Image object ranking

• US 7,386,170 B2
• Filed: 06/29/2001
• Issued: 06/10/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 06/30/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Texas Instruments, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Texas Instruments, Inc.
• Inventors: Ronk, Lawrence J., Flinchbaugh, Bruce E.
• Primary Examiner(s): PATEL, KANJIBHAI B
• Application Number:
  US09/896,503
• Publication Number:
  US 20020057343A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,538 Days
• Field of Search: 382/162, 382/168, 382/173, 382/181, 382/190, 382/203, 382/305, 382/312, 382/165, 382/103, 382/145, 348/169, 348/148, 348/143, 348/699, 707/100, 707/4, 375/240.12
• US Class Current: 382/190
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/5838 using colour
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/10016 Video; Image sequence
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/223 using block-matching

Abstract

Automatic vision system object indexing and image database query system using both path-dependent and path-independent features of moving objects within a sequence of images. Feature vectors of both average over frames of an object traversing the field of view plus average over blocks of a grid for a path association. Color histograms may be an included feature.

Claims

1. A method of searching for a video object in a video sequence of images, comprising:

(a) providing a database of feature vectors of video objects;

(b) providing a target feature vector;

(c) comparing said target feature vector to each feature vector of said database;

(d) ranking said feature vectors of said database according to the results of step (c); and

(e) finding video objects by an association of video objects with said feature vectors of said database together with the results of step (d).

2. The method of claim 1, wherein:

(a) said feature vectors of said database include both path-dependent and path-independent features extracted from video objects moving in sequences of images.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein:

(a) said path-dependent features for a video object include a sequence of grid blocks traversed by said video object together with averages of features extracted from said video object when said video object was located in a corresponding grid block.