Recording apparatus, picture recording apparatus, and method therefor

• US 7,187,846 B2
• Filed: 06/07/2001
• Issued: 03/06/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 06/07/2000
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha (Canon Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha (Canon Inc.)
• Inventors: Saito, Akio
• Primary Examiner(s): Tran; Thai Q.
• Assistant Examiner(s): TOPGYAL, GELEK W
• Application Number:
  US09/875,191
• Publication Number:
  US 20020018637A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,098 Days
• Field of Search: 725/90, 715/721, 386/55, 386/83, 386/93, 386/125
• US Class Current: 386/241
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 2220/20 Disc-shaped record carriers
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 2220/90 Tape-like record carriers
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/107 of operating tapes
• 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 27/326 used signal is a video-frame or a video-field (P.I.P.)
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/328 on a tape [TTOC]
• 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 21/4334 Recording operations recording of a television signal H04N5/76; arrangements for recording or accumulating broadcast information or broadcast-related information H04H60/27
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4347 Demultiplexing of several video streams
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4385 Multiplex stream processing, e.g. multiplex stream decrypting
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44 Processing of video elementary streams, e.g. splicing a video clip retrieved from local storage with an incoming video stream or rendering scenes according to encoded video stream scene graphs
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8153 comprising still images, e.g. texture, background image
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/782 on tape
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/9201 involving the multiplexing of an additional signal and the video signal
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/9205 the additional signal being at least another television signal

Abstract

Video signals input from a video input/output section are sequentially recorded on a magnetic tape section. Desired procedure information is selected from a plurality of pieces of procedure information each of which is stored in a digest video procedure storage section and defines image information capture start timing and capture time in the recording process. A capture section acquires a video signal in accordance with the capture timing and capture time of the selected procedure information and stores the video signal in a digest temporary storage section as a digest video signal. After video signal recording is ended, the digest video signal is recorded on the magnetic tape section.

Claims

1. A recording apparatus comprising:

input means for inputting an image signal stream and genre information of the image signal stream;

recording means for recording the image signal stream input by said input means on a storage device;

storing means for storing a plurality of procedure information, each of the plurality of procedure information including (a) predetermined extraction timings and (b) predetermined extraction periods respectively corresponding to the predetermined extraction timings, to extract parts of image signals, the predetermined extraction timings defining a respective plurality of percentage values, and the plurality of procedure information being preliminarily generated and the plurality of procedure information being respectively associated with a plurality of genre information different from each other;

selection means for selecting procedure information from the plurality of procedure information, based on the genre information of the image signal stream, for use when generating a digest image of the image signal stream input by said input means; and

extraction means for extracting a part of image signals from the image signal stream to be recorded on the storage device, in accordance with the procedure information selected by said selection means,

wherein each of the plurality of predetermined extraction timings is defined by a percentage value, and

wherein said extraction means calculates actual extraction timings based on (a) a total time of the image signal stream from which the digest image is generated and (b) the procedure information selected by said selection means, and extracts, at each of the actual extraction timings, a part of image signals from the image signal stream, which part has a predetermined extraction period corresponding to a respective one of the predetermined extraction timings.

2. The apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising operation means for receiving operation input for generating a digest image,

wherein said operation means is able to edit the predetermined extraction timings and/or the predetermined extraction periods of procedure information that has been stored by said storing means.

3. The apparatus according to claim 2, wherein said operation means further provides a creation display for creating a new procedure information.

4. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein each of the plurality of procedure information includes a plurality of keywords, and

wherein said selection means compares genre information of the image signal stream with the keywords and selects procedure information having a keyword corresponding to the genre information.

5. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the image signal stream is a program generated from a broadcast wave, and

wherein the genre information is included in EPG data generated from the broadcast wave.

6. The apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising audio analysis means for analyzing an audio signal attached to the image signal stream and generating audio information,

wherein said extraction means extracts a part of image signals from the image signal stream to be recorded on the storage device, based on the selected procedure information and the audio information generated by said audio analysis means.

7. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the storage device includes a magnetic tape, and

wherein said recording means records the extracted image signal stream in a predetermined area on the magnetic tape.

8. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said extraction means generates extraction position information representing a recording position on the device for a part of image signals corresponding to the extraction timing in the image signal stream recorded on the storage device,

wherein the storage device includes a random-accessible medium having a number of clusters, and

wherein the extraction position information represents a position of a cluster on which a part of image signals corresponding to the extraction timing are recorded.

9. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein each of the actual extraction timings calculated by said extraction means indicates an actual time based on a recording start time and a recording end time of the image signal stream from which the digest image is generated.

11. The method according to claim 1, further comprising an operation step of receiving operation input for generating a digest image,

wherein, in said operation step, the predetermined extraction timings and/or the predetermined extraction periods of procedure information that has been stored in said storing step are editable.

12. The method according to claim 11, wherein said operation step further includes a step of providing a creation display for creating a new procedure information.

10. A recording method comprising:

an input step of inputting an image signal stream and genre information of the image signal stream;

a recording step of recording the image signal stream input by said input means on a storage device;

a storing step of storing a plurality of procedure information, each of the plurality of procedure information including (a) predetermined extraction timings and (b) predetermined extraction periods respectively corresponding to the predetermined extraction timings, to extract parts of image signals, the predetermined extraction timings defining a respective plurality of percentage values, and the plurality of procedure information being preliminarily generated and the plurality of procedure information being respectively associated with a plurality of genre information different from each other;

a selection step of selecting procedure information from the plurality of procedure information, based on the genre information of the image signal stream, for use when generating a digest image of the image signal stream input in said input step; and

an extraction step of extracting a part of image signals from the image signal stream to be recorded on the storage device, in accordance with the procedure information selected in said selection step,

wherein each of the plurality of predetermined extraction timings is defined by a percentage value, and

wherein said extraction step calculates actual extraction timings based on (a) a total time of the image signal stream from which the digest image is generated and (b) the procedure information selected by said selection step, and extracts, at each of the actual extraction timings, a part of image signals from the image signal stream, which part has a predetermined extraction period corresponding to a respective one of the predetermined extraction timings.

13. The method according to claim 10, wherein each of the plurality of procedure information includes a plurality of keywords, and

wherein said selection step includes a step of comparing genre information of the image signal stream with the keywords and a step of selecting procedure information having a keyword corresponding to the genre information.

14. The method according to claim 10, wherein the image signal stream is a program generated from a broadcast wave, and the genre information is included in EPG data generated from the broadcast wave.

15. The method according to claim 10, further comprising an audio analysis step of analyzing audio signal attached to the image signal stream and generating audio information,

wherein, in said extraction step, a part of image signals is extracted from the image signal stream to be recorded on the storage device, based on the selected procedure information and the audio information generated in said audio analysis step.

16. The method according to claim 10, wherein the storage device include a magnetic tape, and

wherein in said recording step, the extracted image signal stream is recorded in a predetermined area on the magnetic tape.

17. The method according to claim 10, wherein said extraction step generates extraction position information representing a recording position on the device for a part of image signals corresponding to the extraction timing in the image signal stream recorded on the storage device,

wherein the storage device includes a random-accessible medium having a number of clusters, and

wherein the extraction position information represents a position of a cluster on which a part of image signals corresponding to the extraction timing are recorded.

18. A computer-readable medium storing a computer program for causing an apparatus to effect a method according to claim 10.

19. The method according to claim 10, wherein each of the actual extraction timings calculated in said extraction step indicates an actual time based on a recording start time and a recording end time of the image signal stream from which the digest image is generated.