IMAGE PROCESSING APPARATUS

• US 20090115866A1
• Filed: 11/05/2008
• Published: 05/07/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 11/06/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha (Canon Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha (Canon Inc.)
• Inventors: Niida, Mitsuo
• Granted Patent: US 8,077,222 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 348/222.100
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2187 Live feed
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/233 Processing of audio elementary streams monitoring, identification or recognition of audio in broadcast systems H04H60/58
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/234381 by altering the temporal resolution, e.g. decreasing the frame rate by frame skipping
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/23614 Multiplexing of additional data and video streams arrangements for simultaneous broadcast of plural pieces of information H04H20/28
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2402 Monitoring of the downstream path of the transmission network, e.g. bandwidth available traffic monitoring in data switching networks H04L43/00; monitoring data switching networks utilization H04L43/0876
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4348 Demultiplexing of additional data and video streams
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6377 directed to server one-way streaming services wherein the source is controlled by the destination H04L65/613
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/658 Transmission by the client directed to the server
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/80 Camera processing pipelines; Components thereof

Abstract

An image processing apparatus includes a moving image generating unit configured to generate moving image data, an instructions providing unit configured to set a frame rate of the moving image data and provide instructions to change a frame rate to the set frame rate, a control unit configured to control the moving image generating unit to generate moving image data of the frame rate set by the instructions providing unit, an additional information generating unit configured to generate additional information indicating a change of the frame rate of the moving image data in response to the instructions to change the frame rate, and a transmitting unit configured to transmit the moving image data generated by the moving image generating unit and the additional information. The transmitting unit transmits the additional information before a frame rate change point in the moving image data.

Claims

1. An image processing apparatus comprising:

a moving image generating unit configured to generate moving image data;

an instructions providing unit configured to set a frame rate of the moving image data and provide instructions to change a frame rate to the set frame rate;

a control unit configured to control the moving image generating unit to generate moving image data of the frame rate set by the instructions providing unit;

an additional information generating unit configured to generate additional information indicating a change of the frame rate of the moving image data in response to the instructions to change the frame rate provided by the instructions providing unit; and

a transmitting unit configured to transmit the moving image data generated by the moving image generating unit and the additional information,

wherein the transmitting unit transmits the additional information before a frame rate change point in the moving image data.

2. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the control unit controls the moving image generating unit to change the frame rate of the moving image data while the moving image data is being transmitted by the transmitting unit.

3. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the additional information includes countdown information indicating a number of frames before the frame rate change point in the moving image data.

4. The image processing apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the additional information generating unit generates the additional information for each frame of the moving image data, and a value of the countdown information is decremented by one at every frame.

5. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the additional information generating unit generates the additional information from n frames before the frame rate change point in response to the instructions to change the frame rate, wherein n is an integer greater than or equal to one, and the transmitting unit transmits the additional information by adding the additional information to each frame of the moving image data from n frames before the frame rate change point.

6. The image processing apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the additional information generating unit determines the value of n based on a data rate of the moving image data generated by the moving image generating unit at the time when the instructions to change the frame rate are provided by the instructions providing unit.

7. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the instructions providing unit selects any of a plurality of predetermined frame rates and sets the selected frame rate, and the additional information generating unit generates the additional information from a point at a predetermined period before the frame rate change point even if the data rate of the moving image data being generated by the moving image generating unit is any of the plurality of predetermined frame rates.

8. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the additional information includes information indicating a frame rate after change.

9. A method for controlling an image processing apparatus, the method comprising:

generating moving image data;

setting a frame rate of the moving image data;

providing instructions to change a frame rate to the set frame rate;

generating moving image data of the set frame rate;

generating additional information indicating a change of the frame rate of the moving image data in response to the instructions to change the frame rate; and

transmitting the generated moving image data and the additional information, wherein the additional information is transmitted before a frame rate change point in the moving image data.