(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a semiconductor memory card for recording digital data representing audio data or image data, an apparatus for recording data onto the semiconductor memory card, and an apparatus for reproducing data stored in the semiconductor memory card.
(2) Description of the Prior Art
Atypical rewritable recording medium for recording digital data is an MD (Mini Disc) that has come into wide use. Portable MD recording/reproducing apparatuses that can record audio information from music CDs have also become prevalent.
Typical MDs have approximately 140 MB of storage capacity and can record approximately 74 minutes of music by recording compressed digital audio data. MDs can also record up to approximately 1,700 characters of information for showing tune titles, a disc title and the like, as well as audio information. The recorded character information often includes a mixture of hankaku katakana (Japanese. alphabet) characters, alphabets, numerals, and signs. It should be noted here that katakana characters used for computers are classified into hankaku katakana and zenkaku katakana characters. The hankaku katakana characters are represented by 1-byte character codes and displayed with a half width of zenkaku katakana. The zenkaku katakana is represented by 2-byte character codes. MD recording/reproducing apparatuses that can record hiragana (Japanese alphabet) characters and kanji characters (Chinese characters) have recently become commercially available.
However, the above conventional techniques have a problem that MD reproducing apparatuses (of the types that do not have Chinese character fonts), which can display only hankaku katakana characters, alphabets, numerals, and signs, cannot properly display hiragana and Chinese characters recorded in recording mediums. With such apparatuses, users cannot recognize tune titles and the like.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a semiconductor memory card which enables a recording/reproducing apparatus to display character information in the semiconductor memory card properly whether the recording/reproducing apparatus can display only hankaku katakana characters and alphanumerics or can display further hiragana and Chinese characters.
The above object is fulfilled by a semiconductor memory card for storing audio information with corresponding text information and type information, the type information indicating a type of the text information, wherein the type is classified into at least (a), (b), and (c) in which the text information respectively includes a 1-byte character code sequence, a 2-byte character code sequence, and a 1-byte character code sequence and a 2-byte character code sequence.
The above object is also fulfilled by a recording apparatus for recording audio information onto a semiconductor memory card which can be inserted into and/or removed from the recording apparatus, the recording apparatus comprising: a first recording device operable to record the audio information onto the semiconductor memory card; and a second recording device operable to record text information and type information both corresponding to the audio information onto the semiconductor memory card, wherein the type information indicates a type of the text information, the type being classified into at least (a), (b), and (c) in which the text information respectively includes a 1-byte character code sequence, a 2-byte character code sequence, and a 1-byte character code sequence and a 2-byte character code sequence.
The above object is also fulfilled by a reproducing apparatus for reading out audio information from a semiconductor memory card which can be inserted into and/or removed from the reproducing apparatus and. reproducing the read-out audio information, the reproducing apparatus comprising: a read-out device operable to read out the audio information, text information, and type information from the semiconductor memory card, wherein the type information indicates a type of the text information, the type being classified into at least (a), (b), and (c) in which the text information respectively includes a 1-byte character code sequence, a 2-byte character code sequence, and a 1-byte character code sequence and a 2-byte character code sequence; a reproducing device operable to reproduce the read-out audio information; and a control device operable to control a display unit to display either a 1-byte character code sequence or a 2-byte character code sequence in accordance with the read-out type information.
With the above construction, the semiconductor memory card can record the text information properly when the type of the text information is (a), (b), or (c). Therefore, the text information recorded in the semiconductor memory card is properly displayed by a recording/reproducing apparatus by referring to the type information when the recording/reproducing apparatus supports (1) a 1-byte character code sequence, (2) a 2-byte character code sequence, or (3) both a 1-byte character code sequence and a 2-byte character code sequence.
In the above semiconductor memory card, the type information may include a first attribute and a second attribute, the first attribute showing whether the text information includes a 1-byte character code sequence, and the second attribute showing whether the text information includes a 2-byte character code sequence, and the first attribute, the second attribute, and a combination of the two attributes respectively indicate the types (a), (b), and (c).
With the above construction, the reproducing apparatus can easily determine the type out of the types including (a) to (c) by referring to the first attribute, the second attribute, and a combination of the first attribute and the second attribute read out from the semiconductor memory card.
In the above semiconductor memory card, the text information may be stored in a text storage area, which is a part of the semiconductor memory card, consecutively from the start of the text storage area, the type information is a first terminated code and a second terminated code which are included in the text information, the first terminated code is stored at the start of the text storage area when the text information stored in the text storage area does not include a 1-byte character code sequence, and is stored in the text storage area at the end of a 1-byte character code sequence when the text information stored in the text storage area includes the 1-byte character code sequence, the second terminated code is stored in the text storage area at a position immediately after the first terminated code when the text information stored in the text storage area does not include a 2-byte character code sequence, and is stored in the text storage area at the end of a 2-byte character code sequence when the text information stored in the text storage area includes the 2-byte character code sequence, and combinations of what is stored at the start of the text storage area, a storage position of the first terminated code, and a storage position of the second terminated code indicate the types (a), (b), and (c).
With the above construction, the reproducing apparatus can easily determine the type out of the types including (a) to (c) from the combinations of what is stored at the start of the text storage area, a storage position of the first terminated code, and a storage position of the second terminated code.
In the above semiconductor memory card, the 1-byte character code sequence may include pairs of a 1-byte tag and a plurality of 1-byte character codes, the 1-byte tag indicating a name of an item, and the plurality of 1-byte character codes indicating a content of the item, and the 2-byte character code sequence includes pairs of a 2-byte tag and a plurality of 2-byte character codes, the 2-byte tag indicating a name of an item, and the plurality of 2-byte character codes indicating a content of the item.
With the above construction, each of the 1-byte character code sequence and the 2-byte character code sequence includes pairs of a tag and a character code sequence, the tag indicating a type of an item, and the character code sequence indicating a content of the item. As a result, the area for storing the character information is used with efficiency.