Object-of-interest image de-blurring

• US 7,346,222 B2
• Filed: 02/07/2005
• Issued: 03/18/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 02/07/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Motorola Solutions, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Motorola, Inc. (Motorola Solutions, Inc.)
• Inventors: Tang, Bei, Lee, King F.
• Primary Examiner(s): Tabatabai; Abolfazl
• Application Number:
  US11/052,274
• Publication Number:
  US 20060177145A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,135 Days
• Field of Search: 382/107, 382/166, 382/232, 382/233, 382/235, 382/244, 382/255, 382/279, 382/289, 382/103, 348/14.13, 348/439.1, 348/568, 380/217, 380/269, 704/500, 704/503
• US Class Current: 382/260
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/10016 Video; Image sequence
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/20201 Motion blur correction
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/30236 Traffic on road, railway or crossing
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 5/50 using two or more images, e.g. averaging or subtraction
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 5/73 Deblurring; Sharpening
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/20 Analysis of motion motion estimation for coding, decoding, compressing or decompressing digital video signals H04N19/43, H04N19/51
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 10/30 Noise filtering
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 20/625 License plates

Abstract

A method and apparatus for object-of-interest image de-blurring includes functions that determine (305, 310) an object region of an object-of-interest in an image that may be generated by image capture device (805), that determine (315, 825) a motion vector of the object-of-interest, that determine (325, 830) a scaling factor, and that generate (330) a de-blurred object region by processing the object region using a deconvolution filter (835) formulated from the motion vector and the scaling factor.

Claims

1. A method for object-of-interest image de-blurring, comprising:

determining an object region of an object-of-interest in a first image;

determining a motion vector of the object-of-interest from the first image and a second image;

determining a scaling factor as a ratio of the exposure time (ET) of the first image to the frame interval (FI) between the first and second images; and

generating a de-blurred object region by processing the object region using a deconvolution filter formulated from the motion vector and the scaling factor.

2. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

performing object analysis using the de-blurred object region.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein determining a motion vector of the object-of-interest further comprises:

determining another object region of the object-of-interest in the second image.

4. The method according to claim 3, wherein determining a motion vector of the object-of-interest further comprises determining the motion vector as a displacement vector between centroids of the object region and the other object region.

5. The method according to claim 3, wherein determining a motion vector of the object-of-interest further comprises using a block matching motion vector estimation algorithm.

6. The method according to claim 3, wherein the first image and the second image are successive frames of a video sequence.

7. The method according to claim 1, wherein determining a motion vector of the object-of-interest comprises obtaining the motion vector from motion vector information contained in a compressed video sequence.

8. The method according to claim 1, wherein coefficients of the deconvolution filter are based on a point spread function that is formulated based on a scaling of the motion vector using the scaling factor.

9. A means for de-blurring an object-of-interest, comprising:

a means for image capture;

a means for determining an object region of an object-of-interest in a first image captured by the means for image capture;

a means for determining a motion vector of the object-of-interest from the first image and a second image;

a means for determining a scaling factor as a ratio of the exposure time (ET) of the first image to the frame interval (FI) between the first and second images; and

a means for generating a de-blurred object region by processing the object region using a deconvolution filter formulated from the motion vector and the scaling factor.

10. An apparatus for de-blurring an object-of interest, comprising:

a digital camera that captures images; and

a processor that performs the following functions;

determining an object region of an object-of-interest in a first image;

determining a motion vector of the object-of-interest from the first image and a second image;

determining a scaling factor as a ratio of the exposure time (ET) of the first image to the frame interval (FI) between the first and second images; and

generating a de-blurred object region by processing the object region using a deconvolution filter formulated from the motion vector and the scaling factor.