Karaoke music selection device

• US 5,250,745 A
• Filed: 05/12/1992
• Issued: 10/05/1993
• Est. Priority Date: 07/31/1991
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Ricoh Company Limited
• Original Assignee: Ricoh Company Limited
• Inventors: Tsumura, Mihoji
• Primary Examiner(s): Witkowski, Stanley J.
• Application Number:
  US07/881,818
• Time in Patent Office: 511 Days
• Field of Search: 84/601-603, 84/609-614, 84/634-638, 84/645, 84/DIG. 12, 84/DIG. 22
• US Class Current: 434/307.00A
• CPC Class Codes: G10H 1/0066 using a MIDI interface
• CPC Class Codes: G10H 1/361 Recording/reproducing of accompaniment for use with an external source, e.g. karaoke systems
• CPC Class Codes: G10H 2220/011 Lyrics displays, e.g. for karaoke applications
• CPC Class Codes: G10H 2240/131 Library retrieval, i.e. searching a database or selecting a specific musical piece, segment, pattern, rule or parameter set

Abstract

The invention provides an indication for a karaoke singer of that music in the karaoke music library which would be best suited to the singer'"'"'s own vocal characteristics. For the purpose of providing this indication, the singer'"'"'s voice signals are first of all sampled at suitable intervals and the sample waveforms converted into specimens made up of digital values. A body of data relating to vocal characteristics is at the same time stored in the device, each item of said data being assigned its own code. When the above specimens are input, they are compared with the stored data by an evaluation means which then identifies the items of data that resemble each other most closely. The codes which are incorporated into the data items so identified are then treated as retrieval items and any library data with a matching code for each of a plurality of pieces of music is duly retrieved and the music with the matching code is extracted.

Claims

1. A karaoke music selection device comprising

a sampling means which subjects voice signals converted by a microphone to sampling at suitable intervals,

a conversion means which converts sample waveforms generated by said sampling means into specimens consisting of digital values,

an evaluation means which holds a plurality of stored data items relating to various vocal characteristics to each of which a comparison data code is assigned, and which, on the input of specimens from said conversion means, compares said specimens with the plurality of stored data items and selects those data items which form the closest match, and

a voice matching means which receives input of the comparison data codes assigned to the data items selected by said evaluation means, and which accesses library data relating to a plurality of pieces of karaoke music to which codes identical to said comparison data codes have been assigned, thereafter extracting those pieces of music with matching codes.

2. The karaoke music selection device according to claim 1 in which the conversion means is a D/A converter.

3. The karaoke music selection device according to claim 1 in which the microphone output is output in parallel with a separate karaoke music reproduction device.

4. The karaoke music selection device according to claim 1 in which the microphone output is transmitted continuously to a sampling means in which the sampling operation is timed to take place at suitable intervals.

5. The karaoke music selection device according to claim 1 in which the microphone output is transmitted continuously to a sampling means in which the sampling operation is timed in accordance with the manual input from a separate switch.

6. The karaoke music selection device according to claim 1 in which the library data is stored in a memory device in the form of a table.