Picture compression managing apparatus and picture compression managing method used therefor

1. A picture compression managing apparatus comprising:

a picture compression processor for compressing a moving picture, said moving picture comprising a plurality of frames, said picture compression processor comprising:

an interface section for receiving an index affix request, said index affix request being a request to affix an index to a frame of said plurality of frames, said frame being compressed by said picture compression processor into a compressed frame to be stored in a file in a recording medium;

an index producing section for producing, in response to said index affix request, a marking position that is a position in said file at which said compressed frame is stored with respect to a leading position of said file, said index producing section carrying out storage of said marking position as a particular index into said recording medium; and

a frame memorizing section, said frame memorizing section being configured to store, if said frame is compressed by said picture compression processor into said compressed frame using one or more reference frames of said plurality of frames, said one or more reference frames in decompressed form into said recording medium.

2. The picture compression managing apparatus as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the picture compression processor further comprises:

a reduced picture producing section for producing, in response to index affix request, a reduced input picture by reducing said frame, said reduced picture producing section carrying out at least one of output of said reduced input picture to a display unit and storage of said reduced input picture into said recording medium.

3. The picture compression managing apparatus as claimed in claim 1 , further comprising:

an index acquiring section for acquiring, in response to a jump request to jump to said particular index on subjecting said file to picture decompression, said marking position from said recording medium; and

a reference frame acquiring section for acquiring, in response to said jump request, said one or more reference frames in decompressed form from said recording medium if said frame was compressed using said one or more reference frames.

4. A picture decompression processor for decompressing a succession of input pictures included as a succession of compressed pictures in a picture file which is subjected to picture decompression, said picture decompression processor comprising:

a reduced picture producing section for producing, in response to an index affix request, a reduced input picture by reducing a current input picture of said succession of input pictures included in said picture file, said reduced picture producing section carrying out at least one of output of said reduced input picture to a display unit and storage of said reduced input picture into a recording medium;

an index producing section for producing, in response to said index affix request, a marking position that is a position of said current input picture with respect to a leading position of said picture file, said index producing section carrying out storage of said marking position as a particular index into said recording medium; and

a reference frame producing section for producing at least one remaining picture of said succession of said input pictures, said at least one remaining picture being used as at least one reference frame in later decompressing said current input picture into a decompressed picture, said reference frame producing section carrying out storage of said at least one reference frame in a decompressed form into said recording medium.

5. A picture compression managing method, comprising:

compressing a frame of a plurality of frames of a moving picture into a compressed frame using one or more reference frames of said plurality of frames;

receiving an index affix request to affix an index to said frame;

storing said compressed frame into a picture file in a recording medium;

producing, in response to said index affix request, a marking position that is a position in said picture file at which said compressed frame is stored with respect to a leading position of said picture file;

storing said marking position as a particular index into said recording medium; and

storing said one or more reference frames in decompressed form into the recording medium.

6. The picture compression managing method as claimed in claim 5 . further comprising:

producing, in response to said index affix request, a reduced input picture by reducing said frame; and

carrying out at least one of output of said reduced input picture to a display unit and storage of said reduced input picture into said recording medium.

7. The picture compression managing method as claimed in claim 5 , further comprising:

acquiring, in response to a jump request to jump to said particular index on subjecting said picture file to picture decompression, said marking position from said recording medium; and

acquiring, in response to said jump request, said one or more reference frames from said recording medium.

8. A picture decompression processing method of decompressing a succession of input pictures included as a succession of compressed pictures in a picture file which is subjected to picture decompression, said picture decompression processing method comprising:

producing, in response to an index affix request, a reduced input picture by reducing a current input picture of said succession of input pictures included in said picture file;

carrying out at least one of output of said reduced input picture to a display unit and storage of said reduced input picture into a recording medium;

producing, in response to said index affix request, a marking position which is a position of said current input picture with respect to a leading position of said picture file;

carrying out storage of said marking position as a particular index into said recording medium;

producing at least one remaining picture of said succession of said input pictures, said at least one remaining picture being used as at least one reference frame in later decompressing said current input picture into a decompressed picture; and

carrying out storage of said at least one reference frame in a decompressed form into said recording medium.