Scene change detection

• US 7,688,978 B2
• Filed: 02/20/2007
• Issued: 03/30/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 01/02/2002
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.), Sony Electronics Inc. (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Derovanessian, Henry, Candelore, Brant L., Pedlow, JR., Leo M.
• Primary Examiner(s): Moazzami, Nasser G
• Assistant Examiner(s): YALEW, FIKREMARIAM A
• Application Number:
  US11/708,417
• Publication Number:
  US 20070291942A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,134 Days
• Field of Search: 380/216, 380/210
• US Class Current: 380/216
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0428 wherein the data content is protected, e.g. by encrypting or encapsulating the payload
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/23476 by partially encrypting, e.g. encrypting the ending portion of a movie
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/23608 Remultiplexing multiplex streams, e.g. involving modifying time stamps or remapping the packet identifiers
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2362 Generation or processing of Service Information [SI]
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/2365 Multiplexing of several video streams
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/23897 by partially encrypting, e.g. encrypting only the ending portion of a movie
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/25875 involving end-user authentication restricting access to computer systems by authenticating users using a predetermined code G06F21/33; arrangements for secret or secure communication including means for verifying the identity or authority of a user of the system H04L9/32; networks authentication protocols H04L63/08; authentication in wireless network security H04W12/06
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/26606 for generating or managing entitlement messages, e.g. Entitlement Control Message [ECM] or Entitlement Management Message [EMM] arrangements for conditional access to broadcast information or to broadcast-related services H04H60/14
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4344 Remultiplexing of multiplex streams, e.g. by modifying time stamps or remapping the packet identifiers
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4345 Extraction or processing of SI, e.g. extracting service information from an MPEG stream
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4347 Demultiplexing of several video streams
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/43607 Interfacing a plurality of external cards, e.g. through a DVB Common Interface [DVB-CI]
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44055 by partially decrypting, e.g. decrypting a video stream that has been partially encrypted
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4408 involving video stream encryption, e.g. re-encrypting a decrypted video stream for redistribution in a home network
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4516 involving client characteristics, e.g. Set-Top-Box type, software version or amount of memory available
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/454 Content or additional data filtering, e.g. blocking advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4623 Processing of entitlement messages, e.g. ECM [Entitlement Control Message] or EMM [Entitlement Management Message] arrangements for conditional access to broadcast information or to broadcast-related services H04H60/14
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/631 Multimode Transmission, e.g. transmitting basic layers and enhancement layers of the content over different transmission paths or transmitting with different error corrections, different keys or with different transmission protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/913 for scrambling ; for copy protection
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/162 Authorising the user terminal, e.g. by paying; Registering the use of a subscription channel, e.g. billing
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/167 : Systems rendering the television signal unintelligible and subsequently intelligible
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/1675 : Providing digital key or authorisation information for generation or regeneration of the scrambling sequence pseudo-random number generators in general G06F7/58
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 9/8042 : involving data reduction

Abstract

In certain embodiments, a method of detecting a scene change in a digital video signal involves examining a slice of the digital video signal; determining if the slice contains a greater amount of data than a threshold amount of data; and if the slice contains a greater amount of data than the threshold, determining that the slice forms a part of a scene change. This abstract should not be considered limiting since embodiments consistent with the present invention may involve more, different or fewer elements.

Claims

1. A method of detecting a scene change in a digital video signal, comprising:

examining a slice of the digital video signal, said slice containing at least a slice start code and video data, where the video data contains luminance and chrominance data;

determining if the slice contains a greater amount of video data, as measured by a count of a number of data elements of video data in the slice, than a threshold amount of data;

if the slice contains a greater amount of data than the threshold, determining that the slice forms a part of a scene change; and

encrypting at least a portion of the digital video signal carrying data representing a first image associated with the scene change.

2. The method according to claim 1, further comprising encrypting intra-coded data at a start of the scene change.

3. The method according to claim 1, further comprising encrypting the slice of video data.

4. The method according to claim 1, further comprising encryption a slice header of the slice of video data.

5. The method according to claim 1, further comprising encrypting a subsequent slice of video data.

6. The method according to claim 1, further comprising encrypting a slice header for a subsequent slice of video data.

7. The method according to claim 1, wherein determining if the slice contains a greater amount of video data than the threshold amount of data comprises counting a number of packets carrying the slice and determining if the number of packets is greater than a threshold number of packets.

8. The method according to claim 1, wherein determining if the slice contains a greater amount of video data than the threshold amount of data comprises counting a number of intra-coded macroblocks in the slice and determining if the number of intra-coded macroblocks is greater than a threshold number of intra-coded macroblocks.

9. A tangible computer readable storage medium storing instructions which, when executed on a programmed processor, carry out the method of scene change detection according to claim 1.

10. The tangible computer readable storage medium of claim 9, wherein the medium comprises an electronic storage medium.

26. The method according to claim 1, wherein determining if the slice contains a greater amount of video data than the threshold amount of video data comprises counting a number of bits or bytes of data in the slice and determining if the number of bits or bytes is greater than a threshold number of bits or bytes.

11. A method of selective encryption of a digital video signal, comprising:

detecting a scene change in the digital video signal by;

examining a slice of the digital video signal, said slice containing at least a slice start code and video data, where the video data contains luminance and chrominance data;

determining if the slice contains a greater amount of video data, as measured by a count of a number of data elements of video data in the slice, than a threshold amount of data; and

if the slice contains a greater amount of video data than the threshold, determining that the slice forms a part of a scene change; and

encrypting at least a portion of the digital video signal carrying data representing a first image associated with the scene change.

12. The method according to claim 11, wherein the encrypting comprises encrypting the video slice.

13. The method according to claim 11, wherein the encrypting comprises encrypting a slice header of the video slice.

14. The method according to claim 11, wherein the encrypting comprises encrypting a subsequent video slice.

15. The method according to claim 11, wherein the encrypting comprises encrypting packets forming a pan of the first image using a first encryption method to produce first encrypted packets.

16. The method according to claim 15, further comprising encrypting a duplicate of the packets forming a part of the first image using a second encryption method to produce second encrypted packets.

17. The method according to claim 16, further comprising replacing unencrypted packets with the first encrypted packets and the second encrypted packets in the digital video signal to produce a partially dual encrypted video signal.

18. The method according to claim 11, wherein the encrypting comprises encrypting intra-coded data in a first image associated with the scene change.

19. The method according to claim 11, wherein the encrypting comprises encrypting a video slice header in a first image associated with the scene change.

20. The method according to claim 11, wherein the detecting comprises counting a number of packets carrying a video slice and determining if the number of packets is greater than a threshold number of packets.

21. The method according to claim 11, wherein the detecting comprises counting a number of intra-coded macroblocks in a video slice and determining if the number of intra-coded macroblocks is greater than a threshold number of intra-coded macroblocks.

22. The method according to claim 11, wherein the detecting comprises determining if an image contains a greater amount of data than a threshold amount of data, and if the image contains a greater amount of data than the threshold, determining that the image forms a part of a scene change.

23. The method according to claim 22, wherein the image comprises a frame of video.

24. A tangible computer readable storage medium storing instructions which, when executed on a programmed processor, carry out the method of encrypting a digital video signal according to claim 11.

25. The tangible computer readable storage medium of claim 24, wherein the medium comprises an electronic storage medium.

27. The method according to claim 11, wherein determining if the slice contains a greater amount of video data than the threshold amount of video data comprises counting a number of bits or bytes of data in the slice and determining if the number of bits or bytes is greater than a threshold number of bits or bytes.