JP2003153139A - Image reproducing device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an image reproducing device in which a significant scene can be surely appreciated by marking a non-significant scene so that a viewer can surely reproduce the significant scene without being disturbed by marking and a user can speedily grasp the content constitution of the moving image of a digest or the like. SOLUTION: A degree of non-significance for a moving image is applied for each scene of the image by using an input means. A non-significance degree extracting means acquires a moving image to be watched from a storage means, finds the degree of non-significance applied for each scene of the moving image and outputs this degree to a reproduction control means. The reproduction control means fast forwards the scene added with the degree of non-significance and records a time t1, when the scene is not non-significant and at a time t2, when the scene becomes non-significant again, a moving image reproducing means is instructed to reproduce moving images from the time t1 to the time t2. The moving image reproducing means reproduces the moving images from the time t1 to the time t2 on a display means.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an apparatus for reproducing information from a recording medium, and more particularly to an image reproducing apparatus for indicating and reproducing unimportant information.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Recently, by using a function of recording an answering machine of a video, a desired television program can be watched at a desired place at a desired time without being in front of a TV at a predetermined broadcasting time. It is like this. On the other hand, on the other hand, there are quite a few cases in which programs that have been recorded as absent are left unattended without a sufficient time to watch them.
This is partly due to the fact that current video equipment lacks the function to quickly check the contents of video images. In reality, not all recorded programs are worth watching from the beginning to the end, and there are many cases where one wants to watch only partially interesting scenes. Watching the whole program for such short video footage is too time consuming.

In order to reduce the time for confirming the content of a program in the current video equipment, there is a method of playing back a recorded video image at high speed. There are also devices that have the ability to check audio even at double speed playback.

[0004] Further, there have been many proposals of apparatuses for marking important scenes in some form or providing a system for visualizing the markings and displaying them on a screen. For example, on the assumption that subtitles appear on the screen as an important scene, in the moving image search device of Japanese Patent Publication No. 07-192003, a series of frame images captured as digital images are determined by a luminance determination and a frame collation. By detecting a frame image with high-luminance pixels that appear at the same position in the frame image, images with subtitles are extracted from the moving image and displayed as a list, allowing the user to easily find the desired scene. Devices have been proposed to enable removal. Also, JP-A-9-6528
In the method and apparatus for detecting a characteristic scene of a moving image disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No. 7, there is a method of determining that a scene having a special effect such as dissolve is important and marking the scene in the moving image as important. Proposed.

[0005]

However, when there are markings such as subtitles and telops in important scenes,
There are cases where important characters or objects are reflected in places hidden by the marking. At this time, the important characters and objects are hidden by the marking, and as a result, not only the marking effect, which should indicate the important scene, does not appear, but also the opposite effect occurs.

The object of the present invention is to solve the problems in the prior art as described above, and by marking unimportant scenes,
It is intended that the viewer can surely reproduce an important scene and that the viewer can quickly grasp the content structure of a moving image such as a digest.

[0007]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to eliminate the drawbacks of the above conventional example. That is, with respect to a moving image, a means for displaying the moving image by dividing it into scenes or frames, a means for inputting a non-importance level to each scene or frame, and a non-important point for each scene or frame in the moving image. Degree marking means, means for receiving moving image playback instructions from video viewers, means for playing back and fast-forwarding the moving images, and scenes or frames considered to be insignificant It has means for changing the marking indicating the non-importance immediately before the transition to the scene or frame, means for fast-forwarding the non-important scene or frame, and means for playing back a scene other than the non-important scene or frame.

[0008]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

As shown in FIG. 1, the image reproducing apparatus according to the present invention has a storage means 1 such as a hard disk for storing and storing a digitally recorded moving image and a program for controlling the apparatus, and is not important for the moving image. Input means 2 such as a button or a keyboard for inputting the degree marking, a non-importance degree determining means 3 for determining whether or not the non-importance degree marking is applied to each scene of the moving image, and fast forward and rewind A reproduction control unit 4 for controlling reproduction for performing the reproduction, a moving image reproduction unit 5 for reproducing a moving image under the control of the reproduction control unit 4, a display unit 6 such as a television for displaying the reproduced moving image, and the like. The central processing unit 7 for controlling the means 1 to 6 is provided. In the present invention, the program for controlling these means 1 to 6 is read from the storage means 1 and controlled by the central processing unit 7.

As long as the functions of the present invention are executed, each means may be a single device existing in one housing, a system composed of a plurality of devices, a LAN, etc. It goes without saying that the present invention can be applied to a system in which processing is performed via a network.

As a method of expressing the degree of non-importance of a moving image, marking is applied to an unimportant scene or frame by the input means 2 in advance. As will be described later, in this embodiment, a star mark is used in the upper left of the screen as a marking. However, it is only necessary for the viewer to visually recognize that the expression is not important, and the effect of the present invention can be obtained by using other expressions. Does not affect. Regarding the non-importance level, for example, in the moving image search device disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 07-192003, the importance level is high in a scene in which subtitles appear. However, in the present invention, the marking is performed based on, for example, the subjectivity of the input person, but the standard or method is not particularly defined.

The target moving image and the method of storing the non-importance level for the moving image may be stored in the same area in the storage means 1, or if they are related, they may be stored in the storage means 1 separately. May be stored in the area. An example of a concrete description method will be described in the description of FIG.

The non-importance degree judging means 3 reads the accumulated information of the moving image to be browsed from the accumulating means 1, judges whether or not the non-importance degree marking is applied to each scene or frame of the moving image, and marks it. If it is 1, otherwise 0 is output to the reproduction control means 4 as a value of non-importance.

The operation of the reproduction control means 4 changes depending on the value of the non-importance level. That is, when the degree of non-importance is 1, the moving image reproducing means 5 is instructed to fast-forward the moving image, and when the degree of non-importance is 0, the moving image reproducing means 5 reproduces and displays the moving image on the display means 6.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing the structure of the user interface, that is, the input means 2 and the display means 6. 5 illustrates a scene in which a non-importance degree is input after being divided into scenes of a moving image in the flowchart illustrated in FIG. 4. An image representing a scene is shown on the display means, and the degree of importance is input using the input means 2. Note that a method of selecting a representative image of each scene in a moving image is described in, for example, IPSJ Journal Vol. 33, No.
The "automatic indexing method and object search method in color video images" described in Section 4 is used, but this apparatus does not specifically define it.

FIG. 3 shows an example of a format in which the degree of insignificance is described for a moving image and a screen displaying the format. The title name of the moving image is described in the place of the moving image name, and is "Arabic language course beginner part 1" in the example. In this example, a title name is used to establish a relationship with the moving image. It is described as a pair of time and importance from the bottom of the title name. In the example, time 0 to 2 is important, time 15 to 20 is unimportant, time 20 to 3
0 indicates that it is important. In this case, time 0
In the scenes of 2 and times 20 to 30, a star sign is displayed at the upper left of the screen as an unimportant mark. As described above, the effect of the present invention is not affected even if it is embedded in a moving image in such a format, or if it is saved in the storage means 1 as a separate file if it is associated with the moving image. Absent.

The operation of this apparatus will be described with reference to the flow chart.

First, FIG. 4 is a flow chart showing a process for giving a non-importance degree to each scene of the moving image to which the non-importance degree has not been given. In step S4-1, the central processing unit 7 divides the target moving image into scenes and displays a representative image of each scene on the display unit 6. The method of dividing a moving image into scenes and the method of selecting a representative image are described in, for example, the IPSJ journal Vol. 33 No. The method described in 4 "Automatic indexing method and object search method in color video image" is used, but not specifically defined in the present invention. Step S
In 4-2, the input person uses the input means 2 to receive a value for inputting the non-importance degree to each scene. In step S4-3, it is determined whether the scene is unimportant based on the unimportance degree received in step 4-2. If not important, the process proceeds to step S4-4. In step S4-4, a mark 101 indicating that the scene is not important is marked and stored in the storage means 1. In step S4-5, it is determined whether the input person has finished inputting the insignificance levels for all the scenes. If it is finished, this process is terminated.
If not completed, the process returns to step S4-2.

In the embodiment according to claim 1, the present invention is configured so that the viewer controls the reproduction and the fast-forward while searching for the marking of the non-importance while looking at the image.

FIG. 5 shows a scene that is considered to be important from a scene that is not important with respect to the degree of non-importance of the moving image input by the procedure according to the flowchart in FIG. 4 in the embodiment according to claim 2. 7 is a flowchart of a process of changing the marking displayed on the screen immediately before shifting to. In step S5-1, a scene is detected from the moving image to which the non-importance degree is given in the previous procedure. The scene detection method is not particularly defined in the present invention as described in the above procedure. In step S5-2, step S5-1
It is determined whether the scene detected in step S4-2 is the unimportant scene determined in step S4-2. If it is not a non-important scene, the process returns to step S5-1. If it is a non-important scene, the process proceeds to step S5-3. In step S5-3, the currently handled scene is buffered in the storage unit 1. In step S5-4, the next scene is detected from the moving image. In step S5-5, it is determined whether the scene detected in step 5-4 is a non-important scene. If the scene is not important, the process returns to step S5-3.
If it is not a non-important scene, the process proceeds to step S5-6. In step S5-6, the scene buffered in step S5-3 is taken out from the accumulating means 1, and step S4
The second half of the non-important mark 101 marked with -3 is changed to another non-important mark 102. Here, it is assumed that the mark 102 is changed to another mark 102 in the latter half of the scene, but the effect of the present invention can be achieved as long as it is visible to humans, that is, the change time to another mark 102 is particularly specified in the present invention. Not a thing. In step S5-7, it is determined whether the moving image has ended. If completed, this procedure is completed. If not completed, step S5-
Return to 1.

FIG. 6 is a flow chart relating to a process of reproducing a moving image in the embodiment according to claim 3. In step S6-1, the input means 2 by the video viewer is used.
Receives an instruction to reproduce a moving image. Step S6-2
Then, the non-importance degree is sent from the accumulation means 1 to the importance degree extraction means 3. In step S6-3, the moving image is sent from the accumulating unit 1 to the moving image reproducing unit 5 and fast-forwarding is started. At this point of time, the moving image is not displayed on the reproducing means 5. Step S
At 6-4, it is determined whether or not the moving image which is currently fast-forwarding is completed to the end. If so, this process ends.
If not completed, the process proceeds to step S6-5. In step S6-5, the non-importance degree for each time t is sent from the non-importance degree extraction means 3 to the reproduction control means 4. In step S6-6, it is determined whether or not the non-importance level sent from the non-importance level extraction means 3 to the reproduction control means in step S6-5 is zero. As a result of the determination, if the degree of non-importance is 0, the process proceeds to step S6-7, and if it is small, the process returns to step S6-4.
In step S6-7, the time t1 sent to the reproduction control means in step S6-5 is recorded in the reproduction control means 4.
In step S6-8, it is determined whether or not the moving image currently being reproduced is completed to the end. If not completed, the process proceeds to step S6-9. If finished, step S6-11
Move on to. In step S6-9, the non-importance degree for each time t is sent from the non-importance degree extraction means 3 to the reproduction control means 4. In step S6-10, it is determined whether or not the non-importance level sent from the non-importance level extraction means 3 to the reproduction control means 4 in step S6-9 is zero. As a result of the determination, if the degree of non-importance is not 0, the process proceeds to step S6-11, and if it is 0, the process returns to step S6-8. In step S6-11, step S
The time t2 determined in 6-10 is recorded in the reproduction control means 4. At step S6-12, the time t1 recorded at step S6-7 and the time t2 recorded at step S6-11 are taken out from the reproduction control means 4, and the moving image is reproduced at time t.
The moving image reproducing means 5 is instructed to reproduce at the normal speed from the time point of 1 to the time t2. In step S6-13, the moving image reproducing means 5 reproduces the moving image from the position at time t1 at the normal speed. When the moving image reproducing means 5 finishes the reproduction by the time t2, it moves to step S6-3.

In this embodiment, the non-importance level is given by the photographer or another person after photographing, but the photographer inputs it in advance at the time of photographing for each scene of the image. It is also possible to configure the embodiment so as to be added to the above.

In this embodiment, the importance is given to each scene of the moving image, but the embodiment can be constructed by giving the importance in frame units.

Further, the present invention supplies a storage medium having a program code of software for realizing the functions of the above-described embodiment to a system or apparatus, and the computer (or CPU or MP of the system or apparatus).
It goes without saying that U) is achieved by reading and executing the program code stored in the storage medium. In this case, the program code itself read from the storage medium realizes the novel function of the present invention, and the storage medium storing the program code constitutes the present invention.

As the storage medium for supplying the program code, for example, a floppy (registered trademark) disk, a hard disk, an optical disk, a magneto-optical disk, C
D-ROM, CD-R, DVD, magnetic tape, non-volatile memory card. A ROM or the like can be used.

Further, the functions of the above-described embodiments are realized by executing the program code read by the computer, and the operating system and the like running on the computer are actually executed based on the instructions of the program code. A part or all of the processing is performed, and the functions of the above-described embodiments can be realized by the processing.

Further, after the program code read from the storage medium is written in the memory provided in the function expansion board inserted into the computer or the function expansion unit connected to the computer, based on the instruction of the program code. The CPU included in the function expansion board or the function expansion unit performs a part or all of the actual processing, and the processing can realize the functions of the above-described embodiments.

According to the present invention, the program is distributed to the requester from a storage medium recording the program code of the software that realizes the functions of the above-described embodiments to a requester via a communication line such as personal computer communication or the Internet. It goes without saying that it can also be applied to cases.

[0029]

According to the present invention, the viewer can surely appreciate an important scene without being influenced by additional information such as marking, and the user can quickly grasp the content structure of a moving image such as a digest. effective.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the overall configuration.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a user interface portion.

FIG. 3 is an example of a format for describing the importance level of a moving image and an importance level display screen.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart related to input of importance of each scene.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart of a procedure for rewriting a marking when moving from an unimportant scene to an important scene.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing a movement when the present apparatus reproduces a moving image.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 storage means 2 input means 3 Importance extraction means 4 Reproduction control means 5 Video playback means 6 Display means 7 Central processing unit

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Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A means for dividing and displaying a moving image for each scene or frame, a means for inputting a non-importance degree to each scene or frame, and a marking of the non-importance degree for each scene or frame on the moving image. An image reproducing apparatus having: means for performing a moving image, means for receiving a moving image reproducing instruction from a moving image viewer, and means for reproducing and fast-forwarding the moving image. 2. Means for changing markings indicating insignificance immediately before transitioning from scenes or frames that are said to be insignificant to scenes or frames that are deemed to be important. Image playback device. 3. The image reproducing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising means for fast-forwarding a non-important scene or frame, and means for reproducing a scene other than the non-important scene or frame. 4. A recording medium having recorded therein a computer program for controlling the apparatus shown in each of the claims.