Portable appliance, power saving method and sound volume compensating method, and storage medium

• US 20030160702A1
• Filed: 02/19/2003
• Published: 08/28/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 04/03/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Yamaha Corporation
• Original Assignee: Yamaha Corporation
• Inventors: Tanaka, Takahiro
• Granted Patent: US 7,120,803 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 340/693.3
• CPC Class Codes: G10H 1/00 Details of electrophonic musical instruments
• CPC Class Codes: G10H 1/22 for suppressing tones; Preference networks
• CPC Class Codes: G10H 1/46 Volume control
• CPC Class Codes: G10H 2230/035 Power management, i.e. specific power supply solutions for electrophonic musical instruments, e.g. auto power shut-off, energy saving designs, power conditioning, connector design, avoiding inconvenient wiring
• CPC Class Codes: G10H 2240/251 Mobile telephone transmission, i.e. transmitting, accessing or controlling music data wirelessly via a wireless or mobile telephone receiver, analog or digital, e.g. DECT GSM, UMTS smartphone, PDA or palmtop used for musical purposes G10H2230/015; mobile ringtone G10H2230/021
• CPC Class Codes: G10H 2250/585 CELP [code excited linear prediction]
• CPC Class Codes: G10H 2250/595 ADPCM [adaptive differential pulse code modulation]

Abstract

There are provided a mobile device that is equipped with a musical composition-reproducing section and capable of curtailing the battery drain as much as possible, and a mobile device that prevents the quality of reproduced musical tones from being degraded even if the voltage level of the battery lowers. A battery voltage detector monitors an voltage level of a battery. The musical composition-reproducing section is controlled such that the number of parts of the musical composition reproduced by the musical composition-reproducing section is reduced when the monitored voltage level of the battery becomes lower than a reference value. In other forms of the invention, when the monitored voltage level of the battery becomes lower than a reference value, a first predetermined number of parts of the musical composition data are assigned to intrinsic ones of a larger second predetermined number of parts that correspond to the first predetermined number of parts of said musical composition, as well as to other ones of the second predetermined number of parts than the intrinsic ones, for reproduction of the musical composition, or the gain of a variable-gain amplifier is increased to compensate for the lowering of the volume of the reproduced parts.

Claims

1. A mobile device comprising:

musical composition-reproducing means that is capable of reproducing a musical composition composed of a plurality of parts;

power supply means that supplies power to said musical composition-reproducing means;

charge state-monitoring means that monitors an amount of charge in said power supply means; and

control means that provides control such that a number of parts of said musical composition reproduced by said musical composition-reproducing means is reduced when the monitored amount of charge in said power supply means becomes lower than a predetermined value.

2. A mobile device according to claim 1, wherein said musical composition-reproducing means includes a plurality of musical tone synthesis sections for reproducing the musical composition composed of the plurality of parts, and wherein said control means provides control such that a number of said plurality of musical tone synthesis sections to which data of the musical composition is supplied is reduced when the monitored amount of charge in said power supply means becomes lower than the predetermined value.

3. A mobile device according to claim 2, wherein said musical composition-reproducing means includes a temporary storage section that temporarily stores the data of the musical composition, a plurality of switching devices arranged between said temporary storage section and said plurality of musical tone synthesis sections, for connecting and disconnecting between said temporary storage section and said plurality of musical tone synthesis sections, respectively, and wherein when the monitored amount of charge in said power supply means becomes lower than the predetermined value, said control means reduces a number of said plurality of switching devices that connect between said temporary storage section and said plurality of musical tone synthesis sections to thereby reduce the number of said plurality of musical tone synthesis sections to which the data of the musical composition is supplied.

4. A mobile device according to claim 2, including storage means that stores the data of the musical composition, and wherein said musical composition-reproducing means includes a temporary storage section that temporarily stores the data of the musical composition, and reading/writing control means that controls reading and writing the data of the musical composition from and into said temporary storage section, and wherein when the monitored amount of charge in said power supply means becomes lower than the predetermined value, said control means controls said reading/writing control means such that a number of parts of the data of the musical composition written into said temporary storage sections is reduced.

5. A mobile device according to claim 2, wherein the data of the musical composition contains a mixture of data of the plurality of parts, and wherein said musical composition-reproducing means includes a temporary storage section that temporarily stores the data of the musical composition, and sequencer means that sequentially reads out the data of the musical composition stored in said temporary storage section into said plurality of musical tone synthesis sections, and wherein when the monitored amount of charge in said power supply means becomes lower than the predetermined value, said control means controls said sequencer means such that a number of parts of the data of the musical composition read out from said temporary storage section into said plurality of musical tone synthesis sections is reduced.

6. A mobile device according to claim 2, wherein said musical composition-reproducing means includes a single musical tone synthesis section that is capable of reproducing the musical composition composed of the plurality of parts by time-sharing operation, a temporary storage section that temporarily stores the data of the musical composition, a single switching device arranged between said temporary storage section and said musical tone synthesis section, for connecting and disconnecting between said temporary storage section and said musical tone synthesis section, and wherein when the monitored amount of charge in said power supply means becomes lower than the predetermined value, said control means controls timing of operation of said switching device such that the number of said plurality of musical tone synthesis sections to which the data of the musical composition is supplied is reduced.

7. A mobile device according to claim 1, including storage means that stores the data of the musical composition, and wherein when the monitored amount of charge in said power supply means becomes lower than the predetermined value, said control means provides control such that a number of parts of the musical composition supplied to said musical composition-reproducing means is reduced.

8. A mobile device according to claim 1, wherein said musical composition-reproducing means includes a plurality of musical tone synthesis sections for reproducing the musical composition composed of the plurality of parts, and wherein said control means provides control such that a number of said plurality of musical tone synthesis sections to which the power is supplied from said power supply means is reduced when the monitored amount of charge in said power supply means becomes lower than the predetermined value.

9. A mobile device according to claim 1, wherein when the monitored amount of charge in said power supply means becomes lower than the predetermined value, the control means provides control such that only a melody part is reproduced by said musical composition-reproducing means.

10. A mobile device according to claim 1, wherein said musical composition-reproducing means includes a plurality of musical tone synthesis sections for reproducing the musical composition composed of the plurality of parts, and wherein said control means provides control such that the data of the musical composition is supplied only to one of said plurality of musical tone synthesis sections that reproduces a melody part.

11. A mobile device according to claim 1, wherein said musical composition-reproducing means includes a plurality of musical tone synthesis sections for reproducing the musical composition composed of the plurality of parts, and wherein said control means provides control such that power is supplied from said power supply means only to one of said plurality of musical tone synthesis sections that reproduces a melody part.

12. A mobile device comprising:

musical composition-reproducing means that reproduces a musical composition from musical composition data composed of a first predetermined number of parts, said musical composition-reproducing means being capable of reproducing a second predetermined number of parts, the second predetermined number being larger than the first predetermined number;

power supply means that supplies power to said musical composition-reproducing means;

voltage level-monitoring means that monitors a voltage level of said power supply means; and

volume compensating means that carries out a volume compensation process by assigning the first predetermined number of parts of the musical composition data to intrinsic ones of the second predetermined number of parts that correspond to the first predetermined number of parts of said musical composition, as well as to other ones of the second predetermined number of parts than the intrinsic ones, for reproduction of the musical composition by said musical composition-reproducing means, when the monitored voltage level of said power supply means becomes lower than a predetermined value.

13. A mobile device according to claim 12, wherein said musical composition-reproducing means includes a plurality of musical tone synthesis sections, and assigning means that assigns each of the parts of the musical composition data to a selected one of said musical tone synthesis sections, and wherein said volume compensating means assigns the parts of the musical composition data to ones of said musical tone synthesis sections having been unassigned to any parts in addition to other ones of said musical tone synthesis sections intrinsically assigned to the parts of the musical composition data.

14. A mobile device according to claim 12, wherein when the monitored voltage level of said power supply means becomes lower than the predetermined value, said volume compensating means obtains musical composition data which is doubled in number of parts by duplicating the musical composition data composed of the first predetermined number of parts, and supplies the musical composition data which is doubled in number of parts to said musical composition-reproducing means.

15. A mobile device according to claim 12, including mode-setting means that is capable of setting a high-quality mode in which said musical composition-reproducing means reproduces musical tones of high quality, and a normal quality mode in which said musical composition-reproducing means reproduces musical tones of normal quality, and

wherein said volume compensating means carries out the volume compensating process only when the high-quality mode is set by said mode-setting means.

16. A mobile device according to claim 12, wherein when the monitored voltage level of said power supply means becomes lower than the predetermined value, said volume compensating means obtains, by duplicating at least a melody part of the musical composition data composed of the first predetermined number of parts, musical composition data which is doubled at least in number of identical parts for the melody part, and supplies the obtained musical composition data to said musical composition-reproducing means.

17. A mobile device comprising:

musical composition-reproducing means that is capable of reproducing a musical composition composed of a plurality of parts, said musical composition-reproducing means having volume control means for controlling a volume level of the reproduced plurality of parts;

power supply means that supplies power to said musical composition-reproducing means;

voltage level-monitoring means that monitors a voltage level of said power supply means; and

volume compensation control means that controls said volume control means so as to carry out a volume compensating process when the monitored voltage level of said power supply means becomes lower than a predetermined value.

18. A mobile device according to claim 17, further including mode-setting means that is capable of setting a high-quality mode in which said musical composition-reproducing means reproduces musical tones of high quality, and a normal quality mode in which said musical composition-reproducing means reproduces musical tones of normal quality, and

wherein said volume compensation control means controls said volume control means so as to carry out the volume compensating process only when the high-quality mode is set by said mode-setting means.

19. A mobile device according to claim 17, wherein said volume control means includes a variable-gain amplifier.

20. A power saving method for a mobile device having musical composition-reproducing means that is capable of reproducing a musical composition composed of a plurality of parts, and power supply means that supplies power to said musical composition-reproducing means, the power saving method saving power consumed from said power supply means, and comprising the steps of:

monitoring an amount of charge in said power supply means; and

controlling said musical composition-reproducing means in a manner such that the number of parts of the musical composition reproduced by said musical composition-reproducing means is reduced when the monitored amount of charge in said power supply means becomes lower than a predetermined value.

21. A volume compensating method for a mobile device having musical composition-reproducing means that reproduces a musical composition composed of a first predetermined number of parts, said musical composition-reproducing means being capable of reproducing a second predetermined number of parts, the second predetermined number being larger than the first predetermined number, and power supply means that supplies power to said musical composition-reproducing means, the volume compensating method compensating for lowering of a volume of musical tones reproduced by the mobile device, the method comprising the steps of:

monitoring a voltage level of said power supply means; and

carrying out a volume compensation process by assigning the first predetermined number of parts of the musical composition data to intrinsic ones of the second predetermined number of parts that correspond to the first predetermined number of parts of said musical composition, as well as to other ones of the second predetermined number of parts than the intrinsic ones, for reproduction of the musical composition by said musical composition-reproducing means, when the monitored voltage level of said power supply means becomes lower than a predetermined value.

22. A volume compensating method for a mobile device having musical composition-reproducing means that is capable of reproducing a musical composition composed of a plurality of parts, said musical composition-reproducing means having volume control means for controlling a volume level of the reproduced plurality of parts, and power supply means that supplies power to said musical composition-reproducing means, the volume compensating method compensating for lowering of a volume of musical tones reproduced by the mobile device, the method comprising the steps of:

monitoring a voltage level of said power supply means; and

controlling said volume control means so as to carry out a volume compensating process when the monitored voltage level of said power supply means becomes lower than a predetermined value.

23. A storage medium storing a program that can be executed by a computer, the program being capable of realizing a power saving method for a mobile device having musical composition-reproducing means that is capable of reproducing a musical composition composed of a plurality of parts, and power supply means that supplies power to said musical composition-reproducing means, the power saving method saving power consumed from said power supply means, the method comprising the steps of:

monitoring an amount of charge in said power supply means; and

controlling said musical composition-reproducing means in a manner such that the number of parts of the musical composition reproduced by said musical composition-reproducing means is reduced when the monitored amount of charge in said power supply means becomes lower than a predetermined value.

24. A storage medium storing a program that can be executed by a computer, the program being capable of realizing a volume compensating method for a mobile device having musical composition-reproducing means that reproduces a musical composition composed of a first predetermined number of parts, said musical composition-reproducing means being capable of reproducing a second predetermined number of parts, the second predetermined number being larger than the first predetermined number, and power supply means that supplies power to said musical composition-reproducing means, the volume compensating method compensating for lowering of a volume of musical tones reproduced by the mobile device, the method comprising the steps of:

monitoring a voltage level of said power supply means; and

carrying out a volume compensation process by assigning the first predetermined number of parts of said musical composition data to intrinsic ones of the second predetermined number of parts that correspond to the first predetermined number of parts of the musical composition, as well as to other ones of the second predetermined number of parts than the intrinsic ones, for reproduction of the musical composition by said musical composition-reproducing means, when the monitored voltage level of said power supply means becomes lower than a predetermined value.

25. A storage medium storing a program that can be executed by a computer, the program being capable of realizing a volume compensating method for a mobile device having musical composition-reproducing means that is capable of reproducing a musical composition composed of a plurality of parts, said musical composition-reproducing means having volume control means for controlling a volume level of the reproduced plurality of parts, and power supply means that supplies power to said musical composition-reproducing means, the volume compensating method compensating for lowering of a volume of musical tones reproduced by the mobile device, the method comprising the steps of:

monitoring a voltage level of said power supply means; and

controlling said volume control means so as to carry out a volume compensating process when the monitored voltage level of said power supply means becomes lower than a predetermined value.