Business method for selectable semantic codec pairs for very low data-rate video transmission

• US 20020114525A1
• Filed: 02/21/2001
• Published: 08/22/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 02/21/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Bolle, Rudolf M., Connell, Jonathan
• Granted Patent: US 8,126,276 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 382/232
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 9/001 Model-based coding, e.g. wire frame
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/12 Selection from among a plurality of transforms or standards, e.g. selection between discrete cosine transform [DCT] and sub-band transform or selection between H.263 and H.264
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/162 User input
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/90 using coding techniques not provided for in groups H04N19/10-H04N19/85, e.g. fractals

Abstract

A business method for using computer image processing for selectable task-based digital video compression is described. The method is intended to reduce travel of experts and let these experts direct field agents in performing tasks remotely. The tasks to be performed in the remote field can be monitoring, manipulating, and navigating. A field agent performs the manipulation and navigation operations, this agent can be a human being or a robot. The task-based compression algorithms use computer vision techniques to extract the bare minimum amount of information from the remote field scenery to allow the task to be performed. High frame rate photo-realistic reconstruction of the remote scene is not generally necessary.

Claims

1. A business method for providing advice to a remote location, the method comprising the steps of:

inputting one or more video streams at a field location;

selecting a selected compression process out of a set of compression processes at an office location based on a task,

compressing one or more of the video streams at the field location using the selected compression process to obtain a compressed video; and

transmitting the compressed video from the field location to the office location.

2. A business method, as in claim 1, further comprising the steps of:

sending advice from the office location to the field location after viewing the compressed video at the office location.

3. A business method, as in claim 1, where the office location causes the field location to change the selected compression process one or more times during the task.

4. A business method, as in claim 1, where the set of compression processes includes one or more of the following compression processes:

selective edge retention, line finding, motion segmentation, patch tracking, template matching, object tracking, spatially varying resolution, MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, M-JPEG, M-JBIG, H.261, H.323, and region segmentation.

5. A business method, as in claim 1, where a user in the office location has greater expertise in the task than a user in the field location.

6. A business method, as in claim 1, where the task includes any one or more of the following:

diagnostics with an expert at a remote site, an observation, a scene inspection, a scene surveillance, a navigation, an objection localization, a control, a maintenance procedure, and a diagnostic procedure.

7. A business method, as in claim 1, where a user in the office location can not personally access the field location during the performance of the task.

8. A business method, as in claim 7, where the user in the office location can not personally access the field location for one or more of the following reasons:

a weather condition, a hazard, a geographic inaccessibility, a time constraint, a political barrier, a personal constraint, a physical constraint, a medical constraint, and an economic constraint.