Dynamic information storage or retrieval – Information location or remote operator actuated control – Selective addressing of storage medium
Reexamination Certificate
2000-04-14
2002-08-06
Dinh, Tan (Department: 2653)
Dynamic information storage or retrieval
Information location or remote operator actuated control
Selective addressing of storage medium
C369S034010
Reexamination Certificate
active
06430121
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a reproduction apparatus such as a multi-disk-player capable of selecting one of a plurality of information storage media and reproducing the selected medium.
A multi-disk player is known which can selectively one of a plurality of disks such as a CD (compact disk) and MD (minidisk).
In such a prior art, a plurality of disks (e.g. disk D
1
-D
6
) are housed in a magazine so that they can be withdrawn individually. With the magazine mounted in a multi-disk player, a desired piece of music on a desired disk can be selectively played by the operation from an operation panel.
The multi-task player, which has an advantage that it can save the labor of exchanging a disk by a user whenever playing of a certain disk is completed, is preferably used for a vehicle.
The multi-task player for a vehicle is installed within a limited space of a vehicle and the space is preferably minimized. For this reason, a player body is installed on a trunk room whereas an operation panel is installed in the vicinity of the dash board of a vehicle.
In the multi-disk player for a vehicle, a disk selecting button for selectively reproducing a housed disk and another button for selecting a certain piece of music within the disk are commonly formed by e.g. a crossing button as shown in
FIG. 4
in order to minimize their occupied area on the operation panel.
FIG. 4
shows an operation panel used for an in-vehicle multidisk player. In
FIG. 4
, the crossing button
100
includes a pair of disk selecting keys
101
a
and
101
b
at its upper and lower ends. In this case, whenever a user depresses e.g. the disk selecting key
101
a
once, one of a plurality of disks housed in the magazine is continuously selected in an arrangement direction. On the other hand, whenever the user depresses the disk selecting key
101
b
once, one of the plurality of disks housed in the magazine is continuously selected in another arrangement direction.
The crossing button
100
includes a pair of music selecting keys
102
a
and
102
b
at its left and right ends. In this case, whenever a user depresses e.g. the music selecting key
102
a
once, each of a plurality of pieces of music housed in the disk now being selected is successively selected in a sequence reverse to numbers. On the other hand, whenever the user depresses the music selecting key
102
b
once, each of the plurality of pieces of music housed in the disk now being selected is successively selected in the sequence of the music numbers.
Therefore, if the user wants to listen to a desired piece of music from the desired disk using the crossing button
100
, first, he depresses the disk selecting key
101
a
or
101
b
to select a desired disk. Thereafter, he depresses the music selecting key
102
a
or
102
b
to select the desired piece of music. Thus, the user can select the desired pieces of music included in the desired disk.
Using such a crossing button
100
, the user can select the desired disk and desired piece of music on the operation panel having a limited space.
The operation panel includes in addition to the crossing button, a selecting button (FUNCTION)
103
which is a means for selecting the information medium into the medium to be reproduced, a power source switch (SOURCE)
104
which is means for detecting a power ON/OFF of the reproduction apparatus, etc.
The selecting button
103
is a switch for selecting the information medium. Whenever the user depresses the selecting button
103
once, he can sequentially select a plurality of disks housed in the magazine, AM broadcasting, FM broadcasting and cassette tape as an information medium to be reproduced. Incidentally, the crossing button
100
also serves to make frequency adjustment of a radio, station selection, sound quality and volume adjustment of music.
In the in-vehicle multidisk player, playing of each disk is executed by “autoplay”. Now, it is assumed that the user turns ON the power switch
104
. Then, when the multidisk player has been selected, it starts disk playing from the disk housed in the first tray of the magazine at a prescribed time after a microcomputer which is means for controlling the player detects ON of the power source.
Now it is assumed that the user wants to stop the disk playing. In this case, if the power source switch
104
is turned OFF, the microcomputer detects OFF of the power source to stop the disk playing. Thereafter, the disk is housed into the pertinent tray in the magazine and the player is placed in a stand-by state OFF of the power source.
In such an apparatus, for example, where the user wants to listen the fifth piece of music while the third piece of music of the disk D
2
which is housed at the second position of the magazine is played, the user has only to depress the music selecting key
102
b
on the right side twice.
However, if the user erroneously operates the disk selecting key
101
a
or
101
b
at the upper end or lower end, the player will select the disk (e.g. disk D
3
) different from the disk being played at this time. Therefore, the user must select the original disk D
2
(housed at the second position in the magazine) again by an additional operation for the disk selecting key
101
a
or
101
b
. In this case, the player plays the disk D
2
, but plays it from the first piece of music of the pertinent disk.
Therefore, where the user operates either the disk selecting key
101
a
or
101
b
for selecting the piece of music, he must select the desired disk D
2
using the disk selecting key
101
a
or
101
b
again and further select the desired piece of music (e.g. fifth piece of music) using the music selecting key
101
a
or
102
b
. Thus, it takes a long time and excessive labor to play the desired piece of music.;
Further, during the music selecting operation, the user may erroneously depress the selecting button
103
or power switch
104
although he intends to depress the disk selecting key
101
a
or
101
b.
Now it is assumed that the user erroneously depresses the selecting button
103
while the disk D
2
is being played. In this case, even if the user selects the multidisk player using the selecting button
103
, since the plurality of disks will be generally reproduced again from the first disk (e.g. disk D
1
), playing cannot be directly restored to the piece of music (third piece of music) of the disk D
2
which has been reproduced immediately before the erroneous operation. Therefore, the user must select the disk D
2
which has been reproduced immediately before by operating the crossing button
100
again.
Further, where the user has depressed the power switch
104
while the disk D
2
is being reproduced, the power switch is turned off so that the reproduction of the disk is ceased at this time. Therefore, even if the user turns on the power using the power switch
104
, since the plurality of disks will be generally reproduced again from the first piece of music of the first disk (e.g. disk D
1
), playing cannot be directly restored to the piece of music (third piece of music) of the disk D
2
which has been reproduced immediately before the erroneous operation. Therefore, where the user wants to listen to the piece of music which has been reproduced immediately before the erroneous operation, the user must select the desired piece of music of the disk D
2
by operating the crossing button
100
again.
Such an erroneous operation when operating the crossing button may occur when the user himself selects the desired piece of music while looking ahead during driving. If the user makes the above erroneous operation once during the driving, he must do the plural times of operations until he selects the desired piece of music which has been reproduced immediately before the erroneous operation. It takes labor and time for this purpose.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention has been accomplished in order to solve the above problem.
An object of the present invention is to provide a reproduction apparatus which can restore to a repr
Araki Morio
Honda Tadateru
Shiraishi Yoshiki
Shoji Mitsuo
Yanagisawa Tatsuya
Dinh Tan
Pioneer Corporation
Sughrue & Mion, PLLC
LandOfFree
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