SUMMARY GENERATION SYSTEM, SUMMARY GENERATION METHOD, AND CONTENT DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM USING THE SUMMARY

摘要

A summary generation function (60) generates a visible thumbnail file (66) corresponding to an annotation displayed while being superimposed on a distributed content. The summary generation function (60) is formed by: a final content file (25) for managing a content; a meta content file (26) for managing at least content reproduction start time information, the annotation itself superimposed on the content when displayed, and its display time information by describing them in the meta content; an annotation list generation function (61) for extracting the annotation itself and its display time information as annotation information from the meta content file (26) to generate an annotation list (64); a thumbnail image cut out function (62) for generating a thumbnail image (65) for each of the extracted annotation information; and a thumbnail file generation function (63) for generating a thumbnail file (66) from the annotation list (64) and the thumbnail image (65).