KR20050094203A - Versatile portable mp3 player - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention provides a multifunctional portable MP3 player that can perform not only the basic function of playing MP3 files as music but also a pedometer function to know the user's moving distance for health care. A portable MP3 player for playing, comprising: a sensing unit installed in a body of an MP3 player to detect vibration of an MP3 player in multiple axes, and counting the number of vibrations in accordance with a sensing signal that detects the maximum amount of vibration; A selection switch for selecting an operation mode performed by an MP3 player among a pedometer operation mode and a music reproduction mode; A control unit for outputting a counting value output by the user's step by operating the sensing unit when the pedometer operation mode is selected by the selection switch; And a liquid crystal display for displaying the number of steps of the counted user under the control of the controller.

Description

Multifunctional Portable MP3 Player {Versatile portable MP3 player}

The present invention relates to a portable MP3 player (hereinafter referred to as MP3) player, and more particularly, to perform a pedometer function so as to know a user's moving distance for health care as well as the basic function of playing MP3 files as music. To a multifunctional portable mp3 player.

MP3 players use MP3 technology, which is one of several technologies that compress audio data without compromising sound quality, where MP3 files refer to data in the Motion Picture Expert Group (MPEG) Layer 3 format. It is a device that plays files with audible sound.

In addition, with the development of semiconductor technology, ultra-large-capacity memory cards have been commercialized, making MP3 players much smaller than conventional tape recorders or CD players. As a result, portable MP3 players have become popular. Reached.

Figure 1 is a functional block diagram of a conventional MP3 player, a typical MP3 player, as shown, is implemented via a USB or RS-232C port through an input and output interface 11 connected to an external device (for example, a personal computer) After receiving the MP3 file from an external device and storing it in the memory 14 and in accordance with a user command input through the keypad 15, the MP3 file stored in the memory 14 is loaded and the digital signal processor (DSP) 16 In this case, the DSP 16 decompresses the input MP3 file, encodes it into an analog signal, and outputs the same to the speaker 17. The MP3 file selected through the speaker 17 is reproduced as an audible sound. The operation state as described above, information related to the reproduced or selected MP3 file, and the like are displayed on the liquid crystal display (LCD) 13 under the control of the control unit 12.

In this way, the existing MP3 player is configured to perform only a music playback function, faithful to the basic purpose of music playback.

However, as modern people seek convenience in their lives, the number of portable products that are normally carried is increasing. In addition, with increasing interest in health, the use of health-related items is increasing, such as pedometers. These pedometers are usually made of portable products that can be attached to the waist.

Therefore, if you want to exercise while listening to music, MP3 player and pedometer had to be prepared separately and worn. As such, as portable products having respective necessary functions for each use increase, user inconveniences in managing and wearing them are increasing. Accordingly, the demand for multifunctional products that are compact and have multiple functions is increasing. .

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been proposed to solve the above-mentioned conventional problems, and an object thereof is to provide a multifunctional portable MP3 player capable of providing a pedometer function as well as a basic function of playing MP3 files as music.

As a structural means for achieving the above object of the present invention, the present invention is a portable MP3 player for playing MP3 files as music,

A sensing unit installed in the MP3 player body to detect the vibration of the MP3 player in multiple axes, and counting the number of vibrations in accordance with a sensing signal that detects the maximum vibration amount;

A selection switch for selecting an operation mode performed by an MP3 player among a pedometer operation mode and a music reproduction mode;

A control unit for outputting a counting value output by the user's step by operating the sensing unit when the pedometer operation mode is selected by the selection switch; And

Characterized in that it comprises a liquid crystal display for displaying the number of steps of the counted user under the control of the control unit.

In addition, the multifunctional portable MP3 player according to the present invention comprises: an exercise amount calculation unit for calculating an exercise amount by calculating calories consumed according to the detected movement under the control of the controller; And a function setting unit for setting whether to perform a calorie conversion function that is consumed as much as the movement in addition to counting the motion in the pedometer operation mode, and wherein the control unit, when the calorie conversion function is set in the function setting unit, is counted by the detection unit. May be applied to the momentum calculator to instruct calorie calculation and display the result on the liquid crystal display.

By the above configuration, MP3 Player of the present invention provides the function of the pedometer while playing music, thereby providing the effect that can contribute to the health promotion while promoting the convenience of the user.

Hereinafter, with reference to the accompanying drawings will be described the configuration and operation of the multifunctional portable MP3 player according to the present invention.

2 is a functional block diagram of an MP3 player according to the present invention. The MP3 player not only controls an input / output interface 21 for providing a data input / output function with an external device, and also stores and plays back MP3 files. A control unit 22 for controlling the operation of each means for performing a pedometer function according to a user's selection, a detection unit 23 installed inside the MP3 player body to detect and count the movement of the MP3 player body, Selection switch 24 for selecting whether or not to operate the pedometer in MP3 player, and the exercise amount calculation unit 25 converts the counting value detected by the detection unit 23 into consumption calories under the control of the controller 22. And a function setting unit 26 for designating the setting of the calorie counting function in the pedometer operation mode, and music reproduction and data management operation under the control of the control unit 22. LCD 27, which displays the counting value of the sensing unit 23 in steps and displays the calories calculated by the momentum calculator 25 in the pedometer operation mode together with an indication of the state, and includes an MP3 file. Under the control of the control unit 22, a keypad 29 consisting of a memory 28 for storing data, an input key for music reproduction and data management commands, and decompressing and encoding the input MP3 file into an analog audio signal. It may include a DSP 30 for converting, and a speaker 31 for receiving an analog audio signal output from the DSP 30 and converting it into an audible sound.

The sensing unit 23 detects the vibration of the portable MP3 player body generated by the physical force applied to the portable MP3 player body from outside, that is, the movement of the user wearing the portable MP3 player body, among which In order to determine and count the vibration associated with the walking behavior, the multi-axis vibration sensor 231 for detecting vibrations in three directions x, y, and z, and the x, y, z axis sensing signals of the multi-axis vibration sensor 231 are input. The vibration coefficient unit 232 detects and counts the main vibration direction by comparing the signal size.

Portable MP3 Players are usually made in the form of a necklace that a user can wear around their neck. 3 is a perspective view showing an example of an MP3 player manufactured in the form of a necklace.

As shown in FIG. 3, the MP3 player 31 caught on the user's neck may move in up, down, left, and right directions according to the user's movement. In FIG. 3, the up and down directions are represented by the y axis, the left and right directions are represented by the x axis, and the front and rear directions are represented by the z axis.

At this time, the movement of the MP3 player 31 mostly appears in three directions in the x, y, z axis, but the vibration magnitude in the main vibration direction corresponding to the user's movement is larger. In addition, the vibration direction may vary depending on the mounting position of the MP3 player 31 of the user. Therefore, the present invention intends to more accurately count the number of steps of the user through the multi-axis vibration sensor. The specific operation thereof will be described with reference to FIG. 5.

5 illustrates an example of a sensing signal output from the multi-axis vibration sensor 231 of the sensing unit 23 installed in the MP3 player 31 when the user carrying the MP3 player 31 walks. .

As illustrated in FIG. 5, when the user carrying the MP3 player 31 walks, a sensing signal in three directions of x, y, and z axes is output from the multi-axis vibration sensor 231. At this time, the magnitude of the x, y, z axis sensing signal is not necessarily matched, the sensing signal in the direction corresponding to the main vibration direction becomes larger. For example, when the user puts the MP3 player 31 on the neck, the magnitude of the y-axis sensing signal may be greatest, and the MP3 player 31 of FIG. 3 is held in the horizontal direction. The x-axis or z-axis sensing signal may appear larger.

Accordingly, the vibration coefficient unit 232 of the sensing unit 23 samples the three sensing signals of the multi-axis vibration sensor 231 output as shown in FIG. 5 for a predetermined time T, and each maximum value Xmax. , Ymax, Zmax) and the minimum value (Xmin, Ymin, Zmin) are obtained, and the difference between the maximum value and the minimum value (Xs, Ys, Zs) is obtained as in Equation 1 below.

The values Xs, Ys, and Zs are compared with each other to determine the largest value as the signal to count. Therefore, the vibration coefficient unit 232 is able to accurately count the number of steps by detecting the main vibration direction even if the user is equipped with MP3 player.

In addition, the value of the vibration axis selected as described above (one of Xs, Ys, Zs) is compared with the average vibration value generated by the general human step, and counts only when the average vibration value is larger, thereby improving accuracy. Can be. More specifically, after calculating the average value A of the vibration amount generated by the general human walk, setting the value B obtained by dividing the average value by an arbitrary value greater than 2 as a reference value, and then selecting the value of the selected vibration axis (Xs, One of Ys and Zs) and the reference value B are compared and counted only when the reference value B is larger than the reference value B. Here, the average vibration value A is divided by an arbitrary value greater than 2 because the vibration amount of the three axes detected by the multi-axis vibration sensor 231 is halved when the vibration direction is exactly 45 degrees with respect to the two axes.

According to this principle, in the present invention, as the multi-axis vibration sensor 231 of the sensing unit 23 uses a multi-axis vibration sensor that can detect at least the movement in the x-axis direction and the movement in the y-axis direction, vibration coefficient unit At 232, the sensing signal in the main vibration direction is counted to accurately count the number of steps of the user.

The pedometer function in the multifunctional portable MP3 player of the present invention configured as described above will be described below with reference to the flowchart of FIG. 4.

First, when the user selects the pedometer operation mode by operating the selection switch 24 (S41, S42), the controller 22 recognizes this and counts the value A of the vibration coefficient unit 232 provided in the detection unit 23. Initialize to 0.

Thus, the vibration coefficient unit 232 iteratively processes the sensing signal of the three directions output from the multi-axis vibration sensor 231 from the time when the user selects the pedometer operation mode as follows.

That is, the sensing signals in three directions output from the multi-axis vibration sensor 231 are sampled at a predetermined period T to obtain maximum and minimum values for the three-axis sensing signals, and according to Equation 1, x, y, The amount of vibration (Xs, Ys, Zs) of the z-axis sensing signal is calculated (S45).

Then, the largest value of the values Xs, Ys and Zs is selected to determine the main vibration direction (S46). The vibration amount (one of Xs, Ys, and Zs) of the selected main vibration direction is compared with the reference value B (the average vibration amount divided by an arbitrary number greater than 2) of the general person (S47).

As a result of the comparison, when the vibration amount (one of Xs, Ys and Zs) in the selected main vibration direction is larger than the reference value B, the step A is increased by a unit value "1" (S48).

The counting value A of the vibration coefficient unit 232 calculated as described above corresponds to the steps of the MP3 player user and is applied to the controller 22.

The control unit 22 controls the user to output the number of steps A counted from the vibration coefficient unit 232 to the user through the LCD 27. At this time, the user calculates the consumption calories during the pedometer operation through the function setting unit 26. In the case of setting (S49), the control unit 22 recognizes this, and applies the counting value of the vibration coefficient unit 232 to the momentum calculator 25 to instruct the consumption calorie calculation. The exercise amount calculation unit 25 is set to calories consumed by the human body per unit step allowance, and multiply this by the counting value to calculate the calories consumed to date (S50).

 The consumption calories calculated by the momentum calculator 25 are transferred to the LCD 27 through the controller 22 and displayed together with the number of steps up to now (S51).

The above operation is repeatedly performed until the user operates the selection switch 24 to terminate the pedometer operation mode, and informs the consumption number of steps and the amount of exercise of the MP3 player user (S52).

As described above, MP3 Player of the present invention by accurately counting the number of steps provided by the user, according to the user's selection, it is possible to manage the health while listening to music, as in the conventional pedometer and MP3 Player respectively It does not need to be carried separately, thereby providing an excellent effect for the convenience of the user.

1 is a functional block diagram of a conventional portable MP3 player.

2 is a functional block diagram of a portable MP3 player according to the present invention.

3 is a perspective view illustrating an operation state of the portable MP3 player according to the present invention.

Fig. 4 is a flowchart showing the operation procedure of the pedometer in the portable MP3 player according to the present invention.

5 is a waveform diagram illustrating an embodiment of a sensing signal of a multi-axis vibration sensor generated by a user's walking operation.

Explanation of symbols on the main parts of the drawings

21: input and output interface unit 22: control unit

23: sensing unit 24: selection switch

25: momentum calculation unit 26: function setting unit

27: LCD 28: memory

29: keypad

Claims (4)

In a portable MP3 player that plays MP3 files as music, A sensing unit installed in the MP3 player body to detect the vibration of the MP3 player in multiple axes, and counting the number of vibrations in accordance with a sensing signal that detects the maximum vibration amount; A selection switch for selecting an operation mode performed by an MP3 player among a pedometer operation mode and a music reproduction mode; A control unit for outputting a counting value output by the user's step by operating the sensing unit when the pedometer operation mode is selected by the selection switch; And A multifunctional portable MP3 player comprising a liquid crystal display for displaying the number of steps of the counted user under the control of the controller. The method of claim 1, wherein the detection unit At least, a multi-axis vibration sensor for detecting the vibration in the x, y, z axis direction and outputs the x, y, z axis sensing signal, Initialized under the control of the control unit, the plurality of sensing signals output from the multi-axis vibration sensor is sampled at regular intervals to calculate the maximum vibration amount, and every step counting value unit is calculated when the calculated maximum vibration amount is greater than the reference value B. Multifunctional portable MP3 player, characterized in that consisting of a vibration coefficient increasing by value. The player of claim 1 or 2, wherein the player An exercise amount calculator configured to calculate an exercise amount by calculating calories burned according to the detected movement under the control of the controller; And And a function setting unit for setting whether to perform a calorie conversion function consumed as much as the movement in addition to the counting of the movement in the pedometer mode of operation. When the calorie conversion function is set in the function setting unit, the control unit applies a value counted by the sensing unit to the exercise amount calculating unit to instruct calorie calculation, and controls the result value to be displayed on the liquid crystal display. MP3 Player. The reference value B set in the vibration coefficient unit is A multifunctional portable MP3 player, characterized in that the average vibration value A generated by the general human step is divided by an arbitrary value greater than 2.