Patent Grant
6930600
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image and audio processing system, and more particularly, to an image and audio processing system for storing audio data in a storage medium with a non-contact audio storage device and for printing an image on the storage medium with a print device.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Nowadays there are many kinds of greeting cards, such as birthday cards, New Year's cards, Christmas cards, and so on. People who receive greeting cards are influenced by both the patterns and the words on the cards, which help to convey the emotions of the people who sent the cards. Among these cards, some cards provide not only visual messages, such as patterns and words, but also sound messages, such as Christmas cards with Christmas music. Card receivers can look at cards and listen to sound messages from cards at the same time, which has a stronger effect than receiving cards with only patterns or words.
However, an audio greeting card in the market always has an IC memory storing sound data for providing sound messages, and the audio greeting card only plays the sound data stored in the IC. Normal users cannot modify the contents of sound data by themselves so that sound contents of cards are always dull and lack of personal uniqueness. In addition, the conventional audio greeting card plays the sound data stored in the IC memory by a contact method. Unfortunately, when the audio greeting card has imperfect contact or suffers from an imperfect opening design, the sounds cannot be played smoothly after a user opens the card. As a result, the sound provided by the audio greeting card is less effective.
It is therefore a primary objective of the claimed invention to provide an image and audio processing system to solve the above-mentioned problems.
According to the claimed invention, an image and audio processing system includes a housing, a storage medium, a non-contact audio storage device installed inside the housing for storing audio data in the storage medium by wireless communication technology, and a print device installed inside the housing for printing an image on the storage medium.
These and other objectives of the present invention will no doubt become obvious to those of ordinary skill in the art after reading the following detailed description of the preferred embodiment that is illustrated in the various figures and drawings.
Please refer to
Please continue referring to
Please refer to
In addition, the storage medium 14 can be put inside the print device 28, and then a user can operate a second control button set 38 for printing an image on the surface of the storage medium 14. The print device 28 can print the image on the storage medium 14 by thermal printing technology. In conclusion, the image data can be printed on the surface of the storage medium 14 with the print device 28, and the audio data can be transmitted from the non-contact audio storage device 20 by wireless communication technology and stored in the memory 16 of the storage medium 14.
Please refer to
In the above embodiment, the non-contact audio storage device 20 and the print device 28 are both installed inside the same first housing 12. And the non-contact audio receiving device 30 and the audio playing device 34 are both installed inside the same second housing 40. It is based on the design that the sound input device and the image input device are installed inside the same housing and the sound receiving device and the sound playing device are installed inside the same housing. In this manner, manufacturers can manufacture either of the audio and image input device and sound receiving and playing device. Basically the non-contact audio storage device 20, the print device 28, the non-contact audio receiving device 30, and the audio playing device 34 can be all installed inside the same housing, or the non-contact audio receiving device 30 and the audio playing device 34 can be installed inside the different housings. Either setup can be used depending on design demand.
In contrast to the prior art, the storage medium according to the present invention can be a card storing audio data for providing an image message and a sound message. The mechanism of storing audio data in the storage medium and reading audio data from the storage medium is in wireless communication technology, so it can improve the disadvantage of the imperfect contact of the audio greeting card. In addition, the memory of the storage medium can be a rewritable memory for storing different audio data repeatedly. Therefore, the present invention can also improve the disadvantage of lack of personal uniqueness in the prior art. The non-contact audio receiving device according to the present invention can allow users to listen to audio data read by the non-contact audio receiving device, and at the same time users can see image messages printed on the storage medium. So the visual and sound effects can be experienced at the same time and can be customized easily.
Those skilled in the art will readily observe that numerous modifications and alterations of the device may be made while retaining the teachings of the invention. Accordingly, the above disclosure should be construed as limited only by the metes and bounds of the appended claims.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 93102835 A | Feb 2004 | TW | national |
| Number | Name | Date | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5502463 | Sasaki et al. | Mar 1996 | A |
| 6363239 | Tutt et al. | Mar 2002 | B1 |
| 6441921 | Soscia | Aug 2002 | B1 |
| 6563563 | Adams et al. | May 2003 | B2 |
