Patent ID: 7366401
Filing Date: 2008-04-29
Classification: G11B,H04N

Abstract:
1. An apparatus for playing a video summary, comprising: a signal receiving unit configured to receive video data and meta data, the video data including each frame in time series, the meta data including a time and an event name, the time corresponding to one frame of the video data, the event name representing contents of the one frame of the video data; a video data memory configured to sequentially store the video data; a meta data memory configured to sequentially store the meta data; a timing decision unit configured to decide whether the event name of the meta data coincides with one of a plurality of event names previously stored in a decision table, and, if the event name of the meta data coincides with one of the plurality of event names in the decision table, to generate a video summary generation request; a summary method indication unit configured to indicate a generation method of the video summary; a video summary generation unit configured to generate the video summary from the video data by using the generation method in response to the video summary generation request; and a video summary play unit configured to play the video summary; wherein said video summary generation unit selects a next event for a play position of frames of which the video summary was generated, from said meta data memory, determines a level of the next event by referring to an event level definition table previously storing a level of each event, and compares the level of the next event with a threshold level of an important event, if the level of the next event is above or equal to the threshold level, said video summary generation unit extracts a time corresponding to the next event from said meta data memory, and generates period data of a video summary in which the time is a center timing, if the level of the next event is below the threshold level or after the period data of the video summary is generated, said video summary generation unit selects the next event from said meta data memory, and repeatedly executes generation processing of the video summary until the selected event coincides with a recording position of the latest frame in said video data memory.