JP2009124383A - Information processor, content processing system, computer program, content management method, and content retrieval method - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To retrieve the same contents based on information that they are the same contents even when pieces of meta data are different. <P>SOLUTION: A content intensive processing part 205 of a server device 200 determines the same contents based on feature amounts of the contents recorded in an information recorder 100, gives a common intensive content ID to the same contents, and registers the common intensive content ID in a registered content table 41 and a reproduction content table 42 by being associated with information regarding each content determined as the same. In addition, the content intensive processing part 205 consolidates tags extracted from meta data of each content determined as the same, and registers the consolidated tags in the reproduction content table 42 by being associated with the information regarding each content determined as the same. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2009,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus, a content processing system, a computer program, a content management method, and a content search method.

  With the spread of high-speed communication lines and the increase in storage media capacity, large-capacity digital content has been distributed. As a mechanism for efficiently searching for a user's request from a vast amount of digital content, attention has been paid to metadata and content search using the metadata. The metadata of broadcast contents such as television programs (hereinafter referred to as “contents”) includes program titles, production dates, program organization information, program guides, and copyright protection information. These metadata are created in a format uniquely determined by the broadcasting station that provides the content, and transmitted along with the content.

As a related art regarding such metadata and content search using the metadata, there is, for example, Patent Document 1. In this patent document 1, a content guide information processing apparatus receives various broadcast contents such as terrestrial waves, satellite waves, digital broadcasts, analog broadcasts, and the like in different transmission forms, and the HDD (hard disk drive) or the like. Content metadata stored in the content storage device and provided in various formats for each transmission form is integrated, and a list of content guidance information is generated through a unified user interface. I will post it.
JP 2005-064832 A

  Since the metadata structure of broadcast-related content is not standardized by the standard, the content of the metadata differs depending on the broadcast form even for the same content. For this reason, there is a case where the content to be selected as a search result is not searched depending on how the search key is selected, even though the content to be searched for is stored in the content storage device.

  In addition, when multiple contents with the same content but different metadata are stored in the content storage device, the same content is searched as separate contents for the search key entered together with the content search request from the user. And posted to the user. In this case, since the user may select content that the user has viewed in the past again, the same content is discriminated by the user, and the content to be viewed is selected, which increases the burden on the user. .

  In view of such circumstances, the present invention is an information processing apparatus, a content processing system, a computer program, and a content that can be searched together with information that the same content is the same if the metadata is different even if the metadata is different. It is intended to provide a management method and a content search method.

  In order to solve the above problems, an information processing apparatus according to the present invention is an information processing apparatus that can be connected to a recording apparatus capable of recording content, and that collects information about the content recorded in the recording apparatus And a storage unit for storing information on the content collected by the information collection unit, and determining a plurality of identical contents based on the information on the content stored in the storage unit. And an identification information adding unit that adds common identification information to the information.

  The information about the content includes metadata of the content recorded in the recording device, and tag extraction means for extracting individual data as tags from the metadata of the content collected by the information collection means; Aggregating the tags extracted by the tag extraction means from the metadata of the respective contents to which common identification information is given by the identification information giving means, and the common identification information is given as an aggregation tag, respectively And tag aggregation means for recording in the storage unit in association with information related to the content.

  Furthermore, when the information processing apparatus according to the present invention receives a content search request including a search key, the information processing apparatus collates the search key included in the content search request with the aggregation tag stored in the storage unit. It may further comprise search request processing means for searching for information related to.

  The information related to the content may include information related to the feature of the content, and the identification information adding unit may determine the same plurality of content based on the information related to the feature of the content.

  In the information processing apparatus of the present invention, the recording apparatus is connectable via a network, detects a state of connection of the recording apparatus to the network, and associates the information on the connection state with information related to the content. It is good also as providing the connection state detection means recorded on a part.

  A content processing system according to another aspect of the present invention includes a content recording unit in which the content is recorded, and information collection means for collecting information regarding the content including metadata of the content recorded in the content recording unit. A storage unit for storing information related to the content collected by the information collection means, and a plurality of identical content based on the information related to the content stored in the storage unit, Identification information providing means for assigning common identification information, tag extraction means for extracting individual data as tags from the metadata of the content collected by the information collecting means, and identification information common to the identification information providing means From the metadata of each content to which Content that includes a search key and a tag aggregation unit that aggregates the tags extracted by a group extraction unit and records them in the storage unit in association with information related to each content to which the common identification information is assigned as an aggregation tag When a search request is received, search request processing means is provided for searching information related to the content by checking the search key included in the content search request with the aggregation tag stored in the storage unit.

  A computer program according to another aspect of the present invention is a program that causes a computer to operate as an information processing apparatus that can be connected to a recording apparatus capable of recording content, and that collects information about the content recorded in the recording apparatus A collection unit, a storage unit that stores information about the content collected by the information collection unit, and a plurality of identical contents determined based on the information about the content stored in the storage unit; The computer is caused to function as identification information providing means for assigning common identification information to information relating to the information.

  A content management method according to another aspect of the present invention is a method of managing information related to the content recorded in the recording device by an information processing device connectable to the recording device capable of recording the content, and collecting information Collecting information related to the content recorded in the recording device by the means and storing the information in the storage unit; and a plurality of identical information based on the information related to the content stored in the storage unit by the identification information adding means And determining common contents and assigning common identification information to information relating to the contents.

  A content search method according to another aspect of the present invention includes a step of recording content in a recording device, and information related to the content including metadata of the content recorded in the recording device is collected by an information collecting unit. Based on the step of storing in the storage unit and the information on the content stored in the storage unit, the determination unit determines the same plurality of contents and gives common identification information to the information on each content A step of extracting individual data as tags from the metadata of the contents collected by the information collection means, and the metadata of the respective contents to which the common identification information is assigned. The tags extracted from the above are aggregated by the tag aggregation means, A step of recording in the storage unit in association with information related to each content to which common identification information is given, and when receiving a content search request including a search key, the search key and the storage included in the content search request A search request processing means for searching for information related to the content by collating with the aggregation tag stored in the section.

  According to the present invention, even if the metadata is different, the same content can be searched together with the information that the same content is the same.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

  FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a configuration of a content processing system according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

  As shown in the figure, the content processing system of the present embodiment is composed of a plurality of information recording devices 100-1, 100-2, 100-3, a server device 200, and an information access device 300, which are such as the Internet. Connection is possible through the network 1 so that they can communicate with each other.

  In the description of the information recording apparatus, 100-1, 100-2, and 100-3 indicate individual information recording apparatuses, respectively, and are indicated as “information recording apparatus 100” when there is no need to designate each individual information recording apparatus. . In this embodiment, three information recording devices 100-1, 100-2, and 100-3 are connected to the network 1, but the present invention is limited to the number of information recording devices 100 connected. is not.

  The information recording apparatus 100 receives content broadcast from broadcast stations in various broadcast forms and metadata associated therewith and records it in a large-capacity recording unit such as an HDD. In addition, the information recording apparatus 100 extracts the feature amount of the recorded content and creates a file, creates a representative thumbnail file 14, and records these files on a recording medium. Furthermore, the information recording apparatus 100 transmits the feature amount file 13, the representative thumbnail file 14, and the metadata recorded on the recording medium to the server apparatus 200 through the network 1 as information about the recorded content.

  The server device 200 collects and manages information related to the content recorded in each of the information recording devices 100-1, 100-2, 100-3, and also sends a content search request including the search key received from the information access device 300. In addition, the server device performs a process of searching for information related to the content hit with the search key and responding to the information access device 300.

  The information access device 300 transmits a content search request including a search key designated by the user to the server device 200 through the network 1, and receives from the server device 200 information related to the content hit with the search key as a response. It is an apparatus that can access the information recording apparatus 100 based on the information, acquire the data of the content, and reproduce it.

  Next, the configuration of the information recording apparatus 100 will be described.

  FIG. 30 is a diagram illustrating a hardware configuration of the information recording apparatus 100.

  As shown in the figure, a CPU (Central Processing Unit) 401 has a ROM (Read Only Memory) 403, a RAM (Random Access Memory) 404, an input operation unit 405, and an AV interface via a system bus 402. The unit 406, the display unit 407, the network connection unit 408, the decoding unit 409, the encoding unit 410, the broadcast receiving unit 411, the information recording unit 103, and the media interface unit 414 are connected.

  The input operation unit 405 includes various keys and the like, and processes input of various commands such as content recording from the user. Various commands input from the input operation unit 405 are supplied to the CPU 401 through the system bus 402 by an interface unit (not shown).

  The display unit 407 includes, for example, a display device such as an LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) and a display control circuit that drives the display device. For example, the display unit 407 displays commands and data input from the user, various statuses, and the like. .

  The AV interface unit 406 processes input / output of video signals and audio signals to / from an external AV device 6 such as a television connected to the information recording apparatus 100.

  The broadcast receiving unit 411 receives broadcast waves from broadcast stations 2, 3, and 4 in various broadcast forms such as terrestrial digital broadcast, CS digital broadcast, and BS digital broadcast, and demodulates video signals and audio signals.

  The network connection unit 408 processes connection with the network 1. The decoding unit 409 decodes the encoded data of the content read from the information recording unit 103, and restores video data and audio data. The restored digital video data is supplied to the AV interface unit 406 through the system bus 402 and output to the external AV device 6 such as a television connected to the AV interface unit 406.

  The ROM 403 stores a program for software processing to be executed by the information recording apparatus 100 and the like. The RAM 404 is a writable volatile memory used for loading a program code to be executed by the CPU 401 and writing work data of the program. The CPU 401 loads a necessary program from the ROM 403 to the RAM 404, interprets and executes it in order to execute software processing to be executed by the information recording apparatus 100.

  FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a functional configuration of the information recording apparatus 100.

  As shown in the figure, the information recording apparatus 100 includes a content receiving unit 101, a content / metadata recording processing unit 102, an information recording unit 103, a feature amount extraction unit 104, a representative thumbnail file creation unit 105, and a content list processing unit 106. A registration / change information transmission processing unit 107 and a content reproduction transmission processing unit 108 are provided.

  The content receiving unit 101 controls the broadcast receiving unit 411 to receive content broadcast from the broadcasting stations 2, 3, and 4 in various broadcasting forms such as terrestrial digital broadcasting, BS digital broadcasting, and CS digital broadcasting. For simplicity of explanation, it is assumed that each of the information recording devices 100-1, 100-2, 100-3 can receive content by one type of broadcast wave. For example, it is assumed that the information recording apparatus 100-1 can receive terrestrial digital broadcasting, the information recording apparatus 100-2 can receive BS digital broadcasting, and the information recording apparatus 100-3 can receive CS digital broadcasting. Here, terrestrial digital broadcasting, BS digital broadcasting, and CS digital broadcasting are exemplified as the types of broadcast waves. However, if it is possible to extract feature amounts from content data, broadcast waves other than those illustrated are targeted. Also good. The content receiving unit 101 may receive server-type broadcast content distributed on an IP (Internet Protocol) network.

  The content / metadata recording processing unit 102 records content data 11 received by the content receiving unit 101 and metadata 12 associated with the content data 11 in the information recording unit 103. Here, the metadata 12 includes, for example, information on broadcasting stations such as terrestrial digital broadcasting / BS / CS, program titles, program genres, performers, and the like.

  In the information recording unit 103, content data 11, metadata 12, a feature amount file 13, a representative thumbnail file 14, a content list 15 and the like are recorded. The feature file 13, the representative thumbnail file 14, and the content list 15 will be described later.

  The feature amount extraction unit 104 is based on the content data 11 recorded in the information recording unit 103, for example, video data, audio data, text data by closed captioning, or a plurality of data in the content data. The feature quantity is extracted and converted into a file, and the feature quantity file 13 is recorded in the information recording unit 103.

  The representative thumbnail file creation unit 105 creates a list of, for example, reduced images of the content from the video data of the content recorded in the information recording unit 103, creates a file, and records the file as the representative thumbnail file 14 in the information recording unit 103. Is.

  The content list processing unit 106 performs processing for creating and updating the content list 15 that is a list of information for managing the content recorded in the information recording unit 103.

  The registration / change information transmission processing unit 107 extracts the metadata 12, the feature amount file 13, and the representative thumbnail file 14 from the information recorded in the information recording unit 103. The information recording device ID, the information recording device name, and the like are transmitted as information related to the content to the server device 200 through the network 1.

  When the content reproduction / transmission processing unit 108 receives a content reproduction request from the information access device 300 through the network 1, the content list 15 stored in the information recording unit 103 based on the registered content ID included in the content reproduction request. And processing for transmitting the data of the corresponding content to the information access apparatus 300 through the network 1 by streaming or downloading.

  FIG. 3 is an example of the content list 15. The content list 15 includes, as information for each content recorded in the information recording unit 103, a recorded content ID, a recording date and time, a content file name, a metadata file name, a feature name file 13 file name, and a representative thumbnail file 14. File name, registered content ID, and the like are recorded. Here, the recorded content ID is local identification information given to the content recorded in the information recording apparatus 100. The registered content ID is identification information given to each content registered in the server device 200.

  Next, details of the processing of the feature amount extraction unit 104 will be described.

  In the embodiment of the present invention, the feature amount extracted by the feature amount extraction unit 104 includes an interval between change points in a moving image, a histogram difference value between frames constituting the moving image, and frames included between the change points. A representative histogram that is a histogram of at least one frame will be described as an example. The change point is, for example, a cut change point indicating the boundary point when the shooting scene changes momentarily in the movie, or a crossfade point indicating the boundary point when the shooting scene changes relatively large in the movie. The interval between the change points indicates an interval such as a time and the number of frames in a section between successive change points. In this example, a case where a cut change point is used as the change point will be described.

  FIG. 4 is a block diagram illustrating a functional configuration example of the feature amount extraction unit 104. The feature amount extraction unit 104 includes a color histogram extraction unit 21, a continuous interframe histogram difference calculation unit 22, a threshold holding unit 23, a cut change point determination unit 24, and a change point interval calculation unit 25.

  5A and 5B show the color of the luminance signal Y, the color difference signal (blue) Cb, and the color difference signal (red) Cr extracted from the video data of the content read from the information recording unit 103 for each frame. It is a figure which shows an example of a histogram. In the graphs shown in FIGS. 5A and 5B, the horizontal axis indicates gradation and the vertical axis indicates frequency. FIG. 5C is a diagram showing a difference in area between the color histograms shown in FIGS. 5A and 5B. In FIG. 5C, the shaded area is an area corresponding to the difference value of the area of the color histogram shown in FIGS. 5A and 5B.

  The color histogram extraction unit 21 holds the video data of the content read from the information recording unit 103 in a buffer, and the Y, Cb, and Cr color histograms of the entire screen from the video data in units of frames held in the buffer. Is sampled, the gradation is divided into N stages (for example, N = 16), and normalization is performed so that the sum of frequencies in each gradation is constant. Then, the normalized histograms of Y, Cb, and Cr are output to the continuous inter-frame histogram difference calculation unit 22. For example, a histogram of Y, Cb, and Cr extracted for one frame constituting a moving image is shown in FIG. 5A, and Y extracted for a frame next to the frame corresponding to the histogram shown in FIG. The histogram of Cb and Cr is shown in FIG. In this manner, Y, Cb, and Cr histograms are extracted for each frame constituting the moving image.

  The continuous frame histogram difference calculation unit 22 calculates the difference value of the histogram area between two consecutive frames for the Y, Cb, and Cr histograms output from the color histogram extraction unit 21. The calculated histogram difference value is output to the cut change point determination unit 24. For example, as the difference value of the areas of the histograms shown in FIGS. 5A and 5B corresponding to two consecutive frames, the value of the area of the area shown by hatching in FIG. 5C is calculated.

  The threshold value holding unit 23 holds a threshold value used when the cut change point discriminating unit 24 determines whether or not two consecutive frames are cut change points. The data is output to the point determination unit 24.

  The cut change point discriminating unit 24 determines whether the two consecutive frames are based on whether the histogram difference value output from the continuous frame histogram difference calculating unit 22 exceeds the threshold value held in the threshold value holding unit 23. It is determined whether or not it is a cut change point. That is, the cut change point determination unit 24 responds to the histogram difference value when the histogram difference value output from the continuous interframe histogram difference calculation unit 22 exceeds the threshold value held in the threshold value holding unit 23. It is determined that the two consecutive frames are cut change points, and the time corresponding to that frame is output to the change point interval calculation unit 25 as the time of the cut change point. On the other hand, if the histogram difference value output from the continuous interframe histogram difference calculation unit 22 does not exceed the threshold value stored in the threshold value holding unit 23, the cut change point determination unit 24 sets the histogram difference value to the histogram difference value. It is determined that the corresponding two consecutive frames are not cut change points. As described above, when it is determined that the current point is not a cut change point, the time is not output to the change point interval calculation unit 25.

  FIG. 6 is a diagram schematically showing images 401 to 409 corresponding to each frame constituting the moving image 400 of the content. Although the images 401 to 409 are images included in the moving image 400 of one content, the images 401 to 409 include four scenes with different shooting times and places. Therefore, in the frame in which these scenes are switched, The color changes instantaneously. For this reason, the histogram difference value between two consecutive frames when these scenes are switched exceeds the threshold value held in the threshold value holding unit 23, and it is determined that the two consecutive frames are cut change points. Is done.

  For example, the images 401 to 403 are scenes of a person walking in the city. Since the person is moving, the position of the person is slightly different, but the entire image has a similar impression. For this reason, it is determined that the histogram difference value between two consecutive frames related to the images 401 to 403 does not exceed the threshold value held in the threshold value holding unit 23, and the two consecutive frames are not cut change points.

  Further, the image 404 or 405 is a scene in which the house in front of the mountain is photographed, and the field of view of the imaging device is moved in the horizontal direction. The whole image has a similar impression. However, the comparison between the image 403 and the image 404 corresponds to a scene switching portion where the time and place where the image was taken differs, and thus the entire image is greatly different. For this reason, the boundary between the image 403 and the image 404 is set as the cut change point 411, and the time (time from the start time t 1) t 2 corresponding to the cut change point 411 is output to the change point interval calculation unit 25.

  Similarly, the boundary between the image 405 and the image 406 and the boundary between the image 407 and the image 408 are also detected as the cut change points 412 and 413, and the time t3 corresponding to the cut change points 412 and 413 and t4 is output to the change point interval calculator 25.

  Based on the time of the cut change points 411, 412, 413, 414 output from the cut change point determination unit 24, the change point interval calculation unit 25 calculates the interval between two adjacent cut change points 421, 422, 423, 424. The time interval is calculated, and the calculated cut change point interval is discharged to the feature amount file 13 as feature amount information. Note that, as an interval between two adjacent cut change points, the number of frames included between the cut change points may be calculated, and the calculated number of frames may be set as the interval between the cut change points.

  Next, the configuration of the server device 200 will be described.

  As shown in FIG. 31, for example, the server device 200 is configured by a typical computer system such as a personal computer.

  That is, the CPU 501 includes a ROM 502, a RAM 503, a network connection unit 504, an input unit 505 including a keyboard and a mouse, a CRT (Cathode Ray Tube), an LCD (Liquid Crystal Display), and the like via a system bus 509. An output unit 506 including a display and a speaker, a media interface unit 507, and a storage unit 508 including a hard disk drive and a nonvolatile memory are connected.

  The network connection unit 504 is a unit that performs communication processing via the network 1. The storage unit 508 stores a program for software processing, various data, and the like. In order to execute software processing, the CPU 501 loads a program from the storage unit 508 to the RAM 503, interprets it, and executes it. A removable medium 7 such as a magnetic disk, an optical disk, a magneto-optical disk, or a semiconductor memory is appropriately attached to the media interface unit 507, and a program read therefrom is installed in the storage unit 508 as necessary.

  FIG. 7 is a block diagram illustrating a functional configuration of the server device 200.

  The server apparatus 200 includes a registration / change information reception processing unit 201, a registration / change information registration processing unit 202, a tag extraction processing unit 203, a database 204, a content aggregation processing unit 205, a content search request processing unit 206, and a device connection state detection unit. 207.

  The registration / change information reception processing unit 201 receives information related to content transmitted from the information recording apparatus 100 through the network 1 as registration information and performs processing for receiving the change information.

  The registration / change information registration processing unit 202 records the feature amount file 13 and the representative thumbnail file 14 in the information related to the content received by the registration / change information reception processing unit 201 in the database 204 and generates a registered content ID. The registered content ID, the file name of the feature amount file 13, the file name of the representative thumbnail file 14, the information recording device ID, and the information recording device name are associated with each other and registered in the registered content table 41. In addition, the registration / change information registration processing unit 202 passes the metadata in the information regarding the content received by the registration / change information reception processing unit 201 to the tag extraction processing unit 203.

  The tag extraction processing unit 203 tags individual data, for example, information on broadcasting stations such as digital terrestrial broadcasting / BS / CS, program titles, etc., from the metadata passed from the registration / change information registration processing unit 202. Is extracted and stored in the registered content table 41 in association with information on the corresponding content on the registered content table 41.

  The content aggregation processing unit 205 determines a plurality of contents that are the same content based on the content of the feature amount file 13 of each content accumulated in the database 204, and performs a common aggregation for the determined identical content. A content ID is generated and registered in the registered content table 41 in association with information on the corresponding content on the registered content table 41. Further, the content aggregation processing unit 205, for each content registered in the registered content table 41, the information recording device ID and the information recording device name of the information recording device 100 that is the transmission source of the information related to the aggregated content ID, the aggregation tag, and the content. Then, the IP address and the content / device status flag necessary for accessing the information recording apparatus 100 are registered in the reproduction content table 42 stored in the database 204. Details of the content / device status flag and the aggregation tag will be described later.

  When the content search request processing unit 206 receives a content search request including a search key from the information access device 300 through the network 1, the content search request processing unit 206 compares the search key included in the content search request with the aggregation tag in the playback content table 42. Then, the registered information of the registered content table 41 and the reproduction content table 42 related to the content whose aggregation key matches the search key and the representative thumbnail file 14 of the content are returned as a search result to the information access device 300 through the network 1. The process which performs is performed.

  The database 204 is constructed in the storage unit 508, and stores a registered content table 41, a reproduction content table 42, a feature amount file 13 and a representative thumbnail file 14 for each content registered in the registered content table 41, and the like. It is.

  The device connection state detection unit 207 periodically detects the connection state of the information recording device 100 to the network 1 based on the connection IP address of the information recording device 100 registered in the reproduction content table 42. The content / device state flag value in the reproduction content table 42 is updated in accordance with the detection result.

  Next, the configuration of the information access device 300 will be described.

  FIG. 32 is a block diagram illustrating a hardware configuration of the information access apparatus 300. As shown in the figure, the CPU 601 has a ROM 603, a RAM 604, an input operation unit 605, a display unit 606, an audio output unit 607, a network connection unit 608, and a decoding unit 609 via a system bus 602. And are connected.

  The input operation unit 605 includes various keys and processes various commands and data input from the user. A command input from the user by the input operation unit 605 is supplied to the CPU 601 through the system bus 602 by an input interface unit (not shown).

  The display unit 606 includes, for example, a display device such as an LCD and a display control circuit that drives the display device. The audio output unit 607 includes a circuit that converts a digital audio signal into an analog audio signal, a speaker, and the like.

  The network connection unit 608 processes a wired or wireless connection with the network 1.

  The decoding unit 609 decodes the content data read from the information recording unit 103 to restore digital video data and digital audio data. The restored digital video data is supplied to and displayed on the display unit 606 through the system bus 602, while the digital audio data is supplied to the audio output unit 607 through the system bus 602 and output as sound from the speaker.

  The ROM 603 is a read-only memory in which programs and data for software processing to be executed by the information access device 300 are permanently stored. The RAM 604 is a writable volatile memory used for loading a program code to be executed by the CPU 601 and writing work data of the program. The CPU 601 comprehensively controls the above-described units and controls data exchange between the units. Further, the CPU 601 loads a program from the information recording unit 103 or the ROM 603 to the RAM 604 to interpret and execute the software process to be executed by the information access apparatus 300.

  The information access apparatus 300 according to the present embodiment is assumed to be a mobile phone, a mobile terminal such as a PDA (Personal Digital Assistant), a personal computer, or the like. However, the information access apparatus 300 of the present invention is not limited to these devices, and may take any form.

  FIG. 8 is a block diagram showing a functional configuration of the information access apparatus 300.

  As shown in the figure, the information access apparatus 300 includes a search request input unit 301, a search request processing unit 302, a playback content selection unit 303, a playback request processing unit 304, a content playback processing unit 305, and a playback content output unit 306. .

  The search request input unit 301 receives an input of a content search request including a search key for content to be viewed from the user 5 of the information access device 300 and notifies the search request processing unit 302 of the input.

  When the search request processing unit 302 receives a notification of a content search request including a search key from the search request input unit 301, the search request processing unit 302 transmits the content search request including the search key to the server device 200 through the network 1. The information related to the content as the search result and the representative thumbnail file 14 are received and transferred to the reproduction content selection unit 303.

  The reproduction content selection unit 303 posts the information related to the content and the reproduction image of the representative thumbnail file 14 as the search result passed from the search request processing unit 302 to the user, and the content instructed to be reproduced by the user 5 therein And a process of notifying the reproduction request processing unit 304 of an instruction to request the reproduction of the content instructed to be reproduced.

  The reproduction request processing unit 304 accesses the information recording apparatus 100 through the network 1 based on the connection IP address included in the information related to the content in accordance with the content reproduction request instruction notified from the reproduction content selection unit 303. A content reproduction request including a registered content ID included in information related to the content is transmitted, and content data transmitted from the information recording apparatus 100 through streaming or download is received in response to the content reproduction request, and a content reproduction processing unit 305 is received. Process to pass to.

  The content reproduction processing unit 305 performs processing for reproducing the content provided from the reproduction request processing unit 304.

  The reproduction content output unit 306 performs processing for outputting the content reproduced by the content reproduction processing unit 305 so that the user can view the content.

  Next, the operation of the content processing system of this embodiment will be described.

  FIG. 9 is a flowchart showing an operation when content is recorded by the information recording apparatus 100.

  In the information recording apparatus 100, first, the content receiving unit 101 receives content broadcast on broadcast waves of various broadcasting forms such as terrestrial digital broadcasting, BS digital broadcasting, CS digital broadcasting, and metadata associated therewith. Received (step S101). The content and metadata received by the content receiving unit 101 are recorded as files in the information recording unit 103 by the content / metadata recording processing unit 102 (step S102). As the new content is recorded in the information recording unit 103, the content list processing unit 106 updates the content list 15 (step S103). That is, the content list processing unit 106 assigns a new recorded content ID to the newly recorded content, and associates it with the recorded content ID, recording date / time, content file name, and metadata file name in the content list 15. To record.

  Thereafter, the feature amount extraction unit 104 extracts the feature amount of the content newly recorded in the information recording unit 103 and records it as the feature amount file 13 in the information recording unit 103. At this time, the content list processing unit 106 records the file name of the feature amount file 13 in the content list 15 in association with the information already recorded (step S103).

  Subsequently, the representative thumbnail file creation unit 105 performs processing for creating, for example, a list of reduced images of the content as the representative thumbnail file 14 from the video data of the content newly recorded in the information recording unit 103. The representative thumbnail file 14 thus recorded is recorded in the information recording unit 103. At this time, the content list processing unit 106 records the file name of the representative thumbnail file 14 of the content in the content list 15 in association with the information of the content (step S105).

  Note that the procedure of the feature amount file 13 creation process and the representative thumbnail file 14 creation process may be performed first.

  Next, an operation when registering information related to content recorded in the information recording apparatus 100 in the server apparatus 200 will be described. FIG. 10 is a flowchart showing operations of the information recording apparatus 100 and the server apparatus 200 at this time.

  First, in the information recording apparatus 100, the registration / change information transmission processing unit 107 determines whether there is content to be registered in the server apparatus 200 (step S201). This determination is performed by regarding a content whose registered content ID is not registered in the content list 15 as being unregistered. When the registration / change information transmission processing unit 107 determines that there is unregistered content, the registration / change information transmission processing unit 107 transmits a registration processing request to the server apparatus 200 via the network 1 (step S202).

  When the registration / change information reception processing unit 201 of the server device 200 receives the registration processing request from the information recording device 100, the registration / change information reception processing unit 201 responds to the information recording device 100 that the registration processing request is accepted through the network 1, and waits for reception of registration information. A state is entered (step S203).

  When the registration / change information transmission processing unit 107 of the information recording device 100 receives a response indicating that the registration processing request is accepted from the server device 200, the registration / change information transmission processing unit 107 should register with reference to the content list 15 recorded in the information recording unit 103. The content metadata 12, the feature amount file 13, and the representative thumbnail file 14 are determined. Then, the registration / change information transmission processing unit 107 relates the determined metadata 12, the feature amount file 13, and the representative thumbnail file 14, and the information recording device ID and information recording device name set in advance to the content. Information is transmitted to the server device 200 through the network 1 (step S204).

  When the registration / change information reception processing unit 201 of the server apparatus 200 receives information about the content from the information recording apparatus 100, the registration / change information reception processing unit 201 responds to the information recording apparatus 100 with the end of reception of registration information and also registers / changes in the server apparatus 200. The information registration processing unit 202 is instructed to register the information in the database 204 (step S205). Upon receiving this instruction, the registration / change information registration processing unit 202 registers information in the database 204 as follows.

  First, the registration / change information registration processing unit 202 records the feature amount file 13 and the representative thumbnail file 14 in the information related to the acquired content in the database 204. Subsequently, the registration / change information registration processing unit 202 generates a registered content ID for the content, and stores the registered content ID, registration date, and feature amount file 13 in the registered content table 41 stored in the database 204. The file name, the file name of the representative thumbnail file 14, the information recording device ID, and the information recording device name are registered in association with each other.

  Thereafter, the registration / change information registration processing unit 202 passes the metadata in the acquired information on the content to the tag extraction processing unit 203. Upon receiving the metadata, the tag extraction processing unit 203 extracts individual data included in the metadata, for example, information on broadcasting stations such as digital terrestrial broadcasting / BS / CS, data such as program titles as tags, and registers them. The information is registered in the registered content table 41 in association with information on the corresponding content on the content table 41 (step S206).

  The registration / change information registration processing unit 202 transmits the newly generated registered content ID to the information recording apparatus 100 that is the information transmission source via the network 1. The content list update processing unit 106 of the information recording device 100 receives the registered content ID transmitted from the server device 200 through the network 1 and associates the content list 15 stored in the information recording unit 103 with information related to the corresponding content. (Step S207).

  Next, in the server device 200, the content aggregation processing is performed by the content aggregation processing unit 205 as follows (step S208). The content aggregation processing unit 205 determines the same content as the content newly registered this time based on the content of the feature amount file 13 of each content registered in the registered content table 41. In this determination, for example, as a condition for determining that the contents are the same, a threshold value of a difference in feature amount between two contents is set in advance, and a difference in feature amount between the two contents is determined. When the value is equal to or less than the threshold, the two contents are determined as the same contents.

  If the content aggregation processing unit 205 determines that there is no existing content that is the same as the newly registered content, the content aggregation processing unit 205 generates a new aggregated content ID and stores this aggregated content ID in the registered content table 41. Register in association with information about the content registered this time. Furthermore, the content aggregation processing unit 205 adds the aggregated content ID, the information recording device ID and information recording device name of the information recording device 100, the aggregation tag, the connection IP address, the content / device to the reproduction content table 42 stored in the database 204. A status flag is registered (step S209). The content / device state flag is set to a value indicating “playable” as an initial value at the time of registration.

  If the content aggregation processing unit 205 determines that there is an existing content that is the same as the content newly registered this time, the content aggregation processing unit 205 sets the aggregated content ID already assigned to the existing content to the registered content table. 41 is registered in association with information on the content registered this time. That is, a common aggregated content ID is assigned to each content determined to be the same content. Further, the content aggregation processing unit 205 registers the aggregated content ID, the information recording device ID and information recording device name of the information recording device 100, the aggregation tag, the connection IP address, and the content / device status flag in the reproduction content table 42. (Step S209). The content / device status flag is set to a value indicating “playable” as an initial value.

  The aggregation tag is a collection of a plurality of content tags determined to be the same and assigned the same aggregation content ID, and the number of registered contents including the tag in the metadata (tag score) for each tag. ) As weight information.

  As described above, the registration process of the information related to the content recorded in the information recording device 100 to the server device 200 is completed.

  Next, a specific example of an operation when registering information related to content from the information recording apparatus 100 to the server apparatus 200 will be described.

  FIG. 11 is a specific example of the registered content table 41 at a certain time. The registered content table 41 includes a registered content ID of the registered content, a registration date and time in the registered content table 41, an information recording device ID of a recording destination of the content, an information recording device name, a feature file name, a tag, and a representative thumbnail. It is a table for registering file names and aggregated content IDs as information related to one content in association with each other.

  In the registered content table 41 of FIG. 11, it is determined that the two contents whose registered content IDs are “0000” and “0001” are the same contents based on the respective feature amounts, and are common to the respective contents. “000”, which is the aggregated content ID of “”. Similarly, the two contents whose registered content IDs are “0002” and “0003” are also determined as the same content, and a common aggregated content ID “001” is given to each content.

  Here, the information recording apparatus 100-3 (see FIG. 1) having the information recording apparatus name “C” and the information recording apparatus ID “02” generates a request for registering information about new content, and the server apparatus 200 The registration / change information reception processing unit 201 receives information on the new content from the information recording apparatus 100-3, and the registration / change information registration processing unit 202 adds the information to the registered content table 41 shown in FIG. The result of registration of information other than the aggregated content ID is shown in FIG.

  Here, processing in the server device 200 until the registered content table 41 of FIG. 12 is obtained will be described. The registration / change information registration processing unit 202 stores the feature amount file 13 and the representative thumbnail file 14 in the information about the content acquired from the information recording apparatus 100-3 through the network 1 in the database 204, and then registers the registered content of the content. “0004” is generated as the ID, and this registered content ID “0004” is registered in the newly set entry in the registered content table 41.

  Subsequently, the registration / change information registration processing unit 202 acquires the current date and time, and registers it in the new entry of the registered content table 41 as the registration date and time. Next, the registration / change information registration processing unit 202 records the file names of the feature amount file 13 and the representative thumbnail file 14 registered in the database 204, and the information recording of the information recording apparatus 100-3 that is the transmission source of information related to the content. The device ID “02” and the information recording device name “C” are registered in the new entry of the registered content table 41.

  Next, the tag extraction processing unit 203 acquires metadata from the registration / change information registration processing unit 202, and from this metadata, “MNKG”, “continuous television novel”, “Yuisan”, “79” are used as tags. Extracted and registered in the new entry in the registered content table 41. Thereby, the registered content table 41 shown in FIG. 12 is obtained.

  Next, the content aggregation processing unit 205 creates a new entry in the reproduction content table 42 and registers the new entry as follows.

  FIG. 14 is a specific example of the reproduction content table 42. The playback content table 42 associates the aggregated content ID of the registered content, the aggregated tag, the information recording device ID of the recording destination of the content, the information recording device name, the content / device state flag, and the connection IP address with one another It is a table registered as information regarding contents.

  The content aggregation processing unit 205 first generates a new entry in the reproduction content table 42. The content aggregation processing unit 205 generates an aggregation tag based on the tag registered in the new entry of the registered content table 41 and registers it in the new entry of the reproduction content table 42. In the example of FIG. 14, “MNKG: 1”, “Continuous TV novel: 1”, “Yui-san: 1”, and “79: 1” are registered in the new entry as aggregation tags. Here, “: x” is weight information, and the value of x is a value corresponding to the number of contents.

  Further, the new entry of the reproduction content table 42 includes “02”, which is the information recording device ID of the information recording device 100-3 that is the transmission source of information related to the content, “C”, which is the name of the information recording device, and content / device. “41.14.7.10” is registered as the initial value of the status flag and the connection IP address of the information recording apparatus 100-3. At this time, the aggregated content ID has not yet been generated and has not been registered in the new entry of the reproduction content table 42.

  Subsequently, the content aggregation processing unit 205 determines existing content that is the same as the content newly registered in the registered content table 41 based on the feature amount file 13 stored in the database 204, and the determination result. Based on the above, the aggregated content ID is registered in the new entry of the registered content table 41.

  FIG. 13 shows an example of the registered content table 41 in which the aggregate content ID is registered. In this example, it is determined that the content newly registered in the registered content table 41 (registered content ID = 0004) is the same as the existing content (registered content ID = 0000,0001), and the existing content. Since the aggregated content ID of “000” is “000”, “000” is given as the aggregated content ID of the newly registered content (registered content ID = 0004) this time, and is registered in the new entry of the registered content table 41. It shows that.

  FIG. 15 is a diagram illustrating an example of updating the reproduction content table 42 when the aggregated content ID already assigned to the existing content is registered in the new entry of the registered content table 41. The content aggregation processing unit 205 registers “000”, which is the aggregate content ID assigned to the newly registered content (registered content ID = 0004), in the new entry of the reproduction content table 42. As a result, the content whose aggregate content ID is “000” becomes three content whose registered content IDs are “0000”, “0001”, and “0004”. As described above, when the aggregated content ID of the existing content is given as the aggregated content ID of the newly registered content, the content aggregation processing unit 205 displays the common aggregated content ID in the registered content table 41. An aggregation tag is generated from the tag registered in each entry having. Then, the content aggregation processing unit 205 updates the existing aggregation tag of each entry having the common aggregation content ID in the reproduction content table 42 with the newly generated aggregation tag. That is, in the example of FIG. 15, the aggregation tags of the contents whose registered content IDs are “0000”, “0001”, and “0004” are “Yui-san: 3”, “79: 2”, “continuous television novel”, respectively. : 1 "," CS313: 1 "," MNK General: 1 ", and" MNKG: 3 ".

  In FIG. 16, after that, an information recording apparatus 100-1 (see FIG. 1) whose information recording apparatus name is A (information recording apparatus ID is “00”) generates a request for registering information about new content. The registration / change information reception processing unit 201 of the server device 200 receives information about new content from the information recording device 100-1, and the registration / change information registration processing unit 202 stores the information into the registered content table 41 of the database 204. The result of registration other than the aggregated content ID is shown.

  Processing in the server device 200 until the registered content table 41 of FIG. 16 is obtained will be described. The registration / change information registration processing unit 202 stores the feature amount file 13 and the representative thumbnail file 14 in the information about the content acquired from the information recording apparatus 100-1 through the network 1 in the database 204, and then registers the registered content of the content. “0005” is generated as the ID, and this registered content ID “0005” is registered in the newly set entry in the registered content table 41.

  Subsequently, the registration / change information registration processing unit 202 acquires the current date and time, and registers it in the new entry of the registered content table 41 as the registration date and time. Next, the registration / change information registration processing unit 202 records the file names of the feature amount file 13 and the representative thumbnail file 14 registered in the database 204 and the information recording of the information recording apparatus 100-1 that is the transmission source of the information related to the content. The device ID “00” and the information recording device name “A” are registered in the new entry of the registered content table 41.

  Next, the tag extraction processing unit 203 acquires the metadata in the information related to the content from the registration / change information registration processing unit 202, and uses “CS313”, “Yuisan”, and “80” as tags from this metadata. Extracted and registered in the new entry in the registered content table 41.

  Next, the content aggregation processing unit 205 creates a new entry in the reproduction content table 42 and registers the new entry as follows.

  FIG. 18 shows an example of registration in the reproduction content table 42 at this point. The content aggregation processing unit 205 generates an aggregation tag based on the tag registered in the new entry of the registered content table 41 and registers it in the new entry of the reproduction content table 42. In the example of FIG. 18, “CS313: 1”, “Yuisan: 1”, and “80: 1” are registered in the new entry as aggregation tags. Furthermore, the new entry of the reproduction content table 42 includes “00”, which is the information recording device ID that identifies the information recording device 100-1 that is the transmission source of the information related to the content, “A”, the name of the information recording device, and the content. “41.14.7.8” is registered as the initial value of the device status flag and the connection IP address of the information recording apparatus 100-1. At this time, the aggregated content ID has not yet been generated and is not registered in the new entry of the reproduction content table 42.

  Subsequently, the content aggregation processing unit 205 determines existing content that is the same as the content newly registered in the registered content table 41 based on the feature amount file 13 stored in the database 204, and the determination result. Based on the above, the aggregated content ID is registered in the new entry of the registered content table 41.

  FIG. 17 shows an example of the registered content table 41 in which the aggregate content ID is registered. In this example, it is determined that the content newly registered in the registered content table 41 (registered content ID = 0005) is substantially different from any existing content, and the new aggregated content ID “002” is determined. Assigned to the new entry in the registered content table 41.

  FIG. 19 is a diagram illustrating an example of updating the playback content table 42 when a new aggregated content ID is assigned to the registered content table 41. The content aggregation processing unit 205 registers “002”, which is the aggregated content ID assigned to the newly registered content (registered content ID = 0005), in the new entry of the reproduction content table 42. When a new aggregated content ID is assigned to the registered content table 41 in this way, the content aggregation processing unit 205 leaves the aggregation tag of the new entry in the reproduction content table 42 as it is.

  Next, an operation when a change in state such as a change in IP address or deletion of recorded content occurs in the information recording apparatus 100 will be described.

  FIG. 20 is a flowchart illustrating operations of the information recording apparatus 100 and the server apparatus 200 when a change in state occurs in the information recording apparatus 100.

  First, the registration / change information transmission processing unit 107 of the information recording apparatus 100 makes a registration information change processing request through the network 1 when a change in state such as an IP address change or content deletion occurs (step S301). It transmits to the server apparatus 200 (step S302).

  When the registration / change information reception processing unit 201 of the server device 200 receives the content change processing request from the information recording device 100, the registration / change information reception processing unit 201 responds to the information recording device 100 that it accepts the change processing request. (Step S303).

  When the registration / change information transmission processing unit 107 of the information recording device 100 receives a response to accept the change processing request from the server device 200, the registration / change information transmission processing unit 107 displays the change information indicating the change contents of the state as the information recording device ID, the information recording device name, and the like. At the same time, it is transmitted to the server apparatus 200 through the network 1 (step S304). Here, when the change in state is an IP address change, the changed IP address is transmitted as change information to the server apparatus 200 together with the information recording apparatus ID and the information recording apparatus name. When the change in state is deletion of content, the registered content ID of the deleted content is transmitted as change information to the server device 200 together with the information recording device ID and the information recording device name.

  When the registration / change information reception processing unit 201 of the server device 200 receives the change information from the information recording device 100, the registration / change information reception processing unit 201 sends a reception completion response to the information recording device 100 and registers the registered content in the registration / change information registration processing unit 202. A change based on the change information for the table 41 and the reproduction content table 42 is instructed (step S305). Upon receiving this change instruction, the registration / change information registration processing unit 202 changes the registered content table 41 and the reproduction content table 42 based on the change information (step S306). Thereafter, content aggregation processing is performed by the content aggregation processing unit 205 in the same manner as when information related to content is registered (step S307), and the registered content table 41 and the reproduction content table 42 are updated based on the result of the content aggregation processing. Is performed (step S308).

  In the server device 200, the device connection state detection unit 207 periodically connects the information recording device 100 to the network 1 based on the IP address of the information recording device 100 registered in the reproduction content table 42. The status is detected, and the content / device status flag in the playback content table 42 is updated based on the detection result. That is, the content / device status flag corresponding to the content recorded in the information recording apparatus 100 in which disconnection from the network 1 is detected is rewritten from “playable” to “not connectable”.

  FIG. 21 shows an example of updating the playback content table 42 in response to a change in state in the information recording apparatus 100. Here, change information that the content with the registered content ID “0001” is deleted from the information recording device 100-2 with the information recording device name “B” and the information recording device ID “01” is sent to the server device 200. As a result of the transmission, the value of the content / device state flag of the corresponding entry in the reproduction content table 42 is updated from “reproducible” to “erased”. Further, the information recording device name is “C” and the information recording device ID is “02” by periodically detecting the connection status of each information recording device 100 to the network 1 by the device connection status detection unit 207 in the server device 200. It is detected that the information recording device 100-3 is disconnected from the network 1, so that the content / device status flag of the corresponding entry in the reproduction content table 42 is updated from “reproducible” to “not connectable”. .

  Next, an operation when the information access device 300 transmits a content search request to the server device 200, acquires data of content to be played back from the information recording device 100 based on the search result, and plays back will be described. FIG. 22 is a flowchart showing the operation at this time.

  First, the search request processing unit 302 of the information access device 300 is triggered by the input of the search key for the content to be reproduced and the content search request instruction from the user through the search request input unit 301 (step S401). A content search request including the input search key is transmitted to server apparatus 200 (step S402).

  When the content search request processing unit 206 of the server device 200 receives the content search request from the information access device 300, the content search request processing unit 206 collates the search key included in the content search request with the aggregation tag of each entry in the reproduction content table 42. The registered information in the registered content table 41 and the reproduction content table 42 regarding the content whose aggregation tag matches the search key and the representative thumbnail file 14 of the content corresponding to the entry are stored in the information access apparatus 300 as a search result. A response is made through the network 1 (step S403).

  When receiving the search result from the server device 200, the search request processing unit 302 of the information access device 300 passes this search result to the reproduction content selection unit 303 (step S404). The playback content selection unit 303 posts information related to the content and the playback image of the representative thumbnail file 14, which are the search results passed from the search request processing unit 302, and determines the content selected by the user among them. Then, a content playback request instruction for this content is sent to the playback request processing unit 304 (step S405).

  Upon receiving a content playback request instruction from the playback content selection unit 303, the playback request processing unit 304 accesses the information recording apparatus 100 through the network 1 based on the connection IP address included in the information related to the content, and plays back the playback request. A content reproduction request including the registered content ID of the target content is transmitted (step S406).

  In the information recording apparatus 100, the content reproduction request received from the information access apparatus 300 is processed by the content reproduction transmission processing unit 108. The content reproduction / transmission processing unit 108 searches the content list 15 stored in the information recording unit 103 based on the registered content ID included in the received content reproduction request, specifies the corresponding content, and stores the data of this content. The information is transmitted to the requesting information access apparatus 300 through the network 1 by streaming or downloading (step S407).

  In the information access device 300, the content data received from the information recording device 100 is played back by the content playback processing unit 305, and output through the playback content output unit 306 as information that can be viewed by the user.

  Next, a specific example of an operation when the information access device 300 transmits a content search request to the server device 200 to acquire and reproduce content data to be reproduced from the information recording device 100 will be described.

  The user of the information access device 300 inputs a content search request including a search key “Yuisan” to the search request input unit 301, and is transmitted to the server device 200 through the network 1 by the search request processing unit 302. Suppose.

  When the content search request processing unit 206 of the server apparatus 200 receives the content search request including the search key “Yuisan”, the search key “Yuisan” included in the content search request and the playback content table 42 (for example, FIG. 19) and the aggregation tag of each entry. Here, there are four entries including the tag “Yui-san” in the aggregation tag of the reproduction content table 42. Therefore, the content search request processing unit 206 responds to the information access device 300 through the network 1 as the search result with the information on the contents of the four entries and the representative thumbnail file 14 in the registered content table 41 and the playback content table 42.

  FIG. 23 is a diagram showing search results from the registered content table 41 and the reproduction content table 42 in this specific example. In this way, from the playback content table 42, the aggregated content ID, information recording device ID, aggregated tag, content / device status flag, connection IP address, and the like of the content including “Yuisan” in the aggregation tag are extracted, and the registered content A registered content ID, an information recording device ID, a tag, a representative thumbnail file name, an aggregate content ID, and the like of the content are extracted from the table 41, and the information access device 300 as a search result together with the representative thumbnail file 14 corresponding to the representative thumbnail file name. Is responded to.

  In this specific example, regardless of the value of the content / device status flag, information regarding the content of the entry whose search key included in the content search request matches any of the tags of the aggregation tag is used as the registered content table 41 and the playback content. The search result is extracted from the table 42, but the content / device state flag value is “erased”, that is, the information regarding the content of the entry that is deleted in the information recording apparatus 100 is excluded from the search result. May be.

  FIG. 24 is a diagram showing a display example of the search result shown in FIG. 23 on the content access apparatus. In the search result shown in FIG. 23, there are three contents whose aggregated content ID is “000” and one content whose aggregated content ID is “002”. Of the three contents whose aggregated content ID is “000”, the content / device status flag value of the two contents is “reproducible”, but the content / device status flag value of the remaining one content is “erase” 24, in the search result display example of FIG. 24, two contents whose content / device state flag value is “reproducible” among the three contents whose aggregated content ID is “000” are displayed. Only the display information 51 and 52 based on the information regarding is displayed. Since the value of the content / device state flag of one content whose aggregated content ID is “002” is “reproducible”, the display information 53 based on the information related to this content is also displayed.

  Here, the search request processing unit 302 of the information access device 300 determines the display order of the contents in the search result based on the tag score for each tag included in the search result. In the display example of FIG. 24, the display information 51 and 52 of the content whose aggregated content ID is “000” is displayed above the display information 53 of the content whose aggregated content ID is “002” and the order of viewing by the user is shown. Prioritize. That is, in the tag of the content whose aggregated content ID is “000”, the tag score attached to the tag “Yuisan”, which is the data specified by the user as a search key, is “3”, whereas the aggregated content ID In the tag of the content with “002”, the tag score attached to the tag “Yui-san”, which is the data specified as the search key by the user, is “1”. Based on these tag scores, the search request processing unit 302 changes the display order of the display information 51 and 52 of the content with the aggregate content ID “000” from the display information 53 of the content with the aggregate content ID “002”. As described above, the display order of the contents is determined in the search result.

  In this search result display example, the reproduction image 54, the tag 55, the content / device state 56, etc. of the representative thumbnail file 14 are displayed. When the content / device state 53 is “reproducible” or “erased”, the content / device state is displayed as it is but the information recording device 100 is not connected to the network 1. In the case of “not connectable”, the content data itself is recorded in the information recording apparatus 100 although it cannot be played back at present, so that it can be played back later or by a download reservation. In order to show that there is a possibility, “reservation viewing possible” is displayed as the display contents of the content / device state.

  The content display information 51, 52, 53 is grouped for each aggregated content ID, and the aggregation tags 57, 58 associated with the aggregated content ID are associated with a group of content display information for each aggregated content ID. Displayed.

  Thereby, the user of the information access apparatus 300 can easily recognize the same content even if the metadata is different due to a difference in broadcasting form, etc., and the operation when the user selects the content that the user wants to watch or record is recorded. Improves.

  Next, a second embodiment of the present invention will be described.

  In the first embodiment, the information recording device 100 detects the feature amount of the content and transmits the feature amount data to the server device 200. However, in the second embodiment, the server device 200 and others In the server apparatus, the feature amount of the content is detected and the representative thumbnail file 14 is generated.

  FIG. 25 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the information recording apparatus 100 in the content processing system of this embodiment.

  As shown in the figure, the information recording apparatus 100 includes a content receiving unit 101, a content / metadata recording processing unit 102, an information recording unit 103, a content list processing unit 106, a registration / change information transmission processing unit 107, and a content reproduction / transmission. A processing unit 108 is provided. That is, the configuration of the information recording apparatus 100 of the present embodiment is obtained by removing the feature amount extraction unit 104 and the representative thumbnail file creation unit 105 from the configuration of the information recording apparatus 100 of the first embodiment. Therefore, in the information recording unit 103, the content data 11, the metadata 12, and the content list 15 are recorded, and the feature amount file 13 and the representative thumbnail file 14 are not recorded.

  FIG. 26 shows an example of the content list 15 of this embodiment. In the content list 15, recorded content ID, recording date, content file name, metadata file name, registered content ID, etc. are recorded as information for each content recorded in the information recording unit 103. Yes. The difference from the content list 15 of the first embodiment is that the file name of the feature file 13 and the file name of the representative thumbnail file 14 are not registered.

  FIG. 27 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the server device 200 in the content processing system of this embodiment.

  The server apparatus 200 includes a registration / change information reception processing unit 201, a registration / change information registration processing unit 202, a tag extraction processing unit 203, a database 204, a content aggregation processing unit 205, a content search request processing unit 206, and a device connection state detection unit. 207, a feature amount extraction content receiving unit 208, a feature amount extraction content recording processing unit 209, a feature amount extraction unit 210, and a representative thumbnail file creation unit 211. That is, the configuration of the server device 200 of the present embodiment is the same as the configuration of the server device 200 of the first embodiment except that the feature amount extraction content receiving unit 208, the feature amount extraction content / metadata recording processing unit 209, and the feature amount. An extraction unit 210 and a representative thumbnail file creation unit 211 are added.

  A feature amount extraction content receiving unit 208 extracts feature amounts that are broadcast on broadcast waves from broadcasting stations 2, 3, and 4 in various broadcasting forms such as terrestrial digital broadcasting, BS digital broadcasting, and CS digital broadcasting. Receive as data for use. Here, terrestrial digital broadcasting, BS digital broadcasting, and CS digital broadcasting are exemplified as the types of broadcast waves. However, if it is possible to extract feature amounts from content data, broadcast waves other than those illustrated are targeted. Also good.

  The feature amount extraction unit 210 extracts the feature amount of the content based on the feature amount extraction content data received by the feature amount extraction content reception unit 208, converts the feature amount into a file, and stores the feature amount file 13 in the database. 204 is recorded.

  The representative thumbnail file creation unit 211 creates a file such as a reduced image list of the content from the video data of the content received as the feature amount extraction data by the feature amount extraction content reception unit 208, and creates a file. The representative thumbnail file 14 is recorded in the database 204.

  Since the configuration of the information access apparatus 300 in the content processing system of the present embodiment is the same as that of the first embodiment, description thereof is omitted.

  Next, the operation of the content processing system of this embodiment will be described.

  FIG. 28 is a flowchart showing an operation when content is recorded by the information recording apparatus 100.

  In the information recording apparatus 100, first, the content receiving unit 101 receives content broadcast on a broadcast wave such as terrestrial digital broadcast, BS digital broadcast, CS digital broadcast, and metadata associated therewith (step). S501). The content and metadata received by the content receiving unit 101 are recorded as files in the information recording unit 103 by the content / metadata recording processing unit 102 (step S502). Along with the recording of the new content information recording unit 103, the content list processing unit 106 updates the content list 15 (step S503). That is, the content list processing unit 106 assigns a new recorded content ID to the newly recorded content, and associates the content list with the recorded content ID, recording date / time, content file name, and metadata file name. Record in 15.

  Next, an operation when registering information related to content recorded in the information recording apparatus 100 in the server apparatus 200 will be described. FIG. 29 is a flowchart showing operations of the information recording apparatus 100 and the server apparatus 200 at this time.

  First, in the information recording apparatus 100, the registration / change information transmission processing unit 107 determines whether there is content to be registered in the server apparatus 200 (step S601). This determination is performed by regarding a content whose registered content ID is not registered in the content list 15 as being unregistered. If the registration / change information transmission processing unit 107 determines that there is unregistered content, the registration / change information transmission processing unit 107 transmits a registration processing request to the server apparatus 200 via the network 1 (step S602).

  When the registration / change information reception processing unit 201 of the server device 200 receives the registration processing request from the information recording device 100, the registration / change information reception processing unit 201 responds to the information recording device 100 that the registration processing request is accepted through the network 1, and waits to receive information. (Step S603).

  When the registration / change information transmission processing unit 107 of the information recording device 100 receives a response indicating that the registration processing request is accepted from the server device 200, the registration / change information transmission processing unit 107 should register with reference to the content list 15 recorded in the information recording unit 103. The content metadata 12 is determined. Then, the registration / change information transmission processing unit 107 transmits the determined metadata 12 and the information recording device ID and information recording device name set in advance to the server device 200 through the network 1 as information related to the content. (Step S604).

  When the registration / change information reception processing unit 201 of the server apparatus 200 receives information about the content from the information recording apparatus 100, the registration / change information reception processing unit 201 responds to the information recording apparatus 100 with the end of reception of registration information and also registers / changes in the server apparatus 200. The information registration processing unit 202 is instructed to register the information in the database 204 (step S605). Upon receiving this instruction, the registration / change information registration processing unit 202 registers information related to the content in the database 204 as follows.

  First, the registration / change information registration processing unit 202 generates a registered content ID for the content, and stores the registered content ID, registration date, information recording device ID, and the registered content table 41 stored in the database 204. Register information recording device names in association with each other. Thereafter, the registration / change information registration processing unit 202 passes the metadata in the acquired information on the content to the tag extraction processing unit 203. When the tag extraction processing unit 203 receives the metadata, the tag extraction processing unit 203 extracts, for example, data of a broadcasting station such as terrestrial digital broadcasting / BS / CS, data such as a program title included in the metadata as a tag, and the registered content table 41 It is registered in the registered content table 41 in association with the information on the corresponding content above (step S606).

  Next, the registration / change information registration processing unit 202 transmits the newly generated registration content ID through the network 1 to the information recording apparatus 100 that is the transmission source of the registration information. The content list update processing unit 106 of the information recording device 100 receives the registered content ID transmitted from the server device 200 through the network 1 and associates the content list 15 stored in the information recording unit 103 with the corresponding content information. (Step S607).

  Subsequently, the registration / change information registration processing unit 202 issues a feature amount extraction content reception request including the metadata 12 in the received content information to the feature amount extraction content reception unit 208. When receiving the feature quantity extraction content reception request, the feature quantity extraction content receiving unit 208 receives the terrestrial digital broadcast, BS digital broadcast, and CS digital broadcast based on the metadata 12 included in the feature quantity extraction content reception request. The content data broadcast on the broadcast wave is received as feature quantity extraction data (step S608). The feature amount extraction data received by the feature amount extraction content receiving unit 208 is sent to the feature amount extraction unit 210 and the representative thumbnail file creation unit 211. The feature quantity extraction unit 210 extracts the feature quantity of the content based on the feature quantity extraction data, forms a file, records the feature quantity file 13 in the database 204, and registers the file name of the feature quantity file 13 The content is registered in the registered content table 41 in association with information on the corresponding content on the content table 41 (step S609). On the other hand, the representative thumbnail file creation unit 211 creates a file such as a list of reduced images of the content from the video data in the feature amount extraction data, creates a file, and records the file as the representative thumbnail file 14 in the database 204. The file name of the thumbnail file 14 is registered in the registered content table 41 in association with information on the corresponding content on the registered content table 41 (step S610).

  Next, in the server device 200, the content aggregation processing is performed by the content aggregation processing unit 205 as follows in the same manner as in the first embodiment (step S611). The content aggregation processing unit 205 determines the same content as the content newly registered this time based on the content of the feature amount file 13 of each content registered in the registered content table 41. In this determination, for example, as a condition for determining that the contents are the same, a threshold value of a difference in feature amount between two contents is set in advance, and a difference in feature amount between the two contents is determined. When the value is equal to or less than the threshold, the two contents are determined as the same contents.

  If the content aggregation processing unit 205 determines that there is no existing content that is the same as the newly registered content, the content aggregation processing unit 205 generates a new aggregated content ID and stores this aggregated content ID in the registered content table 41. Register in association with information about the content registered this time. Furthermore, the content aggregation processing unit 205 adds the aggregated content ID, the information recording device ID and information recording device name of the information recording device 100, the aggregation tag, the connection IP address, the content / device to the reproduction content table 42 stored in the database 204. A status flag is registered (step S612). The content / device state flag is set to a value indicating “playable” as an initial value at the time of registration.

  If the content aggregation processing unit 205 determines that there is an existing content that is the same as the content newly registered this time, the content aggregation processing unit 205 sets the aggregated content ID already assigned to the existing content to the registered content table. 41 is registered in association with information on the content registered this time. That is, a common aggregated content ID is assigned to each content determined to be the same content. Further, the content aggregation processing unit 205 registers the aggregated content ID, the information recording device ID and information recording device name of the information recording device 100, the aggregation tag, the connection IP address, and the content / device status flag in the reproduction content table 42. (Step S612). The content / device status flag is set to a value indicating “playable” as an initial value.

  As described above, the registration of the information related to the content transmitted from the information recording apparatus 100 is completed. Thereafter, the operation in the case where a change in state such as an IP address change or deletion of recorded content occurs in the information recording device 100, the information access device 300 transmits a content search request to the server device 200, and the search The operation when acquiring and reproducing the content data to be reproduced from the information recording apparatus 100 based on the result is the same as in the first embodiment.

  According to the second embodiment, by performing feature extraction and representative thumbnail file 14 creation in the server device 200, those functions are not required in the information recording device 100, and the configuration of the entire content processing system is simplified. Can be achieved.

  Next, a modified sequence of the second embodiment will be described.

  In the server device 200 according to the second embodiment, metadata, the feature amount file 13 and the representative thumbnail file 14 may be associated and recorded in the database 204.

  In this modification, the registration / change information registration processing unit 202 determines whether the same metadata as the metadata in the received content information is recorded in the database 204, and is not recorded in the database 204. For this reason, a feature quantity extraction content reception request including metadata is issued to the feature quantity extraction content receiving unit 208. The feature quantity extraction unit 210 extracts a feature quantity from the feature quantity extraction data received by the feature quantity extraction content reception unit 208, generates the feature quantity file 13 and records it in the database 204. The file name of the file 13 is registered in association with information on the corresponding content on the registered content table 41, and the feature file name is notified to the registration / change information registration processing unit 202. The representative thumbnail file creation unit 211 creates a file such as a reduced image list of the content from the video data in the feature amount extraction data received by the feature amount extraction content reception unit 208, and creates a file. The representative thumbnail file 14 is recorded in the database 204, and the file name of the representative thumbnail file 14 is registered in the registered content table 41 in association with information on the corresponding content on the registered content table 41. Further, the file of the representative thumbnail file 14 is registered. The name is notified to the registration / change information registration processing unit 202.

  The registration / change information registration processing unit 202 includes the file name of the feature amount file 13 notified from the feature amount extraction unit 210, the file name of the representative thumbnail file 14 notified from the representative thumbnail file creation unit 211, metadata, and the like. Is associated with the database 204 and recorded.

  According to this modified example, the server apparatus 200 does not receive the same content data as feature quantity extraction data repeatedly, and the processing efficiency of the server apparatus 200 can be improved.

  In the above embodiment, terrestrial analog broadcast content has not been described. However, in order to obtain a feature amount of terrestrial analog broadcast content, the received broadcast signal is encoded into digital data such as MPEG-2. What is necessary is just to extract quantity.

  Further, in the above-described embodiment, a case where broadcast-type content is handled has been described. However, the present invention is also applicable to a case where content other than the broadcast-type, for example, content created by a user and metadata of this content are targeted for processing. Is applicable.

  The present invention is not limited only to the above-described embodiment, and it is needless to say that various updates can be added without departing from the gist of the present invention.

It is a figure which shows the structure of the content processing system which is the 1st Embodiment of this invention. It is a block diagram which shows the functional structure of a recording device. It is a figure which shows the example of the content list. It is a block diagram which shows the function structural example of a feature-value extraction part. It is a figure which shows an example of the color histogram of the luminance signal Y, the color difference signal (blue) Cb, and the color difference signal (red) Cr extracted for every frame from the video data of the content read from the information recording part. It is a figure which shows roughly the image corresponding to each flame | frame which comprises the moving image of a content. It is a block diagram which shows the functional structure of a server apparatus. It is a block diagram which shows the functional structure of an information access apparatus. It is a flowchart which shows the operation | movement at the time of recording a content with an information recording device. It is a flowchart which shows operation | movement when registering the information regarding the content recorded on the information recording device with the server apparatus. It is a figure which shows the example of a registration content table. It is a figure which shows the example of the registration content table after the information regarding a new content is registered. It is a figure which shows the example of the registration content table after aggregated content ID is registered. It is a figure which shows the example of a reproduction | regeneration content table. It is a figure which shows the example of the reproduction | regeneration content table after aggregation content ID was provided. Furthermore, it is a figure which shows the example of the registration content table after the information regarding a new content is registered. Furthermore, it is a figure which shows the example of the registration content table after the information regarding a new content is registered and aggregate content ID is registered. It is a figure which shows the example of the reproduction | regeneration content table after the information regarding a new content is registered. Furthermore, it is a figure which shows the example of the reproduction | regeneration content table after the information regarding a new content is registered and aggregated content ID is provided. It is a flowchart which shows operation | movement of an information recording device and a server apparatus when a state change generate | occur | produces in an information recording device. It is a figure which shows the example of the update of the reproduction | regeneration content table according to the change of the state in an information recording device. It is a flowchart which shows operation | movement when an information access apparatus transmits the content search request with respect to a server apparatus, acquires the data of the content to reproduce | regenerate from an information recording device based on the search result, and reproduces | regenerates. It is a figure which shows the search result from the registration content table with respect to a content search request | requirement, and a reproduction | regeneration content table. It is a figure which shows the example of a display in the content access apparatus of the search result shown in FIG. It is a block diagram which shows the structure of the information recording device in the content processing system of the 2nd Embodiment of this invention. It is an example of the content list of 2nd Embodiment. It is a block diagram which shows the structure of the server apparatus in the content processing system of 2nd Embodiment. It is a flowchart which shows the operation | movement at the time of recording a content with the information recording device in the content processing system of 2nd Embodiment. It is a flowchart which shows operation | movement when registering the information regarding the content recorded on the information recording device in the content processing system of 2nd Embodiment with a server apparatus. It is a figure which shows the structure of the hardware of a recording device. It is a figure which shows the hardware constitutions of a server apparatus. It is a figure which shows the hardware constitutions of an information access apparatus.

Explanation of symbols

11 Content Data 12 Metadata 13 Feature File 14 Representative Thumbnail File 15 Content List 41 Registered Content Table 42 Playback Content Table 100 Information Recording Device 101 Content Receiving Unit 102 Content / Metadata Recording Processing Unit 103 Information Recording Unit 104 Feature Extraction Unit 105 representative thumbnail file creation unit 106 content list processing unit 107 registration / change information transmission processing unit 108 content reproduction transmission processing unit 200 server device 201 registration / change information reception processing unit 202 registration / change information registration processing unit 203 tag extraction processing unit 204 Database 205 Content Aggregation Processing Unit 206 Content Search Request Processing Unit 207 Device Connection State Detection Unit 300 Information Access Device 301 Search Request Input Unit 302 Request processing unit 303 reproducing content selection section 304 reproduction process unit 305 the content reproduction processing unit 306 reproducing content output unit

Claims (9)

An information processing device connectable to a recording device capable of recording content,
Information collecting means for collecting information about the content recorded in the recording device;
A storage unit for storing information on the content collected by the information collecting unit;
Identification information providing means for determining a plurality of the same content based on the information on the content stored in the storage unit, and adding common identification information to the information on each content. Information processing device. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1,
The content-related information includes metadata of content recorded in the recording device,
Tag extraction means for extracting individual data as tags from the metadata of the content collected by the information collection means;
Aggregating the tags extracted by the tag extraction means from the metadata of the respective contents to which common identification information is given by the identification information giving means, and the common identification information is given as an aggregation tag, respectively An information processing apparatus, further comprising: tag aggregation means for recording in the storage unit in association with the information related to the content. An information processing apparatus according to claim 2,
Search request processing means for searching for information related to the content by collating the search key included in the content search request with the aggregation tag stored in the storage unit when a content search request including a search key is received An information processing apparatus further comprising: The information processing apparatus according to claim 1,
The information regarding the content includes information regarding the characteristics of the content,
The information processing apparatus characterized in that the identification information adding means determines a plurality of identical contents based on information relating to the characteristics of the contents. An information processing apparatus according to claim 2,
The recording device is connectable via a network;
Information processing further comprising connection state detection means for detecting a state of connection of the recording device to the network and recording the connection state information in association with information related to the content in the storage unit. apparatus. A content recording unit in which the content is recorded;
Information collecting means for collecting information on the content including metadata of the content recorded in the content recording unit;
A storage unit for storing information on the content collected by the information collecting unit;
Identification information providing means for determining a plurality of the same content based on the information on the content stored in the storage unit and giving common identification information to the information on each content;
Tag extraction means for extracting individual data as tags from the metadata of the content collected by the information collection means;
Aggregating the tags extracted by the tag extraction means from the metadata of the respective contents to which common identification information is given by the identification information giving means, and the common identification information is given as an aggregation tag, respectively Tag aggregating means for recording in the storage unit in association with information about the content of
Search request processing means for searching for information related to the content by collating the search key included in the content search request with the aggregation tag stored in the storage unit when a content search request including a search key is received; A content processing system comprising: A program for operating a computer as an information processing device connectable to a recording device capable of recording content,
Information collecting means for collecting information about the content recorded in the recording device;
A storage unit for storing information on the content collected by the information collecting unit;
A computer program that causes the computer to function as identification information adding means that determines a plurality of identical contents based on information related to the contents stored in the storage unit and adds common identification information to information related to the contents. A method of managing information related to the content recorded in the recording device in an information processing device connectable with a recording device capable of recording the content,
Collecting information on the content recorded in the recording device by the information collecting means and storing the information in the storage unit;
Determining a plurality of identical contents based on information relating to the contents stored in the storage unit, and assigning common identification information to the information relating to the contents, by an identification information providing means. A characteristic content management method. Recording content on a recording device;
Collecting information on the content including metadata of the content recorded in the recording device by an information collecting unit and storing the information in a storage unit;
A step of determining a plurality of identical contents based on the information about the content stored in the storage unit, and adding common identification information to the information about each content;
Extracting individual data as tags by tag extraction means from the metadata of the content collected by the information collection means;
The tags extracted from the metadata of the respective contents to which the common identification information is assigned are aggregated by tag aggregation means, and associated with the information on the respective contents to which the common identification information is assigned as an aggregation tag Recording in the storage unit,
When a content search request including a search key is received, the search key included in the content search request is compared with the aggregation tag stored in the storage unit to search for information related to the content by a search request processing unit. And a content search method comprising the steps of:

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