JPH02122487A - Method and device for picture information offering - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To retrieve a desired part from large quantity of picture information by retrieving a target picture by means of retrieving information added in units of picture information having a concluded meaning, and editing only the obtained picture in units of the picture information. CONSTITUTION:By a retrieving expression 1 and retrieving information 2, which is added in units of a video (story) having the concluded meaning composed of >= one scene, the target picture is picture-retrieved 3, the retrieved story is outputted, and by picture-editing 5 picture information 5 corresponding to the retrieved story, the retrieved picture 6 is completed. That is, when the retrieve is instructed to an input control part 10, a retrieve processing part 12 retrieves the target story based on the retrieve information accumulated in a retrieve information accumulating part 11. Further, the retrieved story information is transferred to a picture processing part 15, the picture processing part 15 fetches the picture corresponding to the retrieved story from a picture accumulating part 13, edits it, and outputs it to a buffer memory 14. Thus, the picture is easily prepared.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention (Industrial Application Field) The present invention relates to the provision of image processing, and more specifically, a method and apparatus for selecting and providing necessary information from a large amount of image information and video information. Regarding.

(Prior Art) Image response systems and video libraries have been developed as systems for storing and retrieving image information.

These image databases use television receivers and telephones as terminals, and are individually connected to the center via broadband transmission lines, and can be used to create moving images, audio information, etc. in response to individual requests from users.
Provides a service for searching still image information.

In this case, the search is performed on a program-by-program basis, and by specifying a menu search or a program number, video tapes containing corresponding moving images and audio are selected and presented as search images.

(Problem to be Solved by the Invention) However, in the image database as described above, it is only possible to search in units that have been stored in advance, such as one program, and the image information can only be searched in units of a specific scene or image content. Search was not implemented. Therefore, there was a drawback that it was not possible to search only the part of the program that one wanted to see. This has the drawback that it is extremely difficult to reuse the image information, especially by using it as part of a new video.

The purpose of the present invention is to efficiently reuse image information.
The object of the present invention is to realize a method and apparatus for searching and providing only the desired part from a large amount of image information.

(Means for Solving the Problem) The image information presentation method of the present invention searches for a target image using search information given to each unit of image information having a complete meaning, and uses the image obtained by this search to It is characterized in that it is edited in units of t'b information and provided as a search image.

Further, the image information providing device of the present invention has an image storage unit that stores image information and a search information storage unit that stores search information of the image information, and responds to the search instruction signal of the input control unit by providing image information. The image information providing device outputs a target image to a buffer memory, and includes a search processing unit that searches for a target image from the search instruction signal and search information on the search information storage device, and a search processing unit that searches for a target image from the search instruction signal and the search information on the search information storage device, and a search processing unit that searches for the target image from the output information of the search processing unit. The image processing apparatus is characterized by comprising an image processing section that inputs the search-side one-image information on the storage section, performs editing processing, and outputs the edited image to the buffer memory.

(effect) The image information providing method of the present invention will be explained.

Image information, especially video information, differs from conventional numerical data and character data in that continuous changes in the image have meaning.In other words, it has meaning only when it comes to multiple consecutive images, not just one screen's worth of image information. Expressing information. Actual moving images are composed of a collection of images called scenes, which are physically cut in units of image switching called scene changes. Therefore, the image information providing device of the present invention has the following features:
Search information is assigned to each video unit that has a complete meaning and is composed of one or more scenes. This unit will be called a store here. Specifically, the search information is a set of search data consisting of keywords corresponding to application fields such as content, action, and performers, program name, input time, and importance. It is characterized by editing and outputting things based on search order, importance, time, etc. As mentioned at the beginning, the order of video gAV'I information has meaning, so the output image can summarize the original image information or express new meaning. Therefore, the method and apparatus of the present invention realize the reuse of moving image information.

FIG. 1(a) shows the image f! of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating the basic configuration of a +1 report providing method.

1 is a search expression. Image search 3 for the target image is performed using search formula 1 and search information 2 given to each story, and a search story is output. By image editing the image information 4 corresponding to the search string, the search image 6 is created.
will be completed.

FIG. 1(b) is a basic configuration diagram of an apparatus for realizing the above method.

10 is an input control unit that accepts and receives input of a search formula; 11 is a search information storage unit that stores search information; 12 is an input control unit 1
13 is an image storage unit that stores image information; 14 is a buffer memory that stores output images; 15 is an image storage unit that stores images based on the output of the search processing unit 12; This is an image processing section that inputs the search image from the section 13, processes it into an output image, and outputs it to the buffer memory 14.

When the input control unit 10 is instructed to search, the search processing unit 12
executes a search for the target story based on the search information stored in the search information storage section 11. Information on the searched story is transferred to the image processing section 15.The image processing section 15 retrieves the image corresponding to the searched story from the image storage section 12, edits it, and outputs it to the buffer memory 14. .

Although the provision of information on moving images has been described above, audio can also be handled in a similar manner, and synchronized output of moving images and audio can be easily achieved. Further, the presentation method of the present invention can also be used for still images if the unit of the picture frame 9 is considered to be one frame.

(Example) The following is an application example of a news search service that stores news videos and extracts news in specific fields such as summaries of the latest news, economic news, and sports news on demand. Detailed description of the invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of an embodiment of a news search service method to which the present invention is applied.The system first specifies an input program name and creates a moving image file 22 using an image input system 21. Specifically, the information is input from broadcast waves or video chips into a storage device that can be randomly accessed.

Next, the index creation system 23 divides the video into streams 9 while referring to the video file.
Search information is input and a search information file 24 is created.

The search system 25 receives a search expression or a name indicating the search expression, performs a search using the search information file 24, and outputs the name of the searched story to the re-editing system 26. The re-editing stem 26 extracts image information corresponding to the search story 9 from the moving image file 22 while referring to the search information file 24, performs post-processing such as concatenation and rearrangement, and outputs it as a search double-head.

How to add search information and how to write a search expression depends on the database management system you use, but here is an example:
A case in which a known relational database is used will be specifically described.

FIGS. 3(a), 3(b), and 3(c) are diagrams showing examples of attribute item tables for realizing a news search service using a relational database.

The program relation shown in Figure 3(a) gives the attribute values of the input program, including the program identifier which is the key of the program, the broadcast date which stores the program ID and the date and time of broadcast, and the channel which specifies the time and program. Consists of one program name.

Figure 3 (b) Story relations give the attribute values of the story that is the unit of search, including the story 9 ID that is the key of the story, the program ID that represents the program, and the classification and importance that represent the news genre. It consists of a priority that represents the video file, and a storage location that represents the position within the video file.

Further, the keyword relation shown in FIG. 3(C) is for assigning a keyword to be used in a keyword search, and is configured as a set of a store 9 ID and a keyword.

Figures 4 (a) and (b) are examples of search expressions expressed in SQL syntax, the standard query language for relational databases. Figure 4 (a) is an example of searching for a summary of today's news, and (b) This is an example of a keyword search.By directly inputting a search formula like this, or by giving a name to the search formula and inputting the name in one menu, you can search for programs, stories, etc.
The keyword table is searched and the target store 9 is output.

In the post-processing in the re-editing system, images corresponding to the searched story 9 are sorted based on the attribute values of the program relations and story relations, such as broadcast time and priority, and the images are concatenated and output.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an embodiment of a central type image information providing device using a network (one embodiment of the device of the present invention). In FIG. 5, 50 is an input device that receives and receives search inputs, 51 is a communication network, 52 is a communication control device, 53 is a search dictionary storage device that stores search formulas, and 54
55 is an image search processing bag π that executes an image search based on an instruction signal from the communication control unit 52; 56 is an image storage device that stores moving image files; 57 is a moving image 58 is an image editing device which assembles an actual image according to instructions from the image search processing device 55; 59 is a buffer memory; 60 is a decoder; 61 is a monitor.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a specific example of the configuration of the image editing device 58, which is a feature of the present invention. In Figure 6, 56
a and 56b are image storage devices consisting of optical disks, magnetic disks and video tape recorders; 62a and 62b;
63 is a frame memory, 63 is an image switch that changes the input image signal while synchronizing the frames, and 64 is an editing control device.

The operation of the image storage device will be explained in detail with reference to FIGS. 5 and 6. The input device '1150 receives and receives search instructions. The name specifically given to the search expression is entered. The search request is sent to the communication control device 52 of the center via the communication network 51. When the image search processing device 55 inputs the name of the search expression from the communication control device 52, it searches the search dictionary storage device 53 and stores the search expression. obtain. Next, the image editing device 58 executes a search for image information using the search information in the search/h1 information storage device 54 according to the search formula, and according to the instructions from the image search processing device 55, the video editing device 58 searches for the video information on the video storage device 56. A moving image corresponding to the story searched from the file is searched and stored in the buffer memory 59 as output image information. Specifically, the editing control device 64 is the image storage device 56.
1 indicates the output of the search image for a and 56b. The image storage devices ff156a, 56b output the output images to the frame memories 62a, 62b, and the 0 image switch 63 for storage switches the contents of the frame memories 62a, 62b according to the instructions of the editing control device 64 according to a specified standard, Transfer to buffer memory 59. The output image information is sent back through the network 51 and sent to the decoder 60.
The signal is converted into an image signal and displayed on the monitor 61.

The audio is also simultaneously retrieved from the audio files on the audio storage device 57 and transferred via the communication network 51.

The image information providing device described above is a central type, but in order to make it a stand-alone device, the communication network may be omitted and the input device, communication control unit, buffer memory, and decoder may be directly connected. .

(Effects of the Invention) By using the image information providing method of the present invention, it becomes possible to easily create a summary of video information and collect videos on a specific topic. This corresponds to the creation of new programs and video information, and allows for the effective reuse of video information, making it possible to present a single video information in a variety of ways according to the user's needs, and making it easy to create new video programs and video information. This has the effect that creation is realized. Further, the image VT information providing device of the present invention is a device that implements the method, and the above effects can be obtained by using the present device.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1(a) is a diagram showing the image information providing method of the present invention, and FIG. 1(b) is a diagram showing the configuration of an image information providing apparatus that implements the method. FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a news search service method which is an embodiment of the image providing method of the present invention. Figure 3 (a), (
b) and (c) are diagrams showing examples of tables when a news search service is implemented using a relational database. FIGS. 4(a) and 4(b) are diagrams showing examples of search formulas for a news search service. FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an embodiment of the image information providing device of the present invention. FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a specific example of the image editing device in the embodiment shown in FIG. In the figure, 1 is the program name, 2 is search information, 3 is image search, 4 is image fA information, 5 is image editing, 6 is search program, 10
11 is an input control unit, 11 is a search information storage unit, 12 is a search processing unit, 13 is an image storage unit, 14 is a buffer memory 15
is an image processing unit, 21 is an image input system, and 22 is a video (
'A file, 23 is the indexing system, 24
25 is a search information file, 25 is a search system, 26 is a re-editing system, 50 is an input device, 51 is a communication network, 52 is a communication control device, 53 is a search dictionary storage device, 54
55 is a search information storage device, 55 is an image search processing device, and 56.
56a and 56b are image storage devices, 57 is an audio storage device,
58 is an image editing device, 59 is a buffer memory, 60 is a decoder, 61 is a monitor, 62 is a frame memory, 6
3 is an editing control device. Isamu 1 fl (a) Isamu 1N (b Nosca EF Isamu 2N 3fl and ajip, 3flJ (b) Isamu: 5N and c no

Claims (2)

[Claims] (1) In a method of searching and presenting image information, a target image is searched using search information given to each unit of image information that has a complete meaning, and the image obtained by this search is edited in the unit of image information. An image information providing method characterized in that the image information is provided as a search image. (2) Image information having an image storage unit that stores image information and a search information storage unit that stores search information of the image information, and outputs image information to the buffer memory in response to a search instruction signal from the input control unit. The providing device includes a search processing unit that searches for a target image from the search instruction signal and the search information on the search information storage device, and a search processing unit that searches the search image information on the image storage unit from output information of the search processing unit. An image information providing apparatus comprising an image processing unit that inputs input, performs editing processing, and outputs to the buffer memory.