Device and method for controllable image display based on the attention position of a user

Abstract

A playback device (30), comprising: an attention position detection section (34) configured to detect a user's attention position with respect to a playback image of moving image data (31, 32), and a playback control section (37) configured to determine an importance level of a virtual division area corresponding to the attention position detected by the attention position detection section based on image-related information (25) assigned to the moving image data, which indicates a position and an importance level of the virtual division area (21, 22) into which the playback image is virtually divided, and to control a playback operation of the moving image data (31, 32) according to the determined importance level, wherein the playback control section (37) is further configured to:to control the playback operation of the moving image data in accordance with the movement of the detected attention position of the user with respect to the playback image of the moving image data, wherein the playback control section (37) controls a speed of image playback of the moving image data to be increased when the user's attention position has moved to a virtual division area with a lower importance level, wherein the virtual division area is set to the playback image of the moving image data (31, 32) and represents a planar part of the playback image that is smaller than that of the entire playback image, and wherein the attention position detection section and the playback control section are each implemented via at least one processor.

Claims

[1] Playback device (30), comprising: an attention position detection section (34) configured to detect an attention position of a user with respect to a playback image of moving image data (31, 32), and a reproduction control section (37) configured to determine an importance level of a virtual division area corresponding to the attention position detected by the attention position detection section based on image-related information (25) assigned to the moving image data, which indicates a position and an importance level of the virtual division area (21, 22) into which the reproduction image is virtually divided, and to control a reproduction process of the moving image data (31, 32) according to the determined importance level, wherein the playback control section (37) is further configured to control the playback operation of the moving image data in accordance with the movement of the detected attention position of the user with respect to the playback image of the moving image data, wherein the reproduction control section (37) controls a speed of image reproduction of the moving image data to be increased when the user's attention position has moved to a virtual division area with a lower importance level, wherein the virtual division area is set to the playback image of the moving image data (31, 32) and represents an areal part of the playback image which is smaller than that of the entire playback image, and wherein the attention position detection section and the playback control section are each implemented via at least one processor. [2] A playback device according to claim 1, wherein the image-related information (25) indicates the position and importance level of the virtual division area (21, 22) at any time by using time information about the playback image, and the reproduction control section (37) sets a next reproduction image according to the determined importance level by using the time information. [3] A reproducing apparatus according to claim 2, wherein said reproducing control section (37) sets the next reproduced image such that as the importance level becomes lower, an image thinned out in the reproducing operation becomes more present. [4] A playback device according to claim 1, wherein the moving image data (31, 32) are coded data, and the reproduction control section (37) controls the decoding processing (38) of the moving image data according to the importance level. [5] A reproduction apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said reproduction control section (37) sets an information display area (39) corresponding to said virtual division area having a low importance level to an image display area. [6] A playback device according to claim 1, wherein the image-related information (25) indicates the position and importance level of the virtual division area (21, 22) and area object information regarding an object contained in the virtual division area at each time point by using time information regarding the display image, and the reproduction control section (37) assigns a time point, the subject matter, and the virtual division area (21, 22) based on the image-related information (25) to be displayed on a display section, and controls the reproduction operation of the moving image data (31, 32) according to a user selection result at the time point and the virtual division area. [7] A playback device according to claim 1, wherein the image-related information (25) comprises the area object information regarding an object contained in the virtual division area, and the reproduction control section (37) determines the virtual division area according to the attention position detected by the attention position detection section (34) and displays the area item information indicating the item included in the determined virtual division area. [8] A playback device according to claim 1, wherein the image-related information (25) comprises the area object information regarding an object contained in the virtual division area (21, 22), and the reproduction control section (37) determines the virtual division area in which a desired object is contained based on the area object information and controls the reproduction operation of the moving image data (31, 32) based on a determination result. [9] A reproduction apparatus according to claim 8, wherein, in the case where the virtual division area in which the desired object is contained and the virtual division area corresponding to the attention position are different from each other, the reproduction control section (37) proposes a position of the virtual division area in which the desired object is contained. [10] A reproducing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said reproducing control section (37) allows said display section to display a reproducing operation history of said moving image data (31, 32) together with said image-related information. [11] A reproduction apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the reproduction control section (37) reusably stores the reproduction operation history of the moving image data, and, in the case that the moving image data is reproduced based on the reproduction operation history, sets the virtual division area corresponding to the attention position to a predetermined position in the reproduction image. [12] The playback device according to claim 1, wherein the attention position detecting section (34) includes a sensor that detects a direction of a head or a line of sight direction of the user viewing the playback image, and sets the direction of the head or a position of the line of sight direction to the playback image determined based on a detection result of the sensor (34) to the attention position. [13] A reproduction method comprising: Detecting an attention position of a user with respect to a playback image of moving image data by using an attention position detecting section; and Determining an importance level of a virtual division area according to the attention position detected by using the attention position detection section, and controlling a reproduction operation of the moving image data according to the determined importance level by using a reproduction control section based on a position of the virtual division area into which the reproduction image is virtually divided, image-related information assigned, and the moving image data indicating the importance level of the virtual division area; Controlling the playback process of the moving image data in accordance with the movement of the detected attention position of the user with respect to the playback image of the moving image data, wherein a speed of the image playback of the moving image data is increased when the user's attention position has moved to a virtual division area with a lower importance level, and wherein the virtual division area is set to the playback image of the moving image data and represents a planar part of the playback image that is smaller than that of the entire playback image, [14] Information generating device, comprising: a section for generating image-related information (25) which is designed to Setting an importance level for each virtual division area (21, 22) into which a frame of moving image data (31, 32) is virtually divided, the importance level for controlling a playback operation of the moving image data being set in accordance with a user's attention position with respect to the frame of the moving image data, and generating image-related information indicating a position and a degree of importance of the virtual division area (21, 22) in the image in association with the moving image data, wherein the playback operation of the moving image data (31, 32) is further controlled in accordance with the detection of a movement of the user's attention position with respect to a playback image of the moving image data, wherein a speed of image reproduction of the moving images is controlled to be increased when it is detected that the user's attention position has moved to a virtual subdivision area with a lower importance level, and wherein the virtual subdivision areas are set to the playback image of the moving image data (31, 32) and represent unique areal parts of the playback image, each of which is smaller than an entire playback image. [15] The information generating apparatus according to claim 14, wherein said image-related information generating section generates said image-related information (25) to indicate a position and an importance level of said virtual division area at each time point by using time information added to said image. [16] The information generating apparatus according to claim 14, wherein the image-related information generating section (25) sets the importance level based on a processing result of image processing set on the virtual division area. [17] The information generating apparatus according to claim 16, wherein the image-related information generating section (25) sets the importance level based on the processing result of a plurality of image processings, the plurality of image processings being set to the virtual division area. [18] The information generating apparatus according to claim 14, wherein said image-related information generating section (25) includes area object information regarding an object included in said virtual division area in said image-related information. [19] The information generating apparatus according to claim 14, wherein the image-related information generating section performs a predetermined area recognition processing by using the image and virtually divides the image based on a recognition processing result. [20] Information generation method, comprising: Setting an importance level for each virtual division area (21, 22) into which a frame of moving image data (31, 32) is virtually divided, the importance level for controlling a playback operation of the moving image data being set in accordance with a user's attention position with respect to the frame of the moving image data, and generating image-related information (25) indicating a position and an importance level of the virtual division area (21, 22) in the image in association with the moving image data by using an image-related information generating section, wherein the playback operation of the moving image data is further controlled in accordance with the detection of a movement of the user's attention position with respect to a playback image of the moving image data, wherein a speed of image reproduction of the moving images is controlled to be increased when it is detected that the user's attention position has moved to a virtual subdivision area with a lower importance level, and wherein the virtual subdivision areas are set to the playback image of the moving image data and represent unique planar parts of the playback image, each of which is smaller than a whole playback image.

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