A media recording element having capabilities to facilitate recording media for subsequent playback. The recording element further including features associated with limited operations of a hard drive of other similarly mechanical memory under certain operating conditions so as to limit power consumption and/or memory degradation.

An ad in a movie can be a static ad having a position in the movie that cannot be moved, or a dynamic ad having a position in the movie that can be changed. When a viewer wishes to skip a portion of the movie containing the ad, the playback system determines whether the ad is static or dynamic. If the ad is static, only the portion of the movie preceding the static ad can be skipped; the ad is unskippable. This technique is referred to as “bounceback” since the end of the skip bounces back to the start of the static ad. If the ad is dynamic, it is moved to after the end of the skip. This technique is referred to as “slip-ad” since the ad slips to later in the movie. When a movie has multiple ads, some can be static and some can be dynamic.

An ad in a movie can be a static ad having a position in the movie that cannot be moved, or a dynamic ad having a position in the movie that can be changed. When a viewer wishes to skip a portion of the movie containing the ad, the playback system determines whether the ad is static or dynamic. If the ad is static, only the portion of the movie preceding the static ad can be skipped; the ad is unskippable. This technique is referred to as “bounceback” since the end of the skip bounces back to the start of the static ad. If the ad is dynamic, it is moved to after the end of the skip. This technique is referred to as “slip-ad” since the ad slips to later in the movie. When a movie has multiple ads, some can be static and some can be dynamic.

Methods and apparatus to detect blank images in a digital video broadcast signal are disclosed. An example method of detecting a blank image includes receiving a compressed digital image including a plurality of DC values, analyzing a total number of bits in the digital image to determine if the digital image has a data size small enough to be a blank frame candidate, if the data size is small enough for the digital image to be a blank frame candidate, analyzing multiple areas of the digital image to determine if the multiple areas exhibit substantially a same complexity, if the multiple areas exhibit substantially the same complexity, determining a number of DC values in the plurality of DC values that meet a criterion, comparing the determined number of DC values meeting the criterion to a threshold, and identifying the received digital image as a blank image if the determined number of DC values exceeds the threshold.

Methods and apparatus to detect blank images in a digital video broadcast signal are disclosed. An example method of detecting a blank image includes receiving a compressed digital image including a plurality of DC values, analyzing a total number of bits in the digital image to determine if the digital image has a data size small enough to be a blank frame candidate, if the data size is small enough for the digital image to be a blank frame candidate, analyzing multiple areas of the digital image to determine if the multiple areas exhibit substantially a same complexity, if the multiple areas exhibit substantially the same complexity, determining a number of DC values in the plurality of DC values that meet a criterion, comparing the determined number of DC values meeting the criterion to a threshold, and identifying the received digital image as a blank image if the determined number of DC values exceeds the threshold.

A diagnostic imaging support device includes: a learning unit that calculates a feature quantity about each of infectiousness condition and non-infectiousness condition for determining a condition in a determination image of an anterior eye through machine learning on the basis of a learning image of an anterior eye and information about a condition in the learning image.

A diagnostic imaging support device includes: a learning unit that calculates a feature quantity about each of infectiousness condition and non-infectiousness condition for determining a condition in a determination image of an anterior eye through machine learning on the basis of a learning image of an anterior eye and information about a condition in the learning image.

In a recording and reproducing apparatus and a recording and reproducing method for the recording and reproducing apparatus for recording and reproducing image information on a scene obtained through photographing, relative to a predetermined first recording medium and being capable of setting one or more chapters to each scene, a face recognizing process is executed for a photographed image based on the image information, an importance level of each chapter is set in accordance with a result of the face recognizing process for a very important person (VIP) set by a user, and each chapter having a relevant importance level among importance levels of respective chapters is selectively reproduced. A user can therefore find an object chapter and scene quickly and easily.

In a recording and reproducing apparatus and a recording and reproducing method for the recording and reproducing apparatus for recording and reproducing image information on a scene obtained through photographing, relative to a predetermined first recording medium and being capable of setting one or more chapters to each scene, a face recognizing process is executed for a photographed image based on the image information, an importance level of each chapter is set in accordance with a result of the face recognizing process for a very important person (VIP) set by a user, and each chapter having a relevant importance level among importance levels of respective chapters is selectively reproduced. A user can therefore find an object chapter and scene quickly and easily.

A system or method selects among multiple tuners to tune a particular channel. A request is received to tune a first channel. In response to this request, a first tuner is assigned to tune the first channel. A request is received to tune a second channel. If the program tuned by the first tuner is not being recorded, the first tuner is assigned to tune the second channel. If the program tuned by the first tuner is being recorded, the second tuner is assigned to tune the second channel.