JP2007174296A - Video storing device, method and program - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a video storage device and a moving image reading method for accurately reproducing partial viewing and listening of a moving image required by a viewer. <P>SOLUTION: The video storage device is provided with an operation analyzing means for analyzing the procedure and/or history of a reproduction operation performed through an operation inputting part and generating reproduced information, and a reproduced information utilizing means for continuously reading effective reproduced portions in video and/or sound information by using the reproduced information without overlapping the reproduced portions. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2007,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to video information stored in a recording medium, or a video storage apparatus, method, and program for video information and audio data, and particularly to generation of read control information for performing read control.

  In recent years, moving picture digital recording / playback devices such as DVD recorders with built-in hard disk drives have attracted attention. In addition, video recording / playback is performed using an AV server personal computer having the same configuration as the digital recording / playback apparatus.

A moving image that has been digitally recorded has no image deterioration due to aging or frequent reproduction, and the moving image at the beginning of recording can be viewed semi-permanently.
In addition, the capacity of recording devices such as hard disk drives is rapidly increasing, making it possible for individuals and homes to record for a long time and store a considerable number of moving images. It is easy to imagine that the number will increase dramatically.

Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 10-262236 JP 2002-354406 A

  By the way, since the moving image content stored in the large-capacity recording medium can be kept semi-permanently, when the number of the content becomes enormous, only the scene to be viewed is extracted from the previously recorded moving image content and viewed. The demand to do becomes stronger.

  In order to solve this requirement, in Patent Document 1, in a video-on-demand system, cumulative information of a portion where the moving image is reproduced and a portion skipped is created in correspondence with a reproduction time series for each moving image. A statistical management server for performing statistical analysis is provided. With this configuration, a proposal has been made to statistically extract a portion viewed by many viewers so that the viewer can view it.

  However, this method not only makes the system large, but also does not reflect the taste of the viewer who actually watches. Furthermore, it is difficult to view private content taken by an individual with a digital video camera or the like until a statistical solution is clear.

  Also, in Patent Document 2, when a user who is a viewer operates a part or the like that he / she wants to fast-forward and plays once, the same moving picture is played back again automatically when the same moving picture is played back again. Proposals that make this possible are made.

  However, this proposal does not take into consideration the case where the user rewinds and views, and if a rewind operation is performed, the viewer may have a portion to watch repeatedly according to the rewind operation performed in the past. End up.

  An object of the present invention is to provide a video storage device, method, and program that improve the above-described problems and accurately reproduce partial viewing of a moving image requested by a viewer.

  The video storage device of the present invention includes a reading unit that reads video information recorded in a storage medium or recording information that is video information and audio information, an operation input unit that receives an operation input accompanying reproduction and performs read control, Operation analysis means for generating reproduction information by analyzing at least one of the procedure of the reproduction operation and the history of the reproduction operation performed via the operation input unit, and reproduction effective in the recorded information using the reproduction information And reproduction information using means for continuously reading out the portions without overlapping each other.

  The video storage method of the present invention is a video storage method including an operation input unit that receives an operation input associated with playback and performs read control, and a procedure of playback operations performed through the operation input unit and a history of playback operations Analysis process for generating reproduction information by analyzing at least one of the above, and reproduction using the reproduction information to continuously read out valid reproduction parts in video information or video information and audio information without overlapping An information utilization process.

  According to the present invention, when the same moving image content is viewed again without bothering the user, it is possible to view the portion desired to be viewed without duplication.

(First embodiment)
Hereinafter, a first embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.
FIG. 1 shows an example of the configuration of a video storage apparatus according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

In FIG. 1, 100 is a video storage device body, 101 is a storage medium in which moving image video and / or music content data (hereinafter referred to as video data) is recorded, and 102 is for reading video data stored in the storage medium 101. This is a video data reading unit for controlling the above.
Reference numeral 104 denotes a video data transmission unit that transmits the read video data, and reference numeral 105 denotes an operation input unit that accepts operations such as playback, fast forward, rewind, and stop, which may be the same as the video data transmission unit.

  Reference numeral 106 denotes a control unit that controls the entire video storage device 100, and in particular, a control unit that performs control to read an input operation and video data related thereto, and 107 denotes an operation and video data input from the operation input unit 105. This is an operation analysis unit that analyzes an input operation using the read information and a read table created before, and reflects the operation in the read table.

A reading table registration unit 108 registers and updates the reading table according to the result of the operation analysis unit. A storage medium 109 stores the reading table, which may be the same as the storage medium 101 storing the video data. Absent.
A read table reading unit 110 performs control for reading the read table 109.

  FIG. 2 shows a flowchart of the video storage device in the first embodiment. The flowchart does not show a procedure for selecting desired video data using a graphical user interface (GUI) or the like for simplification.

  When the fact that the video data has been selected is received via the operation input unit 105, the control unit 106 checks whether or not there is a readout table related to the video data via the readout table readout unit 110 (S201).

  If the read table already exists, the read table is read (S203), the video data is read from the video data storage medium 101 according to the read table, and the video transmission unit 104 starts video distribution (S204).

  When there is no reading table, that is, when the video data is viewed for the first time, a new reading table is created (S205), and reading is performed from the top of the video data (S206). Here, the reading table will be described.

FIG. 3 shows an example of the read table.
The read table includes at least a video data identifier for identifying video data, a read start position, and a read end position.
In FIG. 3, the video data identifier is described by an ID number, but any video data identifier may be used as long as the video data is uniquely determined such as a storage location such as a directory and a file name.

The read start position and end position are described as relative times from the beginning of the video data, but information such as frame numbers may be used.
If there is an operation input during reproduction, an operation analysis process is performed based on the read table and operation information (S210).
The operation analysis process is executed every time an operation input is performed until the video data reproduction is completed (S207), and the reading table is updated as necessary. The operation analysis processing will be described using the simplest example.

When the operation input is performed, the time information read when the operation is performed is confirmed (S211). As described above, the frame number may be used in addition to the time information.
Next, when a new read start point is generated by the operation, the read start point is registered in association with the above time information (S213).

  Similarly, the reading end point is registered (S215). Finally, it is confirmed whether or not there is an overlap in the read range. If there is an overlap, the read table is updated as necessary (S217).

The above flow will be described with a specific example.
FIG. 4 shows a diagram of the video data and the readout position, which are obtained by abstracting the readout table shown in FIG.

In FIG. 4, (1) is a read table already registered.
The video data has a length between T0 and T70, but at the time of reproduction, the time ranges from T10 to T20, T30 to T40, and T50 to T60 are read out as if they were one continuous video. Video data is sequentially read out like data.
(2) shows an example in which reading is performed sequentially from T10 to T20, and further from T30, and the viewer performs a rewinding operation at time T35.

Only the operation by rewinding does not change the reading start / end points.
Next, it is shown between (2) and (3) that the viewer has performed an operation for moving to playback after rewinding to T25. When reproduction is started, a new T25 reading start point is generated.

In (3), the reproduction started from T25 is skipped at T39.
The skip destination is T50, which is the next read start point, in accordance with the read table, after which the reproduction is performed until T60 and the reproduction ends.
Here, T39 is a reading end point. However, in the read table, the read range overlaps between T30 and T40 and between T25 and T39.

T25 is a time when the viewer newly starts reproduction. If this time T25 is sufficiently separated from T30, it can be determined that the viewer intends to start reproduction.
Further, when T39 is in the vicinity of T40, it is determined that there is no important information for the viewer during this period only by skipping from T39 to T40.

That is, it is determined that the viewer has finely adjusted the reading end point.
As a result, the overlapped range can be reproduced according to the viewer at the time of the next reproduction by updating the reading table so as to read from T25 to T39 as shown in (4) after the reproduction is completed.

Another specific example is shown in FIG. (1) and (2) are the same as in FIG.
Automatic reproduction is performed according to the read table, and rewinding is performed again at T35 up to T25. Thereafter, the reproduction continues until T31 and is skipped.

Similar to FIG. 4, the skip destination is T50 which is the next read start point according to the read table, but after that, it is skipped to the end of the video data at T51.
In such a case, the actual reproduction is from T10 to T20, from T25 to T35, and from T50 to T51.

The reading start point is set at T25 as described with reference to FIG. 4, but T35 can be a candidate for the reading end point.
However, since the subsequent operation is skipped at T51, in such an operation pattern, it is considered that the viewer has entered a different thinking logic at T35, that is, the interest is separated from the video data being viewed. It can be determined that the subsequent skip operation has no meaning to be reflected in the viewing history.
As a result, the reading table is updated as shown in (4).

  As described above, the configuration is such that the readout table created when viewing and listening and the operation pattern being viewed are analyzed, and the readout table is updated. With this configuration, the video data desired by the viewer can be duplicated. They can be connected and read and viewed as if they were continuous video data.

(Second Embodiment)
Hereinafter, a second embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. In addition, description is abbreviate | omitted about the location according to said 1st Embodiment.
FIG. 6 shows an example of the configuration of a video storage apparatus according to the second embodiment of the present invention.
In addition, about the thing which attached | subjected the same number as FIG. 1 in said 1st embodiment with the number in a figure, description is abbreviate | omitted.

  In FIG. 6, reference numeral 611 denotes an operation pattern lookup table in which operation patterns are associated with update of reading start / end points.

FIG. 7 shows a flowchart of the video storage apparatus in the second embodiment.
When the operation input is performed, the time information read when the operation is performed is confirmed (S211).
As described above, the frame number may be used in addition to the time information.

Next, an operation pattern lookup table as shown in FIG. 8 is referred to (S718), and the reading table is updated as necessary (S217).
With the configuration described above, the method for controlling the read table is uniquely determined for a complicated operation, and the operation analysis processing time can be greatly improved.

(Other embodiments to which the present invention is applied)
The function of each component constituting the video storage device according to the above-described embodiment can be realized by operating a program stored in a RAM or ROM of a computer. Similarly, each step of the video storage method (steps S201 to S217 in FIG. 2, steps S201 to S217 in FIG. 7, etc.) can be realized by operating a program stored in a RAM or ROM of a computer. This program and a computer-readable storage medium storing the program are included in the present invention.

  Specifically, the program is recorded on a recording medium such as a CD-ROM or provided to a computer via various transmission media. As a recording medium for recording the program, besides a CD-ROM, a flexible disk, a hard disk, a magnetic tape, a magneto-optical disk, a nonvolatile memory card, or the like can be used. On the other hand, as the program transmission medium, a communication medium in a computer network system for propagating and supplying program information as a carrier wave can be used. Here, the computer network is a WAN such as a LAN or the Internet, a wireless communication network, or the like, and the communication medium is a wired line such as an optical fiber or a wireless line.

  Further, the program included in the present invention is not limited to the one in which the functions of the above-described embodiments are realized by the computer executing the supplied program. For example, such a program is also included in the present invention when the function of the above-described embodiment is realized in cooperation with an OS (operating system) or other application software running on the computer. Further, when all or part of the processing of the supplied program is performed by the function expansion board or function expansion unit of the computer and the functions of the above-described embodiment are realized, the program is also included in the present invention.

It is a figure which shows an example of a structure in 1st Embodiment. It is a processing flowchart in a 1st embodiment. It is a figure which shows an example of a read-out table. It is a figure which shows a specific example of the image | video data represented and the read-out position. It is a figure which shows a specific example of the image | video data represented and the read-out position. It is a figure which shows an example of a structure in 2nd Embodiment. It is a processing flowchart in a 2nd embodiment. It is a figure which shows an example of the operation pattern lookup table.

Explanation of symbols

100 video storage device main body 101 storage medium 102 video data reading unit 104 video data transmission unit 105 operation input unit 106 control unit,
107 Operation analysis unit,
108 Reading table registration unit,
109 storage medium,
110 table reading unit,
611 Operation pattern lookup table

Claims (10)

Read means for reading video information recorded on a storage medium or recorded information that is video information and audio information;
An operation input unit that receives an operation input accompanying reproduction and performs read-out control;
Operation analysis means for generating reproduction information by analyzing at least one of the procedure of the reproduction operation performed through the operation input unit and the history of the reproduction operation;
And a reproduction information using means for continuously reading out an effective reproduction portion of the recorded information without duplication using the reproduction information.   2. The video storage device according to claim 1, wherein the reproduction information includes one or more reproduction start points and reproduction end points with respect to one piece of the recording information.   At least one of the second playback start point and the second playback end point, where a part or all of the range overlaps the range of the first playback start point and the first playback end point that already exist in the playback information. The generated operation information is preferentially updated at least one of the reproduction start point and the reproduction end point, and the non-prioritized other is deleted. 2. The video storage device according to 2.   4. The reproduction according to claim 3, wherein there are a normal read state and a video confirmation read state for reproduction, and the video confirmation read state is always set when reproduction is started, and the normal read state is transitioned over time. Video storage device.   5. The video storage device according to claim 4, wherein when an operation input is performed in the video check readout state, at least one of a readout start point and a readout end point is not generated and updated.   When the start point at which playback read is started after rewinding is in the vicinity of the playback start point already registered in the playback information, the playback start point is updated to the start point at which playback read is newly started. The video storage device according to any one of claims 3 to 5.   If the start point where fast forward or skip operation is performed during playback read is in the vicinity of the playback end point already registered in the playback information, the playback end point is updated to the start point where fast forward or skip operation was performed. The video storage device according to claim 3, wherein:   The video storage device according to claim 3, wherein the operation analysis unit performs operation pattern recognition according to a look-up table in which an operation pattern is described. In an image storage method comprising an operation input unit that receives an operation input accompanying reproduction and performs read control,
An operation analysis step of generating reproduction information by analyzing at least one of a reproduction operation procedure and a reproduction operation history performed via the operation input unit;
And a reproduction information using step of continuously reading out, without duplication, an effective reproduction portion in the video information or the video information and the audio information by using the reproduction information. The program which makes a computer perform each process of the method of Claim 9.

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