JP3093012B2 - Information playback device - Google Patents

Description

Description: BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an information reproducing apparatus,
More particularly, the present invention relates to an information reproducing apparatus for reproducing data recorded in a discontinuous memory area. 2. Description of the Related Art For example, in an electronic still camera, a subject image is converted into an electric signal, compressed, recorded on a memory card (recording medium) such as an IC card, and read from the memory card during reproduction. The original image is reproduced by performing decompression processing on the image data. In the above-described conventional electronic still camera, when image data is recorded on a memory card, one image data file is recorded in a continuous area, and reading is performed from the continuous area when reading. [0003] As described above, in the conventional electronic still camera, it is assumed that recording of one image data file is sequentially performed on a continuous area. By the way, since the subjects vary widely,
Image data sufficient to reproduce the subject image with an appropriate image quality (definition) generally does not have a fixed length, and therefore, the recording area of such data is not constant. Therefore, when the same memory area is repeatedly recorded after erasing the recording data and re-recording new data after recording on the memory card, the image data length is different, so that one image data recording area is Hardly coincides with the video data recording area, and when the length of newly recorded image data is long, the single image data recording area becomes insufficient. In this case, the area should be free space,
It must be recorded in another recording area. As a result, the recording area that is actually used in the memory area is in a toothless state, and it is impossible to effectively use the memory area. Further, since the format of data to be recorded on such a memory card is the same as that of a personal computer, data from the personal computer is often recorded on the memory card. For personal computers, usually 1
One data is often divided and recorded in a discontinuous recording area. However, the conventional electronic still camera does not assume a case where one data file is divided, and thus cannot cope with such a situation, and has a problem in terms of usability. The above problems are not limited to electronic still cameras, but are common to other information reproducing apparatuses that record image and audio data on a recording medium and read and reproduce the data from the recording medium. Therefore, the present inventor, when dividing and recording information in a discontinuous recording area of a recording medium, indicates the reading order of the divided areas, for example, the memory management information such as FAT and the divided information such as directory information. The start address and the end address of the area are also recorded, and the reading and reproducing order of the divided areas is determined based on the FAT. When the end address is obtained from the directory information, the information reproducing process is temporarily stopped.
A system has been proposed which enables reproduction of image data stored in a discontinuous area by performing reproduction processing from the start address information of the area in the next reading order. When the image data stored in the discontinuous area is reproduced as described above, the address is checked and reproduction means such as a compression / decompression circuit is interrupted. It is necessary to provide a special structure for reproducing. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide an information reproducing apparatus capable of reproducing image data stored in a discontinuous area which does not require a circuit for interrupting and resuming a reproducing operation and has improved operability. [0008] In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, an information reproducing apparatus according to the present invention is designed to read and restore data in a predetermined order sequence to represent one piece of information. Divided information recorded in a plurality of discontinuous areas, first sub-information representing the above-described sequence in relation to the recording areas of the plurality of divided information, and a start address of each of the divided information in the recording area An information reproducing apparatus to which an information recording medium on which information and a second sub-information indicating an end address are respectively recorded is applicable, wherein the information is recorded in a plurality of discontinuous areas of the applied information recording medium. The division information is stored in the first
Recording area changing means for rearranging based on the sub-information and the second sub-information, so that a group of information representing at least one piece of information is recorded in a continuous group of areas and recorded; And information reading / restoring processing means for executing reading / restoring processing on the recording information of the information recording medium after the rearranging processing is performed by the changing means. According to the present invention, when information is divided and recorded in a discontinuous recording area of a recording medium, the reading order of the divided areas is indicated.
For example, the head address and the end address of the divided area such as memory management information such as FAT and directory information are also recorded, and based on the FAT and directory information, the divided information recorded in the discontinuous recording area is By rearranging a group of information representing one piece of information into a continuous series of areas, it is possible to reproduce the discontinuous area stored image data without the need for a circuit for interrupting and resuming the reproduction operation. Next, the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a flowchart showing an operation processing procedure of an embodiment of an information reproducing apparatus according to the present invention. FIG.
1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of an embodiment of an information reproducing apparatus according to the present invention, and shows an application example to an electronic still camera. In this embodiment, when image data is recorded on a memory card, the recording state is managed using a FAT (File Allocation Table) system of a DOS system in the personal computer field or a similar memory management system. By adopting such a memory management system, reproduction in the case where the area where data is recorded as a file is discontinuous, that is, in the case where data is divided into several parts and recorded in recording areas separated from each other, is performed. Is also possible. In FIG. 6, reference numeral 100 denotes a main body of an electronic still camera.
00 is inserted into the card interface (I / F) 13 for recording / reproducing operation. The subject image is the lens 1
An image is formed on an image pickup device such as a CCD built in the image pickup circuit 2 via the image sensor 2, and is output to the A / D converter 3 as an image signal. Image data obtained by being converted into a digital signal by the A / D converter 3 is temporarily recorded in the RAM 4.
The image data read from the RAM 4 is converted into an analog signal by a D / A converter 5, subjected to a predetermined encoding process by a video encoder 6, and output as a video signal. At this time, when a frame in a recording area where no image data is recorded is reproduced, the video encoder 6 performs a mute process according to a mute signal from the system control circuit 10. The image data read out from the RAM 4 in block units is subjected to a predetermined orthogonal transformation process such as DCT (Discrete Cosine Transform) by a compression / decompression circuit 7 to compress the data, and via a bus interface 8 and a bus B. And sent to the card interface 13. The compressed image data transmitted via the bus B is recorded on a memory card 14 mounted on the card interface 13. On the other hand, image data read out from the memory card 14 via the card interface 13 during reproduction is supplied to the compression / expansion circuit 7 via the bus B and the bus interface 8, and expanded in accordance with the above-mentioned compression processing. Processing is performed. In this way, the image data subjected to the decompression processing is recorded in the RAM 4. A video signal is obtained from the image data read from the RAM 4 through the processing of the D / A converter 5 and the video encoder 6 in the same manner as described above. The system control circuit 10 receives operation information from the operation switch 11 and supplies a predetermined control signal to each unit of the electronic still camera. The comparison circuit 9, as described later,
The data of the address bus is transferred to the system control circuit 10
The data is compared with the data set in (1), and when they match, a match signal is sent to the compression / decompression circuit 7 and the system control circuit 10. FIG. 7 shows the data arrangement in the memory card. In the present embodiment, a FAT system of a personal computer is adopted, and a boot sector in which the size of the management area and various parameters are recorded is arranged at the head,
Subsequently, a FAT area, a root directory area, and finally an image data recording area are arranged. The detailed structure of the root directory is shown in FIG. 8 as a directory entry format. As shown in FIG. 8, a directory name, an attribute, a reservation, a time, a date, a start cluster indicating a pointer to the FAT, and a file size are defined for each byte. The photographed image data is registered as a file in the directory. However, in the case of a memory card in which no image data is recorded, there is no registered file in the directory. Each time image data is recorded on a memory card, it is sequentially registered as a file in a directory. The image data file registered in the directory is associated with the FAT by the starting cluster,
The data amount is registered in the file size section. FIGS. 9A and 9B are diagrams showing the correspondence between the FAT and the data area. As shown in (A), the FAT entry is composed of, for example, cells divided every 12 bits, and is composed of 0, 1, 2,..., 7, 8,. As shown in (B), the data area of the first frame is FAT entry 2,
The third frame is recorded in the corresponding area, the second frame is recorded in the FAT entry, the fifth, sixth and seventh corresponding areas, and the next data area is an unused area corresponding to the FAT entry 8.
That is, in the example shown in FIG. 9, the image data of the first frame is divided into three, recorded in the areas corresponding to the FAT entries 2, 3, and 4. The image data of the second frame is also divided into three.
AT entries 4, 5, and 6 are recorded in corresponding areas. The FAT entry 8 is an unused area where no image data is recorded. At this time, as shown in (A), the indication of the FAT entry in which the subsequent data included in the same image data file is recorded is performed by the pointer, and “FFFH” indicates the last entry of the image data. “000H” indicates an unrecorded area. As described above, by examining the FAT area, it is possible to know what image data is recorded in the data area. Therefore, data recording can be performed by checking and adjusting the unused area and registering it in the directory. At the time of reproduction, the storage area of the recorded image data can be known by checking the directory. In the present invention, the discontinuity of the file and the existence of the intermediate free area in the memory area are checked, and when the existence is confirmed, the file is made continuous. Less than,
The operation of the present embodiment will be described with reference to FIGS. When a memory card is inserted, first, the reserved area at the head of the FAT is checked (step S1), and it is determined whether the data stored in the reserved area is normal (step S2). For example, a format abnormal state is displayed on the display unit 12 (step S7), and the process is terminated. This abnormal display is, for example, as shown in FIG.
RD ". If it is determined in step S2 that the data is normal, an intermediate empty area in the memory area is searched for by a processing procedure described later (step S2).
3), it is determined whether there is an empty area (step S4).
If it is determined that there is an empty area, a warning display of the empty area is displayed on the display unit 12 as, for example, "EMPTY" (step S8), and a file continuation process is performed according to a processing procedure described later (step S10). , And the process ends. On the other hand, if it is determined in step S4 that there is no free area, the continuity of the file is checked (step S5) according to the processing procedure described later, and the continuity is determined (step S6). If it is not continuous, a file discontinuity warning is displayed, for example, "SOR
After displaying "T" (step S9), a file continuation process is performed (step S10). The search for an intermediate free area in step S3 is performed as follows.
This is performed according to the processing procedure of the flowchart shown in FIG. In FIG. 2, the first cell (excluding the reserved area) of the FAT is read (step S31), and it is checked whether file data is recorded in the read cell to determine whether "0" is recorded. Perform (Step S3
2). If “0” is not recorded, it is determined whether or not the cell is the last cell of the FAT (step S33). If it is determined that the cell is the last cell, the process is terminated. If it is determined that the cell is not the last cell, the next cell is read (step S34), and it is determined whether "0" is recorded in the read cell (step S35). . Here, if “0” is not recorded, that is, if no file data is recorded, the process returns to step S33. Step S
If it is determined in step S32 or step S35 that file data is recorded in the read cell, it is next determined whether or not the cell is the last cell again (step S35).
36) If it is the last cell, the process ends. If it is determined that the cell is not the last cell, the next cell is read (step S37), and it is determined whether or not “0” is recorded in the read cell (step S38). here,
If "0" is recorded, the process returns to step S36. If "0" is not recorded, a flag indicating that there is an empty area is set (step S39), and the process is terminated. The file continuity check in step S5 is performed according to the flowchart shown in FIG. First, the first directory is read (step S51), and it is determined whether or not file data has been recorded in the read directory (step S52). If not, it is determined whether or not the directory is the last directory (step S53). . Here, if it is the last directory, the process is terminated, and if it is not the last directory, the next directory is read out (step S54), and then step S5
It returns to the process of 2. If it is determined in step S52 that recording has been performed, the cell of the FAT pointed to by the directory is read (step S55), and it is determined whether or not there is a pointer to the next cell (step S56). If it is determined that the pointer is present, the next cell is read (step S5).
7) “FFF” is set in the read cell to determine whether the cell is the last cell or not.
It is determined by checking whether or not is recorded (step S58). If it is determined in step S58 that the cell is not “FFF” (not the last cell), step S56
Then, when it is determined that the cell is the last cell, the processing is terminated. If there is no pointer to the next cell in step S56, a discontinuity flag is set (step S5).
9), end the processing. The file continuation process in step S10 is performed as follows. For example, the FAT corresponding to the directory of the data area as shown in FIG.
The file continuation process will be described. In FIG. 4A, there is a first cell (here, an unrecorded cell) for the cluster following the reservation unit, and the file, ',
”, Cell, unrecorded cell, file, ',,
There is a cell of ", '
The reading order of ", → '→", →' is defined. That is, first, the cells of the FAT indicating the head cluster of the file indicated by the directory are listed. In the case of FIG. 4A,. Subsequently, the first cell in the list is set as the head of the FAT, and the following cells are arranged in order. Next, the listed cells are arranged next, and consecutive cells are sequentially arranged in a chain by the pointer. By repeating this process, as shown in FIG. 4B, a list of FATs arranged continuously without any gap is obtained as a target FAT list. The target FAT list is compared with the FAT list of (A), the corresponding clusters are replaced, and the files are continuously aligned. The FAT and the pointer of the directory are changed in accordance with the data movement. For example, the cell correspondence shown in FIG. 4A is replaced with the cluster of the first cell (in this case, since the first cell is unrecorded, it is recorded as it is). Next, the 'is replaced with a, and the replacement process is performed sequentially to obtain a FAT list as shown in FIG. The above-described cluster replacement processing can be performed by preparing a workspace for one cluster and using this workspace. For example, FIG.
As shown in (D), when replacing the cells (A) and (A) with the FAT list shown in (A), a workspace W is prepared.
(B), and record the cell (A) in the original cell of (A) (C), and then record the cell (A) stored in the workspace W in the original area of Cell (A) It is done by doing. When this workspace cannot be prepared, a RAM built in the system control circuit may be used. In the above-described embodiment, the file data is recorded discontinuously. However, in the case where the file data is recorded continuously, the replacement process is not required, and the conventional process can be used. . In addition, when performing the erasing process, the same continuity process is performed after writing (recording) the data in the directory and the FAT, thereby improving the memory use efficiency. As described above, when the information reproducing apparatus according to the present invention divides and records information in a discontinuous recording area of a recording medium, it indicates the reading order of the divided areas, for example, F
The start address and the end address of the divided area such as memory management information such as AT and directory information are also recorded, and based on the FAT and the directory information, the divided information recorded in the discontinuous recording area is set to 1 Since a group of information representing two pieces of information is rearranged so as to be grouped into a series of continuous areas, it is possible to play back discontinuous area stored image data with improved operability without the need to interrupt and restart the playback operation and improve the operability. Become.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a flowchart showing an operation processing procedure showing an embodiment of an information reproducing apparatus according to the present invention. FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing an intermediate empty area search processing procedure in the embodiment of FIG. 1; FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing a procedure for checking file continuity in the embodiment of FIG. 1; FIG. 4 is a diagram for explaining a file continuation process in the embodiment of FIG. 1; FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating an example of a cluster replacement process in FIG. 4; FIG. 6 is a configuration block diagram showing an embodiment of an information reproducing apparatus according to the present invention. FIG. 7 is a diagram showing an example of data arrangement in a memory card. FIG. 8 is a diagram showing a format of a directory entry. FIG. 9 is a diagram showing a relationship between a FAT and a data area. [Description of Signs] 1 lens 2 imaging circuit 3 A / D converter 4 RAM 5 D / A converter 6 video encoder 7 compression / expansion circuit 8 bus interface 9 comparison circuit 10 system control circuit 11 operation switch 12 display unit 13 card interface 14 Memory card

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page (58) Field surveyed (Int.Cl. ⁷ , DB name) H04N 5/76-5/956 G06F 3/06 301 G06F 12/00 501 G06F 12/00 520 G11B 20/10 -20/12

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] Divided information recorded in a plurality of discontinuous areas of an information recording medium so as to represent one piece of information by being read and restored in a predetermined order sequence, An information recording medium in which first sub-information indicating the above-mentioned sequence is recorded and second sub-information indicating a starting address and an ending address of each of the divided information is recorded. The information reproducing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the divided information recorded in the plurality of discontinuous areas of the applied information recording medium is rearranged based on the first sub-information and the second sub-information. Recording area changing means for recording a group of information representing at least one piece of information in a continuous series of areas; and after the recording area changing means performs a rearrangement process, Information An information reproducing apparatus, comprising: information reading / restoring processing means for executing reading / restoring processing on recording information of a recording medium.