JP2005122282A - System, device, and program for content generation - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To efficiently generate highly precise contents. <P>SOLUTION: A content generating device for generating contents based upon input information from a user has a query generating means of generating a query for retrieving metadata in which features of an object are described based upon the input information, a matching means of matching metadata based upon specification information of the object included in the metadata extracted with the query generated by the query generating means, and a content generating means of generating contents from the object obtained by the matching means. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2005,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to a content generation system, a content generation device, and a content generation program, and in particular, content generation for efficiently generating highly accurate content by combining objects on the user terminal side as a basis for producing content. The present invention relates to a system, a content generation device, and a content generation program.

  The importance of new services that make use of content and technology that automates the creation of content production and processing, etc., along with the increase in the number of digital TV broadcast channels and the diversification of Web pages due to the spread of the Internet. It is increasing.

For this reason, various methods for generating content are considered. For example, as a program production system for producing a program (content), the content is generated using a program for generating content and metadata of input material data. Some are automatically generated (for example, see Patent Document 1).
The technology described in Patent Document 1 uses parts of program material and production generating parts as parts, and uses the metadata describing the characteristics of the material and the program feature information in combination, so that the contents of the material and the user It is possible to produce program content that adapts to the requirements of the (producer).
Japanese Patent Application No. 2003-123199

  However, in the program production system described above, a plurality of content generation programs, a plurality of material data, and metadata thereof are considered as one component for generating content, and each component is regarded as one component at the time of search. Search as. For this reason, it is not clear what content is generated by combining the content generation program and material data obtained as a result of the search.

  In addition, in order to generate content more efficiently, it has been necessary to explicitly instruct what kind of material data is input to what kind of content generation program. Since the descriptiveness and flexibility of the request for generation are low, it is impossible to obtain a highly accurate content generation result that meets the desired request.

  SUMMARY An advantage of some aspects of the invention is that it provides a content generation system, a content generation apparatus, and a content generation program for efficiently generating highly accurate content.

  In order to solve the above problems, the present invention employs means for solving the problems having the following characteristics.

  According to the first aspect of the present invention, the content generation device acquires the metadata from the database of the server based on the input information from the user, and generates the content from the object described in the acquired metadata In the system, the content generation device generates a query for searching for the metadata based on the input information, and the server extracts extraction means for extracting the metadata based on the query. The content generation device, based on the specification information of the object included in the metadata obtained by the extraction means, matching means for matching metadata, and content for generating content from the object obtained by the matching means Generating means And wherein the door.

  According to the first aspect of the invention, matching is performed based on the specification information included in the metadata, and content is generated by combining the objects, so that highly accurate content based on user input information can be efficiently generated. Can be generated.

  In the invention described in claim 2, the matching unit collates the input specification and the output specification included in the metadata obtained by the extracting unit, and determines the metadata in which the input specification and the output specification match. It is characterized by combining.

  According to the second aspect of the present invention, it is possible to efficiently combine objects by associating input specifications with output specifications. Thereby, efficient and highly accurate content generation can be performed.

  In the invention described in claim 3, the query generation means extracts the missing metadata when the metadata specification information obtained by the extraction means is missing. It is characterized by generating a query.

  According to the third aspect of the present invention, the metadata can be efficiently acquired by generating a query for extracting only the missing portion metadata until the input condition is completely matched. Thereby, efficient and highly accurate content generation can be performed.

  According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a content generation apparatus for generating content based on input information from a user, for searching for metadata in which object characteristics are described based on the input information. Query generation means for generating a query, matching means for matching metadata based on specification information of the object included in metadata extracted by the query generated by the query generation means, and the matching means Content generating means for generating content from the object obtained by the above.

  According to the fourth aspect of the invention, matching is performed based on the specification information included in the metadata, and content is generated by combining the objects, so that highly accurate content based on user input information can be efficiently generated. Can be generated.

  In the invention described in claim 5, the matching unit collates the input specification and the output specification included in the metadata extracted by the query, and obtains the metadata in which the input specification and the output specification match. It is characterized by combining.

  According to the fifth aspect of the present invention, it is possible to efficiently combine objects by associating input specifications with output specifications. Thereby, efficient and highly accurate content generation can be performed.

  In the invention described in claim 6, the query generation means is for extracting the missing metadata when the metadata specification information obtained by the extraction means is missing. It is characterized by generating a query.

  According to the sixth aspect of the present invention, the metadata can be efficiently acquired by generating a query for extracting only the deficient metadata until the input condition completely matches. Thereby, efficient and highly accurate content generation can be performed.

  According to a seventh aspect of the present invention, in a content generation program for causing a computer to execute a process for generating content based on input information from a user, the characteristics of the object are described based on the input information. A query generation process for generating a query for searching for the metadata, and metadata matching based on the specification information of the object included in the metadata extracted by the query generated by the query generation process The computer is caused to execute matching processing to be performed and content generation processing to generate content from an object obtained by the matching processing.

  According to the seventh aspect of the invention, matching is performed based on the specification information included in the metadata, and content is generated by combining the objects, so that highly accurate content based on user input information can be efficiently generated. Can be generated. In addition, content can be easily generated by installing an execution program in a computer.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to efficiently generate highly accurate content by combining objects.

<Outline of the present invention>
The present invention unifies computer programs such as content generation programs and utility programs, and data such as moving images, still images, audio, text, CG (Computer Graphics) models, etc., and treats them as objects. To handle. For example, Japanese-English translation program, the input is in Japanese text, the output is assumed to be the object of the English text, a text file that contains the data of "Hello", there is no input, output Japanese text "Hello The Japanese-English translation program and the text file itself are handled as one object.

  Each object is managed by a database or the like with a pair of metadata describing attributes such as features, input specifications, and output specifications of the object. Here, the object characteristics include media type (moving picture, still picture, program, etc.), file type (JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group), MPEG2 (Moving Picture Experts Group 2), etc.), URI (Uniform Resource Id; Description method for identifying the above information resource, URL or IP address and local path, etc.), file size, owner, production / update date, rights information, title, outline, keyword and its object-specific features (for example, In the case of a moving image, the playback time, the number of characters in the case of text, etc.) are described as metadata.

  In addition, the specification information indicating the characteristics of the object described above is roughly divided into an input specification and an output specification. Here, the input specification describes the parameter name of the input parameter of the object, the condition of the input parameter, the number of input parameters, and the like. The output specification describes the output format of the object.

  In order to generate the content desired by the user, a database in which a set of metadata describing an object and its characteristics is stored is searched by a query for searching for the object, and the necessary object and its metadata are obtained.

  For example, in the present invention, an explicit designation such as “input a B text object to an A program object” is not used for this query, but an “object having a characteristic and an object having a characteristic b are used. Even when a search query such as “Generate content” is used to specify that the result is ambiguous, highly accurate content is efficiently generated. Specifically, since each input specification and output specification is described in the metadata for the object hit in the search, each input specification is compared with the output specification, and the object having the input attribute is checked. The content desired by the user is generated by combining the objects as other objects are input.

<Example>
Hereinafter, a preferred embodiment of a content generation system, a content generation device, and a content generation program according to the present invention having the above-described features will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. In the present embodiment, content generation using a TV program marking language (TVML) is described as an example of content, but the present invention can also be applied to generation of other content.

  FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating a configuration example of a content generation system according to the present invention. The content generation system 10 of FIG. 1 is configured to include a content generation device 11, an object metadata server 12, an object metadata database 13, and an output device 14.

  In the object metadata database 13, metadata sets 15-1 to 15-n in which a plurality of objects and object characteristics corresponding to the objects are described are registered. Also, the metadata stored in the database is given a specification indicating the feature of the object, and a plurality of metadata including an input specification and an output specification are stored.

  The content generation device 11 generates a query based on input information from the user and outputs the query to the object metadata server 12. In addition, an input specification and / or an output specification are described in the metadata for each object extracted as a result of the query search from the object metadata server 12. Therefore, the input specification and the output specification are matched for each of the extracted at least one or more objects, and when the input specification matches the output specification, the metadata are combined. Specifically, content is generated by inputting another object into an object having an input attribute. The generated content is output to the output device 14.

  The object metadata server 12 refers to the object metadata database 13 based on the query input from the content generation device 11 and extracts a search result for the query. In addition, the metadata of the extracted object is output to the content generation device 11. Further, when there is no extraction for the query, the object metadata server 12 outputs information indicating that to the content generation apparatus 11. The output device 14 inputs content generated by executing an object from the content generation device 11 and outputs the content.

  Next, a specific functional configuration of the content generation apparatus 11 according to the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an example of a functional configuration of the content generation device according to the present invention. FIG. 2 corresponds to the system configuration of FIG.

  The content generation device 11 is configured to include an input unit 21, a query generation unit 22, a matching generation unit 23, and a content generation unit 24. In the content generation apparatus 11, a user (producer) inputs what kind of program the user (producer) wants to generate as input information. The query generation unit 22 generates a query based on the input information input from the input unit 21. Further, the query generation unit 22 outputs the generated query to the object metadata server 12. Here, the input information specifically includes at least one condition such as the time of the program desired by the user, the program content, and the cast.

  Further, the content generation device 11 inputs the search result for the query sent from the object metadata server 12 to the matching unit 23. The matching means 23 collates the input and output types using metadata describing the input specification and output specification of the object hit in the search, and derives a matching combination, that is, which object is to be combined with which object. . The matching unit 23 outputs the derived input / output combination to the content generation unit 24.

  Here, when the object extracted as the content is not included in the object extracted by the input query, the matching unit 23 searches for the object again. At this time, a query for searching for a content generation program object that can input an object extracted by the previous search is generated.

  For example, when there are a moving image object and a text object extracted by the search, and a content generation program object for combining these objects into one is not extracted, a moving image object and a text object are output as a new search. Search for objects for. This makes it possible to efficiently acquire an object to be output as one content and generate the content.

  The content generation unit 24 acquires the main body of the combined object from the acquisition destination (storage destination). Here, examples of the acquisition destination include a server that can be connected to the content generation device 11 in the object metadata database 13 or a communication network, and that can transmit and receive data.

  The content generation unit 24 executes the combined object, inputs the output to content reproduction software included in the content generation unit 24, reproduces it, and displays it on the output device 14. Here, an HTML browser, a SMIL (Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language) browser, a TVML (TV program Marking Language) player, or the like is used as the content reproduction software.

  Note that the content reproduction software varies depending on the output specification of the output content. For example, if the output is HTML, an HTML browser is used. In the case of TVML, a TVML player is used.

  Here, the metadata obtained by the search is not limited to one, and a plurality of search results may be output. In that case, a plurality of contents may be generated for all of the metadata and displayed on the output device 14, and a priority order may be set according to the metadata, the data size of the object, the registration date in the database, and the like. The content may be generated based on the priority order.

  Note that the above-described conditions may be added to the script generated by the content generation device 11 or may be set as a search condition input by the input unit 21.

  Here, an example of a search query and metadata extracted by the object metadata server by the search query will be described.

  FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of a query and metadata in the present invention. Here, FIG. 3A shows an example of a query sentence, FIG. 3B shows an example of metadata of a moving image object, FIG. 3C shows an example of metadata of a text object, and FIG. (D) shows an example of metadata of an audio object, and FIG. 3 (e) shows an example of metadata of a content generation program object.

  Specifically, in FIG. 3A, a query for searching for four objects generated by the query generation unit 22 based on input information from the input unit 21 is generated. Also, in FIG. 3A, an example of a search result corresponding to the query of (1) is shown in FIG. 3B, and an example of a search result corresponding to the query of (2) is shown in FIG. FIG. 3D shows an example of the search result corresponding to the query (3), and FIG. 3E shows an example of the search result corresponding to the query (4).

  In the metadata shown in FIG. 3, the media type, file type, URI, and the like as described above are described as metadata as the characteristics of the object. For example, an <input> tag indicates a condition of an object that can be input by the object. The <output> tag describes the output of the object in the MIME (Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions) type.

  3 (b) to 3 (d), the <title> tag indicates the title of the object, the <keyword> tag indicates a keyword indicating the feature of the object, and the <uri> tag indicates that This indicates an identifier for uniquely specifying the storage location of the object. Note that the type of tag is not limited to this, and there is metadata including other tags.

  For example, (1) in FIG. 3A shows a query statement for searching for an object whose keyword is “Today's new” in the output of video or image. Yes. Note that “*” in FIG. 3 (1) indicates a part that designates the file format. By designating “*”, it is video data represented by MPEG, AVI, or the like. Any format is acceptable.

  In FIG. 3B, which is a search result corresponding to the query (1) in FIG. 3A, an MPEG file is formed, and the storage destination (acquisition destination) of the file is designated in the <uri> tag. . Similarly, search results as shown in FIG. 3B to FIG. 3E are output corresponding to the search results of (2) to (4) in FIG.

  Next, FIG. 4 shows a combination example of objects generated by the matching means from the search result shown in FIG. 4A shows an example of metadata for generating an input combination, FIG. 4B shows an example of a template of “video_comment.exe”, and FIG. 4C shows an output TVML. An example is shown.

  FIG. 4A shows a content generation program object that can acquire “video / *”, “audio / *”, and “text / plain” as inputs. Therefore, the search result objects shown in FIG. 3B to FIG. 3D are input as respective input data.

  FIG. 4B shows a template included in the content generation program object “video_comment.exe”. That is, “video_comment.exe” uses the template shown in FIG. 4B to replace an object extracted from another query in association with a predetermined input portion.

  As shown in the output example of FIG. 4C, the content generation program “video_comment.exe” is a program that generates a TVML script that adds narration by voice synthesis while reproducing the input video and audio. .

  In FIG. 4B, for example, the part “narr: talk (text =“ $ (speech_text ”))” indicates that the “text” parameter value of the metadata of the input object “speech_text” It indicates that it will be replaced (indirectly referenced). Also, in FIG. 4C, the text parameter of “narration: talk” is the expanded contents of the input text object “news.txt”.・ "" Is output as voice-over as narration. At the same time, the movie file “http://object.jp/news.mpg” and the sound file “http://object.uk/bgm.wav” are executed and output from the output device 14.

  The content generation device 11 has a TVML player which is a software that reads a program script written in TVML and outputs program video and audio in real time, and can easily execute a TVML event.

  The TVML player can display the place where the CG character speaks the speech described in the TVML script with synthesized speech and acts. Furthermore, video playback, text font, image title display and superimposition, audio data file playback BGM playback, synthesized voice narration, and the like can be generated in real time, and video and audio of a TV program can be output.

  As described above, according to the content generation system of the present invention, it is possible to efficiently generate highly accurate content by combining objects on the user terminal side as a basis for producing content.

  In the example described with reference to FIGS. 3 and 4, the extracted perfect match object is one pattern. However, as described above, a plurality of search results may be obtained under the search query condition. . In this case, by generating a program pattern for all the search results, it is possible to acquire the most desired content from among a plurality of contents. Also, priorities may be assigned in advance, and for example, content may be generated using the latest object from a plurality of obtained search results.

  Thus, according to the present invention, highly accurate content desired by the user can be efficiently generated and provided. In addition, it is possible to automatically combine objects from only a query sentence and generate various contents.

  In the embodiment described above, automatic generation of content in TVML has been described. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and content using other file formats can be provided.

  Here, as another example, an example of automatic content generation in which the HTML format is applied to the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating an example of a search query and extracted metadata in the HTML format.

  The output (output) is “text / html” as shown in the query “<object> output =“ text / html ”and keyword =“ News page ”</ object>” shown in (4) of FIG. Thus, a search result corresponding to HTML can be easily generated.

  5B to 5E are extracted corresponding to the respective queries of (1) to (4) in FIG. 5A.

  FIG. 6 shows a combination example of objects generated by the matching means from the search result shown in FIG. Here, FIG. 6A shows an example of an input / output combination, FIG. 6B shows an example of a template of “video_text.exe”, and FIG. 6C shows an example of output HTML. ing. FIG. 6 shows a content generation program object that can acquire “video / *”, “audio / *”, and “text / plain” as inputs. Therefore, the search result objects shown in FIGS. 5B to 5D are input as respective input data.

  FIG. 6B shows a template included in the content generation program object “video_text.exe”. That is, “video_text.exe” uses the template shown in FIG. 6B to replace an object extracted from another query in association with a predetermined input portion.

  Then, as shown in the output example of FIG. 6C, the content generation program “video_text.exe” displays HTML (XHTML (extensible) that displays the contents of the input text while reproducing the input video and audio. Hypertext Markup Language; Next-generation Web content description language that redefines HTML as an XML application)) format content.

  As described above, the present invention can be easily applied by using an output format such as TVML or HTML, and an object that is a basis for producing content is efficiently combined with the user terminal instead of the server. Content can be generated.

  Here, as described above, content can be generated in the present invention by a dedicated device configuration in the content generation device, but an execution program (content generation program) that can cause a computer to execute the above-described content is generated. For example, by installing a content generation program in a general-purpose personal computer, workstation, or the like, automatic content generation in the present invention can be realized.

  Here, an example of a hardware configuration of an executable computer in the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating an example of a hardware configuration capable of realizing content generation processing according to the present invention.

  7 includes an input device 31, an output device 32, a drive device 33, an auxiliary storage device 34, a memory device 35, a CPU (Central Processing Unit) 36 for performing various controls, and a network connection device. 37, and these are connected to each other by a system bus B.

  The input device 31 has a pointing device such as a keyboard and a mouse operated by the user, and inputs various operation signals such as execution of a program from the user. The output device 32 has a monitor for displaying various windows and data necessary for operating the computer main body for performing content generation processing according to the present invention, and the program execution progress based on the control program in the CPU 36. And results can be displayed.

  Here, in the present invention, the execution program installed in the computer main body is provided by, for example, the recording medium 38 such as a CD-ROM. The recording medium 38 on which the program is recorded can be set in the drive device 33, and the execution program included in the recording medium 38 is installed in the auxiliary storage device 34 from the recording medium 38 via the drive device 33.

  The auxiliary storage device 34 is a storage means such as a hard disk, and can store an execution program in the present invention, a control program provided in a computer, and the like, and can perform input / output as necessary.

  The CPU 36 performs processing for the entire computer, such as various operations and input / output of data with each hardware component, based on a control program such as an OS (Operating System) and an execution program read and stored by the memory device 35. By controlling the above, it is possible to realize each processing in the content generation described above. Various kinds of information necessary during the execution of the program can be acquired from the auxiliary storage device 34 and can also be stored.

  The network connection device 37 is obtained by connecting to a communication network or the like to obtain an execution program from another terminal or the like connected to the communication network, or by executing a program that defines a content generation procedure. The execution result or the execution program itself in the present invention can be provided to another terminal or the like.

  With the hardware configuration as described above, a special apparatus configuration is not required, and a highly accurate content generation process can be realized at a low cost.

  Next, a processing procedure in the content generation program executed by the hardware configuration as described above will be described using a flowchart. When a content generation program execution instruction is input from the user using the input device 31, the content generation program stored in the auxiliary storage device 34 is stored in the memory device 35. The CPU 36 executes a function related to content generation in the present invention in accordance with the content generation program stored in the memory device 35.

  FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing an example of the content generation procedure of the present invention. First, when a content condition generated by the user is input from the input device 31 (S01), a search query is generated from the input information (S02). Next, a search is performed by the object metadata server 12 based on the generated search query (S03).

  When the search result in S03 is input from the object metadata server 12, collation (matching) based on the input specification and output specification is performed on the search result (S04). If the combination of the input specification and the output specification described in the metadata of the search result in S04 does not completely match and there is a lacking specification (NG in S04), there is a shortage based on the search result. A search query for complementing existing specifications is generated (S05), the search of S03 is performed, and the search result of S04 is matched again.

  If nothing is extracted in the query search result in S04 (no extraction in S04), error information indicating that it has not been extracted is output to the output device 32 (S06), and the process is terminated.

  If the input specification matches the output specification in S04 (OK in S04), the objects are combined based on the acquired search result (S07). Furthermore, the main body of the object is acquired from the storage destination (acquisition destination) for the combined object (S08). Next, the acquired object body is executed to generate content (S09), and the generated content is output from the output device 32 (S10).

  As described above, a variety of contents can be generated by combining objects from only a query sentence by the contents generation process. In addition, by using the execution program, the content generation processing according to the present invention can be executed by a general-purpose computer without requiring a special device configuration, so that it is possible to realize high-precision content generation at low cost.

  As described above, according to the present invention, highly accurate content can be efficiently generated by combining objects.

  Further, the present invention is not limited to the production of a television program, but can efficiently and accurately generate contents such as presentation slides, Web page HTML format, and the like. Furthermore, content can be generated by combining objects only from an ambiguous expression of a query.

  The preferred embodiments of the present invention have been described in detail above, but the present invention is not limited to such specific embodiments, and various modifications, within the scope of the gist of the present invention described in the claims, It can be changed.

It is a figure which shows one structural example of the content generation system in this invention. It is a figure of an example which shows the function structure of a content generation apparatus. It is a figure which shows the example of a query and metadata. It is a figure which shows the example of a combination of the object based on FIG. It is a figure which shows an example of the search query in HTML format and the extracted metadata from the search result shown in FIG. It is a figure which shows the example of a combination of the object based on FIG. It is a figure which shows an example of the hardware constitutions which can implement | achieve the production | generation process of the content in this invention. It is a flowchart which shows an example of the content production | generation procedure of this invention.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 Content production | generation system 11 Content production | generation apparatus 12 Object metadata server 13 Object metadata database 14, 32 Output device 15 The combination of the metadata corresponding to an object 21 Object input means 22 Query generation means 23 Matching means 24 Content generation means 31 Input Device 33 Drive device 34 Auxiliary storage device 35 Memory device 36 CPU
37 Network connection device 38 Recording medium

Claims (7)

In a content generation system in which a content generation device acquires metadata from a database of a server based on input information from a user, and generates content from an object described in the acquired metadata.
Query generating means for generating a query for searching the metadata based on the input information, the content generating device;
Extraction means for the server to extract metadata based on the query;
Matching means for matching metadata based on the specification information of the object included in the metadata obtained by the extraction means by the content generation device;
A content generation system comprising content generation means for generating content from an object obtained by the matching means. The matching means includes
The content generation system according to claim 1, wherein the input specification and the output specification included in the metadata obtained by the extraction unit are collated, and the metadata in which the input specification and the output specification match is combined. . The query generation means includes
3. The query for extracting the missing metadata is generated when there is a missing metadata for the metadata specification information obtained by the extracting unit. Content generation system. In a content generation device for generating content based on input information from a user,
Query generation means for generating a query for searching metadata in which object characteristics are described based on the input information;
Matching means for matching metadata based on the specification information of the object included in the metadata extracted by the query generated by the query generation means;
A content generation apparatus comprising: content generation means for generating content from an object obtained by the matching means. The matching means includes
5. The content generation apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the input specification and the output specification included in the metadata extracted by the query are collated, and the metadata in which the input specification and the output specification match is combined. . The query generation means includes
6. The query for extracting the missing metadata is generated when there is a missing metadata for the metadata specification information obtained by the extracting means. Content generation device. In a content generation program for causing a computer to execute processing for generating content based on input information from a user,
A query generation process for generating a query for searching metadata in which object characteristics are described based on the input information;
A matching process for matching metadata based on the specification information of the object included in the metadata extracted by the query generated by the query generation process;
A content generation program for causing a computer to execute content generation processing for generating content from an object obtained by the matching processing.

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