Audio and/or video generation apparatus and method of generating audio and/or video signals

• US 8,842,964 B2
• Filed: 05/07/2012
• Issued: 09/23/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 11/05/1999
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony United Kingdom Limited (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: McGrath, Mark John, Collins, Andrew, Dorricott, Martin Rex
• Primary Examiner(s): Boccio, Vincent F
• Application Number:
  US13/465,705
• Publication Number:
  US 20120263436A1
• Time in Patent Office: 869 Days
• Field of Search: 386/241, 386/242, 386/243, 386/248, 715/723
• US Class Current: 386/224
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 2220/90 Tape-like record carriers
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/031 Electronic editing of digitised analogue information signals, e.g. audio or video signals
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/032 on tapes G11B27/036, G11B27/038 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/11 by using information not detectable on the record carrier
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/3036 Time code signal
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/323 Time code signal, e.g. on a cue track as SMPTE- or EBU-time code
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/328 on a tape [TTOC]
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/235 Processing of additional data, e.g. scrambling of additional data or processing content descriptors
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/41265 having a remote control device for bidirectional communication between the remote control device and client device unidirectional remote control device H04N21/42204
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/435 Processing of additional data, e.g. decrypting of additional data, reconstructing software from modules extracted from the transport stream
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8126 involving additional data, e.g. news, sports, stocks, weather forecasts
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/84 Generation or processing of descriptive data, e.g. content descriptors systems specially adapted for using meta-information in broadcast systems H04H60/73
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8455 involving pointers to the content, e.g. pointers to the I-frames of the video stream
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/77 between a recording apparatus and a television camera
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 9/79 Processing of colour television signals in connection with recording
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 9/8205 involving the multiplexing of an additional signal and the colour video signal
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 9/8227 the additional signal being at least another television signal

Abstract

An audio and/or video generation apparatus which is arranged in operation to generate audio and/or video signals representative of an audio and/or video source, the audio and/or video generation apparatus including a recording unit which is arranged in operation to record the audio and/or video signals on a recording medium, wherein the audio and/or video generation apparatus is arranged to receive metadata associated with the audio and/or video signals generated by a data processor, the recording unit being arranged in operation to record the metadata on the recording medium with the audio and/or video signals. The data processor may be arranged to receive signals representative of the time codes of the recorded audio/video signals, and the metadata may include time code data representative of the in and out points of a take of the audio/video signals generated by the data processor.

Claims

1. An audio and/or video generation apparatus configured to generate audio and/or video material representative of an audio and/or visual source, said audio and/or video generation apparatus comprising:

recording circuitry configured to record audio and/or video signals representing said audio and/or video material to a recording medium;

metadata generation circuitry configured to receive said audio and/or video signals, and to generate metadata automatically in response to receipt of said audio and/or video signals;

storage circuitry configured to store the metadata generated by said metadata generation circuitry; and

output circuitry configured to output a portion of the metadata stored in the storage circuitry,

wherein the metadata includes location data representative of a location of edit points of one or more parts of the audio/video material, the metadata includes spatial coordinates of a location where the audio/video material was generated, the metadata includes one or more picture stamps providing a digital representation of an image generated from the video material, and the metadata includes at least one field for user generatable metadata, and

wherein said audio and/or video generation apparatus is configured to output at least the portion of the metadata stored in the storage circuitry separately, using said output circuitry, without said audio and/or video signals, to outside said audio and/or video generation apparatus.

2. The audio and/or video generation apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the picture stamps are compression encoded in order to reduce an amount of data required to represent the image from the video signals.

3. The audio and/or video generation apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the picture stamps are generated at the edit points.

4. The audio and/or video generation apparatus as claimed in claim 1, further comprising:

an activity processor configured to detect relative activity within the video material, and to generate an activity signal representative of the relative activity, and in response to the activity signal to generate picture stamps, so that more picture stamps are generated for greater activity within the images represented by the video signals.

5. The audio and/or video generation apparatus as claimed in claim 4, wherein the activity processor is configured to detect the relative activity by performing a process in which a histogram of the color components of images represented by the video signal is compiled and the relative activity generated from a rate of change of the color components in the color histogram.

6. The audio and/or video generation apparatus as claimed in claim 5, wherein the activity processor is configured to detect the relative activity from motion vectors within the images.

7. The audio and/or video generation apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the metadata includes a unique identification code for each of the parts of the audio and/or video material, each unique identification code uniquely identifying one of the parts of audio and/or video material.

8. The audio and/or video generation apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the location data is generated by a receiver that receives data from a Global Positioning System (GPS).

9. The audio and/or video generation apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the user generatable metadata is a description of the audio/video material entered by a user.

10. A method of generating audio and/or video material representative of an audio and/or visual source, said method comprising:

generating audio and/or video signals representative of an audio and/or visual source;

recording said audio and/or video signals on a recording medium;

generating, using a processor, metadata automatically in response to said audio and/or video signals;

storing, in memory, the metadata generated by said generating; and

outputting a portion of the metadata stored in the memory,

wherein the metadata includes location data representative of a location of edit points of one or more parts of the audio/video material, the metadata includes spatial coordinates of a location where the audio/video material was generated, the metadata includes a unique identification code for each of the parts of the audio and/or video material, the metadata includes one or more picture stamps providing a digital representation of an image generated from the video material, and the metadata includes at least one field for user generatable metadata, and

wherein said outputting outputs at least the portion of the metadata separately from output of said audio and/or video signals.

11. The method of generating audio and/or video material as claimed in claim 10, wherein the picture stamps are compression encoded in order to reduce an amount of data required to represent the image from the video signals.

12. The method of generating audio and/or video material as claimed in claim 10, further comprising:

generating the picture stamps at the edit points.

13. The method of generating audio and/or video material as claimed in claim 10, further comprising:

detecting relative activity within the video material;

generating an activity signal representative of the relative activity; and

in response to the activity signal generating picture stamps, so that more picture stamps are generated for greater activity within the images represented by the video signals.

14. The method of generating audio and/or video material as claimed in claim 10, further comprising:

detecting the relative activity by performing a process in which a histogram of the colour components of images represented by the video signal is compiled; and

generating the relative activity from a rate of change of the colour components in the colour histogram.

15. The method of generating audio and/or video material as claimed in claim 10, wherein the detecting relative activity within the video material comprises detecting the relative activity from motion vectors within the images.

16. The audio and/or video generation method as claimed in claim 10, further comprising:

outputting said audio and/or video signals,

wherein said outputting said audio and/or video signals is performed after said outputting separately at least the portion of the metadata.

17. The audio and/or video generation method as claimed in claim 10, further comprising:

receiving the user generatable metadata, which is a description of the audio/video material entered by a user.

18. A non-transitory computer readable medium encoded with a computer program having computer executable instructions, which when loaded on to a data processor causes the data processor to perform a method of generating audio and/or video material representative of an audio and/or visual source, said method comprising:

generating audio and/or video signals representative of an audio and/or visual source;

recording said audio and/or video signals on a recording medium;

generating metadata automatically in response to said audio and/or video signals;

storing, in memory, the metadata generated by said generating; and

outputting a portion of the metadata stored in the memory,

wherein the metadata includes location data representative of a location of edit points of one or more parts of the audio/video material, the metadata includes spatial coordinates of a location where the audio/video material was generated, the metadata includes one or more picture stamps providing a digital representation of an image generated from the video material, and the metadata includes at least one field for user generatable metadata, and

wherein said outputting outputs at least the portion of the metadata without said audio and/or video signals.

19. The non-transitory computer readable medium as claimed in claim 18, further comprising:

outputting said audio and/or video signals,

wherein said outputting said audio and/or video signals is performed after said outputting at least the portion of the metadata without said audio and/or video signals.

20. The non-transitory computer readable medium as claimed in claim 18, further comprising:

receiving the user generatable metadata, which is a description of the audio/video material entered by a user.