Reduction of differential resolution of separations

• US 6,956,976 B2
• Filed: 09/09/2003
• Issued: 10/18/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 01/04/2002
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: America Online Inc. (Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc.), Warner Bros Entertainment Incorporated (Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AOL Inc. (Apollo Global Management, Inc.), Warner Bros Entertainment Incorporated (Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc.)
• Inventors: Perlmutter, Sharon M., Perlmutter, Keren O., Wang, Eric, Klamer, Paul R.
• Primary Examiner(s): Johns, Andrew W.
• Application Number:
  US10/657,138
• Publication Number:
  US 20040131274A1
• Time in Patent Office: 770 Days
• Field of Search: 382/162, 382/199, 382/254, 382/266, 382/284, 382/299, 348/96, 348/97, 348/576, 348/577, 348/612, 348/625, 352/66, 352/67
• US Class Current: 382/266
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/20064 Wavelet transform [DWT]
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 3/403 Edge-driven scaling; Edge-based scaling
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 3/4084 in the transform domain, e.g. fast Fourier transform [FFT] domain scaling
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/13 Edge detection
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/58 Edge or detail enhancement; Noise or error suppression, e.g. colour misregistration correction H04N1/62 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/262 Studio circuits, e.g. for mixing, switching-over, change of character of image, other special effects ; Cameras specially adapted for the electronic generation of special effects

Abstract

Certain disclosed implementations use digital image processing to reduce the differential resolution among separations or images in film frames, such as, for example, red flare. A location in the red image may be selected using information from another image. The selected location may be modified using information from that other image. The selection may include comparing features of an edge in the first image with features of a corresponding edge in the other image. The modification may include performing wavelet transformations of the two images and copying certain coefficients (or a function of these coefficients) produced by the application of the transformation to the second image to the coefficients produced by the application of the transformation to the first image. The copied coefficients may be correlated with the selected location. Other disclosed techniques vary from the above and may be applied to other fields.

Claims

1. A method of reducing differential resolution, the method comprising:

selecting a first image containing first information about a scene;

selecting a second image containing second information about the scene, wherein a portion of the first image and a portion of the second image have differential resolution;

determining a location at which to modify a property of the first image, the location being in a portion of the first image; and

reducing the differential resolution by modifying the property at the location in the first image using information from the second image, wherein modifying the property at the location in the first image comprises modifying information produced by application of a first transformation to the portion of the first image using information produced by application of a second transformation to the portion of the second image.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein:

the first transformation comprises a first wavelet transformation,

the second transformation comprises a second wavelet transformation, and

modifying information produced by application of the first transformation comprises copying a coefficient from a specific location in a result produced by application of the second wavelet transformation to the specific location in a result produced by application of the first wavelet transformation.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the specific location is associated with the location at which the property is to be modified.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein:

the first transformation comprises a first wavelet transformation,

the second transformation comprises a second wavelet transformation, and

modifying information produced by application of the first transformation comprises scaling a coefficient from a specific location in a result produced by application of the second wavelet transformation to the specific location in a result produced by application of the first wavelet transformation.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein:

the first transformation comprises a first wavelet transformation,

the second transformation comprises a second wavelet transformation, and

modifying information produced by application of the first transformation comprises copying a coefficient from each non-baseband subband produced by application of the second wavelet transformation to a corresponding location in a result produced by application of the first wavelet transformation.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein each copied coefficient is associated with the location to modify.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein:

the first transformation comprises a first wavelet transformation,

the second transformation comprises a second wavelet transformation, and

modifying information produced by application of the first transformation comprises scaling a coefficient from each non-baseband subband produced by application of the second wavelet transformation to a corresponding location in a result produced by application of the first wavelet transformation.

8. The method of claim 6 wherein each scaled coefficient is associated with the location to modify.

9. A method of reducing differential resolution, the method comprising:

selecting a first image containing first information about a scene;

selecting a second image containing second information about the scene, wherein a portion of the first image and a portion of the second image have differential resolution;

determining a location at which to modify a property of the first image, the location being in a portion of the first image; and

reducing the differential resolution by modifying the property at the location in the first image using information from the second image,

wherein the first image and the second image are color separations of a film frame.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein the first image is a red separation and the differential resolution results in red fringing.

11. A method of reducing differential resolution, the method comprising:

selecting a first image containing first information about a scene;

selecting a second image containing second information about the scene, wherein a portion of the first image and a portion of the second image have differential resolution;

determining a location at which to modify a property of the first image, the location being in a portion of the first image; and

reducing the differential resolution by modifying the property at the location in the first imaae using information from the second image,

wherein the first and second images are extracted from a composite color image.

12. The method of claim 11 wherein the composite color image is generated from color separations of a film frame.

13. A method of reducing differential resolution, the method comprising:

selecting a first image containing first information about a scene;

selecting a second image containing second information about the scene, wherein a portion of the first image and a portion of the second image have differential resolution;

determining a location at which to modify a property of the first image, the location being in a portion of the first image;

reducing the differential resolution by modifying the property at the location in the first image using information from the second image; and

determining a non-modify location at which the property is not to be modified.

14. The method of claim 13 wherein modifying the property at the location in the first image using information from the second image comprises:

modifying one or more coefficients produced by application of a wavelet transformation to the first image based on one or more coefficients produced by application of a wavelet transformation to the second image, the modifying producing a modified result;

applying an inverse wavelet transformation to the modified result to produce a resulting image; and

determining whether the property at the non-modify location is modified in the resulting image.

15. The method of claim 14 further comprising restoring the property at the non-modify location to its original value if the property at the non-modify location is modified in the resulting image.

16. A method of reducing differential resolution, the method comprising:

selecting a first image containing first information about a scene;

selecting a second image containing second information about the scene, wherein a portion of the first image and a portion of the second image have differential resolution;

determining a location at which to modify a property of the first image, the location being in a portion of the first image;

reducing the differential resolution by modifying the property at the location in the first image using information from the second image; and

applying a feathering technique to a region of the first image including the location at which the property is to be modified, the feathering technique being applied after the property at the location is modified.

17. The method of claim 16 wherein applying the feathering technique comprises linearly interpolating between intensity values within the region.

18. A method of reducing differential resolution, the method comprising:

selecting a first image containing first information about a scene;

selecting a second image containing second information about the scene, wherein a portion of the first image and a portion of the second image have differential resolution;

determining a location at which to modify a property of the first image, the location being in a portion of the first image; and

reducing the differential resolution by modifying the property at the location in the first image using information from the second image, wherein modifying the property at the location comprises;

performing a transformation in only a first direction; and

producing a modified first image.

19. The method of claim 18 further comprising:

performing a transformation on the modified first image in only a second direction that is orthogonal to the first direction; and

producing a modified version of the modified first image.

20. The method of claim 19 wherein determining the location in the portion of the first image is based on information obtained at least in part from the portion of the second image, and the information is for the first direction only.

21. A method of reducing differential resolution, the method comprising:

selecting a first image containing first information about a scene;

selecting a second image containing second information about the scene, wherein a portion of the first image and a portion of the second image have differential resolution, and selecting a second image comprises selecting a second image from a plurality of images based on one or more criteria;

determining a location at which to modify a property of the first image, the location being in a portion of the first image; and

reducing the differential resolution by modifying the property at the location in the first image using information from the second image.

22. The method of claim 21 wherein the one or more criteria comprises intensity value information.

23. The method of claim 21 wherein the one or more criteria comprises resolution information.

24. A method of reducing differential resolution, the method comprising:

selecting a first image containing first information about a scene;

selecting a second image containing second information about the scene, wherein a portion of the first image and a portion of the second image have differential resolution;

determining a location at which to modify a property of the first image, the location being in a portion of the first image, wherein determining the location is performed interactively; and

reducing the differential resolution by modifying the property at the location in the first image using information from the second image.

25. A method of reducing differential resolution, the method comprising:

selecting a first image containing first information about a scene;

selecting a second image containing second information about the scene, wherein a portion of the first image and a portion of the second image have differential resolution;

determining a location at which to modify a property of the first image, the location being in a portion of the first image, wherein determining the location comprises selecting one or more edges to modify; and

reducing the differential resolution by modifying the property at the location in the first image using information from the second image.

26. The method of claim 25 wherein selecting one or more edges to modify comprises selecting, for one of the one or more edges, a single edge pixel of an edge that includes multiple edge pixels.

27. The method of claim 25 wherein selecting one or more edges to modify comprises:

comparing one or more features of an edge in the first image with one or more features of an edge in the second image; and

selecting the edge as an edge to modify based on a result of the comparison.

28. The method of claim 27 wherein the one or more features comprise a feature selected from a group consisting of a location of the edge, a direction of the edge, an extent of the edge, an intensity-change direction, and an intensity range traversed.

29. The method of claim 25 further comprising determining an edge extent to modify for each selected edge.

30. The method of claim 25 further comprising unselecting a selected edge based on size of the selected edge.

31. The method of claim 25 wherein:

selecting one or more edges to modify comprises selecting a plurality of edges to modify, and

the method further comprises;

connecting two selected edges based on properties of the two selected edges; and

determining an edge extent for the connected selected edges.

32. The method of claim 31 wherein connecting two selected edges is based on spatial proximity between the two selected edges.

33. The method of claim 31 wherein connecting two selected edges is based on one or more of intensity differences between particular pixels in each of the two selected edges and intensity differences between particular pixels spatially located between the two selected edges.

34. The method of claim 31 wherein determining an edge extent for the connected selected edges is based on edge extents that would have been determined for each of the selected edges before being connected.

35. A method of reducing differential resolution, the method comprising:

accessing a first image containing first information about a scene;

accessing a second image containing second information about the scene, wherein a portion of the first image and a portion of the second image have differential resolution;

determining a location in the first image at which to modify a property in the first image to reduce the differential resolution, wherein the determining is based on a time-domain comparison of the portion of the first image and the portion of the second image; and

reducing the differential resolution by modifying the property at the location, the location being modified by modifying information produced by application of a wavelet transformation to the portion of the first image based on information produced by application of a wavelet transformation to the portion of the second image.

36. An apparatus comprising a computer readable medium having instructions stored thereon that when executed by a machine result in at least the following:

selecting a first image containing first information about a scene;

selecting a second image containing second information about the scene, wherein a portion of the first image and a portion of the second image have differential resolution;

determining a location at which to modify a property of the first image, the location being in a portion of the first image; and

reducing the differential resolution by modifying the property at the location in the first image using information from the second image, wherein modifying the property at the location in the first image comprises modifying information produced by application of a first transformation to the portion of the first image using information produced by application of a second transformation to the portion of the second image.

37. The apparatus of claim 36 wherein:

the first transformation comprises a first wavelet transformation,

the second transformation comprises a second wavelet transformation, and

modifying information produced by application of a first transformation comprises modifying a coefficient from each non-baseband subband produced by application of the first wavelet transformation based on a coefficient from a corresponding location in a result produced by application of the second wavelet transformation, wherein each modified coefficient is associated with the location to modify.

38. The apparatus of claim 37 wherein modifying a coefficient from each non-baseband subband comprises copying a coefficient to each non-baseband subband produced by application of the first wavelet transformation from a corresponding location in a result produced by application of the second wavelet transformation.

39. The apparatus of claim 38 wherein the one or more copied coefficients are scaled before being copied.

40. An apparatus comprising a computer readable medium having instructions stored thereon that when executed by a machine result in at least the following:

selecting a first image containing first information about a scene;

selecting a second image containing second information about the scene, wherein a portion of the first image and a portion of the second image have differential resolution;

determining a location at which to modify a property of the first image, the location being in a portion of the first image; and

reducing the differential resolution by modifying the property at the location in the first image using information from the second image,

wherein the first image is a red separation and the differential resolution results in red fringing.