JPS6014583A - Vtr picture retrieving system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To enable easy retrieval of pictures even for a large quantity of pictures by performing directory formation at arbitrary time interval, and after rough retrieval of pictures to be retrieved, retrieving a picture which is to be retrieved primarily. CONSTITUTION:When forming a directory for pictures recorded as TN=1, TN=2, TN=3... in the area of picture recording section 41 by a VTR36, the recorded picture (TN=1) is reproduced by a PCM encoder decoder 35 and inputted to a directory forming circuit 37 and reduced, and then stored in the frame memory 38 for directory. Similarly, for instance, a directory is formed for every five pictures (TN=6, TN=11...) and stored successively. Data of the frame memory 38 are transferred to an external memory 39, and the recorded directory is recorded in the VTR36 through the PCM encoder decoder 35. At this time, recording is performed in a directory recording section 44. Control of time interval for every five pictures is performed by a time controlling circuit 311.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Technical Field of the Invention] The present invention relates to an apparatus for recording and reproducing digital images using a VTR, and particularly to a VTR image search method using a directory.

[Technical background of the invention and its problems]

In recent years, in digital image processing systems, P is used as a means to record large amounts of digitally processed image data.
PC that records on a VTR using a CM encoder/decoder
There is M recording method. For example, image size 480 dots x 4
If an 80-dot, 8-bit density image is recorded on a VTR tape for one hour, a large number of digital images, approximately 2,000 images, can be recorded.

Conventionally, as a means of searching a large amount of digital images stored in this way, a text number was added to each image, this text number was specified at the time of search, and the picture search function of the VTR was used to search at 3x speed.

Li! at any speed such as 10x or 20x speed! ! +1'
A method of searching for J is known. However, the problem with this method of retrieval is that it is necessary to associate the contents of recorded images with text numbers, and a correspondence table must be prepared as a means for doing so. As mentioned above, it is extremely troublesome to create a correspondence table for such a large amount of data that approximately 2,000 images can be recorded on a tape for one hour. Furthermore, when the number of images is large, it is troublesome for humans to read the image contents described in text in the correspondence table in order to identify them.

As a conventional technique to solve the above drawbacks, a directory of images recorded on a VTR is created, this directory is also recorded on the VTR together with the images, and when searching, after playing back the directory, the text number of the image to be searched is visually displayed. There is a way to specify it.

An example of this prior art will be explained with reference to FIGS. 1 and 2.

FIG. 1 shows the recording format of a directory recording section and an image recording section recorded on a VTR tape, and FIG. 2 shows an example of the recording format of the directory recording section. Image 1, image 2, .
..., image N has been recorded.

TN=1 as a text number for each image. TN=2.

..., TN=N is added. Builev) l)
There are 19 images 2. images in the recording section aa. . . . A reduced version of one image N is recorded as shown in FIG.

Here, the size of the IJ recording section 2D is as shown in image 1. . . . The image size is the same as that of the second image N.

For example, set the image size to 480 dots! 31 x 480 dots) 24), a directory with an image size of 48 dots (c) x 48 dots (e) can be obtained by reducing the image size by 1/10 in the vertical and horizontal directions. This reduced image is shown in area C in Figure 2! Record it directly. Similarly, the images are reduced in size and recorded as a directory, but 480 dots (c) x 480 dots CI! 4) Area hollow 48 dots 0
5) A directory of X48 dots (a) will be recorded from images with TN=1 to images with TN=100.

The directory recorded in this manner is reproduced as a multi-image, and while observing this multi-image, a person specifies the text number of the image to be searched and searches for one image.

However, the drawback of this method is that only one directory recording section O
Since only 100 reduced images can be recorded on a, in order to generate all the approximately 2000 images recorded on an hourly tape as a directory, 2000 images/100 images =
Twenty directory recording units are required, and it is difficult and time-consuming to observe all these directories and search for images. In order to further reduce the number of directory recordings, it is possible to increase the image reduction ratio and increase the number of images that can be stored in one directory recording section.
This has the disadvantage that it is difficult for humans to distinguish the contents of the reduced image, making it impossible to search.

[Purpose of the invention]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide a system that generates an IJ for a large amount of image data recorded on tape, and uses this directory to easily search even a large amount of images.

[Summary of the invention]

The present invention generates a directory for images recorded on a tape at arbitrary time intervals, and provides an overview of four images even for a large number of images recorded on a tape. It can be created as a directory. First, after roughly searching for the image you want to search for,
It is intended to search for images that are originally intended for searching.

〔Effect of the invention〕

According to the present invention, image retrieval is easily possible even for a large number of images using the generated IJ, which improves efficiency in terms of time and effort for human observers. do.

[Embodiment of the Invention] An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. Generally, images recorded on a VTR are often consecutive images with similar content, and it is extremely rare for consecutive images of text strings to have completely different content. The point of the present invention is to pay attention to this point and generate directories at regular time intervals. Figure 3 is a diagram showing the circuit configuration of this embodiment, and Figure 4 is a diagram showing the state of IJ generation □.
FIG.

In Figure 3, analog video input signal 3 from a TV camera, etc.
1) is converted into a digital image newsletter by the AD converter c34 and stored in the frame memory 6. The digital image signal stored in this frame memory (g) is sent to the PCM encoder deco TN=1 via the data bus C341.
It is recorded in the area (42). By repeating the above operations, images are recorded as TN=2, TN=a, and so on. FIG. 4 shows how 1000 images were recorded continuously. In this embodiment, the image size is 480 dots x 480 dots as in FIG. 2.

Next, when creating a directory for the 1000 images recorded on the VTR (to) in Figure 3, the images (TN, , , ]) recorded on the VTR (to) are transferred to the PCM encoder/decoder (to). ) is reproduced by data bus C341.
The directory generation circuit 07) is activated via the . The image generated by the directory generation circuit C37) is the size of the directory shown in FIG.
After being reduced to the image size of dots x 48 dots, the third
It is stored in the directory frame memory (to) shown in the figure. The area stored at this time is directory number 1 in Figure 2.
It is 2a. Generate a directory using the same method below,
It is stored sequentially in the directory frame memory (to), but the next builf) l) is generated ■TP
- The reproduced image from (g) is symmetrical to the image of TN-6 (43) in FIG. In other words, the 1,000 images recorded on the VTR (g) are processed every 5 images (TN=l).

TN=6. Create a directory in TN-11...).

In other words, it takes about 1.4 seconds to generate one directory, so one directory is generated every 7 seconds in terms of time interval. As a result, 1000 images 15 = 200 reduced images are obtained as tilt images. As shown in Fig. 2, the IJ recording section can only store 100 images, so when 100 reduced images are generated, the data in the directory frame memory (to) shown in Fig. 3 can be stored. After transferring the data to the external storage device θ via the data bus (2), the remaining small image generation operation is executed. Therefore, two IJ recording sections (Tylef in FIG. 2) are generated for 2000 images. Control of the time interval of 4σ between the five images is carried out by the time control circuit (31) shown in FIG.

The entire system is controlled by the system control circuit (3121
will do it.

The directory generated in this manner and stored in the external storage device 131 is recorded on the VTR via the PCM encoder/decoder. At this time, K recording is performed in the IJ recording section (44) shown in Fig. 4.

As described above, according to the present invention, by creating a directory for a large number of images recorded on a VTR at regular time intervals (every 5 images in the embodiment), a directory for all images can be created and searched. I can do it.

Similarly, in the above embodiment, a directory is generated for every five images, but the directory is not limited to this, and a directory is generated depending on the total number of images recorded on the VTR and the number of reduced images generated as a directory. You can freely set the time interval.

This time interval can be set freely by the system operator under the control of a personal computer or the like. or,
The number of directories can also be increased to the extent that specifying search images does not become a problem. Furthermore, in the embodiment, a directory is created after all images are recorded on the VTR, but the VT
It is also possible to create a directory while recording images in R.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

Figure 1 is a diagram showing the recording format of a VTR tape.
FIG. 2 is a diagram showing the recording format of the directory recording section, FIG. 3 is a diagram showing the circuit configuration of an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 4 is a diagram showing the state of generation of a file. 31... Analog video person Kai-A, 32... AD converter, 33... Frame memory, 34... Data bus, 35... PcM encoder self-decoder, 36...
・V'l. 37... Directory generation circuit, 38... Frame memory for directory, 39... External storage device. 311...Time control circuit, 312...System control circuit.

Claims (1)

[Claims] AD converts analog video signals to digital image signals
a converter; a first frame memory for storing the digital image signal output from the AD converter; an encoder and a decoder for recording and reproducing the digital image signal output from the frame memory on a VTR; a directory generation circuit for generating a directory of recorded images; a second frame memory for storing a directory output from the directory generation circuit; and a time control circuit for setting a time interval for directory generation in the directory generation circuit. A VTR image retrieval method characterized by comprising: