Information display apparatus, information display method and program therefor

• US 20040252979A1
• Filed: 03/29/2004
• Published: 12/16/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 03/31/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba (Toshiba Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba (Toshiba Corporation)
• Inventors: Momosaki, Kohei, Yamamoto, Koichi, Sasajima, Munehiko, Abe, Kazuhiko, Masai, Yasuyuki, Yajima, Makoto
• Granted Patent: US 7,443,449 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 386/96
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/42203 sound input device, e.g. microphone
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/42646 for reading from or writing on a non-volatile solid state storage medium, e.g. DVD, CD-ROM
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4316 for displaying supplemental content in a region of the screen, e.g. an advertisement in a separate window
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4325 by playing back content from the storage medium reproduction of recorded television signals H04N5/76; reproduction of recorded television signals H04N9/79
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4394 involving operations for analysing the audio stream, e.g. detecting features or characteristics in audio streams arrangements characterised by components specially adapted for monitoring, identification or recognition of audio in broadcast systems H04H60/58
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47 End-user applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/47217 for controlling playback functions for recorded or on-demand content, e.g. using progress bars, mode or play-point indicators or bookmarks specific graphical features in visual interfaces H04N21/4312
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/485 End-user interface for client configuration
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4884 for displaying subtitles
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/21 Circuitry for suppressing or minimising disturbance, e.g. moiré or halo
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/445 for displaying additional information H04N5/50 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/60 for the sound signals

Abstract

An information display apparatus includes a display device configured to display a video, a speech detection unit configured to detect a playback state of a playback speech, a closed caption display unit configured to generate character information associated with the playback speech and display it on the display device together with the video, and a closed caption display unit configured to carry out a changing control for changing according to the detected playback state a display state of the character information that is displayed on the display device by the closed caption display unit.

Claims

1. An information display apparatus comprising:

a display device configured to display a video;

a speech detection unit configured to detect a playback state of a playback speech;

a closed caption generating unit configured to generate a closed caption video comprising character information associated with the playback speech; and

a closed caption control unit configured to display the closed caption video on the display device and to change display state of the closed caption video depending upon the detected playback state.

2. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the speech detection unit detects a sound volume of the playback speech and inputs it to the closed caption display control unit as the playback state, and the closed caption display control unit changes the display state when the sound volume of the playback speech is not more than a given level.

3. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the speech detection unit detects that the playback speech is silent, and input it to the closed caption display control unit as the playback state, and the closed caption display control unit change the display state when the playback state is a state that the playback speech is silent.

4. The apparatus according to claim 3, which includes a playback unit configured to playback a video and a speech from a recording medium and a playback control unit configured to control the playback state of the speech and a playback state of the video, the playback control unit changing the display state by making the playback speech to be silent when the playback state is a playback state other than a normal forward playback.

5. The apparatus according to claim 1, which includes an ambient noise detection unit configured to detect a noise level of an ambient noise, and wherein the speech detection unit detects a sound volume of the playback speech and input it to the closed caption display control unit as the playback state, and the closed caption display control unit changes the display state when the sound volume of the playback speech is not more than a playback reference level determined by the noise level.

6. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the closed caption display control unit includes a plurality of conditions concerning the playback state and determines satisfaction of the conditions in comparison with the playback state at the present moment, and the closed caption display control unit changes the display state of the character information when either of the conditions is satisfied or all of them fails to be satisfied, or when neither of the condition is satisfied or all of them are satisfied.

7. The information display apparatus according to claim 1, which includes a speech selection unit configured to select a speech to be played back from a plurality of speeches including a main speech and a speech other than the main speech, the plurality of speech being associated the video, and wherein the closed caption display control unit changes the display state of the character information when the speech other than the main speech is selected.

8. The information display apparatus according to claim 1, which includes a video language selection unit configured to select a language of the video and a speech selection unit configured to select a speech to be played back from a plurality of speeches associated with the video, and the subtitles display control unit changes the display state of the character information when a language concerning the speech selected by the speech selection unit differs from the language of the speech of the video selected by the video language selection unit.

9. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the closed caption display control unit changes the display state to a display size larger than a normal size.

10. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein when the closed caption generating unit extracts the character information embedded in a television video signal, generates an image of a to-be-displayed closed caption based on the extracted character information, and outputs a video signal embedding the image of the closed caption.

11. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein when the closed caption generating unit generates an image of a to-be-displayed closed caption based on the characters information corresponded to the speech information, and outputs a video signal embedding the image of the closed caption.

12. An information display apparatus comprising:

a display device configured to display a video;

an ambient noise detection unit configured to determine an ambient noise level other than a playback speech referring to a playback speech signal;

a closed caption display unit configured to display, on the display device, character information associated with the playback speech; and

a closed caption display control unit configured to change according to the detected noise level a display state of the character information that is displayed on the display device by the closed caption display unit.

13. The apparatus according to claim 12, wherein the closed caption display control unit changes the display state when the ambient noise level is higher than a given level.

14. The apparatus according to claim 12, wherein the closed caption display control unit changes the display state to a display size larger than a normal size.

15. The apparatus according to claim 12, wherein when the subtitles display unit displays the character information on the display device, the closed caption display control unit extracts the character information embedded on a television video signal, generates an image of a to-be-displayed closed caption based on the extracted character information, and outputs a video signal superimposing the image of the closed caption.

16. The apparatus according to claim 12, wherein when the subtitles display unit displays the character information on the display device, the closed caption display control unit generates an image of a to be displayed closed caption based on the characters information corresponded to the speech information, and outputs a video signal superimposing the image of the closed caption.

17. An information display apparatus using a storage medium storing a video and a speech, comprising:

a playback unit configured to playback the video and the speech from the storage medium;

a display device configured to display the playback video;

a playback control unit configured to control a playback state of the video and the speech that are played back by the playback unit;

a closed caption display unit configured to display, on the display device, character information associated with the speech;

a closed caption display control unit configured to change according to the playback state a display state of the character information displayed on the display device by the closed caption display unit.

18. The apparatus according to claim 17, wherein the closed caption display control unit determines whether a playback speed is an equal speed and changes the display state of the character information when the playback speed fails to be the equal speed.

19. The apparatus according to claim 17, wherein the closed caption display control unit determines whether a playback speed is in a given range and changes the display state of the character information when the playback speed fails to be in the given range.

20. The apparatus according to claim 17, wherein the closed caption display control unit determines whether a playback direction is a forward direction and changes the display state of the character information when the playback direction fails to be the forward direction.

21. The apparatus according to claim 17, wherein the closed caption display control unit determines whether the playback state is a pause state and changes the display state of the character information when the playback state is the pause state.

22. The apparatus according to claim 17, wherein the closed caption display control unit changes the display state of the character information when the sound volume is not more than a given level.

23. The apparatus according to claim 17, which includes an ambient noise detection unit configured to detect a noise level of an ambient noise, and wherein the closed caption display control unit changes the display state of the character information when a sound volume of the playback speech is not more than a reference level determined according to the noise level.

24. The apparatus according to claim 17, wherein the closed caption display control unit includes a plurality of conditions concerning the playback state and determines satisfaction of the conditions in comparison with the playback state at the present moment, and the closed caption display control unit changes the display state of the character information when either of the conditions is satisfied or all of them fails to be satisfied, or when neither of the condition is satisfied or all of them are satisfied.

25. The information display apparatus according to claim 17, which includes a speech selection unit configured to select a speech to be played back from a plurality of speeches including a main speech and a speech other than the main speech, the plurality of speech being associated the video, and wherein the closed caption display control unit changes the display state of the character information when the speech other than the main speech is selected.

26. The information display apparatus according to claim 17, which includes a video language selection unit configured to select a language of the video and a speech selection unit configured to select a speech to be played back from a plurality of speeches associated with the video, and the subtitles display control unit changes the display state of the character information when a language concerning the speech selected by the speech selection unit differs from the language of the speech of the video selected by the video language selection unit.

27. The apparatus according to claim 17, wherein the closed caption display control unit changes the display state to a display size larger than a normal size.

28. The apparatus according to claim 17, wherein when the subtitles display unit displays the character information on the display device, the closed caption display control unit extracts the character information embedded in a television video signal, generates an image of a to-be-displayed closed caption based on the extracted character information, and outputs a video signal-embedded the image of the closed caption.

29. The apparatus according to claim 17, wherein when the subtitles display unit displays the character information on the display device, the closed caption display control unit generates an image of a to-be-displayed closed caption based on the characters information corresponded to the speech information, and outputs a video signal superimposing the image of the closed caption.

30. An information display apparatus comprising:

a playback unit configured to playback a video and a speech;

a display device configured to display the video;

a subtitles display unit configured to generate character information associated with the video and the speech and display it on the display device;

a display selection unit configured to select a multi-screen display mode for displaying a plurality of videos on multi-screens or a single-screen display mode for displaying a single video on a single screen; and

a closed caption display control unit configured to change a display state of the character information concerning each of the videos displayed on the multi-screens when the multi-screen display mode is selected.

31. The apparatus according to claim 30, which includes a speech control unit configured to control the display selection unit to select one of the multi-screens and output a speech, and wherein the closed caption display control unit change the display state of the character information with respect to each of the screens other than the one of the screens that is selected by the speech control unit.

32. The apparatus according to according to claim 30, wherein the closed caption display control unit changes the display state to a display size larger than a normal size.

33. The apparatus according to claim 30, wherein when the subtitles display unit displays the character information on the display device, the closed caption display control unit extracts the character information embedded in a television video signal, generates an image of a to-be-displayed closed caption based on the extracted character information, and outputs a video signal embedded the image of the closed caption.

34. The apparatus according to claim 30, wherein when the subtitles display unit displays the character information on the display device, the closed caption display control unit generates an image of a to-be-displayed closed caption based on the characters information corresponded to the speech information, and outputs a video signal superimposing the image of the closed caption.

35. An information display method comprising:

generating a playback speech;

detecting a playback state of the playback speech; and

changing a display state of character information associated with the playback speech according to the detected playback state.

36. An information display method comprising:

generating a playback speech;

determining a noise level of an ambient noise other than the playback speech referring to a playback speech signal; and

changing a display state of the character information associated with the playback speech according to the noise level.

37. An information display method comprising:

playing back a video and a speech from a storage medium;

controlling a playback state of the video and the speech; and

changing a display state of character information associated with the video and the speech according to the playback state.

38. An information display method comprising:

selecting a single-screen display mode or a multi-screen display mode;

playing back a video and a speech with respect to a single screen on the single-screen display mode and each of a plurality of screens on the multi-screen display mode; and

changing a display state of the character information associated with the video and the speech with respect to each of the screens when the multi-screen display mode is selected.

39. A program stored in a computer readable medium for displaying character information on a display device, comprising:

means for instructing a computer to playback a video and a speech from a recording medium;

means for instructing the computer to change a playback state of the video and the speech;

means for instructing the computer to display character information associated with the video and the speech; and

means for instructing the computer to change a display state of the character information according to the display state of the video and the speech.