Method and apparatus for generating video images
First Claim
1. A method for generating a video image of an object comprising the steps of:
- generating video data representing video frames for forming the video image of said object;
processing said video data by;
dividing each video frame into a plurality of regions, each region being representative of a portion of said object, at least one of said plurality of regions being predetermined at least one of said plurality of regions and the other of said plurality of regions being remaining ones of said plurality of regions;
selecting said predetermined at least one of said plurality of regions of the video frame;
de-emphasising said remaining ones of the plurality of regions of the video frame;
transmitting video data indicative of said selected at least predetermined one and said remaining ones of the plurality of regions of said video frames to a receiver having a display for displaying said display video image; and
recombining said regions of each of said video frames to form a display video, said recombining step comprising forming a display video image in which the selected region of the video frame is sharp or well-defined, and remaining ones of the plurality of regions of the video frame are de-emphasised or blurred in accordance with the relative distance between the portion of said object in a remaining one of the plurality of regions respective region of said object and a reference point.
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Abstract
A method and system for generating a video image is disclosed in which an object is monitored with a video camera to produce a sequence of video frames. Each of the video frames is divided into a plurality of regions, each region being representative of a portion of said object. For example, the frame of the video image may include the head and shoulder region of a user. Regions corresponding to predetermined facial features may be selected, such as the chin, opposing edges of the mouth, the nose, and the outer edge of each eye. At least one of the plurality of regions is selected. In the illustrative example, the selected region may comprise the mouth of the monitored user. The selected region is then recombined with each of the remaining regions of the video frame to form a display video image. The sequence of video frames is then displayed such that the selected region is perceived by an observer to form a sharp image, and remaining regions of said display video image are less sharp in accordance with the distance between said respective portion of said object and said video camera.
109 Citations
25 Claims
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1. A method for generating a video image of an object comprising the steps of:
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generating video data representing video frames for forming the video image of said object; processing said video data by; dividing each video frame into a plurality of regions, each region being representative of a portion of said object, at least one of said plurality of regions being predetermined at least one of said plurality of regions and the other of said plurality of regions being remaining ones of said plurality of regions; selecting said predetermined at least one of said plurality of regions of the video frame; de-emphasising said remaining ones of the plurality of regions of the video frame; transmitting video data indicative of said selected at least predetermined one and said remaining ones of the plurality of regions of said video frames to a receiver having a display for displaying said display video image; and recombining said regions of each of said video frames to form a display video, said recombining step comprising forming a display video image in which the selected region of the video frame is sharp or well-defined, and remaining ones of the plurality of regions of the video frame are de-emphasised or blurred in accordance with the relative distance between the portion of said object in a remaining one of the plurality of regions respective region of said object and a reference point. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13)
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14. A system for generating a video image of an object comprising;
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circuitry for generating video data representing video frames for forming the video image of said object; circuitry for dividing each video frame into a plurality of regions such that each region is representative of a portion of said object, at least one of said plurality of regions being predetermined at least one of said plurality of regions and the other of said plurality of regions being remaining ones of said plurality of regions; and means for selecting said at least one of said plurality of predetermined regions from said received video data; circuitry for recombining said regions of each of said video frames to form a display video image; and a display for displaying said video frames of said display video image such that said selected region is formed as a sharp image, and remaining regions of said display video image are less sharp in accordance with the relative distance between said respective portion of said object and a reference point. - View Dependent Claims (15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25)
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Specification