Communication apparatus

• US 20080212939A1
• Filed: 09/04/2007
• Published: 09/04/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 12/08/2006
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Fujitsu Mobile Communications Limited (Fujitsu Limited)
• Original Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba (Toshiba Corporation)
• Inventors: Furuichi, Yoshio
• Application Number:
  US11/899,132
• Publication Number:
  US 20080212939A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 386/95
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72442 for playing music files
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/41407 embedded in a portable device, e.g. video client on a mobile phone, PDA, laptop constructional details of equipment or arrangements specially adapted for portable computer application G06F1/1626; arrangements specially adapted for mobile receivers in broadcast systems H04H20/57
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/781 on disks or drums
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/907 using static stores, e.g. storage tubes or semiconductor memories H04N5/91 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 9/8205 involving the multiplexing of an additional signal and the colour video signal

Abstract

A mobile terminal includes a storage unit which stores content data which contains sequential content, a playback unit which plays back the content data stored in the storage unit, and a control unit connected to the storage unit and the playback unit, and the control unit executes the following control. That is, when a playback restart request is issued for the interrupted content data, whether a synopsis needs to be played back is determined based on a predetermined synopsis playback condition. When it is determined that the synopsis needs to be played back, the playback unit plays back synopsis data corresponding to the content data before an interruption position, and plays back the content data from the interruption position.

Claims

1. A communication apparatus comprising:

a storage unit configured to store content data;

a playback unit configured to playback the content data stored in the storage unit; and

a control unit connected to the storage unit and the playback unit,

the control unit configured to, if a playback request is input for the content data, control to read the content data from the storage unit, and control the playback unit to playback the content data,

if an interruption request is issued during playback of the content data, control to interrupt playback of the content data and control to store information representing an interruption position, and

if a playback restart request is issued for the interrupted content data and if the control unit determines that the synopsis needs to be played back based on a predetermined synopsis playback condition, control the playback unit to playback synopsis data corresponding to the content data before the interruption position, and control the playback unit to playback the content data from the interruption position.

2. The communication apparatus according to claim 1, wherein if the control unit determines that the synopsis need not be played back, the control unit is configured to the playback unit to playback the content data from the interruption position without playing back the synopsis data.

3. The communication apparatus according to claim 2, wherein

the control unit is configured to store a past playback record of the content data, and if the control unit determines the playback record is less than a predetermined threshold value, the control unit controls the playback unit to playback the synopsis data corresponding to the content data before the interruption position and controls the playback unit to playback the content data from the interruption position, and

if the control unit determines the playback record is not less than the threshold value, the control unit controls the playback unit to playback the content data from the interruption position without playing back the synopsis data.

4. The communication apparatus according to claim 2, wherein

the control unit is configured to calculate an elapsed time from an interruption time of the content data, and determines whether the obtained elapsed time is not less than a predetermined threshold value,

if the elapsed time is not less than the threshold value, the control unit controls the playback unit to playback the synopsis data corresponding to the content data before the interruption position and controls the playback unit to playback the content data from the interruption position, and

if the elapsed time is less than the threshold value, the control unit controls the playback unit to playback the content data from the interruption position without playing back the synopsis data.

5. The communication apparatus according to claim 2, wherein

if information representing a degree of user'"'"'s preference is added to the content data stored in the storage unit,

the control unit determines whether the degree of preference of the interrupted content data is not less than a predetermined threshold value,

if the degree of preference is less than the threshold value, the control unit controls the playback unit to playback the synopsis data corresponding to the content data before the interruption position and causes the playback unit to playback the content data from the interruption position, and

if the degree of preference is not less than the threshold value, the control unit controls the playback unit to playback the content data from the interruption position without playing back the synopsis data.

6. The communication apparatus according to claim 2, wherein

if the storage unit stores information representing a user'"'"'s schedule, the control unit determines whether a schedule to be executed by the user within a predetermined period of time in the future exists, based on the information representing the stored schedule,

if no schedule to be executed by the user within a predetermined period of time in the future exists, the control unit controls the playback unit to playback the synopsis data corresponding to the content data before the interruption position and controls the playback unit to playback the content data from the interruption position, and

if a schedule to be executed by the user within a predetermined period of time in the future exists, the control unit controls the playback unit to playback the content data from the interruption position without playing back the synopsis data.

7. A communication apparatus according to claim 2, wherein

the control unit is configured to calculate a played back time before interruption of playback of the content data, and determines whether the calculated played back time is not less than a predetermined threshold value,

if the played back time is less than the threshold value, the control unit controls the playback unit to playback the synopsis data corresponding to the content data before the interruption position and controls the playback unit to playback the content data from the interruption position, and if the played back time is not less than the threshold value, the control unit controls the playback unit to playback the content data from the interruption position without playing back the synopsis data.

8. The communication apparatus according to claim 2, wherein

the control unit controls the playback unit to playback the synopsis data corresponding to the content data of a predetermined time, which is obtained by tracing back the content data from the interruption position.

9. The communication apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the control unit calculates a period from a playback interruption time of the content data to a current time, and sets a playback time of the synopsis data to be variable depending on the obtained period.

10. The communication apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the control unit is configured to store the synopsis data corresponding to the content data stored in the storage unit, and controls to select data corresponding to the content data before the interruption position based on the stored synopsis data and controls the playback unit to playback the selected data.

11. The communication apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the control unit is configured to generate the synopsis data corresponding to the content data before the interruption position based on the content data stored in the storage unit, and controls the playback unit to playback the generated synopsis data.