Computer graphics processing and selective visual display system – Computer graphics processing – Graphic manipulation
Reexamination Certificate
1997-10-22
2001-11-27
Sax, Steven (Department: 2173)
Computer graphics processing and selective visual display system
Computer graphics processing
Graphic manipulation
C345S650000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06323877
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to picture display and moving picture retrieval on a computer, and more particularly to picture display and moving picture retrieval based on multi-scene reproduction.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A prior common simultaneous multi-scene reproducing method is as exemplified by Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 5-19731. As shown in
FIG. 33
, a picture display unit based upon this simultaneous multi-scene reproducing method features a decoding frame identifying means
3301
for identifying a decoding level on the basis of the number of data of moving pictures to be simultaneously displayed for reproduction, an aiming frame decoding means
3302
for decoding picture data at the decoding level identified by the decoding frame identifying means
3301
, and a moving picture reproducing means
3303
for separately reproducing each of the decoded picture data.
In addition, a prior moving picture retrieving method is disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2-113790. According to this retrieving method, as shown in FIG.
34
, provided are a typical scene extracting means
3401
for extracting, as scenes, portions of moving picture information representative of a feature of a retrieval picture, a menu picture producing means
3402
for arranging these scenes on the time axis to edit them as menu pictures, and a menu picture reproducing means
3403
for reproducing the menu pictures for retrieval, which achieves the retrieval of a picture coincident with the retrieving object while seeing the menu pictures.
Moreover, so far, as a method of selecting data answering the purpose from moving picture data accumulated, there has been known a moving picture retrieving system disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 5-81348.
FIG. 35
is a block diagram showing the arrangement of the moving picture retrieving system of Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 5-81348. In this moving picture retrieving system, a reduced picture producing section
3502
produces picture data for display as a moving picture on the basis of picture data of all or a portion of moving picture data frames and further creates a reduced still picture representative of each of the plurality of moving picture data from a portion of each moving picture data. Further, a still picture display unit
3504
arranges and displays the representative pictures based on the moving picture data on a screen of a bit map display
3506
, while a scene selecting means
3507
selects the representative picture on the bit map display so that a moving picture display unit
3505
successively displays moving picture display picture data of the moving picture data represented by the selected representative picture on the bit map display
3506
in order.
However, in the prior art, in the case of the simultaneous multi-scene reproduction, a plurality of reduced scenes are commonly controlled to be respectively allocated to areas defined by dividing the display screen, and for this reason, the control such as decoding is necessary for the allocation (corresponding to the number of moving pictures to be reproduced). In addition, in the case of conducting the simultaneous multi-scene reproduction through a network, there is a need to insure a band of the network corresponding to the moving picture data to be reproduced, and in the case of carrying out the simultaneous multi-scene reproduction within a terminal, the consumption of the system resource occurs by a quantity corresponding to the number of moving pictures to be reproduced.
Furthermore, in the case of the retrieval of moving picture data, since the retrieval object is generally a set of pictures making features of a moving pictures, the retrieval is also performed in terms of similar pictures, with the result that the retrieval efficiency becomes worse and a long processing time is taken.
Still further, there is a problem in that, for designating a retrieval condition from a plurality of terminals and for simultaneously reproducing a plurality of moving pictures different among the respective terminals, in addition to the loads on the terminals and network, the load on the server increases in proportion to the number of terminals to make it difficult to smoothly reproduce moving picture at the plurality of terminals.
Moreover, in the prior method, for finding out the directing scene from the moving picture data being the object of the retrieval, there is a need to reproduce and check the whole moving picture display picture data created in advance, and this retrieval needs to take an extremely long time and much labor.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is therefore an object of the present invention to eliminate the troublesome control due to decoding of the moving pictures to be reproduced or the like and further to effectively utilize the band of the network and the system resource in such simultaneous multi-scene reproduction.
Another object of this invention is to, in the case of retrieving moving picture data on the basis of a still picture, speed up the retrieval processing concurrently with preventing an omission of the detection.
A further object of this invention is to provide a moving picture retrieving system which is capable of reproducing a list of moving picture data conforming with or meeting the retrieval condition, each of a plurality of terminals designates, using smooth moving data at the plurality of terminals.
A further object of this invention is to provide a moving picture retrieving system which is capable of quickly and simply searching a scene answering the purpose from moving picture data.
For eliminating the above-mentioned problems, a first aspect of the present invention is that a plurality of moving picture data to be reproduced are reduced in units of frames and combined or synthesized to produce one moving picture which in turn, is reproduced. Whereupon, when the plurality of moving picture data are simultaneously reproduced with multiple scenes, the troublesome control due to the decoding corresponding to the number of moving pictures to be reproduced is eliminable. Further, for example, in the case of transferring this combined picture through a network, the number of streams of data to be forwarded decreases, so that the effective use of the band of the network is possible, and the consumption of the system resource of a computer terminal taking the charge of the reproduction is reducible.
A second aspect of this invention is that, for retrieving moving picture data through the use of a key picture, the key picture is not compared with all the frames within the moving picture data but is compared with a representative frame of each of the scenes of the moving picture data. Thus, when the retrieval is done to the moving picture data by using a still picture as a key, since the frame data undergoing the retrieval lessens, which can speed up the retrieval processing.
A third aspect of this invention is that, for retrieving moving picture data using a key picture, in addition to the comparison of the key picture with the representative frame of each of the scenes of the moving picture data, the representative frame of the scene coinciding therewith in the comparison result is newly registered as a key picture, and further retrieval is conducted through the use of the newly registered key picture, thus preventing the retrieval omission. Accordingly, in the case of retrieving the moving picture data in a manner that a still picture is used as a key, the still pictures servicing as a key increases in number, so that the retrieval omission is preventable.
A fourth aspect of this invention is that, on the server side, a plurality of moving picture data to be reproduced are reduced in units of frames and combined to produce one moving picture, and the combined picture is reproduced on the terminal side. Thus, when the plurality of moving picture data are simultaneously reproduced with multiple scenes, the number of streams of data to be forwa
Horikami Shugo
Kato Hitoshi
Katoh Tsuyoshi
Nakamura Manabu
Gopstein Israel
Matsushita Electric - Industrial Co., Ltd.
Sax Steven
LandOfFree
Picture display unit, picture display system, and moving... does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.
If you have personal experience with Picture display unit, picture display system, and moving..., we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Picture display unit, picture display system, and moving... will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-2605280