JP2000350122A - Video signal processor and video signal processing method - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a video signal processor that can reproduce a video image received in real time on a monitor while freely jumping the video image in forward/backward directions. SOLUTION: A video signal received from a tuner 3 receives MPEG compression and a buffer 11 and a data storage 20 store the resulting signal. An analysis section 13 and a control section 14 add a scene tag denoting a scene section and a speech tag denoting a section of a speech to the data. When a user uses a remote commander 2 to instruct jumping, a reproduced video image is jumped to a position of a preceding/succeeding scene and a preceding/succeeding speech.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a video signal processing apparatus capable of jumping a video signal output from a television tuner or the like back and forth to repeat a desired scene or skip an unnecessary scene.

[0002]

When watching a television broadcast in real time, even if a desired scene is missed or an important dialogue is missed, it cannot be reproduced again. For example, when watching a foreign film in the original language, listening may not catch up with the speed of the dialogue, but even in such a case, the missed dialogue cannot be heard again.

[0003] If video recording is performed, this scene can be reproduced and reviewed later to re-listen. However, conventional video recording / reproducing devices cannot perform recording and reproduction at the same time. The desired scene could not be reproduced until after the recording was completed.

[0004] When a video signal originally recorded on a medium such as a video tape is reproduced by a video reproducing apparatus, repetitive reproduction or skip reproduction can be performed while watching in real time. However, since the position of the break of a scene or a line is not known, it is necessary to appropriately rewind or fast-forward to search for the break position, and it is difficult to accurately reproduce a desired scene.

The present invention provides a video signal processing apparatus capable of temporarily buffering and outputting an input video signal and increasing or decreasing the buffer amount so that a scene displayed on a monitor can be freely jumped back and forth. The purpose is to:

[0006]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a process of writing a video signal input from a video signal supply unit into a storage unit, detecting a break position of the video signal, and corresponding to the break position of the storage unit. A control unit that executes a process of writing a tag at a position and a process of reading and outputting a video signal from a storage unit in parallel, and a tag designating unit that designates a tag. When a tag is designated, the position at which the video signal is read from the storage means is changed to the position of the designated tag.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect of the present invention, the control section detects a break position of the video signal based on a change in luminance of the video of the video signal, and corresponds to the break position of the storage means. The method is characterized in that a scene tag is written at a position, a break position of the video signal is detected based on a change in an audio signal included in the video signal, and a speech tag is written at a position corresponding to the break position in the storage means.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the first and second aspects, the control means writes a manual tag at a position corresponding to the write instruction in the storage means in response to the operation of the write instruction. And

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the second and third aspects of the present invention, the tag designating means designates a tag by a tag type.

According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, in the first to fourth aspects of the present invention, the video signal read from the storage means or the video signal supplied by the video signal supply means is selectively switched and output. Means are provided.

According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a process of writing a video signal input from a video signal supply unit into a storage unit, a process of detecting a break position of a video signal and writing a tag at a position corresponding to the break position of the storage unit. , And a process for reading and outputting a video signal from the storage means in parallel, and when a tag is specified from the outside,
The position where the video signal is read from the storage means is changed to the position of the designated tag.

A video signal processing apparatus according to the present invention stores an input video signal in a storage means, and writes a video signal once stored in the above processing while writing a tag at a scene break or a speech break of the video signal. The video signal is read out and reproduced. By thus reproducing the video signal while temporarily buffering it, it is possible to jump back and forth between the reproduction positions. By writing tags at scene breaks or speech breaks, the read position can be jumped to a predetermined tag position in accordance with a user's instruction. In the present invention, a video signal is a video signal only,
Further, the concept includes any combination of a video signal and an audio signal.

As the tag to be written, for example, a scene tag indicating a break of a video scene, a speech tag indicating a speech line or a narration break, and the like can be set. It can be detected based on a change or the like. Further, a tag (manual tag) may be written in a manual by a user's operation.

When the tag designating means designates a tag, the reading position for reading the video signal from the storage means is changed to the tag position. The read video signal is
Normally, since the image is output to the monitor as a video, when the reading position is changed, the displayed scene jumps to the tag position. If the tags are scene breaks or lines,
In the case where the information is written at the break of the narration, it is possible to jump to a desired scene, a required dialogue, or a narration by changing the reading position by designating the tag.

When a plurality of tags are written, the specification is made by a method of relatively instructing from the current reading position, such as the next tag, the preceding tag, the two preceding tags, the first tag,
There is a method of giving instructions in an absolute order such as the second tag.

When a plurality of types of tags, such as a scene tag, a speech tag, and a manual tag, are written as described above, the reading position is changed to the specified type of tag by designating the type of the tag. can do. Further, when a plurality of tags of each type are designated, it is possible to change the readout position to an arbitrary tag position by designating the type of tag such as "next speech tag" and its order. . Designating the type and order of the tags is also included in the invention of claim 4 of the present application.

The video signal read from the storage means is a past video signal (stock video signal) after a certain time has passed since it was supplied from the video signal supply means.
However, by switching and outputting this video signal (real-time video signal) supplied from the video signal supply means, it is possible to jump from a past video to a current video.

[0018]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a video signal processing device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

The tuner 3 for supplying a video signal is connected to the video signal processing device 1. In this embodiment, the video signal indicates a combination of a video signal (NTSC composite signal) and an audio signal (audio signal). The tuner 3 is not limited to a general tuner for terrestrial VHF analog broadcasting, but includes various transmitting stations such as cable television and satellite broadcasting, UHF, and SHF.
For example, a tuner corresponding to a broadcasting system such as various transmission frequency bands, digital broadcasting, and HDTV can be applied, and the tuner is not limited to a tuner as long as it supplies a video signal to the video signal processing device 1.

A monitor 4 for displaying an image is connected to the video signal processing device 1. The monitor 4 includes an audio circuit for reproducing an audio signal. The tuner 3, the video signal processing device 1, and the monitor 4 can be integrated to form a television receiver capable of delay viewing.

The video signal input from the tuner 3 is
It is input to the encoder 10 and the analysis unit 13. The encoder 10 is a circuit that encodes this video signal into MPEG2 video data. MPEG encoded
2 video data is once stored in the buffer 11,
The data is recorded in the large-capacity data storage 20.

The buffer 11 can store video data for about 6 minutes. In the case of MPEG2-encoded video data, since the data transmission speed is about 700 kB / sec, the storage capacity of the buffer 11 is about 256 MB. As the data storage 20, for example, a DVD-RAM can be used. DVD-R
AM has a storage capacity of 4.7 GB to 15 GB, and GP
EG2-encoded video data can be recorded for about 2 to 6 hours. The writing speed of the data storage 20 is about twice the data transmission speed and the reading speed is about 8 times, and the MPEG2 video data input for encoding is buffered in the buffer 11. In such a case, the data is not lost, and the video data output to the decoder 15 for decoding can be buffered in the buffer 11 in advance.

The analyzing unit 13 analyzes the luminance and hue of each frame of the input video signal, the level and frequency characteristics of the audio signal, and converts them into digital codes, which are input to the control unit 14. The control unit 14 is composed of a microcomputer, and changes the color tone and luminance of each frame of the video signal input from the analysis unit 13, changes the level and frequency characteristics of the audio signal, etc. Detect breaks in Then, a tag is written to the above-described delimiter position of the MPEG2 video data once stored in the buffer 11 for writing to the data storage 20. The scene tag is written at the break position of the scene, and the speech tag is written at the break position of the line or narration. After this processing, the control unit 14 writes the MPEG2 video data stored in the buffer 11 into the data storage 20 together with the tag.

On the other hand, the MPEG2 video data stored in the data storage 20 is temporarily read out to the buffer 11 by the control unit 14 and output to the decoder 15 in accordance with the reproduction speed. The decoder 15 uses this MPEG
2 Decode the video data into an NTSC video signal,
The data is output to the monitor 4 via the selector 16.

As described above, the control unit 14 detects a scene break, a line, a narration break based on the hue and luminance of each frame of the input video signal, the level and frequency of the audio signal, etc. Although a tag such as a scene tag or a speech tag is written in the video data, a tag (manual tag) can be manually written according to a user's instruction. And
A reproduction position to be reproduced on the monitor 4 according to a user's instruction;
That is, the read position input from the buffer 11 and decoded by the decoder 15 can be jumped to any tag position. The user gives these instructions using the remote controller 2. The infrared signal output from the remote controller 2 is received by the infrared interface 17. The infrared interface 17 extracts a code from the received infrared signal and inputs the code to the control unit 14.

FIG. 2 is an external view of the remote controller 2. The remote controller 2 has a manual tag key 21 for manually adding a tag to the video data, a forward jump key 22 for jumping the playback position from the current playback position to the next tag position, and a position immediately before the current playback position. A backward jump key 23 for jumping to the tag position, a pause key 26 for suspending playback and displaying a still image on the monitor 4, and a cue key 27 for performing fast forward and reverse playback and cueing. ing. When each key is turned on, a code corresponding to the key is transmitted from the remote controller 2 to the infrared interface 17. The infrared interface 17 inputs the received code to the control unit 14. The control unit 14 executes a process corresponding to the input code.

When the manual tag key 21 is turned on,
The control unit 14 adds a manual tag to the reproduction position at that time. This manual tag is added to the buffer 11 (write buffer 1) in the same manner as the scene tag and the speech tag.
1a: see FIG. 3).

The rear jump key 22 and the front jump key 23 are provided by four types so that the type of tag can be selected and jumped. Forward jump key 22
b, the backward jump key 23b is a key for jumping the playback position to a speech tag attached to a previous or next line of speech or narration. When this key is turned on, even if there is a scene tag or manual tag closer (because narration may continue across scenes), ignore this and jump to the previous or next speech tag I do.

The backward jump key 22c and the forward jump key 23c are keys for jumping the reproduction position to a scene tag attached to a previous or next scene break. When this key is turned on, even if there is a speech tag or a manual tag closer to the tag, the tag is ignored and a jump is made to the preceding or next scene tag. The rear jump key 22d and the front jump key 23d are keys for jumping the reproduction position to a previous or next manual tag. When this key is turned on, even if there is a speech tag or a scene tag nearer, the tag is ignored, and the display jumps to the previous or next manual tag.

On the other hand, the rear jump key 22a and the front jump key 23a are keys for jumping the reproduction position for all tags. When this key is turned on, the display position is jumped to the nearest tag position ahead or behind the current display position.

When the pause key 26 is turned on,
The reading from the buffer 11 (reading buffer 11b) is stopped, and the frame video decoded by the decoder 15 at that time is continuously output to the monitor 4. When the pause key 26 is turned on again, the pause is released and the reproduction is resumed at a normal speed. When the cue key 27 is turned on, the video is reproduced backward or forward at approximately twice the normal speed while the cue key 27 is turned on (while the corresponding code is being input from the infrared interface 17).

FIG. 3 is a configuration diagram of the buffer 11. As described above, the buffer 11 can store about 6 minutes of MPEG2 video data. If the reproduction position is real-time or within 3 minutes, the real-time video data input from the encoder 10 is written to the data storage 20 and stored in the buffer 11 as it is, as shown in FIG. The data may be read from the read point designated by the command and input to the decoder 15. Encoder 10
Since the amount of data transmitted from the decoder 15 and the amount of data transmitted to the decoder 15 are the same, this state is maintained unless irregular reproduction such as jumping is performed.

On the other hand, if the playback position is 6 minutes or more (-6 minutes) past the real-time video due to a variable playback such as a backward jump or a pause, the input is input from the encoder 10. Video data as it is FIF
Even if it is stored with O, it will be erased after 6 minutes and cannot be used for reproduction. Therefore, in this case, the buffer 11 is divided into a write buffer 11a and a read buffer 11b, as shown in FIG.
The video data is read from the data storage 20 and stored in the read buffer 11b.

Since there is a possibility that the playback position jumps back and forth by the operation of the user, the read buffer 11b
The data before and after the current playback position is buffered by three minutes so that the current playback position is at the center. Note that the write buffer 11a only needs to have a storage capacity enough to stand by at the time of this read operation or the above-described tag addition operation, so that a capacity of about several seconds is sufficient.

During normal reproduction in this state, the same amount of video data as the reproduction data transmission amount is read from the data storage 20 and added to the read buffer 11b, and the new MPE input from the encoder 10 is read.
Write the G2 video data to the data storage 20.

Since the read buffer 11b stores the video data for three minutes before and after the read point as described above, when the read point is more than three minutes past (-3 minutes), The write buffer 11a and the read buffer 11b are separated as shown in FIG.

When the read point jumps forward according to the user's instruction, as shown in FIG. 10C, the video data storage area deviated three minutes after the jump as a result of the jump as a result of the jump. The video data included in 3 minutes is read from the data storage 20 and written.

When the read point jumps backward according to the user's instruction, as shown in FIG. 4D, the jump result rearward is stored in the video data storage area deviated from three minutes ahead as a result of the jump. The video data included in 3 minutes is read from the data storage 20 and written.

FIGS. 4 to 6 are flowcharts showing the operation of the video signal processing apparatus. FIG. 4A shows the overall operation of the video signal processing device. When a video signal is input from the tuner 3 (s1), the signal is encoded into MPEG2 video data by the encoder 10 (s2), written into the buffer 11, and then recorded in the data storage 20. Thus, the video data input from the tuner 3 is accumulated and recorded in the data storage 20.

FIGS. 3B and 3C are flowcharts showing the operation of the control unit 14. FIG. FIG. 11B is a flowchart showing the auto tag adding operation. The luminance information and the audio information of the video signal input from the analysis unit 13 are analyzed (s5), and it is determined whether or not the video signal is the delimiter (s5).
6). If it is a break point, a tag corresponding to the break type is written into the encoded data stored in the buffer 11 (s7).

FIG. 9C is a flowchart showing the manual tag adding operation. Infrared interface 17
Monitor the code entered from
It is monitored whether the operation 1 has been performed (s8). When the manual tag key 21 is operated (s9), a manual tag is written at a position corresponding to the operation timing in the encoded data stored in the buffer 11 (s10).

FIGS. 5 and 6 are flowcharts showing the remote control operation monitoring operation. Since the operation when the manual tag key 21 is turned on has been described with reference to FIG. 4C, an operation corresponding to the ON operation of the jump keys 22 and 23 will be described here. First, in FIG. 5, it is determined whether or not the forward jump key 23 (23a to 23d) is turned on in s11. When the forward jump key 23 is turned on, it is determined whether or not the stock video is currently being reproduced (s12). When a real-time video is currently being reproduced, it is impossible to jump forward, so this operation is ignored and the operation is terminated.

When the stock video stored in the buffer 11 (read buffer 11b) is being reproduced, s1
Proceed to 3. At s13, the video data stored in the buffer 11 is searched for a target tag.
The target tag is the forward jump key 23a that has been turned on.
23d is the type of tag specified. When the front jump key 23a is turned on, any type of tag may be used. This target tag is searched for data ahead of the reproduction position at that time. If there is a tag (s
14) After jumping the playback position (the read position of the buffer 11) to that position (s15), buffer data adjustment processing for partially replacing video data to be buffered is performed as described with reference to FIG. s16).

If the target tag cannot be found in the buffer 11, the data storage 2
A target tag is searched in 0 (s17). This search is
Perform from the current playback position forward. When a target tag is found by this search operation (s18), data near the tag position is read out to the buffer 11 (s1).
9) The reproduction position, that is, the position decoded by the decoder 15 is jumped to this tag position (s20). Then, buffer data adjustment processing of pre-reading the data from the data storage 20 and writing the data to the read buffer 11b in the buffer 11 so that the new reproduction position is located at the center of the buffering data is executed (s21).

On the other hand, if the target tag cannot be found in the data storage 20 in the forward direction, the display jumps to the forefront, that is, the real-time image. For this reason, the selector 16 is switched to the tuner side to output a real-time video signal to the monitor 3 (s22). Thereafter, the buffer data adjustment processing (s23) is executed so that the video signal from the real-time video signal to -6 minutes is written into the buffer 11.

In FIG. 6, it is determined whether or not the rear jump key 22 (22a to 22d) is turned on in s31. When the backward jump key 22 is turned on,
It is determined whether the stock video is currently being reproduced (s2
2). If the current real-time video is being reproduced, the jump is made backward and the stock video signal is reproduced, so that the selector 16 is switched to the decoder 15 side (s37).

Thereafter, in s33, the buffer 11
Is searched for the target tag in the video data stored in the. The target tag is a tag of the type specified by the turned on backward jump keys 22a to 22d. When the rear jump key 22a is turned on, any type of tag may be used. This target tag is searched for data located behind the current playback position. If there is a tag (s34), the playback position (the reading position of the buffer 11) is jumped to that position (s35), and then, as described with reference to FIG. A buffer data adjustment process for replacement is performed (s36).

If the target tag cannot be found in the buffer 11, the data storage 2
A target tag is searched in 0 (s40). This search is
Perform backward from the current playback position. When a target tag is found by this search operation (s41), data near the tag position is read out to the buffer 11 (s4).
2) The reproduction position, that is, the position decoded by the decoder 15 is jumped to this tag position (s43). Then, buffer data adjustment processing of pre-reading the data from the data storage 20 and writing the data into the read buffer 11b in the buffer 11 so that the new reproduction position is at the center of the buffering data is executed (s44).

On the other hand, if the target tag cannot be found backward in the data storage 20, the MPEG2
The playback position jumps to the beginning of the video data. Therefore, the data near the head is read out to the buffer 11 (s
45) The playback position, that is, the position decoded by the decoder 15 is jumped to the head (s46). Then, a buffer data adjustment process for reading the video data from the head into the read buffer 11b is executed (s47).

When a key other than the jump keys 22, 23 and the manual tag key 21 is turned on, a predetermined processing operation is executed in response to the key-on.

In the above-described embodiment, the analyzing unit 13 is constituted by a hard-wired logic circuit, the control unit 14 is constituted by a microcomputer, and the luminance, hue, level and frequency of the video signal analyzed by the analyzing unit 13 are analyzed. Although the control unit 14 determines the break of a scene or a speech based on characteristics or the like, if the load of the control unit 14 is large, the analysis unit 13 may perform the detection until the break.

In the above embodiment, the video signal input from the tuner 3 is analyzed as it is. However, as shown in FIG. 7, the MPEG2 video data encoded by the encoder 10 is analyzed and scenes and speech are analyzed. May be detected. In this case, the data input from the encoder 10 to the analysis unit 13 'may be completely encoded in MPEG2, or may be partially encoded.

In the above embodiment, the buffer 11 and the data storage 20 constitute storage means that can be read / written in parallel. However, if the real-time video does not go far back in the past, the data storage 20 can be reduced. The buffer 11 may have a large capacity.
Only the storage means may be configured.

Also, as in the above embodiment, the buffer 11
If the video data is continuously written to the data storage 20 from the
In 0, continuous video data is stored and stored. However, a function of interrupting the input from the tuner 3 and reproducing the stored and stored video data may be provided.

Further, the section designated by one or a plurality of tags may be repeatedly reproduced, or the section may be reproduced in slow motion.

[0056]

According to the present invention, it is possible to jump the reading position (reproducing position) to the tag position designated by the user while reproducing the video signal almost in real time. If the playback position is delayed from the real-time video signal, that is, if sufficient video signals are buffered in the storage means, skip the CM etc. and jump forward. Can also.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a video signal processing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a configuration diagram of a remote controller attached to the video signal processing device.

FIG. 3 is a configuration diagram of a buffer of the video signal processing device.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing the operation of the video signal processing device.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing the operation of the video signal reproducing apparatus.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing the operation of the video signal reproducing apparatus.

FIG. 7 is a block diagram of a video signal reproducing apparatus according to another embodiment of the present invention;

[Explanation of symbols]

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Video signal processing apparatus, 2 ... Remote control, 3 ... Tuner, 4 ... Monitor, 10 ... (MPEG) encoder, 11
... Buffer, 13 ... Analyzer, 14 ... Controller, 15 ... Decoder, 16 ... Infrared interface, 20 ... Data storage

Claims (6)

[Claims] 1. A process for writing a video signal input from a video signal supply unit to a storage unit, a process for detecting a break position of a video signal and writing a tag at a position of the storage unit corresponding to the break position, and a storage unit And a tag specifying means for specifying a tag, wherein the control section reads the video signal from the storage means when the tag is specified by the tag specifying means. The position to read the signal
A video signal processor that changes to the specified tag location. 2. The control section detects a break point of a video signal based on a change in luminance of an image of a video signal, writes a scene tag at a position corresponding to the break point in a storage means, and includes the scene tag in the video signal. 2. The video signal processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a break position of the video signal is detected based on a change in the audio signal, and a speech tag is written at a position corresponding to the break position in the storage unit. 3. The control means according to an operation of a write instruction,
3. The video signal processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the manual tag is written at a position corresponding to the write instruction in the storage unit. 4. The video signal processing device according to claim 2, wherein said tag designating means designates a tag by a tag type. 5. A switching device according to claim 1, further comprising switching means for selectively switching and outputting one of a video signal read from the storage means and a video signal supplied by the video signal supply means. A video signal processing device according to claim 1. 6. A process of writing a video signal input from a video signal supply unit to a storage unit, a process of detecting a break position of a video signal and writing a tag at a position of the storage unit corresponding to the break position, and a storage unit A video signal processing method for concurrently executing a process of reading and outputting a video signal from an external device and, when a tag is specified from the outside, changing a position from which the video signal is read from the storage means to a position of the specified tag.