Animation image composition and display device

• US 5,262,765 A
• Filed: 08/21/1991
• Issued: 11/16/1993
• Est. Priority Date: 08/21/1990
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Ricoh Company Limited
• Original Assignee: Ricoh Company Limited
• Inventors: Tsumura, Mihoji, Taniguchi, Shinnosuke
• Primary Examiner(s): BRIER, JEFFERY A
• Application Number:
  US07/748,260
• Time in Patent Office: 818 Days
• Field of Search: 340/725, 340/815.11, 84/464 R, 84/DIG. 6, 84/DIG. 13, 381/48, 395/152
• US Class Current: 345/473
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 13/205 driven by audio data

Abstract

A device is for the display of still animation images in sequence on a display in time with the reproduction of music by a digital sound source driven by MIDI signals. The device reads a series of specified or optional animation images from an image database, which holds many animation images, and transmits them in accordance with tempo data which forms part of the MIDI data. The device also uses pitch data to determine the color of the animation images to be displayed. The device composes the still images and the specified colors and displays them on a visual display medium.

Claims

1. An animation image composition and display device, used in conjunction with a karaoke device which drives a digital sound source by means of MIDI data for the reproduction of music, said animation image composition and display device comprising:

a tempo detector which identifies tempo data from said MIDI data and which generates a sequence of pulses which are synchronized with the tempo at which the music is reproduced;

a pitch detector which identifies pitch data from said MIDI data and which outputs said pitch data in sequence; and

an image composition controller comprising a display timing calculator, which outputs trigger signals in accordance with the timing of said pulses, a display color calculator, which processes said pitch data in order to determine the foreground and background colors, and a display image selector, which outputs a control signal to a database controller which selects one or more items of animation data from an image database in which are stored a plurality of sets of animation images in data form;

said animation image composition and display device also being used to arrange said selected items of animation data and said determined colors and to display still images on a visual display medium one frame at a time by way of an image gate which opens in response to said trigger signals.

2. The animation image composition and display device according to claim 1 which comprises a manual input device as means for selecting animation data, and which determines specific animation images in accordance with input of symbols corresponding to each individual set of animation images respectively to a display image selector.

3. The animation image composition and display device according to claim 1 which determines specified animation images in accordance with codes processed as required from pitch data as means for selecting color data.

4. The animation image composition and display device according to claim 1 which incorporates a selector switch for switching between manual mode and automatic mode as means for selecting animation data.

5. The animation image composition and display device according to claim 1 which makes use of an optical disk device as an image database.

6. The animation image composition and display device according to claim 1 which uses a monitor screen as a visual display medium.

7. The animation image composition and display device according to claim 1 which incorporates a MIDI decoder for conversion of serial MIDI data in the input area of the tempo selector and the pitch selector to N bits of parallel MIDI data.