JP2861352B2 - CD-I System - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] <Industrial Application Field> The present invention is a method for storing character font data held by a CD-I disc in an internal memory (RAM) of a CD-I player, which uses the minimum memory area necessary for storing the character font data, and uses the remaining memory area for storing data for other processes, etc.
This relates to the CD-I system.

PRIOR ART In general, in a CD-I system, audio data and image data are stored on a CD-I disc.
The CD-I player reads and processes the data. That is, after these data are temporarily stored in the internal memory of the CD-I player, the sound data is output as sound from the sound system via an audio processor and a tone generator, while the image data is displayed as an image on the CRT via an image processor and an RGB signal generator. In this case, certain characters among those displayed on the CRT image are formed based on character font data held in the CD-I player.

That is, image data (including character font data)
For example, the CD-I player's C
The PU reads the data through the buffer and stores it in an internal register, then transfers it to RAM (internal memory). The VDP transmits the data stored in RAM to the CRT via an RGB signal generator.
This is to be displayed on the

On the other hand, sound data is also read from each sector of the real-time area by the CPU. The audio processor processes this sound data and outputs it as sound at a constant speed from the sound system via a tone generator.

Incidentally, the CD-I system does not have a kanji ROM for storing character font data other than the specific characters mentioned above, so character font data is stored in the CD-I disc and the character font data is read from this CD-I disc into the internal RAM of the CD-I player.

However, in order to ensure compatibility with other manufacturers, the capacity of the internal RAM of the CD-I system is set to, for example, 1 MB.

In this case, when a CD-I disk for handling Japanese characters is designed, character font data for approximately 6,000 characters of JIS Level 1 and Level 2 must be stored in the CD-I disk.

The CD-I player then reads all of this character font data from the CD-I disc into its internal RAM.
Also, the corresponding character code was used to load the
The character font disk stored in the CD-ROM was read and displayed on a CRT screen.
In the system, even character font data that was not necessary for screen display was temporarily stored in the internal memory. As a result, the capacity of the internal RAM for these 6,000 characters of character font data was approximately 400 KB for 24 x 24 dot characters.
It also became.

<Problems to be Solved by the Invention> However, in such conventional CD-I systems, the character font data that is not actually used to display characters in images takes up a large proportion of the internal RAM of the CD-I player, putting pressure on the limited memory space and preventing effective use of the internal RAM.

For example, we want to store as much image data as possible other than character font data in the internal RAM.
This is to enable a wider range of image expression.

Furthermore, when attempting to use the RAM for other processing, there is a problem that this memory cannot be used or the processing is limited.

This is a major drawback when character font data is used and other processing is performed in the CD-I system.

Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a CD-I system in which the amount of character font data stored in memory is kept to a minimum necessary, and this memory can be used for other processes.

<Means for solving the problems> The CD-I system according to the present invention temporarily stores data held on a CD-I disc in an internal memory of a CD-I player, and displays images and generates sounds based on the stored data.
In addition to image and audio data, the I-Disc also contains CD-
This CD-I system stores character font data corresponding to character code data used in a CD-I disc, as well as a conversion table between a dedicated code and a JIS code for storing this character code data on a CD-I disc, and these data are stored in the internal memory.

In addition, in the CD-I system according to the present invention,
The disk holds character font data for each reproduction unit such as a song.

<Function> In the CD-I system according to the present invention, the character font data stored in the internal memory of the CD-I player is kept to a minimum, so that the memory area of the internal memory can be effectively used to store data for other processes. For example, more image data can be stored in the internal memory.

For example, when a CD-I disk is manufactured, only the character font data necessary for playing the CD-I disk is selected from the character font database and stored.
When playing back on a CD-I player, the character font data loaded from the CD-I disc into the internal memory contains no unnecessary data, and the memory capacity taken up by the character font data as a whole is reduced, allowing the internal memory area to be used more efficiently.

In a CD-I disc, for example, character font data required for each song is stored in a corresponding area, and when the song is played back, the character font data is selected and used internally.
The present invention may also be implemented by loading the program into a RAM.
The conversion table allows JI for character font data
Searches can be made by entering an S code.

EXAMPLES Hereinafter, examples of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

1 to 5 are diagrams for explaining an embodiment of a CD-I system according to the present invention.
This is an example of using the I system to create a CD-I classic music album. Other examples of use include encyclopedias, books for reading aloud, etc.

In FIG. 1, 11 is a CD-I player, 12 is a CD
The reference numeral 13 denotes a keyboard for inputting data and commands to the CD-I player 11, and the reference numeral 14 denotes a keyboard for inputting data and commands to the CD-I player 11.
A display is a data output device from the CD-I player 11, and 15 is a sound system including speakers and the like which are audio output devices.

The CD-I player 11 has the following configuration.

That is, a CPU 21 and a keyboard interface 22
a CD interface 23; a tone generator 24;
The device has an RGB signal generator 25, a ROM 26, a RAM (internal memory) 27, and a video processor 28, which are all connected to one another by a bus line.

The CPU 21 is required to perform real-time processing, so it is
0 series processor is used.

A keyboard interface (I/O) 22 outputs an external input from, for example, a keyboard (KBD) 13 to the CPU 21 .

The CD interface 23 includes a disk driver, etc.
This is an interface between a CD-I player 11 and a CD-I disk 12 .

The tone generator 24 generates a predetermined sound generating signal based on the sound data stored in the RAM 27.
The sound system 15 is composed of, for example, an amplifier and a speaker.

The ROM 26 stores programs such as the OS for the CPU 21 .

The RAM 27 has a capacity of, for example, 1 MB, and constitutes a working memory area for the CPU 21. The RAM 27 stores character font data, image data of natural images, sound data, and the like.

A video processor (VDP) 28 transmits and receives signals to and from the CPU 21 and controls the RAM 27 to output, for example, character font data (font patterns) and delta YUV data (natural image data) to the RGB signal generator 25, thereby forming a desired image on the display (CRT) 14.

In addition, the CD-I disc 12 has a 1
The CD-I disc 12 is designed with a spiral track. That is, a large number of bits are arranged in a spiral as one track on the CD-I disc 12. Therefore, data (as digital signals depending on the presence or absence of bits) is recorded on the CD-I disc 12 in a spiral shape from the inside to the outside in the radial direction.

This track is then played on the CD-I player 11 having the above configuration.
The image is scanned by an optical pickup.

In accordance with the CD-I standard, a disc label area and a user area (data area) are defined on the track. This data area is made up of a number of consecutive sectors.

The disc label area is composed of a file table, etc. For example, the start addresses of each of a plurality of files are recorded.

In addition, the data area is a real-time file (RTF).
Each sector stores character code data for displaying multiple screens of characters (such as song lyrics and composer names), color code data for the characters, background image data for multiple screens (still images for the lyrics, such as DYUV images), and a series of sound data (music sound data). Either sound data, image data, or computer data is stored in one sector.

This CD-I disk 12 stores a plurality of songs, each of which is composed of a plurality of still image frames.

Character code data for displaying the shape of characters stored in the real-time file area and color code data for displaying the color of the characters are read by the CPU 21 and transferred to the RAM 27. The character code data is, for example, character font data (bitmap data).
It uses this to create character images on a CRT14.

The sound data and background image data stored in the real-time file area are stored as real-time files.
The audio data is processed in real time by the CPU 21. The audio data is transferred to a tone generator 24. The background image data is transferred to the RAM 27.

FIG. 2 shows the configuration of a device for editing the required character font data on the CD-I disk 12.

As shown in this figure, a computer 31 is
Based on the data from the magnetic disk 32 (which may be a floppy disk), desired character font data is read from the magnetic disk 33 serving as a font database, and then written to the hard disk
Store it in 34.

In addition, image data and sound data are also stored on the hard disk 34 in a separate process, and these data are then transferred to a CD-ROM.
The data is then converted into a writable data format to create a CD-I disc.

The database 33 holds character font data for approximately 6,000 characters or more of JIS Level 1 and Level 2, for example, as bitmap data of 32 dots x 32 dots or 24 dots x 24 dots.

From this database 33, character font data used in the CD-I data 2 is read out for example 50 characters, a conversion table between JIS codes and special codes for storage is created, and these are stored as CD-I disc data together with other natural image data and sound data on the CD-I disc 12.
The data is stored in

3(B)-(C) show the data structure of the CD-I disc 12 on which data is stored in this manner.

FIG. 3(A) shows a conventional CD-I disk, in which 6,000 characters of character font data have been read.

FIG. 4(A) shows the configuration of the memory area when approximately 6,000 characters are all loaded into the RAM 27 as in the conventional case.

FIG. 3(B) shows the character font data, for example, on the CD.
As shown in this figure, on the CD-I disc 12, character font data is stored first in RTF, and then the audio data and image data are stored in the order of songs A, B, ....
The data is loaded directly from the memory 12 to the RAM 27. Figure 4(B) shows the RAM area when the data is loaded.

FIG. 3(C) shows character font data F(A),F
(B), ... are stored in consecutive sectors for each song along with its sound data, image data, etc. In this way, as shown in Fig. 4 (C1) and Fig. 4 (C2), each song A and B can be loaded into the RAM 27, making it possible to use the remaining RAM area more efficiently.

Each of these FIGS. 4(A), (B), (C1) and (C2) shows the configuration of the memory areas of the RAM 27 when character font data is stored.

In these figures, 27-1 is a storage area for character font data, 27-2 is a storage area for other image data (natural image data),
and 27-3 indicate a storage area for character code data.

FIG. 5 shows the character font data of the CD-I disk 12.
1 shows a schematic flow chart for the case where data is temporarily stored in the RAM 27 and then displayed on the monitor 14 as characters in an image.

First, an application program is read from the CD-I disc 12 into the memory RAM 27 (step S51), and then this application program is executed.

Next, character font data is read from the CD-I disk 12 and loaded into a predetermined area 27-1 of the RAM 27 (S5
2).

In addition, other image data and sound data are also stored in RAM area 2.
The character code data is loaded into RAM area 27-2, and character code data is also loaded into RAM area 27-3. In this case, the character code data is converted into a special code when character font data is read into the CD-I disk 12. For example, when character font data expressed in JIS code is stored in RAM 27, it is stored sequentially in RAM area 27-1. For this reason, it is not possible to search by JIS code. To make it searchable, a conversion code is added.

Next, in playing back the RTF, the character code is read along with the playback of the sound data and natural image data (S5
3).

Then, a check is made to see if it is a display character (S54), and if so, it is displayed on the monitor 14 (S55).

The above is a schematic flowchart.

In this case, if the CD-I disk 12 holds character font data for each music piece separately as shown in FIG. 3(C), music piece selection is performed after the above step S52.

In order to store natural image data, operations such as creating a draw map in the memory 27 are performed by the CPU 21. Furthermore, the playback of a musical piece is started by the CPU 21 playing the RTF. For example,
The data is read one sector at a time and checked to see if it is sound data. If it is sound data, the tone generator 24
and the music is played from sound system 15.

Also, when the data read from the RTF is image data, for example, a draw map or the like is created in a memory area, and an image is constructed by reading out one screen's worth of frames from this map onto the display 14.

As shown in the above embodiment, when only necessary character font data is stored, in order to effectively use the character font data, a conversion table can be created to enable retrieval of the character font data by inputting the JIS code. This conversion table can be placed on the CD-I disk 12 immediately before the character font data shown in Figures 3(A) to 3(C), for example.

Also, if character font data is read for each song during playback, it takes a small amount of time to rewrite the RAM 27, as shown in Fig. 3 (C), Fig. 4 (C1), and Fig. 4 (C2). However, this time is extremely short and does not cause any problems in playing songs. In this case, the more songs are stored, the more effectively the memory area can be used. For example, it becomes possible to increase the number of screens stored in the memory area and reduce processing time.

<Effects> As explained above, according to the present invention, the minimum character font data required for playback is stored in the memory inside the CD-I player, so that more of this memory area can be allocated to other data processing such as image processing. In other words, the limited memory space can be used effectively. Also, playback from the CD-I disc as a whole can be sped up. Also, by creating a character code conversion table, it is possible to convert standard JI
It will also be possible to search using codes such as S.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the schematic configuration of a CD-I system according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a conceptual diagram showing the configuration of a device when data is stored on a CD-I disk in a CD-I system according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 3(A) is a diagram showing the schematic data structure of a conventional CD-I disk. FIGS. 3(B) and 3(C) are diagrams showing the schematic data structure of a CD-I disk according to an embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 4(A) is a memory map of the RAM of a conventional CD-I player;
4(B), (C1), and (C2) are respectively a memory map of the RAM of the CD-I player according to one embodiment, and Fig. 5 is a flow chart showing the outline of the procedure up to character display in the CD-I system according to one embodiment. 11: CD-I player, 12: CD-I disk, 14: display, 15: sound system, 21: CPU, 23: CD interface, 24: tone generator, 25: RGB signal generator, 26: ROM, 27: RAM (internal memory), 28: VDP, 33: magnetic disk device (character font database), 27-1: character font data area.

─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── Continued from the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁶ identification symbol FI H04N 5/91 H04N 5/91 Z (56) References JP 59-214389 (JP, A) JP 63-43480 (JP, A) JP 1-221072 (JP, A) JP 1-273275 (JP, A) JP 63-244372 (JP, A) JP 62-40685 (JP, A) JP 4-67470 (JP, A) JP 4-57275 (JP, A) JP JP 3-185681 (JP, A) JP 3-185679 (JP, A) JP 1-42559 (JP, U) JP 63-153359 (JP, U) JP 1-72783 (JP, U) (58) Field of investigation (Int.Cl. ⁶ , DB name) G11B 20/12 - 20/12 103 G11B 27/00 H04N 5/91 G10K 15/04 G09G 5/00 G09G 5/24

Claims (2)

(57) [Claims] Claim 1: Data stored on a CD-I disc is converted into a CD-
The data is temporarily stored in the internal memory of the I Player, and the CD player displays images and generates sound based on the stored data.
In the CD-I system, in addition to image data and audio data, character font data corresponding to character code data used in the CD-I disc is stored, and a conversion table between a dedicated code for storing the character code data on the CD-I disc and a JIS code is stored.
The CD-I system is characterized in that the above data is stored in the internal memory. 2. The CD-I disc according to claim 1, wherein character font data is stored for each playback unit such as a song.
I system.