JP4299843B2 - Video summarization device, terminal device, video summarization system, and video summarization method - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a technique for creating a shorter summary video from video such as a television broadcast, a video package, and streaming.

  In recent years, the number of TV broadcasts has been increased, video packages have been sold or rented in large quantities, and streaming broadcasts via networks have been started. It is coming. In addition to watching TV with a television receiver, video recorders such as hard disk recorders are widely used, and recorded video can be viewed on mobile terminals such as mobile phones by using semiconductor memory. As a result, the time constraints for the user to view the video are becoming weaker.

On the other hand, the time that the user can spend to view the video is limited. In particular, a mobile terminal such as a mobile phone has a small screen, and viewing a video for a long time places a heavy burden on the user. Therefore, there is an increasing demand for users who want to summarize and view long-time videos. Therefore, for example, Patent Document 1 discloses a method for creating a summary video by automatically detecting a change in video cut point and volume. Further, for example, Patent Document 2 discloses a method for calculating the importance of a video classification from metadata attached to a video and creating a summary video based on the importance.
JP 2004-80622 A JP 2002-259720 A

  By the way, since a user's preference with respect to an image | video is various, the partial image to summarize from the whole image | video also changes with users. In sports such as baseball, the summary video that the user wants to see naturally differs depending on which team the fan wants to see, such as focusing on the video of his favorite team. In addition, for example, even if it is a music video, the request for the summary video varies depending on who is a fan. Moreover, in lesson videos such as golf, the request for the summary video varies depending on the person depending on the play portion which is not good. Even in the case of a video such as a movie, the point of interest differs between ordinary people and movie enthusiasts, so the requirements for summary video differ from person to person.

  However, with the conventional technology that creates summary video based on the feature amount of the video itself, such as automatically extracting cut points from the video, it is not possible to start from the same video to everyone regardless of the video story. Since only the same summary video can be created, there is a problem that it does not fit the user's sense. For example, in the case of a video of a soccer game, a goal scene or the like is obtained as a summary video, but the summary video obtained regardless of whether the user is a fan of either team is the same.

  On the other hand, in the conventional technique for creating a summary video based on the metadata attached to the video, the video provider has to add metadata for each video category in advance, which is very expensive. There is. In addition, if the part that the metadata grantor thinks important is different from the part that the user thinks important, the summary video still does not match the user's feeling.

  Therefore, the present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and it is not necessary to add metadata to a video, and a video summary that can create a summary video that suits individual user preferences. An object is to provide an apparatus.

  To achieve the above object, a video summarization apparatus according to the present invention is a video summarization apparatus for creating a summary video from a target video, and acquires a viewing history of a user who has viewed at least a part of the target video. User relevance indicating the degree of relevance between the viewing history acquisition means, the request accepting means for accepting the summary video creation request for the target video from the user, and the user who has made the summary video creation request and other users And an importance level for calculating the importance level for each time in the target video, which indicates the height of the overlapping degree of the viewing time zones in the viewing history of other users who are highly related to the user based on the viewing history Summary information creating means for creating summary information that is auxiliary information for generating a calculated video portion having high importance as a summary video and does not include video Characterized in that it comprises and.

  As is apparent from the above description, according to the video summarization apparatus and the video summarization method according to the present invention, it is not necessary to add metadata to the video, and a summary video that suits each user's preference is created. Is possible. In addition, the user can arbitrarily set the length of the summary video. In addition, the length of the summary video can be adjusted according to the degree of match of the video with the user's preference.

  A video summarization apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention is a video summarization apparatus for creating a summary video from a target video, and obtains a viewing history of a user who viewed at least a part of the target video Means for accepting a creation request for the summary video of the target video from a user, a user relevance level indicating a degree of association between the user who has made the summary video creation request and another user, and the viewing Importance calculating means for calculating the importance for each time in the target video, indicating the height of the overlapping degree of the viewing time zones in the viewing history of other users having a high degree of user relevance with the user, based on the history; And summary information creating means for creating summary information which is auxiliary information for generating a calculated video portion having high importance as a summary video and does not include the video. And wherein the door.

  Thus, it is not necessary to add metadata to the video, and it is possible to create a summary video that suits individual user preferences. In general, people with similar tastes are considered to be close to watching programs. For example, in a baseball program, the fan of one team changes the channel while the other team is attacking, fast forwards in the case of a recorded video, or if it is determined that it will be a losing battle, Stop watching. Fans of the same team tend to have similar viewing behavior as described above.

  The present invention pays attention to the fact that the similarity of preference has a correlation with the similarity of viewing behavior, and summarizes the video based on the viewing history of others regarding the video to be summarized. It is possible to guess which video part is important for the user by selecting another person who has a preference similar to the user and referring to the viewing history. By using this principle, it is not necessary to add metadata to the video, and it is possible to obtain a summary video that matches the user's preference.

  The summary information creating means may create information indicating a portion used for the summary video in the target video as the summary information.

  In addition, the summary information creation means selects a portion of the target video that has the importance level equal to or higher than a predetermined threshold as a portion used for the summary video, and creates information indicating the selected portion as the summary information. May be. As a result, by adjusting the predetermined threshold, it is possible to create the summary information in the length of the summary video requested by the user.

  The summary information creating means may create information indicating that the playback speed of the target video is changed according to time as the summary information. As a result, it is possible to create summary information that allows the user to understand some unimportant parts to some extent and makes it easy to grasp the entire video.

  The video summarization apparatus further includes target video storage means for storing the target video, and summary video creation means for creating the summary video from the target video stored in the target video storage means based on the summary information. May be provided.

  The video summarizing apparatus may further include summary information transmitting means for transmitting the summary information to another apparatus.

  Further, the viewing history is presence / absence of viewing according to the time in the target video, and the importance calculation means determines the time zone viewed by the other user in the viewing history as the other user. You may calculate the importance for every time in the said object image | video by weighting by the said user relevance degree for every.

  In addition, the viewing history further includes a viewing level indicating a degree of attention of viewing according to time in the target video, and the importance level calculation unit is viewed by the other user in the viewing history. You may calculate the importance for every time in the said object image | video by weighting the time slot | zone with the said viewing degree and the said user relevance degree for every other user.

  The target video may be a broadcast video, and the degree of viewing may be determined depending on whether the target video being broadcast is viewed or whether the recorded target video is viewed.

  In addition, the target video is a broadcast video, and when the target video being broadcast is viewed, the target video is viewed in other broadcast viewing statuses before and after the entire or a part of the target video is viewed. It may be determined depending on.

  In addition, the target video is a broadcast video, and the viewing degree may be determined depending on an elapsed time from broadcasting to viewing when the recorded target video is viewed.

  In addition, the viewing degree may be determined depending on the number of times the target video is viewed.

  The viewing degree may be determined depending on a playback speed at which the target video is viewed.

  The degree of viewing may be determined depending on the type of terminal on which the target video is viewed.

  The request accepting unit may receive the summary time of the summary video together with the creation request, and the summary information creating unit may create the summary information so that the summary video becomes the summary time.

  The importance calculating means selects the other user whose viewing time of the target video of the other user is similar to the summary time requested by the user, and the target video of the selected other user The importance may be calculated based on the viewing history and the user relevance. As a result, in general, it is considered that other users who watched at the viewing time similar to the summary time requested by the user have similar preferences to the user. Can be obtained. Also, the calculation cost is reduced.

  In addition, tag information including a weight according to time in the target video is given to the target video, and the importance level calculation unit is based on the tag information, the viewing history, and the user relevance level. The importance may be calculated.

  Further, the summary information creation means determines a summary time according to a type of terminal of a user who has requested the creation of the summary video, and creates the summary information so that the summary video becomes the determined summary time. May be.

  The video summarizing apparatus may further include a user relevance storage unit that stores in advance user relevance levels among the plurality of users.

  Further, the viewing history acquisition means further acquires viewing history of videos other than the target video of the user who has made the summary video creation request and the other users, and the video summarization apparatus further includes: You may provide the relevance degree calculation means which calculates the similarity degree of viewing in the viewing history of the other video of the user and the other user as the user relevance degree.

  Further, the viewing history of the other video includes a viewing degree indicating a degree of attention of viewing according to a time in the other video, and the relevance calculation means further includes the user and the other user. The user relevance level may be calculated based on the degree of similarity of the viewing degree of the other video.

  The viewing history of the other video includes a viewing date and time, and the relevance calculation means further includes the viewing date and time in addition to the degree of similarity of the viewing degree of the other video of the user and the other user. The user relevance degree may be calculated based on the similarity degree.

  In addition, the viewing history of the target video and the other video includes genre information of the other video, and the relevance calculation unit has the same genre information as the genre information of the target video. The user relevance may be calculated based on the viewing history of the user and the other user.

  The target video may be a video recorded on a package medium, and the viewing history acquisition unit may acquire the viewing history from the package medium itself or another medium attached to the package medium.

  The summary video device further collates the viewing terminal information receiving means for acquiring the function related to the playback operation of the user's viewing terminal, the acquired function, and the score associated with the function related to the playback operation. And a summary application degree calculating unit that calculates a summary application degree indicating a degree suitable for summarization of the viewing terminal, wherein the importance degree calculating unit is a period of time viewed by the other user in the viewing history. The importance level for each time in the target video may be calculated by weighting the band by the user relevance level for each of the other users and the summary application level of the viewing terminal. As a result, the video summary information is created in consideration of the playback function of the viewing terminal of the other person. For example, when creating a summary video, it is easier to summarize than the viewing history on a terminal that is difficult to summarize. The viewing history on the terminal can be preferentially adopted, and a more accurate summary video is created.

  In addition, the summary video device further associates viewing terminal usage receiving means for acquiring presence / absence of use of a function related to the playback operation of the viewing terminal of the user, association of the acquired use / absence, and a function related to the playback operation. A summary usage level calculating unit that calculates a summary application level that indicates a degree to which the user summarizes and reproduces the video, and the importance level calculation unit includes: Weighting the time zone watched by the other users in the user by the user relevance level for each of the other users and the summary usage level of the viewing terminal. It may be calculated. As a result, video summary information is created in consideration of the usage of the playback function of the viewing terminal of the other person, so that a more accurate summary video that is more realistic is created.

  In addition, the summary video device further includes, based on the viewing history, a summary skill level representing a skill level that the user summarizes and views videos in the same series as the target video, a time when the user viewed and a program Summary proficiency level calculating means for calculating the ratio as a percentage of the user's time, wherein the importance level calculating means calculates the time period viewed by the other user in the viewing history as the user relevance level for each other user. And the importance level for each time in the target video may be calculated by weighting the summarization skill level for each of the other users. At this time, based on the viewing history, the summarization skill level indicating the skill level that the user summarizes and views the video is higher as the elapsed time from the previous viewing is shorter when the video is viewed for the second time or later. It is preferable to calculate as follows. As a result, video summary information is created in consideration of not only the presence / absence of viewing but also the degree of summary skill of others, so that a useful summary video that more closely matches the characteristics of the user is created.

  The summary information creating means creates the summary information so that the summary video is at the summary time, and the summary video device is further configured so that the summary video is at a time different from the summary time. Summary information interpolation means for creating summary information, and when the summary time is changed during reproduction of the summary video, linearly interpolates the two summary information to create summary information of the summary time after the change. And may be provided. This creates video summary information of multiple lengths at the video summary center and interpolates it at the user's terminal, so that a summary video of the desired time length is created, reducing the burden on the user terminal, The summary time can be changed.

The present invention is a terminal device that is connected to the video summarization apparatus and creates a summary video from the target video, and includes target video storage means for storing the target video, and a summary video of the target video. Request means for requesting the video summarization apparatus to request, summary information receiving means for receiving summary information from the video summarization apparatus, which is information indicating a portion used for the summary video in the target video, and the target video recording A summary video creating means for creating a summary video by extracting a part indicated by the summary information received by the summary information receiving means from the target video stored in the means, and realizing as a terminal device You can also As a result, the terminal device does not receive the summary video itself from the server device, but instead of the summary information that is auxiliary information for generating a video portion having a high importance level as a summary video and does not include the video. By simply receiving it, a summary video can be created, and the communication load with the server device is reduced.

  The video summarization system according to the embodiment of the present invention is a video summarization system for creating a summary video from a target video, comprising a terminal and a server, wherein the terminal stores target video storage means for storing the target video Requesting means for requesting the server to create the summary video of the target video, summary information receiving means for receiving summary information for creating the summary video from the server, and based on the summary information Summary video creating means for creating the summary video from the target video, wherein the server obtains a viewing history of a user who viewed at least a part of the target video, and the summary video from the terminal. A user relation indicating a degree of association between the request accepting means for accepting the creation request and the user of the terminal that has made the summary video creation request and another user. Importance calculation means for calculating the importance for each time in the target video based on the degree and the viewing history, and summary information creation for generating summary information for creating the summary video based on the importance And summary information transmission means for transmitting the summary information to the terminal.

  Note that the present invention can be realized not only as such a video summarization apparatus, but also as a video summarization method using steps characteristic of the video summarization apparatus as a step. It can also be realized as a program to be executed. Needless to say, such a program can be distributed via a recording medium such as a CD-ROM or a transmission medium such as the Internet.

  Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

(Embodiment 1)
In this embodiment, a video summarization system will be described in which video summarization is performed intensively at the video summarization center and video playback is performed at the user's television receiver.

  FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram showing the configuration of a system in which the video summarizing apparatus according to Embodiment 1 of the present invention is used.

  As shown in FIG. 1, the video summarization system includes a television receiver 11 of another person and a television receiver 13 of a user who receive a program video broadcast from a television broadcast station 14 and a television via a network such as the Internet 15. A video summarization center 12 connected to the receiver 11 and the television receiver 13 of the user is provided.

  2 is a functional block diagram showing the configuration of the television receiver 11 of the other person, FIG. 3 is a functional block diagram showing the configuration of the video summary center 12, and FIG. 4 shows the configuration of the user's television receiver 13. It is a functional block diagram.

  As shown in FIG. 2, a television receiver 11 of another person receives a program video broadcast from the TV broadcasting station 14 and a recording unit 1102 that records the program video received by the broadcast receiving unit 1101. The program video received by the broadcast receiving unit 1101 or the program video recorded by the recording unit 1102 is displayed on the display unit 1103 and the viewing history of the program video displayed by the display unit 1103 is temporarily stored. A viewing history holding unit 1104 and a viewing history transmission unit 1105 that transmits the viewing history held by the viewing history holding unit 1104 to the video summary center 12 via the Internet 15 are provided.

  As shown in FIG. 3, the video summary center 12 stores the viewing history received by the viewing history receiving unit 1201 and the viewing history receiving unit 1201 that receive the viewing history from the television receiver 11 of the other person via the Internet 15. A viewing history holding unit 1202 for holding, a user relevance holding unit 1203 for holding a user relevance level indicating a degree of relevance between users, and a request reception for receiving a program video summary request from the user's television receiver 13 via the Internet 15. When the program video has received a summary request by the request accepting unit 1208 based on the viewing history held by the unit 1208 and the viewing history holding unit 1202 and the user association degree held by the user association degree holding unit 1203 The importance calculation unit 1204 and the importance calculation unit 1204 for calculating a series of importance levels are used. A summary information creating unit 1205 that creates summary information of the program video based on the calculated time-series importance, a summary information holding unit 1206 that temporarily holds the summary information created by the summary information creating unit 1205, and A summary information transmission unit 1207 is provided for transmitting the summary information held by the summary information holding unit 1206 to the user's television receiver 13 via the Internet 15.

  Here, the importance calculated by the importance calculation unit 1204 is the importance as the summary video. In this embodiment, the viewing time zone overlaps in the viewing history of the user and other users who have a high degree of user relevance. It corresponds to a height of about. The summary information created by the summary information creation unit 1205 is control information used to create a summary video. In the present embodiment, the video part having a high importance calculated by the importance calculation unit 1204 is used. Is auxiliary information for generating a summary video and does not include video.

  As shown in FIG. 4, the user's television receiver 13 holds summary information received by the summary information receiving unit 1301 and summary information receiving unit 1301 that receive summary information from the video summary center 12 via the Internet 15. The summary information holding unit 1302, the broadcast receiving unit 1303 that receives the program video broadcast from the television broadcasting station 14, the recording unit 1304 that records the program video received by the broadcast receiving unit 1303, and the summary information holding unit 1302. A video summary unit 1305 that creates a summary video from a program video recorded by the recording unit 1304 based on the summary information, a program video received by the broadcast receiving unit 1303, a program video recorded by the recording unit 1304, or a video A display unit that displays a summary video created by the summary unit 1305 to the user It is equipped with a 306.

  The operation of the video summarization system according to the present embodiment configured as described above is based on the “viewing history transmission step” in which the other party's television receiver 11 collects the viewing history and transmits it to the video summarization center 12. Consists of a “summary information creation step” for creating video summary information based on the viewing history of others, and a “summary video creation step” for the user's television receiver 13 to create a summary video based on the summary information. Each operation will be described below using a flowchart and the like.

"Viewing history transmission step"
The other person's television receiver 11 collects the other person's viewing history and transmits it to the video summarization center 12. There are two types of operation: when the other person views the television broadcast at the time of broadcasting and when the other person views the television broadcast after recording it, and operates as needed according to the other person's television viewing operation.

  First, the operation when another person views a television broadcast at the time of broadcasting will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

  The broadcast receiving unit 1101 starts to receive a program video broadcast from the television broadcast station 14 in accordance with a reception start requesting operation for the other party's television receiver 11 (S1101). The display unit 1103 starts displaying the program video received by the broadcast receiving unit 1101 (S1102). The viewing history holding unit 1104 stores the program ID for identifying the program and the relative time from the start of the program to the start of viewing, assuming that the display of the program video on the display unit 1103 is the start of viewing (S1103). Here, the program ID is transmitted with a broadcast wave accompanying the program, or is acquired from an EPG (electronic program guide) via a network. Also, the relative time is obtained by being embedded in the video signal or counting time by a timer (not shown).

  Next, the display unit 1103 ends the display of the program video received by the broadcast receiving unit 1101 in accordance with the reception end request operation for the other party's television receiver 11 (S1104). The broadcast receiving unit 1101 ends the reception of the program video broadcast from the television broadcast station 14 (S1105). The viewing history holding unit 1104 stores the relative time from the start of the program to the end of viewing in association with the storage at the start of viewing in (S1103), assuming that the end of display of the program video on the display unit 1103 is end of viewing. S1106).

  Next, the viewing history transmission unit 1105 summarizes the viewing history held by the viewing history holding unit 1104 via the Internet 15 together with a user ID for identifying a user who uses the other person's television receiver 11. The data is transmitted to the center 12 (S1107). Here, the user ID is identified using an ID card or the like by user identification means (not shown).

  Next, the viewing history holding unit 1104 deletes the viewing history held after the viewing history transmission unit 1105 transmits the viewing history (S1108).

  In this embodiment, the viewing history is transmitted after the end of viewing of the program. However, even when viewing of one program is not performed, a timing when a certain amount of viewing history is accumulated, a periodic timing, etc. It may be performed at an arbitrary timing. Similarly, the viewing history may be deleted at an arbitrary timing.

  With the above operation, for example, a viewing history as shown in FIG. 6 is transmitted to the video summary center 12. In FIG. 6, the other person's viewing history is to watch the program with the program ID “1” having the program name “Hanshin-Ijinjin Battle” from the start of the program until 1 hour and 20 minutes after the start of the program. A program with the ID “2” named “Production Wonders” is viewed from 20 minutes after the start of the program until 60 minutes after the start of the program. This indicates that the program was viewed from 2 hours after the program started to 3 hours after the program started.

  Next, the operation in the case where the other person watches the television broadcast once instead of at the time of broadcasting will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

  The display unit 1103 starts reproduction of the program video recorded by the recording unit 1102 in accordance with the request operation for the television receiver 11 by another person (S1111). The viewing history holding unit 1104 stores the program ID for identifying the program and the relative time from the start of the program to the start of viewing, assuming that the start of playback of the program video by the display unit 1103 is viewing (S1112).

  Next, the display unit 1103 ends the reproduction of the program video recorded by the recording unit 1102 in accordance with a request operation for the other party's television receiver 11 (S1113). The viewing history holding unit 1104 stores the relative time from the start of the program to the end of viewing in association with the storage at the start of viewing in (S1116), assuming that the end of playback of the program video by the display unit 1103 is end of viewing. S1114).

  Next, the viewing history transmission unit 1105 transmits the viewing history held by the viewing history holding unit 1104 to the video summary center 12 via the Internet 15 (S1115). The viewing history holding unit 1104 deletes the held viewing history after the viewing history transmission unit 1105 transmits the viewing history (S1116).

  With the above operation, the viewing history similar to that in FIG. 6 is transmitted to the video summary center 12. That is, whether the television broadcast is viewed during broadcasting or when the television broadcast is once recorded and viewed, the viewing history is similarly transmitted to the video summary center 12.

"Summary information creation step"
The video summarization center 12 creates video summary information based on the other person's viewing history received from the other person's television receiver 11. The operation further includes a “viewing history accumulation substep” and a “summary information creation substep”. Each operation will be described below using a flowchart and the like.

"Viewing History Accumulation Substep"
The video summarization center 12 accumulates the viewing history received from the television receiver 11 of another person. The operation will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

  The viewing history receiving unit 1201 waits for a viewing history transmission request from another person's television receiver 11 via the Internet 15 and receives a transmission request from the other person's television receiver 11 to receive a user ID. The viewing history is received (S1201). Then, the viewing history receiving unit 1201 associates the received viewing history with the user ID and adds it to the viewing history already held by the viewing history holding unit 1202 (S1202).

  This operation is always performed when the video summary center 12 is in operation. Through the above operation, for example, as shown in FIG. 9, viewing histories of a plurality of programs of a plurality of others are accumulated. The viewing history of FIG. 9 is schematically shown in FIG.

"Summary Information Creation Substep"
The video summary center 12 creates program video summary information from the stored viewing history when a user requests creation of program video summary information. The operation will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

  The request reception unit 1208 receives a request for creating summary information of a program video from the user's television receiver 13 via the Internet 15 (S1210). Here, the creation request includes a user ID, a program ID indicating a program for which summary information is to be created, and the length (summary time) of the summary video.

  Based on the viewing history held by the viewing history holding unit 1202 and the user relevance level held by the user relevance level holding unit 1203, the importance level calculation unit 1204 The time series importance of the program video showing the height of the overlapping of the viewing time zones in the viewing history is calculated (S1211). An example of the user relevance level held by the user relevance level holding unit 1203 is shown in FIG. In FIG. 12, the degree of user relevance between a user and another person is a degree of consideration for each other person's viewing history that is referred to when summarizing the program video. As the user relevance level, the user himself / herself directly designates others who think that his / her preference is close to him / her, such as his / her peers and members of the same circle or fan club, and sets the degree of preference relevance in advance. deep. The importance level calculation unit 1204 first extracts the viewing history of the program specified by the program ID requested by the user from the viewing history held by the viewing history holding unit 1202. Then, the importance level calculation unit 1204 uses, as a function of the relative time from the start of the program, the interval between the relative start time and the relative end time of the program for the other person who has viewed the program. The user relevance level of the other person is totaled, and this is used as the time series importance of the program video. For example, FIG. 13 shows a schematic diagram in the case of calculating the importance of the program name “Shinshin-virtual match” using the viewing histories of the three others B, C, and D shown in FIG. The user relevance levels of the other persons B, C, and D are “0.6”, “0.2”, and “0.5”, respectively, as shown in FIG. 13 (a), (b), and (c) with respect to the viewing time zone, the importance of this program is viewed by others B, C, and D as shown in FIG. 13 (d). The time zone being viewed is “1.3”, the time zone being viewed by others B and C is “0.8”, and the time zone being viewed by others B and D is “1.1”. ", The time zone in which the other people C and D are viewing is" 0.7 ", and the time zone in which only the other person C is viewing is" 0.2 ". In FIG. 13, the importance is calculated from the viewing history of only three people for the sake of explanation, so the importance is a rattling graph, but the user relevance is actually totaled based on the viewing history of many others. Therefore, the importance is a graph that does not stand out. In the following description, the calculated importance is approximated by a broken line, and an example is shown in FIG. The importance value shown in FIG. 14 is an example different from the importance value shown in FIG.

  Next, the summary information creation unit 1205 adjusts the threshold so that the total time of the portions where the importance calculated by the importance calculation unit 1204 is equal to or greater than the threshold becomes the length of the summary video requested by the user. When the threshold value is raised, the total time of the portion where the importance level is equal to or higher than the threshold value monotonously decreases. Therefore, the threshold value is adjusted by gradually increasing the threshold value from 0, so that the total level of the importance level portion is equal to or higher than the threshold value. It is possible to obtain a threshold value at which time becomes the length of the summary video requested by the user. And the section information of the part which becomes more than a threshold value is calculated | required as summary information for users (S1212).

  FIG. 15 is a diagram showing an example of creating summary information of user “A” when a 180-minute program is summarized into half of 90 minutes using the importance example shown in FIG. 14. FIG. 16 is a diagram illustrating an example of creating summary information when the same program is summarized into half of 90 minutes for another user “Y”. FIG. 17 is a diagram in which FIG. 15 and FIG. FIG. The summary information creation unit 1205 creates summary information by adjusting the threshold so that the length of the summary video is 90 minutes, for example, as shown in FIG. On the other hand, considering another user “Y”, the degree of user relevance between the user “Y” and the other is different from that of the user “A”, and therefore the importance calculated based on the degree of user relevance is also different. It becomes. Therefore, for another user “Y”, for example, summary information for the user “Y” as shown in FIG. 16 is created. Therefore, even when the same program is summarized at the same time, the threshold value varies depending on the user as shown in FIG. 17, and different summary information is created.

  The summary information holding unit 1206 temporarily holds the summary information created by the summary information creation unit 1205 (S1213). FIG. 18 is a diagram showing an example of summary information. The summary information holding unit 1206 temporarily holds summary information including a program ID and section information as shown in FIG. 18, for example. Next, the summary information transmission unit 1207 transmits the summary information held by the summary information holding unit 1206 to the user's television receiver 13 via the Internet 15 (S1214). After the summary information is transmitted by the summary information transmission unit 1207, the summary information holding unit 1206 deletes the held summary information (S1215).

"Summary video creation step"
The user's television receiver 13 records a television broadcast program video, creates a summary video of the program video based on the summary information received from the video summary center 12, and reproduces it. The operation further includes a “program recording sub-step” and a “summary video reproduction sub-step”. Each operation will be described below using a flowchart and the like. Note that the user's television receiver 13 can watch a television broadcast at the time of broadcasting without recording it, and can reproduce the recorded program video without summarizing it.

"Program recording sub-step"
FIG. 19 is a flowchart showing an operation flow when a television broadcast program video is recorded by the user's television receiver 13.

  The broadcast receiving unit 1303 starts receiving a program video broadcast from the television broadcast station 14 in accordance with a request operation for the television receiver 13 by the user (S1301). Next, the recording unit 1304 starts recording the program video received by the broadcast receiving unit 1303 (S1302).

  The recording unit 1304 ends the recording of the program video received by the broadcast receiving unit 1303 in accordance with the user's request operation on the television receiver 13 (S1303). Next, the broadcast receiving unit 1303 ends the reception of the program video broadcast from the television broadcast station 14 (S1304).

"Summary Video Playback Substep"
FIG. 20 is a flowchart showing an operation flow when the user's television receiver 13 reproduces the summary video of the program video.

  The summary information receiving unit 1301 sends the summary information of the program video to the video summary center 12 in accordance with a summary information creation request operation for one of the recorded program videos to the user's television receiver 13. The request information is received from the video summary center 12 (S1311). Next, the summary information holding unit 1302 holds the summary information received by the summary information receiving unit 1301 (S1312).

  Next, based on the summary information held by the summary information holding unit 1302, the video summarizing unit 1305 extracts only the portion described in the summary information from the program video recorded by the recording unit 1304 as a summary video. Start (S1313). Extraction of the portion from the program video is performed at a higher speed than the reproduction thereof, so that the summary video to be reproduced is not interrupted.

  Next, the display unit 1306 starts reproduction of the summary video extracted by the video summary unit 1305 (S1314). A display example of the summary video on the user's television receiver 13 is shown in FIG. In FIG. 21, the scale of the entire program video is displayed at the bottom of the screen as a line segment, the portion of the summary video in it is displayed as a shaded rectangle, and the current playback position is displayed as a triangular mark M ing. Such a display allows the user to grasp in which range the entire program video is summarized and which part is reproduced.

  Next, the video summarizing unit 1305 ends the summary video extraction when the extraction of the summary video is completed or according to the user's request operation for the television receiver 13 (S1315). Next, the display unit 1306 ends the display of the summary video extracted by the video summary unit 1305 (S1316). Then, the summary information holding unit 1302 deletes the held summary information of this video (S1317).

  Through the above operations, the importance level according to the time of the video is calculated by referring to the viewing history of a preset user and other users with similar preferences, and a summary video is created based on the importance level according to the time. By doing so, it is possible to obtain a summary video that matches the preferences of individual users without adding metadata to the video. In addition, the user can arbitrarily set the length of the summary video.

  In the present embodiment, the example in which the program ID is used to identify the program in the viewing history has been described. However, another method that can identify the program video such as using the broadcast station ID and the broadcast date and time may be used. In that case, the program video can be specified without giving an ID to the program.

  Further, in this embodiment, the user relevance degree between the user and others is set in advance by the user himself, but on the service provider side, the age and sex of the user and others, occupation, preference genre, preference keyword, etc. The user attribute may be automatically set based on the similarity of user attributes. An example of user attributes is shown in FIG. The user attribute classification is a detailed classification of attributes in which a difference in viewing tendency appears statistically from the viewing tendency, for example, gender as shown in FIG. 22 (a), and age as shown in FIG. 22 (b). Layer, job category as shown in FIG. 22 (c), region (major category, minor category) as shown in FIG. 22 (d), preference genre (major category, middle category, small as shown in FIG. 22 (e)) Classification). The preference keyword indicates a free keyword such as a performer name or a program name, and a plurality of preference keywords can be set. User attributes and preference keywords are configured to be set by the user. An example of a table for calculating the user relevance based on the user attribute is shown in FIG. The user attributes of the user and others are compared, and based on the table of FIG. 23, if there is a matching attribute, a numerical value corresponding to the user relevance is added. For example, the user relevance in the case where two genders, age groups, regions (major classification), preference genres (major classification), preference genres (medium classification), and preference keywords match is 0.12 + 0.11 + 0.07 + 0. 0.08 + 0.07 + 0.04 * 2 = 0.53. The matching attribute and the user relevance to be added are statistically set in advance from the viewing tendency. Thus, when setting automatically on the service provider side, the burden that a user inputs the degree of user relevance with others is reduced.

(Embodiment 2)
In the first embodiment, the user relevance level is set by a user or a business operator, or based on the similarity of user attributes such as age, sex, occupation, etc. between the user and another person. In the present embodiment, a case where the user relevance level is calculated based on the viewing history will be described.

  FIG. 24 is a functional block diagram showing the configuration of the video summary center 12 according to the second embodiment of the present invention.

  In the present embodiment, the video summary center 12 of the first embodiment shown in FIG. 3 is replaced with the video summary center 22 shown in FIG. In FIG. 24, the same components as those in the first embodiment are denoted by the same reference numerals and description thereof is omitted.

  In addition to the configuration of the video summary center 12, the video summary center 22 includes a relevance calculation unit 2201 as shown in FIG. The relevance calculation unit 2201 calculates the user relevance between users based on the viewing history held by the viewing history holding unit 1202.

  The operation of the video summarization system of the present embodiment configured as described above is to calculate the user relevance level before the program video importance level calculation process (S1211) in the “summary information creation substep” of the first embodiment. A step is added. The operation will be described below with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

  The relevance calculation unit 2201 extracts all viewing histories of the user and others from the viewing history holding unit 1202 (S2201). Next, the relevance calculation unit 2201 calculates the user relevance with the user for each other based on the viewing history of the user and the other (S2202). That is, the user relevance s (i) is calculated from the entire program video viewed by the user u and another person t (i) using the similarity of Jaccard as shown in the following equation 1.

  s (i) = length of viewing video common to user u and other person t (i) / (length of viewing video of user u + length of viewing video of other person t (i) −user u and others (Length of the common viewing video of the person t (i)) (Equation 1)

  This calculates the overlapping degree of the viewing video of the user u and the other person t (i). If the viewing video of the user u and the other person t (i) is exactly the same, the user relevance s (i) = 1, and there is no common part between the viewing video of the user u and the other person t (i). User relevance s (i) = 0. Therefore, the user relevance s (i) increases as the user and the other person t (i) watch the common video. For example, from the viewing history of the user A and others B, C, and D shown in FIG. 26, the common parts of the user A and others B are many, and the parts common to others C are quite common. There is a little common part with others D. This is schematically shown in FIG. Other person A has the highest degree of user relevance with the user.

  The user association degree holding unit 1203 holds the user association degree calculated by the association degree calculation unit 2201 (S2203).

  By the above operation, the user relevance level is set by the user or the business operator, or based on the viewing history, without setting the user relevance based on the user attribute similarity such as age, gender or occupation. Since the degree of user relevance is calculated, it is possible to reduce the burden on the user and the business operator. In addition, since it is based on the actual viewing history, it is possible to obtain a more accurate summary video for each user's preference, and for a change in viewing tendency due to a change in user's preference, a summary video is also provided. It can be created correspondingly.

  In the present embodiment, the total viewing history is used for calculating the user relevance level, but a limited viewing history such as a recent viewing history may be used. In that case, it is possible to obtain a summary video according to the recent trend of preference.

  In the present embodiment, the degree of user relevance is calculated by using the common degree of the viewing video, but is calculated by taking into account the similarity of the date and time such as the day of the week and the time zone when the video is viewed. Also good. Since viewers with similar preferences also show similarities in date and time, it is possible to obtain a summary video that more closely matches the user's preferences. In particular, users who browse television only on weekends and public holidays are often users who work for work on weekdays, and their viewing styles are often similar. Therefore, when summarizing and browsing videos recorded on weekdays on holidays, effective summarization becomes possible.

  For calculating the user relevance level, it is also possible to use history information obtained by viewing a video of the same genre as the video to be summarized. For example, when an attempt is made to summarize in order to view a video of a baseball genre (baseball content) in a short time, the user refers to a viewing pattern of the user similar to the viewing pattern of the baseball content broadcast before. Thus, it is possible to realize a summary more suited to the user's preference. For example, in the case of summarizing baseball content of “Shinshin-virtual match”, if the user is a “Shanshin” fan, an attack of “Shanshin” in the previous “Semitrust-virtual match” There is a strong tendency to watch the innings with emphasis. Therefore, in the previously broadcasted “Semi-Semi-Innocent Battle”, a search was made for users (“Shan-Shin” fans) who focused on the “Semi-Shin” attack, and the searched “Semi-Shin” By using information on what scenes the fan user watched the baseball content of this “Semi-trust-virtual warfare” this time, it is possible to summarize video that suits the user's preference. Become. In the system configuration described above, the relevance calculation unit 2201 in FIG. 24 extracts the genre information of the video summarized by the summary information creation unit 1205, searches for the user who was viewing the video of this genre, This is realized by calculating the degree of user relevance from the user viewing history and the user viewing history. As a result, it is possible to summarize videos more suited to the user's preference.

  In addition, although the length of the common viewing video is used for calculating the user relevance level, the number of scenes of the common viewing video or the number of the programs viewed commonly may be used. In that case, the calculation amount can be reduced.

(Embodiment 3)
By the way, the user who browses the summarized video may perform fast forward or slow playback on the video depending on his / her time and interest. At this time, if the summary information of the video is created using a remote computer such as a server each time, communication cost may be required. In particular, when summarizing video in a mobile terminal or the like, it is not always possible to connect to a server stably over a wireless network. For example, when playing a video using the time it takes to get to the target station while on the train, if you stop playback or fast-forward while browsing the summarized video, It is necessary to summarize the video according to the adjusted time. On the other hand, while riding on a train, when the train passes through a tunnel or between mountains, communication with stable quality is not always possible.

  Therefore, in the present embodiment, a case where video summary information is created by the user's television receiver 13 will be described.

  FIG. 28 is a schematic diagram showing a configuration of a system in which the video summarizing apparatus according to Embodiment 3 of the present invention is used. FIG. 29 is a functional block diagram showing the configuration of the viewing history collection center 32, and FIG. 30 is a functional block diagram showing the configuration of the user's television receiver 33.

  In the present embodiment, the video summarization center 12 of the first embodiment shown in FIG. 3 is the viewing history collection center 32 shown in FIG. 29, and the user's television receiver 13 is the user's television receiver 33 shown in FIG. Replace. 28 to 30, the same components as those in the first embodiment are denoted by the same reference numerals and description thereof is omitted. Also, the other-party television receiver 11 has the same configuration as that of the first embodiment.

  As shown in FIG. 29, the viewing history collection center 32 includes a viewing history receiving unit 1201, a viewing history holding unit 1202, a viewing history extracting unit 3201, and an extracted viewing history transmitting unit 3202. The viewing history extraction unit 3201 extracts the viewing history related to the video summary from the viewing history holding unit 1202. The extracted viewing history transmission unit 3202 transmits the viewing history extracted by the viewing history extraction unit 3201 to the user's television receiver 13.

  As shown in FIG. 30, the user's television receiver 33 includes a viewing history receiving unit 3301, a request receiving unit 3302, a viewing history holding unit 1202, a user relevance level holding unit 1203, an importance level calculating unit 1204, and a summary information creating unit 1205. A broadcast receiving unit 1303, a recording unit 1304, a video summarizing unit 1305, and a display unit 1306. The viewing history receiving unit 3301 receives a viewing history related to video summarization from the viewing history collection center 32. The request reception unit 3302 receives a program video summary request together with a program ID indicating the program for which summary information is to be created and the length of the summary video.

  The operation of the video summarization system of the present embodiment configured as described above is as follows: “viewing history transmission step” in which another person's television receiver 11 collects viewing history and transmits it to the viewing history collection center 32; The “viewing history collection step” in which the viewing history related to the video summary is extracted from the viewing history of others stored in the center 32 and transmitted to the user's television receiver, and the user's television receiver 13 summarizes the video based on the viewing history. The “summary video creation step” for creating Note that the “viewing history transmission step” is the same as that in the first embodiment, and a description thereof will be omitted.

  The “viewing history collection step” further includes a “viewing history accumulation substep” and a “viewing history extraction / transmission substep”. Since the “viewing history accumulation substep” is the same as that in the first embodiment, the description thereof will be omitted, and the operation of the “viewing history extraction substep” will be described.

"Viewing History Extraction Send Substep"
When there is a request for acquisition of a program video viewing history from the user, the viewing history extraction unit 3201 receives the user IDs of all others whose user association degree holding unit 1203 holds the user association degree from the user's television receiver 13. Receive. Next, from all stored viewing histories, out of all others receiving the user ID, all viewing histories of all others viewing the program video are extracted.

  The extracted viewing history transmission unit 3202 transmits the viewing history extracted by the viewing history extraction unit 3201 to the user's television receiver 33 via the Internet 15.

  The “summary video creation step” further includes a “program recording substep” and a “summary video creation / playback substep”. The “program recording sub-step” is the same as that in the first embodiment, so the description thereof will be omitted, and the operation of the “summary video creation / playback sub-step” will be described.

"Summary video creation and playback sub-step"
Until the importance calculation unit 1304 calculates the importance and the summary information creation unit creates the summary information, the summary information is generated from the importance calculation processing (S1211) of the program video in the video summary center 12 of the first embodiment. This is the same as the processing (S1212). Next, until the video summarizing unit 1305 creates a summary video and the display unit 1306 finishes reproducing the summary video, the summary video extraction start processing (S1313) in the user's television receiver 13 of the first embodiment is performed. This is the same as the summary video display end processing (S1316).

  With the above operation, even if the video summary information is created by the user's television receiver 33, it is possible to obtain a summary video that suits each user's preference as in the first embodiment. Compared to the first embodiment, it is possible to reduce the load of the central processing.

  Further, when changing the length of the summary video requested by the user, in the first embodiment, it is necessary to re-request the video summary to the video summary center 12 to acquire the summary information again, and the communication time for that purpose However, in this embodiment, the re-request cannot be made, but in the present embodiment, the length of the summary video can be obtained only by the user's television receiver 33. Can be changed. For example, if the user performs an operation such as pausing or fast-forwarding during the playback of the summary video, the summary video from there may be recalculated to match the length requested by the user. . Specifically, it is assumed that the user wants to view the summary video in 30 minutes of the time on the train, requests the 30-minute summary video, and views it. Suppose you watched 10 minutes and received an important email, so you stopped watching and spent 5 minutes writing a reply. In this case, the original summary video remains for 20 minutes, but the remaining boarding time is only 15 minutes. Therefore, the user's television receiver 33 re-creates a 15-minute summary video from the video excluding the part that has been viewed by adjusting the threshold again. As a result, even if there is an interruption of 5 minutes in the middle, it is possible to finish watching the summary video in the boarding time of 30 minutes as originally requested.

(Embodiment 4)
In the third embodiment, the viewing history is collected by the viewing history collection center 32. In this embodiment, a case where the viewing history collection center is not used will be described.

  FIG. 31 is a schematic diagram showing the configuration of a system in which the video summarizing apparatus according to Embodiment 4 of the present invention is used. FIG. 32 is a functional block diagram showing the configuration of the user's television receiver 43.

  In the present embodiment, the video summarization center 12 of the first embodiment shown in FIG. 3 is eliminated, and the user's television receiver 13 is replaced with the user's television receiver 43 shown in FIG. 31 and 32, the same components as those in the first and third embodiments are denoted by the same reference numerals, and the description thereof is omitted. Also, the other-party television receiver 11 has the same configuration as that of the first embodiment.

  As shown in FIG. 32, the user's television receiver 43 includes a viewing history receiving unit 3301, a viewing history holding unit 1202, a user relevance level holding unit 1203, an importance level calculating unit 1204, a summary information creating unit 1205, and a broadcast receiving unit 1303. A recording unit 1304, a video summarizing unit 1305, a display unit 1306, a viewing history holding unit 1104, and a viewing history transmission unit 1105.

  The operation of the video summarization system of the present embodiment configured as described above is based on the “viewing history transmission step” in which the other party's television receiver 11 collects the viewing history and transmits it to the user's television receiver 13. The television receiver 13 includes a “summary video creation step” in which a summary video is created based on the viewing history.

  The operation of the “viewing history transmission step” is almost the same as that of the first embodiment, but the difference is as follows. The transmission destination of the viewing history is not the video summary center 12 but the user's television receiver 13. This is to keep the viewing history without deleting it after the viewing history is transmitted. The viewing history is deleted after the elapse of a predetermined period or by a request operation of others.

  The operation of the “summary video creation step” is almost the same as that of the third embodiment, but the difference is as follows. The viewing history acquisition is not performed from the viewing history collection center 32 but is performed from the television receiver 11 of another person whose user relevance holding unit 1203 holds the user relevance.

  Through the above operation, as in the third embodiment, it is possible to obtain a summary video that matches the taste of each user without adding metadata to the video. In the present embodiment, since the viewing history collection center is not used, the maintenance cost of this center becomes unnecessary.

  In FIG. 32, the viewing history storage unit 1104 and the viewing history transmission unit 1105 are provided so that the viewing history can be transmitted from the user's television receiver 13 to the other's television receiver 11. It can also be made available to each other. In that case, the other person can also create the summary video in the same manner as the user.

(Embodiment 5)
In the first embodiment, a case where a summary video of a television program is created is described. In the present embodiment, an example will be described in which video to be summarized is supplied by a video package medium such as a DVD (Digital Versatile Disk) or a tape, or a network medium such as a stream or a download.

  FIG. 33 is a schematic diagram showing the configuration of a system in which the video summarizing apparatus according to Embodiment 5 of the present invention is used. FIG. 34 is a functional block diagram showing the configuration of the video player 51 of another person, and FIG. 35 is a functional block diagram showing the configuration of the video player 53 of the user.

  In this embodiment, the other person's television receiver 11 of the first embodiment shown in FIG. 2 is replaced with the other person's video player 51 shown in FIG. 34, and the user's television of the first embodiment shown in FIG. The receiver 13 is replaced with the user's video player 53 shown in FIG. 33 to 35, the same components as those in the first embodiment are denoted by the same reference numerals, and description thereof is omitted. The video summary center 12 has the same configuration as that of the first embodiment.

  As shown in FIG. 34, the video player 51 of another person includes a video acquisition unit 5101, a display unit 1103, a viewing history holding unit 1104, and a viewing history transmission unit 1105. The video acquisition unit 5101 acquires video from video media such as video package media and network media.

  As shown in FIG. 32, the user's video player 53 includes a summary information receiving unit 1301, a summary information holding unit 1302, a video acquisition unit 5301, a video summary unit 1305, and a display unit 1306. The video acquisition unit 5301 acquires video from video media such as video package media and network media.

  The operation of the video summarization system of the present embodiment configured as described above is almost the same as that of the first embodiment, but the difference is that the video is identified by the video ID of the media instead of the program ID.

  With the above operation, it is possible to obtain a summary video that suits the tastes of individual users without adding metadata to the video on the package media and network media.

(Embodiment 6)
In the third embodiment, a case is described in which viewing history is collected using the Internet as a medium. In this embodiment, an example in which viewing history is collected using package media as a medium will be described.

  FIG. 36 is a schematic diagram showing a configuration of a system in which the video summarizing apparatus according to Embodiment 6 of the present invention is used. FIG. 37 is a functional block diagram showing the configuration of the user's video player 63, and FIG. 38 is a functional block diagram showing the configuration of the rental store 62. 36 to 38, the same components as those in the third and fifth embodiments are denoted by the same reference numerals, and the description thereof is omitted. Also, the video player 51 of another person has the same configuration as that of the fifth embodiment.

  As shown in FIG. 37, the user video player 63 includes a viewing history reading unit 6301, a viewing history holding unit 1202, a user relevance level holding unit 1203, an importance level calculating unit 1204, a summary information creating unit 1205, and a video acquisition unit 5301. A video summarizing unit 1305, a display unit 1306, and a viewing history writing unit 6302. The viewing history reading unit 6301 reads the viewing history from the package medium PM. The viewing history writing unit 6302 writes the viewing history displayed on the display unit 1306 to the package medium PM.

  As shown in FIG. 38, the rental store 62 includes a viewing history reading unit 6201, a viewing history holding unit 1202, and a viewing history writing unit 6202. The viewing history reading unit 6201 reads the viewing history from the package medium PM. The viewing history writing unit 6202 writes the viewing history held by the viewing history holding unit 1202 to the package medium PM.

  As shown in FIG. 39A, the viewing history is recorded in the recording area PM01 of the package medium PM itself. Alternatively, when the package medium itself is not writable, as shown in FIG. 39B, a recording medium PM02 can be provided in the package case, and recording can be performed there.

  The operation of the video summarizing apparatus of the present embodiment configured as described above is almost the same as that of the third embodiment, but the difference is that the viewing history is transmitted and received through the network in the third embodiment. On the other hand, viewing history is collected using package media as a medium.

  In the user's video player 63, the viewing history reading unit 6301 first reads the viewing history recorded on the medium. The operation of creating a summary video using the read viewing history is the same as in the third embodiment. Thereafter, the viewing history writing unit 6302 writes the viewing history of the package media of the user to the media.

  In the rental store 62, the viewing history reading unit 6201 reads the viewing history recorded in the returned package media PM. The viewing history holding unit 1202 additionally accumulates the viewing history read out as in the third embodiment. The viewing history writing unit 6202 writes the viewing history held by the viewing history holding unit 1202 to the package media PM when the package media PM is lent out. With this operation, in the rental store 62, the entire viewing history of the rented package media viewer is recorded in the package media PM.

  Through the above operation, the viewing history is accumulated in the rental store through the package media, the accumulated viewing history is recorded in the package media, and the video is summarized based on the recorded history without transmitting the viewing history by communication. It is possible to obtain a summary video that does not give metadata to the user and suits the taste of each user.

  Further, by recording the viewing history on the package media, the viewing history becomes dependent on the physical movement of the package media. For example, a viewing history of a nearby resident tends to be recorded on the package media of the same rental store. For this reason, since the viewing history shows a social layer and regional tendency of the same local community as the user, it is possible to obtain a summary video that better matches the user's preference. For example, in baseball and soccer, there are teams based in a region, and the same team is often preferred in that region. For this reason, it is effective to generate a summary video using a user's viewing history in the same region.

  In the present embodiment, only the viewing history is collected in the rental store 62. However, as in the fifth embodiment, a summary video is created in the rental store 62 in accordance with the rental destination user, and the summary video is created. It is also possible to record and lend to package media.

  Further, in the present embodiment, only the viewing history of others is used for video summarization, but a configuration using the viewing history of the user itself may be used. In this case, when the user repeatedly reproduces the video of the same package media, the video can be summarized. This is applicable not only to the rented package media but also to the video recorded by the user using a movie or the like.

(Embodiment 7)
In the first embodiment, the case where the viewing history is the presence / absence of viewing is described. In the present embodiment, an example will be described in which a concept of viewing degree that represents the degree of attention to video during viewing is introduced instead of whether or not viewing is performed.

  FIG. 40 is a functional block diagram showing the configuration of another person's television receiver 71, and FIG. 41 is a functional block diagram showing the configuration of the video summary center 72. The system configuration of the present embodiment is the same as that of the first embodiment shown in FIG. 1, and the other television receiver 11 of the first embodiment shown in FIG. 2 is replaced by the other television receiver 71 shown in FIG. Furthermore, the video summary center 12 of the first embodiment shown in FIG. 3 is replaced with the video summary center 72 shown in FIG. 40 and 41, the same components as those in the first embodiment are denoted by the same reference numerals, and description thereof is omitted.

  As shown in FIG. 40, another person's television receiver 71 includes a broadcast receiving unit 1101, a recording unit 1102, a display unit 1103, a viewing state detection unit 7101, a viewing level calculation unit 7102, a viewing level holding unit 7103, and a viewing level. A transmission unit 7104 is provided.

  The viewing status detection unit 7101 detects the viewing status of another person's television program. The viewing level calculation unit 7102 calculates the viewing level from the viewing status detected by the viewing status detection unit 7101. The viewing level holding unit 7103 temporarily holds the viewing level of others calculated by the viewing level calculation unit 7102 for the program video displayed by the display unit 1103. The viewing level transmission unit 7104 transmits the viewing level held by the viewing level holding unit 7103 to the video summary center 72 via the Internet 15.

  As shown in FIG. 41, the video summarization center 72 includes a viewing level receiving unit 7201, a viewing level holding unit 7202, a user relevance level holding unit 1203, a request receiving unit 1208, an importance level calculating unit 7203, a summary information creating unit 1205, and summary information. A holding unit 1206 and a summary information transmission unit 1207 are provided.

  The viewing degree receiving unit 7201 receives the degree of viewing from the other party's television receiver 71 via the Internet 15. The viewing level holding unit 7202 accumulates and holds the viewing level received by the viewing level receiving unit 7201. The importance level calculation unit 7203 calculates the time series importance level of the program video based on the viewing level held by the viewing level holding unit 7202 and the user relevance level held by the user relevance level holding unit 1203. To do.

  Here, the degree of viewing represents the degree of concentration of viewing of program video that changes in time series. For example, the greater the volume adjustment of the television, the higher the possibility that the user is watching the program, and the greater the viewing level. In addition, the more user operations (zapping) that frequently change the TV channel, the lower the degree of viewing because not only the program being watched but also other programs are concerned. In addition, when viewing on two or more screens on a television that can simultaneously view two or more screens, the viewing level is small. In addition, the degree of viewing is larger when some kind of reaction operation is performed on the program on the interactive television. In addition, the viewing degree is larger when viewing after recording than when watching during broadcasting. In the case of a recorded program, the portion that is being played back at high speed has a small viewing degree. In addition, the second and subsequent playbacks of the recorded program have a higher degree of viewing than the first playback of the recorded program, and the viewing of the large-screen TV is larger than the viewing on a small screen (portable TV, mobile phone, etc.). In addition, when viewing with the same channel before and after the program viewing, there is a high possibility that the TV is simply attached, so the viewing level is small. Also, in the case of a recorded program, viewing with a long elapsed time after recording is likely to have not been very important, so the degree of viewing is small.

  The operation of the other television receiver 71 of the present embodiment configured as described above is substantially the same as that of the first embodiment, but the difference is that the degree of viewing corresponding to the time during video display is calculated. That is.

  The viewing status detection unit 7101 receives other companies' television receptions such as volume adjustment, channel change operation, whether the video is a recording, the playback speed of the recorded video, the number of playback times of the recorded video, the elapsed time after the recording, the type of the TV terminal, etc. It detects the characteristics that can be detected by the device 71 itself, the state of the video, and the operation during viewing.

  The viewing level calculation unit 7102 holds the rules relating to the viewing status and the viewing level as described above, for example, as a table as shown in FIG. 42, and adds the viewing level according to the viewing status based on the table. For example, the viewing degree of the TV image being viewed by another person is calculated. The degree of viewing is quantified as a real value in the range of 0-1.

  As a result, the television receiver 71 of the other person obtained only the presence / absence of viewing in the viewing history shown in FIG. 10 as a result of the operations similar to those in the flowcharts of FIGS. On the other hand, as shown in FIG. 43, the viewing degree quantified in time series is obtained.

  The video summarization center 12 performs the same operation as the flowchart of FIG. 11 in the first embodiment, but the importance calculation unit 7203 calculates the total user relevance for a part of viewing. The product of the degree of viewing and the degree of user relevance is obtained for a part of viewing, and the time series importance is obtained by obtaining the sum. Similar to the first embodiment, the obtained time-series importance is as shown in FIG.

  Since the operation of the user's television receiver 13 is the same as that of the first embodiment, the description thereof is omitted.

  By the above operation, the other person's viewing history takes into account not only the presence / absence of viewing but also the degree of concentration, so that the summaries that match the preferences of individual users can be obtained more accurately without adding metadata to the video. An image can be obtained.

(Embodiment 8)
In the first embodiment, a case has been described in which video summary information is created based on whether another person has viewed or not. In this case, only the presence / absence of the other person's viewing history is taken into account, but there are terminals that are easy to view and others that are difficult to view. For example, in a mobile phone, the skip function for summarization is limited depending on the processing performance and operability of the terminal. Conversely, hard disk recorders and the like have various easy-to-view functions such as various skip functions, variable playback speed functions, and index detection functions. A viewing history on a terminal that is easy to summarize is considered to be more effective in creating a summary video than a viewing history on a terminal that is difficult to summarize. Therefore, in the present embodiment, an example will be described in which video summary information is created in consideration of not only viewing / non-viewing but also a playback function of another viewing terminal.

  FIG. 47 is a functional block diagram showing the configuration of another person's television receiver 81, and FIG. 48 is a functional block diagram showing the configuration of the video summary center 82. The system configuration of the present embodiment is the same as that of the first embodiment shown in FIG. 1, and the other television receiver 11 of the first embodiment shown in FIG. 2 is the other television receiver shown in FIG. 81, the video summary center 12 of the first embodiment shown in FIG. 3 is replaced with the video summary center 82 shown in FIG. 47 and 48, the same components as those in the first embodiment are denoted by the same reference numerals and description thereof is omitted.

  47, another person's television receiver 81 includes a broadcast receiving unit 1101, a recording unit 1102, a display unit 1103, a viewing history holding unit 1104, a viewing history transmitting unit 1105, and a playback function transmitting unit 8106. Yes.

  The reproduction function transmission unit 8106 transmits information on the function related to reproduction possessed by the other-party television receiver 81 (that is, information indicating the reproduction function possessed by the other-party television receiver 81). Specifically, the function related to playback refers to a function related to playback other than the normal playback function such as “30-second skip function”, “10 times fast forward function”, “program index display function”, and the like.

  As shown in FIG. 48, the video summarization center 82 includes a viewing history receiving unit 1201, a viewing history holding unit 1202, a user relevance level holding unit 1203, a viewing terminal information receiving unit 8201, a summary application level calculation unit 8202, and a summary application level holding. A unit 8203, a request reception unit 1208, an importance calculation unit 1204, a summary information creation unit 1205, a summary information holding unit 1206, and a summary information transmission unit 1207.

  The viewing terminal information receiving unit 8201 is a processing unit that acquires a function related to the playback operation of the user's viewing terminal, and specifically, is transmitted from the playback function transmitting unit 8106 of the other party's television receiver 81. Information indicating a function related to reproduction is received.

  The summary applicability calculation unit 8202 compares the function related to the reproduction operation indicated by the information received by the viewing terminal information receiving unit 8201 with the score associated in advance, and expresses the degree of summarization suitable for summarization of the viewing terminal It is a processing unit for calculating the degree.

  The summary application degree holding unit 8203 is a storage unit that holds the summary application degree calculated by the summary application degree calculation unit 8202.

  The importance level calculation unit 8204 displays a time zone viewed by another user in the viewing history held in the viewing history holding unit 1202 as a user relevance level for each other user held in the user relevance level holding unit 1203. And the importance level for each time in the target video is calculated by weighting with the summary application level of the viewing terminal held in the summary application level holding unit 8203.

  Next, the operation of the video summarization system in the present embodiment will be described. The processing until the viewing history receiving unit 1201 receives another person's viewing history and the viewing history holding unit 1202 holds the viewing history is described. Since it is the same as that of FIG.

  Differences from the first embodiment in the operation from here are described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. The viewing terminal information receiving unit 8201 receives information on functions related to reproduction from the television receiver 81 of the other person (S8101).

  The summary applicability calculation unit 8202 stores therein a relationship between a function related to reproduction and a summary applicability score representing utility for performing summary reproduction of the function. An example of the stored relationship is shown in FIG. The summary applicability calculation unit 8202 refers to the relationship shown in FIG. 49 to refer to the summarization applicability score of the function related to the reproduction of the other party's television receiver 81 received by the viewing terminal information receiving unit 8201 ( S8102). Then, the summary applicability calculation unit 8202 calculates the summarization applicability by adding the summarization applicability added points as many as the number of functions of the television receiver 81 of the other person (S8103). Furthermore, the summary application degree calculation unit 8202 causes the summary application degree holding unit 8203 to hold the summary application degree in association with the viewing history shown in FIG. 9 of the first embodiment.

  The importance level calculation unit 8204 includes a viewing history held by the viewing history holding unit 1202, a user association degree held by the user association degree holding unit 1203, and a summary application degree held by the summary application degree holding unit 8203. Based on the above, the time-series importance of the program video is calculated (S8105). Here, the calculation method of the importance is basically the same as that of the first embodiment, but in the first embodiment, the user relevance of the part viewed by others is integrated. In this form, the degree of user relevance of the part viewed by another person is further multiplied by the summarization application degree and integrated.

  Since the operation after the calculation of the importance is the same as that of the first embodiment, the description thereof is omitted.

  By taking into account the playback function of the viewing terminal of the other person as well as the presence / absence of viewing by the other person, the above operations can be applied to each user's preference more accurately without adding metadata to the video. It is possible to obtain a summary video. In particular, it is effective for programs such as news and variety in which the performance of the terminal being viewed varies greatly.

(Embodiment 9)
In the eighth embodiment, an example is described in which video summary information is created in consideration of not only the presence / absence of viewing by another person but also the playback function of the viewing terminal of the other person. However, there are cases where others use the playback function of the viewing terminal for summarization, and other cases. Therefore, in the present embodiment, an example will be described in which video summary information is created in consideration of the usage of the playback function of another person's viewing terminal.

  51 is a functional block diagram showing the configuration of another person's television receiver 91, and FIG. 52 is a functional block diagram showing the configuration of the video summary center 92. The system configuration of the present embodiment is the same as that of the first embodiment shown in FIG. 1, and the other television receiver 11 of the first embodiment shown in FIG. 2 is the other television receiver shown in FIG. 91, the video summary center 12 of the first embodiment shown in FIG. 3 is replaced with the video summary center 92 shown in FIG. 51 and 52, the same components as those in the first embodiment are denoted by the same reference numerals and description thereof is omitted.

  51, another person's television receiver 91 includes a broadcast receiving unit 1101, a recording unit 1102, a display unit 1103, a viewing history holding unit 1104, a viewing history transmitting unit 1105, and a reproduction use transmitting unit 9106. Yes.

  The reproduction use transmitting unit 9106 is information on the functions related to reproduction used by the other person's television receiver 81 (that is, among the reproduction functions of the other person's television receiver 81, the reproduction function used by the other person). Is sent).

  As shown in FIG. 52, the video summarization center 92 includes a viewing history receiving unit 1201, a viewing history holding unit 1202, a user relevance level holding unit 1203, a viewing terminal usage receiving unit 9201, a summary usage level calculating unit 9202, and a summary usage level holding. A unit 9203, a request reception unit 1208, an importance calculation unit 1204, a summary information creation unit 1205, a summary information holding unit 1206, and a summary information transmission unit 1207.

  The viewing terminal usage receiving unit 9201 is a processing unit that acquires the presence / absence of use of a function related to the playback operation of the user's viewing terminal. Specifically, the viewing terminal usage receiving unit 9201 transmits from the playback usage transmitting unit 9106 of the television receiver 91 of the other party. The information indicating the function related to the reproduction used by the other person is received.

  The summary usage calculation unit 9202 collates the presence / absence of the use of the function related to playback indicated by the information received by the viewing terminal usage receiving unit 9201 with the score associated with the function related to the playback operation in advance. Is a processing unit that calculates a summary application level that represents the degree to which video is summarized and played back.

  The summary usage level holding unit 9203 is a storage unit that holds the summary application level calculated by the summary usage level calculation unit 9202.

  The importance level calculation unit 9204 displays the time zone viewed by other users in the viewing history held in the viewing history holding unit 1202 as the user relevance level for each other user held in the user relevance level holding unit 1203. Then, the importance level for each time in the target video is calculated by weighting with the summary usage level of the viewing terminal held in the summary usage level holding unit 9203.

  Next, the operation of the video summarization system in the present embodiment will be described. The processing until the viewing history receiving unit 1201 receives another person's viewing history and the viewing history holding unit 1202 holds the viewing history is described. Since it is the same as that of FIG.

  Differences from the first embodiment in the operation from here are described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. The viewing terminal use receiving unit 9201 receives information on the use of functions related to playback from the television receiver 81 of the other party (S9101).

  The summary usage calculation unit 9202 stores whether or not the function related to the reproduction of the other-party television receiver 81 received by the viewing terminal usage receiving unit 9201 has been used (S9102). The summary usage degree calculation unit 9202 stores therein a relationship between a function related to reproduction and a summary application degree addition point representing utility for performing summary reproduction of the function. An example of the stored relationship is shown in FIG. The summary usage degree calculation unit 9202 refers to the relationship shown in FIG. 49 to refer to the summary application degree addition point of the used function among the functions related to the reproduction of the other party's television receiver 81 stored therein. Then, the summarization usage is calculated by adding the summarization applicability added points as many as the number of used functions (S9103). Furthermore, the summary usage degree calculation unit 9202 causes the summary usage degree holding unit 9203 to hold the summary usage degree in association with the viewing history shown in FIG. 9 of the first embodiment.

  The importance level calculation unit 9204 includes a viewing history held by the viewing history holding unit 1202, a user association degree held by the user association degree holding unit 1203, and a summary usage degree held by the summary usage degree holding unit 9203. Based on the above, the time-series importance of the program video is calculated (S9105).

  The importance calculation method is the same as replacing “summary applicability” with “summary usage” in the eighth embodiment, and thus the description thereof is omitted.

  Since the operation after the calculation of the importance is the same as that of the first embodiment, the description thereof is omitted.

  By the above operation, not only whether or not the other person is viewing but also whether or not the other person's viewing terminal uses the playback function is considered, so that each user can be more accurately added without adding metadata to the video. It is possible to obtain a summary video that matches the user's preference. This is particularly effective when the recording function for home use such as a hard disk recorder has a sufficient reproduction function but there is a large variation between the person who uses the function and the person who does not use it.

(Embodiment 10)
In the first embodiment, a case has been described in which video summary information is created based on whether another person has viewed or not. It considers only the presence or absence of the viewing history of others, but there are others who are used to summarizing and watching the video, and others who are not. For example, in news and variety programs, the relationship between the broadcast time and the corner in the program is roughly determined, so it is considered that users who are familiar with summarization are more familiar with the contents of the program. Therefore, it is considered that it is more effective to use a viewing history of another person who is used to summarizing and watching the video to create the summary video. Also, when viewing a recorded program, etc. for the second time or later, it is considered that the shorter the elapsed time since the last viewing, the more the program content is remembered, so it is better to use such other person's viewing history It is considered that it is more effective in creating a summary video. Therefore, in the present embodiment, an example will be described in which video summary information is created in consideration of not only viewing presence / absence but also the summarization skill level of others.

  FIG. 54 is a functional block diagram showing the configuration of the video summary center 102. The system configuration of the present embodiment is the same as that of the first embodiment shown in FIG. 1, and the video summary center 12 of the first embodiment shown in FIG. 3 is replaced with the video summary center 102 shown in FIG. In FIG. 54, the same components as those in the first embodiment are denoted by the same reference numerals and description thereof is omitted.

  As shown in FIG. 54, the video summary center 102 includes a viewing history receiving unit 1201, a viewing history holding unit 1202, a summary skill level calculating unit 10201, a summary skill level holding unit 10202, a user relevance level holding unit 1203, and a request receiving unit 1208. , An importance level calculation unit 1204, a summary information creation unit 1205, a summary information holding unit 1206, and a summary information transmission unit 1207.

  Based on the viewing history held in the viewing history holding unit 1202, the summary skill level calculation unit 10201 viewed the summary skill level indicating the degree of skill that the user summarizes and views the same series of videos as the target video. It is a processing unit that calculates the ratio between the time and the program time. The summary skill level calculation unit 10201 views the summary skill level indicating the skill level that the user summarizes and views the video based on the viewing history held in the viewing history holding unit 1202 from the second time onward. In some cases, the calculation is performed so that the shorter the elapsed time since the last viewing, the higher the time.

  The summary skill level holding unit 10202 is a storage unit that holds the summary skill level calculated by the summary skill level calculation unit 10201.

  The importance level calculation unit 10204 displays the time zone viewed by another user in the viewing history held in the viewing history holding unit 1202 for each user held in the user relevance holding unit 1203. Then, the importance level for each time in the target video is calculated by weighting with the summary skill level for each other user held in the summary skill level holding unit 10202.

  Next, the operation of the video summarization system in the present embodiment will be described. The processing until the viewing history receiving unit 1201 receives another person's viewing history and the viewing history holding unit 1202 holds the viewing history is described. Since it is the same as that of FIG.

  Differences from the first embodiment in the operation from here are described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. The summary skill level calculation unit 10201 retrieves each other's viewing history from the viewing history holding unit 1201, and checks whether there is a viewing history of the same program as the user's summary target program (S10201). When there is no viewing history, the other person does not contribute to the summary of the user's summary request program, so the skill level is not calculated and nothing is stored in the skill level holding unit. If there is a viewing history, the summary skill level calculation unit 10201 further checks whether there is a viewing history of a program of the same series as the user's summary request program (S10202). Here, the program of the same series refers to a program assigned with the same series ID or a program assigned with the same series title. Further, it may be determined whether the series is the same from the program name, day of the week, channel, and time zone. When there is a viewing history of the same series, the summary skill level calculation unit 10201 calculates the summary skill level of the other person for the viewing history of all programs in the series, and causes the summary skill level storage unit 10202 to store the summary skill level (S10203). . Here, the summary skill level is a value depending on the ratio of the time of viewing the program to the length of the program, and is, for example, 1- (time of viewing the program) / (time of the entire program). Therefore, the summary skill level of the series is an average value of summary skill levels of all programs in the series.

  On the other hand, when there is no viewing history of the same series, the summary skill level calculation unit 10201 applies summary skills to all programs so as to decrease in accordance with the elapsed time from the previous viewing of the program to be summarized by the other person. The degree is calculated and held in the summary skill level holding unit 10202 (S10204).

  The importance level calculation unit 10204 includes a viewing history held by the viewing history holding unit 1202, a user relevance level held by the user relevance level holding unit 1203, and a summary skill level held by the summary skill level holding unit 10202. Based on the above, the time-series importance of the program video is calculated (S10205).

  The calculation method of importance is basically the same as in the first embodiment, but in the first embodiment, the user relevance of the part viewed by others is integrated, but in this embodiment The difference is that the user relevance of the part viewed by others is multiplied by the summarization skill and integrated.

  Since the operation after the calculation of the importance is the same as that of the first embodiment, the description thereof is omitted.

  Through the above operation, not only the presence or absence of viewing by other people, but also the degree of skill of summarization for other programs' series or all programs can be taken into account without adding metadata to the video. It is possible to obtain a summary video that often matches the preferences of individual users. In particular, it is effective when a program in which another person is in series or the same program is viewed multiple times.

(Embodiment 11)
In the third embodiment, an example in which summary information is generated on the user's terminal side in order to obtain a summary video of the requested length even when fast-forwarding or pausing during summary video playback It explains about. However, when the user's terminal is inferior in processing capability, such as a mobile terminal, there are problems that it takes time to create summary information on the terminal side or that the battery is consumed. Therefore, in the present embodiment, an example in which video summarization information having a plurality of lengths is created at the video summarization center and interpolated at the user terminal can reduce the burden on the user terminal and change the summarization time. Will be explained.

  FIG. 56 is a functional block diagram showing the configuration of the video summary center 112, and FIG. 57 is a functional block diagram showing the configuration of the user's television receiver. The system configuration of the present embodiment is the same as that of the first embodiment shown in FIG. 1, and the video summary center 12 of the first embodiment shown in FIG. 3 is changed to the video summary center 112 shown in FIG. The user's television receiver 13 of the first embodiment shown in the figure is replaced with the user's television receiver 113 shown in FIG. In FIG. 56 and FIG. 57, the same components as those in the first embodiment are denoted by the same reference numerals, and description thereof is omitted.

  As shown in FIG. 56, the video summarization center 112 includes a viewing history receiving unit 1201, a viewing history holding unit 1202, a user relevance level holding unit 1203, a request receiving unit 1208, an importance level calculating unit 1204, a summary information multiple creating unit 11205, A summary information holding unit 1206 and a summary information transmission unit 1207 are provided.

  The summary information multiple creation unit 11205 creates the first summary information so that the summary video has the summary time requested by the user, and further, the second summary so that the summary video has a time different from the summary time requested by the user. This is a processing unit that creates a plurality of summary information.

  Next, the operation of the video summarization system according to the present embodiment will be described. Up to the processing in which the viewing history receiving unit 1201 receives another person's viewing history and the importance calculating unit 1204 calculates the importance according to time. Since this is the same as that of the first embodiment, description thereof is omitted.

  Next, the summary information multiple creation unit 11205 creates two types of video summary information: video summary information of the length requested by the user and video summary information of half the length.

  The operations of the summary information holding unit 1206 and the summary information transmission unit 1207 are the same as those in the first embodiment, and a description thereof will be omitted.

  As shown in FIG. 57, the user's television receiver 113 includes a summary information receiving unit 1301, a summary information holding unit 1302, a summary information interpolation unit 11301, a broadcast receiving unit 1303, a recording unit 1304, a video summarizing unit 1305, and a display unit 1306. It has.

  Here, the plurality of summary information created by the summary information creation unit 11205 of the video summary center 112 is received by the summary information receiving unit 1301 and held in the summary information holding unit 1302.

  The summary information interpolation unit 11301 linearly interpolates two pieces of summary information held in the summary information holding unit 1302 when the summary time changes during reproduction of the summary video, and summarizes the summary time after the change. It is a processing unit that creates information.

  The normal operation of the user's television receiver 113 is the same as in the first embodiment. For example, as shown in FIG. 58, when a 60-minute summary is requested for a 90-minute program, a 60-minute summary video is created and reproduced using “(A) 60-minute summary information” in FIG. However, for example, when an interrupt request such as a telephone call or an e-mail occurs during playback and a 60-minute summary request is made and a summary video is to be viewed in 45 minutes, the summary information interpolation unit 11301 displays “( Using (A) 60-minute summary information ”and“ (B) 30-minute summary information ”, linear interpolation is performed to create“ (C) 45-minute summary information ”. That is, the summary information interpolation unit 11301 generates a summary video of a new summary time by linearly interpolating a portion (time position) that becomes a summary video according to the summary time. Then, the video summarizing unit 1305 creates a 45-minute summary video based on “(C) 45-minute summary information”. Interpolation can be performed in the same manner even if it is other than 45 minutes.

  With the above operation, it is not necessary to acquire the video summary information from the center again, and the length of the summary video can be changed with a small load on the user's television receiver.

  The video summarization system according to the present invention has been described based on the first to eleventh embodiments. However, the present invention is not limited to these embodiments. Forms realized by arbitrarily combining constituent elements in each embodiment within a consistent range, forms obtained by modifying those embodiments by those skilled in the art, and the like are also included in the present invention.

  In the first to eleventh embodiments, the video summarization threshold value is adjusted to be the length of the summary video requested by the user, but a fixed threshold value may be used. In this case, the length of the summary video is adjusted according to the degree of matching of the program video with the user's preference, and the user does not need to specify the length of the summary video.

  In the first to eleventh embodiments, the summary video is cut out from the threshold value or more, but all vertices having the maximum importance are detected from the time-series importance, and the images before and after each vertex are detected. It may be cut out according to the height of the vertex, and cut out so that the total length becomes the length requested by the user. For example, in the case where the time-series importance becomes a graph as shown in FIG. 44, if the start point and end point of the video are included, the importance has four vertices. Assume that the times of the four vertices are t0, t1, t2, and te, respectively, and the importance levels are w0, w1, w2, and we, respectively. The vertex can be obtained, for example, by detecting the sign of the temporal change in importance. In the example shown in FIG. 44, the ratio of w0, w1, w2, and we is 2: 3: 4: 1. If the total time of the video is 30 minutes and it is summarized in 10 minutes, a video having a length proportional to the height is extracted from each vertex. That is, threshold values are set for the vertices of t0, t1, t2, and te, and videos of 2 minutes, 3 minutes, 4 minutes, and 1 minute are cut out to create summary videos. In that case, it is possible to obtain a summary video that can grasp the points of the entire video.

  In the first to eleventh embodiments, a portion of the summary video that is greater than or equal to the threshold is cut out. If the length of the cut out partial video is equal to or shorter than the predetermined length, the portion is omitted from the summary video. Also good. In this case, it is possible to prevent a summary video that is too difficult to understand because the summary video includes a partial video that is too short.

  In the first to eleventh embodiments, the length of the summary video is adjusted to the length requested by the user. However, when the video is played on a mobile terminal in a train or a car, the predicted purpose is It is possible to determine the length of the summary video according to the arrival time to the ground. In this case, it is not necessary to specify the length of the summary video according to the time that the user can view.

  In the first to eleventh embodiments, the length of the summary video is adjusted to the length requested by the user. However, when playing back on a mobile terminal in a train or a car, the length of the summary video is calm at home. Since long-time viewing is more burdensome for the user than viewing, it is desirable that the length of the summary video is short, and the length of the summary video may be determined according to the type of the playback terminal. In that case, the user need not specify the length of the summary video according to the type of terminal.

  In the first to eleventh embodiments, since holidays are often viewed on television for a longer time than on weekdays, the length of the summary video may be determined according to a date such as a day of the week. In that case, the user need not specify the length of the summary video according to the viewing date. If the length of the summary video for each day of the week is determined from the history of the user's television viewing time for each day of the week, the summary time becomes more appropriate.

  In the first to eleventh embodiments, the video is cut out and summarized at the threshold boundary according to the importance level. However, the video where the audio becomes small before and after the threshold boundary is detected and the video is used as the audio boundary. You may cut out and summarize. In that case, it is possible to improve the cut of the seam of the summary video.

  In the first to eleventh embodiments, the relative time from the start of the video is used to specify the location in the video. However, the viewing location in the video can be specified by using a scene ID or a chapter number. Other methods may be used. When scene IDs or chapter numbers are used, it is possible to improve the connection between the summary videos.

  In the first to eleventh embodiments, the portions other than the summary video portion are cut, but the portions other than the summary video portion may be played back at high speed. High-speed playback may be performed at a constant speed, or the playback speed may be controlled in multiple steps or steplessly so that the lower the importance, the higher the speed. In this case, the user can understand some unimportant parts to some extent, and the whole video can be easily grasped.

  In Embodiments 1 to 5 and 7, a user ID is used to identify a user who uses another person's television receiver. However, an ID for identifying a user group such as a subscriber ID or a television receiver is used. Another method that can specify a viewer who views the video, such as an ID for identifying the machine, or another method that provides a high correlation with the viewer who views the video may be used. In this case, it is not necessary to authenticate the user.

  In Embodiments 1 to 5 and 7 to 11, the example in which metadata (tag information) is not attached to the video has been described. However, in the case where metadata as shown in FIG. 45 is attached. It is also possible to use it together. In this case, for example, by adjusting the section indicated by the summary information using the metadata in the television receiver 13 of the user, it is possible to improve the seam of the summary video. In addition, the video summary center holds metadata related to the video, so that the summary video by the conventional method using the user preference information (for example, “I like“ Shinshin ”)” and the present embodiment are used. A method such as taking a common part with the summary video can be considered. As a result, it is possible to obtain a summary video with higher accuracy with respect to the user's preference.

  Further, in Embodiments 1 to 5 and 7 to 11, when metadata including a weight as shown in FIG. 46 is given to the video, it can be used together. A method of creating a summary video by using a product of time series importance and weight by metadata according to the present embodiment is conceivable. This makes it possible to obtain a summary video that takes into account both the program provider and the user's preferences.

  In Embodiments 1 to 5 and 7 to 11, the summary video is created using the history of all viewers who have watched the summary video. It is also possible to select another person whose similarity target time is similar and create a summary video by referring only to the viewing history of the selected other person. This is because, in general, it is considered that other users who watched at the viewing time similar to the summary time requested by the user have similar preferences to the user. In that case, it is possible to obtain a summary video that better matches the user's preference. Also, the calculation cost is reduced.

  As described above, the video summarization apparatus according to the present invention can obtain a summary video that suits each user's preference without adding metadata to the video, so that a recordable television receiver, package media, and network can be obtained. This is useful in video players that can play media. For example, it is useful in a television receiver, a television recorder, a DVD player, a moving picture reproducing function, a mobile phone capable of receiving television, and the like connected to a network.

It is the schematic which shows the structure of the system by which the image | video summarization apparatus which concerns on Embodiment 1 of this invention is used. 3 is a functional block diagram illustrating a configuration of another person's television receiver according to Embodiment 1. FIG. 3 is a functional block diagram illustrating a configuration of a video summarization center according to Embodiment 1. FIG. 3 is a functional block diagram illustrating a configuration of a user's television receiver according to Embodiment 1. FIG. It is a flowchart which shows the flow of operation | movement in case an other party views a television broadcast at the time of a broadcast in another person's television receiver. It is a figure which shows an example of the viewing history transmitted from another person's television receiver. It is a flowchart which shows the flow of operation | movement in case another person's television receiver records and listens to television broadcast once. It is a flowchart which shows the flow of operation | movement in the case of accumulating the viewing history received from another person's television receiver in an image | video summary center. It is a figure which shows an example of the viewing-and-listening history accumulate | stored in an image | video summary center. FIG. 10 is a diagram schematically showing the viewing history of FIG. 9. It is a flowchart which shows the flow of operation | movement in the case of producing the summary information of a program image | video in an image | video summary center. It is a figure which shows an example of the user association degree which the user association degree holding | maintenance part hold | maintains. It is a schematic diagram which shows an example in the case of calculating importance using the viewing history of three others. It is a schematic diagram which shows an example of the calculated importance. It is a schematic diagram which shows an example in the case of producing summary information using the example of importance shown in FIG. It is a schematic diagram which shows the other example in the case of producing summary information using the example of importance shown in FIG. FIG. 17 is a schematic diagram showing the examples of FIG. 15 and FIG. It is a figure which shows an example of the created summary information. It is a flowchart which shows the flow of operation | movement at the time of recording the program image | video of a television broadcast in a user's television receiver. It is a flowchart which shows the flow of operation | movement at the time of reproducing | regenerating the summary image of a program image | video in a user's television receiver. It is a figure which shows the example of a display of the summary image | video with a user's television receiver. It is a figure which shows an example of a user attribute. It is a figure which shows an example of the table for calculating a user relevance degree based on a user attribute. It is a functional block diagram which shows the structure of the image | video summary center which concerns on Embodiment 2 of this invention. It is a flowchart which shows the flow of operation | movement at the time of calculating a user relevance degree in an image | video summary center. It is a figure which shows an example of the viewing history of a user and others. It is a figure which shows typically the common part of the viewing-and-listening history of FIG. It is the schematic which shows the structure of the system by which the video summarizing apparatus which concerns on Embodiment 3 of this invention is used. FIG. 10 is a functional block diagram showing a configuration of a viewing history collection center according to Embodiment 3. 10 is a functional block diagram showing a configuration of a user's television receiver according to Embodiment 3. FIG. It is the schematic which shows the structure of the system by which the video summarizing apparatus which concerns on Embodiment 4 of this invention is used. FIG. 10 is a functional block diagram illustrating a configuration of a user's television receiver according to a fourth embodiment. It is the schematic which shows the structure of the system by which the video summarizing apparatus which concerns on Embodiment 5 of this invention is used. FIG. 10 is a functional block diagram illustrating a configuration of another person's video player according to the fifth embodiment. FIG. 10 is a functional block diagram illustrating a configuration of a user video player according to a fifth embodiment. It is the schematic which shows the structure of the system by which the video summarizing apparatus which concerns on Embodiment 6 of this invention is used. FIG. 10 is a functional block diagram illustrating a configuration of a user video player according to a sixth embodiment. FIG. 10 is a functional block diagram illustrating a configuration of a rental shop according to a sixth embodiment. It is a figure which shows an example of a package medium in case viewing history is recorded on a package medium. FIG. 25 is a functional block diagram illustrating a configuration of a television receiver of another person according to Embodiment 7. FIG. 20 is a functional block diagram showing a configuration of a video summarization center according to Embodiment 7. It is a figure which shows an example of the table which shows the relationship between viewing condition and viewing degree. It is a schematic diagram which shows an example of the viewing degree digitized in time series. It is a schematic diagram which shows an example in the case of image | video cut out according to the height of all the vertices where importance becomes the maximum. It is a schematic diagram which shows an example of the metadata provided to the image | video. It is a schematic diagram which shows an example of the metadata containing the weight provided to the image | video. FIG. 20 is a functional block diagram illustrating a configuration of a television receiver of another person according to Embodiment 8. FIG. 20 is a functional block diagram showing a configuration of a video summarization center according to Embodiment 8. It is a figure which shows the example of the data table which shows the relationship between the function regarding reproduction | regeneration, and the summary application degree score. It is a flowchart which shows the flow of a process which calculates importance using an image | video application degree in an image | video summary center. FIG. 38 is a functional block diagram illustrating a configuration of a television receiver of another person according to Embodiment 9. FIG. 38 is a functional block diagram showing a configuration of a video summarization center according to Embodiment 9. It is a flowchart which shows the flow of the process which calculates importance using an image | video utilization degree in an image | video summary center. FIG. 38 is a functional block diagram showing a configuration of a video summarization center according to Embodiment 10. It is a flowchart which shows the flow of the process which calculates importance using the summary skill level in an image | video summary center. FIG. 38 is a functional block diagram showing a configuration of a video summary center according to Embodiment 11. FIG. 38 is a functional block diagram showing a configuration of a user's television receiver according to Embodiment 11. It is a figure explaining the operation | movement of the linear interpolation by a summary information interpolation part.

Explanation of symbols

11, 71, 81, 91 Others' television receivers 12, 22, 32, 72, 82, 92, 102, 112 Video summarization center 13, 33, 43, 113 User's television receiver 14 Television broadcast station 51 Others Video player 53, 63 User video player 62 Rental store 1101 Broadcast receiving unit 1102 Recording unit 1103 Display unit 1104 Viewing history holding unit 1105 Viewing history sending unit 1201 Viewing history receiving unit 1202 Viewing history holding unit 1203 Holding user relevance Unit 1204 importance calculation unit 1205 summary information creation unit 1206 summary information holding unit 1207 summary information transmission unit 1208 request reception unit 1301 summary information reception unit 1302 summary information holding unit 1303 broadcast reception unit 1304 recording unit 1305 video summarization unit 1306 display unit 2201 Relevance calculation unit 3201 Listening history extraction unit 3202 Extracted viewing history transmission unit 3301 Viewing history reception unit 3302 Request reception unit 5101 Video acquisition unit 5301 Video acquisition unit 6201, 6301 Viewing history reading unit 6202, 6302 Viewing history writing unit 7101 Viewing state detection unit 7102 Viewing degree calculation Unit 7103 viewing degree holding unit 7104 viewing degree transmitting unit 7201 viewing degree receiving unit 7202 viewing degree holding unit 7203 importance level calculating unit 8106 playback function transmitting unit 8201 viewing terminal information receiving unit 8202 summary application level calculating unit 8203 summary application level holding unit 8204 Importance level calculation unit 9106 Playback usage transmission unit 9201 Viewing terminal usage reception unit 9202 Summary usage level calculation unit 9203 Summary usage level storage unit 9204 Importance level calculation unit 10201 Summary skill level calculation unit 10202 Summary skill level storage unit 1020 Importance calculation section 11205 summary information creating multiple unit 11301 summary information interpolation unit

Claims (33)

A video summarization device for creating a summary video from a target video,
Viewing history acquisition means for acquiring a viewing history of a user who viewed at least part of the target video;
Request accepting means for accepting a request to create the summary video of the target video from a user;
Viewing time in the viewing history of another user having a high degree of user relevance with the user based on the user relevance level indicating the degree of relevance between the user who made the summary video creation request and the other user and the viewing history Importance calculating means for calculating the importance for each time in the target video, which indicates the height of the overlapping band;
A video summarization apparatus comprising: summary information creation means for creating summary information that is auxiliary information for generating a calculated video portion having a high importance level as a summary video and does not include a video. The video summarization apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the summary information creation unit creates information indicating a portion used for the summary video in the target video as the summary information. The summary information creating means selects a part of the target video where the importance is equal to or higher than a predetermined threshold as a part used for the summary video, and creates information indicating the selected part as the summary information. The video summarizing apparatus according to claim 2, characterized in that: The video summarization apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the summary information creation unit creates information indicating that the playback speed of the target video is changed according to time as the summary information. The video summarization device further includes:
Target video storage means for storing the target video;
The video summarization apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising summary video creation means for creating the summary video from the target video stored in the target video storage means based on the summary information. The video summarization device further includes:
The video summarization apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising: summary information transmission means for transmitting the summary information to another apparatus. The viewing history is presence or absence of viewing according to time in the target video,
The importance calculating means weights the time zone viewed by the other user in the viewing history with the user relevance for each other user, thereby calculating the importance for each time in the target video. The video summarization apparatus according to claim 1, wherein: The viewing history further includes a viewing degree indicating a degree of attention of viewing according to time in the target video,
The importance level calculating means weights a time zone viewed by the other user in the viewing history by the viewing degree and the user relevance level for each other user, thereby calculating a time in the target video. The video summarization apparatus according to claim 7, wherein importance is calculated for each. The target video is a broadcast video,
9. The video summarization apparatus according to claim 8, wherein the degree of viewing is determined depending on whether the target video being broadcast is viewed or whether the recorded target video is viewed. The target video is a broadcast video,
When the target video being broadcast is viewed, the degree of viewing is determined depending on the viewing situation of other broadcasts before and after the entire or a part of the target video is viewed. The video summarization apparatus according to claim 8. The target video is a broadcast video,
The video summarization apparatus according to claim 8, wherein when the recorded target video is viewed, the viewing degree is determined depending on an elapsed time from broadcasting to viewing. The video summarization apparatus according to claim 8, wherein the viewing degree is determined depending on the number of times the target video is viewed. The video summarization apparatus according to claim 8, wherein the viewing degree is determined depending on a playback speed at which the target video is viewed. The video summarization apparatus according to claim 8, wherein the viewing degree is determined depending on a type of a terminal on which the target video is viewed. The request accepting unit accepts the summary time of the summary video together with the creation request,
The video summarization apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the summary information creation unit creates the summary information so that the summary video has the summary time. The importance calculation means selects the other user whose viewing time of the target video of the other user is similar to the summary time requested by the user, and views the target video of the selected other user The video summarizing apparatus according to claim 15, wherein the importance is calculated based on a history and the user relevance. Tag information including a weight according to time in the target video is given to the target video,
The video summarizing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the importance level calculation unit calculates the importance level based on the tag information, the viewing history, and the user relevance level. The summary information creating means determines a summary time according to a type of a terminal of a user who has made the summary video creation request, and creates the summary information so that the summary video has the determined summary time. The video summarizing apparatus according to claim 1. The video summarization device further includes:
The video summarization apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising user relevance degree storage means for preliminarily storing user relevance degrees between the plurality of users. The viewing history acquisition means further acquires a viewing history of a video other than the target video of the user who made the summary video creation request and the other user,
The video summarization device further includes:
The video summarizing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising: a relevance calculating unit that calculates a degree of similarity of viewing in the viewing history of the other video of the user and the other user as the user relevance. The viewing history of the other video includes a viewing degree indicating a degree of attention of viewing according to time in the other video,
21. The video summary according to claim 20, wherein the relevance calculation means further calculates the user relevance based on a degree of similarity of the viewing degree of the other video of the user and the other user. apparatus. The viewing history of the other video includes a viewing date and time,
The relevance calculation means further calculates the user relevance based on the similarity of the viewing date and time in addition to the similarity of the viewing degree of the other video of the user and the other user. The video summarizing apparatus according to claim 21. The viewing history of the target video and the other video includes genre information of the other video,
The relevance calculating means calculates the user relevance based on the user of the other video having the same genre information as the genre information of the target video and the viewing history of the other user. The video summarizing apparatus according to claim 20. The target video is a video recorded on a package medium,
The video summarization apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the viewing history acquisition unit acquires the viewing history from the package medium itself or other media attached to the package medium. The summary video device further includes viewing terminal information receiving means for acquiring a function related to a playback operation of the viewing terminal of the user;
A summary applicability calculating unit that compares the acquired function with a score associated with a function related to a reproduction operation and calculates a summarization applicability indicating a degree suitable for summarization of the viewing terminal, and
The importance calculation means weights the time zone viewed by the other user in the viewing history by the user relevance level for each of the other users and the summary application level of the viewing terminal, The video summarization apparatus according to claim 7, wherein importance of each time in the target video is calculated. The summary video device further includes viewing terminal usage receiving means for acquiring presence / absence of use of a function related to a playback operation of the user's viewing terminal;
Summarization usage calculation means for calculating the summarization applicability indicating the degree to which the user summarizes and plays back the video by collating the acquired presence / absence of use with the score associated with the function related to the playback operation And
The importance calculation means weights the time zone viewed by the other user in the viewing history by the user relevance for each of the other users and the summary usage of the viewing terminal, The video summarization apparatus according to claim 7, wherein importance of each time in the target video is calculated. The summary video device further includes, based on the viewing history, a summary skill level representing a degree of skill that the user summarizes and views the same series of videos as the target video, a time when the user views and a program time. Summarization skill calculation means to calculate as a percentage of
The importance calculation means weights a time zone viewed by the other user in the viewing history by the user relevance level for each other user and the summary skill level for each other user. The video summarization apparatus according to claim 7, wherein importance for each time in the target video is calculated. The summary video device further includes, based on the viewing history, a summary skill level representing a skill level that the user summarizes and views the video, and a progress from the previous viewing when viewing the video for the second time or later. Summarization skill calculation means to calculate so as to increase as the time is shorter,
The importance calculation means weights a time zone viewed by the other user in the viewing history by the user relevance level for each other user and the summary skill level for each other user. The video summarization apparatus according to claim 7, wherein importance for each time in the target video is calculated. The summary information creating means creates the summary information so that the summary video is the summary time, and further creates the summary information so that the summary video is different from the summary time,
The summary video device further includes a summary information interpolation unit that linearly interpolates the two summary information and generates summary information of the summary time after the change when the summary time is changed during reproduction of the summary video. The video summarizing apparatus according to claim 15, comprising: A terminal device connected to the video summarization device according to claim 1 and creating a summary video from a target video,
Target video storage means for storing the target video;
Request means for requesting the video summarizing apparatus to create a summary video of the target video;
Summary information receiving means for receiving summary information from the video summarization device, which is information indicating a portion used for the summary video in the target video;
Summary video creation means for creating a summary video by extracting a portion indicated by the summary information received by the summary information reception means from the target video stored in the target video recording means Terminal device. A video summarization system for creating a summary video from a target video,
A terminal and a server,
The terminal
Target video storage means for storing the target video;
Requesting means for requesting the server to create the summary video of the target video;
Summary information receiving means for receiving summary information for creating the summary video from the server;
Summary video creation means for creating the summary video from the target video based on the summary information,
The server
Viewing history acquisition means for acquiring a viewing history of a user who viewed at least part of the target video;
Request accepting means for accepting the summary video creation request from the terminal;
Based on the user association degree indicating the degree of association between the user of the terminal that made the summary video creation request and the other user and the viewing history, the viewing history of another user having a high degree of user association with the user An importance calculation means for calculating the importance for each time in the target video, showing the height of the overlapping degree of the viewing time zone in
Summary information creating means for creating summary information that is auxiliary information for generating a calculated video portion with high importance as a summary video and does not include video;
A video summarization system comprising: summary information transmission means for transmitting the summary information to the terminal. A video summarization method for creating a summary video from a target video,
A viewing history acquisition step of acquiring a viewing history of a user who viewed at least a part of the target video;
A request accepting step for accepting a request to create the summary video of the target video from a user;
Viewing time in the viewing history of another user having a high degree of user relevance with the user based on the user relevance level indicating the degree of relevance between the user who made the summary video creation request and the other user and the viewing history An importance level calculating step for calculating an importance level for each time in the target video, which indicates the height of the overlapping band;
A summary information creating step for creating summary information that is auxiliary information for generating a calculated video portion having a high importance level as a summary video and does not include a video. A program for creating a summary video from a target video,
A viewing history acquisition step of acquiring a viewing history of a user who viewed at least a part of the target video;
A request accepting step for accepting a request to create the summary video of the target video from a user;
Viewing time in the viewing history of another user having a high degree of user relevance with the user based on the user relevance level indicating the degree of relevance between the user who made the summary video creation request and the other user and the viewing history An importance level calculating step for calculating an importance level for each time in the target video, which indicates the height of the overlapping band;
A program that causes a computer to execute a summary information creating step for creating summary information that is auxiliary information for generating a calculated video portion having high importance as a summary video and does not include a video .

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