Music – Instruments – Electrical musical tone generation
Reexamination Certificate
2000-11-06
2001-08-21
Witkowski, Stanley J. (Department: 2837)
Music
Instruments
Electrical musical tone generation
C084S634000, C084S47700R, C434S30700R
Reexamination Certificate
active
06278048
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to portable karaoke devices, and more particularly to a portable karaoke device which is capable of allowing the user to sing over a main microphone or auxiliary microphone and listen to his song mixed with an accompaniment sound through an audio unit while viewing a background picture with a lyrics caption through a video unit and of temporarily storing a tune downloaded through a moving picture experts group 2 (MPEG 2) layer 3 (MP3) technique in its internal sound module, so that the user can conveniently and simply use the device.
2. Description of the Prior Art
As well known in the art, accompaniment devices are adapted to store data about accompaniments of a large number of tunes in their internal memories. If the user selects a desired one of the tunes, then the associated accompaniment device outputs a sound of an accompaniment associated with the selected tune through a speaker at the same time that it inputs a song voice of the user through a microphone and outputs it through the speaker. As a result, people can simply practice singing with the accompaniment devices.
However, people have to purchase the above-mentioned accompaniment devices at a great expense and cannot use them at any places other than their installed places, because most of the accompaniment devices basically comprise monitor screens mounted integrally therewith and are usually installed within rooms. For these reasons, in order to use the accompaniment devices, people must search for places where the accompaniment devices have already been installed.
In order to overcome the above problems, there has been proposed a portable wireless accompaniment system comprising a plurality of expandable read only memory (ROM) packages for assigning numbers respectively to tunes desired by the user and storing accompaniments of the tunes in the form of digital signals.
In the proposed accompaniment system, a microprocessor is operated synchronously with an oscillation frequency from an oscillator and in response to a tune number and other items applied through a key matrix by the user.
The microprocessor is adapted to control the entire system operation according to routines stored in a program memory. Further, the microprocessor stores data related to a played tune in a memory and displays the current operation state on a display unit through a liquid crystal display (LCD) driver.
Further, the microprocessor controls a multiplexer, a D-type flip-flop, a ROM package and other components in the system in response to a tune selection through the key matrix by the user. A dual sound controller reproduces a stereo accompaniment sound, which is then amplified by an amplifier.
An echo generator is adapted to selectively output an echo sound of mechanical vibration waves. A tone controller controls a tone of the echo sound from the echo generator, which is then mixed with a stereo audio signal from a microphone terminal.
A gain controller controls a gain of the mixed signal and an audio amplifier amplifies the resultant audio signal together with the amplified stereo accompaniment sound from the above amplifier.
A radio frequency (RF) modulator modulates the amplified audio and accompaniment signals at a predetermined radio frequency. As a result, a synthetic melody signal is obtained by mixing the audio signal and accompaniment signal and then transmitted by radio to an external audio unit through an antenna.
As an alternative, there has been proposed a portable wireless video accompaniment system wherein lyrics caption data is outputted to a video unit together with a background video signal at the same time that an accompaniment sound of a selected tune is outputted to an audio unit while being mixed with a voice inputted through a microphone, thereby allowing the user to sing to the accompaniment sound while viewing lyrics on a background picture.
However, the above-mentioned conventional portable wireless accompaniment system and portable wireless video accompaniment system are advantageous in that they can be conveniently carried and used by the user, but have the following disadvantages. Firstly, the existing ROM packages must be replaced with new ones whenever new tunes are added. Secondly, the user cannot personally select a desired background picture and is thus liable to feel a repugnance toward the same background picture being continuously repeated. Thirdly, the user cannot select or reserve a next tune while singing over a microphone of the system body. As a result, it requires the user to spend extra time manipulating the controls to select or reserve a next tune.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Therefore, the present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and it is an object of the present invention to provide a portable wireless accompaniment system which is capable of allowing the user to sing over a main microphone or auxiliary microphone and listen to his song mixed with an accompaniment sound through an audio unit while viewing a background picture with a lyrics caption through a video unit and of temporarily storing a tune downloaded through an MP3 technique in its internal sound module, so that the user can conveniently and simply use the accompaniment system.
In a feature of the present invention, an MP3 decoder is provided to download an accompaniment of a desired tune and an expandable sound module is provided to store the accompaniment downloaded by the MP3 decoder.
A video signal is received from a video unit by radio and then utilized as a background picture. A video signal mixed with a lyrics caption is transmitted by radio to the video unit so that the user can view the background picture and lyrics.
In addition to a main microphone over which the user sings while listening to an accompaniment sound, there is provided an auxiliary microphone for transmitting a signal by radio. The user can select and apply a next tune using the auxiliary microphone while singing over it. Therefore, with no necessity for replacing a sound module in which lyrics and accompaniments of newest songs are previously recorded and a video unit that provides a background picture, the user can simply and efficiently use the present system.
REFERENCES:
patent: 5808224 (1998-09-01), Kato
Birch & Stewart Kolasch & Birch, LLP
Enter Technology Co., LTD
Witkowski Stanley J.
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