This invention pertains to a process for selecting a recording on a digital audiovisual reproduction system with a touch screen, and the system for implementing the process.
Such audiovisual reproduction systems are generally found in cafes or pubs and are composed of a sound reproduction machine, generally referred to as a jukebox, connected to a monitor that displays video images or video clips. To do this, the jukebox is equipped with a video compact-disk reader and a library of video compact disks and includes pre-selection buttons that show the titles of the works of music that are to be selected. Payment of an adequate fee, followed by one or more pre-selections, activates the system, whereby the disk on which the selected work is found is automatically loaded into the reader, and the desired audiovisual reproduction can began.
Although these systems allow reliable and good-quality reproduction, they still have some serious drawbacks. A first drawback relates to the space that is required for storing the library. The library of disks requires that the system be of significant size. Likewise, these systems, which employ mainly mechanical hardware, use sophisticated techniques that lead to frequent and costly malfunctions. Moreover, it is quite uncommon for all of the works on a single disk to be listened to regularly, and some are almost never listened to, but the entire disk must be included in the library. Another drawback is due to the fact that the companies that manage and distribute these systems circulate a limited number of identical disks and require a certain amount of rotation among their clients. Consequently, the clients are sometimes made to wait when a disk is not available.
It is known from patent PCT/WO 93 184 65 that there are computerized jukeboxes that make it possible to receive, through a telecommunications network and a modem that connects the jukebox to the network, digitized information that comprises songs or works of music, which are remotely loaded into a bulk memory of the jukebox. The communication system can also remotely load files that are representative of digitized graphical data, whereby the songs and graphical files are compressed before they are sent onto the network. The jukebox processor then makes use of these files by decompressing them and sending the graphical data to the video circuit and the song data to the audio circuit.
The processor, however, also manages the user interfaces, and the management of these different elements is accomplished sequentially by displaying the graphic images that are representative of the song and then responding to the user's activation of the keys, then by re-loading if the user has paid the desired amount and, finally, when the desired amount has been paid, by placing the selection in a queue to be played later. Moreover, this system can operate only by first displaying the graphic images and then initiating the playback of the song because, according to the logic diagrams, the processor cannot execute two tasks at the same time.
The activation of the keys by a user requires a certain amount of training, is a source of errors, and also extends song selection time.