Video interlacing using object motion estimation

• US 7,362,374 B2
• Filed: 08/22/2003
• Issued: 04/22/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 08/30/2002
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Altera Corporation (Intel Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Altera Corporation (Intel Corporation)
• Inventors: Holt, Gary R., Ratner, Edward R.
• Primary Examiner(s): Yenke; Brian P.
• Application Number:
  US10/646,334
• Publication Number:
  US 20040174459A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,705 Days
• Field of Search: 348/440.1, 348/446, 348/459, 348699-701, 382/275
• US Class Current: 348/446
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/10016 Video; Image sequence
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/11 Region-based segmentation
• 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: H04N 5/145 Movement estimation for video coding H04N19/51
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/012 Conversion between an interlaced and a progressive signal for graphics images G09G2310/0229
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/014 involving the use of motion vectors motion estimation and compensation in video coding H04N19/51

Abstract

One embodiment disclosed relates to the use of object motion estimation to interlace a progressive video sequence. One of a plurality of consecutive frames is segmented and motion vectors for each segment are determined though object motion estimation. Interpolated motion vectors are used to construct at least one intermediate frame, and interlaced fields are extracted from the new sequence of frames that includes intermediate frames. An interlaced sequence with smooth, incremental motion is thus constructed from a progressive video sequence.

Claims

1. A method for interlacing a progressive video sequence to produce an interlaced video sequence of alternating odd and even fields, the method comprising:

obtaining at least two consecutive frames of a progressive scan video sequence;

segmenting at least one of said frames into constituent objects;

estimating a motion of said constituent objects between a first frame and a second frame of said frames;

using the estimated motion for each object between the first and second frames to determine an interpolated position for each object in an intermediate frame;

using the interpolated position for each object to construct the intermediate frame;

extracting a first alternating field from the first frame; and

extracting a second alternating field from the intermediate frame,

wherein the first and second alternating fields comprise the odd and even fields of the interlaced video sequence.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the odd field contains image data of odd numbered rows of a frame, and the even field contains image data of even numbered rows of a frame.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the first and second fields comprise fields of even and odd columns the odd field contains image data of odd numbered columns of a frame, and the even field contains image data of even numbered columns of a frame.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

filling areas of the intermediate frame that are exposed by the interpolated motion for each object.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein if the exposed area in the intermediate frame corresponds to an exposed area in the next frame, then data from the next frame is used to fill the exposed area in the intermediate frame.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein if the exposed area in the intermediate frame does not correspond to an exposed area in the next frame, then data from the first frame is used to fill the exposed area in the intermediate frame.

7. The method of claim 4, wherein color data for neighboring objects is used to fill the exposed area in the intermediate frame.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising calculating and using an average of the estimated motion for each object between frames in constructing the intermediate frame.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising comparing the estimated motion for a first object with estimated motions for neighboring objects to determine a consistency of the estimated motions.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising comparing the estimated motion for a set of pixels with estimated motions for the set of pixels in a nearby frame to determine a consistency of the estimated motions.