JP4930343B2 - File generation apparatus, file generation method, and program - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a file generation device, a file generation method, and a program, and more particularly, to a file generation device that generates additional data that is obtained by imaging additional information related to image data immediately before the image data to generate a data file.

  In recent years, when recording image data captured by a still camera or the like, it is common to record various information about the image data together with the image data and effectively use the recorded image data. . For example, data such as the date and time when the image data was captured is recorded together with the image data (for example, Patent Documents 1 and 2), or information acquired by the sensor at the same time as the recording is recorded. By generating keyword information, an image search based on the keyword information is enabled (for example, Patent Document 3).

  In addition, information related to data such as time information (hour / minute / second / frame) of AV (Audio Visual) data and an identifier for uniquely identifying the AV data is added to the AV data and recorded. AV data management is facilitated (for example, Non-Patent Document 1).

JP 09-307853 A Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 05-110972 JP 05-252432 A SMTPE 330M (UMID: Unique Material IDentifier) (http://www.smpte.org/home)

  However, in the above case, since various information added to the image data is electronically recorded, in order to read the information normally, a device or the like having a dedicated read function is required. If the device does not support reading of the information, the information added to the image data cannot be read, and if the information is recorded separately from the image data, the image data There is a problem that information added to the image data cannot be obtained only from the image data.

  On the other hand, in recent broadcasting station sites, it is common to insert a cover image that makes the contents of the image obvious at the beginning of the image data. For example, by switching the cover image, the screen in the broadcast program is switched. Further, in emergency shooting such as disasters, it is often performed to take a picture of an original shooting target after shooting information on a shot image such as a shooting location, time, and shooting contents by handwriting on a sheet. Therefore, even if the information added to the image data is electronically recorded as described above, if the information cannot be confirmed as an image, a cover image representing the image content can be taken again or manually created. There was a problem that had to be done.

  Therefore, the present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and an object of the present invention is to automatically insert additional information imaged immediately before image data to generate a data file. Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a new and improved file generation apparatus, file generation method, and program capable of instantaneously determining the contents of image data.

  In order to solve the above-described problem, according to an aspect of the present invention, a file generation device that generates a data file including image data, an additional information acquisition unit that acquires additional information about the image data, and additional information acquisition An additional image data generation unit that generates additional image data by converting the additional information acquired by the unit into an image, and generates the data file by inserting the additional image data generated by the additional image data generation unit immediately before the image data. An additional image data insertion unit is provided. The additional image data insertion unit may insert the additional image data at the head of the data file.

  According to such a configuration, it is possible to acquire additional information related to image data and convert it to an image, and insert the imaged additional image data immediately before the image data to generate a data file. The additional information is information capable of instantaneously determining the attribute and content of the image data, and is information detected by a sensor, information on a preset device, information input by a user, and the like. Accordingly, the user can insert additional image data indicating the content and attribute information of the image data at the head of the image data without photographing or manually creating the content and attribute information of the image data. Therefore, since the additional image data is displayed at the beginning of the reproduction of the image data, it is possible to instantaneously determine the content and attribute information of the image data only by looking at the head image of the image data. For example, when a cover image is required for screen switching in a broadcast program, additional image data is automatically generated and the screen is switched without the user creating a cover image and inserting it at the beginning of the image data. It becomes possible to use it. In addition, even during emergency shooting such as a disaster, the user can insert additional image data including the contents of the shot image such as the shooting location at the head of the shot image without manually shooting information about the shot image. It becomes.

  The data file is a structured file including a header arranged immediately before the image data and a footer arranged immediately after the image data. The additional image data insertion unit converts the additional image data into the header. The data file may be generated by inserting between the image data and the image data.

  According to this configuration, additional image data can be inserted at the beginning of image data even when a structured file is generated. The header of the structured file includes the contents of image data, attribute information, and the like, but the header information is not displayed as part of the image data. According to the above invention, the additional image data is displayed at the beginning of the reproduction of the image data even if it does not have a function of reading the header, so that the contents of the image data can be grasped instantaneously.

  The additional information storage unit stores additional information acquired by the additional information acquisition unit, and the additional image data generation unit selectively images the additional information stored in the additional information storage unit to generate an additional image. Data may be generated. Thereby, the additional information once acquired and stored in the additional information storage unit can be used again, and the additional image data can be generated more easily.

  Further, the image processing apparatus further includes an additional image data format control unit that controls the format of the additional image data based on the additional image format designation data that is the format designation data of the additional image data input from the outside. Additional image data may be generated in accordance with control by the additional image data format control unit. As a result, the additional information is imaged using the additional image format designation data, so that a stylized cover image can be automatically created and image data can be easily managed.

  The additional image data format control unit may control the additional image data generation unit to generate additional image data by converting the additional information into an image including predetermined background image data. The predetermined background image data may be a part of the image data. Further, the additional information acquired by the additional information acquisition unit may be information indicating the attribute of the image data. Further, the additional information acquired by the additional information acquisition unit may be information indicating the content of the image data. Thereby, the additional image data can include not only the character data but also a part of the background image and the image data. Therefore, the user can instantly grasp the contents of the image data from the additional image data.

  The additional information is stored in the additional information storage unit as an XML document, the additional image format designation data is held in the additional image format designation data holding unit as a CSS document, and the additional image data generation unit is responsive to the designation of the CSS document. The additional information shown in the XML document may be superimposed on a predetermined background image after formatting. With this configuration, the additional information can be imaged according to the format specified by the additional image format specification data. Accordingly, it is possible to automatically create a stylized cover image, and management of image data becomes easy.

  In order to solve the above problem, according to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a file generation method for generating a data file including image data, the step of acquiring additional information related to the image data, A method of generating a file, comprising: generating additional image data by imaging the additional information; and generating a data file by inserting the generated additional image data immediately before the image data. Is provided.

  In order to solve the above problem, according to another aspect of the present invention, a computer is a file generation device that generates a data file including image data, and acquires additional information related to image data. An additional image data generation unit that generates additional image data by imaging additional information acquired by the additional information acquisition unit, and additional image data generated by the additional image data generation unit is inserted immediately before the image data. Thus, a program is provided for functioning as a file generation device including an additional image data insertion unit that generates a data file.

  Such a program can cause a hardware resource of a computer including, for example, a CPU, a ROM, a RAM, and the like to execute a function such as generation of additional image data as described above. That is, it is possible to cause a computer using the program to function as the above-described file generation device.

  As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to instantaneously determine the content of image data by generating a data file by inserting additional information imaged immediately before the image data.

  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.

  First, the object of the embodiment of the present invention will be described. Conventionally, when image data is used at a broadcasting station or the like, a cover image is inserted immediately before the image data so that the contents of the image data are obvious. The cover image is information relating to image data such as the shooting date and time and the shooting location of the image data, and a screen switching operation or the like in a broadcast program is performed using the cover image. Such information on image data can be electronically added to the image data when the data file is generated. However, the information about the electronically added image data cannot be read unless it is a device that supports reading of the information. If the information is recorded separately from the image data, the information added to the image data cannot be obtained from the image data alone.

  In view of the above circumstances, the file generation apparatus 10 according to the embodiment of the present invention has been created. According to the file generation apparatus 10 according to the present embodiment, it is possible to generate the data file by inserting the additional information imaged immediately before the image data, and to instantaneously determine the content of the image data. Hereinafter, the configuration and operation of the file generation apparatus 10 will be described in detail.

  In the present embodiment, the file generation device 10 is configured as a separate device from a photographing device such as a still camera for photographing image data and a recording medium for recording the generated data file. However, the present invention is limited to this example. Not. For example, the file generation device 10 may be configured integrally with the imaging device, or the file generation device, the imaging device, and the recording medium may also be configured as an integral unit. In the present embodiment, the image data is shot by a shooting device separate from the file generation device 10, and the generated data file is recorded on a recording medium separate from the file generation device 10.

  Next, based on FIG. 1, the structure of the file production | generation apparatus 10 concerning embodiment of this invention is demonstrated. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a functional configuration of a file generation apparatus 10 according to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 1, the file generation device 10 includes an additional information acquisition unit 102, an additional image data generation unit 104, an additional image data format control unit 106, an additional information storage unit 108, and an additional image data insertion unit. 110 and the like.

  The additional information acquisition unit 102 has a function of acquiring additional information regarding image data. The image data may be a captured image captured with a still camera or the like, or an image recorded on a recording medium. The acquired additional information may be information indicating the attribute of the image data or information indicating the content of the image data. For example, the additional information may be information related to image data, and may be information detected by a sensor included in the file generation apparatus 10 or the imaging apparatus, or a device preset in the file generation apparatus 10 or the imaging apparatus. It may be information or information input by a photographer.

  Additional information that can be detected by the sensor includes date / time, latitude, longitude, altitude information using GPS (Global Positioning System), temperature / humidity information using temperature / humidity sensor, gyro sensor and geomagnetic sensor. For example, information on the camera direction. In addition, device information set in advance includes initial settings of the camera (exposure, aperture, F value, depth of field, shutter speed, ISO sensitivity, filter, white balance, etc.), device model name, and photographer name. Etc.

  Additional information input by the photographer includes a title representing the contents of the image data, an outline of the image data, a memo, a shooting location, and copyright information. For the input of additional information by the photographer, an input means provided in the photographing apparatus or the like may be used. For example, when the photographing apparatus is provided with an input key (qwrty key, 10 key, etc.), additional information can be input using the input key. Further, additional information may be input by reading a preset vocabulary file and selecting the corresponding vocabulary. Further, the additional information may be input by recognizing a voice input by a microphone or the like and converting it into text data. The additional information acquisition unit 102 provides the acquired additional information to the additional image data generation unit 104. Further, the acquired additional information is stored in the additional information storage unit 108.

  The additional information storage unit 108 has a function of storing additional information acquired by the additional information acquisition unit 102, and includes, for example, an EEPROM (Electrically Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory) and an EPROM (Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory). Memory, magnetic disks such as hard disks and disk-type magnetic disks, CD-R (Compact Disc Recordable) / RW (ReWritable), DVD-R (Digital Versatile Disc Recordable) / RW / + R / + RW / RAM (Random) Access Memory) and BD (Blu-ray Disc) R)) - optical disk or the like R / BD-RE, may be a storage medium such as a MO (Magneto Optical) disk.

  The additional information stored in the additional information storage unit 108 may be stored according to a predetermined format. For example, the additional information can be stored in the additional information storage unit 108 as an XML document. FIG. 2 shows an example in which the additional information stored in the additional information storage unit 108 is stored as an XML document. The additional information 300 stored as an XML document shown in FIG. 2 is a markup language that can be used by the additional image data generation unit 104 described later. For example, in the XML document 300 of FIG. 2, shooting date information is set in a <Date Time> tag 302, shooting location information is set in a <Place> tag 304, and photographer information is a <Creator> tag 306. The camera device information is set in a <Camera> tag 308, and the copyright information is set in a <CopyRight> tag 310.

  Returning to FIG. 1, the additional image data generation unit 104 has a function of generating additional image data by imaging the additional information acquired by the additional information acquisition unit 102. As described above, the additional information acquired by the additional information acquisition unit 102 is character information such as an XML document. By converting the character information into an image, the contents of the image data can be instantaneously determined from the image.

  Further, the additional image data generation unit 104 has a function of selectively imaging additional information stored in the additional information storage unit 108 to generate additional image data. As described above, the additional information storage unit 108 stores various types of additional information related to image data. However, all of the additional information corresponding to the image data may be imaged, or the additional information corresponding to the image data may be added. A part of the information may be imaged. The additional information may be selected by user input, or the additional information may be selected according to the content of the image data.

  An example of a method for generating additional image data by the additional image data generation unit 104 will be described. The additional image data generation unit 104 selects the background of the additional image, selects the drawing format of the additional image, and generates additional image data. For example, a standard standard background may be selected as the background of the additional image, a predetermined image file may be selected by the user, or a predetermined frame of image data may be selected. May be. When a predetermined frame of image data is selected, a user-desired frame may be designated by a frame number, or may be set in advance so as to designate a head frame.

  The drawing format of the additional image may be a preset default format or a style definition document such as CSS (Cascading Style Sheets). Generation of additional image data using CSS will be described in detail later. The generated additional image data may be directly provided to the additional image data insertion unit 110 or may be stored in a storage unit such as a memory provided in the file generation device 10. Then, the additional image data generation unit 104 encodes the generated additional image data or the additional image data stored in the storage unit based on the same encoding method as that of the image data, and provides the additional image data insertion unit 110 with the encoded image data. .

  Further, the additional image data generation unit 104 may control the format of the additional image data by the additional image data format control unit 106 described later when generating the additional image data. The additional image data format control unit 106 has a function of controlling the format of the additional image data based on the format specifying data of the additional image data input from the outside (hereinafter referred to as additional image format specifying data 20). Specifically, the additional image data format control unit 106 controls the additional image data generation unit 104 so that the additional information is imaged including predetermined background image data to generate additional image data. Also good. The file generation apparatus 10 further includes an additional image format designation data holding unit (not shown) that holds the additional image format designation data 20 so as to hold the additional image format designation data 20 input from the outside. May be. In this case, the additional image data format control unit 106 can control the format of the additional image data based on the additional image format designation data 20 held in the additional image format designation data holding unit.

  The additional image data format control function performed by the additional image data format control unit 106 will be described with reference to FIGS. FIG. 3 is an example of additional image format designation data 20 used for format control of additional image data. The format designation data of the additional image data shown in FIG. 3 is a style definition document such as CSS, for example, and designates a display format when the additional information stored in the XML document is imaged.

  In the additional image format designation data 20, a background image for imaging the additional information, a character style of the additional information, a layout position of each information, a heading of each information are set. Can be. For example, the background image can be set to use a background image “frame0.gif” which is an image file designated by the user. Also, the date set by the <DateTime> tag of the XML document shown in FIG. 2 is set to be displayed after the display character “Date:”, or the shooting set by the <Place> tag of the XML document. The location can be set to be displayed after the display character “Place:”. As described above, the additional information is imaged using the additional image format designation data 20, so that a stylized cover image can be automatically created and image data can be easily managed.

  The additional image data format control unit 106 controls the generation of additional image data by the additional image data generation unit 104 using the additional image format designation data 20, and the additional image data as shown in FIG. 4 is generated. FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an example of additional image data generated by the additional image data generation unit. As described above, the background image may be a part of the image data. In FIG. 4, the additional information shown in the XML document is formatted and superposed on a predetermined image so that it can be displayed.

  Returning to FIG. 1, the additional image data generation unit 104 provides the generated additional image data to the additional image data insertion unit 110. The additional image data insertion unit 110 has a function of generating a data file by inserting the additional image data provided by the additional image data generation unit 104 immediately before the image data 30. The image data 30 may be recorded on a storage medium provided in the file generation apparatus 10 or may be recorded on a recording medium separate from the file generation apparatus 10. Further, the file generation device 10 may be provided with a shooting function to generate a data file including the image data 30, or the file generation device 10 and the shooting device may be connected to capture the image data 30. Also good.

  The image data 30 may be a data file containing only image data or a data file structured by adding a header / footer to the image data. First, the function of the additional image data insertion unit 110 when the image data 30 is a data file containing only image data will be described.

  When a data file containing only image data is recorded on a recording medium, first, the recorded data file is opened. Then, the pointer is moved to the head of the data file. The additional image data generated by the additional image data generation unit 104 is written at the head of the data file indicated by the pointer. Thereafter, by closing the data file, a data file in which the additional image data is inserted immediately before the image data is generated.

  When inserting additional image data into a structured data file, first, a header / footer of the data file is generated. Then, the additional image data is connected to the head of the file body that is the image data. Further, by connecting the header / footer of the generated data file to the file body to which the additional image data is connected, a data file in which the additional image data is inserted immediately before the image data is generated. As an example of the structured data file, an MXF (Material Exchange Format) file can be exemplified. When the data file is an MXF file, the data structure, the function of the file generation device 10, and the file generation method will be described in detail later.

  The functional configuration of the file generation device 10 has been described above. Next, a file generation method in the file generation apparatus 10 will be described. FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing a file generation method of the file generation apparatus 10 according to the present embodiment. As shown in FIG. 5, first, additional information related to image data is acquired (S102). As described above, the additional information acquired in step S102 may be information indicating the attribute of the image data or information indicating the content of the image data. In the file generation device 10 according to the present embodiment, the image capturing device that captures image data and the recording device that records image data are separate devices. However, when the image generation device and the recording device are mounted on the file generation device 10. In step S102, image data may be generated or recorded before additional information is acquired. In addition, after acquiring additional information in step S102, image data may be generated or recorded.

  The additional information acquired in step S102 is stored in the additional information storage unit 108 (S104). The additional information acquired in step S102 may be stored in the additional information storage unit 108 in step S104, or may be provided to the additional image data generation unit 104 without storage to generate additional image data. . In addition, a part of the acquired additional information may be stored, or the whole may be stored.

  The additional information acquired in step S102 or the additional information stored in step S104 is imaged to generate additional image data (S106). The additional information to be imaged in step S106 may be all of the additional information acquired in step S102 or stored in step S104, or may be a part of the additional information. Further, additional information to be imaged may be selected in accordance with user input.

  The additional image data imaged in step S106 is inserted immediately before the image data to generate a data file (S108). The image data used in step S108 may be a data file containing only image data, or may be a data file structured by adding a header / footer to the image data. The generation of the data file performed in step S108 is omitted because it is as described above. The file generation method in the file generation apparatus 10 has been described above.

  As described above, according to the present embodiment, it is possible to acquire additional information related to image data to form an image, and to insert the imaged additional image data immediately before the image data to generate a data file. Accordingly, the user can insert additional image data indicating the content and attribute information of the image data at the head of the image data without photographing or manually creating the content and attribute information of the image data. Therefore, since the additional image data is displayed at the beginning of the reproduction of the image data, it is possible to instantaneously determine the content and attribute information of the image data simply by looking at the head image of the image data. For example, when a cover image is required for screen switching in a broadcast program, additional image data is automatically generated and the screen is switched without the user creating a cover image and inserting it at the beginning of the image data. It becomes possible to use it. In addition, even during emergency shooting such as in a disaster, additional image data including the contents of the shot image such as the shooting location can be inserted at the top of the shot image without the user manually shooting information about the shot image. It becomes.

  Next, a data structure, a function of the file generation device 50, and a file generation method when the data file to be generated is an MXF file will be described with reference to FIGS. FIG. 6 shows a standard AV multiplex format which is an example of a file format of a data file (MXF file).

Here, in FIG. 6, MPEG (Moving) called D10 is used as video data and audio data arranged in the file body 404.
FIG. 4 shows a standard AV multiplex format when video data encoded according to the Picture Experts Group (IMX) format and uncompressed audio data in AES (Audio Engineering Society) 3 format are respectively employed.

In addition, video data and audio data of various formats such as DV (Digital Video) can be arranged in the body. A standard AV multiplex format file starts with a header (File
A header 402, a file body 404, and a footer 406 are sequentially arranged.

In the header 402, the header partition pack (Header
Partition Pack), header metadata (Header Metadata), and index table (Index Table) are sequentially arranged. In the header partition pack, data for specifying the header, data format arranged in the body, information indicating a file format, and the like are arranged. In the header metadata, for example, metadata in units of files such as a file creation date and information related to data arranged in the body is arranged. In the index table, a table representing the position of an edit unit, which will be described later, is arranged in the body.

Here, as the metadata, a time code attached to each frame or the like for a video file, UMID (Unique)
Material Identifier), GPS (Global Positioning System) information indicating the position where the image was taken by the video camera, date and time (year, month, day, hour, minute, second) when the image was taken, ARIB (Association)
of Radio Industries and Businesses) metadata, setting / control information of the video camera on which the image was taken, and the like. Note that ARIB metadata is standardized by ARIB and is an SDI (Serial).
This metadata is superimposed on a standard communication interface such as Digital Interface. The video camera setting / control information includes, for example, IRIS (iris) control values, white balance / black balance modes, lens information regarding lens zoom and focus, and the like.

  Note that the index table is optional and may or may not be included in the header. In addition to the index table, various optional data can be arranged in the header.

  The footer is composed of a footer partition pack, and data for specifying the footer is arranged in the footer partition pack. The body is composed of one or more edit units. An edit unit is a unit of one frame, in which AV data and the like for one frame are arranged.

  In other words, the edit unit is configured from the top by arranging a system item (Picture Item), a picture item (Picture Item), a sound item (Sound Item), and an auxiliary item (Auxiliary Item).

  In the system item, metadata (frame unit metadata) about a frame of video data arranged in a subsequent picture item is arranged. Here, examples of the metadata in units of frames include a time code. One frame of video data is arranged in the picture item. In FIG. 6, the above-described D10 format video data is arranged. Audio data corresponding to the one frame is arranged in the sound item. Further, in the auxiliary item, data that cannot be arranged in the system item among data that is neither video data nor audio data is arranged.

  The data structure of the MXF file has been described above. In the present embodiment, the additional image data is inserted immediately before the file body 404 that is image data. That is, the additional image data is inserted between the file header 402 and the file body 404 as one frame of the file body, and a data file is generated.

  In this way, the structured file includes the content (the shooting date and time, the shooting location, etc.) and the attribute information (video camera setting information, etc.) of the body 404 as image data in the header 402. However, since the information of the header 402 is not displayed as part of the image data, the contents of the header 402 cannot be grasped unless a device having a function capable of reading the header 402 is used. On the other hand, by adding the additional image data according to the present embodiment to the head of the image data (body 404), when the image data is reproduced, the additional image data is displayed first. The additional information included in the additional image data may be the same information as the header 402, or a part of the information in the header 402 may be used.

  Next, based on FIG. 7, the functional configuration of the file generation device 50 when the data file to be generated is an MXF file will be described. FIG. 7 is a block diagram illustrating a functional configuration of the file generation device 50.

  As shown in FIG. 7, the file generation device 50 includes an AV data acquisition unit 502, an additional information acquisition unit 503, an additional image data generation unit 504, an additional information storage unit 505, an encoding unit 506, a file body. A generation unit 508, a control unit 510, a file header / footer generation unit 512, a storage unit 514, an MXF generation unit 516, and the like are included.

  The AV data acquisition unit 502 has a function of acquiring AV data serving as image data and providing it to the encoding unit 506. The additional information acquisition unit 503 has the same function as the additional information acquisition unit of the file generation device 10 described above, and the additional image data generation unit 504 is the same as the additional image data generation unit 104 of the file generation device 10 described above. The additional information storage unit 505 has a function similar to that of the additional information storage unit 108 of the file generation apparatus 10 described above, and a description thereof will be omitted. AV data acquired by the AV data acquisition unit 502 and additional image data generated by the additional image data generation unit 504 are provided to the encoding unit 506.

  The encoding unit 506 has a function of compressing and encoding a still image, compresses and encodes the input moving image signal for each frame, and supplies the generated encoded code stream for each frame to the file body generation unit 13. In the encoding unit 506, the AV data provided by the AV data acquisition unit 502 and the additional image data provided by the additional image data generation unit 504 are compression encoded.

  The control unit 510 mainly controls the file header / footer generation unit 512 and the file body generation unit 508. The control unit 510 supplies the size information of the encoded code stream and other information related to the compression method to the file header generation unit 512.

  The file header / footer generation unit 512 has a function of generating a file header and a file footer of the MXF file. Prior to encoding by the encoding unit 506, a file header of the MXF file is provisionally generated. In this tentative generation, only the format and other compression information determined at the time are filed. When the size information of the encoded code stream for one frame or a predetermined number of frames is supplied from the control unit 510, the file header / footer generation unit 512 records the information in the file header and updates the file header. . That is, the entity of the file header exists as a file on a hard disk (not shown), for example, and the file header / footer generation unit 512 updates this file as needed.

  Specifically, the file header / footer generation unit 512 sets, for example, information for identifying the JPEG2000 system in accordance with “Annex-D D2.1 Generic Picture Essence Descriptor” of the MXF format standard (SMPTE 377M). Describe in.

  When the encoding unit 506 finishes encoding all the frames, the file header / footer generation unit 512 determines the contents of the file header and the file footer, and converts the data in the file header / footer generation unit 512 into the MXF generation unit. 516.

  The storage unit 514 has a function of storing size information of the encoded code stream of each frame until encoding of all the frames is completed.

  The file body generation unit 508 records the encoded code stream supplied from the encoding unit 506 in the file body for each frame. When the encoding unit 506 finishes encoding all frames, the file body generation unit 508 stores the encoded code stream in the file body generation unit 508. Data is supplied to the MXF generation unit 516. When data is supplied from the file header / footer generation unit 512 and the file body generation unit 508, the MXF generation unit 516 generates and outputs a final MXF file.

  The functional configuration of the file generation device 50 has been described above. Next, a file generation method in the file generation device 50 will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing a file generation method in the file generation apparatus 50. First, preparation for generating a file header and metadata is made (S202). Specifically, file initialization, template generation, and the like are performed.

  Next, AV data (uncompressed) is generated (S204). AV data is generated by taking an image with a photographing apparatus or reading an image recorded on a recording medium. Then, the AV data generated in step S204 is encoded (compressed) (S206). Examples of the encoding performed in step S206 include MPEG (Moving Picture Experts Group), JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group), DV (Digital Video), and the like.

  Then, the AV data encoded in step S206 is superimposed, wrapped, added to an existing file body (append), etc. (S208). Thereafter, the file header and metadata generation information are updated (S210). Next, it is determined whether shooting has been completed (S212). If it is determined in step S212 that shooting has not been completed, the processing in steps S204 to S210 is repeated. If it is determined in step S212 that shooting has been completed, the process of step S214 is performed.

  If it is determined in step S212 that shooting has been completed, generation and recording of confirmed metadata and generation of additional image data are performed (S214). Then, the additional image data generated in step S214 is encoded (compressed) (S216). The additional image data encoded in step S216 is inserted at the head of the file body (S218). Then, the file header and footer are determined (S220), and the MXF file is synthesized (S222).

  The file generation method in the file generation apparatus 50 has been described above. According to the file generation device 50, even when a structured file is generated, additional image data can be inserted at the head of the image data. The header of the structured file includes the contents of image data, attribute information, and the like, but the header information is not displayed as part of the image data. According to the file generation device 50 according to the present embodiment, additional image data is displayed at the beginning of the reproduction of the image data, so that the contents of the image data can be grasped instantly even if the file generation device 50 does not have a function of reading the header. it can.

  The preferred embodiments of the present invention have been described in detail above with reference to the accompanying drawings, but the present invention is not limited to such examples. It is obvious that a person having ordinary knowledge in the technical field to which the present invention pertains can come up with various changes or modifications within the scope of the technical idea described in the claims. Of course, it is understood that these also belong to the technical scope of the present invention.

  For example, in the above embodiment, the additional image data is inserted at the head of the image data, but the present invention is not limited to such an example. For example, the additional image data may be added to the end of the image data, or the additional image data may be inserted into a predetermined portion of the image data in response to a user request.

It is a block diagram which shows the structure of the file production | generation apparatus concerning embodiment of this invention. It is explanatory drawing explaining an example of the XML document memorize | stored in the additional information storage part concerning the embodiment. It is explanatory drawing explaining an example of the format specification data of the additional image data concerning the embodiment. It is explanatory drawing explaining an example of the additional image data concerning the embodiment. It is a flowchart which shows the file production | generation method concerning this embodiment. It is explanatory drawing explaining an example of the file format of the MXF file concerning an example of this embodiment. It is a functional lineblock diagram of the file generation device which generates the MXF file concerning an example of this embodiment. It is a flowchart which shows the file generation method of the MXF file concerning an example of this embodiment.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10, 50 File generation apparatus 20 Additional image format designation | designated data 30 Image data 102 Additional information acquisition part 104 Additional image data generation part 106 Additional image data format control part 108 Additional information storage part 110 Additional image data insertion part

Claims (10)

A file generation device that generates a data file containing image data:
The data file is a structured file including a header arranged immediately before the image data and a footer arranged immediately after the image data,
An additional information acquisition unit that acquires additional information related to the image data;
An additional image data generation unit that images additional information acquired by the additional information acquisition unit to generate additional image data;
Said additional image data generated by the additional image data generating unit, and said insert immediately before the image data when the completion of the generation of the image data, additional image data insertion unit for generating said data file;
Equipped with a,
The file generation device , wherein the additional image data generation unit generates the additional image data by imaging the additional information similar to the additional information recorded in the header . An additional information storage unit that stores additional information acquired by the additional information acquisition unit;
The additional image data generation unit
The additional information selectively imaging the additional information stored in the storage unit that generates the additional image data file generation device according to claim 1. An additional image format designation data holding unit for holding additional image format designation data for designating the format of the additional image data input from the outside is further provided, and the format of the additional image data is determined based on the additional image format designation data. An additional image data format control unit for controlling,
The additional image data generating unit that generates the additional image data in accordance with control by the additional image data formatting unit, file generation device according to claim 2. The additional image data format control unit
The additional image data generation unit, the additional information, that controls so as to generate the additional image data by imaging, including a predetermined background image data file generation device according to claim 3. It said predetermined background image data, Ru portion der of the image data, file generation device according to claim 4. Wherein the additional information obtained by the additional information acquiring unit, Ru information der indicating an attribute of the image data, file generation device according to claim 1. Wherein the additional information obtained by the additional information acquiring unit, Ru information der showing the contents of the image data, file generation device according to claim 1. The additional information is stored in the additional information storage unit as an XML document, the additional image format designation data is held in the additional image format designation data holding unit as a CSS document,
The additional image data generating unit in accordance with the specification of the CSS document, you superimpose on the formatting the additional information provided in the XML document to a predetermined background image, according to claim 3 file Generator. A file generation method for generating a data file containing image data:
The data file is a structured file including a header arranged immediately before the image data and a footer arranged immediately after the image data,
Obtaining additional information relating to the image data;
Imaging the acquired additional information to generate additional image data;
An additional image data the generated and inserted immediately before the image data upon completion of generation of the image data, and generating the data file;
Only including,
The file generation method , wherein the additional image data inserted immediately before the image data is obtained by imaging the additional information similar to the additional information recorded in the header . A program for causing a computer to function as a file generation device that generates a data file including image data,
The data file is a structured file including a header arranged immediately before the image data and a footer arranged immediately after the image data,
On the computer,
An additional information acquisition function for acquiring additional information related to the image data;
An additional image data generation function for generating additional image data by imaging the additional information acquired by the additional information acquisition function ;
It said additional image data generated by the additional image data generating function, the inserted immediately before the image data when the completion of the generation of the image data, and the additional image data insertion function to generate the data file;
Realized,
A program for imaging the additional information similar to the additional information recorded in the header as the additional image data inserted immediately before the image data .

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