Education and demonstration – Cathode ray screen display and audio means
Reexamination Certificate
1997-10-21
2001-01-16
O'Neill, Michael (Department: 3713)
Education and demonstration
Cathode ray screen display and audio means
C434S30700R, C434S308000, C434S318000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06174170
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to displaying text symbols and, more particularly, to the display of text symbols that are associated with audio data reproducible from a recording disc.
There are many applications in which it is desirable to reproduce audio information from a prerecorded disc, such as a compact disc (CD), a mini-disc (MD) or the like, and to display text information, notably text symbols, associated with that audio information. For example, in the home entertainment environment, it is desirable to display the words of a song that has been prerecorded on a disc in order to enable the user to sing that song. This application is known as “karaoke”; and karaoke systems are commercially available wherein the user's voice is mixed with the prerecorded musical accompaniment, resulting in enhanced performance.
In other applications, it is desirable to display text symbols associated with information stored on a CD-ROM, such as stored audio information, stored graphics information, and the like. The text symbols may consist of subtitle information, instructions, summaries, translations into different languages, etc.
Information recorded on compact discs, whether it is audio information recorded on a CD or other information recorded on a CD-ROM, typically is recorded in a pre-established format that is not particularly conducive to the display of text symbols. For example, in the environment of an audio CD, digital audio data is recorded in frames with each frame containing 588 bits of synchronizing, control and audio information. This format is illustrated in
FIG. 1
, with the beginning of a frame being denoted by sync frame data followed by sync control data followed by multiplexed left-channel and right-channel data. The left-channel data includes two 8-bit bytes which form a sample, with three left-channel and three right-channel samples being multiplexed in the first half of the frame; and three left-channel and three right-channel samples being multiplexed in the second half of the frame. An error correcting code, such as CIRC is used to error-correct the six multiplexed samples in the first half of the frame and another CIRC code is used to error-correct the six multiplexed samples in the second half of the frame. A block of audio data is formed of ninety-eight such frames.
The one byte of sync control data C in each frame is thought of as containing bits P, Q, R, S, T, U, V and W; and these bits also are known as channels. Bit, or channel, Q is used in frame 1 and frame 2 of a block to indicate the beginning of that block: that is, to indicate that this is a new block of information. At present, the remaining bits, or channels, other than bit or channel Q, in the sync control data C are not used for any other purpose.
Heretofore, there has been no commercial effort to include in a block of audio data stored on a recording disc information representing text symbols which, when reproduced from the disc along with the audio information can be displayed.
OBJECTS OF THE INVENTION
Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to provide a technique whereby text symbols associated with audio data stored on a recording disc may be displayed.
Another object of this invention is to provide such a technique in which the recording disc stores both the text information to be displayed and the audio information to be heard.
A further object of this invention is to provide such a technique in which the text information is stored on a medium that is separate and apart from the recording disc on which the audio information is stored.
An additional and specific object of this invention is to provide a karaoke disc, which may be in either CD or MD format, that can be played by a conventional CD or MD player and provide a text display.
Various other objects, advantages and features of the present invention will become clear from the description set out below; and the novel features will be particularly pointed out in the claims.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In accordance with this invention, a technique is provided for displaying text symbols that are associated with audio data reproducible from a recording disc, such as a compact disc (CD), a mini-disc (MD), or the like. As used herein, the expression “audio data” is intended to refer to audio information recorded on such a disc, as well as audio and/or graphical information recorded on a CD-ROM. For convenience, however, “audio data” refers to both types of information.
Groups of text characters representing respective phrases of text are downloaded. Each text character includes start/end bits to indicate the start and end of a phrase as well as symbol identifying bits to identify a respective text symbol in the phrase. The downloaded text characters are assembled into a phrase, depending upon the start/end bits of the text characters; and the assembled phrase is displayed. As one feature of this invention, a read only memory (ROM) stores each text symbol to be displayed and the symbol identifying bits of each downloaded text character are used to address the ROM and read therefrom the stored text symbol corresponding to the symbol identifying bits.
In one aspect of this invention, the groups of text characters are stored on the same recording disc as the audio data; and in another aspect, the text data is stored on a different recording medium. For example, the audio data may be stored on a CD and the text characters may be stored on a separate CD or on a storage cartridge.
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Chang Dexter T.
Frommer William S.
Frommer Lawrence & Haug LLP.
Harris Chanda
O'Neill Michael
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