JP4469884B2 - Metadata sharing system - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a metadata sharing system capable of sharing metadata among a large number of viewers.

  In recent years, attempts have been made to add metadata to media data in order to facilitate access to media data, particularly stream media data (TV programs, movies provided on DVDs, etc.), for example in MPEG-7. It has been broken.

  Metadata refers to data that describes information about certain data. For example, by describing data such as a broadcast station name, broadcast date and time, and contents in media data such as a TV broadcast image, it can be useful when searching for desired information. Alternatively, it is possible to respond to a request to selectively search and view only a specific part in the media data (for example, a scene where a B player of Team A appears in a baseball program). That is, by describing in advance data indicating scenes in which the B player appears in the program as metadata, these scenes can be easily retrieved.

  Note that MPEG-7 is an international standard related to a metadata notation method for multimedia contents established in MPEG (Moving Picture Experts Group).

  A media data viewing device disclosed in Patent Document 1 is known as a viewing device that inquires for desired media data using such metadata. The media data viewing device includes media data storage means, metadata storage means, media data management means, metadata management means, and inquiry means for making an inquiry to the media data management means and metadata management means. And by making an inquiry from the application program via the inquiry means, desired media data can be efficiently searched. Further, in this media viewing device, the metadata is dynamically generated as the metadata is accessed, or the viewing history information is exchanged with other media data viewing devices by converting the viewing history information into metadata. It is possible to exchange.

  By the way, the metadata includes (1) metadata (for example, movie scene delimiter information) embedded in the media from the beginning by the creator of the media data. Viewing history is recorded in the media data viewing device, metadata automatically generated later according to the history, (3) metadata created by the viewer himself (such as movie comments, comments about favorite scenes, etc.) ) And so on.

The metadata created by viewers themselves in (3) is often valuable as information from the perspective of other viewers, and can be exchanged between viewers and used for searching and editing media data. It is convenient if possible.
JP 2001-306581 A (page 5, right column, page 11, FIG. 1, etc.)

  In view of this point, an object of the present invention is to provide a metadata sharing system in which metadata created by individual viewers is made public so that many viewers can share these metadata. .

The metadata sharing system according to the present invention includes a plurality of media data viewing apparatuses as clients configured to be able to view media data together with metadata, and a server in charge of transmission / reception of data between the clients. A data viewing device includes media data storage means for storing the media data, viewing means for viewing the media data, metadata storage means for storing the metadata, and the metadata directed to the server. A communication means for transmitting and receiving the metadata from the server and storing it in the metadata storage means, and a display for displaying a temporal relationship between the media data and the metadata based on time data indicated by the metadata And a search request for the metadata to the server A retrieval request inputting means for, the server includes a metadata storing means for storing the meta data transmitted from the media data viewing device, the metadata corresponding to the search request from the metadata storage unit Metadata search means for searching, and the metadata search means sends a media data list indicating the media data stored in the media data storage means and time information stored in the media data from the media data viewing device. It is configured to receive and preferentially search for metadata having a lot of temporal overlap with the received media data list.

  According to the present invention, metadata created by individual viewers can be made public so that many viewers can share these metadata.

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

[First Embodiment]
FIG. 1A is a block diagram showing a configuration of a media data viewing apparatus 10 according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

  The media data viewing apparatus 10 is roughly composed of a communication unit 11, an information processing unit 12, a metadata creation unit 13, a metadata storage unit 14, a media data storage unit 15, and a viewing unit 16. The media data viewing apparatus 10 is connected to another media data viewing apparatus 10-i via a network 51 as shown in FIG. 1B. In this example, the media data viewing apparatus 10-i functions as a client of a client-server system, and constitutes a metadata sharing system together with the server 20. Each media data viewing apparatus 10-i can make these metadata public to other media data viewing apparatuses 10-i by transmitting metadata created by itself to the server 20, and conversely, other media data By receiving the metadata released by the viewing device 10-i from the server 20, it can be used.

  The server 20 includes a communication unit 21, an information processing unit 22, and a metadata storage unit 23.

  Next, each component of the media data viewing apparatus 10-i and the server 20 will be described.

  The communication units 11 and 21 are parts that transmit and receive metadata between the media data viewing apparatus 10-i and the server 20 via the network 51. The metadata transmitted from the communication unit 11 to the communication unit 21 is accumulated in the metadata accumulation unit 23 by the information processing unit 22. Further, in response to a request from each media data viewing device 10-i, the metadata stored in the metadata storage unit 23 is transmitted by the information processing unit 22 to the media data viewing device 10-i.

  The information processing unit 12 controls overall data processing of the media data viewing apparatus 10. For example, the information processing unit 12 has a function of transferring metadata acquired from the outside via the communication unit 11 to the metadata storage unit 14. The media data stored in the media data storage unit 15 is subjected to a well-known image processing technique, and based on this image processing result, for example, information on scene breaks in the media data, feature data in the data image, etc. are acquired. , It has a function of storing it as metadata in the metadata storage unit 14. In addition, the information processing unit 12 has a function of receiving a television broadcast program by being connected to a television receiver (not shown) and storing it in the media data storage unit 15 as media data. The information processing unit 22 controls the control of the communication unit 21 and the writing and reading of the metadata storage unit 23. The information processing unit 22 also has a function of storing metadata transmission / reception records as a log.

  The metadata creation unit 13 is a part for creating metadata, and is a part for the viewer to input data about the media data from a viewpoint unique to the viewer, such as impressions about the media data. Details of the configuration will be described later.

  The metadata accumulating unit 14 is a part for accumulating metadata, such as metadata (for example, movie scene delimiter information) embedded in the medium from the beginning by the creator of the media data, In the data creation unit 13, metadata created by the viewer himself / herself is accumulated. The metadata storage unit 14 expresses one piece of data as a set of a plurality of items (for example, the aforementioned broadcast station name, broadcast date, program name, etc.) such as a relational database, and manages the set of data in a table. Configured by the system.

  On the other hand, the metadata storage unit 23 of the server 20 stores the metadata created by each creator among the metadata created by each media data viewing device 10-i. When a metadata search request is transmitted from one of the media data viewing apparatuses 10-i connected via the network 51, the information processing unit 22 translates the search request into an inquiry language, thereby The data storage unit 23 is searched.

  The media data storage unit 15 is a part for storing various media data acquired by recording a television broadcast program or obtaining DVD software. The viewing unit 16 is a part for viewing the media data and metadata.

  2 and 3 show an example of metadata based on MPEG-7 stored in the metadata storage unit 14. As shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, in MPEG-7, metadata is expressed using tags and values based on XML (Extensible Markup Language).

  In FIG. 2, a portion from “<video>” to “</ video>” is a portion that designates an image. That is, “<id = 1>” indicates that the video ID is 1. Further, “<uri station = XX broadcast station>” indicates the name of the broadcast station. “<Uri data = 200101015>” indicates the date of the media data (October 15, 2001), and “<uri time = 153000>” is media data starting from 15: 30.00. It shows that there is. “<Uri duration = 1000>” indicates that the total time of the media data is 1000 seconds.

  A portion from “<audio>” to “</ audio>” is a portion for designating a voice. That is, “<id = 1>” indicates that the voice ID is 1. Further, “<uri station = XX broadcast station>” indicates the name of the broadcast station. “<Uri data = 200101015>” indicates the date of the media data (October 15, 2001), and “<uri time = 153000>” is media data starting from 15: 30.00. It shows that there is. “<Uri duration = 1000>” indicates that the total time of the media data is 1000 seconds.

  A portion from “<text>” to “</ text>” is a portion for specifying a display character. For example, “</ message>” in FIG. 2 is a corner of “</ message>” “<videoid>” 1 “</ videoid>” “<time = 5>” “<duration> = 20” In the video data whose video ID is 1, it is indicated that the characters “XX corner” are displayed for 20 seconds from the position 5 seconds after the head.

  FIG. 3 shows a portion “<video>” to “</ video>” that designates video, a portion “<audio>” to “</ audio>” that designates audio, and a character “<text” that designates display characters. > ”To“ </ text> ”shows an example in which a plurality of portions are provided.

  In addition to the above, for example, a program title, an authentication ID of a metadata creator, and the like may be input as metadata. Note that the above-described video ID, audio ID, and the like are given at the time of creating the metadata in order to distinguish the metadata, and are not unique to the media data.

  2 and 3 show metadata embedded in the medium from the beginning by the creator of the media data. The metadata created by the metadata creating unit 13 is also converted into an XML expression in the form of a tag and its value in the information processing unit 12 and stored in the metadata storage unit 14 as in FIG. In addition to the text format based on XML as shown in FIG. 2, it is also possible to express in binary format (Binary format for MPEG-7 data: BiM).

  As shown in FIG. 4, the metadata creation unit 13 includes a media data display unit 31, an annotation input / display unit 32, a control unit 33, a metadata name display unit 34, a time data display unit 35, and a timeline 36. ing.

  The media data display unit 31 is a part that reproduces the media data stored in the media data storage unit 15, similarly to the viewing unit 16.

  The annotation input / display unit 32 is for inputting and displaying an annotation (annotation) to be added to the media data displayed on the media data display unit 31. When input by a keyboard or other character input device (not shown), the input character is displayed on the annotation display unit 32A. When the input is finally confirmed, the “add” button 32B is pressed. As a result, the input character string is stored in the metadata storage unit 14 as metadata together with time information at that time as annotation. When it is desired to publish the metadata accumulated in the metadata accumulation unit 14 through the network 51, the “publish” check box Pb shown in FIG. 4 is checked. When checked, the metadata is transferred to the server 20 through the network 51 and stored in the metadata storage unit 23.

  The control unit 33 controls playback, fast forward, rewind, and the like of media data displayed on the media data display unit 31, and includes a full rewind button 331, a rewind button 332, a stop button 333, a play button 334, A stop button 335, a fast-forward button 336, and a full-feed button 337 are provided. When the play button 334 is pressed, the media data display unit 31 starts playing the media data. When the fast forward button 336 and the rewind button 332 are pressed, the media data reproduced on the media data display unit 31 is fast forwarded or rewinded. If it is desired to stop the reproduction, the stop button 333 may be pressed, and if it is desired to pause and display a still image, the pause button 335 may be pressed. Further, when it is desired to return the media data to the beginning or the end, the full rewind button 331 and the full feed button 337 may be pressed, respectively.

  FIG. 5 shows a display screen when a metadata search request is transmitted to the server 20. In FIG. 5, a list of media data stored in the media data storage unit 15 is displayed by a thumbnail of media data, a broadcast start time, a total broadcast time, a broadcast station name, and the like. This shows a case where data retrieval is requested. In FIG. 5, baseball relay media data MD1, tennis relay media data MD2, and football relay media data MD3 are displayed. The viewer can select the display of the desired media data from these data (for example, double-click with the mouse) to view the media data, and at the same time the “metadata search” button SB1 on the right side. , SB2 or SB3, a metadata search request regarding the media data can be transmitted to the server 20. In the example of FIG. 5, by pressing the “metadata search” button SB1, SB2 or SB3, a search request using the broadcast start time, the total broadcast time, the name of the broadcasting station, etc. as shown in FIG. 5 is generated. And input to the server 20. The server 20 receives the search request, and searches for the metadata having the time that overlaps the search request with priority. In addition to pressing the buttons SB1, SB2 or SB3, a search character string may be input.

  As another search method, it is possible to make a search request only by inputting a search character string. When the server 20 receives the search character string as a search request, the server 20 calculates the correlation between the character string written in the title or comment of the metadata and the search character string related to the search request, and the highly correlated metadata. Search for. For example, when the media data viewing device 10-i transmits a search character string “commentary of baseball relay” to the server 20 as a search request, the server 20 receives “respective baseball relay play” from the metadata storage unit 23. You can search for metadata with the title "I added a comment." The method for calculating the correlation between character strings is based on language processing technology. For example, a morphological analysis is performed from each character string, an independent word is extracted, the word string is represented by a word vector, and the inner product is calculated.

  The search request includes a time information list (media data list) indicating what kind of media data the search request source media data viewing apparatus 10-i has, and the server 20 executes this list. It is also possible to preferentially search for metadata that has a lot of temporal overlap with the media data list. As a result, metadata for which the media data viewing device 10-i that is the search request source does not have media data is excluded from the search target, thereby improving the search efficiency.

  In addition, when the search result is received by the media data viewing apparatus 10-i that is the search request source and the search result is displayed after the search result searched only with the character string such as “explanation of baseball broadcast” as described above, the search result is displayed. The media data viewing apparatus 10-i that is the request source may rearrange the data so that data that has a lot of temporal overlap with the owned media data is displayed preferentially.

  FIG. 6 shows a search result display screen when the “metadata search” button SB1, SB2 or SB3 is pressed and the search result is obtained. FIG. 6 shows a display screen when the “metadata search” button SB1 is pressed in FIG. 5 and metadata about the baseball data MD1 is searched. In FIG. 6, reference numeral 71 denotes a media data display unit that displays the contents of the media data MD1 by thumbnails, broadcast start time, total broadcast time, broadcast station name, and the like.

  Reference numeral 72 denotes a media data timeline for displaying a time overlap with metadata.

  Reference numeral 73 denotes a metadata name display section that briefly shows the content of metadata as a search result. For example, if the content of the metadata as a search result is a commentary about each play during a baseball broadcast on a certain day, the metadata name display unit 73 displays “baseball relay relay” as shown in FIG. Each play is commented. ”Is displayed.

  Reference numeral 74 denotes a metadata timeline, which displays how much media data corresponding to metadata as a search result is stored in the media data storage unit 15. In the metadata timeline of FIG. 6, a portion where the corresponding media data exists is displayed with a white band, and a portion where the corresponding media data does not exist is displayed with a black band. In other words, a portion where the media data exists and the metadata can be viewed together with the media data is displayed with a white belt, and the other portions are displayed with a black belt.

  When the viewer moves the mouse pointer over the metadata timeline 74, the display of the media data timeline 72 changes according to the metadata time data. Due to the relationship with the metadata related to the metadata timeline 74 on which the mouse pointer is overlaid, portions where the times overlap are displayed as white bands, and other portions are displayed as black bands. In other words, only the part for which the metadata is to be reproduced is displayed with a white band, and the other part is displayed with a black band.

  In FIG. 6, the retrieved metadata and the media data are compared with each other in time to determine how much the two match in time (hereinafter referred to as “fitness”). In order from the highest metadata, those above a certain threshold are preferentially displayed.

  The goodness of fit is expressed by how much the total time of the metadata overlaps with the total time of the media data as a reference, and is specifically calculated by the metadata and the time data of the media data. For example, the time data of the media data is “October 15, 2001, time 20:00, time 1 hour 30 minutes, broadcasting station 00 television”, and the metadata time data is “October 15, 2001”. Date, time 20:10, time 45 minutes, broadcast station 00 TV ”, the 45 minutes overlap in both, and the remaining 45 minutes do not overlap, so the fitness is 45/90 = 0.5. When the degree of matching is high, the white belt portion becomes longer and the black belt portion becomes shorter in the media data timeline 72.

  The viewer looks at the search result screen shown in FIG. 6 and selects the metadata he / she wants to browse by clicking the metadata display section 73 with the mouse. As a result, the metadata is reproduced together with the corresponding media data stored in the media data storage unit 15. At this time, it is necessary to perform reproduction by matching (combining) the media data and metadata temporally.

  The matching between the media data and the metadata is performed based on the time data possessed by both. For example, the time data of the media data is “October 15, 2001, time 20:00, time 1 hour 30 minutes, broadcasting station 00 television”, and the metadata time data is “October 15, 2001”. In the case of “day, time 20:10, time 45 minutes, broadcasting station 00 television”, matching is performed so that the display of metadata is started 10 minutes after the start of media data reproduction.

  Note that the time data in the metadata is created based on the internal clock of each media data viewing device 10-i that is the creation source, but the internal clock may be misaligned. For this reason, if the media data and metadata are simply matched based on the time data in the metadata, the display timing of the metadata may become inappropriate (for example, “It is a fine play of OO players. ”, Etc., are displayed in completely different scenes).

  For this reason, in this embodiment, not only matching is performed using time data, but rough matching is performed using time data, and final matching is performed based on the feature amount of the image in the media data.

  That is, as shown in FIG. 7, the feature amount of the image in the media data (the still image itself, contour information detected by edge detection, etc.) to be associated with the comment recorded as metadata (such as “Great Fine Play”), Brightness information, corner images, etc.) are also recorded in the metadata. After roughly matching metadata and media data based on time data in the metadata (eg, PM8: 10), in the vicinity of the matching position, the feature quantity recorded in the metadata or an approximation thereof Search the media data for what to do. When a search is made, the position is set as a matching target.

  Another matching method is shown in FIG. In a TV program or the like, scene switching frequently occurs due to camera switching or the like, so a scene switching pattern indicating the scene switching position is stored as a feature amount in the metadata. Then, as in FIG. 7, after roughly matching metadata and media data based on the time data in the metadata, the scene switching pattern recorded in the metadata is displayed in the vicinity of the matching position. Search in the data. When a search is made, the position is set as a matching target.

  FIG. 9 shows an example of the state of the screen when matching is completed and the media data and the acquired metadata are displayed at the same time.

  The media data is displayed on the media data display unit 231, and the acquired and matched metadata is displayed on the metadata content display unit 80 on the right side thereof.

  The metadata name display section 273 briefly shows the content (title) of the metadata, and the time data display section 235 displays time data attached to the media data.

  However, what is displayed on the media data display unit 231 is only a portion corresponding to the acquired metadata in the entire media data to be matched, and a portion not corresponding to the metadata is cut.

  For example, when metadata relates to a scene where a player is active, only the part related to the scene is picked up from the corresponding media data, the other part is cut, and only the picked up part is the media data display unit 231. Is displayed. The timeline 200 indicates this correspondence relationship, and shows that metadata exists only in the white belt portion and no metadata exists in the black belt portion. Accordingly, in the media data display unit 231, only the media data relating to the white belt portion is reproduced, and the reproduction of the black belt portion is skipped. In the timeline 200, a bar 206 indicating the playback position of the current media data is shown.

  Further, by including link information to predetermined media data in the metadata, the value as information can be further increased.

For example, as shown in the metadata content display unit 80 of FIG. 9, a comment such as “This player is also playing today” is displayed together with a comment “This is a great Fine Play”. A so-called hyperlink is added to this comment, and it is possible to jump to another scene by clicking this comment.
If the viewer does not own the media data corresponding to the link destination, the link display can be prohibited or the link processing can be stopped.

  FIG. 10 shows another example of the metadata search result list screen.

  There are three differences from the display screen of FIG. The first difference is that search results are displayed separately for each genre such as “sports” and “variety” (see reference numeral 601 in FIG. 10).

  The second difference is that among metadata creators (owners of each media data viewing apparatus 10-i), those who create metadata with interesting contents and are popular or have high attention (guru) A check box 602 (“Display only master metadata”) is provided to display only the metadata of the master, and when the check box 602 is checked, only the metadata created by the master is displayed as a search result. This is the point. Data indicating who is the “master” is given by the information processing unit 22 of the server 20 (FIG. 1B). Each time the metadata is read from the metadata storage unit 23 and transmitted / received between the media data viewing devices 10-i, the information processing unit 22 uses the creator's authentication data attached to the metadata to create the And the master data of the specified creator is incremented. When the master degree data exceeds a predetermined value, the information processing unit 22 adds a flag indicating the title of “master” to the creator data. As a result, when a search request with a check in the check box 602 is made, only the data with the flag indicating the title of “master” is read out, and the media data viewing apparatus 10 that is the search request source. The search result is transmitted to -i. You may determine a master based on the attention degree which divided the frequency | count of reading by time. The “master” data may be classified for each genre such as drama, news, and sports, and a different flag may be given.

  The third difference is that when the acquired metadata is not only the media data to be searched but also the metadata for a plurality of other media data, the media data and the metadata The correspondence relationship is displayed on both the timeline 72 and the timeline 74.

  For example, in the acquired metadata, there is metadata about media data that is edited by picking up scenes where OO players are active from many games (140 games a year, etc.). 10 “Metadata of the title“ Only 2.00 players have been selected carefully. ”). In this case, the common part with the media data to be searched (displayed on the display unit 71) is only a part of the entire media data.

  In order to show this, in the timeline 74, only a portion corresponding to the media data held by the viewer as a searcher in the media data storage unit 15 is displayed with a white belt, and a portion not possessed is displayed with a black belt. To do. In addition, when the mouse pointer is placed on the white belt part, time data (for example, October 15, 2001, 20:10, hour 00 hour 50 minutes, broadcast station, 00 television) is displayed. In the timeline 72, a portion related to the white belt portion is displayed as a white belt, and the other portions are displayed in gray. This makes it possible to understand the relationship between the acquired metadata and the media data to be viewed.

[Second Embodiment]
Next, a second embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG.

  In the example of FIG. 11, a plurality of bulletin boards are provided for each piece of media data (or for each scene), and the bulletin board data can be searched and acquired and combined with the media data for viewing. .

  The written content (message) of the bulletin board is stored in the bulletin board data storage unit 24 provided in the server 20. The message data to each bulletin board is arranged along the temporal flow of the media data, not the order of writing. For example, when the media data of the baseball broadcast of the G team versus the T team of O month × day is stored in the media data storage unit 15, the bulletin board data is searched. It is displayed on the viewing part 16 according to the progress of the baseball game.

  FIG. 12 shows an example of a screen for viewing the matched media data and bulletin board data as metadata. Messages on the bulletin board are sequentially displayed on the metadata content display unit 402 along the time flow of the media data.

  Also, as shown in FIG. 12, the viewer can write on the bulletin board while viewing this message. When writing content is input to the writing field 81A of the message input unit 81 and the transmission button 81B is pressed, the writing data is associated with the time data of the media data being browsed when the transmission button 81B is pressed, The message information is written in a bulletin board corresponding to the time data among a plurality of bulletin boards (for example, bulletin boards for each scene). In this way, a bulletin board is prepared for each scene of media data, and a corresponding bulletin board is automatically selected based on the above-described time data. Of course, it is also possible to configure the viewer to select a bulletin board to be written.

  FIG. 13 shows another display form of the contents of the bulletin board. In this example, messages M1, M2, M3... Are displayed together with their time data and thumbnails SN1, SN2,. This display order may be a writing order or an order along the temporal flow of media data. When the displayed message M1, M2, M3... Is clicked, if the viewer has media data related to the message, the media data is read from the media data storage unit 15 and played back. . At the time of this reproduction, as in FIG. 12, the messages on the bulletin board may be displayed in order along the temporal flow of the media data. The FAQ collection included in the bulletin board data may be displayed on the media data display unit 31 so that it can be referred to as appropriate.

  In addition, the contents of the bulletin board can be made searchable. For example, when a viewer is watching media data and does not know the meaning of a term used in the media data, a search request can be transmitted using the term as a keyword to search for a message in the bulletin board. . At this time, the search request may be transmitted together with the search request together with time data in which a term whose meaning is unknown appears, and the search range may be narrowed down to a range of, for example, ± 5 minutes.

  Further, based on future program broadcast information included in the message on the bulletin board, the information processing unit 12 can make a recording reservation for the program. For example, as shown in FIG. 13, the comment “I am looking forward to the 00 battle from the 17th” included in the message M3 and the broadcast time data of the “00 battle from the 17th” (example: (October 17, 19:00, 2 hours, 00 television) is linked, and when this comment is clicked, the broadcast time data is automatically downloaded from the server 20. The information processing unit 12 sets a program recording reservation based on the broadcast time data.

[Third Embodiment]
Next, a third embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG.

  In this embodiment, metadata related to media data scheduled to be broadcast at a future time is searched for and displayed. As shown in FIG. 14, a search character string (eg, talent OO) is entered into the keyword input field 371 and a check request is sent to the “Broadcast schedule” check box 372 to transmit a search request.

  As a result, among the metadata related to the search character string, metadata related to a future time is preferentially searched over the time when the search request is transmitted.

  The content of the metadata as the search result is briefly shown in the metadata name display unit 373. Also, in the timeline 374, the media data corresponding to the metadata as the search result is (1) scheduled to be broadcast at a future time, or (2) already broadcasted, but already stored in the media data storage unit 15. Whether there is (3) already broadcast and not stored in the media data storage unit 15 is displayed in a gray band, a white band, and a black band, respectively.

  If the viewer wants to make a recording reservation for the program, he clicks the metadata name display portion 373 to select metadata, and then clicks a “recording reservation” icon 377. In response to this, the information processing unit 12 sets recording reservation. Thereby, the recording reservation of the program about the part displayed by the gray belt can be performed by one operation. For example, by clicking the metadata name display part 373 and selecting the metadata “Drama XX starring star Talent OO” will be selected, for example, the recording reservation for 11 dramas can be done by one operation. Can be completed. Because the metadata includes the data of each broadcast time, for example, when the first and final times are extended by 30 minutes, or when the broadcast time varies due to late-night frames, etc. You can make a recording reservation.

[Fourth Embodiment]
Next, a fourth embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. In the above embodiment, the server 20 is configured to distribute only the metadata from the metadata storage unit 23. However, in this embodiment, the media data storage unit 25 provided in the server 20 also has media data. We are trying to deliver from. However, the media data stored in the media data storage unit 25 is locked by a scramble signal so that it cannot be viewed by itself. On the other hand, the decoding information for releasing the viewing lock is incorporated in the metadata stored in the metadata storage unit 23.

  Then, the information processing unit 12 of each media data viewing apparatus 10-i has software for removing (that is, releasing the lock) the scramble signal of the media data downloaded from the media data storage unit 25 based on the decode information. Wear is incorporated. As a result, the viewer of the media data viewing apparatus 10-i can view the media data by downloading the media data and metadata as a set and removing the scramble signal by the information processing unit 12.

  With this configuration, for example, by including the latest advertisement in the metadata, each viewer can see the latest advertisement as a price for providing media data free of charge. It becomes. The latest advertisement to be displayed may be a telop displayed at the corner of the screen or a spot CM inserted between media data.

  As mentioned above, although embodiment of invention was described, this invention is not limited to these. For example, in the above, the server 20 is prepared, and the metadata created by each media data viewing apparatus 10-i is temporarily stored in the server 20 and transmitted to other media data viewing apparatuses in response to a request. A peer-to-peer system as shown in FIG. 16 can also be adopted. That is, the index server 100 simply manages the network address of each media data viewing apparatus 10-i, and transmission / reception of metadata and other data is directly performed between the media data viewing apparatuses 10-i. When searching for metadata, a search request is broadcast from one media data viewing apparatus 10-i to another media data viewing apparatus 10-i. In response to the search request, the media data viewing device 10-i holding the metadata related to the search request returns the metadata related to the search request to the media data viewing device 10-i that is the search request source. As a result, the metadata related to the search request can be searched.

  Alternatively, the index server 100 can hold index data indicating which metadata is held by which media data viewing device 10-i. In this case, the media data viewing apparatus 10-i that is the search request transmission source transmits a search request to the index server 100. The index server 100 returns the address information of the media data viewing device 10-i holding the metadata related to the search request to the media data viewing device 10-i that is the search request source. The search request source media data viewing apparatus 10-i that received the reply directly accesses the media data viewing apparatus 10-i holding the metadata related to the search request based on the address information, and downloads the metadata. can do.

It is a block diagram which shows the structure of the media data viewing-and-listening apparatus 10 which concerns on the 1st Embodiment of this invention. It is a block diagram which shows the structure of the metadata sharing system which concerns on the 1st Embodiment of this invention. It is an example of metadata. It is an example of metadata. The detail of the metadata preparation part 13 is shown. An example of the display screen in the case of transmitting a search request is shown. An example of a search result display screen when a metadata search result is obtained is shown. It is a conceptual diagram explaining the method of matching media data and metadata based on the feature-value of the image in media data. It is a conceptual diagram explaining another method of matching media data and metadata. An example of the state of a screen when media data and acquired metadata are displayed at the same time after completion of matching is shown. Another example of a metadata search result list screen is shown. It is a block diagram which shows the structure of the media data viewing-and-listening apparatus 10 which concerns on the 2nd Embodiment of this invention. An example of the viewing screen of matched media data and bulletin board data is shown. It is a figure for demonstrating another display method of bulletin board data. It is a search result display screen by the metadata sharing system which concerns on the 3rd Embodiment of this invention. It is a block diagram which shows the structure of the metadata sharing system which concerns on the 4th Embodiment of this invention. 2 shows another configuration example of a metadata sharing system.

Explanation of symbols

  DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10-i ... Media data viewing apparatus, 11 ... Communication part, 12 ... Information processing part, 13 ... Metadata production part, 14 ... Metadata storage part, 15 ... Media data storage part, 16 ... Viewing part, 20 ... Server, DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 21 ... Communication part, 22 ... Information processing part, 23 Metadata storage part, 24 ... Bulletin board data storage part, 25 ... Media data storage part, 31,231 ... Media data display part, 32 ... Annotation input / display part, 33 ... Control unit 34 ... Meta name display unit 35, 235 ... Display unit 36 ... Timeline 51 ... Network 100 ... Index server 71 71 Media data display unit 72 72 Media data timeline 73 273 373 ... Metadata name display section, 74, 374 ... Metadata timeline, 80 ... Metadata content display section, 81 ... Message input section, 200 ... time line, 377 ... recording reservation icon.

Claims (7)

A plurality of media data viewing devices as clients configured to be able to view media data together with metadata, and a server in charge of data transmission / reception between the clients,
The media data viewing device comprises:
Media data storage means for storing the media data;
Viewing means for viewing the media data;
Metadata storage means for storing the metadata;
Communication means for transmitting the metadata to the server and receiving the metadata from the server and storing the metadata in the metadata storage means;
Display means for displaying a temporal relationship between the media data and the metadata based on time data indicated by the metadata;
Search request input means for inputting a search request for the metadata to the server,
The server
Metadata storage means for storing the metadata transmitted from the media data viewing device;
Metadata search means for searching for metadata corresponding to the search request from the metadata storage means,
The metadata search means
Receiving media data stored in the media data storage means and a media data list indicating time information stored in the media data from the media data viewing device;
A metadata sharing system configured to preferentially search for metadata having a large temporal overlap with the received media data list. The media data viewing device comprises:
A character string input means for accepting input of a character string;
A search that receives search results searched based on the character string in the server and preferentially displays search results that have a large temporal overlap with the media data list from the received search results . metadata sharing system according to claim 1, characterized in that it comprises a result displaying means.   The metadata sharing system according to claim 1, wherein the media data viewing device includes metadata creation means for creating the metadata.   2. The metadata according to claim 1, wherein the server is configured to transmit a search result by the metadata search means to the media data viewing device and to select desired metadata from the search result. Shared system.   The search request input means is configured to be able to input a search request for searching for metadata related to media data scheduled to be broadcast, and the media data viewing device is based on a search result by the metadata search means. The metadata sharing system according to claim 1, configured to execute recording reservation for the media data.   The server includes creator data storage means for storing data of a creator of the metadata every time the metadata is transmitted / received between the media data viewing devices, and the search request input means includes the creator data 2. The metadata sharing system according to claim 1, wherein the metadata of the creator stored in the storage means can be preferentially included in the search request.   The metadata sharing system according to claim 6, wherein the creator data is acquired based on authentication data of the creator included in the metadata.

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