JP3606468B2 - Video / audio information communication method - Google Patents

Description

[0001]
[Industrial application fields]
The present invention relates to a transmission side having storage / transmission means for storing video / audio information, a communication path for transmitting the video / audio information, means for receiving, storing, processing, reproducing / displaying the video / audio information, and storage information. The present invention relates to a video / audio information communication system comprising a receiving side having a user interface for reading, processing, and display.
[0002]
[Prior art]
For a conventional video / audio communication system, for example, a communication system that broadcasts simultaneously, such as a broadcast service or a cable television service, or a communication system in which communication information flows in real time, such as a video conference, The degree of freedom from the receiver for the sent information is only the temporal selection of the information and simple storage. If you want to process the received information, the stored information is continuous after the end of communication. There was no choice but to deal with the part of interest while watching.
[0003]
FIG. 7 shows an outline of a conventional video / audio communication system. The video / audio information stored in the transmission data storage unit 2 is transmitted by the transmission unit 3 on the transmission side 1, but the information flowing through the communication path 4 is content related to video and audio except for protocol information for performing data transfer. Information 5 only. On the other hand, on the receiving side 6, selection of received information received by the receiving unit 7 is performed by the user 12, and the selected information is stored in the received data storage unit 9. The received information is reproduced / displayed by the reproduction / display control unit 10 at the same time as reception, but all the received information is reproduced / displayed offline through the user operation interface 11 after reception.
[0004]
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
For this reason, in the prior art, it has been impossible to quickly access and use specific contents that have already been received and recorded during the reception of the information with respect to the information that has already been received. For example, in a video conference, video used as material is sent prior to the conference and referred to during the conference, but for video / audio received in real time, a specific video recorded during the conference is recorded. The parts could not be quickly accessed and played back according to the content, but eventually they had to watch and listen on the spot in real time, or recorded everything and played back in chronological order after the meeting. Also, even when video / audio information according to a program is broadcasted one after another via a communication network like CATV, specific recorded partial information can be accessed quickly while recording. I could not. This is because there is no information that reflects the contents of the transmitted video / audio information, and thus it is impossible to devise when processing such as recording. In addition, since a huge amount of storage media is required to store all the flowing video / audio, it is desired to limit the storage of information to only the necessary portions and to perform it in an easy-to-use form.
[0005]
An object of the present invention is to provide a video / audio information communication method capable of promptly accessing and reading out already recorded partial information while receiving information.
[0006]
[Means for Solving the Problems]
The video / audio information communication method of the present invention comprises:
The video / audio information, Chi lifting the content information having the content itself of each media, the additional information by a plurality of viewpoints for dividing the subinterval them contents information on the time axis,
In the receiving device ,
The use conditions for accumulating select the video / audio information is set in advance,
For the series of video / audio information transmitted from the transmission side, the video / audio information is selected by comparing the additional information with the usage conditions, and the content information and additional information are stored in the storage unit. And displaying the additional information ,
During the reception of the content information, if there is an instruction from the user for the display for identifying the additional information, the content information corresponding to the additional information is read from the storage unit and displayed .
[0007]
[Action]
The present invention attaches additional information according to the contents to video / audio information that has conventionally been difficult to handle as a unit of information, such as video / audio information sent from the transmission side, and the reception side also includes the additional information. In addition, selective reception, separate recording, and individual information processing (this is referred to as structural processing based on additional information of received information).
[0008]
With this structured processing of received information, even when receiving information, even already recorded partial information can be accessed quickly by means of storage, processing, display and playback based on additional information. Reading, etc. are possible.
[0009]
In addition to the additional information that is sent, processing including the result of analyzing the content information of the received information on the receiving side enables processing that cannot be performed only by using the transmitted additional information. Also, by adding mark information to a specific part of the received information, information access for the convenience of the user can be made immediately after reception. Furthermore, by sending the processing conditions from the transmission side, many applications can be realized without preparing the processing conditions in advance on the reception side.
[0010]
【Example】
Next, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.
[0011]
FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a video / audio communication system showing an embodiment of the present invention. 7 denote the same components.
[0012]
An additional information generation unit 18 is added to the transmission side 1, and additional information 17, condition information 16, and a communication information list are stored in the transmission data storage unit 2 in addition to the content information 5. When the receiving unit 7 receives the conditional pattern 16, the receiving side 6 checks the contents described above and stores it in a form necessary for processing. When the receiving unit 7 receives the additional information 17, the receiving unit 7 checks the additional information 17. Then, it is determined whether or not the content information 6 needs to be stored in comparison with the usage conditions set in advance. If storage is necessary, the information 16 is read out in the condition window, and the additional information 17 is structured accordingly. An information processing unit 8 that accumulates in the received data storage unit 9 together with a content information identifier corresponding to 17, and a processing unit 13 that processes the content information stored in the received data storage unit 5 and sends it to the reproduction / display control unit 10. It has been added.
[0013]
FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an example of the additional information 17. In the example of FIG. 2, the additional information 17 is described along the time axis 27. First, the types of additional information 17 are classified by the additional information item 25, and further, a plurality of contents 26 of the additional information 17 are described on the time axis 27. For example, more specifically, news additional information 17 is attached as major classification information indicating the program type. Further, news classifications such as news breaks and incidents, topics, sports, weather forecasts, and the like are added as intermediate classifications. In the case of a commercial, information indicating the most important part such as a scene where a product name or a company name appears is added as a highlight part. In the case of a movie, additional information 17 includes cut points, scene breaks and types, highlight portions, and marking information for each character. Reference numeral 28 denotes mark information (user mark) further added to the additional information 17 while the user views the video / audio.
[0014]
Next, the operation of this embodiment will be described.
[0015]
(1) First, an example of broadcast information distribution will be described.
[0016]
FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing processing on the transmission side 1, and FIGS. 4 and 5 are flowcharts showing processing on the reception side 6.
[0017]
Assume that content information 5 as video / audio flows from the transmission side 1 to the reception side 6. On the transmission side 1, processing is performed when an event by a program related to transmission or an operator occurs. When there is an event from the state of waiting for an event (step 41), the content is determined (step 42), and when it is a conditional pattern transmission request, the corresponding conditional pattern information is read from the transmission data storage unit 2 ( Step 48), and transmit to the communication path 4 via the transmitter 3 (Step 49). The condition hinagata 16 is a typical processing condition related to accumulation, processing, and display of the content information 5 on the receiving side 6. If the event is an addition and content information transmission request, the transmission information list is read from the transmission data storage unit 2 (step 43), and the additional information 17 and the content information 5 are read from the transmission data storage unit 2 accordingly ( Steps 44 and 45) are transmitted to the communication path 4 via the transmitter 3 (Step 46). Further, when the content information 5 is read out, it can be analyzed by the additional information generating unit 18 (for example, video cut point detection), and the resulting information can be used as the additional information 17. When transmission of all the information in the transmission information list is completed (step 47), an event wait (step 41) is entered.
[0018]
On the receiving side 6, when an event occurs from the state of waiting for an event (step 50), the contents of the event are determined (step 51). First, when the event content is reception, the information flowing through the communication path 4 is received by the receiving unit 7 (step 52). Next, the type of information is determined (step 53), and if it is the reception of the conditional pattern 16, the description content is examined by the information processing unit 8 (step 54), and the received data storage unit is formed in a form necessary for processing. 7 (step 55). If the received information is the additional information 17, the additional information 17 is checked by the information processing unit 8 (step 56), and the content information corresponding to the additional information 17 is compared with the usage conditions set in advance by the user 12. It is determined whether or not accumulation is necessary (step 57), and if accumulation is not necessary, the process returns to waiting for an event (step 50). If storage is necessary, the conditional pattern information is read from the received data storage unit 9 (step 58), and the additional information 17 is structured accordingly (step 59) and stored together with the identifier of the additional information 17 (step 60). For example, usage conditions are set in advance so that only news and only sports in video / audio information are accumulated, and accumulation is selected by filtering the additional information 17 based thereon. Further, if the condition hina 16 is the display layout setting of the dialog control monitor 31 in FIG. 6A, a structure in which the item names such as baseball and sumo in the additional information 17 are incorporated in the layout as a description is structured. Information 14 is stored in the received data storage unit 9. On the other hand, when the content information 5 subsequent to the additional information 17 is received, the identifier of the additional information 7 is checked (step 61). If it is already determined that accumulation is not necessary, the process returns to the event wait (step 50). If storage is necessary, the corresponding structure information 14 is first read from the received data storage unit 9 (step 62). If there is insufficient information in the structure information, it is determined whether content information is necessary (step 63). When it is determined that it can be generated by the analysis process, the content information 5 is analyzed by the feature extraction process based on the image pixel data and the audio encoded data, and the result is added to the structure information 14 (step 64). For example, if the audio level is analyzed and added to the structure information 14 on the receiving side 6, it can be used for level control during audio reproduction. Next, the content information 5 is stored as content information 15 in the received data storage unit 9 (step 65), and an icon is displayed according to the structure information 14 (step 66). For example, as shown in FIG. 6A, it is displayed by an icon 30 that displays a representative image. This icon row is arranged according to the layout information described in the structure information 14. In this example, the icons 30 are divided for each sport type, and are arranged in a time series for each sport, for example. If the event is a user input via the user interface 11, the event content is examined. If the content information 15 is selected, the structure information 14 corresponding to the icon 30 of the event occurrence location is read out. (Step 67), the corresponding content information 15 is read (Step 68). In the case of playback / display control, if the event corresponds to the user mark 28, processing corresponding to the mark is performed, and if the event is related to playback / display control using an icon structure, playback / display processing corresponding to the event is performed. This is performed by the display control unit 10 (step 69). Further, if the event is a user mark addition, information for identifying the target information portion at that time, for example, time information is added to the structure information 14 (step 69). 71). If the event is processing, processing / display processing corresponding to the event instruction is performed by the processing processing unit 13 (step 70).
[0019]
Briefly describe the operation image from the user's point of view. The user 12 watches the transmitted program while looking at the icon 30 developed on the dialog control monitor 31. In the scene of interest, the user 30 can select the icon 30 even if the program is still being received. By clicking, the specific scene received immediately before can be reproduced and viewed on the video display monitor 32. Of course, when the program ends, all the scenes necessary for setting the conditions are recorded, and the structure information 14 for efficiently accessing them is added. References can be made in the same manner. Furthermore, by adding a user mark 28 to a place that the user likes while viewing the received information, information access for the convenience of the user can be made immediately after reception.
[0020]
(2) Next, an example is given of video / audio information communication in a video conference. Participants are both transmitting and receiving, and video / audio information flows continuously from the sender. As the additional information 17 in this case, the identification information of the speaker is representative, but in the case of a multipoint personal conference, it can be added at the transmission side 1 at the same time as the outgoing call, and can be added between the two points. In the case of participation by a large number of people, the transmission side 1 can also automatically add the information based on the camera selection information. On the receiving side 6, accumulation is performed with a mark based on the identification information of the speaker, and the accumulated information is converted into an icon so that the accumulated video / audio information can be accessed for each person as in the embodiment of (1). In addition, if information by agenda is added as additional information 17, icons are displayed separately for each person, or screens are divided into fields for each agenda from the beginning, and icons are displayed for each person. Thus, even during a meeting, the video / audio of a specific person's speech in a certain scene can be reproduced by operating the icon.
[0021]
Of course, it goes without saying that there are application examples other than those described above.
[0022]
【The invention's effect】
As described above, the present invention has the following effects.
(1) According to the first aspect of the present invention, additional information corresponding to time-varying contents is added to video / audio information that has been difficult to handle as a unit of conventional information such as video / audio information sent from the transmission side. Thus, on the receiving side, selective reception, separate recording, individual information processing, etc. can be performed based on the additional information, and while receiving the result information, even for already recorded partial information, It is possible to use the received information interactively even when receiving unilaterally flowing information such as quick access and reading by means of display based on the additional information.
(2) According to the second aspect of the present invention, by processing the result of analyzing the content information of the received information on the receiving side, it becomes possible to perform processing that cannot be performed only by using the transmitted additional information.
(3) In the invention of claim 3, by adding mark information to a specific part of the received information, information access for the convenience of the user can be made immediately after reception.
(4) The invention of claim 4 can realize many applications without sending processing conditions in advance on the receiving side by sending a processing condition guide from the transmitting side.
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of a video / audio communication system according to an embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an example of additional information 17;
FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing processing on the transmission side 1 in the video / audio communication system of FIG. 1;
4 is a flowchart showing processing on the receiving side 6 in the video / audio communication system of FIG. 1; FIG.
FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing processing on the receiving side 6 in the video / audio communication system of FIG. 1;
FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an example of a screen as a user interface 11;
FIG. 7 is a block diagram showing a conventional example of a video / audio communication system.
[Explanation of symbols]
DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Transmission side 2 Transmission data storage part 3 Transmission part 4 Communication path 5 Content information 6 Received side 7 Reception part 8 Information processing part 9 Reception data storage part 10 Information reproduction / display control part 11 User interface 12 Use Person 13 Processing processing unit 14 Accumulated structure information 15 Accumulated content information 16 Condition Hinata for processing conditions to be transmitted 17 Additional information to be transmitted 18 Additional information generating unit 25 Additional information item 26 Contents of additional information 17 Time 27 Axis 28 User mark 30 attached by the user 12 Icon 31 appearing on the user interface 11 Dialog control monitor 32 Video display monitor 41 to 49 Step (Sending side 1)
50-71 steps (receiving side 6)

Claims (4)

A video / audio information communication method in a receiving device having means for receiving video / audio information, means for storing, means for reproducing / displaying , and a user interface,
As the video / audio information, Chi lifting the content information having the content itself of each media, the additional information by a plurality of viewpoints for dividing the subinterval them contents information on the time axis,
In the receiving device ,
The use conditions for accumulating select the video / audio information is set in advance,
The video / audio information is selected by comparing the additional information with the use condition for the series of video / audio information transmitted from the transmission side , and the storage unit stores the content information and the additional information. And displaying the additional information ,
When the content information is being received, if there is an instruction from the user for the display for identifying the additional information, the video / audio information is displayed by reading the content information corresponding to the additional information from the storage unit. Communication method. The additional information includes type information for classifying sequentially along said content information on the time axis,請 Motomeko 1 wherein comprises at least two pieces of information and classification information according to another aspect independent of the seed-specific information Video / audio information communication method. The video / audio information communication method according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the receiving device adds mark information that can be read later to a specific part of the video / audio information in accordance with a user instruction. Claim 1乃Optimum 3 video / audio information communication method according identifying display an icon displaying the additional information.

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