Dynamic information storage or retrieval – Information location or remote operator actuated control – Selective addressing of storage medium
Reexamination Certificate
2002-03-25
2004-06-15
Dinh, Tan (Department: 2652)
Dynamic information storage or retrieval
Information location or remote operator actuated control
Selective addressing of storage medium
Reexamination Certificate
active
06751168
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a device, such as a disk changer device, for storing and playing back information recorded on a recording medium such as a disk. The disk may be a CD, an MD and so forth.
2. Description of the Related Art
FIG. 6
is a block diagram which schematically shows the internal configuration of a disk changer device in a device for storing and playing back information recorded on a recording medium of the known art.
In
FIG. 6
, the disk changer device
100
(hereinafter simply referred to as the changer device) comprises: a playback drive
102
for driving and playing back a disk selected from disks
101
, though only one disk is depicted for simplicity in
FIG. 6
; a decoder
103
for decoding playback signals that are driven and played back by the playback drive
102
; a D/A converter
104
for performing analog conversion of the playback signals decoded in the decoder
103
so as to perform audio output of the playback signals; a contents-related information extracting unit
105
for extracting contents-related information in the disks
101
from the playback signals decoded in the decoder
103
; a key operation unit
106
for inputting various commands; a display unit
107
for displaying various information; and a controller
108
for controlling the whole changer device
100
.
The contents-related information corresponds to information related to tracks recorded on the disks
101
, such as contents IDs for identifying the tracks, names of the tracks, and playing time of the tracks.
Next, the operation of the changer device
100
of the known art is described below.
The changer device
100
shown in
FIG. 6
selects a disk to be played back from the disks
101
in the changer device
100
, and places the selected disk
101
to be played back in the playback drive
102
. The playback drive
102
obtains the playback signals by driving and playing back the selected disk
101
, and the playback signals are supplied to the decoder
103
.
The decoder
103
decodes the playback signals, and transmits the decoded playback signals to the D/A converter
104
. The D/A converter
104
performs analog conversion of the playback signals so as to perform audio output thereof.
The contents-related information extracting unit
105
extracts the contents-related information from the playback signals decoded in the decoder
103
, and transmits the contents-related information to the controller
108
.
The controller
108
displays a part of the contents-related information on the display unit
107
.
Thus, the changer device
100
of the known art drives and plays back the selected disk
101
therein so as to play back the tracks recorded on the selected disk
101
. The changer device
100
also extracts the contents-related information of the tracks recorded on the selected disk
101
so as to display on the display unit
107
the names, the playing time and so forth of each of the tracks. Accordingly, a user is able to obtain the information of the track being played back while listening thereto.
According to the changer device
100
of the known art, however, it is necessary to drive and play back the selected disk
101
in the playback drive
102
for playing back the tracks. Therefore, the changer device
100
is not able to play back the tracks when the selected disk
101
is not therein.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention has been made in view of the problem described above, and it is an object of the present invention to provide a device for storing and playing back information recorded on a recording medium, in which a track can be played back even if a disk is not present in the device.
To this end, according to the present invention, there is provided a device for storing and playing back information recorded on a recording medium, comprising: playback means for playing back a plurality of tracks recorded on the recording medium, to generate playback signals; memory means for storing the playback signals; history-storing means for storing recording-history information of the tracks related to the playback signals stored in the memory means; and memory control means for allowing the memory means to store in sequence the playback signals of the tracks played back by the playback means, and for allowing the history-storing means to store the recording-history information of the tracks related to the playback signals stored in the memory means.
With these features, after the recording medium has been played back and the playback signals have been stored in the storing means, a track having the playback signals stored in the storing means can be played back, even if the recording medium is not present in the device.
The recording-history information may include identification information and recording history related to the tracks stored in the memory means.
Accordingly, the stored information can be preferably managed.
Preferably, the device further comprises mode-setting means for switching between a recording medium playback mode in which the tracks recorded on said recording medium are played back by the playback means and a history-playback mode in which the tracks related to the playback signals stored in the memory means are played back by the memory control means.
Accordingly, the recording medium playback mode and the history-playback mode can be set arbitrarily.
The history-playback mode may be set by the mode-setting means when the recording medium is not present in the device and when the playback signals are stored in the memory means.
Accordingly, the history-playback mode can be automatically set without user's mode-selection operation.
Preferably, the device further comprises: identification information detecting means for detecting identification information related to one of the tracks from the recording medium when the playback means begins to play back the track recorded on the recording medium during the recording medium playback mode; historical information determining means for determining whether or not the identification information detected by the identification information detecting means is present in the recording-history information stored in the history-storing means; and normal playback completion determining means for determining whether or not the track has been played back normally to the end, when the historical information determining means determines that the identification information is present in the recording-history information. The memory control means updates the recording history included in the recording-history information related to the track in the history-storing means as the latest information, when the normal playback completion determining means determines that the track has been played back normally to the end.
With this arrangement, the recording history information in the history-storing means can be constantly updated.
Preferably, the device further comprises: memory capacity measuring means for measuring the remaining memory capacity in the memory means when the historical information determining means determines that the identification information is not present in the recording-history information; memory capacity calculating means for calculating a required memory capacity for recording the track, on the basis of the identification information; and memory capacity determining means for determining whether or not the memory capacity calculated by the memory capacity calculating means exceeds the remaining memory capacity measured by the memory capacity measuring means. When the memory capacity determining means determines that the memory capacity calculated by the memory capacity calculating means exceeds the remaining memory capacity, the memory control means deletes the oldest playback signal from the memory means so as to produce an unused memory capacity corresponding to the required memory capacity calculated by the memory capacity calculating means, stores in sequence the playback signals of the track being played back by t
Clarion Co. Ltd.
Dinh Tan
LandOfFree
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