Television – Studio equipment
Reexamination Certificate
1999-01-26
2001-08-21
Eisenzopf, Reinhard J. (Department: 2614)
Television
Studio equipment
C348S722000, C348S564000, C348S616000, C348S700000, C386S349000, C386S349000, C386S349000, C386S349000, C345S215000, C345S215000, C345S215000, C345S950000, C345S215000, C345S215000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06278497
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a moving picture processing apparatus for use in television broadcast program production, video program production or video editing, to a video processing method and apparatus which can be applied to a moving picture searching apparatus for search of a video source material library, etc. as well as to a computer program product having a video processing procedure recorded therein. More particularly, the present invention pertains to a computer-aided moving picture editing apparatus which can facilitate confirmation of contents of a moving picture source material during editing of the moving picture material and thus can shorten its editing time, by displaying an icon indicative of the picture material to be edited in a window on a display screen and operating the icon on the window.
As computers advance in processing speed and function, software has been quickly diversified and enhanced in their function. A facility for making a television broadcast program or a video program has also advanced in its function by applying such advance in computers and software to the facility.
In particular, editing of image information in making a program has been recently carried out with use of, e.g., a moving picture editing apparatus having a randomly-accessible information memory device using an inexpensive hard disk easy to handle and save. By employing such high-performance, diversified computer and software in the moving picture editing apparatus, the apparatus will be increasingly enhanced in its function.
FIG. 3
is a block diagram of an exemplary arrangement of a moving picture editing apparatus which embodies a moving picture editing method with the aid of a computer.
The illustrated moving picture editing apparatus includes a central processing unit (CPU)
301
for performing various sorts of control and editing operations on respective constituent devices of the moving picture editing apparatus under control of software programs; a display unit
308
for displaying control information on the CPU
301
as well as information on editing of motion images, scene images, cut images and a tree structure indicative of an editing status; an input device
309
for selecting information displayed on the screen of the display unit
308
and inputting a command to the CPU
301
; a frame buffer memory
307
for storing therein picture information to be displayed on the display unit
308
; and a picture reproducer (e.g., video tape recorder)
305
for reproducing a video signal for a moving picture for use in the editing and outputting the reproduced video signal to a video interface
304
. The video interface
304
functions to convert the video signal of the moving picture received from the picture reproducer
305
into video information having such a format as able to be processed in the apparatus and to output the video information to an information memory device
306
, a cut image change point detector
303
and a memory
302
. The video interface
304
also functions to convert the picture information having such a format as able to be processed in the apparatus and received from the information memory device
306
into the video signal and to output the video signal from a video signal output terminal
311
. The cut image change point detector
303
functions to judge that adjacent frame images of the moving picture belong to different cut images, by comparing the adjacent frame images and determining that an image information value indicative of a difference between the frame images exceeds a predetermined level. The memory
302
functions to store therein various sorts of software control programs for the CPU
301
and also to temporarily store various types of control information (such as a series of frame numbers of the moving picture, a frame number for the detected cut-image change point, a reduced image (M-icon) to be displayed on the screen of the display unit
308
, successive numbers of cut images, a sequence of numbers indicative of an order of a plurality of cut images) to be used in the apparatus. The information memory device
306
of a random access memory type functions to store information about the editing moving picture which is reproduced by the picture reproducer
305
and which has the predetermined format converted by the video interface
304
. The information memory device
306
also functions to store various editing and control information (such as M-icons) which are temporarily stored in the memory
302
to be used in the apparatus. The information memory device
306
uses, e.g., a hard disk of a random access memory type. The apparatus further includes a bus
310
for digital information transmission between the constituent elements of the moving picture editing apparatus. Although the various control programs of the CPU
301
have been explained in connection with a case where the programs are stored in the memory
302
, the programs may be stored in a memory part (not shown) built in the CPU
301
.
Connected to the bus
310
are the CPU
301
, memory
302
, cut image change point detector
303
, video interface
304
, information memory device
306
(e.g. a magnetic memory device), frame buffer memory
307
, display unit
308
, and input device
309
as the constituent elements of the moving picture editing apparatus. The CPU
301
transmits various types of signals between the constituent elements. These elements are controlled by an access signal issued from the CPU
301
. An instruction to the CPU
301
is issued from such an input device
309
as a mouse or a keyboard.
When the moving picture editing apparatus is arranged as mentioned above and predetermined software programs are stored in the memory
302
(or the CPU
301
), information on the moving picture to be edited can be stored in the memory
302
and information memory device
306
for its management. Further, when the moving picture stored in the memory
302
and information memory device
306
is displayed on the screen of the display unit
308
as cut images and scene images, and when these cut and scene images are used to form a tree structure; an operator can edit the moving picture.
A moving picture source material includes a plurality of sets of “cut” images. The cut image is defined as a set of a series of frame images taken in one shooting operation by a camera. Data on representative one of the frame images in each cut image is thinned out to form a reduced size image, which image will be referred to as M-icon. By operating the displayed M-icon on the display screen with use of a pointing device, the operator can carry out such editing operations as move, delete, couple, transform or special effect on the entire “cut” represented by the M-icon. One of methods of dividing a video source material into a plurality of cut images is, for example, to analyze features of such video data as illuminance, sound volume or color tone of a moving picture, to recognize as a cut boundary a remarkable change in these features and to automatically divide the moving picture into cut images sequentially at such recognized cut boundaries. This method is disclosed, e.g., in JP-A-2-184181 Publication.
A “scene” image includes a plurality of cut images. Further a plurality of scene images having a specific “shooting theme” form an editing moving picture. The editing moving picture is created by combining a tree structure having the cut images in a lower layer and the scene images with the “shooting theme” in an upper layer with M-icons of the video material.
FIG. 4
is an example of a display screen when a moving picture is edited with use of the moving picture editing apparatus of
FIG. 3
using a moving picture editing application program.
The display screen has a window
100
, which in turn includes an editing area
105
and a material area
106
.
Displayed in the material area
106
as registered and arranged as editing materials are M-icons
101
,
102
, . . . and
104
which indicate as representative images the first frame images of cut im
Miyatake Takafumi
Sumiyoshi Masanori
Ueda Hirotada
Antonelli Terry Stout & Kraus LLP
Eisenzopf Reinhard J.
Hitachi , Ltd.
Natnael Paulos M.
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