JP2007323268A - Video providing device - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a video providing device for retrieving and providing a video based on the motion of a user. <P>SOLUTION: A video providing device 300 provides a motion video corresponding to a physical motion showing a specific concept. The video providing device 300 is provided with a video storage part for storing a plurality of motion videos and characteristic data characterizing each motion video; a user characteristic data acquisition part for acquiring the characteristic data from the physical motion of a user; and a video acquisition part for comparing the characteristic data acquired by the user characteristic data acquisition part with the characteristic data stored in the video storage part, and for acquiring a motion video similar to the physical motion of the user from the video storage part. The user characteristic data acquisition part may use an averaged image 360Im generated by averaging the respective pixel values of each of a plurality of static images extracted from one motion video as characteristic data. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2008,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a video providing apparatus, and more particularly, to a video providing apparatus that searches and provides a video from a database.

  For example, a search device that searches a database in which a plurality of videos are stored for videos including actions having specific meanings associated with words, sentences, and symbols, such as sign language, is used for learning purposes. ing. Conventionally, such a search device, for example, requires a task of selecting and narrowing the classification of hand positions, hand shapes, and the like from the displayed candidates by a button or a mouse as needed. (For example, Patent Document 1).

JP 2000-3127 A

  However, as described above, the search method for selecting the action classification requires that the user grasps the information of the video to be searched accurately to some extent. In addition, there is a problem that it is difficult to dynamically change a search key called a dynamic search and a search result.

  Therefore, the present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide a new and improved video that can be searched for and provided based on a user's operation. It is to provide a providing device.

  In order to solve the above-described problems, according to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided an image providing apparatus that provides an operation image corresponding to a body motion representing a specific concept. Such a video providing device includes a video storage unit that stores a plurality of motion videos and feature data that characterizes each motion video, a user feature data acquisition unit that acquires feature data from a user's body motion, and a user feature data acquisition unit. A video search unit that compares the acquired feature data with the feature data stored in the video storage unit and acquires a motion video similar to the motion of the user's body from the video storage unit is provided.

  According to the present invention, the video providing apparatus includes a video storage unit that stores a plurality of motion images and feature data that characterizes the motion images. On the other hand, the video providing apparatus acquires, from the action performed by the user, feature data characterizing the action in the same format as the feature data of the action video stored in the video storage unit. Then, the video providing device compares the feature data stored in the video storage unit with the feature data acquired from the user's motion, and acquires the motion video corresponding to the feature data determined to be similar. As a result, it is possible to obtain a desired motion image from the user's motion without using a button or a mouse.

  Here, the user feature data acquisition unit acquires a plurality of still images at predetermined time intervals from one motion image, and the position of a specific part of the body (for example, a hand) in the still images from the acquired plurality of still images. May be extracted as feature data. Furthermore, the user feature data acquisition unit can also extract the shape of a specific part of the body (for example, a hand) as feature data from a plurality of acquired still images. That is, in this case, a change in the position or shape of a specific part of the body that changes with the passage of time is acquired as feature data at predetermined time intervals, thereby grasping the change in movement as data.

  In addition, the user feature data acquisition unit may include a video acquisition unit that acquires the motion of the user's body as a video, and a feature data extraction unit that extracts feature data that characterizes the motion of the user's body from the acquired video. . That is, it is possible to acquire an image by photographing an operating user with the image acquisition unit, and extract feature data from the image. Alternatively, the user feature data acquisition unit may include a wearable input / output device, for example, a data glove, that can acquire feature data that characterizes the movement of the user's body when worn by the user. If such an apparatus is used, it is possible to acquire feature data directly without processing the data.

  The video search unit can perform similarity determination between the feature data acquired by the user feature data acquisition unit and the feature data stored in the video storage unit using, for example, DP matching.

  The user feature data acquisition unit can also create and acquire one still image from one motion video as the feature data. In this case, the user feature data acquisition unit includes a video acquisition unit that acquires the motion of the user's body as a video, and a video processing unit that creates a still image from the video acquired by the video acquisition unit. The video search unit compares the still image created by the video processing unit with the still image stored in the video storage unit, and acquires an operation video similar to the motion of the user's body from the video storage unit.

  Here, the video processing unit extracts a plurality of still images from one video acquired by the video acquisition unit, averages pixel values for each pixel of the extracted still images, and calculates an average pixel value. It is possible to create one averaged image from the calculated average pixel value of each pixel. That is, in this case, a change in movement is grasped as data by creating one still image in which the change in position and shape of a specific part of the body that changes with the passage of time is convoluted with time.

  The video providing apparatus may further include an image recognition unit that recognizes a region where a specific part of the user's body is located from the video acquired by the video acquisition unit. When the video storage unit classifies and stores the motion video according to the region where the specific part of the human body in the motion video is located, the image recognition unit stores the motion video in the video storage unit based on the recognized region. Of the motion pictures that have been processed, only motion pictures that belong to a specific category are determined as search targets. In other words, by roughly classifying the information stored in the storage unit to be searched, it is possible to exclude from the search target motion video that is significantly different from the user's motion, so that the search process can be speeded up. Become.

  In addition, the video search unit can perform similarity determination between the feature data acquired by the user feature data acquisition unit and the feature data stored in the video storage unit by, for example, pattern matching processing. Specifically, for example, a method such as a difference sum method or a normalized correlation method can be used.

  Furthermore, the video providing device further includes a video display unit capable of displaying at least one of the user's body motion acquired by the user feature data acquisition unit or the motion video acquired by the video acquisition unit. Can be provided. The video display unit may be provided with an operation time display unit that indicates a time during which the user performs an operation.

  The video providing apparatus according to the present invention may further include a control unit that controls display of video on the video display unit in accordance with the feature data acquired by the user feature data acquisition unit. For example, when the position of the hand of the body is acquired as the feature data of the user, and when it is determined that the position of the hand is located in a specific area of the image display unit, the control unit issues a control command for enlarging the image to be displayed, for example. Send to the video display. As described above, the control unit controls the display of the video display unit according to the feature data of the user.

  The motion video applied to such a video providing device can be, for example, a sign language expressing a specific meaning. At this time, an image representing one or more sign language words may be displayed on the display unit. Since sign language conveys the meaning by the movement of the body, it is suitable for application to the video providing apparatus of the present invention in that search, screen operation, etc. can be performed without interrupting the movement.

  As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to provide a video providing apparatus capable of searching and providing a video based on a user's operation.

  Exemplary embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. In addition, in this specification and drawing, about the component which has the substantially same function structure, duplication description is abbreviate | omitted by attaching | subjecting the same code | symbol.

  In the following embodiments, application examples to an apparatus that searches a database for a sign language action similar to an action performed by a user, which is assumed to be used for learning sign language, will be described.

(First embodiment)
First, a video providing apparatus according to the first embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. Here, FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of the video providing apparatus 100 according to the present embodiment. FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram for explaining hand position information. FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram illustrating an example of information stored in the search information database 160. FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram for explaining the shape of the hand.

  As shown in FIG. 1, a video providing apparatus 100 according to the present embodiment includes a video acquisition unit 110, an image processing unit 120, an image recognition unit 130, an information search unit 140, a video display unit 150, and search information. A database 160 and a video database 170 are provided. Reference numeral 10 denotes a user who performs video search.

  The video acquisition unit 110 is a functional unit that captures a motion of the user 10 and acquires a motion video. For example, a camera can be used. The video acquisition unit 110 can operate according to instructions input from the outside, and can change shooting conditions such as orientation, zoom operation, pan / tilt operation, and the like. The video acquired by the video acquisition unit 110 is transmitted to the image processing unit 120. Depending on the configuration of the video providing apparatus 100, one or more video acquisition units 110 can be provided.

  The image processing unit 120 is a functional unit that acquires a still image from the video acquired by the video acquisition unit 110 and performs image processing on the acquired still image. The still image acquired by the image processing unit 120 is transmitted to the image recognition unit 130.

The image recognition unit 130 is a functional unit that extracts feature data from the still image acquired by the image processing unit 120. The feature data in the present embodiment includes the position of the center of gravity of the user 10 in the still image, the position of the hand, the shape of the hand, and the like. For example, the position of the center of gravity and the position of the hand of the user 10 are expressed in two-dimensional coordinates using the screen on which the user 10 is displayed as an xy coordinate system with the lower left of FIG. 2 being the origin (0, 0). It can show by the value represented by. For example, as shown in FIG. 2, the gravity center position of the user 10 is the gravity center position G (X _G , Y _G ) of the body area of the user 10, and the hand position is the left and right gravity center positions of the right hand area and the left hand area. hand position _{P R (X R, Y R} ), P L (X L, Y L) may be. The feature data acquired by the image recognition unit 130 is transmitted to the information search unit 140.

  The information search unit 140 is a functional unit that searches for an operation video similar to the operation of the user 10. The information search unit 140 accumulates the feature data received from the image recognition unit 130 for a predetermined time corresponding to the time of one motion video, and stores the video ID of the motion video corresponding to the stored feature data from the search information database 160. get. A search information database 160, which will be described later, stores a unique video ID assigned to an operation video, feature data extracted in advance from the operation video for search, and the like. The video ID of the motion video similar to the motion of the user 10 is stored in the search data database 160 and the feature data of the user 10 acquired by the image recognition unit 130 using an existing method such as DP (Dynamic Programming) matching. A search can be made by comparing the stored feature data. At this time, one or more video IDs are acquired from the search information database 160. Further, when a plurality of video IDs are acquired, for example, based on the similarity set to a predetermined value or the like, it is possible to order the motion videos to be presented to the user 10.

  The video display unit 150 is a functional unit that displays video, and for example, a display or the like can be used. The video display unit 150 displays a video of the operation of the user 10 acquired by the video acquisition unit 110, an operation video corresponding to the video ID acquired by the information search unit 140, and the like.

  The search information database 160 is a storage unit that stores data used for video ID search by the information search unit 140, and includes, for example, a memory such as a RAM or a hard disk. The search information database 160 includes at least a video ID associated with the motion video stored in the video database 170 and data that can be compared with the feature data indicating the motion of the user 10 used by the information search unit 140 for the search. It is remembered. Here, the “data that can be compared with the feature data indicating the operation of the user 10” is the feature extracted from the video stored in the video database 170 in the same format as the feature data of the video of the user 10 operation. Data. For example, in the case of sign language, the position of the hand and the shape of the hand at regular intervals in the motion video are stored as numerical values.

  The search information database 160 stores, for example, a video ID 161, a Japanese label 162, a file name 163, feature data 164, etc., as shown in FIG. The video ID 161 is a unique symbol associated with the motion video stored in the video database 170. The Japanese label 162 is a character string provided for facilitating understanding of the content indicated by the motion video, and as a part of the search result when the retrieved motion video is displayed on the video display unit 150. It can also be displayed. The file name 163 indicates the file name of the operation video.

  The feature data 164 is data for a certain period of time extracted from the motion video, and stores, for example, the position and shape of the hand for each left and right hand at regular intervals. Here, the “hand position” is a hand position represented by a position on a two-dimensional coordinate as described above with reference to FIG. Further, the “hand shape” refers to a hand shape expressed by stretching or bending a finger. FIG. 4 shows an example in which hand shapes and symbols are associated with each other. For example, in the case of normal sign language, there are about 80 types of hand shapes. For example, the shape in which the hand is grasped can be made to correspond to a shape in which the thumb is opened from the state of 0, 0, 10 and a shape in which the forefinger and middle finger are opened and inclined forward at a substantially right angle is 65.

  The video database 170 is a storage unit that stores an operation video associated with the video ID acquired by the information search unit 140, and includes a memory such as a RAM or a hard disk. The video database 170 stores, for example, a video ID, an operation video, and the like. The operation video stored in the video database 170 is a video presented to the user 10 through the video display unit 150 as a search result.

  In the search using the video providing apparatus 100 having such a configuration, for example, as illustrated in FIG. 5, an image 155 indicating the operation of the user 10 acquired by the video acquisition unit 110 and the information search unit 140 are displayed on the video display unit 150. By displaying the operation video 157 acquired by the search, it is possible to present the search result to the user 10. Next, operation video search processing by the video providing apparatus 100 will be described with reference to FIGS. 6 and 7. FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing the initial setting process. FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing operation video search processing by the video providing apparatus 100.

<1. Initial setting processing>
The initial setting of the video providing apparatus 100 is a process performed to optimize the quality of the video output from the video acquisition unit 110, and the search accuracy can be improved by such a process. In the initial setting of the video providing apparatus 100, as shown in FIG. 6, first, feature data is extracted and held for an initial setting template image (hereinafter referred to as “template image”) by the image recognition unit 130. (S101) The template image is a still image obtained by capturing the same posture as the one instructed to the user 10 under the optimal shooting conditions. That is, in step S101, for example, the hand position and hand shape of the template image are recognized.

  Next, the user 10 is instructed to take the same posture as the template image, and the posture of the user 10 is photographed by the video acquisition unit 110 (S103). In step S103, the template 10 is displayed on the video display unit 150, whereby the user 10 can be prompted to operate. Further, it is desirable that the user 10 does not change the posture until the initial setting is completed, for example.

  Further, the image processing unit 120 acquires one image from the video acquired by the video acquisition unit 110 (S105). The acquired image can be, for example, an image at an intermediate point in the video imaging time. The image acquired by the image processing unit 120 is transmitted to the image recognition unit 130.

  Thereafter, feature data is extracted from the still image acquired by the image processing unit 120 (S107). The feature data extracted in step S107 can be, for example, information related to the hand position and hand shape, similar to the feature data of the template image extracted in step S101. The position of the hand can be expressed as a numerical value by a coordinate value in the xy coordinates of the video, and the shape of the hand can be expressed by a symbol associated with each shape. Then, the feature data relating to the user's posture is compared with the feature data of the template image, and the setting of the video providing device 100 is adjusted.

  First, in the image obtained from the video acquired by the video imaging unit 110, it is determined whether or not the user is at the center position of the image (S109). If it is determined in step S109 that the user is at the center position of the image, the process proceeds to step S111. On the other hand, when it is determined that the user is out of the center position of the image, the video acquisition unit 110 is adjusted (S113). In this case, for example, adjustment such as rotating the video acquisition unit 110 in a direction opposite to the direction in which the user deviates from the center position of the image is performed. When the adjustment process in step S113 is completed, the process of step S105 is executed again.

  Next, it is determined whether or not the size of the user in the video is appropriate in the video acquired by the video imaging unit 110 (S111). If it is determined in step S111 that the size of the user in the video is appropriate, the initial process is terminated. On the other hand, when it is determined that the size of the user in the video is too large or too small, the video acquisition unit 110 is adjusted (S113). In this case, for example, adjustment such as zoom adjustment of the video acquisition unit 110 is performed. When the adjustment process in step S113 is completed, the process of step S105 is executed again.

  By performing the above processing, the video acquisition unit 110 is finally set so that the photographed user can acquire a video displayed at an appropriate size at the center position of the screen.

  The initial processing of the video providing apparatus 100 has been described above. In the initial processing, a still image is acquired from the video acquired from the video acquisition unit 110, and recognition processing for extracting feature data from the acquired still image is performed. Then, it is possible to improve the quality of the video output from the video acquisition unit 110 by transmitting an instruction for correcting the shooting situation to the video acquisition unit 110 based on the recognition processing result.

  Note that the initial setting method is not limited to the method described above. For example, the feature data of the video acquired by the template image or the video acquisition unit 110 is not related to the entire video but may be data related to a part of the video. Further, the video feature data acquired by the video acquisition unit 110 may be data relating to a part of the video, data developed in the frequency domain, data obtained by acquiring mosaic processing or intermediate values to reduce the number of pixels of the image, or these Data obtained by processing the data may be used.

<2. Operation video search processing>
Next, operation video search processing in the video providing apparatus 100 according to the present embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. First, the user's action is acquired as an image by the image acquisition unit 110 (S115). The video acquired by the video acquisition unit 110 is transmitted to the image processing unit 120.

  Next, the image processing unit 120 acquires a still image from the video received from the video acquisition unit 110 (S117). For example, the image processing unit 120 acquires a plurality of still images from a single video every predetermined time. The plurality of still images acquired in this way are transmitted to the image recognition unit 130.

  Further, the image recognition unit 130 acquires feature data for each of the plurality of images received from the image processing unit 120 (S119). In step S119, information for use in searching for an action video similar to the user's action is acquired by comparing with the feature data of the action video stored in the search information database 160. In the present embodiment, information such as the positions of the left and right hands of the user and the shape of the hand is acquired. The acquired feature data is transmitted from the image recognition unit 130 to the information search unit 140.

  Thereafter, the information search unit 140 acquires the video ID of the motion video including the operation content similar to the user's operation from the search information database 160 based on the feature data acquired by the image recognition unit 130 (S121). The information search unit 140 first accumulates feature data acquired by the image recognition unit 130 for a certain period of time. Then, the accumulated feature data is compared with the feature data stored in the search information database 160.

  Specifically, for example, DP matching can be used. Here, DP matching is a technique widely used in the field of pattern recognition, such as voice recognition. For example, the similarity between two time series patterns having different series lengths given by time series data can be obtained. When used for recognition, the input time-series pattern and the comparison target time-series pattern to be recognized are subjected to possible matching and similarity calculation under constraints such as time. The distance between the input pattern and the comparison pattern is calculated by accumulating the similarity at each time point within the specified time range, and the distance between the input pattern and all the data patterns to be recognized is calculated. The data indicating the distance is taken as the recognition result. This calculation is called DP matching because it can be solved efficiently by using dynamic programming.

  As a result, the video ID of the motion video having data having high similarity to the feature data indicating the user's motion is acquired. The number of acquired video IDs may be 1 or 2 or more, and may be set in advance or may indicate a video with a predetermined similarity or higher. The acquired video ID is transmitted to the video display unit 150. At this time, a Japanese label and a video file name may be transmitted together with the video ID.

  Next, the video display unit 150 acquires an operation video associated with the video ID from the video database 170 based on the video ID acquired by the information search unit 140 (S123). Then, the acquired video is displayed on the video display unit 150 (S125). At this time, if the video display unit 150 also receives a Japanese label from the information search unit 140, the Japanese label may be displayed on the video display unit 150. In this way, the search result can be presented to the user.

  The information providing apparatus 100 according to the first embodiment has been described above. According to the present embodiment, the operation of the user 10 is input as search information by the video acquisition unit 110 such as a camera without explicitly selecting the position and shape of the hand using an input device such as a mouse. Thus, an operation video having an operation content similar to the operation of the user 10 can be easily searched and provided to the user 10.

(Second Embodiment)
Next, an image providing apparatus according to the second embodiment of the present invention will be described based on FIGS. 8 and 9. FIG. 8 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the video providing apparatus 200 according to the present embodiment. FIG. 9 is a flowchart showing video search processing according to the present embodiment.

  The video providing apparatus 200 according to the present embodiment includes a user information acquisition unit 210, an information search unit 220, a video display unit 230, a search information database 240, and a video database 250. The video providing apparatus 200 according to the present embodiment is different from the first embodiment in that a user information acquisition unit 210 for acquiring the operation of the user 10 is provided instead of the video acquisition unit 110. In addition, the code | symbol 20 in FIG. 8 represents the user's 10 hand.

  The user information acquisition unit 210 is a functional unit that acquires information (feature data) indicating the operation of the user 10 by a method other than video. For example, a data glove (glove-like input / output device) or the like can be used. For example, the user 10 can directly acquire information on the hand such as the position information of the hand and the shape of the hand used as the feature data by operating with the data glove attached to the hand 20. For this reason, it is not necessary to perform image processing by the image processing unit 120 and feature data acquisition processing by the image recognition unit 130 as in the first embodiment. The feature data acquired by the user information acquisition unit 210 is transmitted to the information search unit 220.

  The information search unit 220, the video display unit 230, the search information database 240, and the video database 250 correspond to the information search unit 140, the video display unit 150, the search information database 160, and the video database 170 according to the first embodiment, respectively. And since it has the same function, the description is abbreviate | omitted here.

  Next, operation video search processing by the video providing apparatus 200 according to the present embodiment will be described. Note that detailed description of the same processing as that of the first embodiment is omitted.

<Operation video search processing>
First, as shown in FIG. 9, the user information is acquired by the user information acquisition unit 210 (S201). By operating the user 10 wearing a user information acquisition unit 210 such as a data glove, for example, information regarding the position and shape of the hand of the user 10 is acquired as feature data at regular intervals. The feature data acquired by the user information acquisition unit 210 is transmitted to the information search unit 220. The initial setting process of the user information acquisition unit 210 may be performed as necessary.

  Next, based on the feature data acquired by the user information acquisition unit 210, the information search unit 220 acquires a video ID of an operation video including operation content similar to the user's operation from the search information database 240 (S203). First, the information search unit 220 accumulates feature data acquired by the user information acquisition unit 210 for a certain period of time. Then, the accumulated feature data is compared with the feature data stored in the search information database 240. Specifically, for example, DP matching can be used. The number of acquired video IDs may be 1 or 2 or more, and may be set in advance or may indicate a video with a predetermined similarity or higher. The acquired video ID is transmitted to the video display unit 230. At this time, a Japanese label and a video file name may be transmitted together with the video ID.

  Further, the video display unit 230 acquires an operation video associated with the video ID from the video database 250 based on the video ID acquired by the information search unit 220 (S205). The acquired video is displayed on the video display unit 230 (S207). At this time, when the video display unit 230 also receives a Japanese label from the information search unit 220, the Japanese label may be displayed on the video display unit 230. In this way, the search result can be presented to the user.

  Heretofore, the information providing apparatus 200 according to the second embodiment has been described. According to the present embodiment, feature data indicating the operation of the user 10 is input as search information by the user information acquisition unit 210 without explicitly selecting the position or shape of the hand using an input device such as a mouse. By doing this, it is possible to easily search for an operation video having an operation content similar to the operation of the user 10 and provide it to the user 10.

  Furthermore, the information providing apparatus 200 according to the present embodiment directly acquires the feature data indicating the user's operation by the user information acquisition unit 210, not from the video, as compared with the first embodiment. That is, the video provided to the user acquired from the search information database may vary depending on the accuracy of the image processing, the position of the hand during image recognition, and the accuracy of the hand shape extraction processing as in the first embodiment. There is. On the other hand, in the present embodiment, it is possible to acquire feature data indicating a user's action with a certain accuracy without depending on the accuracy of image processing and image recognition. For this reason, for example, even when it is difficult to accurately extract the user's position information or the like from the video because the user's background is too complex, feature data indicating the user's operation is performed without performing image processing or the like. Since it can be acquired, the search process can be performed with high accuracy.

(Third embodiment)
Next, an image providing apparatus 300 according to the third embodiment will be described with reference to FIGS. Here, FIG. 10 is a block diagram showing a configuration of the video providing apparatus 300 according to the present embodiment. FIG. 11 is a flowchart showing a method for generating an averaged image. FIG. 12 is an explanatory diagram for explaining a method of generating an averaged image. FIG. 13 is a flowchart showing the operation video search processing by the video providing apparatus 300 according to the present embodiment.

  As shown in FIG. 10, the video providing apparatus 300 according to the present embodiment includes a video acquisition unit 310, a video processing unit 320, an image search unit 330, a video display unit 340, an averaged image database 350, and a video. A database 360. The video acquisition unit 310, the image search unit 330, the video display unit 340, and the video database 360 correspond to the video acquisition unit 110, the information search unit 140, the video display unit 150, and the video database 170 according to the first embodiment, respectively. is doing. For this reason, the detailed description of the same function is omitted.

  The video processing unit 320 is a functional unit that performs processing on the video acquired by the video acquisition unit 310 and creates an image in a format used for the search processing performed by the image search unit 330. The video processing unit 320 of the present embodiment creates an averaged image described later from the video acquired by the video acquisition unit 310 and transmits it to the image search unit 330 as feature data for searching for the averaged image.

  The video display unit 340 is a functional unit that displays video, and for example, a display or the like can be used. As shown in FIG. 5, the video display unit 340 displays the video of the operation of the user 10 acquired by the video acquisition unit 310, the operation video corresponding to the video ID acquired by the image search unit 330, and the like. An operation time instruction unit 153 that instructs the user 10 to perform an operation can be provided. The operation time instruction unit 153 can be realized by, for example, filling the area of the operation time instruction unit 153 with the passage of time or moving the bar to indicate the passage of time. As described above, by instructing the user 10 to perform an operation, it is possible to determine the start portion and the end portion of the operation acquired by the video acquisition unit 310.

  The averaged image database 350 is a storage unit that stores an averaged image created from an operation video stored in the video database 360 by an averaged image creation method described later. The averaged image is stored in association with the video ID associated with the motion video, as is the case with the motion video stored in the video database 360. Further, Japanese labels may be stored in association with the averaged image.

  Such a video providing apparatus 300 includes an averaged image created by processing the video acquired by the video acquisition unit 310 by the video processing unit 320 and an averaged image created for each operation video in the video database 360. Based on the comparison result, an operation image having operation contents similar to the operation of the user 10 is acquired from the image database 360. Therefore, the averaged image creation process and the operation video search process by the video providing apparatus 300 will be described in detail below.

<1. Averaging image creation process>
In the present embodiment, the averaged image refers to a still image created by averaging the coordinate values at each time of still images constituting a video. In the averaged image creation process, first, the video processing unit 320 acquires a plurality of still images from the video acquired by the video acquisition unit 310 (S3091). For example, it is assumed that there is an image 350 obtained by shooting one operation as shown in FIG. The video processing unit 320 extracts a still image at each time from the video 350 and performs a process of removing the background of each extracted still image. Each still image from which the background has been removed is represented by 350 Im (_1 to _N, N is a positive integer) in FIG.

  Next, the pixel values at the same coordinates in each still image 350Im are averaged (S3093). If the pixel values at the same coordinates of each still image 350Im in FIG. 12 are represented by P (x, y) (_1 to _N, N is a positive integer), the average of these pixel values (hereinafter referred to as “average pixel value”). Is expressed by the following Equation 1.

このように、静止画像３５０Ｉｍを構成する各画素について、平均画素値を算出する。

Thus, the average pixel value is calculated for each pixel constituting the still image 350Im.

  Thereafter, an averaged image 360Im is created from the average pixel value in each pixel calculated in step S3093 (S3095). In other words, the created averaged image 360Im is an image created by convolving the video time, and includes information such as a change in the position of the hand, a change in the shape of the hand, and the rate of change. In this way, one still image (averaged image) incorporating a change in operation with time can be created.

<2. Operation video search processing>
Next, operation video search processing in the video providing apparatus 300 according to the present embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. Note that the initial setting process described in the first embodiment may be performed before the search process in the present embodiment.

  First, the video providing apparatus 300 instructs the user 10 to start an operation (S301). For example, as illustrated in FIG. 5, the operation start instruction can be performed by providing an operation time instruction unit 153 in the video display unit 340 and starting to display a bar on the operation time instruction unit 153. After providing the operation start instruction, the video providing apparatus 300 starts shooting of the user 10 by the video acquisition unit 310 (S303).

  Receiving the instruction to start the operation, the user 10 starts the operation (S305). Then, after a predetermined time has elapsed, the video providing apparatus 300 instructs the user 10 to end the operation (S307). The operation end instruction can be given, for example, when the range of the operation time instruction unit 153 provided in the video display unit 340 is filled with a bar. The video providing apparatus 300 gives an instruction to end the operation, and then ends the shooting of the user 10 by the video acquisition unit 310. The video of the action of the user 10 acquired in this way is transmitted from the video acquisition unit 310 to the video processing unit 320.

  Next, the video processing unit 320 creates an averaged image from the received video (S309). In step S309, the averaged image used for the search process by the image search unit 330 is generated by the above-described averaged image generation process, for example. The algorithm for acquiring the averaged image is not limited to the above example, and a method that can obtain the same effect, such as using logical sum, may be used. The averaged image created by the video processing unit 320 is transmitted to the image search unit 330.

  Further, the image search unit 330 searches the averaged image database 350 based on the received averaged image, and acquires a video ID corresponding to an image similar to the averaged image (S311). The image search unit 330 compares the averaged image created from the motion video of the user 10 with the averaged video of motion video stored in the averaged image database 350. Then, for the averaged image in the averaged image database 350 determined to have a high degree of similarity, a video ID associated with the averaged image is acquired.

  For the image search in step S311, for example, an existing method such as a difference sum method or a normalized correlation method generally used in pattern matching processing can be used. The image similarity determination can be performed by, for example, calculating a total value of pixel value differences at each coordinate of each image, and determining that an image having a smaller difference value is a higher similarity image. Then, the image search unit 330 selects one or more images with high similarity, acquires a video ID associated with the selected image, and transmits the video ID to the video display unit 340. For example, a predetermined number of images may be selected from those having a high degree of similarity, or an image having a value equal to or higher than a predetermined degree of similarity may be selected.

  Thereafter, the video display unit 340 acquires an operation video corresponding to the received video ID from the video database 360 and displays it on the video display unit 340 (S315). At this time, if the video display unit 340 also receives a Japanese label from the image search unit 330, the Japanese label may be displayed on the video display unit 340. In this way, the search result can be presented to the user.

  The information providing apparatus 300 according to the third embodiment has been described above. In the present embodiment, when searching for a video, instead of acquiring feature data from the video acquired by the video acquisition unit using recognition processing, an averaged image is created by the video processing unit 320, and a video database is created. Compared with the averaged image created for each motion video stored in 360, similarity search processing between the averaged images is performed.

  According to the present embodiment, the operation of the user 10 is input as search information by the video acquisition unit 310 such as a camera without explicitly selecting the position or shape of the hand using an input device such as a mouse. Thus, an operation video having an operation content similar to the operation of the user 10 can be easily searched and provided to the user 10.

  Further, by searching using an averaged image in the video search process, the search process is simple because the amount of data to be compared is small compared to the first embodiment, and can be implemented in hardware and parallelized. Since it is easy, the search process can be speeded up. In addition, it is difficult to be affected by errors, and the search result system can be enhanced. Compared to the second embodiment, it is not necessary to prepare a special device for acquiring information of the user 10 such as a data glove, and the device can be easily configured.

(Fourth embodiment)
Next, a video providing apparatus 400 according to the fourth embodiment will be described based on FIGS. 14 and 15. Here, FIG. 14 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of the video providing apparatus 400 according to the present embodiment. FIG. 15 is a flowchart showing operation video search processing by the video providing apparatus 400 according to the present embodiment.

  As shown in FIG. 14, the video providing apparatus 400 according to the present embodiment includes a video acquisition unit 410, a video processing unit 420, an image processing unit 430, an image recognition unit 440, an image search unit 450, and a video display. 460, an averaged image database 470, and a video database 480. The video acquisition unit 410, the image processing unit 420, the image search unit 450, the video display unit 460, the averaged image database 470, and the video database 480 are the video acquisition unit 410, the image processing unit 320, and the video processing unit 320 according to the third embodiment. The image search unit 330, the video display unit 340, the averaged image database 350, and the video database 360 correspond to each other. For this reason, the detailed description of the same function is omitted.

  Compared with the third embodiment, the video providing apparatus 400 according to the present embodiment divides the averaged image database 470 into a plurality of images, and stores the averaged image stored in the averaged image database 470 as an operating person. It is characterized by the fact that it is roughly divided based on the position of the hand. The averaged image database 470 can be classified, for example, according to the position where the hand of the person performing the action stays best. A plurality of averaged image databases 470 are assigned database IDs for distinguishing each of them.

  The image processing unit 430 is a functional unit that acquires a still image used to specify the averaged image database 470 to be searched from the video acquired by the video acquisition unit 410. In the present embodiment, for example, an image at an intermediate time point between the operation start instruction and the operation end instruction to the user 10 by the image providing apparatus 400 is acquired. The still image acquired by the image processing unit 430 is transmitted to the image recognition unit 440.

  The image recognition unit 440 is a functional unit that performs image recognition processing for specifying the averaged image database 470 to be searched from the images acquired by the image processing unit 430. The image recognition unit 440 recognizes an image based on the classification condition of the averaged image database 470. For example, when the averaged image database 470 is classified based on the stay position of a person's hand, the position of the hand is recognized from the image acquired by the image processing unit 430, and the classification is performed according to the condition most similar to the hand position of the image. The averaged image database 470 is determined. The image recognition processing unit 440 transmits the determined database ID of the averaged image database 470 to the image search unit 450.

  When such an image providing apparatus 300 searches for an averaged image similar to the averaged image created by processing the video acquired by the video acquisition unit 310 by the video processing unit 320, it is roughly classified according to predetermined conditions in advance. One of the plurality of averaged image databases 470 is searched for. The operation video search processing by the video providing apparatus 400 according to the present embodiment will be described below. Note that detailed description of processing similar to that of the third embodiment is omitted.

<Operation video search processing>
First, the video providing apparatus 400 instructs the user 10 to start an operation (S401). After instructing the operation start, the video providing apparatus 400 starts shooting of the user 10 by the video acquisition unit 410 (S403).

  Receiving the instruction to start the operation, the user 10 starts the operation (S405). Then, after a predetermined time has elapsed, the video providing apparatus 400 instructs the user 10 to end the operation (S407). The video providing apparatus 400 ends the shooting of the user 10 by the video acquisition unit 410 after giving an instruction to end the operation. The video of the action of the user 10 acquired in this way is transmitted from the video acquisition unit 410 to the video processing unit 420 and the image processing unit 430.

  Next, the video processing unit 420 creates an averaged image from the received video (S409). In step S409, an averaged image used for the search process by the image search unit 330 is generated by an averaged image generation process, for example, as in the third embodiment. The algorithm for acquiring the averaged image is not limited to the above example, and a method that can obtain the same effect may be used. The averaged image created by the video processing unit 420 is transmitted to the image search unit 450.

  On the other hand, the image processing unit 430 acquires a still image for specifying the averaged image database 470 to be searched from the received video (S411). In the present embodiment, for example, an image at an intermediate time point between the operation start instruction and the operation end instruction to the user 10 by the image providing apparatus 400 is acquired. Then, the image processing unit 430 performs preprocessing such as noise removal processing using a smoothing filter on the acquired image at the intermediate time point for the purpose of improving recognition accuracy (S413), and transmits it to the image recognition unit 440. To do.

  The image recognizing unit 440 acquires information such as the position of the hand and the shape of the hand from the received image at the intermediate time (S415). For example, the sign language represented by the Japanese label “Skirt” has many hand movements under the body (near the abdomen). Therefore, the image recognizing unit 440 recognizes that the staying position of the hand is on the lower side of the body from the image of the user 10 who has performed the operation meaning “skirt”. The position of the hand can be recognized from information such as the color of the hand, the center of gravity of the hand, and the shape of the hand. Then, the image recognition unit 440 specifies the averaged image database 470 that stores the averaged image in which the hand staying position is mainly on the lower side of the body, and the database ID assigned to the specified averaged image database 470 is determined. It transmits to the image search part 450 (S417).

  Further, the image search unit 450 searches the averaged image database 470 based on the received averaged image and database ID, and acquires a video ID corresponding to an image similar to the averaged image (S419). The image search unit 450 searches only the averaged image database 470 associated with the received database ID. That is, in step S417, when the averaged image database 470 storing the averaged image in which the hand staying position is mainly on the lower side of the body is specified, only the averaged image database 470 is searched in step S419. Is done. Therefore, for example, a motion image of sign language that means a Japanese label “sunny” with a lot of hand movements on the upper side of the body (for example, the upper part of the head) is stored in another averaged image database 470. Excluded from search. In this way, it is possible to narrow down the search target.

  Then, the averaged image and the averaged image of the motion video stored in the averaged image database 470 are compared, and the video ID of the averaged image having a high degree of similarity is acquired. Since the search process in step S419 is the same as that in step S313 in the third embodiment, the details thereof are omitted. Then, the image search unit 450 transmits the acquired video ID to the video display unit 460.

  Thereafter, the video display unit 460 acquires an operation video corresponding to the received video ID from the video database 480 (S421), and displays it on the video display unit 460 (S423). At this time, if the video display unit 460 receives a Japanese label from the image search unit 450, the Japanese label may also be displayed on the video display unit 460. In this way, the search result can be presented to the user.

  The information providing apparatus 400 according to the fourth embodiment has been described above. According to the present embodiment, the averaged image database 470 is divided into a plurality according to a predetermined classification condition, and the averaged image database 470 to be searched is specified from the divided averaged image database 470 and searched. It is characterized by limiting the range of the database.

  According to the present embodiment, the operation of the user 10 is input as search information by the video acquisition unit 410 such as a camera without explicitly selecting the position and shape of the hand using an input device such as a mouse. Thus, an operation video having an operation content similar to the operation of the user 10 can be easily searched and provided to the user 10.

  Furthermore, by using the averaged image in the video search process, the search process is simpler than the first embodiment, and can be easily implemented in hardware and parallelized. Can be speeded up. In addition, it is difficult to be affected by errors, and the search result system can be enhanced. Compared to the second embodiment, it is not necessary to prepare a special device for acquiring information of the user 10 such as a data glove, and the device can be easily configured. Then, by limiting the range of the averaged image database 470 to be searched, high-speed processing can be performed even when a large amount of videos are searched.

(Fifth embodiment)
Next, a video providing apparatus 500 according to the fifth embodiment will be described with reference to FIGS. 16 and 17. Here, FIG. 16 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of the video providing apparatus 500 according to the present embodiment. FIG. 17 is a flowchart showing screen operation processing by the video providing apparatus 500 according to the present embodiment.

  The video providing apparatus 500 according to the present embodiment can select a video displayed on the screen display unit 560 by the operation of the user 10. That is, the control unit 570 is provided so that the user 10 can interactively operate the result searched by the video search process. In the following, the video providing apparatus 500 having the above functions is described with respect to the video providing apparatus 400 according to the fourth embodiment. However, the video providing apparatuses 100, 200, and 300 according to the first to third embodiments are described. It is also possible to prepare for.

  As shown in FIG. 16, the video providing apparatus 500 according to the present embodiment includes a video acquisition unit 510, a video processing unit 520, an image processing unit 530, an image recognition unit 540, an image search unit 550, and a video display. Unit 560, control unit 570, averaged image database 580, and video database 590. The video acquisition unit 510, the video processing unit 520, the image processing unit 530, the image recognition unit 540, the image search unit 550, the video display unit 560, the averaged image database 580, and the video database 590 are related to the fourth embodiment. The video acquisition unit 410, the video processing unit 420, the image processing unit 430, the image recognition unit 440, the image search unit 450, the video display unit 460, the averaged image database 470, and the video database 480 correspond to each. For this reason, the detailed description of the same function is omitted.

  The control unit 570 is a functional unit that controls the video displayed on the video display unit 560 in accordance with the position of the hand of the user 10 recognized by the image recognition unit 540. For example, when the hand of the user 10 is located in a specific area, processing such as enlarging an image in the area, displaying it again, or canceling display is performed.

  The screen operation process of the video providing apparatus 500 having such a function is performed as shown in FIG. The screen operation process shown in FIG. 17 is performed after the operation video search process shown in FIG.

<Screen operation processing>
First, the image processing unit 530 performs preprocessing on the video acquired by the video acquisition unit 510 to create an image (S501). Then, the image processing unit 530 performs preprocessing such as noise removal processing using a smoothing filter on the acquired image at the intermediate time point for the purpose of improving recognition accuracy, and transmits the processed image to the image recognition unit 540.

  Next, the image recognition unit 540 recognizes the position of the hand from the received image (S503). The recognized hand position information is transmitted from the image recognition unit 540 to the control unit 570.

  The control unit 570 that has received the hand position information determines whether to change the display of the video display unit 560 (S505). For example, it is determined whether the position of the hand is within a specific area in the xy coordinate plane. Here, the specific area can be, for example, an area with an object to be operated, specifically, an area of an image to be enlarged, an area where a display button for redisplaying is located, or the like. Can do.

  If it is determined in step S505 that the position of the hand is within the specific area, a control command (command) corresponding to the position of the hand is transmitted to the video display unit 560 (S507). For example, when the hand is positioned in the area of the image to be enlarged, a command for enlarging the image is transmitted to the video display unit 560. Then, the video display unit 560 that has received the control command changes the video display method in the video display unit 560 according to the command, and re-displays (S509). In this way, the display method of the video displayed on the video display unit 560 can be changed.

  The video providing apparatus 500 according to the fifth embodiment has been described above. The present embodiment is characterized in that a control unit 570 is provided for a video providing apparatus having a video search processing function so that screen display can be operated according to the position of the user's hand. As a result, the user 10 can interactively operate the video providing apparatus 500, and thus can perform the video search and video display change operations without interruption.

  As mentioned above, although preferred embodiment of this invention was described referring an accompanying drawing, it cannot be overemphasized that this invention is not limited to the example which concerns. It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various changes and modifications can be made within the scope of the claims, and these are naturally within the technical scope of the present invention. Understood.

  For example, in the above embodiment, the description has been made using the sign language video, but the present invention is not limited to such an example, and any video having a meaning that can be associated with a symbol is applicable. As such an image, for example, an image such as ballet, dance, yoga, or a flag signal can be considered.

  In the above embodiment, the user's motion video used for the search does not need to be acquired as complete information by the video acquisition unit, and the number of pixels and the number of bits of the pixel value are determined by a method such as mosaic processing or intermediate value processing. It may be a reduced image.

  Furthermore, in the above-described embodiment, the video processing unit does not need to actually create a still image from the video acquired by the video acquisition unit, and may acquire information only for necessary pixels.

  In the fourth embodiment, the image recognition unit 440 performs image recognition processing on the still image acquired by the image processing unit 430. However, the present invention is not limited to such an example. For example, the image processing unit Image recognition processing may be performed on the averaged image generated by 420.

  The present invention can be applied to an image providing apparatus, and in particular, can be applied to an image providing apparatus that retrieves and provides an image from a database.

It is a block diagram which shows the structure of the image | video provision apparatus concerning the 1st Embodiment of this invention. It is explanatory drawing for demonstrating the positional information on a hand. It is explanatory drawing which shows the example of the information memorize | stored in a search information database. It is explanatory drawing for demonstrating the shape of a hand. It is explanatory drawing which shows the example of a video display of a video display part. It is a flowchart which shows the process of initial setting. It is a flowchart which shows the search process of the operation | movement video by the video provision apparatus concerning the embodiment. It is a block diagram which shows the structure of the video provision apparatus concerning the 2nd Embodiment of this invention. It is a flowchart which shows the search process of the operation | movement video by the video provision apparatus concerning the embodiment. It is a block diagram which shows the structure of the image | video provision apparatus concerning the 3rd Embodiment of this invention. It is a flowchart which shows the production | generation method of an average image. It is explanatory drawing for demonstrating the production | generation method of an averaged image. It is a flowchart which shows the search process of the operation | movement video by the video provision apparatus concerning the embodiment. It is a block diagram which shows the structure of the video provision apparatus concerning the 4th Embodiment of this invention. It is a flowchart which shows the search process of the operation | movement video by the video provision apparatus concerning the embodiment. It is a block diagram which shows the structure of the video provision apparatus concerning the 5th Embodiment of this invention. It is a flowchart which shows the screen operation process by the video provision apparatus concerning the embodiment.

Explanation of symbols

100, 200, 300, 400, 500 Video providing device 110, 310, 410, 510 Video acquisition unit 120, 430, 530 Image processing unit 130, 440, 540 Image recognition unit 140, 220 Information search unit 150, 230, 340, 460, 560 Video display unit 153 Operating time instruction unit 160, 240 Search information database 170, 250, 360, 480, 590 Video database 210 User information acquisition unit 320, 420, 520 Video processing unit 330, 450, 550 Image search unit 350 470, 580 Averaged image database 360 Im Average value image 570 Control unit

Claims (16)

An image providing device that provides an action image corresponding to the movement of the body representing a specific concept:
A video storage unit for storing a plurality of motion images and feature data characterizing each motion image;
A user feature data acquisition unit for acquiring feature data from the movement of the user's body;
Video search for comparing the feature data acquired by the user feature data acquisition unit with the feature data stored in the video storage unit and searching for an operation video similar to the motion of the user's body from the video storage unit Part;
A video providing apparatus comprising: The user feature data acquisition unit acquires a plurality of still images at a predetermined time from one motion video,
The video providing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a position of a specific part of the body in the still image is extracted as feature data from the acquired plurality of still images.   The video providing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the user feature data acquisition unit extracts the shape of a specific part of the body as feature data from the plurality of acquired still images. The user feature data acquisition unit
A video acquisition unit that acquires the motion of the user's body as a video;
A feature data extraction unit that extracts feature data characterizing the movement of the user's body from the acquired video;
The video providing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising: The user feature data acquisition unit
The video providing apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the video providing apparatus is a data glove capable of acquiring characteristic data characterizing the movement of the user's body when worn by the user.   The video search unit performs a similarity determination between the feature data acquired by the user feature data acquisition unit and the feature data stored in the video storage unit using DP matching. The video provision apparatus in any one of 1-5.   The video providing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the user feature data acquisition unit generates and acquires one still image from one motion video as the feature data. The user feature data acquisition unit
A video acquisition unit that acquires the motion of the user's body as a video;
A video processing unit that creates the still image from the video acquired by the video acquisition unit;
With
The video search unit compares the still image created by the video processing unit with the still image stored in the video storage unit, and obtains an operation video similar to the motion of the user's body from the video storage unit. The video providing apparatus according to claim 7, wherein the video providing apparatus is acquired. The video processing unit extracts a plurality of still images from one video acquired by the video acquisition unit,
For each pixel of the extracted still images, the pixel value is averaged to calculate an average pixel value,
9. The video providing apparatus according to claim 7, wherein one averaged image is created from the calculated average pixel value of each pixel. An image recognition unit for recognizing a region where a specific part of the user's body is located from the video acquired by the video acquisition unit;
The video storage unit classifies and stores the motion video according to a region where a specific part of a person's body is located in the motion video,
The said image recognition part determines only the operation | movement video which belongs to a specific classification | category as a search object among the operation | movement videos memorize | stored in the said image | video memory | storage part based on the recognized area | region. 10. The video providing apparatus according to any one of 9 above.   8. The video search unit according to claim 7, wherein the similarity between the feature data acquired by the user feature data acquisition unit and the feature data stored in the video storage unit is determined by a pattern matching process. 10. The video providing device according to any one of 10.   The apparatus further comprises a video display unit capable of displaying at least one of a user's body movement acquired by the user characteristic data acquisition unit or an operation video acquired by the video acquisition unit. The video providing device according to claim 1.   The video providing apparatus according to claim 12, wherein the video display unit includes an operation time display unit indicating a time during which the user performs an operation.   The video according to claim 12, further comprising a control unit that controls display of video on the video display unit in accordance with the feature data acquired by the user feature data acquisition unit. Providing device.   The video providing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the motion video is a sign language expressing a specific meaning. The video providing apparatus according to claim 15, wherein the video display unit displays a video representing one or more sign language words.

Images