Image processing device, image processing method, and program

Abstract

To solve the problem that there is room for enhancement in operability and retrievability in retrieving a video in the other visual line direction while viewing a video.SOLUTION: An image processing device comprises: acquisition means for acquiring image data representing a display video of which a view point to view the video is changeable; and generation means which generates data for displaying information indicating a length of a reproduction time of the display video, information indicating a range in which the view point in the display video is changeable, and the display video.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 2

Description

[Technical field]

[0001] The present invention relates to an image processing technique for displaying a wide viewing angle image. [Background technology]

[0002] The 360-degree or 180-degree wide viewing angle images can be viewed in any viewing direction specified by the viewer from the reference viewpoint, with the position where the camera is installed being used as the reference viewpoint.

[0003] Patent document 1 describes a technology that enables a viewer to change the viewing direction of a displayed image by performing a specific operation on the image displayed on a screen, and also displays a user interface on the screen that indicates the viewing direction of the displayed image. [Prior art documents] [Patent documents]

[0004] [Patent Document 1] Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 11-27703 Summary of the Invention [Problem to be solved by the invention]

[0005] However, the technology described in Patent Document 1 makes it impossible to search for an image in a direction different from the line of sight of the displayed image while the image is being displayed. For example, when a viewer is watching an image in an arbitrary line of sight (viewpoint), in order to search for another line of sight, it is necessary to change the line of sight of the displayed image itself. If the viewer wishes to return to the original line of sight after changing it, he or she must perform the same operation again. In addition, since the original line of sight is adjusted based on the line of sight on the user interface, it does not necessarily match the original line of sight.

[0006] As described above, the technology described in Patent Document 1 leaves room for improvement in operability and searchability when searching for videos from different viewpoints while viewing a video. [Means for solving the problem]

[0007] The image processing device of the present invention is characterized by having an acquisition means for acquiring image data representing a display image in which the viewing viewpoint can be changed, information indicating the length of playback time of the display image, information indicating the range in which the viewpoint can be changed in the display image, and a generation means for generating data for displaying the display image. Effect of the Invention

[0008] According to the present invention, it is possible to display time-related information and range-related information during playback of wide-viewing-angle video, thereby improving operability and searchability when searching for videos from other viewpoints while watching the video. [Brief description of the drawings]

[0009] [Figure 1] FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a hardware configuration of an image processing apparatus. [Diagram 2] FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of an image processing apparatus according to a first embodiment. [Diagram 3] 4 is a flowchart showing the flow of processing in the image processing apparatus according to the first embodiment. [Figure 4] FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram of a display screen of the playback player of the first embodiment. [Diagram 5] FIG. 11 is a block diagram showing the functional configuration of an image processing apparatus according to a second embodiment. [Figure 6] 10 is a flowchart showing the flow of processing in an image processing apparatus according to a second embodiment. [Figure 7] FIG. 11 is a schematic diagram of a display screen of the playback player of the second embodiment. [Figure 8] FIG. 11 is a block diagram showing the configuration of an image processing apparatus according to a third embodiment. [Figure 9] 11 is a flowchart showing the flow of processing in an image processing apparatus according to a third embodiment. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

[0010] Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. Note that the following embodiment does not limit the present invention, and not all of the combinations of features described in the present embodiment are necessarily essential to the solution of the present invention. Note that the same components will be described with the same reference numerals.

[0011] [Example 1] In the first embodiment, a method for displaying a seek bar showing information related to time and a seek bar showing information related to direction in a playback player for playing wide viewing angle video with a changeable viewing viewpoint and displaying thumbnail video on the seek bar will be described. First, an overview of this embodiment will be described.

[0012] Fig. 4 is a schematic diagram of an example of a display screen of a playback player presented to a user in this embodiment. Area 401 in Fig. 4 is an area displaying an image corresponding to a part of a scene represented by a wide viewing angle image.

[0013] Hereinafter, a video of a partial area generated from the displayed wide-viewing-angle video, or one or more frame images that compose the video, is referred to as a display video. The display video is a partial video of the wide-viewing-angle video generated from the wide-viewing-angle video based on the line of sight specified by the user. The line of sight is the direction represented by a line connecting the viewpoint when the user watches the displayed video and the subject in the displayed video. Here, even with a wide-viewing-angle video, there is a limit to the angle of view (viewing angle), and the range in which the viewpoint can be set or changed is limited depending on the video captured at the time of shooting.

[0014] Bar 402 in Fig. 4 is a seek bar (hereinafter, time seek bar) that is an object that represents information related to time, and the display time of the display image relative to the total time of the wide viewing angle image is represented by the percentage of the fill in the entire bar. For example, if the length of the image is six minutes and the image three minutes from the start of the image is displayed as the display image, bar 402 is displayed filled up to a position halfway through the total playback time. Also, the amount of fill in the seek bar changes in accordance with the change in the display time of the display image of bar 401.

[0015] Note that the representation of the time seek bar is not limited to filling in the space, and other representation methods may be used, such as displaying a landmark on the seek bar, as long as the user can recognize the position on the seek bar to be the elapsed time from the start of the video.

[0016] Furthermore, the user can change the displayed image to an image of a specified time by performing an action to instruct a time change, such as clicking, at a desired position on the time seek bar. For example, if the user performs an action to instruct a time change at the halfway position of the seek bar, then if the image is six minutes long, the image displayed in area 401 will be switched to an image three minutes from the start of the image.

[0017] Bar 403 in Fig. 4 is a seek bar (hereinafter, directional seek bar) that indicates information related to direction, and the horizontal angle of view of the wide viewing angle image is regarded as the entire length of the seek bar, and the position of the mark relative to the entire bar indicates the line of sight of the display image displayed in area 401. In other words, this seek bar indicates the range in which the line of sight, or the position of the viewpoint can be changed horizontally by its length if the position of the subject does not change over time. For example, if the horizontal angle of view of the wide viewing angle image is 360 degrees and the line of sight of the display image is 90 degrees horizontally to the right from the center direction of the wide viewing angle image, the mark is displayed at 3 / 4 of the left end of the bar.

[0018] Furthermore, the user can change the viewing direction of the displayed image to a specified direction by performing an action to instruct a change in viewing direction, such as clicking, at a desired position on bar 403 that indicates directional information. In this case, the position of the mark on the seek bar also changes in accordance with the change in the viewing direction of the displayed image.

[0019] The expression on the directional seek bar is not limited to this, and other expressions such as other marks may be used as long as the user can recognize the position on the seek bar. Furthermore, in the above example, the horizontal angle of view of the wide viewing angle image is regarded as the total length of the seek bar, but this is not limited, and the vertical direction in the wide viewing angle image may be regarded as the total length of the seek bar. Also, a two-axis seek bar corresponding to the horizontal and vertical directions may be provided as the directional seek bar.

[0020] In Fig. 4, cursor 404 indicates a cursor indicating a position on the playback player where the user is operating. When the user is operating the cursor on the direction seek bar or the time seek bar, the playback player of this embodiment displays thumbnail image 405 according to the cursor position. For example, when the user is operating the cursor on the direction seek bar as shown in Fig. 4, an image in a direction according to the cursor position at the display time of the displayed image is displayed as thumbnail image 405. When the user is operating the cursor on the time seek bar, an image in a time according to the cursor position in the line of sight of the displayed image is displayed on bar 402 as thumbnail image 405.

[0021] Note that the expression of cursor 404 shown in Fig. 4 is not limited to this, and any expression may be used as long as the user can recognize the position of his / her operation. Also, the display position and expression method of thumbnail image 405 shown in Fig. 4 are not limited to this, and any method may be used as long as the user can recognize whether thumbnail image 405 corresponds to a time or directional seek bar.

[0022] The above is an overview of the playback player in this embodiment. In the above-mentioned playback player, when changing the viewing direction of the displayed image, a user operation on the directional seek bar is used, but this is not limited to this. The viewing direction of the displayed image may be changed directly by clicking on the displayed image and moving it left and right. In this case, the position of the mark on the directional seek bar may be changed following the change in the viewing direction of the displayed image.

[0023] That is, user instructions for time and direction may be given independently of each other.

[0024] A specific configuration of this embodiment will be described below. Fig. 1 is a diagram showing an example of a hardware configuration of an image processing device of the first embodiment. In Fig. 1, an image processing device 100 of the first embodiment includes a CPU 101, a RAM 102, a ROM 103, a secondary storage device 104, an input interface 105, and an output interface 106. The components of the image processing device 100 are connected to each other by a system bus 107. The image processing device 100 is also connected to an input device 108 and an external storage device 109 via the input interface 105, and is also connected to the external storage device 109 and a display device 110 via the output interface 106.

[0025] The CPU 101 is a processor that uses a RAM 102 as a work memory, executes programs stored in a ROM 103, and generally controls each component of the image processing device 100 via a system bus 107. This causes various processes to be executed, which will be described later.

[0026] The secondary storage device 104 is a storage device that stores various data handled by the image processing device 100, and in this embodiment, a HDD is used. The CPU 101 can write data to the secondary storage device 104 and read data stored in the secondary storage device 104 via the system bus 107. Note that the secondary storage device 104 can be various storage devices such as an optical disk drive and a flash memory in addition to a HDD.

[0027] The input interface 105 is, for example, a serial bus interface such as USB or IEEE1394, and data, commands, and the like are input from an external device to the image processing device 100 via this input interface 105. The image processing device 100 acquires data via the input interface 105 from an input device 108 (for example, a mouse, a button, a keyboard) and an external storage device 109 (for example, a hard disk, a memory card, a USB memory, etc.).

[0028] The output interface 106, like the input interface 105, is equipped with a serial bus interface such as USB or IEEE1394. Alternatively, a video output terminal such as DVI or HDMI (registered trademark) can be used. Data and the like is output from the image processing device 100 to an external device via this output interface 106. The image processing device 100 displays images by outputting processed images and the like to a display device 110 (any type of image display device such as a liquid crystal display) via this output interface 106. Note that the image processing device 100 has other components in addition to those mentioned above, but as this is not the focus of the present invention, a description thereof will be omitted.

[0029] FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the image processing device 100 in this embodiment.

[0030] The control unit 201 generates information to be output to each component in response to a user operation by the input device 108 acquired via the input interface 105, and outputs the information to each component. Specifically, when the user operation is to play or stop the displayed video, the control unit 201 outputs information to play or stop the displayed video to the image data acquisition unit 202.

[0031] If the user's operation is a change in the display time or line of sight in the displayed image, user-specified information indicating the changed display time or line of sight direction is output to the image data acquisition unit 202, the time axis information determination unit 203, and the direction axis information determination unit 204.

[0032] An example of a user operation when changing the display time or line of sight direction is a click operation on the time seek bar or direction seek bar as described above. Note that the user operation is not limited to this, and any method may be used as long as the time or direction specified by the user can be uniquely determined, such as specifying the display time or line of sight direction numerically using a keyboard.

[0033] The user-specified information in this embodiment is a set of display time Tp [seconds] and direction Vp=(Vph, Vpv) [degrees] specified by the user. The direction is expressed as the horizontal Vph and vertical Vpv, which are the angles between the center direction of the wide viewing angle image and the line of sight specified by the user. Note that the method of expressing the display time and line of sight specified by the user is not limited to this, and any method may be used as long as the specified display time and line of sight can be uniquely determined.

[0034] When the user's operation is on the time seek bar or the direction seek bar, the operation position information of the user on the playback player is output to the thumbnail image acquisition unit 205 .

[0035] In this embodiment, the user's operation position information is represented as a coordinate position (x, y) when the top left corner of the playback player is the origin, the horizontal direction is the x-axis, and the vertical direction is the y-axis. Note that the user's operation position information is not limited to this, and any method that can represent the user's operation position on the playback player may be used.

[0036] The image data acquisition unit 202 acquires image data of one frame in a wide viewing angle image from the external storage device 109 or the secondary storage device 104. The image data of one frame to be acquired is a frame corresponding to the display time of the display image managed in the RAM 102 or the display time designated by the user in the user-designated information acquired from the control unit 201.

[0037] It is not necessary for the image data acquisition unit 202 to constantly acquire image data, and it is not necessary to acquire new image data when stop information is acquired from the control unit 201. The image data acquisition unit 202 outputs the acquired image data and the user operation information acquired from the control unit 201 to the generation unit 206.

[0038] When the time axis information determination unit 203 acquires user-specified information from the control unit 201, it determines information for the time seek bar based on the user-specified information, and when it does not acquire user-specified information, it determines information for the time seek bar based on the display time of the display image managed in the RAM 102. The information for the time seek bar is information that specifies the area to be filled in for the entire time seek bar. The filled area is determined by the ratio Tp / Tf of the display time in the user-specified information or the display time Tp of the display image managed in the RAM 102 to the entire time Tf of the wide viewing angle image data.

[0039] The time axis information determination unit 203 outputs the information of the time seek bar to the display unit 207. As described above, the expression of the time seek bar is not limited to filling, so the information of the time seek bar changes depending on the expression method.

[0040] When the directional axis information determination unit 204 acquires user-specified information from the control unit 201, it determines the information of the directional seek bar based on the user-specified information, and when the directional axis information determination unit 204 does not acquire user-specified information, it determines the information of the directional seek bar based on the line-of-sight direction of the display image managed in the RAM 102. The information of the directional seek bar is information indicating the position at which a mark is displayed when the left end of the directional seek bar is the origin, and is expressed as a ratio when the entire length of the directional seek bar is set to 1. The ratio is determined by the ratio Vp / Vf of the line-of-sight direction in the user-specified information or the line-of-sight direction Vp of the display image managed in the RAM 102 to the entire angle of view Vf of the wide viewing angle image data.

[0041] At this time, the information to be used is changed appropriately according to the direction represented by the direction seek bar. For example, if the direction seek bar represents only the horizontal direction, the horizontal element Vph of the direction Vp and the horizontal angle of view of the wide viewing angle image are used. The time axis information determination unit 203 outputs the information of the time seek bar to the display unit 207.

[0042] The thumbnail image acquisition unit 205 calculates the time and gaze direction in the thumbnail image from the user's operation position information acquired from the control unit 201 and the display time and gaze direction of the display video managed in RAM 102, and acquires the thumbnail image at that time and direction.

[0043] Here, we will explain the time in the thumbnail image when the coordinate position of the operation position information is on the time seek bar. In this case, the time is calculated as the ratio of the length from the left end coordinate position of the time seek bar to the coordinate position of the operation position information relative to the length from the left end coordinate position to the right end coordinate position of the time seek bar.

[0044] The time in the thumbnail image is determined by multiplying the total time of the wide viewing angle video data by the calculated ratio. Note that the viewing direction in the thumbnail image at this time is the viewing direction of the displayed video managed in RAM 102. When the coordinate position of the operation position information is on the directional seek bar, the viewing direction in the thumbnail image is calculated as follows. That is, it is calculated from the ratio of the length from the coordinate position of the left end of the directional seek bar to the coordinate position of the operation position information relative to the length from the coordinate position of the left end of the directional seek bar to the coordinate position of the right end of the directional seek bar.

[0045] The line of sight direction in the thumbnail image is determined by multiplying the entire angle of view of the wide viewing angle video data by the calculated ratio. Note that the time in the thumbnail image at this time is the display time of the display video managed in the RAM 102.

[0046] The thumbnail image acquisition unit 205 acquires a thumbnail image corresponding to the calculated time and line of sight direction from the external storage device 109 or the secondary storage device 104 via the input interface 105 , and outputs the acquired thumbnail image to the display unit 207 .

[0047] In this embodiment, it is assumed that thumbnail images of different times and orientations are created and stored in advance, but the present invention is not limited to this and may be generated from wide viewing angle video data.

[0048] The generation unit 206 generates a display image to be displayed on the playback player from the image data acquired from the image data acquisition unit 202. The display image is generated by cutting out an area of ​​an arbitrarily determined angle of view from the image data, centered on the line of sight direction of the display image managed in the RAM 102 or the line of sight direction in the user operation information acquired from the control unit 201. The generation unit 206 outputs the generated display image to the display unit 207.

[0049] The display unit 207 generates data to be displayed on the display device 110 based on the information acquired from each unit, and sends the data to the display device 110. That is, data is generated using the display video from the generation unit 206, time seek bar information from the time axis information determination unit 203, directional seek bar information from the directional information determination unit 204, and thumbnail images from the thumbnail image acquisition unit 205. In display, as in the example of Fig. 4 described above, the time seek bar, directional seek bar, and thumbnail are displayed so that their respective image objects are superimposed on the display video. Note that instead of superimposing, the time seek bar, directional seek bar, and thumbnail may be displayed by arranging them around the area in which the display video is displayed.

[0050] Next, the flow of processing of the image processing device 100 in this embodiment will be described with reference to the flowchart of Fig. 3. The image processing device 100 executes a series of processes shown in the flowchart of Fig. 3 by the CPU 101 executing a program stored in the ROM 103 using the RAM 102 as a work memory. Note that it is not necessary for all of the processes shown below to be executed by the CPU 101, and the image processing device 100 may be configured so that part or all of the processes are executed by one or more processing circuits other than the CPU 101. Note that in the following flowcharts, each process (step) will be represented as "S".

[0051] In S301, the control unit 201 acquires operation information from the user.

[0052] In S302, the control unit 201 calculates the display time and gaze direction information of the display image based on operation information from the user, and outputs it to the image data acquisition unit 202, the time axis information determination unit 203, the direction axis information determination unit 204, and the thumbnail image acquisition unit 205.

[0053] In S303, the image data acquisition unit 202 acquires image data that is the source of the display image.

[0054] In S304 , the generation unit 206 generates a display image from the image data acquired from the image data acquisition unit 204 .

[0055] In S305, the time axis information determination unit 203 determines information about the time seek bar based on the user operation information acquired from the control unit 201 or the display time of the display video managed in the RAM 102.

[0056] In S306 , the direction axis information determination unit 204 determines information about the direction seek bar based on the user operation information acquired from the control unit 201 or the line of sight direction of the displayed image managed in the RAM 102 .

[0057] In S307 , the thumbnail image acquisition unit 205 acquires a thumbnail image based on the user operation information acquired from the control unit 201 .

[0058] In S308, the display unit 207 displays the display video, a time seek bar, a direction seek bar, and a thumbnail image as shown in FIG.

[0059] When the process of S308 is completed, the process of this embodiment ends.

[0060] The above is the process executed by the image processing device 100 in this embodiment.

[0061] In this embodiment, in a playback player that plays wide-angle video, a seek bar that shows information related to time and a seek bar that shows information related to direction are displayed, and thumbnail images are displayed on the seek bar. This makes it possible to search for video in a different direction from the displayed video while watching the wide-angle video, improving operability and searchability.

[0062] [Example 2] In the first embodiment, a method has been described in which a seek bar showing information related to time and a seek bar showing information related to direction are displayed in a playback player that plays back wide viewing angle video, and thumbnail images are displayed on the seek bar.

[0063] In the second embodiment, the thumbnail images displayed on the seek bar correspond to the time or direction specified on the other seek bar. The outline and significance of the playback player of the second embodiment will be described below with reference to FIG.

[0064] In FIG. 7, a bar 701 is a time seek bar, a cursor 702 is a cursor indicating a position on the playback player operated by the user, and a thumbnail image 703 is a thumbnail image corresponding to the position operated by the user.

[0065] First, the user can search for video from a different time than the displayed video by checking thumbnail images corresponding to operations on the time seek bar.

[0066] Next, when the user instructs a specified operation on the playback player on the time seek bar, a directional seek bar appears as shown in bar 704. The specified operation may be any operation that can identify an instruction from the user, such as key input on a keyboard or the like, left clicking on a mouse, or moving the cursor position vertically relative to the time seek bar. Also, in Fig. 7, bar 704 is displayed along the user's cursor position 702, but is not limited to this and may be displayed in any position on the playback player.

[0067] Furthermore, the playback player displays a thumbnail image 705 in a direction corresponding to the position operated by the user on the directional seek bar. At this time, the thumbnail image 705 is an image at the time determined by the bar 701, which is different from the display time of the displayed video.

[0068] In the playback player described in the first embodiment, the thumbnail image displayed on the direction seek bar was an image with the same time and different viewing direction as the time in the displayed image. Therefore, when the user wants to search for an image with a different time and viewing direction from the displayed image, it is necessary to operate the time seek bar to switch the displayed image to the desired time, and then operate the direction seek bar. Note that the same effect occurs even if the order of the time and direction operations is reversed, and in either case, if the user wants to search for an image with a different time and direction from the displayed image, it is necessary to switch the displayed image once.

[0069] In contrast, the playback player of Example 2 makes it possible to search for images at a different time and in a different viewing direction from the displayed image without switching the displayed image, thereby further improving operability and searchability.

[0070] The playback player and operation procedure shown in FIG. 7 are merely examples, and the method of expressing the playback player and the method of operation are not limited to these. For example, in the above example, the time seek bar is operated after the direction seek bar is operated, but the reverse order may be used. Also, the direction seek bar shown as a single axis in FIG. 7 may be expressed as two axes, horizontal and vertical. Also, the time seek bar is expressed vertically in FIG. 7, but it may be expressed horizontally. Also, in FIG. 7, the direction seek bar appears after the time seek bar is operated, but the order may be reversed and both seek bars may be displayed at all times.

[0071] The processing performed by the image processing device 100 of this embodiment will be described below. Fig. 5 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the image processing device 100 of this embodiment. The image processing device 100 functions as each component shown in Fig. 5 by the CPU 101 executing a program stored in the ROM 103 using the RAM 102 as a work memory, and executes a series of processing steps shown in the flowchart of Fig. 6.

[0072] It should be noted that not all of the processes described below need to be executed by the CPU 101, and the image processing device 100 may be configured so that some or all of the processes are executed by one or more processing circuits other than the CPU 101. Configurations and processes similar to those in the first embodiment are denoted by the same reference numerals as those in the first embodiment, and descriptions thereof will be omitted.

[0073] The control unit 201, in which the relationships between the components change from the first embodiment, and the thumbnail information determination unit 501, which is newly added from the second embodiment, will be described.

[0074] When the user's operation is an instruction on the seek bar as described above that is specified in the playback player, the control unit 201 outputs information about the user's operation position on the playback player to the thumbnail information determination unit 501 .

[0075] The thumbnail information determination unit 501 determines the time Ts and the line of sight direction Vs in the thumbnail image based on the user's operation position information acquired from the control unit 201.

[0076] When the coordinate position of the operation position information is on the time seek bar, the time Ts in the thumbnail image is calculated based on the ratio of the length from the left end of the time seek bar to the coordinate position of the operation position information to the length from the left end to the right end of the time seek bar. The time Ts in the thumbnail image is determined by the product of the entire time of the wide viewing angle video data and the calculated ratio.

[0077] When the coordinate position of the operation position information is on the directional seek bar, the line of sight direction Vs in the thumbnail image is calculated based on the ratio of the length from the left end of the directional seek bar to the coordinate position of the operation position information relative to the length from the left end to the right end of the directional seek bar. The line of sight direction Vs in the thumbnail image is determined by the product of the entire angle of view of the wide viewing angle video data and the calculated ratio.

[0078] The thumbnail information determination unit 501 outputs the time Ts and the line of sight direction Vs of the determined thumbnail to the thumbnail image acquisition unit 205 .

[0079] The thumbnail image acquiring unit 205 acquires a thumbnail image at time Ts and line of sight direction Vs of the thumbnail acquired from the thumbnail information determining unit 501. The specific method is the same as in the first embodiment, and therefore the description will be omitted.

[0080] Next, the processes S601 and S602 added in the second embodiment will be described.

[0081] In S601, the thumbnail information determination unit 501 determines the time and line-of-sight direction information of the thumbnail image based on the user's operation position information acquired from the control unit 201.

[0082] In S602 , the thumbnail image acquisition unit 205 acquires a thumbnail image based on the time and line-of-sight direction information of the thumbnail image acquired from the thumbnail information determination unit 501 .

[0083] The above is the process performed by the image processing device 100 of the second embodiment. In the second embodiment, a thumbnail information determination unit is added to the first embodiment, and a process for determining information on the time and line of sight of a thumbnail image according to an operation on a mutual seek bar is added. This allows the user to check a thumbnail image at a time and line of sight different from that of the displayed image without switching the time or line of sight of the displayed image, thereby improving operability and searchability.

[0084] [Example 3] In the third embodiment, a process for setting the playback speed of the video displayed on the playback player is added, and the playback speed is slowed down when the user operates the directional seek bar.

[0085] In normal images with a viewing angle other than wide-angle images, the user operates the seek bar and checks thumbnail images in order to search for an image with a different time from the displayed image. In contrast, when operating the directional seek bar in wide-angle images, the user aims to search for an image with a different viewing direction, not a different time from the displayed image. Therefore, in content with frequent scene changes, the content of the displayed image may change significantly while the user is searching for an image with a different viewing direction, and the user may not be able to keep up with the changes in content.

[0086] Therefore, according to the third embodiment, the playback speed of the displayed video is slowed down while the directional seek bar is being operated, thereby preventing the user from being unable to keep up with the changes in the content.

[0087] The processing performed by the image processing device 100 of this embodiment will be described below. Fig. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the image processing device 100 of this embodiment. The image processing device 100 functions as each component shown in Fig. 8 by the CPU 101 executing a program stored in the ROM 103 using the RAM 102 as a work memory, and executes a series of processing shown in the flowchart of Fig. 9.

[0088] It should be noted that not all of the processes described below need to be executed by the CPU 101, and the image processing device 100 may be configured so that some or all of the processes are executed by one or more processing circuits other than the CPU 101. Configurations and processes similar to those in the first and second embodiments are denoted by the same reference numerals as those in the first and second embodiments, and descriptions thereof will be omitted.

[0089] First, a playback speed setting unit 801 that is newly added to the third embodiment will be described.

[0090] The playback speed setting unit 801 acquires user operation position information from the control unit 201, and determines whether the coordinate position of the operation position information continues to be on the directional seek bar. If the determination result shows that the coordinate position continues to be on the directional seek bar, the playback speed setting unit 801 changes the playback speed information that indicates the playback speed of the video displayed on the playback player, generates image data, and outputs the playback speed information to the display unit 207. The playback speed information is expressed as a ratio with the normal speed being 1.0, and the playback speed information for half the speed is 0.5.

[0091] In this embodiment, the playback speed information is set to 1.0 or a unique value smaller than 1.0 that is specified in advance, and the playback speed can be changed to two levels: normal or slow. Note that the display unit 207 adjusts the update timing of the displayed image according to the playback speed acquired from the playback speed setting unit 801.

[0092] Next, the processes S901 and S902 added in the third embodiment will be described.

[0093] In S901, the playback speed setting unit 801 determines whether or not the user is operating on the directional seek bar based on the user's operation position information acquired from the control unit 201. If it is determined that the user is operating, the process proceeds to S902, and if it is determined that the user is not operating, the process proceeds to S302.

[0094] In S902, the playback speed setting unit 801 updates the playback speed information.

[0095] The above is the process performed by the image processing device 100 of the third embodiment. In the third embodiment, a playback speed setting unit is added to the first embodiment, and a process of slowing down the playback speed of the displayed video when operating on the directional seek bar is added. This allows the user to search for a video in a different direction from the displayed video without being left behind by changes in content.

[0096] [Other Examples] The present invention is not limited to the above-mentioned embodiment, and various embodiments are possible. For example, in the third embodiment, the playback speed is set to two levels, but the present invention is not limited to this, and two or more levels may be set.

[0097] Further, in the above embodiment, the user operation is explained by using a mouse and a keyboard, but the present invention is not limited to this, and various operation inputs such as touch panel operation and control operation are possible.

[0098] The present invention can also be realized by a process in which a program for implementing one or more of the functions of the above-described embodiments is supplied to a system or device via a network or a storage medium, and one or more processors in a computer of the system or device read and execute the program. The present invention can also be realized by a circuit (e.g., ASIC) that implements one or more of the functions. [Explanation of symbols]

[0099] 201 Control section 202 Image data acquisition unit 203 Time axis information determination unit 204 Direction axis information determination section 205 Thumbnail image acquisition unit 206 Generation part 207 Display section

Claims

1. An acquisition means for acquiring image data representing a display image having a variable viewing viewpoint; a generating means for generating information indicating a length of a playback time of the display image, information indicating a range in which the viewpoint in the display image can be changed, and data for displaying the display image; 13. An image processing device comprising:

2. 2. The image processing device according to claim 1, wherein the data generated by the generating means is data for superimposing and displaying on a screen information indicating the length of the playback time, information indicating the range, and the display image.

3. 2. The image processing device according to claim 1, wherein the data generated by the generating means is data for arranging and displaying information indicating the length of the playback time and information indicating the range around the displayed image on the screen.

4. The image processing device according to claim 1 , wherein the generating means generates, from the acquired image data, image data representing the display image centered on a line of sight direction when viewing the display image represented by the image data.

5. 5. The image processing device according to claim 4, wherein, when the viewpoint is changed, the display image in the data generated by the generating means is an image generated with the changed viewpoint as the line of sight direction.

6. 2 . The image processing apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the generating means generates the data representing the information indicating the length of the playback time and the information indicating the range as image objects of seek bars.

7. 7. The image processing device according to claim 6, wherein the seek bar corresponding to the information indicating the range is a uniaxial seek bar indicating a horizontal or vertical range of the displayed image.

8. 7. The image processing device according to claim 6, wherein the seek bar corresponding to the information indicating the range is a two-axis seek bar indicating ranges in the horizontal and vertical directions of the displayed image.

9. The image processing device according to claim 1, characterized in that the generating means obtains a thumbnail image of the display video at a time and range specified by information indicating the length of the playback time and information indicating the range in the display video, and generates the data.

10. 8. The image processing device according to claim 7, characterized in that the information indicating the length of the playback time and the information indicating the range are a time specified on a seek bar corresponding to the time and a range specified on a seek bar corresponding to the range, by user instruction.

11. 11. The image processing device according to claim 10, wherein the generating means generates the data so that the playback speed of the displayed image is slowed down while the user continues to position the user instruction on a seek bar corresponding to the range.

12. A program for causing a computer to function as each of the means of the image processing apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 11.

13. An acquisition step of acquiring image data representing a display image having a variable viewing viewpoint; a generating step of generating information indicating a length of a playback time of the display image, information indicating a range in which the viewpoint can be changed in the display image, and data for displaying the display image; 13. An image processing method comprising:

Images