Music – Instruments – Electrical musical tone generation
Reexamination Certificate
2002-02-20
2003-04-15
Witkowski, Stanley J. (Department: 2837)
Music
Instruments
Electrical musical tone generation
C084S47700R
Reexamination Certificate
active
06548747
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Technical Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a telephony terminal apparatus for receiving a distribution service of contents such as karaoke music performance data, and a distribution server apparatus for distributing the contents.
The present invention particularly relates to a mobile telephony terminal apparatus capable of subscribing a new information service in which an application program is installed and executed independently of a web browser and a talking function.
2. Related art
In a conventional mobile telephony terminal apparatus of a cellular system, personal handy-phone system (PHS), or the like, it is known that music performance data is downloaded from a server on a network and reproduced as a ringing tone melody of a mobile phone. Moreover, it is also known that the music performance data is downloaded from the server and a speaker of a mobile terminal is used to carry out karaoke performance.
However, karaoke capability of the mobile phone is a mere extension of a performance function of the ringing tone melody. That is, for the music performance data for karaoke, a format of ringing tone melody data is expanded, such that words data can simply be incorporated. Therefore, there have been many restrictions.
Additionally, since the karaoke performance can be carried out specifically on dedicated hardware of each mobile telephony terminal, it has been difficult to catch up with enhancement of a processing ability of a terminal apparatus with development of a technique, and modification or improvement of service specifications.
Moreover, it is necessary to meet a requirement for security holding and copyright protection in order to develop a contents business.
Then, a new type of telephony terminal has been developed which can execute an application program prepared by Java (registered trademark) in a mobile telephony terminal with a information service function for connecting to Internet so that a web page can be seen, and an electronic mail function is available. Such a mobile telephony terminal for a so-called i-mode (registered trademark). Java (registered trademark) is a programming language of an interpreter type, and is called a Java virtual machine.
In this new type of telephony terminal, the aforementioned application program for realizing the new information service function is disposed on a mobile telephony terminal side, and can be executed as a standalone program.
Particularly, the aforementioned application program does not depend on a machine type, or is formed as a component and therefore has expandability. Since it is possible to freely change a format, it is advantageously easy to prepare software and modify or improve specifications.
For the application program, three to ten small programs having a limit of 10 KB can be stored in one mobile telephony terminal. A scratch pad (memory) usable only associated with each application program has a limit of 5 KB, and contents such as music performance data are stored.
The application program is sometimes preset at a time of shipment of a new terminal product from a factory, but a user starts up a browser and can download the program from the server on the network. Moreover, the contents data for exclusive use in the application program can also similarly be downloaded to the scratch pad from the server.
The application program and scratch pad operate on a virtual machine. Therefore, the application program is constituted in principle to be separate from and be independent of a processing belonging to the original telephone function of the mobile telephony terminal and the conventional information service function such as the browser and electronic mail. As a result, the contents data for use in the aforementioned application program cannot be utilized as the ringing tone melody belonging to the telephone function.
In the new information service, security protection and copyright protection are strengthened with respect to a contents distribution service. On the other hand, since the service is separated from the conventional contents distribution service carried out using the browser, there is inconvenience in sharing the same or associated contents between the new service and the conventional service.
Therefore, there has been a demand for a new contents distribution service in which advantages of the new information service are exploited and cooperation with the conventional contents service is considered.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention has been developed to solve the aforementioned problem, and has an object to provide a telephony terminal apparatus in which a communication data amount or a communication time is reduced during selection of contents according to a search result of the contents, and a communication charge can be reduced, and to provide a server apparatus in which first and second distribution means can cooperate to distribute contents data such as music performance data and ringing tone melody to the telephony terminal apparatus. Moreover, the present invention covers a program for allowing a computer to execute such processing.
In a general concept of the invention, an information service system comprises a server apparatus for distributing music performance data through a network, and a telephony terminal apparatus for acquiring the music performance data from the server apparatus through the network. The telephony terminal apparatus comprises a storage section that stores an application program, and a processing section that executes the application program for sending a search query effective to specify target music performance data to the server apparatus and acquiring the target music performance data from the server apparatus for exclusive use by the application program. The server apparatus comprises a first distributing section responsive to the search query for distributing the target music performance data to the telephony terminal apparatus in the form of first contents which are dedicated for use by the application program, and a second distributing section responsive to a request from the telephony terminal apparatus for distributing second contents of the same target music performance data to the telephony terminal apparatus such that the second contents can be treated by the telephony terminal apparatus independently of the application program.
In a first aspect of the invention, there is provided a telephony terminal apparatus communicable with a server apparatus distributing contents through a network. The apparatus comprises a storage section that stores an application program and a processing section that executes the application program for performing a process comprising the steps of prompting a user to input a search query effective to specify target music performance data, sending the search query to the server apparatus through the network for enabling the server apparatus to search for contents matching the search query, receiving one or more of identification information corresponding to the contents matching the search query from the server apparatus, displaying the received identification information in a selection screen form which is formulated by the application program, selecting at least one of the identification information from the selection screen form to request the server apparatus for distribution of the contents corresponding to the selected identification information, and acquiring the target music performance data in the distributed contents from the server apparatus.
Therefore, when the contents selection screen is prepared, it is unnecessary to transmit form data of the contents selection screen from the server apparatus side. Therefore, a communication data amount is reduced with packet switching, a communication time is shortened with circuit switching, and a communication charge can be reduced.
In a second aspect of the invention, there is provided a server apparatus for distributing music performance data through a network to a telephony terminal apparatus installed wit
Shibata Takaaki
Takahashi Hiroaki
Takahashi Takuya
Yamaura Atsushi
Morrison & Foerster / LLP
Witkowski Stanley J.
Yamaha Corporation
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