Image processing apparatus

• US 20010033340A1
• Filed: 02/23/2001
• Published: 10/25/2001
• Est. Priority Date: 02/29/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha (Canon Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha (Canon Inc.)
• Inventors: Yui, Hideaki
• Granted Patent: US 6,859,236 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 348/592
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2340/12 Overlay of images, i.e. displayed pixel being the result of switching between the corresponding input pixels
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 5/14 Display of multiple viewports
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 5/397 Arrangements specially adapted for transferring the contents of two or more bit-mapped memories to the screen simultaneously, e.g. for mixing or overlay G09G5/02 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/426 Internal components of the client ; Characteristics thereof H04N5/44 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4316 for displaying supplemental content in a region of the screen, e.g. an advertisement in a separate window
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4318 by altering the content in the rendering process, e.g. blanking, blurring or masking an image region image enhancement or restoration in general G06T5/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4348 Demultiplexing of additional data and video streams
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4435 Memory management allocation of memory to service a request G06F9/5016; addressing or allocating within memory systems or architectures G06F12/02
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4438 Window management, e.g. event handling following interaction with the user interface
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/45 Picture in picture , e.g. displaying simultaneously another television channel in a region of the screen
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 9/641 Multi-purpose receivers, e.g. for auxiliary information H04N9/642 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 9/75 Chroma key

Abstract

In an apparatus for composing image data of a main picture and image data of a sub-picture by a chroma key process, an attribute of an image contained in the sub-picture is detected, a partial area of the sub-picture is set as a chroma key mask area in accordance with the attribute detection result, and composing the image data of the main picture and the image data of the sub-picturee by executing the chroma key process for an area other than the chroma key mask area without executing the chroma key process for the chroma key mask area in the sub-pictur.

Claims

1. An apparatus for composing image data of a main picture and image data of a sub-picture by a chroma key process, comprising:

attribute detecting means for detecting an attribute of an image contained in the sub-picture;

area setting means for setting a partial area of the sub-picture as a chroma key mask area in accordance with an output from said attribute detecting means; and

composing means for composing the image data of the main picture and the image data of the sub-picture by executing the chroma key process for an area other than the chroma key mask area without executing the chroma key process for the chroma key mask area in the sub-picture.

2. An apparatus according to

claim 1

, wherein said attribute detecting means detects an image contained in the sub-picture having a predetermined attribute, and said area setting means sets an area of an image having the predetermined attribute as the chroma key mask area.

3. An apparatus according to

claim 2

, wherein the predetermined attribute is an attribute of an image having a color not controlled by sub-picture generating means for generating the sub-picture.

4. An apparatus according to

claim 1

, wherein said attribute detecting means detects an attribute of an image contained in the sub-picture in accordance with addition information added to the image data of the sub-picture.

5. An apparatus according to

claim 4

, wherein the addition information includes information of a natural picture attribute described in a tag of a multimedia descriptive language.

6. An apparatus according to

claim 4

, wherein the addition information includes position information of an image in the sub-picture defined by start and end points.

7. An apparatus according to

claim 1

, wherein said area setting means sets a plurality of chroma key mask areas spaced apart from each other, and said composing means executes the chroma key process for an area other than the plurality of chroma key mask areas.

8. An apparatus according to

claim 7

, wherein said area setting means further excludes an area corresponding to a predetermined image from the chroma key mask area, if the number of set chroma key mask areas exceeds a predetermined number.

9. An apparatus according to

claim 8

, wherein the predetermined image is a moving image.

10. An apparatus according to

claim 1

, further comprising output means for outputting image data of a composed image composed by said composing means to a display device.

11. An apparatus according to

claim 1

, further comprising main picture generating means for generating the main picture by using image data supplied from a plurality of image sources.

12. An image processing apparatus, comprising:

receiving means for receiving a television broadcast signal multiplexing image data and addition information data;

main-picture generating means for generating a main-picture in accordance with the image data;

sub-picture generating means for generating a sub-picture in accordance with the addition information data;

attribute detecting means for detecting an attribute of an image contained in the sub-picture in accordance with the addition information data;

area setting means for setting a partial area of the sub-picture as a chroma key mask area in accordance with an output from said attribute detecting means; and

composing means for composing the image data of the main picture and the image data of the sub-picture by executing the chroma key process for an area other than the chroma key mask area without executing the chroma key process for the chroma key mask area in the sub-picture.

13. An apparatus according to

claim 12

wherein said attribute detecting means detects an image contained in the sub-picture having a predetermined attribute, and said area setting means sets an area of an image having the predetermined attribute as the chroma key mask area.

14. An apparatus according to

claim 13

, wherein the predetermined attribute is an attribute of an image having a color not controlled by sub-picture generating means for generating the sub-picture.

15. An apparatus according to

claim 13

wherein the addition information is described by a scenario descriptive language, and said sub-picture generating means generates the sub-picture by analyzing a scenario described in the addition information.

16. An apparatus according to

claim 12

, wherein said area setting means sets a plurality of chroma key mask areas spaced away from each other, and said composing means executes the chroma key process for an area other than the plurality of chroma key mask areas.

17. An apparatus according to

claim 16

, wherein said area setting means further excludes an area corresponding to a predetermined image from the chroma key mask area, if the number of set chroma key mask areas exceeds a predetermined number.

18. An apparatus according to

claim 12

, further comprising input means for inputting image data supplied from an external image source, wherein said main picture generating means generates the main picture by using image data supplied from said receiving means and image data supplied from said input means.

19. An image processing method of generating a composite image by composing a main picture generated in accordance with image data input from an image source and a sub-picture drawn by a graphic accelerator by executing a chroma key process in accordance with a key color in the sub-picture, said method comprising the steps of:

detecting an attribute of an image to be developed into the sub-picture;

setting an area containing the image as a chroma key mask area if the detected attribute of the image is an attribute having a color unable to be controlled by a controller for controlling the graphic accelerator; and

generating the composite image by executing the chroma key process only for an area other than the chroma key mask area of the sub-picture.

20. A method of composing image data of a main picture and image data of a sub-picture by a chroma key process, comprising the steps of:

detecting an attribute of an image contained in the sub-picture;

setting a partial area of the sub-picture as a chroma key mask area in accordance with an attribute detection result; and

composing the image data of the main picture and the image data of the sub-picture by executing the chroma key process for an area other than the chroma key mask area without executing the chroma key process for the chroma key mask area in the sub-picture.

21. An image processing method, comprising the steps of:

receiving a television broadcast signal multiplexing image data and addition information data;

generating a main-picture in accordance with the image data;

generating a sub-picture in accordance with the addition information data;

detecting an attribute of an image contained in the sub-picture in accordance with the addition information data;

setting a partial area of the sub-picture as a chroma key mask area in accordance with an attribute detection result; and

composing the image data of the main picture and the image data of the sub-picture by executing the chroma key process for an area other than the chroma key mask area without executing the chroma key process for the chroma key mask area in the sub-picture.