JP2007294020A - Recording and reproducing method, recording and reproducing device, recording method, recording device, reproducing method, and reproducing device - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To perform satisfactory specific reproduction in which a part of a broadcasting program is extracted and reproduced. <P>SOLUTION: The device is provided with a category/key word corresponding accumulating part 30 corresponding category of an information signal and the key word relating to the category and storing them. A break of the information signal recorded in a recording medium 5 and/or the information signal reproduced from the information medium 5 is detected, the key word associated with the segment section is acquired for each segment section specified by an adjacent object of the detected segment. Category for each segment section is discriminated based on the key word of obtained segment section and storage information of the category/key word corresponding accumulating part. Adjacent segment sections having the same category are coupled. Information of the specific reproduction section being a part of section of the information signal extracted from a segment section group comprising of a plurality of coupled segment sections is generated. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2008,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to an apparatus and method for recording and / or reproducing information signals such as television broadcast programs.

  For example, a recording / reproducing apparatus that records content such as a television broadcast program on a large-capacity recording medium such as a hard disk or a DVD (Digital Versatile Disc) and reproduces the recorded content such as the television broadcast program is widely used. In particular, a hard disk has a very large recording capacity and can store a large amount of content.

  In this way, since there is a sufficient recording capacity, for example, in the case of a television broadcast program, for the time being, a television broadcast program that can be viewed is recorded on a recording medium, and is later viewed. Usage is possible.

  However, when viewing later, it takes a long time to reproduce all of the recorded TV broadcast programs at normal speed. This is a big problem for a user who cannot take a long viewing time, and there is a problem that there are many cases where it is not possible to make many opportunities to view the recorded TV broadcast program.

  As a technique for reducing this problem, a so-called digest playback function has been proposed in which main scene sections are extracted from a television broadcast program and the program is played back in a short time (for example, Patent Document 1). (Refer to Unexamined-Japanese-Patent No. 2002-199333).

  When performing the digest playback, first, a plurality of types of feature amounts, such as silence, black level, cheer, and presence / absence of telop, which are determined in advance for video signals and audio signals of TV broadcast programs, are detected, and the feature amounts are detected. The program is divided into a plurality of scenes by detecting scene change points based on the above. At this time, the feature amount corresponding to each scene is also stored.

  Next, scenes to be digest-reproduced are extracted from the television broadcast program, and what kind of scene is extracted is determined by paying attention to the feature amount according to the genre of the television broadcast program. For example, if it is a TV broadcast program of a sports genre, a scene where the audience is cheering is extracted, and if it is a news program, an announcer extracts the scene shown in the center. A feature quantity to be noticed is determined according to the genre of the program, and a scene having a larger feature quantity is extracted.

  For this reason, the genre of the television broadcast program that is the subject of digest playback is detected, and according to the detected genre, it is set based on which feature amount the scene is extracted. Next, information of a scene section having a larger set feature amount (this section information is referred to as digest information) is detected from a television broadcast program to be digest reproduced. Then, the digest reproduction is executed by reproducing only the scene section indicated by the detected digest information.

The above-mentioned patent documents and patent documents to be referred to are as follows.
JP 2002-199333 A JP 2004-260847 A

  By the way, although the information on the genre of a television broadcast program is included in a broadcast signal and sent, the genre code differs depending on the broadcast method and does not necessarily match between the broadcast methods. That is, in the BS digital broadcast, the broadband CS digital broadcast, and the terrestrial digital broadcast, which genre code is assigned to which broadcast program is not necessarily unified.

  Broadcast program information called a G guide is also provided, but this also does not always match the genre code assigned in the above-described broadcast system. For example, “volleyball” of sports existing in the G guide does not exist in terrestrial digital broadcasting, and is “other ball games”. For this reason, for example, even if the feature amount for extracting digest information is appropriately set for a broadcast program of the genre called volleyball, when the genre of the broadcast program acquired from other than the G guide is used, the genre is “others”. Therefore, the feature amount set for the genre of “volleyball” cannot be appropriately used for extracting digest information.

Moreover, as a genre code of one broadcast program, for example,
・ [Hobby / Education <0xA8>], [Hobby / Education <0xA9>], [Wide Show <0x27>]
・ [News / <0x09>], [Wide Show <0x23>], [Hobby / Education <0xA1>]
Thus, a plurality of genre codes may be assigned. In such a case, since it is difficult to determine which genre is appropriate for the digest reproduction function, there is a problem in that a feature amount for extracting digest information cannot be set appropriately.

  Also, since there is no global rule for the genre assignment method for broadcast programs, the genre code is appropriately assigned to each broadcast program as a genre that is important for realizing the digest playback function. There is also a problem that is not limited.

  In addition, as described above, in a TV broadcast program, as can be seen from the fact that a plurality of genre codes are attached to one program, different genre parts (this part is generally a program). Some of them have a so-called corner. For example, broadcast programs in a so-called variety genre include not only a variety corner but also a sports corner related to soccer and baseball, and a cooking corner for actually cooking and eating and drinking cooked food.

  For a broadcast program including a plurality of different genre corners as described above, an appropriate scene can be obtained even if digest information is created using a feature amount determined based on one of the genre codes assigned to the broadcast program. It is difficult to perform extraction.

  Further, in a broadcast program having a plurality of different genre corners as described above, it is impossible to extract only a specific corner and perform digest playback.

  In view of the above points, the present invention can appropriately assign a genre in units of corners without relying only on a genre code assigned to a broadcast program when the information signal is a television broadcast signal, for example. Thus, for example, special reproduction for extracting and reproducing a part of a broadcast program, such as digest reproduction, can be performed satisfactorily.

In order to solve the above problems, the invention of claim 1
Information signal recording means for recording an information signal on a recording medium;
Reproducing means for reading and reproducing the information signal recorded on the recording medium;
A classification type / keyword correspondence storage unit that stores a classification type of the information signal and a keyword related to the classification type in association with each other;
Delimiter detecting means for detecting delimiters of the information signal recorded on the recording medium and / or the information signal reproduced from the recording medium;
Keyword acquisition means for acquiring a keyword associated with the segment section for each segment section specified by the adjacent one of the sections detected by the section detection means;
A segment segment classification type determination unit that determines the classification type for each segment segment based on the keyword of the segment segment acquired by the keyword acquisition unit and the storage information of the classification type / keyword correspondence storage unit; ,
Segment segment combining means for combining adjacent segment segments with the same classification type determined by the segment interval classification type determining means;
Special reproduction which is a partial section of the information signal extracted from a group of segment sections composed of a plurality of the segment sections combined by the segment section combining means, or a partial section of the information signal including the group of segment sections Special playback section generating means for generating section information;
A recording / reproducing apparatus is provided.

  The recording / reproducing apparatus according to the first aspect of the present invention includes the classification type / keyword correspondence storage unit that stores the classification type (that is, genre) of the information signal in association with the keyword related to the classification type. ing.

  Then, the segment detection unit detects the segment of the information signal recorded on the recording medium and / or the information signal reproduced from the recording medium, and the segment acquisition unit identified by the adjacent segment detected by the keyword acquisition unit For each (for example, corresponding to a scene), a keyword associated with the segment segment is acquired.

  Then, the classification type for each segment section is determined based on the keyword of each segment section acquired by the keyword acquisition means and the storage information of the classification type / keyword correspondence storage unit. Next, the adjacent segment sections having the same determined classification type are combined.

  Then, a special reproduction section which is a partial section of the information signal extracted from the segment section group composed of the plurality of segment sections combined by the special reproduction section generation means or a partial section of the information signal including the segment section group Generate information for.

  According to the first aspect of the present invention, if the information signal is the above-described television broadcast program, the storage content of the classification type / keyword correspondence storage unit is determined by the keyword associated with each segment section of the information signal. By referencing, the segment type, that is, the classification type (genre) corresponding to each scene is determined. Thereby, a more reliable classification type can be assigned to each segment section.

  Then, by combining adjacent segment sections having the same classification type, a corner in one program is detected as the combined segment section group. At this time, the classification type (genre) of the corner is determined. Therefore, the special playback section generating means can extract the segment section group unit of the same genre, for example, a corner portion in the program as the special playback section.

  For example, when the digest reproduction function described above is applied, a feature amount for obtaining digest information can be set for each genre in units of corners, so that appropriate digest information can be obtained. .

  According to the present invention, for example, when a broadcast program is taken as an example, a genre can be appropriately assigned in a corner unit without relying only on a genre code assigned to the broadcast program. Special reproduction in which a part of a program is extracted and reproduced can be performed satisfactorily.

  Embodiments of a recording / reproducing apparatus and method according to the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

  In the embodiment described below, the information signal to be reproduced or recorded / reproduced is, for example, a video signal and an audio signal of a received television broadcast program, or a video signal and an audio signal recorded on a recording medium. . The following embodiment is an example when the present invention is applied to a recording / reproducing apparatus, and the embodiment of the recording apparatus and the recording method is an embodiment of the reproducing apparatus and the reproducing method in the recording system of the recording / reproducing apparatus. Are embodied in the reproduction system of the recording / reproducing apparatus. The following embodiment is an example in the case where the recording / reproducing apparatus receives terrestrial digital television broadcasting.

[First Embodiment]
In the first embodiment, an information signal composed of a video signal and an audio signal of a received television broadcast program is recorded on an internal recording medium such as a built-in hard disk device, and the information signal recorded on the built-in recording medium is recorded. This is an example in the case where the present invention is applied to a recording / reproducing apparatus having a function of reading and reproducing.

  Note that the recording / reproducing apparatus of this embodiment can use a removable external recording medium such as a DVD as a recording medium, and the present invention can be similarly applied to the external recording medium. However, since the explanation is complicated, the recording / reproducing system for the external recording medium is omitted in the example of FIG. Also in the following description, for the sake of convenience, it is assumed that only the internal recording medium is used as the recording medium, and the recording / reproducing process for the external recording medium is omitted.

  The recording / reproducing apparatus in this example not only has a function of recording a video signal and an audio signal of a television broadcast program on an internal recording medium, and also reproducing a video signal and an audio signal recorded on the internal recording medium. , Detecting a feature amount of a video signal and an audio signal of a television broadcast program to be recorded or a reproduced video signal and an audio signal, detecting a scene change point as a feature point from the detection output, and detecting the detected scene change point A function of recording necessary information on a recording medium together with an information signal of a television broadcast program is provided.

  Here, the scene change point corresponds to the delimiter of the information signal, for example, not only the delimiter between the program main part and the commercial (hereinafter abbreviated as CM) but also the start point and the end point of the program advertisement section in the program main part. In addition to the start and end points of program opening and program ending sections, scene change points (so-called scene changes) where the scene changes greatly are included in the main part of the program. In this embodiment, when a plurality of CMs are continuous, the start point and end point of each CM can be detected as a scene change point.

  In the description of this embodiment, a section of an information signal (video signal or audio signal) of a television broadcast program specified by an adjacent scene change point, that is, a section between adjacent scene change points (this is divided into segments). (Referred to as a section) will be referred to as a scene. This scene is a section of a few seconds at the shortest, and a “corner” such as a sports corner or a cooking corner in a program usually consists of a plurality of continuous scenes. However, when the detected scene section is long, the corner may be composed of one scene.

[Hardware Configuration Example of Recording / Reproducing Apparatus of First Embodiment]
FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a hardware configuration example of the recording / reproducing apparatus according to the first embodiment. In FIG. 1, a system controller unit 20 includes a microcomputer, and controls various modes and other operations in the recording / reproducing apparatus of this example.

  The system controller unit 20 is supplied with operation input information through a user input interface unit 21 in accordance with a user operation input using, for example, a remote commander 22 or through an operation button of a recording / reproducing apparatus. The system controller unit 20 determines the input operation input information, and executes processing according to the operation input information.

  A display unit 24 such as an LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) is connected to the system controller unit 20 through a display processing unit 23. The display unit 24 displays display information that serves as a reference when a user inputs an operation. Is done. The user can input various operations while viewing the display on the display unit 24.

<Recording system processing>
First, the recording system of the recording / reproducing apparatus of this example will be described with reference to FIG.
For example, when a user inputs a recording instruction command using the remote commander 22 or through an operation button of the recording / reproducing apparatus, the operation information is supplied to the system controller unit 20 through the user interface unit 21. Under the control of the unit 20, the recording / reproducing apparatus performs the following recording process.

  In this example, the broadcast reception decoding unit 2 includes a television tuner, a descrambler, a TS (Transport Stream) decoding unit, a video and audio decoder unit, and the like for receiving digital terrestrial television broadcasting.

  Prior to the above-described command input of the recording instruction, the user performs a channel selection input operation using the remote commander 22 or through the operation button of the recording / reproducing apparatus. Then, the operation information is supplied to the system controller unit 20 through the user interface unit 21, and the system controller unit 20 broadcasts channel selection control information for selecting a broadcast channel corresponding to the user's channel selection operation. The signal is supplied to the reception decoding unit 2. At the time of this channel selection, the system controller unit 20 displays the broadcast channel being selected on the display unit 24 through the display processing unit 23, so that the user can perform the channel selection operation while watching the display on the display unit 24. To do.

  The broadcast reception decoding unit 2 receives the channel selection control information, selects and extracts a broadcast program of the broadcast channel selected by the user from the TV broadcast wave received by the receiving antenna 1, and outputs a video from the selected and extracted broadcast program. Decode signals and audio signals.

  The audio signal and video signal of the television broadcast program selected and extracted by the broadcast reception decoding unit 2 and the caption / character super information included in the broadcast program signal by closed captioning are supplied to the recording signal encoding processing unit 3 Then, the recording encoding process is performed.

  Here, as the recording encoding process, the digital audio signal is subjected to a data compression process using a predetermined band compression method such as MPEG audio or AC-3 audio (Dolby AC-3 or Audio Code Number 3). .

  For digital video signals, data compression processing is performed as a recording encoding process by a predetermined band compression method such as MPEG video or wavelet conversion. Then, the video data subjected to the data compression process is multiplexed with the compressed audio data and recorded on the built-in recording medium 5 through the recording processing unit 4.

  At this time, identification information (recorded program identification information) is given to the broadcast program to be recorded, and the recorded program identification information is added to the compressed video data, the compressed audio data, and the caption / superimpose information to the recording medium. 5 is recorded. This recorded program identification information is used for retrieval during reproduction. Here, the built-in recording medium 5 is composed of a hard disk device in this example.

  In the recording / reproducing apparatus of this example, the broadcast reception decoding unit 2 extracts service information related to a broadcast program, and the extracted information is supplied to an EPG (Electronic Programming Guide) acquisition unit 6. The EPG acquisition unit 6 generates EPG data from the received service information regarding the broadcast program and inputs the EPG data to the system controller unit 20.

  The system controller unit 20 generates display electronic program guide data using the acquired EPG data, sends it to the display unit 24 through the display processing unit 23, and displays it on the display screen. The user can use the broadcast program selection material by looking at the electronic program guide displayed on the display screen.

  In the recording / reproducing apparatus of this example, at the time of recording, as will be described later, corner segment generation processing and special reproduction segment generation processing for the broadcast program, in this example digest information generation processing, are executed. Then, the generated digest information is supplied to the additional information file generation unit 18. The additional information file generation unit 18 includes the received digest information in the additional information file and sends it to the recording processing unit 4. The recording processing unit 4 records the additional information file on the recording medium 5 in association with the recorded program information based on the recorded program identification information.

<Reproduction system processing>
Next, the reproduction system of the recording / reproducing apparatus of this example will be described with reference to FIG.

  When the user inputs a playback instruction in the normal playback mode from the recording medium 5 through the remote commander 22, for example, it is input into the system controller unit 20 through the user input interface unit 21. Upon receiving this user input, the system controller unit 20 controls the read control unit 10 to perform the normal reproduction mode.

  In response to the control instruction from the system controller unit 20, the read control unit 10 reads out compressed video data and compressed audio data of a broadcast program designated for reproduction from the recording medium 5 and supplies the compressed video data and compressed audio data to the reproduction processor 7. The reproduction processing unit 7 supplies the compressed video data and the compressed audio data of the broadcast program, which is read from the recording medium 5 and designated for reproduction by the user, to the reproduction decoding output unit 8.

  In the reproduction decoding output unit 8, the video data and audio data of the reproduced broadcast program are separated into video data and audio data. The separated compressed audio data is subjected to a predetermined decoding process corresponding to a signal processing method in which band compression processing is performed at the time of recording, and a digital audio signal obtained by the decoding process is subjected to D / A (Digital to Analog) conversion. Then, the signal is output as an analog audio signal through the output terminal 9a.

  Also, in the reproduction decoding output unit 8, the separated compressed video data is subjected to predetermined decoding processing corresponding to a signal processing method subjected to band compression processing at the time of recording to be converted into a digital video signal, and then D / A converted. Processing is performed and an analog video signal is output through the output terminal 9v.

  When the user inputs a playback instruction in the digest playback mode from the recording medium 5 through the remote commander 22, for example, it is input into the system controller unit 20 through the user input interface unit 21. Upon receiving this user input, the system controller unit 20 controls the read control unit 10 to perform the digest playback mode.

  The read control unit 10 reads the additional information file from the recording medium 5 in response to the control instruction from the system controller unit 20. The reproduction processing unit 7 supplies the received additional information file to the additional information file detection unit 19. The additional information file detection unit 19 extracts the digest information from the additional information file and sends it to the system controller unit 20.

  Based on the obtained digest information (video information of the digest playback section on the recording medium 5 and recording position information of the audio information), the system controller unit 20 obtains only the information of the digest playback section of the broadcast program information to be played back. A control instruction to be read is sent to the read control unit 10. In response to the control instruction from the system controller unit 20, the read control unit 10 reads out the video information and audio information of the digest playback section from the broadcast program information to be played back from the recording medium 5 and supplies them to the playback processing unit 7. To do.

  As described above, the video information and audio information of the digest playback section from the playback processing unit 7 are supplied to the playback decode output unit 8 for playback decoding and output through the output terminals 9a and 9v.

  In the recording / reproducing apparatus of this example, assuming that the digest information is not recorded as additional information together with the broadcast program information on the recording medium 5, as will be described later, as in recording, as described later. , Corner section generation processing and special playback section generation processing for broadcast programs, in this example digest information generation processing is executed, the generated digest information is included in the additional information file, and the recorded program is recorded by the above-mentioned recorded program identification information The information is recorded on the recording medium in association with the information.

  The state in which the digest information is not recorded as additional information in the broadcast program information recorded on the recording medium 5 occurs, for example, when a television broadcast program content is taken in from an external recording medium such as a DVD. .

<Digest information generation processing as an example of special playback section generation processing>
The recording / reproducing apparatus of this embodiment includes a feature amount detection unit 11, a scene change point detection unit 12, a caption / super detection unit 13, a keyword detection unit 14, a scene genre as a configuration for digest information generation processing. The determination unit 15, the scene combination unit 16, the special playback section generation unit 17, and the genre / keyword correspondence information storage unit 30 are provided.

  The genre / keyword correspondence information storage unit 30 is composed of nonvolatile storage means (including not only nonvolatile memory but also storage means for storing storage information backed up by a battery or the like). That is, each genre is stored in association with one or more keywords associated with each genre. In this embodiment, the genre / keyword correspondence information stored in the genre / keyword correspondence information storage unit 30 includes program genre information sent in a terrestrial digital broadcast signal and each broadcast program. Information that has been learned and stored in relation to and correspondence with subtitles / superimposes sent by closed captioning.

  Therefore, in this embodiment, a genre / keyword correspondence learning unit 31 and a genre information detection unit 32 that receives information from the broadcast reception decoding unit 2 and detects program genre information are connected to the system controller unit 20. Provided. Then, the correspondence relationship between the keywords extracted by using the subtitle / character super detection unit 13 and the keyword detection unit 14 and the genre detected by the genre information detection unit 32 is learned by the keyword correspondence learning unit 31, and this genre is learned. The learning result in the / keyword correspondence learning unit 31 is reflected in the genre / keyword correspondence information storage unit 30. Prior to the description of the digest information generation process, the correspondence between genre information and keywords and the learning process will be described.

<Correspondence and learning between genre information and keywords>
In the terrestrial digital broadcasting, as shown in FIG. 2, in the broadcast signal, information of each broadcast program program and system information are grouped as MPEG (Moving Picture Experts Group) -TS (Transport Stream). .

  Information of each broadcast program consists of video PES (Packetized Elementary Stream), audio PES, subtitle / super PES, BML (Broadcast Markup Language) section, and data section.

  The system information is transmitted in parallel with the information of each broadcast program program. This system information includes a PSP (Program Specific Information) section, an EPG (Electronic Programming Guide) and SI (Service Information) section, and a CA (Conditional Access) section.

  In the PSI section, the organization channel number included in the MPEG-TS, the PID (Packet Identification; packet identification information) of the components (video, audio, caption / super, etc.) constituting each organization channel (each broadcast program), etc. Including.

  Further, the EPG and SI sections include information for EPG and information such as EIT (Event Information Table). The EIT transmits information related to the program such as the name of each program in the organization channel, broadcast date and time, program genre, and description of the program content. The EIT includes information (EIT present) relating to a program currently being broadcast and information (EIT schedule basic) relating to a program scheduled to be broadcast in a predetermined time frame (for example, for one week).

  In other words, in terrestrial digital broadcasting, EIT present (hereinafter referred to as EITp), EIT schedule basic (hereinafter referred to as EITp basic) as information relating to each broadcast program corresponding to video information, audio information, and caption / super information of each broadcast program. , EITsch) are broadcast in parallel and synchronously. As shown in FIG. 3, the information on the program genre of each broadcast program is broadcasted by being included in EITp, and is also broadcasted by being included in EITsch. As shown in FIG. 3, EITp and EITsch are repeatedly sent at a constant period.

  As described above, the genre information of each broadcast program and the caption / text super-information received in broadcast in relation to the broadcast program are broadcast in parallel and at a synchronized timing. Therefore, it acquires information on the subtitles / superimposes of the broadcast program from the broadcast signal, extracts keywords from the subtitles / superimposes, and acquires the extracted program genres that are broadcast at the same timing. , And can be associated with the acquired genre information.

  Therefore, in this embodiment, the subtitle / text super information broadcast in synchronism and the program genre information are received in synchronism, learning is performed to associate the two, and the learning result is stored in the genre / keyword correspondence information storage unit. It is reflected in the correspondence information between the genre information, which is 30 stored information, and the keyword.

  That is, the broadcast reception decoding unit 2 supplies EIT information extracted from the broadcast signal to the genre information detection unit 32. The genre information detection unit 32 acquires genre information of a broadcast program from EITp or EITsch, and supplies the acquired genre information to the system controller unit 20. The system controller unit 20 supplies the acquired genre information to the genre / keyword correspondence learning unit 31.

  Also, the broadcast reception decoding unit 2 extracts subtitle / character super information broadcast by closed captions and supplies the information to the subtitle / character super detection unit 13. In digital terrestrial television broadcasting, textual text information related to each scene is sent as closed caption / superimposed text by closed captioning. This is used for the purpose of, for example, the convenience of a hearing-impaired person. In a terrestrial digital television broadcast receiving apparatus, when the user performs a setting operation of caption on, for example, as shown in FIG. When the caption / superimpose is displayed and the caption is turned off, the caption / superimpose is not displayed on the screen.

  The subtitle / character super detection unit 13 detects the text information of the subtitle / superimpose from the information received from the broadcast reception decoding unit 2 and supplies the detected text information to the keyword detection unit 14.

  The keyword detection unit 14 performs morphological analysis on the text information of the caption / superimpose received from the caption / character super detection unit 13 to detect a keyword.

  Here, morphological analysis is one of the basic techniques of natural language processing using a computer such as a computer. A sentence written in natural language is a morpheme (roughly speaking, the smallest unit having meaning in a language). ) To identify parts of speech (Part-of-speech). In this example, morphological analysis is performed using knowledge of the grammar of the target language (here, a collection of grammar rules) and a dictionary (a word list with information such as parts of speech) as information sources to be referenced. I have to.

  For example, as shown in FIG. 4, when it is displayed on the screen, it is a 4-hour drive to (Tanaka announcer) National Park. 14, “Tanaka”, “Announcer”, “National Park”, “Car”, “4 hours”, and “Distance” are detected as keywords by morphological analysis.

  Then, the keyword detection unit 14 supplies the detected keyword to the system controller unit 20. The system controller unit 20 supplies the acquired keyword to the genre / keyword correspondence learning unit 31.

  The genre / keyword correspondence learning unit 31 performs learning by associating the genre information from the genre information detection unit 32 with the keyword from the keyword detection unit 14. Here, in association learning, it is determined that a keyword that appears more frequently among keywords extracted from captions / superimposes related to one program has a stronger association with the corresponding genre. Further, even if the programs are different, learning is performed so that a keyword that frequently appears in the same genre is determined to have a strong relationship with the corresponding genre. The learning result of the genre / keyword correspondence learning unit 31 is reflected in the correspondence information between the genre and the keyword in the genre / keyword correspondence information storage unit 30.

  FIG. 5 shows an example of stored information in the genre / keyword correspondence information storage unit 30. In the example of FIG. 5, a keyword that is more strongly related to a genre is given a higher point, and the correspondence information between the genre and the keyword is accumulated. The information stored in the genre / keyword correspondence information storage unit 30 is updated by reflecting the learning result of the genre / keyword correspondence learning unit 31, and a new keyword is added to the corresponding genre or the points are low. The point of the keyword that goes up goes up.

  The genre / keyword correspondence information storage unit 30 does not store anything at the beginning (at the time of sales of the recording / playback apparatus), and reflects the learning result of the genre / keyword correspondence learning unit 31 and sequentially relates to the genre. The keywords may be accumulated. However, it will be described later that the user who has purchased the recording / playback apparatus has not yet learned about the genre / keyword correspondence after a certain period of time after the purchase. There is a possibility that a satisfactory result cannot be obtained for the digest reproduction function.

  Therefore, in this embodiment, the genre / keyword correspondence information storage unit 30 stores, in advance, correspondence information between genres and keywords obtained by learning as described above on the recording / playback apparatus manufacturing side. It is what. After the recording / playback apparatus is purchased by the user, the correspondence relationship between genres / keywords is further learned according to the usage status of the user, and the learning result is reflected in the genre / keyword correspondence information storage unit 30 to / It is designed to improve the accuracy of the correspondence between keywords.

  As described above, when a plurality of pieces of genre information are assigned as the program genre information, in this embodiment, the genre / keyword correspondence learning unit 31 has keywords for all assigned genres. Try to learn as related. Of course, it may be learned that it is related only to specific information among a plurality of genre information given to a program, for example, only the first genre information.

In this embodiment, learning of the above-described genre / keyword correspondence is executed at the following two occasions.
(1) When the genre information of EITp (see FIG. 3) is received, keywords are extracted from the caption / superimpose received synchronously, and learned and stored in association with the received genre information.
(2) Upon completion of recording of the broadcast program on the recording medium 5, the keyword is extracted from the received caption / superimpose of the recorded broadcast program, and learning and association are performed in association with the recorded broadcast program genre information in the received EITsch. Accumulation.

  FIG. 6 shows a flowchart for explaining the learning processing example described above. The flowchart of FIG. 6 is activated at the timing of (1) and (2) described above, and executes processing in accordance with a control instruction from the system controller unit 20.

  That is, when the system controller 20 detects the trigger (1) or (2) described above, the system controller 20 determines whether or not the genre information of EITp has been received from the genre information detection unit 32 (step S101). When it is determined that the genre information of EITp is received, the subtitle / character super detection unit 13 extracts the text data of the subtitle / character super information received synchronously at this time, and the keyword detection unit 14 Since the morphological analysis described above is performed from the text data and the keyword is detected, the system controller unit 20 receives this keyword and sends it to the genre / keyword correspondence learning unit 31 (step S102).

  Further, the system controller unit 20 sends the EITp genre information acquired from the genre information detection unit 32 to the genre / keyword correspondence learning unit 31, and the EITp genre information and the keyword from the keyword detection unit 14 have been described above. Such association learning is performed, and the learning result is reflected in the genre / keyword correspondence information storage unit 30 (step S103). Then, the process routine is exited.

  If it is determined in step S101 that the genre information of EITp is not received, it is determined whether or not it is a trigger to end recording of the broadcast program (step S104). If it is not a trigger for the end of recording, it is an error, and in this example, this processing routine is terminated without doing anything.

  When it is determined in step S104 that the recording has ended, in this embodiment, the system controller unit 20 uses the playback processing unit 7 and the playback decoding output unit 8 to display caption / character superimposition information about the recorded broadcast program. The text data is extracted by being supplied to the character super detection unit 13. Then, the system controller unit 20 supplies the keyword detected by performing morphological analysis on the text data from the keyword detection unit 14 to the genre / keyword correspondence learning unit 31 (step S105).

  Further, the system controller unit 20 sends the genre information of the recorded broadcast program in the EITsch acquired from the genre information detection unit 32 to the genre / keyword correspondence learning unit 31, and the genre information of the recorded broadcast program in the EITsch. Then, the association learning as described above is performed for the keyword from the keyword detection unit 14, and the learning result is reflected in the genre / keyword correspondence information storage unit 30 (step S106). Then, the process routine is exited.

  In learning after recording a broadcast program, in the above example, after recording, subtitle / character super information is reproduced and acquired from the recorded information. The subtitle / character super detection unit 13 detects the text data and the keyword detection unit 14 detects the keyword, accumulates it in the buffer memory built in the system controller unit 20, and uses it. The learning process as described above may be performed. In this case, the EITsch may be obtained after the end of recording, or may be obtained during recording and buffered. If buffering is performed, EITp may be used.

  In the above example, the learning function is provided in the recording / reproducing apparatus, and the learning result is reflected in the storage information of the genre / keyword correspondence information storage unit 30. However, the recording / reproducing apparatus has a communication network such as the Internet. A communication interface function is provided for connecting to the genre / keyword correspondence information from the genre / keyword correspondence information providing server installed on the home page of the manufacturer of the recording / playback apparatus or a specific site through the communication internet. May be.

  In this case, the genre / keyword correspondence information providing server performs learning as described above to constantly update the genre / keyword correspondence information to be provided, The information stored in the genre / keyword correspondence information storage unit 30 can be updated by accessing the providing server at the timing. In such a configuration, the recording / reproducing apparatus does not need to include the genre / keyword correspondence learning unit 31 and the genre information detection unit 17 as described above.

  The keyword detection unit 14 and the genre / keyword correspondence learning unit 31 can also be configured as software processing by the microcomputer of the system controller unit 20.

<Generation and recording of digest information during recording>
Next, the genre for each scene in the program is determined using the genre / keyword correspondence information stored in the genre / keyword correspondence information storage unit 30, and digest information as an example of special playback section information is determined according to the determination result. The process for generating the will be described below.

  In this embodiment, the digest information is automatically recorded when the broadcast program information is recorded on the recording medium 5. In this embodiment, along with the recording of the broadcast program on the information recording medium 5, the extraction process of each scene section of the broadcast program and the keyword extraction process from the subtitle / character superimpose information corresponding to each scene section are performed. Then, after recording of the broadcast program information is completed, genre determination and digest information generation processing for each scene are performed as post-recording end processing.

  That is, the digital audio signal and the digital video signal from the recording encoding processing unit 3 are supplied to the feature amount detection unit 11 to detect various predetermined feature amounts, and the detected feature amounts are inspected for scene change. It is supplied to the outlet 12.

  The feature amount detection performed by the feature amount detection unit 11 includes a section between the main program and the CM, and when a plurality of CMs are continuous, the detection of the start point and end point of each CM is silent. Section detection, black level section detection, and the like are used. Also, since the time length of the CM section is a multiple of 15 seconds, such as 15 seconds, 30 seconds, 45 seconds, 60 seconds, etc., the time length of the detected silent section or black level section is 15 seconds. Is also used to detect the CM section.

  As other feature amounts, scene change detection, telop detection, person detection, skin color detection, talk detection, music detection, climax detection, and the like are used. Here, the swell detection is performed by detecting that there is a sudden change in volume or a large applause from a quiet state.

  That is, in this example, the feature amount detection unit 11 uses predetermined video data, audio data, and predetermined parameter data to determine predetermined telop feature data (telop section determination data), person feature data, and other image feature data. (Image feature segment determination data), and various feature extraction processing of speaker voice feature data (speaker speech determination data), applause cheer feature data (applause cheer determination data), and other speech feature data (speech feature segment determination data) Is done.

  In this example, data obtained in the course of the data compression process from the recording encoding processing unit 3 is input to the feature amount detection unit 11. In this example, as will be described later, the feature amount detection unit 11 is also performed using data obtained in the course of the data compression process in consideration of performing feature amount detection on the reproduction signal and detecting scene change points. The feature amount is detected and the scene change point detection unit 10 detects the scene change point.

  In this way, when performing feature detection and scene change point detection on the playback signal, it is not necessary to completely compress and decode the playback signal to restore the original digital audio data and digital video data. There is a merit that feature amount detection and scene change point detection can be performed using data in the middle of decoding processing, and detection processing is accelerated.

  The scene change point detection unit 12 detects a scene change point from the feature amount detected by the feature amount detection unit 11. In this case, as described above, the scene change point detection unit 12 is not limited to, for example, the separation between the program main part and the CM, but also the start and end points of the program advertisement section in the program main part, program opening and program ending In addition to the start and end points of the section, the scene change point where the scene changes greatly in the main part of the program, and when a plurality of CMs continue, the scene change as a break between each CM start point and end point It detects as a point (characteristic point). In the case of this example, this scene change point detection data is used as position information on the start and end points of scenes such as CMs, the main part of the program, the program opening, and the program ending (for example, the start position of the broadcast program including the CM). Frame number (or field number)).

  When the received broadcast program information includes information such as the program title and the program genre, the feature amount detection unit 11 also detects the program title and genre information as the feature amount. And sent to the scene change point detector 12. Accordingly, the scene change point detection unit 12 detects a scene change point using the program title and genre information.

  Then, the position data of the scene change point from the scene change point detection unit 12 is supplied to the system controller unit 20 and temporarily held in a built-in memory in the system controller unit 20.

  In this embodiment, the position data of the scene change point is, for example, the frame data (or field number) of the broadcast program to be recorded. This is associated with the frame position (or field position) of the audio data.

  Also, the broadcast reception decoding unit 2 supplies the caption / text super information broadcast by closed caption to the caption / character super detection unit 13. In addition, the scene change point detection unit 12 supplies the detected position data of the scene change point to the caption / character super detection unit 13.

  At this time, the subtitle / character super detection unit 13 recognizes a scene (segment segment) identified by an adjacent one of the scene change points received from the scene change point detection unit 12, and relates to the subtitles / characters associated with each scene. Detect character super information. The subtitle / character super detection unit 13 then supplies the keyword detection unit 14 with information on the scene change points at the start and end points of the recognized scene and information on the subtitle / character supermarket related to the scene. The scene change point detection unit 12 also supplies the detected position data of the scene change point to the keyword detection unit 14.

  As described above, the keyword detection unit 14 performs morphological analysis (morphological analysis) on the caption / character super information (text information) received from the caption / character super detection unit 13 to detect a keyword. At this time, the keyword detection unit 14 generates a detected keyword and a set of scene change points including a start point and an end point of a scene related to the keyword, and sends the information to the system controller unit 20. Supply.

  The system controller unit 20 temporarily stores, in the built-in memory, correspondence information between the detected keywords and a set of scene change points including a start point and an end point of a scene related to the keywords.

  The system controller 20 temporarily stores in the internal memory only the information of the set of scene change points including the start point and end point of the scene from the scene change point detection unit 12 for a scene having no associated subtitle / character superposition. For a scene having a related subtitle / superimpose, a set of scene change points including a start point and an end point of the scene and a keyword related to the scene from the keyword detection unit 14 are associated with each other, and the built-in memory To store temporarily.

  FIG. 7 shows an example of correspondence data between a set of scene change points including a start point and an end point of a scene temporarily stored in the built-in memory of the system controller unit 20 and related keywords.

  In the example of FIG. 7, each scene (segment segment) specified by a set of adjacent scene change points indicated by the field number (or frame number) from the beginning of the recorded broadcast program, and the scene The keyword to be recorded is recorded correspondingly.

  When recording of broadcast program information is completed, in this embodiment, the system controller 20 associates a set of scene change points including a start point and an end point of a scene temporarily stored in the built-in memory with related keywords. The digest information generation process is started using the data.

  That is, first, the system controller unit 20 sends to the scene genre determining unit 15 correspondence data between a set of scene change points including a start point and an end point of a scene temporarily stored in the internal memory and related keywords. . The scene genre determination unit 15 refers to the genre / keyword correspondence information storage unit 30 using a keyword of a scene (segment segment) specified by each set of scene change points as a search element, and corresponds to the genre corresponding to the keyword of the search element. Is detected, and the detected genre is determined as the genre of each scene.

  For example, for the scenes a1 to a8 (see FIG. 8A) in the recorded broadcast program information, keywords as shown in FIG. 8B are temporarily stored in the built-in memory of the system controller unit 20. Consider the case. In FIG. 8B, only one keyword is shown, but this shows a representative keyword corresponding to each scene, and as shown in FIG. 7, it corresponds to each scene. A plurality of keywords are generally stored.

  The scene genre determination unit 15 searches the storage contents (see FIG. 5) of the genre / keyword correspondence information storage unit 30 using the keyword for each scene in FIG. 8B as a searcher. In the example of FIG. 8, the scene genre determination unit 15 determines that all the scenes a <b> 1 to a <b> 4 are genres of “sports: soccer” as illustrated in FIG. a8 is all determined to be a genre of “cooking”.

  Actually, the scene genre determination unit 15 refers to the storage content of the genre / keyword correspondence information storage unit 30 as a dictionary for each of a plurality of keywords for each scene, and each keyword is in any genre. Detect the number of points. Then, the genre having the highest total point number among the plurality of genres for all the acquired keywords is determined as the genre of the scene.

  For example, if the keywords for a certain scene are “goal”, “offside”, “heading”, “corner kick”, etc., for “goal” and “offside”, for example, “sports: soccer” And “Sports: Rugby” are stored in the genre / keyword correspondence information accumulating unit 30 so that one point each is given. For “Heading” and “Corner Kick”, only “Sports: Soccer” is 2 It is assumed that the genre / keyword correspondence information storage unit 30 stores the points so that points are given.

  In this case, the total is 6 points for the genre “sports: soccer” and 2 points for “sports: rugby”. Therefore, when the total number of points is compared, (total number of points of “sports: soccer”)> (total number of points of “sports: rugby”), the scene genre determination unit 15 determines that the genre of the scene is “ It is determined as “Sport: Soccer”.

  In addition, as points for the keywords “incident” and “accident”, 10 points for “sports: soccer”, 20 points for “sports: baseball”, 50 points and 30 points for “news” respectively, In the correspondence information storage unit 30, when assigned as keyword correspondence information for each genre, if the keyword of a scene is “incident” and “accident”, the genre is “sports: soccer”. The degree (soccer level) is 20 points, the degree of “sports: baseball” (baseball degree) is 40 points, and the degree of “news” (news degree) is 80 points. Therefore, since the news degree has the highest number of points, the scene genre is determined as “news”.

  The scene genre determination unit 15 sends information on the determination result of the genre (scene genre) for each scene determined as described above to the scene combination unit 16.

  The scene combination unit 16 compares the genres of adjacent scenes with respect to the scene genre determination result received from the scene genre determination unit 15 and performs a process of combining scenes having the same scene genre.

  In the example of FIG. 8, the scenes a1 to a4 are all the same in the genre of “sports: soccer”. Therefore, as shown in FIG. The combined sections are combined into one corner, and a genre of “sports: soccer” is given to the corner. Further, since the scenes a5 to a8 are all the same in the genre of “cooking”, as shown in FIG. 8D, these scenes a5 to a8 are combined, and the combined sections are grouped together. Two corners are provided, and a “cooking” genre is assigned to each corner.

  In this way, the scene combining unit 16 can determine the corner in the broadcast program and its genre by combining adjacent scenes having the same scene genre (see FIG. 8E).

  In the above scene combining process, if the scene genre is different from the scenes before and after the scene, and if the time of the local scene is short, The determination genre may be ignored and it may be determined that the genres of the preceding and following scenes are continuous.

  FIG. 9 is a diagram for explaining an example of processing for combining scenes of different genres locally with the preceding and succeeding scenes. In the example of FIG. 9, as shown in FIGS. 9A, 9 </ b> B, and 9 </ b> C, only the scene (n + 2) among the scenes n to (n + 5) is determined as the “news” genre. The other scenes are all determined as the genre of “sports: soccer”. Therefore, the corner by combining scene genres is delimited before the scene (n + 2).

  In this case, the keyword “accident” of the scene (n + 2) has a low similarity with the keywords “heading” and “keeper” of the scene (n + 1) and the scene (n + 3) before and after the genre. That is, the genre determined corresponding to the keyword “accident” of the scene (n + 2) is “news”, and the genre similarity is low with “sports: soccer” of other scenes.

  On the other hand, for the keywords “heading” and “keeper” of the scene (n + 1) and the scene (n + 3) before and after the scene (n + 2), the genre determined correspondingly is “sports: soccer”, and the genre similarity The nature is very high. In addition, the keyword “goal” of the scene (n + 4) after the second scene of the scene (n + 2) is also determined to correspond to the keyword “heading” of the scene (n + 1) before the division, “sports: soccer”. And genre similarity is very high.

  From the above, if the keywords of the scenes before and after the locally existing scene have a high degree of similarity with the genre determined from the keywords as the axis, the local scene has the same genre as the preceding and following scenes. You may make it combine as a scene.

  In the example of FIG. 9, scenes with locally different genres exist as a single scene, but two or more scenes that are short in time are locally different from the genres of the preceding and following scenes. However, they may be combined in the same manner. In that case, when the genre given to the broadcast program shown in FIG. 9 (E) is referred to, the determination accuracy of the scene genre is further increased. For example, if the genre of the broadcast program is the same as the genre of the scene before and after the local scene, and the genre of the broadcast program is different from the genre of the local scene, the local scene is You may make it combine with a scene.

  In consideration of the above, the scene genre may be determined in consideration of the scene genre before and after the scene. In that case, the genre of the scene may be determined in consideration of the preceding and following scene genres by weighting according to the distance on the time axis with respect to the scene.

  When the process of combining adjacent scenes determined to have the same scene genre is completed as described above, one program includes a plurality of corners having different genres as shown in FIG. Certified as consisting of The scene combination unit 16 supplies information on the result of the combination process (information on the start and end points of the combined corners and information on the genre of each corner) to the special playback section generation unit 17.

  In this embodiment, the special playback section generation unit 17 generates digest information using the genre determined for each corner. That is, in the past, only one genre was assigned to one program, so even if it is a program consisting of a plurality of corners as described above, a feature amount for digest extraction is set. The genre to be set is set based on one genre assigned to the program. For this reason, even if appropriate digest information can be generated for a certain corner, there is a problem that appropriate digest information cannot be generated for other corners.

  On the other hand, in this example, based on the genre determined for each corner, a feature amount for generating digest information from the corner portion is set. That is, as shown as the rule genre in FIG. 10B, in this embodiment, the genre information for setting the feature amount for generating the digest information for one program is set for each corner for each corner. The genre information determined in this way is used.

  That is, for the section of the variety corner shown in FIG. 10A, the feature amount set for the “variety” genre is used to generate digest information. In addition, for the sports corner section, the feature amount set for the “sports” genre, for the news corner section, the feature amount set for the “news” genre, for the cooking corner section. Uses the feature amount set for the genre of “cooking” to generate digest information.

  In this example, as the digest information, a plurality of pieces of information corresponding to the reproduction time are generated such that the reproduction times are 5 minutes, 10 minutes, and 15 minutes, respectively. The user can select one of the playback times and execute digest playback during playback.

  The special playback section generation unit 17 extracts the scene section to be digest-reproduced using the feature amount set for each genre of each corner so as to have each playback time. In this case, when the reproduction time is short, a section having a larger set feature amount is extracted. Then, as the playback time becomes longer, a section where the set feature amount is gradually reduced is extracted as a playback section.

  As described above, the information of the start point and the end point of the scene (one or more scenes) extracted as the digest playback section is sent as the digest information to the additional information file generation unit 18 via the system controller unit 20 through the special playback section. Sent from the generation unit 17.

  The additional information file generation unit 18 generates an additional information file including the acquired digest information, and supplies the generated additional information file to the recording processing unit 4 in a state in which the additional information file is associated with the recorded broadcast program information. The recording processing unit 4 records the additional information file on the recording medium 5 in a state associated with the recorded broadcast program information. Note that the digest information of the additional information file and the broadcast program information are associated with each other by a program ID (program identifier) assigned to the broadcast program.

  FIG. 11 shows an example of digest information included in the additional information file. As shown in FIG. 11, in the case of this example, the digest information is a plurality of sets of start and end points of the playback scene section associated with each digest playback time.

  When the above digest information generation and recording processing is completed, the system controller unit 20 erases the scene change point information and the keyword information buffered in the built-in memory, and digests the next broadcast program at the time of recording. Prepare for information generation.

<Generation and recording of digest information using playback signal>
As described above, in the recording / reproducing apparatus of this example, assuming that the broadcast program information and the digest information of the broadcast program are not recorded as additional information on the recording medium 5, the information is reproduced from the recording medium. From the broadcast program information, the corner section generation process and digest information generation process for the broadcast program are executed, the generated digest information is included in the additional information file, and the broadcast program information and recorded program identification information are used. A function of associating and recording on the recording medium 5 is provided.

  Therefore, the video information and audio information from the reproduction decoding output unit 8 are supplied to the feature amount detection unit 11, and the caption / character super information from the reproduction decoding output unit 8 is supplied to the subtitle / character super detection unit 13. Supplied.

  In this embodiment, for example, when the user instructs digest reproduction, and the additional information file is not recorded corresponding to the broadcast program data recorded on the recording medium 5, the recording of this embodiment is performed. The playback device makes an inquiry to the user, “Do you want to generate the necessary additional information file?

  In response to this inquiry, when the user performs a reply operation of “YES (generates additional information file)”, the system controller unit 20 of the recording / reproducing apparatus reads out the recorded data of the broadcast program and reproduces it. The image data is supplied to the feature amount detection unit 11 through the processing unit 7 and the reproduction decoding unit 8, and control is performed so as to execute feature amount detection and scene change point detection by the scene change point detection unit 12.

  In the feature amount detection unit 11, a plurality of predetermined feature amounts are detected from the video information and audio information in the same manner as in the recording described above, and the detected feature amounts are supplied to the scene change point detection unit 12. Thus, the scene change point is detected, and the detection output of the scene change point is supplied to the system controller unit 20.

  The subtitle / character super detection unit 13 recognizes a scene (segment segment) as an adjoining scene change point received from the scene change point detection unit 12, and detects the subtitle / character super from the reproduction decoding output unit 8. As for information, information on subtitles / superimposes related to each scene is detected. The subtitle / character super detection unit 13 then supplies the keyword detection unit 14 with information on the scene change points at the start and end points of the recognized scene and information on the subtitle / character supermarket related to the scene.

  As described above, the keyword detection unit 14 performs morphological analysis (morphological analysis) on the caption / character super information (text information) received from the caption / character super detection unit 13 to detect a keyword. At this time, the keyword detection unit 14 generates a detected keyword and a set of scene change points including a start point and an end point of a scene related to the keyword, and sends the information to the system controller unit 20. Supply.

  The system controller unit 20 temporarily stores, in the built-in memory, correspondence information between the detected keywords and a set of scene change points including a start point and an end point of a scene related to the keywords.

  Then, the system controller unit 20 sends to the scene genre determining unit 15 correspondence data between a set of scene change points including a start point and an end point of a scene temporarily stored in the built-in memory and related keywords. The scene genre determination unit 15 refers to the genre / keyword correspondence information storage unit 30 using a keyword of a scene (segment segment) specified by each set of scene change points as a search element, and corresponds to the genre corresponding to the keyword of the search element. Is detected, and the detected genre is determined as the genre of each scene. Then, the scene genre determination unit 15 sends information on the determination result of the genre (scene genre) for each determined scene to the scene combination unit 16.

  As described above, the scene combination unit 16 compares the scene genres of the adjacent scenes for the scene genre determination result received from the scene genre determination unit 15 and combines the scenes having the same scene genre. To generate information on a section in which the program is divided into corners.

  When the scene combining process ends, the scene combining unit 16 sends information on the start point and end point of each corner and the genre information for each corner, which are the result of the combining process, to the special playback section generating unit 17. As described above, the special playback section generation unit 17 generates digest information for various playback time lengths using the genre determined for each corner. Then, the special playback section generation unit 17 sends the information on the start point and end point of the scene (one or a plurality of scenes) extracted as the digest playback section to the additional information file generation unit 18 as digest information via the system controller unit 20. send.

  The additional information file generation unit 18 generates an additional information file including the acquired digest information, and supplies the generated additional information file to the recording processing unit 4 in a state associated with the recorded broadcast program information. The recording processing unit 4 records the additional information file on the recording medium 5 in a state associated with the recorded broadcast program information. Note that the digest information of the additional information file and the broadcast program information are associated with each other by a program ID (program identifier) assigned to the broadcast program.

  Thereby, for example, since the information of the broadcast program recorded on the recording medium 5 is not recorded by the recording / reproducing apparatus of this embodiment, even if the additional information file is not recorded, Digest information for executing digest reproduction in the recording / reproducing apparatus can be recorded.

  When the above digest information generation and recording process ends, the system controller unit 20 erases the scene change point information and the keyword information buffered in the built-in memory, and prepares for the next digest information generation process.

  In the above-described configuration, the processing of the feature amount detection unit 11 and the scene change point detection unit 12, and the processing of the scene genre determination unit 15, the scene combination unit 16, and the special playback section generation unit 17 are performed by the system controller unit 20. Software processing by a microcomputer may be used.

[Description of Main Operation Processing in Recording / Reproducing Apparatus of Embodiment]
Next, main operation processing in the recording / reproducing apparatus of the embodiment configured as described above will be described with reference to the flowcharts of FIGS. The processing of each step in the flowchart described below is mainly executed by the microcomputer that constitutes the system controller unit 20.

  That is, as shown in FIG. 12, the system controller unit 20 monitors whether there is a user operation input by monitoring the output of the user input interface unit 21 (step S1). When it is determined that there is a user operation input, the system controller unit 20 determines whether or not the user operation input is a recording start operation (step S2). The processing routine, the feature amount detection / scene change point detection routine, closed caption caption / character supertext information detection, and keyword detection processing are executed in parallel (step S3).

  Then, the system controller unit 20 monitors whether or not a user operation for stopping recording has been performed (step S4). When the user operation for stopping recording is not detected, the system controller unit 20 returns to step S3 to execute a recording processing routine, feature amount detection, and scene When it is determined that a user operation for stopping recording is performed in parallel with the change point detection routine, scene combination processing and digest information generation processing are executed as post-recording processing (step S5), and then the processing returns to step S1. .

  In the post-recording process in step S5, the system controller 20 detects the scene change point data (set of scene change points) detected by the scene change point detection unit 10 and the keyword detection unit 32 as described above. A scene genre determination process is performed using the keyword, a scene combination process is performed using the scene genre determination process result, and a digest information generation process is performed using the scene combination process result. Furthermore, the generated digest information is included in the additional information file and is recorded on the recording medium in association with the recording data of the recorded broadcast program. In this case, the additional information file is associated with the recorded data of the recorded broadcast program based on the recorded broadcast program identification information.

  Note that the scene change point detection unit 12 does not use the detection result of the scene change point detection performed in real time in parallel with the recording process as information of the scene change point used in the post-recording process. In addition, we will further examine the detection results of scene change point detection performed in parallel with the recording process, detect more likely scene change points, and record the more likely scene change points in the additional information file. It may be.

  A parallel processing routine of recording processing, feature amount detection, and scene change point detection processing executed in step S3 will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

  First, the system controller unit 20 takes in data to be recorded (step S11). That is, when the data to be recorded is broadcast program information (video information and audio information) from the broadcast reception decoding unit 2, the system controller unit 20 displays the broadcast program information selectively received by the broadcast reception decoding unit 2. The recording signal encoding processing unit 3 is instructed to be supplied.

  Next, the system controller unit 20 instructs the recording signal encoding processing unit 3 to perform recording encoding processing of the broadcast program information (step S12), and controls the recording processing unit 4 so that the recording medium 5 Video information, audio information, and caption / text information of the broadcast program subjected to the recording and encoding process are recorded (step S13).

  Then, the system controller unit 20 determines whether or not a recording end instruction has been given by the user (step S14). When it is determined that a recording end instruction has not been issued, the system controller unit 20 returns to step S11 and continues the recording process.

  Steps S11 to S14 constitute a recording processing routine. In parallel with this recording processing routine, a feature amount detection and a scene change point detection processing routine are performed. That is, the system controller unit 20 instructs the feature amount detection unit 11 to supply the data to be recorded captured in step S11 and also instructs the feature amount detection unit 11 to execute the feature amount detection process. (Step S15). As described above, in this example, the data being compressed from the recording signal encoding processing unit 3 is supplied to the feature amount detection unit 11.

  In response to this execution instruction, the feature amount detection unit 11 detects the various feature amounts described above, and supplies the processing results to the scene change point detection unit 12. The scene change point detection unit 12 receives the execution instruction from the system controller unit 20, and executes the above-described scene change point detection process (step S16). Then, the system controller unit 20 stores and holds the feature amount data detected by the feature amount detection unit 11 and the scene change point data detected by the scene change point detection unit 12 in a built-in buffer memory or the like. (Step S17). Here, the feature amount data detected by the feature amount detection unit 11 is also stored and retained because it is used when a more probable scene change point is regenerated.

  Then, the system controller unit 20 determines whether or not a recording end instruction has been issued by the user (step S18). When it is determined that no recording end instruction has been made, the system controller unit 20 returns to step S15 to detect the feature amount and change the scene. Continue the point detection process.

  Note that the determination process in step S14 and the determination process in step S18 are actually the same determination process, not separate determination processes, but here, since two processing routines are described in parallel, As shown in FIG. 13, it is described separately in two discrimination steps.

  When the system controller unit 20 determines in steps S14 and S18 that the user has instructed the recording end, the system controller unit 20 exits this processing routine in order to perform the post-recording process in step S5 described above.

  The keyword detection process related to the scene specified by the pair of scene change points is separately performed by the caption / character super detection unit 13 and the keyword detection unit 14. The keyword detection process will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

  That is, first, based on the control instruction of the system controller unit 20, the caption / character super detection unit 13 detects closed caption data and extracts text data of the caption / character superimposition (step S21).

  The subtitle / character super detector 13 supplies the extracted text data of the subtitle / superimpose to the keyword detector 14. The keyword detection unit 14 performs the above-described morpheme analysis process on the acquired caption / superimposed text data to detect a keyword (step S22).

  Then, the detected keyword is held in correspondence with information on the subtitle / character super insertion instruction section, which is designation information from the broadcast side (step S23). Since the keyword detection unit 14 acquires information on the scene change point from the scene change point detection unit 12, the subtitle / superimpose insertion designation section is converted into a scene section composed of a pair of scene change points and stored. Keep it.

  Next, the system controller unit 20 determines whether or not a recording end operation has been performed by the user (step S24). When it is determined that the recording has not ended, the system controller unit 20 returns to step S21 and repeats the keyword detection process described above. If it is determined in step S24 that the recording has been completed, the processing routine is exited to perform the post-recording process in step S5 described above.

  Next, post-recording processing will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

  That is, the system controller unit 20 instructs the scene change point detection unit 12 to generate more probable scene change point information using the feature amount data and the scene change point data stored in the buffer memory. (Step S31). The scene change point detector 12 supplies the generated scene change point information to the keyword detector 14 and also supplies it to the system controller 20.

  The keyword detection unit 14 acquires the information of the scene change point generated in step S31 by the scene change point detection unit 12, performs a process of associating the acquired scene change point pair with the keyword, and the system controller unit 20 To supply.

  The system controller unit 20 holds the scene change point pair from the scene change point detection unit 12 and the keyword information related to each scene from the keyword detection unit 14 and sends the information to the scene genre determination unit 15 (step). S32).

  Under the control of the system controller unit 20, the scene genre determination unit 15 uses the keyword information related to the scene and the stored contents of the genre / keyword correspondence information storage unit 30 as described above. In this way, the determination is made (step S33).

  Next, the system controller unit 20 sends information on the genre of each scene determined by the scene genre determining unit 15 to the scene combining unit 16. Under the control of the system controller unit 20, the scene combining unit 16 performs a process of combining adjacent scenes determined to be the same genre as described above (step S34).

  Then, the scene combination unit 16 detects corners in the broadcast program by scene combination (step S35), and sends the information of the start point and end point for each detected corner and corner genre information to the special playback section generation unit 17.

  The special reproduction section generation unit 17 performs setting of feature amounts (digest generation rule setting) for extraction as digest information according to the genre of each corner (step S36). Then, as described above, the special playback section generation unit 17 refers to the feature amount for each scene detected by the feature amount detection unit 11 based on the set feature amount, and for 5 minutes and 10 minutes, respectively. A plurality of pieces of digest information having a reproduction time length of 15 minutes are generated (step S37).

  The system controller unit 20 passes the generated digest information to the additional information file generation unit 18, and instructs the recording medium 5 to record the digest information in association with the recorded broadcast program information in the additional information file. (Step S38). Thereby, the digest information is recorded in the recording medium 5 as an additional information file associated with the recorded broadcast program information.

  Note that the processing for generating and recording digest information from the playback signal described above is also performed in this figure except that the caption / character super information is extracted from the playback signal and the scene change point information is extracted from the playback signal. The processing routine is substantially the same as 15 processing routines. Therefore, the detailed flowchart is omitted.

  Next, when it is determined in step S2 of FIG. 12 that the operation input is not a recording start operation, the system controller unit 20 determines whether or not the operation input is a normal reproduction start instruction operation (FIG. 16). Step S41). When it is determined in step S41 that the operation input is a normal reproduction start instruction operation, the system controller unit 20 executes a normal reproduction processing routine (step S42).

  When it is determined in step S41 that the operation input is not a normal reproduction start instruction operation, the system controller unit 20 determines whether or not the operation input is a digest reproduction start instruction (step S43). If it is determined that there is not, the system controller unit 20 executes other processing in accordance with the operation input (step S44). Then, after that process, the process returns to step S1, and the processes after step S1 are repeated.

  When it is determined in step S43 that the operation input is a digest reproduction start instruction operation, the system controller unit 20 reads an additional information file (including digest information) of the broadcast program designated for reproduction from the recording medium 5. Reading and acquiring through the additional information file detection unit 19 (step S46). Then, the system controller unit 20 displays a list of digest playback times and a message for prompting selection of one of the digest playback times on the display screen of the display unit 24 (step S46).

  The user who sees the display screen performs selection input of the digest playback time requested by the user through the remote controller 22, for example, and the system controller unit 20 receives the selection input through the user input interface unit 21.

  The system controller unit 20 acquires the digest information of the digest playback time selected by the user from the additional information file, and acquires the digest information (recording position information of the video information and audio information of the digest playback section on the recording medium 5). Based on the above, the readout control unit 10 is controlled so as to read out only the information of the digest playback section of the broadcast program information to be played back. Thereby, the system controller unit 20 performs digest reproduction (step S47).

  Then, the system controller unit 20 monitors whether or not the digest reproduction has ended (step S48), and continues the digest reproduction in step S47 until it is determined that the digest reproduction has ended.

  When it is determined in step S48 that the digest reproduction has been completed, the system controller unit 20 controls the read control unit 11, the reproduction processing unit 12, the reproduction decoding processing unit 13, and the like to perform reproduction stop processing (step S49). ). And it returns to step S1 of FIG. 12, and repeats the process after this step S1.

  As described above, according to this embodiment, even if a plurality of corners of different genres exist for one broadcast program, a digest information generation rule (for digest information generation) set for each corner is set. Digest information is generated on the basis of the feature amount), and more appropriate scenes are extracted at the respective corners.

<Another Example of Special Playback Section Generated by Special Playback Section Generation Unit 17>
In the above example, when extracting the digest information, the feature amount corresponding to the genre is set, and the scene section including a large amount of the set feature amount is extracted as the digest information. However, as a method of extracting the digest information, The method is not limited to such a method.

  In particular, in this embodiment, a genre is determined for each scene, and the determined scene genre is the same, and a plurality of adjacent consecutive scenes are combined to form a plurality of scene group sections composed of the same scene genre. Using the fact that (corresponding to the above-mentioned corner) is generated, digest information is generated using the genre information of the scene group section. Some other examples of the digest information generation method using the genre information of the scene group section will be described below.

[First other example: extracting scene group sections of the same genre as the program genre]
In this first other example, a scene group section determined to be the same genre as the program genre is extracted as a digest information section that is a special playback section. In the case of this first other example, the digest playback time depends on the length of the extracted scene group section.

  For example, the genres of the recorded broadcast programs detected from the information from the EPG acquisition unit 6 or detected by the genre information detection unit 15 are “news <0x09>” and “wide show <0x23>”. Consider the case of two.

  In this case, after the broadcast program information of the program genre is recorded on the recording medium, the scene genre is determined by the post-recording process as described above, and continuous scenes in the same genre are combined. When the scene group section determined to be the same genre as the program genre of FIG. 17 is detected as shown in FIG. 17A, the special playback section generation unit 17, as shown in FIG. The scene group section Pn of the same genre as “News <0x09>” and the scene group section Pw of the same genre as the program genre “Wide Show <0x23>” are recognized as digest playback sections, and the scene group sections Pn and Pw Detect start and end points.

  Then, the special playback section generation unit 17 supplies the detected start point and end point of each scene group section Pn and Pw as digest information to the additional information file generation unit 18 via the system controller unit 20.

  FIG. 18 shows a flowchart of post-recording processing in the case of the first other example. In the flowchart of FIG. 18, the processing from step S51 to step S54 is exactly the same as the processing from step S31 to step S34 in FIG. 15, and includes scene change point detection processing, scene-corresponding keyword detection processing, and scene genre determination unit. 15 is a part up to the genre determination process for each scene in 15 and the combination process in the scene combination unit 16 of the same scene genre.

  In the first other example, the special playback section generation unit 17 extracts a section of the scene group that is the same as the program genre from the combined scene groups (step S55). In this case, in the case of a broadcast program to which a plurality of genres are assigned as the program genre as described above, the special playback section generation unit 17 is a scene group that is the same as each of the plurality of genres. This section is extracted.

  Then, the special playback section generation unit 17 sends the extracted information on the start point and end point of the scene group section to the system controller unit 20 as digest information. The system controller unit 20 sends the received digest information to the additional information file generation unit 18 and instructs to record it as an additional information file in association with the information of the recorded broadcast program (step S56). Then, this processing routine ends.

  According to this first other example, when a broadcast program has a plurality of corners, a corner of the same genre as the genre of the broadcast program is detected as a digest playback section, and a digest indicating the playback position is detected. Information is recorded on the recording medium corresponding to the information of the broadcast program. Therefore, the user can reproduce only the corner of the same genre as the broadcast program by simply instructing the digest reproduction.

[Second other example: Extract scene group section of same genre as higher genre of program genre]
The genre given to a broadcast program includes a major classification and a minor classification in a lower hierarchy of the major classification. For example, sub-classes in the lower level of the genre of the major category “sports” include “baseball”, “soccer”, “sumo”, and the like. The broadcast program may be given in either a large category or a small category.

  For this reason, when a program genre is assigned in a small category, it is convenient to extract a scene group segment of the same genre as a digest playback segment when viewed in a large category genre that is higher in the minor category. There is.

  For example, as shown in FIG. 19A, a broadcast program whose program genre is “baseball” includes scene group sections determined as other genres in a small classification such as “sumo” and “soccer”. When it is included, it is convenient for the user if a scene group section of a genre of a small category other than “baseball” such as “sumo” or “soccer” can be seen in the digest.

  Therefore, in this second other example, a scene group having the same upper classification is extracted from the genre assigned to the scene group section, and the information of the start point and end point of the extracted scene group section is digested. Information is included in the additional information file and recorded.

  In the example of FIG. 19, since the program genre is “baseball”, the special playback section generation unit 17 sets the higher-class genre “sports” as the genre for extracting the digest playback section. . Then, the special playback section generation unit 17 recognizes the genre for each scene group section obtained by combining by the scene combining unit 16, determines the upper genre, and the upper genre extracts the digest playback section. It is determined whether or not the set genre is the same.

  Then, a scene group section determined to be of the same genre is detected, and information on the start point and end point of the extracted scene group is sent to the system controller unit 20 as digest information. The system controller unit 20 sends the received digest information to the additional information file generation unit 18 and records it as an additional information file in association with the information of the recorded broadcast program.

  In the flowchart of the post-recording process of the second other example, only the part after step S55 in FIG. 18 is changed to the process content described as the process of the special reproduction section generation unit 17 described above. Steps S51 to S54 are the same as in the first other example, and are omitted here.

[Third other example: Extract scene group section of same genre as specified by user]
In the third other example, after the scene combining unit 16 performs a process of combining consecutive scenes having the same scene genre, the system controller unit 20 performs the broadcast determined by the scene genre determining unit 16. A list of scene genre names assigned to each scene of the program is displayed on the display screen of the display unit 24. In the above example, this corresponds to a list of corner genres.

  The system controller unit 20 also displays a message prompting the user to select and input a desired genre that the user wants to reproduce by digest, and waits for a genre selection input from the user. When the selection input from the user is received, the system controller 20 passes the received genre information to the specific playback section generation unit 17.

  The specific playback section generation unit 17 extracts scene group sections of the same genre as the received genre information, and sends the information on the start point and end point of the extracted scene group to the system controller unit 20 as digest information. The system controller unit 20 sends the received digest information to the additional information file generation unit 18 and records it as an additional information file in association with the information of the recorded broadcast program.

  The flowchart of the post-recording process of the third other example shows the list of genres that can be selected by the user, the selection of the genre from the user through the list, and the same scene group section as the selected genre. It is the same as the flowchart of the first other example shown in FIG. 18 except for the point that it is a digest playback section, and is omitted here.

  In the above description, the scene group section of the same genre as the genre specified by the user is extracted as the digest playback section. However, the genre specified by the user is a broad genre, and the genre of the scene group section Is a genre of a small classification in the lower hierarchy, the genre higher in the genre of the scene group section is equal to the specified genre, and the scene group section of the genre may be extracted as the digest playback section. By doing so, it is possible to perform digest reproduction similar to the second other example.

[Fourth other example: Exclude scene group section of genre that has low correlation with program genre]
In the fourth other example, a scene group section determined to be a genre that has a low correlation with the program genre of the recorded broadcast program or has a low relevance is not extracted as a digest playback section.

  In the fourth other example, the recording / reproducing apparatus prepares a genre correlation table in which a correlation value between its own genre and another genre is predetermined. An example of this genre correlation table is shown in FIG. FIG. 20 shows an example of correlation values for other genres when the genre “baseball” is assumed as the own genre, for example. As shown in FIG. 20, in this example, the genre having a lower correlation has a larger negative correlation value, and the genre having a higher correlation has a larger positive correlation value.

  The special playback section generation unit 17 detects the correlation value between the program genre of the recorded broadcast program and the genre of the scene group section as a result of combining by the scene combining unit 16 with reference to the genre correlation table of FIG. Based on the detected correlation value, the scene group section having a low correlation with the program genre is not included in the digest information.

  In this case, when the digest playback time is set, from the correlation value, the scene group section having the lowest correlation is first excluded from the digest playback section, and it is determined whether or not the set time is exceeded. If so, the digest information may be determined so as to be within the set digest playback time by excluding the scene group section having the next lowest correlation from the digest playback section. Conversely, when the digest playback time is set, the scene group section having a high correlation is first included in the digest playback section from the correlation value, and if the set time has not yet reached, the next highest correlation The digest information may be determined such that the scene group section is included in the digest playback section and the playback time is in the vicinity of the set digest playback time.

[Fifth other example: extracting scene group sections of the same genre as the user's high frequency viewing genre]
In the fifth other example, the recording / reproducing apparatus includes means for accumulating and storing the user's viewing history for each genre. That is, in this example, the system controller unit 20 of the recording / reproducing apparatus detects the program genre of the program viewed at the end of the viewing when the user reproduces and views the broadcast program recorded on the recording medium. The number of viewing times for the stored program genre is incremented.

Then, the system controller unit 20 arranges genres in descending order of viewing frequency, and generates a ranking of genres that the user likes. The recording / reproducing apparatus of this example stores the user's preference genre information generated in this manner in a memory as a preference genre information table. An example of the preference genre information table is shown in FIG. 21. In the fifth other example, the special playback section generation unit 17 generates digest information based on the ranking of the user's preference genre information table. Like that.

  A flowchart of post-recording processing in the case of the fifth other example is shown in FIG. In the flowchart of FIG. 22, the processing from step S61 to step S64 is exactly the same as the processing from step S31 to step S34 in FIG. 15, and includes a scene change point detection process, a scene-corresponding keyword detection process, and a scene genre determination unit. 15 is a part up to the genre determination process for each scene in 15 and the combination process in the scene combination unit 16 of the same scene genre.

  In the fifth other example, the special reproduction section generating unit 17 first recognizes the genre of the highest rank with reference to the user's preference genre information table (step S65). Next, the special playback section generation unit 17 extracts scene group sections of the same genre as the recognized genre (step S66), calculates the total playback time of the extracted scene group sections, and sets the digest playback set. It is determined whether or not the time length has been reached (step S67).

  When it is determined in step S67 that the total playback time of the extracted scene group sections does not reach the set digest playback time length, the special playback section generation unit 17 ranks next to the user's favorite genre information. The rank genre is recognized (step S68), the process returns to step S66, the scene group section of the same genre as the recognized genre is extracted, and the total playback time of the extracted scene group section is calculated and set. It is determined whether or not the digest reproduction time length has been reached (step S67).

  When it is determined in step S67 that the total playback time of the extracted scene group sections has reached the set digest playback time length, the special playback section generation unit 17 obtains information on the start and end points of the extracted scene group sections. Then, it is sent to the system controller unit 20 as digest information. The system controller unit 20 sends the received digest information to the additional information file generation unit 18 and instructs to record it as an additional information file in association with the information of the recorded broadcast program (step S69). Then, this processing routine ends.

  According to this fifth other example, a corner section of the same genre as the genre that the user often watches is extracted from the broadcast program, and is recorded on the recording medium as digest information corresponding to the information of the broadcast program. To be recorded. Therefore, the user can perform digest playback of a corner section of the same genre as the genre that the user often watches by simply instructing the digest playback.

[Sixth other example: Extract digest playback section according to time length of combined scene group section]
In the sixth other example, the time length of a scene group section composed of a plurality of scene groups of the same scene genre obtained by combining by the scene combining unit 16 is detected, and the time length is less than a predetermined fixed time. Alternatively, only a scene group section of a certain time or less is extracted as a digest playback section.

  When the time length of scene group sections combined by genre is set as shown in FIG. 23A by the scene combining unit 16, for example, it is set to extract a scene group section of less than 5 minutes. In this case, as shown in FIG. 23B, the special playback section generation unit 17 extracts only the scene group section whose time length is less than 5 minutes from the information of the broadcast program shown in FIG. Then, digest information is generated.

  A flowchart of the post-recording process in the case of the sixth other example is shown in FIG. In the flowchart of FIG. 24, the processing from step S71 to step S74 is exactly the same as the processing from step S31 to step S34 in FIG. 15, and includes a scene change point detection process, a scene-corresponding keyword detection process, and a scene genre determination unit. 15 is a part up to the genre determination process for each scene in 15 and the combination process in the scene combination unit 16 of the same scene genre.

  In the sixth other example, the special playback section generation unit 17 measures the time length of each scene group section as a result of the combination (step S75). This time length is measured by the number of frames in the scene group section. Next, the special playback section generation unit 17 determines whether the time length of each scene group section is less than a predetermined time, and extracts only the scene group section that is less than the predetermined time (step) S76).

  Then, the special playback section generation unit 17 sends the extracted information on the start point and end point of the scene group section to the system controller unit 20 as digest information. The system controller unit 20 sends the received digest information to the additional information file generation unit 18 and instructs to record it as an additional information file in association with the information of the recorded broadcast program (step S77). Then, this processing routine ends.

[Seventh other example: Extract digest playback section while combining according to determined scene genre]
In all of the above-described examples, after the scene genre determining unit 15 determines the genre for each scene, the scene combining unit 16 combines scenes of the same genre and supplies the combined result to the special playback section generating unit 17. The special playback section generation unit 17 generates digest information, which is information of the digest playback section, for each scene group unit of the combined result.

  On the other hand, in the seventh other example, after the scene genre determining unit 15 determines the genre for each scene, the special playback section generating unit 17 combines scenes of the same genre with the scene combining unit 16. In this way, digest information for a predetermined time length is generated.

  FIG. 25 is a diagram for explaining the outline of the seventh other example. It is assumed that the broadcast program recorded on the recording medium is a program having a plurality of corners as shown in FIG. Then, in this embodiment, each corner section is detected by the scene change point detection unit 12 as comprising a plurality of scene sections. Then, the scene genre determination unit 15 determines that the plurality of scenes included in each corner are scenes of the same scene genre.

  In the seventh other example, after the scene genre is determined, a process for generating digest information for a predetermined time length is started. That is, the special playback section generation unit 17 first detects a scene in which a different genre is determined as the scene genre (corresponding to the head scene at each corner), and combines adjacent scenes of the same genre. Then, the playback time length of the scene combination result is measured, and the adjacent scenes of the same genre are repeated until the predetermined time length is reached. If there is no adjoining scene of the same genre, it will be joined to the adjacent corner, so the scene joining of that part (corner) will stop at that point, and the digest by the joining of the scene in the other part (corner) Make the playback time longer.

  In this way, a predetermined number of scenes from the beginning of each corner, such as digest information 1 in FIG. 25B and digest information 2 in FIG. 25C, according to the set digest playback time length, for example. Are combined as digest playback sections.

  A flowchart of the post-recording process in the case of the seventh other example is shown in FIG. In the flowchart of FIG. 26, the processing from step S81 to step S83 is exactly the same as the processing from step S31 to step S33 in FIG. 15, and from the scene change point detection processing to the scene genre determination unit 15 for each scene. This is the process up to the genre determination process.

  In this seventh other example, when the genre determination result for each scene in the scene genre determination unit 15 is obtained, the special playback section generation unit 17 sets the time length of the digest information to be generated (step S84). ). Next, the special playback section generation unit 17 detects a scene in which a different genre is determined as the scene genre (corresponding to the first scene at each corner), and instructs the scene combination unit 16 to adjoin adjacent scenes of the same genre. Are combined (step S85).

  Then, the special playback section generation unit 17 determines whether or not the total time length (playback time length) of the scene group sections resulting from the scene combination has reached the time length set in step S84 (step S86). If it is determined that the set time length has not been reached, the process returns to step S85, and the process of combining adjacent uncombined scenes of the same genre is continued.

  If it is determined in step S86 that the set time length has been reached, information on the start and end points of the combined scene group sections is sent to the system controller unit 20 as digest information. The system controller unit 20 sends the received digest information to the additional information file generation unit 18 and instructs it to be recorded as an additional information file in association with the information of the recorded broadcast program (step S87).

  Then, the special reproduction section generating unit 17 determines whether or not the generation of digest information for all digest time lengths to be generated has been completed (step S88), and if not completed, the process returns to step S84 and the next digest time is determined. The length is set, and the processes after step S84 are repeated. If it is determined in step S88 that the generation of digest information for all digest time lengths to be generated has been completed, this processing routine ends.

  According to this example, since the section from the beginning of each corner is digest-played, the user knows what corner the broadcast program includes and what the contents of that corner are. Can do.

[Second Embodiment]
In the first embodiment described above, digest information generation processing is performed as post-recording end processing at the time of recording. However, data necessary for digest information generation processing is included in the additional information file to record broadcast programs. By recording on a recording medium in correspondence with the information of the digest information, when a digest playback instruction is given by the user, the digest information is generated, and the digest playback is executed based on the generated digest information. You can also

  The second embodiment is a case where digest information generation processing is performed when a digest reproduction instruction is issued from the user. The recording / reproducing apparatus according to the second embodiment also has the same hardware configuration as that shown in FIG. However, the timing at which the scene genre determining unit 15, the scene combining unit 16, and the special playback section generating unit 17 are activated and the additional information recorded on the recording medium 5 are different from those in the first embodiment.

  In the second embodiment, the activation timing and processing operation of the scene genre determining unit 15, the scene combining unit 16, and the special playback section generating unit 17 vary depending on the data content included and recorded in the additional information file.

[First example of additional information file; scene change point, feature data, keyword group]
In the case of using digest and feature information of video and / or audio information, the additional information file requires feature data detected for each scene. In this first example, in consideration of this, as an additional information file, as shown in FIG. 27, information on a set of scene change points (segment segment (scene)) detected by the scene change point detection unit 12 is used. And feature amount data in each segment section (scene) detected by the feature amount detection unit 11 and a keyword group for each segment section (scene) detected by the keyword detection unit 14.

  Therefore, at the time of recording, the scene genre determination unit 15, the scene combination unit 16, and the special playback section generation unit 17 are not used, and the system controller unit 20 performs the scene change point from the scene change point detection unit 12 during the post-recording process. And the corresponding scene section feature quantity data and the keyword group of each scene section obtained from the keyword detection section 14 are supplied to the additional information file generation section 18 and the information is recorded as an additional information file. It is recorded on the medium 5.

  The recording / reproducing apparatus according to the second embodiment generates digest information prior to the digest reproduction when the user instructs the digest reproduction. Then, digest playback is executed according to the generated digest information. FIG. 28 shows an example of a flowchart of processing at this time.

  That is, when a digest playback request is input to the system controller unit 20 through the user input interface unit 21 based on a user operation, the system controller unit 20 starts processing from the start of FIG. 28 and accepts the digest playback request instruction. (Step S91). The digest reproduction request instruction includes digest time designation information.

  Next, the system controller unit 20 controls the read control unit 10 to read from the recording medium 5 the additional information file of the recorded broadcast program designated for digest reproduction. Then, the system controller unit 20 acquires the read additional information file information through the additional information file detection unit 19 (step S92).

  Next, the system controller unit 20 sends the set of scene change points read from the additional information file and keyword information related to each scene to the scene genre determination unit 15. Under the control of the system controller unit 20, the scene genre determination unit 15 uses the keyword information related to the scene and the genre / keyword correspondence information storage unit 30 to store the genre for each scene. The determination is made as described above (step S93).

  Next, the system controller unit 20 sends information on the genre of each scene determined by the scene genre determining unit 15 to the scene combining unit 16. Under the control of the system controller unit 20, the scene combining unit 16 performs a process of combining adjacent scenes determined to be the same genre as described above (step S94).

  Then, the scene combination unit 16 detects the corners in the broadcast program by scene combination (step S95), and sends the detected start point and end point information and corner genre information for each detected corner to the special playback section generation unit 17.

  The special playback section generation unit 17 performs setting of a feature amount (setting of a digest generation rule) for extraction as digest information according to the genre of each corner (step S96). Then, as described above, the special playback section generation unit 17 refers to the feature data for each scene of the additional information file based on the set feature value so that the designated digest playback time length is obtained. Next, digest information is generated (step S97).

  Next, the system controller unit 20 uses the generated digest information to read out the digest playback section information from the video and audio information of the corresponding recorded broadcast program and execute digest playback (step S98). ).

  Not only the digest information generation method using the feature amount as described above, but also an example of another digest information generation method as described above, focusing on the scene group section combining the same scene genres, also in this example It is possible to apply.

[Second example of additional information file; scene change point, feature data, scene genre]
This second example is an example that should be called a modification of the first example. In this second example, instead of recording a keyword group corresponding to each scene, the scene genre determined for each scene is recorded.

  In this second example, at the time of post-recording processing, a keyword group for each scene is sent to the scene genre determination unit 15, and the scene genre determination using the stored contents of the genre / keyword correspondence information storage unit 30 is performed. The determination unit 15 performs the determination, and supplies the determination result to the additional information file generation unit 18 corresponding to the scene change point information and the feature amount data, and records the information on the recording medium 5 as additional information. Like that.

  Therefore, step S93 in FIG. 28 is not necessary as processing when a digest reproduction request instruction is received, and scene genre information is read from the additional information file and scene combining processing is performed in step S94. The processing of other steps is the same as in the first example.

  Also in this second example, not only digest information generation using feature amounts but also examples of other methods of generating digest information as described above, focusing on scene group sections combining the same scene genres, are applied. Is possible.

[Third example of additional information file; scene change point, keyword]
When feature amount data is not used for generating digest information, it is not necessary to record feature amount data in the additional information file, and the set of scene change points shown in FIG. 7 and the corresponding keyword group are added information. Just include it in the file and record it. The digest playback processing operation in this case is exactly the same as the first example of the additional information file described above except that a digest playback section is generated without using feature amount data.

[Fourth example of additional information file; scene change point, scene genre]
Similarly, when feature amount data is not used to generate digest information, as shown in FIG. 30, a set of scene change points and corresponding scene genre information are included in the additional information file and recorded. Just do it. The digest playback processing operation in this case is exactly the same as that of the second example of the additional information file described above, except that a digest playback section is generated without using feature amount data.

[Fifth example of additional information file; scene group section (corner), corner genre]
In the fifth example, information on the start and end points of scene group sections (corners) combined by the scene combining unit 16 and information on genres (corner genres) of the respective scene group sections are recorded in the additional information file. It is recorded on the medium 5 in association with the information of the recorded broadcast program. FIG. 31 shows an example of recorded data of the additional information file in the case of the fifth example.

  In the fifth example, digest reproduction extracted in units of corners is possible. FIG. 32 shows an example of a flowchart for the corner unit digest reproduction processing in the fifth example.

  That is, when a corner unit digest playback request is input to the system controller unit 20 through the user input interface unit 21 based on a user operation, the system controller unit 20 starts processing from the start of FIG. An instruction is accepted (step S201).

  Next, the system controller unit 20 controls the read control unit 10 to read from the recording medium 5 the additional information file of the recorded broadcast program designated for digest reproduction. Then, the system controller unit 20 acquires the read additional information file information through the additional information file detection unit 19 (step S202).

  Next, the system controller unit 20 displays a list of corner genres that can be digest-reproduced on the display screen of the display unit 24 based on the corner genre information read from the additional information file, and presents it to the user (step S203). ).

  Next, the system controller unit 20 waits for a corner genre selection input from the user, and accepts a selection input from the user (step S204). Then, the system controller 20 passes the received information on the corner genre to the specific playback section generation unit 17.

  The special playback section generation unit 17 detects information of all scene group sections in the same genre corner as the specified corner genre from the additional information file, and generates information of the detected scene group sections as corner unit digest information. (Step S205).

  Next, the system controller unit 20 uses the generated digest information to read out information on the corner unit digest playback section of the video and audio information of the corresponding recorded broadcast program and execute digest playback ( Step S206).

  Thus, according to this example, the user can know the existence of a plurality of corners having different genres in the recorded broadcast program from the corner genre list information, and from the corner genre list, any desired corner genre can be obtained. By selecting, digest reproduction of only the corner can be performed.

[Example of simultaneous digest playback from multiple programs]
In the above description of the second embodiment, digest playback for each recorded broadcast program has been described. However, it is also possible to perform digest playback from a plurality of recorded broadcast programs. In this case, the playback order of the scene group sections from the plurality of recorded broadcast programs extracted as the digest playback sections is set to the order of the relative time from the start time of each broadcast program.

  FIG. 33 shows an example of the outline of digest reproduction in this example. That is, in the example of FIG. 33, when the upper genre of the determined corner genre (the genre of the corner composed of scene groups combined based on the determination result of the scene genre) is the same as the upper genre of the program genre of the broadcast program, Alternatively, when the program genre specified by the user is a higher genre and the higher genre of the determined category genre is the same as the specified genre, the determined corners (scene group) (Section) is an example of extracting as a digest playback section.

  FIG. 33A shows a state in which each corner (scene group section) of the genre “soccer”, the genre “sumo”, and the genre “baseball” for which the upper genre “sport” is equal is extracted for the broadcast program A. Show. Similarly, in FIG. 33B, for broadcast program A, each corner (scene group section) of the genre “soccer”, the genre “sumo”, and the genre “baseball” for which the upper genre “sports” is equal is shown. The extracted state is shown.

  As the digest information, as shown in FIG. 33C, in each broadcast program A and broadcast program B, the time from the beginning of each broadcast program A, B at the beginning of each extracted corner section is recorded. Try to join them side by side in order of speed. Then, digest reproduction is executed in accordance with the generated digest information as shown in FIG.

[Modifications of Embodiment and Other Embodiments]
In the above embodiment, the keyword related to the scene is detected from the text information of closed caption subtitles / superimposed characters. However, subtitles or character superimpositions superimposed in the image by open captioning are detected from the image information. It is also possible to detect the keyword and extract the text information from the detected subtitle or character supertext information to detect the keyword.

  Further, the program audio signal of each scene may be converted into text information by performing voice recognition and character recognition, and a keyword may be detected from the converted text information. In this case, since it is not necessary to detect keywords from the caption / text super information, the present invention is not limited to broadcast program information but also information downloaded from the Internet and information acquired from various recording media. Applicable.

  In the above-described embodiment, the genre stored in the genre / keyword correspondence information storage unit 30 and the related keyword information are the genre information from the genre information detection unit 32, the subtitle / character super detection unit 13, and the keyword. Although it was obtained by learning from the keyword information extracted using the detection unit 14, separately or in addition to this, information on the program genre included in the EPG data and included in the EPG data You may use the keyword extracted from the text data for description of program content.

[Other variations]
The broadcast reception decoding unit 2 of the above embodiment is a case of a digital terrestrial television broadcast reception unit, a terrestrial analog television broadcast reception unit, a satellite digital television broadcast reception unit, a cable television broadcast reception unit, and Internet distribution. The present invention is applicable even to a television broadcast receiving unit.

  In the above-described embodiment, the present invention is applied to the case of recording / reproducing a television broadcast program. However, the present invention is not limited to recording / reproducing a television broadcast program. In addition to recording and reproduction, the present invention can be applied to recording and reproduction of various information signals.

  Further, the scene section divided by the scene change point is not only detected from the feature amount of both the video information and the audio information as in the above-described embodiment, but from the feature amount of only the video information, or the audio It is also possible to detect only from the feature amount of information.

It is a block diagram which shows the hardware structural example of embodiment of the recording / reproducing apparatus by this invention. It is a figure used in order to demonstrate embodiment of the recording / reproducing apparatus by this invention. It is a figure used in order to demonstrate embodiment of the recording / reproducing apparatus by this invention. It is a figure used in order to demonstrate embodiment of the recording / reproducing apparatus by this invention. It is a figure used in order to demonstrate embodiment of the recording / reproducing apparatus by this invention. It is a flowchart for demonstrating the learning process operation | movement regarding the relationship between the genre and a keyword in embodiment of the recording / reproducing apparatus by this invention. It is a figure used in order to demonstrate embodiment of the recording / reproducing apparatus by this invention. It is a figure used in order to demonstrate the example of a processing operation of the principal part in embodiment of the recording / reproducing apparatus by this invention. It is a figure used in order to demonstrate the example of a processing operation of the principal part in embodiment of the recording / reproducing apparatus by this invention. It is a figure used in order to demonstrate the example of a processing operation of the principal part in embodiment of the recording / reproducing apparatus by this invention. It is a figure used in order to demonstrate the example of a processing operation of the principal part in embodiment of the recording / reproducing apparatus by this invention. 7 is a part of a flowchart for explaining an example of a recording / reproducing processing operation in the embodiment of the recording / reproducing apparatus according to the present invention. It is a flowchart for demonstrating the process operation example at the time of the recording in embodiment of the recording / reproducing apparatus by this invention. It is a flowchart for demonstrating the example of keyword detection processing operation in embodiment of the recording / reproducing apparatus by this invention. It is a flowchart for demonstrating the operation example of a post-recording process in embodiment of the recording / reproducing apparatus by this invention. 7 is a part of a flowchart for explaining an example of a recording / reproducing processing operation in the embodiment of the recording / reproducing apparatus according to the present invention; It is a figure used in order to explain other examples of processing operation of the principal part in an embodiment of a recording and reproducing device by this invention. It is a flowchart for demonstrating the processing operation example of FIG. It is a figure used in order to explain other examples of processing operation of the principal part in an embodiment of a recording and reproducing device by this invention. It is a figure used in order to explain other examples of processing operation of the principal part in an embodiment of a recording and reproducing device by this invention. It is a figure used in order to explain other examples of processing operation of the principal part in an embodiment of a recording and reproducing device by this invention. It is a flowchart for demonstrating the processing operation example of FIG. It is a figure used in order to explain other examples of processing operation of the principal part in an embodiment of a recording and reproducing device by this invention. It is a flowchart for demonstrating the processing operation example of FIG. It is a figure used in order to explain other examples of processing operation of the principal part in an embodiment of a recording and reproducing device by this invention. It is a flowchart for demonstrating the processing operation example of FIG. It is a figure which shows the example of the additional information recorded on a recording medium by embodiment of the recording / reproducing apparatus by this invention. It is a flowchart for demonstrating the processing operation example using the additional information of the example of FIG. It is a figure which shows the example of the additional information recorded on a recording medium by embodiment of the recording / reproducing apparatus by this invention. It is a figure which shows the example of the additional information recorded on a recording medium by embodiment of the recording / reproducing apparatus by this invention. It is a figure which shows the example of the additional information recorded on a recording medium by embodiment of the recording / reproducing apparatus by this invention. It is a flowchart for demonstrating the processing operation example using the additional information of the example of FIG. It is a figure used in order to explain other examples of processing operation of the principal part in an embodiment of a recording and reproducing device by this invention.

Explanation of symbols

  2 ... broadcast reception decoding unit, 3 ... recording signal encoding processing unit, 4 ... recording processing unit, 5 ... recording medium, 7 ... reproduction processing unit, 8 ... reproduction decoding output unit, 10 ... read control unit, 11 ... feature quantity detection , 12 ... Scene change point detection unit, 13 ... Subtitle / character super detection unit, 14 ... Keyword detection unit, 15 ... Scene genre determination unit, 16 ... Scene combination unit, 17 ... Special playback section generation unit, 18 ... Additional information File generation unit, 19 ... additional information file detection unit, 20 ... system controller unit, 21 ... user input interface unit, 24 ... display unit, 30 ... genre / keyword correspondence information storage unit, 31 ... genre / keyword correspondence learning unit, 32 ... Genre information detector

Claims (20)

Information signal recording means for recording an information signal on a recording medium;
Reproducing means for reading and reproducing the information signal recorded on the recording medium;
A classification type / keyword correspondence storage unit that stores a classification type of the information signal and a keyword related to the classification type in association with each other;
Delimiter detecting means for detecting delimiters of the information signal recorded on the recording medium and / or the information signal reproduced from the recording medium;
Keyword acquisition means for acquiring a keyword associated with the segment section for each segment section specified by the adjacent one of the sections detected by the section detection means;
A segment segment classification type determination unit that determines the classification type for each segment segment based on the keyword of the segment segment acquired by the keyword acquisition unit and the storage information of the classification type / keyword correspondence storage unit; ,
Segment segment combining means for combining adjacent segment segments with the same classification type determined by the segment interval classification type determining means;
Special reproduction which is a partial section of the information signal extracted from a group of segment sections composed of a plurality of the segment sections combined by the segment section combining means, or a partial section of the information signal including the group of segment sections Special playback section generating means for generating section information;
A recording / reproducing apparatus comprising: The recording / reproducing apparatus according to claim 1,
Means for recording information indicating the recording position on the recording medium in the special reproduction section generated by the special reproduction section generation means in association with the information signal on the recording medium;
Information indicating a recording position on the recording medium in the special reproduction section is read from the recording medium, and an information signal portion of the special reproduction section is recorded on the basis of the read information indicating the recording position on the recording medium. Means for reading from the medium and playing back;
A recording / reproducing apparatus comprising: The recording / reproducing apparatus according to claim 1,
Means for recording the keyword of the segment section acquired by the keyword acquisition means and information indicating a recording position on the recording medium of the corresponding segment section on the recording medium in association with the information signal; ,
The segment segment classification type determining unit reads the keywords of the segment segments from the recording medium, and based on the read keyword and the storage information of the category type / keyword corresponding storage unit, the segment segment A recording / reproducing apparatus characterized by determining the classification type for each. The recording / reproducing apparatus according to claim 1,
The classification type for each of the segment sections determined by the segment section classification type determination unit and the recording position information on the recording medium of each corresponding segment section are recorded in association with the information signal. With means,
The segment segment coupling means reads the classification type for each segment segment from the recording medium and information on the recording position of each corresponding segment segment on the recording medium and is adjacent to the same classification type. The recording / reproducing apparatus characterized by combining the segment sections. The recording / reproducing apparatus according to claim 1,
The special reproduction section generating means generates information on the first and last recording positions on the recording medium of the segment section group consisting of the continuous segment sections combined with the same classification type by the segment section combining means. And
Information on the recording position on the recording medium at the beginning and end of the segment section group generated by the special playback section generation means, and information on the classification type corresponding to each of the segment section group are used as the information signal. A recording / reproducing apparatus comprising: means for recording on the recording medium in association with each other. The recording / reproducing apparatus according to claim 1,
The delimiter detecting means detects a plurality of feature amounts of the recorded information signal and / or reproduced information signal, and detects a delimiter of the information signal using the detected feature amount.
The special playback section generation means is configured to select a segment from a group of segment sections each including the continuous segment sections combined with the same classification type by the segment section combination means according to a classification type corresponding to each of the segment sections. A recording / reproducing apparatus characterized in that a partial information signal section extracted based on the determined feature amount is obtained as the special reproduction section. The recording / reproducing apparatus according to claim 1,
The information signal is a signal obtained by receiving a terrestrial digital television broadcast signal,
The keyword acquisition means is for acquiring a keyword associated with the segment section from information transmitted by being included in the broadcast signal,
Means for acquiring information on a classification type of a broadcast program being broadcast or scheduled to be broadcast included in the broadcast signal;
Learning means for learning a correspondence relationship between the keyword and the classification type by associating the keyword acquired by the keyword acquisition means with the classification type of the broadcast program;
A recording / reproducing apparatus comprising: means for updating storage contents of the classification type / keyword correspondence storage unit based on a correspondence relationship between the classification type and the keyword learned by the learning unit. The recording / reproducing apparatus according to claim 1,
The information signal is a reception signal of a television broadcast signal,
The said keyword acquisition means extracts the said keyword from the closed caption subtitles and text data of superimpose contained in the said television broadcast signal. The recording / reproducing apparatus characterized by the above-mentioned. The recording / reproducing apparatus according to claim 1,
The information signal is a reception signal of a television broadcast signal,
The said keyword acquisition means extracts character text data from the information of the open caption subtitles and character superimpose contained in the said television broadcast signal, The said keyword is extracted. The recording / reproducing apparatus characterized by the above-mentioned. The recording / reproducing apparatus according to claim 1,
The information signal is a reception signal of a television broadcast signal,
The keyword acquisition means recognizes an audio signal of the television broadcast signal, extracts character text data, and extracts the keyword. Information signal recording means for recording an information signal on a recording medium;
A classification type / keyword correspondence storage unit that stores a classification type of the information signal and a keyword related to the classification type in association with each other;
Delimiter detecting means for detecting delimiters of the information signal to be recorded;
Keyword acquisition means for acquiring a keyword associated with the segment section for each segment section specified by the adjacent one of the sections detected by the section detection means;
A segment segment classification type determination unit that determines the classification type for each segment segment based on the keyword of the segment segment acquired by the keyword acquisition unit and the storage information of the classification type / keyword correspondence storage unit; ,
Segment segment combining means for combining adjacent segment segments with the same classification type determined by the segment interval classification type determining means;
Special reproduction which is a partial section of the information signal extracted from a group of segment sections composed of a plurality of the segment sections combined by the segment section combining means, or a partial section of the information signal including the group of segment sections Special playback section generating means for generating section information;
Means for recording information indicating the recording position on the recording medium in the special reproduction section generated by the special reproduction section generation means in association with the information signal on the recording medium;
A recording apparatus comprising: Information signal recording means for recording an information signal on a recording medium;
A classification type / keyword correspondence storage unit that stores a classification type of the information signal and a keyword related to the classification type in association with each other;
Delimiter detecting means for detecting delimiters of the information signal to be recorded;
Keyword acquisition means for acquiring a keyword associated with the segment section for each segment section specified by the adjacent one of the sections detected by the section detection means;
A segment segment classification type determination unit that determines the classification type for each segment segment based on the keyword of the segment segment acquired by the keyword acquisition unit and the storage information of the classification type / keyword correspondence storage unit; ,
Segment segment combining means for combining adjacent segment segments with the same classification type determined by the segment interval classification type determining means;
Special reproduction section generation means for generating information on the first and last recording positions on the recording medium of a group of segment sections composed of a plurality of consecutive segment sections combined with the same classification type by the segment section combination means When,
Information on the recording position on the recording medium at the beginning and end of the segment section group generated by the special playback section generation means, and information on the classification type corresponding to each of the segment section group are used as the information signal. Means for recording in association with the recording medium;
A recording apparatus comprising: Reproducing means for reading and reproducing the information signal recorded on the recording medium;
A classification type / keyword correspondence storage unit that stores a classification type of the information signal and a keyword related to the classification type in association with each other;
Delimiter detecting means for detecting a delimiter of the information signal reproduced from the recording medium;
Keyword acquisition means for acquiring a keyword associated with the segment section for each segment section specified by the adjacent one of the sections detected by the section detection means;
Based on the keyword for each segment section acquired by the keyword acquisition means and the storage information of the classification type / keyword corresponding storage unit, the segment section classification type determination means for determining the classification type for each segment section When,
Segment segment combining means for combining adjacent segment segments with the same classification type determined by the segment interval classification type determining means;
Special reproduction which is a partial section of the information signal extracted from a group of segment sections composed of a plurality of the segment sections combined by the segment section combining means, or a partial section of the information signal including the group of segment sections Special playback section generating means for generating a section;
Means for reading out and reproducing the information signal of the special reproduction section generated by the special reproduction section generation means from the recording medium;
A playback apparatus comprising: Read the information signal recorded on the recording medium in which the information signal, the position information of the segment section specified by the adjacent one of the information signal delimiters, and the keyword associated with each of the segment sections are recorded Playback means for playback,
A classification type / keyword correspondence storage unit that stores a classification type of the information signal and a keyword related to the classification type in association with each other;
Segment segment classification type determination means for determining the classification type for each segment segment based on the keyword read for each segment segment read from the recording medium and the storage information of the classification type / keyword correspondence storage unit When,
Segment segment combining means for combining adjacent segment segments with the same classification type determined by the segment interval classification type determining means;
Special reproduction which is a partial section of the information signal extracted from a group of segment sections composed of a plurality of the segment sections combined by the segment section combining means, or a partial section of the information signal including the group of segment sections Special playback section generating means for generating a section;
Means for reading out and reproducing the information signal of the special reproduction section generated by the special reproduction section generation means from the recording medium;
A playback apparatus comprising: An information signal recorded on a recording medium on which information signals, position information of segment segments specified by adjacent ones of the information signal delimiters, and classification types associated with the segment segments are recorded. Reproducing means for reading and reproducing;
Segment segment combining means for combining adjacent segment segments that are read from the recording medium and that have the same classification type associated with each of the segment segments;
Special reproduction which is a partial section of the information signal extracted from a group of segment sections composed of a plurality of the segment sections combined by the segment section combining means, or a partial section of the information signal including the group of segment sections Special playback section generating means for generating a section;
Means for reading out and reproducing the information signal of the special reproduction section generated by the special reproduction section generation means from the recording medium;
A playback apparatus comprising: An information signal recording step of recording an information signal on a recording medium;
A reproduction step of reading and reproducing the information signal recorded on the recording medium;
A delimiter detecting step for detecting a delimiter between an information signal to be recorded on the recording medium and / or an information signal reproduced from the recording medium;
A keyword acquisition step of acquiring a keyword associated with the segment section for each segment section specified by the adjacent ones of the sections detected in the section detection step;
The stored information of the classification type / keyword correspondence storage unit in which the classification type of the information signal and the keyword related to the classification type are stored in association with each other, and the keyword of the segment section acquired in the keyword acquisition step Based on the above, a segment section classification type determination step for determining the classification type for each segment section,
A segment segment combining step for combining adjacent segment segments with the same classification type determined in the segment category classification determination step;
Special reproduction that is a partial section of the information signal extracted from a group of segment sections composed of the plurality of segment sections combined in the segment section combining step, or a partial section of the information signal including the group of segment sections A special playback section generating step for generating section information;
A recording / reproducing method comprising: An information signal recording step of recording an information signal on a recording medium;
A delimiter detecting step for detecting a delimiter of the information signal to be recorded;
A keyword acquisition step of acquiring a keyword associated with the segment section for each segment section specified by the adjacent ones of the sections detected in the section detection step;
The stored information of the classification type / keyword correspondence storage unit in which the classification type of the information signal and the keyword related to the classification type are stored in association with each other, and the keyword of the segment section acquired in the keyword acquisition step Based on the above, a segment section classification type determination step for determining the classification type for each segment section,
A segment segment combining step for combining adjacent segment segments with the same classification type determined in the segment category classification determination step;
Special reproduction that is a partial section of the information signal extracted from a group of segment sections composed of the plurality of segment sections combined in the segment section combining step, or a partial section of the information signal including the group of segment sections A special playback section generating step for generating section information;
Recording the information indicating the recording position on the recording medium in the special reproduction section generated in the special reproduction section generation step in association with the information signal on the recording medium;
A recording method comprising: A reproduction step of reading and reproducing the information signal recorded on the recording medium;
A delimiter detecting step of detecting a delimiter of the reproduced information signal;
A keyword acquisition step of acquiring a keyword associated with the segment section for each segment section specified by the adjacent ones of the sections detected in the section detection step;
The storage information of the classification type / keyword correspondence storage unit that stores the classification type of the information signal and the keyword related to the classification type in association with each other, and the keyword for each segment section acquired in the keyword acquisition step. Based on the segment category classification step for determining the category type for each segment segment,
A segment segment combining step for combining adjacent segment segments with the same classification type determined in the segment category classification determination step;
Special reproduction that is a partial section of the information signal extracted from a group of segment sections composed of the plurality of segment sections combined in the segment section combining step, or a partial section of the information signal including the group of segment sections A special playback section generating step for generating a section;
A step of reading out and reproducing the information signal of the special reproduction section generated in the special reproduction section generation step from the recording medium;
A playback method comprising: Read the information signal recorded on the recording medium in which the information signal, the position information of the segment section specified by the adjacent one of the information signal delimiters, and the keyword associated with each of the segment sections are recorded Playback method,
Storage information of a classification type / keyword correspondence storage unit that stores the keyword for each segment section read from the recording medium, the classification type of the information signal, and the keyword related to the classification type in association with each other. Based on the segment segment classification type determination step for determining the classification type for each segment section,
A segment segment combining step for combining adjacent segment segments with the same classification type determined in the segment category classification determination step;
Special reproduction that is a partial section of the information signal extracted from a group of segment sections composed of the plurality of segment sections combined in the segment section combining step, or a partial section of the information signal including the group of segment sections A special playback section generating step for generating a section;
A step of reading out and reproducing the information signal of the special reproduction section generated in the special reproduction section generation step from the recording medium;
A playback method comprising: An information signal recorded on a recording medium on which information signals, position information of segment segments specified by adjacent ones of the information signal delimiters, and classification types associated with the segment segments are recorded. A playback method for reading and playing,
A segment segment combining step of combining adjacent segment segments that are read from the recording medium and that have the same classification type associated with each of the segment segments;
Special reproduction that is a partial section of the information signal extracted from a group of segment sections composed of the plurality of segment sections combined in the segment section combining step, or a partial section of the information signal including the group of segment sections A special playback section generating step for generating a section;
A step of reading out and reproducing the information signal of the special reproduction section generated in the special reproduction section generation step from the recording medium;
A playback method comprising:

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