INFORMATION RECORD/REPRODUCTION APPARATUS AND INFORMATION RECORD/PLAYBACK METHOD

• US 20100008649A1
• Filed: 04/27/2009
• Published: 01/14/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 07/11/2008
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Hitachi Consumer Electronics Company Limited (Hitachi, Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Hitachi Consumer Electronics Company Limited (Hitachi, Ltd.)
• Inventors: Kato, Toshihiro, Watanabe, Akinobu, Marumori, Hiroyuki, Usui, Tsutomu
• Application Number:
  US12/430,233
• Publication Number:
  US 20100008649A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 386/341
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/034 on discs G11B27/036, G11B27/038 take precedence
• 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 23/611 where the recognised objects include parts of the human body
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/77 between a recording apparatus and a television camera
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/772 the recording apparatus and the television camera being placed in the same enclosure
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 9/8042 involving data reduction

Abstract

A hybrid video camera with a built-in hard drive and optical disk drive plus removable media read/write unit is disclosed. The video camera has a face detection function, which is used to split a video stream of a scene shot at the position of a frame containing no human face images, thereby realizing automatic scene-split dubbing without impairing the scene continuity. With this feature, it is possible, when watching a home video movie, to avoid sudden stop of playback of the scene otherwise occurring due to improper splitting of the scene at its run-on part during dubbing by letting the scene be dividedly recorded on a plurality of disks.

Claims

1. An information record/reproduction apparatus for recording or reproducing information to or from a recording medium, said apparatus comprising:

a sensor unit for shooting a subject of interest and for generating a video stream;

a detection unit for detecting a human face of the subject in the video stream;

a control unit for control of said detection unit; and

a record/playback unit operative to record the information containing therein said image stream to said recording medium or reproduce the video stream-containing information from said recording medium, wherein

when video shooting gets started, a first kind of mark information is recorded to said recording medium, and

during the video shooting, when there is a change in number of faces of subjects, a second kind of mark information different from the first mark information is recorded to said recording medium.

2. The information record/reproduction apparatus according to claim 1, wherein in a case where said video stream as recorded to said recording medium is dubbed to a dubbing destination recording medium different from said recording medium, when said video stream bridges between a plurality of dubbing destination recording media, the dubbing is performed in such a way that said video stream is split at a position of any one of the first mark information and the second mark information.

3. The information record/reproduction apparatus according to claim 2, wherein said dubbing is performed in such a way as to ensure that said second mark information is prevented from being reproduced during playback of said dubbing destination recording medium.

4. The information record/reproduction apparatus according to claim 2, wherein during playback of said dubbing destination recording medium, said dubbing is performed so that said second mark information is permitted to be reproduced if this second mark information is placed at a head portion of said dubbing destination recording medium and said second mark information is prevented from being reproduced in cases where this information is placed at portions other than the head portion of said dubbing destination recording medium.

5. The information record/reproduction apparatus according to claim 2, wherein said second mark information is recorded in a directory different from a directory in which said first mark information is recorded whereby said second mark information is no longer reproduced during playback of said dubbing destination recording medium.

11. The information record/reproduction apparatus according to claim 3, wherein said second mark information is recorded in a directory different from a directory in which said first mark information is recorded whereby said second mark information is no longer reproduced during playback of said dubbing destination recording medium.

6. An information record/reproduction method for recording or reproducing information to or from a recording medium, said method comprising the steps of:

recording a first kind of mark information to the recording medium upon startup of video shooting; and

when there is a change in number of human faces of subjects during the video shooting, recording a second kind of mark information to said recording medium.

7. The information record/reproduction method according to claim 6, wherein in a case where a video stream as recorded to said recording medium is dubbed to a dubbing destination recording medium different from said recording medium, when the video stream bridges between a plurality of dubbing destination recording media, the dubbing is performed in such a way that said video stream is split at a position of any one of the first mark information and the second mark information.

8. The information record/reproduction method according to claim 7, wherein said dubbing is performed in such a way as to ensure that said second mark information is prevented from being reproduced during playback of said dubbing destination recording medium.

9. The information record/reproduction method according to claim 7, wherein during playback of said dubbing destination recording medium, said dubbing is performed so that said second mark information is permitted to be reproduced if this second mark information is placed at a head portion of said dubbing destination recording medium and said second mark information is prevented from being reproduced in cases where this information is placed at portions other than the head portion of said dubbing destination recording medium.

10. The information record/reproduction method according to claim 7, wherein said second mark information is recorded in a directory different from a directory in which said first mark information is recorded whereby said second mark information is no longer reproduced during playback of said dubbing destination recording medium.

12. The information record/reproduction method according to claim 8, wherein said second mark information is recorded in a directory different from a directory in which said first mark information is recorded whereby said second mark information is no longer reproduced during playback of said dubbing destination recording medium.

13. An information record/reproduction apparatus for recording or reproducing information to or from a recording medium, said apparatus comprising:

a sensor unit for shooting an object of interest and for generating a video stream;

a detection unit for detecting a prespecified part of the object in the video stream;

a control unit for control of said detection unit; and

a record/playback unit operative to record the information containing therein said image stream to said recording medium or reproduce the video stream-containing information from said recording medium, wherein

when video shooting gets started, a first kind of mark information is recorded to said recording medium, and

during the video shooting, when there is a change in number of prespecified parts of objects, a second kind of mark information different from the first mark information is recorded to said recording medium, and wherein

in a case where said video stream as recorded to said recording medium is dubbed to a dubbing destination recording medium different from said recording medium, when said video stream bridges between a plurality of said dubbing destination recording media, the dubbing is performed in such a way that said video stream is split at a position of any one of the first mark information and the second mark information.

14. The information record/reproduction apparatus according to claim 13, wherein the prespecified part of said object is a human face.

15. An information record/reproduction apparatus for recording or reproducing information to or from a recording medium, said apparatus comprising:

a sensor unit for shooting an object of interest and for generating a video stream;

a detection unit for detecting a prespecified part of the object in the video stream;

a record/playback unit operative to control of detection unit, and to record the information containing therein said image stream to said recording medium or reproduce the video stream-containing information from said recording medium, wherein

when video shooting gets started, a first kind of mark information is recorded to said recording medium, and

during the video shooting, when there is a change in number of prespecified parts of objects, a second kind of mark information different from the first mark information is recorded to said recording medium, and wherein

in a case where said video stream as recorded to said recording medium is dubbed to a dubbing destination recording medium different from said recording medium, when said video stream bridges between a plurality of said dubbing destination recording media, the dubbing is performed in such a way that said video stream is split at a position of any one of the first mark information and the second mark information.

16. The information record/reproduction apparatus according to claim 15, wherein the prespecified part of said object is a human face.