JP5004745B2 - Moving picture playback apparatus, control method thereof, and program thereof - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a method for reproducing a moving image.

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, there has been known an image transmission apparatus that transfers image data captured by a digital camera having a communication function or a camera-equipped mobile phone to an image storage server via a public line (see Patent Document 1). According to this apparatus, even when the memory of the digital camera or camera-equipped mobile phone is full of image data, the image data can be transferred to the server to make a space in the memory.
JP-A-11-146224

  When moving image data is to be transmitted, it is necessary for the transmitting apparatus not only to secure a large-capacity empty area but also to shorten a delay time until the moving image data is read and reproduction is started.

  SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide an image reproducing apparatus capable of quickly reproducing moving image data.

In order to achieve the above-described object, a moving image playback apparatus that is connected to a storage server via a network and plays back moving image data, an acquisition unit that acquires moving image data, and the first and the acquisition units acquired by the acquisition unit Of the moving image data including the second period, storage means for storing the moving image data of the first period in the previous reproduction order, and the moving image data including the second period as the moving image data of the first period Associating and transmitting means for transmitting the associated moving image data including the second period to the storage server, and the moving image data of the second period associated with the moving image data of the first period in the first period and request means for requesting the video data to the storage server during reproduction, the moving image data stored the first period in said storage means, said storage server in response to a request by said request means A video data signal and said second time period and a reproducing means for reproducing in accordance with the reproduction order.

  The image transmitting apparatus according to the present invention stores a part of moving image data among moving image data to be transferred to an external device in a memory, so that a delay time when starting reproduction of moving image data can be shortened. .

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

<Embodiment 1>
The configuration of the imaging apparatus that functions as the moving image reproduction apparatus of Embodiment 1 will be described with reference to FIGS. 1 and 3. In FIG. 3, an imaging device 301 is a digital camera that acquires moving image data. The imaging device 301 is connected to the storage server 303 via the network 302. The storage server 303 includes a large capacity memory 304.

  FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating an internal configuration of the imaging apparatus 301.

  In FIG. 1, the imaging unit 101 includes an imaging element for acquiring moving image data. The encoding unit 102 encodes the acquired moving image data. In this embodiment, MPEG-2 is assumed as an encoding method, but the present invention is not limited to this. For example, Motion-JPEG and H.264. It may be encoded by an encoding method such as H.264. Further, the moving image data may be output as it is without encoding.

  The storage control unit 103 stores some moving image data in the moving image data in the memory 104 based on an instruction from the storage instruction unit 105. The memory 104 is a memory that stores moving image data. The memory 104 may be a removable storage medium or may be a built-in memory.

  The transfer unit 106 transfers the moving image data to the storage server 303 that is a storage device via the network 302. The moving image data transferred to the network and some moving image data stored in the memory 104 are associated with each other by adding the same identifier.

  The receiving unit 107 receives moving image data transmitted from the storage server 303 via the network 302. The receiving unit 107 includes a reception buffer for temporarily holding moving image data transmitted from the accumulation server 303.

  The reproduction control unit 108 reads a part of moving image data from the memory 104 when a reproduction instruction is given from the instruction unit 105. Further, the playback control unit 108 issues a read command of moving image data having the same identifier as a part of moving image data to the storage server 303 and receives moving image data from the receiving unit 107.

  The storage control unit 103 and the reproduction control unit 108 are configured by a control device such as a CPU as hardware. The control device operates based on a program stored in a computer-readable storage medium such as a RAM.

  The decoding unit 109 decodes the moving image data output from the reproduction control unit 108. The display unit 110 reproduces / displays the decoded moving image data.

  Here, components of the moving image data will be described. As shown in FIG. 12, the moving image data is composed of units of sequence, GOP (Group Of Picture), picture, and slice. A sequence is a series of moving image data (GOP (Group Of Picture)) from the start to the end of shooting. A GOP (Group Of Picture) is an element constituting a sequence, and is composed of a plurality of pictures. In FIG. 12, I represents an intra-frame coded picture, P represents a forward prediction coded picture, and B represents a bidirectional predictive coded picture. In general, a GOP is a series of pictures divided by intra-frame coded pictures, and is a unit that allows random access to moving image data. A picture is composed of one or more slices. H. In H.264, there is no moving image data component called GOP. However, as shown in FIG. 13, a series of pictures divided by IDR (Instantaneous Decoding Refresh) pictures are handled as GOPs.

  Next, the operation of the imaging apparatus according to the present embodiment will be described in detail.

  When the storage control unit 103 receives an instruction from the storage instruction unit 105, the storage control unit 103 stores the designated number of GOPs in the memory 104 from the beginning of the sequence of the target moving image data. For example, the storage instruction unit 105 may specify the number of pictures instead of the GOP to the storage control unit 103. Further, the transfer unit 106 transfers the target moving image data to the storage server 303. The GOP or picture stored in the memory 104 may or may not be transferred to the storage server 303.

  As for the timing for starting the transfer, the transfer unit 106 may transfer the image during shooting, or may start the transfer after the shooting ends. When the transfer unit 106 starts transfer after shooting is completed, the storage control unit 103 temporarily stores all GOPs or pictures in the memory 104. Then, after the transfer by the transfer unit 106 is started, the storage control unit 103 deletes the transferred GOP or picture from the memory.

  Next, the moving image data reproduction process of the imaging apparatus 301 will be described using the flowchart shown in FIG.

  When the reproduction control unit 108 is instructed to reproduce a sequence (moving image data) selected from the outside, the reproduction control unit 108 first reads GOPs constituting a part of the corresponding sequence from the memory 104 in the order of reproduction. Further, the reproduction control unit 108 outputs the moving image data to the decoding unit 109 for reproduction on the display unit 110 (S201).

  Next, the playback control unit 108 determines whether or not to end playback (S202). Specifically, the playback control unit 108 determines whether all GOPs stored in the memory 104 constituting the sequence have been output to the decoding unit 109 or whether an instruction to interrupt playback has been issued by the user. . When any one of the conditions is satisfied, the reproduction control unit 108 ends the moving image data reproduction process (YES in S202).

  If the moving image data reproduction process is not terminated (NO in S202), the process proceeds to S203. The playback control unit 108 determines whether or not the status of moving image data that has not been read from the memory and is not played back is a predetermined condition (S203). For example, the playback control unit 108 determines whether the number of GOPs that have not been read from the memory is M or less. As a specific calculation method of the numerical value M, for example, a method of calculating based on the number of GOPs decoded in the time from when a transmission request is output to the storage server 303 to when the receiving unit 107 receives data can be considered. . Alternatively, the calculation may be performed based on the capacity of a reception buffer not shown in FIG. Furthermore, M may be the number of all GOPs constituting the sequence. In this case, a transmission request is output to the storage server 303 immediately after the reproduction control unit 108 reads the first GOP of the sequence from the memory 104.

  If the number of GOPs not yet read from the memory 104 is not less than M (NO in S203), the playback control unit 108 performs the process of S201 again. If not (YES in S203), the playback control unit 108 requests the storage server 303 to transmit a GOP (S204). Specifically, the reproduction control unit 108 outputs a GOP transmission request not stored in the memory 104 to the accumulation server 303.

  As a GOP transmission request to the storage server 303, the playback control unit 108 transmits GOPs in order from the GOP stored in the memory 304 that is not stored in the memory 104 and that has the earliest playback order. Make a request to For example, when the moving image data of GOP1 to GOP3 is stored in the memory 104 in the sequence composed of GOP1 to GOP10, the moving image data is received from the accumulation server 303 in order from GOP4 following GOP3. become. Note that the GOP, which is moving image data stored in the memory 104 and the storage server 303, is associated with information on the playback order, and the information is also stored. The playback control unit 108 can make a GOP request based on the associated information.

  The playback control unit 108 determines whether or not all GOPs stored in the memory 104 have been read (S205). If all the GOPs have not yet been read, the process of S201 is performed again. If all GOPs have been read from the memory 104 (YES in S205), the playback control unit 108 receives the GOP from the receiving unit 107, outputs it to the decoding unit 109 (S206), and performs the process of S202 again.

  Note that the playback control unit 108 may read moving image data in units of pictures or slices instead of in units of GOPs, or a transmission request may be issued.

  As described above, the image capturing apparatus according to the present embodiment transfers the moving image data to the storage server, so that the user can shoot without worrying about the remaining memory capacity. In addition, since the moving image data at the beginning of the sequence is stored in a memory built in the image pickup apparatus having a data read delay shorter than that of the storage server, it can be quickly reproduced when the user instructs to start reproduction. . Furthermore, since the moving image data in the first half of the sequence is stored in the memory, if the user ends the reproduction halfway, data transmission on the network may not occur during reproduction of the moving image data.

<Embodiment 2>
The second embodiment will be described with reference to FIGS. 4 and 5.

  In FIG. 4, an imaging device 401 is a camera that acquires a moving image. The moving image reproduction device 406 is composed of a general-purpose personal computer (PC) or the like, and has a function of reproducing moving image data. The camera 401 is connected to the moving image playback device 406 via the network 402. The moving image playback device 406 is connected to a storage server 403 that is a storage device via a network 402. The accumulation server 403 includes a large-capacity memory 404.

  FIG. 5 is a block diagram illustrating the internal configuration of the camera 401 and the moving image playback device 406. In FIG. 5, a PC 505 is an information processing apparatus having a computer-readable memory for storing a program for executing the moving image playback apparatus 406 and a controller for executing the program. The PC 505 receives moving image data from the camera 401 via the network 402, stores the received moving image data in an HDD (Hard Disk Drive) 507, and displays it on the monitor 506. Note that the memory 507 may be a flash memory instead of the HDD.

  The imaging unit 501 is configured by an imaging element or the like. The encoding unit 502 encodes the moving image data obtained by the imaging unit 501. The output unit 503 outputs the moving image data to the moving image reproduction device 406 via the network 402.

  A control unit 504 controls the entire imaging apparatus 401. For example, the imaging device 401 is controlled in response to various instructions such as shooting start, shooting end, pan / tilt / zoom, and the like from the moving image playback device 406 via the network 402.

  Next, the operation of the moving image playback device 406 will be described in detail. When accepting an operation for starting shooting from an input device (not shown), the moving image reproducing device 406 issues an instruction to start shooting to the imaging device 401.

  In response to an instruction from the moving image reproduction device 406, the control unit 504 instructs the imaging unit 501, the encoding unit 502, and the output unit 503 to start a shooting operation. The acquired moving image data is output from the output unit 503 to the moving image playback device 406 and the storage server 403 via the network 402.

  In the moving image playback device 406, the PC 505 stores the moving image data output from the output unit 503 in the HDD 507. When the PC 505 accepts a photographing end operation from the user, the PC 505 issues a photographing end instruction to the imaging device 401.

  The PC 505 acquires a predetermined number of GOPs from the beginning of the sequence from the moving image data output to the storage server 403 and stores them in the HDD 507.

  Next, the moving image playback processing operation of the moving image playback device 406 of the present embodiment will be described.

  The PC 505 reads moving image data from the HDD 507 in order from the first GOP of the selected sequence in response to a selection instruction of moving image data to be reproduced input via an input device (not shown). Further, the PC 505 performs a decoding process on the moving image data read from the HDD 507 and outputs the decoded moving image data to the monitor 506.

  When the number of GOPs (moving image data) not yet read out of the moving image data stored in the HDD 507 becomes less than M, the PC 505 requests the storage server 403 to transmit moving image data. The moving image data is not stored in the HDD 507 among the moving image data stored in the memory 404 of the storage server 403, and is transmitted to the moving image playback device 406 in order from the GOP with the earliest playback order.

  The PC 505 decodes all the moving image data stored in the HDD 507, decodes the moving image data transmitted from the storage server 403, and outputs the decoded data to the monitor 506.

  Note that the present invention is not limited to this, and as shown in FIG. 6, the imaging apparatus 601 and the PC 605 may be directly connected. Further, the image capturing apparatus 601 may perform the encoding process on the PC 605 without performing the encoding process on the moving image data. Further, transfer and reproduction processing may be performed in units of pictures or slices instead of units of GOPs.

  As described above, in the present embodiment, since the moving image data at the beginning of the sequence is stored in the memory built in the moving image reproducing device 406, quick reproduction is performed when an instruction to start reproduction is given by the user. Is possible. In addition, when the user ends the reproduction in the middle, data transmission on the network may not occur when the moving image data is reproduced.

<Embodiment 3>
The third embodiment will be described with reference to FIGS. 8 and 9.

  In FIG. 8, a recorder 801 functioning as an image reproducing device in this embodiment stores moving image data transmitted from a broadcasting station 806. The monitor 805 displays moving image data transmitted from the broadcasting station 806 or moving image data stored in the recorder 801. The recorder 801 is connected to a storage server 803 that is a storage device via a network 802. The accumulation server 803 includes a large capacity memory 804.

  FIG. 9 is a block diagram illustrating the configuration of the recorder 801.

  In FIG. 9, a receiving unit 901 receives moving image data transmitted from a broadcasting station. The encoding unit 902 encodes the moving image data received by the receiving unit 901. When moving image data encoded in advance is transmitted from the broadcasting station 806, the encoding process is not performed.

  The transmission unit 903 not only stores the moving image data in the HDD 904 but also transmits the moving image data to the storage server 803 via the network. The HDD 904 is a memory that stores moving image data. The HDD 904 uses an HDD as a memory, but a flash memory or the like may be used, for example.

  The reproduction control unit 906 reads moving image data from the HDD 904 or the storage server 803 and causes the decoding unit 907 to decode the read data for display on the monitor 805. The composite unit 907 decodes the moving image data. When the moving image data received by the receiving unit 901 is displayed in real time, the decoding unit 907 decodes the moving image data output from the receiving unit 901. When it is desired to reproduce the moving image data stored in the HDD 904, the decoding unit 907 decodes the moving image data output from the reproduction control unit 906. Reference numeral 805 denotes a monitor that displays a moving image. When displaying uncoded moving image data transmitted from the broadcast station 806, the monitor 805 displays the moving image data output from the receiving unit 901. Otherwise, the monitor 801 displays the moving image data output from the decoding unit 907.

  Next, the operation of the recorder 801 of this embodiment will be described in detail.

  Upon receiving an instruction from the user via an input device (not shown), the transmission unit 903 transfers the moving image data output from the encoding unit 902 or the reception unit 901 to the accumulation server 803. Further, a predetermined number of GOPs of the received moving image data are stored in the HDD 904 from the beginning of the moving image data sequence.

  When the playback control unit 906 starts playback of the sequence selected by the user, the playback control unit 906 reads out the moving image data of the corresponding sequence from the HDD 904 and outputs it to the decoding unit 907. When the number of GOPs (moving image data) not yet read from the HDD 904 is less than M, the reproduction control unit 906 outputs a transmission request for moving image data not stored in the HDD to the storage server 803.

  When the storage server 803 receives a transmission request from the recorder 801, the storage server 803 transmits GOPs in order from the earliest playback order that is not stored in the HDD 904.

  The reproduction control unit 906 causes the decoding unit 907 to execute the decoding process for all the moving image data stored in the HDD 904, and subsequently execute the decoding process for the moving image data transmitted from the storage server 803. .

  For example, when only the moving image data encoded in advance is transmitted from the broadcasting station 806, the encoding unit may not be provided.

  Furthermore, as shown in FIG. 7, the recorder 701 may receive moving image data from the broadcast station 706 via the network 702.

  In addition, when moving image data that is not encoded is transmitted from the broadcast station 806, neither an encoding unit nor a decoding unit may be provided as shown in FIG.

  As described above, the recorder 801 that is the image reproduction device of the present embodiment records the moving image data without worrying about the remaining capacity of the HDD by transferring the moving image data to the storage server. Can do. As for the moving image data, the moving image data in the first half of the sequence is stored in the HDD whose data read delay is shorter than that of the storage server, so that it is possible to reproduce the moving image data quickly when the user instructs to start the reproduction. Further, since the first half of the sequence is left in the HDD, there is a case where data transmission on the network does not occur when the user finishes reproduction on the way.

1 is a block diagram of an imaging device 301 that is an image transmission device according to a first embodiment of the present invention. 5 is a reproduction processing flowchart of the reproduction control unit according to the first embodiment. System configuration diagram of Embodiment 1 of the present invention System configuration diagram of Embodiment 2 of the present invention The block diagram of the system of Embodiment 2 of this invention System block diagram of another embodiment of the present invention System configuration diagram of another embodiment of the present invention System configuration diagram of Embodiment 3 of the present invention Block diagram of a system according to the third embodiment of the present invention System block diagram of another embodiment of the present invention System block diagram of another embodiment of the present invention A diagram showing the components of moving image encoded data H. Example of picture group corresponding to GOP in H.264 encoding method

Explanation of symbols

301 Imaging Device 406 Moving Image Playback Device 801 Recorder

Claims (12)

A moving image reproduction device that is connected to a storage server via a network and reproduces moving image data,
An acquisition means for acquiring video data;
Storage means for storing moving image data of the first period in which the playback order is previous among moving image data including the first and second periods acquired by the acquiring unit;
Transmission means for associating the moving image data including the two periods with the moving image data of the first period, and transmitting the associated moving image data including the second period to the storage server;
Requesting means for requesting the storage server during the reproduction of the moving image data of the first period, the moving image data of the second period associated with the moving image data of the first period ;
Reproducing means for reproducing the moving picture data of the first period stored in the storage means and the moving picture data of the second period transmitted by the storage server in response to a request by the requesting means in accordance with the reproduction order; A moving picture reproducing apparatus comprising: Determining means for determining whether or not the amount of moving image data not read for reproduction from the storage means is equal to or less than a predetermined value;
When the determination unit determines that the amount of moving image data that has not been read from the storage unit for reproduction is equal to or less than the predetermined value, the request unit sends the moving image of the second period to the storage server. 2. The moving image reproducing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein transmission of data is requested.   When the determination unit determines that the number of GOPs not read out for reproduction from the storage unit is equal to or less than the predetermined value, the request unit stores the video data of the second period in the storage server. The moving image reproducing apparatus according to claim 2, wherein transmission is requested.   When the determination unit determines that the number of pictures that have not been read out for reproduction from the storage unit is equal to or less than the predetermined value, the request unit stores the moving image data of the second period in the storage server. The moving image reproducing apparatus according to claim 2, wherein transmission is requested. Having imaging means for imaging moving image data;
The moving image reproduction apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the acquisition unit acquires moving image data captured by the imaging unit. A moving image reproduction method performed by a moving image reproduction apparatus connected to a storage server via a network and reproducing moving image data,
An acquisition process for acquiring video data;
Of the moving image data including the first and second periods acquired in the acquiring step, the storing step of storing the moving image data of the first period with the previous reproduction order in the storage unit;
A step of associating the moving image data including the second period with the moving image data of the first period, and transmitting the associated moving image data including the second period to the storage server;
A requesting step of requesting the storage server during the reproduction of the moving image data of the first period, the moving image data of the second period associated with the moving image data of the first period ;
A reproduction step of reproducing the moving image data of the first period stored in the storage step and the moving image data of the second period transmitted by the storage server in response to a request in the requesting step according to the reproduction order; A method for reproducing a moving image, comprising:   The moving image reproduction method according to claim 6, wherein in the acquisition step, moving image data captured by an imaging unit that captures moving image data is acquired. To a computer connected to the storage server via the network and receiving and playing back video data,
Acquisition procedure to acquire video data,
A storage procedure for storing, in the storage unit, the moving image data of the first period whose playback order is previous among the moving image data including the first and second periods acquired by the acquiring unit;
A transmission procedure for associating moving image data including the second period with moving image data of the first period, and transmitting the associated moving image data including the second period to the storage server;
A request procedure for requesting the storage server during the reproduction of the moving image data of the first period, the moving image data of the second period associated with the moving image data of the first period ;
A reproduction procedure for reproducing the moving image data of the first period stored in the storage procedure and the moving image data of the second period transmitted by the storage server in response to a request by the request procedure according to the reproduction order; A program characterized by having executed.   9. The program according to claim 8, wherein in the acquisition procedure, moving image data captured by an imaging unit that captures moving image data is acquired. A moving image reproduction device for reproducing moving image data obtained by imaging of an imaging unit,
Storage means for storing moving image data of the first period in which the reproduction order is previous among moving image data including the first and second periods obtained by imaging of the imaging unit;
Among the moving image data of the first and second periods obtained by the imaging unit, the moving image data of the second period after the reproduction order is associated with the moving image data of the first period, and the second Transmitting means for transmitting the associated video data including a period to an external storage server;
When the amount of moving image data in the first period that has not been read from the storage means for reproduction during reproduction of the moving image data falls below a predetermined value, the second associated with the moving image data in the first period Requesting means for requesting the storage server for video data for a period of
Reproducing means for reproducing the moving picture data of the first period stored in the storage means and the moving picture data of the second period transmitted by the storage server in response to a request by the requesting means in accordance with the reproduction order. A moving picture reproducing apparatus comprising: A moving image reproduction method performed by a moving image reproduction device for reproducing moving image data obtained by imaging of an imaging unit,
A storage step of storing, in a storage unit, moving image data of the first period whose playback order is previous among moving image data including the first and second periods obtained by imaging of the imaging unit;
Among the moving image data of the first and second periods obtained by the imaging unit, the moving image data of the second period after the reproduction order is associated with the moving image data of the first period, and the second A transmission step of transmitting the associated video data including a period to an external storage server;
When the amount of moving image data in the first period that has not been read out from the storage means during reproduction of the moving image data in the first period falls below a predetermined value , the moving image data in the first period becomes A requesting step of requesting the associated video data of the second period to the storage server;
A reproduction step of reproducing the moving image data of the first period stored in the storage step and the moving image data of the second period transmitted by the storage server in response to a request by the requesting step according to the reproduction order; A method for reproducing a moving image, comprising: To a computer that reproduces moving image data obtained by imaging of the imaging unit,
A storage procedure for storing, in a storage unit, moving image data of the first period whose playback order is previous among moving image data including the first and second periods obtained by imaging of the imaging unit,
Among the moving image data of the first and second periods obtained by the imaging unit, the moving image data of the second period after the reproduction order is associated with the moving image data of the first period, and the second A transmission procedure for transmitting the associated video data including a period to an external storage server;
When the amount of moving image data in the first period that has not been read out from the storage means during reproduction of the moving image data in the first period falls below a predetermined value , the moving image data in the first period becomes A request procedure for requesting the associated video data of the second period to the storage server;
A reproduction procedure for reproducing the moving image data of the first period stored in the storage procedure and the moving image data of the second period transmitted by the storage server in response to a request by the request procedure according to the reproduction order; A program characterized by having executed.

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