JPH05143406A - Information reproducing device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To effectively utilize a memory area by temporarily interrupting an information reproduction processing when a terminal address is obtained from directory information, and starting the reproduction processing from the leading address information of the next reading order to record, read and reproduce divided data to discontinuous memory areas. CONSTITUTION:A recording/reproducing operation is executed while inserting a memory card 14 to a card interface 13 of a main body 100 of an electronic still camera. When recording information separately in the discontinuous recording areas of the memory card 14, the reading order of the divided areas is shown. For example, the leading address and terminal address of the relevant divided area for the memory management information and directory information, etc., of an FAT or the like are recorded. The reading and reproducing order of the divided areas is decided based on the FAT. When the terminal address is obtained from the directory information, the information reproduction processing is temporarily interrupted, and the reproduction processing is started from the leading address information in the area of the next reading order. Thus, the memory areas are effectively utilized.

Description

Description: BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an information reproducing apparatus,
In particular, the present invention relates to an information reproducing apparatus that effectively utilizes a memory area for recording information. 2. Description of the Related Art For example, in an electronic still camera, image data obtained by converting a subject image into a digital electric signal is subjected to compression processing and recorded in a memory card (recording medium) such as an IC card, During reproduction, the original image is reproduced by subjecting the image data read from the memory card to expansion processing. In the above-mentioned conventional electronic still camera, when recording compressed image data in a memory card, a file of one image data is sequentially recorded in a continuous area, and at the time of reading, reading from the continuous area is performed. As described above, in the conventional electronic still camera, it is premised that the recording of one image data file is sequentially performed in a continuous area. By the way, since the subjects are all different,
Image data sufficient to reproduce the subject image with appropriate image quality (definition) generally does not have a fixed length, and therefore the recording area for such data is not constant. Therefore, when the same memory area is repeatedly used for recording so that the recorded data is erased and new data is re-recorded after recording on the memory card, the image data lengths are different, so that one image data recording area is It rarely coincides with other video data recording areas, and when the newly recorded image data length is long, the one image data recording area is insufficient. In this case, that area is vacant and must be recorded in another recording area. As a result, the recording area actually used in the memory area is in a toothless state, and it is impossible to effectively use the memory area. Since the format of data recorded on such a memory card is the same as the data format of a personal computer, data from the personal computer is often recorded on the memory card. On a personal computer, usually 1
In many cases, one piece of data is divided and recorded in discontinuous recording areas. However, since the conventional electronic still camera does not assume the case where one data file is divided, such a state cannot be dealt with and there is a problem in terms of usability. The problems described above are not limited to electronic still cameras, but are common to other information reproducing apparatuses that record image and audio data in a recording medium, read the data from the recording medium, and reproduce the data. Therefore, an object of the present invention is to enable recording, reading, and reproduction of divided data in a discontinuous memory area,
An object of the present invention is to provide an information reproducing device that effectively utilizes a memory area. In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the information reproducing apparatus according to the present invention has an information recording medium of the information recording medium so as to represent one information by being read and restored in a predetermined order sequence. Division information recorded separately in a plurality of discontinuous areas, first sub-information representing the above-mentioned sequence related to the recording areas of the plurality of division information, and a start address for each recording area of each division information An information reproducing apparatus to which an information recording medium on which second sub-information indicating the end address and the second sub-information indicating the end address are respectively applied can be provided, and information read from a recording area sequentially specified based on the first sub-information is supplied. Information restoration processing means for performing information restoration processing on the information and the end area of the recording area to which the information supplied to the information restoration processing means and to which the information restoration processing belongs belongs. A termination address recognition storage means for recognizing and temporarily storing a dress based on the second sub information, and an address of information to be subjected to sequential information restoration processing by the information restoration processing means is the termination address recognition storage. When the end address temporarily stored by the means is reached, the information restoring processing stopping means for temporarily stopping after executing the information restoring processing by the information restoring processing means on the information of the end address, and the information restoring processing stopping means The information restoration processing in the information restoration processing means that has been temporarily stopped by the head is recognized based on the second sub-information for the next recording area in the order sequence recognized based on the first sub-information. And an information restoration process resuming means for resuming from the address information. According to the present invention, when the information is divided and recorded in the discontinuous recording area of the recording medium, the reading order of the divided areas is shown.
For example, the start address and end address of the divided area such as memory management information such as FAT and directory information are also recorded, and the reading and reproducing order of the divided area is determined based on the FAT, which is the end address obtained from the directory information. At times, the information reproducing process is temporarily interrupted, and the reproducing process is performed from the head address information of the region in the next read order, thereby effectively utilizing the memory region. The present invention will now be described in detail with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a configuration block diagram showing an embodiment of an information reproducing apparatus according to the present invention, and shows an application example to an electronic still camera. In this embodiment, when image data is recorded on a memory card, the recording status is managed by FAT (File Allocation Tabl) of the DOS system in the personal computer field.
e) A system or similar memory management system is used. By adopting such a memory management system, reproduction can be performed when the area where the data is recorded as a file is discontinuous, that is, when the data is divided into several parts and recorded in separate recording areas. Is also possible. In FIG. 1, reference numeral 100 denotes an electronic still camera main body, and a memory card 14 as a recording medium is a main body 1.
No. 00 card interface (I / F) 13 for recording / reproducing operation. The image of the subject is the lens 1
An image is formed on an image pickup device such as a CCD, which forms a part of the image pickup circuit 2 via, and is output to the A / D converter 3 as an image signal. The image data obtained by being converted into a digital signal by the A / D converter 3 is temporarily recorded in the RAM 4.
The image data read from the RAM 4 is converted into an analog signal by the D / A converter 5, and then subjected to predetermined encoding processing by the video encoder 6 and output as a video signal. At this time, at the time of reproducing a frame in the recording area in which the image data is not recorded, the mute processing is performed by the video encoder 6 by the mute signal from the system control circuit 10. Further, the image data read from the RAM 4 in block units is subjected to a predetermined orthogonal transform process such as DCT (Discrete Cosine Transform) in the compression / expansion circuit 7 to be data-compressed, and the data is passed through the bus interface 8 and the bus B. Is sent to the card interface 13. The compressed image data sent via the bus B is recorded in the memory card 14 mounted in the card interface 13. On the other hand, the image data read from the memory card 14 via the card interface 13 during reproduction is supplied to the compression / expansion circuit 7 via the bus B and the bus interface 8 and expanded corresponding to the compression processing. Processing is performed. In this way, the image data subjected to the expansion processing is recorded in the RAM 4. From the image data read from the RAM 4, a video signal is obtained through the processing of the D / A converter 5 and the video encoder 6 as described above. The system control circuit 10 receives operation information or the like from the operation switch 11 and supplies a predetermined control signal to each unit of the electronic still camera to totally control the entire element. As will be described later, the comparison circuit 9 compares the data on the address bus with the data set by the system control circuit 10, and when they match, sends a match signal to the compression / expansion circuit 7 and the system control circuit 10. FIG. 2 shows an example in which image data is recorded as a data file in a discontinuous recording area of a memory card. In the figure, the shaded area indicates a file recording area for one image data, and one image data is divided into three areas and recorded across three separate recording areas (clusters). The connection between the divided clusters is designated by a pointer. FIG. 3 shows the data arrangement in the memory card. In this embodiment, the FAT system of a personal computer is adopted, and a boot sector in which the size of the management area and various parameters are recorded is arranged at the head portion.
Subsequently, a FAT area, a rud directory area, and finally an image data recording area are arranged. The detailed structure of the root directory is shown in FIG. 4 as the format of the directory entry. As shown in FIG. 4, a directory name, an attribute, a reservation, a time, a date, a start cluster indicating a pointer to a FAT, and a file size are defined in byte correspondence. The photographed image data is registered as a file in the directory. However, in the case of a memory card in which no image data is recorded, there is no registered file in the directory. The image data is sequentially registered as a file in the directory each time it is recorded on the memory card. The image data file registered in the directory is associated with FAT by the start cluster,
The amount of data is registered in the size section of the file. FIGS. 5A and 5B are correspondence diagrams of the FAT and the data area. As shown in (A), the FAT entry is made up of cells divided for example every 12 bits, and is made up of 0, 1, 2, ..., 7, 8 ,. As shown in (B), the data area of the first frame is the FAT entry 2
In the next data area, the unused area in which the image data is not recorded is the FAT entry 3, and the second frame is the FAT.
The image data of the first frame is recorded in the data area subsequent to the entry 4 and corresponds to the FAT entry 5.
Similarly, the image data for the second frame is recorded in the next data area, and the remaining image data for the first frame is recorded in the FAT entry 6, corresponding to the FAT entry 7. The next data area is an unused area and is FAT
Corresponds to entry 8. That is, in the example shown in FIG. 5, the image data of the first frame is divided into three and recorded in the FAT entries 2, 5 and 7, respectively, and the image data of the second frame is divided into two and divided into the FAT entries 4 and 6, respectively. It is recorded. The FAT entries 3 and 8 are unused areas in which image data is not recorded. At this time,
As shown in (A), the pointer is used to instruct the FAT entry in which the subsequent data included in the same image data file is recorded, and “FFFH” indicates the final entry of the image data. Further, "000H" represents an unrecorded area. In this way, by checking the FAT area, it is possible to know what kind of image data is recorded in the data area. Therefore, data can be recorded by checking and adjusting the unused area and registering it in the directory. At the time of reproduction, the storage area of the recorded image data can be known by checking the directory. The operation of this embodiment will be described below with reference to the flow charts of FIGS. FIG. 6 shows a processing procedure of a reproducing operation in the case where one image data is divided into a plurality of pieces and each piece is recorded in a discontinuous recording area of the memory card. First, after searching for the highest frame number (NO.) From the directory (step S1), the frame number. Is set to 1 (step S2), and the frame No.
Is displayed on the display unit 12 (step S3). Next, the frame No. (The directory "1" at this time) is read (step S4), and it is determined whether or not the directory is recorded (step S5). Here, if unrecorded,
A mute signal is sent to the video encoder 6 to perform a mute operation (step S7), and if recorded, data expansion processing described later is performed (step S6). When the process of step S6 or step S7 is completed, it is determined whether or not the up switch (UP SW) of the operation switch section 11 is operated (step S8). Is incremented by 1 (step S1
0), if not operated, down switch (DOW
It is determined whether the N SW) is operated (step S9). If the down switch is not operated, the process returns to step S8 for determining whether or not the up switch is operated. If the down switch is operated, the frame No. Is decremented by 1 (step S11). Step S
After the processing of 10 or step S11 is completed, the processing returns to step S3. The detailed processing of the data decompression processing S6 will be described with reference to FIGS. 7 and 8. In the data decompression process, first, the position of the first cluster is calculated from the directory and stored in the RAM incorporated in the system control circuit 10 (step S
101), the top cell of the FAT is read (step S
102). This processing is performed by the FAT entry (cell) in FIG.
It corresponds to reading 2. Next, in order to determine whether or not the read cell is the final block (frame), "FFF
It is determined whether or not it is "H" (step S103), and "FFF
If it is H ", the final address of the cluster is calculated and RAM
(Step S104), and if not, it is determined whether or not it is a pointer to the next cell (step S105).
If it is determined to be the pointer to the next cell, the data in the cell pointed to by the pointer is read out (step S10).
8) and returns to the process of step S103. On the other hand, if it is not the pointer to the next cell, the final address of the cluster is calculated and stored in RAM (step S106), and then the start address of the corresponding cluster of the cell pointed to by the pointer is calculated and stored in RAM ( Step S107), and the process of step S108 is performed. When the final address of the cluster is calculated in step S104, the head address of the data is set in the bus interface 8 as shown in FIG. 8 (step S1
09), the end address of the block is set in the comparison circuit 9 (step S110), and the decompression process is started (step S111). Next, it is determined whether or not the address of the data currently being processed matches the address set in the comparison circuit 9 (step S112). When they match, the decompression process is suspended and the final block It is determined whether or not the processing is completed (step S
113). If it is determined to end in step S113, the process ends. If not, the start address of the next block is set in the bus interface 8 (step S114), and the end address of the block is compared to the comparison circuit 9
Is set (step S115). Then, the decompression process is continued (step S116), and the process returns to step S112. In the above description of the embodiments, the image data is described as the data, but it is obvious that the present invention is not limited to the image data of the present invention and is applied to other data such as audio data. It can also be applied to the case of one continuous file. Furthermore, it goes without saying that the present invention can be applied to the case of recording data in the discontinuous area. As described above, when the information reproducing apparatus according to the present invention divides and records information in a discontinuous recording area of a recording medium, it indicates the reading order of the divided areas, for example, F.
Memory management information such as AT and the beginning address and end address of the divided area such as directory information are also recorded, the reading and reproducing order of the divided area is determined based on FAT, and when the end address is obtained from the directory information. Since the information reproduction processing is temporarily suspended and the reproduction processing is performed from the start address information of the area in the next read order, the memory area can be effectively used and the memory can be commonly used in the personal computer field. Next to
Operability is significantly improved.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a configuration block diagram showing an embodiment of an information reproducing apparatus according to the present invention. FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a memory space in which one image data file is divided and recorded in a divided area of a memory card. FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of data arrangement in a memory card. FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a format of a directory entry. FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a relationship between a FAT and a data area. 6 is a flowchart showing a reproduction processing procedure in the embodiment of FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing a data decompression processing procedure in the reproduction processing of FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing a data decompression processing procedure in the reproduction processing of FIG. [Explanation of Codes] 1 Lens 2 Imaging Circuit 3 A / D Converter 4 RAM 5 D / A Converter 6 Video Encoder 7 Compression / Expansion Circuit 8 Bus Interface 9 Comparison Circuit 10 System Control Circuit 11 Operation Switch 12 Display 13 Card Interface 14 Memory card

Claims (1)

Claims: Division information recorded in a plurality of discontinuous areas of an information recording medium so as to represent one piece of information by being read / restored in a predetermined order sequence, and the division information It is possible to apply an information recording medium in which the first sub-information representing the above-mentioned sequence sequence and the second sub-information representing the start address and the end address of each recording area of each divided information are recorded in relation to the recording area. Information reproducing device, which is supplied with information read from a recording area sequentially specified based on the first sub-information and restores information about the information, and the information restoring processing means. End address recognition record for recognizing and temporarily storing the end address of the above-mentioned recording area to which the information supplied to and to which the information is to be restored belongs based on the second sub information. And the information restoration processing means, when the address of the information to be sequentially subjected to the information restoration processing means reaches the termination address temporarily stored in the termination address recognition storage means. The information restoration processing stopping means for temporarily stopping the restoration processing after executing the restoration processing for the information of the end address, and the information restoration processing by the information restoration processing means temporarily stopped by the information restoration processing stopping means, 1
An information restoration process resuming means for resuming the next recording area in the order sequence recognized based on the sub information from the information of the head address recognized based on the second sub information. Information reproducing device.