JPH1015245A - Data transmission device, video game machine - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a video game machine which can be used to perform an interactive game software between remote rooms. SOLUTION: A master machine is provided with a transmit section 14 and a receive section 15 with spread spectrum method, and a slave machine is designed in the same manner as the master machine. In the master machine, an image data to be displayed at the slave machine is compressed at an information source coding section 12, and the data is added with the slave machine' s ID at a packet creating section 13 and this data is sent as a packet to the slave machine in a time division multiplex method. The slave machine transmits a key input information, and the information is received by the receive section 15 of the master machine in a time division multiplex method and is applied to games.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a data transmission apparatus and a video game machine using a spread spectrum wireless transmission system, and more particularly to a data transmission apparatus and a video game machine for playing a competitive video game by a plurality of players. About.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art FIG. 7 is a block diagram showing an example of the configuration of a conventional video game machine.
The external storage device 702 composed of M stores game software and data. When playing a game, this software is read into the RAM 703 and executed by the CPU 701. The frame memory 705 stores image data to be displayed, and this data is displayed on a display device (not shown) via the image output unit 36. The key input I / F unit 704 accepts when the player operates the key information input unit 71,
Tell 01. If this game machine is designed to be capable of competitive play, the key information input unit 71 to the key input I / F unit 70
The input information is taken into the CPU 701 at a fixed period or at a key input interrupt via the CPU 4, the key input value is analyzed by the CPU 701, the information corresponding to the key input value is reflected on the frame memory 705, and this is output from the image output unit 706. By outputting, a battle play is realized on the display device.

On the other hand, in a video game device for business use, a game of the genre of fighting fighting is generally played with fighting in an arrangement in which the housings 81 and 82 face each other as shown in FIG. It is becoming. The reason is that, as shown on the front surface 83 of the housing 81, a match play between two people using a video game device having two key information input units on one display device is physically cramped for a player. One thing is that the reaction of the opponent who performs the key input is visible before being reflected on the screen.

[0004]

The key information input section 71 of the prior art shown in FIG. 7 includes a key input pad 711 provided with directional keys and push buttons for input, and a key input I / O of the video game apparatus 70. Connector 71 to F section 704
3 and a cable 712 connecting the key input pad 711 and the connector 713. Then, the player plays within the reach of the cable 712 of the key information input device 71. Alternatively, a battle play can be performed in a wireless environment by incorporating an infrared transmitting / receiving device into a key input pad and a key input I / F unit. Also in this case, the player can play within a range where infrared rays can reach, for example, a distance of several meters from the video game machine body. But in each of these cases,
In the case of a battle-play type game, the distance between two or more players is not sufficiently long, and the problems of crampedness and the direct appearance of the opponent cannot be solved. Further, it cannot be used in various environments such as home use, for example, playing with another room in an apartment.

An object of the present invention is to provide an apartment room or the like,
In particular, it is an object of the present invention to provide a data transmission device using a spread spectrum wireless transmission method that enables use in a play environment at a distance of several tens to several hundred meters, and a video game machine using the device.

[0006]

In order to achieve the above object, according to the present invention, a parent device of a video game machine is connected to a main device.
A data transmission device for performing data transmission between one or a plurality of child devices, encoding means for encoding and compressing image data to be sent from the parent device to the child device,
Packet generating means for converting the encoded image data output from the means into a packet including the identification code of the destination child apparatus, and the packet generated by the means is sequentially and cyclically transmitted to each child apparatus by a spread spectrum method. Wireless transmitting means for transmitting, wireless receiving means for receiving and demodulating key information transmitted from each child device by the spread spectrum method, and analyzing each packet received and demodulated by the receiving means to determine which child A packet analyzing means for determining whether the information is the key information from the device, and a parent transmission device provided with the parent device of the video game machine, for transmitting the information from the child device of the video game machine to the parent device. Packet generating means for converting the key information into a packet including the identification code of the child device; and a packet generated by the means, Wireless transmission means for transmitting using a time slot allocated by the spread spectrum method, wireless reception means for receiving and demodulating image data transmitted from the parent apparatus by the spread spectrum method, and reception by the reception means Packet analysis means for analyzing each demodulated packet to determine whether the packet includes the identification code of the child device, and decoding means for decoding image data in the received and demodulated packet. Are provided in each child device of the video game machine.

Further, according to the present invention, the encoding means of the parent data transmission device and the child data transmission device has a function of adding an error correction code and a sum check data to a packet. A packet analysis unit of the data transmission device provides a data transmission device having an error detection and correction function using the error correction code and the data for sum check.

Further, the present invention provides a video game machine comprising the parent data transmission device and the child data transmission device provided in the parent device and each child device.

[0009]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below. FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing an example of the overall configuration of a video game machine according to the present invention. A key information input device 32 and a display device 33 are connected to a video game device 31 in the same manner as in the related art. Also, for players who play against each other using the video game device 31, a spread spectrum (Spread Spectrum) for connecting to the video game device 31 is provided.
m) The master unit 30 and the slave unit 34 of the data transmission device for transmitting data by wireless transmission of the system (hereinafter abbreviated as SS system).
Is provided, and the slave unit 34 also has a key information input device 35.
And the display device 36 are connected.

FIGS. 1 and 2 are block diagrams showing configuration examples of a master unit 30 and a slave unit 34 of a data transmission apparatus according to the present invention.
The image information output from the video game device 31 is input to the image input unit 11 of the master device 30, and the information source encoding unit 12 compresses the image information. The compression method used here is motion JPEG, H.264, if it can compress several frames to 30 frames per second. 261, MPEG or any other encoding method. The image information encoded by the information source encoding unit 12 is formed into a packet as shown in FIG. That is, a bit synchronization signal for transmission control, a frame synchronization signal, and a call signal are added as headers to slave unit ID information connectable to image encoding information, and protection of image encoding information and slave unit ID information is performed. Error correction code, image coding information, slave unit ID information, and a packet SUM value for protection of the error correction code. The packet created in this way is transmitted to the SS wireless transmission unit 1
4

The transmitted image information is received by the SS radio receiving section 21 of the slave unit. Here, the bit synchronization signal is information in which bit information “0” and “1” are alternately arranged, and the frame synchronization signal has “0” in the first two bits or more.
Since the information is composed of the following, the reception of the valid packet is started by recognizing the start of the synchronization when the alternation is eliminated. The packet analysis unit 22 receives data of a predetermined capacity after the frame synchronization information, calculates a SUM value of the data, and compares the calculated SUM value with a SUM value included in the received data. If this is correct, the error correction code is further decoded to extract image coding information and slave unit ID information. The extracted image information is decoded by the information source decoding unit 23 and output from the image output unit 24 to the display device 36 connected to the slave unit 34.

At the same time, the slave unit takes in and holds the key information from the key information input unit 25. If the slave unit ID included in the received master unit → slave unit packet matches the received slave unit ID, the packet creating unit 26 forms a packet as shown in FIG. 4B. This packet adds a bit synchronization signal, a frame synchronization signal, and a call signal for transmission control to the slave unit ID and key information as a header, and an error correction code for protecting the slave unit ID and key information, and a slave unit. Packet SU for protection of ID and key information and error correction code
It is obtained by adding an M value. This packet is transmitted from the SS wireless transmission unit 27. The transmitted data is S
The key information is received by the S wireless receiving unit 15, extracted by the packet analyzing unit 16, and sequentially output to the key information output unit 17 via the CPU 10.

In the above-described configuration, the number of the child devices is one. However, when the software used by the video game device connected to the parent device can be played by a plurality of persons simultaneously, In the case where there are two or more devices, the master device receives data transmitted from the child device in a time-division manner to enable simultaneous play. FIG. 5 is a time chart showing a state in which each packet is transmitted and received at this time.
D = 0 to 7 correspond. One frame of multiplexing is 8
Each packet is equally divided, and one packet is allocated to each time slot. The number written in each packet in the figure is the above ID. As described with reference to FIG. 4, a transmittable slave unit is specified by the slave unit ID included in the image information packet transmitted by the master unit. When the slave unit ID = j, the N * 8 + j-th time slot is used. Here, j = 0, 1,..., 7, and N is an integer. Each slave transmits in the assigned time slot, and the master registers and stores in advance the IDs corresponding to the number of connectable slaves, and sequentially and repeatedly sets the IDs in the image information packet, thereby setting 1 in the image information packet. The transmission of the pair M is performed (M = 8 in the above example). Further, after transmitting the image information packet including the specific slave unit designation information, the master unit accepts key information from the designated slave unit for a certain period of time.

FIG. 7 shows a packet transmission sequence.
First, a transmission request and a transmission response are exchanged between the CPU 10 of the parent device and the CPU 20 of the child device to establish a transport. Next, the packet creation unit 1 is sent from the CPU 10 of the base unit.
When the transmission start signal # 1 is sent to No. 3, the packet creation unit 13 sends one frame of image coded data to the SS wireless transmission unit 14 together with the slave unit ID = 0 that permits transmission.
The SS wireless transmission unit 14 receiving this transmits the image information packet to the transmission path while controlling the communication.

In the slave unit (ID = 0), the SS receiving unit 21 receiving this image information packet switches from the packet analyzing unit 22
Is received, and the packet analyzer 22 detects the presence or absence of a transmission error. It is CP that this reception result is normal.
When notified to the U20, the CPU 20 instructs the packet analysis unit 22 to take in the child device ID, and in response thereto, the transmitted child device ID is taken into the CPU 20, and the image information is taken into the image decoding unit 23. . The CPU 20 compares its own ID with the received transmission permitting child device ID, and if it is the same value, sends a transmission start signal to the packet creation unit 26. The packet creation unit 26 sends the key input information for one time slot together with its own ID to the SS wireless transmission unit 27. The SS wireless transmission unit 27 that has received the key information packet transmits the key information packet to the transmission line while performing communication control.

In the master unit, this information is sent from the SS radio receiving unit 15 that has received the key information packet to the packet analyzing unit 16, and the packet analyzing unit 16 detects the presence or absence of a transmission error. When the CPU 10 is notified that the reception result is normal, the CPU 10 instructs the packet analyzer 16 to capture the slave ID, and the slave ID and key information transmitted in response to the instruction are captured by the CPU 10. It is. C
When the acquired slave unit ID matches the ID scheduled in the reception standby state in the PU 10, the acquired key information is sent to the key information output unit 17.

The operation after the second transmission start signal # 2 is the same. When reaching the upper limit of the connectable slave unit IDs, the process is repeated again from the slave unit ID = 0. According to this configuration, the amount of key information is generally smaller than the amount of image information. Therefore, if time-division of image data from the master unit to the slave unit is possible in each time slot in FIG. Can be sufficiently transmitted to the parent device by time division.

[0018]

According to the present invention, it is possible to realize a video game machine in which a home video game can be enjoyed in a competitive manner even between rooms tens to hundreds of meters away.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration example of a master unit of an image transmission device according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a configuration example of a slave unit of the image transmission device according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating an overall configuration example of a video game machine according to the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a frame configuration example of a transmission packet.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram of multiplex transmission of packets between a plurality of slave units and a master unit.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a procedure of packet transmission.

FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating a configuration example of a conventional video game machine.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing a configuration example of an arcade video game machine.

[Explanation of symbols]

 10, 20 CPU 11 Image input unit 12 Information source encoding unit 13, 26 Packet creation unit 14, 27 SS wireless transmission unit 15, 21 SS wireless reception unit 16, 22 Packet analysis unit 17 Key information output unit 23 Information source decoding Unit 24 image output unit 25 key information input unit

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A data transmission device for transmitting data between a parent device of a video game machine and one or more child devices, wherein image data to be transmitted from the parent device to the child device is encoded. Encoding means for compressing; packet creating means for converting the encoded image data output from the means into a packet containing the identification code of the destination device; Wireless transmitting means for sequentially and cyclically transmitting to each slave device, wireless receiving means for receiving and demodulating key information transmitted from each slave device by the spread spectrum method, and receiving and demodulating by the receiving means. Packet analyzing means for analyzing each packet obtained and determining from which child device the key information originates, and a parent transmission device comprising: Is provided in the parent device of the video game machine, and packet generation means for converting key information for sending from the child device of the video game machine to the parent device into a packet including the identification code of the child device, Wireless transmission means for transmitting the received packet using a time slot allocated by the spread spectrum method; wireless reception means for receiving and demodulating image data transmitted from the parent apparatus by the spread spectrum method; A packet analyzing unit for analyzing each packet received and demodulated by the receiving unit to determine whether or not the packet includes an identification code of a corresponding child device; and for decoding image data in the received and demodulated packet. Decoding means, and a child data transmission device comprising: Data transmission device according to symptoms. 2. The coding means of the parent data transmission device and the child data transmission device has a function of adding an error correction code and sum check data to a packet. Packet analysis means
2. The data transmission apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising an error detection and correction function using the error correction code and the sum check data. 3. A video game machine comprising the parent data transmission device and the child data transmission device according to claim 1 provided in the parent device and each child device.