Apparatus for editing moving picture having a related information thereof, a method of the same and recording medium for storing procedures in the same method

• US 6,526,215 B2
• Filed: 11/10/1998
• Issued: 02/25/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 11/11/1997
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Hitachi Denshi Kabushiki Kaisha
• Original Assignee: Hitachi Denshi Kabushiki Kaisha
• Inventors: Hirai, Seiichi, Ueda, Hirotada
• Primary Examiner(s): Tran, Thai
• Assistant Examiner(s): CHIEU, PO LIN
• Application Number:
  US09/188,692
• Publication Number:
  US 20020131760A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,568 Days
• Field of Search: 386/4, 386/45-46, 386/52, 386/64, 386/69-70, 386/125-126, 348/700-701, 345/723-726
• US Class Current: 386/282
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/034 on discs G11B27/036, G11B27/038 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/11 by using information not detectable on the record carrier
• 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

Abstract

An apparatus for editing a moving picture having related information including an input unit for inputting said moving picture and the related information, a detecting unit for detecting change points of the moving picture and dividing the moving picture into scenes and cuts, a selecting unit for extracting a still image representing each of the scenes and cuts, a memory for storing the related information and the representative still images of the scenes and cuts, apparatus for designating representative still images of the scenes and cuts to edit the moving picture, apparatus for determining a hierarchical structure, the hierarchical structure including layers in accordance with the scenes and cuts, a display for displaying the hierarchical structure and the related information, and a controller for controlling the memory and the display.

Claims

1. An apparatus for editing moving picture, comprising;

input means for inputting said moving picture and related information, said moving picture comprising a plurality of scenes, each scene comprising a plurality of cuts and each cut comprising a plurality of frame images;

detecting means for detecting change points of said moving picture and dividing said moving picture into said scenes and cuts;

selecting means for extracting a still image representing each of said scenes and cuts;

a memory for storing said related information and the representative still images of said scenes and cuts, wherein said related information includes information concerning properties of a person associated with said scenes, cuts, frames and still images;

means for designating said representative still images of said scenes and cuts to edit said moving picture;

means for determining a hierarchical structure, said hierarchical structure comprising a plurality of layers in accordance with said scenes and cuts;

means for displaying said hierarchical structure and said related information; and

a controller for controlling said memory and said display means so that said related information in relation to said representative still images to be displayed is displayed with said representative still images.

2. An apparatus for editing moving picture according to claim 1, wherein said related information comprise a plurality of layers that are different degrees of abstraction, and said display means displays said representative still images and said related information of the layer in relation to said representative still images to be displayed.

3. An apparatus for editing moving picture according to claim 1, wherein said related information further includes information relating to contents of said still images and management information for management of said attribute information.

4. An apparatus for editing moving picture according to claim 1, wherein said display means further displays icons indicative of the related information on said display unit as associated with said representative still images.

5. An apparatus for editing moving picture according to claim 4, wherein said related information include information of at least any of character, video and audio formats.

6. An apparatus for editing moving picture according to claim 5, wherein said memory includes data areas for storing therein said related information as associated with said representative still images.

7. An apparatus for editing moving picture according to claim 6, wherein said memory includes data areas for storing therein information indicative of presence locations of said related information as associated with said representative still images.

8. An apparatus for editing moving picture according to claim 7, wherein said controller comprises means for accessing the presence location of said related information specified in said data areas of said memory by an instruction from an input device, reading out said related information from the memory and displaying the read-out related information by said display means.

10. An apparatus for editing moving picture according to claim 6, wherein said controller comprises means for reading out said related information from said data areas of said memory based on an instruction from said input device and displaying the read-out related information to said display means.

11. An apparatus for editing moving picture according to claim 1, wherein said controller further comprises means for detecting a frame image containing specific feature information and means for relating the related information input from said input means to the frame image containing said feature information.

12. An apparatus for editing moving picture according to claim 11, wherein said controller further comprises means for searching for the frame images and the related information stored in said memory and extracting the frame image containing said specific feature information therefrom.

13. An apparatus for editing moving picture according to claim 1, wherein said controller further comprises means for displaying an related information icon for specification of said related information and means for placing said related information icon on said representative still image with use of said input means to correspond the related information input from said input means to said representative still image.

14. An apparatus for editing moving picture according to claim 13, wherein said related information is multimedia information.

15. An apparatus for editing moving picture according to claim 13, wherein said controller further comprises means for displaying the representative still image associated with said related information as discriminatable from the other images.

16. An apparatus for editing moving picture according to claim 1, further comprising;

said designating means comprises means for displaying on a display unit said representative still image;

said determining means comprises means for selecting and positioning the representative image in said hierarchical structure on said display unit to editing the moving picture.

9. An apparatus for editing a moving picture having a related information thereof comprising;

input means for inputting said moving picture and said related information, said moving picture comprising a plurality of scenes, each scene comprising a plurality of cuts and each cut comprising a plurality of frame images;

detecting means for detecting change points of said moving picture and dividing said moving picture into said scenes and cuts;

selecting means for extracting a still image representing each of said scenes and cuts;

a memory for storing said related information and the representative still images of said scenes and cuts;

means for designating said representative still images of said scenes and cuts to edit said moving picture;

means for determining a hierarchical structure, said hierarchical structure comprising a plurality of layers in accordance with said scenes and cuts;

means for displaying said hierarchical structure and said related information; and

a controller for controlling said memory and said display means so that said related information in relation to said representative still images to be displayed is displayed with said representative still images,

wherein said display means further displays icons indicative of the related information on said display unit as associated with said representative still images,

wherein said related information include information of at least any of character, video and audio formats,

wherein said memory includes data areas for storing therein said related information as associated with said representative still images,

wherein said memory includes data areas for storing therein information indicative of present locations of said related information as associated with said representative still images, and

wherein said controller comprises means for accessing the present locations of an external related information specified in said data areas of said memory by an instruction from said input device through a communication path connected to said input means, reading out said related information from the memory and transferring the read-out related information by said display means.

17. A method of editing moving picture, comprising the steps of;

inputting said moving picture and related information, said moving picture comprising a plurality of scenes, each scene comprising a plurality of cuts and each cut comprising a plurality of frame images;

detecting change points of said moving picture and dividing said moving picture into said scenes and cuts;

extracting a still image representing each of said scenes and cuts;

storing said related information and the representative still images of said scenes and cuts in a memory,

wherein said related information includes information concerning properties of a person associated with said scenes, cuts, frames and still images;

designating said representative still images of said scenes and cuts to edit said moving picture;

determining a hierarchical structure, said hierarchical structure comprising a plurality of layers in accordance with said scenes and cuts;

displaying said hierarchical structure of said representative still images and said related information so that said related information in relation to said representative still images to be displayed is displayed with said representative still images.

18. A method of editing moving picture according to claim 17, wherein said related information comprise a plurality of layers that are different degrees of abstraction, said step of displaying includes the step of displaying said representative still images and said related information of the layer in relation to said representative still images to be displayed.

19. A method of editing moving picture according to claim 17, wherein said related information include attribute information relating to contents of said representative still images and information for management of said attribute information.

20. A method of editing moving picture according to claim 17, further comprising a step of displaying icons indicative of the related information on a display unit as associated with said representative still images.

21. A method of editing moving picture according to claim 20, wherein said related information include information of at least any of character, video and audio formats.

22. A method of editing moving picture according to claim 21, further comprising a step of storing therein said related information in data areas of said memory as associated with said representative still images.

23. A method of editing moving picture according to claim 22, further comprising a step of storing therein information indicative of presence locations of said related information in data areas of said memory as associated with said representative still images.

24. A method of editing moving picture according to claim 23, further comprising a step of accessing the presence location of said related information specified in said data areas of said memory by an instruction, reading out said related information from the memory and outputting the read-out related information to said display unit.

26. A method of editing moving picture according to claim 22, further comprising a step of reading out said related information from said data areas of said memory based on an instruction and outputting the read-out related information to said display unit.

27. A method of editing moving picture according to claim 17, further comprising a step of detecting a frame image containing specific feature information and a step of relating the inputted related information with the frame image containing said feature information.

28. A method of editing moving picture according to claim 27, further comprising searching for the frame images and the related information stored in said memory and extracting the frame image containing said specific feature information therefrom.

29. A method of editing moving picture according to claim 17, further comprising a step of displaying a related information icon for specification of said related information and a step for placing said related information icon on said representative still image with use of an input device to correspond the related information input from said input device to said representative still image.

30. A method of editing moving picture according to claim 29, wherein said related information is multimedia information.

31. A method of editing moving picture according to claim 29, further comprising a step of displaying the representative still image associated with said related information as discriminatable from the other images.

32. A method of editing moving picture according to claim 17, further comprising a step of displaying on a display unit the representative still image of said moving picture, a step of selecting the representative still image displayed on said display unit, and a step of editing the moving picture by positioning in said hierarchical structure one of the displayed representative still images selected by said input device.

25. A method of editing moving picture having a related information thereof comprising the steps of;

inputting said moving picture and said related information, said moving picture comprising a plurality of scenes, each scene comprising a plurality of cuts and each cut comprising a plurality of frame images;

detecting change points of said moving picture and dividing said moving picture into said scenes and cuts;

extracting a still image representing each of said scenes and cuts;

storing said related information and the representative still images of said scenes and cuts in a memory;

designating said representative still images of said scenes and cuts to edit said moving picture;

determining a hierarchical structure, said hierarchical structure comprising a plurality of layers in accordance with said scenes and cuts;

displaying said hierarchical structure of said representative still images and said related information so that said related information in relation to said representative still images to be displayed is displayed with said representative still images,

said method further comprising the step of;

displaying icons indicative of the related information on a display unit as associated with said representative still images,

wherein said related information include information of at least any of character, video and audio formats,

said method further comprising the steps of;

storing therein said related information in data areas of said memory as associated with said representative still images,

storing therein information indicative of present locations of said related information in data areas of said memory as associated with said representative still images,

accessing the present locations of said external related information specified in said data areas of said memory by an instruction provided through a communication path connected to a computer,

reading out said related information from the memory, and

transferring the read-out related information to said display unit.

33. A computer program product stored on a computer usable medium for editing moving picture, said computer program when executed causes a computer to perform the steps of:

inputting said moving picture and related information, said moving picture comprising a plurality of scenes, each scene comprising a plurality of cuts and each cut comprising a plurality of frame images;

detecting change points of said moving picture and dividing said moving picture into said scenes and cuts;

extracting a still image representing each of said scenes and cuts;

storing said related information and the representative still images of said scenes and cuts in a memory,

wherein said related information includes information concerning properties of a person associated with said scenes, cuts, frames and still images;

designating said representative still images of said scenes and cuts to edit said moving picture;

determining a hierarchical structure, said hierarchical structure comprising a plurality of layers in accordance with said scenes and cuts;

displaying said hierarchical structure of said representative still images and said related information so that said related information in relation to said representative still images to be displayed is displayed with said representative still images.