Patent Document ID: 9674582
Application ID: 14227379

Base Claim:
1. A comment-provided video generating apparatus comprising: a processor; and a non-transitory memory having stored thereon executable instructions, which when executed, cause the processor to perform: obtaining a video from a video server, and obtaining, from a comment information storage server, comment information including (i) comments regarding the video, and (ii) display time and display positions of comment regions including the comments in the video; receiving, as a user input, user information including a specified time and a specified position in the video; calculating a display priority for each of the comment regions and subject regions to which the comments are provided, based on the user information and association information indicating associations between the comments and the subject regions, so that the display priority calculated for (i) a first comment region and a first subject region which correspond to the specified time and the specified position in the video included in the user information received in the receiving and (ii) either (a) a second subject region which is provided with a comment included in the first comment region which corresponds to the specified time and the specified position in the video and included in the user information received in the receiving or (b) a second comment region which includes a comment provided to the first subject region which corresponds to the specified time and the specified position in the video and included in the user information received in the receiving is higher than the display priority calculated for each of other comment regions and other subject regions; determining a superimposing method for superimposing the comment regions and the subject regions according to the display priority calculated for each of the comment regions and the subject regions in the calculating such that a comment region or a subject region which has a higher display priority is positioned more frontward than a position of a comment region or a subject region which has a lower display priority; generating a comment-provided video by composing the comment regions in the video, according to the superimposing method determined in the determining; and outputting the comment-provided video generated in the generating, wherein the outputting includes outputting, onto an image display, the comment-provided video in which either (i) a first pair of the first subject region and the second comment region which includes the comment provided to the first subject region or (ii) a second pair of the first comment region and the second subject region which is provided with the comment included in the first comment region is superimposed and displayed on the other comment regions and the other subject regions, the first subject region and the first comment region corresponding to a user-selected region located at the specified position indicated by the user information, and wherein the determining determines the superimposing method such that only a comment region which is displayed at a foremost position in each of frames of the video in a case of normal reproduction among the comment regions in the frame is displayed during a period in which a viewing method which is other than the normal reproduction and includes fast forward, preview, rewind, and skip is performed on the comment-provided video.

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Claim 8:
8. The comment-provided video generating apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the determining determines, based on information describing an occlusion relationship between subject regions, the superimposing method such that comment regions including comments provided to the subject regions in the occlusion relationship are displayed by integrating the comment regions at positions before a start of an occlusion period in which the subject regions are in the occlusion relationship into a balloon comment region.