Spatial transformation system including key signal generator

• US 4,463,372 A
• Filed: 03/24/1982
• Issued: 07/31/1984
• Est. Priority Date: 03/24/1982
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Ampex Corporation (Delta Information Systems, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Ampex Corporation (Delta Information Systems, Inc.)
• Inventors: Gabriel, Steven A., Bennett, Phillip P.
• Primary Examiner(s): Murray, Richard
• Application Number:
  US06/361,576
• Time in Patent Office: 860 Days
• Field of Search: 358/22, 358/183
• US Class Current: 348/580
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/2628 Alteration of picture size, shape, position or orientation, e.g. zooming, rotation, rolling, perspective, translation
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 9/75 Chroma key

Abstract

A spatial transformation system includes a processing system for each component of an input video signal. The processing systems respond to operator commands entered through a control panel to provide spatial transformation such as enlargement, reduction, translation, and three-dimensional perspective rotation. The system further includes a key processing system connected to operate in tandem with the video component processing systems to transform an input key signal indicating a portion of a video image to be viewed in exactly the same way as the image defined by the input video signal. The output key signal thus exactly defines the same portions of the output video image as it did for the input video image notwithstanding significant changes in image shape which may result from a selected given spatial transformation. A proportional switcher is connected to receive a transformed image from the spatial transformation system on one channel and a second video image on a second channel and mix them in proportion to the magnitude of the key signal generated by the key processing system. The image from one channel may thus be smoothly blended into the image of the other input channel to eliminate aliasing along a boundary between two adjacent images. The transformation system may further include a key signal generator providing an internal key signal defining a standard sized video image and a switch coupled to provide an operator selection between the internal key signal and an externally generated key signal. A cropping circuit responsive to operator controls may modify the selected key signal by imposing more restrictive limits on the boundary of the key signal selected viewing area than provided by the original key signal. This selectively restricted key signal is provided as an input key signal to the key processing system. By performing the same spatial transformation upon the key signal as upon the input video image, the key signal precisely defines the borders of the selected viewing region to eliminate undesirable demarcation lines between the boundaries of two intermixed video images when they are displayed.

Claims

1. A video special effects system comprising:

at least one video processing system coupled to receive an input video signal representing a video image and output an output video signal representing an operator selected spatial transformation of the video image;

a key processing system coupled to receive an input key signal defining a portion of the video image selected for viewing and to operate in tandem with the at least one video processing system to generate an output key signal which has undergone the same selected spatial transformation relative to the input key signal as the video image.

2. The video special effects system according to claim 1 further comprising a key signal generator generating as an output an internal key signal having characteristics for selecting a complete video image for viewing and an operator selectable switch having a first input coupled to receive the internal key signal and a second input connectable to receive an externally generated key signal, the switch being coupled to provide a selected one of the input signals to the key processing system as the input key signal.

3. The video special effects system according to claim 2 above, further comprising a cropping circuit coupled between the switch and the key processing system to selectively limit the viewing region defined by the input key signal under operator control.

4. A video transformation system comprising:

a proportional switcher having primary and secondary video signal inputs and a multibit digital key signal input, the proportional switcher being operable to generate an output video signal as a combination of video signals received at the primary and secondary video signal inputs in proportion to the magnitude of the digital key signal input;

a video signal source coupled to provide a video signal to the primary input of the proportional switcher;

a transformation processing system coupled to receive a second video signal and a multibit digital input key signal defining a region of the second video signal to be included in the output video signal, operable to perform a given spatial transformation upon both the second video signal and the input key signal to produce a spatially transformed second video signal and a spatially transformed multibit digital key signal having gradual transitions in magnitude, and coupled to provide the transformed second video signal to the secondary video signal input to the proportional switcher and the transformed multibit digital key signal to the key signal input to the proportional switcher.

5. The video transformation system according to claim 4 above, further comprising an object displayed against a contrasting background, the object having a size, shape and position corresponding to a desired viewing region of an image defined by the second video signal;

and a video camera focused upon the, object the camera having a video signal component coupled to provide the multibit digital input key signal to the transformation processing system.

6. A video transformation system comprising:

means for receiving a video signal defining a video image and performing a selected spatial transformation upon the video image; and

means for receiving a key signal defining a key image indicating a region of the video image selected for viewing and performing said selected spatial transformation upon the key image.

7. The video transformation system according to claim 6 above, wherein the video signal receiving and transformation performing means includes three video signal component processing channels for a luminance signal component and two chrominance signal components.

8. The video transformation system according to claim 7 above, wherein the two chrominance channels each have a spatial resolution relative to the luminance channel of one-half in a vertical direction and one-fourth in a horizontal direction and the key signal receiving and transformation performing means has a resolution relative to the luminance channel of one-half in the vertical direction and one-half in the horizontal direction.

9. A video transformation system comprising an operator controllable processing system having Y, I, Q and K parallel channels coupled to provide identical operator selected spatial transformations upon respectively Y, I and Q components of a color television video signal and a key signal indicating a selected region of an image defined by the video signal.

10. The video transformation system according to claim 9 above, wherein the key signal is a multibit digital signal and the K channel of the processing system includes a video filter imposing upon a spatially transformed key signal gradual changes between different key signal magnitudes.

11. The method of generating a key signal which precisely defines a desired viewing region of a spatially transformed video image comprising the steps of:

generating a key signal defining a desired viewing region of a video image that is to be spatially transformed; and

subjecting both the video image and the key signal to the same spatial transformation to generate a transformed video image and a transformed key signal defining the desired viewing region of the transformed video image.

12. The method of generating a key signal according to claim 11 above, wherein the key signal and the transformed key signal both have a multibit dynamic resolution and further comprising the step of mixing the transformed video image with a second video image on a pixel-by-pixel basis in proportion to the magnitude of the transformed key signal.