Audio System

• US 20080255689A1
• Filed: 08/28/2007
• Published: 10/16/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 09/13/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Alpine Electronics Incorporated (Alps Alpine Co., Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Alpine Electronics Incorporated (Alps Alpine Co., Ltd.)
• Inventors: Nagayama, Koji
• Granted Patent: US 8,321,042 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 700/94
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/105 of operating discs
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/329 on a disc [VTOC]

Abstract

In one aspect of the present invention, an audio system connectable to a portable audio player for playing audio contents includes an audio content narrowing unit for narrowing the audio contents stored in the connected portable audio player down to a processing target audio content according to an attribute of the audio content selected by a user, a preset information registering unit for registering, in response to a user preset registration operation, a procedure of the narrowing performed by the audio content narrowing unit as preset information, and a preset playback controlling unit for performing, in response to a user preset playback operation, a narrowing procedure equivalent to the procedure of the narrowing that is registered as the preset information, and causing the portable audio player to play back the audio content narrowed down from the audio contents stored in the connected portable audio player.

Claims

1. An audio system connectable to a portable audio player that stores audio files or both audio files and playlists of the audio files as audio contents, and that plays back the stored audio contents, the audio system comprising:

an audio content narrowing unit configured to narrow the audio contents stored in the connected portable audio player down to a processing target audio content in accordance with an attribute of the audio content selected by a user;

a preset information registering unit configured to register, in response to a user preset registration operation, the narrowing procedure performed by the audio content narrowing unit as preset information; and

a preset playback controlling unit configured to perform, in response to a user preset playback operation, a narrowing procedure equivalent to the narrowing procedure that is registered as the preset information, and to cause the portable audio player to play back the audio content narrowed down from the audio contents stored in the connected portable audio player.

2. The audio system according to claim 1, further comprising:

a playback controlling unit configured to cause, in response to a user playback start operation, the portable audio player to play back the processing target audio content narrowed down by the audio content narrowing unit.

3. The audio system according to claim 1, wherein

the audio content narrowing unit accepts a selection regarding an attribute of a song as the selection regarding the attribute of the audio content from a user, and narrows the audio files stored in the connected portable audio player down to an audio file that contains audio data of a song having the selected attribute so as to set the narrowed audio file as the processing target audio content, and wherein

the attribute of the song includes at least one of a musical genre to which the song belongs, an artist name of the song, a title of an album including the song, and a title of the song.

4. The audio system according to claim 1, wherein

the audio content narrowing unit accepts a selection regarding a name of a playlist as the selection regarding the attribute of the audio content from a user, and narrows the playlists stored in the connected portable audio player down to a playlist having the selected playlist name so as to set the narrowed playlist as the processing target audio content.

11. The audio system according to claim 1, wherein the audio system is mounted in a vehicle.

5. An audio system connectable to a portable audio player that stores audio files or both audio files and playlists of the audio files as audio contents, and that plays back the stored audio contents, the audio system comprising:

a playback controlling unit configured to cause the connected portable audio player to play back the audio contents;

a preset information registering unit configured to register, in response to a user preset registration operation, an attribute of an audio content currently played back by the connected portable audio player as preset information; and

a preset playback controlling unit configured to cause, in response to a user preset playback operation, the portable audio player to play back an audio content having the attribute that is registered as the preset information.

6. The audio system according to claim 5, wherein

the preset information registering unit registers, in response to the user preset registration operation, an attribute of a song whose audio data is contained in the audio file currently played back by the portable audio player as the attribute of the audio content currently played back by the portable audio player, and wherein

the preset playback controlling unit causes, in response to the user preset playback operation, the portable audio player to play back an audio file that contains audio data of a song having the attribute that is registered as the preset information.

7. The audio system according to claim 5, wherein

the preset information registering unit registers, in response to the user preset registration operation that is performed while the portable audio player is playing back a playlist, a name of the playlist currently played back by the portable audio player as the attribute of the audio content currently played back by the portable audio player that is registered as the preset infornation, and wherein

the preset playback controlling unit causes, in response to the user preset playback operation, the portable audio player to play back a playlist having the name that is registered as the preset information.

12. The audio system according to claim 5, wherein the audio system is mounted in a vehicle.

8. An audio system connectable to a plurality of portable audio players that store audio files or both audio files and playlists of the audio files as audio contents, and that play back the stored audio contents, the audio system comprising:

a preset information storing unit configured to store, for each of the plurality of portable audio players, preset information in which content identification information that specifies a specific audio content stored in the portable audio player is registered in association with player identification information that specifies the portable audio player;

a connected player identifying unit configured to identify the portable audio player connected to the audio system;

a preset registering unit configured to associate, in response to a user preset registration operation, the content identification information that specifies the audio content selected by a user from the audio contents stored in the connected portable audio player with the player identification information that specifies the portable audio player identified by the connected player identifying unit, and to register the content identification information and the associated player identification information in the preset information; and

a preset playback controlling unit configured to cause, in response to a user preset playback operation, the connected portable audio player to play back an audio content specified by the content identification information that is registered in the preset information in association with the player identification information that specifies the portable audio player identified by the connected player identifying unit.

9. The audio system according to claim 8, further comprising;

a user identifying unit configured to identify a user currently using the audio system, wherein

the preset information storing unit stores, for each user of the audio system, the preset information in association with user identification information that specifies the user, and wherein

the preset registering unit associates, in response to the user preset registration operation, the content identification information that specifies the audio content selected by the user from the audio contents stored in the connected portable audio player with the player identification information that specifies the portable audio player identified by the connected player identifying unit, and registers the content identification information and the associated player identification information in the preset information that is associated with the user identification information that specifies the user identified by the user identifying unit, and wherein

the preset playback controlling unit causes, in response to the user preset playback operation, the connected portable audio player to play back the audio content specified by the content identification information registered in association with the player identification information that specifies the portable audio player identified by the connected player identifying unit in the preset information that is associated with the user identification information that specifies the user identified by the user identifying unit.

13. The audio system according to claim 8, wherein the audio system is mounted in a vehicle.

10. An audio system connectable to a portable audio player that stores audio files or both audio files and playlists of the audio files as audio contents, and that plays back the stored audio contents, the audio system comprising:

a preset information registering unit configured to register, in response to a user preset registration operation, content identification information that specifies an audio content selected by a user from the audio contents stored in the connected portable audio player as preset information;

a preset playback controlling unit configured to cause, in response to a user preset playback operation, the connected portable audio player to play back an audio content specified by the content identification information that is registered as the preset information; and

a preset information invalidating unit configured to invalidate the preset information if the audio contents stored in the connected portable audio player have changed.

14. The audio system according to claim 10, wherein the audio system is mounted in a vehicle.

15. A playback controlling method for an audio system connectable to a portable audio player, which stores audio files or both audio files and playlists of the audio files as audio contents, and which plays back the stored audio contents, to control the playback performed by the connected portable audio player, the method comprising the steps of:

narrowing the audio contents stored in the connected portable audio player down to a processing target audio content in accordance with an attribute of the audio content selected by a user;

registering, in response to a user preset registration operation, a narrowing procedure performed at the narrowing step as preset information; and

performing, in response to a user preset playback operation, a narrowing procedure equivalent to the narrowing procedure that is registered as the preset information, and causing the portable audio player to play back the audio content narrowed down from the audio contents stored in the connected portable audio player.

19. The playback controlling method according to claim 15, wherein the audio system is mounted in a vehicle.

16. A playback controlling method for an audio system connectable to a portable audio player, which stores audio files or both audio files and playlists of the audio files as audio contents, and which plays back the stored audio contents, to control the playback performed by the connected portable audio player, the method comprising the steps of:

causing the connected portable audio player to play back the audio contents;

registering, in response to a user preset registration operation, an attribute of an audio content currently played back by the connected portable audio player as preset information; and

causing, in response to a user preset playback operation, the portable audio player to play back an audio content having the attribute that is registered as the preset information.

20. The playback controlling method according to claim 16, wherein the audio system is mounted in a vehicle.

17. A playback controlling method for an audio system connectable to a portable audio player, which stores audio files or both audio files and playlists of the audio files as audio contents, and which plays back the stored audio contents, to control the playback performed by the connected portable audio player, the method comprising the steps of:

identifying the portable audio player connected to the audio system;

associating, in response to a user preset registration operation, content identification information that specifies an audio content selected by a user from the audio contents stored in the connected portable audio player with player identification information that specifies the identified portable audio player, and registering the content identification information and the associated player identification information as the preset information; and

causing, in response to a user preset playback operation, the connected portable audio player to play back an audio content specified by the content identification information that is registered as the preset information in association with the player identification information that specifies the connected portable audio player.

18. A playback controlling method for an audio system connectable to a portable audio player, which stores audio files or both audio files and playlists of the audio files as audio contents, and which plays back the stored audio contents, to control the playback performed by the connected portable audio player, the method comprising the steps of:

registering, in response to a user preset registration operation, content identification information that specifies an audio content selected by a user from the audio contents stored in the connected portable audio player as preset information;

retrieving, in response to a user preset playback operation, an audio content specified by the content identification information that is registered as the preset information from the audio contents stored in the connected portable audio player, and causing the portable audio player to play back the retrieved audio content; and

invalidating the preset information if the audio contents stored in the connected portable audio player have changed.