Image processing device and method for presenting program summaries during CM broadcasts

• US 7,636,928 B2
• Filed: 06/28/2006
• Issued: 12/22/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 06/30/2005
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Uno, Hiroaki
• Primary Examiner(s): Beliveau; Scott
• Assistant Examiner(s): KURIEN, CHRISTEN A
• Application Number:
  US11/477,044
• Publication Number:
  US 20070006263A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,273 Days
• Field of Search: 725/34, 725/35, 725/36, 725/38, 725/58, 725/42
• US Class Current: 725/42
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/034 on discs G11B27/036, G11B27/038 take precedence
• 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: H04N 5/76 Television signal recording

Abstract

An electronic device comprising a reception unit configured to receive a television broadcast including a television-program broadcast and a plurality of commercial-message broadcast transmitted during the television-program broadcast. A detecting unit detects whether a commercial-message broadcast is included in the received television broadcast. A recording unit records an image of the received television-program broadcast according to the detecting. A display-control unit produces the image of the received television broadcast and produces a summary image for a predetermined display time during reception of the commercial-message broadcast.

Claims

1. An image-processing method comprising the steps of:

receiving a television broadcast including a television-program broadcast and a plurality of commercial-message broadcasts transmitted during the television-program broadcast;

detecting whether a commercial-message broadcast is included in the received television broadcast;

recording images of a television-program broadcast received between the first commercial-message broadcast and a second commercial-message broadcast, the second commercial-message broadcast being a previous commercial-message broadcast received prior to the first commercial-message broadcast, when the detecting step detects a first commercial-message broadcast in the currently received television broadcast;

generating a summary image including a video obtained by extracting the recorded images of the television-program broadcast at predetermined time intervals, and for joining the extracted images to each other; and

producing the summary image for a predetermined display time,

wherein, when an automatic mode is selected by a user, the predetermined time intervals and the predetermined display time are automatically determined based on a remaining time information indicating when the detected first commercial-message broadcast is finished.

2. An image-processing device comprising:

a reception unit that receives an image of a television broadcast and performs display control, the television broadcast including a television-program broadcast and a plurality of commercial-message broadcasts transmitted during the television-program broadcast;

detecting unit that detects whether a commercial-message broadcast is included in the received television broadcast;

a recording unit that, when the detecting unit detects a first commercial-message broadcast in the currently received television broadcast, records the images of a television-program broadcast received between the first commercial-message broadcast and a second commercial-message broadcast, the second commercial-message broadcast being a previous commercial-message broadcast received prior to the first commercial-message broadcast;

generation unit that generates a summary image including a video obtained by extracting the recorded images of the television-program broadcast at predetermined time intervals, and that joins the extracted images to each other; and

a transmission unit that transmits the summary image to the reception device so that the reception device produces the summary image for a predetermined display time while receiving the commercial-message broadcast,

wherein, when an automatic mode is selected by a user, the predetermined time intervals and the predetermined display time are automatically determined based on a remaining time information indicating when the detected first commercial-message broadcast is finished.

3. An image-processing device comprising:

reception means for receiving an image of a television broadcast and for performing display control, the television broadcast including a television-program broadcast and a plurality of commercial-message broadcasts transmitted during the television-program broadcast;

detecting means for detecting whether a commercial-message broadcast is included in the received television broadcast;

recording means for, when the detecting means detects a first commercial-message broadcast in the currently received television broadcast, recording images of a television-program broadcast received between the first commercial-message broadcast and a second commercial-message broadcast, the second commercial-message broadcast being a previous commercial-message broadcast received prior to the first commercial-message broadcast;

generation means for generating a summary image including a video obtained by extracting the recorded images of the television-program broadcast at predetermined time intervals, and for joining the extracted images to each other; and

transmission means for transmitting the summary image to the reception device so that the reception device produces the summary image for a predetermined display time while receiving the commercial-message broadcast,

wherein, when an automatic mode is selected by a user, the predetermined time intervals and the predetermined display time are automatically determined based on a remaining time information indicating when the detected first commercial-message broadcast is finished.

4. An electronic device comprising:

reception means for receiving a signal including a program and a plurality of commercial message inserted into the program;

detecting means for detecting whether a commercial-message is included in the received signal;

recording means for, when the detecting means detects a first commercial-message in the currently received signal, recording images of a program received between the first commercial-message and a second commercial-message, the second commercial-message being a previous commercial-message received prior to the first commercial-message;

generation means for generating a summary image including a video obtained by extracting the recorded images of the program at predetermined time intervals, and for joining the extracted images to each other; and

display-control means for producing the received signal and for producing the summary image for a predetermined display time,

wherein, when an automatic mode is selected by a user, the predetermined time intervals and the predetermined display time are automatically determined based on a remaining time information indicating when the detected first commercial-message is finished.

5. An electronic device comprising:

a reception unit that receives a television broadcast including a television-program broadcast and a plurality of commercial-message broadcasts transmitted during the television-program broadcast;

a detecting unit that detects whether a commercial-message broadcast is included in the received television broadcast;

a recording unit that, when the detecting unit detects a first commercial-message broadcast in the currently received television broadcast, records images of a television-program broadcast received between the first commercial-message broadcast and a second commercial-message broadcast, the second commercial-message broadcast being a previous commercial-message broadcast received prior to the first commercial-message broadcast;

generation unit that generates a summary image including a video obtained by extracting the recorded images of the television-program broadcast at predetermined time intervals, and that joins the extracted images to each other; and

a display-control unit that produces the images of the received television broadcast and produces the summary image for a predetermined display time,

wherein, when an automatic mode is selected by a user, the predetermined time intervals and the predetermined display time are automatically determined based on a remaining time information indicating when the detected first commercial-message broadcast is finished.

6. An electronic device comprising:

a reception unit that receives a signal including a program and a plurality of commercial message inserted into the program;

detecting unit that detects whether a commercial-message is included in the received signal;

a recording unit that, when the detecting unit detects a first commercial-message in the currently received signal, records images of a program received between the first commercial-message and a second commercial-message, the second commercial-message being a previous commercial-message received prior to the first commercial-message;

generation unit that generates a summary image including a video obtained by extracting the recorded images of the program at predetermined time intervals, and that joins the extracted images to each other; and

a display-control unit that produces the received signal and produces the summary image for a predetermined display time,

wherein, when an automatic mode is selected by a user, the predetermined time intervals and the predetermined display time are automatically determined based on a remaining time information indicating when the detected first commercial-message is finished.

7. An electronic device comprising:

reception means for receiving a television broadcast including a television-program broadcast and a plurality of commercial-message broadcasts transmitted during the television-program broadcast;

detecting means for detecting whether a commercial-message broadcast is included in the received television broadcast;

recording means for, when the detecting means detects a first commercial-message broadcast in the currently received television broadcast, recording images of a television-program broadcast received between the first commercial-message broadcast and a second commercial-message broadcast, the second commercial-message broadcast being a previous commercial-message broadcast received prior to the first commercial-message broadcast;

generation means for generating a summary image including a video obtained by extracting the recorded images of the television-program broadcast at predetermined time intervals, and for joining the extracted images to each other; and

display-control means for producing the image of the received television broadcast and for producing the summary image for a predetermined display time,

wherein, when an automatic mode is selected by a user, the predetermined time intervals and the predetermined display time are automatically determined based on a remaining time information indicating when the detected first commercial-message broadcast is finished.

8. The electronic device according to claim 7,

wherein when the remaining time information is less than a predetermined value, the summary image is not produced.

9. The electronic device according to claim 7,

wherein, when a fixed mode is selected by the user, the predetermined time intervals is determined as a fixed value.

10. The electronic device according to claim 7, wherein the generation means comprises:

extracting means for extracting part of each of the extracted images, as a still image; and

downsizing means for downsizing each of the extracted still images,

wherein the display-control means arranges and produces the downsized still images.

11. The electronic device according to claim 10, wherein the downsized still images are arranged and produced in matrix form.

12. The electronic device according to claim 7,

wherein the recording means records speech of the television-program broadcast, and

wherein the generation means comprises:

identifying means for identifying program contents of the television-program broadcast on the basis of at least one of the recorded image and the recorded speech, and

the generation means generates the summary image on the basis of an identification result obtained by the identifying means.

13. The electronic device according to claim 7, wherein the image of the first commercial-message broadcast which is currently received and the recorded image are produced at the same time.

14. The electronic device according to claim 13, wherein the produced summary image is faded out as the currently received commercial-message broadcast is finished and the television-program broadcast is restarted.

15. The electronic device according to claim 7, wherein the produced summary image is switched to an image of the television-program broadcast which is restarted at the same time as when the currently received commercial-message broadcast is finished and the television-program broadcast is restarted.

16. The electronic device according to claim 7, wherein after a predetermined time elapses since the currently received commercial-message broadcast is finished and the television-program broadcast is restarted, the produced summary image is switched to an image of the restarted television-program broadcast.

17. The electronic device according to claim 7,

wherein the reception means receives a first-channel television broadcast and a second-channel television broadcast, and

wherein the produced image of the received television broadcast is switched between the first-channel television broadcast and the second-channel television broadcast,

the electronic device further comprising storage means for storing information about time where a commercial-message broadcast is finished in advance, the commercial-message broadcast being scheduled to be performed on the first channel and/or the second channel,

wherein when a display channel is switched from the first channel to the second channel by the display-control means and the commercial-message broadcast is received on the second channel, the generation means generates the summary image from the recorded image on the basis of the stored finish-time information, where the summary image corresponds to a time period from the channel switch to the finish time.

18. The electronic device according to claim 7, wherein the display-control means further produces text information and/or image information, the produced text information and/or the image information indicating that the recorded image is currently produced.

19. The electronic device of claim 7, further comprising a user-selectable fixed mode, whereby:

when the user selects the fixed mode from among the fixed mode and the automatic mode, the generated summary images produced under the selected fixed mode provide a processing load decrease compared the generated summary images produced under the selected automatic mode.

20. The electronic device of claim 7 wherein the generation means comprises additional types of summary images, the additional types including:

first summary images generated by extracting a plurality of still images of scenes from the recorded images of the television-program broadcast, the plurality of still images arranged in a matrix form; and

second summary images generated by extracting a predefined interval of the broadcast associated with the recorded images of the television-program broadcast.