JPH09288657A - Multi-media production device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a multi-media production device capable of retrieving the parts and effects of multi-media by the simple procedure of 'the character string input of a natural language → candidate display → establishment'. SOLUTION: This multi-media production device comprises an input device 1, a data processing part 2, a storage part 3 and an output device 4. A retrieval means 22 refers to an INDEX storage part 31 and retrieves the parts and the effects stored in a dictionary storage part 32 by respective media without the distinction of the media by the character string of the natural language, editing is performed on an interactive basis by a multi-media authorizing tool 23 by using the result, and the presentation data or the like of the multi-media are easily prepared. An interface control means 21 controls the flow of information between the output device 4 and the retrieval means 22 and the multi-media authorizing tool 23 and generally manages the retrieval of the parts and the effects from the storage part 3 and an editing processing utilizing a retrieved result.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a multimedia production apparatus, and more particularly to inputting a natural language character string to search for a plurality of media objects (parts and effects) having different corresponding data attributes and editing them. The present invention relates to a multimedia production device that can create presentation materials and the like.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, as a similar device for inputting a natural language to search for a part (data sample) of a specific medium and interactively editing them to obtain a desired result, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 5-20420 proposes a graphic processing device that supports the creation of a graphic (still image).

The apparatus described in the above publication is a figure processing apparatus that can easily obtain a desired figure by a procedure such as "character string input → candidate display → selection confirmation → composite editing". This graphic processing device stores a meaning code corresponding to the meaning of a predetermined character string input from the input unit and graphic information corresponding to the meaning code in a dictionary memory area and a graphic dot pattern area, respectively. By referring to the corresponding meaning code from the dictionary memory area according to the input character string, the figure information corresponding to the meaning code is extracted from the figure dot pattern area and displayed as a candidate figure. Further, it is possible to form a new figure by interactively editing the confirmed figure selected and confirmed from the candidate figures and replacing or combining all or part of the figure.

[0004]

However, the above-described conventional graphic processing apparatus is limited in that the processing target is a graphic including a still image, and cannot be applied to other media such as voice and video (moving image). There is. It is desired to realize a similar device which can handle not only figures but also a plurality of media having different data attributes such as images, sounds and videos.

It is an object of the present invention to search for a part or effect of a plurality of media of images, voices and videos having different data attributes from a character string of natural language or a character string of an idiom and to interactively edit the multimedia. Providing production equipment.

[0006]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a multimedia production apparatus including a dictionary storage section for separately storing and managing parts and effects of a plurality of media having different data attributes for each data attribute. An INDEX storage unit that stores index data indicating storage position information of the corresponding media parts and effects in the dictionary storage unit using a character string as a search key together with a priority order, and a INDEX storage unit that receives a natural language character string.
Searching means for sequentially searching and outputting the parts and effects of each medium from the dictionary storage part according to the priority by referring to the DEX storage part, and the parts of a plurality of media searched and fixed by the searching part. It comprises a multimedia authoring tool for performing an editing process by utilizing the effect, and an interface control means for giving an instruction to the search means and the multimedia authoring tool to control the transfer of information.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided the multimedia production apparatus according to the first aspect, wherein the dictionary storage unit stores image media, audio media, and video media components having different data attributes. Memory,
From an audio component storage unit, a video component storage unit, and an image effect storage unit, a sound effect storage unit, and a video effect storage unit that respectively store a basic processing program for making a change to each media component and a typical operation parameter. It is characterized by being configured.

A multimedia production apparatus according to a third aspect is the multimedia production apparatus according to the first or second aspect, in which the INDEX storage is performed after the components and effects sequentially searched and output are confirmed. It is characterized in that it is configured to update the priority of the index data of the section.

A multimedia production apparatus according to a fourth aspect is the multimedia production apparatus according to the first, second or third aspect, wherein the image, audio or video data edited by the multimedia authoring tool, It is characterized by further comprising registration means for adding a character string serving as a search key and registering it in the dictionary storage unit and the INDEX storage unit.

[0010]

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

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of one embodiment of the present invention.

The multimedia production apparatus of this embodiment is
As shown in FIG. 1, an input device 1 including a keyboard and a mouse, and a data processing unit 2 that operates under program control.
And a storage unit 3 that constitutes a database regarding a plurality of media parts and effects, and an output device 4 including a display, a speaker, and the like. The data processing unit 2
The storage unit 3 includes an interface control unit 21, a search unit 22, and a multimedia authoring tool 23.
Is composed of an INDEX storage unit 31 and a dictionary storage unit 32.

The data processing unit 2 uses the same procedure as the candidate selection in the Kana-Kanji conversion for the components and effects of a plurality of media stored in the storage unit 3 forming the database by the natural language character string without distinguishing the media. This is the main part for easily creating multimedia presentation materials and the like by searching and using the result of the editing process in an interactive format.

The interface control means 21 controls the flow of information between the input device 1 and the output device 4, the search means 22 and the multimedia authoring tool 23,
The search of the parts and effects by the interactive means in the search means 22 and the editing of the search results by the multimedia authoring tool 23 are comprehensively managed. That is, the input information related to the search from the input device 1 is passed to the search means 22,
The input information regarding editing is passed to the multimedia authoring tool 23, and the output information from both is transmitted to the output device 4.

The search unit 22 searches the INDEX storage unit 31 with the character string from the interface control unit 21, searches the dictionary storage unit 32 for the component or effect based on the priority of the corresponding plurality of index data, and searches. The data of the produced parts or effects are returned to the interface control means 21 and displayed on the output device 4. On the other hand, if there is an instruction to display the next candidate from the input device 1, the component or effect data of the next priority is searched from the dictionary storage unit 32, and if the confirmation process is performed, the search is ended, and the INDEX storage unit 31. The priority order of the index data is updated, and the priority order of the index data corresponding to the determined component or effect is rearranged to 1.

Multimedia authoring tool 23
Is for editing information of media having different data attributes such as images, sounds, and videos, and for editing images and sounds output to the output device 4 in an interactive manner by an operation from the input device 1. It can be carried out. Since this technology has already been realized, detailed description is omitted here.

The storage unit 3 is a database in which data of a plurality of media parts and effects used in the multimedia authoring tool 23 are stored so as to be searched by a character string in natural language, and actual data is stored. The dictionary storage unit 32 and the INDEX storage unit 31 in which index data for the dictionary storage unit 32 is stored.

The INDEX storage unit 31 is an index data unit for performing a search using a natural language character string. A plurality of index data are stored for one character string, and one index data is composed of 4 items. There is. Each index data stores a natural language "character string" that is a search key, a "priority order" that indicates the order of search within the same "character string", and a memory that stores the parts and effects of the target media. There are four items, a "DB name" for identifying a copy and an "INDEX" for identifying data in the storage section.

The dictionary storage unit 32 is a main body of a database that stores actual data of parts and effects used in the multimedia authoring tool 23, and is divided into parts and effects for each medium having different data attributes. There are two storage units stored therein, each storage unit including a data unit and an INDEX for identifying and searching it. The data section contains data samples (parts) of each media used by the multimedia authoring tool 23.
In addition, a program for machining a part and a typical parameter value necessary for executing the program are stored. Specifically, the dictionary storage unit 32 creates an image,
An image component storage unit 321 that stores sample data used for editing, an image effect storage unit 322 that stores programs and parameters for performing various effect processing on images, and components for audio media are stored. An audio component storage unit 323, an audio effect storage unit 324 storing effects on audio media, a video component storage unit 325 storing components on video media, and a video effect storage unit 3 storing effects on video media.
It is divided into 26.

Next, FIG. 1 shows a series of operations of the multimedia production apparatus of the present embodiment configured as described above.
Will be summarized with reference to.

The search target character string input from the input device 1 is passed from the interface control means 21 to the search means 22, and the search result is returned to the interface control means 21 and displayed on the output device 4. If there is an instruction from the input device 1 for a next candidate search request for this display content, the information is transmitted to the search means 22 via the interface control means 21, and the next candidate data is searched and displayed on the output device 4. . When such operation is repeated and the confirmation process is input from the input device 1, the content displayed on the output device 4 is passed to the multimedia authoring tool 23 and stored in the memory as a target of the editing process. That is, the interface control means 21 provided between the input device 1 and the output device 4 and the multimedia authoring tool 23 inputs a character string from the input device 1 and uses a plurality of media used by the multimedia authoring tool 23. When searching for the parts and effects, the operation is similar to the flow of the front end search process used in the kana-kanji conversion device in cooperation with the search means 22.

The search means 22 first inputs IN with the input character string passed from the interface control means 21 together with the search instruction.
The DEX storage unit 31 is searched, and the index data having the "priority" of "1" is extracted from a plurality of index data having the same "character string" as the input character string as the search key. "DB name" and "INDEX" are acquired. Subsequently, a corresponding storage unit (DB) is selected from the dictionary storage unit 32 based on the acquired “DB name”, and the corresponding “INDEX” data (part or effect) is searched from that storage unit as candidate data. It is passed to the interface control means 21.

When a request for the next candidate search is issued from the input device 1 for the candidate data of the search result, the same "character string" is used as the search key and 1 is added to the priority order of the index data extracted last time. The index data with the specified "priority" is searched as the next candidate, and the "DB name" of the index data is searched.
And “INDEX” are acquired, and the corresponding “INDEX” data in the corresponding “DB name” storage unit in the dictionary storage unit 32 is used as the next candidate data as the interface control unit 21.
Pass to.

For the candidate data of the search result, the input device 1
When a definite input is obtained from the interface control means 21, the candidate data is passed to the multimedia authoring tool 23 to be stored in the memory for editing processing, and at the same time, the control means 21 is passed to the search means 22 to control the INDEX storage section 31. Update the priority of and finish the front end processing for one object. Similarly, after searching for other objects required for editing, the multimedia authoring tool 23 is used for editing to create a desired presentation material or the like.

In the above-described embodiment, the dictionary storage unit stores a plurality of media components and effects, and both are configured so that a character string in natural language can be input and searched. On the other hand, the dictionary storage unit stores only the components of a plurality of media, and the effects are stored in the ROM or the like as a part of the function of the multimedia authoring tool.
It can also be configured to select in a menu format, and since the effects are generally limited to a smaller number of types than parts, almost the same performance can be expected.

Further, in the above-mentioned embodiment, the search means updates the priority of the INDEX storage section when the confirmation processing is performed on the searched candidate data, but it is somewhat inconvenient. However, updating is not always necessary.

Further, the result of editing by the multimedia authoring tool is stored in the dictionary storage unit as a new part, and a registration means is provided for registering index data in the INDEX storage unit by designating a character string for retrieval. The data stored in the dictionary storage unit can be enriched according to the usage record.

[0028]

As described above, the multimedia production apparatus of the present invention prepares not only a still image but also a storage unit for audio and video parts, and retrieves a natural language word or a character string of an idiom. Since index data used as keys is stored in the INDEX storage unit, it is possible to continuously search for media parts with different data attributes such as still images, voices, videos, etc. as natural language keys, giving a rich multimedia creative presentation. There is an effect that materials can be easily created by interactive operations.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of an embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 input device 2 data processing unit 3 storage unit 4 output device 21 interface control unit 22 search unit 23 multimedia authoring tool 31 INDEX storage unit 32 dictionary storage unit 321 image component storage unit 322 image effect storage unit 323 voice component storage unit 324 voice Effect storage unit 325 Video component storage unit 326 Video effect storage unit

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A dictionary storage unit that separately stores and manages parts and effects of a plurality of media having different data attributes for each data attribute, and parts and effects of each media corresponding to a natural language character string as a search key. And an INDEX storage unit for storing index data indicating storage position information in the dictionary storage unit together with a priority order, and the IN for receiving a character string in natural language.
Searching means for sequentially searching and outputting the parts and effects of each medium from the dictionary storage part according to the priority by referring to the DEX storage part, and the parts of a plurality of media searched and fixed by the searching part. A multimedia production apparatus comprising: a multimedia authoring tool for performing an editing process by utilizing an effect; and an interface control means for giving an instruction to the search means and the multimedia authoring tool to control the transfer of information. 2. The dictionary storage unit includes an image component storage unit, an audio component storage unit, and a video component storage unit that store components of image, voice, and video media having different data attributes, and components of each medium. 2. The multimedia according to claim 1, comprising a picture effect storage section, a sound effect storage section, and a video effect storage section which respectively store a basic processing program for making changes and typical operation parameters. Production equipment. 3. The INDE after the searching means determines the parts and effects sequentially searched and output.
3. The multimedia production device according to claim 1, wherein the multimedia production device is configured to update the priority of the index data in the X storage unit. 4. The image, audio or video data edited by the multimedia authoring tool,
4. The multimedia production apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a registration unit that adds a character string serving as a search key and registers the character string in the dictionary storage unit and the INDEX storage unit.