JPH0570870B2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Industrial Application Field] This invention is applicable to the creation, editing, and
The present invention relates to an interactive video database management device for purposes such as management.

[Conventional technology]

Conventionally, interactive video database management devices have mainly been configured with a personal computer, and can display the search process and current position within the entire data structure (database space) built inside, and display information about the entire database. It is difficult to edit and manage data through diagrams.

For example, an interactive video data retrieval device disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 172489/1989 is shown in FIG. 7 and will be described.

FIG. 7 is a block diagram showing a conventional interactive video database management device. In the figure, 1 is the TV, 2 is the touch panel attached to the TV 1, and 3 is the touch panel attached to the TV 1.
is a personal computer (hereinafter referred to as a computer), 4 is a video disk, 10 is a superimposer, 5 is a video image information signal, 6 is a text signal of characters and figures produced by the computer 3, and 9 is a video information signal 5. 8 is a video disk control signal; and 7 is an input signal from the touch panel 2 to the computer 3.

Next, the operation will be explained. video disk 4
The video information signal 5 and the text signal 6 of characters and figures produced by the computer 3 are synthesized by a superimposer 10 to form a video data signal 9, which is displayed on the television 1. At this time, text such as characters and figures created by a computer is displayed superimposed on the video image information on the display screen. To search for the video data that the user needs, the user can directly touch the video data menu displayed on the screen of the TV 1 with his/her finger from above the touch panel 2, and the necessary video data will be searched and displayed on the TV 1. Ru. In this way, data searches can be performed one after another.

[Problem that the invention seeks to solve]

Conventional interactive video data management devices are configured as described above, so when searching for video data, the search process within the entire database stored within the device, the display of the current search position, and the database It is difficult to edit and manage this data using figures that represent the entire database, and there are problems such as it being difficult for users to understand the entire database.

This invention was made to solve the above-mentioned problems.When searching a video database on a host computer, the search process and current search position within the entire database are displayed, thereby improving the efficiency of data searches. improvement and understanding of the entire database,
Another object of the present invention is to provide an interactive video database management device that can easily create, edit, and manage a database.

[Means for solving problems]

The interactive video database management device according to the present invention has data for each node, a personal computer that creates and edits new node data, and a personal computer that records video information corresponding to an address provided in the node data. A video disk that is connected to the node, a superimposer that synthesizes text and video information in the data of the node, a first display that displays the video data synthesized by the superimposer and has a selection means for selecting menu data, and a video database that is connected to the node. A host computer that creates and edits a new video database, displays an overall view and partially enlarged view of the tree representation, and manages it using a tree representation consisting of and branches.
a second display equipped with a search means for searching video data; a designated node searched for by the search means of the second display is transmitted to the personal computer via the host computer; video data corresponding to the designated node is displayed on the first display; 1st
and the menu data selected by the selection means of the first display are transmitted to the host computer via the personal computer, the host computer determines the next designated node based on the menu data, and the designated node is transmitted to the personal computer. The apparatus includes a second means for displaying video data corresponding to the designated node on the first display.

[Effect]

The host computer according to the present invention manages the video database using a tree representation consisting of nodes and branches, and specifies arbitrary video data to be searched using the first and second means. The search process and current search position are displayed on the display of the host computer using the overall tree representation and partially enlarged view, allowing the user to monitor the search status from moment to moment.

The host computer creates, edits, and manages the database, and generates, layouts, etc. the nodes and branches that make up the database while displaying an overall view and partially enlarged view of the database in tree representation.

〔Example〕

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an interactive video data management device according to an embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 1, 1 is a first display, for example, a TV.
Display (hereinafter referred to as TV display),
2 is a selection means attached to the TV display 1 (touch sensor); 3 is a personal computer; 4 is a video disk; 5 is a selection means attached to the TV display 1;
6 is a text signal such as characters and figures from the personal computer 3; 7 is the output of the touch sensor 2; 8 is a control signal from the personal computer 3 that controls the video disc 4; 9 is a video signal A superimpose signal of video data in which 5 and text signal 6 are combined, 1
0 is a superimposer that synthesizes the video information signal 5 and the text signal 6, 11 is a host computer that controls the personal computer 3 and creates, edits, and manages the entire tree representation database diagram and partially enlarged diagrams, and 12 is a display. 13 is a personal computer control signal for controlling the personal computer 3 and monitoring the status of the personal computer 3; 14 is an overall view of the tree representation database displayed on the high resolution display 12; A search means for searching video data in order to create, edit, manage, etc. a partial enlarged view, and is a pointing device such as a mouse. FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram showing a tree representation database, and a hierarchical diagram is displayed on the display 12. Further, FIG. 3 shows the division of management of the video database between the computer computer 11 and the personal computer 3.

Figure 2 shows part of the video database at node 15.
It is expressed as a graph consisting of branches 16 and 16, where nodes 15 correspond to individual video data,
Branch 16 shows the relationship between video data. The video data at this time includes video information and text. The personal computer 3 side manages each node 15 as a file, and the host computer 11 side manages the nodes 15 as connection information between nodes, the file name of the personal computer 3 of each node 15, and information for graphically representing each node 15. Manages graphic data, etc. for each node.

Now, the control of the database is shared between the host computer 11 and the personal computer 3, with the host computer 11 specifying a search node to the personal computer 13, and
The personal computer 13 performs processing within the designated node, ie, controls video disk images, displays graphics and text, monitors input to the touch sensor 2, and the like.

Next, the software configuration will be explained with reference to FIG.
17 represents the S/W configuration on the host computer side, and 18 represents the S/W configuration on the personal computer side. Reference numeral 19 is a part for creating and editing a new video database that defines the relationship between video data, in which nodes 15 and branches 16 are graphed, node names are associated between the host computer 11 and personal computer 3, and the creation process is completed. The resulting data is recorded in the file 24. 2
2 is a part for creating and editing new node data, that is, video data. For example, the video address of the video disk 4, text, graphics data, and touch areas are defined, and the file 25
recorded in The control mode management section 21 is a section that manages two modes: whether the user searches the video database on the host computer side or on the personal computer side. The video database management unit 20 determines a search node, instructs the personal computer 3 to process the search node, and displays the current search position during the search process. The video data management unit 23 processes designated node data 15, that is, designated video data (for example, accesses video disk video, etc.) according to instructions from the host computer 11.
(text, graphics tables, etc.). Video database management section 20, control mode management section 2
1 and the video data management unit 23 perform video database search processing.

Next, the operation of the embodiment shown in FIG. 1 will be explained with reference to FIGS. 3 to 6. As shown in FIG. 3, the operations are video data creation 22, video database creation 24, and video database search 2.
Since it can be divided into three parts, 0, 21, and 23, the explanation will be divided into three parts.

First, in the video data creation step 22, a file 25 having the data structure shown in FIG. 4 is defined for each video data. This file 25 is recorded on the personal computer 3 and consists of four parts. FIG. 4 shows an example of the configuration of the file 26. 27 is video disk control data such as the address of the disk where the video is recorded and the video playback speed; 28 is text data that explains the video data and serves as a menu; 29 is for graphical display such as arrow display. Data 30 is touch area definition data for the touch sensor.

Next, the creation 19 of the video database will be explained.
This data is created in the file 24 on the host computer 11, for example,
It has a frame type data structure as shown in the figure.

The database on the host computer 11 is managed in a frame-type data structure for each node. 39 is the slot name, and 40 is its content. At the time of creation, the only information that the user needs to input from the keyboard is the file name 38, which is the node definition name on the personal computer 3, and the graphic data 33 necessary to graphically represent the node 15 on the display 12. It is.
Other data are automatically defined using the mouse 14, which is a pointing device. 31 indicates one frame structure data, 32 its name, and 34 coordinate data for displaying the node 15 in a rectangular shape on the host computer side, which is automatically generated when character string data 33 is input from the keyboard. . 35, 36, and 37 are data defining connection relationships between nodes, which are automatically defined by picking each node 15 on the display 12 using the mouse 14. 35 is a group of nodes that are parent nodes when viewed from this node, and 36 is a child node. Further, numeral 37 is a collection of branches 16 connected to nodes, and these names serve as pointers to the respective nodes 16. Therefore, for example, frame-type data whose node name is "node100" can be accessed from "node100".

Now, finally, searching the video database will be explained. FIG. 6 is a flowchart.
In step (41), the process begins with reading the video database already created on the host computer 11 side. The loaded video database with a frame structure is displayed in the graphic format of the slot name box.
Based on the data 34, a graph is displayed on the display 12. In step (42), a mode selection is made as to whether the database search is to be carried out on the host computer 11 side or on the personal computer 3 side. For example, set the search mode to host computer 1.
1 side, the video database search method is to use the mouse 14 of the pointing device to pick a node (corresponding to certain video data) in the spatial plane of the video database graphically represented on the display 12 on the host computer 11 side. This is done by specifying (step (43)). on the other hand,
When the search mode is set to the personal computer 3 side, selection is made from the menu on the screen via the touch sensor 2 attached to the television display 1 (step (44)). Based on the data obtained in step (43) or step (44), the host computer 11 determines a designated node, ie, a search node, in step (45). However, in the mode of step (43), the node 15 specified with the mouse 14 becomes the search node as it is. On the other hand, in the mode of step (44), a search node is determined from the selected menu item in step (45). Step (46) is host computer 1
For example, in the overall view or partially enlarged view of the database displayed on the display 12 on the first side, the color of the searched node is changed. The designated node is folded into the overall view and partially enlarged view of this database. In this way, the current search position within the entire database can be known. Furthermore, when the search is performed one after another, the search process can be understood from the plurality of discolored nodes. In step (47), the host computer 11 instructs the personal computer 3 to search for the specified node. Step (48) reads the video data file corresponding to the specified node, and steps (49) and
Display processing of this video data is performed in (50). first,
Step (49) accesses the video disk image, and step (50) displays necessary text and graphics. This completes the search of one video database.

Therefore, the process returns to step (42) and repeats steps (42) to (50).

Flow of specifying a specified node on the host computer 11 side (step (43), step (45) ~
(50)) is used as the first means, the personal computer 3 side selects the specified node (step (44)), and informs the host computer 11, which then determines the next specified node based on the menu data ( Step (45)) Display the video data on the personal computer 3 (Step (46)
~(50)) Use flow as the second means.

In this embodiment of the present invention, the search of the video database is divided between the host computer side and the personal computer side, so that the host computer side can display the database search process and the current search position, and can also display the database search process and the current search position on the host computer side. A data search function can be provided, making it easier for users to understand the structure of the database and also making it easier to search.

In this embodiment, a touch sensor is used as an input device for searching from the personal computer 3 side during the explanation, but the same effect can be achieved even if a pointing device such as a keyboard or a mouse is used.

As an example of application to other uses, the present invention can be implemented as any data management device whose data structure can be expressed in a tree-like graph.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As described above, according to the present invention, a personal computer that has data for each node, creates and edits new node data, and records video information corresponding to an address provided in the node data. A video disk, a superimposer that synthesizes text and video information in the node data, a first display that displays the video data synthesized by the superimposer and has selection means for selecting menu data, and a video database that is connected to the node. A host computer that manages the data using a tree representation consisting of branches and creates and edits a new video database; a first means for transmitting the specified node searched by the search means of the second display to the personal computer via the host computer and displaying video data corresponding to the specified node on the first display, and a menu selected by the selection means of the first display; The data is transmitted to the host computer via the personal computer, the host computer determines the next designated node based on the menu data, this designated node is transmitted to the personal computer, and the video data corresponding to the designated node is displayed on the first display. By providing the second means for doing so, it is possible to easily create, edit, and search a video database, and there is also an effect that an interactive video database management device that can understand the search process can be obtained.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an interactive video database management device according to an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a tree representation of a video database, and FIG. 3 is a software configuration according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram showing the data structure on the personal computer side, FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram showing the data structure on the host computer side, and FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of the present invention. FIG. 7 is a flowchart explaining the operation, and is a block diagram showing a conventional interactive video data retrieval device. 1...First display, 2...Selection means, 3
...Personal computer, 4...Video disk, 10...Superimposer, 11...Host computer, 12...Second display, 1
4...Search means. In addition, in the figure, the same reference numerals are the same,
or a corresponding portion.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. A personal computer that has data for each node and creates and edits data for new nodes; a video disk that records video information corresponding to addresses provided in the data for the nodes; A superimposer that synthesizes the text in the data of the node and the video information, displays the video data synthesized by this superimposer,
and a first display equipped with a selection means for selecting menu data, a host computer that manages the video database in a tree representation consisting of nodes and branches, and creates and edits a new video database, and an overall diagram and part of the tree representation. a second display displaying an enlarged view and having a search means for searching video data; transmitting the specified node searched by the search means of the second display to the personal computer via the host computer and corresponding to the specified node; a first means for displaying the video data on the first display; and a first means for displaying the menu data selected by the selection means of the first display to the host computer via the personal computer; An interactive video database management device comprising: second means for determining a designated node, transmitting the designated node to the personal computer, and displaying video data corresponding to the designated node on a first display. 2. The second means transmits the menu data selected by the selection means of the first display to the host computer via the personal computer, the host computer determines the next designated node based on the menu data, and selects the designated node. Claims characterized in that the folded tree representation is displayed on a second display, the specified node is transmitted to the personal computer, and video data corresponding to the specified node is displayed on the first display. The interactive video database management device according to item 1. 3. The interactive video database management device according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the second display displays a hierarchical diagram of the tree representation.