OBJECT ARCHIVAL SYSTEMS AND METHODS

• US 20100086062A1
• Filed: 01/04/2008
• Published: 04/08/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 01/23/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Euclid Discoveries LLC
• Original Assignee: Euclid Discoveries LLC
• Inventors: Pace, Charles P.
• Granted Patent: US 8,553,782 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 375/240.260
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/20 using video object coding
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/23 with coding of regions that are present throughout a whole video segment, e.g. sprites, background or mosaic
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/523 with sub-pixel accuracy
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/23412 for generating or manipulating the scene composition of objects, e.g. MPEG-4 objects
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2541 Rights Management protecting software against unauthorised usage in a vending or licensing environment G06F21/10; security in data switching network management H04L41/28; security management or policies for network security H04L63/20; access security in wireless networks H04W12/08
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/25816 involving client authentication restricting access to computer systems by authenticating users using a predetermined code G06F21/33; cryptographic authentication protocols H04L9/32; networks authentication protocols H04L63/08; authentication in wireless network security H04W12/06
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4335 Housekeeping operations, e.g. prioritizing content for deletion because of storage space restrictions storage management, e.g. defragmentation G06F3/0604; unloading stored programs G06F9/445; storage management in file systems G06F16/10; buffering arrangements in a network node or in an end terminal in packet networks H04L49/90
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4382 Demodulation or channel decoding, e.g. QPSK demodulation analog front ends or means for connecting modulators, demodulators or transceivers to a transmission line H04L27/0002
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44008 involving operations for analysing video streams, e.g. detecting features or characteristics in the video stream arrangements characterised by components specially adapted for monitoring, identification or recognition of video in broadcast systems H04H60/59
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44012 involving rendering scenes according to scene graphs, e.g. MPEG-4 scene graphs
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4532 involving end-user characteristics, e.g. viewer profile, preferences monitoring of user activities for profile generation for accessing a video database G06F16/739; user profiles in network data switching protocols H04L67/306; processing of user preferences or user profiles in wireless networks H04W8/18
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4627 Rights management associated to the content security in data switching network management H04L41/28; security management or policies for network security H04L63/20; access security in wireless networks H04W12/08
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4788 communicating with other users, e.g. chatting arrangements for providing for computer conferences, e.g. chat rooms, to substation in data switching networks H04L12/1813; distributed application using peer-to-peer [P2P] networks H04L67/104
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/632 using a connection between clients on a wide area network, e.g. setting up a peer-to-peer communication via Internet for retrieving video segments from the hard-disk of other client devices broadcast-related systems characterised by transmission among terminal devices H04H60/80; distributed application using peer-to-peer [P2P] networks H04L67/104
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8355 involving usage data, e.g. number of copies or viewings allowed
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/8455 involving pointers to the content, e.g. pointers to the I-frames of the video stream

Abstract

Personal object based archival systems and methods are provided for processing and compressing video. By analyzing features unique to a user, such as face, family, and pet attributes associated with the user, an invariant model can be determined to create object model adapters personal to each user. These personalized video object models can be created using geometric and appearance modeling techniques, and they can be stored in an object model library. The object models can be reused for processing other video streams. The object models can be shared in a peer-to-peer network among many users, or the object models can be stored in an object model library on a server. When the compressed (encoded) video is reconstructed, the video object models can be accessed and used to produce quality video with nearly lossless compression.

Claims

1. A method of processing video, the method comprising the computer implemented steps of:

processing a plurality of video signals to create object models for one or more objects represented in the video signals;

archiving the object models; and

using one or more of the archived object models when processing a compressed video file.

2. A method as in claim 1 wherein archiving the object models further includes the computer implemented steps of:

comparing one or more of the archived object models to determine whether there are substantially equivalent object models stored in the archive; and

reducing the size of the archive by eliminating the redundant, substantially equivalent object models.

3. A method as in claim 2 wherein reducing the size of the archiving includes the computer implemented steps of:

reducing the size of the archive by combining one or more object models into a common object; and

using the common object, generating one or more reduced original object models.

4. A method as in claim 1 wherein archiving the object models further includes the computer implemented step of combining one or more of the archived object models that are similar.

5. A method as in claim 1 wherein archiving the object models further includes the computer implemented step of grouping object models to create a customized codec that is optimized to reconstruct objects in the compressed video file.

6. A method as in claim 1 wherein the compressed video file is associated with a group of other compressed video files having similar features, and a codec is optimized to reconstruct the compressed video files in the group.

7. A method as in claim 6 wherein the group of compressed video files is determined based on personal information about a user.

8. A method as in claim 7 wherein the personal information about a user is determined by analyzing other video files provided by the user.

9. A method as in claim 8 wherein analyzing the video files provided by the user further includes the computer implemented step of identifying reoccurring objects depicted in the video files provided by the user, the reoccurring objects including human faces or animals identified in the video files provided by the user.

10. A method as in claim 8 wherein the video files provided by the user are encoded using a conventional encoding process.

11. A method as in claim 10 wherein information contained in the conventionally encoded videos is used to determine how to process and encode the video.

12. A method as in claim 10 wherein additional constraints are imposed on processing of the video files provided by the user to allow the conventional encoding of the video files to be recreated.

13. A method as in claim 6 wherein the group of compressed video files is determined based on reoccurring objects depicted in the compressed video files.

14. A method as in claim 5 wherein the customized codec is used to reconstruct the compressed video file.

15. A method as in claim 1 wherein using one or more of the archived object models when processing a compressed video file further includes the computer implemented step of using the one or more archived object models and a codec to reconstruct the compressed video file.

16. A method as in claim 1 wherein using one or more of the archived object models when processing a compressed video file further includes the computer implemented steps of:

receiving, at a user computer, the compressed video file from another user computer; and

accessing one or more of the archived object models from a server.

17. A method as in claim 16 wherein the server is used in connection with video processing service that maintains the archived object models on a server for a user, where the video processing service maintains other archived object models for other users.

18. A method as in claim 1 wherein using one or more of the archived object models when processing a compressed video file further includes the computer implemented step of sharing the archived object models amongst a plurality of user computers in a peer-to-peer network.

19. A method as in claim 18 wherein sharing the archived object models amongst a plurality of user computers in a peer-to-peer network further includes the computer implemented steps of:

receiving the compressed video file from a first user computer in the peer-to-peer network;

in response to the request, sending one of the archived object models from a second user computer in the peer-to-peer network; and

in response to the request, sending another one of the archived object models from a third user computer in the peer-to-peer network.

20. A method as in claim 1 wherein one or more of the archived object models are used to control access to the compressed video file.

21. A method as in claim 1 wherein one or more of the archived object models further include advertisements such that when the compressed video file is processed and reconstructed using one or more of the archived object models, one or more of the advertisements are inserted into the reconstructed the video file.

22. A method as in claim 1 wherein using one or more of the archived object models when processing a compressed video file further includes creating an implicit representation of one or more objects using based on one or more of the archived object models.

23. A method as in claim 1 wherein the object models include deformation models, structure models, and appearance models.

24. A computer system for processing video comprising:

an encoder processing a video signal to create object models for one or more objects represented in the video signal;

an object library storing the object models; and

a decoder accessing a codec and the object library to use one or more of the archived object models when reconstructing a coded video file.

25. A computer system for processing video comprising:

means for processing a plurality of video signals to create object models for one or more objects represented in the video signals;

means for archiving the object models; and

means for using one or more of the archived object models when processing a compressed video file.