulating the service provision information and the service provision information distributed from the host device are stored in the information storage means, and the storage is performed. In a communication type information providing system including an information providing terminal capable of executing a predetermined information providing service using the provided information for providing service, the information providing terminal is a request record of individual service providing information, Alternatively, the result storage means for storing the result of execution of the service itself, the result transmission means for transmitting the result stored in the result storage means to the host device, and the information storage means in a compressed state. Processing for restoring the provided service providing information and recompressing the service providing information by the compression method specified by the host device On the other hand, the host device selects one of a plurality of compression methods having different compression ratios for each service providing information based on the results transmitted from the information providing terminal. A communication-type information providing system comprising: a compression method selecting means for selecting; and a compression method notifying means for notifying the information providing terminal of the compression method selected by the compression method selecting means.

In the invention of the information providing terminal described above,
Although it was assumed that it would also be used as a so-called stand-alone type information providing terminal, the compression method was selected by itself, but in the communication type information providing system that presupposes that the service providing information is distributed from the host device. Alternatively, the compression method may be selected in the host device. That is, the information stored in the information providing terminal is transmitted, and the compression method is selected based on the result.

In this case, it is possible to notify only the information providing terminal of the compression method individually selected based on the results transmitted from each information providing terminal.
As shown in FIG. 2, the host device has a plurality of information providing terminals existing in the system send the results, selects a compression method based on the overall results, and determines the selected compression method. The information providing terminal may be notified. In other words, the compression method can be selected based on the performance of a plurality of information providing terminals instead of the performance of only one information providing terminal.

When a compression method is selected in each information providing terminal based on the performance of only its own terminal, if it is considered as a karaoke device, for example, the trend of the customer's preference at each store where the karaoke device is installed is accurately determined. Since it is reflected in
For example, the types of songs requested are very biased,
Especially when old songs are requested frequently, it is preferable to select the compression method based on the local record storage.

On the other hand, when the compression method is selected on the basis of the results of a plurality of information providing terminals, there are the following advantages. For example, when considering a new song in the case of a karaoke device, it has no track record immediately after being released as described above. After that, we will gradually increase the results, but when it is installed in a place where the number of users is relatively large, such as in an urban area, or in a place where the number of users is relatively small, such as in the suburbs or in rural areas. The degree of improvement in the performance is different from that in the case of being performed. For example, a song that has become popular in urban areas often becomes popular in suburbs or rural areas thereafter. Therefore, when these are comprehensively judged, even if the number of times of performance is small in the suburbs or the rural areas, if the number of times of performance in the urban areas is large, it is possible to achieve a low compression rate even in the suburbs or the rural areas. .

For example, when the information providing terminal selects the compression method based on the local performance memory, the number of times of performance is small in the suburbs or the rural areas, so that the compression is performed at a high compression rate. There is an inconvenience that the restoration time becomes long despite the large number. However, if this method is adopted, compression will be performed at a low compression rate in advance due to the influence of the actual results in urban areas,
This is effective in improving convenience in the subsequent information providing service processing. That is, it is possible to select a more appropriate compression method by comprehensively judging the results of many information providing terminals rather than making a local decision.

As in the case of the information providing terminal, as in the case of the communication type information providing system, as in the case of the information providing terminal as described in claims 3 and 4, as shown in claim 7, the host device is compressed. The method selecting means judges the necessity degree for each piece of service providing information based on the results of a predetermined counting period, and selects a compression method with a lower compression rate as the necessity degree increases, and further, the method is shown in claim 8. As described above, the compression method selection means may determine that the necessity degree is high when the degree of performance improvement in the aggregation period unit is large.

Although the karaoke device and the communication type karaoke system are cited as specific examples in the above description, the application of the present invention is not limited to such a karaoke device and the communication type karaoke system, and future multimedia media may be used. It is common to various information providing devices or communication type information providing systems in society.

[0026]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Next, an embodiment in which the information providing system of the present invention is embodied as a communication type karaoke system will be described with reference to the drawings. First, with reference to FIG. 1, a configuration of a communication karaoke system as an embodiment and equipment of a telephone company to be used will be described. In FIG. 1, a host computer 30 as a "host device" and a karaoke terminal 10 as an "information providing device" are a communication type karaoke system of this embodiment, and a public line network 50 as a communication network.
Is the telephone operator side equipment. The communication type karaoke system shown in FIG. 1 is a minimum configuration example including one karaoke terminal 10 and one host computer 30. In practice, there may be a plurality of each of the above devices, and generally one host computer 30 has a plurality of karaoke terminals 10.

The karaoke terminal 10 has subtitle information and MID distributed by communication from the host computer 30.
Performance data consisting of I data is compressed and stored. For communication with the host computer 30, both devices are connected using a public line network 50, which is a telephone company side equipment, and performance data is transmitted to the host computer 3 which is a transmission side.
0 is modulated and output by the modem unit 36, and the karaoke terminal 10 on the receiving side demodulates and receives the signal by the modem unit 16. In response to a user's performance specification of a piece of music, the compressed performance data is read out, decompressed before the performance starts, and a video signal for displaying subtitle information on the display during the performance, and MIDI.
(Musical Instrument Digital Interface) The karaoke performance is performed by converting the data into audio signals and reproducing the audio signals in synchronization with the color change of the subtitles.

Further, the frequency of the user's request is counted for each song, and the performance record information is transmitted to the host computer 30 by communication. The host computer 30
The newly created performance data is distributed to the karaoke terminals 10 distributed all over the country, and the performance record information sent from each karaoke terminal 10 is aggregated.
Then, the performance data compression method is designated for each karaoke terminal 10 based on the result of totaling the performance results.

Specifically, in order to efficiently use the hard disk in the karaoke terminal 10, the compression method of popular songs that are often requested is a low compression method which emphasizes making the restoration time faster than the compression rate. Specify the compression method by the rate, and specify the compression method with a high compression rate that emphasizes the compression rate rather than the high-speed decompression for songs that are not. As a specific example of a compression method with a different compression rate, there is a static Huffman method or the like as a compression method capable of high-speed decompression at a low compression rate, and conversely, a low-decompression but high compression rate compression method. The dynamic Huffman method or the like is known as a method.

Next, a specific configuration of each device will be described. First, the configuration of the karaoke terminal 10 will be described with reference to FIG. The karaoke terminal 10 has a ROM 11 and a RAM 1
2, a hard disk drive (hereinafter abbreviated as "HDD") 13, a panel 14, a CPU 15, a modem unit 16, a MIDI playback unit 17, and a video control unit 18.
, Display 19, microphone 20, amplifier 21
, A speaker 22, and a calendar clock 23.

The CPU 15 controls the entire apparatus and corresponds to "compression method selection means" and "information processing means". The ROM 11 stores an operation program of the CPU 15, and the RAM 12 is a work area of the CPU 15. The HDD 13 corresponds to “information storage means” and “actual result storage means”, stores and stores performance data sent from the host computer 30, and also the karaoke terminal 10
Store performance information in.

Now, the panel 14 will be described. As shown in the outline of FIG. 2, the panel 14 includes a power switch 60, a 4-segment 7-segment LED 64 for displaying the number being selected, and a karaoke key 62 for specifying a karaoke performance function. A standby key 63 for designating the cancellation of the karaoke performance function, and a ten-key and a music selection key 61 for inputting the number of the music to be played are provided.

The modem section 16 connects and disconnects a telephone line, modulates transmission data into a voice band signal, and demodulates data received by the voice band signal. Also, the MIDI reproducing section 17 converts the MIDI data in the performance data into an analog audio signal. The video control unit 18 performs a process of converting subtitle data in the performance data into a video signal that can be displayed on the display 19 in synchronization with the performance process in the MIDI playback unit 17. The display 19 displays the video signal generated by the video control unit 18. The amplifier 21 is MIDI
The audio signal generated by the reproducing unit 17 and the audio signal generated by the microphone 20 are mixed and amplified, and the speaker 22
Output to The calendar clock 23 always counts the current date and the current time, and notifies the CPU 15 of the count.

Next, the operation of the karaoke terminal 10 will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. After the power is turned on, in the first step S1, the entire device is initialized, such as initialization of the RAM 12, initialization of the modem unit 16, the MIDI reproduction unit 17, and the video control unit 18.

At S2, the karaoke key 62 on the panel 14 is pressed to check whether the karaoke performance operation mode is designated. If the press of the key 62 is detected, the process proceeds to S3, and if not, the process proceeds to S4. In S3, a subroutine SUB1 is called in order to perform a karaoke operation for performing a tune designated by the user. The processing contents of the subroutine SUB1 will be described based on the flowchart of FIG.

In the first step S10 of FIG. 10, by controlling the video control unit 18, a "please select music" message is output to the display 19. After the output of the message, the process proceeds to S11. In S11, it is checked whether the standby key 63 on the panel 14 is pressed. When the pressing of the key is detected (S11: YES), it means that the end of the karaoke operation mode has been designated, the subroutine SUB1 is returned, and the process proceeds to S4 of FIG. Otherwise (S11: NO), the process proceeds to S12.

In S12, it is checked whether or not a request for designating the music number is made by the ten keys on the panel 14 and the music selection key 61. If there is a request (S12: Y
ES), the process proceeds to S13, otherwise (S12: N
O), returning to the process of S11. In S13, the performance record information of the song requested in S12 is updated. Specifically, the performance record information having the format as shown in FIG. 3, that is, the music number, the music title, the number of times played, and the number of days counted is H.
Since it is stored in the DD13, the performance number item of the song requested in S12 is incremented and updated to H
Write back to DD13. After the same process is completed, the process proceeds to S14.

In S14, the compressed performance data of the song requested in S12 is read from the HDD 13,
Compression method code 9 indicating the compression method included in the same data
2 is obtained, and decompression processing corresponding to the compression method indicated by the same code is performed to decompress the performance data. As shown in FIG. 6, the performance data is song number 91 and compression method code 9
2. The MIDI data part for performance + caption data 93.

Returning to FIG. 10, in S15, the video control unit 18 is controlled for the song requested in S12, and title character information including a song name, a composer name, a lyricist name, etc. is output on the display 19. Convert to video signal. In subsequent S16, the performance MIDI data portion in the performance data restored in S14 is referred to, and the MI in the data is reproduced.
The DI data is converted into a performance signal by the MIDI reproducing section 17,
The karaoke performance is performed by converting the subtitle information in the data into a video signal output by the video controller 18 on the display 19. After the performance of one piece of music is completed, the process proceeds to S10 and returns to the process of waiting for the input of the specified music piece.

The above is the processing of the karaoke operation mode of the subroutine SUB1, and the performance of the designated song, the counting of the performance record, and the cancellation of the karaoke operation mode are performed. After returning from the subroutine SUB1, the process proceeds to S4 in FIG.
In S4, the modem section 16 detects a ringing tone from the telephone line. When the ringing tone is detected (S4: YE
S) and S5, otherwise (S4: NO),
Go to S6.

In step S5, the subroutine SUB2 is called in order to perform communication processing with the host computer 30. The processing contents of the subroutine SUB2 will be described based on the flowchart of FIG. In step S20, the modem unit 16 is controlled to take off the telephone line that is ringing, and the line connection with the calling source is established. After the processing is completed, the process proceeds to S21.

At S21, it is confirmed that the calling source is the host computer 30. This confirmation processing confirms that the other party is the host computer 30 by exchanging predetermined messages with each other. If it is detected that the host computer 30 is connected to the line, the process proceeds to S22, and if not, the process proceeds to S25.

At S22, a performance data compression method designation message 80 (FIG. 5) transmitted from the host computer 30.
Reference). The same message 80 is the performance data HDD
13 is a message that specifies the compression method for storing in each song. After the reception process of the message 80 is completed, the process proceeds to S23.

In S23, the telephone line is on-hook to disconnect the telephone line connected to the host computer 30.
In S24, the performance data stored in the HDD 13 is re-edited according to the content of the performance data compression method designation message 80 received in S22. The re-editing process of the performance data will be specifically described. Performance data compression method specified message 80
Is in the format shown in FIG. 5, and the message ID 81 indicates that this message is the performance data compression method designation message 80.
The host ID 82 indicates which host computer 30 is transmitting this message when there are a plurality of host computers. After the host ID 82, it has a variable length, and is composed of a song number 83 indicating the song and a compression method designation 84 designating the compression method to be changed for each song whose performance data compression method is changed. For example, when the song number A is designated to change the compression method, the performance data of the song number A compressed and recorded in the HDD 13 is once restored and the song number in the performance data compression method designation message 80 is restored. Recompression is performed by the compression method designated for the song A, and a code indicating the designated compression method is set in the compression method code 92 in the performance data.

When the re-editing process of the performance data is completed, the process of the subroutine SUB2 is completed and the process returns. If it is detected in S21 that a line connection other than the host computer 30 is made (S21: NO), S25
However, in S25, the telephone line being connected is determined to be an incorrect telephone, and the connected telephone line is hooked on.
And the process is returned.

The above is the performance data compression method designation message reception process of the subroutine SUB2, in which the performance data is re-edited according to the content of the received message and the received message. After returning from the subroutine SUB2, S in FIG.
Move to 6. In S6, the built-in calendar clock 2
3, it is checked whether or not the date has been updated since the previous processing of S6. If the date has not been updated (S6: NO), the process proceeds to S2, and if it has been updated (S6: YES), the process proceeds to S7.

In step S7, the subroutine SUB3 is called to perform communication processing with the host computer 30. The processing contents of the subroutine SUB3 will be described based on the flowchart of FIG. In S30, the modem unit 16 is controlled to make the telephone line off-hook.

In subsequent S31, the host computer 30
Dial the phone number of. After dialing,
The process moves to S32. In S32, the process waits for a fixed time until the telephone line is connected and the connection with the host computer 30 can be confirmed. More specifically, if the ringing tone continues to sound even after waiting for a certain period of time and the line is not connected, or if it is not possible to confirm that the other party is the host computer 30 even if the line is connected (S32: NO), S36. Move to. If the host computer 30 can be confirmed (S32: YES), the process proceeds to S33. The confirmation processing after the line connection confirms that the other party is the host computer 30 by exchanging predetermined messages with each other.

In S33, the same item of all the songs is incremented for the item of the number of days of the performance record information of the format shown in FIG. After the same processing is completed, the process proceeds to S34. In S34, the performance frequency information message is transmitted to the connected host computer 30. More specifically, of the performance record information shown in FIG. 3, a music piece whose count days have a constant value is extracted, and the music piece number and the number of times the music piece is played are shown in FIG. The information message is transmitted to the host computer 30. The detailed contents will be described later.

As for the number of days to be counted as a music extraction condition, for example, when the performance record information is transmitted on a monthly basis, the music whose number of days is 30 days is extracted. When the transmission processing of the performance frequency information message is completed, the process proceeds to S35. S3
In step 5, the number of performance items and the number of count days item of the performance record information are reset to zero for the piece of music for which the performance record data is transmitted and transmitted in S34. After the end of this process, the flow shifts to S36.

In S36, the telephone line is hooked on and the telephone line connected to the host computer 30 is disconnected.
After the processing is completed, the subroutine SUB3 is returned.
The above is the performance record information transmission process of the subroutine SUB3, and the process of notifying the host computer 30 of the performance record information of the music piece whose performance record is counted for a certain period. After the end of the processing, the process proceeds to S2 in FIG. 9 and returns to the karaoke mode designation detection processing described above.

The processing contents of the karaoke terminal 10 have been described above. The karaoke performance of a song designated by the user, acquisition of request frequency information for each song, notification to the host computer of the same information, and performance designated by the host computer. The compression method of the performance data stored in the HDD 13 is changed according to the data compression method designation.

Next, the configuration of the host computer 30 will be described with reference to FIG. The host computer 30 uses R
OM 31, RAM 32, calendar clock 33,
A keyboard 34, a CPU 35, a modem 36,
It includes a DD 37, a video control unit 38, and a display 39.

The CPU 35 controls the entire apparatus and corresponds to the "compression method selecting means" and the "compression method notifying means" in claim 5 and the like. And ROM31 is C
The operation program of the PU 35 is stored in the RAM 32.
Is a work area of the CPU 35.

The calendar clock 33 constantly counts the current date and the current time, and notifies the CPU 35 of the current date and time.
The modem unit 36 is a public line network 5 which is a facility of the telephone company.
In order to perform data communication with the karaoke terminal 10 through 0, modulation of digital data into a voice band and demodulation of a received voice band signal into digital data are performed. HDD
37 stores the totalization result of the request frequency information sent from the karaoke terminal 10 and the database of the installed karaoke terminal 10.

Next, the operation of the host computer 30 will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. After the power is turned on, the process is executed from the first step S100. S10
At 0, initialization of the entire device such as initialization of the RAM 32, the modem unit 36, and the video control unit 38 is performed.

In subsequent S101, the modem section 36 detects a ringing tone from the telephone line. If a ringing tone is detected, the process proceeds to S102, and if not, the process proceeds to S103. In S102, a subroutine SUB4 is called to perform communication processing with the karaoke terminal 10. The processing contents of the subroutine SUB4 will be described based on the flowchart of FIG.

In S110, the modem section 36 is controlled to off-hook the telephone line which is ringing, and the line connection with the calling source is established. After the end of this process, the flow shifts to S111.
In S111, it is confirmed that the caller is the karaoke terminal 10. This confirmation processing confirms that the other party is the karaoke terminal 10 by exchanging predetermined messages. If the connection to the karaoke terminal 10 is detected (S111: YES), the process proceeds to S112; otherwise (S111: NO), the process proceeds to S115.

At S112, the performance frequency information message 70 (see FIG. 4) transmitted from the karaoke terminal 10 is received. The performance frequency information message 70 is the karaoke terminal 1 of the transmission source.
It is a message that summarizes request frequency information for each song counted as 0. Specifically, it has the format shown in FIG.
D71 indicates that this message is the performance frequency information message 70. The karaoke terminal ID 72 indicates which karaoke terminal 10 is the transmission source of this message. After the karaoke terminal ID 72, the length is variable and each song is composed of a performance frequency 74 of the song.

After the reception process of the message 70 is completed, the process proceeds to S113. In S113, the telephone line is hooked on and the telephone line connected to the karaoke terminal 10 is disconnected. After the processing is completed, the process proceeds to S114. In S114, S112
The performance frequency information message 70 received in step S1 is totaled. More specifically, the host computer 30 has an HDD
A performance frequency information summary table of the form shown in FIG. 7 is stored in 37, and every time the performance frequency information message 70 is received from the karaoke terminal 10, the performance frequency information sent is used as the performance frequency information summary table. And update the table. After the completion of this process, the subroutine SUB4 is terminated and the routine returns.

If it is detected in S111 that a line other than the karaoke terminal 10 is connected (S111: NO),
The process proceeds to S115, in which it is determined that the call is incorrect, the connected telephone line is hooked on, the process of the subroutine SUB4 is terminated, and the process returns.

After returning from the subroutine SUB4,
The process moves to S103 in FIG. In step S103, the built-in calendar clock 33 is referenced to check whether the current date is the end of the month. If the current date is the end of the month (S103: YES), the process proceeds to S104, and if not (S103: NO), the process returns to S101.

In step S104, the subroutine SUB5 is called to perform communication processing with the karaoke terminal 10.
The processing contents of the subroutine SUB5 will be described based on the flowchart of FIG. In S120, a song whose performance data compression method needs to be changed is searched. This search processing routine will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

S of the compression method change music retrieval process shown in FIG.
In 201 and S202, the performance frequency information totaling table of FIG. 7 is referred to, the results of the previous totaling number of times of performance are compared with the results of the present totaling, and a song whose frequency has changed significantly is searched for. For example, if the total number of performances is 100 or more is A rank, and the number is 100 or less, it is B rank, and in S201, a tune that has been ranked B last time but has been upgraded to A rank this time is extracted. On the contrary, in S202, the music having the rank A last time but the rank B down this time is extracted. For example, in the example shown in FIG. 7, the song number "0001" has the previous total number of performances "80" and the current total number of performances "102".
Since it is "4", it is a rank-up song. For the song with the song number “0004”, the total number of performances last time is “204
It is a rank-down song because the total number of performances this time is “8” is “99”.

In subsequent S203, the number of rank-down music pieces extracted in S202 is subtracted from the number of rank-up music pieces extracted in S201, and the value is set to C. Then, in S204, it is determined whether or not the subtracted value C is larger than the predetermined value D. The meaning of this determination will be described later. If the subtracted value C is larger than the predetermined value D (S204: Y
ES) and S205, and the subtracted value C is the predetermined value D
If not larger (S204: NO), the process proceeds to S206 without executing S205.

In S205, a predetermined number E of upper ranks having a larger upgrade width than the rank-up songs extracted in S201 are extracted. In S206, the rank-up music and the rank-down music are determined, but when the processing of S205 is executed, the rank-up music of the top E music extracted in S205 and the rank-down music extracted in S202 are determined. It On the other hand, if the determination in S204 is negative, S205 is not executed, so the rank-up music and rank-down music extracted in S201 and S202 are directly determined.

The meaning of the determination in S204 will be supplemented here. Since the compression method finally changed as the rank-up tune in S206 is changed from the high compression rate to the low compression rate, HD which is the storage means of the karaoke terminal 10 is used.
The occupied capacity in D13 becomes relatively large. Therefore, if you allow unlimited rank-up songs, HD
There is a possibility that the storage capacity of D13 will be exceeded.
However, conversely, the occupying capacity of the HDD 13 becomes relatively small for the music to be ranked down, so if the value obtained by subtracting the number of rank-down music from the number of rank-up music is less than or equal to the predetermined value D (S204: NO), the HDD 13 If it is determined that the storage capacity limit is satisfied, the process directly proceeds to S206. If not (S204: YES), S20 is performed.
It was decided to extract the top E songs with a large increase in Step 5.

After the rank-up music piece and rank-down music piece are finally determined in S206, the present search processing routine is returned to proceed to S121 in FIG. In S121, a performance data compression method designation message 80 of the format shown in FIG.
Create This is for the rank-up music and rank-down music finally determined in S206 of FIG.
A message in which the song number 83 and the compression method designation 84 are combined is created. As for the compression method designation, for a song whose performance frequency has changed from A rank to B rank, that is, a song in which the number of requests from users has decreased, a compression method with a high compression rate that emphasizes compression rate rather than high-speed restoration of performance data is specified. On the contrary, for a song whose rank is changed from B rank to A rank, that is, a song for which the number of requests is increased, a compression method with a low compression rate that emphasizes high-speed restoration is specified in order to shorten the waiting time until the performance start rather than the compression rate. It is a thing. When the above process is completed, the process proceeds to S122.

In S122, the karaoke terminal database of the format shown in FIG. 8 is read from the HDD 37 to the RAM 32. After the reading process is completed, the process proceeds to S123. S12
At 3, one karaoke terminal is selected from the karaoke terminal database on the RAM 32. After the selection process ends, S1
Move to 24.

In S124, the modem section 36 is controlled to take off the telephone line off-hook. After the same process is completed, the process proceeds to S125. In S125, the telephone number of the karaoke terminal 10 selected in S123 is dialed. After the dialing is completed, the process proceeds to S126.

At S126, the karaoke terminal 10 is operated for a certain period of time.
Wait for the connection to be confirmed. Specifically, even if the user waits for a certain period of time, the ringing tone continues to sound and the line is not connected, or even if the line is connected, the other party plays the karaoke terminal 1
If it cannot be confirmed that it is 0 (S126: N
O), and shifts to S128. If it can be confirmed that it is the karaoke terminal 10 (S126: YES), the procedure will be shifted to S127. The confirmation processing after the line connection confirms that the other party is the karaoke terminal 10 by exchanging predetermined messages with each other.

In S127, the karaoke terminal 10 to which the performance data compression method designation message 80 created in S121 is connected.
Send to After the transmission process is completed, the process proceeds to S128. S
At 128, the telephone line is hooked on and the telephone line is disconnected. After the same process is completed, the process proceeds to S129.

In S129, in the karaoke terminal database loaded in the RAM 32 in S122, the previous S
The item of the karaoke terminal which has been selected in 123 and which has been subjected to the above transmission processing is deleted from the RAM. Furthermore, if the data of the karaoke terminal 10 remains on the RAM 32 (S129: N
O), returns to S123, and if not (S129: Y
ES) and S130.

In S130, the current totalization result is copied to the previous totalization performance count item in the performance frequency information totalization table of the format shown in FIG. 7, and the current totalization result is reset to zero. After the processing is completed, the subroutine SUB5 is returned. After returning from the subroutine SUB5, the process returns to S101 of FIG. 13 to return to the ringing tone detection processing from the telephone line.

The processing contents of the host computer 30 have been described above. The performance result information for each song transmitted from the karaoke terminal 10 is totalized, and the popularity is ranked based on the totaled result, and the karaoke for each rank is calculated. The performance data compression method at the terminal 10 is selected for each song, and the selection result is transmitted to all the karaoke terminals 10 as the designation of the performance data compression method.

In the communication type karaoke system of this embodiment, which comprises the karaoke terminals 10 and the host computer 30, for example, the karaoke terminals 1 distributed throughout the country are installed.
The performance frequency of each song is counted as 0, and the host computer 30
To be transmitted. The host computer 30 collects performance frequency information for each song sent from the karaoke terminals 10 installed all over the country, and classifies popular songs that are often requested and unpopular songs that are not so requested. Also, in the host computer 30, the compression method of performance data is set to a method that emphasizes speeding up of the restoration time rather than the compression rate for songs that are often sung, and the restoration time becomes longer for songs that are not so much to secure free space on the hard disk. Transmits the designation of the compression method having a high compression rate to the karaoke terminal 10. In the karaoke terminal 10 that has received the designation of such a performance data compression method format,
The performance data stored in the HDD 13 is re-edited based on the specified compression method.

By doing so, for example, about 90% of the musical performance data is compressed by a compression method with a high compression ratio,
The remaining about 10% of the performance data can be compressed by a compression method with a low compression rate, and when storing the same amount of karaoke performance data, all of the HDD 13 can be compressed by a compression method with a low compression rate. Even if the storage capacity of is small, it will be sufficient. The performance data compressed by the compression method with a low compression ratio requires a shorter time to restore the performance data than with the high compression, so the time from the user's request until the performance starts becomes longer. It is possible to prevent deterioration of service to users.

Further, in the present embodiment, the performance data to be compressed by the compression method at the low compression rate is determined based on the performance results, so that, for example, about 90% of the entire data are compressed at the high compression rate. Even if it is done, about 10% of popular songs that are considered to be requested frequently can be put into a compressed state at a low compression rate. Therefore, these songs can be restored at high speed, and when viewed as a whole service provision in the karaoke terminal 10, the time from the request to the start of performance does not decrease as a whole, as a result, the user It is possible to effectively use the HDD 13 having the limited capacity described above while preventing the service from being deteriorated.

Further, in the present embodiment, as described with reference to FIG. 16, the rank-up music or rank-down music is determined by setting the total number of performances of 100 or more as the A rank and the less than 100 as the B rank. Then, when there are too many candidates for the rank-up music, the up-width of those candidates is calculated, and the upper predetermined music is selected.

For example, when selecting the predetermined music, it is possible to simply perform the selection based on only the number of times the performance has been performed this time. However, in the present embodiment, the selection is made based on the increase width. I will supplement this meaning. When the compression method is specified and the recompression process is performed, it affects the decompression time and the like in the subsequent performance process. If you try
For example, keeping the compression method at a low compression rate is a case where it is determined that there is a high need in the future, that is, there will be many requests, and changing from a high compression rate to a low compression rate is not possible. Although it was not so much required until now, it is considered that it is determined that the need will be high in the future, that is, the processing of information providing service will be increased.

Therefore, even when the performance is used, it is important not only to simply select the upper predetermined number in the descending order of the number of performances, but also to determine the degree of change.
For example, when the performance data of the top 1000 songs viewed only by the number of times played is used as a compression method with a low compression rate, the number of times the 1000th song is played is 200, and the number of times the 1001 song is played is 199. It was. However, 100
The number of times the 0th song was played was 300 during the previous counting period.
What went down was 200 times, and 1
The number of performances of the 001th song is 1 in the previous aggregation period.
If what was 5 times is now 199 times,
It can be considered that the 1000th piece of music tends to decrease in the number of performances, that is, the number of requests in the future, and the 1001th piece of music tends to increase in the number of performances, that is, the number of requests in the future.

For example, a new karaoke piece has a small number of performances immediately after it is released, but it is considered that the number of performances will rapidly increase as the popularity of the new karaoke piece increases. Then, after a certain period of time has passed, there is an overall tendency that the number of performances will gradually decrease, so if it is based only on the number of performances for a certain aggregation period, such new songs will be compressed at a high compression ratio. It will be left as it is. Therefore, based on the degree of performance improvement in each aggregation period, for example, the performance this time has improved dramatically compared to the previous time, the performance has continuously improved since the last two times, or based on the performance in multiple aggregation periods. It can be said that it is preferable to make a positive judgment.

As described above, the present invention is not limited to the embodiments as described above, and can be carried out in various modes without departing from the scope of the present invention. For example, in the above-described embodiment, there are relatively two types of compression methods, that is, a low compression rate and a high compression rate, but it is divided into a plurality of levels in a low compression rate or a plurality of levels in a high compression rate. You can divide it into
As an example, 90% of performance data is compressed by a high compression rate compression method, and the remaining 10% of performance data is compressed by a low compression rate compression method. May be changed as appropriate. However, 9
If the compression is performed at a low compression rate and only the remaining 10% is compressed at a high compression rate, the effect is small in terms of effective utilization of capacity as compared with the case where all are compressed at a low compression rate. Therefore,
Although it is related to the difference in compression ratio between the high compression ratio and the low compression ratio, a certain ratio of service provision information cannot reach a practically effective level unless the compression ratio is high. In some cases.

In the above embodiment, S103 of FIG.
As shown in, if the current date is the end of the month (S103:
(YES), the process was shifted to S104. That is, the SUB5 process of FIG.
At 0, the compression method change music retrieval processing of FIG. 16 is executed.
Therefore, the timing of changing the compression method was January, but this timing may be shortened,
May be longer.

Further, the above embodiment is described as a communication type karaoke system, the compression method is selected in the host computer 30, and the karaoke terminal 1 notified of it.
In 0, the re-editing process for changing the compression rate was executed. However, the present invention can be applied not only as such a communication type karaoke system but also as a so-called stand-alone type karaoke terminal. In this case,
Based on the performance record of only the terminal itself, the user selects the compression method and executes the re-editing process.

Here, a comparison will be made between the case where the karaoke terminal 10 is a stand-alone one and the case where the karaoke terminal 10 is configured as a communication karaoke system as described in the above embodiment. When the karaoke terminal 10 is of a stand-alone type and the compression method is selected based on the performance of only the karaoke terminal 10 itself, the trend of the customer's preference for each store where the karaoke terminal 10 is installed is accurately reflected. For example, when the types of requested music are very biased, and particularly when old music is requested frequently, it is preferable to select the compression method based on the local performance record storage.

On the other hand, when the compression method is selected based on the results of a plurality of karaoke terminals 10 as the communication type karaoke system as in the above embodiment, there are the following advantages. For example, new songs usually have no track record right after they are released. After that, we will gradually increase the results, but when it is installed in a place where the number of users is relatively large, such as in an urban area, or in a place where the number of users is relatively small, such as in the suburbs or in rural areas. The degree of improvement in the performance is different from that in the case of being performed. For example, a song that has become popular in urban areas often becomes popular in suburbs or rural areas thereafter. Therefore, when these are comprehensively judged, even if the number of times of performance is small in the suburbs or the rural areas, if the number of times of performance in the urban areas is large, it is possible to achieve a low compression rate even in the suburbs or the rural areas. .

For example, when the karaoke terminal 10 selects the compression method based on the local performance memory, it is compressed at a high compression rate because the number of times of performance is small in the suburbs or the rural areas. There is an inconvenience that the restoration time becomes long despite the large number. However, according to the present proposal, since the compression is performed at a low compression rate in advance due to the influence of the actual performance in the urban area, it is effective in improving convenience in the karaoke service thereafter. That is, rather than making a local decision for each karaoke terminal 10, it is possible to select a more appropriate compression method by making a comprehensive decision on the results of many karaoke terminals 10.

In the case of a system in which new songs increase in sequence, it is better to judge whether or not the compression method needs to be changed for each reasonably short period for the reason described above. If it is a system that does not cover only existing songs and new songs do not increase, it is unlikely that requests will increase or decrease extremely,
For example, maintenance may be performed every six months or once a year.

Further, in the above embodiment, the number of performances is stored as the actual result, but the number of requests may be stored in advance and may be based on that. This is a karaoke terminal 10
Depending on the karaoke playing method in 1, the case where all requested music is played and the case where the requested music is selected and played can be considered. When all requested performances are played, the number of performances is the same as the number of requests. However, for example, in the case where performances are performed in descending order of the number of requests, the number of requests is greater than the number of performances. It should be noted that the number of requests for a song is highly necessary for the user, and thus it is also effective to use the number of requests in this way.

Although the communication type karaoke system is cited in the above embodiment, the application of the present invention is not limited to such a communication type karaoke system, and various information providing devices in the future multimedia society or It is common to communication type information providing systems.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of a communication type karaoke system of an embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a schematic explanatory view showing an outer shape of a panel in the karaoke terminal.

FIG. 3 is a data configuration diagram showing a format of performance record information.

FIG. 4 is a data configuration diagram showing a format of a performance frequency information message.

FIG. 5 is a data configuration diagram showing a format of a performance data compression method designation message.

FIG. 6 is a data configuration diagram showing a format of performance data.

FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram of a performance frequency information summary table.

FIG. 8 is an explanatory diagram of a database in a karaoke terminal.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart showing a main process executed in a karaoke terminal.

FIG. 10 is a flowchart showing SUB1 processing executed during terminal main processing.

FIG. 11 is a flowchart showing SUB2 processing executed during terminal main processing.

FIG. 12 is a flowchart showing SUB3 processing executed during terminal main processing.

FIG. 13 is a flowchart showing main processing executed in a host computer.

FIG. 14: SUB4 executed during host main processing
It is a flowchart which shows a process.

FIG. 15: SUB5 executed during host main processing
It is a flowchart which shows a process.

FIG. 16 is a flowchart showing a compression method changed music piece search process executed during the SUB5 process.

[Explanation of symbols]

10 ... Karaoke terminal 14 ... Panel 16 ... Modem section 17 ... MIDI playback section 18 ... Video control section 19 ... Display 20 ... Microphone 21 ... Amplifier 22 ... Speaker 23 ... Calendar clock 30 ... Host computer 33 ... Calendar clock 34 ... Keyboard 36 ... Modem section 38 ... Image control section 39 ... Display 50 ... Public line network

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Claims (8)

[Claims] 1. An information storage unit for storing information for service provision, and an information provision execution unit capable of executing a predetermined information provision service by using the service provision information stored in the information storage unit. In the provided information providing terminal, based on the record stored in the record storage means for storing the requested record of the individual service providing information or the record of executing the service itself, A compression method selecting means for selecting one of a plurality of compression methods having different compression ratios, and a restoration method for the compressed service providing information and the compression method selecting means. And an information processing unit that re-compresses the service providing information by the compressed method. 2. The information providing terminal according to claim 1, wherein the compression method selecting means determines the necessity degree for each service providing information based on the results of a predetermined counting period, and the higher the necessity degree is, the higher the necessity degree is. An information providing terminal configured to select a compression method with a low compression rate. 3. The information providing terminal according to claim 2, wherein the compression method selection unit determines that the necessity degree is high when the degree of performance improvement in the aggregation period unit is large. Information provision terminal. 4. The information according to claim 1, wherein the host device distributes the service providing information, and the service providing information is additionally stored in the information storage means. In the providing terminal, the service providing information distributed from the host device is compressed by the information processing means by a compression method of a predetermined low compression rate, or is compressed by the compression method of a predetermined low compression rate. An information providing terminal, which is configured to be delivered from the host device in such a state that it is stored in the information storage means. 5. A host device accumulating service provision information and service provision information distributed from the host device are stored in an information storage means, and the stored service provision information is used. In a communication type information providing system including an information providing terminal capable of executing a predetermined information providing service, the information providing terminal stores the requested results of individual service providing information or the results of executing the service itself. Record storing means for storing, record transmitting means for transmitting the record stored in the record storing means to the host device, and restoration of service providing information stored in the information storing means in a compressed state. And an information processing unit for performing recompression processing of service providing information by a compression method specified by the host device. The host device, based on the results transmitted from the information providing terminal, a compression method selecting means for selecting one compression method for each service providing information from a plurality of compression methods having different compression rates; A communication type information providing system, comprising: a compression method notifying means for notifying the information providing terminal of the compression method selected by the compression method selecting means. 6. The communication type information providing system according to claim 5, wherein the host device has the plurality of information providing terminals existing in the system transmit the results, and based on the overall results thereof. A communication-type information providing system, which is configured to select the compression method and notify a predetermined information providing terminal of the selected compression method. 7. The communication type information providing system according to claim 5 or 6, wherein the compression method selecting means determines the necessity degree for each service providing information based on the results of a predetermined counting period. A communication type information providing system characterized in that a higher compression rate is configured to select a compression method having a lower compression rate. 8. The communication type information providing system according to claim 7, wherein the compression method selection unit determines that the necessity degree is high when the degree of performance improvement in the aggregation period unit is large. Communication type information provision system.