VIDEO PROCESSING APPARATUS, VIDEO PROCESSING METHOD, AND VIDEO PROCESSING PROGRAM

• US 20160203367A1
• Filed: 08/05/2014
• Published: 07/14/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 08/23/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: NEC Corporation
• Original Assignee: NEC Corporation
• Inventors: OAMI, Ryoma
• Granted Patent: US 10,037,466 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/5838 using colour
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/7837 using objects detected or recognised in the video content
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 18/22 Matching criteria, e.g. proximity measures
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/10016 Video; Image sequence
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/20008 Globally adaptive
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/30168 Image quality inspection
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/30201 Face
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/0002 Inspection of images, e.g. flaw detection
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/90 Determination of colour characteristics
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 10/761 Proximity, similarity or dissimilarity measures
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 10/993 Evaluation of the quality of the acquired pattern
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/40 in video content extracting overlay text G06V20/62; video retrieval G06F16/70; processing of video elementary streams in video servers H04N21/234; processing of video elementary streams in video clients H04N21/44
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/625 License plates
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/161 Detection; Localisation; Normalisation
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/0175 by photographing vehicles, e.g. when violating traffic rules
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/04 using optical or ultrasonic detectors
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/611 where the recognised objects include parts of the human body
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/80 Camera processing pipelines; Components thereof
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 23/90 Arrangement of cameras or camera modules, e.g. multiple cameras in TV studios or sports stadiums

Abstract

This invention provides a video processing apparatus for suppressing a decrease in search accuracy of an object of a search target based on a feature extracted from a degraded image in a video. The video processing apparatus includes an image degradation estimator that extracts an image in an image region used as an index of image degradation from a video and estimates a degree of image degradation in the image region, a feature extractor that extracts a feature of an object of a search target from the video, a feature database that stores the feature of the object of the search target, and a matcher that controls matching between the extracted feature and the stored feature based on the degree of image degradation estimated by the image degradation estimator, when searching for the object from the video.

Claims

1. A video processing apparatus comprising:

an image degradation estimator that extracts an image in an image region used as an index of image degradation from a video and estimates a degree of image degradation in the image region;

a feature extractor that extracts a feature of an object of a search target from the video;

a feature database that stores the feature of the object of the search target; and

a matcher that controls matching between the extracted feature and the stored feature based on the degree of image degradation estimated by said image degradation estimator, when searching for the object from the video.

2. The video processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the feature of the object is a feature of a pattern on the object.

3. The video processing apparatus according to claim 2, wherein said image degradation estimator estimates a different degree of image degradation in association with a type of the pattern on the object.

4. The video processing apparatus according to claim 2, wherein

the feature of the object further includes a feature of a color of the object, and

said matcher controls to perform matching by the feature of the color, if reliability of matching by the feature of the pattern lowers due to the image degradation.

5. The video processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the image region is a part of the object of the search target.

6. The video processing apparatus according to claim 5, wherein

the object as the search target is a person,

said image degradation estimator estimates a degree of image degradation based on a contour or an edge of a face image that is a part of a person image, and

the feature is a feature of clothes or a portable object of the person.

7. The video processing apparatus according to claim 5, wherein

the object of the search target is a vehicle,

said image degradation estimator estimates a degree of image degradation based on a contour or an edge of a license plate image that is a part of a vehicle image, and

the feature is a feature of a body, an attachment, or a load of the vehicle.

8. The video processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the image region is a specific region in the video.

9. The video processing apparatus according to claim 8, wherein said image degradation estimator estimates a degree of image degradation based on an edge of a known sign image.

10. The video processing apparatus according to claim 8, wherein said image degradation estimator estimates a degree of image degradation based on pixel variations of a known flat image.

11. The video processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said image degradation estimator recognizes an image degradation factor from the video, and estimates a degree of image degradation based on the factor.

12. The video processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein at least a combination of the degree of image degradation, the extracted feature, and a result of the matching is fed back to said feature database.

13. The video processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said matcher performs matching of combinations of at least the degrees of image degradation and the extracted feature.

14. A video processing method comprising:

extracting an image in an image region used as an index of image degradation from a video and estimating a degree of image degradation in the image region;

extracting a feature of an object of a search target from the video;

storing the feature of the object of the search target in a feature database; and

controlling matching between the extracted feature and the stored feature based on the degree of image degradation estimated in the estimating, when searching for the object from the video.

15. A non-transitory computer readable medium storing a video processing program for causing a computer to execute a method, comprising:

extracting an image in an image region used as an index of image degradation from a video and estimating a degree of image degradation in the image region;

extracting a feature of an object of a search target from the video;

storing the feature of the object of the search target in a feature database; and

controlling matching between the extracted feature and the stored feature based on the degree of image degradation estimated in the estimating, when searching for the object from the video.