Multimedia File Management in Which Specialized Icons Can Be Created for Different File Types

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to a method and system for managing a file that allows an operator to easily select or specify a file (documents, audio information, still pictures, animations, movies, etc.) via a display screen of an electronic apparatus such as a computer, word processor, or electronic filing system.

2. Description of Related Art

In conventional computer techniques, file management is a basic function provided by an operating system or a GUI (graphical user interface) of windowing software, in which a file type is designated by a file name extension (file identifier) or otherwise an icon is assigned in common to a group of files having the same extension. However, there is no known method of indicating the contents of individual files on icons so that an operator can easily understand the contents.

In the case of a text (document) file, for example, the content of the file designated by an icon has to be guessed from a file name or title of the file displayed together with the icon. In the case of an audio file, the type of icon assigned to the file is determined by the coding method by which audio signals included in the file have been encoded or by the type of application associated with the audio file, and thus it is difficult to know the content of the file via the icon. To view the contents of a file, one must start an application program corresponding to the type of each file represented by its extension. This operation takes a long time to display contents of a file, on a display screen especially a file that has a huge amount of data, for example, an image data file.

In view of the above, it is an object of the present invention to provide a method and system for managing files, in which the image of an icon includes information extracted from the content of a file designated by the icon, thereby representing the content of the file so that the file can be easily identified.

According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a file management system comprising: characteristic feature extraction means for extracting inherent characteristic features of data; icon generating means for generating an icon that designates a file including the data wherein the icon is based on the extracted characteristic features; icon management means for managing the icon corresponding to the file; displaying means for displaying the icon; and selection means for selectively designating an arbitrary file displayed on the displaying means.

According to another aspect of the present invention, there are provided a method and system for managing a file, in which a file is managed via an image in the form of an icon including characteristic features extracted from the file so that the file can be easily identified, wherein an image itself in the case of an image data file, an envelope audio signal (an envelope waveform of amplitude peaks of audio signal) in the case of an audio data file, or frequency distribution is employed as the characteristic feature.

These and other objects, features and advantages of the invention will be more fully understand from the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments, taken together with the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram illustrating the outline of a system according to the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating an example of the configuration of a system according to the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating an embodiment according to the present invention;

FIGS. 4(a) and 4(b) are block diagrams illustrating embodiments of a characteristic feature extraction unit shown in FIG. 3 according to the present invention;

FIG. 5 is a block diagram illustrating another embodiment of the characteristic feature extraction unit shown in FIG. 3 according to the present invention;

FIGS. 6(a), 6(b), 6(c) and 6(d) are schematic diagrams illustrating a method of displaying an audio waveform;

FIGS. 7(a), 7(b) and 7(c) are schematic diagrams illustrating a method of determining the pitch of an audio signal;

FIGS. 8(a) and 8(b) are schematic diagrams illustrating a method of reducing the size of a document;

FIG. 9 is a schematic diagram illustrating a method of generating a reduced image from bit-mapped data;

FIG. 10 is a flow chart illustrating the operation of the embodiment of the characteristic feature extraction unit shown in FIG. 3; and

FIG. 11 is a schematic diagram illustrating an example of an image displayed on a display screen according to one embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to the accompanying drawings, preferred embodiments of the invention will be described in detail below.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a multimedia file management system according to the present invention, wherein the outline of this system is shown in FIG. 1. This system comprises: a central processing unit (CPU) 8 serving as a controller; internal memory 9 including ROM and RAM serving as memory; and external storage devices including a hard disk (HD) device 13 and a floppy disk (FD) device 14 for storing various data and programs for controlling the system or a program associated with control processing described later in connection with FIG. 10. The system also comprises: a pointing device 11 and a keyboard 12 serving as a user interface hardware that allows a user to input information into the system wherein these elements 11 and 12 are connected to the system via a general purpose input/output interface 10; a monitor 7 for providing visual data to the user wherein the monitor 7 is connected to the system via a CRT controller 6; and a printer 16 for outputting data connected to the system via a printer controller 15. The system further comprises a sound board 1 and video capture board 4 including analog-to-digital and digital-to-analog converters for inputting and outputting various types of data. A loudspeaker 2 for outputting an audio signal is connected to the sound board 1.

FIG. 3 illustrates an example of a general configuration of a multimedia file management system according to the present invention. In FIG. 3, a characteristic feature extraction unit 32 extracts characteristic features of input data 31 and creates a reduced-size image used as an icon. The methods of extracting characteristic features and creating a reduced-size image differ depending on the types of individual input data, as will be described in detail later. The characteristic feature extraction unit 32 operates under the control of a program associated with control processing shown in the flow chart of FIG. 10 wherein the program is stored in the internal memory 9, as will also be described later. An icon generator 33 is controlled by a program (not shown) so that it designates the generated reduced-size image as an icon image of the input data, and provides the reduced-size image to an icon manager 35. Under the control of a program (not shown), the icon manager 35 manages the reduced-size image acting as the icon image assigned to the data. When an icon is selected via the display and selection unit 36, the icon manager 35 determines a file that corresponds to the selected icon, and informs a file manager about the result. The file manager 34, under the control of a program (not shown), stores data 31 applied to the system in the form of a file on a storage device such as the hard disc device 13, and manipulates a specified file in response to a request. In this system, files are related to icons in a one-to-one fashion. The display and selection unit 36 displays characters, graphic images, or pictures. The display and selection unit 36 also has an input device for selecting a part of displayed images or characters. More specifically, the display and selection unit 36 includes for example a monitor 7 and a pointing device 11. In the present embodiment, a file name or a title is displayed together with an icon on the display and selection unit 36. Now, the operation of the characteristic feature extraction unit 32 will be described in more detail below.

When the data 31 applied to the system is audio data representing only audio information, the characteristic features of the data can be extracted by a characteristic feature extraction unit 32 configured in such a manner as shown in FIGS. 4(a) and 4(b) (32a and 32a', respectively).

When a reduced-size image used as an icon is desired to be generated based on an audio waveform, such an image can be generated by an arrangement such as that shown in FIG. 4(a). In FIG. 4(a), an envelope image generator 41 generates a reduced-size image data from an amplitude waveform, sound pressure waveform, or frequency distribution waveform of an arbitrary part of applied digital audio data 31a, and then stores the obtained image data in a reduced-image memory area 44 in the internal memory 9. FIG. 6 illustrates a method of generating a reduced-size image from an amplitude waveform according to the present embodiment of the invention. In this system, it is assumed that a reduced-size image used as an icon is 48.times.48 pixels in size. FIG. 6(a) illustrates an amplitude waveform of audio data. The envelope image generator displays, on the monitor 7, a waveform composed of envelope lines connecting maximum and minimum peak points of the waveform of FIG. 6(a) as shown in FIG. 6(b). An operator specifies and selects an area of the displayed waveform via the pointing device 11. Then, a reduced-size image corresponding to the selected area 61 is generated (FIG. 6(d)). If a size of the selected area 61 is for example, 235.times.245 pixels (height.times.width), the reduced-size image is generated as follows. To create a square icon, for example, dummy space areas are added to the upper and lower portions of the selected area 61 so that an image 6c of 245.times.245 pixels is formed. Alternatively, the characteristic feature extraction unit may also be designed to automatically select an area of 245.times.245 pixels. Since 245.div.48=5 (with a remainder of 5), if the values are extracted every five pixels in both vertical and horizontal directions from the original image 91, then a reduced-size image 92 is formed as shown in FIG. 9. If this method is applied to the image 6c, then a reduced-size image 6d is obtained. The data of the reduced-size image 6d is then stored in the reduced-size memory area 44 in the internal memory 9.

FIG. 4(b) is a block diagram illustrating an arrangement according to another embodiment for realizing a method of generating an icon image including patterns with various brightness corresponding to the frequencies of an audio signal. In FIG. 4(b), a frequency detector 42 detects a frequency of digital audio data 31a and provides the detected result to a pattern assignment unit 43. In this embodiment, the amplitude waveform 7a of an audio signal such as that as shown in FIG. 7(a) is examined and the number of times the amplitude waveform 7a crosses the horizontal axis (time axis) 71 is counted during a predetermined constant time period T. Based on the count, the frequency of the audio signal is determined, and the result is output as a parameter to the pattern assignment unit 43. The pattern assignment unit 43 generates a reduced-size image composed of colors or patterns that are preassigned to corresponding frequencies according to the parameter given by the frequency detector 42. The data of the reduced-size image is stored in the reduced-image memory area 44 of the internal memory 9. In this embodiment, a pattern is selected from a pattern table shown in FIG. 7(b) according to the frequency detected by the frequency detector 42, and this selected pattern is used as a base pattern 72 of a reduced-size image to be generated. Using the base pattern 72, bit-mapped data associated with the image 7c having 48.times.48 pixels is generated, and the result is stored in the reduced-image memory 44. In this embodiment, two types of icon images, an icon formed with a reduced-size image representing an audio signal waveform and an icon formed with a reduced-size image of a preassigned pattern corresponding to the frequency of an audio signal, can be generated. If desired, these two types of images may be combined into one reduced-size image.

After the completion of the above processing, the data stored in the reduced-image memory area 44 in the internal memory is transferred as icon image data to the icon generator 33.

With the processing described above, a reduced-size image for an icon that reflects the characteristic features of an audio data 31a is generated.

On the other hand, when a document or an image is applied as the input data 31 to the system, the characteristic feature extraction unit 32 used for such data can be implemented in such a manner described by block 32b in FIG. 5. This characteristic feature extraction unit 32b shown in FIG. 5 can deal with various types of data, that is, data solely of a document, data solely of an image (a still image and a graphics image), data of both a document and an image, and other types of multimedia data. A moving image such as an animation or a movie can also be dealt with as image data by specifying an arbitrary area of an arbitrary scene of the animation or movie. In FIG. 5, a bit-mapped data generator 51 runs in the background a software application program that has generated data 31b so as to display the first page of the data 31b on the monitor 7 (FIG. 8(a)). An operator specifies and selects an area to be incorporated into an icon image via the pointing device 11. If a page other than the first page is desired to be designated for an icon image, that page may be specified by clicking either a "NEXT PAGE" button 83 or a "PREVIOUS PAGE" button 84, thereby displaying a particular page on the monitor via the application program running in the background. An arbitrary area of that page may then be specified via the pointing device 11. The bit-mapped data generator 51 generates a bit-mapped data associated with the specified area and stores the resultant data in a bit-mapped data area in the memory. A reduced-image generator 52 generates reduced-size image data having a small size suitable for an icon by extracting a part of the image data stored in the bit-mapped data area in the memory and stores the resultant reduced-size image data in a reduced-image memory area 53. For example, a reduced-size image for an icon may be generated from an arbitrary area of a document having an A-4 standard size according to the procedure described below. Here, it is assumed that the size of an icon image is 48.times.48 pixels. First, an arbitrary area of document is specified via the pointing device 11 as described above (FIG. 8(a)). Then, bit-mapped data associated with the specified area 82 is generated. In this embodiment, the specified area 82 is assumed to include 240 10.times.240 pixels. However an area of arbitrary size may be selected. Furthermore, the area is not limited to a rectangular shape. A reduced-size image including 48.times.48 pixels is generated from the specified area as follows. Since 240.div.48=5, a reduced-size image can be generated by extracting pixel values at intervals of five pixels in both vertical and horizontal directions from the selected area as shown in FIG. 9. Thus, a reduced-sized image 85 such as that shown in FIG. 8(b) is obtained. The resultant data is stored in the reduced-image memory 53. The data stored in the reduced-image memory 53 is transferred as the icon image data to the icon generator 33.

With the processing described above, a reduced-size image for an icon that reflects the characteristic features of data 31b is generated.

Referring to the flow chart of FIG. 10, the operation of the above characteristic feature extraction unit 32 will be described below.

First, at step S1, whether multimedia data applied to the system is audio data or not is determined from data described in a header portion of the applied multimedia data. If the data is audio data, then the process proceeds to step S2. In the other case, the process proceeds to step S15. That is, if the applied multimedia data is either a document or image data or the like, the data is processed in the steps from S15 through S19. In step S15, an application program that has created the multimedia data is started so that the first page of the multimedia data is displayed on the monitor 7 via the display and selection unit 36. In step S16, an operator specifies an arbitrary area of the image displayed on the monitor via the pointing device 11 so that the specified area will be used to generate an icon image. Then, the process proceeds to step S17, in which bit-mapped data associated with the specified area is generated. The process proceeds to step S18 in which bit-mapped data of a reduced-size image is generated from the bit-mapped data generated in step S17. The resultant data is stored in the reduced-image memory 44 in step S19. If the applied multimedia data is instead audio data, the data is processed in steps from S2 through S14. In step S2, the form of an icon image to be generated is determined first. If an audio waveform image has been selected to generate an icon image, the process proceeds to step S3. An audio waveform is generated according to the above-described method in step S3, and a reduced-size image is then generated in step S4. In step S5, the data of the reduced-size image generated in the step S4 is stored in the reduced-image memory 44. On the other hand, when a pattern image has been selected to generate an icon image, the process proceeds to step S6. In step S6, the frequency of applied audio data is detected. In step S7, a reduced-size image is generated using a pattern preassigned to the frequency as described above. In step S8, the data of the reduced-size image generated in step S7 is stored in the reduced-image memory 44. When a combination of an audio waveform and a background pattern image has been selected to generate an icon, the process proceeds to step S9. The steps from S9 through S11 are the same as the steps from S6 through S8, and the steps from S 12 through S13 are the same as the steps from S3 through S4. It should be noted that when the reduced-size image data generated in step S13 is stored in the reduced-image memory in step S14, the data that has been stored in the reduced-image memory in step S11 should be preserved so that the data of the bit-mapped data of the audio waveform may be combined with the data stored previously in the reduced-image memory 44. In the present embodiment, the form of a reduced-size image is determined in step S2. However the form may also be preassigned, or may be determined by an operator for each image.

FIG. 11 illustrates some examples of icon images for multimedia data, that are generated according to the method described above and displayed on the monitor screen. As shown in FIG. 11, icons 11a, 11b, and 11c reflect the contents of each multimedia data. Furthermore, titles or file names 12a, 12b, and 12c are also displayed on the monitor screen. An operator can select an arbitrary file by pointing and clicking a corresponding icon with a pointer 13a of the pointing device thereby starting the selected file itself or running an application program related to it.

Although the present invention and its advantages have been described in detail with reference to specific preferred embodiments, it is understood that various modifications, substitutions, and changes can be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. In the above embodiments, the present invention is applied to a system that deals with data representing audio signals, documents, or images (graphics images, still images, animations, movies). However, the present invention may also be applied to other various types of multimedia data and various combinations of these data. Furthermore, the method of detecting the frequency of audio data and the method of generating a reduced-size image are not limited to those described above, and various methods may be employed.

An icon may be automatically generated according to the present invention each time data is saved, or an icon may be generated according to the present invention only when an operator has specified a particular image and otherwise a predetermined icon may be used as in conventional techniques.

The present invention may be applied to a system comprising a plurality of devices or apparatus, and also to a system comprising only one device or apparatus. The present invention may also be applied to a system or apparatus that operates according to a supplied program.

As described above, the present invention provides icon images including information that represents characteristic features of files related to the corresponding icons so that files can be easily identified via icon images.