JPH09331518A - Jump destination designation method in moving image data / providing system - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide moving image data by adding time information to a prescribed position of the moving image data at a prescribed time interval in the case of coding moving image data or storing the data in a moving image server so as to send the moving image data in matching with a time designated at a terminal equipment by the user from the moving image server. SOLUTION: Time information of moving image data is inserted in coded moving image data at a prescribed time interval. A video server 10 receives the coded moving image data via a network interface 13 and writs the data to a disk 11. The user designates moving image data desired to be seen via a reproduction terminal equipment 20 and the video server 10 receiving the request sends the requested moving image data to the reproduction terminal equipment 20 via a network 40. The reproduction terminal equipment 20 uses the time information to calculate the time information corresponding to the time for a jump destination designated by the user to make a request of a jump and the video server 10 receiving the request reads the moving image data in matching with the time information and sends the data.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention is applied to a moving image on-demand system in which a user operates a terminal to interactively read moving image data from a moving image server in which moving image data is stored. The present invention relates to a jump destination specifying method in a providing system.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A moving image on-demand system is known in which a user operates a terminal to interactively read moving image data from a moving image server in which moving image data is stored. However, in such a system, conventionally, the moving image data sent from the server does not include data indicating time. Therefore, when the user operating it requests to jump to a certain scene, the terminal specifies the relative time from the moving image data that is currently being played back to the moving image server. I'm making a request for a jump. Further, the moving image server reads the moving image data at the time designated by the user on the basis of the moving image data being read when the jump request arrives.

[0003]

There are a plurality of buffers on the server, the terminal, and the network connecting them.
Therefore, there is a time lag between the moving image data being reproduced by the terminal and the moving image data being read by the moving image server. Further, as described above, the moving image data is distributed and buffered in a plurality of buffers, and in addition, the size of these buffers varies depending on the network configuration and the system configuration.
It is impossible to accurately estimate the amount of moving image data buffered between the moving image server and the terminal.

For these reasons, in the conventional method, the user can send moving image data corresponding to the moving image data correctly from the moving image server even if the user specifies, for example, moving image data after 3 seconds. There wasn't.

According to the present invention, moving image data matching a time designated by a user on a terminal is sent from a moving image server,
It is intended to be provided to users.

[0006]

According to the present invention, the time information of the moving image data, for example, the number of seconds from the beginning is inserted into the encoded moving image data at regular time intervals, The terminal uses the time information to calculate time information corresponding to the jump destination time designated by the user, and makes a jump request to the moving image server. The moving image server that has received the request reads the moving image data that matches the time information and sends it to the terminal.

According to the present invention, it is possible to read from the server the moving image data that exactly matches the time requested by the user.

[0008]

1 shows an example of a system configuration using the present invention. In the figure, 10 is a moving image server that stores moving image data, 20 is a moving image reproducing terminal that reads and reproduces moving image data from the moving image server, 30 is an encoder system that encodes moving images, and 40 is a network. Therefore, the moving image server 10, the reproduction terminal 20, and the encoder system 30 are connected to each other.

The moving image server 10 includes a disk 11 for storing moving image data, a buffer memory 12 for temporarily storing moving image data, a network interface 13,
A buffer 14 for storing the physical address conversion table and a counter storage buffer 15 are provided.

The reproducing terminal 20 comprises a network interface 21, a buffer 22 for temporarily storing moving image data, a decoder 23, and a buffer 24 for storing a counter for indicating a position during reproduction.

The encoder system 30 includes an encoder 3
1, format conversion buffer 32, network interface 33, analog video input device 34, counter storage buffer 3 for counting moving image data
5 is provided.

Next, the outline of the processing in this system will be described. The process according to the present invention includes two processes, a moving image registration process and a read process. In the moving image registration processing, first, an analog video is encoded using the encoder system 30 and registered in the moving image server 10 via the network 40. The reading process is to read, decode, and reproduce the registered moving image to the reproducing terminal via the network 40.

First, an embodiment of the moving image registration processing of the present invention will be described. FIG. 2 shows a schematic flowchart of the moving image registration processing. Before inputting analog video from the analog video input device 34, the value in the counter storage buffer 35 is set to 0.
(S1). The analog image to be encoded is input to the encoding device 31 (S2), and the encoded moving image data is stored in the format conversion buffer 32 at fixed time intervals (0.5 second unit in this embodiment) (S4). Writing (S3), reading the value stored therein from the counter storing buffer 35, adding the value to the fixed position of the moving image data in the format converting buffer 32, in the present embodiment, the value is added to the counter storing buffer. Buffer 35
The inside value is incremented by 1 (S5). Then, it is sent to the moving image server 10 via the network interface 33 (S6).

The moving image server 10 receives the encoded moving image data via the network interface 13 (S7) and temporarily stores it in the buffer 12 (S8, S).
9), write processing to the disk 11 is performed (S11).
When writing data, the value of the counter written at the beginning of the moving image data in the buffer 12 is read (S
10), in the physical address conversion table buffer 14,
A process of writing the value of the counter and the physical address (cylinder number, sector number, etc.) for writing the moving image data is performed (S12). The registration process is completed by the above process.

Next, an embodiment of the reading process of the present invention will be described. 3 and 4 are schematic flowcharts of the reading process. First, the user, via the playback terminal 20,
When the moving image data to be viewed is specified, the request is transmitted from the terminal to the moving image server 10 via the network 40.

The requested moving image server sends the requested moving image data from the disk 11 as shown in FIG.
The data for 0.5 seconds from the beginning is one unit,
It is read into the buffer 12 and transmitted to the reproduction terminal 20 via the network interface 13 and the network 40.

As shown in FIG. 3, the reproducing terminal receives moving image data via the network interface 21,
Write to the buffer 22. The counter value written at the time of registration is read from the beginning of the data in the buffer, written in the counter storing buffer 24, and the part other than that part is sent to the decoder 23 for reproduction. After that, the counter value is read from the head of each data sent from the moving image server 10, and the same processing is repeated.

A process when a user requests a jump to an arbitrary point during the reproducing process will be described. FIGS. 5 and 6 are schematic flowcharts of the processing when a jump request is made. In the present embodiment, description will be made on the assumption that the user requests a jump after 5 seconds from the scene currently being reproduced as a starting point. Similar to the start of reading, the moving image server 1
A jump request is issued to 0, but before this, the playback terminal reads the counter value at that time from the counter storage buffer 24 and the counter increases by 1 in 0.5 seconds, so the counter value is set to 5 A value obtained by adding 10 (seconds) is transmitted to the embedded moving image server 10 during the jump request.

In the moving image server which has received the request,
Based on the jump request as shown in FIG. 6, the physical address of the disk on which the requested moving image data is recorded is searched from the physical address conversion table buffer 14 and read from the address in the disk to the buffer 12. , Network interface 13, network 4
It is transmitted to the reproduction terminal 20 via 0. That is, the reproduction can be started from the position requested by the user.

At this time, in the reproducing terminal 20, as shown in FIG. 5, the value of the counter at the head of the data sent from the moving image server is checked to see if it is the jump requested data. If it is not the requested data, it is discarded. You can also do it.

[0021]

According to the present invention, the scene requested by the user can be retrieved from the server. In addition, since there is no complicated processing on the server side and the terminal side, high-speed processing is possible, and the response time can be extremely shortened.

Further, at the time of a jump request, by checking the time information in the moving image data on the reproducing terminal side,
It is possible to reproduce only a required portion without reproducing a moving image unnecessary for the user.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is an example of a system configuration using the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart of moving image data registration.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart of moving image data reproduction on a reproduction terminal.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart of moving image data reproduction on a moving image server.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart of a jump request at the playback terminal.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart of a jump request in the moving image server.

[Explanation of symbols]

 10 Moving Image Server 20 Video Playback Terminal 30 Encoder System 40 Network 11 Moving Image Data Storage Disk 12 Moving Image Storage Buffer 13 Network Interface 14 Physical Address Conversion Table Buffer 15 Counter Storage Buffer 21 Network Interface 22 Moving Image Data Temporary Storage Buffer 23 decoder 24 counter storage buffer 31 encoding device 32 format conversion buffer 33 network interface 34 analog video input device 35 counter storage buffer

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A jump destination image in a moving image data providing system comprising a moving image server that stores encoded moving image data and a terminal that receives and reproduces the moving image data from the moving image server via a network. In the jump destination designating method of designating, the step of adding time information of the moving image data to a predetermined position of the moving image data at a constant time interval when the moving image data is encoded or stored in the moving image server. And a step of placing the time information in the jump request when the terminal makes a jump request, and a step of determining moving image data to be read next based on the time information in the jump request in the moving image server. A jump destination designating method in a moving image data providing system characterized by the following.