Motion video signal processing for recording or reproducing – Local trick play processing – With randomly accessible medium
Reexamination Certificate
1997-04-02
2002-10-15
Christensen, Andrew B. (Department: 2615)
Motion video signal processing for recording or reproducing
Local trick play processing
With randomly accessible medium
C348S700000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06466731
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to a moving picture processing method and moving picture processing apparatus for editing multimedia information, particularly moving picture data.
As satellite broadcasting (BS broadcasting) and cable television broadcasting (CATV) have been popularized, the number of video channels that can be viewed in the home is steadily increasing. It is safe to say that an environment is being enriched in which ordinary users can access large numbers of pictures in the field of DVDs (digital versatile disks) that can record and reproduce video and audio information in the form of digital data, as well as in the fields of video recording mediums including conventional video tape and laser disks.
In contrast, the techniques for efficiently accessing the desired one of large numbers of pictures have not progressed. For example, viewers choose their desired pictures (programs), referring to the program column in the newspaper. In the case of consumers who want to buy video software packages, they choose their desired video packages, referring to the titles, cast, and plot written on the packages.
On the packages, the contents of pictures are described in letters in text form, but not all of the pictures are described. It goes without saying that describing all of the pictures in text form would take a lot of time and labor.
Furthermore, the desire to watch a particular part of the picture differs from user to user, so providing text descriptions intended for all users leads to an increase in the volume of additional information, which makes it difficult to put the approach to practical use, especially in the case of a source that has a limit to the amount of information to be supplied, such as broadcasting media.
Therefore, even when a viewer wants to watch only a particular topic in a news program, he or she has to wait for the desired topic to appear, leaving the television on, or is forced to repeatedly watch the news that the viewer has already watched in another program, resulting in a considerable waste of time.
The mainstream method of selecting the desired portion of the video information is a method of displaying pictures in such a manner that each changing point (a cut) of a scene is represented by a single small picture (icon) and allowing the user to choose the desired icon on the screen to tell the system the playback starting point or edit operation.
The method is based on the assumption that any part of the supplied video data can be accessed by request of the user (random access). It cannot be said that the method takes into account a case where information flows only in one direction as in broadcasting media.
When a system is used which processes pictures in a manner that enables the user to access the pictures randomly, the user has to transfer and record the video information once in the system to watch the program now being broadcast, which impairs the convenience seriously.
Furthermore, with the method of displaying a scene of pictures in such a manner that each cut is expressed by a single icon, for example, if a cut is created at regular intervals of five seconds, 1440 small pictures will be displayed for two hours of pictures. When the small screens are displayed in list form, the legibility cannot be said to be high.
With such a poor video environment, even if an environment where the user can access a huge amount of video information comes into being in the near future, it will be impossible to enjoy the amount of information smoothly and there is a possibility that the number of users getting confused due to the overwhelming volume of information will increase.
Specifically, an effective method of filtering the information from noninteractive video media, such as broadcasting media, in real time has not been proposed.
Moreover, although the present techniques provide the evaluation of the similarity of two still pictures or of the similarity of a moving picture to a still picture, a concrete method of determining the similarity between two moving pictures has not been proposed.
Furthermore, in connection with displaying the contents of pictures in the form of a list of small pictures, a concrete method of reducing the number of small pictures to be displayed according to the contents of pictures has not been proposed.
BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is, accordingly, an object of the present invention to overcome the above disadvantages in the prior art by reducing the time for the user to have to continue watching the screen even when the user has accessed an image source that the user cannot always access randomly, by preventing the scenes except for the desired one from being displayed.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a method of determining the similarity between two moving pictures.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide a method of increasing the number of information to be displayed by information-filtering moving pictures on the basis of the determined similarity.
According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a moving picture processing method comprising the steps of:
extracting first feature amount data that indicates a feature of a first frame of the inputted moving picture data;
judging on the basis of the first feature amount data and second feature amount data indicating a feature of a second frame of the moving picture inputted before the first frame whether or not the first frame is similar to the second frame; and
creating first picture data for displaying a first picture corresponding to the first frame at least in a part of a second picture corresponding to the second frame, when it has been judged that the first frame is similar to the second frame.
According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a moving picture processing method comprising the steps of:
extracting first feature amount data that indicates a feature of a first frame of the inputted moving picture data;
judging on the basis of the first feature amount data and second feature amount data indicating a feature of a second frame of the moving picture inputted before the first frame whether or not the first frame is similar to the second frame; and
creating second picture data for displaying a preset still picture at least in a part of a second picture corresponding to the second frame, when it has been judged that the first frame is similar to the second frame.
According to a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided a moving picture processing method comprising the steps of:
extracting first feature amount data that indicates a feature of a first frame of the inputted moving picture data;
judging on the basis of the first feature amount data and second feature amount data indicating a feature of a second frame of the moving picture inputted before the first frame whether or not the first frame is similar to the second frame;
creating first picture data for displaying a preset still picture at least in a part of a second picture corresponding to the second frame, when it has been judged that the first frame is similar to the second frame;
judging whether or not the second picture corresponding to the second frame is a preset stop cancellation screen; and
creating second picture data for displaying the second picture corresponding to the second frame, when it has been judged that the second picture corresponding to the second frame is a preset stop cancellation screen.
According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a moving picture processing apparatus comprising:
extracting means for extracting first feature amount data that indicates a feature of a first frame of the inputted moving picture data;
judging means for judging on the basis of the first feature amount data and second feature amount data indicating a feature of a second frame of the moving picture inputted before the first frame whether or not the first frame is similar to the second frame; and
first creating means for creating firs
Aoki Hisashi
Kaneko Toshimitsu
Christensen Andrew B.
Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba
Onuaku Christopher
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