Video editing system, video editing method, recording/reproducing method of visual information, apparatus therefor, and communication system

A video editing system comprising:

• image pickup means for individually picking up videos of respective, first and second interlocutors indirectly or directly facing each other through predetermined transmission means;
• first editing means obtaining visual information to be displayed on a monitor screen by combining at least the videos of the first interlocutor and the second interlocutor each retrieved from said image pickup means in a state in which display timings of the respective videos are substantially synchronized with each other;
• second editing means for combining the visual information obtained by said first editing means, with one or more multimedia data newly entered, in a state in which a display timing of the multimedia data is substantially synchronized with the display timings of the videos of the first and second interlocutors, thereby obtaining new visual information;
• and
• a recording/reproducing apparatus of the visual information, said apparatus including:
• a display unit having the monitor screen and displaying visual information in a window on the monitor screen thereof;
• a database storing the visual inform in a state in which the visual information is segmented in a plurality of information sections and for storing comment information individually linked to one or more information sections out of the information, sections;
• and
• a control unit for controlling reproduction and display of data constituting a desired information section among the visual information stored in said database, wherein, using a comment information item selected from the comment information, as a search key, said control unit specifies link information attached to the comment information item selected, reads an associated information section in the visual information on the basis of the link information specified, and lets said display unit display both the selected comment information item and the information section thus read.