Method and apparatus for controlling moving picture synthesis

• US 6,525,801 B1
• Filed: 07/11/2001
• Issued: 02/25/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 11/12/1999
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Matsushita Electric Industrial Company Limited (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Matsushita Electric Industrial Company Limited (Panasonic Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Matsuzawa, Tomoko, Nojima, Shinji
• Primary Examiner(s): Adams, Russell
• Assistant Examiner(s): ESPLIN, DAVID B
• Application Number:
  US09/889,083
• Time in Patent Office: 594 Days
• Field of Search: 352/40, 348/14.12, 348/14.08, 348/14.09
• US Class Current: 352/40
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/114 Adapting the group of pictures [GOP] structure, e.g. number of B-frames between two anchor frames H04N19/107 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/177 the unit being a group of pictures [GOP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/61 in combination with predictive coding
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/148 Interfacing a video terminal to a particular transmission medium, e.g. ISDN
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/15 Conference systems

Abstract

An object of the present invention is to enable to obtain moving picture data of a desired bit rate at a high speed without re-coding when the multi-screen image is generated by synthesizing a plurality of moving picture data.

When a layout designating means (502) designates the arrangement of moving pictures, a bit-rate deciding means (503) instructs a frame-type deciding means (505) to decide a bit rate of the synthesized multi-screen, and a degree-of-importance deciding means (504) decides an assignment rate of the frame rate, the frame-type deciding means (505) decides a frame type of the moving picture data acquired by a data acquiring means (501) and asks a synthesizing means (506) to synthesize the screen. The multi-screen generated by the synthesizing means (506) is streamed onto the network via a data transmitting means (507).

Claims

1. A moving picture synthesis controlling system comprising:

data acquiring means for acquiring a plurality of moving picture data as synthesized sources;

layout designating means for designating a layout to make it possible to arrange the acquired moving picture data in a multi-screen;

bit rate deciding means for deciding a bit rate at which moving pictures in the multi-screen are transmitted;

frame-type deciding means for deciding a frame type of the acquired moving picture data;

synthesizing means for synthesizing the acquired moving picture data based on the decided frame type; and

data transmitting means for transmitting the synthesized moving picture data.

2. A moving picture synthesis controlling system according to claim 1, further comprising:

degree-of-importance deciding means for deciding an assignment rate of a frame rate individually for the moving picture data as the synthesized sources;

wherein the frame-type deciding means decides the frame type in accordance with a degree of importance decided by the degree-of-importance deciding means.

3. A moving picture synthesis controlling system according to claim 2, wherein the degree-of-importance deciding means decides the degree of importance based on position information that arranges individual moving picture data acquired from the layout designating means.

4. A moving picture synthesis controlling system according to claim 2, wherein the degree-of-importance deciding means decides the degree of importance based on display sizes of individual moving picture data acquired from the layout designating means.

5. A moving picture synthesis controlling system according to claim 2, wherein the degree-of-importance deciding means decides the degree of importance based on variation rates of individual moving picture data sizes acquired from the data acquiring means.

6. A moving picture synthesis controlling system according to claim 2, wherein the degree-of-importance deciding means decides the degree of importance based on a priority instruction issued from a user.

7. A moving picture synthesis controlling system according to claim 1, wherein the frame-type deciding means decides again the frame type for another moving picture data as the synthesized source if the data acquiring means fails to acquire new moving picture data as the synthesized source, and

the synthesizing means arranges the data, the frame type of which is decided, in arranging locations of the moving picture data that are not acquired as the synthesized source, whereby a multi-screen moving picture is generated.

8. A moving picture synthesis controlling system according to claim 1, further comprising:

data converting means for converting the acquired data into data, that can be used singly, to hold it if the data acquired by the data acquiring means is the moving picture data that can be used singly in one frame;

wherein the synthesizing means executes a synthesis by using the converted moving picture data.

9. A moving picture synthesis controlling system for acquiring a plurality of moving picture data as synthesized sources and then generating/transmitting these data as a multi-screen moving picture,

wherein management information files, each of which contains frame type management data indicating temporarily a frame type in synthesis, and type assignment management data indicating a number of times/frequency of the frame type assigned actually in synthesis, are held for each of the moving picture data as the synthesized sources, and the frame type management data are updated based on the type assignment management data not to exceed a transmission bit rate, and the moving picture data as synthesized sources are generated in a multi-screen based on the frame type indicated by the updated frame type management data.

10. A moving picture synthesis controlling system for acquiring a plurality of moving picture data as synthesized sources and then generating/transmitting these data as a multi-screen moving picture,

wherein management information files, each of which contains frame type management data indicating temporarily a frame type in synthesis, and degree-of-importance management data indicating degrees of importance of these data, type assignment management data indicating a number of times/frequency of the frame type calculated from the degree-of-importance management data and assigned actually in synthesis, are held for each of the moving picture data as the synthesized sources, and the frame type management data are updated based on the type assignment management data not to exceed a transmission bit rate, and the moving picture data as synthesized sources are generated in a multi-screen based on the frame type indicated by the updated frame type management data.

11. A moving picture synthesis controlling method comprising steps of:

acquiring a plurality of moving picture data as synthesized sources;

designating a layout to make it possible to arrange the acquired moving picture data in a multi-screen;

deciding a target bit rate at which moving pictures in the multi-screen are transmitted;

deciding a frame-type of the acquired moving picture data;

synthesizing the acquired moving picture data based on the decided frame type; and

transmitting the synthesized moving picture data;

wherein, in the step of deciding the frame type, the frame type of the acquired moving picture data is initialized into a predetermined type frame, then a target value as a target bit rate is compared with an actual value as a data size when the multi-screen is actually generated, and then, if the target value is larger than the actual value, the frame type of the acquired moving picture data is decided in sequence into another type frame different from the predetermined type until the actual value does not exceed the target value.

12. A moving picture synthesis controlling method comprising the steps of:

acquiring a plurality of moving picture data as synthesized sources;

designating a layout to make it possible to arrange the acquired moving picture data in a multi-screen;

deciding a target bit rate at which moving pictures in the multi-screen are transmitted;

deciding a frame-type of the acquired moving picture data;

synthesizing the acquired moving picture data based on the decided frame type; and

transmitting the synthesized moving picture data;

wherein, in the step of deciding the frame type, the frame type of the acquired moving picture data is initialized into a predetermined type frame, then a degree of importance that decides an assignment rate of a frame rate individually for the acquired moving picture data is decided, then a target value as a target bit rate is compared with an actual value as a data size when the multi-screen is actually generated, and then, if the target value is larger than the actual value, the frame type of the acquired moving picture data is decided in order of the degree of importance into another type frame different from the predetermined type until the actual value does not exceed the target value.