Digital information reproducing apparatus and digital information distributing system

• US 6,292,847 B1
• Filed: 12/02/1998
• Issued: 09/18/2001
• Est. Priority Date: 12/03/1997
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Klaus Schmidt
• Original Assignee: Klaus Schmidt
• Inventors: Takahashi, Tetsuya, Morita, Takashi, Shimoda, Toshiaki, Yamashita, Toshiro, Nishimoto, Yoshiro, Harada, Kazushige
• Primary Examiner(s): Lee, Thomas
• Assistant Examiner(s): Cao, Chun
• Application Number:
  US09/203,751
• Time in Patent Office: 1,021 Days
• Field of Search: 710/4, 710/5, 710/68, 710/33, 710/69, 714/752
• US Class Current: 710/5
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 20/00007 Time or data compression or expansion audio compression based on psychoacoustics G10L19/00; data processing for reproducing audio data at different playback speeds G10L21/04; video compression H04N19/00; data compression per se H03M7/30
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 20/10527 Audio or video recording; Data buffering arrangements G11B20/12 - G11B20/18 take precedence

Abstract

A digital information reproducing apparatus in accordance with a prior art that uses a semiconductor memory to realize a memory means cannot reproduce digital data which has been encoded according to a compression coding form different from the one adopted by an incorporated decoding circuit. According to the present invention, a decoding program stored in a second semiconductor memory is selected according to a compression coding form adopted for digital data stored in a first semiconductor memory. The selected decoding program is used to decode the digital data by means of an arithmetic circuit. Thus, digital information can be reproduced irrespective of a compression coding form adopted for provided digital information.

Claims

1. A digital information reproducing apparatus, comprising:

a first semiconductor memory into which digital data that has been encoded highly efficiently is stored;

a second semiconductor memory into which decoding programs used to carry out decoding that is inverse processing of the high-efficiency encoding are stored, wherein the whole or part of said second semiconductor memory can be rewritten and said second semiconductor memory comprises a read-only memory in which a common portion shared by a plurality of kinds of decoding programs is stored and a rewritable memory into which portions of said plurality of kinds of decoding programs other than the common portion are stored; and

a decoding means for decoding digital data stored in said first semiconductor memory according to a decoding program stored in said second semiconductor memory and associated with the digital data stored in said first semiconductor memory,

wherein said plurality of kinds of decoding programs is stored in said second semiconductor memory; and

said decoding means selects a decoding program from among the plurality of kinds of decoding programs according to information concerning encoding which is appended to each digital data, and then carries out decoding.

2. A digital information reproducing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the whole or part of said second semiconductor memory is a detachable module.

3. A digital information reproducing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the whole or part of said first semiconductor memory is a detachable module.

4. A digital information reproducing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the digital information is voice information, further comprising a D/A converter for converting an output signal of said decoding means into an analog signal and an electric-to-acoustic converter for converting an output signal of said D/A converter from an electric signal to an acoustic signal.

5. A digital information reproducing apparatus, comprising:

a first semiconductor memory into which digital data that has been encoded highly efficiently is stored;

a second semiconductor memory into which decoding programs used to carry out decoding that is inverse processing of the high-efficiency encoding are stored, wherein the whole or part of said second semiconductor memory can be rewritten and said second semiconductor memory comprises;

a read-only memory in which a common portion shared by said plurality of kinds of decoding programs is stored;

a program storage memory into which portions of said plurality of kinds of decoding programs other than the common portion are stored;

a selector for selecting a portion of a decoding program, which has been selected to be associated with digital data to be decoded from among said plurality of kinds of decoding programs, other than the common portion from among programs stored in said program storage memory; and

a rewritable memory in which a program selected by said selector and then copied from said program storage memory is stored; and

a decoding means for decoding digital data stored in said first semiconductor memory according to a decoding program stored in said second semiconductor memory and associated with the digital data stored in said first semiconductor memory,

wherein a plurality of kinds of decoding programs is stored in said second semiconductor memory; and

said decoding means selects a decoding program from among the plurality of kinds of decoding programs according to information concerning encoding which is appended to each digital data and then carries out decoding.

6. A digital information reproducing apparatus, comprising:

a first semiconductor memory into which digital data that has been encoded highly efficiently is stored;

a second semiconductor memory into which decoding programs used to carry out decoding that is inverse processing of thee high-efficiency encoding are stored, wherein the whole or part of said second semiconductor memory can be rewritten and said second semiconductor memory comprises a read only memory in which a common portion shared by a plurality of kinds of decoding programs is stored and a rewritable memory into which portions of said plurality of kinds of decoding programs other than the common portion are stored;

a decoding means for decoding digital data stored in said first semiconductor memory according to a decoding program stored in said second semiconductor memory and associated with e digital data stored in said first semiconductor memory; and

a receiver for receiving externally all or part of the decoding programs to be stored in said second semiconductor memory; and

wherein a plurality of kinds of decoding programs is stored in said second semiconductor memory; and

said decoding means selects a decoding program from among the plurality of kinds of decoding programs according to information conning encoding which is appended to each digital data, and then carries out decoding.

7. A digital information reproducing apparatus, comprising:

a first semiconductor memory into which digital data that has been encoded highly efficiently is stored, wherein the whole or part of said first semiconductor memory can be rewritten;

a second semiconductor memory into which decoding programs used to carry out decoding that is inverse processing of the high-efficiency encoding are stored, wherein the whole or part of said second semiconductor memory can be rewritten and said second semiconductor memory comprises a read-only memory in which a common portion shared by a plurality of kinds of decoding programs is stored and a rewrittable memory into which portions of said plurality of kinds of decoding programs other than the common portion are stored;

a decoding means for decoding digital data stored in said first semiconductor memory according to a decoding program stored in said second semiconductor memory and associated with the digital data stored in said first semiconductor memory; and

a receiver for receiving externally digital data to be stored in said first semiconductor memory and information concerning encoding of the digital data,

wherein a plurality of kinds of decoding programs is stored in said second semiconductor memory; and

said decoding means selects a decoding program from among the plurality of kinds of decoding programs according to information concerning encoding which is appended to each digital data, and then carries out decoding.

8. A digital information reproducing apparatus, comprising:

a first semiconductor memory into which digital data that has been encoded highly efficiently is stored, wherein said first semiconductor memory is divided into a plurality of blocks, and the digital data is stored so that the start thereof will appear at the start of a block;

a second semiconductor memory into which decoding programs used to carry out decoding that is inverse processing of the high-efficiency encoding are stored wherein the whole or part of said second semiconductor memory can be rewritten and said second semiconductor memory comprises a read-only memory in which a common portion shared by a plurality of kinds of decoding programs is stored and a rewritable memory into which portions of said plurality of kinds of decoding programs other than the common portion are stored; and

a decoding means for decoding digital data stored in said first semiconductor memory according to a decoding program stored in said second semiconductor memory and associated with the digital data stored in sad first semiconductor memory,

wherein a plurality of kinds of decoding programs is stored in said second semiconductor memory; and

said decoding means selects a decoding program from among the plurality of kinds of decoding programs according to information concerning encoding which is appended to each digital data, and the carries out decoding.

9. A digital information reproducing apparatus according to claim 8, wherein said first semiconductor memory consists of blocks of different sizes, further comprising a memory block selection control means for, when digital data is not accommodated by a certain block, selecting another block whose size corresponds to the size of the remnant of the digital data, and placing the remnant in the another block.

10. A digital information reproducing apparatus, comprising:

a receiver for receiving digital data that has been highly efficiently encoded from an external source;

a first semiconductor memory into which an encoded data portion of the digital data that has been encoded highly efficiently is received and stored, said first semiconductor memory being formed to be rewritable;

a second semiconductor memory into which a decoding programs portion of the digital data used to carry out decoding that is inverse processing of the high-efficiency encoding is received and stored, at least a part of said second semiconductor memory being formed to be rewritable; and

a decoding means for decoding the encoded data portion of the digital data stored in said first semiconductor memory according to the decoding program portion of the digital data stored in said second semiconductor memory,

wherein the encoded data portion and the decoding program portion of the digital data are received together and at least a part of the decoding program used to decode the encoded portion of the digital data is provided in said decoding program portion.

11. A digital information distributing system, comprising:

a digital information distributing apparatus for storing digital information;

a digital information reproducing apparatus, connected to said digital information distributing apparatus, for receiving, storing, and reproducing the digital information stored by said digital information distributing apparatus;

a conversion arithmetic means, incorporated in said digital information distributing apparatus, for performing a predetermined conversion on the digital information;

a transmitting means, incorporated in said digital information distributing apparatus, for transmitting the converted digital information and a program used to inversely convert the converted digital information;

a receiving means, incorporated in said digital information reproducing apparatus, for receiving the converted digital information and the inverse conversion program;

a rewritable semiconductor memory incorporated in said digital information reproducing apparatus, and used to receive and store the converted digital information from said receiving means; and

an inverse conversion arithmetic means, incorporated in said digital information reproducing apparatus, for inversely converting the converted digital information according to the inverse conversion program.

12. A digital information distributing system according to claim 11, wherein the given conversion is compression encoding, and the inverse conversion is decoding of digital information that has been compressed and thus encoded.

13. A digital information distributing system according to claim 11, further comprising an ID code memory means incorporated in said digital information reproducing apparatus and used to store an ID code specific to said digital information reproducing apparatus, and an ID code reading means, incorporated in said digital information distributing apparatus, for reading the ID code stored in said ID code memory means, wherein said given conversion includes processing based on the ID code, and said inverse conversion arithmetic means in said digital information reproducing apparatus carries out inverse processing of the ID code-based processing.