JP2002183216A - Device for storing/reproducing time-series information - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a time series information storing/reproducing device that realizes quick and easy retrieval in the case of subsequently retrieving contents by performing storage processing of event data with respect to a recording medium of a fixed capacitance so as to improve the retrieval efficiency. SOLUTION: An importance threshold defining means 8 defines such an importance threshold that increases more as time elapses. An event data filtering means 9 efficiently files the event data whose value reduces more as time elapses from the recording medium because event data having importance being smaller than the importance threshold is eliminated from an event data storing means 7.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

[0001] The present invention relates to event data generated in a time series such as video, audio, and sensor information.
The present invention relates to a time-series information storage / reproduction device that efficiently stores and reproduces data in a storage area having a fixed capacity.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Event data obtained in a time series for an event occurring in a monitoring area (image data of an event obtained by imaging the monitoring area, audio data of an event obtained by collecting sound from the monitoring area, The following prior art relates to an apparatus for monitoring events that are to be monitored and that uses sensor data to constantly monitor the events to be monitored and that records the events to be monitored in detail.

(1) Event detection sensor and time lapse VT
In combination with R, images, sounds, sensor information, and the like are sequentially recorded at long time intervals when no event occurs, and at short time intervals during event occurrence. (JP-A-8-27
7080) (2) An event is detected by image processing, and the image is compressed and recorded / reproduced only when an abnormal event is detected. (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 11-
16059)

[0004] As a method for summarizing and storing information, which is not used for monitoring, there is the following conventional technique. (3) When the storage period of the information storage unit has passed a predetermined period, or when the free space of the information storage medium has become equal to or less than a predetermined value, the event detection period or the period specified by the user input information The time series information is compressed and stored by changing the compression ratio of the image information and the compression ratio of the image information in other sections. (JP-A-10-191245, JP-A-10-191245)
214270)

[0005]

In the prior art, a video only when an event occurs is recorded for video, audio, or user input.
By changing the audio compression ratio, efficient information storage is achieved. However, since the size of the recording medium is not infinite, if event data is completely recorded on a recording medium of a fixed capacity, the medium will need to be replaced or old information will be overwritten in order, which is troublesome. Or necessary information may not be available. For this reason, more efficient information storage is required.

Therefore, efficient information storage is attempted by focusing on the following facts. (1) Since the value of information increases and decreases according to the elapsed time from the generation of information, it is natural that the value of information is expressed as a function of the elapsed time. Therefore, efficient information accumulation is performed by deleting information whose value has decreased over time, so that the information is stored for a long time when the value of the information is high, and for a short time when the value of the information is low. (2) Among the information stored on the database, information that is often searched later is considered to be more valuable than information that is not searched. Therefore, information that is often searched is stored for a longer period of time to efficiently store information.

[0007] The object of the present invention, in view of the above problems,
When extracting and recording only the event of interest from the target time-series data, changing the importance or unnecessaryness of the event based on the elapsed time from the event occurrence or the number of searches, and efficiently saving only valuable events Another object is to provide a sequence information storage / reproduction device.

[0008]

Means for Solving the Problems In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the time-series information accumulating / reproducing apparatus according to the first aspect of the present invention relates to the importance of an event which determines whether or not to save. The threshold value is increased as time elapses, and the border line of importance to be deleted is increased as time elapses, and events of lower importance are deleted.
Also, increase the importance of events that are searched many times,
Such event data was stored for a long period of time.
For this reason, it becomes a time-series information storage / reproduction device in which event data of low importance is deleted and arranged as time elapses.

According to the time-series information accumulating / reproducing apparatus according to the first aspect of the present invention, event data input means for continuously inputting event data relating to events in a time-series manner, and storing event definition data. Event data storage means, and comparing the event data output from the event data input means with the definition data stored in the event data storage means, and Event detection means for detecting the end of a plurality of types of events, importance data storage means for storing the importance of the events, and the type of each event for later referring to the event data detected by the event detection means Creates index data consisting of addresses related to the occurrence time, end time, and recording position, reads the importance data of this event data from the importance data storage means, and Data, index data, and importance data, and event data, index data, and importance data are recorded and stored on a recording medium under the control of the event data writing means. Event data storage means, importance threshold definition means for defining the relationship between the time elapsed since the occurrence of the event and the importance threshold, and event data of low importance based on the importance threshold read from the importance threshold definition means Event data filtering means for deleting the event, time management means for managing time, search condition designating means for designating the condition of event data to be reproduced from the accumulated event data, and the event having the condition designated by the search condition designating means. An event data search unit for searching data; and reproducing event data searched by the event data search unit. And data reproducing means, the A-series data storing and reproducing apparatus when at least comprising the severity threshold defining means changes the importance threshold in accordance with the elapsed time from when the event data is accumulated,
By deleting the event data filtering means based on the importance threshold, event data having a high importance is selected and retained as time passes.

[0010] Further, the time-series information storage and storage according to the second aspect.
According to the reproducing apparatus, in the time-series information accumulating / reproducing apparatus according to claim 1, the searched event importance rewriting means for increasing the importance of the event data searched by the event data searching means is provided. It is characterized by having.

[0011] In addition, the time-series information storage /
According to the reproduction apparatus, in the time-series information storage / reproduction apparatus according to claim 1, the importance is increased for all event data of the same type as the event data retrieved by the event data retrieval means. It is characterized by comprising a searched event importance rewriting means.

[0012] In addition, the time-series information storage and storage according to claim 4 can be performed.
According to the reproducing apparatus, in the time-series information accumulating / reproducing apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 3, the flag on / off means indicating whether or not a search target has been set, and the flag on / off means And a retrieving event importance rewriting means for reducing the importance of all the event data of the same type as the event data indicating that no retrieval has been performed.

[0013] In addition, the time-series information storage and storage device according to claim 5 is provided.
According to the reproducing apparatus, in the time-series information accumulating / reproducing apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 4, the importance of the event is a function of the user's necessity for each event. And

[0014] In addition, the time-series information storage and storage device according to claim 6 is provided.
According to the reproducing apparatus, in the time-series information accumulating / reproducing apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 4, it is preferable that the importance of the event is a function of the degree of interest of the user in each event. Features.

[0015] In addition, the time-series information accumulating and storing according to claim 7
According to the reproducing apparatus, in the time-series information accumulating / reproducing apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 4, the importance of an event is a function of the degree of responsibility of a user for each event. It is characterized by the following.

Further, the time-series information storage and storage device according to claim 8 is provided.
According to the reproducing apparatus, in the time-series information accumulating / reproducing apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 4, the importance of the event is set as a function of the cost of post-processing for each event. Features.

[0017] Further, the time-series information storage and storage device according to claim 9 is provided.
According to the reproducing apparatus, in the time-series information accumulating / reproducing apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 4, the importance of the event is a function of the degree of public interest in each event. And

Further, according to the time-series information storage / reproduction device of the tenth aspect, in the time-series information storage / reproduction device of any one of the first to fourth aspects, the importance of an event can be reduced. The degree is a function of the degree of privacy of each event.

Further, according to the time-series information storage / reproduction device of the present invention, in the time-series information storage / reproduction device of any one of the first to fourth aspects, the importance of an event can be reduced. The degree is a function of the load that each event gives to the environment.

According to the time-series information storage / reproduction device of the twelfth aspect, in the time-series information storage / reproduction device according to any one of the first to fourth aspects, the importance of an event can be reduced. The degree is a function of the event occurrence time of each event.

According to the time-series information storage / reproduction device of the thirteenth aspect, in the time-series information storage / reproduction device according to any one of the first to fourth aspects, the importance of an event can be reduced. It is characterized in that the degree is a function of the cumulative event occurrence time of each event.

According to the time-series information storage / reproduction device of the fourteenth aspect, in the time-series information storage / reproduction device of any one of the first to fourth aspects, the importance of an event can be reduced. The degree is a function of the frequency of occurrence of each event.

According to the time-series information storage / reproduction device according to the fifteenth aspect, in the time-series information storage / reproduction device according to any one of the first to fourth aspects, the importance of an event can be reduced. It is characterized in that the degree is a function of the average event occurrence time of each event.

According to the time-series information storage / reproduction device of the sixteenth aspect, in the time-series information storage / reproduction device of any one of the first to fourth aspects, the importance of an event can be reduced. The degree is a function of the time elapsed from the time when the event occurs.

According to the time-series information storage / reproduction device according to the seventeenth aspect, in the time-series information storage / reproduction device according to any one of the first to fourth aspects, the importance of an event can be reduced. The degree is a function of the distance between the event occurrence time and the average event occurrence time of the same type.

The second aspect of the present invention is the second aspect.
In the time-series information accumulating / reproducing apparatus of the invention of the invention, the unnecessary degree threshold value of the event that determines the necessity of storage is reduced with time, and the border line of the unnecessary degree to be deleted with time is reduced, Removed unnecessary unnecessary events. Further, the unnecessary degree of an event whose number of times of retrieval is small is increased, and such event data is deleted. For this reason, it becomes a time-series information storage / reproduction device in which event data having a high degree of unnecessaryness is deleted and arranged over time.

According to the time-series information accumulating / reproducing apparatus of the eighteenth aspect of the present invention, event data input means for inputting event data relating to an event continuously in a time-series manner, and storing event definition data. Event data storage means, and comparing the event data output from the event data input means with the definition data stored in the event data storage means, and Event detection means for detecting the end of a plurality of types of events, unnecessary degree data storage means for storing the degree of unnecessaryness of the events, and the type of each event for later referring to the event data detected by the event detecting means Creates index data consisting of addresses related to the occurrence time, end time, and recording position, reads the unnecessary data of this event data from the unnecessary data storage means, and Event data writing means for controlling to write data, index data and unnecessary data together, and an event for recording and accumulating event data, index data and unnecessary data on a recording medium under the control of the event data writing means Data storage means, unnecessary degree threshold value defining means for defining the relationship between the elapsed time from the occurrence of the event and the unnecessary degree threshold value, and event data having a high degree of unnecessaryness based on the unnecessary degree threshold value read from the unnecessary degree threshold value defining means. Event data filtering means for erasing, time management means for managing time, search condition designating means for designating conditions of event data to be reproduced from the accumulated event data, and events having the conditions designated by the search condition designating means. An event data search means for searching, and an event data for reproducing the event data searched by the event data search means. And data reproducing means, the A-series data storing and reproducing apparatus when at least comprising,
The unnecessary degree threshold value defining means changes the unnecessary degree threshold value according to the elapsed time from the time when the event data is accumulated, and the unnecessary degree is determined as time passes by deleting the event data filtering means based on the unnecessary degree threshold value. It is characterized in that low event data is selected and left.

According to the time-series information storage / reproduction device of the nineteenth aspect, in the time-series information storage / reproduction device of the eighteenth aspect, the event data retrieved by the event data retrieval means is provided. In addition, there is provided a searched event unnecessary degree rewriting means for reducing the unnecessary degree.

According to the time-series information storage / reproduction device of the twentieth aspect, in the time-series information storage / reproduction device of the eighteenth aspect, the event data retrieved by the event data retrieval means is provided. And retrieving-event-required-degree rewriting means for reducing the unnecessary level for all event data of the same type.

According to the time-series information storage / reproduction device according to the twenty-first aspect, the time-series information storage / reproduction device according to the eighteenth to twentieth aspects determines whether or not the time-series information has been retrieved. A flag on / off means for indicating, and a searched event unnecessary degree rewriting means for increasing an unnecessary degree for all event data of the same type as the event data indicating that the event data is not searched for by the flag on / off means. .

Further, according to the time-series information storage / reproduction device according to claim 22, in the time-series information storage / reproduction device according to any one of claims 18 to 21,
It is characterized in that the degree of unnecessary event is a function of the user's need for each event.

[0032] According to the time-series information storage / reproduction device according to the twenty-third aspect, the time-series information storage / reproduction device according to any one of the eighteenth to twenty-first aspects,
It is characterized in that the degree of unnecessary event is a function of the degree of interest of the user in each event.

According to the time-series information storage / reproduction device according to claim 24, in the time-series information storage / reproduction device according to any one of claims 18 to 21,
It is characterized in that the degree of unnecessary event is a function of the degree of responsibility of the user for each event.

According to the time-series information storage / reproduction device according to the twenty-fifth aspect, the time-series information storage / reproduction device according to any one of the eighteenth to twenty-first aspects,
It is characterized in that the unnecessary degree of an event is a function of the cost required for post-processing for each event.

According to the time-series information storage / reproduction device according to the twenty-sixth aspect, the time-series information storage / reproduction device according to any one of the eighteenth to twenty-first aspects,
It is characterized in that the degree of unnecessaryness of an event is a function of the degree of public interest in each event.

According to the time-series information storage / reproduction device according to claim 27, the time-series information storage / reproduction device according to any one of claims 18 to 21,
It is characterized in that the degree of unnecessary event is a function of the degree of privacy of each event.

According to the time-series information storage / reproduction device according to the twenty-eighth aspect, the time-series information storage / reproduction device according to any one of the eighteenth to twenty-first aspects,
It is characterized in that the unnecessary degree of an event is a function of the load that each event gives to the environment.

According to the time-series information storage / reproduction device according to claim 29, in the time-series information storage / reproduction device according to any one of claims 18 to 21,
The unnecessary degree of an event is a function of the event occurrence time of each event.

According to the time-series information storage / reproduction device of the thirtieth aspect, in the time-series information storage / reproduction device of any one of the eighteenth to twenty-first aspects,
It is characterized in that the degree of unnecessary event is a function of the cumulative event occurrence time of each event.

According to a time-series information storage / reproduction device according to claim 31, in the time-series information storage / reproduction device according to any one of claims 18 to 21,
The unnecessary degree of an event is a function of the frequency of occurrence of each event.

Further, according to the time-series information storage / reproduction device according to claim 32, in the time-series information storage / reproduction device according to any one of claims 18 to 21,
It is characterized in that the degree of unnecessary event is a function of the average time of event occurrence of each event.

According to a time-series information storage / reproduction device according to claim 33, in the time-series information storage / reproduction device according to any one of claims 18 to 21,
It is characterized in that the degree of unnecessaryness of an event is a function of the elapsed time from the time when the event occurs.

According to the time-series information storage / reproduction device according to the thirty-fourth aspect, in the time-series information storage / reproduction device according to any one of the eighteenth to twenty-first aspects,
It is characterized in that the degree of unnecessaryness of an event is a function of the distance between the time of occurrence of the event and the average time of occurrence of the same type of event.

[0044]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The first to seventeenth aspects of the first aspect of the present invention which are common in that importance is used will be described below. First, a first embodiment according to claim 1 will be described. FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of the time-series information storage / reproduction device of the present embodiment. Time-series information storage and
The playback device includes an event data input unit 1 and an event detection unit 2
And event data storage means 3 and event data writing means 4
Importance data storage means 5, time management means 6, event data storage means 7, importance threshold definition means 8, event data filtering means 9, search condition specification means 10,
Event data searching means 11 and event data reproducing means 1
2 at least.

The event data input means 1 receives event data relating to events occurring in the monitoring area continuously in a time-series manner. A more specific configuration of the event data input unit 1 will be described. Here, the event data input means 1
For example, two configurations can be selected. Figure 2
FIG. 3 is a configuration diagram showing a specific example of the event data input means.

As a first specific example, as shown in FIG. 2, the event data input means 1 captures an event in the monitoring area and outputs an analog image signal. A sound collecting means 1b for collecting sound and outputting an analog sound signal such as sound or noise;
A sensing unit 1c for directly detecting an event and outputting a sensor signal, such as a detection switch, and an image signal, a sound signal,
Alternatively, A / D conversion means 1d for outputting image data, audio data, or sensor data by converting a sensor signal from analog to digital, and image memory 1e for storing image data output from A / D conversion means 1d. And A /
An audio memory 1f for storing audio data output from the D conversion means 1d, and a detection memory 1g for storing sensor data output from the A / D conversion means 1d.

The image memory 1e, the audio memory 1f, and the detection memory 1g output image data, audio data, sensor data, or a combination thereof as event data. The event data input means 1 according to the first configuration is configured as described above.

As a second specific example, the imaging means 1a, the sound collecting means 1b, the sensing means 1c and the A / D conversion means 1d of the first configuration shown in FIG.
Is replaced by In this case, as shown in FIG. 3, the imaging unit 1a and the sound collection unit 1 are located in a monitoring area at a remote place.
b, a sensing unit 1c, an A / D conversion unit 1d, and a transmission unit 1i.
d outputs event data including image data, audio data, and sensor data, and transmits the event data
Is transmitted, and the received event data is received by the receiving means 1h. The receiving unit 1h receives event data regardless of whether it is wired or wireless, and outputs image data to the image memory 1e, audio data to the audio memory 1f, and sensor data to the detection memory 1g. The event data input means 1 of the second configuration is configured as described above. As described above, the present invention can be implemented as the event data input means 1 having any of the first and second configurations.

The event data may be only image data, only audio data, only sensor data, or a combination of these, if necessary. These data formats are appropriately designed and selected.

The event data output from the event data input means 1 is output to the event detection means 2. The event detection means 2 is connected to an event data storage means 3.
The event data storage means 3 stores definition data of events 1 to k (k is a natural number) to be monitored. The event detection means 2 compares the event data output from the event data input means 1 with the definition data stored in the event data storage means 3 to generate an event to be monitored from events occurring in time series. The end is detected for a plurality of types of events, and the detected event data is output. Although not shown, the event detecting means 2 includes a plurality of event detecting means for detecting individual events, which operate in parallel to detect occurrence and end of each event. The detected event data is sent to the event data writing means 4.

First, when the event detection means 2 detects an event to be monitored, the event data writing means 4 takes in various necessary data for the event data. The importance data storage means 5 stores importance data which is the initial importance for the events 1 to k, and the event data writing means 4 can read the importance data corresponding to the event. Further, since the time management means 6 outputs data relating to time, the event data writing means 4 can read data relating to time. The event data writing means 4 is time-managed by the time management means 6, and takes in the occurrence time and the end time when the occurrence and the end of the event are detected.

The event data writing means 4 stores the type of each event,
The index data including the occurrence time, the end time, and the address related to the recording position is created, and the event data storage unit 7 is controlled so that the event data, the index data, and the importance data are written together.

The event data storage means 7 records and stores event data, index data, and importance data on a recording medium under the control of the event data writing means 4. After the accumulation, the event data accumulation means 7 can reproduce the desired event data from the recording medium with reference to the index data. Here, the event data storage means 7 is, for example, a hard disk or a large-capacity RAM (Random Access Memory).
ry).

The event data filtering means 9 has a function of referring to the importance threshold value defining means 8 and leaving only important event data and deleting other unimportant event data. This filtering operation is time-managed by the time management means 6, and is automatically performed, for example, every time a predetermined period elapses. The details of the filtering operation will be described later.

The search condition specifying means 10 specifies conditions for reproducing desired event data from the event data recorded in the event data storage means 7. The event data search unit 11 searches and selects event data relating to an event that matches the specified condition set by the search condition specifying unit 10 from the event data storage unit 7. The event data reproducing means 12 reproduces the event data output from the event data searching means 11.

Next, the information storage operation of this embodiment will be described. When the information storage operation is started, time-series event data is sequentially input to the event data input means 1. The event data input means 1 outputs event data to the event detection means 2. The event detection unit 2 determines whether or not a monitoring event has occurred in the event data relating to an event occurring in the monitoring area output from the event data input unit 1. The resulting event data is sent to the event data writing means 4. The event data writing unit 4 records the event data, the index data, and the importance data in the event data storage unit 7.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of a process of storing time-series event data in the event data storage means 7.
FIG. 4A shows an example of event detection of event data generated in time series output from the event data input unit 1. The occurrence of three types of events A, B, and C is detected from the event data in the period T, and only the event data in the section where the events A, B, and C occur are extracted. Also, index data is generated, and importance data is read. And
Index data, importance data, and event data as shown in FIG. 4B are stored in the event data storage unit 7.

Here, the index data has at least the event occurrence time, the event end time, the event type, and the recording position of the event data, and is shown in FIG. 4B to facilitate later retrieval. The ID of such an event is attached. In this case, the events A, B, and the events to be monitored (that is, stored as definition data in the event data storage unit 3)
Events other than C are discarded without being stored in the event data storage unit 7 because no event has occurred. Thus, the event data storage means 7 stores event data.

When a predetermined time has elapsed from the start of monitoring, or when the recording capacity of the recording medium has become small, a filtering operation is performed. FIG. 5 shows the first embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram illustrating a filtering operation performed by the event data filtering unit according to the embodiment. FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating a flow of the filtering operation. By filtering all events at that point in time by comparing the importance of the event with the importance threshold corresponding to the elapsed time of the event, and deleting events of importance lower than the importance threshold, new event data To secure an area for recording. As shown in FIG. 5, currently (ie, time has not elapsed since the occurrence of the event), event data of low importance is also stored, but as the past (that is, time elapses from the occurrence of the event), If the importance threshold value increases, that is, even if the event data has a high importance, it is a deletion target if the event has occurred in the distant past. The relationship between the elapsed time and the event importance threshold value may be a table or may be represented by a function as in this example.

As shown in FIG. 6, in the flow of such a filtering process, the initial value of the variable i is set to 1 (step S1), and the data on the i-th event (at least the index data The importance data is read out (step S2), and the elapsed time of the i-th event is calculated (step S3). The importance threshold value defining means 8 determines the importance of the i-th event corresponding to the calculated elapsed time.
, And compares the significance with the significance of the i-th event. If the significance of the i-th event is greater than the significance threshold, the event data is determined to be stored. A determination is made (step S4).

If it is determined that the event data is to be deleted, the data relating to the i-th event is deleted (step S5). Otherwise, the variable i is deleted without deleting the event data.
Is incremented by 1 (step S
6). Such an operation is performed for all events. If such a determination has not been completed for all events, the process returns to the beginning of step S2, and if such determination has been completed (step S7), the process is terminated. The filtering operation is performed in this way.

According to the example described above with reference to FIG. 4, for each event, an importance threshold as shown in FIG. 4C is set, and the event which is an event smaller than this importance threshold is set. Event A of ID2 and event C of event ID3 are deleted. Note that, even for the same event A, the event A with the event ID 4 is not to be deleted, but this is because the elapsed time is short (that is, it indicates that the event has recently occurred) and the importance threshold is small. As described above, since the time-series information storage / reproduction device performs the filtering operation, it becomes possible to delete event data whose importance decreases as time elapses, and efficiently store the event data.

Next, a description will be given of a second embodiment of the first invention, which is the second aspect of the present invention. FIG.
FIG. 3 is a configuration diagram of a time-series information storage / reproduction device of a second embodiment. In the second embodiment, in addition to the first embodiment, when a searched event importance rewriting unit 20 that performs an importance rewriting process for increasing the importance of the event data retrieved by the event data retrieval unit 11 is added. A series event storage / reproduction device.

FIG. 8 is an explanatory diagram for explaining an importance rewriting operation by the searched event importance rewriting means of this embodiment, and FIG.
9 is a flowchart illustrating a flow of an importance rewriting process performed by the searched event importance rewriting unit of the present embodiment.
The rightmost end in FIG. 8 is the event occurrence time point, and at this time point, two types of events 1 and 2 have occurred. From there, the flow of time proceeds to the left in the figure. Since event 2 has a greater importance at the time of event occurrence than event 1, if this importance is maintained, event 1 is erased before event 2.

However, in FIG. 8, event 1 is subjected to a total of three searches from the occurrence of the event to the present.
To be a search target, it is determined that the importance of this event is high, and the importance of the searched event is increased by a certain amount. That is, the importance of event 1 is rewritten, and the time until erasure is extended. On the other hand, although the importance of the event 2 at the time of occurrence of the event is higher than that of the event 1, the search for the event 2 does not occur, so that the importance does not change and is deleted before the event 1.

In this importance rewriting process, as shown in FIG. 9, if the data relating to the j-th event is read out by the retrieval (step S11), the retrieving event importance rewriting means 20 executes the event data rewriting. After the data relating to the j-th event is read from the storage means 7 and the process of increasing the importance of the j-th event is performed (step S12), the importance of the j-th event of the event data storage means 7 is rewritten (step S1).
3), end the process. The importance rewriting process is performed in this manner.

FIG. 10 is an explanatory diagram for explaining an example of the importance rewriting process by the searched event importance rewriting means of this embodiment. Initially, it is assumed that four events are accumulated as shown in FIG. Then, after a predetermined period has elapsed, as shown in FIG. 10B, the event B of the event ID 1 is searched once and increases from 4 to 5, and the event C of the event ID 3 is searched twice. Importance has increased from 1 to 3. Then, when the filtering process is performed, as shown in FIG. 10C, only the event of event ID2 having an importance smaller than the importance threshold is deleted. In the filtering process described with reference to FIG. 4C, the events of the event ID2 and the event ID3 are deleted.
The event C of the event ID 3 searched twice has its importance increased by the importance rewriting process, and is not deleted.

Next, a description will be given of a third embodiment of the first invention, which is the third invention. In the third embodiment, similar to the second embodiment, when the searched event importance rewriting means 20 for performing the importance rewriting processing for increasing the importance of the event data retrieved by the event data retrieval means 11 is added. Although it is a series event accumulation / reproduction device, the importance rewriting process is different from that of the second embodiment.

In the importance rewriting process of the second embodiment, the searched event importance rewriting means 20 increases the importance of only the event data retrieved by the event data retrieval means 11. In the importance rewriting process of the present embodiment, when event data is retrieved by the event data retrieval means 11, the retrieved event importance rewriting means 20 increases the importance for all event data of the same type. It is.

FIG. 11 is a flowchart for explaining a flow of the importance rewriting process by the searched event importance rewriting means of this embodiment. In the importance rewriting process, as shown in FIG. 11, if data on the j-th event is retrieved by the search, the searched event importance rewriting means 20 reads the data on the j-th event from the event data storage means 7. (Step S21), the event type of the j-th event is read (Step S22). Then, the initial value of the variable i is set to 1 (step S23), and the data regarding the i-th event is read (step S24).

Then, it is determined whether or not the type of the i-th event matches the type of the event j (step S25). If the type matches, the importance is increased to the i-th event (step S2).
6) Processing and rewriting the importance of the event data storage means 7 (step S27), and if the types do not match, jump to the beginning of step S28. Then, after performing the process of adding 1 to the variable (step S28), it is determined whether or not all the events have been determined (step S29). If the determination has not been completed for all the events, the process returns to the top of step S24. Then, the similarity rewriting process is performed, and if the judgment is completed for all events, the importance rewriting process is ended.

After the importance rewriting process is completed, only the event A of the event ID 2 is deleted as shown in FIG. 10C in the second embodiment, but in the present embodiment, the event A shown in FIG. Accordingly, although not shown, for example, event A of event ID 4
Is searched twice, the importance of event A of event ID 4 is rewritten from 2 to 4 in addition to the importance of event A of event ID 4 being rewritten from 2 to 4. Therefore, the event A of the event ID2 and the event A of the ID4 are stored without being deleted.

Next, a description will be given of a fourth embodiment of the first invention, which is the invention according to claim 4. FIG.
FIG. 14 is a configuration diagram of a time-series information storage / reproduction device of a fourth embodiment. In the fourth embodiment, in addition to the first embodiment, a flag on / off means 21 indicating whether or not the event data is retrieved by the event data retrieval means 11 and a searched event importance rewriting means 20 for increasing the importance of the event data are provided. A time-series event storage / reproduction device was added.

The time-series event accumulating / reproducing apparatus of this embodiment performs the importance rewriting process. FIG. 13 and FIG. 14 are flowcharts illustrating the flow of the importance rewriting process according to the present embodiment. In the importance rewriting process, first, initializing is performed. In the array P (j), j represents an event type representing event 1 to event k, and P (j) is a flag indicating whether or not the event type has been searched.
Corresponds to no search and 1 corresponds to search. As shown in FIG. 13A, for P (j) corresponding to the event type, 1
The initial value of P (j) is set to 0 for all events from to (k) (step S31).

FIG. 13 shows a process at the time of retrieval.
As shown in (b), if the event type j relating to the searched event is read (step S41), the flag on / off means 21 sets P (j) to 1 (step S4).
2). As a result, a certain event type is indicated by a flag indicating that the search has been performed.

Subsequently, in the filtering process, the initial value of the variable i is set to 1 as shown in FIG.
51), data relating to the i-th event is read from the event data storage means 7 (step S52), and the event type of the i-th event is read (step S53). A comparison is made as to whether P (i) corresponding to the read event type is 0 (step S54), and if P (i) = 0 (not searched), the process of reducing the importance of the i-th event (step S54) S55) and the process of rewriting the importance of the i-th event (step S5)
6) is performed, and if P (i) = 1 (searched), the increment operation of increasing the variable i by 1 is performed without particularly processing the i-th event (step S5).
7). Such an operation is performed for all events (step S58). If such a determination has not been completed for all events, the process returns to the beginning of step S52, and if the determination has been completed, the process ends. The filtering operation is performed in this way.

FIG. 15 is an explanatory diagram for explaining an example of importance rewriting processing by the searched event importance rewriting means of this embodiment. First, it is assumed that four events are accumulated as shown in FIG. Then, after a predetermined period has elapsed, as shown in FIG. 15B, only the event C of the event ID 3 is searched twice and the importance is increased from 1 to 3, and other events are not searched. It is assumed that the event B of the event ID 1 has reduced importance from 4 to 3, the event A of the event ID 2 has reduced importance from 2 to 1, and the event A of the event ID 4 has reduced importance from 2 to 1. .

When the filtering process is performed, as shown in FIG. 15C, only the event B of the event ID1 and the event A of the event ID2 are deleted. FIG. 4 (c)
In the filtering process described using, the event A of event ID2 and the event C of event ID3 are deleted, but the event of event ID3 searched twice has increased in importance by the importance rewriting process and is not deleted. .

Next, the definition of importance will be described. The question is when the event is important,
Depending on the event to be monitored, various degrees of importance appear. FIG.
6 and FIG. 17 are explanatory diagrams for explaining the degree of importance. As shown in FIG. 16, the importance is a function of the need of the user, and if the need of the user is low, the importance is low, and
If the need of the user is high, the importance can be defined as having a high importance. Then, the importance is increased in proportion to the importance function A, the importance is increased exponentially as in the importance functions B and C, or the importance is increased stepwise as in the importance function D. Can be increased. Then, the level of importance is determined according to the level of interest of each event.

For the same purpose, the importance of an event may be a function of the degree of interest of one user for each event. This means that events of low interest to the user are less important,
Those with high interests have high importance. The level of importance of the event is determined in advance by the user, and the event data and the importance data are registered in the event data storage unit 3 and the importance data storage unit 5. The function itself is the function shown in FIG.

Also, the importance of an event can be a function of the significance of the user's responsibility for each event. This means that events with low responsibilities have low importance, and those with high responsibilities have high importance. The level of importance of the event is determined in advance by the user, and the event data and the importance data are registered in the event data storage unit 3 and the importance data storage unit 5. The function itself is the function shown in FIG.

The importance of an event can be a function of the cost of post-processing for each event. This means that low-cost events have low importance and high-cost events have high importance. The level of importance of the event is determined in advance by the user, and the event data and the importance data are registered in the event data storage unit 3 and the importance data storage unit 5. The function itself is the function shown in FIG.

The importance of an event can be a function of the degree of public interest in each event. The degree of public interest is
The degree of interest is based on the results of a survey, such as a questionnaire. Events with low interest of the world are of low importance, and events of high interest are of high importance. The level of importance of the event is determined in advance by the user, and the event data and the importance data are registered in the event data storage unit 3 and the importance data storage unit 5. The function itself is the function shown in FIG.

Also, the importance of an event can be a function of the degree of privacy for each event. The degree of privacy is determined by the number of appearances in weekly magazine articles and the like. An event with a low degree of privacy has low importance, and an event with a high degree has high importance. The level of importance of the event is determined in advance by the user, and the event data and the importance data are registered in the event data storage unit 3 and the importance data storage unit 5. The function itself is
The function is as shown in FIG.

The importance of an event can also be a function of the load that each event exerts on the environment. The event that exerts a load on the environment is, for example, an event that increases exhaust gas such as traffic congestion. Events having a low load on the environment due to each event have a low importance, and events having a high load have a high importance. The level of importance of the event is predetermined by the user,
The event data and the importance data are registered in the event data storage unit 3 and the importance data storage unit 5. The function itself is the function shown in FIG.

The importance of an event can be a function of the event occurrence time of each event. For example, as shown by the importance function A in FIG. 17, an event that occurs at night may have a high importance, and an event that occurs during the day may have a low importance. Further, as shown by the importance function B, an event occurring in a specific time zone (time zone around 12:00 in FIG. 17) can be defined as important. Further, as shown by the importance function C, it is possible to specify that an event occurring in the light or evening is important.

Further, the importance of an event can be a function of the cumulative event occurrence time of each event. An event with a short cumulative event occurrence time has a low importance, and an event with a long cumulative event occurrence time has a high importance. In this case, a frequently occurring event is regarded as a highly important event. Conversely, an event having a short cumulative event occurrence time may have high importance, and an event having a long cumulative event occurrence time may have low importance. In this case, an event that rarely occurs is regarded as an event of high importance. Such settings can be appropriately set according to the circumstances of the user, and the event data and the importance data are registered in the event data storage means 3 and the importance data storage means 5. The function itself is the function shown in FIG.

The importance of an event may be a function of the frequency of occurrence of each event. An event having a low event occurrence frequency has a low importance, and an event having a high event occurrence frequency has a high importance. In this case, a frequently occurring event is regarded as a highly important event. Conversely, an event having a low event occurrence frequency may have a high importance, and an event having a high event occurrence frequency may have a low importance. In this case, an event that rarely occurs is regarded as an event of high importance. Such settings can be appropriately set according to the circumstances of the user, and the event data and the importance data are registered in the event data storage means 3 and the importance data storage means 5. Figure 1 shows the function itself.
The function shown in FIG.

The importance of an event can be a function of the average event occurrence time of each event. An event having a short average event occurrence time has low importance, and an event having a long average event occurrence time has high importance. In this case, a frequently occurring event is regarded as a highly important event. Conversely, an event having a short average event occurrence time may have a high importance, and an event having a long average event occurrence time may have a low importance. In this case, an event that rarely occurs is regarded as an event of high importance. Such settings can be appropriately set according to the circumstances of the user, and the event data and the importance data are registered in the event data storage means 3 and the importance data storage means 5. The function itself is the function shown in FIG.

The importance of an event may be a function of the time elapsed from the time at which the event occurred in each event. An event with a short elapsed time has low importance, and an event with a long elapsed time has high importance. This is to make an old event an event of high importance. Conversely, an event with a short elapsed time may have a high importance, and an event with a long elapsed time may have a low importance. This is to make the new event an event of high importance. Such settings can be appropriately set according to the circumstances of the user, and the event data and the importance data are registered in the event data storage means 3 and the importance data storage means 5. The function itself is shown in FIG.
It becomes the function shown by.

The importance of an event can be a function of the distance between the occurrence time of each event and the average time of occurrence of the same type of event. An event with a short distance (that is, an event in which the same type of event frequently occurs) has low importance, and an event with a long distance (in other words, an event in which the same type of event occurs occasionally) has high importance. In this case, an event that rarely occurs is regarded as an event of high importance. Conversely, an event with a short distance may have high importance, and an event with a long distance may have low importance. In this case, a frequently occurring event is regarded as a highly important event. Such settings can be appropriately set according to the circumstances of the user, and the event data and the importance data are registered in the event data storage means 3 and the importance data storage means 5. The function itself is the function shown in FIG.

As described above, in the time-series information accumulating / reproducing apparatus according to the first aspect of the present invention, the importance threshold value of an event for determining whether or not to save is increased with time, and the importance of the event to be deleted with time is determined. The borderline was raised to remove events of lower importance, and the events that were searched more frequently were increased in importance to preserve such event data for a longer period of time. For this reason, it is possible to provide a time-series information accumulation / reproduction device in which event data having a low importance is deleted and arranged as time elapses.

Next, the second invention will be described. First
In the invention of the present invention, the time series information accumulating / reproducing apparatus performs the filtering process / importance rewriting process by using the importance. In the second invention, the unnecessaryness which is a concept opposite to the importance is used. This is a time-series information accumulating / reproducing apparatus that performs filtering processing and unnecessary degree rewriting processing using the processing. Hereinafter, the second invention will be described. In addition, since there are common points with the first invention, the description thereof will be omitted and the differences will be described in detail.

A description will now be given of the eighteenth to thirty-fourth aspects of the second aspect which are common in that processing using the degree of unnecessaryness is performed. First, a fifth embodiment according to claim 18 will be described. FIG. 18 shows the time-series information storage /
It is a block diagram of a playback device. The time-series information accumulating / reproducing apparatus of this embodiment is almost the same as that of the first embodiment. An unnecessary degree data storage means 5 'is used instead of the importance degree storage means 5 and an unnecessary degree data storage means 5' Degree threshold definition means 8 '
It is provided with. Other configurations are the same as those of the first embodiment.

The event data output from the event data input means 1 is output to the event detection means 2. The event detection means 2 is connected to an event data storage means 3.
The event data storage means 3 stores definition data of events 1 to k (k is a natural number) to be monitored. The event detection means 2 compares the event data output from the event data input means 1 with the definition data stored in the event data storage means 3 to generate an event to be monitored from events occurring in time series. The end is detected for a plurality of types of events, and the detected event data is output. The detected event data is sent to the event data writing means 4.

First, when the event detection means 2 detects an event to be monitored, the event data writing means 4 takes in various necessary data for the event data. The unnecessary degree data storage unit 5 ′ stores unnecessary degree data which is the unnecessary degree for the events 1 to k, and the event data writing unit 4 can read the unnecessary degree data corresponding to the event. Further, since the time management means 6 outputs data relating to time, the event data writing means 4 can read data relating to time. The event data writing means 4 is time-managed by the time management means 6, and takes in the occurrence time and the end time when the occurrence and the end of the event are detected.

The event data writing means 4 stores the type of each event,
It creates index data consisting of addresses related to the occurrence time, end time, and recording position, and controls the event data storage means 7 to write the event data, the index data, and the unnecessary data together. Event data storage means 7
Records and accumulates event data, index data and unnecessaryness data on a recording medium under the control of the event data writing means 4. After the accumulation, the event data accumulation means 7 can reproduce the desired event data from the recording medium with reference to the index data.

The event data filtering means 9 has a function of referring to the unnecessaryness threshold value defining means 8 ', leaving only important event data, and deleting subsequent event data.
This filtering operation is time-managed by the time management means 6, and is automatically performed, for example, every time a predetermined period elapses. The details of the filtering operation will be described later.

The search condition specifying means 10 specifies conditions for reproducing desired event data from the event data recorded in the event data storage means 7. The event data search unit 11 searches and selects event data relating to an event that matches the specified condition set by the search condition specifying unit 10 from the event data storage unit 7. The event data reproducing means 12 reproduces the event data output from the event data searching means 11.

Next, the information storage operation of this embodiment will be described. When the information storage operation is started, time-series event data is sequentially input to the event data input means 1. The event data input means 1 outputs event data to the event detection means 2. The event detection unit 2 determines whether or not a monitoring event has occurred in the event data relating to an event occurring in the monitoring area output from the event data input unit 1. The resulting event data is sent to the event data writing means 4. The event data writing unit 4 records the event data, the index data, and the unnecessary degree data in the event data storage unit 7.

FIG. 19 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of a process of storing time-series event data in the event data storage means 7. FIG. 19A shows an example of event detection of event data generated in time series output from the event data input unit 1. For the event data in this period T, 3 of events A, B, and C
The occurrence of the type of event is detected, and only the event data of the section where the events A, B, and C occur are extracted. Also, index data is generated, and the unnecessary degree data is read. Then, the index data, the event data, and the unnecessary degree data as shown in FIG.
Is accumulated in

When a predetermined time has elapsed from the start of monitoring, or when the recording capacity of the recording medium has become small, a filtering operation is performed. FIG. 20 is an explanatory diagram illustrating a filtering operation by the event data filtering unit according to the fifth embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 21 is a flowchart illustrating a flow of the filtering operation.
As shown in FIG. 20, event data having a high degree of unnecessaryness is also stored at present (that is, time has not elapsed since the occurrence of the event). The unnecessary degree threshold becomes small, that is,
Even if the event data has a small degree of unnecessaryness, it can be deleted if it occurs in the distant past.

As shown in FIG. 21, the flow of such a filtering process is to set the initial value of the variable i to 1 (step S61) and read out the data relating to the i-th event from the event data storage means 7 (step S61). S62) The elapsed time of the i-th event is calculated (step S63). The unnecessary degree of the i-th event corresponding to the calculated elapsed time is read from the unnecessary degree threshold value defining means 8 ', and this unnecessary degree is compared with the unnecessary degree of the i-th event, and the unnecessary degree of the i-th event is smaller than the unnecessary degree threshold value. If it is smaller, it is determined to be event data to be saved, and if it is larger, it is determined to be event data to be deleted (step S6).
4).

If it is determined that the event data is to be deleted, the data relating to the i-th event is deleted (step S65).
In other cases, an increment operation is performed to increase the variable i by 1 without deleting the event data (step S66). Such an operation is performed for all events, and when such a determination is completed for all events (step S67), the process ends. The filtering operation is performed in this way.

According to the example described above with reference to FIG. 19, for each event, an unnecessary degree threshold as shown in FIG. 19C is set, and the event is an event that is larger than this unnecessary degree threshold. Event A of ID2 and event C of event ID3 are deleted. It should be noted that the event A of the event ID 4 is not targeted for deletion even in the same event A, because the elapsed time is short (that is, it indicates that the event has occurred recently).
As described above, since the time-series information storage / reproduction device performs the filtering operation, it becomes possible to delete event data whose unnecessary degree increases with the passage of time and efficiently store the event data.

Next, a second invention according to the present invention will be described.
A sixth embodiment according to the present invention will be described. FIG.
FIG. 2 is a configuration diagram of the time-series information storage / reproduction device of the sixth embodiment. In the sixth embodiment, in addition to the fifth embodiment,
Time-series event accumulation / addition of a searched event unnecessary degree rewriting means 20 'for performing an unnecessary degree rewriting process for reducing the unnecessary degree with respect to the event data searched by the event data searching means 11.
It was a playback device.

FIG. 23 is an explanatory diagram for explaining an example of an unnecessary degree rewriting process by the searched event unnecessary degree rewriting means of the present embodiment.
FIG. 24 is a flowchart illustrating the flow of the unnecessary degree rewriting process by the searched event unnecessary degree rewriting means of the present embodiment. The rightmost end of FIG.
Kinds of events 1 and 2 have occurred. From there, the flow of time proceeds to the left in the figure. Since the degree of unnecessaryness of the event 2 at the time of occurrence of the event is smaller than that of the event 1, if this unnecessary degree is maintained, the event 1 is deleted before the event 2.

However, in FIG. 23, event 1 is subject to a total of three searches from the occurrence of the event to the present. To be a search target, the unnecessary degree of this event is determined to be low, and the unnecessary degree of the searched event is reduced by a certain amount. That is, the unnecessary degree of event 1 is rewritten,
The time until erasure is extended. On the other hand, although the unnecessary degree of the event 2 at the time of occurrence of the event is smaller than the event 1, the search for the event 2 does not occur, so that the unnecessary degree does not change and is deleted before the event 1.

In such unnecessary degree rewriting processing, as shown in FIG. 24, if data on the j-th event is read out by retrieval (step S71), the searched event unnecessary degree rewriting means 20 'outputs the event After the data relating to the j-th event is read from the data storage unit 7 and the process of reducing the unnecessary degree of the j-th event is performed (step S72), the unnecessary degree of the j-th event of the event data storage unit 7 is rewritten (step S73). ), And terminate the process. The unnecessary degree rewriting process is performed in this manner.

FIG. 25 is an explanatory diagram for explaining an example of the unnecessary degree rewriting process by the searched event unnecessary degree rewriting means of this embodiment. Initially, it is assumed that four events are accumulated as shown in FIG. Then, after a predetermined period has elapsed, as shown in FIG. 25B, the event B of the event ID 1 is searched once, and the unnecessary degree decreases from 2 to 1, and
It is assumed that the event C of the event ID 3 is searched twice and the unnecessary degree is reduced from 4 to 2. When the filtering process is performed, only the event A of the event ID 2 is deleted as shown in FIG. In the filtering process described with reference to FIG.
However, the event C of the event ID 3 searched twice is not deleted because the unnecessary degree has been reduced by the unnecessary degree rewriting process.

Subsequently, a second invention according to claim 20 is provided.
A seventh embodiment of the present invention will be described. Seventh
In the present embodiment, similarly to the sixth embodiment, a time series in which a searched event unnecessary degree rewriting means 20 ′ for performing an unnecessary degree rewriting process for reducing the unnecessary degree for the event data searched by the event data searching means 11 is added. Although the event storage / reproduction device is used, the unnecessary degree rewriting process is different from that of the sixth embodiment.

In the importance rewriting process of the seventh embodiment, the retrieving event unnecessary degree rewriting means 20 'reduces the unnecessary degree only for the event data retrieved by the event data retrieving means 11. In the unnecessary degree rewriting process of the present embodiment, when the event data is searched by the event data searching means 11, the searched event unnecessary degree rewriting means 20 'reduces the unnecessary degree for all the event data of the same type. Things.

FIG. 26 is a flowchart for explaining the flow of the importance rewriting process by the searched event importance rewriting means of this embodiment. In the importance rewriting process, as shown in FIG. 26, if data relating to the j-th event is retrieved by retrieval, the retrieving event unnecessary degree rewriting means 20 'stores the data relating to the j-th event from the event data storage means 7. The event type of the j-th event is read out (step S81) (step S82). Then, the initial value of the variable i is set to 1 (step S83), and the data regarding the i-th event is read (step S84).

Then, it is determined whether or not the type of the i-th event matches the type of the event j (step S85). If the type matches, the unnecessary degree of the i-th event is reduced (step S8).
6) Processing and rewriting the degree of unnecessaryness of the event data storage means 7 (step S87), and if the types do not match, jump to the beginning of step S88. After performing the process of adding 1 to the variable (step S88), it is determined whether or not all the events have been determined (step S89). If the determination has not been completed for all the events, the process proceeds to the beginning of step S84. Returning to the above, the same unnecessary degree rewriting process is performed, and if the judgment has been completed for all the events, the unnecessary degree rewriting processing ends.

After the unnecessary degree rewriting process is completed, in the sixth embodiment, only the event A of the event ID 2 is deleted as shown in FIG. 19C, but in the present embodiment, for example, FIG.
According to the example of (c), although not shown in the figure, the event I
If event A of D4 is searched twice, the unnecessary degree of event A of event ID4 is rewritten from 3 to 1,
The importance of event A of event ID2 is also rewritten from 3 to 1. Therefore, the event A of the event ID2 and the event A of the ID4 are stored without being deleted.

Subsequently, a second invention according to the twenty-first aspect is provided.
An eighth embodiment which is an invention according to the present invention will be described. FIG.
FIG. 7 is a configuration diagram of the time-series information storage / reproduction device of the eighth embodiment. In the eighth embodiment, in addition to the fifth embodiment, a flag on / off means 21 'indicating whether or not the event data is retrieved by the event data retrieval means 11 and a searched event unnecessary degree rewriting means 20 for reducing the degree of unnecessaryness of the event data 'To add a time-series event storage and playback device.

The time-series event accumulating / reproducing apparatus of this embodiment performs the unnecessary degree rewriting process. FIGS. 28 and 29 are flowcharts illustrating the flow of the unnecessary degree rewriting process according to the present embodiment. In the unnecessary degree rewriting process, first, initializing is performed. In the array P (j), j represents an event type representing event 1 to event k, and P (j) is a flag indicating whether or not the event type has been searched.
Corresponds to no search and 1 corresponds to search. As shown in FIG. 28A, for P (j) corresponding to the event type, 1
The initial value of P (j) is set to 0 (that is, no search) for all the events from to (k) (step S91).

FIG. 28 shows a process at the time of retrieval.
As shown in (b), if the event type of the retrieved event is the event type j (step S101), the flag on / off means 21 ′ sets P (j) to 1 (step S10).
2). The flag indicates that the event type has been searched.

Subsequently, in the filtering process, the initial value of the variable i is set to 1 as shown in FIG.
111), the data on the i-th event is read from the event data storage means 7 (step S112), and the event type of the i-th event is read (step S113). It is compared whether P (i) corresponding to the read event type is 0 (step S114), and P (i) = 0 (not searched).
Then, the process of increasing the unnecessary degree of the i-th event (step S1)
15) and the process of rewriting the degree of unnecessaryness of the i-th event (step S116), and if P (i) = 1 (searched), the variable i is incremented by 1 without particular processing for the i-th event An increment operation is performed (step S117). Such an operation is performed for all events, and when such a determination is completed for all events (step S118), the process ends. The filtering operation is performed in this way.

FIG. 30 is an explanatory diagram for explaining an example of the importance rewriting process by the searched event importance rewriting means of this embodiment. Initially, it is assumed that four events are accumulated as shown in FIG. Then, after a predetermined period has elapsed, as shown in FIG. 30B, only the event C of the event ID 3 is searched twice, and the unnecessary degree is reduced from 4 to 2, and other than that, no search is performed. It is assumed that the event B of the event ID 1 increases the unnecessary degree from 1 to 2, the event A of the event ID 2 increases the unnecessary degree from 3 to 4, and the event A of the event ID 4 increases the unnecessary degree from 3 to 4. .

When the filtering process is performed, only the event B of the event ID 1 and the event A of the event ID 2 are deleted as shown in FIG. FIG.
In the filtering process described using (c), the event I
The event A of event D3 and the event C of event ID3 have been deleted, but the event ID3 that has been searched twice is not deleted because the degree of unnecessaryness has been reduced by the importance rewriting process.

Next, the definition of the degree of unnecessaryness will be described. The question is when the event is not needed,
Depending on the event to be monitored, various degrees of unnecessaryness appear. FIG.
1, FIG. 32 is an explanatory diagram for explaining the degree of unnecessary degree. As shown in FIG. 31, the degree of unnecessaryness is a function of the need of the user, and the degree of unnecessaryness is high if the need of the user is low.
If the necessity of the user is high, the unnecessary degree can be defined as a low unnecessary degree. Then, the unnecessary degree is reduced in proportion to the unnecessary degree function A, the unnecessary degree is reduced exponentially as in the unnecessary degree functions B and C, or the unnecessary degree is reduced stepwise as in the unnecessary degree function D. Or it can be made to decrease. Then, the degree of the degree of unnecessaryness is determined according to the degree of interest of each event.

For the same purpose, the degree of unnecessaryness of an event may be a function of the degree of interest of the user in each event. In this case, it is assumed that an event of low interest of the user has a high degree of unnecessaryness, and an event of high interest has a low degree of unnecessaryness. The level of the unnecessary degree of the event is determined in advance by the user and registered in the event data storage unit 3 and the unnecessary degree data storage unit 5 '. The function itself is the function shown in FIG.

Also, the degree of unnecessaryness of an event can be a function of the degree of responsibility of the user for each event. This means that events with low responsibilities have a high degree of unnecessaryness and those with high responsibilities have a low degree of unnecessaryness. The level of the unnecessary degree of the event is determined in advance by the user and registered in the event data storage unit 3 and the unnecessary degree data storage unit 5 '. The function itself is shown in Figure 3.
This is the function indicated by 1.

Further, the degree of unnecessaryness of an event may be a function of the cost of post-processing for each event. In this case, it is assumed that an event having a low cost has a high degree of unnecessaryness, and an event having a high cost has a low degree of unnecessaryness. The level of the unnecessary degree of the event is determined in advance by the user and registered in the event data storage unit 3 and the unnecessary degree data storage unit 5 '. The function itself is
The function is shown in FIG.

Also, the degree of unnecessaryness of an event can be a function of the degree of public interest in each event. An event with a low degree of public interest has a high degree of unnecessaryness, and an event with a high degree of interest has a low degree of unnecessaryness. The level of the unnecessary degree of the event is determined in advance by the user and registered in the event data storage unit 3 and the unnecessary degree data storage unit 5 '. The function itself is the function shown in FIG.

Also, the degree of unnecessaryness of an event can be a function of the degree of privacy for each event. An event with a low degree of privacy has a high degree of unnecessaryness, and an event with a high degree has a low degree of unnecessaryness. The level of the unnecessary degree of the event is determined in advance by the user and registered in the event data storage unit 3 and the unnecessary degree data storage unit 5 '. The function itself is shown in Figure 3.
This is the function indicated by 1.

Further, the degree of unnecessaryness of an event may be a function of the load that each event exerts on the environment. An event with a low load on the environment from each event has a high degree of unnecessaryness, and an event with a high load has a low degree of unnecessaryness. The level of the unnecessary degree of the event is determined in advance by the user and registered in the event data storage unit 3 and the unnecessary degree data storage unit 5 '. The function itself is shown in FIG.
It becomes the function shown by.

Further, the degree of unnecessary event can be a function of the event occurrence time of each event. For example, as shown by the unnecessary degree function A shown in FIG. 32, it is possible to define that an event occurring at night has a low unnecessary degree and an event occurring during the day has a high unnecessary degree. Further, as shown by the unnecessary degree function B, an event occurring in a specific time zone (time zone near 12:00 in FIG. 32) can be defined as having a low unnecessary degree. Further, as shown by the unnecessary degree function C, it is possible to specify that an event occurring in the light or evening has a low unnecessary degree.

Further, the unnecessary degree of an event can be made a function of the cumulative event occurrence time of each event. An event with a short cumulative event occurrence time has a high degree of unnecessaryness, and an event with a long cumulative event occurrence time has a low unnecessary degree. In this case, a frequently occurring event is an event having a low unnecessary degree. Conversely, an event having a short cumulative event occurrence time may have a low unnecessary degree, and an event having a long cumulative event occurrence time may have a high unnecessary degree. In this case, an event that rarely occurs is an event having a low degree of unnecessaryness. Such settings can be appropriately set according to the circumstances of the user, and are registered in the event data storage means 3 and the unnecessary degree data storage means 5 '. The function itself is the function shown in FIG.

Further, the unnecessary degree of an event may be a function of the frequency of occurrence of each event. An event with a low event occurrence frequency has a high degree of unnecessaryness, and an event with a high event occurrence frequency has a low degree of unnecessaryness. In this case, a frequently occurring event is an event having a low unnecessary degree. Conversely, an event with a low event occurrence frequency may have a low unnecessary degree, and an event with a high event occurrence frequency may have a high unnecessary degree. In this case, an event that rarely occurs is an event having a low degree of unnecessaryness. Such settings can be appropriately set according to the circumstances of the user, and are registered in the event data storage means 3 and the unnecessary degree data storage means 5 '. The function itself is the function shown in FIG.

Further, the degree of unnecessary event may be a function of the average time of occurrence of each event. An event having a short average event occurrence time has a high degree of unnecessaryness, and an event having a long average event occurrence time has a low degree of unnecessaryness. In this case, a frequently occurring event is an event having a low unnecessary degree. Conversely, an event having a short average event occurrence time may have a low unnecessary degree, and an event having a long average event occurrence time may have a high unnecessary degree. In this case, an event that rarely occurs is an event having a low degree of unnecessaryness. Such settings can be appropriately set according to the circumstances of the user, and are registered in the event data storage means 3 and the unnecessary degree data storage means 5 '. The function itself is the function shown in FIG.

In addition, the degree of unnecessaryness of an event may be a function of the time elapsed from the time when the event occurs in each event. An event with a short elapsed time has a high degree of unnecessaryness, and an event with a long elapsed time has a low degree of unnecessaryness. This is to make an old event an event with a low degree of unnecessaryness. Conversely, an event with a short elapsed time may have a low degree of unnecessaryness, and an event with a long elapsed time may have a high degree of unnecessaryness. This is to make a new event an event with a low degree of unnecessaryness. Such settings can be appropriately set according to the circumstances of the user, and are registered in the event data storage means 3 and the unnecessary degree data storage means 5 '. The function itself is the function shown in FIG.

Also, the degree of unnecessaryness of an event can be a function of the distance between the occurrence time of each event and the average time of occurrence of the same type of event. An event with a short gap (that is, an event in which the same type of event frequently occurs) has a high degree of unnecessaryness, and an event with a long gap (in other words, an event in which the same type of event occurs occasionally) has a low degree of unnecessaryness. This means that an event that rarely occurs has a low degree of unnecessaryness. Conversely, an event with a short gap may have a low unnecessary degree, and an event with a long gap may have a high unnecessary degree. This means that frequently occurring events have a low degree of unnecessaryness. Such settings can be appropriately set according to the circumstances of the user, and are registered in the event data storage means 3 and the unnecessary degree data storage means 5 '. The function itself is the function shown in FIG.

As described above, in the time-series information accumulating / reproducing apparatus according to the second aspect of the present invention, the unnecessary degree threshold value of the event that determines the necessity of storage is reduced as time passes, and the unnecessary degree threshold value deleted as time elapses is determined. Lower the border line, delete events with higher unnecessaryness, and reduce unnecessaryness of events that are searched many times, so that such event data is stored for a long time. did. For this reason, it is possible to provide a time-series information accumulating / reproducing apparatus in which event data having a high degree of unnecessaryness is deleted and arranged as time elapses.

[0136]

As described above, the time-series information accumulating / reproducing apparatus according to the present invention has the following features. (1) The value of information that increases or decreases according to the elapsed time from the generation of the information is represented as a function of the elapsed time, and the information having a reduced value is deleted. This allows efficient information storage. (2) Of the information stored on the database, information that is often searched is stored for a long time, so that efficient information storage can be performed.

In general, only the time of occurrence of an event of interest is extracted and recorded from the target time-series data, the importance or unnecessary degree of the event is changed according to the elapsed time from the occurrence of the event or the number of searches, and only the valuable event is efficiently performed. It is possible to provide a time-series information accumulating / reproducing apparatus which stores the information in a timely manner.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of a time-series information storage / reproduction device according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a configuration diagram showing a first specific example of event data input means.

FIG. 3 is a configuration diagram showing a second specific example of the event data input means.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram illustrating an example of a storage process in an event data storage unit according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram illustrating a filtering operation by an event data filtering unit according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating a flow of a filtering operation by an event data filtering unit according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a configuration diagram of a time-series information storage / reproduction device according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is an explanatory diagram illustrating an importance rewriting operation performed by a searched event importance rewriting unit according to the second embodiment of this invention.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart illustrating a flow of an importance rewriting operation performed by a searched event importance rewriting unit according to the second embodiment of this invention.

FIG. 10 is an explanatory diagram illustrating an example of an importance rewriting process performed by a searched event importance rewriting unit according to the second embodiment of this invention.

FIG. 11 is a flowchart illustrating a flow of an importance rewriting process performed by a searched event importance rewriting unit according to a third embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 12 is a configuration diagram of a time-series information storage / reproduction device according to a fourth embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 13 is a flowchart illustrating a flow of an importance rewriting process according to a fourth embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 14 is a flowchart illustrating a flow of an importance rewriting process according to a fourth embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 15 is an explanatory diagram illustrating an example of an importance rewriting process performed by a searched event importance rewriting unit according to the fourth embodiment of this invention.

FIG. 16 is an explanatory diagram illustrating the level of importance.

FIG. 17 is an explanatory diagram for explaining the degree of importance.

FIG. 18 is a configuration diagram of a time-series information storage / reproduction device according to a fifth embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 19 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of a process of storing time-series event data in event data storage means 7;

FIG. 20 is an explanatory diagram illustrating a filtering operation by an event data filtering unit according to a fifth embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 21 is a flowchart illustrating a flow of a filtering operation by an event data filtering unit according to a fifth embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 22 is a configuration diagram of a time-series information storage / reproduction device according to a sixth embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 23 is an explanatory diagram illustrating an example of an unnecessary degree rewriting process performed by the searched event unnecessary degree rewriting means according to the sixth embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 24 is a flowchart illustrating a flow of an unnecessary degree rewriting process by the searched event unnecessary degree rewriting means according to the sixth embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 25 is an explanatory diagram illustrating an example of an unnecessary degree rewriting process performed by the searched event unnecessary degree rewriting means according to the sixth embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 26 is a flowchart illustrating a flow of an importance rewriting process by a searched event importance rewriting unit according to the seventh embodiment of this invention.

FIG. 27 is a configuration diagram of a time-series information storage / reproduction device according to an eighth embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 28 is a flowchart illustrating a flow of an unnecessary degree rewriting process according to the eighth embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 29 is a flowchart illustrating a flow of an unnecessary degree rewriting process according to the eighth embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 30 is an explanatory diagram illustrating an example of an importance rewriting process performed by a searched event importance rewriting unit according to the eighth embodiment of this invention.

FIG. 31 is an explanatory diagram illustrating the degree of unnecessaryness.

FIG. 32 is an explanatory diagram illustrating the degree of unnecessaryness.

[Explanation of symbols]

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Event data input means 1a Imaging means 1b Sound collection means 1c Sensing means 1d A / D conversion means 1e Image memory 1f Audio memory 1g Detection memory 1h Receiving means 1i Transmission means 2 Event detecting means 3 Event data storing means 4 Event data writing Means 5 Importance data storage means 6 Time management means 7 Event data storage means 8 Importance threshold definition means 9 Event data filtering means 10 Search condition specification means 11 Event data search means 12 Event data reproduction means 20 Search event importance rewrite means 21 Flag on / off means 5 'Unnecessity data storage means 8' Unnecessity threshold definition means 20 'Retrieved event unnecessary degree rewriting means 21' Flag on / off means

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁷ Identification symbol FI Theme coat ゛ (Reference) // H04N 5/76 H04N 5/76 B 5/915 7/18 U 7/18 5/91 K F term (Reference) 5B075 ND12 ND14 ND20 ND30 NK46 NR03 NR20 UU40 5C052 AA01 AB03 AB04 AC08 CC01 5C053 FA12 FA21 GB21 HA06 JA22 KA05 LA05 5C054 CC00 DA01 GA00 GB01 GB04 GB05 GD09 HA18

Claims (34)

[Claims] 1. Event data input means for continuously inputting event data relating to an event in a time series; event data storage means for storing event definition data; and events output from the event data input means. Event detection means for comparing the data with the definition data stored in the event data storage means to detect the occurrence and end of an event from among the events occurring in time series for a plurality of types of events; And an index data comprising an address relating to a type, an occurrence time, an end time, and a recording position of each event in order to refer to the event data detected by the event detection means later. The importance data of the event data is read from the importance data storage means, and the event data, the index data and the importance data are written together. Event data writing means for controlling to store the event data, index data, and importance data under the control of the event data writing means, and an elapsed time since the occurrence of the event Threshold value defining means for defining the relationship between the threshold value and the importance threshold value; event data filtering means for deleting event data of low importance based on the importance threshold value read from the importance threshold value defining means; and time management. A time management means for performing the search, a search condition specifying means for specifying a condition of the event data to be reproduced from the accumulated event data, an event data search means for searching for the event data of the condition specified by the search condition specifying means, Event data reproducing means for reproducing the event data retrieved by the elephant data retrieval means; A playback device, wherein the importance threshold definition means changes the importance threshold in accordance with the elapsed time from the time when the event data is stored, and deletes the event data filtering means based on the importance threshold, thereby reducing the time. A time-series information storage / reproduction device, wherein event data having a high degree of importance is selected and retained as time elapses. 2. The time-series information storage / reproduction device according to claim 1, further comprising a searched event importance rewriting means for increasing the importance of the event data retrieved by said event data retrieval means. Characteristic time-series event storage / reproduction device. 3. The time-series information storage / reproduction device according to claim 1, wherein the event to be searched increases the importance of all event data of the same type as the event data searched by said event data search means. A time-series event accumulating / reproducing device, comprising importance rewriting means. 4. The time-series information accumulating / reproducing device according to claim 1, wherein a flag on / off means for indicating whether or not a search is made, and a search by the flag on / off means. A time-series event accumulation / reproduction device, characterized by comprising: searched event importance rewriting means for reducing the importance of all event data of the same type as the event data indicating that the event data has not been performed. 5. The time-series information accumulating / reproducing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the importance of the event is a function of the necessity of the user for each event. Time-series information storage and playback device. 6. The time-series information accumulating / reproducing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the importance of the event is a function of the degree of interest of the user in each event. Time-series information storage and playback device. 7. The time-series information storage / reproduction device according to claim 1, wherein the importance of the event is a function of the degree of responsibility of a user for each event. A time-series information storage / reproduction device characterized by the following. 8. The time-series information accumulating / reproducing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the importance of the event is a function of the cost of post-processing for each event. Time-series information storage / reproduction device. 9. The time-series information accumulating / reproducing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the importance of the event is a function of the degree of interest of the world with respect to each event. Time-series information storage and playback device. 10. The time-series information accumulating / reproducing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the importance of the event is a function of the degree of privacy of each event. Time-series information storage and playback device. 11. The time-series information accumulating / reproducing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the importance of the event is a function of a load applied to the environment by each event. Time-series information storage and playback device. 12. The time-series information accumulating / reproducing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the importance of the event is a function of the event occurrence time of each event. Time series information storage / reproduction device. 13. The time-series information accumulating / reproducing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the importance of the event is a function of an event occurrence cumulative time of each event. Time-series information storage and playback device. 14. The time-series information storage / reproduction device according to claim 1, wherein the importance of the event is a function of the frequency of occurrence of each event. Series information storage / reproduction device. 15. The time-series information accumulating / reproducing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the importance of an event is a function of an average event occurrence time of each event. Time-series information storage and playback device. 16. The time-series information storage / reproduction device according to claim 1, wherein the importance of the event is a function of an elapsed time from the time when the event occurred. A time-series information storage / reproduction device characterized by the following. 17. The time-series information accumulating / reproducing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the importance of the event is determined by comparing the event occurrence time with the event occurrence average time of the same type. A time-series information storage / reproduction device characterized by a function of the distance. 18. Event data input means for continuously inputting event data relating to an event in a time series; event data storage means for storing event definition data; and events output from the event data input means. Event detection means for comparing data and definition data stored in the event data storage means to detect occurrence and end of an event from among events occurring in time series for a plurality of types of events; Unnecessity data storage means for storing the event data detected by the event detection means, and index data composed of addresses relating to the type, occurrence time, end time, and recording position of each event for later reference. The unnecessary data of the event data is read from the unnecessary data storage means, and the event data, the index data and the unnecessary data are written together. Event data writing means for controlling the writing of event data, event data storage means for storing and storing event data, index data and unnecessary data on a recording medium under the control of the event data writing means, An unnecessary degree threshold value defining means for defining a relationship between time and an unnecessary degree threshold value; an event data filtering means for deleting event data having a high degree of unnecessaryness based on the unnecessary degree threshold value read from the unnecessary degree threshold value defining means; Time management means for managing, search condition specifying means for specifying conditions of event data to be reproduced from accumulated event data, event data search means for searching for events of the conditions specified by the search condition specifying means, Event data reproducing means for reproducing the event data retrieved by the elephant data retrieval means; The raw device, wherein the unnecessary degree threshold definition means changes the unnecessary degree threshold according to the elapsed time from the time when the event data is accumulated, and erases the event data filtering means based on the unnecessary degree threshold to reduce the time. A time-series information accumulating / reproducing apparatus wherein event data having a low degree of unnecessaryness is selected and retained as time passes. 19. The apparatus for accumulating and reproducing time-series information according to claim 18, further comprising a searched event unnecessary degree rewriting means for reducing unnecessary degree of the event data searched by said event data searching means. A time-series event accumulation / reproduction device characterized by the following. 20. The time-series information storage / reproduction apparatus according to claim 18, wherein the unnecessary degree is reduced for all event data of the same type as the event data searched by said event data search means. A time-series event accumulating / reproducing device comprising an event unnecessary degree rewriting means. 21. A time-series information accumulating / reproducing apparatus according to claim 18, wherein a flag on / off means for indicating whether or not a search target has been made, and a search performed by said flag on / off means. A time-series event accumulation / reproduction device, characterized by comprising: searched event unnecessary degree rewriting means for increasing the degree of unnecessaryness for all event data of the same type as the event data indicating that the event data has not been performed. 22. The time-series information accumulating / reproducing apparatus according to claim 18, wherein an unnecessary degree of an event is a function of a user's necessity for each event. Time-series information storage and playback device. 23. The time-series information accumulating / reproducing apparatus according to claim 18, wherein the degree of unnecessaryness of an event is a function of a degree of interest of a user to each event. Time-series information storage / reproduction device. 24. The time-series information accumulating / reproducing apparatus according to claim 18, wherein an unnecessary degree of an event is a function of a degree of responsibility of a user for each event. A time-series information storage / reproduction device characterized by the following. 25. The time-series information accumulating / reproducing apparatus according to any one of claims 18 to 21, wherein the degree of unnecessaryness of an event is a function of the cost of post-processing for each event. Time-series information storage / reproduction device. 26. The time-series information accumulating / reproducing apparatus according to any one of claims 18 to 21, wherein the degree of unnecessaryness of the event is a function of the degree of interest of the public with respect to each event. Time-series information storage and playback device. 27. The time-series information accumulating / reproducing apparatus according to any one of claims 18 to 21, wherein the degree of unnecessaryness of an event is a function of the degree of privacy of each event. Time-series information storage and playback device. 28. The time-series information accumulating / reproducing apparatus according to any one of claims 18 to 21, wherein the degree of unnecessaryness of an event is a function of a load applied to the environment by each event. Time-series information storage and playback device. 29. The time-series information accumulating / reproducing apparatus according to any one of claims 18 to 21, wherein an unnecessary degree of an event is a function of an event occurrence time of each event. Time series information storage / reproduction device. 30. The time-series information accumulating / reproducing apparatus according to claim 18, wherein the degree of unnecessaryness of an event is a function of an event occurrence cumulative time of each event. Time-series information storage and playback device. 31. The time-series information accumulating / reproducing apparatus according to claim 18, wherein the degree of unnecessaryness of an event is a function of the frequency of occurrence of each event. Series information storage / reproduction device. 32. The time-series information accumulating / reproducing apparatus according to claim 18, wherein the degree of unnecessaryness of an event is a function of an average event occurrence time of each event. Time-series information storage and playback device. 33. The time-series information accumulating / reproducing apparatus according to any one of claims 18 to 21, wherein the degree of unnecessaryness of an event is a function of an elapsed time from a time at which the event occurred. A time-series information storage / reproduction device characterized by the following. 34. The time-series information accumulating / reproducing apparatus according to any one of claims 18 to 21, wherein the degree of unnecessaryness of the event is determined by comparing the time of occurrence of the event with the average time of occurrence of the same type of event. A time-series information storage / reproduction device characterized by a function of the distance.