The present invention relates to an information terminal having a function of reproducing various contents such as a music, a moving picture, a television broadcast, and the like and, more particularly, an information terminal characterized in that a contents reproducing operation is controlled when an event such as a phone call, or the like takes place while the contents are being reproduced, and a method of informing an event.
In recent years, on account of a size reduction and a capacity increase of the memory and an improvement in the sound compressing technology, the mobile terminal such as the cellular phone, or the like is also able to reproduce conveniently various contents such as the music, the moving picture, the television broadcast, and the like. In this situation it becomes an important control element to switch an output of an informing sound, or the like and a reproduced output of the contents and adjust the balance between them when the event occurs. For example, the information terminal device, the cellular phone, and the like, which can control adequately these outputs at a time of receiving a call or speaking on the phone, have been proposed (see Patent Literature 1, for example).
Patent Literature 1: JP-A-2003-258988 (Pages 4 to 7, FIG. 1)
In the information terminal device disclosed in Patent Literature 1, the balance between a reproducing sound of the contents and a speaking sound is changed into a previously set value at a time of incoming of a phone call. With this information terminal device, the user can speak satisfactorily over the phone while reproducing the audio, for example. However, in the information terminal device in the prior art, since a reduction in a reproduced sound volume of the contents and an increase in a sound volume of the speaking sound are made suddenly when the phone call comes in, for example, the user of the device has an unexpected feeling such that the user is surprised at a sudden change in balance, or the like. Also, the incoming call of the phone made always by the same bell or phone melody irrespective of the type of reproduced contents is the uniform information and lacks its power of expression, and has its poor entertaining faculty.
It is an object of the present invention to provide an information terminal capable of informing the user of an occurrence of an event during the reproduction of contents without an unexpected feeling and a method of informing an event. Also, it is another object of the present invention to provide an information terminal with its high entertaining faculty, capable of informing an occurrence of an event in various ways by its excellent powers of expression and a method of informing an event.
An information terminal of the present invention, includes a reproducing unit for reproducing contents; an informing unit for informing an occurrence of an event; a superposing unit for superposing an output of the reproducing unit and an output of the informing unit; and a controlling unit for causing an information of the occurrence of the event and a superposition of the output of the reproducing unit and the output of the informing unit to execute in a previously set reproducing procedure. Also, a method of informing an event that occurs during reproduction of contents, the method causes a superposition of an output of a reproducing unit and a output of an informing unit and an information of an occurrence of an event to execute in a previously set reproducing procedure. According to this configuration, the reproduction of contents and the information of an occurrence of an event are carried out in previously set reproducing procedures. Therefore, it is possible to inform the user of an occurrence of an event during the reproduction of contents without an unexpected feeling.
Also, the information terminal of the present invention further includes a storing unit for storing the reproducing procedure in plural; and an extracting unit for extracting meta information to select the reproducing procedure from the contents; wherein the controlling unit causes the superposition of the output of the reproducing unit and the output of the informing unit and the information of the occurrence of the event to execute in the reproducing procedure selected based on the extracted meta information. Also, the information terminal of the present invention further includes a storing unit for storing the reproducing procedure in plural; and an acquiring unit for acquiring data that is corresponded to the contents; wherein the controlling unit causes the superposition of the output of the reproducing unit and the output of the informing unit and the information of the occurrence of the event to execute in the reproducing procedure selected based on the acquired information. Also, the information terminal of the present invention further includes a storing unit for storing the reproducing procedure in plural; and a sensing unit for sensing a terminal state; wherein the controlling unit causes the superposition of the output of the reproducing unit and the output of the informing unit and the information of the occurrence of the event to execute in the reproducing procedure selected based on the sensed terminal state. Also, in the event informing method of the present invention, a reproducing procedure is selected based on meta information of the contents. Also, in the event informing method of the present invention, a reproducing procedure is selected based on information that is corresponded to the contents. Also, in the event informing method of the present invention, a reproducing procedure is selected based on a terminal state. According to this configuration, the optimum reproducing procedure can be selected from plural reproducing procedures in response to the contents being reproduced. Therefore, it is possible to provide the information terminal with high entertaining faculty, capable of informing an occurrence of an event in various ways by its excellent powers of expression.
According to the present invention, the reproduction of contents and the information of an occurrence of an event are carried out in previously set reproducing procedures. Therefore, it is feasible to inform the user of the occurrence of the event during the reproduction of contents without an unexpected feeling.
[
[
[
[
[
[
[
[
[
[
[
[
[
[
[
[
[
[
An information terminal according to an embodiment of the present invention will be explained with reference to the accompanying drawings hereinafter. The same reference symbols are affixed to the elements having the same function throughout all figures used to explain the embodiment, and their redundant explanation will not be repeated herein.
The first contents reproducing unit 10 is a portion for reproducing audio-visual contents such as the music, movie, TV, and the like, and includes a decoder, a television tuner, and the like used for coded/compressed data. The second contents reproducing unit 20 is a portion for reproducing informing contents that are different from incoming call/alarm informing contents described later. The incoming call/alarm contents reproducing unit 30 is a reproducing portion for informing the user of the information terminal of the incoming call/alarm, and reproduces sequence sound, audio, moving picture, animation, and the like. The clocking unit 40 measures a time, and informs the controlling unit 50 and the superposing unit 70 of time information regarding the reproduction of the contents.
The controlling unit 50 supervises/controls the overall operation of the information terminal concerning the sensing/informing event such as a control regarding the play/stop of contents, operation controls (timing, superposing parameter, pointing of the type of superposition, etc.) of the superposing unit 70, and the like. The controlling unit 50 is connected to a controlling procedure holding unit 52, and a meta information extracting unit 53. The controlling procedure holding unit 52 stores plural pieces of scenario information that describe reproducing procedures of the contents reproduction and the event information. The meta information extracting unit 53 extracts the meta information, which is used to designate one of scenario information stored in the controlling procedure holding unit 52, from the contents data that is being reproduced by the first contents reproducing unit 10.
The event sensing unit 60 senses an event such as a phone call, an alarm, or the like and then informs the controlling unit 50 of the event. The superposing unit 70 superposes visually and acoustically outputs of the first contents reproducing unit 10 and the second contents reproducing unit 20, an output of the incoming call/alarm contents reproducing unit 30, and the speaking sound.
The communicating unit 80 acts as a radio communication unit for controlling an outgoing call and an incoming call of the phone in the information terminal, and holds a communication with a radio base station constituting the public radio telephone network to transmit/receive the phone conversation, the electronic mail, and the like. Here, the publicly known approach may be employed in the radio communication and therefore explanation about the detailed inner configuration of the communicating unit 80 and respective functions implemented by this communicating unit will be omitted herein. The providing unit 90 provides the superposed reproduced output to the user of the information terminal via a display like LCD, a speaker, or the like.
The controlling unit 50 controls the superposition of the output of the first contents reproducing unit 10 and the output of the second contents reproducing unit 20 in time series based on the read scenario information and time information acquired from the clocking unit 40 (step S105). For instance, the controlling unit fades out the output of the first contents reproducing unit 10 and also fades in the output of the second contents reproducing unit 20 in parallel.
Then, before the scenario is ended (step S106), the event sensing unit 60 senses the event, for example, the phone conversation initiated by the phone call is ended, or the like (step S107). Then, the controlling unit 50 controls again the superposition of the output of the first contents reproducing unit 10 and the output of the second contents reproducing unit 20 in time series to restore the first and second contents reproducing unit into their original contents reproducing states (step S105). In this case, particular examples of “control a reproduced output” in step S105 will be explained in detail in Examples later.
In this manner, when the event is sensed, the superposition of the reproduced output of the first contents reproducing unit and the reproduced output of the second contents reproducing unit is changed gradually. Therefore, it is possible to inform the user of the occurrence of the event without an unexpected feeling. Also, the event information whose powers of expression is excellent and whose entertaining faculty is high can be attained by selecting the optimum scenario information based on the meta information of the contents being reproduced.
Next, an internal configuration of the information terminal, into which a TV reproducing unit as an example of the first contents reproducing unit 10 in
The TV reproducing unit 11 is an example of the first contents reproducing unit 10 in
The moving picture reproducing unit 21 and the image reproducing unit 25 are given as an example of the second contents reproducing unit 20 in
The ringtone reproducing unit 31 is given as an example of the incoming call/alarm contents reproducing unit 30 in
The clocking unit 40 and the controlling unit 50 have the same function as the clocking unit and the controlling unit in
The incoming call sensing unit 61 is given as an example of the event sensing unit 60 in
The superposing unit 70 and the communicating unit 80 have the same function as the superposing unit and the communicating unit in
The LCD 91 and the head set 92 are given as an example of the providing unit 90 in
When the incoming call sensing unit 61 senses the phone call via the communicating unit 80 during the reproduction of the television broadcast (step S204), it issues the incoming call notice to the CPU 51 (step S205). The CPU 51 looks up phone number data stored in the phone book 54 (step S206), and grasps that the phone call is issued from the sender who belongs to the “friend” group (step S207).
The CPU 51 requests the clocking unit 40 to inform present time information (step S208), and acquires the present time information (step S209). Then, the CPU 51 accesses the controlling procedure holding unit 52 (step S210), and searches and acquires the appropriate scenario information (step S211). As the search conditions in this case, the genre is “sports”, the sender group is “friend”, and the present time is “Oct. 4, 2004 20:0502”, and the different scenario information is selected according to the search conditions.
In more detail, since the controlling procedure holding unit 52 holds a control procedure table that correlates the search conditions with the scenario information uniquely, the scenario information can be searched by looking up this table.
Next, explanation goes to a sequence diagram in
At first, the controlling unit instructs the image reproducing unit 25 to write the image (step S214), and then the image reading unit 26 acquires the image data from the image storing unit 27 (steps S215, S216). The image reproducing unit 25 outputs the acquired image data into the buffer connected to the superposing unit 70 (step S217), and notifies the controlling unit 50 of the write completion (step S218). When the controlling unit 50 instructs the superposing unit 70 to switch the image (step S219), the display of the LCD 91 is changed from the TV video of the sports broadcast shown in
Then, the controlling unit causes the clocking unit 40 to start a count of a predetermined time (step S220), and then instructs the moving picture reproducing unit 21 to standby the moving picture (step S221). The moving picture reading unit 22 acquires the moving picture from the moving picture storing unit 23 (steps S222, S223). The moving picture reproducing unit 21 outputs the acquired moving picture into the buffer connected to the superposing unit 70 (step S224), and notifies the controlling unit 50 of the standby completion (step S225).
Next, explanation goes to a sequence diagram in
Next, explanation goes to a sequence diagram in
Then, the controlling unit 50 gives the instruction as to the superposition balance of reproduced outputs among the TV reproducing unit 11, the moving picture reproducing unit 21, and the ringtone reproducing unit 31 to the superposing unit 70. In this situation, the output of the moving picture reproducing unit 21 is set to 100%. But subsequently the controlling unit 50 changes stepwise the balance of the reproduced outputs in a predetermined period, and cross fades the reproduced output from the contents of the moving picture reproducing unit 21 to the television broadcast of the TV reproducing unit 11 (steps S254 to S259).
Next, explanation goes to a sequence diagram in
Therefore, on the display of the LCD 91, the contents reproduced video of the moving picture reproducing unit 21 shown in
Next, explanation goes to a sequence diagram in
Then, the user pushes the on-hook key after he or she ends the phone conversation, the key input sensing unit 55 senses the key pushing (step S401). The CPU 51 notifies the controlling unit 50 of the key pushing (step S402), and the controlling unit 50 turns off a gain setting of the speaking sound (step S403). Subsequently the controlling unit 50 increases stepwise gains of the received video and the sound of the TV broadcast in a predetermined period in the opposite procedures to those described above (steps S404 to S406).
Next, explanation goes to a sequence diagram in
By the way, when the scenario information by which the reproduction of the informing contents is not executed at a time of incoming of the phone call is selected, the video output and the sound output are given as shown in a timing chart shown in
In the above embodiment, preferably the scenario information indicating the control procedures of the contents reproduction controlling operation should be added or updated by executing the download operation of the information terminal, reading the data from the removable media, or the like. In addition, infrared communication, Bluetooth communication, KIOSK terminal, TV data broadcast, and others may be utilized.
Also, in the above embodiment, an approach of executing a time management by strictly counting a time by a counter of the clocking unit is employed. In this case, instead of the clocking unit, a description to cause a time elapse may be inserted into the scenario information and then the contents of description may be executed sequentially by the controlling unit. Also, a description of time may be inserted into the scenario information and then the contents of description may be executed by the superposing unit. For example, the instruction having the contents “The TV sound fades out from 100% to 0% within 2 second.” may be transferred from the controlling unit to the superposing unit, and then the superposing unit executes the instruction based on a clocking function built in the superposing unit.
Also, in the above embodiment, an approach of extracting the meta information from the character data contained in the contents being reproduced may be employed. In this case, such a configuration may be employed that the meta information contained in file name of the contents, file form time, file update time, file size, file type, file extension, file format, or file header, the meta information contained in another file, or the meta information acquired from the external system (network, broadcast, storage media, or the like) based on the above may be extracted.
Also, the selection of the scenario information is not limited to the case where the scenario information is selected based on the meta information. The scenario information may be selected based on the terminal condition (whether or not the TV broadcast is being reproduced, the music is being reproduced, the silent mode is turned ON/OFF, or the like) when the event takes place. Also, the meta information is limited to that extracted from the contents. The meta information may be selected based on the data that are corresponded to the contents (a picture recording start time contained in the picture recording setting information, a picture recording end time, a recording time, a recording channel, and the like). Also, the meta information may be selected based on the data contained the program guide information (EPG, and the like) used in the picture recording or acquired newly after the picture recording is started (program title, performer's name, program start time, end time, genre, detailed information, etc.).
Also, in the above embodiment, explanation is made by taking the case where the phone call is chosen as the sensed object of the event sensing unit by way of example. But this invention is not limited to this. A means for sensing electric mail arrival, TV phone arrival, instant message arrival, schedule alarm, warning of a remaining battery life, inside/outside cellphone service of the information terminal, or the like as the event may be employed.
In addition, as the search conditions applied to select the scenario information by the controlling procedure holding unit, season, past arrival number of times, cumulative speaking time, remaining battery life, acceleration applied to an information terminal casing, position information, atmospheric temperature, open/close state of a folding information terminal, longitudinal/lateral switch state of an LCD display, ON/OFF state of a silent mode, noise level of the periphery, application being reproduced, sound peak level/average power of the reproduced contents, presence/absence of the human voice, and the like may be set, in addition to the phone number of the sender of the phone, the group to which the sender belongs, and the call incoming time.
Also, as examples of variations of the informing contents, there may be considered the contents in which the event occurrence (phone call) is informed by the on-screen titles while sounding an informing sound of the news bulletin, the contents in which the knock sound and the moving picture to open the door are reproduced to fade in the phone screen and the phone melody, the contents in which the moving picture to slide the baseball player and the sound are reproduced to fade in the ringtone, the contents in which the information is repeated by a scratch sound that imitates a groove skipping of a record and a delay of sound, the contents in which a still picture, a speech, a moving picture (animation) are combined arbitrarily, and others.
The present invention is explained in detail with reference to particular embodiments, but it is apparent for those skilled in the art that various variations and modifications can be applied without departing a spirit and a scope of the present invention.
This application is based upon Japanese Patent Application (Patent Application No. 2004-247930) filed on Aug. 27, 2004; the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
The information terminal and the method of informing the event of the present invention have such an advantage that, since the reproduction of contents and the information of an occurrence of an event are carried out in previously set reproducing procedures, it is possible to inform the user of an occurrence of an event during the reproduction of contents without an unexpected feeling. As a result, the present invention is useful for controlling the contents reproducing operation, or the like when the event such as the phone call, or the like occurs while the contents are being reproduced.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
---|---|---|---|
2004-247930 | Aug 2004 | JP | national |
Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind | 371c Date |
---|---|---|---|---|
PCT/JP2005/011839 | 6/28/2005 | WO | 00 | 9/18/2006 |
Publishing Document | Publishing Date | Country | Kind |
---|---|---|---|
WO2006/022075 | 3/2/2006 | WO | A |
Number | Name | Date | Kind |
---|---|---|---|
5890071 | Shimanuki | Mar 1999 | A |
6771323 | Dean et al. | Aug 2004 | B1 |
6819939 | Masamura | Nov 2004 | B2 |
20020045438 | Tagawa et al. | Apr 2002 | A1 |
20040007120 | Futamase et al. | Jan 2004 | A1 |
20040105532 | Nakano | Jun 2004 | A1 |
20070054615 | Marshall et al. | Mar 2007 | A1 |
20070198650 | Hameleers et al. | Aug 2007 | A1 |
Number | Date | Country |
---|---|---|
1396984 | Mar 2004 | EP |
8-125723 | May 1996 | JP |
2000-106593 | Apr 2000 | JP |
2002-199056 | Jul 2002 | JP |
2002-369257 | Dec 2002 | JP |
2003-258988 | Sep 2003 | JP |
2003-304304 | Oct 2003 | JP |
2004-186716 | Jul 2004 | JP |
Number | Date | Country | |
---|---|---|---|
20070190979 A1 | Aug 2007 | US |