JP2002123415A - Contents managing method - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a contents managing method by which a user can extract the contents of a data format suitable for processing even without caring of the data format concerning the contents of a variety of saved data seed including video contents or audio contents. SOLUTION: A designation item such as allocation position, allocation length or title in the allocation of video contents to logic contents, for example, is inputted (S1), video contents composed of two physical files, for example, of registration targets read from an attachable and detachable recording medium or the like are collected into one of logic contents according to the inputted designation information (S3), and each of physical files is registered. Then, a logic contents ID for management is assigned to the logic contents, the logic contents ID, the title and respective physical file names are correspondently registered on a managing table (S4), and delivered contents are stored on an external storage device (S5).

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention treats one content, such as video data and audio data, which spans a plurality of files, for example, as logical content, and not only files of the original content but also related data and data necessary for processing. The present invention relates to a content management method capable of collectively managing data converted into various data formats, a content description file, and the like, and providing data in a data format suitable for a user's request.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art When a certain image is considered, a person expressing this image in any form of expression can be considered as one for human beings. Whether it consists of multiple files or a single file, the target video remains the same. DV format, MPEG-1, MPEG-2, Real Media, Moti
There are onJPEG, etc., each of which has a special feature, but the content is the same regardless of the data format. Further, when a description describing the logical structure or the contents is created for these, it should not depend on the file format. However, in reality, the content stored in the storage device is generally stored in one data format for each data type such as video content or text content. If the receiving side of the system that cannot support the data format cannot play back the content or distribute the content, generally the high-definition video is not required, but the stored content data If the format is high quality, but the data amount is not too small, the amount of data to be distributed will be unnecessarily large, so the transfer time will be long, and you will want to extract and edit it However, there is a problem that the stored data format makes it difficult to edit. On the other hand, in one conventional technique, the content is text data, but a file is registered and stored in one data format, this is used as primary data, and the primary data is used in another data format, such as PDF. The data converted to the FTS data format is generated, and the generated data is also managed with the same document ID as the primary data.
By specifying not only D but also the data format, the occurrence of a situation where the receiving side cannot reproduce the data is reduced. As a related art related to the present invention, considering a database management system, it is known that a logical file is configured from a plurality of physical files.

[0003]

As described above, in the prior art, when the content is text data,
Although the effect of reducing the occurrence of a situation in which the receiving side cannot reproduce data can be obtained, video contents and audio contents are not considered, and one or a plurality of independent files cannot be combined as a logical content. Further, an appropriate data format is automatically selected in accordance with the processing, and it is not possible to take out the content of the data format. An object of the present invention is to solve such a problem of the conventional technology, and to be suitable for processing of contents of various stored data types including video contents and audio contents without the user being aware of the data format. It is an object of the present invention to provide a content management method capable of extracting content in a data format.

[0004]

According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a content management method capable of managing one content in a plurality of data formats. The configuration is such that data of an original content composed of a file and a plurality of data expressed in a data format different from the data of the original content are collectively managed as one logical content. According to the second aspect of the present invention,
In the invention according to claim 1, when the content is video data or audio data, a file of the original content and a file of a data format suitable for processing or a file registered in response to a user request are collectively collected. It was configured to be managed. In the invention according to claim 3,
In the invention according to claim 2, the processing is configured to be data editing, content description work, or distribution. According to the fourth aspect of the present invention, in the second aspect or the third aspect,
In the described invention, after the registration of the original content, a file in a data format suitable for the requested processing is created in response to the processing request specifying the logical content,
Alternatively, a file of a plurality of data formats assumed in advance is automatically created at an arbitrary timing.

[0005] In the invention according to claim 5, according to claim 1,
In any one of the inventions according to claims 4 to 6, when the original content is composed of a plurality of data,
It has management information for managing the allocation position and the allocated length of each data with respect to the logical content composed of a plurality of original content data, and the management is performed collectively including the management information. According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, in the fifth aspect of the invention, the individual data of the original content constituting the logical content is a part of one file, or the data between the individual data of the original content is included. The content is duplicated.
According to the seventh aspect of the present invention, the first to sixth aspects are provided.
In any of the described inventions, the content is described as an attribute of the content as content description information indicating the content. Further, in the invention according to claim 8, in the invention according to claim 7, the content description information has a configuration having a logical structure. According to the ninth aspect of the present invention, in any one of the first to sixth aspects of the present invention, the data to be collectively managed includes the content description information described in the seventh or eighth claim. It was configured. According to the tenth aspect of the present invention, a program programmed according to any one of the first to ninth aspects of the content management method is stored in a recording medium storing the program.

[0006]

According to the first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a content management method capable of managing one content in a plurality of data formats. Data and multiple data expressed in a data format different from the data of the original content are put together,
It is managed collectively as one logical content. According to the second aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect of the invention, when the content is video data or audio data, a file of the original content and a file of a data format suitable for processing or a request of a user are provided. The registered files are managed collectively. According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the second aspect, a file of the original content and a file in a data format suitable for data editing, content description work, or distribution are collectively managed. According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in accordance with the second or third aspect, after the registration of the original content, a file having a data format suitable for the requested processing is created in response to the processing request specifying the logical content. Alternatively, a file of a plurality of data formats assumed in advance is automatically created at an arbitrary timing. According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, in any one of the first to fourth aspects of the present invention, when the original content is composed of a plurality of data, each data of the logical content composed of a plurality of the original content data is The information is managed collectively including management information for managing the allocation position and the allocated length. According to the sixth aspect of the present invention,
In the described invention, individual data of the original content constituting the logical content may be a part of one file, or the content of the individual data of the original content may overlap. According to a seventh aspect of the present invention, in any one of the first to sixth aspects of the present invention, the attribute is described as the content description information indicating the content. According to an eighth aspect of the present invention, in the seventh aspect, the attributes are described in an expression format having a logical structure. According to the ninth aspect of the present invention, in any one of the first to sixth aspects of the present invention, the data to be collectively managed includes the content description information of the seventh or eighth aspect. According to a tenth aspect of the present invention, a program for performing any one of the content management methods according to the first to ninth aspects is stored in, for example, a removable recording medium.

[0007]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a configuration block diagram of a content management system showing an example of an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a hardware configuration diagram of an information processing apparatus such as a personal computer in which such a content management system is implemented. As shown in FIG. 2, the information processing apparatus operates in accordance with the memory 11 for temporarily storing data and programs, controls the entire apparatus, and performs content management and the like according to the present invention. CPU 12, external storage device (for example, hard disk device) 1 for storing data and programs
3, an input device 14 having a keyboard, a mouse, and the like, for inputting data and designated items, a display device 15, a data reading device 16 for reading programs, video data, and the like from a removable recording medium, and the like. Further, as shown in FIG. 1, the content management system receives data input from the file management unit 1 for managing files stored in the external storage device 13 and the data reading device 16 via the file management unit 1. A file registration unit 2 for registering as a file, a file format conversion unit 3 for converting data of a file registered by the file registration unit 2 and managed by the file management unit 1 to another data format, a file designated by a user A file extraction unit 4 for extracting the contents via the file management unit 1 and a part of the logical content described later as a physical file (conventional general file, such as video data, audio data, and text data. Mapping unit 5 for mapping in the physical file Comprising a like part extraction portion 6 for taking out a part. First, a case where content is registered by the file registration unit 2 with such a configuration will be described with reference to FIG.

In the example shown in FIG. 3, original content of 45 minutes in total length (for example, two physical files each having a data format of MPEG-2 video data and 25 minutes in length,
(There is a 5-minute overlap between them). At the time of this registration, the input device 14 assigns a title as a logical content name, and designates the allocation position and the allocation length when two video contents are allocated as the logical content in time. FIG. 3A is a table showing the designated allocation position and the allocated length, which are indicated by hours (h), minutes (m), seconds (s), and the like. FIG. 3B shows the contents of the table. As can be seen from FIG. 3, in this example, the first file is 25 minutes, excluding the overlapping part.
Allocated 20 minutes. Thus, the data of each original content that constitutes the entire logical content is
It may be a part of one physical file, or there may be an overlap in the content between individual data of the original content. The file management unit 1 of the content management system includes two physical files as described above and FIG.
Are managed as a set. Further, the file management unit 1 allocates a management logical content ID (identification information) to the registered logical content, and associates the logical content ID, the title, and each physical file with each other as shown in FIG. It manages (FIG. 4 also includes contents and files in other data formats described later). However, actually, a management table capable of expressing a plurality of logical contents having the configuration shown in FIG. 4 is created and managed. Note that each file shown in FIG. 4 includes a file name as a management target.

In this content management system,
The data format of the original content (the content of two physical files associated with “video content (original)” in the example shown in FIG. 4) registered as described above by the file format For example, a file in the MPEG-1 format as the video content for content description and a file in the Real Media format as the video content for distribution are created, and added and managed as a part of the logical content shown in FIG. In the example shown in FIG.
(For content description) "(content referred to from a content description file to be described later), and the content of two physical files and" video content (for distribution) "
Are the contents of the two physical files associated with. In other words, the content management system prepares a content that is converted into a data format suitable for processing depending on how the content is to be processed (how to use the content). For example, video content for distribution places importance on data transfer time over image quality, and uses Real Media format, which has a smaller data volume than MPEG-2 format. Further, in the content management system according to the present embodiment, the contents can be presented to the user in an easy-to-understand manner, and a search for multimedia data can be easily performed by using the content search system in the information processing apparatus. A content description file, which can be used for the content, can be added to the logical content. Therefore, a content description system for creating a content description file is provided in the information processing apparatus of this embodiment separately from the content management system shown in FIG. Then, when creating the content description file, the content description system issues a content description data request specifying one logical content to the file extracting unit 4. Then, the file fetching unit 4 fetches a list of physical file names in MPEG-1 format, which is video data to be used for the content description (there may be a plurality), and passes it to the content description system. The physical file of the MPEG-1 format requires a smaller amount of data than the MPEG-2 format of the original content, and has a quality that does not cause any problem for the description of the content.

[0010] The content description file as completed metadata is added and registered to the logical content via the file registration unit 2. This metadata is data on attributes (contents) of information (contents). In the case of video data, for example, in addition to a content file name for referring to video content in MPEG-1 format,
The attributes include a title, a date when the video was shot, a creator, a purpose, a date when the video was recorded, right information, a length of the video, and the like. The content description is, as shown in FIG.
It can also have a logical structure such as a major item heading and a minor item heading. When the distribution system in the information processing device requests one logical content, the content management system transmits the Real MN prepared for distribution via the file extracting unit 4 or the partial extracting unit 6.
Supply a physical file in edia format. At this time, when not a whole logical content but a partial range is specified, the mapping unit 5 in the content management system maps the specified range to the physical file. For example, if there is a total of 60 minutes of logical content and as shown in FIG. 6, the logical content is composed of three physical files A, B, and C for 20 minutes each, If the range from the 10th minute to the 30th minute is specified, the mapping is performed on the 20 minute portion from the 10th minute to the end of the file A and the 10th minute from the beginning of the file B. In this way, the actually required combination of the physical file name and the range is determined, and in the above example, the following list is passed to the distribution system via the partial extracting unit 6. A: (10, 20) B: (0, 10) The time to create and register the video content for content description and the video content for distribution shown in FIG. 4 may be when the original content is registered. After the registration of the original content, the processing request as described above that specifies the logical content (content description data request or distribution request)
At this time, a physical file having a data format suitable for the requested processing may be created and registered.

Next, according to the operation flow shown in FIG.
An operation flow at the time of registration will be described. First, the input device 14 allows the user to input specified items such as an allocation position, an allocation length, and a title when allocating video content to logical content (S1). Then, a video content composed of, for example, two physical files to be registered read from a removable recording medium or the like is transferred to the file registration unit 2 (S2). Subsequently, the file registration unit 2 combines the two contents into one logical content according to the input specification information, for example, as illustrated in FIG. 3A (S3). Next, the file registration unit 2 registers each physical file via the file management unit 1, and the file management unit 1 allocates a management logical content ID (identification information) to the logical content.
The title and each physical file name are registered in the management table in association with each other as shown in FIG. 4 (S4). Further, the received content is stored in the external storage device 13 (S5). In the above, the case of the video data has been described, but also the audio data. It can be realized in a similar manner. Although not shown in FIG. 4, it is also possible to add video content obtained by converting the original content into a data format suitable for data editing, for example, AVI format or Motion JPEG format in which each frame is independent, to logical content. .
The MPEG-2 format is not suitable for editing because each frame is not independent. Also, although not shown in FIG.
At the request of the user, related files can be registered via the file registration unit 2 and, as described above, can be managed collectively in addition to the logical content. The user does not need to select a data format suitable for the above-described processing, and the content management system automatically selects the data format according to the type of the requested processing. The optimum data format is set in a table or the like in advance in association with the type of processing. Further, a program programmed in accordance with the content management method as described above is stored in, for example, a removable recording medium, and the recording medium is mounted on an information processing apparatus such as a personal computer which has not been able to manage content according to the present invention. Accordingly, the content management according to the present invention can be performed in the information processing apparatus.

[0012]

As described above, according to the present invention,
According to the first aspect of the present invention, in the content management method capable of managing one content in a plurality of data formats, the data of the original content including one or a plurality of files and the data different from the data of the original content Multiple data expressed in a format are combined and managed collectively as a single logical content, so it is possible to store various data types including long content that spans multiple files such as video content and audio content. Thus, the user can take out the content in a unit intended by himself without being conscious of the data format, and can register, delete, and search in a logical content unit. Further, in the invention according to claim 2, in the invention according to claim 1,
If the content is video or audio data,
Original content files and files in a data format suitable for processing, or files registered at the request of the user are managed collectively, so the user is suitable for processing without being aware of the data format It is possible to retrieve contents in the data format, and to register and retrieve related files freely and collectively. According to the third aspect of the present invention, in the second aspect of the invention, a file of the original content and a file of a data format suitable for data editing, content description work, or distribution are collectively managed. The user can extract contents in a data format suitable for such processing without being aware of the data format. According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the second or third aspect of the present invention, after the registration of the original content, a file in a data format suitable for the requested processing in response to the processing request specifying the logical content is created. Since a file of a plurality of data formats assumed in advance is created automatically or at an arbitrary timing, a file of a data format suitable for processing can be prepared without any trouble.

Further, according to the invention described in claim 5, according to claim 1,
In any one of the inventions according to claims 4 to 6, when the original content is composed of a plurality of data,
It is managed collectively, including management information that manages the allocation position of each data and the allocated length for the logical content composed of multiple original content data. Can be generated. According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, in the fifth aspect of the invention, the individual data of the original content constituting the logical content is a part of one file or the content between the individual data of the original content. Since there may be duplicates, logical content that meets the user's intention can be created. Also, in the invention according to claim 7, in any one of the inventions according to claims 1 to 6, the attribute is described as the content description information indicating the content. Can be easily known, and a search for multimedia data can be easily performed using the content search system. In the invention according to claim 8,
According to the seventh aspect of the present invention, since the attributes are described in an expression format having a logical structure, the contents can be more easily understood. According to the ninth aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect,
In any of the inventions described in claims 6 to 6, since the data to be managed collectively includes the content description information described in claim 7 or claim 8, the logical content targeted by the content description information is included. , The content description information can be extracted, and therefore the content description information can be easily extracted. In the invention according to claim 10,
A program for executing any of the content management methods according to any one of claims 1 to 9 is stored in, for example, a removable recording medium, and the recording medium is stored in the storage medium. By attaching the information processing apparatus to an information processing apparatus such as a personal computer for which the content management cannot be performed, the effects of the first to ninth aspects can be obtained in the information processing apparatus.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration block diagram of a content management system showing an example of an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a hardware configuration diagram of an information processing apparatus in which a content management method of the present invention is implemented.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram of a content management method showing an example of an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is another explanatory diagram of the content management method showing an example of the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is another explanatory diagram of the content management method showing an example of the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is another explanatory diagram of the content management method showing an example of an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is an operation flowchart of a content management method showing an example of an embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1: File management unit 2: File registration unit 3: File format conversion unit 4: File extraction unit 5: Mapping unit 6: Partial extraction unit 11: Memory 12: CPU 13: External storage device 14: Input device 15: Display device 16 ： Data reading device

Continued on the front page F term (reference) 5B082 BA13 EA01 EA07 EA09 EA10 EA11 GA02 GA20 GC01 GC03 GC04 5C052 AA01 AB03 AB04 AB05 AC08 CC11 DD04

Claims (10)

[Claims] In a content management method capable of managing one content in a plurality of data formats, data of an original content composed of one or a plurality of files and a data format different from the data of the original content are represented. Together with multiple data
A content management method characterized by collectively managing as one logical content. 2. The content management method according to claim 1, wherein when the content is video data or audio data, a file of the original content, a file in a data format suitable for processing, or registration according to a user's request. A content management method characterized by collectively managing files that have been created. 3. The content management method according to claim 2, wherein the processing is data editing, content description work, or distribution. 4. A content management method according to claim 2, wherein after the registration of the original content, a file having a data format suitable for the requested processing is created in response to a processing request specifying the logical content. ,
Alternatively, a content management method characterized by automatically creating files of a plurality of data formats assumed in advance at free timing. 5. The content management method according to claim 1, wherein when the original content is composed of a plurality of data, each data for a logical content composed of a plurality of data of the original content. A content management method, comprising management information for managing an allocation position and an allocated length of the content, and managing the content including the management information collectively. 6. The content management method according to claim 5, wherein individual data of the original content constituting the logical content is a part of one file,
Alternatively, a content management method characterized in that the content between individual data of the original content is duplicated. 7. The content management method according to claim 1, wherein an attribute of the content is described as content description information indicating the content. 8. The content management method according to claim 7, wherein the content description information has a logical structure. 9. The content management method according to claim 1, wherein the data to be collectively managed includes the content description information according to claim 7 or 8. Characteristic content management method. 10. A recording medium storing a program for executing the content management method according to claim 1 on a recording medium storing the program.