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Method and apparatus for determining motion in images

  • US 7,783,118 B2
  • Filed: 07/13/2006
  • Issued: 08/24/2010
  • Est. Priority Date: 07/13/2006
  • Status: Active Grant
First Claim
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1. A method of determining motion in a set of input images, said method comprising:

  • providing a processing device to implement the following step;

    receiving said set of input images, said set of input images having background motion and foreground motion;

    determine a first motion direction for a first group of pixels within a reference image within said set of input images;

    determine a second motion direction for a second group of pixel within said reference image;

    designating the dominant group of pixels within said reference image as background pixels;

    designating said background pixels as stationary content;

    registering the remaining images in said set of input images to said reference image to identify background stationary content therein;

    generating difference images based on the registered images;

    segmenting the input images into regions;

    estimating local motion within each of said regions; and

    determining whether the regions include moving content or static content based on the difference images and the local estimated motion within said regions;

    wherein said local motion estimating comprises generating a motion vector for each region in each of said images with the exception of the last image in said set;

    wherein said region content determining for each region comprises;

    determining whether the motion vector for the region signifies movement above a threshold and if so labeling the region as representing foreground moving content;

    if not, determining whether the percentage of pixels in the region have a pixel value above a threshold in the corresponding difference image and if so labeling the region as representing foreground moving content; and

    if not labeling the region as representing background stationary content; and

    for a given region in a grayscale input image designated as background stationary content, checking the labeling of its three corresponding regions in three previous grayscale input images, and if more than seventy percent of the pixels within the three corresponding regions are designated as representing foreground movement content, then changing the designation of the given region from background stationary content to foreground movement content.

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