Script editor

• US 6,912,688 B1
• Filed: 03/20/1997
• Issued: 06/28/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 03/27/1996
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.), Sony United Kingdom Limited (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.), Sony United Kingdom Limited (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Zhou, Yiming, McGrath, Mark John
• Primary Examiner(s): PAULA, CESAR B
• Application Number:
  US08/821,320
• Time in Patent Office: 3,022 Days
• Field of Search: 345/302, 345/328, 707/515, 715/500.1, 715/501.1, 715/716
• US Class Current: 715/202
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/034 on discs G11B27/036, G11B27/038 take 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 editing system has a video store for storing a video sequence and a text store for storing a sequence of text associated with the video sequence. Displays and are provided for displaying the video and the text on the text display. The current text position is indicated by a cursor 10 or by another marker. The frames of the video sequence have time codes associated therewith. Corresponding time codes are associated with the text using the time codes and the rate n of reading words:—

The current position in the text is controllable in dependence on the time code of the video frames; and the video frame currently displayed is controllable in dependence upon the current position in the text.

Claims

1. An editing system for editing a video sequence to generate a news story, the editing system comprising:

display means for displaying a video clip including a plurality of consecutive pictures in a video display section and for displaying a proposed script associated with said video clip in a text display section;

editing means for editing said proposed script displayed in said text display section to generate an edited script for defining an audio portion to accompany said video clip including a changed script so that a time duration for reading said edited script, and therefore a time duration of said audio portion matches a time duration of said video clip;

means for displaying said edited script in place of said proposed script in said text display section;

means for calculating a time code for each word of said edited script in accordance with a beginning time code and an end time code of said video clip;

indicator means for indicating a current word position of said edited script in said text display section; and

controlling means for controlling a position of said indicator means based upon said calculated time code for each word of said edited script in order to simulate correspondence between said video clip and said edited script.

2. A system according to claim 1, wherein the display means displays the video sequence and the text sequence side by side.

3. A system according to claim 2, wherein the displaying means comprises a single display screen and the video sequence and the text sequence are displayed in adjacent windows on the screen.

4. A system according to claim 1, wherein the time code associated with the current text position is calculated from a first time code component TCx which denotes the start of a section of text and a second time code component W/n where n is a preset rate of reading of words and

W is the number of words of text from the start of the section to the current position.

5. A system according to claim 4, wherein the said time code component TCx denoting the start of a section of text is identical to the time code of the video frame

corresponding to the start of the said section of text.

6. A system according to claim 4, wherein when the display of a video frame is controlled in dependence on the current text position, the controlling means selects from the video store the frame having the time code equal to or nearest to the time code associated with the current text position.

7. A system according to claim 4, wherein when the display of the current text position is controlled in dependence on the currently displayed video frame, the controlled means selects from the text store the section of text having a start time code TCx less than the time code VCy of the current frame and calculates the current text position according to

VCy=TCx+W/n.

8. A system according to claim 4, wherein a section of text associated with a corresponding section of the video sequence is divisible into:

an initial active, sub-section containing a number of words Wx where Wx=(TCx+1−

TCx).n where n is the preset rate of reading or words, TCx is the time code denoting the start of the section, and TCx+1 is the time code denoting the start of the next section; and

a succeeding inactive sub-section; and

the said controlling means disregards text in the inactive subsection.