JPH0847059A - Input device selection method by output image - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To prevent mis-selection of an object device even when a logic address by category is changed by sending image data from other electronic device and generating and displaying a still picture list. CONSTITUTION:A video tape recorder (VTR) 1 makes an output request to all devices of the system. The VTR 1 gives an output image from a television receiver (TV) to a image memory to generate a still image list. Similarly the output image of VTRs 2, 3 and a CAM 1 (camcorder) is added to a still image list. Then the still image list is displayed on a monitor section of the TV 1. Then the VTR 1 stores a cross reference table between the still image and a logic address by a category of the device reproducing the still image. The user receives a signal from the CAM 1 by having only to select a still image 4 without confirming the address of a device reproducing, e.g. a scenery of a mountain.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a system in which a plurality of electronic devices are connected by a communication control bus capable of coexisting control signals and data and communication is performed between these electronic devices. The present invention relates to a method of selecting an electronic device that is a source of image data when inputting image data from another desired electronic device in the system.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, electronic devices such as a video tape recorder (hereinafter referred to as "VTR"), a television receiver (hereinafter referred to as "TV"), a camera-integrated VTR (hereinafter referred to as "CAM"), a computer, etc. A communication system using a P1394 serial bus is considered as a communication system for connecting a control signal and data by a communication control bus capable of mixing data and transmitting and receiving control signals and image data between these devices.

First, an example of such a communication system will be described with reference to FIG. This communication system includes TV1, VTR1, VTR2, VTR3 and CAM1 as electronic devices. The TV1 and the VTR1, the VTR1 and the VTR2, the VTR2 and the VTR3, and the VTR3 and the CAM1 are connected by a P1394 serial bus capable of transmitting mixed control signals and data. Since each electronic device has a function of relaying control signals and data on the P1394 serial bus, this system is equivalent to a communication system in which each electronic device is connected to the common P1394 serial bus.

FIG. 12 is a block diagram showing the basic configuration of a VTR which is an example of electronic equipment in the communication system of FIG. This VTR has a deck section 11 and a tuner section 1.
2. The operation unit 13 and the display unit 14, which are user interfaces, the operation control of the entire VTR, the creation of a packet described later, the holding of addresses and data, and the like.
A digital interface (hereinafter referred to as "digital I / F") 16 for a 1394 serial bus and a switch box unit 17 for switching signals between the deck unit 11-tuner unit 12-digital I / F 16 are provided. When the electronic device is a TV, the monitor section and the amplifier section are provided instead of the deck section 11, and the display section 14 is not provided. In the case of CAM, a camera unit is provided instead of the tuner unit 12.

In the communication system of FIG. 11, as shown in FIG. 13, a predetermined communication cycle (for example, 125 μ
Communication is performed in s). In addition, synchronous (Isochronous) communication in which data such as a digital AV signal is continuously transmitted at a constant data rate and asynchronous (Asynchronous) communication in which control signals such as connection control commands are irregularly transmitted as necessary. You can do both.

There is a cycle start packet CSP at the beginning of the communication cycle, and a period for transmitting the synchronous communication packet is set following the cycle start packet CSP. It is possible to perform a plurality of synchronous communications by assigning channel numbers 1, 2, 3, ... N to the respective synchronous communication packets. For example, channel 1 is used for communication from CAM1 to VTR1.
Is assigned, the CAM1 transmits the synchronous communication packet with the channel number 1 immediately after the cycle start packet CSP, and the VTR1 monitors the bus and fetches the synchronous communication packet with the channel number 1. Communication takes place. Furthermore, from VTR2 to VT
If channel 2 is assigned to the communication for R3, communication from CAM1 to VTR1 and VTR2 to VT
Communication to R3 can be done in parallel. Then, after the transmission of the synchronous communication packets of all the channels to be transmitted is completed, the period until the next cycle start packet CSP is used for the asynchronous communication.

Further, in the communication system using the P1394 serial bus, when each electronic device is connected by the bus, the node ID (physical address) is automatically set according to the connection form.
Is allocated. When a new electronic device is added to the communication system or an electronic device is removed from the communication system, the bus is reset and the node ID is automatically assigned again according to the new connection form.

Further, in the communication system shown in FIG. 11, each electronic device has a D2B (Domestic Di)
In addition to the physical address, CAM1, VTR1, VTR2, VT
Logical addresses by category called R3 (hereinafter "D2B
"Address". )have. However, depending on the communication system, a device such as a computer or a hard disk device that is not D2B compatible may be connected to the bus. The D2B address is determined in the order in which it is first connected to the communication system, and thereafter, even if the bus is reset, the device that has not been removed from the system retains the address before the reset. Therefore, for example, even if the CAM1 is pulled out while the playback signal of the VTR1 is being recorded by the VTR2, the D2B addresses VTR1 and VTR2 of the source and the destination are not changed, so that the dubbing operation between the VTR1 and the VTR2 is performed. Can be held.

In the communication system configured as above,
An operation for selecting an input device, that is, a counterpart electronic device to which the user wants to input a digital AV signal, by the operation unit 13 in each electronic device (hereinafter referred to as “input device selection operation”).
Say. ) To all other electronic devices in the system
An inquiry is made as to whether or not the device is a 2B-compatible device using an asynchronous communication packet, and the D2B address of an electronic device that is found to be a D2B-compatible device other than itself is displayed on the display unit 14.

For example, the VTR 3 shown in FIG. 11 is displayed as shown in FIG. This is an example of displaying by the fluorescent tube of the display unit 14. In this figure, VTR3 is its D2B address. The input device is the D2B address of the device to be selected as the input device, and VTR1, VTR2, and CAM1 are displayed here. Furthermore, on the left side of the frame in which the input device is displayed, operation keys for moving and executing the cursor are displayed. The user selects the input device by looking at these display contents, placing the cursor on the position of the device desired by the user, and designating the execution key. The channel shown in FIG. 14 is a TV broadcast channel selected by the TV or VTR tuner.

[0011]

However, in the input device selection method, the D2B address of the input target device is selected based on the user's recognition, so that the D2B address of the actual input device changes. There is a possibility that you may make a mistaken selection without realizing it.

The reason is that, as described above, the D2B address is not reassigned for each bus reset like the node ID, but when a plurality of devices are removed from the system, some of the removed devices are When the device is connected to the system again, the D2B address may change even with the same device (D2B addresses are assigned in the same category in ascending order of number, such as VTR1, VTR2, VTR3). For).

The present invention has been made in order to solve such a problem, and even when the D2B address changes, it is possible to prevent an erroneous selection of a target device and select an input device. The purpose is to provide a method.

It is another object of the present invention to provide an input device selection method capable of selecting an input device without considering the concept of input device selection.

[0015]

In order to solve the above problems, the present invention relates to a system in which a plurality of electronic devices are connected by a communication control bus and image data is communicated between these electronic devices. When selecting the input device in the device,
Send image data from other electronic devices in the system,
The still image list is created from the image data, the still image list is displayed, and the input device is selected with reference to the displayed still image list.

If the still image list is created from one frame image for each device, the displayed image is one frame for each device. If a still image list is created from image data of a plurality of frames for each device, the displayed image will be an image for a plurality of frames, for example, a moving image of a short time, so an image that can be referred to for input selection. The amount of data is large and you can make a reliable selection.

Further, for electronic devices which cannot transmit image data, the still image list need not be created.
If a still image list indicating the reason why the image data cannot be transmitted is created, the user can view the still image list and take action to enable the image data transmission.

Furthermore, after the still image list is created, the image data can be transmitted again from the other electronic devices in the system in order for a predetermined time, and the input device can be selected with reference to the image data. In this way, the input device can be selected while referring to the moving image by using the minimum image memory required to create the still image list.

[0019]

According to the present invention, the user can select the input device by referring to the displayed still image list. As a result, even if the D2B address initially recognized by the user is different from the actual D2B address at the time of selecting the input device, the user does not need to confirm the D2B address of the target device at any time. , You can select the input device according to the video you actually want. Therefore, not only is it possible to prevent erroneous selection, but it is also possible for the user to select the desired image from various still image lists, eliminating the need to consider the concept of input device selection.

[0020]

Embodiments of the present invention will now be described in detail with reference to the drawings. In the present embodiment, an example of selecting an input device based on a still image list of each device when performing communication between devices in the communication system of FIG. 13 will be described.

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an example of a display for input device selection in the embodiment of the present invention. In this figure, VT
R1 is my D2B address. Also, VTR2,
CAM1 and TV1 are D2B addresses of devices to be selected as input devices. PHOTO LIST
The key is a key operated when creating a still image list. The cursor selection key and the channel are the same as in FIG.

[1] TV1, VTR2, VTR3, CA
When selecting the still image list on the VTR 1 when all the M1s can be output: Here, the still image list is output and displayed on the monitor. First, the user is shown in FIG.
Indicate the PHOTO LIST key on the fluorescent tube display of TR1.

The VTR 1 selects a device having a monitor based on the logical address of each device in the system for each category. In the communication system of FIG. 13, the device having the monitor unit is only TV1 and is not used.
1 is selected. As a result, the list of still images input and selected on the VTR 1 is displayed on the TV 1.

After that, the VTR 1 requests all devices on the system to "output". FIG. 2 shows the exchange of a series of commands at this time. First, the VTR1 requests the TV1 to "output from the tuner section to the plug?" (A1), and the TV1 returns "output OK. Output from the tuner section to Plug1." To the VTR1 (A2). This Plug is, for example, a digital I /
It is a virtual digital plug provided in F16, such as a register for storing a channel number for inputting / outputting data, a band, etc., and is treated as a concept like a physical plug for inputting / outputting an analog signal.

In response to this, the VTR 1 internally switches by the switch box and inputs it from the Plug 1 of the TV 1 to its own Plug 1, and takes one to several frames of it into an image memory (not shown) in the microcomputer 15. Create a still image display list. Since the list of still images is divided into screens and displayed, the data captured in the image memory is frame images thinned out according to the number of divisions. Further, the correspondence between the list number of the still image list divided into screens and the D2B address is registered.

When the output from the tuner of TV1 is added to the list of still images, the bus is released immediately in order to prevent the bus from being occupied. Therefore, the VTR1 requests the TV1 to "interrupt the output from the tuner unit to the Plug1" (A3), while the TV1 "interrupts OK. The output from the tuner unit to the Plug1 is interrupted." And returns (A4).

In the same manner, VT is carried out by steps A5 to A16.
Add the output images of R2, VTR3, and CAM1 to the list of still images.

FIG. 3 is a structural example of a command packet used in this embodiment, and FIG. 4 is a structural example of a command packet in each procedure of FIG. The subdevice in SSDA / DSDA in FIG. 3 is a functional unit (deck, tuner, switch box, etc.) of the device. In the case of FIG. 4, all the sub-devices are switch boxes, and the commands all instruct to connect or release the virtual digital plugs.

When the creation of the still picture list is completed as described above, the still picture list is displayed on the monitor section of the TV 1. FIG. 5 is a display example of the still image list, and FIG. 6 is a correspondence table of the number of the still image list to be stored and the D2B address of the node outputting the still image. In FIG. 5, this still image list 1 is an image of TV1 and is
No image was output from. Still image list 2 is an image of sunrise output from VTR 1, still image list 3 is an image of a snowman output from VTR 3,
The still image list 4 shows images of mountain scenery output from the CAM 1. The still image lists 5 to 9 indicate that the lists themselves have not been created. In addition, in the display example of the still image list in FIG.
When only one frame is loaded into the image memory, it is displayed one frame at a time. However, when multiple frames of images from each device are loaded, the display for each device can be switched sequentially to display multiple frames. , You can display a short time video.

[2] Case where no tape cassette is loaded in CAM1 A series of command exchanges in this case is shown in FIG. In this case, until VTR1 creates a list of TV1, VTR2, VTR3 (B1 to B12), A of [1]
The same processing as 1 to A12 is performed.

Next, when the VTR1 requests the CAM1 to "output" (B13), the tape cassette is not contained in the CAM1 and cannot be played back. Therefore, "it cannot be output" is returned (B14). Therefore, the reproduced image of CAM1 is not added to the still image list.

FIG. 8 shows an example of the structure of the command packet in each procedure of FIG. Further, FIG. 9 is an example of a list display of still images. Note that FIG. 9 shows an example in which only devices that can output image data output and add to the still image list. Therefore, the user cannot distinguish between a device that cannot be output and a device that does not exist in the system. Therefore, for example, in the example of [2], when VTR1 requests CAM1 to "output" and "Cannot output" is returned, status information is requested to CAM1 again, and the answer is "No Medium". When “In” is returned, the background is muted and “No C
By displaying an error message such as "asset IN", the still image list may be created for all the devices on the system for the time being.

In this embodiment, the still image list is displayed and the input is switched by observing the image (1 frame to a plurality of frames). However, the still image list is sequentially applied to all the devices. Up to the procedure for creating the above, the procedure is the same as the above [1] and [2], and once the still image lists of all the other devices are completed, request "output" to each device in order from the beginning again. It is also conceivable that each device plays the video at that time for several seconds, then releases the bus and the next device plays the video. In this case, the image of each number displayed as the still image list is switched to the moving image when the moving image is being played. With this configuration, the input device can be selected while watching the moving image by using the minimum image memory required to create the still image list.

[3] When selecting and selecting a mountain scenery (reproduced image of CAM1) from the still image list For example, in the example of [1], four still images 1 to 4 are displayed as shown in FIG. However, for example, the mountain scenery of 4 is selected here. Then, since the VTR 1 stores the correspondence table of the still image and the D2B address of the device reproducing the still image as shown in FIG. 6, the user confirms the D2B address of the device reproducing the mountain scenery. It is possible to automatically switch the signal input from the CAM 1 simply by selecting the still image of 4.

Although the P1394 serial bus is used as the communication bus in the embodiment of the present invention, another bus may be used as long as it has a signal line that allows signals to be freely exchanged between the control line and the device. It is also possible.

Furthermore, the present invention can be applied not only to the system to which the AV equipment is connected but also to the system for connecting and receiving the data by connecting the computer. Further, in the embodiment of the present invention, all the devices are connected to the P1394 serial bus, but for example, an analog TV is connected to the analog AV output terminal of VTR1 and the still image list created by VTR1 is displayed on this analog TV. It can also be configured to do so. In this case, by treating the analog TV as a subdevice of the VTR 1, it is possible to adopt the procedure using the command packet having the structure shown in FIG.

Further, in this embodiment, when a still image is taken in, the input is switched each time, and the image actually received by the tuner section of the TV or the image reproduced by the deck section of the VTR is inputted, I used to create a list of still images, but I installed a memory in each tape cassette that contained images, and stored the first image recorded on the tape as a still image on that memory. When a request for a still image list is received, the still image on the memory may be transmitted to the requesting device.

As the command of "output", for example, since it is known that the category to the TV1 is TV, it is assumed that the command is output from the tuner 1 which is internally connected by default. Although the command was sent after doing the above, it is also possible to use the command "output from some subdevice."

[0039]

As described above in detail, according to the present invention, since the input device is selected based on the output image data of each electronic device, an error occurs when the same device has different D2B addresses. Not only does this prevent selection, but it also has the advantage that the user does not have to be aware of the concept of input device selection.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an example of an input device selection display according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of a command transmission / reception procedure when creating a still image list used in the present embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a structural example of a command packet used in the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a structural example of a command packet in each procedure of FIG.

5 is a display example of a still image list created by the procedure of FIG.

FIG. 6 is a correspondence table between the number of a still image list and the D2B address of the device outputting the still image.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing another example of a command transmission / reception procedure when creating a still image list used in the present embodiment.

8 is a structural example of a command packet in each procedure of FIG.

9 is a display example of a still image list created by the procedure of FIG.

FIG. 10 is a display example of a still image list created by partially modifying the procedure of FIG.

FIG. 11 is a diagram showing an example of a communication system in which a plurality of devices are connected by a P1394 serial bus.

12 is a diagram showing a schematic configuration of a VTR in the communication system of FIG.

FIG. 13 is a diagram showing an example of a communication cycle in a communication system in which a plurality of devices are connected by a P1394 serial bus.

14 is a diagram showing an example of a display for selecting an input device in the communication system of FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

VTR ... video tape recorder, TV ... television receiver, CAM ... camcorder, 14 ... display section

─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁶ Identification number Office reference number FI technical display location H04N 5/44 A 5/445 Z 5/765

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. In a system in which a plurality of electronic devices are connected by a communication control bus and image data is communicated between the electronic devices, when selecting an input device for each electronic device, another electronic device in the system is selected. From the image data, creates a still image list from the image data, displays the still image list, and refers to the displayed still image list to select an input device. Equipment selection method. 2. The input device selection method according to claim 1, wherein a still image list is created from image data of a plurality of frames for each electronic device. 3. The input device selection method according to claim 1, wherein for electronic devices for which image data cannot be transmitted, a still image list indicating the reason is created. 4. The output image according to claim 1, wherein after the still image list is created, image data is sent again in order from another electronic device in the system for a predetermined period of time, and the input device is selected by also referring to the image data. Input device selection method by.