Combined digital and mechanical tracking of a person or object using a single video camera
First Claim
1. A computer-implemented process for generating a video using a single digital video camera that tracks a person or object of interest moving in a scene, comprising using a computer to perform the following process actions:
- on a periodic basis, detecting movement of the person or object being tracked, digitally tracking the person or object of interest within the last frame captured by the video camera by identifying a cropping region defined as a prescribed-sized sub-region of the last frame captured by the video camera that shows at least part of the person or object of interest whenever the detected motion indicates the person or object being tracked is shown completely within a prescribed-sized portion of the last frame captured by the video camera, and mechanically tracking the person or object of interest by mechanically panning the video camera in some circumstances where the detected motion indicates the person or object being tracked is not shown completely within the prescribed-sized portion of the last frame captured by the video camera so as to show at least part of the person or object of interest in an identified cropping region of the last frame captured by the video camera after the mechanical panning is complete; and
generating a video that shows the person or object of interest as that person or object moves through the scene by making each consecutive one of said identified cropping regions a consecutive frame of the video.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A combined digital and mechanical tracking system and process for generating a video using a single digital video camera that tracks a person or object of interest moving in a scene is presented. This generally involves operating the camera at a higher resolution than is needed for the application, and cropping a sub-region out of the image captured that is output as the output video. The person or object being tracked is at least partially contained within the cropped sub-region. As the person or object moves within the field of view of the camera, the location of the cropped sub-region is also moved so as to keep the subject of interest within its boundaries. When the subject of interest moves to the boundary of the FOV of the camera, the camera is mechanically panned to keep the person or object inside its FOV.
58 Citations
20 Claims
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1. A computer-implemented process for generating a video using a single digital video camera that tracks a person or object of interest moving in a scene, comprising using a computer to perform the following process actions:
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on a periodic basis, detecting movement of the person or object being tracked, digitally tracking the person or object of interest within the last frame captured by the video camera by identifying a cropping region defined as a prescribed-sized sub-region of the last frame captured by the video camera that shows at least part of the person or object of interest whenever the detected motion indicates the person or object being tracked is shown completely within a prescribed-sized portion of the last frame captured by the video camera, and mechanically tracking the person or object of interest by mechanically panning the video camera in some circumstances where the detected motion indicates the person or object being tracked is not shown completely within the prescribed-sized portion of the last frame captured by the video camera so as to show at least part of the person or object of interest in an identified cropping region of the last frame captured by the video camera after the mechanical panning is complete; and
generating a video that shows the person or object of interest as that person or object moves through the scene by making each consecutive one of said identified cropping regions a consecutive frame of the video. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13)
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14. A system for generating a video that tracks a person or object of interest moving in a scene, comprising:
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a digital video camera disposed so as to view a part of the scene and which is capable of mechanically panning so as to view other parts of the scene;
a general purpose computing device; and
a computer program comprising program modules executable by the computing device, wherein the computing device is directed by the program modules of the computer program to, detect movement of the person or object being tracked, produce frames of the video being generated using prescribed-sized sub-regions of frames captured by the video camera wherein each sub-region shows at least part of the person or object of interest, and wherein said sub-region in each video camera frame is identified by tracking the person or object of interest via digital or mechanical panning based on the detected motion, wherein digital panning is used whenever the detected motion indicates the person or object being tracked is shown completely within a prescribed-sized portion a frame captured by the video camera and mechanical panning is used when the detected motion indicates the person or object being tracked is not shown completely within the prescribed-sized portion the frame captured by the video camera. - View Dependent Claims (15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20)
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Specification