VIDEO REGION OF INTEREST FEATURES

• US 20100026781A1
• Filed: 08/04/2008
• Published: 02/04/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 08/04/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Boskovic, Ronald, Ali, Walid
• Granted Patent: US 8,570,359 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 348/14.80
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/162 using pixel segmentation or colour matching
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/147 Communication arrangements, e.g. identifying the communication as a video-communication, intermediate storage of the signals selecting H04Q
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/152 Multipoint control units therefor

Abstract

Embodiments are configured to provide video conferencing functionality including using region of interest (ROI) features to provide a video signal, but the embodiments are not so limited. In an embodiment, components of a video conferencing system can operate to provide a video signal using pixel data associated with a ROI. In one embodiment, a video conference device can include a detector that can be used to detect human flesh tone regions in a video scene as part of providing a video stream to one or more conference participants.

Claims

1. A method of providing a video signal comprising:

capturing pixel data associated with a conferencing environment;

determining whether a captured pixel is included within a defined region of interest (ROI) defined in part by a number of boundaries associated with a number of pixel parameters; and

,

designating the captured pixel as a ROI pixel if the captured pixel is included within the defined ROI.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising defining the ROI based in part on red-green-blue (RGB) pixel parameter boundaries and quantizing the captured pixel data based in part on a pixel designation.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising communicating the captured pixel data, including information associated with ROI pixels, for a quantization operation.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising communicating the captured pixel data, including information associated with ROI pixels, for an encoding operation.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising allocating processing bandwidth based in part on a pixel designation.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising redistributing processing operations based in part on a pixel designation.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising augmenting designated ROI pixel data with additional pixel data based in part on an augmentation operation associated with a ROI pixel.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising quantizing augmented and ROI pixel data based in part on a quantization factor.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising quantizing the captured pixel data based in part on a flag associated with a ROI pixel.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising flagging captured pixels with pixel values based in part on whether captured pixel parameters correspond to the ROI.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising defining the ROI by linear boundaries, each linear boundary comprising a linear equation associated with a normalized RGB space, wherein intersections and the linear boundaries define aspects of the ROI.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising communicating encoded pixel data associated with the ROI to one or more conference participants.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the detecting occurs within a camera or computing device.

14. A video conference device operable to provide a video stream to one or more participants, the video conference device comprising:

a detector operable to;

detect if a ROI pixel is included with captured pixel data based in part on whether a captured pixel is associated with a ROI defined in part by a number of region boundaries, wherein the number of region boundaries are associated with a RGB space;

identify the captured pixel as the ROI pixel if the captured pixel is included within the ROI; and

,

output the pixel data based in part on an identified ROI pixel.

15. The video conference device of claim 14, further comprising a camera for capturing pixel data.

16. The video conference device of claim 14, further comprising a camera which includes the detector.

17. A video conferencing system comprising:

a video conference device including;

a camera to capture pixel data associated with a video scene;

a detector operable to;

detect ROI pixel data associated with the captured pixel data if the captured pixel data includes a pixel corresponding with a ROI corresponding to pixel parameters associated with human skin and a RGB space; and

,

flag the ROI pixel data to designate the ROI pixel data as corresponding with the ROI, wherein one or more flags can be used for additional processing operations.

18. The system of claim 17, further comprising a video engine to process the pixel data based in part on the one or more flags.

19. The system of claim 17, wherein the camera includes the detector.

20. The system of claim 17, wherein the ROI is defined as including one or more color-based boundaries.