JPH04232662A - Still picture recording device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To retrieve pictures having later recording dates at a high speed by replacing the recording position of picture information so that the retrieval time of the picture information having later recording dates can become shorter. CONSTITUTION:When video signals are inputted from an input terminal 16, the video signals are converted into picture information of a digital form by means of an A/D converter 100 and compression-encoded by means of an encoding circuit 102 in accordance with a recording instruction inputted to a control circuit 108 from an operation input section 106. Then the encoded video signals are successively stored in the storing area of a recording medium 12 through a frame memory 104. At the same time, the management information of already recorded pictures is read out from a management information recording area and the recorded pictures are re-recorded after their recording positions on a recording medium 12 are rearranged so that the retrieval time of pictures having later recording dates can be reduced.

Description

[Detailed description of the invention]

0001

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a still image recording apparatus for recording image information on a screen-by-screen basis on a long image recording medium such as a digital audio tape (DAT).

0002

2. Description of the Related Art Conventional still image recording apparatuses of this type are constructed so that image information is sequentially recorded screen by screen in the longitudinal direction of a long image recording medium. Therefore, the more recent the recording date of the image information, the later the image information is recorded in the longitudinal direction of the image recording medium. Generally, management data of recorded image information is recorded at a specific position on the recording medium, for example, at the beginning. Therefore, it is necessary to always return the recording medium to its specific position with respect to the head.

0003

Therefore, there is a problem in that the search time becomes longer for image information with a newer recording date that is assumed to be read more frequently.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and it is an object of the present invention to provide a still image recording device that can quickly search for new image information with a recording date that is assumed to be read frequently. purpose.

[0005]

[Means for Solving the Problems] According to the present invention, in a still image recording device that sequentially records image information on a screen-by-screen basis on a long image recording medium, the image recording medium records image information on a screen-by-screen basis. The recording device has an image storage area in which the image information is stored, and a management information storage area in which management information including the recording date of each image information is stored, and the recording device includes an input means for inputting an instruction regarding recording of the image information; an image recording means for storing image information on a screen-by-screen basis in an image storage area of an image recording medium; and an image recording means for sequentially storing and managing image information on a screen-by-screen basis in an image storage area of an image recording medium based on recording instructions from an input means. The management information of already recorded image information is read from the information recording area, and these recorded images are re-recorded by rearranging the recording positions on the image recording medium so that the newer the recording date, the shorter the search time. and a control means for controlling the image recording means.

[0006]

According to the present invention, image information is sequentially stored in the image storage area of the image recording medium in units of screens in response to a recording instruction. At the same time, the management information of the image information that has already been recorded is read from the management information recording area, and the recording position of these recorded images on the image recording medium is changed so that the newer the recording date, the shorter the search time. Sorted and re-recorded. This makes it possible to search for image information with a new recording date at high speed.

[0007]

Embodiments Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 shows the configuration of an embodiment of a still image recording device according to the present invention. In the figure, a still image recording device 10 has a recording/reproducing section 14, into which an image recording medium 12 is loaded.

The image recording medium 12 is, for example, a digital audio tape in this embodiment, and digital image information is recorded on this image recording medium 12.

The still image recording device 10 includes an A/D converter 1
00, the encoding circuit 102, and the frame memory 10
4, the operation input section 106, and the control circuit 108,RO
It mainly consists of M 114 and RAM 116 .

The A/D converter 100 converts the video signal input from the input terminal 16 into digital image information. The encoding circuit 102 is an A/D converter 100
Performs color separation and compression encoding of the image data output from the One frame worth of image information output from the encoding circuit 102 is stored in the frame memory 104. The operation input unit 106 is a means for manually issuing various recording instructions regarding image recording to the control circuit 108.

The control circuit 108 controls the signal processing timing of the encoding circuit 102, the storage timing of the frame memory 104, and the image recording medium 12 of the image information.
Control writing to.

[0012] The ROM 114 stores various programs and fixed data. Various data read from the image recording medium 12 is temporarily stored in the RAM 116. As shown in FIG. 2, the image recording medium 12 includes a management information storage area (TOC) 40 in which management information including identification information such as the recording date of recorded still images is stored, and image information of still images on multiple screens. It has an image information recording area 42 in which images are stored on a screen-by-screen basis.

In such a configuration, when a video signal is input from the input terminal 16, this video signal is converted into digital format image information by the A/D converter 100, and is input to the control circuit 108 from the operation input section 106. In response to the recording instruction given, the encoding circuit 102 performs color separation and compression encoding of this image data under the control of the control circuit 108. Furthermore, one frame worth of image information output from the encoding circuit 102 is stored in the frame memory 104.

Next, from the control circuit 108 to the address line 1
10. The address of the image information storage area 45 in which image information of a still image to be recorded on the image recording medium 12 is stored is specified via the recording/playback unit 14, and one screen worth of still images is stored in a predetermined storage area. image information is stored in the frame memory 104.
The image is then stored in the image recording medium 12.

Further, from the control circuit 108 to the address line 11
0, management information of the recorded image and address data of a storage area where the management information is stored are sent to the image recording medium 12 via the control line 112 and the recording/reproducing unit 14, and the management information storage area of the image recording medium 12 is sent. (TOC) 40 predetermined storage areas contain management information of recorded images, such as image numbers,
Data such as the recording date and the title of the recorded image are stored.

A calendar is provided within the control circuit 108 to manage the current date and time of the device. The control circuit 108 obtains the current date and time from this calendar and records the recording date of the image information in the management information storage area 40.

By the way, in the conventional still image recording apparatus, when recording image information in the image information storage area 42 of the image recording medium 12, as shown in FIG.
When the image information of 2 is recorded (Fig. 3 (1)), then 2
The image information of the still image (B) is recorded on the elongated recording medium 12 after the image information of the still image (A) (FIG. 3(2)). Therefore, there is a problem that the search time becomes longer for image information with a newer recording date.

In contrast, in the present invention, the search time is shorter for image information with a newer recording date, by recording the image information in a rearranged manner at the recording position on the image information storage area 42 of the image recording medium 12. Image information with a newer date can be searched faster. That is, Figure 4
, the image information storage area 4 of the image information recording medium 12
The image information of the first still image (A) is recorded in the first storage area of 2 (FIG. 4(1)).

Next, when recording the image data of the second still image (B) in the image storage area 42, the control circuit 1
08 reads out the image data of the still image (A) that has already been recorded and re-records it in the adjacent rear storage area (FIG. 4(2)). Then, the control circuit 108
The image information of the still image (B) is stored in the frame memory 104.
The data is read from the image information storage area 42 and recorded in the first storage area of the image information storage area 42 (FIG. 4(3)).

Similarly, when recording the image information of the third still image (C), the control circuit 108 records the image information of the already recorded still images (A) and (B) as shown in FIG.
3) Move backward one by one from the recording positions shown in FIG. 4 to empty the first storage area of the image information storage area 42 (FIG. 4(4)). After this, the image information of the still image (C) is recorded in the first storage area of the image information storage area 42 (FIG. 4(5)).

As described above, in this embodiment, the recording position of image information is replaced so that the search time is shorter for still image information with the latest recording date. Therefore, image information with a newer recording date can be searched faster.

[0022]

[Effects of the Invention] As explained above, in the present invention, image information is rearranged and re-recorded so that image information with a newer recording date is recorded at a recording position on an image recording medium with a shorter search time. Therefore, it is possible to search for image information with a new recording date at high speed.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of an embodiment of a still image recording device according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of a recording format in a storage area of the image recording medium in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing a method of recording image information in a conventional still image recording device.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram showing a method of recording image information in the still image recording device according to the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

10 Still image recording device 12 Image recording medium 14 Recording/playback section 16 Input terminal 100 A/D converter 102 Encoding circuit 104 Frame memory 106 Operation input section 108 Control circuit 114 ROM 116 RAM

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A still image recording device that sequentially records image information in units of screens on a long image recording medium, wherein the image recording medium has an image storage area in which image information is stored in units of screens; a management information storage area in which management information including a recording date of the image information is stored;
an image recording means for storing image information in an image storage area of the image recording medium on a screen-by-screen basis, and sequentially storing image information on a screen-by-screen basis in the image storage area of the image recording medium based on a recording instruction from the input means; , reads the management information of already recorded image information from the management information storage area, rearranges the recording positions on the image recording medium, and re-orders the image information so that the newer the recording date, the shorter the search time. A still image recording apparatus comprising: a control means for controlling the image recording means to record.