Data processing device and method for selecting media segments on the basis of a score

• US 20060253780A1
• Filed: 07/10/2006
• Published: 11/09/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 12/25/1998
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Panasonic Intellectual Property Corporation of America (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Masushita Electric Industrial Company Limited
• Inventors: Emura, Koichi, Munetsugu, Toshihiko, Araki, Shoichi, Etoh, Minoru
• Granted Patent: US 7,877,676 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/719
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/739 in form of a video summary, e.g. the video summary being a video sequence, a composite still image or having synthesized frames
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/78 Retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manually
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/7834 using audio features
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 2220/216 Rewritable discs
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 2220/2562 DVDs [digital versatile discs]; Digital video discs; MMCDs; HDCDs
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 2220/2575 DVD-RAMs
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/105 of operating discs
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/28 by using information signals recorded by the same method as the main recording G11B27/22 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/235 Processing of additional data, e.g. scrambling of additional data or processing content descriptors
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/26216 involving the channel capacity, e.g. network bandwidth admission control, resource allocation in open networks H04L12/5692; flow control in packet networks H04L47/10; establishing a schedule or organising the servicing of application requests taking into account QoS H04L67/61
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/435 Processing of additional data, e.g. decrypting of additional data, reconstructing software from modules extracted from the transport stream
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99933 Query processing, i.e. searching

Abstract

A context of media content is represented by context description data having a hierarchical stratum. The context description data has the highest hierarchical layer, the lowest hierarchical layer, and other hierarchical layers. The highest hierarchical layer is formed from a single element representing content. The lowest hierarchical layer is formed from an element representing a segment of media content which corresponds to a change between scenes of video data or a change in audible tones. The remaining hierarchical layers are formed from an element representing a scene or a collection of scenes. A score corresponding to the context of a scene of interest is appended, as an attribute, to the element in each of the remaining hierarchical layers. A score relating to the time information about a corresponding media segment and a context is appended, as an attribute, to individual elements in the lowest hierarchical layer. In a selection step of a data processing method, the context of the media content is expressed, and one or a plurality of scenes of the media content is or are selected on the basis of the score of the context description data. Further, in the extraction step of the data processing method, only data pertaining to the scenes selected in the selection step are extracted.

Claims

1. A data processing method for processing media content comprised of a plurality of scenes, said method comprising the steps of:

inputting content description data, said content description data including;

a data structure portion including a plurality of segments each for describing one of said plurality of scenes of media content, and

an attribute portion that is attribute information of the media contents, said attribute portion including;

a context attribute having a value for describing a context of one of said segments, and

a plurality of importance attributes each associated with one of said segments and having a value representing a degree of contextual importance of said corresponding one of said segments;

selecting one or more of said plurality of segments based on at least one of said importance attributes; and

extracting one or more scenes from said media content, wherein said extracted scenes are the scenes described by said one or more selected segments.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of forming a stream of media content from said extracted scenes.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising the step of storing said stream of media content in a data recording medium.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein said content description data further includes link information showing linkage to at least one corresponding segment.

5. The data processing apparatus according to claim 4, wherein said context attributes and a plurality of importance attributes are associated with one segment by said link information.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the segments are hierarchically described in the data structure portion.

7. A data processing method for processing media content comprised of a plurality of scenes, said method comprising the steps of:

inputting content description data, said content description data including;

a data structure portion including a plurality of segments each for describing one of said plurality of scenes of media content, and

an attribute portion that is attribute information of the media contents, said attribute portion including;

a context attribute having a value for describing a context of one of said segments,

a plurality of importance attributes each associated with one of said segments and having a value representing a degree of contextual importance of said corresponding one of said segments, and

link information showing linkage to at least one corresponding segment, wherein

said context attributes and a plurality of importance attributes are associated with one segment by said link information;

selecting one or more of said plurality of segments based on at least one of said importance attributes; and

extracting one or more scenes from said media content, wherein said extracted scenes are the scenes described by said one or more selected segments;

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the segments are hierarchically described in the data structure portion.

11. The method of claim 8, further comprising the step of storing said stream of media content in a data recording medium.

9. A data processing method for processing media content comprised of a plurality of scenes, said method comprising the steps of:

inputting context description data for describing said plurality of scenes, said context description data including;

a hierarchically arranged data structure portion for describing the structure of said media content, said data structure portion including at least one section element and a plurality of segment elements as children of said at least one section element, each of said segment elements for describing a corresponding one of said plurality of scenes, and

a hierarchically arranged attribute portion including;

a plurality of viewpoint elements each including at least one keyword for representing a particular viewpoint of said media content,

one or more scores as a child for each of said plurality of viewpoints, each of said scores being an attribute associated with one or more of said segment elements for representing a degree of contextual importance of said parent viewpoint with respect to the scenes corresponding to said one or more segment elements, wherein

portions of said attribute portion are linked to corresponding portions of said data structure portion;

selecting one or more of said plurality of segment elements according to a desired one or more of said viewpoints based upon said scores; and

extracting one or more scenes from said media content, wherein said extracted scenes are the scenes described by said one or more selected segment elements.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising the step of forming a stream of media content from said extracted scenes.

12. The data processing apparatus of claim 9, wherein said context description data further includes a plurality of additional segment elements, a plurality of additional viewpoints, and a plurality of additional scores.

13. The data processing apparatus of claim 12, wherein said segment elements are hierarchically arranged using a plurality of section elements each having one or more of said segment elements as children.

14. The data processing apparatus of claim 9, wherein said context description data is expressed in a language that is executable by a browser application.

15. The data processing apparatus of claim 9, wherein said viewpoint is associated with said segment element by linking said viewpoint to said score.

16. A data processing method comprising the steps of:

inputting previously generated context description data that describes a plurality of scenes of the media contents of one or more media files, said context description data including;

a plurality of segment elements each for describing one of said plurality of scenes,

a plurality of viewpoints each being an attribute associated with one or more of said segment elements and each including at least one keyword for further describing the contents of the scenes described by the associated one or more of said segment elements, and

a plurality of scores, each being an attribute associated with one of said segment elements representing a degree of contextual importance of one of said viewpoints that is associated with said one of said segment elements with respect to the scene described by said one of said segment elements;

selecting one or more of said segment elements based on an analysis of said viewpoints and/or said scores; and

extracting one or more scenes from said media content, wherein said extracted scenes are the scenes described by said one or more selected segment elements.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising the step of forming a stream of media content from said extracted scenes.

18. The method of claim 17, further comprising the step of storing said stream of media content in a data recording medium.

19. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein said context description data further includes a plurality of section elements each having either a remaining one or more of said plurality of section elements as children, or having one or more of said plurality of segment elements as children, but not both.

20. The data processing apparatus of claim 19, wherein each one of said section elements is associated with one or more of said scenes.