Our Ballistic Brand of sound damping materials is now included in the Install Bay catalog. Heise 2023 Catalog Heise Municipality and Safety 2021 Catalog Heise Trailer 2020 Catalog
Rik Paul, who conducted our latest test, has edited this guide since its beginning, and was previously the automotive editor for Consumer Reports and the senior feature editor for Motor Trend, where he evaluated hundreds of car audio and infotainment systems. He avidly encourages the development of any technology that makes using a phone in the car easier and safer, and has been using Android Auto since it was introduced in 2015.
Pioneer Car Audio Catalog Pdf
"1. An on-vehicle multisource reproducing device including multiple audio sources (1, 19) one of which is a disk player and a selecting means (20) for selecting a reproduction signal from one of the audio sources (1, 19) and supplying the selected reproduction signal to a loudspeaker (22), the device comprising:
further characterised in that the disk player is a multidisk player, and in that the discriminating means is responsive to a detection that playing for an area of a series of group information is complete and still further characterised by control means (17) for performing such control that, with the special play mode set, the mode is changed to a pause mode at a time of playing the memory disk when the detecting means generates a detection output, and the special play mode is enabled only at a time of playing the audio disk, and further characterised in that the special play mode is an auto repeat play mode or a random play mode, and further characterised in that the series of group information is audio information for one piece of music in the case of the audio disk, and is a group of map data corresponding to a sheet of map in the case of the memory disk.
6. A digital disk player having signal reading means (34) for reading an information signal by rotating a loaded digital disk, decoding means (37) for decoding the information signal, signal processing means including digital-to-analogue conversion means (38) for reproducing a digital signal from the decoding means (37) as an audio signal, and
Prior art document D11 disclosed an on-vehicle multisource reproducing device as specified in the first paragraph of claim 1 in the form of a combined car radio and CD player provided with a manually operable selection button. Starting from this closest prior art the obvious problem addressed by the device specified in claim 1 was to automate the selection process so that insertion of a CD audio disc would cause the audio reproduction system to choose the CD as an audio source in place of the radio. The skilled person addressing this problem would find in D1 an appropriate way to solve this problem by recognising the presence of a CD on the basis of the synchronisation signal; cf D1, page 7, lines 1 to 12, (page references to D1 are to the English translation). There were then only two possibilities to be chosen from in applying the D1 teaching to the problem of automating the D11 radio/CD player selection; failure to recognise a CD in the player could result in either silence or selection of an alternative audio source - the radio. No inventive step was involved in making such a choice.
The problem solved by the disk player specified in this claim was the obvious one of providing a player which was marketable in the light of the existence of CDROMs likely to be inserted in the player. Discrimination between CD and CDROM was taught by D1. At page 7, lines 13 to 16 of D1 the disabling of typical CD player functions in response to detection of a CDROM was mentioned, which functions, although not explicitly referred to, would certainly include auto repeat play mode and random play mode. It was obvious that CD features not relevant for CDROM operation should be suppressed when the player detected that the inserted disk was a CDROM rather than a CD. Neither was an inventive step involved in arranging for a series of group information to relate to audio information relating to one piece of music in the case of a CD and to relate to map data in the case of CDROM, these being mere design choices for the person skilled in the art.
The claimed on-vehicle multisource reproducing device was not derivable for the person skilled in the art from the combination of prior art documents D11 and D1 relied on by the opponents. D11 disclosed a manually operated mechanical switch button for choosing between two in-car audio sources, viz radio and CD player. D1 disclosed a disk player which discriminated between CDs and CDROMs; when a CDROM was recognised, D1 taught that the reproduced signal should be muted at the output of the audio amplifier (D1, page 7, lines 9 to 17 and Figure 1). In fact the prior art acknowledged in the opposed patent at column 1, lines 17 to 49, was more relevant than either of the documents D1 or D11 to the invention of claim 1 as it related to an on-vehicle multisource reproducing device which was designed to make use of CDs and CDROMs as disk media alongside an AM/FM tuner.
The problem arising in such a system was referred to in the last paragraph of column 1, viz giving priority to the disk player for navigation purposes caused an unnecessary and disturbing loss of audio signal if in fact the user had been listening to the tuner. This was different from the problem of automation of CD/Radio selection suggested by the opponents, starting from D11. The key element of the solution of claim 1 was to delay selection of the audio source until the disk type was identified. There was no selection means in this sense in the prior art devices. In D11 the disk player and radio were mutually exclusive manual selections and the problem addressed in the opposed patent could not arise. Neither was the muting switch in D1 a selection means in the sense of claim 1 since it was not operative to choose between audio sources. Only an analysis based on hindsight could lead the person skilled in the art to select certain features of the prior art documents D11 and D1 and to modify them to arrive at the claimed solution.
The disk player specified in claim 5 was a multiple disk player which solved the problem that the repeat and shuffle commands appropriate for CDs could take over the map functions when a CDROM was selected. The audio muting solution of the prior art was not adequate as pointed out in the opposed patent at column 2, lines 47 to 53. The claim 5 solution involving inter alia a change to pause mode to prevent either loudspeaker noise or disturbing map function movements was therefore not derivable from the prior art teaching, quite apart from the additional features of claim 5 relating to advantageously managing potential conflicts between related CD music and CDROM map functions.
3.1.1. The opposition division in the decision under appeal, the appellant opponent (II) and opponent I have regarded D11 as closest prior art for claim 1. The latter document indisputably discloses "an on-vehicle multisource reproducing device including multiple audio sources one of which is a disk player", viz a car radio/CD player. It also discloses "selecting means for selecting a reproduction signal from one of the audio sources and supplying the selected reproduction signal to a loudspeaker" in the shape of a manual selection button marked R/CD on the front of the device. The respondent proprietor accepts that the D11 device can also be regarded as disclosing implicitly (as conventional) "means for detecting that loading a disk to a play position is complete and for generating a loading complete signal: control means for starting playing the disk in response to the loading complete signal". Starting from D11 the board agrees with the submission of the opponents that as soon as the CDROM became common the person skilled in the art would immediately realise that the prior art according to D11 would have to be modified to cope with the inevitable insertion of a CDROM instead of a CD into the disk player. The board also agrees with the contention that the skilled person would seek and find a solution to this problem by applying the teaching of prior art document D1. The latter discloses a circuit which discriminates between a CD and a CDROM inserted in a disc player on the basis of a synchronisation signal which is present on a CDROM but not on a CD and which mutes the output of the audio amplifier when a CDROM is detected. The board finds it plausible that in this situation the skilled person would apply the D1 teaching directly to the D11 device given that it would solve the above problem by providing the user with an immediate warning (silence instead of the expected sound) that he has inserted a non-audio disc.
3.1.2. The above reasoning does not, however, lead to the conclusion that the device specified in current claim 1 of the patent does not involve an inventive step. The claimed device solves a somewhat different problem, namely that in a further development of the D11 device where the disc player is adapted (also) to play a CDROM with map display information for vehicle navigation purposes, giving automatic priority to the disc player can give rise in some circumstances to an undesirable loss of audio signal (from the radio); cf description of the opposed patent, column 1, lines 42 to 58.
The solution taught by the opposed patent and specified in claim 1 is to intervene at the level of the source selecting means to cause the latter to select the reproduction signal from the disk player (1) only when the disk is an audio disk.
The board is persuaded by the respondent proprietor's submission that neither this problem nor its solution are derivable in an obvious manner from any prior art on file and in particular not from a combination of D11 and D1. D11 is not adapted to use a CDROM input and has only a manual audio source selection means which is not commandable in response to the nature of an inserted disk, while D1 does not have audio source selection means and teaches muting the output of the audio amplifier rather than non-selection. Thus, starting from D11, a plurality of steps and considerable hindsight would be involved - starting with the formulation of the problem - in arriving at the claimed device by applying the teaching of D1 to modify the D11 device. 2ff7e9595c
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