JPH07107437A - Picture reproducing device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To reproduce picture data as one picture continuous with respect to time while freely switching the angle of photographing of an object by viewer's will. CONSTITUTION:Respective picture data time series of plural pictures obtained by simultaneously photographing the same object at plural angles are stored in a picture storage means 12. A picture switching control means 13 reads out picture data of one picture (i) from the picture storage means 12 time- sequentially in accordance with the request from a user 16 and sends it to a picture display control means 14. This means 14 successively reproduces and displays sent picture data on a display device 15. When the switching to a picture (j) is requested in the middle of reproducing of the picture (i), the picture switching control means 13 obtains picture data of the picture (j), which is adjacent to picture data of the picture (i) reproduced at present with respect to photographing time, and reads out, picture data of the picture (j) and following pictures from the picture storage means 12.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an image reproducing apparatus, and more particularly, an image reproducing apparatus for reproducing a single temporally continuous image by combining a plurality of images obtained by simultaneously capturing the same subject from a plurality of angles. Regarding the device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As a first conventional image reproducing method for accurately transmitting the movement of an object by means of an image, the same object is simultaneously photographed from plural angles by using plural cameras, There is a method of editing one video that accurately captures the movement of a subject from the video and playing this one edited video. Using this method, for example, when playing a video of a soccer match, in addition to the camera that shoots the ground in a wide angle from the side of the spectators, the camera that shoots near the corner of the ground and the goal of each team from the back Prepare a camera to shoot, and shoot the ball or player, which is the subject, from multiple angles at the same time. Then, a scene in which the movement of the subject at each time is accurately captured is selected from the plurality of captured videos, and one temporally continuous video is edited and reproduced by the selected scene. As a result, the switching of the shooting angle according to the movement of the ball or the player is performed in the reproduced video, and
Compared to the case of simply playing back the video shot of the game with one camera, the movement of the ball of the viewer and the player can be transmitted more accurately.

However, in this video reproducing method, since the photographing angle of the subject in the edited video is switched according to the intention of the editor, the reproduced video does not always satisfy the viewer. was there. For example, soccer match footage is generally edited to capture the movement of the ball exactly, but even if this is satisfying to the viewer who wants to enjoy the flow of the match, the movement of a particular player can be observed. It does not satisfy viewers who want to. In order to solve this, it is necessary to allow the viewer to freely switch the shooting angle of the subject in the reproduced video.

Next, as a second conventional image reproducing method for accurately transmitting the movement of a subject from an image, for example,
19 of the magazine "PIXEL" (Published by Graphic Processing Information Center)
As shown in the article “This high-tech image can be seen nationwide” published in the January 1992 issue, there should be no time lag between multiple images of the same subject taken simultaneously from multiple angles. There is a method of simultaneously displaying on a large screen or multiple displays. According to this technique,
The viewer can freely move his or her field of view on a large screen or a plurality of displays to watch the video while freely switching the shooting angle of the subject according to the taste of each viewer. The problem of the video reproduction method of is solved.

However, in this second conventional video reproducing method, in order to reproduce a plurality of videos at the same time, it is necessary to prepare a plurality of video reproducing devices and a large screen or a plurality of displays. There is a problem that this video reproduction method cannot be realized with a simple system that can be used.

[0006]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to simultaneously solve the problems associated with the above-described conventional first and second video reproducing methods, and to set the shooting angle of the subject in the video to the viewer's intention. It is to realize a video reproducing apparatus that can be freely switched by using a simple system that can be used by general viewers.

[0007]

In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, the video reproducing apparatus of the present invention images n video images of the same subject simultaneously taken from n (n ≧ 2) angles. Video storage means for storing the data as a time series, and image data of one video i out of n videos is read from the video storage means in time series in accordance with a request from the user, and the video i is being reproduced. When there is a request to switch to another image j, the image data of the image j of the image i currently being reproduced and the image data of the image j whose shooting time is continuous are obtained, and the image data after the image data of the image j is stored from the image storage means. And a video switching control means for reading in sequence order.

[0008]

[Operation] n pieces (n ≧ 2) stored in the image storage means
When one of the images i is displayed / played on the display, the other image j is requested by the user.
When switching to (i ≠ j), the image switching control means obtains the image data of the image i currently displayed / reproduced and the image data of the image j whose shooting time is continuous, and the image display / reproduction of the image j is obtained. Start with the data. This allows the video i
It becomes possible to switch from the image to the image j while maintaining the temporal continuity of the movement of the object in the image.
It is possible to play back a single video that is temporally continuous by switching the video shot from the street angle with the user's intention.
Also, the image to be displayed at the same time is at most 1 out of the n images.
Therefore, only one display is needed and the system required for playback can be simplified.

[0009]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a configuration example of a video reproducing apparatus according to the present invention. In the figure, a video reproduction device 11
Is a video storage means 12 for storing video as a time series of image data, a video switching control means 13 for controlling reading and switching of video data from the video storage means 12, and a video from the video switching control means 13. Video display control means 14 for receiving data and displaying it on the display 15.
It is equipped with. Reference numeral 16 is a user who makes various requests to the video reproducing apparatus 11 by using a keyboard or the like.

As shown in FIG. 2, for example, the image storing means 12 stores n images M1, M2, ..., Mn obtained by simultaneously photographing the subject X from n different angles.
In FIG. 2, each image Mi (i = 1, 2, ..., N) is
It is composed of image data time series Fi and control information Hi necessary for reproducing the image Mi. The control information Hi is, for example,
The image data display speed (the number of image data to be displayed per unit time) Si, the shooting angle Ai, and the image data number Li are included. Therefore, if the Li pieces of image data included in the image data time series Fi are displayed on the display 15 in the time series order at I / Si second intervals, the subject X can be displayed at the angle A.
The image Mi taken from i can be reproduced.

The user 16 issues three types of requests to the video switching control means 13: video playback, video switching, and playback stop. The image switching control means 13 is shown in FIG.
The request issued by the user 16 is processed as follows in the procedure shown in FIG.

First, when the user 16 requests the reproduction of the image Mi of the object X, the image switching control means 13
Reads out information about the image Mi from the image storage unit 12, and displays the image data included in the image data time series Fi in time series from the beginning at I / Si second intervals at the image display control unit 1.
4 (steps 31, 32, 33, 34). At this time, the time when the first image data is transferred is set to the object X
The image reproduction start time Ts is stored in the image switching control means 13 (step 35).

Thereafter, if there is no request from the user 16, the video switching control means 13 continues to read the image data of the video Mi and transfers the read image data to the video display control means 14. At this time, the reproduction start time T
The number fc of the image data to be currently transferred is obtained from the elapsed time (Tc-Ts) from s to the current time Tc and the image data display speed Si of the image Mi, and is the fcth number included in the image data time series Fi for the image Mi. The image data is transferred to the video display control means 14 to realize the transfer of the image data at I / Si second intervals (steps 31, 4).
1, 38, 39, 40).

Next, the video switching control means 13 controls the video M
When a request to switch the image to be reproduced to the image Mi is received from the user 16 during the reproduction of i, the information regarding the image Mj is read from the image storage means 12 and the elapsed time from the reproduction start time Ts to the current time Tc. Time (Tc-T
s) and the image data display speed Sj of the image Mj, the image data number fc of the image data of the image Mi previously transferred to the image display control means 14 and the image data of the image Mj whose photographing time is continuous is obtained, The image data included in the time series Fi is transferred to the video display control means 14 at time intervals of I / Sj seconds from the fcth time series (step 31,
32, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40).

When the user 16 requests the reproduction stop, the image switching control unit 13 also displays the image display control unit 1.
The transfer of the image data to 4 is stopped.

On the other hand, the video display control means 14 displays the image data on the display 15 every time the image data is transferred from the video switching control means 13. At this time, for example, when the image data is stored in the video storage means 12 in a compressed state, the video display control means 14
Displays the decompressed image data on the display 15 after decompressing the transferred image data.

In the present embodiment, the case where only the video image regarding the subject X is stored in the video image storage means 12 has been described above, but the case where the video images regarding a plurality of subjects are simultaneously stored in the video image storage means 12 is also described. It is applicable as well.

Further, in the embodiment, the case where the image is reproduced at the same speed as that at the time of photographing is shown, but the image data display speed S
By changing the value of i, slow playback, fast forward playback,
The same applies to special reproduction such as reverse reproduction.

[0020]

As described above, according to the present invention,
It becomes possible to play back n video images of a subject taken from n (n ≧ 2) angles as one video that is continuous in time while freely switching according to the viewer's intention, and suits each viewer's preference. One image composed of
It is possible to dynamically form and appreciate individual images. Further, since at most one image is displayed out of n images at the same time, it can be realized by a simple system in which, for example, a personal computer or a workstation and one display are combined.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a configuration example of a video reproducing apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of storing a video in a video storage means of FIG.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing an example of a procedure for processing a request from a user by the video switching control means in FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

 11 video reproduction device 12 video storage means 13 video switching control means 14 video display control means 15 display 16 user X subject M1, M2, ..., Mn video H1, H2, ..., Hn control information F1, F2, ..., Fn image Data time series

Front page continuation (72) Inventor Takayuki Otake 1-1-6 Uchisaiwaicho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo Nihon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A video reproducing apparatus for reproducing a video by storing the video as a time series of the image data and reading out and displaying the stored image data in a time series order. 2) An image storage means for storing n images simultaneously captured from the angle as a time series of image data, and one of the n images from the image storage means according to a request from the user. When the image data of i is read in chronological order and there is a request to switch to another image j during the reproduction of the image i, the image data of the image i currently being reproduced and the image data of the image j whose shooting times are continuous are displayed. And a video switching control means for reading the image data of the video j onwards from the video storage means in chronological order.