Dynamic information storage or retrieval – Storage medium structure – Optical track structure
Reexamination Certificate
1999-11-23
2003-06-10
Edun, Muhammad (Department: 2655)
Dynamic information storage or retrieval
Storage medium structure
Optical track structure
C369S059250, C369S047100
Reexamination Certificate
active
06577589
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information recording medium, such as an optical disc or the like, an information recording apparatus for recording record information onto the information recording medium, and an information reproducing apparatus for reproducing the record information recorded on the information recording medium. More particularly, it relates to an information recording medium on which reproduction control information to control a reproduction of the recorded record information is recorded together with the record information, an information recording apparatus for recording the reproduction control information together with the record information onto the information recording medium, and an information reproducing apparatus for reproducing the record information recorded on the information recording medium.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, a technique-has been developed, which increases a recording capacity on an information recording medium such as an optical disc or the like and records one entire movie on one sheet of optical disc for example. As a result, a so-called DVD having a recording capacity equal to about seven times as that of a-conventional CD (Compact Disc) is put into a practical use.
Then, as this DVD, in addition to a so-called DVD video to record the above-mentioned movie, a so-called DVD audio to record only voice information and tone information other than voice information such as accompaniment information and the like is also put into a practical use (hereafter, the voice information and the tone information are collectively referred to as “audio information”).
Here, in a case of the DVD audio, audio information to be recorded on the DVD audio (which is a disc recorded by a DVD audio format) may be non-compressed audio information such as a so-called PCM (Pulse Code Modulation) and the like, for example. This case has a problem that, if a quantization bit number and a sampling frequency are increased, the audio information may become vast so that a music composition of a long time cannot be recorded on one sheet of DVD audio.
So, a method of recording the audio information onto the DVD audio after compressing non-compressed raw or original audio information may be tried.
As a method of compressing the raw audio information, there are one method of setting the compressed audio information, which is generated as a result of the compression, to be a fixing rate, and another method of setting the compressed audio information to be a variable rate. It is thought that the latter so-called variable length compression method can further improve the recording density in consideration that a characteristic of the raw audio information to be compressed (actually, for example, an information amount within a unit time) is changed from time to time in one raw audio information.
However, for example, if performing a fast forward reproduction or a fast backward reproduction on the DVD audio on which the compressed audio information, which is variable-length-compressed, is recorded as a variation in the reproduction control (which is actually an intermittently fast forward reproduction or fast backward reproduction for repeating the operation of performing a forward jump or a backward jump onto the compressed audio information to be reproduced several sec. (seconds) before or after the compressed audio information which is currently being reproduced, and then reproducing the compressed audio information several sec. before or after for a short time duration (for example, 0.2 sec.), and hereafter, both of the intermittently fast forward reproduction and the intermittently fast backward reproduction are collectively referred to as an “intermittent reproduction”), it is difficult to perform the conventional operation of searching the information several sec. before or after since the recorded compressed audio information itself is compressed in the variable length.
That is, if the compression method is carried out at the fixed rate, it is possible to multiply an information amount per the unit time by a time duration to be jumped, to thereby search a position to be jumped. However, if the compression method is carried out at the variable rate, since the information amount per the unit time is variable, a search for the position to be jumped becomes extremely complex. This results in a problem that the fast forward reproduction or the fast backward reproduction or the like cannot be practically carried out, which reduces the variation at the time of reproducing the compressed audio information and extremely drops the flexibility or versatility in the reproduction.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention is proposed in diagram of the above mentioned problems. It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide an information recording medium which can variable-length-compress the raw audio information so as to record a music composition of a long time and also increase a variation in the reproduction manner of the compressed audio information to thereby improve the flexibility in the reproduction, an information recording apparatus for recording the compressed audio information onto the information recording medium, and an information reproducing apparatus for reproducing the compressed audio information recorded on the information recording medium.
The above object of the present invention can be achieved by an information recording medium such as a DVD or the like on which record information comprising information units, each including partial audio information obtained by dividing compressed audio information obtained by applying a variable length compression onto raw audio information, is recorded, wherein (i) the information unit includes header information and lead data which is the compressed audio information positioned at a lead of one or a plurality of the partial audio information, and (ii) the header information includes: reproduction time control information such as a PTS (Presentation Time Stamp) or the like indicative of a time of reproducing the partial audio information, to which first lead data among the lead data included in the information unit together with the header information belongs; forward position information such as a forward search pointer or the like indicative of a position on the information recording medium, at which the compressed audio information to be reproduced a first predetermined time duration after a reproduction time indicated by the reproduction time control information on a reproduction time axis of the compressed audio information is recorded; and backward position information such as a backward search pointer or the like indicative of a position on the information recording medium, at which the compressed audio information to be reproduced a second predetermined time duration before the reproduction time on the reproduction time axis is recorded.
According to the information recording medium of the present invention, even if the information amounts of the compressed audio information included in the respective information units are different from each other due to the variable-length-compression, it is possible to speedily search the compressed audio information at a desirable position by controlling the reproduction by use of the forward position information or the backward position information at the time of reproduction.
Therefore, even in case of variable-length-compressing the raw audio information, recording it and reproducing it in order to increase the information amount recordable on the information recording medium, it is possible to perform a fast forward reproduction or a fast backward reproduction for example, or perform a reproduction of the compressed audio information with designating in advance the compressed audio information to be reproduced, by speedily searching the partial audio information corresponding to the forward position information or the partial audio information corresponding to the ba
Sawabe Takao
Tozaki Akihiro
Yamamoto Kaoru
Edun Muhammad
Morgan & Lewis & Bockius, LLP
Pioneer Corporation
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