Apparatus, System and Method for Processing and Transferring Captured Video Data

• US 20080278604A1
• Filed: 04/18/2006
• Published: 11/13/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 05/27/2005
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Overview Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Overview Ltd.
• Inventors: Jones, Paul, Yu, Xing, Briginshaw, Anita, Henricksen, Ben, Pappas-Katsiafas, Evangelos, Rowbothom, Michael, Watkins, David
• Application Number:
  US11/915,649
• Publication Number:
  US 20080278604A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 348/231.2
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/71 Indexing; Data structures therefor; Storage structures
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/783 using metadata automatically derived from the content
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/235 Processing of additional data, e.g. scrambling of additional data or processing content descriptors
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2353 specifically adapted to content descriptors, e.g. coding, compressing or processing of metadata
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/435 Processing of additional data, e.g. decrypting of additional data, reconstructing software from modules extracted from the transport stream
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4725 using interactive regions of the image, e.g. hot spots details of information retrieval from the Internet by using URLs G06F16/955; processing chained hypermedia data for information retrieval G06F16/94
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4728 for selecting a Region Of Interest [ROI], e.g. for requesting a higher resolution version of a selected region
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4821 using a grid, e.g. sorted out by channel and broadcast time
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4823 using a channel name
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6125 involving transmission via Internet transmission by internet of broadcast information H04H60/82
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6131 involving transmission via a mobile phone network wireless downlink channel access H04W74/006
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8405 represented by keywords

Abstract

A method of transferring video data comprises obtaining a stream of video frames from an video capture device and identifying at least one characteristic in at least one frame of the stream of video frames. Lookup data is generated which associates the at least one characteristic with its at least one identified video frame. At least one video frame in the stream of video frames having a given characteristic is determined and notification or at least one of the determined video frames is transmitted to a client. A video transfer system, video processing device and method of image identification are also described.

Claims

1. A method of transferring video data, comprising:

(a1) obtaining a stream of video frames from a video capture device;

(b1) identifying at least one characteristic in at least one frame of the stream of video frames;

(c1) generating lookup data which associates the at least one characteristic with each video frame in which the at least one characteristic is identified;

(d1) storing a subset of the stream of video frames and lookup data in memory of the video processing device;

(e1) receiving a search query of a given characteristic from a client;

(f1) determining, from the lookup data, the at least one video frame in the subset of the stream of video frames having the given characteristic; and

(g1) transmitting the at least one video frame corresponding to the given characteristic from the subset of video frames to the client.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein each video frame is an image and the stream of video frames is a sequential stream of images captured by the video processing device.

3. The method of claim 1 or claim 2, wherein the step of storing comprises compressing the stream of video frames by applying a video compression algorithm to the stream of video frames.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the step of storing a subset of the stream of video frames reduces the frame rate of video data.

5. The method of any one of the preceding claims, further comprising:

(f2) transmitting an identification address for each frame in the stream of video frames having the given characteristic; and

(f3) receiving an identification address from the client for at least frame having the given characteristic,

wherein step (g1) comprises transmitting the at least one video frame corresponding to the received identification address.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

(f2-a) displaying the identification address as a selectable link on a display screen of the client,

wherein the step of receiving comprises receiving the identification address corresponding to a link selected by a user of the client.

7. The method of claim 5 or claim 6, wherein the identification address is a universal resource locator (URL).

8. The method of any one of the preceding claims, wherein the characteristic includes a given colour in one video frame of the stream of video frames.

9. The method of any one of claims 1 to 6, wherein the characteristic includes motion of an element between successive video frames received from the video capture device.

10. The method of any one of the preceding claims, wherein the given characteristic is identified in a given section of each frame in the stream of video frames.

11. The method of any one of the preceding claims, wherein the search query further comprises an indication of a range of times of day for frames identified in the lookup data from which the at least one video frame in the subset of the stream of video frames having the given characteristic is to be determined in step (f1).

12. The method of any one of the preceding claims, further comprising:

(a2) receiving at the video processing device a request for a characteristic to be identified in the stream of video frames during step (b1).

13. The method of any one of the preceding claims, wherein the video processing device is a web server configured to receive a connection from a single client.

14. The method of any one of the preceding claims, wherein the video capture device is a closed-circuit video camera.

17. The video processing device of claim 14 or claim 16, wherein the processor is configured to compress the stream of video frames prior to storing it in the memory.

18. The video processing device of any one of the preceding claims, wherein the processor is further configured to transmit to the client via the network interface an identification address for each frame in the stream of video frames having the given characteristic, receive via the network interface a selected identification address from the client for at least one image having the given characteristic and transmit the at least one frame corresponding to the received identification address to the client.

19. The video processing device of claim 18, wherein the identification address is a universal resource locator (URL).

15. A video processing device, comprising:

memory adapted to store a stream of video frames received from a video capture device;

a processor connected to the memory and configured to identify at least one characteristic in at least one frame of the plurality of frames, generate lookup data which associates the at least one frame with the characteristic, store a subset of the stream of video frames and lookup data in the memory and determine from the lookup data, the at least one frame in the subset of the stream of video frames having a given characteristic; and

a network interface connected to the processor configured to receive a search query from a client for the given characteristic and transmit the at least one video frame corresponding to the given characteristic from the subset of video frames to the client.

16. The video processing device of claim 15, wherein each video frame is an image and the stream of video frames is a sequential stream of images captured by the video capture device.

20. The video processing device of any one of claims 15 to 19, wherein the characteristic includes a given colour in one of the video frames of the stream of video frames.

21. The video processing device of any one of claims 15 to 20, wherein the characteristic includes motion between successive frames received from the image capture device.

22. The video processing device of any one of claims 15 to 21, wherein the processor is further configured to identify the characteristic in a given section of each of the video frames in the plurality of video frames.

23. A web server comprising the video processing device of any one of claims 15 to 21.

24. The web server of claim 23, wherein the network interface is configured to receive a single client connection.

25. A video transfer system comprising:

the video processing device of any one of claims 15 to 21;

a client connected to the video processing device by a network connection; and

a video capture device connected to the video processing device.

26. The video transfer system of claim 25, wherein the video capture device is a closed-circuit video camera.

27. The video transfer system of claim 24 or 26, wherein the client is a mobile telephone.

28. The video transfer system of claim 27, wherein the network connection is implemented via wireless application protocol (WAP).

29. The video transfer system of any one of claims 25 to 28, wherein the video processing device is a web server and the network connection is an internet connection.

30. The video transfer system of claim 29, wherein network interface of the web server is configured to receive only a connection from the client only.

31. A method of image identification, comprising:

(a1) receiving, at a video processing device from a client, a criterion for a given characteristic of an image in a stream of video frames;

(b1) subsequently, obtaining a stream of video frames from an video capture device;

(c1) identifying, at the server, the given characteristic in at least one image of the stream of video frames by;

generating lookup data which associates at least one image from the stream of video frames with the given characteristic;

storing the stream of video frames and lookup data on a server; and

determining, from the lookup data, the at least one image in the stream of video frames having the given characteristic,

(d1) sending a notification to the client that the given characteristic has been detected in at least one image of the stream of video frames.

32. The method of image identification of claim 31, wherein the notification includes the at least one image having the given characteristic.

33. The method of image identification of claim 31, wherein the notification comprises an identification address for the at least one image in the stream of video frames having the given characteristic.

34. The method of image identification of claim 33, further comprising:

(e1) displaying the identification address as selectable link on a display screen of the client.

35. The method of image identification of claim 34, farther comprising:

(f1) receiving, at the video processing device, a selected identification address from the client for an image having the given characteristic; and

(g1) transmitting the image having the given characteristic from the video processing device to the client.

36. The method of any one of claims 33 to 35, wherein the identification address is a universal resource locator (URL).

37. The method of any one of claims 31 to 36, wherein the stream of video frames is a sequential stream of images captured by the video capture device.

38. The method of any one of claims 31 to 37, wherein the step of storing comprises compressing the stream of video frames.

39. The method of any one of claim 38, wherein the step of compressing comprises storing a subset of the stream of video frames.

40. The method of any one of claims 31 to 39, wherein the step of transmitting the at least one image comprises transmitting a selected subset of the compressed stream of video frames to the client.

41. The method of claim 40, wherein the selected subset comprises a single image.

42. The method of any one of claims 31 to 41, wherein the image characteristic includes the presence of a given colour in a given section of at least one image of the stream of video frames.

43. The method of any one of claims 31 to 41, wherein the image characteristic includes the presence of motion of an element of an image between successive video frames received from the video capture device.

44. The method of any one of claims 31 to 43, wherein the given characteristic is identified in a given section of the plurality of images.

45. The method of any one of claims 31 to 44, wherein the client is a mobile device, such as a mobile telephone.

46. The method of any one of claims 31 to 45, wherein the video capture device comprises a web server configured to receive a single client connection.

47. The method of any one of claims 31 to 46, wherein the image capture device is a closed-circuit video camera.

55. The video processing device of claims 48 to 37, wherein processor is further configured to compress the stream of video frames prior to storing them in the memory.

56. The video processing device of claim 55, wherein the processor is configured to compress the stream of video frames by storing only a subset of the stream of video frames.

59. The video processing device of any one of claims 31 to 41, wherein the image characteristic includes the presence of a given colour in a given section of at least one image of the stream of video frames.

60. The video processing device of any one of claims 31 to 41, wherein the image characteristic includes the presence of motion of an element of an image between successive video frames received from the video capture device.

61. The video processing device of any one of claims 31 to 43, wherein the given characteristic is identified in a given section of the plurality of images.

48. A video processing device, comprising:

memory adapted to store a stream of video frames received from a video capture device;

a processor connected to the memory and configured to identify a given characteristic in at least one image of the plurality of frames by generating lookup data which associates at least one image from the stream of video frames with the given characteristic, storing the stream of video frames and lookup data on a server, and determining, from the lookup data, the at least one image in the stream of video frames having the given characteristic; and

a network interface connected to the processor configured to receive a search query from a client for the given characteristic and transmit a notification to the client that the given characteristic has been detected in at least one image of the stream of video frames.

49. The video processing device of claim 48, wherein the notification includes the at least one image having the given characteristic.

50. The video processing device of claim 48, wherein the notification comprises an identification address for the at least one image in the stream of video frames having the given characteristic.

51. The video processing device of claim 50, wherein the processor is further configured to generate the identification address as selectable link on in a page of data for transmission to the client.

52. The video processing device of claim 51, wherein the processor is further configured to receive, via the network interface, a selected identification address from the client for an image having the given characteristic and transmit the image having the given characteristic via the network interface to the client.

53. The video processing device of claims 50 to 52, wherein the identification address is a universal resource locator (URL).

54. The video processing device of claims 48 to 53, wherein the stream of video frames is a sequential stream of images captured by the video capture device.

57. The video processing device of claims 48 to 56, wherein the network interface is configured to transmit a selected subset of the compressed stream of video frames to the client.

58. The video processing device of claim 57, wherein the selected subset comprises a single image.

62. A video transfer system comprising:

the video processing device of any one of claims 48 to 61;

a client connected to the video processing device by a network connection; and

a video capture device connected to the video processing device.

63. The video transfer system of claim 62, wherein the video capture device is a closed-circuit video camera.

64. The video transfer system of claim 62 or 63, wherein the client is a mobile telephone.

65. The video transfer system of claim 64, wherein the network connection is implemented via wireless application protocol (WAP).

66. The video transfer system of any one of claims 62 to 65, wherein the video processing device is a web server and the network connection is an internet connection.

67. The video transfer system of claim 66, wherein the network interface of the web server is configured to receive only a connection from the client.

68. A method of image identification, comprising:

(a1) obtaining a stream of video frames from an video capture device at a first video processing device;

(b1) identifying, at the first video processing device, at least one characteristic in at least one image of the stream of video frames;

(c1) generating, at the first video processing device, lookup data which associates the at least one image with the characteristic;

(d1) storing the stream of video frames and lookup data on the second video processing device;

(e1) receiving, at the second video processing device, a search query for a given characteristic from a client;

(f1) determining, from the lookup data at the second video processing device, the at least one image in the stream of video frames having the given characteristic; and

(g1) transmitting the at least one image to the client from the second video processing device.

69. The method of claim 68, wherein step (c1) comprises storing the lookup data and stream of video frames in memory at the first video processing device and step (d1) comprises transmitting the stored lookup data and stream of video frames from the first video processing device to the second video processing device across a network connection.

70. The method of claim 69, wherein the step of storing in step (c1) comprises compressing the stream of video frames.

71. The method of claim 70, wherein the step of compressing comprises storing only a subset of images from the stream of video frames at the first video processing device and the second video processing device.

72. The method of claim 70 or claim 71, wherein the step of transmitting the at least one image comprises transmitting a section of the compressed video data to the client.

73. The method of any one of claims 68 to 72, further comprising:

(f2) transmitting, from the second video processing device, an identification address for each image in the stream of video frames having the given characteristic; and

(f3) receiving, at the second video processing device, an identification address from the client for at least one image having the given characteristic,

wherein the step of transmitting comprises transmitting the at least one image corresponding to the received identification address.

74. The method of any one of claims 68 to 73, further comprising:

(f2-a) displaying the identification address as selectable link on a display screen of the client,

wherein step (e1) comprises receiving the identification address corresponding to a link selected by a user of the client.

75. The method of any one of claims 68 to 73, wherein the second video processing device is configured to receive a plurality of search queries from a plurality of clients and steps (e1) to (g1) are performed at the second video processing device independently for each received search query.

76. The method of any one of claims 68 to 75, wherein the characteristic includes the presence of a given colour in a given section of an image in the stream of video frames;

77. The method of any one of claims 68 to 76, wherein the characteristic includes presence of motion of an element of in an image between successive frames received from the video capture device;

78. The method of any one of claims 68 to 77, wherein the characteristic is identified in a given section of the plurality of images.

79. The method of any one of claims 68 to 78, further comprising:

(a2) receiving, at the first video processing device, a request for the given characteristic to be identified in the plurality of images.

80. The method of any one of claims 68 to 79, wherein the client is a mobile device, such as a mobile telephone.

81. The method of any one of claims 68 to 80, wherein the first video processing device is included in a first server configured to receive data from and transmit data to a single client connection and the second video processing device is included in a second server configured to receive data from and transmit data to multiple clients.

82. The method of any one of claims 68 to 81, wherein the video capture device is a closed-circuit video camera.

83. A video transfer system comprising:

a first video processing device configured to obtain a stream of video frames from a video capture device, identify at least one characteristic in at least one image of the stream of video frames and generating lookup data which associates the at least one image with the characteristic; and

a second video processing device connected to the first video processing device across a network connection and configured to store the stream of video frames and lookup data in second memory, receive a search query from a client for a given characteristic in the stream of video frames and determine, from the lookup data, the at least one image in the stream of video frames having the given characteristic and transmit the at least one image to the client.

84. The video transfer system of claim 83, wherein the first processing device is configured to store in first memory the lookup data and stream of video frames and transmit the lookup data and stream of video frames to the second video processing device across the network connection.

85. The video transfer system of claim 84, wherein the first processing device is further configured to compress the stream of video frames prior to storing in the first memory.

86. The video transfer system of claim 85, wherein the first processing device compresses the stream of video frames by storing only a subset of images from the stream of video frames in the first memory.

87. The video transfer system of any one of claims 83 to 86, wherein the second video processing device is configured to receive a plurality of search queries from a plurality of clients.

88. The video transfer system of any one of claims 83 to 87, wherein the client is a mobile device, such as a mobile telephone.

89. The video transfer system of any one of claims 83 to 88 wherein the first video processing device comprises a first server configured to receive data from and transmit data to a single client and the second video processing device is configured to receive data from and transmit data to multiple clients.

90. The video transfer system of any one of claims 83 to 89, wherein the video capture device is a closed-circuit video camera.

91. A method of transferring video data, comprising:

(a1) obtaining a stream of video frames from a video capture device;

(b1) identifying at least one characteristic corresponding to at least one frame of the stream of video frames;

(c1) generating lookup data which associates the at least one characteristic with each video frame in which the at least one characteristic is identified;

(d1) storing a subset of the stream of video frames and lookup data in memory of the video processing device;

(e1) receiving a search query of a given characteristic from a client; and

(f1) determining, from the lookup data, the at least one video frame in the subset of the stream of video frames corresponding to the given characteristic.

92. The method of claim 91, wherein the step of identifying includes identifying the presence of given colour in one video frame of the stream of video frames.

93. The method of any one of claims 91 or 92, wherein the step of identifying includes detecting motion of an element between successive video frames received from the video capture device.

94. The method of any one of claims 92 or 93, wherein the step of identifying comprises identifying the given characteristic in a given segment of one or more of the video frames.

95. The method of any one of claims 91 to 94, wherein the step of identifying includes detecting the presence of a given sound with a sound detector connected to the video processing device.

96. The method of any one of claims 91 to 95, wherein the step of identifying includes detecting the presence of a given odor with an odor detector connected to the video processing device.

97. The method of any one of claims 91 to 96, wherein the search query further comprises an indication of a range of times of day for frames identified in the lookup data from which the at least one video frame in the subset of the stream of video frames corresponding to the given characteristic is to be determined in step (f1).

98. The method of any one of claims 91 to 97, wherein the search query further comprises a combination of specified characteristics and the step of determining comprises determining, from the lookup data, at least one video frame in the subset of the stream of video frames having the combination of specified characteristics in the lookup data.

99. The method of claim 98, wherein the combination of specified characteristics defines a specific event.

100. The method of claim 98 or claim 99, wherein the combination of specified characteristics is a boolean combination of given characteristics.

101. The method of any one of claims 98 to 100, wherein the video processing device is configured to store one or more pre-defined combinations of specified characteristics in memory of the video processing device.

102. The method of claim 101, wherein the search query comprises a flag to one of the pre-defined combinations of specified characteristics stored in memory of the video processing device and the step of determining comprises obtaining the pre-defined combination of specified characteristics corresponding to the flag from the memory and identifying at least one video frame in the subset of the stream of video frames corresponding to the obtained pre-defined combination.

103. The method of any one of claims 91 to 102, further comprising:

(a2) receiving at the video processing device a request for a characteristic to be identified during step (b1); and

(a3) configuring the video processing device to identify the characteristic corresponding to the request during step (b1).

104. A video processing device, comprising:

memory adapted to store a stream of video frames received from a video capture device;

a processor connected to the memory and configured to identify at least one characteristic corresponding to at least one frame of the plurality of frames, generate lookup data which associates the at least one frame with the characteristic, store a subset of the stream of video frames and lookup data in the memory and determine from the lookup data, at least one frame in the subset of the stream of video frames having corresponding to the given characteristic; and

a network interface connected to the processor configured to receive a search query from a client for the given characteristic.

105. The video processing device of claim 104, wherein the processor is configured to identify the presence of given colour in one video frame of the stream of video frames.

106. The video processing device of claim 104 or claim 105, wherein the processor is configured to detect motion of an element between successive video frames received from the video capture device.

107. The video processing device of any one of claims 104 to 106, wherein the processor is configured to identify the given characteristic in a given segment of one or more of the video frames.

108. The video processing device of any one of claims 104 to 107, further comprising a sound detector connected to the processor,

wherein the processor is configured to detect the presence of a given sound as one of the characteristics.

109. The video processing device of any one of claims 104 to 108, further comprising an odor detector connected to the processor,

wherein the processor is configured to detect the presence of a given odor as one of the characteristics.

110. The video processing device of any one of claims 104 to 109, wherein the search query further comprises an indication of a range of times of day for frames identified in the lookup data from which the at least one video frame in the subset of the stream of video frames corresponding to the given characteristic being determined.

111. The video processing device of any one of claims 104 to 110, wherein the search query further comprises a combination of specified characteristics and the processor is configured to determine, from the lookup data, at least one video frame in the subset of the stream of video frames having the combination of specified characteristics in the lookup data.

112. The video processing device of claim 111, wherein the combination of specified characteristics defines a specific event.

113. The video processing device of claim 111 or claim 112, wherein the combination of specified characteristics is a boolean combination of given characteristics.

114. The video processing device of any one of claims 111 to 113, wherein the memory is adapted to store one or more pre-defined combinations of specified characteristics.

115. The video processing device of claim 114, wherein the search query comprises a flag to one of the pre-defined combinations of specified characteristics stored in memory of the video processing device and the processor is configured to obtain the pre-defined combination of specified characteristics corresponding to the flag from the memory and identify at least one video frame in the subset of the stream of video frames corresponding to the obtained pre-defined combination.

116. The video processing device of any of claims 104 to 115, wherein the network interface is further configured to receive a request for a characteristic to be identified by the processor;

and the processor is further adapted to configure itself to identify the characteristic corresponding to the request.

117. A method of transferring video data, substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

118. A method of image identification, substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

119. A video processing device, substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

120. A video transfer system, substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to the accompanying drawings.