The present invention relates to a playback apparatus, a method for the same, a recording medium, and a program and, more specifically, relates to a playback apparatus, a method for the same, a recording medium, and a program for resuming playback.
Nowadays, video cameras that use optical disks, such as digital versatile disks (DVDs), as recording media are in wide use. Such a digital camera loaded with such an optical disk may have a resume playback function for resuming playback, after pausing, of a moving image (or still images) stored on the optical disk from a position where the playback of the image was stopped. The image is played back from a position based on information on the playback-stop position stored in a memory and is played back by indicating the playback-start point (position) where the image is played back next time.
FIG. 1 illustrates the resume playback function of a known digital video camera.
FIG. 1 illustrates an operation screen of a display unit 11 of a known digital video camera. An operation screen (hereinafter referred to as a “visual index screen”) shown in the upper left area of FIG. 11 includes thumbnail display areas 12-1 to 12-6. Each of the thumbnail display areas 12-1 to 12-6 includes a thumbnail image (reduced image) corresponding to image data stored in a recording unit (not shown).
A backward button 13 is operated to display the previous visual index screen. When the user operates the backward button 13, the display unit 11 receives image data for six thumbnail images recorded before the thumbnail images currently being displayed in the thumbnail display areas 12-1 to 12-6 and the six thumbnail images of the received image data are newly displayed in the thumbnail display areas 12-1 to 12-6.
A forward button 14 is operated to display the next visual index screen. When the user operates the forward button 13, the display unit 11 receives image data for six thumbnail images recorded after the thumbnail images currently displayed in the thumbnail display areas 12-1 to 12-6 and the six thumbnail images of the received image data are newly displayed in the thumbnail display areas 12-1 to 12-6.
A moving image tab 15 is operated to display, in the thumbnail display areas 12-1 to 12-6, thumbnail images that correspond to image data of moving images stored in the recording unit. A still image tab 16 is operated to display, in the thumbnail display areas 12-1 to 12-6, thumbnail images corresponding to image data of still images stored in the recording unit.
In other words, the user chooses to operate either the moving image tab 15 or the still image tab 16. The upper left area of FIG. 1 illustrates a visual index screen in which the moving image tab 15 has been selected.
At the visual index screen illustrated in the upper left area of FIG. 1, the display unit 11 displays the moving image illustrated in the upper right area in FIG. 1 on a screen (hereinafter referred to a “playback screen”) when the user selects one of the thumbnail images displayed in the thumbnail display areas 12-1 to 12-6 and presses an ENTER key or a PLAY key provided on the known digital video camera. The ENTER key is provided so as to allow the user to finalize his or her operation, and the PLAY key is provided so as to play back a moving image.
At this time, the user pressing a VISUAL INDEX key provided on the known digital video camera so as to display the visual index screen while the selected moving image is displayed on the playback screen causes the display unit 11 to change the screen being displayed from the playback screen to the visual index screen.
The user pressing a STOP key provided on the known digital video camera while the selected moving image is displayed on the play screen, as illustrated in the lower right area in FIG. 11, causes a playback-stop screen having only a data display area 31 to be displayed while the moving image is paused. At this time, since the user pressed the STOP key at a time corresponding to “0:12:12” displayed in a data display area 21 (or the data display area 31 in the play stop screen), resume information including information corresponding to the displayed time “0:12:12” (i.e., playback-stop position) is stored in the recording unit (not shown).
At this time, in the known digital camera, the resume information stored in the recording unit is information including playback-stop information of a moving image or a still image. Therefore, a known digital camera is not capable of simultaneously storing resume information for both a moving image and a still image.
Moreover, since the playback-stop screen only displays text information in the data display area 31 and does not display graphics information, the user may not realize that it is possible to carry out resume playback and may mistakenly carry out undesired operations, such as pressing the STOP key.
If the user presses the PLAY key on the playback-stop screen, a playback screen based on the resume information including information corresponding to the displayed time “0:12:12” is displayed on the display unit 11 and the moving image is played back starting from the time corresponding to “0:12:12” (i.e., the moving image is played back from the point at which the moving image was stopped).
More specifically, even if a recorded moving image is stopped midway through its playback, the moving image can be played back again from the point at which it was stopped if the user presses the PLAY key on the playback-stop screen because resume information is stored in the recording unit.
If the user presses the VISUAL INDEX key on the playback-stop screen, the screen displayed on the display unit 11 changes from the playback-stop screen to the visual index screen.
If the user presses the STOP key on the playback-stop screen, a stop screen not including any images, as illustrated in the lower left area of FIG. 1, is displayed while the playback of an image is stopped and, as indicated by the time, “0:00:00,” displayed in a data display area 41 of the stop screen, the resume information is deleted.
If the user presses the VISUAL INDEX key on the stop screen, the screen displayed on the display unit 11 changes from the stop screen to the visual index screen.
A known digital video camera realizes a resume play function in such a manner as described above.
Furthermore, there is a known playback apparatus that allows the user to set a plurality of positions as start positions for playing or recording in addition to a normal start position (i.e., beginning of the first tract) (refer to Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2000-331466.
A known digital video camera that is capable of carrying out resume playback displays a screen not related to the operation to be carried out by the user and, thus, does not provide an interface screen that allows intuitive operation by the user.
A known digital video camera capable of resume playback stores one set of resume information per recording medium. Therefore, if a plurality of playback types, such as moving image and still image, is included in one recording medium, the resume information of the image the user was viewing is deleted when another image is viewed and resume playback of the previous viewed image cannot be carried out.
For example, if the content of one recording medium ranges in a wide variety, such as moving images, still images, and electronic books, when the user starts viewing a moving image, the resume information of a still image that was viewed before will be deleted and the resume playback of the still image cannot be carried out.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds