娛樂新概念 便攜式袖珍卡拉OK機

Love to sing? A Japanese toy maker will soon sell a portable, personal karaoke machine so you can belt out your favorite tunes anywhere, and without having to wait for the microphone.

The "Hi-kara" karaoke machine, by Takara Tomy, is a 7-cm cube which weighs less than a pound and works like a real machine.

Once the singer selects a song, which can be downloaded off the Internet or from special music cartridges, the lyrics come up on a 2.4-inch display. The machine also has headphones and speakers attached.

"Hi-kara" will go on sale in October for about $100, with song cartridges costing about $40 each.

Shigekazu Mihashi, marketing director at Takara Tomy, said that the machine was aimed at youngsters who could not go into karaoke booths or parlours.

According to Japanese law, youngsters under 16 must leave karaoke parlours by 6 p.m. while those aged under 18 can stay only until 11 p.m.

"Girls who are middle-school age and under can't go to karaoke parlors by themselves even if they wanted to sing, but now they can try it at home with this new karaoke machine," Mihashi said.

Japan is the birthplace of the first karaoke machine. Karaoke singing is popular all over the world, and especially in Asia where many families own personal karaoke machines and "KTV" lounges abound.

喜歡唱歌嗎？日本的一家玩具生產商即將推出一款便攜式私人卡拉OK機。有了它，你可以隨時隨地亮出歌喉，而無須排隊等候麥克風。

特佳麗多美玩具公司設計的“Hi-kara”袖珍卡拉OK機7釐米見方，重不到1磅，但功能和真正的卡拉OK機一樣好。

一旦演唱者選定一首歌曲，機器就會將其從網絡或特殊音樂庫上下載下來，歌詞即出現在2.4英寸的顯示屏上。該機器還附有耳機和喇叭。

“Hi-kara”將於10月發售，售價約100美元，附帶的歌曲庫售價約40美元。

特佳麗多美公司營銷主管三橋茂一表示，這種機器的目標人羣是被禁止進入卡拉OK廳的青少年。

按照日本法律，16歲以下青少年必須在下午6點之前離開卡拉OK廳，18歲以下的則必須在晚上11點之前離開。

茂一還表示，“十幾歲或更小一點的姑娘們喜歡k歌而又不能進卡拉OK廳的，可以通過這種新機器在家裏過過癮。”

日本是第一臺卡拉OK機的誕生地。卡拉OK之風如今已席捲全球，尤其是亞洲地區。在亞洲，KTV練歌房數不勝數，許多家庭也擁有私人卡拉OK機。