Apparatus for editing and reproducing visual events along musical events

Claim 3

The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the storage device stores the music information and the image progression information, both of which adopt a common clock system for determining occurrence timings of the music events and the visual events in synchronization with each other.

Claim 4

The apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a device that can replace the music information of one song by new music information of another song while reserving the synchronization of the visual events to the musical events provided by the new music information.

Claim 5

The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the helper device provides each scenario determining a title event, which is a specific one of the secondary visual events and which is arranged at a top portion of the sub sequence of the secondary visual events, such that the title event is automatically integrated into a head of the sequence of the visual events when the sub sequence of the secondary visual events is combined with the sub sequence of the primary visual events.

Claim 8

The apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the information device provides the music information and the image progression information, both of which adopt a common clock system for determining occurrence timings of the music events and the visual events in synchronization with each other.

Claim 9

The apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the information device provides the image progression information containing data representing a time resolution of frames of the images corresponding to the sequence of the visual events, wherein the image synthesizer device synthesizes the frames of the images according to the time resolution contained in the image progression information, and the display device successively displays the frames of the images at a refresh rate corresponding to the time resolution.

Claim 10

A computer readable medium for storing a data structure processed by a computer to reproduce multimedia events including musical events and visual events arranged in synchronization to the musical events, wherein the data structure comprises: music information that is arranged to determine a sequence of the musical events, and that is processed by the computer to generate musical tones in correspondence to the sequence of the musical events; image progression information that is arranged to determine a sequence of the visual events in synchronization to the sequence of the musical events, the image progression information containing event timing data determining an occurrence timing of each visual event and event specification data specifying each visual event; and event information that directly or indirectly represents an image of each visual event, and that is sequentially processed by the computer according to the event specification data and the event timing data to synthesize images in correspondence to the sequence of the visual events along the progression of the musical tones.

Claim 11

A computer readable medium for storing a data structure processed by a computer to reproduce multimedia events including musical events and visual events arranged in synchronization to the musical events, wherein the data structure comprises: music information that is arranged to determine a sequence of the musical events, and that is processed by the computer to generate musical tones in correspondence to the sequence of the musical events; image progression information that is arranged to determine a sequence of the visual events in synchronization to the sequence of the musical events, the image progression information containing event timing data determining an occurrence timing of each visual event and event specification data specifying each visual event; and event information that directly or indirectly represents an image of each visual event, and that is sequentially processed by the computer according to the event specification data and the event timing data to synthesize images in correspondence to the sequence of the visual events along the progression of the musical tones.

Claim 12

A computer readable medium for use in a computer having a central processor, the medium containing program instructions executable by the central processor for causing the computer to perform a process of editing multimedia events including musical events and visual events arranged in synchronization to the musical events, wherein the process comprises the steps of: providing music information which can be processed to produce a progression of the musical events, image progression information which can be created to determine a sequence of the visual events, and event information which represents the visual events to be sequentially reproduced according to the image progression information, the sequence of the visual events being composed of a sub sequence of primary visual events representative of scenes and another sub sequence of secondary visual events representative of at least visual effects applied to the scenes and visual changes used to connect the scenes; providing a plurality of scenarios, each of which determines a sub sequence of secondary visual events; and allotting one of the scenarios to the music information when the image progression information is created such that the sub sequence of the secondary visual events determined by the allotted scenario is combined with the sub sequence of the primary visual events contained in the image progression information to constitute the sequence of the visual events.

Claim 13

A computer readable medium for use in a computer having a central processor, the medium containing program instructions executable by the central processor for causing the computer to perform a process of editing multimedia events including musical events and visual events arranged in synchronization to the musical events, wherein the process comprises the steps of: providing music information which can be processed to produce a progression of the musical events, image progression information which can be created to determine a sequence of the visual events, and event information which represents the visual events to be sequentially reproduced according to the image progression information, the sequence of the visual events being composed of a sub sequence of primary visual events representative of scenes and another sub sequence of secondary visual events representative of at least visual effects applied to the scenes and visual changes used to connect the scenes; providing a plurality of scenarios, each of which determines a sub sequence of secondary visual events; and allotting one of the scenarios to the music information when the image progression information is created such that the sub sequence of the secondary visual events determined by the allotted scenario is combined with the sub sequence of the primary visual events contained in the image progression information to constitute the sequence of the visual events.

Claim 14

A computer readable medium for use in a computer having a central processor, the medium containing program instructions executable by the central processor for causing the computer to perform a process of reproducing multimedia events including musical events and visual events arranged in synchronization to the musical events, wherein the process comprises the steps of: providing music information which determines a sequence of the musical events, image progression information which determines a sequence of the visual events in synchronization to the sequence of the musical events, and event information which represents the visual events involved in the image progression information; processing the music information to generate musical tones in correspondence to the sequence of the musical events; sequentially processing the event information according to the image progression information to synthesize images in correspondence to the sequence of the visual events; and displaying the synthesized images along the progression of the musical tones to thereby reproduce the multimedia events.

Claim 15

A computer readable medium for use in a computer having a central processor, the medium containing program instructions executable by the central processor for causing the computer to perform a process of reproducing multimedia events including musical events and visual events arranged in synchronization to the musical events, wherein the process comprises the steps of: providing music information which determines a sequence of the musical events, image progression information which determines a sequence of the visual events in synchronization to the sequence of the musical events, and event information which represents the visual events involved in the image progression information; processing the music information to generate musical tones in correspondence to the sequence of the musical events; sequentially processing the event information according to the image progression information to synthesize images in correspondence to the sequence of the visual events; and displaying the synthesized images along the progression of the musical tones to thereby reproduce the multimedia events.