Patent ID: 7472136
Filing Date: 2008-12-30
Classification: H04N,Y10S

Abstract:
1. A reproduction method of metadata which is relevant to a moving image and is temporarily stored in a buffer until the metadata is reproduced, wherein the metadata has a stream data structure including one or plural access units each access unit being a data unit which can be independently processed, wherein said each access unit of the access units comprises: first data to specify an effective period defined with respect to a time axis of the moving image; object area data describing a spatio-temporal region in the moving image; second data including one of or both of data to specify a display method relevant to the spatio-temporal region and data to specify a processing to be performed when the spatio-temporal region is specified; and third data including information to specify an amount of metadata to be previously stored in the buffer before a reproduction start time of the metadata in order to prevent underflow and overflow from the buffer, wherein the metadata is inputted to the buffer at a constant rate; and the third data is a dynamic range in a case where the metadata is outputted from the buffer in units of the access unit at a start time of the effective period of the access unit, and wherein the reproduction method comprises: storing the metadata amount in the buffer on a basis of the third data in a case where a reproduction instruction of the metadata is issued; and reproducing the metadata after storage of the metadata amount.