JP2001128096A - Picture reproducing device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a picture reproducing device which is capable of speedily and easily retrieving an object place from a series of picture data constituting a program in particular and is substantially sufficient for actual use. SOLUTION: In a picture reproducing device which divides a series of picture data constituting a program into plural blocks along a time axis, reduces the picture of each block to simultaneously multi-screen-displaying on the same screen and respectively reproduces them, multi-screen display is executed based on the deciding result of a means which executes input among a re-producing time deciding means for deciding a reproducing time of one block by inputting the number of dividing in the direction of the time axis of the program and a dividing number deciding means for deciding the number of dividing in the direction of the time axis of the program by inputting the reproducing time of one block.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an image reproducing apparatus for reproducing image data recorded on a recording medium such as a disk, and more particularly to a method for retrieving a series of image data constituting one program. The present invention relates to a method suitable for a case in which locations to be edited or edited are scattered.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As is well known, for example, a hard disk or a DVD (Digital Versatile Disc) -RAM (Random A
In an image reproducing apparatus that reads and reproduces image data recorded thereon from a recording medium such as a ccess memory), when searching or editing image data,
If the target location is distributed over the entire recorded image data, fast forward playback and fast reverse playback are performed to sequentially search for the target location.

[0003]

Means for sequentially searching for a target area to be edited by performing such fast-forward playback or fast-reverse playback requires a viewer to view a target area by looking at a display screen. Therefore, there is a problem that the reproduction speed cannot be made too high.
In particular, when the search range is large and the amount of image data is large, or when the number of search targets is large, the work of searching for the target part becomes complicated, and the search takes a long time.

On the other hand, in the prior art, for example,
As shown in Japanese Patent No. 330881, a plurality of temporally continuous images are divided into L blocks on a time axis, and the first and second images in the L blocks are divided into L blocks. Are sequentially and simultaneously displayed on the same screen on multiple screens (L screens), so that a plurality of images that are temporally separated from each other are displayed at the same time, thereby improving the search efficiency. However, at present, it cannot be said that this proposal has reached a practically sufficient level in a practical sense.

Therefore, the present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and in particular, enables a search for a target portion from a series of image data constituting a program to be performed quickly and easily. It is an object of the present invention to provide an extremely good image reproducing apparatus which can be sufficiently practically used.

[0006]

An image reproducing apparatus according to the present invention divides a series of image data constituting a program into a plurality of blocks along a time axis, and reduces the image of each block to the same screen. It is intended for those which are simultaneously displayed on multiple screens and reproduced respectively.

[0007] Reproduction time determining means for determining the reproduction time of one block by inputting the number of divisions of the program in the time axis direction, and the number of divisions of the program in the time axis direction by inputting the reproduction time of one block. And a control means for performing multi-screen display based on the determination result of the input means of the reproduction time determination means and the division number determination means. .

According to the above-described configuration, the reproduction time determining means for determining the reproduction time of one block by inputting the number of divisions in the time axis direction of the program, and the program by inputting the reproduction time of one block Among the division number determination means for determining the number of divisions in the time axis direction, a multi-screen display is performed based on the determination result of the input means, and in particular, a series of images constituting a program This makes it possible to quickly and easily search for a target portion from data, and furthermore, it becomes substantially practically applicable.

[0009]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 shows a set-top box 11 which is a digital television broadcast receiving apparatus. That is, the input terminal 12 of the set-top box 11 is supplied with digital television broadcast data received by the satellite antenna 13 and frequency-converted.

The digital television broadcast data supplied to the input terminal 12 is supplied to a tuning circuit 14. The channel selection circuit 14 extracts data of a desired transmission channel from the input digital television broadcast data based on a control signal from a control unit 15 including a microcomputer (not shown), and demodulates / errors the data. It is output to the correction circuit 16.

The demodulation / error correction circuit 16 applies QPSK to the input digital television broadcast data.
By performing demodulation processing such as (Quadrature Phase Shift Keying) and error correction processing, a transport stream that is program-multiplexed data is generated and output to the packet separation circuit 17.

The transport stream output from the demodulation / error correction circuit 16 can be taken out of the television broadcast receiver 11 via an output terminal 18.

The packet separation circuit 17 performs a packet separation process on the input transport stream, generates a program stream for each packet unit, and outputs an I / F (Inter / Face) circuit 19 and an MP
It is output to an EG (Moving Picture Image Coding Experts Group) decoding circuit 20.

The MPEG decoding circuit 19 includes:
The decompression process is performed on the input program stream to generate image data and audio data. Then, the image data is supplied to the I / F circuit 21 and the multi-screen creation circuit 22, OSD (On Screen Disp.
lay) is supplied to a monitor 25 via a circuit 23 and an output terminal 24, and is used for image display.

The audio data is supplied to an I / F circuit 21 and is processed by an audio processing circuit 26 and an output terminal 27.
Through the loudspeaker (not shown) of the monitor 25 for audio reproduction.

Further, a digital recording / reproducing unit 28 is connected to the I / F circuit 19. The digital recording / reproducing unit 28 includes a recording / reproducing control unit 28a to which a control signal from the control unit 15 is supplied via an I / F circuit 19, and a packet separating circuit based on the control of the recording / reproducing control unit 28a. The program stream supplied from the recording medium 17 via the I / F circuit 19 is recorded on a recording medium (not shown), and the program stream read from the recording medium is transmitted to the MPEG decoding circuit 20 via the I / F circuit 19.
And a recording / reproducing unit 28b that supplies the data to the recording / reproduction unit 28b.

An analog recording / reproducing unit 29 is connected to the I / F circuit 21. The analog recording / reproducing unit 29 outputs the control signal from the control unit 15 to the I / F circuit 2
1 and the image data and the audio data supplied from the MPEG decoding circuit 20 via the I / F circuit 21 based on the control of the recording / reproduction control unit 29a. A recording / reproducing unit 2 that records on a recording medium and supplies image data and audio data read from the recording medium to a multi-screen creation circuit 22 and an audio processing circuit 26 via an I / F circuit 21.
9b.

The above-described various operations of the set-top box 11 are performed by the control unit 15, which has received the operation information of the wireless remote controller 31 supplied via the receiving unit 30, according to the program recorded in the memory 32. This is performed by controlling each part of the set-top box 11 in general.

Here, the multi-screen creation circuit 22 will be described. The multi-screen creation circuit 22 operates when a multi-screen creation is requested by the operation of the wireless remote controller 31.
The image data output from the PEG decode circuit 20 is passed through as it is and guided to the OSD circuit 23.

When the OSD display mode is requested by the operation of the wireless remote controller 31, the OSD circuit 23 adds the character data output from the control unit 15 to the image data output from the multi-screen creation circuit 22. It functions to multiplex information and the like to perform on-screen display.

The multi-screen creation circuit 22
A series of image data output from the multi-screen creation circuit 22 and corresponding to, for example, a plurality of temporally continuous images constituting one program is equally divided into a plurality of blocks along a time axis. , And functions to reduce the image of each block and display them on the monitor 25 simultaneously on multiple screens. In this case, each of the small images displayed on the multi-screen is a moving image starting from the first image of the block.

For example, a series of image data corresponding to a program whose total reproduction time is 45 minutes is equally divided into nine blocks along the time axis, and the image of each block is
5, the first screen is shown in FIG.
As shown in (a), when the program starts (0:
00), an image 5 minutes after the start of the program (0:05), an image 10 minutes after the start of the program (0:10),..., 40 minutes after the start of the program The images at the time (0:40) are displayed.

Then, the displayed nine images are simultaneously started to be reproduced as moving images from the above-described time points. In other words, 1
Assuming that one minute has elapsed, each small screen is displayed at the time (0: 0) one minute after the start of the program, as shown in FIG.
The image of 1), the image of 6 minutes after the start of the program (0:06), the image of 11 minutes after the start of the program (0:11),..., 41 minutes after the start of the program The images at the time (0:41) are displayed. Therefore, the entire program is reproduced in 5 minutes.

The number of divisions of the program in the time axis direction can be appropriately set by operating the wireless remote controller 31. In this case, the control unit 15 automatically calculates the playback time of one block by dividing the total playback time of the program for which multi-screen display is requested by the set number of divisions. To divide the program evenly.

For example, as shown in FIG. 3, in the case of a program having a total playback time of 90 minutes, if the number of divisions is set to 2, 1
When the number of divisions is set to 3, the reproduction time of one block is 30 minutes. When the number of divisions is set to 4, the reproduction time of one block is 22 minutes and 30 seconds, and the number of divisions is set to 5. When set, the playback time of one block is 18 minutes. When the number of divisions is set to 6, the playback time of one block is 15 minutes. When the number of divisions is set to 7, the playback time of one block is 12 minutes and 52 seconds. Is set to 8, the playback time of one block is 11 minutes and 15 seconds,
When the number of divisions is set to 9, one block is equally divided so that the reproduction time of one block is 10 minutes.

For example, when the number of divisions is set to 3, in order to display the images of the three blocks on the monitor 25 simultaneously on a multi-screen, as shown in FIG. Three of the divisions are used.
In this case, the first screen is an image at the start of the program (00:00: 00), an image at 30 minutes after the start of the program (0: 30:00), and one hour after the start of the program. The images at the time (1:00:00) are displayed.

If the number of divisions is set to 6, for example,
In order to simultaneously display the images of the six blocks on the monitor 25 on multiple screens, as shown in FIG. 4B, six of the nine screens of the monitor 25 are used. In this case, the first screen is displayed when the program starts (0:
00:00), an image 15 minutes after the start of the program (0:15:00), an image 30 minutes after the start of the program (0:30:00), and an image 45 after the start of the program. Minute (0:45:00), one hour after the start of the program (1: 0)
0:00), and the image at the point in time 1 hour and 15 minutes after the start of the program (1:15:00).

When the number of divisions is set to 6, for example, as shown in FIG. 4C, the compression ratio of each small screen in the horizontal direction and the vertical direction is changed to make the screen of the monitor 25 effective. It is conceivable to use it. However, in this case, the display image on each small screen is
It will be distorted.

The playback time of one divided block can be set as appropriate by operating the wireless remote controller 31. In this case, the control unit 15 automatically calculates the number of divisions in the time axis direction of the program by dividing the total reproduction time of the program for which the multi-screen display is requested by the set reproduction time of one block. The multi-screen creation circuit 22 divides the program evenly.

For example, as shown in FIG. 5A, in the case of a program having a total playback time of 90 minutes, if the playback time of one block is set to 1 minute, the number of divisions is 9 screens × 10 (the number of divisions is 9 Meaning that one multi-screen is divided into 10 times)
If the playback time of one block is set to 5 minutes, the number of divisions is 9
When the number of screens becomes 2 (meaning that a multi-screen having nine divisions is divided into two parts) and the reproduction time of one block is set to 10 minutes, the number of divisions becomes nine and the reproduction time of one block becomes 15 minutes. Is set, the number of divisions is equally divided so that the number of divisions is six.

Then, for example, the reproduction time of one block is set to 5
In the case of setting to minutes, the screen of the monitor 25 is divided into nine screens. First, as shown in FIG. 5B, the image at the start of the program (0:00:00) The image at the time when the minute has elapsed (0:05:00), the time when 10 minutes have elapsed after the start of the program (0:10:00)
Image, 15 minutes after the start of the program (0:
15:00), an image 20 minutes after the start of the program (0:20:00), an image 25 minutes after the start of the program (0:25:00), 30 images after the start of the program Minute (0:30:00), 35 minutes after the start of the program (0: 3)
5:00), and an image at a point 40 minutes after the start of the program (0:40:00) is displayed.

After 5 minutes have passed, the screen of the monitor 25 displays the image at the time when 45 minutes have passed after the start of the program (0:45:00) and the start of the program, as shown in FIG. Image at 50 minutes after the start (0:50:00), 55 minutes after the start of the program (0: 5)
5:00) image, one hour after the start of the program (1: 00: 00: 00), one image after the start of the program
Image at the time when 5 minutes have passed (1:05:00), and 1 hour and 10 minutes after the start of the program (1:10:
00), an image 1 hour and 15 minutes after the start of the program (1:15:00), an image 1 hour and 20 minutes after the start of the program (1:20:00),
1 hour and 25 minutes after the start of the program (1: 2
5:00) are displayed.

FIG. 6 shows a flowchart summarizing the above operations. First, when started (step S11), the user selects in step S12 whether to set the number of divisions in the time axis direction of the program or to set the reproduction time of one divided block. S13
If the selection of the number of divisions is determined (YES), the number of divisions is input by the wireless remote controller 31 in step S14.

Then, the control unit 15 proceeds to step S15
Then, it is determined whether or not the input number of divisions is a valid value. If not, the process returns to step S14.

If it is determined in step S15 that the input number of divisions is a valid value (YES), the control unit 15 calculates the reproduction time of one block in step S16, and in step S17, The multi-screen creation circuit 22 is controlled so as to perform multi-screen display, and the processing ends (step S1)
8) is done.

On the other hand, if the selection of the number of divisions is not determined in step S13 (NO), the user inputs the playback time of one block by the wireless remote controller 31 in step S19.

Then, the control unit 15 proceeds to step S20
Then, it is determined whether or not the input reproduction time is a valid value. If the input reproduction time is not a valid value (NO), the process returns to step S19.

If it is determined in step S20 that the input reproduction time is a valid value (YES), the control unit 15 calculates the number of divisions of the program in the time axis direction in step S21. The process proceeds to S17.

According to the above-described embodiment, a series of image data constituting a program is equally divided into a plurality of blocks along a time axis, and the image of each block is simultaneously displayed on a multi-screen and reproduced. As a result, it is possible to quickly and easily search for a target portion from a series of image data constituting a program.

In particular, since the user is allowed to select whether to set the number of divisions in the time axis direction of the program or to set the reproduction time of one divided block, the operation is practically performed. It will be sufficiently practical.

When fast-forward playback or fast-reverse playback is performed, the image of each small screen displayed on the multi-screen is also changed.
At the same time, fast forward playback and fast reverse playback are controlled.

Next, a modified example of the above embodiment will be described. In this modification, a division point is set by counting I pictures, which are intra-frame coded images, from the start of playback of a video ES (Elementary Stream) constituting a program, and each small screen displayed in multiple screens is counted. As for, the moving picture is reproduced by decoding only the I picture. In addition, an audio frame synchronized with the time stamp of the designated small screen is decoded and reproduced.

That is, for example, a video ES recorded in a video server or the like and having a total playback time of 45 minutes is divided into nine blocks along the time axis. Consider the case of displaying a screen.

First, the number of I-pictures present in the video ES is 4 seconds, which is the total playback time of the video ES, because the playback time of one GOP (Group of Picture) is 0.5 seconds.
5 minutes divided by 0.5 seconds is 5400. That is, I pictures i0 to i5399 exist in the video ES.

For this reason, the video ES is set to 9 along the time axis.
When divided into two blocks, I present in one block
The number of pictures is 5 minutes, which is the playback time of one block,
It is 600 when divided by 0.5 second, which is the reproduction time of one GOP.

That is, the video ES includes i0 to i599,
i600 to i1199, i1200 to i1799, i1
800 to i2399, i2400 to i2999, i30
00 to i3599, i3600 to i4199, i420
It is divided into nine blocks of I-pictures of 0 to i4799 and i4800 to i5399, each of which is 600, and images are displayed on nine small screens.

In this case, first, as shown in FIG. 7A, the I picture of i0 is decoded and displayed on the first small screen of the monitor 25 divided into nine parts. After that, as shown in FIG. 7B, i60 is displayed on the second small screen.
The I picture of 0 is decoded and displayed.

Hereinafter, similarly, i1200, i180
0, i2400, i3000, i3600, i4200
Are sequentially displayed as images. Finally, FIG.
As shown in the figure, the I4800 I picture is decoded and displayed on the ninth small screen.

In this manner, as shown in FIG. 8A, the leading image i of each block is placed on nine small screens.
0, i600, i1200, i1800, i2400,
I of i3000, i3600, i4200, i4800
When the picture is displayed, at the next timing, FIG.
As shown in (b), i1, i601, i1201, i
1801, i2401, i3001, i3601, i4
The I picture 201, i4801 is displayed.

Thereafter, similarly, as shown in FIG. 8C, i0 + n, i600 + n, i1200 + n, i18
00 + n, i2400 + n, i3000 + n, i360
The I pictures 0 + n, i4200 + n and i4800 + n are sequentially displayed as images.

Then, 45 minutes have passed, and finally, FIG.
As shown in (d), i5399, i599, i119
9, i1799, i2399, i3599, i419
When the 9, i4799 I picture is displayed, the screen is returned to the first screen shown in FIG. 8A again.

During the image display as described above, when the user selects, for example, an image d by the wireless remote controller 31 as shown in FIG.
Audio synchronized with the picture is reproduced.

According to this modification, the operation of the above-described embodiment can be realized by the MPEG decoder. When the video ES does not have time data, for example, when recording the video ES to the video server,
The I-picture cycle of the OP is also recorded and used as time information.

It should be noted that the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment, and can be variously modified and implemented without departing from the scope of the invention.

[0055]

As described in detail above, according to the present invention,
In particular, there is provided an extremely excellent image reproducing apparatus which enables a search for a target portion from a series of image data constituting a program to be performed quickly and easily, and which is practically sufficiently suitable for practical use. be able to.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of an image reproducing apparatus according to the present invention, for explaining a set-top box.

FIG. 2 is a view shown for explaining an example of an operation in the embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an example of an operation in the embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an example of an operation in the embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a view for explaining another example of the operation in the embodiment.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart summarizing the operation in the embodiment.

FIG. 7 is an exemplary view shown for explaining a modification of the embodiment.

FIG. 8 is a view shown for explaining a modification of the embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

 11: set-top box, 12: input terminal, 13: satellite antenna, 14: tuning circuit, 15: control unit, 16: demodulation / error correction circuit, 17: packet separation circuit, 18: output terminal, 19: I / F circuit, 20: MPEG decoding circuit, 21: I / F circuit, 22: multi-screen creation circuit, 23: OSD circuit, 24: output terminal, 25: monitor, 26: audio processing circuit, 27: output terminal, 28 ... Digital recording / reproducing unit, 29: analog recording / reproducing unit, 30: receiving unit, 31: wireless remote controller, 32: memory.

 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page F-term (reference) MA04 PP05 SS12 UA05

Claims (5)

[Claims] An image reproducing system which divides a series of image data constituting a program into a plurality of blocks along a time axis, reduces an image of each block, simultaneously displays a multi-screen on the same screen, and reproduces each image. In the apparatus, a reproduction time determining means for determining a reproduction time of one block by inputting a division number of the program in a time axis direction, and a division number of the program in a time axis direction by inputting a reproduction time of one block And a control means for performing multi-screen display based on the result of determination by the input means of the reproduction time determining means and the division number determining means. An image reproducing apparatus characterized by the above-mentioned. 2. An image reproducing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said control means performs multi-screen display in a plurality of times in accordance with the number of divisions determined by said number of division determination means. 3. The control means sets a dividing point in the time axis direction by using an intra-frame coded image of image data constituting the program, and sets the dividing point on each divided small screen. 3. The image reproducing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a moving image is displayed. 4. Image reproduction for dividing a series of image data constituting a program into a plurality of blocks along a time axis, reducing the image of each block, and simultaneously displaying a multi-screen on the same screen to reproduce each image In the apparatus, a playback time determining means for determining a playback time of one block by inputting the number of divisions of the program in the time axis direction, and a control means for performing multi-screen display based on the determination result of the playback time determination means. An image reproducing apparatus, comprising: 5. An image reproducing system which divides a series of image data constituting a program into a plurality of blocks along a time axis, reduces an image of each block, and simultaneously displays a multi-screen on the same screen to reproduce each image. In the apparatus, a division number determining means for determining the number of divisions in the time axis direction of the program by inputting a reproduction time of one block, and a control means for performing multi-screen display based on the determination result of the division number determining means An image reproducing apparatus, comprising: