JP2008061032A - Image reproducing apparatus and image reproducing method, and computer program - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To constitute an entire slide show by inserting a visual effect suitable for a joint of contents and effectively connecting a plurality of contents. <P>SOLUTION: A plurality of stored image contents are arranged in accordance with a predetermined reproduction order, an effect corresponding to attribute information that each of the image contents has, is inserted and the image contents are continuously reproduced out. When selecting an effect for the plurality of image contents, a differential for each attribute information that each of the image contents has is taken, attribute information with a feature appearing in the obtained differential is extracted, the relevant attribute information is referenced in a corresponding relationship, and the effect to be applied to the plurality of image contents is selected. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2008,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to an image playback apparatus, an image playback method, and a computer program for playing back and outputting content such as a still image or a moving image recorded on an image medium, and in particular, playing back a plurality of content using rendering effects. The present invention relates to an image reproducing apparatus, an image reproducing method, and a computer program.

  More particularly, the present invention relates to an image playback apparatus and an image playback method for playing back and outputting a plurality of contents in a slide show format for continuously playing back a plurality of contents, and a computer program. The present invention relates to an image reproducing apparatus, an image reproducing method, and a computer program for inserting a visual effect and effectively connecting a plurality of contents to constitute an entire slide show.

  Recently, a wide range of digital cameras that digitize images captured by solid-state imaging devices such as CCDs (Charge Coupled Devices) and CMOSs (Complementary Mental-Oxide Semiconductors) are used in place of film cameras that use film or photosensitive plates. It is popular. This type of moving image or still image recording / reproducing apparatus is small and portable, and can record images at various times and places. Furthermore, since the number of contents that can be recorded has increased with an increase in the capacity of the recording medium, it can also be used as an image information medium.

  Here, when playing back images recorded on image information media, in addition to playing back content one by one, presentation of content using effects such as a “slide show” that plays back multiple content continuously The method is known. Use scenes in which a plurality of contents are continuously reproduced in a slide show format are increasing.

  For example, an image reproduction system has been proposed in which an image captured by a digital camera is stored in a large-capacity storage device, and a slide show can be started with a simple operation when the image is output to a television monitor for viewing. (For example, refer to Patent Document 1).

  In addition, when executing a slide show that sequentially plays back images containing shooting time information, such as images taken with a digital camera, the music file is searched for songs that were popular at that time using the shooting date as a key. Have been proposed for an information playback apparatus that starts playback of a downloaded music file and starts a slide show (see, for example, Patent Document 2).

  In addition, after classifying a large number of image data into groups, a slide show is started, and images represented by a plurality of image data in the group are sequentially displayed in the display frame while switching one image to be displayed. Proposals have been made on display control devices for display (see, for example, Patent Document 3).

  Also, when playing back and displaying images taken with a digital camera as a slide show, the parent image to which annotation information is added and all the images that have been added to the parent image as annotation information are played back and displayed in order. In addition, an image processing apparatus that reproduces and displays a parent image earlier than an image given as annotation information in each group has been proposed (see, for example, Patent Document 4).

  By the way, when displaying multiple image contents in sequence like a slide show, if the adjacent contents are connected as they are, the display contents will switch discontinuously, so insert visual effects at the boundaries of the contents to be displayed. There are many.

  The effects mentioned here include various types such as fade-in and fade-out at the start and end of image display, cross-fade of continuous image content, animation effects such as moving image content, wipe processing, and mosaic processing. .

  However, in many conventional slide shows, there is a problem that the entire slide show has a monotonous structure because it is inserted at a joint between a plurality of contents or a single content regardless of content information or randomly. . In particular, when a transition effect is inserted between content and content, there is a high possibility that an effect that is not suitable for the content to be reproduced is selected because the relationship between the front and back is not considered.

JP 2006-173985 A JP 2006-164229 A JP 2006-146755 A JP 2005-143014 A

  An object of the present invention is to provide an excellent image reproduction apparatus, image reproduction method, and computer program capable of suitably reproducing a plurality of contents by using a rendering effect.

  A further object of the present invention is to provide an excellent image reproduction device, image reproduction method, and computer program capable of suitably reproducing and outputting a plurality of contents in a slide show format for continuously reproducing the plurality of contents. It is in.

  A further object of the present invention is to provide an excellent image playback apparatus and image playback method capable of inserting a suitable visual effect at a joint between contents and effectively connecting a plurality of contents to constitute an entire slide show, And providing a computer program.

The present invention has been made in consideration of the above problems, and a first aspect of the present invention is an image playback apparatus that plays back and outputs image content obtained by shooting with a camera.
Content storage means for storing a plurality of image contents together with attribute information;
Effect management means for managing the correspondence between attribute information of image content and applicable effects;
A slide show playback unit that arranges a plurality of image contents stored in the content storage unit according to a predetermined playback order, inserts an effect corresponding to attribute information of each image content, and continuously plays back and outputs the image content When,
An image reproducing apparatus comprising:

  Image recording / playback devices such as digital still cameras and camcorders are widely used as image information media, but as a form of playing back and outputting captured image content, a slide show that continuously plays back multiple content is known. Yes. In the slide show reproduction, if the adjacent contents are connected as they are, the display contents are switched discontinuously, so that a visual effect is often inserted at the boundary of the contents to be displayed.

  However, there is a problem that the entire slide show has a monotonous structure because it is inserted at a joint of a plurality of contents or a single content regardless of the content information or at random.

  Therefore, the image reproduction apparatus according to the present invention arranges a plurality of stored image contents in accordance with a predetermined reproduction order, and inserts the image contents continuously by inserting an effect corresponding to the attribute information of each image content. It is configured to reproduce and output.

  That is, according to the present invention, the effect is selected based on the attribute information of the content, so that a slide show having a relationship between the arranged content and the inserted effect can be configured. Also, when changing the content used in a slide show or changing its order, the effect inserted at the boundary between content changes as the relationship between successive content changes. It can be easily configured.

  Here, the attribute information includes information that can be obtained by analyzing the image content itself such as the shooting date / time, shooting location, image size, camera status, or subject information of the image content. For example, by using a standard format such as Exif proposed by JEIDA, attribute information such as shooting date and time can be recorded in association with image content.

  The slide show reproduction means can select an effect to be applied to the image content by referring to an arbitrary combination of attribute information of a single image content in the correspondence relationship.

  In addition, when selecting an effect for a plurality of image contents, the slide show reproduction means takes a difference for each attribute information of each image content, extracts attribute information in which a characteristic appears in the obtained difference, and extracts the attribute The effect applied to the plurality of image contents may be selected by referring to the information in the correspondence relationship.

The second aspect of the present invention is a computer program described in a computer-readable format so that processing for reproducing and outputting image content obtained by photographing with a camera is executed on a computer. For the computer
A content storage procedure for storing a plurality of image contents together with attribute information in a content storage means;
An effect management procedure for managing the correspondence between attribute information of image content and applicable effects in the effect management means;
A slide show playback procedure for arranging a plurality of image contents stored in the content storage means in accordance with a predetermined playback order, and inserting and playing back the image contents by inserting an effect corresponding to attribute information of each image content When,
Is a computer program characterized in that

  The computer program according to the second aspect of the present invention defines a computer program described in a computer-readable format so as to realize predetermined processing on the computer. In other words, by installing the computer program according to the second aspect of the present invention in the computer, a cooperative action is exhibited on the computer, and the same as the image reproducing apparatus according to the first aspect of the present invention. An effect can be obtained.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to provide an excellent image reproduction device, image reproduction method, and computer program capable of reproducing a plurality of contents using the effect.

  In addition, according to the present invention, it is possible to provide an excellent image reproduction apparatus, image reproduction method, and computer program capable of reproducing and outputting a plurality of contents in a slide show format in which a plurality of contents are continuously reproduced. it can.

  Further, according to the present invention, it is possible to insert an appropriate visual effect at a joint between contents and effectively connect a plurality of contents to configure an entire slide show, and an excellent image reproducing apparatus and image reproducing method. As well as computer programs.

  According to the image playback device of the present invention, since the effect is selected based on the content information, it is possible to configure a slide show having a relationship between the arranged content and the inserted effect. Become.

  Further, according to the image reproducing device of the present invention, when the content used in the slide show is changed or the order thereof is changed, the relevance between successive content is changed and inserted at the boundary between the content. Since the effect that changes also changes, it becomes possible to compose various slide shows easily.

  Other objects, features, and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from more detailed description based on embodiments of the present invention described later and the accompanying drawings.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

  FIG. 1 schematically shows a functional configuration of an image reproduction apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. The illustrated image reproducing apparatus is configured as a small and portable image recording / reproducing apparatus such as a digital still camera or a camcorder. This type of apparatus can record images at various times and places, and can also be used as an image information medium.

  The illustrated image reproduction apparatus controls the overall operation of the apparatus by the system control unit 2 in accordance with a user operation via the operation unit 1.

  The system control unit 2 executes various processes in the form of executing the program while temporarily storing system variables and environment variables while loading the execution program into a temporary storage medium constituted by a RAM (not shown). To do.

  The processing operation in the system control unit 2 referred to here includes camera work such as shooting in the shooting control unit 3 and the auto focus function, automatic exposure, camera shake correction, and auto shutter associated therewith, a still image on the recording medium 6 or Examples thereof include recording of a moving image stream and reproduction output of the image content read from the recording medium 6 by the display unit 5. In the present embodiment, when a plurality of contents are reproduced, they can be continuously reproduced in a slide show format by a slide show reproduction block. Details of this point will be described later.

  The imaging control unit 3 generates a timing pulse signal for driving a sensor such as a CCD or a CMOS, and performs CDS (Correlated Double Sampling) or AGC (correlated double sampling) on an image signal supplied from the sensor. Automatic gain control (automatic gain control) is applied to suppress low noise in the image signal with high accuracy, and then converted into a digital signal. Further, appropriate gain control is applied by AGC.

  The image processing unit 4 reproduces an appropriate color state by multiplying the image signal sent from the imaging control unit 3 by white balance / gain by AWB (Auto White Balance), and further γ-corrects the RGB image signal. The image information is converted into a gradation suitable for monitor output, printout, or image recording on the recording medium 6.

  Examples of the recording medium 6 include portable media such as a DVD (Digital Versatile Disc) and a memory card, and fixed media such as a hard disk, but the physical type of the recording medium is not particularly limited.

  The attribute information adding unit 7 includes a GPS, a clock, means for connecting to an external network, and the like, and acquires attribute information obtained by analyzing the location and time at which the image was captured, or other captured images themselves.

  At the time of image recording, an image input to the photographing control unit 3 is processed through the image processing unit 4 and then stored in the storage medium 6. Further, the attribute information acquired by the attribute information adding unit 7 is stored in the recording medium 6 together with the photographed image. For example, Exif (Exchangeable Image File Format) proposed by JEIDA (Japan Electronics Industry Promotion Association) is known as a standard format for recording additional information about images such as shooting date and time, but the gist of the present invention is not necessarily limited to this. It is not necessarily limited to.

  Note that information relating to image content shooting conditions included in the Exif information includes exposure time, shutter speed, aperture value, exposure correction value, photometry method, light source type, presence / absence of flash, lens focal length, exposure program, and spectrum. Examples include sensitivity. If a recording device for image content such as a digital camera has a GPS (Global Positioning System) function, the latitude and longitude of the shooting location and the shooting time can be included in the shooting conditions. In addition, as the information related to the image content, the brightness value of the image data, the presence / absence of rotation of the image, the rotation angle, the resolution (number of pixels, gradation) and the like can be included in the Exif information. Of course, information recorded as Exif information can also be defined by the device manufacturer.

  In the image reproducing apparatus according to the present embodiment, when the recorded images are reproduced as a slide show, first, the user instructs the start of the slide show from the operation unit 1. In response to this instruction, the system control unit 2 determines the content necessary for the slide show reproduction, the effect to be inserted, and the slide show scenario. Thereafter, when content necessary for reproduction is sequentially read from the storage medium 6, the image processing unit 4 is instructed in order to apply effects, and the processed images are sequentially output through the display unit 5 to reproduce the slide show. In the present embodiment, an effect to be inserted during slide show reproduction is selected and controlled based on attribute information attached to the captured image.

  FIG. 2 schematically shows a functional configuration of a slide show reproduction block included in the system control unit 2 shown in FIG.

  The slide show playback block is largely divided into a content management unit 12, an effect management unit 13, and a slide show playback unit 14.

  The content storage unit 11 corresponds to, for example, the recording medium 6 in FIG. 1 or a local memory of a slide show playback block, and stores content such as still images and moving images captured by a digital still camera or a camcorder, such as Exif. According to the standard format, it is stored together with attribute information obtained at the time of shooting.

  The content management unit 12 is related to the content storage unit 1 and mainly manages attribute information added to the content. The content to be reproduced in the slide show may be selected and selected by the user, or may be arbitrarily selected in the system. In either case, the content management unit 2 selects content from the recording medium 6 and stores the content to be reproduced. The playback order of the selected content is determined based on date data on which the content is recorded, type data such as a still image / moving image, playlist data set by the user, or the like. The arrangement of contents is handled by the slide show playback unit 4. FIG. 3 shows an example of content arrangement on the time axis for reproduction.

  The effect management unit 13 selects an effect to be applied to the arranged content alone or an effect to be inserted between a plurality of contents. As a specific example of the effect here, as shown in FIG. 4, there can be considered a fade for changing a blending ratio of images and a wipe for changing a reproduction position. Each effect has parameters such as a temporal change amount of the effect and a moving amount of the reproduction position, which are determined simultaneously when selecting the effect.

  When executing a slide show, the slide show playback unit 14 selects a plurality of contents to be used for the slide show in response to an instruction to start the slide show playback from the user, determines their playback order, and determines the playback order in the slide show. Perform time placement.

  When the time management within the slide show is performed, the effect management unit 13 extracts attribute information from each content and relates to the effect on a single content or content adjacent to each other (that is, the playback order is changed). Based on the above, the effect to be inserted is selected and inserted into the slide show, and then the content is reproduced.

  When selecting an effect, it is performed based on information associated with the content to be played. The content attribute information is managed and acquired by the content management unit 12. As content attribute information, image recognition information (face area, person area, etc.) obtained by analyzing the content itself at the time of playback can be considered, but considering the analysis processing at the time of playback, the attribute information stored at the time of recording is It is realistic to use. The attribute information extracted here includes the recording date and time stored in the JPEG Exif information and the like, the camera status (zoom magnification, sensitivity, F value, etc.) at the time of shooting, and the image content itself such as subject information. Information that can be obtained by analyzing is included. FIG. 6 shows a specific example of the attribute information attached to the image content photographed by the digital camera. It is also conceivable that a plurality of attribute information is stored as a separate management file in a database.

  FIG. 5 shows a processing procedure for effect selection in the effect management unit 13 in the form of a flowchart.

  When the content arrangement is completed in the slide show reproduction unit 14, the processing routine is started, and first, attribute information of each content arranged in the slide show is acquired (step S1).

  When applying an effect to a single content (Yes in step S2), when attribute information is acquired from the content management unit 12, an effect related to the content is selected (step S5).

  The effect selection at this time is determined by referring to an arbitrary combination of information held by a single content. For example, in the case of content having a characteristic in a specific area as subject information, a zoom effect for the specific area is selected, or the recording date / time of the content is compared with the reproduction date / time, and the value exceeds a certain threshold. If so, it may be possible to select a sepia effect.

  On the other hand, when selecting an effect for a plurality of contents (No in step S2), the content management unit 12 extracts attribute relevance between the plurality of contents to be processed. Here, the target content is an arbitrary number, and it may be possible to extract relevance by using information held by a plurality of contents.

  Subsequently, the attribute information such as the shooting date and time and the shooting location is compared for each of the content arranged at a certain reproduction time and the content arranged before and after that, and the difference d is obtained (step S3). Then, when the attribute “a” whose feature is manifested by the obtained difference “d” is extracted (step S4), the attribute “a” and the difference “d” are stored as the relationship between the contents (step S5).

  When the related effect is selected in this way, the effect is inserted into the content arrangement created in the slide show playback unit 4. Then, the created slide show is played back by the slide show playback unit 14 and displayed on the display device.

  In step S5 mentioned above, the effect management part 13 selects the effect inserted between contents based on attribute information. For example, a table associating effects and attribute information as shown in FIG. 7 is provided, and an effect corresponding to attribute information possessed by a single content or characteristic attribute information extracted from a plurality of contents is selected. Also good.

  The illustrated correspondence table associates selectable effects with attributes. For example, if the content is a single content in step S2, the effect to be selected is determined from the attribute information of the content. Alternatively, the effect to be selected is determined from the attribute a obtained in step S4. The difference d is used to determine an effect parameter.

  For example, when a large difference d is extracted in the time attribute between two contents whose playback times are before and after, a crossfade effect associated with the time attribute is selected, and the effect is continued from the magnitude of the difference d. By setting the time parameter longer, it is possible to insert an effective effect that makes the user feel the passage of time.

  Note that the content that is the target of the slide show is not limited to the content stored in the image recording / reproducing apparatus, but can also be an external medium that can be removed from the apparatus or content that can be acquired through a network.

  In addition, when arranging slideshow contents, a plurality of contents may be arranged at the same time. Therefore, the effect selection unit 14 can select an effect based on the relevance of a plurality of contents.

  The present invention has been described in detail above with reference to specific embodiments. However, it is obvious that those skilled in the art can make modifications and substitutions of the embodiment without departing from the gist of the present invention.

  In the present specification, the embodiment applied to the digital camera has been mainly described, but the gist of the present invention is not limited to this. The present invention can be similarly applied to various information devices that are used as image information media and play back recorded image contents as a slide show.

  In short, the present invention has been disclosed in the form of exemplification, and the description of the present specification should not be interpreted in a limited manner. In order to determine the gist of the present invention, the claims should be taken into consideration.

FIG. 1 is a diagram schematically showing a functional configuration of an image reproduction apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a diagram schematically showing a functional configuration of a slide show playback block included in the system control unit 2 shown in FIG. FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of content arrangement on the time axis for reproduction. FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a specific example of the effect. FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing a processing procedure for effect selection in the effect management unit 13. FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a specific example of attribute information attached to image content photographed by a digital camera. FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a configuration example of a table associating effects with attribute information.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Operation part 2 ... System control part 3 ... Shooting control part 4 ... Image processing part 5 ... Display part 6 ... Recording medium 7 ... Attribute information addition part 11 ... Content storage part 12 ... Content management part 13 ... Effect management part 14 ... Slideshow playback section

Claims (9)

An image playback device for playing back and outputting image content obtained by shooting with a camera,
Content storage means for storing a plurality of image contents together with attribute information;
Effect management means for managing the correspondence between attribute information of image content and applicable effects;
A slide show playback unit that arranges a plurality of image contents stored in the content storage unit according to a predetermined playback order, inserts an effect corresponding to attribute information of each image content, and continuously plays back and outputs the image content When,
An image reproducing apparatus comprising: The attribute information includes at least one of a shooting date / time of an image content, a shooting location, an image size, subject information, and a camera status.
The image reproducing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein: The slide show reproduction means refers to any combination of attribute information possessed by a single image content in the correspondence relationship, and selects an effect to be applied to the image content.
The image reproducing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein: When selecting the effect for a plurality of image contents, the slide show reproduction means takes a difference for each attribute information of each image content, extracts attribute information that has a feature in the obtained difference, and extracts the attribute information. Select an effect to be applied to the plurality of image contents with reference to the correspondence relationship.
The image reproducing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein: An image reproduction method for reproducing and outputting image content obtained by photographing with a camera,
A content storage step of storing a plurality of image contents together with attribute information in a content storage means;
An effect management step for managing the correspondence between the attribute information of the image content and the applicable effect in the effect management means;
A slide show playback step of arranging a plurality of image contents stored in the content storage means in accordance with a predetermined playback order, inserting effects corresponding to attribute information of each image content, and continuously playing back and outputting the image contents When,
An image reproduction method comprising: The attribute information includes at least one of a shooting date / time of an image content, a shooting location, an image size, subject information, and a camera status.
The image reproducing method according to claim 5, wherein: In the slide show reproduction step, an arbitrary combination of attribute information of a single image content is referred to by the correspondence relationship, and an effect to be applied to the image content is selected.
The image reproducing method according to claim 5, wherein: In the slide show reproduction step, when selecting an effect for a plurality of image contents, the difference for each attribute information of each image content is taken, the attribute information whose characteristic appears in the obtained difference is extracted, and the attribute information is Select an effect to be applied to the plurality of image contents with reference to the correspondence relationship.
The image reproducing method according to claim 5, wherein: A computer program written in a computer-readable format so as to execute a process for reproducing and outputting image content obtained by photographing with a camera on a computer,
A content storage procedure for storing a plurality of image contents together with attribute information in a content storage means;
An effect management procedure for managing the correspondence between attribute information of image content and applicable effects in the effect management means;
A slide show playback procedure for arranging a plurality of image contents stored in the content storage means in accordance with a predetermined playback order, and inserting and playing back the image contents by inserting an effect corresponding to attribute information of each image content When,
A computer program for executing