Patent ID: 7449627

Claim:
An audio signal reproducing apparatus comprising: a storage unit to store digital audio data of music pieces; a reproducing circuit to reproduce the digital audio data which has been selectively provided; a detecting unit to detect at least one walking tempo of a user; a calculating circuit to calculate a change in the walking tempo detected by the detecting unit; and a control circuit to retrieve the digital audio data from the storage unit in accordance with the walking tempo detected by the detecting unit and sending the retrieved digital audio data to the reproducing circuit, wherein the storage unit stores as the digital audio data, digital audio data of music pieces each having a tempo corresponding to either a first tempo or a second tempo of walking of the user, the second tempo being different from the first tempo, and digital audio data of a music piece having a tempo corresponding to a third tempo, the third tempo being intermediate between the first tempo and the second tempo, and wherein the control circuit, when the walking tempo of the user is the first tempo or the second tempo, retrieves the digital audio data of a music piece whose tempo corresponds to the first tempo or the second tempo, respectively, and sends the retrieved digital audio data to the reproducing circuit, when the walking tempo of the user changes from the first tempo to the second tempo and the change exceeds a predetermined threshold value, changes the digital audio data to be sent from the storage unit to the reproducing circuit, at the time point when the change in the walking tempo occurs, from the digital audio data of a music piece whose tempo corresponds to the first tempo to the digital audio data of a music piece whose tempo corresponds to the third tempo, so that the music piece whose tempo corresponds to the third tempo is sent from the storage unit to the reproducing circuit for a predetermined period, when the predetermined time has elapsed, changes the audio data to be sent from the storage unit to the reproducing circuit, from the digital audio data of a music piece whose tempo corresponds to the third tempo to the digital audio data of a music piece whose tempo corresponds to the second tempo, when the walking tempo of the user changes from the second tempo to the first tempo and the change exceeds a predetermined threshold value, changes the digital audio data to be sent from the storage unit to the reproducing circuit, at the time point when the change in the walking tempo occurs, from the digital audio data of a music piece whose tempo corresponds to the second tempo to the digital audio data of a music piece whose tempo corresponds to the first tempo, and wherein the calculating circuit obtains the change from a change in a detection output of the detecting unit over a predetermined time period.