Information processing apparatus reproducing moving image and displaying thumbnails, and information processing method thereof

1. An information processor comprising:

a central processing unit for controlling a frame extraction unit which extracts a plurality of frame sequences, each of the frame sequences being extracted from an identical moving image at different time intervals on a time axis of the moving image;

a decoding unit which decodes data of the plurality of frame sequences extracted by the frame extraction unit;

a display unit having a display screen which simultaneously displays a plurality of thumbnail arrays of decoded images, and

an input unit which accepts a user's instruction for selecting a thumbnail array, from among a plurality of thumbnail arrays simultaneously displayed by the display unit, as a target to be shifted, forward or backward,

wherein each thumbnail array corresponds to a particular one of the plurality of frame sequences, and each thumbnail in a thumbnail array represents one of the frame sequences in the corresponding particular one of the plurality of frame sequences,

wherein the plurality of thumbnail arrays are displayed in the order of appearance in the moving image so that all of the displayed plurality of the thumbnail arrays include a thumbnail from each thumbnail array that represents a frame sequence that includes the same time on the time axis of the moving image,

wherein the frame extraction unit identifies, in accordance with the user's instruction, a frame to be displayed in the selected thumbnail array after the shifting and further extracts frame data to be newly displayed; and

wherein the display unit updates the selected thumbnail array with a frame identified by the frame extraction unit.

2. The information processor of claim 1 , wherein a range of a moving image provided by each thumbnail array simultaneously displayed by the display unit has a length different from each other.

3. The information processor of claim 1 , wherein a range of a moving image provided by each of a plurality of thumbnail arrays simultaneously displayed by the display unit includes a scene in common.

4. The information processor of claim 1 , wherein:

the frame extraction unit determines, based on a variation of a range of a moving image provided by the one thumbnail array shifted caused by the user's instruction, a shift amount of another thumbnail array so as to reflect the variation in the another thumbnail array, and the frame extraction unit identifies a frame from the another thumbnail array to be displayed after the shifting and further extracts frame data to be newly displayed with respect to the another thumbnail array; and

the display unit updates the another thumbnail array with a frame identified by the frame extraction unit,

wherein the frame identified from the another thumbnail array and the frame identified from the one thumbnail array represent a common time interval from the moving image and are displayed aligned on a common time axis.

5. The information processor of claim 1 , wherein the input unit further accepts a user's instruction for selecting one frame from among frames included in one of the thumbnail arrays simultaneously displayed by the display unit, wherein:

the decoding unit sequentially decodes a selected frame accepted by the input unit or a frame having a predetermined relationship with the selected frame, and the subsequent frames; and

the display unit sequentially displays frames decoded by the decoding unit so as to display one moving image.

6. The information processor of claim 5 , wherein:

the decoding unit is configured to acquire an information on a scene switching point recorded in the moving file, and decode frames from that at a scene switching point nearest from the selected frame.

7. The information processor of claim 1 , wherein:

the display unit displays the image of frames with a larger size in the thumbnail array corresponding to a shorter time interval.

8. The information processor of claim 1 , wherein:

the display unit is configured to display the plurality of thumbnail arrays as if they were aligned in a depth direction, and display an array selected by a user to appear to move to a lesser depth than previously displayed.

9. The information processor of claim 1 , wherein:

the display unit plays a moving image as one of the thumbnails in the selected thumbnail array, and, when the moving image is played until the point of the next thumbnail in the selected thumbnail array, the display unit shifts the selected thumbnail array by one thumbnail.

10. An information processing method, comprising:

extracting at plurality of frame sequences, each of the frame sequences being extracted from an identical moving image at different time intervals on a time axis of the moving image;

decoding extracted data of the plurality of frame sequences to generate image data and storing the image data in a buffer;

reading image data stored in the buffer and simultaneously displaying on a display a plurality of thumbnail arrays of decoded images;

accepting a user's instruction for selecting a thumbnail array, from among a plurality of thumbnail arrays simultaneously displayed, as a target to be shifted, forward or backward;

identifying, in accordance with the user's instruction, a frame to be displayed in the selected thumbnail array after the shifting and further extracting frame data to be newly displayed; and

updating the selected thumbnail array with the identified frame,

wherein each thumbnail array corresponds to a particular one of the plurality of frame sequences, and each thumbnail in a thumbnail array represents one of the frame sequences in the corresponding particular one of the plurality of frame sequences, and

wherein the plurality of thumbnail arrays are displayed in the order of appearance in the moving image so that all of the displayed plurality of the thumbnail arrays include a thumbnail from each thumbnail array that represents a frame sequence that includes the same time on the time axis of the moving image.

11. The information processing method of claim 10 , further comprising:

determining a shift amount of each thumbnail array other than the selected thumbnail array in accordance with the user's instruction; and

updating the display of each thumbnail array in accordance with a determined shift amount so that a range of a moving image provided by each of the thumbnail arrays varies by the same variation.

12. The information processing method of claim 10 , further comprising:

accepting an input for selecting one frame from among frames included in the thumbnail arrays;

sequentially decoding a selected frame or a frame having a predetermined relationship with the selected frame, and the subsequent frames; and

sequentially displaying decoded frames so as to display one moving image.

13. A non-transitory computer readable medium encoded with a computer program that when executed on a processor causes the computer to perform a information processing method, comprising:

extracting a plurality of frame sequences, each of the frame sequences being extracted from an identical moving image at different time intervals on a time axis of the moving image;

decoding extracted data of the plurality of frame sequences to generate image data and Storing the image data in a buffer;

reading image data stored in the buffer and simultaneously displaying on a display a plurality of thumbnail arrays of decoded images;

accepting a user's instruction for selecting a thumbnail array, from among a plurality of thumbnail arrays simultaneously displayed, as a target to be shifted, forward or backward;

identifying, in accordance with the user's instruction, a frame to be displayed in the selected thumbnail array after the shifting and further extracting frame data to be newly displayed; and

updating the selected thumbnail array with the identified frame,

wherein each thumbnail array corresponds to a particular one of the plurality of frame sequences, and each thumbnail in a thumbnail array represents one of the frame sequences in the corresponding particular one of the plurality of frame sequences, and

wherein the plurality of thumbnail arrays are displayed in the order of appearance in the moving image so that all of the displayed plurality of the thumbnail arrays include a thumbnail from each thumbnail array that represents a frame sequence that includes the same time on the time axis of the moving image.