JP2012133662A - Electronic comic viewer device, electronic comic browsing system, viewer program and recording medium recording viewer program - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an electronic comic viewer and a method therefor which reproduce sound effects drawn in a comic.SOLUTION: A sound reproduction unit 26 determines speech corresponding to a detailed image currently displayed by a content display control unit 25, sound corresponding to the speech, and incidental sound corresponding to a frame to which the speech belongs, and acquires information concerning sound reproduction (text information, attribute information of characters, attribute information for automatic reading-aloud, and sound effects)from incidental information. The sound reproduction unit 26 reproduces incidental sound based on the acquired incidental information. A start and an end of display of speech in a balloon is synchronized with a start and an end of reading-aloud of the speech in the balloon. For example, if reading order of balloons is included in balloon related information, speech of each balloon is read aloud based on the order.

Description

  The present invention relates to an apparatus, a method, and a program for displaying various contents obtained by digitizing paper-based contents such as manga, newspapers, magazines, documents, textbooks, and reference books.

  Along with information technology innovation in recent years, an information distribution form has been established in which books that are supposed to be printed on paper such as magazines and comics are digitized and viewed with dedicated electronic book viewers such as iPad and Kindle. .

  According to Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2004-228561, the frame characteristics are scored, and effects such as zoom panning are added accordingly.

  According to Patent Document 2, the sound quality of a voice advertisement read out by a mobile phone is changed.

  According to Patent Document 3, music content information related to bibliographic information is extracted and music is played.

  According to Patent Document 4, an event (sound reproduction operation, vibration, etc.) for a comic is generated. When screaming, if sound effects are given as examples, sound reproduction that matches the balloon shape, such as high, loud, and long, is performed.

  According to Patent Document 5, the text of the touch part is output as a voice.

  According to Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2004-260260, reproduction is performed with a voice having a different voice quality for each character, or with a voice having a user-preferred voice quality. Also, the current audio playback part is displayed in color.

  According to Patent Document 7, a balloon character is converted into a voice.

JP 2007-037057 Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2006-048663 JP 2010-068044 JP 2007-241942 JP 2007-102360 A Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2005-321706 JP 2004-194002 JP

  In comics, the background atmosphere of each frame and the mental state of a character are often expressed by onomatopoeia or balloon shapes. Playing sound according to these attributes would improve the interest of the comic, but none of the prior art mentions playback related to sound effects drawn as pictures in comics. For example, the mere reproduction of BGM in Patent Document 3 has nothing to do with the onomatopoeia of comic pictures.

  The present invention provides an electronic comic viewer and method for reproducing an onomatopoeia drawn in a comic.

  The present invention is the first text information corresponding to the character indicating the onomatopoeia drawn outside the display means, the image of each page or frame of the comic, and the balloon area where the dialogue of the comic characters is entered. An electronic comic including first text information associated with the image and display control information for enabling browsing of the image for each page or each frame on the screen of the display means by scroll reproduction or frame reproduction. Information acquisition means for acquiring information, image display control means for scrolling or frame-reproducing an image for each page or frame on the screen of the display means based on the acquired display control information, and an image is displayed on the display means And an onomatopoeia generating means for generating onomatopoeia based on the first text information associated with the image. To provide.

  The first text information is information in which the onomatopoeia is used as it is, or information that describes the onomatopoeia, and the onomatopoeia generating means synthesizes the onomatopoeia based on the first text information, or a sound effect corresponding to the onomatopoeia. Is selected to generate onomatopoeia.

  The first text information includes information indicating the generation timing of the onomatopoeia or the number of repetitions of the onomatopoeia, and the onomatopoeia generation means controls generation of the onomatopoeia based on the information indicating the generation timing of the onomatopoeia or the number of repetitions of the onomatopoeia. It is characterized by that.

  The information of the electronic comic acquired by the information acquisition means is second text information indicating the speech that enters the speech balloon, the second text information associated with the image and the order of the speech in the image, Attribute information of a character appearing in a comic associated with each piece of text information, and attribute information from among a plurality of synthesized speech sound quality based on the attribute information of the character associated with the second text information Sound quality selecting means for selecting a sound quality corresponding to the second text information based on the image and the second text information associated with the order of the lines in the image when the image is displayed on the display means. Automatic speech reading means for automatically reading out speech corresponding to the information with synthesized speech of the sound quality selected by the sound quality selection means.

  The attribute information of the characters includes identification information for identifying the characters appearing in the comic and information on at least one of the gender and age of the characters.

  The information of the electronic comic acquired by the information acquisition means is associated with each second text information, and includes at least one of a reading speed and a volume at the time of reading a speech corresponding to the second text information. The automatic reading means includes at least one of the speech reading speed and the volume based on the automatic reading attribute information associated with the second text information when reading by the second text information. It is characterized by reading out by controlling one.

  The information of the electronic comic acquired by the information acquisition means includes balloon information including information of a balloon area indicating an area in the balloon image, and is replaced with speech in the balloon area in the image displayed on the screen of the display means. And a character display control means for displaying characters generated from the second text information based on the balloon information and the second text information. The character display control means is adapted to display the speech currently read out by the automatic reading means. Corresponding characters are displayed so as to be distinguishable from other speech characters in speech.

  The second text information is text information indicating a translated sentence obtained by translating a sentence of an original sentence in a balloon into a predetermined language.

  The information of the electronic comic acquired by the information acquisition unit includes balloon information including information of a balloon region indicating an area in the image of the balloon, and the balloon region is included in the balloon region in the image displayed on the screen of the display unit. Determining means for determining whether or not the entire sentence of the translation corresponding to the text is set in a preset character size, and a balloon area in the image displayed on the screen of the display means based on the balloon information and the second text information This is a translated text display control means for displaying the translated text instead of the original text in the text. When the discriminating means determines that the entire translated text is entered, the translated text is displayed in the balloon area for discrimination. And a translated sentence display control means for scrolling the translated sentence in the balloon area when it is determined that the whole sentence of the translated sentence does not enter by the means.

  The translated sentence display control means scrolls only the translated sentence corresponding to the speech currently being read out by the automatic reading means when the determining means determines that the entire sentence of the translated sentence does not enter.

  The present invention includes an electronic comic browsing system including a user terminal including the functions of the viewer device described above and a server that provides electronic comic information in response to a request from the user terminal.

  The present invention includes a viewer program for realizing the viewer device described above.

  The present invention includes a recording medium on which the viewer program is recorded.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to reproduce onomatopoeia linked to scroll reproduction or frame reproduction according to the progress of an electronic comic.

Schematic configuration diagram of content playback system Conceptual diagram of content file The figure which shows an example of the information regarding the shape of a speech balloon Flow chart of distribution process Flow chart of display processing (scroll view) Flow chart of display processing (frame view) Flow chart of serif processing The figure which shows an example of a display of the text information (horizontal) in a speech balloon The figure which shows an example of a display of the text information (vertical) in a speech balloon The figure which shows an example of the information regarding audio | voice reproduction | regeneration corresponding to the detailed image being displayed The figure which shows the other example (one line scroll) of the display of the text information in a speech balloon Figure showing another example of displaying text information in a balloon (spiral scroll) The figure which shows the other example (multi-line scroll) of the display of the text information in the balloon Figure showing another example of displaying text information in a speech bubble (spiral scrolling to match the shape of the speech bubble)

<First Embodiment>
FIG. 1 shows a configuration of a content distribution system according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention. This system includes a server 1 and an electronic book viewer 2. The server 1 is configured by a computer (information processing apparatus) including an arithmetic device (CPU), a storage device, an input / output circuit, and the like.

  The electronic book viewer 2 is an information terminal provided with display means capable of reproducing an image, communication means, arithmetic device (CPU), storage device, input / output circuit, operation means, sound reproduction means capable of reproducing sound, and the like. For example, it is composed of a smartphone or a tablet computer. It should be noted that an unspecified number of electronic book viewers 2 accessing the server 1 may be used.

  Specifically, the server 1 includes a page information analysis unit 10, a database (DB) 11, an operation unit 16, and an input / output unit 17.

  The page information analysis unit 10 includes an information processing device such as a CPU. The DB 11 is composed of a storage medium such as a hard disk or a memory. The operation unit 16 is an operation unit such as a keyboard, a mouse, or a touch pad.

  The DB 11 accumulates content files that store content images associated with page numbers and their accompanying information in a predetermined file format. The content image is an original data converted into electronic data by a scanner or the like. Original content is organized in pages such as manga, newspapers, weekly magazine articles, office documents (presentation documents, etc.), textbooks, and reference books. The original content image is associated with a page number.

  The storage format of the content image and its accompanying information is arbitrary, and is stored as an XML file or the like. Additional information may be recorded in the original content image. This supplementary information may include the author of the content, title, total number of pages, volume number, episode number, copyright owner (publisher), and the like.

  The content image includes a schematic image and a detailed image (high resolution data), and is prepared for each page, frame, or anchor point.

  The incidental information attached to the content image includes information input from the operation unit 16, information on the analysis result of the page information analysis unit 10, or information input via the input / output unit 17.

  FIG. 2 is a conceptual explanatory diagram of a content file. The content file includes a scroll view content file including a summary image for each page and a detailed image corresponding to each anchor point in the page, and a content file for a frame view including a summary image for each page and a detail image for each frame. Including both. In this example, the electronic comic information is composed of one file, but the content image and the incidental information may be stored separately in different files and may be composed of a plurality of files.

  The header indicates file attributes (file name, etc.).

  The auxiliary information includes search tag information, balloon information, text information, character information, display control information, automatic reading attribute information, reproduction effect information, page information, and other information.

  Search tag information. Search tag information is tag information used for a search. For example, page number (page identification information), frame number (frame identification information), episode number (episode identification information, indicating, for example, what episode), title, author, publisher (copyright owner), total number of pages Such information may be included.

  Callout information. The balloon information is information related to a balloon in a content image in page units (or frame units). For example, balloon area information indicating the presence area in the content image of the balloon, the shape of the balloon, the position and orientation of the balloon origin (the balloon vertex), the balloon stroke attribute (dotted line, solid line, etc.), content image elements (Such as the speaker) and the relative position of the speech balloon origin (for example, the minimum distance between the speech balloon vertex and the speaker's face indicated by the speech balloon vertex), the speech balloon size, the speech speaker identification information, and the speech balloon belonging It is a top. The balloon area information is, for example, information indicating the position of the balloon drawing line (frame line) in the content image (for example, position information of a plurality of points corresponding to the balloon shape on the drawing line, or vector information of the entire drawing line). The balloon area information may be bitmap information indicating the entire area (range) of the balloon. The balloon area information may be represented by a specific position (center position) of the balloon and the size of the balloon. For example, if there are four types of speech balloons as shown in FIGS. 3A to 3D, the identification information A to D corresponding to each of the speech balloon types is stored as the stroke stroke attribute.

  Text information. The text information is information related to the text in the content image. For example, text (sentence), character attribute information, number of lines, line spacing, character spacing, display switching method, language used, vertical writing / horizontal writing, and reading direction corresponding to each frame and each balloon. The character attribute information includes a character size (number of points, etc.) and a character type (font, emphasized character, etc.). The text information includes the speech of the speaker in the speech balloon. In addition, translated texts of various languages corresponding to the lines of the original text arranged in the balloon and the language used (translated sentences of two or more languages) may be included in this text information. In addition, text placed outside the speech balloon (narration, strings indicating onomatopoeia), translated text and attributes of the text (character size, font, character decoration, etc.), and their voice reading attributes (volume, speed, The number of repetitions, start / stop timing, etc.) can be included in this text information. The display switching method may include scroll methods such as scroll speed, scroll direction, scroll start, stop, pause, and repeat methods.

  Character information. The character information is information about the speaker of the speech in the speech balloon. For example, speaker area information (such as face area information) indicating an existing area in a content image (outline image and detailed image) of a speaker (character), speaker identification information (such as name), and speaker attributes (Gender, age, etc.). Note that a speaker means a source of speech bubbles, and includes not only humans but also non-living words such as animals, telephones, personal computers, electronic devices, and robots.

  The display control information is information related to display control in page units or frame units. This information includes screen scrolling and / or screen switching. The screen scroll information may include, as detailed information, scroll speed, scroll direction, scroll order, scroll start, end, pause, repeat method, and the like. The screen switching information may include, as detailed information, switching units (such as frames), switching timing determination methods (manual, automatic, semi-automatic), display effects associated with switching (wipe, fade-in / fade-out, dissolve), and the like. .

  Automatic reading attribute information. For example, reading speed, volume, speaker emotion, etc.

  The display control information includes a playback scenario. The playback scenario consists of the magnification rate of the detailed image, which is the unit of the partial display area of the content image, the display switching speed from the detailed image corresponding to the previous anchor point to the detailed image corresponding to the next anchor point, and the display switching. Method (scrolling, fade-out / fade-in, etc.), gaze stop time at each anchor point or frame, that is, duration of display of detailed image corresponding to each anchor point, overview image in content and details Image positioning (page, section), transition order of anchor points, heading information, and the like are included. The anchor point is a position (ice top) where the line of sight stops in a partial area (typically a frame or a part of a frame) for each page.

  The playback scenario includes a dwell time that matches the text amount of the detailed image corresponding to each anchor point. Since the amount of information in one screen increases as the amount of text in the detailed image around each anchor point increases, the stay time is set longer in the playback scenario.

  Alternatively, the electronic book viewer 2 that has accessed the server 1 for the enlargement rate of the detailed image at each anchor point, or the stay time for each model that matches the screen size for each model is set in the playback scenario.

  Alternatively, the display switching speed between anchor points is set in the playback scenario. This speed may be determined from the past browsing speed corresponding to the user of the electronic book viewer 2 who has accessed the server 1 acquired as the playback state information, or a plurality of electronic books that have played back the same playback content You may determine by applying the speed of the past browsing acquired from the viewer 2 as reproduction | regeneration state information to predetermined arithmetic expressions (an average etc.).

  The display switching method may be determined according to an instruction from the user of the electronic book viewer 2 to the operation unit 27, may be a predetermined default switching method, or may be set based on content analysis information. . For example, if the movement destination in the line-of-sight direction of the character in the content of a certain frame a coincides with frame b that is the destination of the anchor point movement direction, the display switching method from frame a to frame b is set to scroll.

  Information about the reading voice. For example, the contents of the reading voice, start timing / end timing, reading speed, reading voice volume, reading speaker attributes (gender, age, etc.). The content of the read-out voice may be a recorded voice or an artificial voice. When the content of the reading voice is an artificial voice, it can be shared with the contents of the speech balloon and / or the accompanying voice.

  Page information. For example, left / right open, line feed direction (for vertical writing).

  Information about accompanying audio. For example, the contents of onomatopoeia and sound effects (text information or audio information explaining the onomatopoeia), appearance count, appearance frame, volume, start timing / end timing, repetition count, speed, volume, and onomatopoeia are stored by the page information analysis unit 10. It may be acquired from an image or input from the input / output unit 17 or the like. For example, the character information not included in the balloon is the content of the onomatopoeia. Translations in various languages corresponding to onomatopoeia can also be included in this information.

  Information about playback effects. For example, the type and start timing of effects such as terminal vibration, screen shaking, screen flash, and screen switching.

  Changeability information indicating whether layout changes such as screen enlargement are possible.

  Other information. For example, page margin area and advertisement data to be arranged in the area. The changeability information included in the other information is setting information indicating whether the original content can be modified, such as the layout changeability. For example, it indicates whether or not translation display, balloon expansion, balloon shape change, image change, speech reading of dialogue and onomatopoeia, and horizontal reversal of the entire page. It is possible to set whether or not modification can be performed independently for each modification item. For example, it is possible to set to permit the display of the translated text but to prohibit the horizontal flipping of the entire page. Settings such as allowing scroll playback (scroll view) but prohibiting frame playback (frame view) are also possible. Alternatively, the other information includes page information such as information about page turning (for example, left / right opening), line feed direction (for vertical writing), and the like.

  The page information analysis unit 10 analyzes the content image stored in the DB 11. The information acquired as a result of the analysis is incidental information. For example, information related to page analysis results includes the layout of content elements (frames, drawings, types of characters appearing in drawings, speech balloons, lines, text, tables, diagrams, etc.), reading order of content elements, characters Features (character name, character line-of-sight direction, character size, position, etc.), text content such as words, position, amount (number of characters), page / section / chapter separation, and the like.

  For the analysis and acquisition of the page information by the page information analysis unit 10, a known image analysis technique and text analysis technique are used. For example, the position, size, and type of content elements such as a face, an animal, a building, an automobile, and other objects may be automatically detected based on the feature amounts related to the image information. Automatic detection of content elements may be performed based on machine learning. For example, based on the sample manga for learning, the detection accuracy of the outer edge of the frame or balloon, the threshold for determining the validity of the frame or balloon other than the rectangular area, and the like are set empirically.

  Alternatively, the text sentence (serif) inside the balloon may be recognized by OCR, and the area surrounding it may be recognized as a serif area. Each character of the read line is sorted according to the direction of the character. For example, if the words are written vertically, they are sorted from the beginning to the end of the column, and from the right column to the left column.

  The frame number or the serif number is determined according to a predetermined rule. For example, if the content type is manga, the representative point of each frame or balloon (such as the center or center of gravity of the frame or balloon) from the top right to the bottom left of the frame or balloon included in the content analysis information The page number or serif number is determined by sequentially scanning in the horizontal direction.

  The representative point of each frame is a position (anchor point) where the line of sight of the content element for each page stops, and the display unit of the content is switched by scrolling or switching starting from the anchor point.

  Or although illustration is abbreviate | omitted, a page number or a serif number can also be determined according to the rule according to the author of content.

  Alternatively, the content analysis rule may be not only a rule according to the author or type of content but also a rule according to the author or type of content learned by artificial intelligence.

  Rule learning is performed as follows, for example. First, correct rules are prepared in advance for each of a plurality of basic patterns. The page information analysis unit 10 extracts feature quantities (thickness and length of the frame boundary line) for each of the plurality of basic patterns. Then, the page information analysis unit 10 estimates the reading order of frames assumed by the content creator from the extracted feature values. The page information analysis unit 10 compares the reading order estimated for each basic pattern with the correct rule, and optimizes the parameter for estimating the reading order of the frames. The page information analysis unit 10 estimates the reading order of the comic frames according to the optimized parameters.

  For simplicity of explanation, it is assumed that the original content is a manga and the original content image is an image corresponding to each page of the manga. Manga is content that consists of both pictures (whether live-action or drawing) and lines.

  Referring to FIG. 1 again, the electronic book viewer 2 is composed of a portable information terminal such as a smartphone or a tablet computer, and includes a display means capable of reproducing an image, a communication means, an operation detection means, an audio reproduction means, an information processing apparatus, I have.

  Specifically, the electronic book viewer 2 includes a database (DB) 21, a display unit 24, a content display control unit 25, an audio playback unit 26, an operation unit 27, a speaker 28, and an input / output unit 29.

  The display unit 24 is a display unit configured by a display device such as an LCD. The operation unit 27 is an operation detection unit configured with a touch panel or the like. Preferably, the operation unit 27 is stacked on the display unit 24 and can detect various operations such as single tap, double tap, swipe, and long press on the display unit 24.

  The audio reproduction unit 26 is a circuit that converts information related to audio (information related to read-out audio and / or information related to accompanying audio) stored in the content file into audio and outputs it from the speaker 28.

  The input / output unit 29 is means for inputting a content file output from the input / output unit 17 of the server 1. Typically, the input / output unit 17 and the input / output unit 29 are communication means, but they may be writing / reading means for a computer-readable recording medium.

  The DB 21 stores information equivalent to the DB 11. That is, when the electronic book viewer 2 requests the server 1 to transmit an electronic book, the server 1 exports the content file in the DB 11 to the DB 21 via the input / output unit 29 and stores the content file in the DB 21. However, the information in DB 11 and the information in DB 21 do not have to be completely the same. The DB 11 is a library that stores various types of content images, for example, content images of each volume of manga of different authors, in response to requests from various users. It is sufficient that only content files related to content that the user of the electronic book viewer 2 wants to browse are stored in the DB 21.

  The content display control unit 25 performs content display control on the display unit 24. Details will be described later.

  FIG. 4 shows a flowchart of distribution processing executed between the server 1 and the electronic book viewer 2. The electronic book viewer 2 executes S1 and S4, and the server 1 executes S2 and S3. Programs for causing the server 1 and the electronic book viewer 2 to execute this processing are stored in computer-readable storage media (RAM, ROM, CDROM, etc.) provided in the server 1 and the electronic book viewer 2, respectively.

  In S <b> 1, the electronic book viewer 2 transmits a content request to the server 1 via the input / output unit 29.

  In S2, the server 1 waits for a content request corresponding to the scroll view or the frame view. When the content request is received from the electronic book viewer 2 via the input / output unit 17, the process proceeds to S3.

  In S <b> 3, the server 1 transmits the content file to the electronic book viewer 2. That is, when there is a content request corresponding to the scroll view, the server 1 transmits a content file corresponding to the scroll view, and when there is a content request corresponding to the frame view, the server 1 transmits a content file corresponding to the frame view. To do.

  In S4, the electronic book viewer 2 receives the content file and stores it in the DB 21. And it progresses to the below-mentioned display processing. The transmission of the content image may be performed in units of pages or frames, and only the information corresponding to the unit of the transmitted content image may be transmitted as incidental information.

  FIG. 5 shows a flowchart of display processing (scroll view) executed by the electronic book viewer 2. FIG. 6 shows a flowchart of display processing (frame view) executed by the electronic book viewer 2. The process in either FIG. 5 or 6 is executed according to the selection from the operation unit 27.

  Referring to FIG. 5, in S10, the content display control unit 25 sets the anchor point in the first order of the page of the designated content image as the current anchor point based on the content file in the DB 21.

  In S11, the content display control unit 25 cuts out a detailed image for display from the schematic image of the entire page on the basis of the current anchor point, and sets this as the current image. Instead of cutting out the detailed image, the detailed image of the content file can be read out and made the current image.

  In S <b> 12, the content display control unit 25 displays a detailed image on the display unit 24.

  In S13, the content display control unit 25 determines whether the stay time corresponding to the current anchor point has elapsed based on the incidental information of the content file in the DB 21. In the case of Yes, it progresses to S14, and in No, it returns to S12.

  In S14, the content display control unit 25 determines whether or not the current anchor point is the last anchor point of the page. In the case of Yes, it progresses to S21 and the display of the said page is complete | finished. If there is a next page, S10 and subsequent steps are repeated for that page. If no, the process proceeds to S15.

  In S15, the content display control unit 25 sets the position incremented by a predetermined unit (for example, by 1 dot) from the current anchor point as a starting point along a line segment connecting from the current anchor point to the next anchor point in the next order. Set as a temporary anchor point. This increment is repeated for the number of loops of S16 to S19.

  In S16 and S17, the content display control unit 25 cuts out a detailed image for display from the image of the entire page on the basis of the temporary anchor point, and sets this as the next detailed image. A detailed image of the content file can be used instead of cutting out the image.

  In S18, the content display control unit 25 switches from the detailed image corresponding to the current temporary anchor point to the detailed image corresponding to the next temporary anchor point, and displays it. As a result, the screen is scrolled by a predetermined unit.

  In S19, the content display control unit 25 determines whether or not the temporary anchor point has reached the anchor point next to the current anchor point. In the case of Yes, it returns to S12, makes the next anchor point a new current anchor point, and displays a detailed image corresponding to the current anchor point. In the case of No, it returns to S16 and continues scrolling by a predetermined unit.

  Referring to FIG. 6, in S31, the content display control unit 25 sets the first frame as the current frame based on the frame order of the content images of the designated page.

  In S32, the content display control unit 25 cuts out a detailed image corresponding to the current frame from the content image, and sets this as the current frame image. Instead of cutting out the detailed image, the detailed image of the content file can be used.

  In S <b> 33, the content display control unit 25 displays the current frame image on the display unit 24.

  In S34, the content display control unit 25 determines whether or not the stay time corresponding to the current frame has elapsed based on the supplementary information of the content file. In the case of Yes, it progresses to S35, and in No, it returns to S33.

  In S35, the content display control unit 25 determines whether or not the current frame is the last frame of the page. In the case of Yes, it progresses to S36 and the display of the said page is complete | finished. If there is a next page, S31 and subsequent steps are repeated for that page. In No, it progresses to S37.

  In S <b> 37, the content display control unit 25 newly sets the next frame next to the current frame as the current frame. Then, returning to S32, the detailed image corresponding to the current frame is cut out or the detailed image is read out, and this is set as the current frame image. The subsequent processing is the same as described above.

  In S12 or S33, the image may be switched in accordance with an image feed instruction input to the operation unit 27. The switching unit is an anchor point (S12) or a frame (S33). The switching order follows the anchor point order or the frame order. However, since the user may desire irregular browsing such as reading and skipping pages, a content image switching operation ignoring this order may be allowed.

  FIG. 7 shows a flowchart of the dialogue processing executed by the electronic book viewer 2. This process is executed in parallel with S12 or S33.

  In S41, the content display control unit 25 starts displaying the content image based on the content file in the DB 21. This is the same as S12 or S33.

  In S <b> 42, the content display control unit 25 determines whether “horizontal writing” or “vertical writing” is instructed from the operation unit 16 as the dialogue display direction in the balloon. If “horizontal writing” is instructed, the process proceeds to S51. If “vertical writing” is instructed, the process proceeds to S61.

  In S51, the content display control unit 25 displays the text attributes (size, font) included in the position information of the speech balloon corresponding to the image area designated for display and the text information of the horizontal writing (translation) corresponding to the speech balloon. Character spacing, line spacing, number of lines, etc.) and information on the character who is the speaker of the speech balloon.

  In S52, the content display control unit 25 arranges the text information of words in horizontal writing in the balloon according to the text attribute based on the position information of the balloon. The content display control unit 25 determines whether or not the text information can be accommodated in the horizontal writing arrangement according to the text attribute. If it is determined that the text information does not fit, the content display control unit 25 starts scrolling the text information within the balloon. The mode of scrolling is arbitrary. For example, as shown in FIG. 8, the text information characters are arranged in one or more lines, and scroll from the first character to the last character in each line sequentially in the line direction. The scroll direction depends on the language type. Since English reads from left to right, the scroll direction is left. When scrolling of all characters is completed, scrolling may be repeated from the first character.

  In S61, the content display control unit 25 determines the position information of the speech balloon corresponding to the image area designated for display, the text information and text attribute of the vertical writing corresponding to the speech balloon, and the story of the speech balloon. The information of the character who is a person is read.

  In S62, the content display control unit 25 arranges the text information of the words vertically in accordance with the text attribute in the balloon based on the position information of the balloon (see FIG. 9).

  In S71, the sound reproduction unit 26 reproduces sound based on information related to sound.

  First, the audio reproduction unit 26 determines the speech corresponding to the detailed image currently displayed by the content display control unit 25, the audio corresponding to the speech, and the accompanying audio corresponding to the frame to which the speech belongs, and reproduces the audio. Information (text information, character attribute information, automatic reading attribute information, onomatopoeia) is acquired from the incidental information.

  FIG. 10 shows an example of information related to audio reproduction corresponding to the detailed image being displayed (anchor point 3).

  The sound reproducing unit 26 identifies the speech sound attribute from the information related to sound reproduction, and outputs sound corresponding to the attribute from the speaker 28. For example, if the attributes indicate the age of the speech speaker = 15 and the sex of the speech speaker = female, the audio reproduction unit 26 synthesizes the speech with the predetermined audio attributes of female teens. And output from the speaker 28.

  When there is no speech speech attribute because the speaker has no importance (such as appearing only once) or because the speaker has no personality, speech speech is synthesized with default attributes.

  If there are no attributes such as reading volume and reading speed, speech is synthesized based on the attributes of speech balloons where the corresponding lines are arranged and the attributes of the lines.

  For example, when the type of speech balloon represents a loud speech as shown in FIG. 3B, the sound reproducing unit 26 sets the speech volume of the speech to “large”. Alternatively, when the type of speech balloon represents an imaginary or reminiscence speech as shown in FIG. 3C, the audio reproduction unit 26 sets the speech volume of the speech to “small”. Alternatively, when the type of the speech balloon is other than those shown in FIGS. 3B and 3C, the sound reproducing unit 26 sets the reading volume of the speech to “medium”.

  Alternatively, when the words in the serif include an emphasized character or a “!” Mark, the audio reproduction unit 26 sets the reading volume of the serif to “large”.

  Alternatively, when the character spacing of the speech is “large”, the sound reproducing unit 26 sets the reading speed of the speech to “slow”, and when the character spacing of the speech is “small”, the speech reproducing unit 26 The speech reading speed is “Quick”.

  Here, the audio reproduction unit 26 utters the sound in the same language as the language of the words arranged in the speech balloon. However, if a language different from the language of the speech balloon is designated from the operation unit 27, the voice reproduction unit 26 utters the voice in that language.

  The audio reproduction unit 26 reproduces the accompanying audio based on the acquired incidental information. The display start / end of the speech bubble is synchronized with the start / end of the speech of the speech balloon. For example, if the information about the speech balloon includes the reading order of the speech balloons, the words in the speech balloon are read out in that order. At this time, the control unit 25 can also add a visual effect to the speech characters in synchronization with the reproduction of the speech being read out. For example, as a visual effect on serif characters, you can highlight individual characters of the spoken speech, add decorations such as underline, side points, coloring, etc., and scroll only the spoken portion of the speech For example, you can display or gray out individual characters in a speech that has not been read out, or fade out the speech that has been read out.

  If the start / end timing of the accompanying sound and the number of repetitions are specified in the information related to the accompanying sound, the accompanying sound is played back accordingly. If there is no such designation, the start / end of reading out speech from the speech balloon is synchronized with the start / end of accompanying sound of the frame to which the speech balloon belongs. For example, when there is a character such as the background character “Wow”, the corresponding cheer is reproduced from the start to the end of the display of the detailed image including the character.

  When the same accompanying sound is arranged over a plurality of frames, the sound reproducing unit 26 continuously reproduces the accompanying sound from the start to the end of the display of the frames.

  In this way, by providing the content file of the present application to the electronic book viewer 2, the electronic book viewer 2 can perform speech arrangement, scrolling, speech playback of speech, sound effects and sound effects according to the language of the speech. It becomes.

Second Embodiment
Various methods of scrolling the text information in the balloon in S52 of the display process of the first embodiment can be adopted. For example, as shown in FIG. 11, the text information is scrolled by one line. Alternatively, as shown in FIG. 12, the text on the first line is scrolled to the left, and the spiral of the text information on the second and subsequent lines is moved to the blank on the first line generated by the scrolling. Alternatively, as shown in FIG. 13, the lines are scrolled simultaneously. Alternatively, as shown in FIG. 14, spiral scrolling is performed in accordance with the shape of the balloon.

  A program for causing the content distribution system, the server 1 and the electronic book viewer 2 to execute the processes in FIGS. 4 to 7 is recorded in a computer-readable recording medium such as the DB 11 or DB 21.

  1: Server 2: Electronic book viewer

Claims (13)

Display means;
1st text information corresponding to the character which shows the onomatopoeia drawn other than the image of every page of a comic, or every frame, and the speech balloon where the character of the comic character enters, and is related to the image Information on the electronic comic including the first text information and display control information for enabling the scrolling reproduction or the frame reproduction to view the image for each page or each frame on the screen of the display means is acquired. Information acquisition means;
Image display control means for scrolling or frame-reproducing the image for each page or frame on the screen of the display means based on the acquired display control information;
An onomatopoeia generating means for generating onomatopoeia based on first text information associated with the image when an image is displayed on the display means;
An electronic comic viewer device characterized by comprising: The first text information is information in which the onomatopoeia is used as it is, or information that describes the onomatopoeia,
2. The electronic device according to claim 1, wherein the onomatopoeia generation unit synthesizes the onomatopoeia based on the first text information, or generates an onset by selecting a sound effect corresponding to the onomatopoeia. Comic viewer device. The first text information includes information indicating the generation timing of the onomatopoeia or the number of onomatopoeia repetitions,
The electronic comic viewer device according to claim 1, wherein the onomatopoeia generation unit controls generation of the onomatopoeia based on information indicating the onset timing of the onomatopoeia or the number of repetitions of the onomatopoeia. The information of the electronic comic acquired by the information acquisition means is second text information indicating the speech entering the speech balloon, and the second text information associated with the image and the order of the speech within the image. And attribute information of characters appearing in the comic associated with each second text information,
Sound quality selection means for selecting a sound quality corresponding to the attribute information from among a plurality of synthesized speech sound quality based on the attribute information of the character associated with the second text information;
When an image is displayed on the display means, the dialogue corresponding to the second text information is selected based on the image and the second text information associated with the order of dialogue in the image, Automatic reading-out means that automatically reads out the synthesized voice of the sound quality selected by the selecting means;
The electronic comic viewer device according to any one of claims 1 to 3, further comprising:   The attribute information of the character includes identification information for identifying a character appearing in the comic, and information on at least one of the gender and age of the character. The electronic comic viewer device described. The information of the electronic comic acquired by the information acquisition means is associated with each of the second text information, and at least one of the reading speed and the volume at the time of reading out the speech corresponding to the second text information is selected. Including automatic reading attribute information, including
The automatic reading means controls at least one of speech reading speed and volume based on attribute information of the automatic reading associated with the second text information when reading by the second text information. The electronic comic viewer device according to claim 4, wherein the electronic comic viewer device is read out. The information of the electronic comic acquired by the information acquisition unit includes balloon information including information of a balloon area indicating an area in the image of the balloon,
Character display control means for displaying characters generated from the second text information based on the speech balloon information and the second text information instead of the speech in the speech balloon area in the image displayed on the screen of the display means And comprising
The character display control means displays a character corresponding to the speech currently read out by the automatic reading means so as to be distinguishable from the speech characters of other speech balloons. The electronic comic viewer device described in the paragraph.   The electronic comic according to any one of claims 4 to 6, wherein the second text information is text information indicating a translated sentence obtained by translating an original sentence in the speech balloon into a predetermined language. Viewer equipment. The information of the electronic comic acquired by the information acquisition unit includes balloon information including information of a balloon area indicating an area in the image of the balloon,
A discriminating means for discriminating whether or not the entire text of the translation corresponding to the speech balloon area enters the speech balloon area in the image displayed on the screen of the display means with a preset character size;
The translated sentence display control means for displaying a translated sentence in place of the original sentence in the balloon area in the image displayed on the screen of the display means based on the balloon information and the second text information, wherein the determination If it is determined that the whole sentence of the translated sentence is entered by the means, the whole sentence of the translated sentence is displayed in the balloon area, and if the whole sentence of the translated sentence is not entered by the judging means, A translated text display control means for scrolling the translated text;
The electronic comic viewer device according to claim 8, further comprising:   The translated sentence display control means scrolls only the translated sentence corresponding to the speech currently being read out by the automatic reading means when the determining means determines that the entire sentence of the translated sentence does not enter. Item 10. The electronic comic viewer device according to Item 9. A user terminal including the function of the viewer device according to any one of claims 1 to 10,
A server for providing information on the electronic comic in response to a request from the user terminal;
An electronic comic browsing system consisting of   The viewer program which implement | achieves the viewer apparatus of any one of Claim 1 to 10.   A recording medium on which the viewer program according to claim 12 is recorded.

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