Signal processor

• US 20110235859A1
• Filed: 09/13/2010
• Published: 09/29/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 03/26/2010
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba (Toshiba Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba (Toshiba Corporation)
• Inventors: Imoto, Kazunori
• Application Number:
  US12/923,278
• Publication Number:
  US 20110235859A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 382/103
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/46 Extracting features or characteristics from the video content, e.g. video fingerprints, representative shots or key frames
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/144 Movement detection for video coding H04N19/503; analysis of motion in general G06T7/20

Abstract

A signal processor includes an input unit, an extraction unit, a calculation unit, a determination unit, and an output unit. The input unit receives a moving image including a plurality of images. The extraction unit analyzes the moving image and extracts a representative image from the moving image. The calculation unit calculates a change amount of a partial moving image including the representative image. The change amount indicates degree of change. The determination unit uses the change amount to judge which the representative image or at least a part of the moving image is outputted. The output unit outputs the representative image or the partial moving image according to a corresponding output format.

Claims

1. A signal processor comprising:

an input unit to receive a moving image including a plurality of images;

an extraction unit to analyze the moving image and to extract a representative image from the moving image;

a calculation unit to calculate a change amount of a partial moving image including the representative image, the change amount indicating degree of change;

a determination unit, using the change amount, to judge which the representative image or at least a part of the moving image is outputted; and

an output unit to output the representative image or the partial moving image according to a corresponding output format.

2. The signal processor of claim 1, wherein

the extraction unit further includes an analysis unit to detect an subject appearing in the moving image, and

the extraction unit calculates an evaluation score for each image based on an appearance frequency of the subject, and selects an image having the highest evaluation score among images, as the representative image.

3. The signal processor of claim 1, further comprising a determination unit to analyze an audio signal corresponding to the partial moving image and to determine a kind of a sound source of the audio signal, wherein

the calculation unit calculates the change amount based on the kind of the sound source.

4. The signal processor of claim 2, further comprising a tracking unit to track the subject, wherein the calculation unit calculates the change amount based on a movement amount of the tracked subject.

5. The signal processor of claim 2, further comprising a measurement unit to measure the total number of the subjects, wherein the calculation unit calculates the change amount based on the total number of the subjects.

6. The signal processor of claim 1, further comprising a memory to store any one of the representative image or the partial moving image, which is judged in the determination unit.

7. The signal processor of claim 1, wherein the determination unit to compare the change amount with a threshold and thereby to judge which the representative image or at least a part of the moving image is outputted.

8. The signal processor of claim 1, further comprising a display unit to display the representative image or the partial moving image;

which is judged in the determination unit.