JPH1028250A - Intelligent video camera and intelligent still camera - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a video camera in which the content or flow of a photographed video just immediately can be instantaneously captured. SOLUTION: A photographed animation is displayed in a partial area 208 of a display. When a recording button 216 is depressed, the photographed animation is recorded. A central image being the image of one part of this animation is extracted from the recorded cut by an extracting means. The central image extracted by the extracting means is turned into an icon 210, and displayed as a list in a partial area at the right side of the display. When the emphasis- displayed central image is selected by a right cursor button 218 during recording waiting, the cut corresponding to the central image is reproduced. Also, this device is provided with a function 214 for accepting the input of notes information such as a character or a symbol or the like.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a video camera, and more particularly, to a digital video camera capable of editing the contents of a shot image.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Video cameras for home use have been widely used mainly for recording the growth of children and various events.
In a home video camera, since an amateur shoots, in many cases, a very redundant and uninteresting tape is produced by taking a picture longer than necessary or re-taking the same scene many times. It is troublesome for many people to make appropriate edits again later, so that they are left untouched. For this reason, recently, attention has been paid to a shooting technique that takes care from the time of shooting so that editing is not required later. For professional video cameras, for example, cameras have been commercialized that record video from Ikegami Telecommunications Co., Ltd. to the hard disk. It is possible to perform simple editing, such as deleting a video of a continuous section up to the stop, and deleting a combination of multiple shots taken to form a single video work.

[0003]

[0005] However, a photographing technique that does not require editing is not well performed by an unskilled person, and the editing function of the professional camera is improved so that a professional can work efficiently. It has not been easy enough for amateurs to use. Also, at the time of shooting, it is necessary to write down what kind of video content was shot or what cut is important on paper etc., and the work itself is complicated, Further, it was further troublesome to make correspondence between the actual recording tape and the memo later.

Meanwhile, among digital still cameras for still images, there are known digital cameras capable of reducing an already photographed image and displaying a plurality of reduced images collectively on a screen. However, in this conventional technique, there are a mode for displaying a captured image and a mode for displaying a plurality of reduced images together. Unless the user instructs to switch the mode, a plurality of reduced images are combined together. Cannot be displayed.

A first object of the present invention is to provide an intelligent video camera and an intelligent still camera that enable a photographer to instantly grasp the contents of a photographed video or still image.

A second object of the present invention is to enable easy editing on an intelligent video camera without requiring special editing equipment.

[0007]

In order to achieve the first object described above, an intelligent video camera according to the present invention comprises a photographing means for photographing an arbitrary scene as a moving image, and a moving image photographed by the photographing means. Display means for
Recording means for recording a moving picture taken by the photographing means, and extracting means for extracting a representative image which is a still image of a part of the moving picture from the moving picture recorded by the recording means,
List display means for displaying a list of representative images extracted by the extraction means.

According to the present invention, the representative images can be displayed as a list, and the photographer can instantly grasp the contents of the shot video by viewing the representative images.

Further, the intelligent still camera according to the present invention comprises a photographing means for photographing an arbitrary scene as a still image, a display means for displaying a still image photographed by the photographing means, and a still image photographed by the photographing means. Recording means for recording an image, reducing means for reducing a still image recorded by the recording means, list display means for displaying a list of the still images reduced by the reducing means, Operation input means for receiving an instruction,
The reduction unit reduces a new still image captured by the imaging unit when the instruction for imaging is received by the operation input unit, and the list display unit displays the list as a list. One of the still images is updated to the newly reduced still image.

According to the present invention, the reduced images can be displayed as a list, and the photographer can instantly grasp the contents of the photographed still image by viewing the reduced images.

Further, in order to achieve the above-mentioned second object, the apparatus further comprises creating means for creating auxiliary information relating to the representative image, wherein the list display means displays the auxiliary information created by the creating means. Is displayed in association with the related representative image. Further, the extracting means extracts one representative image from a cut which is a moving image of one section recorded from a recording start instruction to an end instruction received by the operation input means, and displays the list. Setting means for setting whether recording of a cut corresponding to the representative image is valid or invalid for each representative image displayed by the means, wherein the list displaying means records the cut by the setting means. Can be displayed in association with the representative image corresponding to the cut for which the cut is set to be valid, indicating that recording of the cut is valid. An editing unit that edits a moving image recorded by the recording unit; a reception unit that receives an instruction to perform editing by the editing unit; and an editing unit that receives the instruction when the reception unit receives the instruction. And a display means for displaying a representative image to be edited by the means.

According to the present invention, editing can be easily performed on an intelligent video camera.

[0013]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, a first embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail.

FIG. 1 shows an example of a schematic block diagram of a system configuration for realizing the present invention. The configuration shown in FIG. 1 basically has a CPU 112, an auxiliary storage device 110, and
Memory 114, video memory 116, D / A converter 1
18, a display 120, and an input I / F 122, and in addition thereto, an optical system 100 including a lens for photographing, an image sensor 102 such as a photoelectric conversion element,
An image compression encoder 104 and an image expansion decoder 106, which are devices for compressing and expanding a captured video, and an analog output 124 for outputting the video to the outside are provided. FIG. 2 is an external view of an intelligent video camera having such a system configuration when the intelligent video camera is compactly combined in one housing.

In FIG. 1, reference numeral 100 denotes an optical system;
The adjustment is performed so that the scene or the person to be photographed is properly focused on the image sensor. This optical system also includes a magnification adjusting mechanism for performing zoom-up shooting. Operation information such as how much zoom magnification has been set is stored in the CPU 1
It is told to 12. Reference numeral 102 denotes an image sensor, which performs photoelectric conversion to change an imaging target into an electrical signal. 10
Reference numeral 4 denotes an image compression encoder, which captures the electric signal obtained at 102 as one image, reduces the amount of data using an image compression method represented by MPEG, and stores the compressed image in the auxiliary storage device 110. To be stored. By repeating the capture of such an image at a frequency of about 30 times per second, a continuous moving image can be stored in the auxiliary storage device. The sound can be captured by the microphone 126 and the A / D converter 128 and stored in the auxiliary storage device 110 in association with the moving image. The optical system 100, the image sensor 102, and the image compression encoder 104 can constitute a photographing unit. The auxiliary storage device 110 is a large-capacity recording device such as a hard disk, and is a device for semi-permanently recording digital data. This may be a recording device such as a PCMCIA type hard disk card which can be attached to and detached from the main body together with the storage device, or a type of recording device such as a magneto-optical disk which can attach and detach only a recording medium. The CPU 112 executes a software program for realizing the functions described in the present embodiment, including control such as start / stop of a recording process. The software program is resident in the memory 114, and the values and data of various variables necessary for the execution of the program are also stored here as needed. The video memory 116 stores an image displayed on the display 120 as digital data. Reference numeral 118 denotes a D / A converter of a type generally called a RAMDAC.
6 is sequentially read in accordance with the scanning line speed and drawn on the display 120. Therefore,
When the data in the video memory 116 is updated, the updated content is immediately reflected on the content displayed on the display 120. It is also possible to directly write the image being captured input to the image compression encoder 104 to the video memory 116, bypassing the image compression function. The display 120 is a device for displaying an image, and may be, for example, a small CRT or a plasma display, or may be a liquid crystal display device.
The image decompression decoder 106 decompresses the compressed moving image data stored in the auxiliary storage device 110 and expands the data on the video memory 116 as a decompressed image. The analog output 124 converts the expanded image into an analog video signal widely used in television receivers such as the NTSC system, for example, and outputs it. This output can be recorded by connecting it to a video device such as the VHS system which is currently widely used. If audio is also recorded,
In synchronization with the expansion of the image, audio can be output by the audio D / A converter 132, the speaker 130, and the like. The input I / F 122 is an information input device, and includes switches such as a record button and a play button, and a transparent touch panel attached to a display surface of the display 120. Input information input via the input I / F 122 is CP
It is transmitted to U112 and is processed as appropriate. Reference numeral 108 denotes a data bus for interconnecting the devices described above.

FIG. 2 shows an example of the appearance and screen display of the intelligent video camera as described above. In FIG. 2, an intelligent video camera body 200 includes a lens unit 202, a flat display 206 having a display function and a pen input function, and 216.
And an input I / F for buttons and the like. Lens unit 202
Is displayed on the partial area 208 in the display 206 as it is, so that the photographer can check the contents of the video. The main body upper part 203 including the lens part 202 is rotatable so that the photographer can photograph various angles of scenes, persons, and the like while fixing the viewing angle of the flat display. Reference numeral 204 denotes an operation switch for performing zooming.
It is a seesaw switch, and zooming in continuously when tilted to one side results in wide shooting when tilted to the other side. By pressing the record button 216, recording start / end can be instructed. Pressing once will start recording, and pressing again during recording will end recording. In the area on the right side of the display, a list of icon images 210 is displayed. This is an image obtained by selecting a representative frame image one by one from each of the cuts taken immediately before, and iconifying the selected frame image as a representative image. In this way, since the list of cuts taken immediately before is always displayed on the display 206 during recording, the shooting history so far can be immediately confirmed, and in what form should be taken now, It is easy to determine what kind of cut should be taken while shooting. In the first embodiment, auxiliary information 212 such as the recorded time and the length of a cut is displayed below the icon, and information for reminding the user of the cut is provided. The auxiliary information 212 includes a GPS (Global Po
If the location where the image was taken can be obtained by a sitioning system, etc., information on the location can be used. As a result, even an amateur can shoot without waste, and can record a video that can be watched without having to edit a large video later. Also, since the flow of the shot video is not lost, the image of the next cut to be taken during the shooting of one cut emerges, so that it is possible to smoothly transition to the shooting of the next cut and save time, The flow is hardly broken. On the other hand, except during shooting, an arbitrary icon from the icon list can be highlighted using the cursor button 218 as shown in the highlight 224. When the cursor button 218 is pressed, the highlight of the currently highlighted icon disappears, and another adjacent icon corresponding to the pressed direction is highlighted. When playback of a video is instructed by operating the right cursor button 218 or the like with this icon highlighted, a cut corresponding to the highlighted icon is played back in the partial area 208. In the configuration example of the intelligent video camera shown in FIG.
Reference numeral 22 denotes a general-purpose button, which can be generally used for determining various operations of the camera. 214 is a pen,
It is used to point to an arbitrary position on the display device or to input annotation information described later. The combination of a pen and a touch panel is basically equivalent to a pointing device such as a mouse widely used in current personal computers, and can be replaced with a combination of a mouse and a cursor display. So, below,
Information input is not limited to pen input only, but considers general input by a pointing device. When the edit mode button 226 is pressed, a simple edit mode described below is set,
Simple editing such as rearranging and trimming cuts is possible.

FIG. 3 is a state transition diagram showing a main processing flow in the intelligent video camera 200 shown in FIG. These processes are executed as a program in the memory 11.
4 and executed by the CPU 112.

In FIG. 3, when the power of the intelligent video camera 200 is turned on, first, an initialization process 30 is performed.
By 0, various devices are initialized, and the system is set to a state in which the video input from the optical system is displayed on the display as it is. If the cuts taken immediately before remain in the auxiliary storage device, the representative images of the cuts are displayed in a list, the display is updated to the most recently taken representative image, and the latest representative image is displayed. Highlight the icon. In the standby state of 302, nothing is done until any button is pressed or an input is made by the pointing device. When the recording button 216 is pressed, the camera transitions to the recording state 304. The image input from the optical system is continuously recorded in a predetermined storage area of the auxiliary storage device while performing image compression. If there is no free space, a warning is issued and the recording automatically ends. Here, the recording method to the auxiliary storage device is based on a file management method such as a disk operation system generally used by a current computer. Video data of one cut is recorded as one file in the auxiliary storage device.

FIG. 4 shows a management table 1000 when file management is performed for each cut. In FIG. 4, a serial number is added as a cut number 1010 for each cut, and a pointer 1020 indicating a storage position of a video data structure 500 for storing video data of the cut and information about the video data, which will be described later, Frame number 1 for identifying a representative image in a cut
030 is stored in association with the serial number of the cut. Files can be managed by the management table 1000.

FIG. 5 shows an example of a video data structure of an auxiliary storage device for storing information related to a video of a cut. This is called a video data structure 500. In FIG. 5, reference numeral 502 denotes video header information, which includes information necessary for decompression, such as the image compression method and the vertical and horizontal sizes of the image. A flag 504 indicates whether the recording of the cut is valid or invalid, and details thereof will be described later. 510
Indicates the amount of video data, and indicates how many bytes of the video data 512 that follows. This allows
Even if the data size of the compressed image changes depending on the type of video, it can be calculated where the annotation information stored after the video data 512 and the data of the annotation structure-related data to be stored are recorded. The video data 512 includes a still image for each cut, that is, a frame image, and audio data. Each frame has a unique serial number (hereinafter, referred to as a frame number), and the frame number is also included in the video data. The trimming start point 506 and the trimming end point 508 are used to designate a section of the video being cut, and the trimming start point 506 indicates the frame number of the start position of the section of the video being cut. 508 indicates the frame number of the end position of one section. The flag 504, the trimming start point 506, and the trimming end point 508 are used at the time of simple video editing described later. At the time of simple editing, when reproducing the trimmed cut, the reproduction is performed not only from the beginning of the cut but only in the section from the trimming start point to the end point. 514 is the number of annotations associated with the cut indicated by the data structure, and 516
Is a pointer to the data of the annotation information. The annotation information is managed one by one as a file, and the pointer is, specifically, an identification code for uniquely specifying the storage location of the file.

The annotation information is obtained by, for example, drawing an arbitrary line drawing at an arbitrary position on the display screen using a pointing device. Characters are also included in the line drawing figures. When the pointing device is a pen device in particular, this is equivalent to drawing a picture with a pen on a piece of paper on which a display image is printed. Commercially available graphic processing software can be used for the program itself for performing such drawing processing, and the color and coordinates of the line diagram on the display screen are acquired as drawing information by the drawing processing program.

FIG. 6 shows an example of the data format of the annotation structure 400 for recording and storing the drawing information obtained by the drawing processing program. In FIG. 6, the corresponding frame number 4
02 contains the frame number to which the annotation has been added. The display flag 404 is a flag indicating whether or not to display the annotation information during the cut reproduction, and displays the annotation information when the flag is set. While playing the cut, the CPU 11
2 manages which frame in the cut is currently expanded and displayed, and when the display frame number matches the value stored in 402 and the display flag 404 is set, Annotation information represented by data 408 to 420 can be drawn so as to be superimposed on the display screen. The display time 406 contains a value indicating how long display is continued after the frame number being reproduced matches the value of the corresponding frame number 402. The default is to enter a fixed value of about 5 seconds,
A separate interface can be provided that can be changed only when the user specifically desires. For example, when the general-purpose button 220 is pressed when the annotation information is input, the display time 406 can be set to be longer or shorter than 5 seconds by the cursor button 218. Data from 408 to 420 are line drawing data to be drawn, and the color code 408
Is a code number representing the color of the line to be drawn. 410-4
Reference numeral 16 denotes a so-called polygon coordinate data sequence, which sequentially connects the coordinates described until the line segment delimiter code 418 appears with a straight line. Further, rendering is performed by the number of polygons described until the terminal symbol 420 appears. Arbitrary characters and figures can be represented by these polygons. This annotation information can be used as a kind of telop or title character. The ordinary telop is a synthesizing method on the premise that the video itself is rewritten. However, since such a telop does not change the video itself, the synthesized content can be easily changed or canceled. For example, it is possible to change a handwritten character that is temporarily attached at the shooting site to a print type later.

As the annotation information, in addition to the line drawing figure, a voice that can be input using the microphone 126 and the A / D converter 128 shown in FIG. 1 may be used. Specifically, instead of drawing with a pen, the user records the annotation with a microphone in the frame to which the annotation is to be added. Digital audio data is entered in the annotation structure instead of polygon data.

In FIG. 3, the CPU 112 immediately terminates recording when the recording button is pressed in the recording state, and stores information, such as the video data size 510, which has not been determined until the recording is completed, in the video data structure shown in FIG. Record in body 500. Next, a representative image is extracted from the cut for which recording has just been completed (306), and the frame number of the extracted representative image is recorded in the frame number 1020 of the representative image in the management table 1000 shown in FIG. Next, in the representative image list display, the representative image that has been displayed for the longest time is updated to the latest extracted representative image and displayed.
The updated representative image is highlighted (308), and the process returns to the standby state. As the representative image, a frame image at a predetermined position such as the beginning, end, or half of the cut is acquired as a default.

Here, an example is shown in which the representative image is extracted and added to the list display after the recording is completed. However, the head image may be extracted as a representative image and added to the list display simultaneously with the start of recording. .

In FIG. 3, when the up cursor button 218 is pressed in the standby state (302), the highlight is moved to the cut immediately above the cut highlighted in the list display (310). Conversely, when the down cursor button is pressed, the highlight moves to the next lower cut similarly. Thereby, any cut displayed in the list can be highlighted. Here, if the number of cuts shot immediately before does not fit in the screen area for list display, the screen is scrolled so that a representative image of a cut that cannot be displayed can be displayed.

When the right cursor button 218 is pressed in the standby state (302), it is determined that reproduction has been instructed, and reproduction of the cut corresponding to the highlighted representative image is started from the beginning (312). When the right cursor is further pressed in this playback state, it is determined that fast-forward is instructed, and the playback position is immediately switched to fast-forward playback (31).
4). If any button is pressed in the fast-forward playback state, the fast-forward playback immediately returns to the normal playback. Also,
When the left cursor button is pressed in the normal reproduction state (312), a pause is instructed, and a still (pause) state is set at the reproduction position at that time (316). If there is an input from the pointing device in this still state,
This is used as annotation information, and the annotation information is associated with the frame number of the reproduction position at this time, and the annotation information is stored in the annotation structure 40 shown in FIG.
0 is recorded (318). When the right cursor button is pressed in the still state 316, it is determined that reproduction has been instructed, and normal reproduction is returned from that position. If any button other than the right cursor button has been pressed, the process returns to the standby state. In the state where the cut is being reproduced (312, 314), the reproduction returns to the standby state immediately after the reproduction is completed up to the end of the cut.

In the intelligent video camera 200 according to the first embodiment, the state transition is performed as described above.

According to the first embodiment, a list of representative images of the immediately preceding cut is always displayed even during recording, so that the photographing history so far can be immediately confirmed, and in what form the photographing is currently performed. You can easily determine what to do and what kind of cuts you should take in the future while shooting. In addition, you can easily describe what you are worried about during shooting as annotations in association with the video, and you can quickly find that part, so you can decide which cut to use when you want to edit it later And the cut can be called immediately.

In the cut list displayed on the display 206, as described above, a frame image at a fixed position such as the beginning or end is used as a representative image. May be used. For example, a frame with annotation information is used as a representative image, and the annotation information is superimposed on the representative image. The annotated frame is a frame determined by the user to be particularly important among the cuts, and the contents of the cut are easier to remember when the image is displayed in the list. If there is a camera operation such as zooming in the cut, it is better to extract a representative image from a portion that has been stably taken after the operation. This is because, after performing such a camera operation, an object to be photographed is often determined and photographed accurately.

In the above-described embodiment, a frame image at a predetermined position such as the beginning, end, or half position of a cut is extracted as a representative image, but another extraction method will be described below.

FIG. 7 shows a flow of processing for extracting a representative image from a video after the camera operation. FIG. 7 shows a process of extracting a representative image from a portion where the image is stable (close to a state where the image is still) after a zoom operation is performed during the cut. In this case, in order to extract an image of a portion where the image is stable, one frame image when the degree of difference between two frame images having a predetermined time difference is smaller than a predetermined threshold is set as a representative image.

In FIG. 7, the variable fr indicates the frame number of the representative image, and initialization is performed by substituting the first frame number 0 as an initial value (step 60).
0). When an image is input from the image sensor (step 60)
2) In order to manage the cut file input by the CPU 112, the management table 10 shown in FIG.
At 00, a cut number 1010 and a pointer 1020 of a video data structure are registered. When input of an image is started, image compression processing (step 604) and transfer processing to a video memory for display (step 606) are performed in parallel. The processing of steps 604 and 606 may be performed by dedicated hardware without using the CPU 112. Performing with dedicated hardware improves performance. The image data compressed in step 604 is stored in the pointer 102 of the video data structure.
0 in the empty area of the auxiliary recording device indicated by the video data structure 5
00 is recorded in a format as shown in FIG.
8). Then, in order to determine a representative image, an image recognition process is performed using the image data before compression, and it is checked whether or not the video is still and photographed. Here, a color histogram is obtained from the image before compression (step 61).
0), and compare with the color histogram similarly obtained from the photographed image t1 seconds before the predetermined time (step 61).
2). For comparison, the difference is determined by a predetermined method such as the sum of squares of each frequency between histograms. If the difference is greater than a preset threshold (step 614), it is determined that the histogram is not stationary, and the process proceeds to processing step 620. . If the degree of difference is small, it is checked whether or not the zoom operation has been performed immediately before (step 616). If there is, the frame number currently being recorded and written is substituted for fr to be a representative image (step 618). Whether the zoom operation has been performed immediately before can be known by storing the time when the zoom button 204 is pressed and determining whether the difference between the time and the current time is sufficiently small. If there is no recording end instruction (step 620), the process returns to step 602 to continue the recording process. If there is an instruction to end recording, frame number fr
Is converted to a representative image as an icon (step 62).
2). Then, the image is added to the list display of the representative images and highlighted as shown in FIG. If there is no zoom operation in the cut or if the difference is larger than the threshold, the first frame number 0, which is the initial value, is set as the representative image.

By performing the above-described processing, a representative image can be extracted from a portion where a video image is stable after a zoom operation is performed during a cut.

FIG. 8 is an example of a screen for performing simple video editing in the intelligent video camera shown in FIG. When the edit button 226 of the main body shown in FIG. 2 is pressed, a simple edit mode is set, and the display screen 206 changes to a display as shown in FIG. Edit button 2 again
Pressing 26 returns to the recording / playback mode display as shown in FIG. Here, the editing operation of three points of selection, rearrangement, and trimming of a cut will be described. Reference numeral 700 denotes a monitor area, which reproduces and displays an arbitrary recorded cut. Reference numeral 702 denotes a scroll bar area, and the horizontal width of this area corresponds to the total time length of the currently displayed cut. Area 7
When an arbitrary position of 02 is pointed by the pointing device, the display is switched to a frame image at a corresponding position from the relative positional relationship between the full width and the point position. A display area 704 displays a list of representative images of each recorded cut. When the number of cuts is too large to be displayed in this area, a scroll bar 706 is prepared so that a representative image that cannot be displayed by scrolling can be appropriately displayed. The representative image displayed in the display area 704 may be an image of a frame to which the above-described annotation information is associated, or may be an image in a state of being stably photographed after the camera operation is completed. Or,
At least one of them displays a representative image of the cut to which the annotation information is associated, so that a necessary cut can be easily searched. For the same purpose, when a list of representative images of all cuts is displayed, the representative image of the cut to which the annotation information is associated is highlighted 712.
As shown in FIG. In this case, since the representative images of the cuts without the annotation information are also listed, there is no fear that the representative images of the cuts without the annotation information cannot be found. The final assembly of the edited video is performed in the editing area 708. The representative image displayed in the display area 704 can be graphically moved by a so-called drag operation using a pointing device. The editing area 708 is a blank area in an initial state, and a representative image sequence including only the selected representative image is formed as the representative image moves by being dragged. By sequentially playing back the cuts corresponding to the representative images in accordance with the order of the representative image sequence arranged in the list in the editing area, a final edited video is obtained. In the video data structure 500 of the cut corresponding to the selected representative image, a valid flag 504 is provided.
Is set to a value indicating validity. For example, 0 is set to the valid flag 504 of the video data structure 500 of the cut of the representative image that has not been selected as a value indicating that it is invalid. It is defined that any value higher than that is valid. When the representative images arranged in the editing area are exchanged by dragging, the order in which the cuts are reproduced on the edited video is rearranged. The order of reproduction of the cuts at this time is stored by writing serial numbers in order from 1 in the valid flag 504, for example, in correspondence with the order in which the representative image rows are arranged. When trimming a cut, the user selects a frame image of the trimming start point using the scroll bar 702 while checking the video on the monitor 700, and designates the trimming start point when the frame image is displayed. When a predetermined button of the main body, for example, a general-purpose button 220 shown in FIG. 2 is pressed, the frame image is set as a starting point of trimming. The frame number of the start point is recorded at the trimming start point 506 in the video data structure shown in FIG. Similarly, monitor 7
While checking the video at 00, a frame image of the trimming end point is selected using the scroll bar 702, and when the frame image is displayed, a predetermined button on the main body for indicating the trimming end point, for example, FIG. When the general-purpose button 222 shown in FIG. 2 is pressed, the frame image is set as the trimming end point. The frame number of the trimming end point is recorded at the trimming end point 508 in the video data structure shown in FIG. When reproducing the trimmed cut, the reproduction is performed not from the beginning of the cut, but only from the section from the trimming start point to the end point.

Alternatively, recording is enabled / disabled for each cut.
The invalidation may be instructed. For example, in the monitor area 700 shown in FIG. 8, each cut is monitored and examined. When the general-purpose button 220 shown in FIG. 2 is pressed during reproduction, the cut is determined to be effective, and the general-purpose cut shown in FIG. It can be defined that when the button 222 is pressed, the cut is invalid.

When the mode is switched to the recording / playback mode after the editing instruction and the mode is switched again to the simple editing mode, if the valid flag of the video data structure is 0, a representative image is displayed in the area 704 and the video data structure is displayed. If the valid flag is one or more, the representative images can be sequentially displayed at the positions in the editing area 708.

Further, by further providing output means for transferring video data to an external video editing system, it becomes possible to edit the video data in the external video editing system. In this case, only the cuts for which the recording is set to be valid may be output to the outside. As a result, only an effective cut can be edited by the external video editing system.

As described above, according to the first embodiment, simple editing can be performed on a video camera.

In the example described above, a video camera that records a moving image has been described. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and can be applied to, for example, a still camera that electronically records a still picture. This case will be described below as a second embodiment. In the second embodiment, a still image obtained by cutting a still camera with a cut in the first embodiment described above, and the still image reduced and arranged in a list corresponds to a representative image list. In this case, the still camera includes a photographing unit that photographs an arbitrary scene as a still image,
Display means for displaying a still image photographed by the photographing means; recording means for recording a still image photographed by the photographing means; reducing means for reducing the still image recorded by the recording means; List display means for displaying a list of the still images reduced by the means, and operation input means for receiving a shooting instruction of the shooting means, wherein the reduction means receives the shooting instruction by the operation input means. When accepted, the new still image photographed by the photographing means is reduced, and the list display means displays one of the still images displayed as a list in the newly reduced still image. Update to picture.

According to the second embodiment, even when photographing a still image, it is possible to determine the next photographed image while confirming the camera angle and the expression of the object photographed immediately before. Further, similarly to the above-described embodiment, annotation information can be input, auxiliary information can be created, and a simple edit mode can be provided. This simplifies search and photo organization.

[0042]

According to the present invention, a list of representative images of the immediately preceding cut is always displayed even during recording.
The photographing history so far can be immediately confirmed, and it is easy to determine what kind of form should be taken at present and what kind of cut should be taken while photographing.
In addition, you can easily describe what you are worried about during shooting as annotations in association with the video, and you can quickly find that part, so you can decide which cut to use when you want to edit it later And the cut can be called immediately. In addition, since the video camera is provided with a graphical editing function using icons, editing on the video camera can be easily performed.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an example of a system configuration diagram for realizing the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an example of an appearance of a system and a screen display according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an example of a state transition diagram illustrating an operation flow of a system according to the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an example of a structure of a management table created by a system according to the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating an example of a structure of video data created by a system according to the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating an example of a data structure of an annotation created by the system according to the present invention.

FIG. 7 is an example of a flowchart of a process for determining a representative image.

FIG. 8 is an example of a screen display diagram for editing.

[Explanation of symbols]

100 optical system, 102 image sensor, 102 image compression encoder, 106 image expansion decoder, 108 bus, 110 auxiliary storage device, 112 CPU, 114
Memory, 116 video memory, 118 D / A converter, 120 display, 122 input I / F, 124
... Analog output.

Claims (15)

[Claims] A photographing means for photographing an arbitrary scene as a moving picture; a display means for displaying a moving picture photographed by the photographing means; a recording means for recording a moving picture photographed by the photographing means; Extracting means for extracting a representative image that is a part of a still image of the moving image from the moving image recorded by the method, and list display means for displaying a list of the representative images extracted by the extracting means. And intelligent video camera. 2. The recording apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising an operation input unit for receiving an instruction to start and end recording by said recording unit, wherein said extraction unit receives an instruction to start or end recording by said operation input unit. When received, extract a new representative image, the list display means, one of the representative images displayed as a list, to the representative image newly extracted by the extraction means An intelligent video camera characterized by updating. 3. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a creating unit that creates auxiliary information related to the representative image, wherein the list display unit displays the auxiliary information created by the creating unit with the representative image related to the representative image. An intelligent video camera characterized in that it is displayed in correspondence with the video. 4. The apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the extracting means converts the representative image from a cut which is a moving image of one section recorded from a recording start instruction to a recording end instruction received by the operation input means. An intelligent video camera characterized by extracting one. 5. The selecting means according to claim 4, wherein said selecting means selects one of the representative images for which a cut corresponding to said representative image is desired to be reproduced from the representative images displayed by said list display means. Reproducing means for reproducing a cut corresponding to the representative image selected by the means. 6. The annotation according to claim 5, wherein when said cut is being reproduced by said reproduction means, annotation information indicating an annotation relating to the image is inputted in correspondence with a part of the image of the reproduced cut. An intelligent video camera further comprising input means. 7. A setting means for setting, for each representative image displayed by said list display means, whether recording of a cut corresponding to said representative image is valid or invalid. The list display unit performs a display indicating that recording of the cut is valid in association with a representative image corresponding to the cut for which recording is set to be valid by the setting unit. Intelligent video camera. 8. A setting means for setting whether recording of a cut corresponding to a representative image displayed by said list display means is valid or invalid, and recording is enabled by said setting means. Output means for outputting only the cuts set to be to the outside to the intelligent video camera. 9. The apparatus according to claim 2, wherein said list display means comprises:
An intelligent video camera which highlights and displays the latest updated representative image among the representative images displayed in a list. 10. The display device according to claim 6, wherein the list display means emphasizes and displays the representative image to which the annotation information has been input by the input means among the representative images displayed in a list. Intelligent video camera. 11. The apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising zoom means for zooming an image to be shot, wherein said extraction means sets the representative image as an image shot by said shooting means after zooming by said zoom means. An intelligent video camera characterized in that: 12. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said extracting means includes a color histogram of one image of the moving image recorded by said recording means, and a color histogram of an image recorded a predetermined time before said one image. An intelligent video camera, wherein the one image is set as a representative image when a calculated difference between the calculated two color histograms is smaller than a predetermined value. 13. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising zoom means for zooming an image to be shot, wherein said extracting means includes a color histogram of one image shot by said shooting means after zooming by said zoom means; Calculating a color histogram of an image recorded a predetermined time before the one image and a color histogram of the two images, and when the calculated degree of difference between the two color histograms is smaller than a predetermined value, the one image An intelligent video camera characterized by using a representative image. 14. An apparatus according to claim 5, wherein said editing means performs editing of a moving image recorded by said recording means, receiving means for receiving an instruction to perform editing by said editing means, and wherein said instruction is performed by said receiving means. An intelligent video camera, further comprising: an edit target display unit that displays a representative image to be edited by the editing unit when accepted. 15. A photographing means for photographing an arbitrary scene as a still image, a display means for displaying a still image photographed by the photographing means, a recording means for recording a still image photographed by the photographing means, Reduction means for reducing the still image recorded by the recording means, list display means for displaying a list of the still images reduced by the reduction means, and operation input means for receiving an instruction to shoot the imaging means. The reduction means reduces the size of a new still image shot by the shooting means when the shooting instruction is received by the operation input means, and the list display means displays the list as a list. An intelligent still camera, wherein one of the still images is updated to the newly reduced still image.