IMAGE REPRODUCTION APPARATUS AND IMAGE REPRODUCTION METHOD

• US 20090284606A1
• Filed: 07/31/2009
• Published: 11/19/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 05/10/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Tetsuhiro Takanezawa
• Original Assignee: Tetsuhiro Takanezawa
• Inventors: Takanezawa, Tetsuhiro
• Granted Patent: US 8,106,964 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 348/207.100
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 13/19639 Details of the system layout
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 13/19673 Addition of time stamp, i.e. time metadata, to video stream
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/76 Television signal recording
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/181 for receiving images from a plurality of remote sources

Abstract

An object of this invention is to simplify an operation of reproducing, on a single window, pieces of image information of different image capturing apparatuses or pieces of image information captured at different times. A display apparatus manages a camera apparatus (1) serving as the image capturing source of image information to be reproduced in each image region in association with a plurality of image regions on a single window. The display apparatus manages whether the image information to be reproduced in each image region is recorded image information or image information which is currently being captured. On the basis of the pieces of management information, the display apparatus acquires image information from a desired one of camera apparatuses and recording apparatuses and reproduces the pieces of acquired image information on the plurality of image regions.

Claims

1. An image reproduction controlling apparatus for controlling a reproduction of an image, comprising:

a reading unit configured to read out, from a layout information storage device, layout information that associates position information of a region in a screen, identification information of an image capturing apparatus which captures an image to be reproduced on the region, and image capturing time information of the image to be reproduced;

an acquiring unit configured to acquire a first image which had been captured at a first time and is to be reproduced on a first region in the screen from an image recording apparatus to record the image to be reproduced on the first region, a second image which had been captured at a second time and is to be reproduced on a second region in the screen from the image recording apparatus to record the image to be reproduced on the second region, and a third image to be reproduced on a third region in the screen from the image capturing apparatus capturing the image to be reproduced on the third region, in a case where the layout information read out by the reading unit indicates that a first capturing time of the first image to be reproduced on the first region is the first time, a second capturing time of the second image to be reproduced on the second region is the second time and a third capturing time of the third image to be reproduced on the third region is the current time; and

a control unit configured to control the reproduction of the image based on the layout information read out by the reading unit such that the first image captured at the first time and acquired from the image recording apparatus is reproduced on the first region, the second image captured at the second time and acquired from the image recording apparatus is reproduced on the second region, and the third image captured by the image capturing apparatus is reproduced on the third region,

wherein the control unit controls the reproduction such that the image of the first, second, and third region are reproduced concurrently.

2. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

the acquiring unit acquires the latest image in a plurality of images captured at a past time corresponding to the image capturing time information in a case where the image capturing time information of the layout information includes time information and does not include date information and the plurality of images are recorded by the image recording apparatus.

3. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the acquiring unit acquires the latest image in a plurality of images captured at a past time corresponding to time information and day information included in the image capturing time information in a case where the image capturing time information of the layout information includes the time information and the day information and does not include date information.

4. The apparatus according to claim, 1 wherein the acquiring unit acquires the image captured at past time based on difference time information and the current time in a case where the image capturing time information of the layout information includes the difference time information representing difference from the current time.

5. The apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

a detecting unit configured to detect the change in a state around the image capturing apparatus; and

a creating unit configured to create, in a case where the change in the state around the first image capturing apparatus is detected by said detecting unit, the layout information to reproduce the image captured by the first image capturing unit, one of a detection time and a predetermined time ago from the detection time.

6. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the control unit controls a display of a menu window to select a desired one of a plurality of pieces of layout information stored in the layout information storage device.

7. An image reproduction controlling method of an image reproduction controlling apparatus for controlling a reproduction of an image, comprising steps of:

reading, from a layout information storage device, layout information that associates position information of a region in a screen, identification information of an image capturing apparatus which captures an image to be reproduced on the region, and image capturing time information of the image to be reproduced;

acquiring a first image which had been captured at a first time and is to be reproduced on a first region in the screen from an image recording apparatus to record the image to be reproduced on the first region, a second image which had been captured at a second time and is to be reproduced on a second region in the screen from the image recording apparatus to record the image to be reproduced on the second region, and a third image to be reproduced on a third region in the screen from the image capturing apparatus capturing the image to be reproduced on the third region, in a case where the layout information read out by the reading step indicates that a first capturing time of the first image to be reproduced on the first region is the first time, a second capturing time of the second image to be reproduced on the second region is the second time, and a third capturing time of the third image to be reproduced on the third region is the current time; and

controlling the reproduction of the image based on the layout information read out in the reading step such that the first image captured at the first time and acquired from the image recording apparatus is reproduced on the first region, the second image captured at the second time and acquired from the image recording apparatus is reproduced on the second region, and the third image captured by the image capturing apparatus is reproduced on the third region

wherein the controlling step controls the reproduction such that the image of the first, second, and third region are reproduced concurrently.

8. The method according to claim 7, wherein

the acquiring step acquires the latest image in a plurality of images captured at past time corresponding to the image capturing time information in a case where the image capturing time information of the layout information includes time information and does not include date information and the plurality of images are recorded by the image recording apparatus.

9. The method according to claim 7, wherein

the acquiring step acquires the latest image in a plurality of images captured at a past time corresponding to time information and day information included in the image capturing time information in a case where the image capturing time information of the layout information includes the time information and the day information and does not include date information.

10. The method according to claim 7, wherein

the acquiring step acquires the image captured at past time based on difference time information and the current time in a case where the image capturing time information of the layout information includes the difference time information representing difference from the current time.

11. The method according to claim 7, wherein the control step controls a display of a menu window to select a desired one of a plurality of pieces of layout information stored in the layout information storage device.

12. A computer-readable medium storing a program which causes a computer to execute an image reproduction controlling method of an image reproduction controlling apparatus for controlling a reproduction of an image, said image reproduction controlling method comprising steps of:

reading, from a layout information storage device, layout information that associates position information of a region in a screen, identification information of an image capturing apparatus which captures an image to be reproduced on the region, and image capturing time information of the image to be reproduced;

acquiring a first image which had been captured at a first time and is to be reproduced on a first region in the screen from an image recording apparatus to record the image to be reproduced on the first region, a second image which had been captured at a second time and is to be reproduced on a second region in the screen from the image recording apparatus to record the image to be reproduced on the second region, and a third image to be reproduced on a third region in the screen from the image capturing apparatus capturing the image to be reproduced on the third region, in a case where the layout information read out by the reading step indicates that a first capturing time of the first image to be reproduced on the first region is the first time, a second capturing time of the second image to be reproduced on the second region is the second time, and a third capturing time of the third image to be reproduced on the third region is the current time; and

controlling the reproduction of the image based on the layout information read out in the reading step such that the first image captured at the first time and acquired from the image recording apparatus is reproduced on the first region, the second image captured at the second time and acquired from the image recording apparatus is reproduced on the second region, and the third image captured by the image capturing apparatus is reproduced on the third region,

wherein the controlling step controls the reproduction such that the image of the first, second, and third region are reproduced concurrently.

13. An image reproduction controlling apparatus for controlling a reproduction of an image, comprising:

a reading unit configured to read out, from a layout information storage device, layout information that associates position information of a region in a screen, identification information of an image capturing apparatus which captures an image to be reproduced on the region, and image capturing time information of the image to be reproduced;

an acquiring unit configured to acquire the latest image, as a first image to be reproduced on a first region in the screen from an image recording apparatus to record the image to be reproduced on the first region, in a plurality of images captured at past time corresponding to first image capturing time information, and to acquire a second image to be reproduced on a second region in the screen from the image capturing apparatus which is capturing the image to be reproduced on the second region, in a case where the first image capturing time information of the first image includes time information and does not include date information, and second image capturing time information of the second image indicates the current time; and

a control unit configured to control the reproduction of the image based on the layout information read out by the reading unit such that the first image captured at the past time and acquired from the image recording apparatus is reproduced on the first region and the second image captured by the image capturing apparatus is reproduced on the second region,

wherein the control unit controls the reproduction such that the image of the first and second region are reproduced concurrently.