Contents Replay Apparatus and Contents Replay Method

• US 20090046991A1
• Filed: 02/07/2006
• Published: 02/19/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 03/02/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Inoue, Makoto, Sako, Yoichiro, Terauchi, Toshiro, Miyajima, Yasushi, Sasaki, Toru, Nakamura, Takatoshi, Takehara, Mitsuru, Asukai, Masamichi, Yamashita, Kosei, Matsuda, Masafumi
• Granted Patent: US 8,145,034 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 386/241
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/48 Retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manually
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/58 Retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manually
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/11 by using information not detectable on the record carrier
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/329 on a disc [VTOC]

Abstract

To enable a lot of audio data and image data such as a still image and a moving image to be effectively and efficiently used. When audio data accumulated in a material database 21 is replayed, a controller 10 acquires the metadata added to the audio data to be replayed from the material database, refer to the metadata of image data based on the above metadata to thereby search image data intimately related to the audio data, controls a voice replay system such as an audio decoder 32 and the like and an image replay system such as an image decoder 31 and the like, and replay the audio data to be replayed and the searched image data in relation with each other.

Claims

1. A contents replay apparatus, comprising:

acquisition means for acquiring metadata regarding a first kind of contents data to be replayed;

search means for searching for a second kind of contents data, which is intimately related to the first kind of contents data based on the metadata acquired by the acquisition means, based at least in part on metadata regarding the second kind of contents data;

first replay means for replaying the first kind of contents data;

second replay means for replaying the second kind of contents data searched by the search means; and

control means for controlling the first replay means and the second replay means so that the first and second kinds of contents data to be replayed are replayed in relation to each other.

2. A contents replay apparatus according to claim 1, characterized in that:

the first kind of contents data is audio data; and

,

the second kind of contents data is image data of a still image or a moving image.

3. A contents replay apparatus according to claim 1, characterized in that:

the first kind of contents data is image data of a still image or a moving image; and

the second kind of contents data is audio data.

4. A contents replay apparatus according to claim 1, characterized in that:

the first or second kind of contents data is audio data; and

the metadata regarding the audio data includes at least one of a release date, a release country, an artist name, an album name, a title, a genre, a language, a situation, a contents, and a keyword for search of the audio data.

5. A contents replay apparatus according to claim 1, characterized in that:

the first or second kind of contents data is image data of a still image or a moving image;

the metadata regarding the image data is composed of at least one of a photographing time and date, an age meant by a subject, a place where photographing was carried out, a situation, a weather condition present when the photographing was carried out, a photographer, an accompanying person when photographing is carried out, a degree of relationship to the user, a category, keywords for search, a detailed contents of a photograph.

6. A contents replay apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising synonym acquisition means for acquiring synonyms of the metadata acquired by the acquisition means,

wherein the search means further carries out a search using the synonyms acquired by the synonym acquisition means.

7. A contents replay apparatus according to claim 1, characterized in that the search means carries out a weighing processing of results of the search and preferentially uses a result having a larger weight.

8. A contents replay apparatus according to claim 1, characterized in that:

the metadata regarding the contents data has information showing a degree of relationship to a user; and

the search means carries out a search taking the relation between the image data and the user into consideration.

9. A contents replay apparatus according to claim 1, characterized in that the search means compares a recording date on which the first or second kind of contents data to be replayed was recorded to a present day and changes a degree of vagueness for searching year, month, and day and a search range according to an amount of time passed.

10. A contents replay method, comprising:

acquiring metadata regarding a first kind of contents data to be replayed;

searching for a second kind of contents data which is intimately related to the first kind of contents data to be replayed based on the metadata acquired at the acquisition step based at least in part on the metadata regarding the second kind of contents data; and

replaying the first kind of contents data and the second kind of contents data searched by the search means in relation to each other.

11. A contents replay method according to claim 10, characterized in that:

the first kind of contents data is audio data; and

,

the second kind of contents data is image data of a still image or a moving image.

12. A contents replay method according to claim 10, characterized in that:

the first kind of contents data is image data of a still image or a moving image; and

the second kind of contents data is audio data.

13. A contents replay method according to claim 10, characterized in that:

the first or second kind of contents data is audio data; and

the metadata regarding the audio data includes at least one of a release date, a release country, an artist name, an album name, a title, a genre, a language, a situation, a contents, and a keyword for search of the audio data.

14. A contents replay method according to claim 10, characterized in that:

the first or second kind of contents data is image data of a still image or a moving image;

the metadata regarding the image data is composed of at least one of a photographing time and date, an age meant by a subject, a place where photographing was carried out, a situation, a weather condition present when the photographing was carried out, a photographer, an accompanying person when photographing is carried out, a degree of relationship to a user, a category, keywords for search, and detailed contents of a photograph.

15. A contents replay method according to claim 10, further comprising acquiring synonyms of the metadata acquired by the acquisition means,

wherein the search step further carries out a search using the synonyms acquired by the synonym acquisition means.

16. A contents replay method according to claim 10, characterized in that the search step carries out a weighing processing of results of the search and preferentially uses a result having a larger weight.

17. A contents replay method according to claim 10, characterized in that:

the metadata regarding the contents data has information showing a degree of relationship to a user; and

the act of searching comprises taking the relation between the image data and the user into consideration.

18. A contents replay method according to claim 10, characterized in that the act of searching comprises comparing a recording date on which the first or second kind of contents data to be replayed was recorded to a present day and changes a degree of vagueness for searching year, month, and day and a search range according to an amount of time passed.