Techniques for image encoding based on region of interest

• US 20160007026A1
• Filed: 03/08/2013
• Published: 01/07/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 03/08/2013
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Original Assignee: Intel Corporation, Jie Dong
• Inventors: DONG, Jie, CHEN, Weian
• Application Number:
  US13/976,425
• Publication Number:
  US 20160007026A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G01B 11/14 for measuring distance or clearance between spaced objects or spaced apertures G01B11/26 takes precedence; rangefinders G01C3/00
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/168 Feature extraction; Face representation
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/102 characterised by the element, parameter or selection affected or controlled by the adaptive coding
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/12 Selection from among a plurality of transforms or standards, e.g. selection between discrete cosine transform [DCT] and sub-band transform or selection between H.263 and H.264
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/167 Position within a video image, e.g. region of interest [ROI]
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/176 the region being a block, e.g. a macroblock
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/61 based on recognised objects
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/635 Region indicators; Field of view indicators
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/661 Transmitting camera control signals through networks, e.g. control via the Internet
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/67 Focus control based on electronic image sensor signals

Abstract

Various embodiments are generally directed to the use of a region of interest (ROI) determined during capture of an image to enhance compression of the image for storage and/or transmission. An apparatus includes an image sensor to capture an image as captured data; and logic to determine first boundaries of a region of interest within the image, compress a first portion of the captured data representing a first portion of the image within the region of interest with a first parameter, and compress a second portion of the captured data representing a second portion of the image outside the region of interest with a second parameter corresponding to the first parameter, the first and second parameters selected to differ to compress the second portion of the captured data to a greater degree than the first portion of the captured data. Other embodiments are described and claimed.

Claims

1-25. -25. (canceled)

26. An apparatus comprising:

an image sensor to capture an image as captured data; and

logic to;

determine first boundaries of a region of interest within the image;

compress a first portion of the captured data that represents a first portion of the image within the region of interest with a first parameter; and

compress a second portion of the captured data that represents a second portion of the image outside the region of interest with a second parameter, the first and second parameters selected to compress the second portion of the captured data to a greater degree than the first portion of the captured data.

27. The apparatus of claim 26, the logic to:

analyze a field of view of the image sensor to identify an object; and

determine the first boundaries to encompass the object within the region of interest.

28. The apparatus of claim 27, comprising:

a distance sensor to determine a distance to the object; and

optics interposed between the image sensor and the object, the logic to operate the optics to adjust a focus in response to the distance.

29. The apparatus of claim 26, comprising:

a distance sensor to determine a distance to an object at a center of a field of view of the image sensor; and

optics interposed between the image sensor and the object, the logic to operate the optics adjust a focus in response to the distance and to determine the first boundaries to encompass the object within the region of interest.

30. The apparatus of claim 26, comprising controls, the logic to receive signals indicative of operation of the controls to adjust the first boundaries.

31. The apparatus of claim 30, comprising a display, the logic to visually present a field of view of the image sensor and the first boundaries on the display.

32. The apparatus of claim 26, the logic to align the first boundaries with second boundaries of adjacent macroblocks associated with a compression encoding algorithm used in compressing the first and second portions of the captured data.

33. An apparatus comprising:

an interface to receive via a network a captured data representing a captured image and a region of interest data indicating first boundaries of a region of interest; and

logic to;

compress a first portion of the captured data that represents a first portion of the captured image within the region of interest with a first parameter; and

compress a second portion of the captured data that represents a second portion of the captured image outside the region of interest with a second parameter, the first and second parameters selected to differ to compress the first portion of the captured data to lose data per pixel to a lesser degree than the second portion of the captured data.

34. The apparatus of claim 33, comprising controls, the logic to receive signals indicative of operation of the controls to adjust the first boundaries.

35. The apparatus of claim 34, comprising a display, the logic to visually present a field of view of the image sensor and the first boundaries on the display.

36. The apparatus of claim 33, the second parameter differing from the first parameter in specifying one of a lower color depth than the first parameter, a different color encoding than the first parameter, a different quality setting than the first parameter, a selection of lossy compression rather than a lossless compression selection of the first parameter, or a higher compression ration than the first parameter.

37. The apparatus of claim 33, the logic to align the first boundaries with second boundaries of adjacent macroblocks associated with a compression encoding algorithm used in compressing the first and second portions of the captured data.

38. The apparatus of claim 33, the logic to transmit a compressed data created from the compression of the first and second portions of the captured data via the network to a computing device.

39. A computer-implemented method comprising:

capturing an image as captured data representing a captured image;

determining first boundaries of a region of interest within the captured image;

compressing a first portion of the captured data representing a first portion of the captured image within the region of interest with a first parameter; and

compressing a second portion of the captured data representing a second portion of the image outside the region of interest with a second parameter corresponding to the first parameter, the first and second parameters selected to differ to compress the second portion of the captured data to a greater degree than the first portion of the captured data.

40. The computer-implemented method of claim 39 comprising:

analyzing a field of view of an image sensor operated to capture the image to identify an object; and

determining the first boundaries to encompass the object within the region of interest.

41. The computer-implemented method of claim 40, the object comprising a face.

42. The computer-implemented method of claim 40, comprising:

determining a distance to the object; and

operating optics interposed between the image sensor and the object to adjust a focus in response to the distance.

43. The computer-implemented method of claim 39, comprising:

determining a distance to an object at a center of a field of view of an image sensor operated to capture the image;

operating optics interposed between the image sensor and the object to adjust a focus in response to the distance; and

determining the first boundaries to encompass the object within the region of interest.

44. The computer-implemented method of claim 39, comprising:

visually presenting a field of view of an image sensor operated to capture the image and the first boundaries on a display; and

receiving signals indicative of operation of controls to adjust the first boundaries.

45. The computer-implemented method of claim 39, comprising aligning the first boundaries with second boundaries of adjacent macroblocks associated with a compression encoding algorithm used in compressing the first and second portions of the captured data.

46. The computer-implemented method of claim 39, comprising creating a compressed data from the compression of the first and second portions of the captured data in which pixel data is organized into at least one initial pass comprising pixel data representing both the first and second portions of the captured image and at least one additional pass comprising pixel data representing the first portion of the captured image and not the second portion of the captured image.

47. At least one machine-readable storage medium comprising instructions that when executed by a computing device, cause the computing device to:

receive a captured data representing a captured image and a region of interest data indicating first boundaries of a region of interest;

compress a first portion of the captured data representing a first portion of the captured image within the region of interest with a first parameter; and

compress a second portion of the captured data representing a second portion of the captured image outside the region of interest with a second parameter corresponding to the first parameter, the first and second parameters selected to compress the second portion of the captured data to a greater degree than the first portion of the captured data.

48. The at least one machine-readable storage medium of claim 47, the computing device caused to:

visually present a field of view of an image sensor operated to capture the captured image and the first boundaries on a display; and

receive signals indicative of operation of controls to adjust the first boundaries.

49. The at least one machine-readable storage medium of claim 47, the computing device caused to align the first boundaries with second boundaries of adjacent macroblocks associated with a compression encoding algorithm used in compressing the first and second portions of the captured data.

50. The at least one machine-readable storage medium of claim 47, the computing device caused to transmit a compressed data created from the compression of the first and second portions of the captured data to another computing device via a network.