Laboratory system, method of controlling operation thereof, playback apparatus and method, film image management method, image data copying system and method of copying image data

A playback method comprising the steps of:

• verifying on a recording medium, presence of a group of image data and of resources, associated with the group of image data by first information,
• wherein said group of image data is recorded on said recording medium on which have been recorded the group of image information, which comprises a plurality of frames of image data,
• wherein said first information relates to the group of image data,
• wherein a second information relates to the image of each frame, and
• wherein said resources include at least one of a video and audio component that is used when said group of image data is played back;
• and
• creating a slide-show information including sequence information representing playback sequence and combination information representing a combination of images and at least said video component of said resources when presence of the group of image data and of the resources has been verified, and storing the slide-show information on the recording medium.

A playback apparatus comprising:

• reading means for reading slide-show information from a recording medium on which have been stored a group of image data, which comprises a plurality of frames of image data, first information relating to the group of image data, second information relating to the image of each frame, resources including at least an audio component that is used when the group of image data is reproduced, and slide-show information relating to playback sequence and to a combination of images and resources, and reading for image data and at least a video component, which has been combined with this image data by combination information included in the slide-show information, out of the recording medium in accordance with a sequence included in the read-out slide-show information;
• means for synthesizing the read out image data and video component;
• and
• means for displaying the image represented by the synthesized image data.

A playback method comprising the steps of:

• reading slide-show information from a recording medium on which have been stored a group of image data, which comprises a plurality of frames of image data, first information relating to the group of image data, second information relating to the image of each frame, resources which include at least one of a video component and an audio component used when the group of image data is reproduced, and the slide-show information relating to both a playback sequence and to a combination of images and resources,
• reading image data and at least a video component, which has been combined with this image data by combination information included in the slide-show information, out of the recording medium in accordance with a sequence included in the slide-show information that has been read out;
• synthesizing the readout image data and video component;
• and
• displaying the image represented by the synthesized image data.