MODIFYING A DIGITAL VIDEO SIGNAL TO MASK BIOLOGICAL INFORMATION

• US 20140267919A1
• Filed: 03/15/2013
• Published: 09/18/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 03/15/2013
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Quanta Computer
• Original Assignee: Quanta Computer
• Inventors: HELLER, Steven Keith, SHIH, Eugene Inghaw
• Application Number:
  US13/832,007
• Publication Number:
  US 20140267919A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 348/607
• CPC Class Codes: G11B 27/031 Electronic editing of digitised analogue information signals, e.g. audio or video signals
• 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 21/4402 involving reformatting operations of video signals for household redistribution, storage or real-time display details of conversion of video standards at pixel level H04N7/01; video transcoding H04N19/40; adapting incoming signals to the display format of the display terminal G09G5/005; media handling at the source in data packet switching networks H04L65/764
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/440245 the reformatting operation being performed only on part of the stream, e.g. a region of the image or a time segment

Abstract

Techniques are disclosed to process certain information contained in a digital video signal. In particular, a time-varying signal present in the digit video signal may be supplanted with a replacement time-varying signal, negated, or obfuscated with a noise signal. Negation of the time-varying signal may include extracting said time-varying signal from the digital video signal, inverting the time-varying signal, and adding the inverted time-varying signal to the original digital video signal. Obfuscation of the time-varying signal may be accomplished by introducing a suitable noise signal to the original digital video signal. Supplanting the time-varying signal with a replacement signal may include negating the time-varying signal and introducing a desired replacement signal to the digital video signal.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method of processing a video data signal, the method comprising:

acquiring a first sequence of video frames from the video data signal;

extracting a time-varying signal from the first sequence of video frames, the time-varying signal being selected from a frequency band in which a physiological characteristic of a subject of a video that is generated by the video data signal can be detected;

inverting the time-varying signal; and

adding the inverted time-varying signal to the first sequence of video frames to generate a second sequence of video frames in which the presence of the time-varying signal is reduced.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising adding a noise signal to the first sequence of video frames.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising adding a replacement time-varying signal to the first sequence of video frames.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the replacement time-varying signal changes in response to an input independent of the video data signal.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein the replacement time-varying signal is selected based on an age of the subject of the video.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the time-varying signal is associated with a spatial region common to each of the video frames in the first sequence of video frames.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the spatial region comprises a single pixel.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein the spatial region comprises multiple contiguous pixels.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein extracting a time-varying signal comprises downsampling frames in the first sequence of video frames.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein extracting a time-varying signal further comprises lowpass filtering the time-varying signal prior to downsampling frames in the first sequence of video frames.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein extracting a time-varying signal comprises extracting a plurality of time-varying signals, each of the plurality of time-varying signals being based on a different spatial region of the video frames in the first sequence of video frames.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the frequency band is between about 0.5 Hz and about 4 Hz.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the time-varying signal can be used to determine health information associated with the subject of the video.

14. A computer-implemented method of processing a video data signal, the method comprising:

acquiring a first sequence of video frames from the video data signal;

generating a signal having a signal profile in a frequency band selected to include a physiological characteristic of a subject of a video that is generated by the video data signal; and

generating a second sequence of video frames by adding the generated signal to the first sequence of video frames.

15. The method of claim 14, further comprising:

extracting a time-varying signal from the first sequence of video frames, the time-varying signal being selected from the frequency band;

inverting the time-varying signal; and

adding the inverted time-varying signal to the first sequence of video frames to generate a second sequence of video frames in which the presence of the time-varying signal is reduced.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the generated signal comprises a noise signal selected to obfuscate a time-varying signal from the first sequence of video frames disposed in the frequency band.

17. The method of claim 15, wherein the generated signal comprises a replacement time-varying signal that has a signal profile in the frequency band.

18. The method of claim 15, wherein the time-varying signal can be used to determine health information associated with the subject of the video.

19. A computing device comprising:

a memory; and

a processor coupled to the memory, the processor being configured to;

acquire a first sequence of video frames from a video data signal;

extract a time-varying signal from the first sequence of video frames, the time-varying signal being selected from a frequency band in which a physiological characteristic of a subject of a video that is generated by the video data signal can be detected;

invert the time-varying signal; and

add the inverted time-varying signal to the first sequence of video frames to generate a second sequence of video frames in which the presence of the time-varying signal is reduced.

20. The computing device of claim 19, wherein the time-varying signal can be used to determine health information associated with the subject of the video.