KR20030036554A - Method and apparatus for indicating states of electronic devices - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: A method and an apparatus for displaying the state of an electronic device are provided to inform a user of the current state of an electronic device through the sound of a character. CONSTITUTION: An apparatus for displaying the state of an electronic device includes a key input unit(31), a micro-controller(32), and a melody generator(35). The key input unit selects a device state to input a key. The micro-controller judges the device state from the key input from the key input unit, and displaying the judged device state while controlling servo-drive for converting the current state into the judged state. The melody generator transmits a previously set melody according to the device state judged by the micro-controller. The melody generator includes a transistor(TR) and a buzzer(351). The base of the transistor is connected to a timer port of the micro-controller such that the transistor operates according to a pulse applied to the base. The buzzer is connected to the collector of the transistor to sound according to operation of the transistor.

Description

Method and apparatus for indicating status of electronic devices

The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for displaying electronic device states such as TVs and VTRs. More particularly, the present invention provides a user-friendly experience by displaying sounds of funny characters during servo control for switching device states in association with device states. The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for displaying an electronic device status so that the current status can be more easily understood.

Electronic devices such as TVs and VTRs have various operating states. In the case of the VTR, there are various kinds of power, play, stop, fast forward (FF), rewind (REW), and the like. When a user performs a key operation in a desired state through a remote controller or a key-matrix attached to a set, the microcomputer in the set receiving the key input determines the key input. MICOM reads OSD characters corresponding to the determined key input among OSD characters stored in OSD (On Screen Display) -IC and displays them on TV screen for a certain time so that user can know current device status. Here, the OSD-IC typically uses a VRAM and stores characters as shown in FIG.

FIG. 1 is a view illustrating a VRAM configuration for displaying a state of a conventional electronic device. Characters are stored in a total of 256 addresses from "0000" to "F00F". The characters to be stored are various characters including numbers "0" to "9", alphabet letters "A" to "Z", and Korean consonants and vowels.

The microcomputer reads the characters corresponding to the determined device state among the characters stored in the VRAM of FIG. 1 and displays them at predetermined positions on the screen as shown in FIGS. 2A-2D. Normally, the device status is displayed in English characters. For example, if the user presses the "stop" key to stop the tape currently being played and viewed, the microcomputer determines the key input and "S", "T" on the VRAM configured as shown in FIG. , "O", "P" Read each character from the address saved. The microcomputer combines the read characters and displays "STOP" at the upper left of the screen as shown in FIG. The high speed playback (FF), rewinding (REW), and playback (PLAY) shown in Figs. 2B to 2D are also displayed on the screen through the same process.

However, the present state of the conventional electronic devices as described above is displayed by the OSD character to give a boring feeling to the user, especially in the case of children or the elderly who do not know the font has a disadvantage that can not grasp the current state.

Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a method and apparatus for displaying an electronic device state in which the present state of the electronic device can be displayed with a friendly character such as an animal, so that the state of the electronic device can be easily detected while being familiar. have.

1 is a view showing a VRAM configuration for displaying a conventional electronic device state,

2A and 2D are screen state diagrams showing an example of OSD display of a conventional electronic device state;

3 is a block diagram showing an electronic device state display device to which the present invention is applied;

4A and 4D are diagrams for explaining an example of an electronic device state display according to the present invention. FIG. 4A is a VRAM structure of FIG. 3, and FIG. 4B is a figure showing a character to be displayed, and FIG. 4C is a figure 4B. 4D is a view illustrating a VRAM configuration stored in each of the fonts of the divided picture of FIG. 4C;

5A-5D are screen state diagrams showing an example of a video display containing a character state of an electronic device according to the present invention;

6 is a flowchart illustrating a video character display process of the apparatus of FIG. 3;

7 is a flowchart illustrating a melody transmission process corresponding to a displayed video character of the apparatus of FIG. 3;

8 illustrates an example of a melody corresponding to a video character to be displayed according to each state of an electronic device.

<Description of the symbols for the main parts of the drawings>

31: key input section 32: microcontroller

33: VRAM 34: Display

35: melody generating unit 36: servo unit

321: RAM 323: ROM

351 buzzer

The electronic device state display method of the present invention for achieving the above object comprises the steps of (1) pre-setting a sound representing each state of the device, and (2) user operation Determining the state of the device according to the key input, and (3) controlling the servo drive according to the determination result of step (2) to convert the current state to the determined state, and additional control signals during the control of the servo drive. Generating a sound corresponding to the determined device state among sounds preset in the step (1).

An electronic device state display apparatus for achieving the object of the present invention, in the electronic device having a microcontroller for controlling the servo drive for various operating conditions, a key input unit for selecting and keying the device state, and the key A microcontroller for determining the device state from the key input of the input unit and controlling the displayed device state while controlling the servo drive to switch from the current state to the determined state, and the device state determined by the microcontroller. Therefore, it includes a melody generating unit for transmitting a predetermined melody.

Hereinafter, exemplary embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

3 shows a VCR set to which the electronic device status display device of the present invention is applied. The VCR set shown in FIG. 3 includes a key input unit 31 of a remote controller and key metrics for keying a VCR state, and a picture of a character figure is stored in a font form instead of the VRAM configuration of FIG. 1 in which OSD characters are stored. A VRAM 33 is provided. The VCR of FIG. 3 also includes a ROM 322 that stores a program and a RAM 321 that controls the stored programs to operate in sequence, and fonts corresponding to the device state according to key input are stored in the VRAM 33. A microcontroller 32 is provided to read and form pictures and to display the formed pictures on the display 34. The microcontroller 32 controls the driving of the servo unit 36 to switch the current state of the VCR to a state corresponding to the key input. The servo unit 36 includes a drum servo which constantly controls the rotation of the video head, and a capstan servo which transfers the video tape and maintains the tape speed constant. The capstan motor and the drum motor are driven under the control of the servo unit 36. Meanwhile, the VCR of FIG. 3 includes an npn-type transistor TR having a base connected to the timer port 323 of the microcontroller 32 and a buzzer 351 connected to an output terminal drawn from the collector of the transistor TR. , And has a melody generator 35 for generating a predetermined sound according to the displayed picture. An operation of displaying a moving image of the electronic device state of the apparatus of FIG. 3 having such a configuration will be described in detail with reference to FIGS. 4A to 6.

4A and 4D are diagrams for explaining an example of an electronic device state display according to the present invention. FIG. 4A is a structure of the VRAM 33 of FIG. 3, and FIG. 4B is a view showing a character to be displayed. 4B is a view showing the divided state of the figure, and FIG. 4D shows the configuration of the VRAM 33 stored in the font of each of the divided figures of FIG. 4C.

The VRAM 33 of the embodiment of the present invention is composed of two pages, as shown in FIG. 4A. The first page stores numbers, letters, and the like, respectively, like the VRAM shown in FIG. 1, and the other page stores a picture as shown in FIG. 4B. Of course, you can save pictures on both pages. When the picture is stored in the VRAM 33 as shown in FIG. 4C, the picture of FIG. 4B is divided into blocks of a predetermined size, and each of the divided blocks is allocated to each address location and stored as shown in FIG. 4D. Here, the blocks assigned to each address position of the VRAM 33 are defined as fonts. When storing multiple pictures, only the fonts corresponding to the differences between the pictures are saved, and then pieces of the font are put together to form pictures.

In FIG. 3, when one of various functions of the corresponding set is selected through a key input unit 31 such as a remote controller or key metrics, the microcontroller 32 receiving the input is interrupted and an operation currently being performed. Stop and allow the operation of the selected function to be performed. That is, when the user enters a stop key through the key input unit 31 in the play state where the VCR plays back the recorded contents of the tape (not shown) mounted on the current set, the microcontroller 32 Controls the driving of the servo unit 36 to stop the rotation of the capstan motor and the drum motor. As the capstan motor and the drum motor are stopped, the tape driving and the video head rotation are stopped and the playback operation is stopped. At this time, the microcontroller 32 executes the programs stored in the ROM 322 in order under the control of the RAM 321 to display the current device status on the screen. That is, the microcontroller 32 determines the device state from the key input, and reads fonts constituting preset pictures from the VRAM 33 corresponding to the determined device state. The microcontroller 32 displays the device state by displaying on the display 34 the pictures formed by combining the read fonts. For example, when the device is in a "stop" state as shown in FIGS. 5A to 5D, the microcontroller 32 shows the state of the four pictures showing the dog running and stopping using the dog character. Reads the corresponding fonts stored in the VRAM 33 to form the figure of FIG. 5A and displays them on the screen. Then, the microcontroller 32 changes only the font of a specific part, and displays the picture of FIG. 5B again at a time interval (term) so that the dog looks as if it is actually moving. Here, the font of a specific portion refers to a font containing a difference portion between a picture currently displayed on the screen and the next picture to be displayed. The device status display will be described in more detail with reference to FIG. 6.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart for explaining a video character display process of the apparatus of FIG. 3, in which each font is stored in the VRAM 33 at the time of making the set (step 601), and the microcontroller 32 controls the user's key operation. Determine the device state according to step 602. Here is an example of determining the "stop" state. That is, when the current state is changed to the stop state, the microcontroller 32 may control the operation of displaying only the stop command to the servo unit 36 and displaying the stop state. However, when switching from the stop state to another state such as reproduction or recording, the microcontroller 32 must continuously control the driving of the servo unit 36. During the control, the microcontroller 32 continuously sends an additional control signal to reproduce the current state. You must control the operation that indicates the status of play or recording (REC). If the determination result of step 602 is not a "stop" state, the microcontroller 32 sets a timer (not shown) of the RAM 321 for a predetermined time (4 seconds) according to a program stored in the ROM 322. (Step 603). If the determination result of step 602 is a "stop" state, the microcontroller 32 sends a stop command to the servo unit 36 and checks whether or not the time set in the timer remains for 3 seconds or more (step 604). As determined to stop, the time set in the timer is reduced. The servo unit 36 stops the rotation of the capstan motor and the drum motor according to the stop command of the microcontroller 32. If the timer time is greater than three seconds as a result of the check in step 604, the microcontroller 32 reads the fonts stored in the VRAM 33 according to the program of the ROM 322 to form the first figure shown in FIG. 34), the screen is displayed (step 605) and the process returns to step 604 to repeat the step. If the timer time has not been left for more than 3 seconds as a result of the check in step 604, the microcontroller 32 checks whether the timer setting time is left for more than 2 seconds (step 606). If the timer time of the check in step 606 remains for 2 seconds or more, the microcontroller 32 reads only the font corresponding to the part changed in the first picture part from the VRAM 33 to form the second picture shown in FIG. After screen display on the display 34 (step 607), the process returns to step 606 to repeat the step. If the timer time has not been left for more than 2 seconds as a result of the check in step 606, the microcontroller 32 checks whether the timer setting time is left for more than 1 second (step 608). If the check result of step 608 indicates that the timer time remains for more than 1 second, the microcontroller 32 reads only the font corresponding to the part changed in the second picture part from the VRAM 33 to form the third picture shown in Fig. 5C. After screen display on the display 34 (step 609), the process returns to step 608 to repeat the step. If the result of the check in step 608 is that no timer time remains for more than 1 second, the microcontroller 32 checks whether the timer setting time remains for 0 seconds or more (step 610). If the timer time remains 0 seconds or more as a result of the check in step 610, the microcontroller 32 reads only the font corresponding to the part changed in the third picture part from the VRAM 33 and shows the fourth picture as shown in Fig. 5D. And display on the display 34 (step 611), the process returns to step 610 to repeat the step. That is, according to the stop command of the microcontroller 32, the first figure to the fourth figure are sequentially displayed on the display 34 every second for four seconds set to the timer while the capstan motor and the drum motor are stopped. It appears as a video of a dog character running and stops so that the user can grasp the current status of the device STOP easily and intimately. The microcontroller 32 deletes the picture displayed on the screen when the timer time reaches 0 seconds and ends.

For example, when the user presses the “play” key to replay the tape while the VCR is stopped, the microcontroller 32 determines the key input to drive the servo unit 36. To control. The servo unit 36 drives under the control of the microcontroller 32 to control the phase and speed of the capstan motor and the drum motor to reproduce the contents recorded on the tape through the head. The microcontroller 32 sends an additional control signal while the servo unit 36 controls the phase and speed of the capstan motor and the drum motor to correspond to the "play" state of the fonts stored in the VRAM 33. The fonts are read and displayed on the display 34.

On the other hand, the microcontroller 32 not only displays the video of the character state, but also to export the sound corresponding to it. In other words, the dog sound "dog" that matches the shape of the dog character is sent out together for a more friendly feeling. To this end, the microcontroller 32 transmits a pulse according to the frequency and time corresponding to the melody programmed in the ROM 322 through the timer port 323 to the transistor of the melody generator 35 in response to the picture according to the device state. (TR) applied to the base. The transistor TR is driven in response to a pulse applied to the base to operate a buzzer 351 connected to the output terminal drawn from the collector to sound. Here, the ringing sound changes as the frequency is changed. 7 and 8, the microcontroller 32 determines whether the melody is generated at the start point of the buzzer routine (step 701). The start point of melody generation refers to the point in time at which the device status should be displayed to the user through key operation by the user. When the determination result of step 701 starts, the microcontroller 32 sets a frequency and time corresponding to a predetermined melody in response to the determined device state, thereby setting the sound of the frequency set by the melody generator 35. Let it ring for hours. That is, in the ROM 322 of the microcontroller 32, a picture or melody to be displayed according to each device state is programmed as shown in FIG. Here is an example where the device is capable of ringing a high pitched "Doremie" melody corresponding to it in the "Fast Speed (FF)" state. The microcontroller 32 sets melody 1 having a frequency corresponding to a high “degree” (step 703), and then sets the generation time of melody 1 (step 704). The melody generator 35 sounds a sound corresponding to the set frequency for the set time. The microcontroller 32 checks whether the time of the built-in timer has exceeded the set time (step 704), and if it exceeds, sets melody 2 having a frequency corresponding to a high negative "le" (step 705). After setting the frequency, the microcontroller 32 sets the time (step 706) so that the sound corresponding to the set frequency sounds for the set time. The microcontroller 32 then checks if the timer's time has exceeded the set time (step 707), and if it exceeds, sets melody 3 with a frequency corresponding to a high negative “me” (step 708). . After setting the frequency, the microcontroller 32 sets the time (step 709) so that a sound corresponding to the set frequency sounds for the set time. Then, the microcontroller 32 checks whether the timer's time has exceeded the set time (step 710), and if so, checks whether the buzzer ends (step 711). If the result of the check in step 711 ends the buzzer, the process ends as it is.

As described above, the electronic device state display method and apparatus of the present invention displays the current state of electronic devices such as TVs or VTRs by displaying various sounds of characters associated with the current state compared to the conventional display of OSD characters. Easily know the current state of the electronic device has an effect that makes you feel friendly.

Claims (8)

In the method for displaying the electronic device state, (1) presetting sounds associated with each state of the device; (2) determining a device state by receiving a key input according to a user's operation; And (3) The servo drive is controlled according to the determination result of step (2) to switch the current state to the determined state, and an additional control signal is generated during the control of the servo drive to generate the sound preset in step (1). The electronic device status display method comprising the step of generating a sound associated with the determined state of the device. The method of claim 1, wherein the sound of step (1) is a melody in which the height of the sound varies depending on the state of the device. The method of claim 2, wherein the melody of step (1) is a dog sound. The method of claim 2 or 3, wherein step (3) (3a) determining whether it is a start point of melody generation; (3b) setting a frequency and time of each sound constituting a predetermined melody corresponding to the determined device state when the determination result of step (3a) starts; (3c) ringing a sound corresponding to the set frequency in a negative order for a set time; And (3d) checking whether the sounding time exceeds the set time, and if exceeding, causing the sound corresponding to the next sound frequency to sound for the set time. . In an electronic device having a microcontroller for controlling servo drive for various operating states, A key input unit for selecting and keying a device state; A microcontroller configured to determine the device state from the key input of the key input unit and to display the device state determined during the control of the servo drive to switch from the current state to the determined state; And Electronic device status display device including a melody generator for transmitting a predetermined melody according to the device state determined by the microcontroller. The method of claim 5, wherein the melody generating unit A transistor connected to the timer port of the microcontroller and driven according to a pulse applied to the base; And And a buzzer connected to an output terminal drawn from the collector of the transistor to sound a sound according to driving of the transistor. The electronic device state display apparatus of claim 6, wherein the melody generating unit sounds different sounds according to the frequency of the transistor driving pulses. The microcontroller of claim 7, wherein the microcontroller includes a ROM that stores a program for displaying an electronic device status and a RAM that controls the programs to be sequentially executed. In order to send the melody indicating the device status, the timer of the RAM is set to a predetermined time according to the program of the ROM, and the frequency of the driving pulse is varied according to the change of the set time. Device.