Control method for detecting change points in motion picture images and for stopping reproduction thereof and control system for monitoring picture images utilizing the same

• US 5,974,219 A
• Filed: 10/08/1996
• Issued: 10/26/1999
• Est. Priority Date: 10/11/1995
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd.
• Inventors: Miyatake, Takafumi, Nagasaka, Akio, Taniguchi, Katsumi, Fujita, Takehiro
• Primary Examiner(s): Chevalier, Robert
• Application Number:
  US08/727,046
• Time in Patent Office: 1,113 Days
• Field of Search: 386/52, 386/53, 386/55, 386/46, 386/4, 386/1, 386/126, 386/125, 386/124, 360/13
• US Class Current: 386/290
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/7328 Query by example, e.g. a complete video frame or video sequence graphical querying G06F16/7335
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/738 Presentation of query results
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 2220/20 Disc-shaped record carriers
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 2220/90 Tape-like record carriers
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/034 on discs G11B27/036, G11B27/038 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/105 of operating discs
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/22 Means responsive to presence or absence of recorded information signals
• 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: G11B 27/34 Indicating arrangements indicating means incorporated in magazine or cassette G11B23/046 and G11B23/0875; indicating measured values in general G01D
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/147 Scene change detection

Abstract

Only a video cut (containing a frame) designated by a user is automatically and correctly extracted directly from a video image under playing operation at high speed. A judgement is made as to whether or not the frame of the video image is designated by the user. When such a user designation is made, a detection is made of a change point in the video cut containing this designated frame (reverse playing direction, forward playing direction). Under such a condition that a frame image immediately before this change point is displayed, the playing operation of the video image is brought into a pause state. Accordingly, only the video cut desired by the user can be extracted during a single playing operation of the video image, and the video image can be edited in a high efficiency.

Claims

1. A method for detecting a change point of a video cut of a video image during a playing operation based on a feature amount of frames of the video image, the method comprising the steps of:

judging whether or not a frame of the video image has been designated by a user; and

when it is judged in the judging step that the frame has been designated by the user, detecting a change point at either a head or a tail of a video cut of the video image containing the designated frame.

2. A method according to claim 1, further comprising the step of playing the video image at high speed;

wherein the judging step is performed while the video image is being played at high speed.

3. A method according to claim 1, further comprising the steps of:

playing the video image at high speed;

acquiring frames at a constant time interval from the video image while the video image is being played at high speed; and

displaying images of the acquired frames in a list as typical images;

wherein the judging step includes the step of selecting an image from the typical images displayed in the list.

4. A method according to claim 3, further comprising the steps of:

comparing a feature amount of a newly acquired frame image with a feature amount of a previously acquired typical image; and

when a difference between the feature amount of the newly acquired frame image and the feature amount of the previously acquired typical image, as indicated by a result of the comparing step, is larger than or equal to a predetermined threshold value, using the newly acquired frame image as a typical image.

5. A method according to claim 4, further comprising the step of displaying each of the newly acquired frame images which are not used as the typical images under the previously compared typical image in such a manner that each frame image is overlapped at a position where a portion of each frame image is observed.

6. A method according to claim 3, further comprising the step of displaying the frame images and frame positions corresponding to the frame images in a list.

7. A method according to claim 1, wherein the step of detecting the change point of the video cut containing the designated frame includes the steps of:

converting frames of the video image under a playing operation into digital signals;

calculating feature amounts contained in the digital signals of the respective frames; and

comparing the feature amounts of the respective frames with each other.

8. A method according to claim 7, wherein the feature amount of the frame contains a color histogram of the digital signal.

9. A method according to claim 8, wherein the feature amount of the frame contains an autocorrelation value of audio data which is read from the video image and is digitized.

10. A method according to claim 9, further comprising the step of displaying information which indicates that the change point of the video cut containing the designated frame is detected based on any one of the feature amount of the image signal containing the color histogram and the feature amount of the autocorrelation value of the audio data.

12. A method according to claim 1, further comprising the steps of:

obtaining both a head frame and a tail frame of a video cut containing the frame designated by the user; and

stopping the playing operation of the video image at a position for indicating any one of the obtained head frame and the obtained tail frame.

11. A play-stop control method of a video image comprising the steps of:

designating an arbitrary image within a video image under a playing operation;

detecting a change point of either a head or a tail of a video cut containing a frame of the designated image based on a feature amount of each frame;

playing the video image from the designated frame along either a forward time direction or a reverse time direction; and

stopping the playing operation of the video image at a frame position immediately before the change point of either the tail or the head of the video cut with respect to the playing direction.

13. A play-stop control method of a video image according to claim 11, wherein further comprising the step of, when the playing operation of the video image is stopped in connection with the detection of the change point, displaying a frame position of the stop position in combination with a frame image at the stop position.

14. A video image editing system comprising:

a video image playing apparatus for playing a video image;

a video image input apparatus for time-sequentially inputting the video image played by the video image playing apparatus as a digital signal frame by frame; and

a video image processing apparatus for performing an operation control in response to manual instruction operations of the video image input apparatus and the video image playing apparatus, and also for automatically detecting a change point of a video cut of the video image based on a feature amount of the digital signal with respect to each of the frames of the video image;

wherein the video image processing apparatus includes

means for controlling the video image playing apparatus based on a designation made by a user for an arbitrary frame of the video image under a playing operation by the video image playing apparatus and inputted by the video image input apparatus, and for controlling the video image playing apparatus when a change point of a video cut is detected which contains the frame designated by the user with respect to the video image while the video image is played along either a reverse playing direction or a forward playing direction, whereby the playing operation of the video image along either the reverse playing direction or the forward playing direction is stopped; and

means for reading a frame position immediately before the video cut is changed;

whereby both the frame position immediately before the video cut is changed, and the frame image are displayed.

15. A computer readable medium used in a computer system for playing a video image constructed of a plurality of frames and for detecting either a starting frame or an end frame of a video cut containing an arbitrary frame designated under a playing operation, and for saving a computer program comprising the steps of:

inputting the video image into a processing unit of the computer system every 1 frame;

playing the video image to represent the played video image on a display;

accepting an instruction to select an arbitrary frame from the displayed video image;

detecting the starting frame and the end frame of the video cut containing the selected frame; and

saving a range of the video image from the starting frame to the end frame in relation to the selected frame.

16. A method for detecting a change point of a video cut of a video image, the method comprising the steps of:

reproducing a video image on a screen, the video image including a plurality of video cuts each including a plurality of frames;

detecting an input designating one of the frames on the screen;

detecting a video cut including the designated frame based on a feature amount of frames of the video image; and

displaying a head frame or a tail frame of the detected video cut including the designated frame.

17. A method according to claim 16, wherein the reproducing step includes the step of reproducing the video image at a higher speed than a speed during normal reproduction of the video image.

18. A method according to claim 17, wherein the reproducing step includes the steps of:

obtaining frames at a constant time interval; and

displaying the frames in a list as typical images;

wherein a frame in the list is indicated as a frame on the screen in the detecting step.

19. A video image editing system comprising:

a video image playing apparatus for playing a video image;

a video image input apparatus for time sequentially inputting the video image played by the video image playing apparatus as a digital signal frame by frame; and

a video image processing apparatus for performing an operation control in response to manual instruction operations of the video image input apparatus and the video image playing apparatus, and also for automatically detecting a change point of a video cut of the video image based on a feature amount of the digital signal with respect to the frames of the video image;

wherein the video image processing apparatus includes

means for obtaining a plurality of frames from the inputted video image at a constant time interval, and

means for detecting, when one of the frames played by the video image playing apparatus has been designated by a user, a change point of a video cut of the video image having the designated frame.