Audio recorder with retroactive storage
OwnerHenry C. Yuen, Philip P. Yueninventors
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An audio recorder with retroactive storage capability operates under control of a sound responsive switch to enter signals representative of the instantaneous amplitude of sound signals received by a microphone into a first-in first-out memory. When the memory is filled, digital signals representative of newly recorded sound supplant the oldest signals in the memory. An operator listening to the sound may retroactively capture signals representative of the most recently occurring sounds against erasure by depressing a pushbutton. Circuitry responsive to the resulting signal removes the most recently generated sound signals from the first-in first-out queue so that they may be later recalled to reproduce the sounds.
Claims20
An audio recorder, comprising, in combination:
- a microphone;
- an audio signal memory having a plurality of signal storage locations;
- circuitry for storing signals representative of the instantaneous output of the microphone in the memory in a queue served on a first-in first-out basis;
- an operator controlled switch connected to said circuitry for storing signals representative of the output of the microphone in the memory, said switch being operative to capture signals stored in the queue during a period of time previous to the actuation of the operator controlled switch so as to preserve said captured signals independently of the operation of said memory queue;
- said circuitry for storing signals representative of the output of the microphone in the memory including memory addressing means for updating the memory address each time a signal is stored in memory so that consecutive signals from the microphone are stored at different memory locations which constitute said queue, and said operator controlled switch causing said memory addressing means to bypass the section of the memory containing said signals to be captured from the first-in first-out queue;
- and
- means under operator control for generating an audio output based on said captured signals.
A method of storing audio information, comprising the steps of:
- receiving audio information into a first-in, first out buffer of a fixed length, the operation of said buffer being characterized in that once the buffer is filled, the oldest information is discarded as new information is received;
- receiving an operator command;
- preserving only the audio information contained within the buffer for a predetermined period of time immediately prior to receiving said command, thereby preventing the preserved information from being discarded through the operation of said buffer while continuing to receive new audio information into the first-in, first-out buffer, such that the oldest non-preserved information is discarded as the new information is received;
- and
- recalling said preserved information.
An audio recorder, comprising, in combination:
- a microphone;
- a first audio signal memory having a plurality of signal storage locations;
- circuitry for storing signals representative of the instantaneous output of the microphone in said first memory in a queue served on a first-in first-out basis;
- a second audio signal memory constituting nonvolatile storage outside of the first-in first-out queue, said audio signal memory comprising a magnetic tape, record and playback heads, and means for moving said tape relative to said record and playback heads;
- an operator controlled switch connected to said circuitry for storing signals representative of the output of the microphone in said first memory, said switch being operative to capture signals stored in said queue during a period of time previous to the actuation of the operator controlled switch, thereby preserving said captured signals independently of the operation of said memory queue in said second audio signal memory;
- and
- means under operator control for generating an audio output based upon said captured signals.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.