Method and apparatus for detecting scene changes in a digital video stream

• US 6,014,183 A
• Filed: 08/06/1997
• Issued: 01/11/2000
• Est. Priority Date: 08/06/1997
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Imagine Products, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Imagine Products, Inc.
• Inventors: Hoang, Toan Q.
• Primary Examiner(s): Le, Vu
• Application Number:
  US08/907,343
• Time in Patent Office: 888 Days
• Field of Search: 348/699-702, 348/169, 348/135, 345/328, 382/232, 382/236, 382/190, 382/305, 382/235
• US Class Current: 348/702
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/142 Detection of scene cut or scene change
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/179 the unit being a scene or a shot
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/87 involving scene cut or scene change detection in combination with video compression
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/147 Scene change detection
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/181 for receiving images from a plurality of remote sources

Abstract

The present invention relates to a device which monitors a digitized video data stream and detects when scene changes occur in the video stream. The present invention detects scene changes by comparing from frame-to-frame each of the pixel colors within the frame. When a high degree of change in pixel color from one frame to the next is detected, this is identified as a scene change. The system of the present invention does not obtain the digitized video data stream by polling a hardware analog-to-digital converter. In order to ensure that the present invention is compatible with any input video source, the present invention does not request data directly from the hardware video digitizing card. Instead, the input video may be displayed upon a computer monitor in any manner, such as by the operating system of the computer. Because the computer must keep track of what is being displayed on the computer monitor, the video data used in the present invention may be downloaded from the operating system by identifying which portion of the screen contains the video data of interest.

Claims

1. A method for detecting scene changes in a digital video data stream, comprising the steps of:

a) inputting the digital video data stream to a computer;

b) providing an operating system executed by the computer, said operating system including a software display control program operative to control display of all information displayed upon a monitor coupled to the computer;

c) displaying the digital video data stream upon the monitor, said displaying performed under control of said software display control program;

d) providing a scene detection software program executed by the computer, wherein said scene detection software program and said software display control program are separate programs, said scene detection software program performing the following steps;

e) retrieving color values for each first pixel in a first frame of the digital video data stream from said software display control program;

f) adding the first pixel color values together in order to generate a first composite color value;

g) retrieving color values for each second pixel in a second frame of the digital video data stream from said software display control program;

h) adding the second pixel color values together in order to generate a second composite color value; and

i) detecting a scene change if the second composite color value differs from the first composite color value by more than a predetermined amount.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein step (a) comprises inputting an analog video signal to an analog-to-digital converter.

3. A method for detecting scene changes in a digital video data stream, comprising the steps of:

a) inputting the digital video data stream to a computer;

b) providing an operating system executed by the computer, said operating system including a software display control program operative to control display of all information displayed upon a monitor coupled to the computer;

c) displaying the digital video data stream upon the monitor, said displaying performed under control of said software display control program;

d) providing a scene detection software program executed by the computer, wherein said scene detection software program and said software display control program are separate programs, said scene detection software program performing the following steps;

e) retrieving color values for each first pixel in a first frame of the digital video data stream from said software display control program;

f) adding the first pixel color values together in order to generate a first composite color value;

g) retrieving color values for each second pixel in a second frame of the digital video data stream from said software display control program;

h) adding the second pixel color values together in order to generate a second composite color value;

i) detecting a scene change if the second composite color value differs from the first composite color value by more than a predetermined amount;

j) recording an index representative of where the scene change occurred in the digital video data stream; and

k) recording a representative frame of a scene bounded by the scene change.

4. A method for detecting scene changes in a digital video data stream, comprising the steps of:

a) inputting the digital video data stream to a computer;

b) providing an operating system executed by the computer, said operating system including a software display control program operative to control display of all information displayed upon a monitor coupled to the computer;

c) displaying the digital video data stream upon the monitor, said displaying performed under control of said software display control program;

d) providing a scene detection software program executed by the computer, wherein said scene detection software program and said software display control program are separate programs, said scene detection software program performing the following steps;

e) retrieving color values for each first pixel in a first frame of the digital video data stream from said software display control program;

f) retrieving color values for each second pixel in a second frame of the digital video data stream from said software display control program;

g) comparing the second pixel color values to the first pixel color values in order to determine a pixel color value difference; and

h) detecting a scene change if the pixel color value difference is greater than a predetermined amount.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein step (g) comprises:

g.1) adding the first pixel color values together in order to generate a first composite color value;

g.2) adding the second pixel color values together in order to generate a second composite color value; and

g.3) determining the pixel color value difference by subtracting the first and second composite color values.

6. The method of claim 4, further comprising the step of:

i) storing a timecode in, a timecode out, and a first frame of the detected scene.

7. The method of claim 4, further comprising the step of:

i) storing a timecode in, a timecode out, and a first frame of the detected scene.

8. A method for detecting scene changes in a digital video data stream, comprising the steps of:

a) inputting the digital video data stream to a computer;

b) providing an operating system executed by the computer, said operating system including a software display control program operative to control display of all information displayed upon a monitor coupled to the computer;

c) displaying the digital video data stream upon the monitor, said displaying performed under control of said software display control program;

d) providing a scene detection software program executed by the computer, wherein said scene detection software program and said software display control program are separate programs, said scene detection software program performing the following steps;

e) retrieving color values for each first pixel in a first frame of the digital video data stream from said software display control program;

f) retrieving color values for each second pixel in a second frame of the digital video data stream from said software display control program;

g) comparing the second pixel color values to the first pixel color values in order to determine a pixel color value difference;

h) detecting a scene change if the pixel color value difference is greater than a predetermined amount;

i) recording an index representative of where the scene change occurred in the digital video data stream; and

j) recording a representative frame of a scene bounded by the scene change.