Electronic equipment and method for displaying images

• US 7,757,172 B2
• Filed: 08/21/2008
• Issued: 07/13/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 12/27/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Toshiba Client Solutions CO., Ltd. (Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba (Toshiba Corporation)
• Inventors: Yokoi, Hidetoshi
• Primary Examiner(s): Hailu; Tadesse
• Assistant Examiner(s): Ulrich; Nicholas S
• Application Number:
  US12/196,119
• Publication Number:
  US 20090172545A1
• Time in Patent Office: 691 Days
• Field of Search: 715/721, 715/810, 725/41
• US Class Current: 715/721
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/51 Indexing; Data structures therefor; Storage structures
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00453 arranged in a two dimensional array

Abstract

An electronic equipment includes: a storage unit that stores a plurality of facial images extracted from video data and time stamp information indicating time points when the plurality of facial images appear in the video data; and a processor that operates, based on the time stamp information, to: arrange a plurality of facial image display areas in a two-dimensional display area in a grid layout having a given number of rows and a plurality of columns, each of the columns being assigned with respective time zones divided from a total time length of the video data; and display the facial images, which belong to each of the time zones assigned to the columns, in the facial image display areas included in the respective columns.

Claims

1. An electronic equipment comprising:

a storage unit configured to store a plurality of images extracted from video contents data and time stamp information indicating time points at which the plurality of images appear on a scene in the video contents data; and

a processing unit configured to form a plurality of image display areas in a two-dimensional display area that is arranged in a grid layout, the grid layout including a given number of rows and a plurality of columns to which a plurality of time zones constituting a total length of the video contents data are assigned respectively, based on the time stamp information, to align and display face images belonging to the time zones assigned to the plurality of columns in the plurality of image display areas, and to display a thumbnail extracted from the video contents data corresponding to the time zone assigned to respective columns, together with the face images aligned on the respective columns, in the two-dimensional display area.

2. The electronic equipment according to claim 1, wherein the processing unit is configured to split the video contents data into scenes and display a thumbnail extracted from a border and neighborhood between the scenes together with the face images on the columns corresponding to time zone containing the border between the scenes.

3. The electronic equipment according to claim 1, wherein the processing unit is configured to split the time zone corresponding to the columns, on which the thumbnail and the face images are displayed, at an equal time interval based on a number of the face images, and displays the thumbnail extracted from split points and neighborhoods on the respective columns.

4. The electronic equipment according to claim 1 further comprising a playback controlling unit, wherein, when an instruction for choosing either of the face image and the thumbnail is made and an instruction for playing the video contents data is made, the playback controlling unit starts a playback of the video contents data from a time point that is a given time ahead of a time point when the chosen face image or the chosen thumbnail appears on the scene or a time point when the chosen face image or the chosen thumbnail appears on the scene, based on the time stamp information.

5. An image display controlling method for an electronic equipment having a storage unit configured to store a plurality of face images extracted from video contents data and time stamp information indicating time points at which the plurality of face images appear on a scene in the video contents data, the method comprising:

forming a plurality of image display areas that are contained in a two-dimensional display area and are arranged in a grid layout, which contains a given number of rows and a plurality of columns to which a plurality of time zones constituting a total time length of the video contents data are assigned respectively, based on the time stamp information, aligning and displaying the face images belonging to the time zones assigned to the plurality of columns in the plurality of image display areas; and

displaying a thumbnail extracted from the video contents data corresponding to the time zone assigned to respective columns, together with the face images aligned on the respective columns.

6. The image display controlling method according to claim 5, wherein the forming of the plurality of image display areas comprises splitting the video contents data into scenes, and displaying a thumbnail extracted from a border and neighborhood between the scenes together with the face images on the columns corresponding to the time zone containing the border between the scenes.

7. The image display controlling method according to claim 5, wherein the forming of the plurality of image display areas comprises splitting the time zone corresponding to the columns, on which the thumbnail and the face images are displayed, at an equal time interval based on a number of the face images, and displaying the thumbnail extracted from split points and neighborhoods on the respective columns.