JPH0213398B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a highly practical portable information recording device that enables efficient information recording by improving the memory configuration of a semiconductor memory in which digitized audio signals are recorded. .

In recent years, with the increase in capacity due to the high integration of semiconductor memories and advances in digitization processing technology for audio signals, the possibility of a memo pad-like information recording device is being sought. FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram showing the external appearance of an electronic memo pad assumed to be this type of device.
Its size is such that it can be stored, for example, in the chest pocket of clothes, and it is intended to record memo information such as telephone numbers, meeting dates and times, and locations in a voice manner.

This device is equipped with a microphone 2 for audio input and a recording operation button 3 on the upper end of a housing 1, and a display 4, which is made of a liquid crystal element, for example, on the front of the housing 1. It is equipped with a keyboard 5 consisting of numeric keys such as "0" and letter keys "A" to "E", a speaker 6, and an earphone terminal 7. An earphone 8 for monitoring audio output is connected to the earphone terminal 7, and is used selectively with the speaker 6. Also, housing 1
As will be described later, a device body whose main component is a semiconductor memory is built into the inside of the device. This semiconductor memory employs a large-capacity element such as a MOS type dynamic RAM.

However, the operational specifications required for this type of device are, for example, as follows. That is, recording of audio information, that is, recording, is performed by pressing the recording operation button 3 to set the recording mode, and speaking into the microphone 2. In this case, Display 4 will show
Necessary data such as the recording page number is displayed.
Thereafter, the recording operation button 3 is pressed again to cancel the recording mode, stop displaying on the display 4, and at the same time write the recording information (audio signal) into the semiconductor memory and hold it. To reproduce the information held in this manner, necessary reproduction information (address information, etc.) is input from the keyboard 5, and the information is read from the semiconductor memory and audio is reproduced by the speaker 6 or earphone 8. Further, erasure of recorded information is performed by another operation on the keyboard 5.

By satisfying these specifications, it is possible to provide an information recording and reproducing device that is portable, has excellent portability, is easy to handle, and can reliably record desired information.

The present invention has been made to realize a recording device that satisfies these specifications and requirements.The outline of the invention is to digitize audio signals, write them in a large capacity semiconductor memory, hold them, and digitize them as needed. The present invention provides an information recording device useful as an electronic memo pad with excellent portability and capable of selectively and accurately reading out and outputting information through simple operations.

That is, an object of the present invention is to provide a portable information recording device that stores audio signals electronically and is called an electronic memo pad that is effective as a substitute for a notebook or a tape recorder.

Hereinafter, one embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the schematic structure of the main body of the apparatus. The audio signal input through the microphone 2 is guided to the A/D converter 11 after passing through a buffer amplifier (not shown) and is digitized. This A/D converter 11 samples the audio signal at a predetermined period, converts it into several bits of digital data, and performs band compression processing on this using technology such as a vocoder. The audio information digitized in this manner is supplied to, for example, a nonvolatile semiconductor memory 12, sequentially written to predetermined addresses, and held. This writing of audio information into the semiconductor memory 12 is controlled by a control device 13 consisting of a microcomputer or the like. However,
The audio information written in the semiconductor memory 12 is read out under the control of the control device 13 and restored to an analog signal form via the D/A converter 14.
Thereafter, the signal is amplified through a power amplifier (not shown), and the sound is reproduced through the speaker 6 or earphone 8.

Furthermore, the audio level detector 15 monitors the level of the audio signal input through the microphone 2, thereby detecting a silent period, that is, a period in which no audio signal is input. The control device 13 operates based on the semiconductor device according to the detection information obtained by the audio level detector 15 as well as the operation control information inputted from the keyboard device 16 including the keyboard 5 and the recording operation button 3. memory 1
The recording and reproduction of signals for 2 is controlled. In particular, the detection signal of the silent period is used to control the operation of the A/D converter 11 and the write operation of the semiconductor memory 12 when recording audio signals, that is, when recording. Further, the display device 4 displays various display information given by the control device 13 under its control. Note that the A/D converter 11 always operates in the recording operation mode regardless of the detection result of the audio level detector 15, and operates only when an audio signal is input to the semiconductor memory 12 according to the detection result. , it is also possible to record the digitized signal.

Now, recording of audio information into the semiconductor memory 12 is performed as follows. To set the recording mode,
This is done by pressing the recording operation button 3 to turn on the switch, and the control device 13 decoding this. The semiconductor memory 12 has a capacity capable of recording continuous audio signals for about 4 minutes, for example, and is composed of several chips of high-density integrated large-capacity memory elements. For this semiconductor memory 12,
The control device converts this into 1 each time voice information is input.
The block is stored as digitized audio information with a page number attached. In other words, excluding silent periods,
Only input voice information is digitized and stored, and one block is defined between one silent period and the next silent period. Therefore, the time length of one block is, for example, approximately 0.5 seconds for words such as "Tokyo" and "Osaka", and approximately 3 seconds for a telephone number such as "〇〇-〇〇〇〇". , a name is added to this for about 7 seconds, etc. If it is used as a telephone memo, one block will be completed within about 10 seconds. Furthermore, even if information about the meeting place and time is included, the maximum length of one block is about 25 seconds.
The audio information thus formed into blocks is assigned a predetermined page number and sequentially written from the top address of the semiconductor memory 12 as shown in FIG. 3. The above page numbers are sequentially assigned as "page 1", "page 2" to "page n" in accordance with the input order of the audio information. Note that this page number is assigned in correspondence with the audio information of each block, and is stored in an area of the semiconductor memory 12 that is set separately from the audio information recording area, as described above. Therefore, herein, the recording area of the audio information is defined as the main memory 12a, and the area where the page number is recorded is defined as the auxiliary memory 12b. Of course, there is no problem in configuring the main memory 12a and the auxiliary memory 12b using different memory elements.

Thus, as shown in FIG. 3, the audio information of "Page 1" is recorded in the main memory 12a from the beginning address _i1 , and the end address becomes _j1 depending on the block length of the audio information. Then, the audio information for the next "Page 2" is written starting from the start address i ₂ (=j ₁ +1) of that block, and is written up to the address j ₂ corresponding to the block length. In this way, the audio information of each block is sequentially and continuously recorded from the top address of the main memory 12a according to its page number order, that is, according to the recording order. Then, from the address i _o+1 next to the end address of the last recorded audio information, the main memory 12b
The area up to the final address j _END is set as an "empty page" and is prepared and put on standby as the next audio information recording area.

On the other hand, in the auxiliary memory 12b, areas are set in which the recording start address I and the end address J of the audio information recorded in the main memory 12a are respectively written in correspondence with the page numbers, as shown in FIG. ing. Address data recorded in the main memory 12a of the audio information corresponding to each page number is written into these areas at the same time as the audio information is written to the main memory 12a. For example, addresses i ₁ and j ₁ of the main memory 12a where the audio information is recorded are respectively written in the "Page 1" area. Similarly, the addresses i ₂ and j ₂ of the main memory 12a are respectively written in the "page 2" area, and thereafter address data corresponding to each page is sequentially written in the same manner. However, the area corresponding to the empty page is processed (including reset) as blank data (nothing), and is prepared for the next information writing. Note that since the end address data j of each area has a certain relationship with the start address i of the next page, that is, there is only one less address, the recording of this end address may be omitted. However, in this case, it is necessary to always record the start address of the "empty page" prior to recording the audio information, that is, at the time when the writing of the audio information is completed. At the same time, it is also necessary to mark this address data as an empty page. In order to effectively execute this, it is convenient if the last used page number and its last used address are always stored in a specified data area of the auxiliary memory 12b. Furthermore, by storing the last page number and last used address in this way, there is no need to search the memories 12a and 12b for the page number and other information when recording audio information, so it is possible to improve controllability. becomes. Furthermore, since the page numbers are determined in a predetermined order, they can be fixedly given in the auxiliary memory 12b in advance. In this case, page numbers up to the expected maximum number may be set in advance and used sequentially from "Page 1".

As described above, the audio information recorded in the recording mode is written sequentially from the top address, forming one block for each continuous audio information in the main memory 12, and at the same time each block is Address data is written in the auxiliary memory 12b in correspondence with the page number. To cancel the recording mode, press the recording operation button 3.
or by a prespecified operation of the keyboard 5, and the audio information will not be recorded unless the recording operation button 3 is pressed again. Note that the audio information that is continuously recorded may be created by separating the information into blocks by providing a silent period by one recording operation, and each time one audio information is recorded, It may also be a block created by resetting the recording mode.

Next, the reproduction operation of the audio information recorded in the semiconductor memory 12 (main memory 12a) will be explained.
The reproduction mode is set by selecting and operating a specified character key on the keyboard 5, for example, "C". In this case, the page number corresponding to the desired audio information to be reproduced is input by selectively operating the numeric keys on the keyboard 5, and at the same time, the input data (page number) is displayed on the display device 4. The control device 13 decodes the input page number, searches for the corresponding page number in the auxiliary memory 12b, and retrieves the address data (main memory of the specified block) stored in the area provided for the page number. The start address I and end address J) in 12a are read out. Then, the read addresses of the main memory 12a are sequentially and continuously read from the start address I to the end address J. The audio information read out in this way is restored to an analog signal via the D/A converter 14, and is output as audio via the speaker 6 or earphone 8. In other words, only the desired audio information is selectively read out from the semiconductor memory 12 by the page number designation operation and output as audio, and the information is reproduced here.

By the way, when reproducing information in this manner, it is necessary to accurately know the page number attached to the desired audio information and to input the page number accurately. Therefore, in such a case, if the reproduced audio information is not the desired one, it is necessary to specify the page again, which is extremely inconvenient to handle. On the other hand, this device has an information search function and solves the above-mentioned inconvenience. That is, the search mode is set by selecting and operating a specific character key on the keyboard 5, for example, "E". Then, along with setting this search mode, the page number to be searched is inputted via the numeric keys of the keyboard 5. Detecting this information, the control device 13 displays the page number via the display device 4, and reads out address data (start address) specified by the page number from the auxiliary memory 12b. Then, with this start address as a reference, audio information is sequentially read from the beginning address of the designated block in the main memory 12a, which corresponds to about 1 second, for example, and audio is output until an address of a predetermined length is reached. In other words, only the audio information at the beginning, which is part of the audio information forming one block, is output as audio. Alternatively, when the search page number is specified, the beginning part of the audio information corresponding to the page number is read out and outputted as described above, and then the page number is updated to the next consecutive page number, The updated page number is displayed on the display device 4, and the beginning of the next audio information is read out from the semiconductor memory 13 and output as audio. Then, updating of this page number and reading out the beginning part of the audio information and outputting the audio are repeated until the final recorded page number is reached. This makes it possible to monitor the information at the beginning of the audio output as a keyword and perform the above-described search from the page number shown on the display device 4 when the desired keyword is obtained. In addition, when searching for this information, the audio may be played back in order from the beginning audio information of "Page 1", and when the desired keyword is recognized, the search may be stopped and the page number at that time may be displayed. . Alternatively, you can specify search page numbers in two places and search only the information on the corresponding pages within that range as described above, or you can use one page number to search for a predetermined number of pages from that page. It is also possible to set the control mode of the device to search only the audio information up to the next page.

Now, of the audio information recorded in the semiconductor memory 12, the erasure of the audio information that is no longer needed is performed as follows. First, a page number indicating the audio information to be deleted is input by operating the numeric keys on the keyboard 5. This input page number is decoded by the control device 13 and displayed on the display device 4.
Thereafter, the user confirms the displayed page number and operates the keyboard 5 to specify the erasing operation, for example, the character key "D" to set the erasing mode. The control device 13 interprets this and stores the address data indicated by the input page number in the auxiliary memory 12b.
Main memory 1 indicated by the address
The audio information recorded in 2a is erased. This audio information is erased by rewriting data of information "0" into the address range defined by the start address and end address read from the auxiliary memory 12b. After that, the main memory 12 of the semiconductor memory 12
a. Using a temporary memory 12c provided separately from the auxiliary memory 12b, the audio information recorded in blocks after the erased block is rewritten by incrementing the address. That is, as a result of the above-mentioned erasure, a discontinuous portion is created in the audio information that has been continuously recorded in the main memory 12a, and an empty page is created in the middle of the main memory 12a. , equivalently, empty pages caused by erasure are moved to the rear part of the main memory 12a. This information transfer (transfer) is performed by, for example, transferring the start address of the next page block to the auxiliary memory 1.
2b and set it in the first counter, while the start address of the erased block is set in the second counter. Then, by reading the stored information at the address set in the first counter and temporarily holding it in the memory 12c, it is written to the address position of the main memory 12a indicated by the address set in the second counter. It will be done. Thereafter, each time this writing is completed, the address values of the first and second counters are incremented and read out in the same way, and the process of storing them in the temporary memory 12c and writing to the second counter instruction address is repeated. . This address transfer of audio information is repeated until the audio information recorded at the final address of the last used page is transferred. The first and second counters are built-in functions of the control device, and the transfer is completed by detecting a match between the address value of the second counter and the final address.
As a result, the page number assigned to the audio information of each block is incremented by one. At this time, it goes without saying that the address data assigned to each page number of the auxiliary memory 12b is also updated at the same time. This update of address data is performed by updating the address value set in the second counter at that time to the address value stored in the auxiliary memory 12b when the address value set in the first counter matches the address value stored in the auxiliary memory 12b. This is done by writing in the area corresponding to the page number. Note that by transferring such information to an address, the information previously recorded in the transfer destination address is rewritten to the information recorded in the transfer source address, so writing of information "0" as explained earlier may be omitted. Rather, it is preferable to omit it from the viewpoint of simplifying controllability and reducing the control load on the control device 13.

FIG. 5 shows an apparatus configuration for realizing each of the above operation modes. That is, the semiconductor memory 12 is composed of three elements: a main memory 12a, an auxiliary memory 12b, and a temporary memory 12c. The main memory 12a is controlled by the control device 13 to perform address control (ADD), information write control (WRITE),
Operates in response to information read control (READ),
Input information (DATA) from the A/D converter 11,
Further, it may be configured to output information (DATA) to the D/A converter 14. Also, the auxiliary memory 12
b is controlled by the control device 13 for page number designation control (PAGE) and address writing (ADD-W), and also controls the read address (ADD-R) and read page number (PAGE) from the control device 1.
It is sufficient if the configuration is such that the supply to No. 3 is performed. At the same time, the page number (PAGE) read from the auxiliary memory 12b is guided to the display device 4,
Displayed by display control (DISP) from
Also, the temporary memory 12c is stored in the control device 13.
The main memory 12a may be configured to receive write (WRITE) and read (READ) controls and exchange information signals with the main memory 12a in synchronization with the operation of the main memory 12a. On the other hand, the control device 13 performs a series of controls on the semiconductor memories 12, and also controls the A/D converter 11 and the D/A converter 14 in response to the operation of the main memory 12a. Needless to say, each of the above-described controls by the control device 13 is performed based on the detection results of the audio level detector 15 and information input by selectively operating the keyboard device 16. The setting relationships between various keys on the keyboard device 16 and operation modes are determined according to specifications, and the control device 13 is designed to enable direct transition from one mode to another. It can also be configured.

As explained above, according to the present device, audio information can be recorded using semiconductor memory extremely effectively. In other words, it is easy to handle the audio information because it can be recorded sequentially and continuously in blocks and can be easily reproduced by selecting and specifying the page numbers assigned to the blocks. Furthermore, since semiconductor memory is used as the recording medium, it is much more compact than conventional tape recorders used as electronic memo pads, and enables stable information recording over an extremely long period of time.
Its reliability is also high enough. Furthermore, since information searches and the like can be performed easily, it is applicable to a wide range of uses.
In particular, since a page number is attached to information and information can be specified from this page number, handling performance is excellent.

Note that the present invention is not limited to the above embodiments. For example, the external shape of the device and the method for digitizing audio signals can be modified in various ways depending on the specifications. Further, the operating procedure and the like can be modified. For example, when erasing information, it can be configured such that the specified information is once reproduced or searched and monitored, and then executed. As for the semiconductor memory, it goes without saying that a non-volatile one is used, and its capacity may be determined depending on the length of time of the audio information to be recorded, the bit rate of the signal, etc. In short, the present invention can be implemented with various modifications without departing from the gist thereof.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

The drawings show an embodiment of the present invention, in which Fig. 1 shows the external shape, Fig. 2 shows the schematic configuration of the main body of the device, and Fig. 3 shows the information recording format of the semiconductor memory (main memory). 4 is a diagram showing the information recording format of semiconductor memory (auxiliary memory),
FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing in detail the control system of the main body of the apparatus. 1... Housing, 2... Microphone, 3... Recording operation button, 4... Display, 5... Keyboard, 6... Speaker, 7... Earphone terminal, 8... Earphone, 11
...A/D converter, 12...semiconductor memory, 12a...
Main memory, 12b... Auxiliary memory, 12c... Temporary memory, 13... Control device, 14... D/A converter, 1
5...Audio level detector, 16...Keyboard device.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A means for digitizing audio information input by a recording operation, a semiconductor main memory for storing and holding this digitized audio information, and a means for converting storage address information of the audio information stored in the semiconductor main memory into audio information. a semiconductor auxiliary memory for storing audio information corresponding to the semiconductor main memory; a means for converting and outputting the audio information read from the semiconductor main memory into an analog format;
A portable information recording device comprising means for controlling erasure based on address information stored in the semiconductor auxiliary memory.