JPH06149902A - Animation image recording medium, animation image recorder and animation image reproducing device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide an animation image recording medium and an animation image recorder and a reproducing device which can generate images for fast forward reproducing considering image contents. CONSTITUTION:In the case of recording animation image, information 2 in the animation image recording medium 1, the scene change of the animation image is automatically detected and the length of a scene and the change degree of the image in the same scene are automatically stored in an animation image managing information storage part 3 together with the address of the animation image changing the scene so that managing information can be automatically imparted to all the parts to change the image contents in the animation images without any manual work. Then, the address of the animation image to be extracted is decided basing on the time length of the summarized animation image requested from a user, the length of the scene in the animation image managing information provided in the animation image recording medium 1 and the change degree of images in respective scenes, and the images for fast forward reproducing can be generated corresponding to the contents of animation images.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a moving image recording medium capable of generating a summary image (browsing image) when a moving image is reproduced from a moving image recording medium such as a VTR or a video disc, and a moving image. The present invention relates to an image recording / reproducing device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, when a moving image recorded on a moving image recording medium such as a VTR or a video disc is to be viewed in a short time, a fast-forward reproduction method is used.

The fast-forward reproduction of this VTR is realized by making the tape running speed higher than the normal reproduction speed. For example, 11 times the normal playback speed, 27
Fast-forward reproduction is performed at double and 45 times the tape running speed. Fast-forward playback of a video disc is realized by skipping playback tracks on the disc at regular intervals. As described above, in conventional fast-forward playback of VTRs and video discs, images for fast-forward playback are extracted at regular intervals from the recorded moving images, regardless of the content of the moving images recorded on these moving image recording media. It

On the other hand, some VTRs record information for managing recorded moving images on a video tape together with the moving images. As an example, VISS (VHS In
dexSearch System). VISS was developed for high-speed cueing in a VHS type VTR. The video tape has a control track for recording a VISS signal for performing this high-speed cueing, in addition to a video track for recording normal image information. This VISS signal is automatically recorded on the control track when the image information is started to be recorded on the video tape. It is also possible to record the VISS signal for the scene that the user wants to see. Using the VISS signal recorded on the video tape in this way, fast-forward reproduction called intro search can be performed. The intro search is a process in which when a VISS signal is found during fast-forwarding, a playback state is set for a predetermined time thereafter, and then fast-forwarding is performed again until the end of the tape. In such an intro search, fast-forward reproduction related to the content of a moving image recorded on a video tape can be performed.

[0005]

In the conventional example as described above, the former image for fast-forward reproduction is recorded at regular intervals from the recorded moving image regardless of the content of the moving image recorded on the moving image recording medium. In the method of extracting, the image is extracted at the same intervals even in a scene in which the image changes drastically or in a scene in which there is almost no change. For this reason, there is a problem that if the extraction interval is made long, it becomes difficult to see in a scene that changes drastically, and if the extraction interval is made short, it becomes redundant in a scene that hardly changes.

Further, in the latter method of extracting the image for fast-forward reproduction from the moving image recorded in relation to the content of the moving image recorded in the moving image recording medium, as described above,
It is necessary to record the SS signal, and the user must manually record the signals except the VISS signal which is automatically recorded at the start of recording. Therefore, if it is attempted to extract all the portions in which the content of the moving image changes as a fast-forward reproduced image, there is a problem that it takes a great deal of time to record the VISS signal. Furthermore, strictly speaking, since the VISS signal is merely a marking and does not have information related to the image content, the image content to which the VISS signal is added is automatically selected in consideration of the image content. Is impossible.

In consideration of the problems of the conventional VTR and video disc, the present invention is a moving image capable of automatically generating an image for fast-forward reproduction in consideration of the image content of the moving image recorded on the moving image recording medium. An object of the present invention is to provide a recording medium and a moving image recording / reproducing device.

[0008]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention is a moving picture recording medium for recording a moving picture, and moving picture management information for storing information for managing the moving picture recorded on the moving picture recording medium. A storage unit, wherein the moving image management information indicates an address on the moving image medium of a scene in which scenes are switched in the moving image and the importance of each scene, the length of each scene, or the same scene Is a moving image recording medium having information such as the degree of change of

Further, the present invention is an image recording apparatus for recording a moving image, the scene change detecting means for detecting a scene change of the moving image, and the time length of each scene detected by the scene change detecting means. And a scene change detecting means for detecting the change degree of the image in each scene, and the scene change detecting means for recording the moving image on a moving image recording medium. A recording address on a moving image recording medium that records an image of a scene in which a scene change detected by, and the time length of each scene obtained by the scene time length detection means,
The moving image recording apparatus records the degree of image change in each scene obtained by the in-scene image change degree detection means.

Further, the present invention is an image reproducing apparatus for generating a summary moving image from a moving image recorded on a moving image recording medium, wherein a summary moving image time for inputting a time length of the summary moving image desired by a user. Long-length input means, means for reading out moving image management information such as scene change addresses, scene time length of each scene, and degree of image change within scene, recorded on the moving image recording medium, and all of the moving image management information. Or, a scene extracting means for extracting a necessary scene from a part and the summary moving image time length, and a reproduction for determining the number of reproduction frames of each scene from all or part of the moving image management information and the summary moving image time length A frame number determination means, a scene extraction means, and a retrieval means for retrieving the image selected by the reproduction frame number determination means are provided, and a summary moving image of an arbitrary time length designated by the user is automatically provided. Is a moving image reproducing apparatus formed.

[0011]

By using the moving picture recording medium and the moving picture reproducing apparatus of the present invention, for example, the time length of the summary moving picture requested by the user and each scene in the moving picture management information provided on the moving picture recording medium. Fast-forward playback according to the content of the moving image by determining the moving image address to be extracted based on the scene time length of the Images can be generated for.

Further, by using the moving image recording apparatus of the present invention, when a moving image information is recorded on a moving image recording medium, a scene change of the moving image is automatically detected. The degree of change is automatically stored in the moving image management information storage unit together with the moving image address that caused the scene change as the image management information. As a result, management information can be automatically added to all the portions of the moving image in which the image content changes, without human intervention.

[0013]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a plan view showing a moving image recording medium according to the first embodiment of the present invention. The optical disc 1 is a disc for recording moving image information and moving image management information, on which a moving image information recording track 2 for recording moving image information and moving image management information for storing moving image management information. A storage truck 3 is provided. The moving image management information in the moving image management information storage track 3 includes three types of information, as shown in the figure, a scene change address, a scene importance level, and an in-scene importance level.

As shown in FIG. 2, the moving image is composed of still images for each frame, and these images are recorded on the moving image information recording track 2 on the optical disc 1 as an analog signal or a digital signal. In FIG. 2, the image contents are greatly changed in the third frame and the fourth frame, and the seventh frame and the eighth frame from the left (as will be described later, when there is a change exceeding a predetermined threshold value, a scene change is made. The images of the 4th frame and the 8th frame are defined as scene change images. The address of the moving image information recording track 2 on which these scene change images are recorded is called a scene change address. In addition, the scene change image to the image one frame before the next scene change image is defined as one scene, and the importance of each scene is defined by the length of the scene, that is, the number of frames of each scene. For example, in FIG. 2, the importance of the first scene is 3, the importance of the second scene is 4, and the importance of the third scene is 2. Furthermore, the intra-scene importance within each scene is defined by the degree of change of the image within each scene. As the degree of change of the image in the scene, for example, the average value of the inter-frame difference in the same scene is used. The signal for obtaining the inter-frame difference uses the luminance value of the image, and it is possible to obtain the total sum of the differences in the luminance values of the pixels at the same position between consecutive frames. The inter-frame difference is calculated between all the consecutive frames in the same scene, and the average value thereof is calculated as the intra-scene importance. This intra-scene importance represents the average degree of change of the image in the scene, and the larger the value of the intra-scene importance, the greater the change.

By providing such moving picture management information 3 in the moving picture recording medium 1, it becomes easy to access the moving picture recorded in the moving picture recording medium 1. For example, by selecting only the scenes having a certain length or more based on the moving image management information 3 and displaying them on the display device, a rough image of the moving image recorded on the moving image recording medium 1 is obtained. The contents can be immediately grasped, and the desired scene in the moving image can be easily found based on this. That is, a scene with a long scene length is considered to be the image content that represents a moving image.
It is possible to grasp the entire contents by displaying each frame. Further, by selecting and displaying on the display device only the scenes having a certain degree of importance in the scene or more, it is possible to know a portion of the moving image recorded in the moving image recording medium 1 that has a large movement. it can.

As described above, since the moving picture recording medium of this embodiment is provided with the moving picture management information capable of managing the contents of the moving picture, the user can easily find the desired scene. It has the characteristics of In this embodiment, the intra-scene importance is the average value of the inter-frame differences in the same scene, and the brightness value is used as the inter-frame difference. However, a method other than the inter-frame difference or a method other than the brightness value may be used. Good. For example, the screen may be divided into a plurality of areas, a motion vector may be obtained for each area, and the degree of variation of the obtained motion vector may be used as the in-scene importance. Further, although an example in which an optical disc is used as a moving image recording medium has been described in the present embodiment, it may be a solid-state memory such as an IC or a magnetic tape.

Next, FIG. 3 shows a moving picture recording medium according to a second embodiment of the present invention. The moving image recording medium of this embodiment is different from the first embodiment in that it has a medium for recording moving image information and a medium for recording moving image management information separately. That is, in FIG. 3, the optical disc 4 for recording the moving image information and the IC memory 5 for storing the moving image management information are separate bodies, and the optical disc 4 and the IC memory 5 are contained in the cartridge 6.
And are stored. Since the moving image management information and its detailed contents recorded in the IC memory 5 are the same as those in the first embodiment, the description thereof will be omitted. In the second embodiment of the present invention described above, the moving image management information is recorded in a recording medium different from the medium for recording the moving image, so that the access speed at the time of image reproduction can be increased. Is possible.

Next, a moving image recording apparatus according to a third embodiment of the present invention will be described. FIG. 4 shows the structure of the moving image recording apparatus in the third embodiment. In FIG. 4, the image signal processing unit 8 and the moving image information recording unit 9 are connected to the moving image input unit 7 in this order, while the scene change detection unit 10 is connected to the moving image input unit 7. There scene time length detector 1
1. The in-scene image change degree detection unit 12 and the address detection unit 13 are connected to the detection units 11, 12, and 1, respectively.
The output of No. 3 is input to the moving image management information recording unit 14.

The operation of the moving image recording apparatus having the above structure will be described below. The moving image signal input to the moving image input unit 7 is modulated in the image signal processing unit 8 so as to be suitable for the moving image recording medium, and the moving image information recording unit 9 moves the moving image information recording unit on the moving image information recording medium. Recorded in. On the other hand, the moving image signal is input to the scene change detection unit 10 to detect an image (scene change image) of a boundary between scenes in the moving image. The scene time length detector 11 detects the length of one scene based on the scene change image detected by the scene change detector 10. That is, the number of frames from the scene change image to the image one frame before the next scene change image is counted as the scene time length. The in-scene image change degree detection unit 12 detects the degree of image change in one scene based on the detection signal of the scene change detection unit 10. The address detection unit 13 detects a recording address on the moving image recording medium for recording the scene change image detected by the scene change detection unit 10. The moving image management information recording means 14 records the recording address of the scene change image, the scene time length, and the in-scene image change degree in the moving image management information recording section on the moving image recording medium.

The above operation will be described more specifically below. FIG. 5 shows the detailed configurations of the scene change detection unit 10 and the in-scene image change degree detection unit 12. Here, 101 is a frame memory for delaying a moving image signal by one frame, 102 is an inter-frame difference detection unit that obtains a difference between moving image signals between consecutive frames, and 103 is a unit that compares an inter-frame difference value with a predetermined value. Is a scene change determination unit that determines that a scene change has occurred, and constitutes the scene change detection unit 10. Again 121
Is an inter-frame difference adding unit that adds the inter-frame difference value in the same scene, and 122 is the inside of the scene by dividing the inter-frame difference value added in the same scene by the number of frames of one scene detected by the scene time length detection unit 11. An inter-frame difference average value calculation unit that obtains an average inter-frame difference value of
The in-scene image change degree detection unit 12 is configured. here,
A luminance value, an rgb value, or the like is used as a signal for obtaining the difference between two consecutive frames of a moving image. In the configuration of FIG. 5, the scene change detection unit 10 obtains the degree of change of an image between two consecutive frames based on the inter-frame difference, and the degree of change obtained from a predetermined threshold, that is, the inter-frame difference value. Has a large value, it is considered that the image content is greatly changed between the two frames, and it is determined that there is a scene change in that portion. The in-scene image change degree detection unit 12 obtains the average value of the inter-frame difference representing the change degree between consecutive frames in one scene.

Another configuration of the scene change detection section 10 is shown in FIG. That is, 104 is a color histogram detection unit that obtains a color histogram in one frame of a moving image signal, 105 is a histogram memory that stores the obtained histogram, 106 is a histogram difference detection unit that detects a difference in color histogram between consecutive frames, Reference numeral 107 denotes a scene change determination unit that compares the histogram difference value with a predetermined threshold value and determines that a scene change has occurred if the difference is equal to or greater than a predetermined value. In the configuration of FIG. 6, since the color histogram in one frame is used as the signal for detecting the scene change, it has a characteristic that it is hardly affected by the movement of the image.

By using such a moving image recording apparatus, it is possible to record moving image information on a moving image recording medium and automatically record information for managing moving images. That is, the scene change image is automatically detected from the moving image recorded on the moving image recording medium, the recording address on the moving image recording medium on which the scene change image is recorded, the time length of each scene, and the image within each scene. The change degree of is recorded as moving image management information. This makes it possible to add management information to a large amount of moving image data without the need for human intervention.

Next, a moving picture reproducing apparatus according to a fourth embodiment of the present invention will be described. FIG. 7 shows the configuration of the moving picture reproducing apparatus in the fourth embodiment. In FIG. 7, the moving image recording medium 15
The moving image management information reading unit 17 and the reproduced image searching unit 20 are connected to each other. The summary moving image time length input unit 16 includes a scene extraction unit 18 and a reproduction frame number determination unit 1.
9 is connected. Further, the output of the moving image management information reading unit 17 is input to the scene extraction unit 18 and the reproduction frame number determination unit 19, and the outputs of the scene extraction unit 18 and the reproduction frame number determination unit 19 are input to the reproduction image search unit 20. Has been done.

The operation of the moving picture reproducing apparatus having the above structure will be described below. As described in the first or second embodiment of the present invention, the moving picture recording medium 15 records moving picture management information together with moving picture information. In this embodiment, from the moving image recording medium 15 having moving image management information as described above,
The summary moving image having a time length arbitrarily designated by the user is generated. In response to an instruction from the user, the moving image management information reading unit 17 reads the address at which the scene change image is recorded, the scene time length, and the in-scene image change degree as the moving image management information. The user also inputs a desired time length from the summary moving image time length input unit 16. The scene extraction unit 18 extracts a necessary scene from the moving image management information and the summary moving image time length. Further, the reproduction frame number determination unit 19 determines the reproduction frame number of each scene from the moving image management information and the summary moving image time length. The reproduction image search unit 20 searches the moving image recording medium 15 for an image to be reproduced according to the number of reproduction frames of the scene extracted by the scene extraction unit 18 or the number of reproduction frames determined by the reproduction frame number determination unit 19.

The operations of the scene extracting section 18 and the reproduction frame number determining section 19 will be described in more detail below.
Now, it is assumed that the number of scenes of the moving image recorded on the moving image recording medium 15 is n, and the summary moving image time length input by the user is T seconds. Further, in the moving image reproducing apparatus of the present embodiment, the minimum number of extracted frames of each scene is set to m in order to extract each scene as a moving image.

First, the case where the summary moving image time length is short, that is, the case where (Equation 1) is satisfied will be described.

[0028]

## EQU1 ## In this case, when all the scenes are extracted by m frames, the time length of all the extracted images exceeds the summary moving image time length T required by the user. Therefore, the number n'of scenes to be extracted is determined by the formula shown in (Equation 2).

[0029]

## EQU2 ## n '= 30.T / m However, when n'is not an integer value, it is rounded off and converted into an integer value. The scene extraction unit 18 obtains n ′ by (Equation 2), and extracts the top n ′ scenes from the longest scene length based on the moving image management information read from the moving image recording medium 15. The reproduced image search unit 20 searches for m frames for each of the n ′ scenes based on the addresses of the scene change images of the n ′ scenes extracted by the scene extraction unit 18.

Next, the case where the summary moving image time length is long, that is, the case where (Equation 3) is satisfied will be described.

[0031]

## EQU00003 ## In this case, even if all the scenes are extracted by m frames, the time length of all the extracted images is shorter than the summary moving image time length T required by the user. Therefore, the number m ′ of frames to be further extracted is determined as a whole according to the formula shown in (Formula 4).

[0032]

[Mathematical formula-see original document] m ′ = 30 · T−n · m In the reproduction frame number determination unit 19, m ′ is calculated by (Equation 4).
And the number of reproduction frames m _i 'of each scene is determined by (Equation 5).

[0033]

[Equation 5]

Here, i is the scene number, and x _i is the degree of intra-scene image change of the i-th scene. However, when m _i 'is not an integer value, it is rounded and converted into an integer value. The reproduced image searching unit 20 searches for the number of reproduced frames m _i ′ of each scene determined by the reproduced frame number determining unit based on the address of the scene change image.

As described above, based on the summary time length input by the user and the moving image management information recorded on the moving image recording medium, the summary image for fast-forward reproduction in consideration of the recorded image contents is displayed. It can be automatically generated.

[0036]

As is apparent from the above description,
Since the moving image recording medium of the present invention is provided with moving image management information capable of managing the contents of moving images, the user can easily find out the scene he or she wants to see.

Further, the moving image recording apparatus of the present invention automatically detects a scene change image from the moving image recorded on the moving image recording medium, and, for example, a recording address on the moving image recording medium in which the scene change image is recorded, By automatically recording the time length of each scene and the degree of image change within each scene as moving image management information, it is possible to add management information to a large amount of moving image data without the need for human intervention. It is possible.

Further, the moving image reproducing apparatus of the present invention, based on the summary time length inputted by the user and the moving image management information recorded on the moving image recording medium, performs fast-forward reproduction in consideration of the recorded image contents. It is possible to automatically generate a summary image for the.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a moving image recording medium according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram for explaining the operation of the first embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a moving image recording medium according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a moving image recording apparatus according to a third embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing a detailed configuration of a scene change detection unit and an in-scene image change degree detection unit of the third embodiment.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram showing a detailed configuration of a scene change detection unit of the third embodiment.

FIG. 7 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a moving picture reproducing apparatus according to a fourth embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1, 4 Optical disk 10 Scene change detection unit 11 Scene time length detection unit 12 In-scene image change degree detection unit 13 Address detection unit 18 Scene extraction unit 19 Number of reproduced frames determination unit

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A moving image recording medium for recording a moving image, comprising: a moving image management information storage section for storing information for managing the moving image recorded on the moving image recording medium. The management information includes an address on the moving image medium of a scene in which scenes are switched in the moving image, and information indicating the importance of each scene, the length of each scene, or the degree of change within the same scene. A moving image recording medium having. 2. The information representing the importance of a scene in the moving image management information is represented by a scene importance indicated by a time length of a scene regarded as the same scene and a degree of change of images in the scene regarded as the same scene. The moving image recording medium according to claim 1, wherein the moving image recording medium is an in-scene importance level. 3. An image recording device for recording a moving image, the scene change detecting means for detecting a scene change of the moving image, and the scene time for obtaining the time length of each scene detected by the scene change detecting means. A scene detecting unit that includes a length detecting unit and an in-scene image change degree detecting unit that detects a change degree of an image in each scene, records the moving image on a moving image recording medium, and detects the scene detected by the scene change detecting unit. In the recording address on the moving image recording medium in which the image of the scene where the change occurs is recorded, the time length of each scene obtained by the scene time length detecting means, and in each scene obtained by the in-scene image change degree detecting means And a degree of change of the image of the image are recorded. 4. An image reproducing apparatus for generating a summary moving image from a moving image recorded on a moving image recording medium, comprising: summary moving image time length input means for inputting a time length of the summary moving image desired by a user. Means for reading out moving image management information such as scene change address, scene time length of each scene, and in-scene image change degree recorded on the moving image recording medium, and all or part of the moving image management information Scene extracting means for extracting a necessary scene from the summary moving image time length, and reproduction frame number determining means for determining the number of reproduction frames of each scene from all or part of the moving image management information and the summary moving image time length. And a search means for searching the image selected by the scene extraction means and the reproduction frame number determination means, and automatically generates a summary moving image of an arbitrary time length designated by the user. A moving image playback device.