RECORDING MEDIUM HAVING ELECTRONIC CIRCUIT AND METHOD FOR USING THEREOF

Abstract: A recording medium including an electronic circuit which can exploit advantages of being able to easily provide control corresponding to characteristics of information stored in the information recording portion and a method for using such recording medium. An intelligent disc (1) includes a disc portion (3) for storing information and an intelligent circuit portion (2) for processing information. The information to be reproduced in an external device (10) is stored in the disc portion (3) and parameters for controlling reproduction of information in the external device (10), are stored in the intelligent circuit portion (2). The information is reproduced by the external device (10) using the parameters.

Description: DESCRIPTION RECORDING MEDIUM HAVING ELECTRONIC CIRCUIT AND METHOD FOR USING THEREOF Technical Field The present invention relates to a recording medium including information recording portions for storing information and an electronic circuit portion for processing information, for example, an optical disc including an electronic circuit portion (hereinafter called as an intelligent disc (ID) ) and method for using the recording medium by defining roles of the information recording portion and the electronic circuit portion. Background Art Conventional recording mediums have been proposed such as discs, for example, CD-ROMs which have a chip for memory or CPU mounted on a cartridge or optical discs which have an electronic circuit or a microprocessor mounted on a part of them. However, in such conventional recording mediums, in the case of the electronic circuit mounted on a cartridge, ID for a disc is stored and in the case of the electronic circuit mounted on an optical disc, programs stored on the disc surface are run in the electronic circuit but they tend to fail to establish sufficiently close connection between information stored on the disc surface and information stored in the electronic circuit, so that they can not fully exploit advantages intrinsic to ID. Disclosure of Invention It is an object of the present invention to provide a recording medium including an electronic circuit which can exploit advantages of being able to easily provide control corresponding to characteristics of information stored in the information recording portion, thus eliminating the defect of the prior art. Another object of the invention is to provide a method for using such recording medium. To solve the above issues the recording medium of the present invention comprises an information recording portion for storing information and an electronic circuit portion for processing information, wherein the information to be reproduced in an external device is stored in the information recording portion and parameters for controlling reproduction of information in the external device is stored in the electronic circuit portion. In this instance, a plurality of the information are stored within the information recording portion and a plurality of the parameters are stored in the electronic circuit portion corresponding to a plurality of the information. Also, the electronic circuit portion further includes an examination means for examining characteristics of the external device. In one example, information to be reproduced in the external device is music information and the parameters for controlling reproduction include mixing control data. In another example, information to be reproduced by the external device is image information and the parameters for controlling reproduction include gradation data and color tone data. In other example, information to be reproduced by the external device is compressed information and the parameters for controlling reproduction include data on a compression format. Also, the recording medium is an optical disc . The method for using the recording medium of the present invention is a method for using a recording medium including an information recording portion for storing information and an electronic circuit portion for processing information, wherein information to be reproduced by an external device is stored in the information recording portion and parameters for controlling reproduction of information by the external device is stored in the electronic circuit portion , comprising a step of reproducing information in the external device using the parameters. In this instance, a plurality of the information are stored within the information recording portion and a plurality of the parameters are stored in the electronic circuit portion corresponding to a plurality of the information, whereby, in the step of reproduction, the information is reproduced by the external device using the parameters corresponding to the information. Also, the electronic circuit portion further includes an examination means for examining characteristics of the external device, whereby the step of reproduction further includes a step of selecting the information and the parameters suitable for the examined characteristics of the external device. Also, the recording medium is an optical disc. Other objects and features of the present invention will be apparent from the following drawings and detailed description of the preferred embodiment. Brief Description of Drawings FIG.l is a drawing illustrating a plan view of an intelligent disc of an embodiment of the present invention. FIG.2 is a drawing illustrating an inner construction of the intelligent disc of an embodiment of the present invention. FIG.3 is a drawing illustrating an audio equipment in an embodiment of the present invention. FIG.4 is a drawing illustrating contents stored in an ID used in the audio equipment of FIG. 3. FIG.5 is a drawing illustrating another embodiment of the present invention in a video-TV combination. FIG.6 is a drawing illustrating contents stored in an ID used in the video-TV combination of FIG. 5. FIG.7 is a drawing illustrating an example of storing compressed data in another embodiment of the present invention. FIG.8 is a flow chart illustrating operational procedures in the video-TV combination in which the ID of the embodiment of the present invention works actively. Best Mode for Carrying Out the Invention A few embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. [An example of the ID construction of an embodiment] FIG. 1 is a plan view of an intelligent optical disc which is a type of the ID and is an embodiment of the present invention. ID 1 comprises a disc portion 3 or a disc surface for storing information and an intelligent circuit portion 2 mounted, for example, as in FIG. 1 at the center of the disc. In this embodiment, as shown in FIG. 1, circuit portion 2 is located at the center of the disc but there is no limitation on how to locate the circuit portion and it may be arranged to totally occupy whole single side of a disc or may be embodied in one of a plurality of layers by constructing a disc in a form of plurality of layers. FIG. 2 is a drawing illustrating the concept of construction of ID 1 in conjunction of an external device 10. In FIG. 2 an optical drive unit 11 is located in the external device 10 and it includes a pick-up (not shown) for reading or writing of information to or from disc portion 3 or a surface of the ID and a pick-up drive circuit (not shown) for driving the pick-up to seek information on the disc surface. The intelligent circuit portion 2 has a ROM 22 for storing fixed information as a minimum requirement but it may further includes a RAM 23 for temporary memory and a CPU 21 for running programs stored in ROM 22 and RAM 23, if required. A photocell 25 is provided as an independent power source which is provided in case ID side is required to have such a source. The intelligent circuit portion 2 exchanges information with ID interface 13 of the external device 10 through a system interface 24. If the circuit portion 2 has no CPU 21 but only ROM 22 AND RAM 23, the interface is controlled by the drive control 12 of the external device 10. The junction of the interface may be either of contact type or contactless type and also, may be either by bus coupling or by communication coupling. As for communication, either radio wave communication or light communication may be suitable. However, in the present invention it is not intended to implement major modification on a conventional external device 10, and it is suffice to introduce a simple system which is only required to add ID 1 to a conventional equipment. [an example of an audio equipment using ID] FIG. 3 illustrates an audio equipment as an example of a suitable application of the present invention. An audio equipment 30 has a conventional construction except that it has an ID interface 13 in a CD-ROM drive. In this case in the disc portion 3 of the ID 1 stored are data of a plurality of music pieces such as song 1, song 2 ••• etc. to be selected out of addresses stored in the directory as shown in the upper box of FIG. 4. On the other hand in ROM 22 or RAM 23 of the electronic circuit portion 2 recorded are data for mixing of music pieces recorded in the disc portion 3 , such as song 1 or song 2 as shown in the example 1 of the bottom boxes of FIG. 4, or parameters for reproduction of the music pieces to be used before mixing operation, such as reproduction parameters for song 1 and song 2 etc . , which are recorded corresponding to the music pieces in disc portion 3 as shown in the example 2 of the lower boxes of FIG. 4. Usually only a repertoire of music pieces belonging to one musical category tends to be recorded on a disc, so that only one mixing control data or parameter may be stored in the electronic circuit portion 2 in many cases. The drive control 12 or CPU 21, if it is included, reads out a song and a mixing control data (mixing date in the specification) or a sound reproduction parameter corresponding to the feature of the song for conducting reproduction or mixing control matching to the song. Depending on subjects of reproduction, such as classical music, jazz or folk song, or such back-ground sounds as birds song or murmur of a brook, such characteristics of sound as intensity, frequency, crispness and quality, for example, are diversified and in the case of ensemble, a different manner of mixing must be taken. In the present example, what kind of music is recorded in the disc part 3 is known at the time of recording and the best reproduction is achieved by memorizing, in the electronic circuit portion 2, the most appropriate parameters corresponding to the contents of recordings . Setting of the parameters may be done on the side of the audio equipment as has been done in the conventional equipment. In such a case switching can be made between an auto operation mode for use of information in the ID circuit portion and manual operation mode for use of a value set on the audio equipment . [examples of application in video-TV combination and personal computer] FIG. 5 shows another example of appropriate application of the present invention in a video-TV combination. A video-TV combination 50 has a conventional construction except that it has an ID interface 13 in a CD-ROM drive . In this case in the disc portion 3 of the ID 1 stored are data of a plurality of image information such as image 1, image 2 etc. to be selected out of the addresses in a directory as shown in the upper box of FIG. 6. On the other hand in ROM 22 or RAM 23 of the electronic circuit portion 2 recorded are data for indicating gradation or tone of color of images recorded in the disc portion 3, such as image 1 or image 2 etc. as shown in the example 1 of the bottom boxes of FIG. 6, or parameters for reproduction of the images used in advance of adjustment operation on gradation or color tone, such as reproduction parameters for images 1 and 2 etc . which are recorded in correspondence to the images in the disc portion 3 as shown in the example 2 of FIG. 6. Similar to the case of an audio equipment, only one parameter may be recorded in the electronic circuit portion 2, if all the images in the disc portion 3 have similar characteristics. Depending on the characteristics of subjects of reproduction, such as image, game software, character broadcasting for display of catalogues or text, CAD representation, or animation movies or other movies, manner of processing of edge, color, scanning density, number of frames per second or the interlace operation can be diversified. In the present example, the best reproduction of images is achieved by memorizing, in the electronic circuit portion 2, the most appropriate parameters for reproducing the contents of recordings depending on what kind of images are recorded in the disc portion 3 of the ID 1. [example of storing into or retrieval out of ID of compressed data] FIG. 7 shows examples of contents stored in an ID for recording compressed data including aforementioned music or image data. In the upper box of FIG. 7 shown is the contents stored in the disc portion 3 of ID 1, where the compressed data is stored to be selected out of the addresses in a directory for reproduction. In ROM 22 or RAM 23 of the electronic circuit portion 2 of ID 1 recorded are data on the compression-decompression system of the compressed data or parameters required for compression-decompression operation as shown in the lower box in FIG. 7. By this construction, if compression parameters is formatted in a cipher, the compressed data in the disc portion 3 can not be retrieved without knowing corresponding information in electronic circuit portion 2, thus enabling to keep confidentiality or to prevent copying of the data stored in the disc portion 3. [example of an active ID system] FIG. 8 shows an example of operational procedures for a video-TV combination in which the electronic circuit portion 2 of ID 1 has a CPU 21 for active operation. In step S81 CPU 21 of electronic circuit portion 2 of ID 1 determines if ID 1 is inserted in ID drive or not. If inserted, the procedure goes to step S82 for checking information relating to difference on display control, such as model number, characteristics, manufacturer of the video-TV combination being used as the external device. In step S83 image data and parameters appropriate to characteristics of the video-TV combination 50 are selected from image data stored in the disc portion 3 and/or parameters stored in the electronic circuit portion 2 to start reproduction in step S84. In conjunction of image data selection, a plurality of images on the same story are recorded which are treated with various manners of processing. It is possible to store digital and analogue images, for example, corresponding to output devices. To cope with similar type of products of the video-TV combination 50, it may suffice to arrange to record only one kind of image, while parameters should be adapted to correspond to models to be used. A few examples of application of the present invention are presented in the description of embodiments but the present invention is intended to give a tip on how to use ID appropriately and it has concepts including other concrete applications . The present invention thus provides a recording medium including an electronic circuit which can exploit advantages of being able to easily provide control corresponding to characteristics of information stored in the information recording portion and a method for using such recording medium. The present invention is described referring to the preferred embodiments but it should be understood that the present invention is not limited to the specific embodiments described in this specification. To the contrary, the present invention is intended to cover various modifications and equivalent arrangements included within the spirit and scope of the claims.

Claims: CLAIMS 1. A recording medium, comprising: an information recording portion for storing information, and an electronic circuit portion for processing information, wherein the information to be reproduced by an external device is stored in said information recording portion and parameters for controlling reproduction of the information in said external device is stored in said electronic circuit portion. 2. A recording medium according to claim 1, wherein a plurality of said information are stored within said information recording portion and a plurality of said parameters are stored in said electronic circuit portion corresponding to a plurality of said information. 3. A recording medium according to claim 1, wherein said electronic circuit portion further includes an examination means for examining characteristics of said external device. 4. A recording medium according to claim 1, wherein information to be reproduced in said external device is music information and said parameters for controlling sound reproduction include mixing control data. 5. A recording medium according to claim 1, wherein said information to be reproduced in said external device is image information and said parameters for controlling image reproduction include gradation data and/or color tone data. 6. A recording medium according to claim 1, wherein information to be reproduced in said external device is compressed information and said parameters for controlling reproduction include data on the compression format . 7. A recording medium according to claim 1, wherein said recording medium is an optical disc . 8. A method for using a recording medium including information recording portion for storing information and an electronic circuit portion for processing information, wherein information to be reproduced by an external device is stored in said information recording portion and parameters for controlling reproduction of information in said external device is stored in said electronic circuit portion, comprising a step of reproducing said information in said external device using said parameters. 9. A method for using a recording medium according to claim 8, wherein a plurality of said information are stored within said information recording portion and a plurality of said parameters are stored in said electronic circuit portion corresponding to a plurality of said information, whereby in said step of reproduction said information is reproduced in said external device using said parameters corresponding to said information. 10. A method for using a recording medium according to claim 9, wherein, said electronic circuit portion further includes an examination means for examining characteristics of said external device, whereby said step of reproduction further includes a step of selecting said information and parameters suitable for examined characteristics of said external device. 11. A method for using a recording medium according to claim 8, wherein, said recording medium is an optical disc .

Inventors: KOMAKI TSUNEMATSU, SAITO TETSUO, SHIGETOMI TAKASHI, KOMAKI, TSUNEMATSU, SAITO, TETSUO, SHIGETOMI, TAKASHI
Applicants: OPTROM KK, KABUSHIKI KAISHA OPTROM
Application year: 1998
Main classification: G11B19
IPC codes: G06F3, G11B7, G11B19, G11B20, G11B23