Moving picture collection and event detection apparatus

Details Moving picture collection and event detection apparatus Moving picture collection and event detection apparatus

1999-02-19

2003-09-23

Tran, Thai (Department: 2615)

Motion video signal processing for recording or reproducing

Local trick play processing

With randomly accessible medium

C386S349000, C386S349000, C386S349000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06625383

ABSTRACT:

TECHNICAL FIELD
This invention relates to a moving picture edit processing for providing moving pictures by shooting, recording and editing them with a video camera, etc., and more particularly, this invention relates to a moving picture playback apparatus for playing back and displaying moving pictures, and a moving picture collection apparatus for collecting moving pictures.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
As a general and conventional moving picture playback apparatus for playing back moving pictures, there is a video tape recorder (VTR). With VTR, moving pictures are recorded on a video tape. When a user presses buttons such as “playback”, “stop”, “frame forward”, “frame rewind”, etc., on the VTR apparatus, which the video tape is set to, the tape is controlled according to an instruction, and the recorded moving pictures are displayed on a screen.
Furthermore, as the general and conventional moving picture collection apparatus for collecting moving pictures, there is a video camera recorder. The video camera recorder is a video camera combined with the VTR in one piece so as to make it easy to carry, and moving pictures shot with the video camera are to be recorded on the video tape by the VTR.
Here, let us consider a case when we shoot moving pictures with the video camera, and record and edit the moving pictures and produce a video title.
On the video tape, several scenes, for example, a “Scene at the Airport”, a “Scene at the Port”, a “Scene on a Superhighway”, a “Scene on the Railroad”, etc., are recorded. Suppose if we are to produce a video title regarding ground transportation, we have to select appropriate scenes such as the scenes at the airport, the scenes on the superhighway, the scenes on the railroad, etc., from the video tape, and then rearrange and concatenate them in a desired order. Moreover, in order to playback a certain segment of a scene, we have to set a playback segment in the scene, and we have to implement processing so as to specify the playback speed in order to playback the part in slow motion. For additional effects, such as overlapping the scene of the railroad on the scene of the superhighway, several scenes must be composited.
As an example of moving picture edit apparatus designed for such editing based on the moving pictures recorded on the video tape, there is a video edit system which combines the edit control apparatus with two or more VTRs. This system designates one VTR as an input VTR and the other VTRs as output VTRs, and edit operation such as processing or concatenating scenes are carried out by dubbing necessary scenes from the input VTR to output VTR in the order. Also, a composite edit operation is implemented by compositing signals from several input VTRs by the edit control unit and then sending out to the output VTRs.
Those are examples of the conventional and general moving picture playback apparatus and the moving picture edit apparatus using it, in recent years, a moving picture edit apparatus using a computer called a non-linear edit system is widely put to use (a typical product of the non-linear edit system is the MCXpress by Avid Technology Company of the United States). The non-linear edit system applies the technology which digitallizes moving picture data, compresses the data, and stores it in a computer memory, and then reads the data as necessary and playbacks after expanding the data. When this non-linear edit system is compared with the previously mentioned video edit system, the non-linear edit system has an advantage in editing without repeating dubbing from the video tape to the video tape, and thereby it's usage is gradually spreading.
The operation of the non-linear edit system, which is one example of the conventional moving picture edit apparatus, will be explained next.
FIG. 38
shows a general configuration of the conventional non-linear edit system.
The non-linear edit system is configured with a sequential access type moving picture storage unit
2
(the moving picture storage unit for VTR, etc., and called as the sequential access type moving picture storage unit hereinafter in order to distinguish it from the moving picture storage unit using a hard disk of a computer.) connected to a computer
50
. In a typical configuration of the non-linear edit system, computer
50
and sequential access type moving picture storage unit
2
are connected with a signal cable and control cable. The signal cable inputs signals of moving pictures or sound played back by sequential access type moving picture storage unit
2
into computer
50
. And the control cable is used for controlling playback, stop, frame forward, or frame rewind from computer
50
to sequential access type moving picture storage unit
2
, and for transmitting the frame number of the frame currently displayed from sequential access type moving picture storage unit
2
to computer
50
.
Moving pictures shot with the video camera are recorded on a medium such as the video tape, and then stored in the sequential access type moving picture storage unit
2
.
The user performs editing by inputting a command from a command input unit
8
using a keyboard or a mouse of the computer.
An example of user interface for editing is illustrated in FIG.
39
.
In the figure, there are shown a scene menu window
111
, a displayed scene icon
112
, a moving picture playback window
113
for playing back one of the scenes, a playback control buttons
114
for controlling moving picture playback by the moving picture playback window
113
, a stop button
115
, a playback button
116
, a frame rewind button
117
, a frame forward button
118
, a scene definition window
119
for specifying a starting frame and an ending frame for each scene, a new scene display button
120
for displaying new scenes, and a moving picture edit window
121
for concatenating and compositing each scene and defining a new scene.
The editing is performed in the following procedure using the user interface aforementioned.
(1) Defining a Scene
The user firstly defines a scene of related segment in the moving pictures such as the scene of the airport, the scene of the superhighway, and so forth, by a scene definition unit
20
. The information of the defined scene is stored in scene information storage unit
5
. The scene information contains a specified starting frame number and ending frame number for each scene.
FIG. 40
indicates one example of the scene information.
The explanation of the frame number is now given. A moving picture, for instance, consists of 30 images per second. Each image is referred to as the frame. Moving pictures are recorded on a medium such as the video tape by sequential access type moving picture storage unit
2
, and the number specifying each frame on the medium is called the frame number.
Business VTRs use the number called the time code for the purpose of specifying frames. The time code is expressed with an 8-digit number such as 01:10:35:08, which represents the 8th frame of one hour, ten minute, and 35 seconds.
Defining a scene is, for example, carried out as below.
First of all, in
FIG. 39
, a new scene display button
120
is clicked with the mouse. Then, a new scene having no defined title, starting frame and ending frame is displayed on moving picture playback window
113
. The scene is then defined by inputting the title, starting frame number, and ending frame number at the keyboard on scene definition window
119
.
For defining a scene in the previously mentioned method, the user has to know the starting frame number and the ending frame number of the scene to be defined beforehand. Business VTRs are provided with a function to display the time code of the frame currently displayed on the monitor screen, which enables the user to know the starting frame number and the ending frame number by reading the displayed time code from the screen by positioning the desired frame using such buttons as the forward button, rewind button, frame forward, frame rewind, etc., of the VTR.
(2) Reading a Moving Picture
Then, the defined scene is digitally comp

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