Contents replay apparatus and contents replay method

• US 8,145,034 B2
• Filed: 02/07/2006
• Issued: 03/27/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 03/02/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Takehara, Mitsuru, Nakamura, Takatoshi, Sako, Yoichiro, Terauchi, Toshiro, Inoue, Makoto, Yamashita, Kosei, Sasaki, Toru, Matsuda, Masafumi, Miyajima, Yasushi, Asukai, Masamichi
• Primary Examiner(s): Zand, Kambiz
• Assistant Examiner(s): GUIRGUIS, MICHAEL M
• Application Number:
  US11/885,327
• Publication Number:
  US 20090046991A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,240 Days
• Field of Search: 386/241, 386/240, 707/758
• US Class Current: 386/241
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/48 Retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manually
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/58 Retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manually
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/11 by using information not detectable on the record carrier
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/329 on a disc [VTOC]

Abstract

To enable a lot of audio data and image data such as a still image and a moving image to be effectively and efficiently used. When audio data accumulated in a material database 21 is replayed, a controller 10 acquires the metadata added to the audio data to be replayed from the material database, refer to the metadata of image data based on the above metadata to thereby search image data intimately related to the audio data, controls a voice replay system such as an audio decoder 32 and the like and an image replay system such as an image decoder 31 and the like, and replay the audio data to be replayed and the searched image data in relation with each other.

Claims

1. A contents replay apparatus, comprising:

acquisition means for;

acquiring first metadata corresponding to contents data of a first kind, and

acquiring an instruction from a user regarding respective weights of fields of the first metadata;

search means for;

conducting a search of second metadata of contents data of a second kind, the search being based on a value of a field of the first metadata, and

if the search hits in the second metadata of one of the contents data of the second kind, identifying the one of the contents data of the second kind as being related to the contents data of the first kind, and incrementing a score of the one of the contents data of the second kind by the respective weight assigned by the user to the field of the first metadata upon which the search is based;

first replay means for replaying the first kind of contents data;

second replay means for replaying the second kind of contents data; and

control means for controlling the first replay means and the second replay means so that the first and second kinds of contents data to be replayed are replayed in relation to each other.

2. A contents replay apparatus according to claim 1, characterized in that:

the contents data of the first kind is audio data; and

,

the contents data of the second kind is image data of a still image or a moving image.

3. A contents replay apparatus according to claim 1, characterized in that:

The contents data of the first kind is image data of a still image or a moving image; and

The contents data of the second kind is audio data.

4. A contents replay apparatus according to claim 1, characterized in that:

the contents data of the first or second kind is audio data; and

fields of the first or second metadata regarding the audio data include at least two of a release date, a release country, an artist name, an album name, a title, a genre, a language, a situation, a contents, and a keyword for search of the audio data.

5. A contents replay apparatus according to claim 1, characterized in that:

the contents data of the first or second kind is image data of a still image or a moving image;

fields of the first or second metadata regarding the image data include at least two of a photographing time and date, an age meant by a subject, a place where photographing was carried out, a situation, a weather condition present when the photographing was carried out, a photographer, an accompanying person when photographing is carried out, a degree of relationship to the user, a category, keywords for search, a detailed contents of a photograph.

6. A contents replay apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising synonym acquisition means for acquiring synonyms of values of fields of the first metadata,

wherein the search means is further configured to identify the contents data of the second kind by searching the second metadata based on the synonyms.

7. A contents replay apparatus according to claim 1, characterized in that the search means is further configured to carry out a weighing processing of results of the search and to preferentially use a result having a larger score.

8. A contents replay apparatus according to claim 3, characterized in that:

the first metadata includes information showing a degree of relationship between the image data and the user; and

the search means is further configured to carry out a search taking the degree of relationship between the image data and the user into consideration.

9. A contents replay apparatus according to claim 1, characterized in that the search means is further configured to compare a recording date on which the contents data of the first or second kind was recorded to a present day and to set a degree of vagueness for searching year, month, and day and a search range according to an amount of time passed.

10. A contents replay method, comprising:

acquiring first metadata corresponding to contents data of a first kind;

acquiring an instruction from a user regarding respective weights of fields of the first metadata;

conducting a search of second metadata of contents data of a second kind, the search being based on a value of a field of the first metadata;

if the search hits in the second metadata of one of the contents data of the second kind, identifying the one of the contents data of the second kind as being related to the contents data of the first kind, and incrementing a score of the one of the contents data of the second kind by the respective weight assigned by the user to the field of the first metadata upon which the search is based; and

replaying the first kind of contents data and the second kind of contents data identified by the search in relation to each other.

11. A contents replay method according to claim 10, characterized in that:

the contents data of the first kind is audio data; and

,

the contents data of the second kind is image data of a still image or a moving image.

12. A contents replay method according to claim 10, characterized in that:

the contents data of the first kind is image data of a still image or a moving image; and

the contents data of the second kind is audio data.

13. A contents replay method according to claim 10, characterized in that:

the contents data of the first or second kind is audio data; and

fields of the first or second metadata regarding the audio data include at least two of a release date, a release country, an artist name, an album name, a title, a genre, a language, a situation, a contents, and a keyword for search of the audio data.

14. A contents replay method according to claim 10, characterized in that:

the contents data of the first or second kind is image data of a still image or a moving image;

fields of the first or second metadata regarding the image data include at least two of a photographing time and date, an age meant by a subject, a place where photographing was carried out, a situation, a weather condition present when the photographing was carried out, a photographer, an accompanying person when photographing is carried out, a degree of relationship to a user, a category, keywords for search, and detailed contents of a photograph.

15. A contents replay method according to claim 10, further comprising:

acquiring synonyms of values of the fields of the first metadata,

wherein the search of the second metadata of the contents data of the second kind is further based on the synonyms.

16. A contents replay method according to claim 10, further comprising weighing results of the search and preferentially using a result having a larger score.

17. A contents replay method according to claim 12, characterized in that:

the first metadata includes information showing a degree of relationship between the image data and the user; and

the act of searching comprises taking the degree of relationship between the image data and the user into consideration.

18. A contents replay method according to claim 10, characterized in that the conducting the search comprises:

comparing a recording date on which the contents data of the first or second kind was recorded to a present day; and

setting a degree of vagueness for searching year, month, and day and a search range according to an amount of time passed.